章 211: A single word.
With Yao Jun's speed, it only took him a single step to reach the edge of the floating island, allowing him to peer down at the massive landmass beneath him. He took another step forward, allowing himself to fall down from the edge of the island, the wind whistling in his ear.
As he plummeted towards the earth, the air around him started to coil and spin around him, producing an upwards draft and causing his falling speed to rapidly drop. With Yao Jun's control over wind, flying or walking in the air was an easy task, but both were a bit slower than his current falling speed, so he saw no need to do either.
He quickly approached the ground, allowing him to get a better look at the area where he was about to land. It had looked like a normal forest from above, but a closer inspection revealed that the ground of the forest was covered in bones of varying age, some so old that they had turned completely to dust.
Yao Jun merged part of his mind into the surrounding space and scanned the entire area, but he discovered no Demonic beasts, and only a few humans spread through the area, so it seemed to be safe. Since it seemed safe, he didn't bother stopping his descent, swiftly landing in the forest.
A rib-like bone shattered as he landed on it, but the sound was rather subdued and soft, so the bone was likely quite old. Yao Jun got a closer look at the trees now that he was standing in the forest, raising an eyebrow in surprise. The trees in the forest were quite spread, a few hundred meters open areas between each tree. The trees seemed to draw nourishment from the surrounding bones, their bark was completely white, with green vein-like patterns going up the sides of the trees, spreading to the verdant green leaves that were a bit triangular in shape.
Yao Jun gave the bark a few taps, producing a somewhat hollow sound, as if he had hit the bones of a bird. Not only did they draw nourishment from the bones, but they were also quite similar to bones as well. Yao Jun was a bit curious how such a type of tree came about, so he uprooted a few of them and pretended to store them into his interspatial ring, but actually tossed them into his God Gate. He left the job of re-planting the trees to Sirius and the others, creating space for them in the swamp-like area that was created when he absorbed Du Xiao and Siwang.
After stashing away the trees, Yao Jun turned his attention back to the various bones that covered the ground. Just like with the strange Demonic beast he saw earlier, which was covered in body parts of both humans and Demonic beasts, the bones in this area belonged to both humans and Demonic beasts.
Some of the human bones radiated a faint sense of power and Qi, showing that they came from cultivators of decent strength, but not all the bones were like this. Some of the bones were fragile and weak, radiating no power at all, meaning that they came from normal people who didn't cultivate. Could it be that there were actually people living in this hidden realm? Why would any of the sects and clans allow anyone to live in this hidden realm, which they kept closed between each grand competition to allow the various herbs and Demonic beasts to refill their numbers?
Now that he was actually thinking about it, there was another point that Yao Jun found somewhat strange. This competition had been taking place for countless years, an uncountable amount of people entering and leaving this hidden realm every 100 years. Yet there was very little information that could be obtained about it, not even the Heaven's Secrets Company had a lot of information about this hidden realm and the various locations within it. The only thing it had a bit of information about was the various inheritances that were spread around the outer edges of the hidden realm.
The more he thought, the more curious Yao Jun became about this hidden realm. Just what did it contain, and what sort of things were hidden away in the central parts of it? Yao Jun started to move, heading in one of the directions where he had sensed people. While moving, he continued to think about this hidden realm, as well as what he knew about it.
There was one thing he found himself a bit curious about, and that was the ownership and creation of this hidden realm. This competition was hosted in unison by the various sects and clans, making it likely that this hidden realm wasn't owned by any single one of them. But if one of the clans or sects was strong enough to originally create this hidden realm, why would they split up the control of it? Could it be that this hidden realm wasn't actually created by one of the sects, but by someone else? And just where in the universe was the hidden realm located?
Questions swirled around in Yao Jun's head, but there was no one here that could give him answers, he could only shelve the questions and do his best to seek out the answers on his own. He shook his head and cleared his mind, space around him rippling as he vanished.
He re-appeared atop one of the trees that was located several tens of kilometers away from his previous position, calmly observing two groups of people that were engaged in battle. One of the groups was filled with people who resembled humans, except for the fact that their mouths were vertical, not horizontal. The other group was more mixed, containing normal humans, the charcoal-like Final Fire clan people, and the blue-skinned people of the Primordial Sea clan.
He didn't interfere in the battle, only quietly observing it for now. The reason he had come here was that both the Final Fire clan and the Primordial Sea clan had allied with the Merged Heaven clan, so they might know a bit about Peyton. He didn't know which clan or sect the normal humans of the group belonged to, but it was highly likely that they were part of the alliance that had formed against the World Tree clan.
The group of people with vertical mouths fought valiantly and had excellent teamwork, but they were only 20 people, while their enemies were 50 people. Because of this, they quickly fell into a disadvantage, losing one person after another, their numbers quickly dwindling.
Fifteen minutes after Yao Jun arrived, the group of vertical-mouthed people had dwindled down to only 11 people, while the other group still had 47 people. But Yao Jun had seen enough, and he had determined that none of the people here presented any threat to him, so he no longer bothered hiding. He dropped down from the tree from which he had been observing the battle, stepping forward and revealing himself.
The two battling groups instantly stopped their fight, collectively turning towards Yao Jun with wary gazes. When they saw Yao Jun, both groups revealed confused expressions, realizing that they didn't recognize him. Seeing the expressions of his enemies, one of the vertical-mouthed people, a somewhat ugly man with dirty-green hair and a thin face, quickly called out to Yao Jun.
"Brother, please help us! Our Tenth Dawn sect will be sure to reward you handsomely if you help us flee!"
Compared to his looks, the voice of the thin-faced man was far more pleasing, soft and pleasant to the ear. Yao Jun glanced at him, but he didn't respond, as he had no interest in the battle they were engaging in. One of the blue-skinned Primordial Sea clan people, a girl with hair like seaweed, seemed to be worried that he would aid the Tenth Dawn sect people, so she quickly made a counter-offer.
"Please stay out of this, do so and we will share a portion of their Essence Marrow with you."
Essence Marrow was in truth just the bone marrow of dead cultivators or Demonic beasts who had reached a certain level of strength. After death, the energy within their body would leak out and vanish, but some of it would remain within the body, gathering in the various parts. If the energy was potent enough, it could gather deep within the bones and turn into a thick liquid which was useful for cultivating Qi, as it could nourish one's Immortal Foundation. This was Essence Marrow.
Yao Jun didn't respond to this girl either, continuing to slowly and calmly walk closer, both groups growing tenser with each step he took. As he walked, his eyes landed on the blue-skinned girl from the Primordial Sea clan.
"Tell me, do any of you know anything about Peyton Eluard?"
His question caught both groups off-guard. He hadn't come to steal the Essence Marrow, but to ask about a person instead. While they were recovering from their surprise, Yao Jun had taken several steps closer, so the girl once again called out, pointing a strange four-headed axe at him.
"Stay back!"
If they let Yao Jun get any closer to them, he would be within range to launching a surprise attack, which might be able to greatly wound several of them. When the girl saw that Yao Jun still wasn't stopping, for the safety of the members in her group, she had no choice but to launch a warning attack, a crushing pressure descending onto Yao Jun. She hoped this would persuade him to back off, but his only response to feeling the pressure was to speak a single soft word.
"Freeze."
Yao Jun's one word seemed to echo over the area, resounding in everyone's ears. The crushing pressure suddenly vanished, replaced by an unearthly chill that seemed to come from the depths of the underworld. The bones that covered the ground, the surrounding trees, everyone who was standing in the area, even the air itself froze.
Both groups now felt a deathly fear creep up on them. Their bodies had completely frozen, not even their Qi able to move, ice had even started to form on their skin. But they were still fully conscious, able to see, hear, and think. They couldn't help but be shocked and fearful, just what sort of person was it that had found them, for him to be able to completely incapacitate them all with but a single word?
They were shocked, but Yao Jun was still perfectly calm. The strongest people in these two groups had only reached the early stage of the Immortal Rebirth realm. Yao Jun was able to kill people like them even before he spent two years rigorously training.
Yao Jun walked up to the blue-skinned woman who had called out to him, who now felt like trembling in fear when she looked at his ghastly gray eyes, but failed to do even that as her body was completely frozen.
"Peyton Eluard, do you know anything about him, like his cultivation level or what subordinates he has?"
There was no way the Merged Heaven clan would let any information agency get a clear picture on the strength of one of their Young Masters, so Yao Jun couldn't buy much information from them. Since that was the case, it was better to just take the information from someone who knew, like some of Peyton's subordinates. The ice on the girl's body receded slightly, allowing her to open her mouth and hastily respond.
"We don't know any of his more private details, I promise! But I saw his name on the ranking list, so I do know that he has entered this competition!"
Her clan was in an alliance with Peyton's clan, but her status wasn't high enough to learn too much about it. At best, she knew the names of some of the more popular and famous people in the allied sects. Her words caught Yao Jun's interest, cocking his head slightly.
"Ranking list? What's that?"
Yao Jun's eyes were still calm, but waves were rocking within his heart. Peyton had joined this competition? He was here, in this very hidden realm? The bloodlust and rage Yao Jun kept hidden at the bottom of his heart started to slowly bubble forth, a ferocious smile unknowingly curling up on his face. Peyton had directly threatened Guo Luo and the others that Yao Jun held dear, he was also the one who knew the most about Yao Jun. Until Peyton was dead, Yao Jun could not rest comfortably.
Seeing a path for survival, the eyes of the girl quickly lit up with hope. She couldn't move, but as she responded to his question, she used her eyes to indicate her interspatial ring.
"It's an item you can buy in the various cities spread through this hidden realm, it lets you check the ranking of each competitor!"
Yao Jun's eyes landed on the yellow interspatial ring, sliding it off the girl's finger. There was a Qi seal on the ring, likely left behind by the girl to prevent others from using it without her permission. Yao Jun crushed the mark without much thought, rummaging through the ring until he found what he was looking for, a middle-finger sized jade cylinder.
Sinking part of his mind into the cylinder, countless names started to flood into his mind. The names were preceded by the rank and affiliation of the competitor, everything neatly organized. Yao Jun quickly looked up Peyton Eluard, finding him at a rank that was approaching the middle stages, 70 billion
He took out the cylinder and then returned the ring to the girl's finger. She was embarrassed that her interspatial ring, which contained all her personal items and clothing, had been searched through, but there was nothing she could do, she was weaker than Yao Jun.
Yao Jun weighed the jade cylinder for a short second before putting it into his own interspatial ring, glancing at the girl for a short moment.
"A thing like this existed, huh? I'll be taking this, consider it payment for attacking me."
The girl would of course not say anything, doing so would simply be suicidal. Yao Jun then turned and glanced at the vertical-mouthed people, waving his hand at them, removing the ice that froze them in place.
"You can leave, I have no interest in the Essence Marrow."
Essence Marrow was far less useful to Yao Jun than it was to normal cultivators. Yao Jun didn't have an Immortal Foundation like others, what he had was his Demon God's Gate and the world located within it. The only use he had for Essence Marrow was to use it as a fertilizer for the world inside his God Gate.
The 11 people from the Tenth Dawn sect quickly cupped their hands and gave Yao Jun a quick bow, loudly expressing their gratitude.
"Thank you! The Tenth Dawn will be sure to remember this!"
They picked up the bodies of their fallen comrades, and the thin-faced man tossed an interspatial ring to Yao Jun, who caught it and gave the contents a quick glance while the 11 people fled as fast as they could. The ring contained various pills and herbs, as well as a square stone talisman that had the words Guest Elder on it.
After putting away this interspatial ring, Yao Jun turned towards a distant mountain that was as white as bone. The mountain stretched straight up, the tip turning into a drill-like shape close to the top. When he scanned the entire area earlier, he detected that there were quite a few people gathering there, so he intended to check out what was going on. He stepped forward and vanished through space, leaving behind a few words for the still frozen people.
"Don't worry, you'll thaw out in a few minutes or so."
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