42: The Secret Fight in the Eastern Wasteland

Arriving at White Emperor Royal City, Long Aotian sighed inwardly after a Divine Sense scan.

He was, after all, a step too late!

Shi Jing, escorting Long Aoxue, was already on his way to the Imperial City.

Long Aotian didn't even think and immediately gave chase again.

He believed he could definitely rescue Long Aoxue before Shi Jing could escort her to Great Stone Town.

Especially since Shi Jing's current Cultivation was only at the Early Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, and Long Aotian had already roughly probed the details of their group.

There were no Ancestors of the Spirit Division Realm, two Protectors of the Soul Emergence Realm, and five Elders of the Nascent Soul Realm.

This lineup, even if the Long Family's three Great Ancestors had not been injured and attacked together, would not be a match for Shi Jing and his group, and the same would be true even with his Great-Grandfather Long Shijie and Grandfather Long Wudi.

Clearly, the other party was guarding against the Long Family gathering its Peak strength for a sneak attack; Shi Gandang had already lost one son and didn't want to lose a second.

“Hmm? Caught up!”

Not long after flying out of White Emperor Royal City, under the investigation of his Divine Sense, Long Aotian finally discovered Shi Jing's group, but Shi Jing and his people had not detected his appearance.

How strong was Long Aotian's Divine Sense?

At the Ninth Revolution Peak Stage of the Purple Core Realm, his Divine Sense covered a radius of one hundred thousand li, rivaling the Divine Sense strength of a Spirit Division Realm First Revolution Stage expert.

Terrifying!

This was the benefit of absorbing a small portion of Ao Zhan's Dragon Soul Power, which allowed his Divine Sense to be different from ordinary Cultivators; and this was only a small portion of Ao Zhan's Dragon Soul Power. If he were to absorb all ten portions of Ao Zhan's Dragon Soul Power sealed in his Sea of Consciousness world, Long Aotian couldn't imagine how strong he would become.

The highest Cultivation of Shi Jing's group was only two Protectors of the Soul Emergence Realm Late Stage. Long Aotian completely crushed them in Divine Sense, leading to this incredible scene where Shi Jing and others, whose Cultivation was higher than Long Aotian's, couldn't detect Long Aotian, while Shi Jing's group had already appeared under Long Aotian's Divine Sense coverage, becoming lambs to the slaughter.

“Hmph, the White Emperor Mountain Range will be your graveyard!”

Catching up to Shi Jing's group made Long Aotian secretly breathe a sigh of relief. He calmed his emotions and began to think of a strategy to eliminate the other party.

From here to the Imperial City, even with the foot speed of a Ninth Revolution Peak Stage Nascent Soul Realm expert, it would take several days to fly. Shi Jing's group returning from the White Emperor Mountain Range was certainly not rushing back but rather, for some unknown reason, going to the White Emperor Mountain Range.

“Legend has it that a long time ago, two Yao Race powerhouses appeared in this region.

One transformed from a white snake, named White Emperor.

One transformed from a flood Dragon, named Thunder Dragon.

The two great Yao Race powerhouses, for reasons unknown, fought a great battle in this region, eventually dividing the area into two: one side being the Thunder Dragon Mountain Range and the other the White Emperor Mountain Range.

According to the memories passed down to me by my Revered Master, there seems to be a Spiritual Spring Pond at the junction of the Thunder Dragon Mountain Range and the White Emperor Mountain Range!

This Spiritual Spring Pond is precisely the birthplace of the White Emperor and Thunder Dragon, these two snake-flood Dragons.

The Spiritual Veins of the Eastern Barrens, after the battle involving Ao Zhan and his group, became fragmented, and the Earth Spiritual Vein beneath the Spiritual Spring Pond was also severely damaged, but it was not truly Waste. The Spiritual Spring Pond is still nourished by the Earth Spiritual Vein. Although its function is not as strong as before, it still helps improve Cultivation.

It is said that this Spiritual Spring Pond is controlled by one of the Five Great Cultivation Families of the Imperial City. If I'm not mistaken, this Cultivation Family is the Shi Family!

I really didn't expect the Shi Family to have a Cultivation paradise hidden here. Heh heh, Shi Jing probably wants to seclude himself in the Spiritual Spring Pond for a period of Cultivation before returning, right?

This time, the Long Family and the Shi Family became enemies. Although he suffered no losses, he must have felt a certain sense of crisis.

The people killed by the Long Family in the sneak attack on the Shi Family were basically of Nascent Soul Realm and Golden Core Realm Cultivation, and his current Cultivation is at the Early Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.”

Understanding Shi Jing's purpose in coming to the White Emperor Mountain Range, Long Aotian roughly figured out how to deal with these guys.

As expected.

Following Shi Jing's group to the junction of the White Emperor Mountain Range and the Thunder Dragon Mountain Range, there was an ordinary Advanced-grade Defensive Formation here, enclosing an area of several tens of li.

That Spiritual Spring Pond should be within the Defensive Formation.

Seeing this Formation, Long Aotian couldn't help but frown slightly. His current ordinary Formation Dao strength was only at the fifth grade, so he clearly couldn't break through this Defensive Formation.

“The Shi Family actually still hides an ordinary Advanced-grade Formation Master? Heh, incredible. I still underestimated the enemy's true strength... No wonder the Shi Family dared to secretly monopolize the Spiritual Spring Pond here. Without such an Advanced-grade Protective Formation, it really wouldn't work.”

Better to provoke the King of Hell than a Formation Master.

With an ordinary Advanced-grade Formation Master, the Shi Family could almost be said to be invincible. Other Cultivation forces coveting the benefits here and wanting to share the fruits would have to weigh whether they could afford to provoke this Formation Master of the Shi Family.

“Hmph, so many years have passed, that ordinary Advanced-grade Formation Master of the Shi Family has probably long since passed away, right? The ordinary Advanced-grade Defensive Formation left behind merely proves that the Shi Family's ancestors were once glorious.”

In the memories passed down to him by Ao Zhan, Long Aotian knew with extreme clarity that the Shi Family had monopolized the Spiritual Spring Pond here starting three tens of thousands of years ago.

Judging by the life limit of the ten realms of Mortal Cultivators, even a Tribulation Transcendence Realm Ninth Revolution Peak Stage expert rarely lives beyond ten thousand years.

From this, Long Aotian judged that the ordinary Advanced-grade Formation Master expert of the Shi Family who laid down this Defensive Formation had already passed away.

As for whether the later generations of the Shi Family were influenced by this Formation Master and also possessed powerful Formation Masters? Long Aotian did not know.

“The Shi Family has monopolized this place for three tens of thousands of years, which is cause for alarm!”

Long Aotian's expression couldn't help but become somewhat solemn.

The Shi Family's strength, as displayed on the surface, was similar to the other four Great Cultivation Families of the Imperial City, but Long Aotian felt that the Shi Family's true strength was far more terrifying than imagined.

At least this treasure land at the junction of the White Emperor Mountain Range and the Thunder Dragon Mountain Range had continuously nurtured an unknown number of experts for the Shi Family.

Over these tens of thousands of years, the Shi Family had always maintained its position as the head of the Five Great Cultivation Families of the Imperial City.

“Heh, do they still want to accumulate strength, overthrow the Imperial Family, and become the Revered Masters of the Eastern Barrens?”

Long Aotian couldn't help but sneer inwardly.

He didn't know how strong the Shi Family's strength truly was; Ao Zhan's memories had almost no information on this. However, Long Aotian could understand a thing or two about the Imperial Family's strength from Ao Zhan's memories.

The Imperial Family of the Eternal Leaf Dynasty were members of the Ye Family!

What kind of existence was the Ye Family?

One of the four Great Cultivation Families of the Sky Ruins Continent!

The Eastern Barrens Ye Family was merely a small branch of the Central Continent Ye Family.