Chapter 318: Master of Close Combat! (3)
Translator: Zen Translations Editor: Zen Translations
The unique Summoning Signal Flare of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace had quite a large area of effect, and unleashed high up in the air, it was extremely clear to see. The unique thing was that even after the first burst of light dissipated, it would still leave a point of light, lasting a long time, to lead a way.
As the saying goes, watching the mountain as you run will kill horses 1, especially in such a dense forest, as Zhou Weiqing and Little Witch walked along while recovering their Heavenly Energy, they took more than an hour before they finally got close to the signal flare. One could imagine how huge the Lustre Spatial Realm was just from that alone.
In the distance, Zhou Weiqing and Little Witch could sense the powerful violent fluctuations of Heavenly Energy. By this time, they did not even need the guidance of the signal flare; just the Heavenly Energy fluctuations alone would be already to lead them to their target.
Exchanging looks, the pair did not hasten their speed, instead slowing down.
“How has your Heavenly Energy recovered?” Zhou Weiqing asked Little Witch. In this one hour, his own Heavenly Energy had already recovered to his maximum.
Little Witch nodded, saying: “I’ve recovered between sixty and seventy percent. There should be no problems fighting.”
Zhou Weiqing said: “Be careful. For the ZhongTian Battle Team members to actually use their signal flare, it has to be something really important or powerful. If not an extremely powerful Heavenly Beast, it might be the WanShou Battle Team members. We should not rush to take action, and just watch to see what is going on first.”
“I’ll listen to you.” Little Witch said in a cute, obedient manner, causing Zhou Weiqing’s gaze to stall for a moment. In the end, it is hard for a leopard to change its spots, just like ‘somebody’s’ perverted nature.
The pair continued along slowly and carefully. As they did so, the violent fluctuations of Heavenly Energy grew stronger, and they could hear crashing sounds ahead.
After pressing ahead about thirty more yards, as they looked through a bunch of trees, Zhou Weiqing could not help but be shocked by the sight in front of him.
What appeared in front of him was so far out of his expectations, yet what he had imagined had also come true!
In that midst of that huge, dense forest, a large clearing was in front of his eyes, and there were a lot of people fighting in the clearing currently.
There were quite a few groups of fights, but the most intense amongst them was the current ZhongTian Battle Team leader Zhan LingTian and the WanShou Battle Team leader, a white clad young man. The two clashed in midair, causing a series of loud violent explosions. Both were moving at extreme speeds, and at Zhou Weiqing’s level, he was hard pressed to even follow their movements with his eyes, being able to only see seven sets of Jewels vaguely around their wrists.
To reach the seven-Jeweled cultivation level before the age of thirty, that was already close to the maximum possibility.
The glare of the signal flare above was starting to diminish, and the fights had all intensified. Besides the aforementioned fight between the two leaders, there were still many other fights. Of course, the side with fewer numbers was the WanShou Battle Team, while the one with greater numbers was the ZhongTIan Battle Team and the BaoPo Battle Team members.
The members of the WanShou Battle Team were truly powerful. Currently, all eight of their members were there. Besides the leader who was fighting with Zhan LingTian, the other members were all fighting in a one versus two situation against the ZhongTian and BaoPo Battle Team members. They each had summoned a powerful Heavenly Beast to support them, and from a single glance, they all seemed to be at least at the Low Level Zong Stage or higher. Amongst them, there was a huge, totally white ape at the Upper Level Zong Stage, drawing attention instantly with its colossal power. The person fighting with it was none other than the one who had just parted from them, Shangguan Fei’er.
At this moment, Shangguan Fei’er had only released her bracers and gloved claws, and was fighting the giant ape to a standstill.
From the looks of things, the ZhongTian Battle Team’s side held the upper hand. After all, all eight of them were there, along with six of the Passion Valley members, totalling fourteen of the top fighters of their generation.
In terms of power, the Passion Valley member were undoubtedly slightly weaker. However, they were all husband and wife couples, and their rapport allowed their teamwork and cooperation to definitely bring their power levels to another level, as they were able to account for each other’s strengths and weaknesses, bringing their overall power to equal the other two stronger Saint Lands.
As for the ZhongTian Battle Team members, their individual strength might be slightly weaker than the WanShou Battle Team members as well. However, in terms of Consolidated Equipment, they clearly had a lead. For outstanding young talents like themselves who had grown into powerhouses of their own right, the threat of a Heavenly Beast was much lesser. With their numbers disadvantage, the seven members of the WanShou Battle Team (excluding the leader), were on the verge of losing.
However, this was not the most surprising thing to Zhou Weiqing, nor was it the thing that drew most of his attention. What drew his gaze instantly… was at the back of the battlefield.
At the back of the battlefield, there was a hill, almost a small mountain. At the bottom of the hill, there was a large cave, and within that cave lay a massive presence.
Dragon.
It was a dragon!
From the looks of it, it was about eighty percent similar looking to the one that Zhou Weiqing had seen in the air previously, just a little smaller. However, it was currently in terrible shape, its massive body lying there unmoving, and under it, a stream of blood pooled around it. Right in front of it lay a large, almost two metre long egg, glowing brilliantly, lighting up the dark cave.
The egg itself was pure white in colour, but it was glowing in a red brilliance.
The dying dragon was licking the surface of the giant egg gently.
Without question, the reason why the ZhongTian Battle Team released its signal flare was definitely not because of the WanShou Battle Team, but because of this dragon and the dragon’s egg!
As for how this dragon was injured, Zhou Weiqing could not guess how. After all, any dragon’s power was not something any of them, or even all of them combined, could handle. However, he was certain that this dragon in front of them no longer had any fight left in it.
The members of the WanShou Battle Team seemed to be protecting the dragon, while the ZhongTian Battle Team and BaoPo Battle Team members seemed to be trying to get to it to steal its egg.
A dragon could be said to be an entire treasure trove. Not just its body, its blood, its scales, bones and horns, almost every part of it was a treasured material to Heavenly Jewel Masters. Furthermore, there was an egg there, clearly laid not long ago. What was a priceless treasure in itself! No matter who, if one could hatch a dragon’s egg and own a dragon, what kind of honour and treasure would that be!? Given sufficient time to grow, that dragon could be a future Heavenly God Powerhouse.
In truth, what Zhou Weiqing did not know was that this Lustre Spatial Realm was actually created by the dragon race. They had been on the verge of extinction, and a long time ago, they had done so in order to preserve their bloodline and ensure the survival of their race. It was only many years later that the Heaven’s Expanse Palace would discover it on the Heavenly Jewel Island.
As for the entrance restriction of this Lustre Spatial Realm was that the age had to be lower than thirty.
This was the restriction that the dragon race had initially set upon this Spatial Realm as a layer of protection.
The demise and endangerment of the dragon race was largely due to the human race. Even though each dragon was extremely powerful, how could they compare in sheer numbers with humans? In front of these crafty, greedy humans, they were just like a huge treasure trove awaiting to be plundered. DragonSlayer, that used to be an honoured name, a name that signified overnight wealth and fame!
The pride of the dragon race had resulted in them not living together, and this had given the humans an unlimited opportunity. Finally, by the time the last few surviving elder dragons had realised this, they were faced with a dying race. They had chosen the Heavenly Jewel Island as their last stand together against the humans in a final fight. In this final battle, they had slaughtered almost all the human powerhouses, but they were also driven to the verge of extinction.
With the last of their strength, they had created the Lustre Spatial Realm on this Heavenly Jewel Island, placing several dragon eggs within, hoping that their future kin could flourish and grow in this new world. It was also because of this that the dragons hated humans so much.
In order to prevent humans from threatening their descendants, they had placed the restriction of the age of thirty on the Lustre Spatial Realm, forever restricting any humans above the age of thirty from entering.
In actual fact, the last surviving elder dragons who had created this Lustre Spatial Realm had not realised that in that destructive final battle, almost all of the human powerhouses of that time had been vanquished, with much of their legacy lost. There had been almost no more threat to dragons at that time.
Many years later, when the Heaven’s Expanse Palace had discovered the secret to this Spatial Realm, that generation of Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord had also discovered the secret through other means.
The Heavenly Snow Mountain was the sacred realm of Heavenly Beasts, and the main bloodlines of the Heavenly Snow Mountain had always been partners and allies of dragonkind. The Divine Heavenly Spirit Tigers and dragonkind had very close relationships, and had once ruled to world together. It was only until the humans had grown in strength that everything had changed.
When they had found out that the dragons still existed in the Lustre Spatial Realm, the Heavenly Snow Mountain was overjoyed. Alas, by that time, they could no longer defeat the Heaven’s Expanse Palace easily.
Finally, both sides came to a grudging agreement, and that was the real reason behind the hosting of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. The cunning Heaven’s Expanse Palace Master of that time had craftily drawn in the other Great Saint Lands into the Tournament as well, and as time passed, it grew into a Tournament that encompassed all the Empires of the world. However, the finals of the Tournament was always held in the Lustre Spatial Realm, their original target.
Only the ZhongTian Battle Team and the WanShou Battle Team truly knew about the secret behind the Lustre Spatial Realm, behind the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. Every Heavenly Jewel Tournament, their goal was not the final placing in the tournament, but to find the dragons within the Lustre Spatial Realm.
The Lustre Spatial Realm could only be opened every three years, as such, no matter the Heaven’s Expanse Palace or the Heavenly Snow Mountain, they were not worried that the other side would try to sneak into the Lustre Spatial Realm between that time period.
Of course, none of the young fighters would be of anymatch for an adult dragon, but they could still search for the remains of dead dragons, or even dragon eggs.
The Heavenly Jewel Tournament had been held for so many years, so many times, and between the ZhongTian Battle Team and the WanShou Battle Team, they had only found some scattered dragon bones or scales in the past. As for finding a dragon’s egg, this was truly the first time, let alone having a dying dragon without any strength left right beside the egg.
In truth, the WanShou Battle Team’s main target in entering the Lustre Spatial Realm was actually to harass and stop the ZhongTian Battle Team, to prevent them from gaining too much from the Lustre Spatial Realm, allowing the dragons in this fair land to have a chance to grow and flourish again, in hopes that one day they would grow strong enough to leave this unique spatial realm and join forces with the Heavenly Snow Mountain again.
As for the ZhongTian Battle Team’s target, it was naturally to gain as much as possible from these dragons.
The first person to find the dying dragon was a WanShou Battle Team member, but not long after, a ZhongTian Battle Team member had stumbled upon them. WIthout hesitation, he had released the signal flare. After all, with the BaoPo Battle Team’s help, their combined strengths was definitely above the WanShou Battle Team.