Chapter 5019 Clash Between Past and Present
Long Chen used the violet crystal heavenly eye to look at the outer region of the Long clan. At first, he didn’t notice anything out of place. However, when he spread his gaze beyond the Heavenly Desolation Domain, he spotted a group of suspicious people.
These individuals were shrouded in cloaks that obscured their faces, with special runes masking their auras. However, even without this concealment, Long Chen wouldn’t have been able to gauge their cultivation bases just by looking at them.
Though their cultivation base auras were hidden, their bodies exuded such strength that the space around them twisted. Vaguely, Long Chen could see countless flickering flame runes around them.
These fluctuations were not ordinary. Only sacred flames could cause such spatial distortions. With a glance, Long Chen recognized them as people from the Brahma Pill Valley or the Flame Divine Hall. After all, he had fought with them often enough to identify their unique flame fluctuations.
Anger crept over Long Chen’s face. He had come to the Long clan in secret, informing only the Dragonblood Legion. They, in turn, had only reported it to Bai Letian. Therefore, besides Bai Letian, no one else should have known he was here.
If this secret wasn’t leaked from Bai Letian’s side, it meant it had come from within the Long clan itself. Considering the importance of the Earth Cauldron, the Long clan wouldn’t lightly leak information about Long Chen’s presence. They had likely imposed strict restrictions on their disciples to prevent such a thing.
However, the Brahma Pill Valley’s people had still come, which indicated that the Long clan’s higher-ups must have informed them. After all, it would have been impossible for so many experts to enter the Heavenly Desolation Domain without the Long clan being aware of it.
Through the heavenly eye, Long Chen saw them setting up formations around the border. After watching them for a while, he realized they were screening themselves from the heavens, making it hard for him to sense their presence.
How curious. If they already set up the formation, why can I still sense the danger? Long Chen mused.
The Brahma Pill Valley wouldn’t be so foolish as to do something useless. After all, the amount of effort required to set up such large-scale formations was immense. If it didn’t have an effect, they wouldn’t do such a thing.
However, they had still done it, yet he could still sense them. How? Is it the Earth Cauldron? Or perhaps the Pill Sovereign memories?
Long Chen thought about it for a while. There were multiple possibilities, but there was no way to confirm which one was correct. He continued observing them and realized that it was only after setting up a formation disc that they stopped being so cautious. Once they set up a formation, they started moving freely within a certain region.
Looking around, Long Chen saw dozens of other places with the Brahma Pill Valley’s people. However, using formation discs to surround the entire Heavenly Desolation Domain was a laborious task. There was no way for them to finish in a short time.
“Let’s see what you’re up to,” Long Chen sneered. His cultivation base had made huge advancements, as had his power. Moreover, he had the Earth Cauldron to rely on, so he didn’t fear them.
After observing them for a while, Long Chen put away the heavenly eye and returned to cultivating the God Slaying Cross. He didn’t know if it was due to the influence of the Doyen power on the martial stage, but his dragon blood seemed to possess powerful Doyen fluctuations as well.
With these fluctuations within it, his dragon blood was no longer so stiff. Long Chen felt it was now easier to control, reducing the risk of injury.
With a thought, Long Chen summoned the violet blood God Slaying Cross and the seven-color Supreme Blood God Slaying Cross. Both bloodlines had gained more flexibility, making their use smoother.
“Haha, all the good things are happening to me!”
Pleasantly surprised, Long Chen resumed training in the dragon blood God Slaying Cross. His control had greatly improved. When he emerged from seclusion, he could unleash it thirty times in a row.
This result delighted Long Chen. He was getting closer to a hundred consecutive uses. As his power grew, so did the might of the God Slaying Cross.
If he were to unleash all his power, he estimated that it would be at least ten times greater.
Just as Long Chen was filled with delight over this, a tablet on his waist flashed, and he arrived at the competition grounds. This time, there were a few more people.
Long Chen spotted the somewhat weary-looking Long Qianxue, as well as the other experts with heaven vein dragon qi. They didn’t look too well, although they still acted like they were fine. But their heaven vein fluctuations were no longer as full as before.
Long Chen could instantly tell that they had exhausted themselves trying to awaken the Earth Cauldron. For them to have been in seclusion all this time and only come out now, it meant that they were truly unable to keep up any longer and had to take a break.
Long Chen almost burst into laughter when he realized that. It seemed that the Earth Cauldron could be quite sinister when it wanted to. It seemed determined to suck them dry.
However, some of them were still in seclusion. It seemed that the first ones to be unable to continue were those with one heaven vein, while two heaven vein experts were still working on it.
Conveniently, since these heaven vein experts needed to take a break, they could show their faces on the competition grounds. After all, if none of the higher-ups appeared over a long time, it would look far too suspicious, and Long Chen would suspect them of something.
Furthermore, today was the selection for the top eight. It was only right for the heaven vein experts to make an appearance. When Long Chen arrived, Long Qianxue nodded to him slightly, and Long Chen nodded back.
In truth, Long Qianxue was not that bad. Unfortunately, she would always stand on the side of the Long clan. Unlike the Heaven Overseer, she knew many things but had never leaked them to Long Chen. This showed that, in her heart, there was no right or wrong; anyone who opposed the Long clan’s interests was her enemy.
While Long Qianxue nodded to Long Chen, the others merely sneered, clearly looking down on him. Long Chen ignored them. After the formalities were said and done with, Long Chen activated the martial stage. Curiously, there was no intense fight between the disciples. Some even directly admitted defeat.
The eight battles were over in less than two hours, leaving Long Chen baffled. This was his easiest work yet, requiring no effort on his part. Once the fighting was over, he noticed that the winners had gathered together and were speaking privately.
In an instant, Long Chen realized that they had long since planned this. They didn’t want everyone to see their fighting skills, so they made some kind of agreement with their opponents.
It was unclear what kind of deals they had struck, but they simply went through the motions for today’s fighting. The next battles would be for the top four. After that, those four people would face Long Tianrui, Zhao Qingtian, Ye Lingxiao, and Jiang Wuwang.
The top four would have to fight twice, with the second round pitting experts from the ancient era against those from the current era. The current era’s experts refused to admit defeat, but they also didn’t want to expose too much power during the previous battles. They aimed to defeat the arrogant ancient experts in the final clash.
As a result, even before Long Chen left, four of the top eight directly conceded, finalizing the top four. Next time, these top four would face the sealed heavenly geniuses of the ancient era.
“Hmph, how shameful. When the time comes, I’ll show you what the difference is between us. I’ll teach you about despair,” Zhao Qingtian sneered with insufferable arrogance.
This saved Long Chen quite a bit of time. He immediately went back to training and came out three days later.
When he once more set foot onto the martial stage, the heaven vein experts of the four divine clans were present. Other than the clan leaders, most of them had gathered here. The atmosphere was electric with anticipation.
A clash between past and present—everyone had eagerly anticipated it for a long time.