Talisman Emperor

Hu!

Chen Xi awoke from his meditation and let out a small breath of air. A strand of white smoke surged out like a flood dragon and stretched longer as his breath continued.

“I’ve broken through. After a night of bitter cultivation, I’ve already attained the 9th level of the Congenital Realm and I’m only a step away from the Violet Palace Realm!”

Chen Xi stood up and exercised his limbs. As he felt the copious amounts of strength that circulated throughout his body, he thought inwardly. The previous me was able to dominate cultivators of the same realm while relying on my cultivation that was at the 8th level of the Congenital Realm, and I even defeated Li Huai. Now that I’ve already attained the perfection-stage of the Congenital Realm, I ought to have the strength to protect myself even if I’m facing those Violet Palace Realm experts.

However, Chen Xi also understood that he was able to slightly challenge a Violet Palace Realm cultivator due to the strength of Violet Palace Realm cultivators being restrained within the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain. If they were to get rid of this restraint, then the outcome of the battle was impossible to predict when facing a Violet Palace Realm cultivator’s true strength.

The sky had already turned bright and once again returned to that dark red colored state. Chen Xi saw Du Qingxi’s group of three were already fully equipped and ready when he walked out of the stone house.

“Your cultivation has advanced?” Du Qingxi couldn’t help but speak in surprise when she saw Chen Xi who had a glowing look hidden between his brows.

“Looks like the battle yesterday was a pretty great help to you.” A trace of surprise flashed within Duanmu Ze’s eyes as well.

“Oh, I think it’s within reason.” Song Lin glanced at Chen Xi with a profound gaze that contained a meaning that was difficult to figure out.

Chen Xi didn’t know that during the battle with Li Huai yesterday, no matter whether it was the advanced-stage sword technique and movement technique or the unity-stage Grand Collapsing Fist he’d executed, they all caused Song Lin to firmly believe that there was surely an expert guiding Chen Xi.

At the first light of dawn, most of the cultivators that stayed within Bloodbath City had left to start hunting baleful beasts. Only a few people were like Chen Xi’s group, moving along in a fixed group to head deeper into Bloody Mountain, or in other words, towards the direction of the end of the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain.

When they left Bloodbath City, Chen Xi finally saw that 30 plus cultivators that emitted formidable auras were heading out of the city. According to Du Qingxi, these cultivators were all at the Violet Palace Realm. They not only came from the Dragon Lake City’s eight great sects, three great institutions, and six great clans, there were still some other Violet Palace Realm experts that came from other cities in the southern territory. The experts here could be considered to be as numerous as the clouds.

Su Jiao and Cang Bin were within the group as well and beside the two of them were a few extremely conspicuous young men and young women with formidable auras and indifferent gazes.

Grouping up already?

Before Chen Xi could even react from his shock, a sound of hearty laughter echoed out and a few young men and girls that were in high spirits and wore different clothes walked over from the far away group of people.

“Brother Duanmu, Brother Song, Miss Du, you’ve all come as well.” The black clothed young man in the lead smiled happily.

After a brief exchange, Chen Xi found out that this black clothed young man was called Chai Letian, and was from one of the eight great sects of Dragon Lake City, Starnet Palace. This person was tall and handsome, with a scar on his left cheek; however, not only was it not hideous, it instead added a masculine and rough disposition to him.

The three men and one woman beside Chai Letian were instead from the three great institutions of Dragon Lake City, and their status wasn’t inferior to Chai Letian in the slightest. They were respectively Yu Haobai of Myriadcloud Institution, Du Quan and Du Kui of Windsoar Institution, and Murong Wei of Azurewood Institution.

Yu Haobai was a handsome youth that was rather delicate, being both refined and outstanding.

Du Quan and Du Kui were a pair of twins, both of them tall and stalwart with extremely stiff and reserved dispositions.

Murong Wei was the only female amongst them. She had a beautiful and gentle disposition, like a valley orchid that was delicate and attractive, causing one to be unable to help but want to protect her.

These five people had obviously achieved some sort of understanding and they all followed the lead of Chai Letian.

Chai Letian seemed to have a good relationship with Du Qingxi, and when faced with Chai Letian’s small talk, Du Qingxi who had a disposition that was chilly like snow couldn’t help but reveal a trace of a rare smile.

Chen Xi noticed that the slight smile that hung on the corners of Duanmu Ze’s mouth vanished when he saw Chai Letian and Du Qingxi happily chatting, and Duanmu Ze’s eyes vaguely revealed a trace of vigilance.

“Oh, Little Zeze is actually really pitiable. Chasing after Su Jiao, yet there’s a formidable rival like Cang Bin; chasing after Du Qingxi, yet Chai Letian has appeared again. Truly a helpless situation.”

A strand of fine voice transmission drilled into his ears. Chen Xi glanced over to see the indolent and slovenly Song Lin had suddenly appeared to stand by his side. He still had a drowsy look on his face, as if there was never a moment that he was wide awake.

“What do these people want to do?” Chen Xi sent a voice transmission as well.

“Form an alliance, of course. Actually, if you were to carefully observe, you would be able to notice that even though Chai Letian’s group of five are from different powers of Dragon Lake City compared to Su Jiao, but they are from two completely different camps…”

Along with Song Lin’s explanation, Chen Xi finally understood what was going on.

The so-called eight great sects, three great institutions, and six great clans of Dragon Lake City had extremely complicated relationships amongst each other and were divided into two camps.

Chai Letian represented the Starnet Palace, Yu Haobai and the others represented the three great institutions and Du Qingxi, Duanmu Ze, and Song Lin represented the Du Clan, Duan Clan, and Song Clan that all belonged to the same camp.

The powers that Su Jiao, Cang Bin, and the few young men and women represented all belonged to the other camp.

This time, both camps had members who’d entered the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain, and for the sake of protecting their members from the other camp, moving in groups was undoubtedly the best choice.

“Actually, the relationship between these powers are still complicated. They are all colossi that have been inherited for nearly 10,000 years, after all. There are contentions and communications between them, and just thinking about their relationship would cause one’s scalp to go numb from the complicated nature of their relationships.”

Song Lin yawned and said weakly, “But you only have to remember that Su Jiao and those people are our enemies.”

Chen Xi was speechless, unknowingly, he’d actually been divided into a camp and he wondered if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Chai Letian suddenly turned around and smiled as he gazed at Chen Xi and said, “Could it be that this Fellow Daoist is the Chen Xi that defeated Li Huai yesterday?”

Du Qingxi nodded. “Exactly.”

“Not bad, not bad.” Chai Letian laughed heartily, yet he turned around and continued chatting with Du Qingxi. From start to finish, he didn’t give Chen Xi a chance to talk.

Obviously, Chen Xi was only a dispensable existence in Chai Letian’s heart, and it was enough to just greet Chen Xi and was not worth any further attention.

Chen Xi didn’t think anything of this, but Duanmu Ze was instead displeased and said with voice transmission, “You’re able to stomach being disregarded by someone?”

“It seems… to not be so serious, right?” Chen Xi said in surprise.

Duanmu Ze said with utter detest when he saw Chen Xi remaining completely indifferent, “When a man lives in this world, bearing and honor are ranked first. If a man has no honor? What difference would living be to death? As the old saying goes, men rest on their face just as trees rest on their bark…”

Chen Xi was able to endure being disregarded, but he was truly unable to endure Duanmu Ze’s chatter and he interrupted. “You have enmity with Chai Letian?”

“Absolutely irreconcilable!” Duanmu Ze replied with rage.

“Why don’t we join forces and kill him?”

Duanmu Ze’s face froze and he suddenly jolted awake from that inexplicable manic state, then his expression fluctuated between gloominess and indecision before finally saying in dejection, “That won’t do. If I did this then Du Qingxi will look down on me forever.”

As he spoke, he patted Chen Xi on the shoulder. “Brother, thank you! When are you coming to Dragon Lake City? We brothers must surely have a good drink.”

Chen Xi was flabbergasted and he suddenly recalled what Song Lin had said earlier. Duanmu Ze was indeed helpless when faced with this rival in love, Chai Letian.

“Let’s go!” In the distance, Su Jiao waved her hand, then led the group of people by her side to flash towards the distance.

Chen Xi suddenly noticed that Li Huai was following behind Su Jiao’s group. That fellow seemed to have been hiding within the crowd earlier. Now he’d turned around to look in this direction, and when he saw Chen Xi’s gaze, his expression instantly went extremely gloomy.

“Let’s go too.” It was Chai Letian who spoke, and looking at Du Qingxi’s expression, it was obvious that she’d tacitly approved of his status as the leader.

“Hmph! I won’t listen to the orders of anyone besides Qingxi. How about you, Chen Xi?” Duanmu Ze asked with a voice transmission.

“Me?” Chen Xi was stunned, then replied. “It doesn’t matter.”

Duanmu Ze patted Chen Xi on the shoulder right away, then said, “Alright! We’ll act together from now on, as for Chai Letian… Bah! Isn’t it just because he has an ancestor at the Nether Transformation Realm? If it wasn’t for this, he wouldn’t even have a chance to lead the group.”

Chen Xi rubbed his nose in helplessness towards Duanmu Ze’s sudden actions that seemed as if they were old friends, but he wasn’t opposed to it either.

…

Crimsonflame Mountain Range was extremely vast, with numerous perilous peaks that seemed like sharp swords that stood there holding up the sky and towering into the clouds. Numerous low and violent beast roars could be vaguely heard sounding out in the distance.

Crimsonflame Mountain Range was situated 5,000 km from Bloodbath City and stood on a vast and sandy wasteland. It was a place that must be passed in order to head to the end of the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain.

Not only was the number of baleful beasts here enormous, there were even numerous baleful beast leaders roaming about the depths of Crimsonflame Mountain Range. Within the innumerable years of the past, the disciples that participated in the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain trials were all warned by their seniors that they must absolutely not get close to Crimsonflame Mountain Range, so it became just like a dangerous forbidden area.

If it was an ordinary trial, there would absolutely be no one that would enter here, but today was obviously not an ordinary time. Numerous figures suddenly appeared at the foot of the mountain, then they instructed in a loud voice before leaping up successively as they made their way into the depths of the mountain range.

Their speed could be said to be swift, but they still encountered wave after wave of baleful beast attacks. These baleful beasts came from all around the Crimsonflame Mountain Range with a fierce and savage imposing manner, seeming to want to protect their own territory as they fearlessly charged towards these cultivators.

Numerous shrill cries and howls rose and fell, covering Crimsonflame Mountain Range with a terrifying atmosphere that caused one’s heart to shake.

That group of people quickly vanished deep within the mountain range.

“This is Crimsonflame Mountain Range?”

Not long after, Chen Xi’s group appeared at the foot of the mountain as well. As they raised their eyes to gaze at this incomparably enormous mountain range, the expression of everyone present was extremely serious.

“This is the last barrier to head to the end of the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain. Baleful beasts wreak havoc within and are unavoidable. We can only forcefully charge through.”

Chai Letian frowned and said, “We have to hasten our pace, Su Jiao’s group have already gone before us. Moreover, only three days remain to the end of the one month period. We must make it there before that.”

Whoosh!

As soon as he finished, Chai Letian was the first to leap out to head deep into the mountain range.

When the others saw this, they all hurried to follow him. Du Qingxi was just intending to go as well when she suddenly noticed Chen Xi staring blankly on the spot and remaining unmoved, and she couldn’t help but ask, “Chen Xi, what’s wrong?”

Duanmu Ze was extremely shocked as well, he then shook his head and casually patted Chen Xi’s shoulder. “Brother Chen, it’s time to go.”

Chen Xi’s figure went stiff for a moment, then he spoke vaguely as if he’d just awoken from a dream. “Oh, okay.”

No one noticed that a trace of a bright light silently slipped past Chen Xi’s gaze as he looked at the tall and imposing Crimsonflame Mountain Range.

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1. I’ve changed the previous entries of Darsong Dynasty to Darchu Dynasty. The author was probably unsure of his naming at the beginning and forgot to change the first few entries to Darchu. Anyway, it’s a mistake I overlooked, and it has been rectified. Enjoy!