by Dragon King
Compare to Wang Hui, who was a fake Dui-level cultivator, Hao Ren looked more like their prince-charming at this moment!
Defeated a Gen-level cultivator with one strike and a Dui-level cultivator with a few moves!
Slash!
It was at this moment when everything seemed to have settled, a black light suddenly punctured through the soil directly beneath Hao Ren and Little White and shot upward.
Ding.
The cold tip of the sword appeared in front of Hao Ren’s forehead.
“You are defeated,” Wang Xi announced coldly.
A coat slowly fell off the side of the hill.
317 Right, or Wrong?
Coldness. Extreme coldness.
It was the first time that Hao Ren felt like death was so close to him.
A few inches closer and his forehead could get pierced open by the sharp sword.
This black sword was made from a piece of strange stone that came from the foot of the Kunlun Mountain. It repelled water, fire, and heavenly lightning. Its quality was even better than Su Han’s white jade sword.
Shoo… Wang Xi put his black sword back into his body.
“So, you are an assisting inspector.” He glimpsed at Hao Ren’s forehead and waved toward the direction of the hill. The coat was then sucked into his hand, and he slightly twirled in the air as the coat slid itself onto his body.
Earth-elemental dragons were talented in traveling underground. Wang Xi camouflaged himself with a split technique during the battle. He went stealth underneath Hao Ren and defeated him by surprise.
Hao Ren placed his sword energies all around him except for the ground directly below him.
Woo!
Wang Xi’s provoking expression set Little White off. It was ready to throw itself at Wang Xi after waving its paws, but Hao Ren stopped it by holding onto its fur.
Hao Ren was reluctant to admit defeat, but that didn’t change anything. He would have been a dead man if this was a real life-and-death battle. It was the brutal reality that he was not as experienced in.
“It would be really boring if all the inspectors in the system are on your level.” Wang Xi glimpsed at Hao Ren coldly again as he slowly put the aura of Dui-level away.
The few Zhen-level cultivators nearby felt slightly relieved. The pressure Wang Xi created during the battle was enough to suffocate them.
The higher the level a dragon cultivator got, the harder it was to progress. It was easy to reach Zhen-level, but only a few cultivators could get to Dui-level, which equaled low-tier Nascent Soul Realm. Specifically, in the Water-Elemental Dragon Clan, a Dui-level cultivator could easily become an elder in any smaller river, steam, or lake dragon clans.
Hao Ren kept quiet on Little White’s back.
“I will be attending the general examination at the Dragon God Shrine this year, and I won’t go easy on you if I see you there.” After saying that, Wang Xi turned to Wang Hui and said, “Let’s go!”
Wang Hui ran over to Wang Xi and followed him into the teleportation array. The other four Zhen-level cultivators realized the change of situation and followed them as well.
Howl!
Little White spat out another fireball, turning a tree not far from them into ashes immediately. Little White wanted to bite off Wang Xi’s neck. However, it wasn’t strong enough to defeat him yet.
Hao Ren turned around slowly to look at Wang Xi as he left. He was still silent.
Theoretically, all the dragon cultivators were qualified to become an inspector of the Dragon God Shrine. There was a series of exams one had to take in order to become an inspector, and those exams were held annually. Some of the cultivators would enroll themselves in the exams; some were recommended by the local forces; others, such as Hao Ren, became assisting inspectors first before the official inspectors referred them.
There were two parts to the exams; one written exam and one combat exam. The written exam wasn’t difficult, and one could pass if they were familiar with the fundamental information of the Dragon Tribe as well as all the regulations of the tribe.
It was the combat exam that was more competitive. All kinds of masters from Zhen-level to Qian-level would gather in the Dragon God Shrine, and only the top ten participants would become official inspectors after rounds of fierce battle. The next 40 of them would become assisting inspectors.
A while back, Su Han went through the exams and became an official inspector as a Kun-level master.
Since the status of the four ocean dragon clans was similar to that of the Dragon God Shrine, their core members weren’t interested in these exams. However, for other dragon clans, the more inspectors they had in the Dragon God Shrine, the higher they were regarded.
Although the inspectors claimed to be impartial when they dealt with issues for the Dragon God Shrine, they always had their biases. For example, since Su Han was brought up in the East Ocean Dragon Palace, she had always been easy on all East Ocean Dragon Palace’s matters.
Wang Xi was an elite trained by the Earth-Elemental Dragon Clan of the Wuyi Mountain. They expected him to fight all the way through the inspector exams this year and become an official inspector.
“Dui level…”
Hao Ren murmured to himself as he let out a sword energy, chopping down a line of trees smoothly.
Although they were only one realm apart, Hao Ren and Little White weren’t even able to damage Wang Xi’s hair with all their strength combined. It sure wasn’t a nice feeling when someone pointed his sword that close to your forehead.
Strength! It all came down to strength!
Boom!
The teleportation array lit up again.
Elder Sun in his Tang suit was standing on the array, and he quickly walked toward the valley. As short as he was, he appeared to be very capable.
“Elder Sun.” Hao Ren smiled in embarrassment as he walked over.
He smiled at Hao Ren. “Well done, Gongzi Hao.”
Hao Ren looked around and got even more embarrassed.
“I’m not talking about this,” Elder Sun put his hands behind him and said, “I am talking about the damage on the West Ocean Dragon Palace.”
“Oh?” Hao Ren was surprised at the sudden change of topic.
“The news of you and Little Daoist Zhen destroying half of the West Ocean Dragon Palace is out. All the parties are astonished by the news.” Elder Sun slightly sighed.
Hao Ren sensed the importance of this topic, so he focused on what Elder Sun was saying.
Sure enough, Elder Sun kept talking, “The entire Dragon Tribe has been talking about this today, especially our Water-Elemental Dragon Clan. A few river and lake dragon clans have started to communicate, discussing how to cope with the situation.”
“Cope with the situation?” Hao Ren was confused.
“You and Little Daoist Zhen even destroy the West Ocean Dragon Palace; no one feels safe at home anymore. If Little Daoist Zhen had enough interest in it, he could rob South Ocean after West Ocean. Then, he could go ahead and set a fire on the Dongting Lake Dragon Palace…” Elder Sun continued.
Hao Ren started to understand. Zhen Congming destroyed half of the West Ocean Dragon Palace in rage, so the other dragon clans were deterred by the potential danger.
If some group took this opportunity to promote the idea that East Ocean wanted to conquer every other dragon clan, many forces would take precaution against East Ocean. That would put East Ocean in an isolated situation.
It had never occurred to Hao Ren that the damage he and Zhen Congming caused for the West Ocean Dragon Palace would put East Ocean in so much trouble.
Instead of utilizing this opportunity to take the West Ocean Dragon Clan’s territories and resources, the South and North Dragon Clans formed an alliance with the West Ocean Dragon Clan against the East Ocean Dragon Palace.
Other small powers also grouped up with each other. They each formed alliances before the East Ocean Dragon Clan could expand rapidly.
Fig
hting with the West Ocean Dragon Palace at this time would go to prove East Ocean’s ‘wild ambition and conspiracy’.
However, if the East Ocean stood back and let them team up, the clan would lose the relationship with many small powers and damage the relationship with other few major powers, putting them into a dead corner.
Elder Sun thought for a bit when he noticed Hao Ren’s frowning face. He comforted, “Gongzi Hao, you don’t need to worry too much about it. The West Ocean Dragon Palace won’t be able to recover within 30 to 50 years, and that is a good thing for us. However, instead of being buried with it, we need to keep our status. There are only two ways to solving the situation. First, we can call for an early Dragon Tribe Conference and state our stance. Second, if we can get a Heavenly Dragon Realm grandmaster within a year and truly surpass the strength of the other three ocean dragon clans, then this won’t be an issue. However, it is already an open secret that the Third Lord failed the lightning tribulation.”
“State our stance? What do you mean by that?” Hao Ren asked.
Elder Sun hesitated for a few seconds before he answered at last, “To state that we didn’t mean to cause the damage. And if we had to… sigh… please treat Ms. Zi nicely.”
318 Envy, Jealousy and Hatred
Hao Ren didn’t understand Elder Sun’s words. When he was about to ask again, Elder Sun returned to the first topic. “Gongzi Hao, who were you fighting with?”
“A Dui-level cultivator from the Earth-Elemental Dragon Clan. Do you know anything about him, Elder Sun?” Hao Ren asked.
“Is he a young cultivator?” Elder Sun asked.
“Yeah, around 20 or so.”
“He should be an earth-elemental dragon from the Wuyi Mountain. His name is Wang Xi; indeed a Dui-level cultivator,” Elder Sun answered promptly.
Elder Sun’s intelligence network was one of the powerful weapons of the East Ocean Dragon Clan, and the information about the young elite member from the Wuyi Mountain Dragon Clan was part of his intelligence data since the young man was now in the East Ocean City and practiced in his dojo.
He didn’t expect that Hao Ren would fight with him. If Elder Sun didn’t sense the vibrations of the array formation, he wouldn’t have come into the valley to investigate the situation in person.
Seeing Hao Ren’s silence, Elder Sun continued, “He is a superstar in the Earth-Elemental Dragon Clan. He has reached Dui-level at such a young age and has the greatest hope of reaching Qian-level.”
Hao Ren knew that the masters on Qian-level and Kun-level in Dragon Tribe were mostly elderlies who were hundreds of years old. Su Han was a rare exception; Qin Shaoyang looked young, but he was much older than Su Han.
Wang Xi was indeed a genius to have reached Dui-level in his early twenties and thus had great prospects.
The Water-Elemental Dragon Clan had four branches, stream, river, lake, and ocean, and it had the largest number of cultivators and naturally the most amount of Qian-level and Kun-levels. In contrast, the combined members of Metal, Wood, Fire, and Earth-Elemental Dragon Clans couldn’t surpass that of the four ocean dragon palaces. More Qian-level and Kun-level cultivators a dragon clan had, the more respect they got.
As a core member of the East Ocean Dragon Palace, Hao Ren had seen many Qian-level and Kun-level elders and didn’t find them rare. But in fact, those were all the Qian-level and Kun-level masters in the East Ocean City.
Only the four ocean dragon palaces had over 100 Qian-level and Kun-level masters who were the equivalent of top-tier Nascent Soul Realm. The second largest group of Qian-level and Kun-level masters were the Metal-Essence Dragon Clans.
That was why this earth-elemental dragon who had reached Dui-level at the age of 20 carried the hope of the Wuyi Mountain and even the entire Earth-Elemental Dragon Clan.
“He will be attending this year’s Dragon God Palace’s general examination, right?” Hao Ren asked Elder Sun.
“It’s possible. Su Han chose to enter the Inspector System to breakthrough from Kun-level to Qian-level. The Dragon God Palace had a large collection of secret cultivation scrolls and thus provided more information and training opportunities. The resources the Dragon God Palace has probably surpassed our East Ocean Dragon Clan,” Elder Sun said.
Hao Ren nodded. Although Su Han was adopted and raised by Elder Xingyue, she was still an outsider and couldn’t become a core member of the East Ocean Dragon Clan. Thus, she had no access to the top cultivation techniques. That was why she entered the Dragon God Palace and became an inspector.
The four ocean dragon palaces were big players with abundant resources, and the smaller dragon kings of lakes and rivers had to borrow technique scrolls from them. Those dragon forces without this access had no choice but to fight to become inspectors.
“Ok. I got it.” Hao Ren tossed Little White into his necklace before walking to the teleportation array.
He raised his right hand and touched his forehead; he felt something wet.
He then lowered his hand and saw a trace of red blood on his fingers.
Wang Xi had stopped his sword at the most crucial moment, but he had still left a shallow symbolic cut on his forehead.
That cut on his forehead was in the center of the three golden flames mark which signified that Hao Ren was an assisting inspector.
It was an act of jealousy and a challenge.
In Wang Xi’s eyes, Hao Ren was only an insignificant Zhen-level cultivator, but he had acquired the position of an assisting inspector just because he was a member of the East Ocean. Likewise, only four ocean dragon palaces owned such powerful sword array techniques.
However, he didn’t care about Hao Ren’s position as the assisting inspector since he believed that he could defeat Hao Ren in a battle in the Dragon God Palace!
“Wang Xi…” Hao Ren murmured the name of the Dui-level cultivator and rubbed the trace of blood on his fingertips, feeling the small amount of pain on his forehead.
Strength; the key lied in strength.
Zhen-level was at the bottom of the Dragon Tribe! Even a Dui-level cultivator could belittle Hao Ren who had the title of an assisting inspector!
Even in the Inspector System, the one with the highest strength spoke the loudest!
At Qian-level, Su Han didn’t need to speak, and other inspectors would give ways to her!
The reason that the West Ocean Dragon Clan was so overbearing and aggressive toward the East Ocean Dragon Palace was that it had the largest number of elders who were on Qian-level and Kun-level among all four ocean dragon palaces.
Hao Ren clenched his fists and decided to accelerate his cultivation process.
Elevation of realms was important, but the battle experience was also crucial. He promised himself that he was going to go to the general examination of the Dragon God Palace and win!
Hao Ren stepped onto the teleportation array and returned to the dojo downtown before taking a bus back to school for afternoon classes. Wang Xi could cultivate all year round in the depth of mountains, but Hao Ren had to live in the city. He must find a more efficient way to elevate his realm.
“Ren! Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you but couldn’t find you anywhere!” Huang Jianfeng walked over and threw his arm over Hao Ren’s shoulder, yelling at him.
“I ran an errand out of the school, and my cell phone’s connection was poor,” Hao Ren said.
Sitting in the front row, Xie Yujia looked back at Hao Ren curiously. She wanted to go to the library with him but couldn’t get in touch with him.
“Tonight, we’ll go to the KTV. Will you join us?” Huang Jianfeng shook Hao Ren’s shoulder and asked.
“I can’t. I’m busy tonight.”
“Today’s my birthday, and I’m paying!” Huang Jianfeng continued to shake him.
“Ok! Ok! I’ll go in his place,” Xie Yujia stood up and said briskly.
Pleasantly surprised, Huang Jianfeng immediately released Hao Ren. “Ok! Ok!”
“But Ma
Lina need to come as well.” Xie Yujia pulled Ma Lina up.
“Ok! Ok.” With two girls joining them, Huang Jianfeng let Hao Ren go completely.
Xie Yujia was Hao Ren’s girlfriend, and they would never have bad thoughts. However, there would be a different atmosphere with girls joining them. At this moment, no one thought about Hao Ren who couldn’t sing well!
“Don’t worry; you can go and tutor Zi tonight,” Xie Yujia looked at Hao Ren gently and whispered.
319 The Difficult Situation
“Xie Yujia is your girlfriend, so she can go for you if you couldn’t make it!” The guys who were going to celebrate Huang Jianfeng’s birthday kicked up a fuss after seeing Xie Yujia volunteering herself to go in Hao Ren’s place.
Hao Ren didn’t want to neglect his friendship with the guys. However, he had to head over to Zhao Yanzi’s place to see where the situation lied.
“I’ll come back if I have time,” Hao Ren said.
Xie Yujia slightly nodded toward Hao Ren, setting his mind at ease.
“What are you arguing about! Time for class!”
Bald Professor Zhang walked into the classroom with books in his hand.
The class suddenly quiet down and got ready for the lesson.
After class, Huang Jianfeng and the other guys headed to the Hongji Square for dinner, and Xie Yujia went along with Ma Lina. Ma Lina had gotten close to the guys since the trip to Xinan City last time. Therefore, she kept chatting with them and didn’t feel awkward.
Hao Ren went to the bus stop to take the bus straight over to Zhao Yanzi’s house. Inspectors were allowed to travel freely in the sky, but it wouldn’t be a wise idea to fly since this was a personal issue.
By the time he got off the bus and walked to Zhao Yanzi’s home, it was exactly five o’clock.
Zhao Hongyu was cooking in the kitchen, and Zhao Guang and Zhao Yanzi hadn’t gotten back yet. Usually, they would be back around twenty past five, so Hao Ren could spend this 20 minutes helping Zhao Hongyu with housework.