161: Sky Battle City

The flying boat sped forward.

In a flash, after only one day of crossing the Haiyun Dream Marsh, the flying boat did not stop, but continued to penetrate deep into the Central Continent.

It flew at extreme speed for two full days before reaching the Central Continent Immortal Mansion's vicinity, appearing at the venue of the Heaven Ruins Millennium Grand Tournament of Martial Arts:

Sky Battle City!

Sky Battle City, as its name suggests, is a fragment of land suspended in the sky, specifically used by Cultivators for battle.

There are many other such suspended land fragments like Sky Battle City in the Sky Ruins Continent.

Their primary cause was the impact of the World-Destroying war nearly a million years ago, which damaged some of the world's rules on the Sky Ruins Continent.

There are two Sky Battle Cities in the Central Continent. The one owned by the Central Continent Immortal Mansion is the largest and closest to the Central Continent Immortal Mansion, and is used as the exclusive venue for the Heaven Ruins Millennium Grand Tournament of Martial Arts.

The other Sky Battle City, not too far away, is called Heaven Tribulation Forbidden City. It is controlled by the Jietian Immortal Mansion and has been transformed by the Jietian Immortal Mansion into an exclusive training ground for its Sect's martial arts competitions, arena battles, and tournaments.

The Central Continent's structure is one superpower with many strong forces.

The Central Continent Immortal Mansion is an absolute continental overlord-level giant Cultivation force, and the continental overlord-level giant Cultivation forces that can challenge the Central Continent Immortal Mansion are few.

They are:

Tianxu Immortal Mansion, Demon Alliance, Dan Pavilion, Honghuang Shop, and Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion!

Six Cultivation forces recognized as continental overlord-level giants!

Below the continental overlord-level giant Cultivation forces are the sub-continental level giant Cultivation forces. All the strong forces in the Central Continent's 'one superpower with many strong forces' are on this list: Jietian Immortal Mansion, Scarlet Blood Immortal Mansion, Ye Family, Chu Family, Xiao Family, Qin Family, Death Immortal Valley, Yunmeng Immortal Sect, Limitless Immortal Sect, Purple Cloud Immortal Palace, Misty Immortal Palace, Luoli Immortal Gate, Great Forest Immortal Sect, etc.

With numerous sub-continental level giant Cultivation forces, the Central Continent's Martial Arts strength alone is enough to rival the combined Martial Arts strength of the Eastern Continent, Southern Continent, Northern Continent, and Western Continent, and perhaps even surpass it.

The Central Continent is the Holy Land of Martial Arts on the Sky Ruins Continent!

From the fact that the flying boat crossed the Haiyun Dream Marsh in one day, but could not cross the Central Continent in two days, taking at least three days to traverse the Central Continent in a straight line, it is evident that the Central Continent is truly vast.

After the flying boat arrived at Sky Battle City, under the prying of Divine Sense, Long Aotian discovered that they seemed to have arrived early, as other giant Cultivation forces participating in the Heaven Ruins Millennium Grand Tournament of Martial Arts had not yet arrived.

Indeed, arriving a month in advance? For the giant Cultivation forces of the Central Continent, there's no need to mention it; they are close by and familiar with the routes, so why would they need to arrive so early?

Although giant Cultivation forces from other continents also arrive early, they might have only just assembled, far from being as fast as the Cloud Palace Team.

To prevent any accidents, Long Aotian directly suspended the flying boat above Sky Battle City and did not let the Disciples disembark.

After all, the Cloud Palace Team truly did not have many top-tier powerhouses. If a large group of Spirit Division Realm Disciples went out, they might even be driven off Sky Battle City.

The flying boat was very large. To provide special care to the Dragon Clan with a seven-times time flow acceleration, the Disciples of Dragon Peak cultivated in seclusion in a separate area. Other Disciples, seeing the Dragon Peak Disciples Cultivate so diligently, were greatly influenced and mostly went into seclusion to Cultivate, but Long Aotian did not provide the seven-times time flow acceleration to anyone else.

Under the protection of the Divine Sense Void Isolation Formation, no one knew what benefits the Dragon Clan was enjoying.

However, Long Aotian's aunt, Hua Buqi, insisted on staying with the Dragon Clan, which made old man Hua Jinzhuan quite annoyed.

Hua Jinzhuan's biggest loss was that he did not want the Disciples of the Hua Family to integrate with the Disciples of the Dragon Clan, thereby losing the power to lead the Hua Family. Consequently, the Hua Family could not enjoy the benefits of the seven-times time flow acceleration.

Although Hua Buqi knew about this benefit, she was clearly a leaky little cotton jacket and did not tell Hua Jinzhuan about it.

This is also why Long Aotian's relationship with her is so strong; it's not just because he grew up on her milk, but because she would not expose anything about Long Aotian, not even to her own father.

It is worth mentioning, Ye Changxi!

On the flying boat, Hua Buwan and Ye Changxi met privately.

Afterward, Ye Changxi remained in the Dragon Clan's camp and even cultivated in the same lounge as Hua Buwan and Long Bubai. This left Long Aotian utterly dumbfounded.

His mother seemed to have accepted Ye Changxi as a concubine?

And it wasn't after Emperor Ye Ye Tian married off a princess; she proactively sought out Ye Changxi to take Ye Changxi as a concubine for his father?

What kind of divine operation was this?

Long Aotian was truly stunned.

If this were on Earth, it would definitely be scorned by people... Fortunately, now it's hard to hide anything from him.

Although Hua Buwan set up a Divine Sense isolation Formation to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on their conversation, it couldn't isolate her son. Long Aotian, whose ordinary Formations and Void Formations had already reached the ceiling of the Lower Realm, easily used his Divine Sense to invade the Divine Sense isolation Formation, and even managed to do so without them noticing.

Through eavesdropping, Long Aotian finally learned the melodramatic story between Ye Changxi, Hua Buwan, and Long Bubai.

Living in the Imperial City, Ye Changxi and Hua Buwan were actually very good best friends. Ye Changxi had Ice and Water Spiritual Roots.

Ice, born of water, yet colder than water.

The Ice Spiritual Root is a mutated Spiritual Root of the Water Spiritual Root, even more powerful than the Water Spiritual Root. Ye Changxi, possessing both Ice and Water Spiritual Roots, actually had Martial Arts Talent that was even more Heaven-Defying than that of a pure Spiritual Root Cultivator.

This is also one reason why she chose to join Ice Peak in Cloud Palace instead of Water Peak; she clearly understood that the Ice Spiritual Root was stronger than the Water Spiritual Root.

Speaking of Spiritual Roots here, what is its connection to the three of them?

Naturally, there is a connection.

Ye Changxi was the first to get together with his father, Long Bubai. The two had even reached the final step, just missing a formal title.

At this moment, Emperor Ye began to break them apart, believing that a princess marrying into a small Cultivation Family would damage their royal prestige. So, without a word, he sent Ye Changxi to Cloud Palace and threatened that if she continued to associate with Long Bubai, he would kill Long Bubai and wipe out The Long family, and also sent people to secretly protect and monitor her.

What else could Ye Changxi do in response?

Only accept her fate!

If she didn't accept her fate, was she supposed to watch Long Bubai be killed and The Long family be annihilated?

The Eastern Barrens is a small place, surrounded by the Yunmeng Marsh. If the royal Family wanted to destroy The Long family, The Long family would have nowhere to run.

To preserve The Long family and Long Bubai, Ye Changxi had no choice but to compromise.

But she understood that with the character of Long Bubai of The Long family, if he knew that Emperor Ye was interfering and exerting pressure, he would absolutely not yield. If The Long family, overestimating its own strength, challenged the royal Family, it would surely mean death.

In desperation, Ye Changxi sought out her good best friend, Hua Buwan, promising that due to her imperial father's high pressure, it was impossible for her to be with Long Bubai, and thus, she gave Long Bubai to Hua Buwan.

In terms of beauty, only the Hua Family sisters could compare with her. Ye Changxi understood that the fastest way for someone heartbroken to recover from emotional pain was to help him find a new love.

Especially since earth generates metal, and metal generates water.

Hua Buwan had a pure Earth Spiritual Root, Long Bubai had a pure Metal Spiritual Root, and she had Ice and Water Spiritual Roots. From the perspective of Spiritual Roots, Hua Buwan becoming Long Bubai's Dao Companion was undoubtedly a more suitable match than her.

Under Ye Changxi's intentional matchmaking, Hua Buwan, who intended to spend some time with Long Bubai to see how things went, quickly fell in love.

Thus, Ye Changxi successfully extricated herself.

Because of Hua Buwan's presence, Long Bubai, although still hurt by her, was not destroyed by the emotional pain...