Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

“Stop.”

Suddenly, a gentle force spread out and everyone felt the pressure that had been crushing them disappear.

Long Chen hastily turned to see that at some point, a white-haired elder had appeared in the plaza.

That elder looked like an ordinary mortal, without the slightest spiritual qi fluctuation or pressure.

And yet, just by standing there, he seemed like a vast ocean, and no one dared to disrespect him.

“Greetings assistant monastery head.” The sect leaders all quickly bowed towards that white-haired elder respectfully.

That elder simply waved his hand slightly, and the sect leaders got up from their bows. However, they didn’t dare continue sitting.

“As sect leaders, you are examples of virtue and character. For you to fight in front of this many disciples, are you not afraid of your disciples laughing at you?” That white-haired elder shook his head.

“Reporting to assistant monastery head, it was Ling Yun-zi who-” Luo Feng hastily went to explain.

“Let it be. I can’t be bothered with your trivial matters. If you want to fight, that’s your own matter. For an old man like myself, as long as I don’t see it, I won’t care. As long as it doesn’t break the supermonastery’s rules, that’s fine.” That white-haired elder impatiently cut him off.

Turning to look at the many disciples present, his drowsy eyes suddenly brightened. 

“Not bad. After being in seclusion for a hundred years, there are so many good sprouts now- oh?”

That white-haired elder let out a sound of surprise when he saw Long Chen. He stared closely at him.

Long Chen immediately felt as if all his secrets were exposed to this elder, and he couldn’t help feeling a burst of uneasiness.

“Senior, if you look at junior like that, junior will become shy.” Long Chen couldn’t help feeling awkward.

That elder’s cultivation base definitely surpassed Long Chen’s knowledge. But no matter how powerful a person was, they shouldn’t just randomly pry into other people’s secrets.

“Cough, you should all return to your groups.” The white-haired man awkwardly coughed. Just now he had been too curious and activated his spiritual eye to examine Long Chen’s meridians.

It was true that Long Chen was not a woman, but doing so was still impolite. That white-haired man had truly been shocked.

That was because Long Chen didn’t have a Dantian. All his energy was concealed in his left foot. If that was all, he wouldn’t be so shocked. After all, there were all kinds of curious cultivation techniques in this world.

But he was most shocked that Long Chen’s energy actually rejected his prying. He had only just gotten a glance when his spiritual eye felt a burst of pain.

With that white-haired elder’s cultivation base, even using his spiritual eye on a sect leader wouldn’t cause such a reaction.

“This little fellow is pretty strange. And that big fellow is also extremely strange. Huh, when did the monasteries get so many oddities?” he muttered inside. However, he still put on a calm expression for everyone.

“The Jiuli secret realm only opens once a century. Each time, it only stays open for a year. I suppose you should all already know the basics, so I won’t continue about that.

“There are a couple things I want to warn you about. First of all, the Jiuli secret realm is completely unfathomable. No one knows what is going on with it. Although there are countless treasures inside it, there are also countless dangers. The slightest carelessness can cause you to forfeit your life. I’d advise you not to treat this lightly.

“Second, those dangers are all split into different levels. Some of the dangers are even able to instantly obliterate Xiantian experts.

“Of course, such dangers are easy to avoid. The greatest danger, that cannot be avoided, is the Corrupt path.

“The Jiuli secret realm’s openings spread throughout several prefectures. Both the Righteous and Corrupt paths each control a portion. The opening our supermonastery controls is just one of Su Prefecture’s openings.

“Don’t fight and kill each other because of treasures. Don’t fight with other members of the Righteous path, and most definitely do not fight with fellow disciples of the monasteries. That is absolutely not permitted, or you will be punished by the supermonastery’s rules.”

Long Chen smiled mockingly. Who was he trying to scare?

Ling Yun-zi had long since told everyone the truth. Each time the Jiuli secret realm opened, just how many people were really killed by the Corrupt path? Wasn’t it more like that the majority were all killed by their own people?

To say these things now, this elder was just trying to scare the cowards. If you really thought his words would prevent the monastery’s disciples from killing each other, then you would probably die without knowing what had happened.

In any case, Long Chen had already warned Tang Wan-er and the other core disciples that other than members from the 108th monastery, they were not to trust anyone else.

As for whether other people really believed this elder’s words, it was easy to tell just by looking at everyone’s expressions. Probably his nonsense would only be able to trick a ghost. The various sect leaders weren’t all idiots.

But this did mean one thing. If you were to take action against someone from the same sect, you would have to kill them in one blow. And if you weren’t able to kill them, you had to at least remove any proof. Otherwise, once you left the secret realm, if there was proof that you sneak attacked your fellow disciples in the secret realm, then you would be heavily punished. They would either cripple your cultivation base or directly kill you.

So unless it was truly an especially precious treasure or unless you had an extremely great assurance, you couldn’t take action against your fellow sect members. That did at least reduce the probability of fellow disciples killing each other.

“If other members of the Righteous path attack you, then you don’t need to have that many misgivings. After all, you can’t let people just steal your treasures.

“But everyone should always remember, your one enemy is the Corrupt path. At critical times, you must always work together against them.”

Long Chen almost vomited. What kind of reasoning was that? Had his head rotted? Everyone fought against everyone for treasures, but he wanted them to work together at critical moments? Did they think they were all good little friends?

“Finally, I’ll say one last thing. There are countless treasures in the Jiuli secret realm, and if you can’t tell what something is, do your best to bring it back with you. The Elders from the monasteries can help you appraise it. Even if you can’t use it, the monastery will still give you a large reward in accordance to whatever treasure you wish to trade.”

Each century when the Jiuli secret realm opened, it was not just beneficial to the disciples, but it was also beneficial to the supermonastery.

It was said that this world had experienced a huge change in the past. Many of history’s miraculous cultivation techniques and treasures had been lost now.

There were many treasures in the secret realm that could make up for that loss, but unfortunately, many disciples were unable to even tell what those things were.

That had caused those old fellows to become a bit crazy, and even want to personally barge in to see what treasures lay in the secret realm.

It was a crazy thought, but there were still many crazies who had tried it out. As a result, a Xiantian expert had only just stepped into the secret realm when he was obliterated, blown to pieces by a bizarre energy.

And yet, that still didn’t stop the crazies. In the past millennia, there were countless experts who had been unconvinced and thought they could cause a miracle, only to be killed by the secret realm.

Those people seemed to have been infected by a disease. After hundreds of Xiantian experts had been killed, that crazy disease seemed to have also died out.

So each major power now treated the opening of the Jiuli secret realm extremely importantly. Many of their disciples had brought back heaven-defying treasures out of the secret realm.

There were all kinds of treasures. Some were broken armors of the ancient era. And yet, although they were broken, Xiantian experts were unable to harm them.

There were also vicious beasts from the ancient era that were extinct in the outside world. They had continued to proliferate in the secret realm.

However, those beasts were under some kind of restriction within the Jiuli secret realm. Magical Beasts were unable to grow past the fifth rank inside.

The Jiuli secret realm was extremely large. Those fifth rank Magical Beasts were all in different regions. If you were slightly careless and walked into their territory, then it might not even be possible to flee.

It was said the entire bodies of those beasts were treasures, whether it was their blood, flesh, bones, or especially their crystal cores or Neidans. Those were all extremely valuable and could be sold for high prices, perhaps to be used as medicines or weapons.

It was said there were also immortal medicines inside. Once someone consumed one, they could possess immortal life without ever losing their youth.

Furthermore, it was said someone from the supermonastery had managed to obtain one of those immortal medicines before. However, whether that was true or not, no one knew.

In any case, everyone treated the Jiuli secret realm as a world of treasures. Of course, there were also plenty of dangers. Dead people wouldn’t get to enjoy those treasures.

That elder once more warned everyone about a couple things to take note of before suddenly clapping his hands. Heaven and earth began to shake intensely.

Countless runes appeared over the ground, and at the same time, everyone realized they were somehow unable to move anymore.

“Conveyance Art!”

That elder shouted, and heaven and earth suddenly changed. The scene before them disappeared, and everyone appeared in front of a huge abyss.

People were horrified to see that this abyss was endlessly deep and wide. They couldn’t see the bottom, and it looked like a huge mouth that wished to devour the sky.

In front of that huge abyss, everyone felt themselves to just be insignificant ants.

Heaven and earth trembled, and a terrifying pressure descended, a pressure so strong that everyone felt as if their bones were about to break apart.

The sect leaders all took the majority of that pressure for themselves, helping their disciples face off against it.

That berserk pressure devastated them for over a full day and night before gradually stopping. Even the sect leaders were covered in sweat after blocking it for so long.

BUZZ!

Suddenly, a huge crack gradually tore open within the dark abyss. People were shocked to see another world on the other side of that crack.

Endless mountain ranges, ancient trees soaring into the sky, huge vines that coiled like dragons, and mountains that looked to climb as high as the heavens. However, people felt as if they were disconnected, and they were unable to sense that world’s aura. It looked like a lively painting of a landscape.

That crack spread for hundreds of miles, and it was also a hundred miles wide. It was extremely bizarre to them.

When that crack first appeared, that white-haired elder had immediately started forming hand seals. Following his hand seals, an enormous rune appeared behind him.

But if someone were to look at it closely, they would be able to tell that this rune was actually made of tens of thousands of smaller runes. That rune lit up this entire space.

“Ten Thousand Runic Space Expansion!”

Under the urging of that elder’s hand seals, the huge rune flew over to the enormous spatial crack.

When it reached the center of that crack, the rune instantly exploded into countless smaller runes.

Those runes formed a circular door in the center of the crack. After finishing that, the white-haired elder turned slightly pale.

“I wish you all luck!”

That elder’s hands suddenly crossed, and Long Chen and the others all felt their bodies shake as they involuntarily flew towards that door.

BOOM!

When Long Chen passed through the door, he saw he was on top of a mountain. 

“Jiuli secret realm, I, Long Chen, have finally arrived!”