Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Long Chen was calmly sitting in Shui Wuhen’s room until Shui Wuhen broke the silence.

“Are you angry?

Long Chen shook his head.

“I sent you away to serve a penal sentence in front of that many people, but you're not the slightest bit angry?” asked Shui Wuhen curiously.

“You naturally must have your own reasons for doing this. I believe you won’t harm me. If I got angry, it would just make you feel unwell, so why bother?” Long Chen smiled.

Shui Wuhen’s heart warmed, but she became even more apologetic. When she had announced Long Chen’s sentence, she had thought Long Chen would fly into a rage. But he had merely nodded calmly without even asking the reason for this sentence.

“It should be the orders from higher-ups, correct? Announcing I’m being sent away for a penal sentence in front of everyone is, frankly, just convicting me of a crime.

“As for what crime, well, they can make up whatever they want. Perhaps I’m colluding with the Mo family, thus harboring criminals, or perhaps I’m not respectful enough to my elders and my arrogance needs to be curbed. They can make up whatever they want. In any case, their mouths are bigger.

“Since the Heaven Splitting Divine Sect’s Guan Mian has only just left, this matter can’t have anything to do with him. Furthermore, I can tell the Heaven Splitting Divine Sect’s style from our interaction.

“As for the Ancient Family Alliance, the matter with the Mo family is still in an extremely sensitive period. They wouldn’t want to blow that matter bigger, so it’s also unlikely to have been caused by them.

“If my guess is correct, the cause of this is those idiots from the Pill Tower’s Huo family. They’re the ones most likely to give the higher-ups pressure.

“As for the higher-ups, they care the most about profit. To them, this matter is nothing more than sending a disciple away for a few months. Giving a light punishment to a disciple in order to keep the peace with the Pill Tower is definitely worth it to them. Tell me sister, am I right?” smiled Long Chen.

Shui Wuhen was shocked. Originally, she had even been stressing over how she should explain this to Long Chen. But now, Long Chen had guessed most of it after just hearing the news.

“In truth, you don’t need to be so surprised. Up to now, there are only three powers capable of giving pressure to the Xuantian Dao Sect. Through process of elimination, it’s easy to guess who the guilty party is. You're not the one caught up in their schemes, so you don’t think like this,” explained Long Chen.

Now that Shui Wuhen thought about it, it really was as he said. To Long Chen, this matter could not be more obvious.

“This matter was mostly because of the Zhou family. They acted as a go-between, advocating for this decision with their full strength. After all, it’s as you said. They just want to have a disciple lower his head. They don’t want your life. So they decided to give face to the Pill Tower instead of offending them to give face to a disciple.

“My Shui family fought the decision, but unfortunately, the other three families cared more about the benefits, and they decided this matter was a must. In fact, I’m not afraid of being laughed at by you, so I’ll tell you that although you might be considered someone on the side of my Shui family, the rest of the Shui family also thought this was just a minor matter. There was no need for them to fight too fiercely against the others for this.

“Thus, they ordered me to sentence you. Furthermore, in order to make it so the Pill Tower could see it, they made me gather all the monastery sect leaders as well, having me sentence you in front of all of them.” Shui Wuhen bitterly smiled. She felt extremely powerless. She had been unable to change the orders of the higher-ups.

On the other hand, Long Chen seemed extremely indifferent. As soon as he had first heard the news, he had seen through the goal of his opponents.

“Sister, I want to know what kind of structure the Xuantian Dao Sect has. Sometimes you say higher-ups, sometimes you say the Xuantian Dao Sect. What do you mean exactly?” asked Long Chen.

“Alright, then I’ll give you a general explanation of the continent’s current state.”

Shui Wuhen told Long Chen that this world was called the Martial Heaven Continent. As for how large it was exactly, no one knew.

The continent was split into five regions: the Eastern Wasteland, the Western Desert, the Southern Sea, the Northern Source, and the Central Plains.

The Eastern Wasteland, which was where they were, was so named because in the golden era of the cultivation civilization, it had been barren land. It had been just a corner of the world.

The Western Desert had few people, but there was a mysterious region within the desert. As for what was so mysterious about it, Shui Wuhen hesitated and decided not to tell him.

The Northern Source was also called the Northern Ice Source. It was a bitter land full of ice and snow. It was said the people there cultivated ice techniques generation after generation, or there would be no way for them to survive there.

The Southern Sea referred to a huge sea area to the south of the continent. Islands were sprinkled in that sea like stars in the sky. There were countless cultivators there.

However, when all the territory of the Eastern Wasteland, Western Desert, Southern Sea, and Northern Source were added together, they only took up twenty percent of the continent. The remaining eighty percent of the land was called the Central Plains.

When she mentioned the Central Plains, Shui Wuhen’s thoughts wandered far away. She said that place was said to be the true gathering place of cultivators.

Even the headquarters of the Xuantian Dao Sect was located there. It was precisely because of the power of the Xuantian Dao Sect as a backer that Shui Wuhen didn’t need to be subservient when facing the Yin family or the Pill Tower.

As for the Xuantian Dao Sect that Shui Wuhen had mentioned previously, that was nothing more than a branch sect that was located in the Eastern Wasteland. However, this branch sect was so large that it had thirty-six supermonasteries, each with one hundred and eight monasteries beneath it.

Hearing this, Long Chen’s jaw dropped. He hadn’t thought this world was so enormous. If Shui Wuhen hadn’t explained all this, he really would still be a frog at the bottom of a well.

The Xuantian Dao Sect Shui Wuhen mentioned previously was the branch sect. Other than the sect master, there were four families that oversaw the thirty-six supermonasteries.

Each family was in charge of nine supermonasteries, while the one Shui Wuhen was in charge of was the thirty-sixth supermonastery, the weakest one of all the supermonasteries.

Hearing that, Long Chen couldn’t help but bitterly smile. How had he ended up with such a fate? When he went to the monastery, he found the monastery to be the last place monastery, and now that he had joined the supermonastery, the supermonastery was also in the last place. This kind of luck was practically heaven-defying.

“Long Chen, I’m sorry about this. Just treat it as three months of seclusion,” apologized Shui Wuhen. After all, she hadn’t even been able to protect Long Chen from this punishment.

“Hehe, seclusion? Sister, you’re too… kindhearted.” Long Chen almost called her naive, but calling a big sister like that was a bit inappropriate. “With the temperament of the Huo family, do you think applying pressure to the higher-ups was just to exile me for three months?”

“What?” Shui Wuhen’s expression suddenly changed, her thoughts racing.

“I’ve heard of that chaos region. It’s quite an extensive territory, and there are many minerals there. The Righteous and Corrupt paths, along with various other powers, all have their own territories there to protect their own mines.

“In order to maintain a certain equilibrium there, the Righteous and Corrupt paths made an agreement that Sea Expansion experts are not allowed to step foot into that region. But there are still countless fights there, as people struggle over mines and resources. Let alone the Corrupt path, even the Righteous path’s powers sneak attack each other to snatch their resources.

“Furthermore, there are all kinds of robbers, and it’s practically a paradise for killers. There are no rules to speak of there. Everything is decided by whose fist is stronger. By forcing me to go there, the Huo family won’t even need to lift a finger. Just the Corrupt path would do anything to kill me. So their goal in sending me there is to kill me,” said Long Chen indifferently.

Crack. Shui Wuhen’s cup was crushed into powder. She was filled with rage. “These bastards were actually this vicious!” 

Now that Long Chen had said this, she finally realized that they weren’t just trying to get Long Chen to lower his head, but to send him to his death. It was naive that she had thought that this was just a show of power and laughable that she hadn’t realized before. She felt stupid enough to die compared to Long Chen now, and she had an urge to find a place to bury herself. She was embarrassed as well as furious, feeling like she had been duped.

“Sister, you focus wholeheartedly on cultivation, so your scheming abilities are weak. But it’s precisely because of that that your cultivation base is so high. Otherwise, your cultivation base wouldn’t necessarily be higher than Zhou Qingyi’s.” Long Chen smiled.

“Tch, I really have to admire you; even at this time, you can still smile. I’m about to die from worry. No, this is no good. I have to go talk to my family. This is just a trap,” said Shui Wuhen.

“It’s not so serious. Isn’t it said that Sea Expansion experts are forbidden from entering the chaos region? If that’s the case, then to me, it’s not a trap but an opportunity.”

This was truly an opportunity. But it wasn’t an opportunity for Long Chen, but an opportunity for the Dragonblood Legion. The Dragonblood Legion’s warriors now had a problem with their foundation, and they needed to undergo the baptism of a battle. Only then could they stabilize their foundations.

If they didn’t completely stabilize their foundations, then Long Chen wouldn’t dare to give them the Heaven Advancing Pills. Cultivating was like painting. Once you made a stroke, it was difficult to ever change it. And if you left behind a flaw, it would stay flawed forever.

“But what if they employ gold-ranked assassins to kill you? In fact, the Corrupt path might even send Celestials to kill you. It’s too dangerous,” warned Shui Wuhen.

“Celestials? They’ll send Celestials?! Wonderful!”

Long Chen jumped up, his heart pounding. What he needed right now was Celestial opponents. 

One Celestial represented one Heavenly Dao Fruit, which represented another Celestial by his side.

“Will they really send Celestials? How many? Five? Ten? More?” Long Chen’s eyes shone, and Shui Wuhen was dumbfounded to see that he even began to drool.

Long Chen’s eyes looked like the eyes of a hungry wolf. Just looking at it made Shui Wuhen, a Sea Expansion expert, feel a chill. Long Chen was practically a fiend. Her worries for him were entirely unnecessary.

“Long Chen, I really don’t know what to say to you…” Shui Wuhen bitterly smiled. At this moment, she no longer felt any guilt or worry. Perhaps the ones she should be worried about were the Corrupt path.

“No, no, I really can’t wait any longer. Sister, give me the badge. I can’t wait for tomorrow. I’m going to gather my brothers and immediately move out.”

Shui Wuhen watched as Long Chen excitedly took the badge and left. She bitterly smiled. Have I really become old? More and more, I can’t understand the youngsters these days.