Chapter 1338: Space Concept.
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Just as everyone thought the 7th Bugle Call would turn into a ghost ship, an anomaly happened that blew everyone's mind.
What they saw was a huge swirling black hole appearing behind Ling Lan's back. The black hole could be seen getting bigger and bigger. As it became bigger, a strong suction force began to come out of the black hole. In the end, the entire space behind Ling Lan warped into the shape of a funnel.
"What's that?" Everyone exclaimed in surprise.
Bai Nuo was closest to Ling Lan so he had a clear look of how strong the suction force was. If his domain concept didn't cement him to the ground, he suspected that he might be sucked into that hole.
Angel Zhi looked at the weird scene behind Ling Lan intently. His golden eyes started shining. He seemed to be looking at something.
After trying to inspect the black hole, his expression turned twisted as he shut his eyes in pain. A drop of blood began to flow down from the corners of his eyes.
Midnight Rider, who was standing beside him, asked in surprise, "What happened to you?"
"I wanted to see what his domain concept is but I failed. Not only that, I even received a backlash." Angel Zhi smiled bitterly as he used his domain concept to heal the broken capillaries in his eyes.
After healing it, he opened his eyelids slowly, revealing the now dull golden eyes. It looked like this backlash wasn't as simple as he said.
"Are you alright now?" The Midnight Rider asked in concern.
"I'm fine. It's just a small injury." Angel Zhi wouldn't answer him honestly. His relationship with Midnight Rider might seem good on the surface but no one knew if they would draw their sword against each other the next second. They might be friends today and enemies tomorrow. Thus, Angel Zhi was used to being vigilant.
1"We can confirm that the man isn't simple. He has the right to be arrogant," Angel Zhi continued.
The strange domain concept was enough to earn him a position in the Lawless Lands.
"It feels like the space domain concept." On the other side, Bai Nuo made his prediction out loud.
"That's impossible. Besides that person from the central region, I've never heard of another person having the space domain concept." Someone beside him refuted instantly. He didn't believe that this irritating fellow was such a powerful person.
"Not hearing it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. If White Monarch dared to assign him here, he must have some outstanding ability." Bai Nuo felt that his analysis was right. Without this heaven-defying domain concept, he wouldn't have the guts to fight with Lord Gen.
Everyone in the Lawless Lands knew that all the 13 Lords were very close to reaching the imperial realm. No, they might already be an imperial realm formidable warrior. They just didn't want to be noticed by the various nations so they didn't reveal their true might.
1As an imperial realm formidable warrior, White Monarch definitely knew this too. Hence, he wouldn't send this young man if he wasn't capable enough to fight on-par with the 13 Lords. Well, unless he wanted to kill this young man using someone else's hands. But, from the looks of it, it didn't seem like the case.
White Monarch was someone with a high status in the mercenary world. Was there a need for him to send him here to get killed? The answer was obvious. This young man was a truly powerful person. He wasn't an ignorant young man who came to seek death in the Lawless Lands.
Lord Gen frowned slightly when he saw this swirling black hole. He commanded his poisonous bugs to get close to Ling Lan to deduce what her domain concept was. When they reached around three metres away from Ling Lan, his poisonous bugs got sucked into the hole behind her.
"Space domain concept." Compared to the uncertain crowd, Lord Gen immediately knew what Ling Lan's domain concept was.
It was actually this troublesome domain concept!
Lord Gen complained secretly about his bad luck. He wasn't able to deal with this legendary heaven-defying domain concept within a short period of time unless he revealed his ultimate trump card. Otherwise, he would be helpless here.
Lord Gen was a decisive person. When he realized that he couldn't kill Ling Lan, he clenched his fist and the poisonous bugs obediently climbed back into his body. In a blink of an eye, the insects had all disappeared from the deck. It seemed as though they never appeared before.
"Hahaha, what a promising youth." A bright and clear voice was heard.
Bai Nuo's eyes lit up. He retracted his domain concept and kneeled down respectfully. "Lord Zhen."
"Lord Zhen." Everyone except Lord Gen and Ling Lan kneeled down to welcome Lord Zhen too.
A middle-aged man with long silver hair in a purple gown appeared in front of everyone. The smile on his face lightened the tense atmosphere.
Lord Gen sneered when he saw Lord Zhen. He flicked his coat unhappily and said, "What is a lazy bum like you doing here?"
"If you took the effort to come here, then I should be here too, right?" Lord Gen's bad attitude didn't affect Lord Zhen's mood. He continued smiling as he talked.
Lord Zhen turned to look at Ling Lan. He said gently, "Are you the person sent by Brother White Monarch? What a promising youth. It looks like White Monarch groomed an amazing disciple."
'Lord Zhen!' a thought flashed through Ling Lan's mind and the black hole behind her disappeared instantly as she kneeled down on one knee and cupped her hands together. Her attitude was vastly different from when she was greeting Lord Gen. Her posture was that of a junior greeting his elder.
This difference in treatment made Lord Gen even more furious. However, he couldn't do anything to Ling Lan as Ling Lan's space domain concept was hard to deal with, and with Lord Zhen here too, he was even more helpless. Lord Zhen was treating Ling Lan as his junior so he had to give Lord Zhen some face.
The feeling of not being able to kill the person he wanted made him frustrated. He turned and glared at Ji Ming before shouting, "What a bunch of trash! Hurry up and go back, you disgrace!"
Ji Ming was quite a famous old man in the world of the Lawless Lands. So, when he heard his lord scolding him in public, his face turned red from embarrassment. However, he didn't dare to show any signs of anger so he just put down his head and agreed obediently. Soon, he brought everyone from Lord Gen's faction, including Zuo Ming, out of this place.
"You're lucky this time. Don't let me see you again." After giving the warning, Lord Gen left without a trace.
Lord Zhen shook his head and smiled bitterly. "Ignore him, Lord Gen's personality is just that irritating. Fortunately, intent to kill you was not set in stone. If not, it will be hard to clear up the situation because of your brash attitude just now."
"Lan Xiao acted rashly this time," Ling Lan lowered her head and accepted the scolding.
"So you're from the Blue lineage…" Lord Zhen was enlightened. "But, Queen Blue has always been calm and thorough… ah, forget it. Things already happened. There's no use talking about it now. But, you must be careful in the future. Don't visit Lord Gen's territory. He's a narrow-minded person."
'Blue lineage? Queen Blue?' Ling Lan felt that she had accidentally struck the jackpot. She just wanted to use her mother's surname and her father's name as a last remembrance of them. This was an unexpected surprise.
After reminding Ling Lan out of goodwill, Lord Zhen turned and told the leaders of the other factions, "This is my brother, White Monarch's beloved disciple, Lan Xiao. Please take care of him in the future."
"Don't worry, Lord Zhen."
"We will, we will."
"We welcome Brother Lan Xiao anytime."
Everyone made their promise to Lord Zhen. Since Lord Zhen had already spoken, everyone was willing to give him some face.
Chapter 1339: It's Fine?
After the guests and hosts had their fill of excitement, Lord Zhen took his men and left. When everyone left the 7th Bugle Call, the smile Ling Lan originally had on her face, instantly vanished.
"Boss, is something wrong?" Tian Fang, who was originally happy that they had successfully gotten into the Lawless Lands, felt his heart sink so he immediately asked Ling Lan.
"You think Lord Zhen is actually going to help us?" Ling Lan half-smiled.
"You're saying they have other plans?" After all, Tian Fang was someone who had been in the mercenary world for many years so he understood something was off instantly when he heard Ling Lan's insinuating words.
"In the Lawless Lands, the 13 Lords have always deemed this place as their territory. How could they just kindly let a new faction join their ranks? Especially when that faction clearly has the muscle to keep themselves there." Ling Lan slowly closed her eyes. The battle had only just begun. Not only did they have to face the pressure given to them by the 13 Lords, they also have to be careful of plots against them. It was going to be more difficult than being in the Federation's military.
However, what did that matter? Ling Lan quickly opened her eyes and a sharp gleam flashed past her eyes. No matter how difficult the path ahead was going to be, she was still going to dominate this place and become the only king. Only then, would they be qualified to go against the Federation's military and take revenge for her father.
"I'll leave this place to you, " said Ling Lan.
"Boss, you're leaving?" Tian Fang asked in surprise.
"Our window of opportunity is closing. I need to make every second count." Ling Lan looked towards a distant land. Perhaps there was where her opportunity laid. However, it might also be her death…
"Little White!" Ling Lan called indifferently.
Suddenly, in the space behind her, a white little ball suddenly jumped out and into Ling Lan's arms.
Ling Lan caressed Little White's head and said softly, "I'll have to trouble you in a bit."
"RAWR (Don't worry master, I will definitely help you fight!)" Little White used his tentacles to bump into its chest as if it was signalling to Ling Lan to leave it all to it.
"No matter what happens, try your best to keep them at bay until I return," Ling Lan left those words and then disappeared from sight.
Two people were already waiting for her in the plaza of the spaceport below the 7th Bugle Call.
Ling Lan looked at Luo Lang indifferently. "Are you good?"
Luo Lang kept his head down and replied softly, "I already took the second generation Nuwa agent. There aren't any big issues."
"I'm not asking about that. I'm asking whether you can suppress the issue with creating the poisonous mist." said Ling Lan plainly.
Luo Lang's issue with his new combination could fool others, but could not fool her.
Luo Lang had a struggling look on his face. "I-I will try my best."
"If you ever need help, just ask." Ling Lan looked directly at Luo Lang as if she was looking right through him. The penetrative look made Luo Lang put down his head involuntarily.
"Let's go!" Seeing Luo Lang's reluctance to tell her, Ling Lan looked away and said those words. Then, she disappeared from their sights.
Li Lanfeng smiled as he looked towards Luo Lang with a knowing look. "If you don't deal with it soon, it's going to bite you in the ass in the future…"
After saying that, he also disappeared.
Luo Lang's expression wavered for a moment before turning completely calm. Then, he followed in Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng's footsteps and disappeared too.
On the deck, Tian Fang looked at the place where Ling Lan had disappeared for a short while. Then, he suddenly smiled bitterly. "Luo Yang, I feel pretty useless."
"We can only sit and watch as the young men rush towards the front lines and fight for their lives. Us, on the other hand, just stay in the back and do nothing." Luo Yang sighed.
"I just feel that I've lived 50 some years for nothing…" Tian Fang turned around and walked towards the exit.
"Where are you going?" Luo Yang immediately followed him and asked loudly.
"The training room to train. I can't be left behind by too much. Otherwise, I won't be able to have the face to stand on the same floor as them," replied Tian Fang without even turning his head.
"You've already trained enough recently," Luo Yang said helplessly. Ever since they knew about Luo Lang and Li Lanfeng's strength, Tian Fang's training showed signs of being somewhat masochistic.
"That's not enough. I already asked Luo Lang. When Boss finished training them, they were all sprawling on the floor half-dead, requiring Boss to pull them back to their beds." When Tian Fang heard it in the past, he felt these children were masochists. Training shouldn't be done like that. Did they not understand what it meant by moderation? However, now, Tian Fang realized that only such brutal training could make them reach such heights. Only after training until they were half-dead would they be able to not lose against those heaven-defying individuals from the Lawless Lands.
He always dreamed of being a figure that could shake a city just by a step of his foot. In the past, he believed his training philosophy of training in moderation. However, now, he felt that he had wasted his youth doing nothing. He was also frustrated at himself for not knowing someone like Ling Lan sooner. If he had met Ling Lan earlier, perhaps he could have done more in his past. However, it wasn't too late to realize it. Boss just said that the battle had just begun. There were more brutal battles waiting for them ahead. So, he must quickly increase his strength until he was the one protecting, not the other way around.
Tian Fang just headed directly into the training room and tossed Luo Yang the responsibility of keeping the 7th Bugle Call running.
Luo Yang had no qualms about that as he understood Tian Fang's concerns. After all, Tian Fang was already a domain realm master, it was just that he wasn't a titled one yet. If he could somehow become a titled domain realm warrior, he would definitely be of use to Boss. Thus, he didn't say anything and took over all the responsibility required to be looked over on the 7th Bugle Call.
After returning to his own palace, before Lord Zhen could sit, a servant, who served him, came to greet him, "Lord Zhen, the other lords have been waiting for you on the line."
"Troublesome," Lord Zhen said helplessly. In the next second, he appeared behind the desk in his home office.
Lord Zhen sat down and pushed down on his table to turn on his optical supercomputer. A virtual screen appeared in front of him.
These technologies were quite commonly used to communicate in the center area of the Lawless Lands. However, only the higher-ups of the factions could have such things and they were very expensive.
Despite all the factions hating the fact that the nations closed themselves off from the Lawless Lands, these factions in the Lawless Lands still couldn't do anything about it. After all, the Lawless Lands didn't have the capability or resources to manufacturing such devices. If they wanted one, they could only get ripped off by those nations who put sky-high prices. They also had to split a portion of money to the mercenary world that helps in the procurement of these devices.
The 13 Lords and factions in the Lawless Lands had complicated feelings towards the mercenary world.
Although they were grateful for the mercenary world for creating a door to the outside world for them, at the same time, they also hate the mercenary world. That was because when the mercenary world helped them procure abundant and advanced supplies from the outside world, they were also sucking their wealth dry.
In reality, the relationship between the 13 Lords of the Lawless Lands and the three kings of the mercenary underworld, wasn't on good terms.
Soon, seven or eight silhouettes appeared on the screen in front of him. If anyone saw who was on the screen, they would definitely gasp in fear. It was because they were looking at the lords of the 13 Lords.
One elderly man with a head full of white hair and a long flowing beard was the first to speak. He asked, "Lord Zhen, what do you think about the person the Rainbow Raiders sent this time?" This was Lord Kun of the 13 Lords.
"His strength isn't bad. He has the space domain concept and can fight above his stage," Lord Zhen said in a serious tone. "But, he's too young and a bit hasty."
Chapter 1340: End It Once And For All.
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
"Space domain concept is a little troublesome." A golden-haired middle-aged man frowned slightly. He was Lord Holy.
With their abundant strength, they knew what kind of monster the space domain concept was. Even they would have a headache if they met an opponent who had this domain concept. It wasn't because they couldn't defeat him. It was because if he wanted to escape, no one could keep him back.
It could be said that a space domain realm master couldn't be killed. If he was a lone traveler, they could attack him together. Even if they failed, it wouldn't be a huge matter. However, this young man was from the Rainbow Raiders. Once they failed, the Rainbow Raiders would use this chance to step into the Lawless Lands. The three kings of the mercenary world had been eyeing the Lawless Lands for a long time. They just needed a valid reason to settle in, and the 13 Lords didn't want to give them this opportunity.
"Where is Lord Gen?" Lord Kun looked around him and frowned.
"He was just humiliated so he might not be willing to interact with us," Lord Zhen replied dispassionately. There was a sneer on his face too.
Everyone knew that he was at odds with Lord Gen. Thus, he didn't hide his thoughts.
"Haha, I still want to ask him for his opinion. After all, he's the only one who fought with that space domain realm master. He might know more than us." A lady with heavy makeup covered her mouth and laughed sweetly.
"Lord Demon, I don't want to hear that disgusting laughter of yours or else my knife will go through your skull." A man with clown makeup suddenly revealed the dagger in his hand and looked savagely at the woman.
"You'll need to have the ability to do that first. Lord Card, I'll be waiting for you in bed." Lord Demon suddenly laid down sexily on her and looked at Lord Card with a seductive gaze.
Slam! Lord Card's image suddenly disappeared. After some time, Lord Demon's screen also went black too.
"They're fighting again." The person who spoke had huge eyebags and a grim face. He seemed as though he exerted himself too much. This was Lord Ghost.
"Don't mind them. How should we deal with the people from the Rainbow Raiders?" A handsome young man with long blue hair raised his eyebrows as he asked. He was Lord Kan. He looked young but he was around the same age as the other lords. He just had some secret techniques which allowed him to retain his youthful appearance.
"We have to deal with them sooner or later. However, we mustn't let the Rainbow Raiders discover what we are doing," Lord Holy said calmly. "The Lawless Lands isn't a place that the mercenary world can control."
"They will soon be trading with the other factions," Lord Zhen reminded them.
"It's time to use the secret factions that we have been nurturing," Lord Kun said.
"Understood," the other lords nodded and replied.
After this sentence, the virtual screen in front of Lord Zhen turned black again.
To the public, the 13 Lords acted on their own and would start a fight whenever they had a conflict. Today, you would fight him but tomorrow, he would fight with me. Some even became arch enemies and bit each other whenever they were unhappy. An instance of this was Lord Gen and Lord Zhen, and Lord Demon and Lord Card. But, in actual fact, this wasn't the case. The 13 Lords didn't hate each other like how everyone thought. No matter how much they didn't like each other, once they needed to discuss something, they would put down their grudges and sit down for a discussion.
The 13 Lords were able to command the Lawless Lands for more than 10 years because they worked together secretly to control this entire place, successfully preventing the appearance of the 14th lord and stabilizing their power and position.
1Lord Gen went back to his rainbow palace. The moment he sat down, he remembered the humiliation he received on the 7th Bugle Call. He instantly slapped the handle of the chair furiously.
Boom! The stone chair handle shattered into pieces. The two maids standing at the two sides shrunk back in fear. They didn't dare to say anything.
"I must kill that brat," Lord Gen said coldly. He had never suffered such humiliation in his entire life.
He could imagine that tomorrow, news about him not being able to handle Lan Xiao would spread throughout the entire Lawless Lands. That brat made his name known to everyone while throwing his name to the mud.
"Gather all the guardians that are left in the palace." Lord Gen was someone who sought revenge for the smallest grievance. So, how was he able to swallow this defeat? He immediately asked his men to gather the guardians and prepared to attack the 7th Bugle Call.
"Yes!" His personal assistance answered before hurrying out.
After some time, five men of different ages and different body shapes walked in. Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei were among them.
"Lord Gen." The five of them kneeled down respectfully and waited for their master's order.
"Choose the best elites from your team. You must kill everyone on the 7th Bugle Call within three days. Every single one of them," Lord Gen said coldly.
"Yes, Lord Gen." The five of them accepted the order. But, before they could get up, Lord Gen's gaze turned sharp. He looked behind them and shouted furiously, "Who's there?!"
The five of them turned around in fright. There was no one behind. Just as they were feeling lost, the space behind them became distorted and a line appeared in thin air.
The line got bigger slowly before separating into a large black hole. A pair of military boots stepped out from the hold. It made a clear tapping sound when it stepped on the pure white floor made from White Onyx.
The hole got bigger. Finally, the face of the owner of the boot was revealed. It was a very young, fair, and handsome face. At first glance, he seemed around 23 years old. However, when you looked at him again, he seemed to be only 17 years old. The childish look on his face had not disappeared completely. He was at the prime of his youth.
Tap! Another boot stepped out of the hole. The black cloak floated behind the person. His attire was simple but it couldn't hide his glory. One look and you would remember him for life.
"It's you, Lan Xiao!" Lord Gen stared at Ling Lan furiously. "Very good. There's a path to heaven but you choose to come to hell."
"From the moment we started fighting, there's no possibility of reconciling," Ling Lan replied calmly. "In that case, why not end it once and for all to prevent future trouble."
"Hahaha…" Lord Gen suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed. "Lan Xiao, you're too arrogant. Do you really think that your space domain concept is invincible? However, I'm very satisfied with your arrogant behaviour."
Lord Gen grabbed the side of the armrest that hadn't been broken.
Crack! The armrest got crushed by his hand. "This place will be your grave."
2Following this sound, the five guardians shot up and pounced towards Ling Lan.
Suddenly, two figures appeared in their way. A black light was seen as well as numerous metal chains dancing in the air.
Cling! Clang! The five guardians were forced back.
"Your opponents are us. Don't disturb Boss." Li Lanfeng held his scythe in one hand and smiled as he spoke.
Chapter 1341: Imperial Battle!
Luo Lang curled his fingers to knock the metal chains into each other. Suddenly, a flash of red gleam past his eyes.
Hearing the piercing sound, Li Lanfeng turned back to glance at Luo Lang, and saw Luo Lang raising his right hand before pointing at three people with three of his metal chains.
Luo Lang was telling him that he would take care of those three people.
Li Lanfeng frowned slightly. However, he still nodded and agreed.
Ji Ming, Yu Shangfei, and the other guardians were infuriated when he saw Luo Lang and Li Lanfeng distributing them so casually. The three people who got chosen by Luo Lang, including Ji Ming, rushed towards Luo Lang in unplanned unison. On the other side, Yu Shangfei and another guardian attacked Li Lanfeng.
Two fights were on the verge of erupting. But, no matter how violent or frightening their fights were, they didn't affect Ling Lan and Lord Gen who were standing at the front.
There was an invisible barrier behind Ling Lan which blocked all the domain concept energy.
Ling Lan slowly raised her head and said in an even tone, "It's our turn."
Lord Gen slowly stood up from his throne and replied coldly, "Talk while you can. You might not have a chance later."
Ling Lan smiled gently. "Sure. I'll also give you some time to say what you want later when I smack you down."
Lord Gen's expression turned grim. "You're looking for death!"
After this shout, everything around Lord Gen, including the rainbow palace, turned into the five poisonous insects. They crawled towards Ling Lan from all directions.
"Ice Blockade!" Extreme coldness dawned upon them. In a blink of an eye, the rainbow palace and all the poisonous insects turned into ice statues. The dull and sinister-looking rainbow palace became a crystal-clear ice palace.
Lord Gen was flabbergasted. "Ice element? Isn't your element space?"
Ling Lan raised her eyebrows and answered, "Who told you that?"
"…" Lord Gen's eyes narrowed. He still remembered clearly what had happened on the 7th Bugle Call. He really did feel the suction force from the black hole. It wasn't a mistake.
Ling Lan stretched out her right hand and clenched her fist. A crystal-clear ice sword slowly congregated in her hand. "My best element has always been the ice element."
Lord Gen suddenly laughed when he heard this. "I don't understand why you would expose that. If you tried to cover it up, I might still be wary of your space domain concept. But, the ice element… do you really think it can suppress my domain concept?"
Lord Gen clasped his hands together and shouted, "Break!"
The ice statues began exploding simultaneously. The insects that were trapped inside revealed their poisonous fangs as they attempted to bite Ling Lan.
Ling Lan frowned at the sight. She quickly disappeared from her spot suddenly in a second, and appeared behind Lord Gen in the next. She stabbed the ice sword in her hand at Lord Gen without any hesitation.
The ice sword pierced through Lord Gen's body.
Boom! Lord Gen's body exploded unexpectedly.
Before the explosion could reach her, Ling Lan leaped back more than ten metres away from Lord Gen.
However, the poisonous insects that created the illusion of Lord Gen's body still managed to come close to her body.
Just as the insects were about to come close to her body, Ling Lan pushed her left hand out and a huge ice wall appeared, blocking the poisonous insects.
However, she wasn't safe yet as Ling Lan's gaze turned somber. It was because she could see those poisonous insects poking into the ice wall and then slowly crawling through it before reaching her side.
They were not afraid of the cold. As expected, her opponent was an imperial realm formidable warrior.
Ling Lan had already guessed that the 13 Lords of the Lawless Lands were all imperial realm formidable warriors. Imagine this, the locals in the Lawless Lands were all very talented in terms of their physical skills and their mecha piloting. If it wasn't because of the restriction in their age, which prevented the Lawless Lands from grooming more formidable warriors and mecha operators, this world might be entirely different.
It would be a joke if the 13 Lords, who were the most powerful people in the Lawless Lands, hadn't reached the imperial stage. From the information Ling Lan had gathered in the past and during this period of time, she felt that someone among the 13 Lords might have entered god-realm, or was half a step into god-realm.
Now, there was evidence to back up her hypothesis. She had released her titled domain concept but the ice wall she congregated had a tinge of imperial stage domain concept in it. It wasn't purely formed with her titled domain concept. Only imperial realm formidable warriors were able to break through her ice wall.
Because of this finding, Ling Lan decided to end this fight as soon as possible. She must take care of one lord before all of them reach a consensus to suppress her. After taking him down, she would take over his territory so that the other lords would have to accept her as the successor in order to maintain the balance in the Lawless Lands.
This was Ling Lan's first step in her overall plan. She must quickly find a position in the Lawless Lands before she could make any other moves. Once the 13 Lords decided to work together to chase her away, she wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure of all the 13 Lords no matter how powerful she was. If that happened, she would either have to leave dejectedly or die under their pressure. Anyway, she couldn't accept either of these results.
That was why she decided to take the risk to come to Lord Gen's territory to find him.
Although an imperial stage battle wasn't as earth-shattering as a god-realm battle, it would still affect the fluctuations of the domain concept energies in the surroundings. Anyone who reached the domain realm would be able to detect this fluctuation within a certain distance. The people who reached the imperial stage would be able to detect it almost instantly. They would only need a little more effort to find out where this fluctuation came from.
Ling Lan calculated the distance of all the 13 Lords' territory. Based on this, the person who would arrive the fastest was Lord Zhen. He would need at least 20 minutes. Hence, there wasn't much time left for her. She must kill Lord Gen within 20 minutes. Once Lord Zhen arrived, she would be surrounded. She might not even be able to escape unscathed with Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang by her side.
"There's no path of retreat. I can only fight with my life." A determined expression appeared on her face. "Unseal!"
A snowflake symbol appeared on top of Ling Lan's forehead and her short black hair grew exponentially longer. The colour of her hair slowly turned into silver as it danced in the air.
Lord Gen exclaimed in surprise, "That is impossible!"
But, he managed to calm down in the next second. He quickly unsealed his imperial stage domain concept and clapped his hands together. A colorful tattoo poisonous scorpion appeared on the back of his palm. In the next second, a huge scorpion appeared behind him. This scorpion was slightly different as it had seven tails instead of one.
Chapter 1342: Divine Destruction!
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
"Imperial stage. Who are you?" Lord Gen stared intently at the young man whose expression was so frosty that he didn't seem human.
Based on what he knew, the three kings of the mercenary world were at most imperial realm formidable warriors just like him. It was only because of their limited strength that they never dared to come to the Lawless Lands openly, and could resort to using devious means to involve themselves here
There could never be two imperial realm formidable warriors in a mercenary team. If there were, the team would either be split into two, forming the 4th king's mercenary team, or the two imperial realm formidable warriors would fight over the position of king which would ultimately end when one of the parties was dead.
Yet, Lord Gen was unable to link Lan Xiao with the White Monarch from the Rainbow Raiders, the Casanova from the Flirtatious Raiders, or King Border from Taichi Yingyang. Based on the information he had, the domain concept and age of this young man didn't align with any of the three kings of the mercenary world.
Seeing the stunned Lord Gen, Ling Lan raised her right hand above her head, and snowing started falling heavily in the rainbow palace. Within a few seconds, a thick layer of snow densely covered the luminous tiles of the palace, hiding their glimmer.
However, even when a snowstorm was going on, Lord Gen wasn't the least bit affected. In the area where the giant scorpion and he stood, the snow seemed to be wary of the giant scorpion's seven tails.
"You're not from the Rainbow Raiders." This was the only possible explanation for the events that occured before him.
As someone who was able to climb up a mountain of bones and corpses to become a lord of the Lawless Lands, Lord Gen wasn't a dumb person who would ignore the clues of the truth right before him. In the past, he was indeed fooled by Lan Xiao's perfect disguise. However, once he noticed the facts didn't line up right, he quickly deduced the truth.
Ling Lan didn't reply to him. However, the smile on her face told Lord Gen that his deduction was right.
"Who are you?" Who had the guts to use the Rainbow Raiders' name to intrude the Lawless Lands? This was the first time Lord Gen felt a sense of apprehension ever since he reached the imperial stage. This was why he insisted on finding out Lan Xiao's true identity.
"Let's fight." Ling Lan clenched her right fist and the snowflakes falling from the air congregated into sharp ice blades. They flew straight towards Lord Gen with deadly precision. To Ling Lan, she had to win or die trying. If she won, there was no point in telling her opponent her real identity. if she lost, then it was even more unnecessary to say it.
"Go!" Lord Gen waved his hand, and numerous poisonous insects crawled out from the ground. They went head on with the ice blades.
A battle between imperial realm formidable warriors was frightening, whether it was the ice blades that could pierce through anything or the savage poisonous bugs that rose from the ground. They were both using area-of-effect techniques and their domain concept energy supplementing those techniques were both very powerful. The final winner would be determined by the pureness of their domain concept energy.
1At this aspect, Lord Gen was confident in himself. With him being at the imperial stage for so many years, his understanding of his domain concept was solid as a rock. He was sure that he wouldn't lose to a young man like Lan Xiao. Moreover, Lan Xiao was on a time limit while he was not. Hence, there was no way he would lose to Lan Xiao.
Physical appearance could be maintained using many various techniques but aura on the other hand, would change according to his age. When someone reached the imperial stage, they would be able to detect said aura, and the aura of Lan Xiao was too youthful. He was definitely younger than 30 years old.
No matter how talented he was, he could only enter the domain realm between 10 years old to 20 years old. Fine, for the sake of the argument, let's say that he advanced to the domain stage when he was 10 years old. That meant that he would have less than 20 years of experience in the imperial stage, right? How could he be compared with old men like them who had spent more than 50 years in the imperial stage? Lord Gen believed that if they continued battling with their domain concept, he would win.
As the two energies continued trying to devour one another, blood water and ice crystals dropped from the sky. The thick layer of snow on the ground quickly got stained with blood.
Finally, the ice blades were all destroyed and there weren't many poisonous insects left. Lord Gen snorted as he waved his hands again. Countless more poisonous insects emerged from the ground again.
"Haha, come. Let's see how long you can last." Lord Gen laughed arrogantly. The reason for his arrogance was for the fact that he was in his palace. In his palace, he was able to recover his lost domain energy quicker.
The base of the 13 Lords all had this unique feature. This was why they were invincible in their territory. Even if other lords came to fight them head on, they would never beat the owner of the land.
In response to his arrogance, Ling Lan simply smiled brightly at him. Then, her fingers started moving in a unique rhythm and soon a few rays of light appeared on her empty, fair, and smooth hand.
Lord Gen's expression hardened when he looked at the beaming light. He could faintly see ten crystal-clear threads that extended from Lan Xiao's hands to the air in front of him.
'Not good.' This was Lord Gen's first reaction. As Lan Xiao started twirling around his fingers, many semi-transparent lines started to glimmer in the shining line in the empty space in front of him. They filled up the air densely, enclosing him in a giant dome. They were like spiderwebs that were winded around him.
Now, Lord Gen finally understood that while Lan Xiao was directing the blades at him, he was also lining the threads around them, forming his Ultimate Blockade.
He felt that this technique sounded a little familiar. Suddenly, he remembered that Ji Ming told him that Luo Tianhua used a similar technique when he was fighting him.
"Hmph, do you think you can trap me with just this? You're dreaming," Lord Gen scolded. He waved his right hand and all the poisonous insects on the ground rushed towards the threads and started biting, spitting venom, scratching, and damaging Ling Lan's Ultimate Blockade.
Lord Gen wanted to attack Ling Lan directly but before he could do that, he must destroy this web. His poisonous bugs wouldn't be able to reach Ling Lan if the web was there.
It could be said that from the start, Lord Gen miscalculated. He allowed Ling Lan to carry out her plan successfully. Lord Gen was like a prey in her web, and breaking the web was his only option.
Ling Lan remained calm and unconcerned when the swarming bugs came towards her. Her hands moved again. Her movements were extremely elegant. If she wasn't fighting, people would have thought that she was dancing.
As Ling Lan's arms danced around, the semi-transparent threads in the air started dancing too. The slacken threads in the air moved along with Ling Lan's finger. The bugs that attempted to bite it failed due to its rapid movement. The threads also managed to dodge the spitted venom. Even if it accidentally touched the venom, a new thread would take over its position and merge with the broken thread.
At this moment, Ling Lan looked like a fairy from heaven dancing elegantly in the air. Her long silver hair floated in the wind. If she still had contact with the learning space, Number Four would have warm tears in her eyes as she finally saw the chance for her to come out.
"Divine destruction!" Following this sound, the dancing threads went taut. Layers and layers of it moved towards the domain formed by Lord Gen's giant scorpion. The threads cut into the domain from all angles.
Chapter 1343 Little White Unleashed Its Power!
Lord Gen could feel that his domain was getting sliced open by the invisible thread. It was on the edge of falling apart. With no choice, he forced out a determined expression on his face as he started to wave his arms at a three second interval. Poisonous bugs immediately poked out of the ground and crawled out in massive waves, while the gigantic scorpion that was holding his domain together, began to crazily flail around its seven stingers. It cut through the layers of threads that were wrapping around its body.
The two of them were in a fierce tussle once again. One was trying to destroy while the other was quickly repairing..
Just like that, the two of them fought for more than 10 minutes. Lord Gen saw that the threads that covered his domain were getting lesser and lesser. Moreover, he still had a good amount of energy left to sustain him for a much longer fight.
Right as Lord Gen believed he was going to win this battle, the large scorpion that was originally moving around its seven tails with great force, seemed to turn somewhat tired. The speed at which it was moving its tails decreased.
"Come on, put in more effort just one more time. When I take care of him, I will give him to you as your dinner and let you have a good meal." Lord Gen encouraged the somewhat tired scorpion. The body of an imperial realm formidable warrior was definitely a wondrous elixir for a poisonous bug to grow quickly. If it was lucky, his imperial stage gigantic scorpion would be able to advance to the god-realm. If that happened, the time for him to advance into the god-realm wouldn't be too far either.
He thought his words of encouragement would fire up the scorpion to work harder. However, the large scorpion seemed to be too tired or maybe had indigestion. It actually wasn't even one bit excited. The speed at which it was flailing not only didn't become quicker, it actually gone even slower.
Lord Gen created another wave of poisonous bugs to clear out the threads that were getting too close. After doing that, he finally had the time to look at his large scorpion.
After looking at it, Lord Gen was completely surprised. It was because he noticed the large scorpion's own domain concept energy was actually quickly disappearing, causing it to become weaker. However, this situation didn't make any sense to him.
The rainbow palace was not only replenishing his domain concept energy, but also doing that for the large scorpion. However, even while being replenished by the rainbow palace, it was still not enough to compensate for the speed of the depletion. What was happening?
Lord Gen knew there was something amiss. He looked closely and immediately discovered the reason.
Although he and his scorpion were breaking the overwhelming threads Ling Lan had put out, many of the broken threads were still hanging off the scorpion's legs and stingers. These threads were originally transparent, but now, there was actually a dark shine coming from them. The aura those threads gave off had a familiar yet unfamiliar domain concept energy attached to them. It was as though he had encountered it or seen it before.
It was that mysterious domain concept energy that was devouring their energies. The more energy they used, the more that dark light devoured.
A thought came to mind and Lord Gen audibly gasped. "Space concept."
He was right. This domain concept energy was the space domain concept Lan Xiao used in the battle on the 7th Bugle Call. He didn't expect his opponent to actually manage to successfully combine the space concept and ice element concept together… These two concepts were completely different. How could they be combined together? According to Lord Qian's theory, it was possible if two concepts came from the same root. However, no one has ever been able to successfully combine two completely unrelated concepts. Forcing them to combine would create backlash that would devastate or implode the body.
"Too late." Ling Lan looked at Lord Gen coldly when she noticed him realizing the threads were sucking his scorpion's energy.
"Double Limit Release!" After those words were spoken, the white snowflake mark on Ling Lan's forehead began to expand. The color instantly turned black while covering her entire forehead. The pattern slowly morphed into an image of a bloodied flower, making Ling Lan seem very demonic and evil.
At the same time, the now pitch black threads on the scorpion cracked up like tears in a fabric. It was as though there were countless large mouths ready to devour the scorpion whole.
"Get away!" Lord Gen roared out loud, exploding his domain concept energy outwards. He wanted to close the dimensional tears that were being opened.
Lord Gen knew clearly that once those tears combined into a line, the large scorpion in the middle would definitely be sucked in. If it was just a normal scorpion, he wouldn't care if he lost it. But, as luck would have it, this large scorpion was the bug he was born with. Once he lost it, it wouldn't put his life in peril, but his strength would drop immensely. He might not even be able to maintain the strength of a titled domain realm master, not to mention still being an imperial realm formidable warrior.
Once he lost the strength of an imperial realm formidable warrior, his position as Lord Gen would definitely be taken away by the other lords. Without the designation of being 'Lord Gen' and no imperial stage strength, the people and factions he had offended in the past would definitely take that chance to take him out, even his own subordinates might find opportunities to make a move on his life.
Lord Gen's methods had always been cruel and brutal. He knew that out of the guardians working under him, some of them deeply hated him. As long as they were given the chance, they would definitely kill him.
Right as Lord Gen was holding back the dimension tear from opening, Ling Lan suddenly shouted, "Little White!"
A little ball suddenly jumped out of a pile of snow closest to Lord Gen.
That little ball was too small and fast. Moreover, it easily broke through Lord Gen's domain territory. When Lord Gen realized it, that little ball had already arrived in front of him.
"Die!" Lord Gen flung his left arm ruthlessly. Right as the arm was about to touch Little White, Lord Gen suddenly felt everything go black.
In the next second, he was pulled into a large black hole. At the same time, his seven-stinger scorpion was also pulled in with him.
Little White closed its large mouth and burped in satisfaction. That large scorpion was too big so Little White felt a little bloated. Luckily, its stomach was very big. In the stomach, the scorpion was tossed aside to the ends of its stomach. Little White would one day find time to slowly devour it in the future.
"Little White! You're squishing me to death." Ling Lan was currently pinned to the wall by Little White. Hearing that demonic voice, Little White quickly turned around to look for Ling Lan but while doing so, Ling Lan was rolled under Little White's butt. She had only one free hand that was trying its best to push aside Little White's butt in order to save herself from flattening into a pancake.
"Rawr!" Little White put its tentacles over its head in fear. 'Oh my god, I sat on my master? I'm definitely going to die. Wah wah wah, who's going to save me? I don't want to get fried, boiled and eaten by my master…
Little White, who was in shock, turned back into its smaller body right after realizing what it had done. It held its head on the floor and trembled in fear. It was waiting for its master to punish it.
"It seems I'm not the only one." Ling Lan looked around the place and instantly laughed.
"Little White, can you tell us before turning into your real form next time?" Luo Lang held his head that was smashed by Little White's body. He sat on the floor and looked at Little White, who was now shaking and looking pitiful.
Little White's butt squished him quite hard. He even thought he was going to become a pancake.
Chapter 1344 Token Of Love!
Li Lanfeng touched his forehead with an agonized expression as he struggled to stand up from the ground. When Little White suddenly turned big, he was fighting with the two guardians with his back facing it, so he didn't have time to react before he got squashed. His face was slammed so hard into the marble that he could still see stars spinning around him. He felt dizzy. When he finally managed to stand up, his head spun and he staggered before falling down on the ground again.
He stood up again but he could feel that he was going to slam onto the ground again. He prepared himself to face the incoming pain. However, the pain never came; instead he fell into a pair of warm arms.
Ling Lan hugged Li Lanfeng lightly and asked in concern, "Are you injured?"
Ling Lan didn't forget that Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang were fighting with more than one opponent, so the pressure they were under was greater than her. Thus, they might be injured. But, still, they were quite lucky that everyone managed to pull through.
Li Lanfeng raised his head and looked at Ling Lan. He wanted to reply that he was alright but when he saw Ling Lan's cold and demonic appearance, which he never saw before, it struck his heart like a sharp arrow. One look was enough for him to remember for his entire life.
Badump! Badump! Badump! Badump! He felt his heart palpitating furiously. It felt as though it was going to jump out of his chest soon. A hot sensation seeped out of his chest. He really wanted to hide Ling Lan in his pocket and look at him every day.
"What happened?" Ling Lan asked curiously when she saw Li Lanfeng staring at her absent-mindedly. She didn't know that her demonic appearance had such a huge impact on Li Lanfeng because he already had feelings for her. Thus, he couldn't gather his thoughts to reply to her.
Ling Lan was worried when she couldn't get a reply from Li Lanfeng. She lifted her hand and caressed Li Lanfeng's forehead. She used her concept energy to inspect Li Lanfeng's condition. Immediately, she noticed his heart which was beating extremely fast. She got a shock. His heart condition hadn't recovered fully?
Ling Lan was very worried. They only brought a batch of powerful agents created by Li Shiyu as well as the second generation of the life-saving Nuwa agent for this mission. They didn't have a professional military doctor with them. If the medical agent didn't work, they were helpless.
"Have some medicine." Ling Lan took out the second general Nuwa agent she brought along with her and passed it to Li Lanfeng.
After touching the bottle of the agent, Li Lanfeng finally regained his senses. He saw the worry in Ling Lan's eyes and her decisive actions when she took out the Nuwa agent. Li Lanfeng felt warm in his heart. He knew that they didn't bring many bottles of Nuwa agents with them. There were only 50 of them, and each one of them was precious. Their journey to the Lawless Lands was just starting. As a life-saving agent, the Nuwa agent was extremely important to their goal of rooting themselves here. They wouldn't bear to use it until they were on the very edge of dying.
But, in Ling Lan's eyes, this precious agent was not as important as him. She gave it to him so easily because she was worried about him.
Li Lanfeng knew that if Luo Lang was injured, Ling Lan would do the same thing. Ling Lan treated them equally. However, at this moment, he wanted to deceive himself and believe that Ling Lan would only treat him like this.
If he thought this way, he would feel like he was the most important person to Ling Lan. Li Lanfeng never expected that he would use this method to fool himself one day, dreaming about something that would never happen.
Li Lanfeng stretched his hand and took the bottle of agent from Ling Lan's hand. Ling Lan's body temperature could still be felt on the bottle. He longed for the warmth as he clutched the bottle tightly. He couldn't bear to let it go.
"Why aren't you drinking it?" Ling Lan asked curiously when she saw Li Lanfeng looking at the agent without drinking it.
Li Lanfeng smiled as he said, "Let me try to bear with it. The agent is too precious after all. We should not use it if it isn't necessary."
Ling Lan frowned. The agent was precious but Li Lanfeng's heart was beating abnormally. The heart wasn't like the other organs. Once something happened to it, the person would die instantly.
"I know my limit." Li Lanfeng consoled Ling Lan. He understood Ling Lan like he understood himself. He could tell what Ling Lan was thinking with just a slight change in her expression.
Ling Lan wanted to say something but she suddenly looked up and noticed that the unconscious guardians were showing signs of waking up.
"I'm fine." Li Lanfeng reassured Ling Lan.
Hearing that, Ling Lan finally released Li Lanfeng's body and slowly walked to the five guardians who were still lying on the ground but struggling to stand up. She lifted her right hand slowly and stretched her hand out. Five threads appeared from thin air. Ling Lan shook her fingers. The empty hall suddenly became a world full of threads.
When Li Lanfeng noticed that Ling Lan's attention was on the five guardians, he let go of himself and indulged in her looks. He looked at her as if he was in a trance.
He felt the bottle in his hand and gave a dreamy smile.
This bottle was a token of love that Ling Lan gave him, right?
As someone who went crazy because of love, he could only use these ways to fool himself. Maybe one day, he would be dissatisfied and do crazier things to get even more. But, now, Li Lanfeng didn't have the courage to face Ling Lan's look of disdain. He could only forcefully control the devil in his heart that was dying to get out so that these beautiful days could last longer.
'Ling Lan, Ling Lan, I can't control my greed anymore. Only you can save me in this world. If that day comes, please don't hate me.' Li Lanfeng placed the bottle beside his lips and kissed it. He felt like he was kissing Ling Lan. Then, he placed the bottle of agent carefully in his pocket. He would never use this agent even if he died.
When Ji Ming opened his eyes, he saw a sky full of threads and snowflakes. It was like a dreamland. He felt that they were not in a fight. Instead, they were admiring the view from the mountain hillside.
At this moment, a cold and beautiful person who looked like a cross between a devil and an angel entered his eyes. The person looked at them without any emotion, as though he was looking at a dead person. The gaze sent a chill down Ji Ming's spine and he regained his senses instantly.
Ji Ming looked around him instantly. He realized that their invincible Lord Gen was nowhere in sight. He was stunned. Did their Lord Gen run away because he was defeated?
Ji Ming never thought of the chance that his master might be dead. His first reaction was that Lord Gen ran away to seek help from the other lords before coming back to take revenge on these bold culprits.
"Your Lord Gen is dead." Ling Lan saw through Ji Ming's thoughts so she told him the truth calmly.
"That's impossible. You're talking nonsense." Ji Ming reacted by refuting her furiously.
Ling Lan clenched her right fist and threads moved closer towards the five guardians. In a blink of an eye, they were wrapped tightly in a cocoon. Ling Lan flicked her hand and threw the five people next to Luo Lang. "Look after them."
"Yes, Boss!" Luo Lang tied the five people up with five metal chains and hung them on a crossbeam in the hall.
1345 Who Are You?
Ling Lan strolled towards Lord Gen's throne. She flicked her finger and the stone throne turned into a pile of dust. The dust then got blown into the air and disappeared. Then, a majestic ice throne formed slowly from the ground up. Ling Lan flicked the back of her windbreaker and turned to sit down on the chair. Simultaneously, the symbol on her forehead diminished rapidly. Her hair turned short and returned back to black colour. In the end, she turned back into the familiar Ling Lan with a cold and dominating aura.
Li Lanfeng disappeared from his spot. When he reappeared again, he was already standing behind Ling Lan. Just like in the past, he silently performed his role as Ling Lan's most trusted aide, the person whom she was willing to give her back to.
Ling Lan leaned back on the chair and looked towards the door of the hall. She said evenly, "Lord Zhen is here."
The moment she finished her sentence, a figure appeared in the hall.
The person looked around him and saw the five guardians hanging on the crossbeam. Then, he saw Ling Lan who was sitting on the ice throne. His gaze turned bleak.
"Where is Lord Gen?" Lord Zhen asked grimly.
The gentle and amiable attitude he had towards his junior in the morning was gone. He was full of vigilance and seriousness now.
"I'm already sitting here. Lord Zhen, what do you think?" Ling Lan placed her hand on her chin and smiled at Lord Zhen.
Lord Zhen's gaze turned sharp. "You killed him?"
He silently sought Lord Gen's aura in the surrounding. There were still remnants of it but they were like duckweeds that lost their root. The rainbow palace that used to be Lord Gen's, his strong domain concept instilled in it was slowly dissipating, and the ice element replaced its position. The concentration of ice elements in the palace was getting higher and higher. There was also a tinge of space concept energy still lingering in the air.
"The winner takes it all. Isn't that the rule of the Lawless Lands?" Ling Lan smiled as she replied.
"Who are you?" Only imperial realm formidable warriors were able to kill Lord Gen. If Lord Zhen still believed that Ling Lan was from the Rainbow Raiders now, he was brainless.
"Is that important?" Ling Lan raised her eyebrows.
"Of course. If you're a stooge sent by the nations in the central region, no matter how powerful the country behind you is, we'll kill you. We won't allow anyone over there to gain control of the Lawless Lands," Lord Zhen said ruthlessly. This was the consensus the 13 Lords had reached. It was the bottomline of all the factions in the Lawless Lands. If this young man was really sent by those nations, they wouldn't bow down to him and let other powers take over this place even if it meant that the Lawless Lands might be locked up entirely and no resources would be sent to them.
The people in the Lawless Lands were extremely talented but they bore grudges. The evil, battles, and chaos of the Lawless Lands were all caused by the nations from the central region. If the nations didn't allow those criminals to leave, would they be able to escape the pursuit of the entire nation and cross through so many planetary sectors to reach the Lawless Lands?
The nations from the central regions were dissatisfied with the amount of resources in the Lawless Lands and the talents of the locals there were restricted by their lifespan so there was little value in it.
However, deep in their hearts, they were afraid of the talented locals too. Once they were able to break through their lifespan restriction, because of their powerful combat skills, they would definitely become a huge threat to the reign of the nations in the central region.
Thus, to limit the Lawless Lands and to prevent it from developing into something that could threaten them, the nations in the central region would send many ruthless and evil criminals every year to turn the Lawless Lands into the source of evil. They wanted the two sides to fight with each other. Sometimes, when there weren't enough criminals, they would disguise people from the secret factions in the military as criminals and send them over to create many murders, hence strengthening the hatred between the locals and the criminals.
Due to this, the Lawless Lands became a place filled with fights and murders. In the past, the locals were stubborn and didn't like each other but the order of the Lawless Lands was still there. It wouldn't become a haven for murderers.
At first, the locals were still clueless about this deep-rooted scheme. The real criminals were really maniac murderers so the combination of this and the scheme of the nations made the locals hate all the criminals that came from the outside world. As time went by, two large factions formed in the Lawless Lands: the locals and the criminals. There were many conflicts between these two factions too but once there was an outside threat that could destroy the balance of the two factions, everyone would put down their internal grudges and unite against their common enemy.
After some time, they found out that the nations in the outside world were behind this chaotic mess. However, the grudges between the two factions had successfully formed. There was no room for reconciliation.
A few hundred years of no reconciliation went by. Due to the ongoing battles and the other nations inhibiting the amount of supplies they could get, besides their combat ability, all other areas of the Lawless Lands were underdeveloped. This carried on until the appearance of the 13 Lords. The 13 Lords worked hard to relieve the tension between the two factions, allowing the Lawless Lands to resume peace for a period of time.
After that, the 13 Lords started working with the mercenary world, and successfully opened a few trade routes to let supplies from the outside world come into the Lawless Lands. From then on, the Lawless Lands went into its development phase.
But, this wasn't what the nations from the central region wanted to see.
In order to break the agreement between the 13 Lords, the nations groomed a faction secretly to try and destroy the stability of the Lawless Lands.
In the past, Lord Gen and Lord Zhen collaborated and annihilated a powerful faction that could become the 14th lord. Although one of their intentions was to prevent people from weakening their stranglehold of power, the most basic reason was that they discovered that this faction came from the nations of the central region. This finding crossed the bottomline of all the lords.
When Ling Lan disguised herself as someone from the Rainbow Raiders to get into the Lawless Lands, it was a great decision in hindsight. Without this identity, she might have been killed by Lord Gen and Lord Zhen together the moment she arrived at the spaceport.
They let Ling Lan go temporarily because they were worried about their deal with the mercenary world. They didn't want to lose this helper. Without them, the Lawless Lands would return back to its poor state.
Thus, when they decided to kill Ling Lan, they planned to do it secretly by using the secret factions they groomed.
However, Lord Zhen now knew that they were fooled. Their worry didn't even exist in the first place. This person wasn't from the Rainbow Raiders. He was at most someone who had a personal relationship with White Monarch. This kind of personal relationship wouldn't affect their collaboration with the mercenary world.
Lord Zhen's killing intent became stronger and a bolt of purple lightning flashed passed his eyes.
"Don't worry. I'm not from those countries." Ling Lan flipped her right hand and a golden orb with a soul drawn on it appeared on her palm.
Astonishment and anger appeared in Lord Zhen's eyes. He stopped his attack instantly.
1346 Give In!
"Soul Society?" Lord Zhen gritted his teeth as he scrutinized the golden orb. "Where are you here? Isn't the Soul Society doing well?"
The colour of the orb in the Soul Society symbolizes their authority in their ranks. Having a golden orb meant that Lan Xiao's status was equal to that of a governor of the 18 big zones.
Outsiders like them wouldn't truly know how Soul Society internally functioned, but with the surface knowledge they had, the next-in-line after the Soul Emperor were the governor of the 18 big zones. All 18 governors had equal authority, so no one was more influential than the other.
Soul Society was a secret organisation with a prolific history. It had approximately more than ten thousand years of legacy behind its rather infamous name. Its roots could be found in all corners of the universe. Soul Society had always been a huge worry for the intergalactic nations, so they would always expend a lot of financial and manual resources to execute those whom they thought were members of the Soul Society. However, those who they could find were usually low-class members of the Soul Society. The upper-class members were rarely discovered. Yet, all the intergalactic nations knew the identities of the 18 governors but they were helpless in doing anything to catch them as they were doing legal businesses within the confines of their law. Moreover, there were all kinds of organizations behind them so they couldn't touch them even if they wanted to.
With such an illustrious name and background, every secret society was jealous of the Soul Society. They were the idol society they all aspire to grow into one day, a society that could do business for anyone and everyone. It was no different for the Lawless Lands, who was being suppressed by the intergalactic nations, who were also full of envy towards the Soul Society. Thus, when Lord Zhen saw the token for the Soul Society, he had mixed feelings.
"Recently, the nations from the central region are trying to cull the Soul Society with all their might," Ling Lan replied nonchalantly. "So, the Emperor wants to give a path of retreat for the Soul Society here."
"Haha, don't you already have many of those?" Lord Zhen scoffed.
"The emperor doesn't mind having more," Ling Lan replied with a mysterious smile.
"So you laid your eyes on the Lawless Lands?" Lord Zhen mocked, "Do we have to thank your emperor for his recognition?"
"Actually, what's so bad about it? We just want a path of retreat, and with our success, you will get another trade route for your necessities. Don't tell me that you want to play in the palms of the mercenary world forever." Ling Lan's words hit Lord Zhen's weak spot.
As the Lords of the Lawless Lands, they never like to place their fate in the hands of an outsider like the mercenary world. Even if it looked like a win-win situation on the surface for both parties, one of the parties was clearly extorting the other party for its lack of options.
"You could have sent your people to discuss the terms with us. There was no need to murder." Lord Zhen squinted. Ling Lan and her team acted quickly and ruthlessly the moment they arrived. This inconsistency made him suspicious of the Soul Society's true motive.
"You won't want a 14th lord to appear as it would throw off the balance of the Lawless Lands, I understand that. But, the emperor would never accept anything less than the position of a lord. However, none of you will willingly let go of your spot. Hence, we decided to make the proactive decision to take a spot for ourselves," Ling Lan replied. Her attitude was exceptionally good but her words were domineering.
"Is the Soul Society always this domineering?" Lord Zhen narrowed his eyes and asked in a grave tone.
"Hmm, how about this? Lets just say I did this to make it easier for you to decide to give me the position of lord." Ling Lan smiled as she played with the golden orb in her hand. She continued calmly, "Now, there is one less lord. We can take over his position while the rest of you continue holding on to your status. The status quo won't change. Isn't that great? Moreover, you will even have access to another trade route. Of course, you are always welcome to go to war with us to avenge the dead Lord Gen."
"Actually, you are not the only partner the Soul Society has in mind. For instance, the mercenary world…" As she spoke, Ling Lan stretched out her left hand and opened it, revealing the colourful rainbow crystal in it. Lord Zhen knew that in her hand was White Monarch's token which represented his promise. The same token that caused them to misunderstand Ling Lan and took her as a member of the Rainbow Raiders. They had worried about their cooperation with the mercenary world so they allowed Lan Xiao to enter the Lawless Lands while adopting a wait-and-see attitude. And now, one wrong step and everything was gone. They allowed Lan Xiao to kill Lord Gen successfully while they were still twiddling their thumbs thinking about the relationship between them and the mercenary world if they killed Lan Xiao.
Since Lan Xiao had White Monarch's token, it meant that the Soul Society had already formed an agreement with the mercenary world. Even if it wasn't the entire mercenary world, they still made an agreement with White Monarch from the Rainbow Raiders. Whichever it was, it wasn't a good sign to the Lawless Lands.
"After the war, who knows how many lords will be able to survive? If we lose, the Soul Society can just leave the Lawless Lands. We have many options. But, for you, the still full strength mercenary world would come and take you over." Ling Lan smiled deviously. Her smile was so glaring that it made Lord Zhen uncomfortable. However, he had to admit that Lan Xiao made a lot of sense. If they went into war with the Soul Society, the mercenary world would be extremely happy as the spectator. They might involve themselves to make even more mess in the situation. Who knows?
"I thought that you have already formed an agreement with the mercenary world," Lord Zhen said. Ling Lan's speech just now betrayed the mercenary world entirely.
"Soul Society isn't something you can anyhow make use of." Ling Lan raised her eyebrow. She explained why she betrayed the mercenary world.
"Working with the Soul Society is like asking the tiger for its skin." Lord Zhen gritted his teeth.
"If you're strong enough, you might be able to get the skin." Ling Lan smiled knowingly.
Lord Zhen and Ling Lan exchanged glances with each other. They wanted to see weakness in the other party's eyes. Ling Lan's gaze remained calm and indifferent, even after a few minutes. With no clues to go by off, Lord Zhen had no choice but to give up.
"I can't make the decision alone. I have to seek the opinions of the other lords." Lord Zhen finally gave in.
"Sure. I'll be waiting here." Ling Lan smiled. "Also, tell them that Lord Gen's territory is officially taken over by the Soul Society now. If any of your subordinates try to profit in times of trouble and raise any kind of disputes, don't look for me when they suddenly disappear. I'm very busy recently."
Lord Zhen's expression darkened when he heard the blatant threat. Then, Ling Lan raised her eyebrows and used her right finger to tap on the temple of her head, reminding Lord Zhen to think carefully before doing something stupid.
"Hmph!" Seeing Lan Xiao mocking him, Lord Zhen flicked his sleeve angrily and disappeared from the hall the next second.
Ling Lan just smiled at his departure. After she made sure Lord Zhen had really left, she turned and looked at the five people hanging on the crossbeam. She asked simply, "Have you finished considering?"
Ji Ming was the first to shout, "I'm willing to recognise you as the new Lord Gen!"
The smart Ji Ming noticed that Ling Lan only tied them up but didn't kill them. After careful deliberation, he understood why Ling Lan let go of their lives. He wanted them to do his bidding.
If Ling Lan decided to act alone, Ji Ming would choose to keep quiet. He would rather become a prisoner than to bow down to this young man. He knew what was the consequence of betraying the 13 Lords. That torture was worse than dying.
He could only think of a way to save himself and keep himself alive. After that, he would think about revenge. However, the background Ling Lan revealed was too powerful. One mercenary world was enough to let the 13 Lords hesitate. Now, there was another more powerful and mysterious organization, the Soul Society. The combination of these two organizations gave Ling Lan enough power to hold a status in the Lawless Lands. The 13 Lords had to give in to him.
As an old and experienced person, Ji Ming knew which decision was better for him. People like him liked to play up to powerful people. Ling Lan had the ability (he killed Lord Gen) and the background (Soul Society and the mercenary world). He was even stronger than his previous master, Lord Gen. Since the prospects were better, why wouldn't he accept it?
1347 Rainbow Palace?
Compared to Ji Ming, Yu Shangfei hesitated. The other three guardians looked at each other and followed Ji Ming in accepting their new master.
Seeing the four of them willingly surrender, Yu Shangfei could only sigh softly and speak in a sad tone, "I also willingly accept."
It was hopeless anyways. Seeing that Lord Zhen had left to meet with the other lords, Lan Xiao's proposal probably had a high chance of being accepted. The reason he was hesitating to surrender was because he was betting on that slim chance of Lan Xiao's proposal getting rejected. However, with most of his colleagues turning sides, he relented and just followed what everyone else was doing.
Ling Lan waved her hand and the five of them fell to the floor.
Ling Lan then pointed towards the five of them. Li Lanfeng smiled and appeared in front of them in the next second. Then, he handed out five vials of medicinal agents.
Seeing the suspicious vials, Ji Ming and the others gave a questioning gaze. They all looked up towards Ling Lan, who was sitting on the throne made out of ice.
Ling Lan was holding her chin and looking at them with a half-smile on her face.
"What's wrong? You don't want to?" asked Li Lanfeng.
Despite Li Lanfeng's words being very kind and mild-mannered, Ji Ming, Yu Shangfei and the other three still felt as though ice water was poured over their heads. They immediately shuddered and didn't dare to hesitate, taking one vial each.
"Drink up!" Li Lanfeng smiled sweetly as he spoke.
Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei looked at each other at apprehension. They simultaneously gritted their teeth and drank down a vial of medicinal agent in one gulp.
Among the guardians who served Lord Gen, Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei had much more influence than the other three guardians. Seeing the two of them give in, the other three also didn't dare to hesitate and drink the medicinal agent. They were now like lambs to slaughter, how could they even resist against this?
After drinking the medicinal agent, they felt a feeling that they couldn't describe rushing deep into their bones. The immense pain they felt was as though someone was ripping them apart from the inside. The five of them had cold sweat come out from their foreheads as they screamed in agony on the floor. If it was just simple pain, they wouldn't have a hard time going through it. They had fought through many types of dangerous situations and had been injured countless of times. All of those torturous times they managed to survive the pain. However, this unbearable pain had a constant numb and itchy feeling that they couldn't get rid of. Moreover, it was also spreading all over their body.
This feeling was cutting up their pride. It was so unbearable that they were willing to die rather than endure such torment.
Perhaps this was a test. One guardian suddenly raised his head, trying to smash into the marble flooring. He wanted to make himself faint or perhaps even dying was fine as well.
Shoo! A chain suddenly wrapped around his head, locking his head in place and stopping him from smashing his head on the floor. Luo Lang looked at the disheveled individuals on the floor coldly. He quickly wrapped his chains around her head to stop anyone from trying to even think of escaping.
"It's not that easy if you want to become my subordinates. Let's wait until you get past this stage before talking to me." In the end, they heard their new Lord Gen speaking down to them coldly. After hearing those words, they all fell unconscious.
Seeing the five of them black out from the pain, Luo Lang took back his chains in disgust as he murmured, "Just one vial and they already blacked out. Useless."
Ling Lan looked towards the five and said, "Not only do their bodies have innate flaws, they also have many problems from their training. It's their first time using the second generation gene agent. The more problems their bodies have, the stronger the effect of the medicine. It would have been odd if they hadn't fainted."
"Can they even be trusted?" Luo Lang was a bit worried. During these times, he really missed his friends in Lingtian. If Boss wanted to take over the Lawless Lands, they would need more people to do it so they had to compromise with these distrustful locals.
"It's fine even if they can't be trusted. As long as I am the Lord Gen that the lords acknowledge, they wouldn't dare to create huge problems for us," Ling Lan said calmly.
"They will be annoying though," added Li Lanfeng with a smile on his face.
"Wouldn't that make it hard for us?" Luo Lang was definitely still a newbie when it came to psychological warfare.
"It won't be hard for us. As long as the 13 Lords don't make a move, no matter how many things they try to do, it would be useless," explained Li Lanfeng.
"We can't let our guard down just yet. Even I'm just 50% sure that they would accept my proposal. If they believe it then it will be fine. If they don't…" Ling Lan sighed. The plan she used against Lord Zhen was dancing at the tip of a blade. If something had gone wrong, they would have been forced into a dead end. Luckily, she managed to fool him.
In reality, Ling Lan went into battle with an empty bag of nothing. Other than the token of White Monarch and the orb from the Soul Society, she had nothing else. It was just like she was performing a show by using the name of someone stronger than her to scare off her opponents. If the 13 Lords still wouldn't allow her to stay in the end, she would take Li Lanfeng, Luo Lang and everyone on the 7th Bugle Call to run away from this place.
That was right. Ling Lan was using the White Monarch's name. She also accidentally took in a subordinate from the Soul Society when she did her assignments. Her subordinate was also a prodigy. He took the opportunity and cooperated with Ling Lan, who replaced the Frost Monarch, and acquired the power to dispose of people in the Chaotic Lands. Afterwards, he slowly climbed the ranks within the Soul Society and was now the governor of the 18th District. That golden orb was the item he gave Ling Lan as a token of trust. It represented his loyalty to Ling Lan.
"What are we going to do now? Are we going to continue to wait here?" Luo Lang looked around them. When they first entered this place, they had made all of the servants here faint. Now, other than the three of them, there were unconscious people everywhere.
"Going by the strength of the medicinal agent, they probably would wake up after 2 hours," Li Lanfeng knew the specifications of the agent well.
"I'm very interested in the rainbow palace." Ling Lan raised her head and looked towards the roof of the main hall. Every pillar and pole were set in a clever way. It was as though it used the theory of body armor. Plus, when she was fighting with Lord Gen, she felt the rainbow palace was replenishing Lord Gen's domain energy almost infinitely. This was someone a normal palace couldn't do.
"I also sensed it," nodded Li Lanfeng.
"Boss, what are you guys saying? What did you sense?" Luo Lang was very confused. He hated when Boss and that sly fox Li Lanfeng spoke in code. It made him feel like he was being left out.
"You can go to your calm personality for help you know," said Li Lanfeng.
Now that the situation had turned for the better, Li Lanfeng was able to make jokes.
"Hmph!" Luo Lang snorted coldly in dissatisfaction. Then, he obediently went to go find his calm personality.
Ling Lan shook her head helplessly. Luo Lang would always be easily ordered around by Li Lanfeng. As luck would have it, Luo Lang never learned. Luo Lang was lucky that Li Lanfeng didn't have any evil intentions, otherwise, Luo Lang wouldn't even know how he managed to die. Especially when the calm personality couldn't constantly stay by Luo Lang's side.
Not long after, Luo Lang received the answer and thought about it deeply. Then, he realized something and said, "I see. Boss's ice element concept was weakening, but the original Lord Gen's insect concept energy was increasing."
"The rainbow palace is trying to recover the insect concept and at the same time flush out other concepts that aren't of the insect element." Ling Lan flicked her right hand and a simple military knife made from ice slowly formed in her palm. Her activation of the ice element stopped the ice element concept in the palace from weakening. It also temporarily stopped the rainbow palace from recovering the insect element concept.
1348 I Don"t Want to Lose Anyone
"This rainbow palace definitely has some sort of secret," Luo Lang's eyes shined brightly. This was the first time his eyes had brightened up since Xie Yi's death.
Ling Lan looked at the palace with a smile, "Do you fancy going in and looking through it with me?"
Luo Lang nodded his head furiously. He had never seen anything like it and was definitely interested in it.
"Then let's go." Ling Lan had already sensed the point of origin of the rainbow palace's insect domain concept. They had time so they might as well go in and take a look. After all, she was going to make this her first headquarters. The rainbow palace, of course, couldn't be left out and become a problem in the future.
Once Ling Lan moved, Li Lanfeng followed behind her without being told to. Luo Lang also excitedly followed them.
Seeing Luo Lang become fully focused on the secret of the rainbow palace, the calm personality breathed a sigh of relief. He then slowly returned to the mindscape.
Right after he returned to the mindscape, he felt something lock onto his arm.
A Tangdao appeared in the calm personality's hand as he slashed behind his back without hesitation.
"Hiss! You're so cruel." A slow and lazy voice echoed in the air. The calm personality then saw the evil personality clad in black move far away from him as he looked at him with a teasing smile.
The calm personality wore a full body of white clothes. It complemented him as it gave out a calming vibe to anyone around him. If he had to mention the personality that he hated most out of all the personalities, none of them was more annoying than this evil personality in front of him, who was his complete opposite.
"Why are you here?" said the calm personality coldly.
The evil personality raised his eyebrows and said, "What? Did you forget my terms?"
"Serving the primary personality is the natural order of things," said the calm personality nonchalantly.
"Heh, that's you people and not me." The evil personality disappeared and then reappeared near the calm personality. He twirled a lock of hair on the calm personality's head and said softly, "You know. Only you can make me lend a helping hand."
Then there was white flash. The slash of the Tangdao was very decisive and ruthless. The evil personality smiled softly and evaded away again, "You always bring out weapons. Can't you just talk to me like a normal person?"
"If you didn't touch me, I wouldn't try to cut you." The calm personality twisted his wrist, drawing a flower with the blade and then sheathed it.
The calm personality didn't know why such a dumb and sweet Luo Lang had such an annoying personality within his body. Not only did this personality want to talk about the 'terms' every time he's called upon, he would also come to annoy him whenever he was resting. The calm personality had already tightened all of his defenses, but the evil personality still managed to successfully get past them every time. All of his failures made him quite frustrated and annoyed. He honestly had the thought of cutting him to death just to get back his peace and quiet.
The calm personality knew that this feeling shouldn't appear in his personality, but every time he encountered this evil personality, his calmness would be on the brink of collapse. And as luck would have it, he couldn't do anything to the evil personality and was helpless in those situations. After fighting against him, the calm personality discovered that the evil personality might be stronger than him, even though he was deemed the strongest personality and was the leader of all of the personalities.
"Also, I'm tired. I need to rest." The calm personality had been keeping the primary personality together recently. Xie Yi's sacrifice and death had heavily impacted the primary personality, causing him to have signs of psychological collapse. The reason Luo Lang could recover so quickly was definitely credited to the calm personality's help. However, this also tired out the calm personality.
The evil personality appeared in front of the calm personality once again. He put out his right hand and slowly touched the calm personality's jade-like face. His eyes filled with heartache that couldn't be easily seen, but he still smiled and said, "Oh my, my, my, with our relationship? Calm, as long as you ask, I will help you protect that idiot."
Hearing that, the calm personality raised his head and stared coldly towards the evil personality, "He's not an idiot. He's our primary personality." He definitely wouldn't allow any of the other personalities to speak down towards the primary personality.
The evil personality narrowed his eyes. His right hand clenched with great force as if he was trying to strangle someone. "Calm, don't attempt to anger me… primary personality? How is he even qualified to become the primary personality? We are the ones who are the strongest. If it wasn't for you, I would have devoured him in an instant."
A blade flashed once again, and the Tangdao was now held against the evil personality's forehead. The calm personality held the Tangdao and looked at him coldly, "Evil, don't ever let me hear those types of demeaning words ever again. Otherwise, I will not rest until you die."
The evil personality smiled, "You think you can kill me? If you had spoken to me nicely, I would have let him go. However, you are too stubborn. One of these days, I will snap."
The calm personality laughed coldly. "I may not be stronger than you, but the primary personality has an existence that you can never defeat. Boss Ling Lan, and he already knows of your existence. I don't want to put you in a bad spot but you should take heed for your own sake."
After saying that, he sheathed his Tangdao. He then turned around to leave the mindscape to return to his own resting area.
The evil personality suddenly grabbed his hand.
The calm personality turned around and looked at him. He saw a colorful shimmer in the evil personality's eyes, "You're worried about me, aren't you?"
"I don't want to lose any of personalities." The calm personality said those words and then flung off his hand. He escaped from the evil personality's claws before disappearing from the mindscape in the next second.
"You can't fathom the thought of losing me." The evil personality smiled devilishly, but he couldn't hide the happiness in his eyes. "Alright, my mood is better now. I'll help you look after that dumb primary personality for a few days. Calm, rest up and don't worry."
The evil personality's voice travelled to the calm personality's ears, who had already reached his own resting area. The calm personality was silent for a short while before sighing softly in the end. A look of uncertainty appeared in his eyes. He didn't know whether what he did was right or not. However, that look of uncertainty was only for an instant. In the next second, he returned back to his calm and indifferent nature. He definitely didn't want to lose any one of the personalities.
At that moment, Ling Lan, Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang reached the stone wall at the back of the rainbow palace.
The rainbow palace was actually built against a mountain. The front and side walls were built by the previous Lord Gen and the back wall was actually the wall of the mountain.
"It's all stone." Luo Lang leaned on the mountain wall and knocked, but he couldn't find any hollow areas.
"The wall has no issues. The issue is here." Ling Lan stood 5 meters away from the mountain wall and softly pointed towards the large granite stone with her foot.
Luo Lang arrived near the large granite stone with one jump. He knelt down and began to carefully knock on it. He still heard the sound of real stone and didn't sound like it was hollow.
"There doesn't seem to be any problems here," said Luo Lang confusedly.
Li Lanfeng also walked over and looked at it carefully. Then he said, "This piece of granite doesn't have any problems, but from where it is positioned, it indeed looks somewhat odd and unnatural."
After hearing that, Luo Lang looked at it as well. After carefully studying the floor, he raised his googly eyes and said confusedly, "How come I can't see anything odd and unnatural about it?"
"It's called intuition," Li Lanfeng didn't care about Luo Lang's feelings and mocked him.
"Pfft, you're not Qi Long. How could you have Qi Long's Animal Instinct," rebutted Luo Lang.