They could kill this detestable dog later, but the great opportunity presented by the Sunken Abyss Valley wouldn’t appear again. If they missed this opportunity, there would be no next time.
Everyone surged toward the valley. When the valley had been glowing before, there had been a mystical barrier preventing them from entering. Right now, the first person had already stepped onto a piece of rock, which instantly rose into the air.
However, it only rose six meters into the air, not ascending any further. Then, the second and third person arrived, both of them stepping onto rocks that rose into the air.
Intense battles immediately broke out, and it wasn’t long before the floating rocks of some cultivators were shattered. These shattered rocks didn’t fall to the ground, but were instead absorbed by the floating rocks beneath the victors’ feet. These floating rocks would then grow larger, thereby allowing them to ascend higher into the air.
However, there was also a limitation. That was, each piece of floating rock would only have a movement range of six meters in the up and down direction. When these floating rocks grew larger, they would merely carry the cultivator to a greater height. However, the range of its movement wouldn’t increase at all.
As a result, the regions of battle became confined into the shape of a pyramid. The lower one was, the more intense the battles would be. Meanwhile, the higher one was, the fewer people there would be, meaning that it was also much more difficult to rise any higher.
“Hurry, we need to get a move on too,” Shan Jingyi said.
Nie Tiancheng had already returned, though his expression was livid and dark. He hadn’t managed to find his broken arm, so he was left with no option but to consume his life force to grow a new one. This naturally caused great harm to his life force. However, if he were able to find some natural treasures, perhaps he could still regain this lost life force.
Meanwhile, there was a look of toxic resentment in his eyes as he gazed at Ling Han. This was because he had seen Ling Han being greeted by the large black dog, and since he had been unable to capture the large black dog, he naturally heaped all of his anger and resentment onto Ling Han.
This was truly undeserved hate. Ling Han took note of this, but he didn’t say anything. If Nie Tiancheng truly dared to target him, he would definitely strike back and suppress him.
They were only temporary allies, after all, and this alliance would naturally fall apart once they reached the cutoff height. Thus, Ling Han didn’t have any intention of helping Nie Tiancheng or Shan Jingyi achieve good results.
The only reason he hadn’t become immediately hostile was to give the North Emperor and Stone Emperor face. After all, it was them who had informed him about the Star Sand Martial Arts Academy and the Sunken Abyss Valley… Of course, both were major events, and Ling Han would have eventually found out about them even if they hadn’t informed him.
The team of 12 entered the valley. There were floating rocks everywhere, and it was as if they could never be used up. Thus, each of the 12 king tiers quickly found a floating rock to step onto. They all rose to a height of six meters, where they then began to search for opponents.
“Celestial maiden, I’ll definitely protect you!” Shan Jingyi said to Empress Luan Xing.
“I will too!” Nie Tiancheng hurriedly said.
Looks of displeasure instantly spread across the North Emperor’s and Stone Emperor’s face. Although Empress Luan Xing hadn’t introduced herself, anyone with eyes would have realized that she was in a relations.h.i.+p with Ling Han.
They were all in an alliance right now, so was it really a good idea to flirt with the partner of a fellow ally?
This was incredibly rude.
However, Shan Jingyi and Nie Tiancheng didn’t pay any heed to this, continuing to fawn over Empress Luan Xing. It was as if Ling Han didn’t exist in their eyes. Moreover, it was clear that they were purposefully ignoring their relations.h.i.+p and trying to steal Empress Luan Xing from him.
In their eyes, Ling Han was completely unworthy of a woman as beautiful and charming as Empress Luan Xing. Only supreme prodigies like them could be worthy of her.
However, if they had spent the time to gather some information, perhaps their confidence wouldn’t be as full as it was now. This was because Ling Han was a rank two king tier. In other words, he was no weaker than them. Meanwhile, Empress Luan Xing was even more terrifying, being publicly acknowledged as one of the most powerful king tiers.
However, how could they have gone out to gather information? Firstly, they were extremely conceited individuals who looked down on all other prodigies and king tiers. Secondly, they had been completely enchanted by the empress’ figure and charm.
Ling Han smiled faintly and prevented Empress Luan Xing from attacking them. He used his divine sense to transmit a message, saying, “We’ll kick them down when we reach the peak.”
“Sure!” Empress Luan Xing replied, an intoxicating smile on her face. However, it was a pity that no one could see this smile.
With her personality, she would immediately kill any person that she detested. However, since Ling Han had other plans, it wouldn’t hurt to wait for a while longer. Her gentleness and understanding were only reserved for one person—Ling Han.
There was already an undercurrent of animosity sweeping through the team of 12. However, this animosity still had yet to rise to the surface and explode. They started to attack the other teams.
Since the rules permitted it, most of the cultivators here had chosen to form teams. After all, those who were alone would obviously be at a very huge disadvantage. Thus, there were teams of three, teams of seven, and other teams of all shapes and sizes. Those teams that had less than 12 members most likely simply hadn’t managed to recruit enough members.
After all, even super-large galaxies could only produce 10 or so king tiers. Meanwhile, large galaxies could only produce seven to eight, while small galaxies could only produce three to four. If the king tiers weren’t familiar with each other, who dared to entrust their back to strangers?
Teams like the one that Ling Han was in were relatively rare. Generally speaking, cultivators wouldn’t trust those from foreign galaxies so easily.
The first team that they came across was a team of three. Although there were few people, their strength wasn’t weak. After all, everyone’s cultivation level had already been suppressed to the early stage of the low extreme of the Heavenly Body Tier. As such, even the gap between rank three king tiers and rank one king tiers wasn’t very large.
Nie Tiancheng had been humiliated before, so he naturally wanted to regain his face now. Thus, he was the first person to charge over.
He summoned a peach branch that had seven flowers on it, each of them exuding a faint and refres.h.i.+ng fragrance.
Boom!
Whipping this peach branch, it was as if a towering tree had instantly materialized into the world, suppressing the lands and holding up the heavens.
Ling Han couldn’t help but feel astonished. ‘What G.o.d Tool is this? It seems fairly impressive.’
“This is the rumored Celestial Branch!” the North Emperor exclaimed. He turned around to explain this to the others, saying, “According to the legends, during a transformative period of the skies, a Celestial Tree once appeared in the void. It swept through the universe, possessing a profound might that prevented anyone from nearing it.
“Unfortunately, perhaps it had received significant damage when traveling through the void, and this caused it to shrivel and die very quickly. However, it still bore a single fruit that was obtained by the Flying Rain Saint. After planting this fruit and using all kinds of divine soil to nurture it, it finally sprouted and grew after 900,000,000 years.
“This is a Celestial Peach Tree, and it only produces two fruits every 100,000,000 years. To cultivators, these fruits are profound Great Herbs that can compare to the rarest of Saint Fruits. However, this is only a child tree. The mother tree would have most likely produced even better fruits. In any case, this is the origin of the Celestial Tree.
“My master teamed up with the Flying Rain Saint once, trying to determine where the mother tree had come from. However, it was a shame that they ended up vomiting blood even though they had used heaven-defying techniques. They weren’t able to discover a shred of new information.
“Anyhow, the branch that Brother Nie is holding has come from none other than the child tree. It can be viewed as a Saint Tool, something that can be refined into a Pseudo-Saint Tool!”
‘Pseudo-Saint Tool!
‘No wonder it’s so impressive. It was able to release a heaven-suppressing aura immediately upon being summoned.’
Ling Han and his companions exchanged a glance, all of them reaching a speculation that was probably close to the truth—the mother tree had come from the Celestial Realm! This was almost certain as only the Celestial Realm was capable of nurturing Great Herbs that were above the Immortal level.
A haughty smile appeared on Nie Tiancheng’s face. This should have been an important secret, but he wanted to show off and also impress Empress Luan Xing. Thus, he allowed the North Emperor to explain the secret of his Pseudo-Saint Tool.
He roared loudly as he whipped the peach branch toward his three opponents. Countless flowers instantly blossomed in the air, each of them lush and br.i.m.m.i.n.g with vitality. It was almost impossible to determine whether these flowers were real or illusory.
“Explode!” Nie Tiancheng shouted.
Pa, pa, pa, pa!
The peach flowers instantly exploded, their devastating power causing the group of three to howl in agony. They all fell from their floating rocks. At the same time, these floating rocks exploded into pieces, these shattered pieces being absorbed by the floating rocks beneath Ling Han’s and the others’ feet.