Chapter 171 - 400,000 Divine Jades!

Of the eight remaining people, six of them stepped forward.

Everyone was nervous. Even though not all of them had arrived, the results were going to be announced now.

Sitting in the middle, Dongfang Xuanxiao opened his eyes. He scanned the youths and saw the amount of bangles on each of their arms.

“Three, three, three. Each of them has three!”

Even the Grand Elders were surprised when they looked at Jin Sheng’en’s team of four.

Jin Sheng’en and Chu Yunxi had three jade bangles each, and the other two youths from the Gold family also had three jade bangles on their wrists.

Which meant that they had twelve bangles in total. They had taken almost all of the jade bangles of the teams that had entered Heaven’s Path.

“Twelve?”

Jin Luan and Chu Tianxiong were surprised. According to their calculations, they should have more.

“Unless ...” Both of them looked at Long Chen and Yin Mengyao. They were surprised by what they saw.

“Three! Both of them have three bangles on their arms too. Adding on the other fourteen, all twenty bangles are here ... That means ...”

Everyone else was also shocked to learn that Yin Mengyao and Long Chen had three bangles each. They knew Yin Mengyao was ranked in the top five in terms of strength, but they had all assumed she wouldn’t get far with Long Chen dragging her down. Someone did indeed get weighed down, but that person was Long Chen, not Yin Mengyao.

Long Chen also had three bangles, which meant that the remaining two people from the Silver family had zero bangles.

It was now clear which four teams would advance to the next stage.

Gu Batian was happy to see that Gu Cheng and Liu Gui had not only defended their bangles, but also managed to qualify for the second stage!

When Gu Cheng came back, he had told Gu Batian about how Long Chen had saved them, so he wasn’t surprised by Long Chen’s results.

Both Liu Lan and Liu Yuan, however, were stunned when they saw the three bangles on Long Chen’s arm.

“Three ... Three ...”

That meant that Long Chen had defeated two teams. This was considered an excellent result for the first stage.

“Long Chen is not as simple as he seems.” Liu Yuan snapped back to reality and stroked his beard. He was feeling proud of Long Chen.

“Maybe it’s because Yin Mengyao was too strong?”

Liu Lan could not accept it. Long Chen’s enemies were an entire group of geniuses. He had just advanced into the Earthly Core Realm, so how could he have ended up such excellent results?

She was in disbelief when she saw Long Chen smiling.

The Mortal Caves are where one can show their true strength. I hope he will perform well there.

Liu Lan secretly cheered Long Chen on.

Dongfang Xuanxiao took one more look at the contestants and then announced the results. “The first stage, Heaven’s Path, has concluded. Four teams will advance. It is clear who will advance, so I will not announce it. I will now explain the second stage and which team each of you will be assigned to.”

Dongfang Xuanxiao wasted no time. While everyone was still thinking about Long Chen’s achievement, he quickly started briefing them on the second stage. Long Chen and everyone else paid close attention to what he was saying.

“Everyone will split up and group together accordingly: Jin Sheng’en, Liu Qiong, Liu Gui, and Yin Mengyao will be one team. The rest will be in the other team.”

Yin Mengyao had been placed into the first team, which meant that Long Chen would have to fight Gu Cheng, the other youth from the Gold family, and Chu Yunxi!

After the teams had been decided, Chu Yunxi and Long Chen stared each other down. Chu Yunxi’s eyes were excited, while Long Chen was smiling.

This was what they had hoped for. Long Chen wanted to fight Chu Yunxi to repay his previous attack on him.

“Let’s do our best to enter the inner family.” Yin Mengyao smiled at him confidently.

“Of course.” Long Chen needed to win.

Dongfang Xuanxiao continued, “Now that the teams have been decided, you can rest. We will start the battle in the Mortal Caves at noon.”

“Understood!” Everyone kneeled down and obeyed him. Even the Grand Elders dared not defy him.

“Wait.” The Grand Elder of the Silver family suddenly interrupted them and looked at Yin Mengyao. “Yao’er, where are Li Feng and Wang Dan?”

Long Chen knew that they would ask this. He had killed them, so he would naturally admit it, but Yin Mengyao suddenly went forward first. “I killed them.”

Her calm tone made everyone speechless. The Grand Elder of the Silver family frowned.

The genius youths of the Silver family had been eradicated, and only Yin Mengyao was left.

The Grand Elder of the Silver family knew about the grudge between Yin Mengyao and the other two, but she had never thought they would kill each other on Heaven’s Path.

“Fine.” The Grand Elder sighed. Her disappointed face made her look as if she had aged a lot.

Long Chen sighed in relief after seeing that the Grand Elder would not pursue the matter. She might not have forgiven him if he had said that he killed Li Feng, so he was thankful to Yin Mengyao for shouldering the blame.

It was just a short interruption, and soon everyone walked away under Dongfang Xuanxiao’s instructions. When Chu Yunxi walked away, he actually taunted Long Chen by showing a finger slitting his throat.

“Idiot.” Long Chen rolled his eyes.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The nine Grand Elders led their family members to their respective resting places. Dongfang Xuanxiao had also left. Long Chen looked at his back and whispered to Yin Mengyao, “Is Lord Xuanxiao strong? Even the Grand Elders are afraid of him.”

Yin Mengyao’s face had a look of admiration. “There are four exceptionally strong cultivators working under the patriarch of the Eastern Azure Dragon family with the codenames: wind, rain, cloud, and mist.[1] Lord Xuanxiao is the strongest of them and was even dubbed as the strongest fighter beneath the Heavenly River Realm. Do you think he would be weak?”

“Beneath the Heavenly River Realm?” Long Chen knew a little bit about the next realm. Above the Divine Core Realm was the legendary Heavenly River Realm.

The term “Heavenly River" referred to the eighteen starry rivers of the heavens. Those within that realm had the ability to utilize the power of the stars and were monstrous beings. Since Xuanxiao was called the strongest fighter below the Heavenly River Realm, that meant he was a monster amongst the others.

“Long Chen, I will be going now. Let’s see each other again at noon.”

Yin Mengyao then followed the Grand Elder of the Silver family. It was likely that she would have to further explain herself regarding Li Feng and Wang Dan. Also, she had been poisoned, so she had to try and recover her strength in the remaining four hours.

As for the Turquoise family, the Chu family had already left. Only Liu Lan and Liu Yuan remained there. Gu Batian came over and patted Long Chen’s shoulder. “Not bad! I am impressed by your results!”

Liu Yuan and Liu Lan were confused.

“What do you mean?” Liu Yuan asked.

“Long Chen saved Gu Cheng and Liu Gui when they were surrounded by Abyssal Scorpions! He even killed all of the scorpions.”

Gu Batian was very grateful to Long Chen for saving his grandson’s life.

Abyssal Scorpions were Category Four Black-tier Poisonous Beasts. If Long Chen had managed to save them from the scorpions, that meant his strength was at least on par with Gu Cheng’s.

“Senior Gu, you told me before that we should look out for each other. I was merely following your advice. I’m sure they would’ve helped me if I was in danger too.”

Long Chen said it from his heart.

It was true that Gu Cheng and Liu Gui were good guys too, and they indeed would’ve helped Long Chen.

After Heaven’s Path, Long Chen and the others needed time to rest. Gu Batian bothered them no more and led them to where they would be resting. Each of them had a house for themselves.

Now that they were at the peak of the mountain, the temperature was very cold. It was only thanks to the sturdy houses built by the Lingwu family that they could obtain some warmth.

Let’s see what kind of stuff they had.

Long Chen revealed his true character and took out the Universe Pouches he had taken from Li Feng and Wang Dan. He was excited to see what they had.

“So many Divine Jades ...” Long Chen was excited to see so much money.

After taking some time sorting them, Long Chen finally counted how many they had.

“Four hundred thousand divine jades ... Those bastards were rich ...”

I wonder how rich I would get if I kept doing this. Killing evil bastards and taking their stuff ...

“How many spiritual herbs can you buy with that?” Ling Xi did some mental calculations while staring at the divine jades.

“Let’s see if there’s anything else.” There were many of their personal belongings too. There was even underwear in Wang Dan’s Universe Pouch. But Long Chen dared not even glance in their direction with Ling Xi here.

“Elementary Black-tier techniques, intermediate Black-tier techniques, a bunch of spiritual herbs, and even an intermediate Black-tier weapon.”

Amongst their belongings, they had numerous Elementary Black-tier spiritual herbs, some intermediate Black-tier spiritual herbs, and more importantly, an intermediate Black-tier halberd!

The halberd was completely black, but its blade was sharp.

Long Chen examined it and saw that there was a dragon engraved upon it. It depicted a dragon breathing fire, and it looked amazing.

“Is this the Azure Dragon Halberd?” Ling Xi was surprised.

“Dream on.” Long Chen examined it again. “It’s probably a forgery, but the weapon quality is indeed good. I like it.”

“Since Mo Xiaolang has the Heavenly Wolf Dagger, you should aim for the Azure Dragon Halberd,” Ling Xi suggested.

1. Feng = Wind, Yu = Rain, Yun = Cloud, Xiao = Mist. In this case, Dongfang Xuanxiao has the codename Mist ?