Chapter 2017

Long Chen waved his hand, and a gentle force brought those people up before they could finish kneeling. He said, “Don’t worry. Even if all the ancient races stood by the Xuan Beasts, I wouldn’t exterminate you to your root. I only kill people who raise their weapons against me. Even with sects that I have endless enmity with, I gave them a warning before destroying them, allowing the weaker ones to flee. Eliminating the roots is for those without power who are afraid that the survivors will come to find them for vengeance. If they come to find me for vengeance in this era, I will annihilate them with a wave of my hand. If they try to seek vengeance on my descendants after I die, and if my descendants can’t even handle such a thing, then they aren’t worthy of being my descendants anyway. So such a thing won’t occur. Even Empyreans like you aren’t worth me annihilating, so you should understand. Like I said, as long as you don’t raise your weapons against me, I won’t view you as my enemy.”

Hearing that, those disciples of the ancient races were delighted. They thought back to what they knew about Long Chen, and it truly was the case. Even when Long Chen had destroyed Heavenly Fate Island, he had given them a warning.

If someone left after his warning, they would be fine. If they refused to leave, then they were courting death themselves and couldn’t blame others.

Heavenly Fate Island had schemed against Long Chen multiple times, even taking action against his family. If it was someone else, they wouldn’t have given Heavenly Fate Island any chance to prepare. They would have directly destroyed it. But Long Chen hadn’t done that.

“Many thanks, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen.” The ancient race disciples were grateful for this. No wonder Long Chen was claimed to be the number one figure of the junior generation. It wasn’t just because of his peerless combat power but also this kind of bearing.

“No need to thank me. Go back and tell your people not to pick a side recklessly. They might lose their lives,” said Long Chen. “You should hurry and go now. Otherwise, if you are labeled traitors, you won’t survive.”

Hearing that, those disciples once more thanked Long Chen before leaving. As long as they maintained their neutrality, then whether Long Chen or Pill Valley won, they at least wouldn’t be annihilated to the last. That was the only thing they wanted.

When it came to warfare, those in power would benefit while paying the least, and the ones who suffered were always the weak.

Disciples like them who came from lower ranking races didn’t have many wild aspirations. It wasn’t that they were better people, but that for them, there was no benefit to war.

So living a quiet and peaceful life was all they wanted. As for Long Chen, he was very clear about this. This was not unique to the ancient races. The other races were about the same.

The cultivation world was like a tower, with those standing at the peak reaping the most profit.

As for those in the middle and lower levels, collectively, they possessed immense power. Pill Valley had taken special note of this and was trying to win their hearts. That was why the Brahma secret realm had been opened up to so many people.

Long Chen started flying to the core region. However, the Brahma secret realm was even larger than he had expected. He spent a whole day before seeing a giant curtain of light in the distance.

It was a barrier, a wall of light separating the inner and outer regions. Standing before it, Long Chen felt the energy of the Grand Dao.

He saw thousands of experts around the giant light barrier, attuning themselves to that Grand Dao energy. Their manifestations rippled behind them.

These people didn’t want to use the barrier breaking beads. If they used them, they would have firmly tied themselves to Pill Valley’s side. As cultivators, they didn’t want to become someone else’s dogs.

The light continued far into the distance. The people calmly cultivating in front of him were startled by his arrival.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen!” Several neutral experts greeted him.

“No need to call me that. If you don’t attack me, I’ll have to return your money.” Long Chen waved his hand with a smile.

Those neutral experts smiled. Those who were cultivating here were people who didn’t wish to join Pill Valley. That was too dangerous. As for Long Chen, he was vicious and domineering, but it seemed he wasn’t an unreasonable killer like the stories made him out to be.

Although the fact that Long Chen had taken their money had caused some resentment, Long Chen had promised not to attack them. That was the greatest safeguard.

Other than that, he had said that those who weren’t his enemies would be repaid many times this money. In their short contact with him, they had found that his words were worth their weight in gold.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen is joking. May I ask what plans you have?” probed a disciple from the ancient family alliance.

“Of course I’m going in. Pill Valley might be able to con others, but can they con me?” said Long Chen nonchalantly.

“But what if there really is a burst of god energy when the barrier breaking bead breaks? Then wouldn’t we have to forever listen to Pill Valley?” asked one person.

“Ah, it seems that you still don’t understand me.”

Long Chen suddenly took out a barrier breaking bead and crushed it. Once it was crushed, a pillar of light enveloped Long Chen. This light had the same fluctuations as the barrier.

At the same time, an illusory eye appeared in the sky above him. Divine pressure exuded from the eye as it looked at Long Chen.

“This is the god’s eye?!” Startled cries rang out. As expected, the barrier breaking beads couldn’t be randomly used!

Long Chen pointed a finger and a flash of lightning appeared. The eye exploded.

“What?!”

The disciples were dumbfounded. Long Chen had destroyed the god’s eye, blaspheming the god.

“What god’s eye? It was all a lie.” Long Chen sneered. That eye was just a smokescreen, something to apply mental pressure to people, making people follow orders by playing on their reverence for gods.

There were over a million people here. Hence, Long Chen refused to believe that Pill Valley would be willing to spend so much precious god energy on these barrier breaking beads.

This guess of his ended up correct. That was an illusion, and the energy inside it only felt like god energy.

Long Chen stepped through the light barrier, stunning the experts. Was Pill Valley really just trying to scare them? Their hearts pounded hard, but just as some people were bravely about to test it as well, Long Chen suddenly walked back.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen…?”

“You’ve all personally seen me enter now. But others didn’t get to see it, so they might not have the courage to enter. That’s why I want to test something.”

Long Chen took out a bronze disc. It was a fragment of the Eastern Wasteland Bell. He reached out and cut the barrier with the disc, and a huge opening actually appeared in the barrier.

The air of the Grand Dao immediately poured out from the other side. It truly was as Pill Valley had said, that energy was several times denser inside the barrier than outside.

The barrier attempted to heal, but there was a strange energy left on the opening, preventing it. The healing process was extremely slow.

“The Eastern Wasteland Bell is a legendary existence. Even a fragment of it possesses such power. Just what happened back then to make it fall into such a state?” wondered Long Chen.

He hadn’t really expected this to succeed, but he was delighted to find that it worked. He immediately flew off, creating a giant opening in the barrier.

The energy of the Grand Dao came pouring out of it, making the experts outside ecstatic.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, can we enter?”

“Are you charging more money?”

These experts were delighted but still a bit apprehensive.

“No need. I’m not in the habit of charging more money after you’ve already paid. If you want to, you can spread word to your people. I will continue leaving dozens of these openings throughout the barrier, and they can enter without any misgivings,” said Long Chen.

“Many thanks, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen!”

“I don’t need your thanks. I have my own goals after all. There will sooner or later be a bloody battle between myself and Pill Valley. If you join Pill Valley, it will add pressure to my side. Now, since there’s no need for you to be abducted by Pill Valley, we’re both benefiting.”

After saying that, Long Chen flew off, leaving another giant opening. He quickly vanished from sight.

“Quick, alert our people! There’s no need to spend any more time on the outer regions! Hurry and enter the core region!”

“The great era has come. We can’t miss out on this opportunity, or we won’t even be able to protect ourselves.”

Those disciples hastily used their secret communication methods to spread the word. As a result, countless experts that were still searching in the outer regions charged over. Seeing the giant openings in the barrier, they couldn’t believe their eyes. They harbored some suspicions, but then they saw people passing through easily, and more and more of their own people were telling them what had happened.

Seeing the experts pouring into the core region, Long Chen smiled. Pill Valley’s little scheme had been ruined. He wondered what kind of reaction Pill Valley’s experts would have once their disciples told them what had happened.

With a laugh, Long Chen finally got to his own business. He had taken this risk to enter the Brahma secret realm because it would decide whether or not he would survive the upcoming storm.