July 8th, in the afternoon.
The Wind Vulture darted out of the thick layer of clouds and reduced its speed to less than the speed of sound.
Ye Chen only felt the world in front of his eyes suddenly light up when numerous mountains and lakes came into his sight.
But soon, his eyes popped out and his mouth was wide open in shock. Within a radius of over thousand miles, mountains and hills reached all the way up to the sky. Some of these mountains were lofty and majestic, some were covered in verdant and thriving green, some were shaped like gigantic, magnificent dragons and some looked like crouched tigers. Dense natural Yuan Qi had condensed into a light and thin fog, coiling around the mountaintops, as if the entire area was a fairyland.
Located between those mountains, were numerous, different-sized lakes. Looking down from above, some smaller lakes were only as big as fingernails. Those lakes with varying colours spread all over the area, one couldn’t even tell the exact number of them in their first glance.
In the middle of this area, tens of steep mountains together turned it into a valley, that was of a beautiful verdurous colour, just like an enormous piece of naturally formed emerald, which was exquisite and elegant yet spectacular. Looking into the valley, one could see hundreds of different-sized lakes and buildings standing orderly around those lakes. The inner scenery and outer environment of the valley served as foils to each other, shaped into a quite special formation.
“Such an earthly paradise!” Ye Chen curved his lips upwards and let out a few words.
Luo Hanshan explained to him, “In total, there are one-thousand three-hundred and twelve mountains and nine-thousand eight-hundred lakes located near the Emerald Martial Palace valley, that's why this area has been known as ‘Numerous mountains and lakes’; apart from this, on those mountains that form the valley, you can find a special kind of stone, named 'scented fragrant emerald'. This kind of stone has been inexhaustibly releasing a nice scent, that is called ‘lingering fragrance of the emerald’. These two features combined together, into the well-known phrase - ‘Numerous mountains and lakes, lingering fragrance of the emerald’. Once you mention this phrase, all Windy Nation’s warriors, even warriors from other countries, would all immediately think of this rank 7 martial arts academy, Emerald Martial Palace.”
“‘Numerous mountains and lakes, lingering fragrance of the emerald’, hmm, it does make people wonder about this place.” praised Ye Chen.
The head elder let out a cold snort and said, “This place is indeed an earthly paradise, however, the Emerald Martial Palace is not the original owner of this valley. Three-thousand years ago, the rank 5 martial institution, Hills and Streams Academy used to occupy this area.”
“That’s right. Back then, the Emerald Martial Palace was only a small institution, even without rank. The first leader of the Emerald Martial Palace accidentally discovered the ancient site of the Hill and Streams Academy, found the fragmentary book ‘Hills and Streams’ in it. According to that book, he severely cultivated for over ten years, and shocked the entire world when he showed what he had learned. In this way, he laid a solid foundation for the Emerald Martial Palace.” said the Fourth Elder, with an admiring and passionate tone.
‘Hills and Streams’, a fragmentary book.
‘Sounds marvellous!’ Ye Chen silently exclaimed in his head.
The Wind Vulture swiftly flew past countless mountains and lakes and arrived at the entrance of the Emerald Martial Palace valley.
The entrance was a flat area, hundreds of zhang in radius, quite a few famous warriors were walking into the valley in groups, through this entrance. Among those warriors, some powerful ones came on demonic beasts just like the Sky Cloud Martial School’s people did, but apparently, their demonic beasts were far weaker than the Wind Vulture.
[TL note: Zhang, a unit of length. 1 zhang = 3.33 meters.]
A fierce gale swooshed up against the ground where the Wind Vulture landed.
An outer elder of the Emerald Martial Palace and four attendant apprentices walked over and said, “Welcome! Welcome, our honoured guests! Please forgive us for not going outside to welcome you!”
The Head Elder set the Wind Vulture free, smiled and said, “It seems that we have arrived ahead of the others.”
“Haha, the Sky Cloud Martial School is quite high-profile lately! You guys have won the first prize of everything, but, what is the point of being the first in such trifling matters?
A double-headed, gigantic bat carried a group of people and swished over in the air. A middle-aged, sturdy man, who seemed to be the leader of the group, said loudly.
Hearing this man’s words, the Fourth Elder’s face instantly filled with displeasure. This seemingly middle-aged man named Zhu Li, was the same age as the Head Elder. Because of the special martial art he had been practising, he looked only about forty years old, and especially energetic.
Taking a deep breath, the Fourth Elder also responded in a loud voice, “I didn’t believe it until I heard this. Well, it turns out that your Purple Sun Martial School’s people are indeed, all loud speakers. I heard your roar from over ten miles away.”
“Having a loud voice is not a bad thing at all, I’m just afraid that someone doesn't even have the power to raise his voice to this degree.” The double-headed bat landed on the ground, Zhu Li, who first walked down from the bat’s back with his head held high, seemed proud and aggressive。
“Look, the Sky Cloud Martial School and the Purple Sun Martial School are having a verbal fight again!”
“Among the five famous martial institutions, the Sky Cloud Martial School and the Purple Sun Martial School have the deepest hatred towards each other. The problems between them have never been solved, I heard that when the five institutions encircled and annihilated the remaining forces of the Nine Evil Cult, the Purple Sun Martial School had entrapped the Sky Cloud Martial School, making them lose many of their powerful disciples, resulting in them being downgraded into a rank 9 institution only a few years after that. However, the Sky Cloud Martial School was not a pushover either, they released fake information, and lured the former leader of the Purple Sun Martial School to the gathering spot of the Nine Evil Cult’s remaining forces, directly causing his cruel death.”
“I haven’t heard this secret story before! No wonder these two powerful institutions never tolerated each other.”
Quite a lot of surrounding people began whispering to each other.
Usually, the Emerald Martial Palace’s people would love to see two institutions go head to head, even start a life-and-death fight; however, this was the Emerald Martial Palace’s valley, and the celebrating banquet will be hosted tomorrow, if these two powerful institutions start a fight in this situation, the Emerald Martial Palace would be very humiliated. Therefore, a few Emerald Martial Palace’s outer elders hurriedly said, “My honoured guests, your accommodations have already been arranged, please, follow me.”
Zhu Li snorted scornfully, then turned around and left. Ouyang Ming, standing behind Zhu Li, threw a complicated glance at Ye Chen.
On the Sky Cloud Martial School’s side, the Head Elder slightly loosened his anger filled face and said to Ye Chen and the others, “Let’s go inside.”
After both the Sky Cloud Martial School and the Purple Sun Martial School’s people left the entrance area, it suddenly started to rain from the sky and drenched a large area. Along with the rain, a black-scaled demonic beast carrying the Rudra Martial School’s group of people arrived at the entrance.
……
Inside the Emerald Martial Palace valley, numerous lakes laid in front of Ye Chen’s eyes, and they were all as calm as mirrors.
“The Emerald Martial Palace has certainly proved itself to be worthy of a rank 7 institution, this is a genuine fairyland on earth.”
“Look at this, compared to this place, my hometown is totally like a poor hillock, they are definitely not on the same level.”
“All the lotuses in these lakes can’t actually be the precious herb- 'Pure Cyan Lotus', can they? Oh, and those fishes, they are all rare ancient species!”
Listening to people’s praises, Ye Chen had to admit that judging only from the environment, the Emerald Martial Palace valley was far more beautiful than the Sky Cloud Martial School’s Windy Mountain, compared to this magnificent valley, the Windy Mountain wasn't even worth mentioning. He wondered how the environment of the North Snow Martial Academy, which was also a rank 7 institution was.
Many people had come to offer their congratulations. The less influential people were mostly arranged in exquisitely built houses around the outer circle lakes in the Emerald Martial Palace valley, while slightly more powerful people were arranged closer to the central area, that had much better scenery; as for the Sky Cloud Martial School’s people, as one of the five famous institutions, they were directly arranged in the central most area, near the main building of the entire valley.
Ye Chen inadvertently glanced at the broad roads between the lakes, and abruptly, an inconspicuous change appeared in his expression as a light flashed across his eyes.
In the front, there was a group of young people, they were wearing green outfits and had been laughing and talking. Judging from their Zhen Qi vibrations, they were no weaker than the top ranking inner disciples of the Sky Cloud Martial School. Two among these young people had immeasurably great Zhen Qi vibrations, obviously, they had reached the level of Sky Cloud Martial school’s core disciples.
A girl who stood to the left side of the group had a stunning body shape and a breathtakingly beautiful face. Like a secluded orchid in a mysterious Valley, every single move of hers could seemingly move those male-disciples’ hearts. The man standing by her side was tall and handsome, he had a noble temperament, and was surrounded by a faint kingly aura. He did not seem like an ordinary person.
Luo Hanshan, who had been standing beside Ye Chen, recognised the girl, whose name was Ji Xueyan. She was one of the Ji Family’s disciples and had visited the Sky Cloud Martial School with ‘Broken Palm’ Liu Wuxiang half a year ago. Judging from what happened that day, the relationship between her and Ye Chen was quite complicated.
“Junior brother Ye, here is our accommodation, let’s go take a look!” said Luo Hanshan while patting Ye Chen on his shoulder.
Ye Chen turned his eyes away from that girl, while the expression on his face remained unchanged.
Guided by an outer elder of the Emerald Martial Palace, the five of them walked towards a luxurious mansion, located beside an enormous lake.
From a distance, Ji Xueyan saw that familiar silhouette and then slightly frowned. The handsome male disciple standing beside her asked thoughtfully, “Junior sister Ji, is something wrong?”
“No, nothing wrong, Senior brother Shi.”
Ji Xueyan was sure that that person was no one else but Ye Chen. She didn’t think that within only half a year, Ye Chen, who was only at Mortal Realm stage 6, could achieve his current level; she wouldn’t be so surprised if that was all. But, apart from his swift improvement in cultivation, surprisingly, Ye Chen had also sensed half-step sword intent that every sword artist would dream of. Within just a few days, Ye Chen’s name resounded almost throughout the entire Windy Nation, nearly every single warrior had heard his name. Ye Chen’s sudden raise in fame even caught up with that of some of the top core disciples of all powerful institutions
Translated by: Law
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