Chapter 174

– A Map Fragment
A shining, pale blue coloured, crystal-like streak of sword Qi darted out, slashing the black palm print into pieces, then advancing towards the elderly man’s neck.

Damn it! This sword Qi is too fierce!
Old Lu’s expression abruptly changed as he hurriedly pulled a shield out of his storage ring, shielding himself from the attack.
Clang!
The sword Qi clashed against the half-foot thick shield, carving a massive incision on it, from which sparks were created and the residual sword Qi was deflected three to four meters away.
All members of the Lin Family popped their eyes out and widely opened their mouths in shock.. Ye Chen had forced Old Lu to use the shield with merely a single move, and had even left a four-inch deep cut on the shield that was obviously forged from a particularly solid kind of alloy and was half a foot thick; he had nearly chopped the shield directly into two!
Seeing Ye Chen raising his sword again, Old Lu instantly dropped the broken shield and rushed up to Lin Qingmei who was standing not too far away from him, and attempted to grab her as a human shield to force Ye Chen to stop attacking.
Lin Qingmei was merely a powerless girl. She only saw a black silhouette swiftly flashing across the air. In a mere moment, Old Lu was already in front of her. Old Lu thrusted his scrawny arms in a grasping motion, intending to grab Lin Qingmei’s neck.
However, although Old Lu moved at an incredibly high speed, Ye Chen had moved even faster than him. In no time at all, Ye Chen appeared beside Lin Qingmei, and back from where he had stood, only an afterimage was left.
Another pale blue, dazzling sword light flashed across the air, which was as fierce as a lightning bolt.
Right in the next second!
Old Lu was sent flying backwards, and in mid-air, his body suddenly split into two.

Old Lu is dead!!
Screamed the Master Huang. A second ago, his face was still filled with a proud and malicious look, but now, only fear could be seen from his face.
Swoosh!
Ye Chen slightly waved his right hand. Following his move, Old Lu’s storage ring flew over into his hands. Without even looking at it, Ye Chen threw the ring into his own storage ring, then turned around and looked at Master Huang.
Master Huang’s face instantly turned deadly pale. He squeezed out a fake grin and said tremblingly,
I, I promise that, that I will never, ever trouble Lin Family. As for this Old Lu, he, he deserved to die, as he had harassed countless maids during the past half-month when he stayed in my house.

Ye Chen remained silent. After all, this conflict actually didn’t have anything to do with him, and if he slaughtered the Huang Family’s people without a valid reason, the others might see him as a bloodthirsty person; but of course, if Master Lin actually intended to destroy the Huang Family, Ye Chen would surely lend a hand and kill a few of their martial artists.
Apparently, Lin Tiemu didn’t have that intention. He only spoke harshly to Master Huang,
Huang Jian, my Lin Family had neither offended your Huang Family nor intended to compete against you for customers in this Black Rock City, you should just leave! If you dare trouble us again, I, Lin Tiemu, will definitely make you pay for that.


I won’t, I won’t!

The only thought that had remained in Hang Jian’s mind was to leave right away, as for what would happen in the future, he didn’t have the audacity to worry about it at this moment. He was just afraid that Ye Chen would conveniently kill him as well.
After Huang Family’s people left, Ye Chen shook his head and thought, ‘Lin Tiemu is way too softhearted. If one desires to achieve a big goal, they have to be determined, even ruthless, and never let a single opportunity slip away. However, people have their own ways of living, and not all have a great goal, probably, this Lin Tiemu just wanted to live a peaceful life here in this Black Rock City.’
Besides, although Lin Tiemu was injured, he was still much more powerful than Huang Jian; if he recovered and regained his power, the Huang Family wouldn’t possibly dare to trouble them again within a short time.

Young martial artist, this time you have done us a huge help. I, Lin Tiemu, am forever grateful.
Lin Tiemu cupped his hands and deeply bowed to Ye Chen. Ye Chen had not only saved his daughter, but also killed that Old Lu who was the most powerful enemy of the Lin Family at present time, eliminating a huge obstacle for the Lin Family.

T’wasn’t much!
Said Ye Chen.
It was nearly dusk, Lin Tiemu ordered the cooks and the servants to prepare a splendid banquet, especially for Ye Chen. During the feast, Lin Qingmei had drunk quite a lot of wine that her cheeks were flushed red. From time to time, she would glance at Ye Chen. On the other side, the young man named Lu Zhengxuan looked quite gloomy.

Zhengxuan, don’t worry. He is not like us, we’re not the same kind of people. He’ll leave sooner or later.
The poison inside Lu Zhengde’s body had already been neutralized by now, he sat beside his son and comforted him.
Lu Zhengxuan gave a faint and bitter smile as he nodded. He was now an advanced Condensing Reality Realm martial artist, as long as he kept working hard, he could definitely become a Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist; however, compared to Ye Chen, he felt an immeasurable gap between them. Fortunately, he was clearly aware that countless geniuses had been living in this vast world, but not anyone can be one; his own goal was to become the most powerful martial artist in Black Rock City.
In the next morning, Ye Chan bade farewell to the Lin Family and left the Black Rock City.
……
Deep within the woods, a bonfire was blazing.

Now that I’m at the seventh-level of the Great Mystery Art, the quality of my Zhen Qi has already increased by around thirty percent, and the total amount of Zhen Qi has risen a little bit as well, about ten percent.

As Ye Chen was sitting beside the bonfire with his legs crossed, he threw a punch towards a gigantic tree standing further away from him. It had a trunk that would take five people to put their arms around.
Crack!
The huge tree was broken into two, and the upper part was sent flying backwards for tens of meters.
It had been three days since he left the Black Rock City. During this period of time, he had spent four to six hours on practicing the Great Mystery Art each day, and tonight, he finally managed to break through a higher level once again.

Ah, I haven’t check that Old Lu’s storage ring yet.
While resting, Ye Chen took out the storage ring that used to belong to an elderly man called Old Lu.
Removing the residual Zhen Qi of Old Lu, Ye Chen looked through the inner space of the storage ring using his soul power.
Although Old Lu was a peak-level medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist, he was not rich at all. From that ring, Ye Chen only found over one thousand pieces of low-ranked stones, around five hundred thousand gold, and other strange objects such as, a piece of stone that constantly released black smoke, a skull that was carved out of an entire piece of jade, and a dilapidated roll of a map.
Ignoring the other objects, Ye Chen took the map out.
As Ye Chen opened it, he found that this very old, yellow-grey coloured piece of map was only as big as his palm. Rivers, mountains and woods were painted on the map using a special kind of pigment. At the edge of the map, a red spot was quite striking.

I don’t recognise this jungle and those mountains, but this large river clearly is the Wide Goose Falling River. The Wide Goose Falling River is one of the three largest rivers in the entire South Zhuo Region. Before, I merely travelled across a small part of it. The end of this river is in the northern area of Grey Mystery Nation, that is also the location of this red spot. Hm, I just don’t know what this red spot means.

Ye Chen fell into deep thought. He first thought that this was just a piece of an ordinary map, but now, he realised that this red spot might represent something special. After all, only this piece of leather that this map was made from, seemed incredibly old.

Well, I’ve come out for a self-tempering trip anyway, my destinations can be everywhere. I might find something valuable in the location of this red spot. It’s just that, the Grey Mystery Nation is not one of the nine nations, and is over five-hundred-thousand miles away from the Thousand Thread Nation; it will take me plenty of time to get there.

After Ye Chen stopped pondering, he made up his mind. He decided to go to the location of this red spot, to discover what lied there.
Three days later, Ye Chen once again came to the river bank of the Wild Goose Falling River.
If the edges of the Wild Goose Falling River between the Windy Nation and the Thousand Thread Nation was the most downstream part, the place Ye Chen was currently in should be the upper part of the downstream of the river.
Beside the river was the River Bank City, a thriving harbour city that had over five million people living in it. Enormous ships had docked in the ports while people carried the cargos out of them.

Young martial artist, the Ocean Beast is setting out in a few minutes, why don’t you just go and settle there?

Someone came over from a port and informed Ye Chen.

Sure.
Ye Chen nodded and responded.
The so-called Ocean Beast was a gigantic, fusiform-shaped ship, its size was over one hundred meters long and twenty meters wide. The ship was entirely crafted from highest grade ironwood, which was as valuable as gold. Even ordinary Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists were not able to leave marks on the body of this ship, it was extremely solid and had a marvelous defensive power, and was one of the greatest safeguards for passengers, who wanted to travel across the river.
Without a doubt, the River Bank City was incapable of crafting such an enormous ship. This ship was crafted in the Black Dragon Empire, one of the largest three nations of the South Zhuo Region. This ship had costed the River Bank City an unspeakably huge amount of money; with Ye Chen’s current wealth, he couldn’t possibly purchase even one of this ship.
Not too many people were on the ship, only about thirty to forty people in total. Half of these people were the rich and powerful ones, around sixty percent of them were even nobles, while the rest of these passengers were all martial artists. The Zhen Qi vibration of each of these seven to eight martial artists was pure and intense, judging from which, all were Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists; one of them was in advanced Clasping Yuan Realm, his fierce gaze was as sharp as daggers, that could seemingly cut a man’s soul into pieces.
Seeing Ye Chen walking onto the ship, all of these people showed a slightly surprised look.

Hey, young man,
a fat rich guy laughed out loud and said,
Do you intend to experience this world? Was your money stolen from your own family? Your family seems pretty rich though, since you have to pay a hundred-thousand gold for a ticket of this ship! Not everyone can afford that!

Silently, those martial artists called the fat rich guy ‘idiot’. Although Ye Chen’s Zhen Qi vibration was slightly weaker than others’ Zhen Qi vibration, he was undoubtedly a Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist. How could a Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist even possibly be unable to afford a ship ticket? Why on earth should he steal money from his family to pay for his ship ticket?
Ye Chen didn’t respond and only gave a faint smile.

Alright, people, the Ocean Beast is setting out. I wish that you can all stay nice and friendly during our journey, do not cause us any trouble.
The cabin door abruptly opened, a middle-aged man and two younger men walked in. Those words were spoken by the middle-aged man with a harsh tone.

Ahyaya, who dares to cause any trouble on the Ocean Beast? If anyone does, that person must want to die so badly.


Indeed, the Ocean Beast belongs to the South chamber of commerce.


And the South chamber of commerce is one of the two large-scale chambers of commerce in the South Zhuo Region, even more powerful than rank 7 institutions. Their people are all especially powerful martial artists.

Hearing those conversations, Ye Chen slightly frowned. The aura released by this middle-aged man was no weaker than the aura of Sky Cloud Martial School’s Patriarch. Clearly, he was a peak-level advanced Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist, and the two younger man standing behind him were all medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists; added with other powerful martial artists working for the South chamber of commerce, they could indeed prevent all passengers from causing any trouble on this ship. It was not too difficult to imagine how powerful this South chamber of commerce was.
Along with a series of creaking noise that came from beneath the deck, the ship began moving.
……
Back in the Black Rock City, and in the Huang Family’s main hall.

Tell me! Where’s the person who killed Old Lu?!

Two young men had been looking down at Master Huang. The one at the left was wearing a black outfit, whose face looked evil and creepy, while the other wore a cyan outfit, looking cold and arrogant. Each of them had been releasing a great Zhen Qi vibration, far stronger than Ye Chen’s Zhen Qi vibration; both of them were at least at the peak-level early Clasping Yuan Realm.
The Master Huang wiped his own forehead and said,
I don’t know, he left right in the next morning, why, why don’t you go ask the Lin Family instead? They’re quite close to him.

Boom!
The young man in a cyan outfit abruptly threw a heavy kick onto Master Huang’s body, making him cough out a mouthful of blood, then sneered and said,
Are you trying to use us? Hmph, in your dreams.

Leaving the Huang Family, the young man in a black outfit said,
That young man was merely around sixteen to seventeen years old, but he had managed to kill Old Lu, a peak-level medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist. We can’t despise him.

The young man in a cyan outfit sneered and responded,
Both of us are ranked above 45th in the last season Hidden Dragon Ranking, we could’ve easily crushed that Old Lu with our little fingers!


What should we do now?


Don’t worry, I have seen that map on a roadside market but didn’t pay too much attention to it. Later I went back for it and found that it was already bought by that Old Lu. Fortunately, I have memorised the location of the red spot, it’s near the edge of the Wild Goose Falling River, as for its specific location, we can look for it when we get there.


Hehe, good. If I’m right, we can definitely dig treasures from the remains of an ancient institution based on the location of the red spot. If we can find a few high-ranked martial art books in there, we will be able to rock the next season Hidden Dragon Ranking.