God Emperor

Once he climbed up the mountaintop of the First Level Mountain, a Monk could drink the Holy Spring’s Holy Water.

According to legend, the Ancient Gods Mountain had evolved from the remains of an ancient deity. Its seven Holy Springs were seven blood meridians from the deity. A Monk who drank the spring water frequently would not only be able to improve his cultivation, but also perceive the Holy Road and the Tao of the sword more easily.

Zhang Ruochen was eager to drink from the Holy Spring and see if it was as magical the legends said.

The First Level Mountain of Ancient Gods Mountains was 9 kilometers high. If he wanted to reach the mountaintop from the mountainside, he had to fight constantly against an intangible “Force”.

After climbing six kilometers, he could feel the power of the “Force”. It made him slightly dizzy and his eardrums hurt.

He ran his Genuine Qi to defuse the power. Soon, he felt refreshed.

Upon reaching the seven kilometer mark, he noticed a Saint’s disciple in the Fish-dragon Realm crawling in front of him.

Obviously, this guy was straining himself to the max. His robe was soaked with sweat, and blue veins stood out on his face. But he was persevering and forcing his way up.

“Roar!”

The massive Force blasted against him and shattered his eardrums. Blood gushed from his ears.

With a scream, the Saint’s disciple lost control of his body and fell to the bottomless cliff.

Zhang Ruochen saw all of this and immediately started his Heart of the Sword. The Blue Crystal Sword on his back zipped out of its sheath, turned into a sword light and flew downward to the cliff.

Seconds later, the sword cradled the Saint’s disciple and flew upward.

Zhang Ruochen put the disciple on the mountain path, regained his sword and continued moving forward.

Not far ahead, a tall thin man in bloodstained garments looked back at Zhang Ruochen. He had wanted to help, but Zhang Ruochen beat him to it.

With a weather-worn face, the man looked to be thirty-five or so. He retracted the scarlet Holy Qi in his hand and said, “Even under the repression of the Ancient Gods Mountain’s Force, you can still practice Sword Defending Technique. Your ability is quite good.”

Zhang Ruochen looked up and found a man in a red robe staring at him coldly about 30 meters ahead.

30 meters away, Zhang Ruochen could still smell the strong odor of blood from him.

To Zhang Ruochen’s surprise, he could not tell what cultivation this man had. But he assumed this person’s cultivation had reached the Seventh Change of the Fish-dragon Realm at least, or even higher.

To encounter a master in the Ancient Gods Mountain was not that unusual. What astonished Zhang Ruochen was that the print on this man’s collar band and wristbands was exactly the same as that on his robe.

In other words, this man was also a Saint’s disciple from the Long-living Yard.

Zhang Ruochen asked, “Which sacred mountain of the Long-living Yard do you belong to?”

With an impassive expression on his face, the man turned a deaf ear to Zhang Ruochen’s question and headed silently toward the top.

Every step he took was slow but stable. Even with the Force impinging on his will, he appeared rather calm.

It was he who had started the conversation with Zhang Rouchen. Yet when Zhang Rouchen responded to him, he had become distant and unresponsive.

What a crank!

Zhang Ruochen shook his head and walked steadily along the mountain path to the top.

The Force of the First Level Mountain, though powerful, failed to stop Zhang Ruochen. It took him less than two hours to reach the mountaintop.

The tall thin man also reached the mountaintop. He made his way to the first Holy Spring without a word.

Further down on the Ancient Gods Mountain.

Mu Jiji and Xun Hualiu had been gazing at the mountaintop. When they saw Zhang Ruochen succeed in reaching the mountaintop of the First Level Mountain, they jumped up and down with excitement.

“Lin Yue is really something. He can crest the First Level Mountain the first time entering the Ancient Gods Mountain. Even compared with Gai Hao, he did a great job. If only I had half of his performance,” Xun Hualiu said.

Mu JIji was rather excited too and boasted to some Saint’s disciples he knew, saying, “See that? The man who just reached the top of the First Level Mountain is my boss, Lin Yue. Awesome, right?”

Saint’s disciples had eyesight so amazing that they could see clearly every blade of grass and every tree hundreds of kilometers away. All they had to do was run Genuine Qi and infuse it into their eyes.

If they wanted to see the people at the top of a mountain, it was a piece of cake.

While Xun Hualiu and Mu Jiji flaunted about Lin Yue being their boss, the other Saint’s disciples stared at the tall thin man beside Lin Yun.

“That man…he finally returned to Suzerain?”

“Why is he here?”

…

Seeing that everyone was staring at someone else, rather than Zhang Ruochen, Mu Jiji pursed his lips. He looked up to the mountaintop again, wondering who had stolen Zhang Ruochen’s thunder.

His eyes fixed on the tall thin man.

It was an unfamiliar figure. Mu Jiji, the Know-it-all of the Yin and Yang Sect, was unable to tell who he was.

He turned to an elder disciple. “Elder brother Ji, who is he? Why do you seem frightened of him?”

The disciple replied, “You are young, you have not met him before, but you must have heard his name. He is the only monk in the Yin and Yang Sect to have successfully practiced the ‘Art of the Blood Sword’ for thousands of years. His name is Can Dong. Thirty years ago, he left to experience the Battlefield of Primitive World and never came back. Few young disciples have seen his face.”

“Blood Sword, Can Dong.”

Mu Jiji and Xun Hualiu changed their countenances with shock.

They had not expected to encounter the ferocious man in the legend.

Knowing Can Dong was breaking through Ancient Gods Mountain, all the Saint’s disciples present seethed with excitement, including Mu Jiji and Xun Hualiu.

“I thought it would be a fierce struggle between Qin Yufan, Xu Changsheng and Qi Feiyu. But Can Dong joined in unexpectedly. Well, something interesting is coming!”

“I predict, Qin Yufan and Qi Feiyu will succeed in climbing to the top of the Second Level Mountain, but Xu Changsheng and Can Dong won’t make it beyond the mountainside.”

“The Sect once counted that among the Saint’s disciples who had reached the Second Level Mountain, 99 percent of them became Half Saints, and 30 percent Saints. That is to say, anyone who can reach the Second Level Mountain is guaranteed to become a Half Saint. They even have a great chance of becoming a Saint.”

All the Saint’s disciples were talking about Qin Yufan, Qi Feiyu, Xu Changsheng and Can Dong. Incredibly, all four people had cultivation at the Eighth Change of the Fish-dragon Realm.

In the blazing light of the four other people, Lin Yue, though he had climbed the First Level Mountain, was neglected.

After all, Lin Yue was a new Saint’s disciple. Both his cultivation and his fame were not on the same level as the others.

…

…

The first Holy Spring gurgled down from the mountaintop of the Second Level Mountain, ran through green stones and converged into a stream. However, it soaked into the soil and disappeared before flowing to the mountainside.

This meant that a Monk had to climb to the top of the First Level Mountain to drink the Holy Water.

The Holy Water in the stream took on seven colors and had a slightly exotic fragrance. Because of irrigation and the nurture of the Holy Spring, many rare and precious Spiritual Doses grew along the stream. They were one to three thousand years old.

Each Spiritual Dose could be sold at an expensive price.

Each Saint’s disciple was allowed to drink the Holy Water the first time they reached the mountaintop. The next time he climbed the top and approached to it, he would be instantly catapulted by the array beside the Holy Spring.

The tall thin man walked into a Taoist temple and took a green gourd down from the divine altar. He went to the Spring and filled the gourd with the Water.

Zhang Ruochen entered the temple as well. He took a palm-sized gourd and prepared to fetch water.

The man glanced at Zhang Ruochen and said, “You are talented. Why not stay here and drink the water of the Holy Spring to improve your cultivation? Why do you want to take the Spring away?”

“What about you? Why not stay here? Why take away the Spring?” Zhang Ruochen asked in reply.

The rule of the Ancient Gods Mountain was that Saint’s disciples could drink the Holy Spring as they liked, provided that they could bear it.

However, if the disciples did not practice beside the Holy Spring, they could only take a small gourd out.

Saint’s disciples of strong physical quality tended to practice beside the Holy Spring and make full use of the Spring to help them break the realm. In this way, they could drink much more.

The man stood up, looked at the gourd in his hand, and said impassively, “I am not like you.”

Zhuang Ruochen squatted on his heels, put the green gourd into the Holy Spring, and said with a smile, “I am not like you, either.”

The man threw a meaningful look at Zhang Ruochen without saying anything more. He put the green gourd away and climbed to the Second Level Mountain.

After the man had left, Zhang Ruochen smiled faintly. As he put the gourd into the Holy Spring, he secretly instilled Genuine Qi into the Spatial Ring on his finger.

“Swoosh!”

The seven-colored Spring gushed into the Spatial Ring and formed a small vortex on the water’s surface.

For fear of the Saint of the Mountain, Zhang Ruochen dared not take too much.

After collecting around a thousand liters of water, he retracted his Genuine Qi and re-closed the Spatial Ring.

He withdrew his hands. He took the gourd full of Holy Spring water, capped it and hanged it on his waist. It was time for him to head to the Second Level Mountain.

In the Spatial Ring, a thousand liters of Holy Spring water, a thousand times more than that in the gourd, was a huge fortune for him.