Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Long Chen left on his own, speeding off toward his previous target. The Dragonblood warriors had essentially finished forming up, with each group having at least five squads.

In each of those groups were at least two people on the level of captains, so they should be safe. Now, Long Chen was setting off on his own because he didn’t sense any supreme experts.

Guo Ran’s luck had given him a reminder. His bad luck would cover up other people’s good luck. By leaving them, their chances of running into treasures should increase a bit.

Several days later, Long Chen arrived at his target area. The scene he saw before him made his heart shake.

This was a giant spring. There were two mountain ranges on both sides of it, looking like an eye from above.

The spring had black and white mist revolving on top of it, looking like a giant Taiji symbol. The white mist was full of vitality, while the black mist was full of death. They were blending together, yet still separate.

When he descended from the sky, he found that the spring had its own laws. While it wasn’t so big looking from above, when he got close, he found that it was practically limitless. This spring seemed to fill the entire world. He didn’t know if he had shrunk or if it had grown.

“There is actually a place within this world that manifests the cycle of life and death. The divine families actually didn’t share this secret with us?!”

Long Chen couldn’t help growing enraged upon sensing the power of this spring. The Long family hadn’t told him about this, but the Corrupt path and the ancient family alliance’s disciples had both been aware of it.

“Boss!”

The Dragonblood warriors who had already arrived came over when they saw him. 

“Was there a battle?” Long Chen saw they still had blood on them, and their auras were in a very lively state.

“It was dangerous. As soon as we arrived, Corrupt experts attacked us. They had broken through to the fourth step. If the Zither Fairy hadn’t interfered, we would have taken some heavy losses,” said the squad leader.

“Zi Yan?” Long Chen sensed the surroundings. There did seem to be some mystical energy remaining in the air that belonged to Zi Yan. “Where is she?”

“The Zither Fairy immediately rushed off after helping us resolve the ambush. It seemed that she was in a hurry.”

“Boss, we were late. Everyone else who entered the Star Field Divine World rushed straight here. The Corrupt path left behind two thousand of their disciples to ambush us. With them being in the fourth step and controlling Samsara power, we would have been at a disadvantage without the Zither Fairy,” said another squad leader.

Upon reaching the fourth step, the Samsara power of a Netherpassage expert would not just increase their power, but it would also form a cycle that gave them limitless power. With the Dragonblood warriors still in the third step, they were unable to hold them back. In the brief ambush, ten thousand disciples of the Martial Heaven Alliance had died.

“The Corrupt path and the ancient family alliance knew about this. Only the sea demon race seems to be like us. What is the Ye family playing at?” 

Long Chen sank into thought. He had killed the Six Horn Sea Serpent’s left and right arms but hadn’t found any information about this life and death spring in their soul fragments. 

Could it be that the Ye family was using the sea demon race to slow him down? Were they being used to stall the Martial Heaven Alliance’s disciples? After being one step behind, they would only fall further and further behind.

“One of the groups has been attacked!” Suddenly, the compasses let off a warning sound. However, the warning then stopped a short while later.

“It was a little sneak attack, not enough to shake the entire group. The other side fled.” The report quickly came from the group that had been attacked.

“Have all the groups remain vigilant and rush straight here. There’s no need to search for more treasures,” ordered Long Chen.

They had been schemed against. The Dragonblood Legion was now forced into a very passive position. With many others having broken through to the fourth step due to this spring, they were at an immense disadvantage.

More groups arrived. One of them was led by Yue Zifeng and Gu Yang. They brought a squad of the Xuan Beasts and the four squads of the Martial Heaven Alliance’s disciples.

The others also arrived quickly. Seeing everyone was safe and sound, they sighed in relief. Just as they had been approaching this area, all their groups had been attacked by small groups of experts.

Those experts came from the ancient family alliance and the Corrupt path. They were only in groups of one or two thousand, but they had all broken through to the fourth step.

Meng Qi and the others were strong enough to force them to flee, but not before they killed a few people. The ordinary disciples were too weak compared to them.

Meng Qi and the others naturally couldn’t chase them down for fear of an ambush. They could only raise their vigilance and press onward.

They faced quite a few sneak attacks from them again, and they did manage to slay a few of them before they fled, but the continuous attacks were infuriating.

Against so many fourth step Netherpassage experts, even Meng Qi and the others were unable to fully stop them. After all, they were in control of Samsara power. Their combined power was immense.

Their continuous sneak attacks had been so enraging that Gu Yang had almost chased after them, but Yue Zifeng had pulled him back.

“These bastards are all hateful!” Tang Wan-er stamped her foot furiously.

Long Chen consoled everyone. “We’ve fallen for their scheme. By being broken into pieces, our enemies have managed to grasp an opening. They knew that we would need some time to gather back together after entering. Adding in some sneak attacks forced us to be even more cautious, with the sea demon race in particular giving us even more pressure. Their whole plan was to stall us while they arrived here and broke through before us.”

“But if they’ve managed to advance, why not stand guard over this place to stop us from coming?” asked Meng Qi.

The Corrupt path and the ancient family alliance had a full million experts inside the Star Field Divine World at the moment, with the Martial Heaven Alliance and the Xuan Beasts only outnumbering them by a tiny amount. One million fourth step Netherpassage experts was more than enough to crush one million and a hundred thousand third step Netherpassage experts.

“It’s not so simple. The divine families are using the Corrupt path and the ancient family alliance, but the Corrupt path and the ancient family alliance aren’t going to be used for nothing. The Star Field Divine World is full of treasures. Their main force has definitely moved onto the next place,” estimated Long Chen.

“Then we’re the last ones here?” raged Gu Yang.

“We should be second to last. There are also the idiots from the sea demon race. Let’s just hurry and make our advancements here. This life and death spring has a white area representing life energy and a black area representing death energy. To enter the fourth step, the first thing is to balance your life and death energy. After that, you can step into the core of the spring. That is where the life and death energy is the strongest. We’ve already been thrown behind, so we have to catch up,” said Long Chen.

Everyone quickly entered the spring. They went to the life area because they were currently lacking life energy in the Death realm.

The Xuan Beasts joined in as well. This life and death energy was crucial to their advancement. Although their realms were different, they still needed the life and death energy.

“Wilde, your brother Long has brought you some good stuff.” As everyone entered the spring, only Wilde stayed outside. Long Chen took out the corpses of three thirteenth rank beasts, delighting Wilde.

These corpses were so tough that even divine items couldn’t pierce them. Wilde’s teeth were tougher than divine items, but even he was having some trouble eating them. He had to tear off pieces of flesh and chew for a long time before swallowing.

“It’s delicious! Brother Long, you’re great!” Wilde excitedly hugged Long Chen.

In truth, Wilde didn’t know anything about taste. It was delicious to him only because the flesh was so strong.

Seeing Wilde eating the flesh of thirteenth rank beasts made Long Chen feel a chill. Wilde had truly grown terrifying.

“I’m glad you like it. I’ll find some more for you in the future, but you should put these away for now. Ration them while you stand watch. If anyone tries to disturb us, kill them,” said Long Chen.

“Alright! Go train. Leave things here to me.” Wilde patted his chest confidently, but his hand was still bloody from his eating, leaving an imprint.

Long Chen nodded and entered the spring as well. He began to absorb the life energy.

Just at that moment, a group of people came rushing over. Rays of divine light pierced through the air toward the spring.

“Courting death!” Long Chen furiously shot up. These people were intentionally causing a ruckus so that they couldn’t focus on cultivation.