Chapter 865: Red Stone Forest
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As an ancient martial art practitioner, Mo Wen knew all too well that if an ancient martial art practitioner revealed his entire hand to others, danger would soon follow.
Mo Wen’s spiritual pills were flying of the shelves in droves. His fame grew and at the same time, he drew the envy of some people. Many people were already paying attention to Mo Wen’s shops. However, many people were merely observing things for the time being. After all, this was Dragon City; no one dared to act recklessly.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed. Mo Wen concocted almost three hundred spiritual pills. However, most of them were third and fourth-grade spiritual pills. The difficulty of concocting high-grade spiritual pills was too high and the success rate was too low. They could not be mass-produced at all. Over the past few days, Mo Wen had only concocted one cauldron of sixth rank medicinal pills and there were only seven pills. These were the highest-ranked medicinal pills that he had ever concocted, and it was his best result after he mastered the Spiritless Clean Fire.
After passing the audition for the Three List Tournament, it was time for the elimination round. The format of the elimination round was different for different lists. Therefore, during the Three List Tournament, each list would organize its own elimination round independently. There was no relation between the three of them.
Mo Wen had received the list of participants’ names after the Heaven List audition. What surprised him was that more than one thousand people had actually succeeded in registering. As expected, Hua Xia Country was full of talents, and strong practitioners could be found everywhere. There were actually so many Golden Elixir Realm ancient martial art practitioners below the age of fifty. This list did not feature all of them, only those who were contesting for the Heaven List this time around.
The elimination round would take place outside of Dragon City in the Desolate Dragon World. The Huatian Palace had marked out an area especially for the Heaven List elimination round.
During the so-called elimination round, some people would be chosen from the more than one thousand that passed the audition. These people would continue on to the next round of the competition.
Dragon City had eight city gates. Outside each gate, there were teleporting stratagems that could send them straight to the Desolate Dragon World.
Dragon City was situated on top of the goddess’ scepter while the Desolate Dragon World was on the ground. If they did not use the teleporting stratagems, they could not reach the ground at all. Even a Martial Arts Grandmaster strong practitioner would fall to his death if he fell from too high a height. After all, when falling from a great height, the speed of their descent would keep increasing. There would be friction between the air and their bodies, and it most likely would burn a person to ash.
After passing through the Huatian Palace’s special passageway, Mo Wen successfully entered the Desolate Dragon World. He was in an area called the Red Stone Forest. This area had been completely cordoned off by the Huatian Palace. During the Heaven List elimination round, unauthorized personnel could not enter this area.
A flash blurred everything before Mo Wen’s eyes, and then it cleared up again. Mo Wen looked at his surroundings. He was in a wasteland of red stones. It was like a stone ocean; not even a blade of grass grew here.
The red stones had bizarre shapes. Some looked like trees, and some were as big as houses. Some looked like giants. There were all kinds of shapes and sizes.
Mo Wen discovered that this place appeared to be a wasteland without any life force, but he faintly noticed a living aura that seemed to be wandering around the area. However, even with his sensory ability, he could not pinpoint it clearly.
“This place seems to be somewhat bizarre,” Mo Wen mumbled to himself. This place was the Red Stone Forest. A thousand participants of the Heaven List Tournament would be sent here. The rules were very simple. They had to kill the escaped criminals that were in the forest. Whoever killed more people would score higher points.
In the end, after the final score would be tabulated. Those whose points ranked them in the top ten would be the top ten of this round of the Heaven List Tournament. After the elimination round, the Heaven List’s ranking battles would take place. They would compete to determine their ranking on the Heaven List.
From more than a thousand people, in the end, only ten of them would pass this round. It was a situation where only the strongest would make it to the end.
The people that were here were not only those who participated in the Heaven List Tournament. There were more Huatian Palace criminals around here. These criminals had been captured by the Huatian Palace after committing various crimes.
The criminals that could appear here were not ordinary people. Their cultivation was at least at the Golden Elixir Realm. They were also sly and cunning beyond compare. They were sinister and cruel. They were brave and fierce in combat. If an ordinary youth did not have enough combat experience and they encountered such a person, even if their own cultivation was slightly higher than the other party’s, they would very likely be killed.
The Red Stone Forest was also known as the Land of Exile. It was the Huatian Palace’s prison for major criminals. Those who were imprisoned here were mostly those who could make it onto the Savages List. Each of them was wicked and very difficult to deal with.
Back then, Gong Biluo making it onto the Savages List with pinnacle of the Embryonic Breathing Realm cultivation was considered an exception. Usually, the people who could make it onto the Savages List had at least Golden Elixir Realm cultivation. It was because Gong Biluo had committed too severe a crime and wiped out many sects in a short amount of time that the Huatian Palace had made an exception and placed her on the Savages List. However, she had only been on it for a week before dropping off the list.
Mo Wen knew some things about the Savages List. There were five hundred names on the Savages List. The further up one was ranked, the more frightening they were. Rumor had it that it was difficult for even for Huatian Palace veterans to capture those ranked in the top ten. Those in the top ten of the Savages List had been listed there for many years. There were even some that were up there for more than a decade.
However, the Savages List merely listed immortal cultivators below the Primordial Soul Realm as well as ancient martial art practitioners. Those beyond that scope would not be on the list. For example, Primordial Soul Realm immortal cultivators and ancient martial art practitioners that became immortals were considered people from another world when comparing their level with the mortal world. The Huatian Palace would usually not disclose the names of such people.
The Red Stone Forest was very big. It was equivalent to a province in Hua Xia Country. For a thousand people to be dispersed in here was equivalent to water vapor dissipating into the air. Mo Wen scanned around with his soul and will. There was not a single soul in at least a kilometer radius around him.
Mo Wen flipped his hand and a jade pendant appeared there. Lights flowed on its surface. It was beautiful and gentle looking, and it was made from excellent jade. On the jade pendant, there was a rune. It was the ancient character for “ten.”
The jade pendant was a simple magical treasure distributed by the Huatian Palace. It was his identity insignia that recorded information about him. At the same time, it was also a scoring token. The “ten” on it was his starting score. Each person would start off with ten points. Then, by killing off criminals of different cultivation, one could obtain different points. The stronger the criminal, the more points they would be awarded.
Mo Wen was not anxious. He minded his own business and found a spot to sit down cross-legged. He focused on cultivating.
He had a sense that he was about to break through the shackles and reach the Martial Arts Grandmaster Realm. Recently, this sensation had been getting stronger. However, there seemed to be something hindering him, causing him to be unable to take the final step.
He knew that the appearance of such a sensation was a fateful encounter for any ancient martial art practitioner. If he grasped the opportunity, he would be able to take that final step. However, if he did not, the sensation would disappear. He did not know how long it would be before it resurfaced. It was even possible that it would not appear again in his entire lifetime.
Mo Wen really wanted to seize the opportunity and break through to the Martial Arts Grandmaster Realm in one swoop. However, this last step was indeed not easy to make.
Not many ancient martial art practitioners at the pinnacle of the Golden Elixir Realm ever managed to step into the Martial Arts Grandmaster Realm. It was likely that many of them experienced such a sensation, but not everyone managed to successfully seize the opportunity.
The elimination round would last for ten days. Mo Wen had enough time, so he was not worried.
He knew that with the Red Stone Forest being so big, it was better for him to wait for others to find him than for him to go about looking for them. As a huge prison, the Red Stone Forest had far more criminals than participants. They lived here all year long and were exceptionally familiar with the geography, climate and surrounding environments here. If they wanted to find someone, the criminals would be able to do it far easier than outsiders like themselves.
Also, the Huatian Palace set a rule that any criminal in the Red Stone Forest could kill the participants. Once they succeeded in killing them, they could take their identity insignia. Once the criminals collected five identity insignia, they would be rewarded with an acquittal.
So it could be said that the major criminals in the Red Stone Forest were far more anxious than the participants. If the criminals could kill five people and obtain five identity insignia, they could gain their freedom.
Every time the Heaven List Tournament came around, a large number of participants would have their blood shed. The death rate was rather high. After all, the Red Stone Forest was the territory of these criminals. They held an advantage in terms of favorable timing, geographical and human conditions. It was rather difficult for the participants to emerge victorious.
Before everyone participated in the tournament, they had to sign a liability waiver. The Huatian Palace was prepared to hone them with blood and steel.
Of course, it wasn’t that those comparatively worse off participants had no chance of surviving after being thrown into such a dangerous place. If they surrendered on their own terms and crushed their identity insignia, they would be transported away by force and taken away from the dangerous Red Stone Forest.
However, not just the top ten in the Heaven List Tournament would enjoy benefits. Those ranked among the top five hundred would receive corresponding rewards. After all, the goal of the Huatian Palace was to cultivate these young geniuses of the Hua Xia Country and not to just let them die in the Red Stone Forest.
Therefore, many would keep fighting and would not surrender until the very last moment.
Mo Wen sat on a boulder in a high place. His goal was also to attract criminals to him.
Time passed slowly. Mo Wen did not know whether he was lucky or unfortunate, but after two hours, no one had actually found him.
There were at least five thousand criminals in the Red Stone Forest. Also, after knowing that the participants had entered the area, all of them would most likely have started moving about. By rights, after waiting for so long, at least a few people should have discovered him.
Huh?
Mo Wen raised an eyebrow. He suddenly sensed aura waves from a battle ten kilometers away. If he did not have Deified Soul Power, he would most likely not have noticed it.
“Let’s go over and take a look.”
A golden light flashed, and Mo Wen disappeared from his original spot, vanishing in a blink of an eye.
Ten kilometers away, two people were battling fiercely. Terrifying auras swept up in all directions. Sand and stone were sent flying. The entire area was a mess.
The two people were not old and could be considered youths. However, their cultivations were very powerful. Both of them were at the intermediate stage of the Golden Elixir Realm.
“They are actually both participants. Is there some infighting going on?”
Beneath a bizarrely shaped boulder two hundred meters away, a faint light image gradually appeared. It was Mo Wen.
He had originally thought that it was a battle between participants and criminals, but he was wrong.
Each participant had ten points from the very beginning. Aside from snatching points from criminals, they could also do so from participants like themselves. This dog-eat-dog scenario was very common in the Red Stone Forest, and the Huatian Palace tolerated the occurrence of such a scenario. When the participants had accumulated more points, infighting would become even fiercer in the later stages of the tournament.
The corner of Mo Wen’s mouth curled into a playful smile. He walked out from the shadows and acted surprised as he said, “What are you two doing?”
Another person was here?
The two people were shocked and looked at Mo Wen at the same time.
“Humph, you and I have been fighting for so long, and we have yet to gain an advantage over each other. We probably won’t reach an outcome any time soon. This brat looks clueless and foolish. Why don’t we join forces and settle him first? We can share the points earned between us. How about it?” one of them suddenly suggested.
“That is precisely my intention.”
Both of them stared at Mo Wen at the same time. Their gazes were somewhat eerie. Their ability was almost the same level. Wanting to win points from each other was rather difficult. However, the two of them joining forces to deal with Mo Wen was another story.