Chapter 794: Chapter 88: The True Face of the Four Imperial Spirit Realms
Tang Luo never considered himself particrly smart, but merely more willing to settle down and think. Since entering the second trial site, he had felt something strange around him.
The rules were unclear, the victory conditions were not spelled out, even the trial location itself was uncertain. Even the exnation given by the guiding master at the start of the trial was uninformative. The single useful piece of information was that this second stage required acquiring more jade coins.
Then, the challengers were hurried into a cave in a certain order and separated by formation art, suggesting a solo trial.
There was nothing problematic until a portal, leading to the Minor Spiritual Realm, and a group of people who imed to descend from ancient tribes appeared.
In the beginning, Tang Luo thought Martial Saint Mountain was merely unting its wealth by using the Minor Spiritual Realm as a venue. But the events that followed left him with several questions.
First, there were the Four Imperial Spirit Tribes, with so many Spirit King ranked powerhouses. Had they not even figured out the borders of the Four Imperial Spirit Realms? What exactly had these Spirit Kings been doing?
Furthermore, there were almost two hundred young nobles and disciples entering the Spirit Realm for the trial. Even if Martial Saint Mountain upied all the Minor Spiritual Realms in Longzhou, it was impossible for these Realms to ur all together within the same mountain.
If they were not at the same mountain, where were the other participants? It would be illogical for this Minor Spiritual Realm to be designed just for Tang Luo, especially after the arrival of disciples from various sects. He was not the only Fierce Realm practitioner here. If this was a trial for Fierce Realm practitioners, the others should have appeared as well.
Therefore, after absorbing the Divine Jade from the spatial storms, his immediate thoughts returned to this matter. He wondered if other participants in the Minor Spiritual Realm might also encounter simr situations.<div>
However, creating nearly two hundred simultaneous spatial storms was not merely a matter of power and influence. This made Tang Luo recall the master he had seen in the bamboo pavilion.
It seemed like none of the other participants had seen that master. Moreover, when the old man with white eyebrows, Master Wei, announced a question-and-answer session, the middle-aged schr-like master was standing higher up the cliff. Still, during the entire quarter of an hour, not a single person nced in his direction.
Connecting these clues, Tang Luo was filled with doubt. Therefore, he flew off in a certain direction as soon as he escaped the spatial storm. His intent was to verify his suspicions, which ultimately led him to discover the truth about this world.
This ce was not the Minor Spiritual Realm at all. The door he had stepped through was not the gate to any Spirit Realm, but instead led to a field of illusions.
Without flying a thousand miles to the south, without having eyes that could see through deception, he would have beenpletely deceived by everything that had transpired so far.
Now he could be certain that all the other challengers were in this illusionary world, encountering the Four Imperial Spirit Tribes. Even more, must have encountered Huang Yuan, Gong Quan, or perhaps even the Yun n and Yan n people he hasn’t met yet.
If he foolishly searched for the hidden Spirit Realm Gate over the next three days, he could only spend his jade coins at thest minute to teleport away. Not realizing the illusion nature of this world would mean that the jade coins he brought out would turn out to be nothing but illusory bubbles, moreover, the stewards would halve the number of jade coins he brought in.
But now he had discovered the truth of this world, and he had several possible courses of action to consider.
He could plunder from various forces in the Han River region. The two major cities and several viges should have at least a few thousand Divine Jades. This would consolidate his lead in the second trial. But he rejected that thought almost as soon as it arose, as it was devoid of meaning.
Not out of arrogance, but due to his analysis, he couldn’t find any other participant capable of collecting Divine Jade like he could. After all, individuals from major sects wouldn’t lower themselves to participate in a youth martial artspetition organized by Martial Saint Mountain. There was simply nothing of interest for them here.
Moving on, there was no fundamental difference between the first ce with ten thousand jade coins and the first ce with five thousand jade coins. Master Wei had clearly stated that the number of jade coins would not affect the third trial. Since it didn’t affect the result of the second trial, any jade coins exceeding the second-ce amount were essentially meaningless resources. How to convert these excess resources into something truly useful was what Tang Luo needed to think about.
One thing was clear: this Minor Spiritual Realm did exist at some point. But he was even more certain that after Martial Saint Mountain defined the realm, the fate of the Four Imperial Spirit Tribes was miserable.
The martial arts enthusiasts of Martial Saint Mountain would not rest until they had thoroughly researched the Four Imperial Spirit Seals. Given the wealth of jade coins, Tang Luo did not believe that these were acquired through friendly negotiations between Martial Saint Mountain and the Four Imperial Spirit Realms.
Whether it was Hou Tu City, Han River Vige, Huang Yuan, Gong Quan—they all were real at some point. But now, they were merely illusions in Tang Luo’s trial.
Undoubtedly, the Four Imperial Spirit Tribes must have resisted fiercely at the time, but the end must have been tragic. The shattered earth a thousand miles away, the endless void, the drifting ruins — everything demonstrated the valor of the Longzhou ancients to Tang Luo. But in the face of Martial Saint Mountain, it was a futile struggle.
Compared to education, Martial Saint Mountain was more ustomed to crushing others’ courage to resist with brute strength. The shattered earth was enough to sober the Four Imperial Spirit Tribes and make them realize what kind of monster they were facing.
This was no longer the Longzhou of a thousand years ago, yet many people were not awakened to this truth.
Tang Luo did not have the power to change the past, but he wanted to do everything he could to prevent the Tang n from bing a nest of ants in a hundred years. To achieve this, he had to collect all the things that could potentially threaten the Tang n.
For example, he was interested in the archives of the Four Imperial Spirit Realms to see what Longzhou looked like a thousand years ago, what the world was like, and what the original faces of the saints were.
History is written by the victors. The Han Family had been wiped from the history books by several major sacrednd sect coalitions. Tang Luo felt that he had wasted a lot of time reading history as a child.
He couldn’t distinguish between truth and falsehood. The more he learned, the more he blinded himself. Regrettably, the Han Family’s treasury did not contain many historical records, so he desperately sought to retrieve the historical traces that had been erased and revised from the Four Imperial Spirit Realms.
After all, Martial Saint Mountain shattered the whole of the Four Imperial Spirit Realms. This tribe must have held something extraordinary, right?