This piqued Long Huan’s interest. The only reason he wanted to join any set was because he thought it’ll be fun. He’ll also get to interact a lot of people there and maybe he’ll find something interesting there and not get bored.
“Is that so? Thank you Miss Lan for informing me. I’ll make my way towards Royal Capital then.” Long Hua thankfully replied and lunch was served on the table. He looked at the delicacies in front of him and took the first bite of the first dish he had ever eaten since he was born. He had never tasted anything before but the food here tasted good, whatever good was. He devoured his food in minutes and asked for seconds. The girls smiled wryly seeing Long Huan’s appetite but said nothing. After eating 5 plates, Long Huan was a bit satisfied and didn’t insist on eating more. Since the restaurant was not an expensive one, Shi Lan didn’t have to suffer much when paying for the food and the trio departed.
“Miss Lan, Miss Bai, it was a pleasure meeting you two on my trip here. I thank you again for guiding me. I shall bid my farewell here and hope that we meet again” Shi Lan said and smiled. Shi Lan and Han Bai briefly froze after seeing his smile. They had to agree that Long Huan was a very handsome fellow, even though he was quite unaware of the fact himself. Both of them regained their composure and it was Han Bai who replied with a blush “It should be us thanking you Brother Long for saving us. Best of Luck for the Entrance Examination. I hope we me…..meet again”. Towards the end of her sentence, Hai Bai’s face was quite red but Long Huan didn’t pay much attention to it.
Long Huan nodded and walked towards the direction where the girls had informed him to find a caravan leaving for the Royal Capital. Long Huan wanted to experience the feeling of travelling in a caravan so he didn’t just directly teleport to the Holy Dragon City. The girls watched him leaving and felt a sense of loss in their hearts. However, they had a feeling that this will not be the last time they’ll seeing him. They smiled and walked back to their sect.
Long Huan saw many peddlers selling their stuff and shops advertising their products with sign boards. Everything was new to him so was not paying attention to where he was walking and accidently collided with someone. He looked ahead and found a blonde youth in lavish white clothing was glaring daggers at him.
“I am really sorry. I was not paying attention and accidently collided with you.” Long Huan said and behaved like a decent person even though he didn’t feel like apologizing after seeing his disdainful look.
“You lowly peasant, you dare dirty my robes with your filthy touch? Kneel down and apologize and maybe I’ll spare your lowly life.” The blonde youth said and looked at him like he was looking at an insect. The surrounding people, probably recognizing who this blonde youth was gave Long Huan a pitiful look.
“What? This guy has the audacity to throw his weight around in front of me? I had assumed that a lot of cultivators will be arrogant since they have powers beyond mortals but this? Heh, maybe I should teach him a lesson.”
“Who the hell do you think you are to order me around? I have already apologized for my mistake so I have nothing to do with you here. I’ll be leaving first.” Long Huan said and ignoring the stunned blonde youth and the crowd started walking around him.
The Blonde youth’s face turned red with anger. Never in his entire life did a lowly mortal disrespected him so much. If he didn’t take his head today, then he’ll probably die of anger and shame. While Long Huan’s back was facing him, the blonde youth suddenly raised his hand and punched towards Long Huan with an evil smile. Just as the punch was a few centimetres away from Long Huan’s head, his body froze. His evil smile tuned into a horrified look as he was thrown back with a large force and collided with a stall nearby. Then the same force picked him to the air and continuous ‘Pa’ ‘Pa’ sound resounded in the area. The blonde youth was repeatedly slapped heavily by some mysterious force and his face was swollen like a pig with most of his teeth broken. He was then tossed towards a trash bin nearby with all the trash falling on his face. He screamed in agony for a few seconds and then fainted. The crowd was utterly shocked to see such a scene playing in front of them and couldn’t make heads or tails of what happened here. By the time they woke up from their stupor, Long Huan was long gone.
A few kilometres away, Long Huan was leisurely strolling towards the Merchant’s Guild where he can find a caravan. He felt good after teaching that arrogant brat a lesson. Hopefully he won’t bully commoners again. He soon reached the Merchant’s Guild and could see a lot of people wearing armours standing outside the Guild entrance.
The Merchant’s Guild was a huge dome shaped building with a weighing scale symbol atop it. From the discussions happening around him, Long Huan got to know that an important cargo was been shipped to the Holy Dragon City and was accompanied by the Dawn’s Spring, a group of mercenaries who were quite popular here. Apparently they were still short of 3 people and were recruiting strong men.
“Excellent. With this, I found my caravan. I’ll just have to get recruited into this caravan.”
With a smile, Long Huan made his way where the amour wearing people were standing. He went near a strong looking bearded man and asked “Can you please call your leader? I need to talk to him”.
The middle-aged man looked back at him with a confused expression and said “I am the leader of this group. What do you want kid?”
“I am here to join your group in your trip towards Royal Capital” Long Huan replied like it was perfectly normal thing. And indeed, as soon as the captain heard this, he burst out laughing. In the eyes of captain, Long Huan was a mortal since he obviously didn’t believe that this youth in front of him had a cultivation level higher than him.
“What can a little mortal punk like you do? You’ll probably be dead in seconds against the weakest of monsters. Don’t waste my time boy, scram.” The captain said with a small frown towards the end of his sentence. Seeing as how this fellow was not taking him seriously, Long Huan decided to play tough and with a smirk said “What If I can beat you in combat? Will I be capable enough to travel with you then?”
This time instead of laughing, the captain was clearly angry and said “Kid, I’ll repeat last time, walk away or I’ll force you to leave”.
“Then why don’t you try forcing me to leave?” Long Huan replied non-chalantly like whatever the captain said was not a threat to him.
“You asked for this kid” captain said, now quite pissed and shoved his hands to push Long Huan away. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t even budge him. He then used both of his arms, but the result was the same. By this time, the duo had attracted quite a lot of attention and the people around them for shocked to see that the captain of Dawn’s spring, who was a peak Spirit Condensation Realm expert couldn’t even budge a mortal kid.
Eventually the captain realized that the kid was still smiling at him and realized this guy was not normal. He then revolved his Spirit and his body started glowing in a faint red light. A war hammer suddenly appeared in his hand and he prepared to swing it towards the kid. The people around were shocked that the captain was using his fire-attributed Spirit and dealing a heavy blow to a mortal kid. Wasn’t he just spelling death for that kid? Yet what happened next almost made their eyes pop out of their sockets. Just as the war hammer was about to hit the kid, it deviated from its original path and struck the ground next to the kid, creating huge cracks on it. The captain realized that some kind of powerful force had pushed his attack around the kid like there was a protective dome around him. He tried a few more times but each time his attack was pushed around like his war hammer was a toy and not a spirit weapon of earth rank.
The captain was at the peak of Spirit Condensation Realm and he didn’t believe that this young boy in front of him was in Core Formation Realm, since not even the best talents of the empire had reached that realm so young. “Maybe this kid has an artefact” the captain thought and stopped attacking.
“Alright kid, you have proven that you are capable enough to travel with us. Wait here till we find another 2 guys and then we’ll be off. I’ll advice you to pack a few necessary items since our journey will take 3 days of time.” The captain said and then turned around to inform his team. Long Huan nodded in satisfaction, walked to a corner and closed his eyes. He did not need any necessary items since he did not need food and he could clean his body & clothes easily with his powers. The surrounding people were shocked to see the captain allowing a mortal to travel with them but since they just saw the prowess of this mortal looking kid, nobody refuted. After a few hours, the captain found two other capable men and the group prepared themselves to head out.
Stolen novel; please report.
Long Huan opened his eyes and followed the group towards the caravan and an assortment of horses waiting nearby. Everyone was assigned a horse, including Long Huan and he didn’t know how to ride one. He watched a few people nearby and instantly knew what to do. He could mentally control the horse, but then the fun of horse-riding will be lost that way. After a few minutes of getting himself acquainted, he got the knack for it and followed others. The captain was watching him the entire time and it confirmed his suspicions that Long Huan was not normal when he saw him learning to ride a hose like a veteran in a matter of few minutes.
The group proceeded outside the gates of the city, towards the Holy Dragon Kingdom.
(After 2 days)
Long Huan was currently napping atop his horse like he wasn’t sitting on a horse but a comfortable sofa. And indeed, Long Huan had manipulated the laws around the horse to make its back softer and more comfortable. If the higher level cultivators saw Long Huan applying the principle of Turning Hard to Soft principle of the Dao of Softness as easily as eating a candy, they’ll probably puke blood and die from disbelief. It takes a very long time for a cultivator to get enough insights into a law to use any principle related to it, but Long Huan was an exception to this rule. All the laws in the Multiverse were under his control so he was basically a cheat.
During this 2 days of travel, nothing major happened and all Long Huan did was sleep. Honestly he was getting quite bored but it seemed like it wouldn’t last long since he had sensed a lot of human signatures making their way towards them from the opposite direction. And sure enough, after 10 minutes everyone in the group heard the galloping of horses and dust rising from the opposite direction. Everyone in their group took out their weapons except Long Huan since he didn’t have one and became alert. Soon they could see dozens of black clothed figured coming towards them in their horses with no good intentions. Long Huan recognised this attire, it was the same attire the people who attacked Shi Lan and Han Bai were wearing. There were around 50 of the black clothed figured while Long Huan’s group had only 20. They were clearly outnumbered and if a battle started, things were looking bad for them.
The group of bandits stopped a few metres away from their group and a man came out a few steps ahead showing his position as the leader. He had a large scar running across his face and held a large broadsword in his hand.
“You rotten pieces of Dawn’s Spring, quickly hand over the caravan and scram otherwise prepare to leave your puny lives behind.”
Judging from their behaviour, it was highly doubtful if they’ll really allow someone to walk away. As simply as they stated.
“Who the fuck do you think you are you piece of shit? If you want to seize the caravan, you need to do that before our dead bodies” the captain spat and his team cheered. The black clothed leader was not happy and signalled his forces to attack.
Long Huan decided to watch from the side-lines and step in only when the situation was extreme. Don’t get him wrong, it’s not like he didn’t care about the lives of others, which he actually didn’t, but then if they don’t fight for their own survival then it won’t be fair to save them. They had to make themselves worthy for their lives to be spared from their fated death.
Both sides clashed and an Earth-shattering battle started. Most of the people here were in Body Enhancement stage with a few being in Spirit-Condensation Stage. The battle between Spirit Condensation stage practitioners was quite a sight to behold as they were using martial skills to attack their opponents. One of the black clothed Spirit Condensation stage practitioner spat a purple viper from his mouth which flew towards his opponent only to be met with a huge sword slash made out of fire which burned it to oblivion. Another guy produced a few ice spikes beneath his opponent who jumped to dodge it and retaliated by making a few arrows out of compressed air and firing back. After a few hours of continuous battle, a few casualties started appearing on both sides, with Long Huan’s side with an obvious loss. After losing 6 of his men, the captain was feeling depressed and was considering whether they could really stop this attack when a claw made out of darkness slashed towards his chest which he couldn’t evade in time and got injured. The black clothed leader laughed menacingly and was just about to slash captain’s neck when he froze like a statue. Not missing the opportunity, the captain quickly beheaded the leader and his head fell down with a thud. The remaining black clothed guys after seeing their leader dead started panicking ad a few of them started to run, but will the captain allow that? He dashed towards the escaping people and beheaded them before they could retaliate. Other than the black clothed leader, nobody was captain’s match in this battlefield and captain started a bloody massacre with a crazed expression to avenge his fallen brothers. In 10 minutes, all the black clothed men were dead and there were corpses littered around everywhere. The captain was panting heavily and sighed in relief after realizing everything was over. He looked towards Long Huan and found him still napping on his horse like a bloody battle just didn’t happen here. He grateful look to him because he knew that the reason behind the black clothed leader freezing mid-battle could only be accomplished by this young boy full of mysteries. He didn’t blame him for not saving his brothers since he was not obliged to do so.
The rest of the group salvaged what little they could and everyone moved away from the area before some powerful monster gets attracted to the smell of blood. The group decided to rest once they were several kilometres away and heal their injuries.
The next day, a group of armoured men were seen outside the gigantic gates of the Holy Dragon City. Long Huan could see that the entire capital was protected by a dome of thick spirit energy which would be quite hard to break even for a high-level cultivator. The walls of the capital were five times larger than the walls of phoenix city and looked quite intimidating. They arrived in front of a large door which were hundreds of metres in height. A few dozen heavily armoured cards wearing golden cape were guarding the entrance and as soon as they noticed their group, they allowed them to directly bypass the line of people waiting to enter.
“Looks like this thing inside the caravan is quite important for them to rush so much”
Long Huan had already checked inside the caravan with a quick scan and found out it only contained a crystal ball the size of an adult’s head. He didn’t bother to check what it does and simply ignored it.
After entering the city, the captain paid Long Huan 100 gold coins as a payment to help protect the caravan and bade him farewell. Long Huan was thankful for this money since now he was not penniless and headed toward an inn which the captain had recommended him. Along the way he picked some gossip regarding the Entrance Test and collected some information. For one to participate in the test, a person cannot be older than 20 and one’s cultivation should be below Spirit Condensation stage.
Long Huan realized that he would first need to analyse this so called cultivation first and learn how to fake his cultivation base before he could do anything else. He reached the inn called ‘Dagon’s Egg’ and booked a room for 1 with 50 silver.
“Mister, can you tell me where can I buy books in this city?” Long Huan asked the Inn owner.
“You can try ‘Murphy’s Tales’ down the street. It’s a popular book store around this area.” The inn owner, a middle-aged man with a bulging belly replied.
Long Huan thanked him and headed towards the book store. He found it down the street and went in. He looked around a bit and selected all the books having information on the geography of this world he could buy and a few books about cultivation and related things. All together he spent 30 gold and went back to his room carrying a huge sack full of books.
“I had seen a few people wearing rings with special storage in it. Hmm…..I can use that” Long Huan thought as he opened the door to his room and put the books on table. He took them out and started reading them one-by-one. A cheat like him took only 10 minutes to finish them all and he started pondering on the information he received.
This world had 5 continents – Humas, Beastia, Yggdrasil, Seamoor and the Central Continent. Long Huan was currently in the continent of Humas where the humans lived in majority. Beastia was dominated by the beastmen, Yggdrasil was home to the Elves and Dwarves, Seamoor was ruled by the Dragons with their kin and the Central Continent was where all the elites of the world gathered and there was an even mixture of all races there. The entire continent was under the collective rule of 4 Holy Sects and 10 Aristocratic Families. The Holy Dragon Empire that he was currently in was under the jurisdiction of Ancestral Phoenix Sect. There was not much information regarding the other continents. The cultivation books didn’t help him understanding the principles of cultivation but he did gain some information regarding it.
Apparently cultivation was divided into 10 Realms – Body Enhancement>Spirit Condensation>Core Formation>Dao Seed>Dao Ascension>Dao Lord>Dao King>Dao Ancestor>Dao Emperor>Dao Immortal. When you reach Dao Immortal realm, you can ascend to the higher.
Anything related to cultivation, be it pills, weapons, techniques, etc. was graded from Mortal>Earth>Heaven>Divine>Celestial>Immortal>True Immortal>God.
Long Huan realized that he was in a backwater kingdom and immediately scratched his idea of joining any sect here. If he’ll join some sect, he’ll only join the best otherwise where’s the fun? He also found about an organisation called Adventurer’s Guild. It had its headquarters in the Central Continent and its branches were spread out throughout all the continents. They provided missions and subsequent rewards. For those cultivators who were not affiliated with any sect, it was the best way to make some money and get famous. Anyone could become an adventurer, even the sect disciples. There was a branch of Adventurer’s Guild in the Holy Dragon City too and Long Huan decided to start his adventure from there. Eventually he will proceed towards the centre of this continent to those Holy Sects and maybe join if it was fun.
Before going out, he materialized a silver ring manipulating matter and with the help of Space Laws made a huge spatial pocket connected with the ring. Long Huan had no idea that the ring he made had already surpassed the God-ranked spatial rings, judging by the amount of space it had inside. He then remembered that cultivators here referred each law as a Dao, so he made a mental note to do the same.
He placed all his books inside the ring and decided to enjoy what these life-forms named ‘sleep’. He laid down in his bed and closed his eyes. He had also planned to sneak into one of the sects tomorrow and take a look at their cultivation techniques so he could understand the principals behind it and fake his cultivation when it was necessary.