“Don’t point your Spirit Tool at others; it’s very impolite.”
“Heh, isn’t that a habit by now? Besides, I still want to see just how far this scope can actually be seen.” Holding the heavily modified large gun in her hands, Miss Hua Jian murmured as she aimed toward the horizon.
She wasn’t even sure if the person she was targeting could see the glaring white spotlight—technically, they shouldn’t.
But you know what? If people could see a bright red spotlight whenever she aimed at them, that would actually be pretty cool.
From then on, whenever someone saw that red glow, they’d feel their limbs go cold, fall to their knees, and beg, “Lady Hua Jian, spare my life!” Just thinking about that scene made Hua Jian chuckle.
Linglong stared intently ahead. Even without turning around to look at Hua Jian’s expression, she could almost guess from Hua Jian’s deep red laughter just how aggravating her face must be.
“Linglong, do you think we’ll encounter any unexpected trouble on the way?”
“Do you think so?”
Linglong didn’t answer whether they would or not, but instead asked why Hua Jian had such a thought.
Normally, everyone would wish for a smooth journey without surprises, right? So why was Hua Jian different?
“I just think that whenever the two of us get together, we’re a trouble-making machine. Don’t you understand how valuable the ‘Protagonist Aura’ is?”
Linglong had some understanding of this so-called Protagonist Aura. This world was actually quite developed; everything one could think of was available.
Novels, movies recorded with the Liu Ying Stone, short dramas—anything people could imagine existed.
After all, most mortals and lower-tier cultivators needed these things for spiritual relaxation, and with such a huge market, there were always people involved.
The Protagonist Aura was a term used to describe those protagonists in novels who seemed to have trouble wherever they went.
Specifically, a large sect with thousands of years of stable inheritance suddenly experienced major crises after the protagonist’s arrival—sect annihilation crises, invasions by Demonic Cultivators, one disaster after another.
When Hua Jian said that the two of them had Protagonist Aura, Linglong thought Hua Jian was a bit self-important.
Where in the world was there such a strange aura? Even if it existed, it probably wouldn’t be them… right?
“Don’t you believe me? Just think about who you are—put you into those novels, and you’re definitely a main character!” Hua Jian reminded Linglong to take note of her identity.
The Saintess of Yaochi, and also a little Dragon Girl with Dragon Blood—that kind of background in novels would mean either protagonist or heroine.
So, even if Hua Jian was a candidate for a ‘useless protagonist’ type, Linglong was definitely a trouble magnet.
Just look at those two incidents Hua Jian and Linglong encountered after meeting—was there any without trouble?
They went to a Secret Realm and ran into a Demonic Cultivator invasion. Then at an auction, they unexpectedly got caught up in a fight over a Sacred Pill.
It was only twice, but Hua Jian believed in metaphysics when it came to these things.
“This is an official road, so nothing too big should happen.”
“But after a few days, who knows.”
The farther from the center of Zhongzhou, the higher the chance of danger.
But Linglong and Hua Jian didn’t have to worry much about being robbed—they looked like they had little to offer.
After all, their flying artifacts were rather plain, and anyone could tell they were poor since only the poor used such clunky, bulky things.
Robbing them was less profitable than targeting Spirit Masters with high-end gear.
The whole day passed without incident. At dusk, they landed on a vast open plain. There were a few scattered cultivators nearby resting.
Those on the plain didn’t exchange many words, each busy with their own matters.
Linglong took a portable tent from her storage bag, set it up on the ground, forming a small space that could fit two people.
Meanwhile, Hua Jian laid out her prepared Array of Bewilderment components by the tent and cloaked the small area with mist.
As long as no Spirit King-level expert charged directly, her array could hold off any hostile enemies for quite some time, enough for her and Linglong to react.
This was their first time camping in such a wilderness. Though still within the well-governed core region of Zhongzhou, they cautiously took turns guarding half the night each.
When the sun rose the next day, Hua Jian, who had been on watch for the entire latter half of the night, crushed a Spirit Leaf floating in her palm into spiritual power and yawned, then turned to Linglong, who was already out of her cultivation state.
“Awake? I thought you’d sleep till the sun’s heat was on your rear.”
Linglong was used to Hua Jian’s aggravating greetings.
Now she could respond with a blank-faced “Hmm” without batting an eye, then ignore Hua Jian to focus on her own tasks.
Ignoring Hua Jian would cause Hua Jian to lose interest on her own.
Seeing Linglong’s cold shoulder, Hua Jian indeed looked a little bored, packing up the array she had set up. She noticed the cultivators on the plain had changed shifts.
They had woken up quite early, Hua Jian thought to herself.
Suddenly, she looked up toward the sky. “Spirit King?”
She sensed three strong auras swiftly flying by—a definite Spirit King-level presence!
Their flight speed was fast; something urgent must be happening.
“Yeah, Spirit Kings, and they’re heading the same way as us.” Linglong walked over to Hua Jian, looking up at the sky with some worry.
At that moment, she recalled the words Hua Jian had told her the day before, and an illogical thought flashed through her mind: Could these three Spirit Kings be coming after them?
Linglong quickly pushed the thought away. No way—they had nothing worth these Spirit Kings’ attention.
Anyone who knew their true identities wouldn’t dare act recklessly.
So those three Spirit Kings definitely weren’t after them.
By the way, there seemed to be a lot of Spirit Kings lately. Was that just her imagination? Hua Jian scratched her head and asked curiously.
Spirit Kings should be quite strong, yet she felt like experts like that were everywhere.
Before meeting Linglong, she only saw Spirit Kings at Linlang Pavilion. Since meeting Linglong, how many had they encountered in just a few days?
“Not really. The Spirit King realm isn’t that hard to reach, and we’re in the heartland of Zhongzhou. Even Ling Emperors aren’t uncommon here, let alone Spirit Kings.” Linglong shook her head and told Hua Jian this wasn’t an illusion.
Spirit Kings weren’t rare at all.
In the major sects, Ling Masters were just entry-level disciples. After training for several or even more than ten years, most could reach Spirit King.
There were more Spirit Kings than Ling Masters in these sects.
If Hua Jian went to a Saint Sect, she’d truly understand the saying: ‘Ling Emperors everywhere, Spirit Kings are like dogs.’
Outside the sects in Zhongzhou, there were fewer Spirit Kings than inside the Saint Sects, but still quite a few. Roughly every few hundred Ling Masters, there’d be a Spirit King.
Influential forces gathered Spirit Kings as enforcers; forces without Spirit Kings were sitting ducks—next thing you know, they’d be wiped out.
“At my cultivation speed, I should reach Spirit King in two or three years. You’d be only three or four years behind me at most.”
Linglong didn’t forget to give Hua Jian some encouragement, telling her not to envy the Spirit Kings since she could easily surpass them.
If Hua Jian hadn’t started so late and with poor initial conditions, Linglong thought her progress wouldn’t be slower.
“Four or five years, huh? That feels pretty long.”
“Not really. Your future achievements won’t stop at Spirit King or Ling Emperor. When you reach Spirit Lord or even Saint Level, four or five years will just be a short closed-door retreat.”
“That’s way too far off!” Hua Jian shook her head, having no concept of the distant future.
She was still just a Ling Master, and dared not imagine things beyond becoming a Saint.
“So, according to you, when I become an immortal, four or five years is just like blinking an eye?”
“That’s not wrong, but with your personality, once you become an immortal, a lot of people will probably be pretty upset.”
“Tch, I’m already an immortal; who dares to be upset? I’ll go to their door and beat them up first!” Hua Jian waved her fists with an expression that said, “I’m so powerful, how could anyone dislike me?”
Repaying kindness with kindness? She was no saint.
Linglong drew out a flying sword and stood atop it. “That doesn’t fit the image of an immortal.”
“Tch, as if those people have seen what an immortal really looks like.”
Linglong hesitated. In some ways, Hua Jian wasn’t wrong.
The last immortal to ascend after passing a tribulation had been a thousand years ago. Except for a few high-ranking saints in the Saint Sect, nobody had seen an immortal in person.
And that recent immortal was from the Sword Sect. Sword cultivators were basically all cut from the same mold, so it was easy to imagine his image.
It certainly wouldn’t be like Hua Jian.
The flying sword rose steadily, carrying the two of them toward the distance. Along the way, they continued talking about immortals.
Linglong took the chance to introduce all the immortals who had ascended over the past few thousand years to Hua Jian.
Every immortal had been the protagonist of their era. Their experiences were novel-worthy—so ridiculous readers would think they were fabricated.
What surprised Hua Jian was that the Demonic Cultivators had actually produced ascended immortals too.
Though fewer than the Saint Sect, they did exist.
The sect with the most ascended immortals was Wanhuagu—two cultivators had succeeded in ascending, even better than some Saint Sects.
It was because of this strong foundation that Wanhuagu managed to remain relatively neutral between the Demonic Path and the righteous path.
As for other demonic sects, only one had produced an immortal, and that immortal’s first act after fame was to destroy their original sect.
So none of the current demonic sects had produced an immortal.
“There are also Spirit Beasts who have succeeded in tribulation. Our Dragon Race has had three elders pass the tribulation successfully in recent years.”
Actually, examples of Spirit Beasts passing tribulation weren’t rare. Most had been protective sacred beasts of Saint Sects, making it hard to classify them.
It didn’t feel quite right to count them as part of the Saint Sect, since it was just cooperation.
Nor to classify them as Spirit Beasts, which would give some opportunists the excuse to claim that humans, as ‘masters of all things,’ only had slightly more immortals than Spirit Beasts.
Don’t doubt it—such human arrogance really exists.
So these ascended Spirit Beasts were deliberately downplayed; they weren’t called Spirit Beasts, nor counted among the Saint Sects.
Otherwise, Wanling Sect would become the third righteous sect under Sword Sect and Yaochi, which Penglai and Tiandao Sect would not be happy about.
“So ascending isn’t actually that difficult. There’s an immortal every five or six hundred years?”
Hua Jian originally thought passing the tribulation to become immortal was rare. But now, hearing Linglong’s explanation, it seemed less so.
Over these thousands of years, including humans and beasts, there were almost fifteen or sixteen immortals.
Linglong shook her head. “Not exactly. The appearance of immortals can’t simply be measured by time. Nearly half of those immortals appeared around three thousand years ago.”
“Ah?”
“At that time, the Demonic Path produced a peerless prodigy who dominated the world alone. He declared himself the Lord of the Demonic Path and wanted to unite everything, but was stopped at Zhongzhou’s border by the five great Saint Sect leaders together.”
Linglong narrated as if telling a story, “The spiritual energy in the world became extraordinarily active and abundant then. Talents emerged endlessly. One immortal from Wanhuagu was also active in that era.”
“The conflict between the righteous and demonic paths lasted over a hundred years, causing widespread turmoil. Several saints already had the strength to ascend but held back, fearing that after ascending, their opponents would have no one to restrain them.”
“In the end, it was that immortal from Wanhuagu who stepped forward and brokered peace between the two sides.”
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