Martial World

“This is the City of Discord…”

Lin Ming looked at the massive city in front of him. Just the city walls themselves were hundreds of feet high and the city gate was thick and heavy, made from some unknown material. All sorts of complicated seals were etched onto its surface.

On each side of the city gates was a hefty-looking guard. These people were both from the demon race and were equal to a late Divine Transformation human martial artist in cultivation.

“The city entrance fee is a single origin energy rune for each person.”

As Lin Ming approached, the two guards glanced towards him without any expression.

“Origin energy rune?” Lin Ming was startled. This sort of thing sounded like a currency. In the Asura Road, did even the currency consist of runes?

At this time, behind Lin Ming, Soulwhite hurriedly walked forwards. He wiped his hands together and some floating motes of light left his palms, forming two runes that flew towards the guards.

One of the guards took out a jade slip and received the two runes. He stoically said, “You may enter.”

With a wave of the guard’s hand, Lin Ming and Soulwhite entered the city.

“Origin energy runes are currency here? Then is it not possible to use the nine sun jades I brought?” Lin Ming asked. If this were true then things would be a bit inconvenient for him.

“Nine sun jades…” Soulwhite was startled. He naturally knew what nine sun jades were. They were an extremely large unit of currency to the humans.

“Master’s background is truly grand.” Soulwhite said, “Reporting to Master, nine sun jades can be used, but only demons and humans will accept them. The spiritas and saints don’t have much use for the nine sun jades. The soul race will accept soul stones and the saint race will accept blood demon crystals or blood yang crystals.”

“So that’s how it is…” Lin Ming said, suddenly aware. There were many different races in the Asura Road, and because of differences in cultivation systems and methods, resources held differing values to them.

“How are origin energy runes obtained?” Lin Ming asked.

Soulwhite said, “In the Asura Road, there are many blank runes. These blank runes can absorb heaven and earth origin energy to become origin energy runes. However, this process requires a long time and a great deal of energy. Origin energy runes are the most basic form of currency in the Asura Road; they can be exchanged for all other types of currencies. Other types of currencies can be exchanged for origin energy runes, but the exchange rate will be a bit lower. Generally speaking, 10,000 or so violet sun stones can be exchanged for a single origin energy rune.”

“Understood.” Lin Ming nodded. With Soulwhite following him it was indeed much easier. Otherwise, he might even have had trouble entering the city gates.

As Lin Ming was about to walk deeper into the city, he discovered that many other martial artists didn’t need to pay a fee to pass the city gates.

“How come those people don’t need to pay an entrance fee?”

“They are permanent residents of the City of Discord.” Soulwhite explained. He knew a great deal about this area. “Within the City of Discord, the permanent residents are protected by the law enforcement team. If there is anyone that attacks or poses a threat to the lives of the city residents then they will be hunted down by law enforcement and killed. As for those that aren’t permanent residents of the City of Discord, they do not receive this treatment. If they die, they die, and nobody cares. This is why many people want to become permanent residents here, however… it is simply far too difficult for most. The simplest method to become a permanent resident in the City of Discord is to buy a house here, but even the cheapest house is several hundred million origin energy runes. Even if a Divine Lord powerhouse had unlimited blank runes and were absorbing heaven and earth origin energy at all times every day, they would still require several hundred thousand years to produce that many origin energy runes. And, a Divine Lord powerhouse can only live for 100,000 years. They would have to work for several generations to accomplish that.”

“Such a ridiculous house price?” Lin Ming felt this was unbelievable. Even if a Divine Lord powerhouse were to work for a lifetime they still wouldn’t be able to afford a house? In the Divine Realm this would be incredible.

Several hundred million origin energy runes was equal to several trillion violet sun stones, around half of a Boundless World Pill. This was a completely unfathomable price to an ordinary Divine Lord powerhouse!

“It is normal. This is the Asura Road, where slaughter is everywhere. It is hard to find a safe place to live. If one can become a permanent resident then they will have a safe place to cultivate and won’t need to worry about being killed every day. This is an extremely tempting proposition to many martial artists. However, there is a limited number of houses in the city so the price is correspondingly high. This old servant just said that if one used origin energy runes alone, then even a Divine Lord powerhouse wouldn’t be able to afford it in their lifetime. But, periodically, there are those that have heaven-defying luck and will obtain a priceless rare god rune. If they sell this god rune it is possible to immediately have the funds to purchase a house. After all, there are many outside martial artists that come here to adventure and temper themselves, and what they want are only god runes. Moreover, these people are often exorbitantly rich.”

“Mm.” Lin Ming nodded. He was also the same. He had no interest in buying a house here and only wanted god runes.

“Before, you said that there are many places in the City of Discord to obtain god runes.”

“Yes, Master, please follow me.”

As Soulwhite spoke, he brought Lin Ming to walk towards the center of the city.

The streets in the City of Discord were extremely spacious and the buildings were several times larger than Lin Ming had imagined. The buildings were constructed with roughly-hewn rock that wasn’t carved much at all. Even so, it possessed a bold and wild taste to it.

As they walked further, Lin Ming discovered that the martial artists he passed along the way all had very good levels of talent. There were often martial artists with sloppy foundations, but they would normally be shop attendants, waiters, or entertainers of some sort.

Besides these common people, everyone else here was extraordinary.

These elites were not just trial challengers that came from the outside 33 Layered Heavens, but also included native residents of the Asura Road.

In fact, there were far more native residents of the Asura Road than there were outsiders. These people could also cultivate martial arts in the Asura Road as well as attend the same trials and inspections. Everything that was available to the trial challengers was also available to them.

There were similarly great geniuses that could be born from these people. Now, all of these various geniuses had gathered at the City of Discord in order to receive the missions here.

These were god rune missions.

If one could complete a mission, they could obtain the corresponding god rune rewards.

“It’s here, Black God Fort!” Soulwhite pointed at a giant towering black building in front of him.

This black pagoda had a total of 13 levels and each level was hundreds of feet high. The pagoda was extremely large, making it look like a dark mountain.

As they entered the first level of Black God Fort, the inside was staggeringly huge. If it weren’t for the many martial artists gathered here, it would be possible to go horse riding.

Lin Ming swept his eyes over the crowd and noticed that many martial artists weren’t here for missions, but had set up various stalls in the giant hall.

They sold all sorts of things. Besides pills and magic tools, the most available goods were shield-shaped badges.

There were far too many people that had set up stalls and because there were so many people within Black God Fort’s first level, it had an extremely chaotic atmosphere. The people here all came from different races. There were ogres that were five and a half feet tall, their entire bodies wrapped in thick corded muscles with chains all around them. There were imps that were less than five feet tall, their entire bodies covered in wrinkled skin without any hair at all. There were many beautiful monster race youths, there were many spiritas that had ethereal bodies, and all sorts of other races.

However, there was an extremely small number of humans, just as Lin Ming had expected.

The small number of young human elites in the hall were all martial artists that were native to the Asura Road. The reason that this had occurred was naturally because the portals leading from the Divine Realm to the Asura Road had been destroyed. In addition, within the current 33 Layered Heavens, humanity was the weakest of the three main races. Their numbers weren’t too high and thus it was reasonable that there weren’t too many of them in the Asura Road.

Like this, Lin Ming’s appearance attracted a great deal of attention in the hall.

“Heh, a little Divine Transformation human kid.”

“His foundation is quite nice! For a Divine Transformation realm boy to enter the Asura Road alone means he’s quite brave. However… within the Asura Road, the overly brave tend to die overly fast, hahaha.”

Several saint martial artists discussed amongst each other with true essence sound transmissions, a smile hanging on their lips. The saints were mortal enemies with the humans. In this Black God Fort, they had some scruples and wouldn’t recklessly attack, but if they were outside, it wouldn’t be rare to encounter situations where saints and humans fought upon first meeting.

Lin Ming faintly frowned. He could sense many unfriendly or even hostile senses bearing down on him, wanting to observe his inner world.

“It’s the saints…”

Lin Ming didn’t need to use his eyes to see who was watching him. In the Asura Road there was no restriction of treaties. It was likely that the saints would annihilate any humans they came upon here and steal their wealth and god runes.

Lin Ming didn’t bother with these saint martial artists. He looked towards the giant mission board in the center of the hall. Different difficulties of missions corresponded to different degrees of rewards.

What surprised Lin Ming the most was that even accepting these missions required one to pay an origin energy rune fee. Moreover, the fee required for these missions was quite astonishing!

In order to receive a gold level mission, one required 100,000 origin energy runes. These origin energy runes would not be returned, regardless of whether or not the mission was completed.

100,000 origin energy runes was equal to a million violet sun stones. Although it wasn’t anything to him at all, how could an ordinary martial artist afford this? Moreover, if they couldn’t complete this mission then they would lose everything.

Soulwhite said, “Because origin energy runes are required to accept missions, this has further cemented the status of origin energy runes as the most robust and solid currency of the Asura Road.”

After looking at the gold level missions, Lin Ming looked over the blue soul level missions. The price to accept a mission had increased by a hundred times. Now, it cost 10 million origin energy runes for a single mission.

Following that was zenith black level missions. On the entire mission board, there was only a single mission at that level. The price was also increased by a hundred times.

That was a billion origin energy runes! In other words, 10 trillion violet sun stones or 10 nine sun jades. That was more expensive than a Boundless World Pill.

In the past, the Boundless World Pill could only be purchased by at least a World King Holy Land at a tremendous price. Now, when this level of wealth was placed in Black God Fort, it was only able to trade for a single chance to complete a zenith black level mission. If someone were to accept the mission and fail, all of that wealth would be lost.

No wonder Soulwhite had said that gathering a complete set of zenith black runes was a legend.

At this time, Soulwhite said, “Master, you can also purchase missions from the stalls that the trial challenger have set up in Black God Fort. The badges each represent a mission and the different colors each represent a different level. The silver-white badges are silver level missions, the golden badges are gold level missions, and the blue-green badges are blue soul level missions. After a mission is completed, the badge will automatically turn into a rune. Normally speaking, buying a mission badge from a trial challenger is far cheaper.”

“Oh? No wonder there are so many stalls set up in Black God Fort. It seems there are many more missions than are listed.”

Lin Ming rubbed his chin. If someone were to first come to Asura Road and not understand any of the rules here then it was possible to be led through many detours.