Chapter 313: Chapter 288: Nanjiang Shiwan Mountain_1
The speaker was King Ming’s eighth son, Chu Jie.
Chu Jie stepped forward and continued, "Father, divine-level martial arts are strictly controlled in every feudal lord and prince’s domain. To be taught, one must pass various checkpoints to prove their loyalty before earning the inheritance."
"Alternatively, one could make significant contributions. While Lu Yan took risks and made contributions during the investigation of the Yan Clan in Xuanhuo City, those efforts are not sufficient for the passing on of divine-level martial arts."
"In our Mansion of King Ming, there are individuals who have reached the True Body realm, but none have reached the divine-level martial arts. They have been waiting for the opportunity to cultivate divine-level martial arts. If we hand it to Lu Yan easily, others will find it hard to accept. Those who don’t have divine-level martial arts would be discontented."
"Also, I fear the fifth brother might have complaints and feel displeased."
said Chu Jie.
The ’fifth brother’ he referred to, naturally, is King Ming’s fifth son.
Years ago, Chu Chenzhou had released a woman from hostile forces and accidentally killed a cousin.
That cousin was the son of King Ming’s fifth son.
So, King Ming’s fifth son had always held a grudge against Chu Chenzhou. His attitude towards Lu Yan, of course, was not much better.
But under King Ming’s rule, his fifth son did not dare to openly confront Lu Yan. However, under reasonable circumstances, he could still obstruct some things.
King Ming glanced at Chu Jie.
He knew exactly what Chu Jie was thinking.
Chu Jie, who had good relationships with the fifth son, was naturally against teaching Lu Yan martial arts.
"Eighth child, your words are indeed reasonable," King Ming nodded, then turned to Chu Long, "Seventh, do you have any solution that would satisfy both sides?"
"Father, recently, the mountain people in Shiwan Mountain of Nanjiang have been acting strangely, repeatedly attacking our mines and Blood Land Veins. We were about to send someone to investigate, so why not send Lu Yan? If Lu Yan can investigate this matter, it would be a great achievement. At that time, if we teach him divine-level martial arts, nobody would have anything to say, and I believe the fifth brother would also not object."
Chu Long bowed and said.
"The idea of the seventh child is good. Let’s do it this way, let Lu Yan depart for Nanjiang as soon as possible."
King Ming finally decided.
Afterward, he set aside this topic and started discussing other matters.
...
After King Ming left, Lu Yan also met with his team members.
As the team leader, he hosted a meal for everybody, which greatly improved their relationships.
Of the nine team members, only two had cultivation levels at the peak Martial Marquis. The other seven were at the grandmaster levels.
Of the three thousand King Ming’s guards, the majority were grandmasters, while Martial Marquis and True Body Realm Martial Venerables were fewer in number.
In their spare time, Lu Yan and his team’s primary task was to guard the Mansion of King Ming, leading quite a relaxed life.
In his leisure time, Lu Yan would visit various associations in the Mansion of King Ming and collect top body refining martial arts.
If the top ones are not enough, fill in with the first-rate ones.
Anyway, as long as he had nine first-rate martial arts, he could combine them into top martial arts.
Over one month’s time, Lu Yan really did gather nine first-rate body refining martial arts.
However, body refining martial arts were rare. The more he learned, the harder it became to find unpracticed martial arts.
Apart from this, Lu Yan, under the identity of a member of King Ming’s Guard, read a large number of books in search of clues about the Flood Dragon.
Flood Dragons were very rare and often hunted by martial arts experts when they appeared, so they generally lived in places rarely visited by humans. Even after reading a large number of books, he could not find any specific location.
For example, there might be Flood Dragons in the Shiwan Mountain in Nanjiang, the far north, or the endless plains. But these places were so vast that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack without a specific location.
Lu Yan was a bit troubled and had to temporarily suppress his plan for cultivating the True Dragon Nine Strikes, focusing on comprehending the body refining martial arts to enhance integration as his primary goal instead.
At this time, Chu Long sent someone to summon Lu Yan.
In the Mansion of King Ming’s Guard,
"Chief, do you need me for something?"
Lu Yan saw Chu Long and held his fist to ask.
"Lu Yan, yesterday I met with father and mentioned the matter of teaching you divine-level martial arts."
Chu Long said.
Upon hearing this, Lu Yan became instantly spirited.
"However, the inheritance of divine-level martial arts is not given lightly. There are many in the Mansion of King Ming who are at the True Body Realm who have not cultivated divine-level martial arts..."
The tone of Chu Long changed, and he simply retold the discussion from yesterday.
"Lu Yan, you must understand my father. He is in charge of the vast Mansion of King Ming, and he must be fair to everyone. Otherwise, he will not be able to convince the public."
Chu Long finally said.
Lu Yan nodded his head, indicating understanding.
"But my father personally promised that as long as you complete the task in Nanjiang, the day of your return will be the day you are taught divine-level martial arts."
Chu Long continued.
"The task in Nanjiang?"
"Yes, Yunzhou is adjacent to the Shiwan Mountain in Nanjiang. Shiwan Mountain has rich resources, not only hiding many Blood Land Veins, but also a variety of spiritual medicines and mines. The Mansion of King Ming has always had experts mining various resources in Nanjiang. However, recently, the mines and Blood Land veins controlled by the Mansion of King Ming in Nanjiang have been repeatedly attacked by mountain people."
"Although the mountain people of Shiwan Mountain in Nanjiang are tough and all practice martial arts, those ordinary mountain people do not have high cultivation levels, and rarely attack the mines and Blood Land veins. You go and investigate the reason with your team."
Chu Long said.
"Nanjiang’s Shiwan Mountains."
Lu Yan muttered softly, as information about the Shiwan Mountains of Nanjiang flooded into his mind.
He had come across a lot of references to the Shiwan Mountains of Nanjiang while researching the resources of the Flood Dragons. So, he had read quite a bit about it.
The Shiwan Mountains of Nanjiang are located in the southern part of Da Chu, they form an endless vast wilderness and cover a very large territory.
During the peak period of Da Chu, they ruled over the Shiwan Mountains of Nanjiang and divided the area into five states.
Now, the control over the Shiwan Mountains of Nanjiang has long slipped from Da Chu’s hands.
Moreover, the Shiwan Mountains of Nanjiang stand tall and steep, their ranges crisscrossing with complex terrains, making them extremely dangerous and filled with various insects and noxious gases.
As legend would have it, before the ancient times, the Shiwan Mountains of Nanjiang was the lair of demons. Therefore, the area is rife with filthy energies, and sometimes enveloped by demonic qi, giving rise to countless bizarre and evil creatures.
Survivors of the mountains often encounter these anomalies and thus the custom of cultivation has become widespread.
Furthermore, in history, many extremely evil characters who could not survive elsewhere have run off to the Shiwan Mountains.
This led to a complex situation in the Shiwan mountains with no feudal prince or feudal lord being able to completely control it.
They could only send their experts into the mountains to exploit their resources.
These pieces of information flashed through Lu Yan’s mind, and he agreed, "We will."
"In addition to your team, four other smaller teams will be dispatched. It’s better to have support. We’ll set off in three days. You may go back and prepare."
Chu Long said.
Lu Yan nodded, excused himself and returned home. He told Shen Yinuo who was immediately intrigued and naturally wanted to accompany him.
In her words, the Shiwan Mountain definitely harbors many peculiar alien beasts, which could aid her in enhancing her Martial Chef skills.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Five teams of the King Ming’s Guard assembled to set off for Nanjiang.
About tens of days later, they crossed Yunzhou and entered the territory of Nanjiang.
Looking forward, all they saw were vast mountains, towering peaks, one after another.
It’s hard to know how many countless enormous trees, each requiring several people to embrace, populate the area.
In addition to the numerous unknown vines and weeds, it would be very difficult for ordinary people to travel here.
Besides, they had just set foot in here when they encountered swarms of mosquitoes, poisonous bees, and other unknown poisonous insects. Occasionally they saw colorful venomous snakes slithering through the undergrowth or hanging from the branches.
Fortunately, the King Ming’s Guard are all experts in martial arts, with the weakest among them at the peak of Martial Marquis.
They leaped on tree branches, spreading their breath to keep the snakes and insects away.
"There’s a miasma up ahead. We need to detour."
Suddenly, a man up front shouted. He was a captain of another team, a cultivator of True Body realm.
Lu Yan saw that ahead in the trees, a purple-green poisonous mist lingered, which seemed quite suspicious.
They bypassed the miasma and continued to move forward.
After three more days, they finally reached their destination, a level 3 Blood Land Vein.
The Mansion of King Ming had claimed two level 3 Blood Land Veins within the Shiwan Mountains, with people stationed for defense, and trainers breeding alien beasts to provide meat for the Mansion of King Ming.
There were also more than ten veins that could be mined for rare metals to make divine weapons.
All of these were strategic resources.
"You all, we are going to another Blood Land Vein, we part ways here."
One team captain said.
Lu Yan and another team were responsible for guarding this level 3 Blood Land Vein, and the other three teams were responsible for the other one.
After the other three teams left, Lu Yan and the rest entered the Blood Land Vein and began to hand over duties with the people who were originally here.
The original locals in charge here were a branch of King Ming’s Army with hundreds of soldiers, led by a True Body realm master.
In the past, attacks from the mountain folk were rare, their main defensive targets were the bizarre and evil creatures of the Shiwan Mountains.
But in recent years, they’ve been attacked by the mountain folk several times and had to reinforce the area.
After the handover, they briefly understood the situation.
The hillfolk had last attacked two months ago, snatching many alien beasts and even captured some of King Ming’s army.
"They captured them alive instead of killing them?"
Lu Yan asked, curious.
"Yes, they didn’t kill them."
An older man nodded, he was the captain of the troops in charge of protecting this area, a True Body realm master named Xiao Ran.
"Stealing alien beasts and capturing people alive, what are those mountain folk trying to do? Strange..."
Lu Yan mumbled.
"We’ve recently discovered something even stranger. The people of Shiwan Mountains used to live scattered, forming small tribes, but recently, these small tribes are gathering towards larger tribes, with signs of developing into larger cities. If this continues, it is not impossible for a nation to appear in the Shiwan Mountains."
Xiao Ran said.
"The folk of Shiwan Mountains have been scattered for thousands of years, rarely gathering together but now they suddenly gather. There must be something unusual going on, something we don’t understand."
Lu Yan said.
Perhaps, if the unusual occurrences are investigated, he would be able to complete his mission.
Then, they settled in the area.
