Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Long Chen was like a bolt of lightning streaking past mountains. At this point, the wind had reached the level that even he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

His entire body was covered in thunderforce. He didn’t need wings right now and just directly shot forward. There were over a hundred lightning whirlpools activated that were pulling him in one direction. Long Chen had never experienced this kind of speed before.

He suddenly paused atop a high mountain. Here, he could see everything around him.

“Amazing, truly amazing.” Long Chen excitedly clenched his fists. He had already reached an initial control over the Lightning Body Blink. He found that it was practically specially tailored for him.

Normally, movement arts were only useful in either battle or long-distance travel. But Long Chen found that the Lightning Body Blink was an exception. Once all the lightning whirlpools were activated in one direction, his speed was beyond belief.

However, this was only an initial mastery as he was still gradually accustoming himself to it. But he trusted that he would be able to use it in battle soon.

“Huang Junmo, just wait. It’s not so easy to take my things.”

With the Lightning Body Blink, Long Chen was no longer worried about Huang Junmo’s ghost-like movement art. When he encountered him again, he could have a real battle.

In the last battle, neither of them had truly used their full power. If they fought a life and death battle, it would be hard to say who would be the victor. But Long Chen didn’t feel any fear. This enmity had to be avenged. That time had truly been too stifling. He had never suffered such a loss before.

Standing at the peak of the mountain, Long Chen looked around. He noticed a large but faint X in the ground. Without intentionally looking for it from above, it was essentially impossible to notice.

This was the trial the Xiao tribe had been in charge of guarding back then: Demon Devil Cave. The name sounded extremely terrifying, but the old tribe leader said that this was one of exceedingly few trials in the Immemorial Path that didn’t pose any danger. Even if he failed the trial, he would be able to live.

This trial had fortunately survived the destruction of the Immemorial Path. The Xiao tribe had hidden the entrance to it. Without their map as well as the large X marking, it would be impossible to find it.

After the danger on Insect Island, Long Chen had decided to first take advantage of this place to see if he could gain some opportunity to increase his strength.

Although he had reached the tenth Heavenstage of Xiantian, there were still three levels until Sea Expansion. As for Xue You, Huang Junmo, and the others, they had already reached the peak of Xiantian. They could already touch the barrier, or their auras wouldn’t be so strong.

They might reach half-step Sea Expansion at any time. Furthermore, Long Chen had found that those like Xue You and Huang Junmo who were innate rank three Celestials were now capable of suppressing him with their Heavenly Dao runes.

Although it wasn’t as intense as before when he had faced Yin Wushang for the first time, the feeling of being suppressed was definitely present. That affected his ability to release his power in battle. In a battle between experts, the slightest difference could decide life and death. That made him feel a sense of danger.

The old tribe leader had said that this trial was extremely helpful to raise a person’s strength. So Long Chen had decided to come here first. But the old tribe leader had also said that there were many different difficulties, and so the rewards were also different. In any case, the majority of those rewards were all used to directly increase personal power.

“It’s right here.”

Long Chen walked to the marking. This place was a flat plain without anything odd. But there was a rock on the ground.

It looked extremely ordinary, like any other rock. But Long Chen knew that this place was the transportation site.

He took out a jade bottle and dripped a drop of a mysterious liquid that the old tribe leader had given him onto the stone. The stone sucked it up like a sponge.

Buzz…

The ground quivered and Long Chen felt space twist. He suddenly appeared in a spacious room.

That rock was the key to activating the transportation formation. It had transported Long Chen underground. This was something the Xiao tribe had set up to protect the trial.

It was completely dark underground, but a Xiantian expert had good vision. Adding on Spiritual Strength, this kind of environment wouldn’t pose much of a problem to most experts.

Once he was inside, Long Chen looked around. This place had been preserved perfectly. There were large stages, pillars, stone steps, and even the decorative designs had been preserved.

Long Chen could even imagine many experts coming here countless years ago, lining up, waiting their turn to take the trial while the Xiao tribe’s people maintained order.

But now, this place was empty. All those people were gone. Thinking of that made him sigh with emotion. That huge battle had created an unsolvable riddle.

Following the main path of the room, after a few miles, the space suddenly opened up. This space was actually thousands of miles wide.

Long Chen couldn’t help being startled. How was there such an immense space underground? On the opposing wall, there were huge statues carved into it. Seeing them, Long Chen came to a sudden halt.

He saw a carving of a full moon hanging in the sky at night. Furthermore, there were nine sparkling stars around that moon.

Although it was just a carving, when he looked at it, it felt extremely realistic as if he was standing in the picture and looking up at the starry sky.

The nine stars formed a ring around the moon. It was a beautiful scene. Although the nine stars seemed so distant, their light could still illuminate the night sky.

In fact, even the moon’s glow was covered by them. Seeing this, Long Chen immediately thought of the stone carving he had seen in the ancient tomb in the Jiuli secret realm.

That scene had also been of a night sky. But there had been no moon. It had just been an elder forging weapons beneath the starry sky. Within that starry sky, there had also been nine radiant stars that had blocked out the light of the other stars. But at that time, the nine stars hadn’t been revolving around a moon, but one large star.

“Both murals had nine stars. Was the starry sky like that back in ancient times?” muttered Long Chen.

Was the starry sky different back then? But if that was the case, what had happened for it to change?

Long Chen’s head was a mess. Looking at the carvings, he seemed to think of something, something extremely important. But no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to grasp what it was exactly. In the end, all he gained for his efforts was a splitting headache.

He took a deep breath and stopped trying. Looking below the carvings, he saw a splendid, glorious construction.

It was in the shape of a huge cross. There were immense castles, tall towers, and glorious palaces. There were rivers flowing throughout, lakes sparkling like jade, and even islands that were sprinkled about like stars in the sky.

“This… this is the original Immemorial Path?”

Long Chen was amazed. This carving was an imitation of the Immemorial Path. Compared to the splendor from back then, the current Immemorial Path could truly be described as ruined.

Relying on this imitation, he looked toward the edge where he saw the gate. That was the gate with the image that Long Chen had so painstakingly used the primal chaos bead to record.

But in the imitation, that image was too indistinct. He could only tell that it generally looked the same as the image he had recorded.

Just what had happened for the glorious Immemorial Path to end up in its ruined state? Long Chen saw that the palaces he should have seen on the way were all gone now. They were either crumbled or had fallen into the abyss.

Looking at the Immemorial Path in its golden days, Long Chen was unable to calm himself for a long time. It seemed the current cultivation world was in a truly broken age compared to back then.

The current Immemorial Path was in ruins. Looking at the carvings, he saw that the true trials had been those castles and towers. Those had been the true, main trials.

As for the trials marked on his map, those were further away from the main path. That meant that the true trials had already disappeared. To put it frankly, it was like a bowl of pork-bone soup with no more meat, bone, or noodles. All that remained was a single drop of broth.

In the current cultivation era, all the experts were going all-out fighting over that one drop of broth. Just thinking of that made Long Chen feel sorrowful. Had the world truly declined to such a point?

He wasn’t able to calm himself. Just what had happened to this world? What had happened to that glorious golden age for it to become its current state?

Were the legends true? In that era, had people been capable of cultivating to immortality and godhood? Were there truly secrets to becoming an immortal or god within the Immemorial Path?

Long Chen took a deep breath, suppressing his chaotic thoughts. Those things couldn’t help him at all. Instead, they would just distract him.

He carefully looked at the carving again. He confirmed that it wasn’t as strange as the rune he had recorded with the primal chaos space and he continued onward. The entrance to the true trial was there.

The entrance was a stage covered with immortal characters. After going to the Xiao tribe, Long Chen had learned much about the immortal era, and so he recognized more immortal characters now.

Each one of these immortal characters was circular, and they were transportation formations. As long as someone stepped onto them, it would activate and send them to the trial. The different immortal characters represented different levels of the trial. He also now recognized the character representing the peak trial.

Looking at it, Long Chen was speechless. Just how had he managed to choose the peak level twice in that trial cave region? Was he incredibly lucky, or incredibly unlucky?

“Since there’s no danger to my life, I’ll naturally choose the peak level.” Long Chen smiled and directly walked over to the strongest immortal character.

There was a total of eight levels, and Long Chen picked the hardest one. Taking out the jade plate the old tribe leader had given him, he pressed it onto the immortal character. The jade plate immediately began to merge into it, and the immortal character began to shine. Long Chen’s body tightened, and he found himself inside a cavern.

The cavern was sealed and square-shaped. The ground was lined with bricks. It looked just like a dueling arena, and there was a carving of a lifelike giant ape on the opposing wall.

Buzz.

Long Chen had just entered when that wall lit up. It was like daytime in the cavern.

A heaven-shaking roar rang out, shaking Long Chen’s ears. He jumped in shock.

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