by Dragon King
It was a common practice in Fifth and Sixth Heaven. A lot of female cultivators became objects to the male cultivators, and some of them were even killed by male cultivators in order for the latter to increase their realm more.
Therefore, these words breached Hao Ren’s bottom line!
He shot out a white sword energy from his fingertip and pierced the mouth of the cultivator who uttered the outrageous order!
Instantly, the 80 sword energies condensed into a huge grey sword, smashing away the dozens of Foundation Establishment Realm disciples.
Hualaa… Their swords dropped on the ground, and these weak cultivators fell and cried in pain.
Zhao Yanzi didn’t hear what that cultivator yelled and thus didn’t understand Hao Ren’s sudden anger. However, she found the angry Hao Ren quite cool. The huge grey sword energy shattered and transformed into slim sword energies before flying around Hao Ren like bees and butterflies.
At this moment, Hao Ren stood on the sword like a sword god, and no one dared to get close to him. His sword energies also surrounded Zhao Yanzi, and the sword energies would pierce anyone who dared to get close to her from all directions!
“You dared to fight back!?” The mid-tier Core Formation Realm cultivator didn’t expect Hao Ren to be so fierce. However, he observed carefully and was sure that Hao Ren was indeed a low-tier Core Formation Realm cultivator.
He took out an iron fan and swung it at Hao Ren.
From his perspective, Hao Ren’s fierceness came from his powerful dharma treasure. Once he killed Hao Ren, he would get that dharma treasure!
He unleashed his full force!
The iron fan shot out three black light beams which instantly broke the sword energies around Hao Ren.
A large number of Foundation Establishment Realm disciples swarmed out, and the rest of the Core Formation Realm elders, who were guarding the great hall, also rushed out at the news.
Hao Ren’s appearance drew out all the people in the sect!
“Kill…”
More than 200 cultivators flew toward Hao Ren with overwhelming murderous spirits, and all kinds of dharma treasures were thrown at him.
Zhao Yanzi didn’t expect that they would cause such an upheaval. She was about to pull Hao Ren away and escape when the three black light beams suddenly changed course and pulled her from Hao Ren’s side.
The black beams were pulling her toward the direction of the Core Formation Realm cultivator who was eager to catch her and search her!
According to their traditions, anyone who caught the enemies would get their storage bags. Of course, he didn’t want to kill such a beautiful female cultivator!
Seeing the celestial-looking and sword-riding cultivators behaving like thugs, Hao Ren was enraged; he would never allow them to touch Zhao Yanzi!
A grey sword energy slashed forward with crackling noises, and the three black light beams were instantly broken.
Hundun godly lightning was capable of breaking all five elements!
Zhao Yanzi lost her balance on the sword and fell on to the mountain. Fortunately, she fell onto a pile of grasses and didn’t bump onto the rocks.
“You’re surrounded. Surrender!” The newly arrived Core Formation Realm cultivators threw a ton of dharma treasures at Hao Ren.
With all his attention focused on rescuing Zhao Yanzi, Hao Ren opened himself up to the attacks which all struck his body.
However, his body had been tempered by heavenly lightning, and he withstood the strikes of the dharma treasures without instantly falling dead!
Of course, another reason was that the dharma treasures these cultivators used were not advanced.
Seeing that Hao Ren was still alive after being struck by so many dharma treasures, the handful of Core Formation Realm cultivators and the many Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were all convinced that Hao Ren had great treasures on him, and they wanted to kill him to get the treasures even more.
The second wave of dharma treasures was thrown at Hao Ren.
This time, even the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators joined their elders, and all kinds of dharma treasures shot toward Hao Ren alongside hundreds of swords.
Bang!
All the acupoints in Hao Ren’s body opened at once!
The sword energies hidden in them shot out like raindrops!
Tens of thousands of swords!
The Core Formation Realm elders had never seen so many sword energies in their lives!
Metal, wood, water, fire and wood-elemental sword energies formed an array!
Two Dragons Array Formation! The dense sword energies circled around each other like Yin and Yang of Tai Chi, freezing time and space!
Bang! One hundred sixty sword energies instantly shattered the dharma treasures from the Core Formation Realm cultivators!
At this critical moment, Hao Ren suddenly gained the understanding of the level 2 sword array formation—Two Dragons Array Formation!
The nature essence surged up and swallowed everything!
Two forces pushed one another, forming a reverse tornado which tore open the surrounding space!
The two Core Formation Realm cultivators who had rushed over and tried to take Hao Ren’s dharma treasures were instantly sent flying by the wave of the sword energies!
The overwhelming force of Two Dragons Array Formation was far greater than the One-line Snake Array Formation!
More than 200 Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators tried to form an array to counter the force, but the force was so powerful that even Hao Ren couldn’t control it, let alone the weak cultivators!
Crack! Crack… The surrounding trees broke one by one while the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were blown out like pieces of paper.
Hao Ren took one step forward, and the group of cultivators scrambled to flee. At this moment, flying on a sword was suicidal while running down the mountain gave them a chance of surviving.
The release of 160 sword energies broadened the meridians in Hao Ren’s body. New openings appeared in his dragon core, and there were now 65 openings in total!
Gusts of wind blew up Hao Ren’s hair, giving him a magnificent and invincible look.
Hao Ren walked to Zhao Yanzi’s side and pulled her up gently.
Zhao Yanzi felt some numbness in her palm. When she looked up, she saw traces of lightning flash across his eyes.
Hao Ren raised his right hand and pointed out one finger.
The circling 160 sword energies traveled along his arm and shot toward the grand palace across the valley.
Boom!
The magnificent Cultivation Teaching Palace was shattered into a pile of debris by the violent sword energies!
It must be noted that the Cultivation Teaching Palace had four overlapping defense array formations protecting it!
A tiny sword energy turned back and pierced a hole in the hands of the Core Formation Realm cultivator who had tried to grab Zhao Yanzi.
Under the group attack, the two swords Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi got earlier lost their essence. Therefore, Hao Ren transformed his sword energies into a huge sword, lifting him and Zhao Yanzi.
His essences condensed into a sword that allowed them to fly on.
The five Core Formation Realm cultivators were absolutely no match for the enraged Hao Ren.
While these cultivators looked at Hao Ren, who was leaving, in horror, a young disciple flew over on a sword and shouted in a panicking tone! “First Elder, all the 1,000-year-old spirit herbs planted on the back mountain were stolen!”
313 Stupid Uncle!
Needless to say, the sword that was formed by the five-elemental essences was immensely better than the ordinary swords. Therefore, its speed was more than twice the speed of the swords from before.
A flash of golden light was seen briskly crossing the sky.
The members of the sects in Fifth Heaven, small or prominent, were shocked as they observed this golden light pass through their territories.
They couldn’t help but gasp, “Nascent Soul Realm!”
Indeed, the speed of this travel technique, which relied on the burning of nature essence, was even comparable to the flying speed of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator.
No matter how fine the materials, the swords were still made with tangible items. Yet, the sword energy that was cast by Hao Ren was a sword that was made of pure nature essence.
Phew… Carrying Zhao Yanzi, Hao Ren exhale deeply as he descended onto a common-looking mountain.
The gigantic sword now disassembled into 160 sword energies before returning to Hao Ren’s body. This flight had exhausted a considerable amount of his nature essence.
In the meantime, unable to withstand the loneliness, Little White was rolling about in the Jiezi space - it was dying to come out.
As Hao Ren opened the necklace, it instantly jumped out onto the grass.
Little White was eager to participate in the intense battles that Hao Ren was in, but Hao Ren did not want to reveal Little White to the world yet, so he did not let it out.
To protest Hao Ren’s decision, Little White began tossing and jumping relentlessly.
Ever since it had received the dharma treasure –‘Hoofs of Flowing Cloud’ from Zhen Congming, Little White’s speed had increased by a few dozen times. Besides the experience of accelerated flying, it always wanted to get a taste of real battle as well.
Unsurprisingly, the animals on the land were no match for Little White. Even the tiger and lions would not have the courage to face Little White head-on. It was pointless to be overbearing in front of those weak animals.
Hence, Little White became upset as it felt like a hero with no place to display its power.
Yet, Hao Ren only treated it as a pet and wouldn’t let it take part in battles, making Little White feel oppressed inside. After all, it was a snow lion and not a little pet dog! Slapping its paws, Little White chewed on the roots of the trees in the nearby area to express its annoyance and anger.
On the other hand, thinking that Little White was simply playing around and enjoying itself, Zhao Yanzi dashed over to give it a big hug and began tickling it.
Chuu, chuu… Chuu, chuu… Since Little White was extremely ticklish, it instantly started turning and tossing in Zhao Yanzi’s arm.
“Little White is the cutest thing ever!” Zhao Yanzi was in a great mood and pressed her cheek affectionately against Little White’s fur.
“Alright… I guess it is not too bad being a little pet dog…” Little White soon lost its will to fight. Straightening and stiffening its limbs, it surrendered itself to Zhao Yanzi’s gentle caressing of its belly.
Seeing the playful Zhao Yanzi and Little White having fun, Hao Ren found a clean spot and sat down cross-legged while leaning against a big tree.
As he had just achieved a breakthrough, used the Two Dragons Array Formation, and then dashed away on his sword energy, Hao Ren’s reserve of nature essence was almost completely drained.
Now that there was a little time to spare, Hao Ren immediately attempted to recover his nature essence. The level of chaos in Fifth Heaven had surpassed First Heaven by a significant degree. They needed to be prepared for any types of danger that might occur at any moment.
Without the protection of a sect, ordinary cultivators had high chances of being ambushed and killed by others.
Slowly closing his eyes, Hao Ren absorbed the nature essence from the surroundings.
The now hollow dragon core was desperately consuming the nature essence nearby. The intensity of the nature essence here was three times more than that of First Heaven’s.
Hao Ren could clearly feel that the energy throughout his body was steadily increasing, and the dragon core was also spinning faster and faster.
Since dragon cultivators were born with such a great cultivation assisting device, their cultivation progress could be unimaginably rapid in such an environment where the intensity of the nature essence was high.
Even though the dragon core in Hao Ren’s body was originally from Zhao Yanzi, it had become one with Hao Ren after his prolonged cultivation. Right now, there were 65 openings on it already.
However, as the cultivation technique Hao Ren had was the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll, which required the cultivation of all five elemental essences at once, Hao Ren was not taken as a dragon cultivator by others.
…
With every breath he took, a small amount of nature essence swiftly entered his body!
For the amount of nature essence that would typically take three hours to replenish, it only took an hour here!
Refreshing! Incredibly refreshing!
The battles went smoothly, and so did the recovery!
His nature essence which was almost depleted had been fully replenished in no time!
Resting in Zhao Yanzi’s arms, Little White was twitching its nose, hungrily sniffing the nature essence this place had to offer!
Although elixir pills could also restore one’s nature essence, nothing could be as natural and pure as the process of natural refinement like this. For demon beasts like Little White, the more often they stayed in places where nature essence was highly concentrated, the quicker their advancement would come!
Suddenly, a black dash of light rushed toward them.
Hao Ren looked at the time. As they had agreed upon, it had been precisely two hours.
Breathing heavily, Zhen Congming was carrying a large sack on his back as he called out to Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi, “Let’s go!”
Noticing the anxious expression on Zhen Congming’s face, Hao Ren did not bother to ask what he was up to; he certainly was up to no good.
With a spin, Little White turned into its snow lion form and let Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi get on its back; its golden paws were emitting specks of golden light.
Standing on the black disk, Zhen Congming led the way through the blockage array formation between Fifth Heaven and the lower heavens.
His sack was completely filled with spiritual herbs. Since he had just stolen these spiritual herbs, some were still heavily covered in soil. For this reason, he had to first take them back and wash them clean before placing them into his storage space.
With just one visit from Zhen Congming, a few sects in Fifth Heaven suffered great losses. The mountains behind their residences, the spiritual gardens, and even the well-protected spiritual fields had all been overturned. Any spiritual herbs that were older than 500 years were dug out and snatched.
Back then, just as how a rabbit would not eat the grass around its burrow, he didn’t want to steal from the Hundred-Flower Palace inside the East Ocean Dragon Palace. Therefore, he would periodically visit Sixth Heaven or Seventh Heaven for a ‘harvest’ to replenish his stock and supplies.
At this time, his master Qiu Niu was in a seclusion cultivation in the Nine Dragon Palace. Since the Nine Dragon Palace was completely cut off from the outside world, even Zhen Congming had no way of getting in touch with his master. Therefore, Zhen Congming had to rely on Hao Ren and did not dare to run rampant. There were undoubtedly powerful masters in Sixth Heaven and Seventh Heaven who didn’t care that much about his title as Qiu Niu’s disciple. Therefore, in order to be safe, he could only lower his standards and target the weak Fifth Heaven for his spiritual herbs.
Even though the spiritual herbs from Fifth Heaven could not compare to those planted by prominent sects in Sixth Heaven and Seventh Heaven, they were still better than the spiritual herbs grown by the clumsy dragon cultivators; they were older, purer, and were of a greater variety.
After all, elixir making was never a strong point of dragon cultivators; even the supreme forces like the four ocean dragon palaces didn’t have great elixir masters. Thus, they could never be entrusted for growing fine spiritual herbs. On the other hand, human cultivators were weaker physically, so they relied more on elixirs and became more professional in growing spiritual herbs over time.
Nevertheless, Zhen Congming’s relentless stealing of
the spiritual herbs that the sects had spent thousands of years of effort on was enough to cause heartaches in those affected in Fifth Heaven.
Yet, there was nothing that they could do. Even if they sent out their entire sect, no one could catch up to Zhen Congming’s flight dharma treasure.
Sadly, they could only watch Zhen Congming run for his life with the sack on his back… All the precautious, defensive, and offensive array formations were nothing when put against Zhen Congming! Regarding theft and robbery, the gangs of hooligan cultivators on Fifth Heaven could not be compared to Zhen Congming; he was in a league of his own!
The two red energy spheres rapidly traversed through the white clouds and reached the land.
The black disk and Little White’s paws firmly descended onto the top of a skyscraper.
“Remember to count me in when you’re set to revisit Fifth Heaven in the future!” With a red glow on his face, Zhen Congming said to Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi while putting away his black disk.
Since they were in a rush today, there were many sects that Zhen Congming did not have the chance to ‘patronize’. Still, what he harvested today was enough to restock his storage.
“Sure, we’ll let you know!” Zhao Yanzi replied.
She had no idea the kind of disaster her promise would bring to the sects on Fifth Heaven.
“Hee, hee, hee, hee…” Zhen Congming was utterly delighted. Humming a tune, he raised a red energy sphere and drifted toward the ocean.
“With this much material, Xie Yujia should be able to try out the elixir recipes one by one… Although I can’t learn her way of elixir making, I can at least ask her to make elixirs for me… How easy would it be for me to complete the task assigned to me by my master now,” Zhen Congming became proud and satisfied as he went further away.
“Let’s go!” Zhao Yanzi suddenly turned to Hao Ren and said.
It had been three hours since they had sneaked out and went to Fifth Heaven. Zhao Yanzi told her mom that they were going out for food. If they didn’t return soon, Zhao Hongyu would surely become suspicious.