Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

“I won’t keep this secret from you, brother Long. We’ve taken heavy losses on one particular battlefield!” said Zheng Wenlong gravely. “That battlefield is the Ten Thousand Domain Immortal Continent. It is a land far greater than the Heavenly Magnificence Divine Prefecture, and the fighting between the forces there is also more intense. Brother Long, I trust you haven’t forgotten the Soaring Dragon Company?”

Long Chen immediately thought of Qian Duoduo. He said, “How could I forget? The Soaring Dragon Company is one of my sources of inco... I mean, one of my mortal enemies!”

“Well, we’re competitors in every place, but in the Ten Thousand Realm Immortal Continent, our competition is particularly fierce. In fact, this is not known to the public, but we’ve actually fought a number of times. Right before the endless night, we had several large battles. The Soaring Dragon Company knew that they couldn’t beat us in terms of business, so they resorted to underhanded tactics, killing the people who do business with us and evenly secretly plundering our caravans. At first they did it in secret and on a smaller scale, but later on, they didn’t even bother to hide themselves. We had no choice but to fight with them in the most primitive way. By the time that the night came, both sides took losses, but they definitely took more than us. But after the night, they somehow managed to pull in some Underworld Ghost Gate to their side. The reason we’re struggling so much is precisely because of the Underworld Ghost Gate.”

“The Underworld Ghost Gate? Hold on a moment... I’ve heard of them before. But as far as I know, they provoked the Wine God and he wiped them out, didn’t he?” asked Long Chen.

Zheng Wenlong nodded. “That’s right. In a nutshell, the Wine God showed up at their headquarters, cut off the gate master’s head, and leveled the entire sect to the ground. Before that, in the primal chaos era, they were infamous for their curse arts and ghost arts. Actually, some of the world’s greatest experts were caught, killed, and refined into puppets. Their actions enraged everyone, and a large number of forces joined hands to hunt down the Underworld Ghost Gate. Unfortunately, nobody was able to find their actual headquarters, and the members of the Underworld Ghost Gate were slippery and hard to pin down. If a den was destroyed, they’d simply show up elsewhere in a century or two.

“Later on, for some reason, the Underworld Ghost Gate took a liking to the Wine God Palace’s disciples. They captured hundreds of the Wine God Palace’s core disciples and refined them into puppets. The Wine God was enraged, to the point where he personally proclaimed a Wine God Writ. He spent three hundred years chasing and killing every member of the Underworld Ghost Gate that he could find.

“Eventually, the Wine God found their main estate and cut off their head, and the Underworld Ghost Gate vanished ever since then. Everyone assumed that they were completely destroyed. But now, after slumbering for countless years, they’ve reappeared.”

“Is that information reliable? After all, the Wine God personally hunted them down. Someone like him failed to pull out the roots?” Long Chen couldn’t help being surprised by this. Although he knew that the Huayun Trading Company’s information was as reliable as anything, he still found it hard to believe.

“Take a look at this!”

Zheng Wenlong carefully handed Long Chen a case. The moment he touched it, Long Chen got goosebumps. A sense of immense danger swelled within him.

He gingerly opened the case. Inside was a single golden coin, engraved with a sinister devil’s head.

When the case opened, the devil’s eyes also opened, and black qi gushed out. However, just as the black qi appeared, the runes on the case lit up, sealing the black qi within.

Long Chen’s expression changed when he saw this coin. “Life-Buying Coin!”

“That’s right, it is that legendary divine weapon. And the life it bought was that of a triple-manifestation Divine Sovereign of the Huayun Trading Company!”

Zheng Wenlong couldn’t help sighing. His grief was written all over his face.

“I actually asked that senior to stand guard near the divine capital, but due to the battle in the Ten Thousand Domain Immortal Continent, he was sent over there instead when he came out of seclusion. Unexpectedly, he was actually killed not long after he got there!”

Long Chen slowly reached out towards the Life-Buying Coin. Black flames ignited within the case. They bit his finger like flame serpents.

Long Chen’s expression changed slightly. He pulled his hand back.

“Brother Long, be careful. Although this one has already been used up and its item-spirit is dead, the curse energy cannot be extinguished. It would be very troublesome if you were infected,” warned Zheng Wenlong hastily.

Long Chen nodded. He waved his hand, summoning Cang Lu. Cang Lu reached into the case and picked up that Life-Buying Coin as if it were a normal piece of bread.

“What?”

To Zheng Wenlong’s shock, this evil divine item didn’t attack Cang Lu. The curse energy became almost... gentle.

“It seems that my senses were not wrong. This curse energy contains dark energy. Or perhaps it should be said that the curse energy is controlled using dark energy!” Long Chen muttered to himself as he examined the coin.

Zheng Wenlong’s eyes widened. “Dark energy controlling curse energy? Brother Long... is there something you’d like to share with me?”

“Brother Wenlong, perhaps you should investigate exactly what kind of connection the Soaring Dragon Company has with Lord Brahma. Are they really supported by Lord Brahma, or... is it the Dark Master who is secretly supporting them? Or perhaps the Soaring Dragon Company is backed by both, and maybe even others? If we can’t even figure out who is backing the Soaring Dragon Company, I would say it’s inadvisable for us to clash with them directly,” said Long Chen.

At first, he had viewed the Soaring Dragon Company as nothing more than a personal vault. They were just a bunch of black-hearted merchants with no bottom line. But now, it seemed that both the Huayun Trading Company and Long Chen had underestimated them. What they had seen of the Soaring Dragon Company was just the tip of the iceberg.

Unfortunately, Long Chen was unable to reach out to Qian Duoduo at this time. Otherwise, he might be able to gain more information. It was too bad that communicating with Qian Duoduo was very dangerous for the latter; it could lead to him being exposed. Thus, all he could do was ask the Huayun Trading Company to investigate instead. Their information network was shockingly extensive; as long as they knew what to look for, they would undoubtedly be able to find some clues.

“Brother Long, this discovery of yours is really major. Even in the primal chaos era, before the Underworld Ghost Gate was destroyed, no one heard that they were connected to the Dark Master. Even when the Wine God killed their gate master, he didn’t notice anything off, or at least he didn’t leave any hints. We didn’t think any further about it. But if the Underworld Ghost Gate really did seek asylum with the Dark Master... Well, it’s not entirely impossible. In that case, they must be following the Dark Master’s orders. That would make it troublesome. If the Soaring Dragon Company is backed by the Dark Master’s forces, we cannot use the methods that we used before. I definitely have to report this to the higher-ups,” said Zheng Wenlong, standing up. This piece of information was truly critical. He couldn’t waste a moment.

“Ah, before I go, brother Long, I have a warning for you. The Underworld Ghost Gate has produced an extraordinary figure called Underworld Thirteen. He killed our triple-manifestation Divine Sovereign in a one-on-one!”

Long Chen narrowed his eyes. “Underworld Thirteen? He killed a triple manifestation Divine Sovereign by himself?”

Once more, a tough opponent had shown up.