Chapter 954 – Deliberately Creating Difficulties

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“Saint Artifact Pavilion! Great, let’s all go!” When Saint Artifact Pavilion was brought up, the other disciples became giddy. Within Saint Artifact Pavilion, there were no treasures besides saint artifacts. Moreover, saint artifacts had massive differences depending on the rank. A peak saint artifact was completely different in value from a general saint artifact. Saint Artifact Pavilion contained not only general saint artifacts but also top ranked high-grade saint artifacts. Of course, whether or not someone could obtain it all relied on their own abilities.

When Lin Ming heard of Saint Artifact Pavilion, he was also tempted. He hadn’t held a weapon he liked in his hand ever since the Purple Comet Spear. Lin Ming had replaced weapons several times, but because of their different natures they didn’t suit him too well.

The first low-grade heaven-step white spear he obtained within the Eternal Demon Abyss had been tossed to him by Duanmu Qun who had bartered for it with a High Lord. It didn’t even have its own name. The quality was rather ordinary and he only casually used it.

As for the second heaven-step, that was a red spear given to him by Timeworn Phoenix City, a common service weapon for being a trial challenger there. Besides that it was exceptionally durable and fire-attributed, it didn’t have any other special characteristics.

The third, the Great Desolate Blood Halberd was a saint artifact rank weapon, but it was still a halberd, not a spear. Moreover, it wasn’t too useful for boosting his Concepts and Laws, and a halberd wasn’t flexible to begin with. This simply wasn’t suited to Lin Ming’s fighting style.

The fourth, the purple spear was a thunder-attribute weapon left behind in the Extreme Violet Ring by Jiang Ziji. He also only occasionally used it.

Now as Lin Ming heard Jun Yunrue mention he could choose a weapon at Saint Artifact Pavilion, his interested was piqued. “Then I must bother Senior-apprentice Sister Jun to guide me.”

Jun Yunrue said, “Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, in Saint Artifact Pavilion, the type of saint artifact you can choose, and whether or not you can at all, will depend on your own ability. If you cannot obtain one, you’ll have wasted this chance. You must remember this and make sure you grasp the chance you are given.”

“Oh?” Lin Ming was startled. He thought that he could choose any weapon from Saint Artifact Pavilion, but now it seemed that there was some other mystery behind it.

Jun Yunrue said, “It isn’t easy for us to exchange enough resources to enter Saint Artifact Pavilion. If you aren’t able to obtain a high-grade saint artifact, even a low-grade saint artifact is a very good result. 95% of the Golden Crow Hall’s disciples don’t have a saint artifact, and even many disciples of the Vermillion Bird Hall haven’t been able to obtain one yet either.”

Even the most ordinary of saint artifacts had a decent value; in the Divine Realm, saint artifacts weren’t as common as cabbage. Within the entire Sky Spill Continent, there were only about ten or so saint artifacts, and even a Divine Kingdom would only have 1 or 2 available to stabilize the destiny of their nation. The Sky Spill Continent’s saint artifacts were all passed down from ancient times 100,000 years ago, and after that, no one had ever been able to forge another one.

Jun Yunrue let the group directly to Saint Artifact Pavilion.

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Phoenix Cry Palace was built atop a planet, with countless palaces, halls, temples, and other buildings scattered throughout; the area it covered was simply terrifying. In order to pass between different areas of Phoenix Cry Palace, one needed to take transmission arrays or fly for long periods of time.

Lin Ming and the others passed through several transmission arrays on their trip to Saint Artifact Pavilion. Along the way, he saw a massive city with city walls that were over a thousand feet high and spread to the distant horizon. In terms of length and width, this city was several thousand miles. It was equal to a great province in the Sky Fortune Kingdom. There was no city in the Sky Spill Continent that could compare with it.

Such a large city could easily sustain a hundred million people!

However, within the cities of Phoenix Cry Palace, there were substantial amounts of smelting trial areas and related resources. For instance, mountains and jungles where vicious beasts were raised, or grand array formations used for training and testing. Only several million people lived in these cities. They all had a great deal of space, and every family had their own palaces to live in.

Lin Ming passed his perception through these families and discovered that nearly everyone here trained in martial arts. A 12-13 year old child was at the second or third stage of body transformation and at 18-19 years of age they were at the Houtian realm. This meant that the number of talents was also much higher.

The food these people ate was far from what martial artists from the lower realms could compare with. There were all sorts of vicious beast meat, spirit fruits, and spirit vegetables. They would even soak in medicinal baths at a young age, helping their foundation be extremely solid.

Lin Ming couldn’t help but sigh in praise. The martial artists of the Divine Realm would start cultivating at a young age. They took spirit pills and spirit foods from birth, and what they bathed in were medicinal baths. They lived in palaces and what they wore were array clothes. When they went out they would ride on spirit boats and visit others by passing through transmission arrays. If they wanted to train, they could visit any of the training grounds near their homes.

There was also a massive difference in inheritance. Although it wasn’t the top class inheritances of the Divine Realm, it was still far superior to those from the lower realms. In addition, their bloodline talent also vastly exceeded those from the lower realms in quality. This was why they were able to create a martial arts city, a city where everyone practiced martial arts!

With such massive cities developed by a super sect to act as their foundation, how could there not be tremendous amounts of geniuses raised and developed?

Jun Yunrue glanced at Lin Ming and could see the interest playing in his eyes. She smiled and said, “This is a mortal city. There’s several hundred similar cities like this in Phoenix Cry Palace, and every city has several million people. Added together, that is hundreds of millions of people, most of whom are mortals. As for us, we also came from these mortal cities. We showed our skills, rose above the several hundred million people, and finally became disciples of Golden Crow Hall. Let alone Golden Crow Hall, even the lowest Firebird Hall has intense competition to enter. All mortal juniors hope to one day become an official disciple of Phoenix Cry Palace, soaring into the skies with a single leap.”

As Jun Yunrue spoke, Lin Junzhi blushed. She said somewhat embarrassedly, “What are you talking about. I’m still far from being comparable with Senior-apprentice Sister Jun.”

“Haha, Junior-apprentice Sister Lin, your potential is great. Honorable Master Fairy Feng favors you a great deal. Well, let’s end this conversation for now. We’ve finally arrived at Saint Artifact Pavilion.”

Although Jun Yunrue said that, Lin Ming only saw rolling clouds above an endless ea. But above the clouds, there was actually a massive pavilion, floating amongst the clouds as if it were a mirage. On the pavilion there was a giant golden signboard that had three words written in large flowing strokes.

‘Saint Artifact Pavilion’.

“Come, let’s go.”

Jun Yunrue led everyone to the gate of Saint Artifact Pavilion with a sense of familiarity. This was a spacious square paved with fiery red stones as if they were some sort of fire jade. These fire jades were clear and iridescent, shining with a faint red light, seeming as if there was a raging flame simmering within them. These beating flames exuded an incomparably rich fire origin energy, and the massive amount of fire origin energy gathered into the air, forming the faint outline of a dao diagram. Although this was only the elementary form of a postcelestial dao diagram, for them to be formed by just the rich energies here and with no one actively stirring them up, this was proof that the fire origin energy was of a ridiculously high quality!

At this moment, a squad of guards riding fire lions crossed their paths, directly stopping in front of Jun Yunrue and her group. This squad of guards had a Divine Sea cultivation, and the captain was impressively at the late Divine Sea realm.

Lin Ming could feel the energy coming from these guards. Most of them had crossed the seventh stage of Life Destruction, and the captain had likely crossed the eighth stage of Life Destruction. The aura they emitted was formidable.

An eighth stage Life Destruction late Divine Sea cultivation. Lin Ming had to admit that he wasn’t a match.

As the guard captain saw Jun Yunrue, he clamped his legs down on the fire lion’s sides, stopping it and the squad of guards. He cheekily smiled and said, “So it’s Golden Crow Hall’s Junior-apprentice Sister Jun. How come you decided to visit Saint Artifact Pavilion today?”

Jun Yunrue frowned. “I came this time to guide my Junior-apprentice Brother Lin to choose a weapon. I hope that Senior-apprentice Brother Song won’t make things difficult for me.”

“Haha, of course I won’t make things difficult for you. Saint Artifact Pavilion is originally for disciples of Phoenix Cry palace to choose a weapon or magic tool for their own use, why would I think of hindering Junior-apprentice Sister Jun in any way? Well, according to the rules of Saint Artifact Pavilion, those that enter can only choose a single saint artifact, and what they choose will all depend on their own ability. If they can’t obtain one then that is only their own bad luck. Oh, right, those that enter Saint Artifact Pavilion must pay 3000 phoenix cry seal marks or an equal value in violet sun stones.” The guard captain licked his lips as he looked at Jun Yunrue and Lin Ming with greedy eyes.

“What? 3000 phoenix cry marks!? Entering Saint Artifact Pavilion only costs 1000 phoenix cry seal marks! Why are you charging us three times the price?”

The so-called phoenix cry seal marks was a point system for the disciples of Phoenix Cry Palace based on the merits they performed. For instance when killing enemies in sect wars, finding heavenly materials, and handing in cultivation jade slips of other sects, these and other tasks, one could receive phoenix cry seal marks according to their contribution. There were even some people on the level of Sage Jiuyang who could create their own martial skills and pass those to the sect as inheritances and receive a corresponding amount of phoenix cry seal marks.

The phoenix cry seal mark was a form of currency used solely in Phoenix Cry Palace. It could be used to purchase a number of sect benefits. Entering Saint Artifact Pavilion was one such sect benefit.

“Oh? Is that so? Too bad, it seems prices have risen recently.” The guard captain smiled, clearly containing a mocking meaning behind it.

Jun Yunrue’s complexion turned overcast. The rules of Saint Artifact Pavilion hadn’t changed for 10,000 years. If there was such a great change it would be spread throughout the entire palace, but there had been no news at all. It was clear that this guard captain was deliberately creating roadblocks for them, but there was nothing she could do about it. She only had an early Divine Sea cultivation; she wasn’t a match for this guard captain. As the Elder Senior Sister who managed Fairy Feng’s faction at Golden Crow Hall, she led her juniors-apprentice brothers and sisters here to choose a weapon. But they hadn’t even passed the gate and yet there were difficulties blocking their way. How could she possibly raise her head in this circumstance?

“Song Baifeng, I’ll remember this!” Jun Yunrue grit her teeth and traced her spatial ring, preparing to pay the 3000 phoenix cry seal marks for each disciple. It was best to let Lin Ming choose a weapon before doing anything else.

At this time, Lin Ming’s true essence sound transmission echoed in her ears. “Senior-apprentice Sister, what’s going on here? They’re only the guards of Saint Artifact Pavilion and yet they can arbitrarily extort you like this? Is there no one that can manage them?”

As Lin Ming saw Jun Yunrue about to capitulate, he couldn’t help but ask her this. This was simply too outrageous. In such a massive place like Phoenix Cry Palace, how could a late Divine Sea realm guard be so arrogant?

Jun Yunrue shook her head, “They are Sage Jiuyang’s people. Not only are the guards of Saint Artifact Pavilion his people, but also the guards of the Pill Pavilion and the Scripture Pavilion, all of them are disciples subordinate to Sage Jiuyang. Within the entire Phoenix Cry Palace, besides the Palace Elders and the Phoenix Cry palace master, Sage Jiuyang can be called omnipotent. Do you really expect to count on the Palace Elders and the Phoenix Cry Palace Master to worry about minor matters like this? So these people under Sage Jiuyang can randomly make rules up to hinder us because we are Honorable Master Fairy Feng’s people and there is nothing we can do about it. Do you think we can go complain to Sage Jiuyang or something?”

“These guards know this so they are deliberately creating troubles for us to line their own pockets. Of course, Sage Jiuyang is also happy to see these situations occur.”