Chapter 622 – Return of a Master

Time passed slowly.

Based on the old man’s initial cultivation level and his current state of starvation, Long Chen sensed that one hundred King Crystals were nowhere near enough for him to recover. However, he had been trapped for many years, so it was also uncertain if it was even possible for him to fully regain his previous strength.

Long Chen had Blood Transmutation, so he was not worried about needing resources to recover his essence. The purpose of King Crystals to him was just to buy things. At the moment, they were not especially useful to him.

The Long siblings watched the old man anxiously. Before they said anything, Long Chen took out another two hundred King Crystals. He had two thousand in total, and now he had about fifteen hundred left. Most of them had come from Yang Ningfeng, so he had no qualms with giving them away.

The thick martial essence contained within the crystals was absorbed by the old man once more. Half a day later, the light around the old man slowly faded and his body filled out until he was looking much more healthy than his previous, terrifyingly withered state.

Under his control, the extra white hair on his body slowly fell off. When he opened his eyes, two rays of divine light shot out, and Long Chen saw faint dragon images in them.

Whoosh!

The old man stood in front of the trio, looking much more normal now. He admired his body with great excitement and disbelief. Tears started to pool in his eyes.

He had waited for many years, and now that he was finally broken out, he was unimaginably emotional.

The feeling was indescribable.

The trio did not interrupt him; tears flowed from his eyes for a long time. After about an hour, the old man finally stopped crying and he looked at the trio. They were in their Dragon Soul Transformation states, so he felt infinitely close to them.

“Is your name Long Shan? Our grandfather?” Long Yue asked cautiously, as she could not completely confirm his identity.

The old man froze and stared at them, stuttering, “Are ... are you all Yang’er’s children?”

Long Yue and the gray-robed teenager nodded hurriedly. Their father was Yang’er.

“Good! Good!” The old man’s eyes were filled with emotion. He looked around and said, “I didn’t expect this—that you would come here to rescue me! After Chen Xiong trapped me here, I long thought that I would die for sure. I can’t believe I’m still alive!”

When he mentioned the name, Long Shan’s eyes filled with rage!

“Chen Xiong? The former Martial Emperor? I think he received the Ancient Token, then he entered the Ancient Graveyard and never came back. He’s definitely dead,” said the gray-robed teenager.

“Dead?” Long Shan froze, took a few steps back, and finally said with a bitter smile, “So he’s dead? I have long held this grudge and I swore that I would take revenge one day. I didn’t expect that scum to be dead. Yeah, it’s been a long time. Too long ...”

Long Yue nodded and said, “Grandfather, I am my father’s oldest child. My name is Long Yue, and this is my younger brother. His name is ... Long Chen.”

When Long Shan saw that both his grandchildren seemed quite powerful, he felt proud and reassured. He asked, “What about your father?”

“Father is gone too. Only the three of us remain from the Long family,” said Long Yue.

“Yang’er is gone too?” Long Shan repeated. “Yang’er wasn’t good at cultivation, and he didn’t have much talent. Many years have passed; I expected this to happen.”

Silence.

“What is the outside world like now? Is the Divine Martial Empire still being controlled by the Martial Alliance?” Long Shan asked with a sigh after a very long time.

“The current Martial Overlord’s name is Zhao Wuji, and he’s at the Fourth Martial Stage. No one in the whole Divine Martial Empire is his match. That’s why the empire is still under the Martial Alliance’s control,” Long Yue answered with a nod.

“Fourth Martial Stage? Hehe. Martial Alliance, Martial Alliance; Chen Xiong, Chen Xiong. You trapped me in the Nine Spirit Purgatory, but I know the way out. You couldn’t kill me, so you trapped me here, but I bet you never expected me to escape one day. Will the Martial Alliance continue to exist when I get out of here?” A dark smile appeared on his face.

“Grandfather, what is your current cultivation level?” the gray-robed teenager blurted.

Long Chen could tell that the old man used to be a peerless master. He had been trapped for years; who knew how much of his strength remained?

The old man shook his head and said, “My true cultivation level is the Fifth Martial Stage, but due to the extreme lack of essence and many injuries, my combat abilities are roughly the same as yours right now. If I absorb enough King Crystals, I might be able to reach the Fourth Martial Stage. As for the fifth, it will take a long period of healing to recover.”

His true cultivation level was the Fifth Martial Stage?

That was terrifying. Right now, the strongest person in the empire, Martial Overlord Zhao Wuji, was only at the Fourth Martial Stage. Long Shan’s true level was much higher than his.

“How many King Crystals do you need?” Long Chen asked directly.

Long Shan finally noticed him after he spoke, as Long Chen’s silence from the beginning made Long Shan overlook him. Long Shan recalled that Long Yue had not introduced him.

Plus, Long Chen also called him Grandfather.

But what was up with his Dragon Soul Transformation?

When Long Yue noticed his confusion, she quickly explained, “Grandfather, this teenager’s name is also Long Chen. He has the same name as my brother. He has our blood; I’m guessing he’s from a long-lost branch of our family.”

“Branch?” Long Shan’s brows were deeply furrowed. “The whole Long lineage is a direct line. The ten generations before me did not have any branches, so how could he be from a branch family?”

Long Yue and her brother were speechless when they heard him.

Long Shan studied Long Chen carefully and shook his head. “His Dragon Soul Transformation differs from ours, so he is not related to the Long family. However, there must have been one of those legendary Dragon Warriors in his bloodline! Am I right, kid?”

Thankfully, Long Shan did not find out Long Chen’s secret.

Long Chen nodded. “I don’t know much about my ancestors, and I’m the only one in my family with these powers. I don’t know where it came from either.”

Long Chen could not tell them that he was a Dragon Warrior, so he made up a lie.

Long Shan remembered that Long Chen was the one who had given him the King Crystals.

Long Yue said, “Grandfather, we are sworn siblings, so it does not matter if he is related to us by blood. He is my younger brother, and I have passed the Soul Dispersing Dragon Claw to him. He came into the Nine Spirit Purgatory to save us.”

Long Yue rushed to explain everything because she was afraid that Long Shan would think Long Chen was an outsider.

Long Chen smiled too. “We have known each other for a long time. I have a lot of King Crystals, so how much do you need to regain your Fourth Martial Stage strength?”

If he could truly reach the Fourth Martial Stage, Long Shan would be of great help to them. And if Long Chen had a good relationship with him, doing anything in the future would become much easier. For example, getting an Ancient Token.

There were many masters in the Divine Martial Empire who would compete for the Ancient Token, so Long Chen was not very confident he would get it himself.

After the short chat, Long Shan quickly accepted Long Chen as another outstanding junior of his. He said, “I think I will need about a thousand King Crystals to regain my Fourth Martial Stage combat abilities. It’s too much. Do you have that many King Crystals?”

It would take a thousand King Crystals to produce one Fourth Martial Stage master. After some thought, Long Chen thought it was worth it, so he nodded and said, “Of course I have a thousand King Crystals.”

Then he took out exactly one thousand King Crystals from the Primordial Realm and placed it in Long Shan’s hand.

“Kid, you’re a generous fellow. When I regain my cultivation, I will naturally treat you well. Even though we are not blood-related, I will protect you like my grandchild in the future.”

Long Shan broke out into a joyful grin.

Long Chen was a little apprehensive about suddenly becoming someone’s grandson, but when he thought about how this old man was almost a hundred and was very powerful, he stopped caring. The King Crystals had come to him quickly because he had gotten them after killing Yang Ningfeng. On the other hand, getting a master like this to protect him was not an easy feat.

The Long siblings shot Long Chen grateful looks.

Long Chen’s trip to the Nine Spirit Purgatory was a gigantic act of kindness. Although Long Yue had said that they were sworn siblings, she felt a little embarrassed.

“Big Sister, don’t look at me like that! The Soul Dispersing Dragon Claw you gave me is worth at least that many King Crystals,” said Long Chen with a grin.

“I was just thinking about how rescuing you from the Ancient Demon Domain was an excellent decision. Hehe. You should thank that Liu Yiyi girl. If she hadn’t begged, Wuya wouldn’t have risked his life to save you,” Long Yue said with a smile.

Liu Yiyi?

He wondered if Jiang Wuya had managed to resolve her problem. Zhao Danchen had said she would be married off in about a month, and almost a month had passed. If Jiang Wuya could not solve it, then Long Chen and the masters with him would have to solve it with force.

Though he did not know if they still had enough time.

The group was not in a hurry to leave. They waited for Long Shan to absorb the power of the thousand King Crystals. Once he succeeded, they would have one Fourth Martial Stage cultivator on their side. Would they still need to fear the Martial Overlord then?

They could do whatever they wanted in Martial Overlord City when they left.

One thousand King Crystals were arranged around Long Shan in an orderly manner, and they were all glowing like the world’s most beautiful pieces of jade. The King Crystals gathered to form a glowing circle, which spun around him slowly and steadily.