Chapter 76. The Northern Emperor's Apprehension, the Ninety-Nine Sword Steles (1)

The bright and beautiful early morning sun cast its dazzling radiance across the land. The gentle breeze sweeping past the land complemented the beautiful morning, soothing the minds and souls of everyone.

At a military base in Chang'an, several aircraft accelerated down the runway and took off, soaring into the skies. Lu Yuan sat in his chair inside one of them with his eyes closed.

Today, they were scheduled to visit Mount Shu.

Just as Dean Zheng had promised, the arrangements were made. There was no need for him to worry about the journey, as a military aircraft was made available for him to use. Though the cabin was not particularly large, it was a speedy aircraft.

Thanks to the Global Awakening, the distance between Chang'an and Mount Shu had become exceedingly vast. If he were to travel on foot, it would take an unknown amount of time to reach his destination.

Even with Lu Yuan's current strength, such a journey would consume a considerable amount of his energy.

Since transportation was being provided, why not take advantage of it?

Of course, he wasn't alone. Besides himself, there were several others in the cabin, and he was familiar with them—Zhu Qingyu, Qin Lan, and the Northern Emperor, one of the Five Supremes.

The rest of the passengers were students from the Aurora Academy with decent strength at Foundation Realm V. They were clearly elites with relatively high talent.

As for Dean Zheng, he had departed two days earlier to arrange matters in advance.

"Mr. Lu, the journey will take some time. Please have something to eat first," Zhu Qingyu said, carrying a tray of food. The food wasn't ordinary; it was a spread of mutated beast meat—healthy food for Awakened.

"Thank you," Lu Yuan replied. He chose to accept the offer instead of refusing it, even though he could easily go for half a month without eating anything after cultivating the Primordial Dragon Breathing Technique. He placed the tray on the side and rested with his eyes closed.

Upon shattering a total of twelve genetic shackles, Lu Yuan discovered something different. He could now sense the presence of the remaining shackles. By his estimation, breaking the latter shackles wasn't difficult, but the key was resonating with them.

Simply put, they needed energy. Once Lu Yuan had enough energy and had reached a certain level of resonance with them, he could shatter them with a mere thought on his end.

Yes, shatter

them

; he could shatter several of them at once, but as stated, he needed a certain level of resonance and enough energy to do so.

Blessed with the ancient Bodhi Tree, Lu Yuan wasn't worried at all. At the moment, he was busy feeding ten shackles at once. When the time was ripe, he would shatter them all at once. This way, shattering the remaining shackles and reaching the Golden Body Realm would only be a matter of time.

"Senior, who is stronger between you and Lu Yuan?" Qin Lan asked softly after a glance at Lu Yuan. This question had been troubling her for quite a while now. Based on the heated discussions online, Lu Yuan seemed to be stronger than her senior, but a part of her heart remained unconvinced.

After all, her senior was the legendary Northern Emperor.

The Northern Emperor was silent for a while before turning to her with a solemn face.

"He's stronger than me," he said.

Everyone nearby turned toward him in surprise. Until now, there had only been endless arguments about who was stronger than whom among the Five Supremes, and each netizen had their own firm opinion about it.

While the netizens were busy arguing online, the Winged Celestial God, Asura, and Ice Fairy, made a breakthrough into the Awakened Realm, becoming even stronger. Hence, there had never been a definitive conclusion to the debate.

Just now, the Northern Emperor actually admitted that he was weaker than Lu Yuan.

"Senior, why do you think so?" Zhu Qingyu asked, becoming interested in the matter. The others nodded repeatedly, wanting to know the specific reason—after all, they hadn't even fought yet.

They were all in Chang'an all this while, and those present were elite students who often trained together whenever they were free, so they knew that there was no way the Northern Emperor would utter such words lightly.

Hearing everyone's questions, the Northern Emperor's gaze landed on Lu Yuan, and he stared at Lu Yuan as he replied, "You know my bloodline is special, right? And if you don't believe me, then my extraordinary physique will prove it. In other words, you can say that I am exceptionally sensitive when it comes to physique.

"Speaking purely of physique, except for the Winged Celestial God, I don't fear the other Supremes. I could easily defeat them. However, Mr. Lu is different. My heart races whenever I try to probe his physique.

"It's like there's a dragon inside him—one that is exceptionally terrifying once unleashed."

The Northern Emperor had absolute confidence in his physique. Even against someone like the Winged Celestial God, he believed that he could put up a good fight. After taking a good look at Lu Yuan, however, the Northern Emperor's confidence vanished completely, and he even felt dread.

Until now, he had never felt this way since his bloodline had awakened.

"What?"

Everyone was surprised. The Northern Emperor specialized in physique, so they hadn't expected him to admit that he was inferior to someone else in his area of expertise. Everyone's gaze toward Lu Yuan changed once again.

Finally, everyone asked about who was stronger between Lu Yuan and the Winged Celestial God. The Northern Emperor gave no specific answer, as he knew the Winged Celestial God's bloodline had completely activated.

In other words, he had become several times stronger than before.

Qin Lan and the others felt helpless at his evasive replies. Eventually, they chatted about other things, specifically about this trip to Mount Shu. The Aurora Academy had invited many Awakened; at least ten thousand would be there.

Legends had it that Mount Shu once housed sword immortals. If one could comprehend and obtain their inheritance, they would surely reach the apex.

Avoiding the temptation was simply impossible. In addition, the elite students from the branches of the Aurora Academy would participate, and some of them were bound to have an exceedingly high comprehension level.

In a nutshell, the competition was fierce.

At the moment, powerful Awakened had powerful bloodlines or had consumed certain spirit fruits and exotic herbs, awakening the power of their bloodline. Bloodline and comprehension level were often discussed together, but the truth was that they were two different things.

Bloodline indicated high potential and an extremely high rate of evolution. One's level of comprehension was different, as it manifested in one's sensitivity to breathing techniques and visualization methods as well as their ability to comprehend an esoteric concept in a short period of time.

If an analogy were to be made, it would be like having a superhuman's brain. At first, one wouldn't be strong, but given enough time, one's achievements would surely be comparable to those with exceptional bloodlines.

Of course, most of the time, an exceptional bloodline and a high level of comprehension were in tandem. Those who had chosen to visit Mount Shu all had extreme confidence in their level of comprehension.

Qin Lan and others listed several candidates, discussing who was more outstanding and had a higher level of comprehension.

Among them, one person caught Lu Yuan's attention—Mount Hulong's Young Celestial Master, Chunyang.

Even though he wasn't one of the Five Supremes, his level of comprehension was widely acknowledged to be extremely high. He had mastered many of Mount Hulong's inheritances with great mastery of them all.

"I guess this trip to Mount Shu won't be too boring." Lu Yuan's lips curved in a smile. He had merely closed his eyes, so he heard everyone's words. The Northern Emperor's evaluation surprised even Lu Yuan.

The Northern Emperor was indeed an extraordinary individual, as he managed to see through something despite the fact that Lu Yuan was still wearing the Primordial Qi Robe.

However, it didn't matter; what was seen couldn't be unseen. Lu Yuan set that matter aside and closed his eyes, nourishing the shackles deep in his genes.

Time went on just like that until a loud

boom

made Lu Yuan open his eyes. It turned out that a bird of prey was provoking their aircraft at high altitude. In the end, they couldn't take it anymore and used missiles to bring it down.

This kind of terrifying scene had long become commonplace, and if one weren't careful enough, they could get taken down. Nowadays, only military aircraft dared fly at commercial altitudes, and ordinary passenger flights had long ceased operations at such altitudes.

Lu Yuan ignored what was happening and looked down through the window. He saw several mountains towering into the clouds. Some of them even had peaks as tall as the aircraft.

The lush and verdant mountains were riddled with towering trees, and the occasional roars of beasts echoed from their depths. Except for the supercities, the majority of the outside world had long become a massive forest.

"Mr. Lu, we're about to descend. About half an hour more," Zhu Qingyu said, reminding Lu Yuan to prepare for the landing.

"Alright," Lu Yuan answered. He then stood up to stretch.

We're finally here!