Chapter 364 - Pyro Passageways
Chapter 364 - Pyro Passageways
The training exercise officially began five days later.
Xiaolang had been excited about it. Long Chen sensed that Xiaolang had somehow become quite naive after he entered the body of the Sun Devouring Wolf, as if he had become a child. It was only when problems came looking for them that Xiaolang became serious.
He had been following Long Chen all morning. When they left their residence, Zhao Qingyun was waiting for Long Chen outside.
“Did you talk to Murong Yu?” Zhao Qingyun asked while they were heading towards the passageways.
“Don’t worry. I won’t lose to them even if I’m all alone.” Long Chen was confident in his strength.
Zhao Qingyun nodded. “I was more worried that Yang Danfeng would team up with Murong Yu to avenge Yang Jun. It would be hard for you to deal with both of them.”
“No, that won’t happen.” Long Chen was certain of himself. Yang Danfeng had pledged himself to Murong Yu, but the latter didn’t even want to be associated with him.
“Then that’s fine. Remember, the more Fire Essences you get, the better. The Demon Seed Planting Technique is an incredible technique,” Zhao Qingyun reminded him again.
Long Chen nodded.
“Wait, what if I obtain more Fire Essences than the both of them? Can I get both stages of the Demon Seed Planting Technique?” Long Chen asked inquisitively.
The first stage allowed the user to double their Qi and the second stage quadrupled it. Long Chen’s Dragon Soul Transformation allowed him to increase the quality of his Qi by ten times. Does this mean that I can increase the quality by forty times?!
Increasing his Qi by forty times was a horrifying concept. That meant that Long Chen would be even stronger than a Seventh River Stage cultivator once he used the Demon Seed Planting Technique.
It was indeed a good technique.
However, no technique would surpass their own innate quality. For example, Divine Fire Clone was an advanced Earth-tier technique. The strongest each clone could become was around the Eighth River Stage. If Long Chen became much more powerful, the clones would still remain at the Eighth River Stage.
This was the same for the Demon Seed Planting Technique. Long Chen could use it as long as he was weaker than Zhao Qingyun. Any stronger than that and it would be useless.
Long Chen’s question stunned Zhao Qingyun for a moment.
“Something like that has never happened before, but do you want both stages of the Demon Seed Planting Technique?”
Long Chen nodded. “Who doesn’t want to become stronger through secret techniques?”
“Then you will have to put on an act after the exercise ends. You need to taunt the Three Demon Elders. If I were to agree to it, they would most certainly object. You need to make them agree, and I will naturally do the same. But, Long Chen, I know how strong Yang Danfeng and Xiao Yu are. It will not be easy to surpass them. You should know that they are only slightly weaker than Lin Zichen.
Long Chen was a smart guy, so he knew what Zhao Qingyun was saying.
“I will do my best.”
Traceless Demon Shadow, the Demon Seed Planting Technique, and the Demon Emperor Sword Technique were all his.
He followed Zhao Qingyun and soon arrived in the mountains. The entrance to the Pyro Passageways was situated at the back of the mountain. Long Chen had to go around the entire mountain and walk past the deep pool he had cultivated at before. He then found himself at the entrance of a cave. This was the entrance to the passageways.
The three Demon Elders and the ten disciples were already waiting for them there. There were two factions in the Heavenly Demon Palace, the Palace Master and the three Demon Elders. The old versus the new. Long Chen was distraught because while Zhao Qingyun could take on all three Demon Elders without a problem, Long Chen could not do the same.
The tension in the air rose when the two factions met. Long Chen and Yang Jun were glaring at each other, and the other disciples under the three Demon Elders were glaring at Long Chen too. They didn’t dare to disobey the Palace Master, so all of them focused their animosity on Long Chen.
Long Chen was only at the Sixth River Stage, and everyone here was above the Seventh River Stage. There was even someone at the Eighth River Stage. Every single one of them except for Murong Yu was glaring at Long Chen. They expected Long Chen to be unnerved by them, but he didn’t even react to their animosity. He was calm, just like Zhao Qingyun.
His mental strength is tough. He really is hard to deal with. The three Demon Elders were wary of Long Chen. If he hadn’t shown up out of nowhere, Traceless Demon Shadow and the Demon Seed Planting Technique would’ve been taken by Yang Jun. Once Yang Jun entered the Eighth River Stage, he would be at the same level as Yang Danfeng and would’ve raised the fame of the Three Demon Elders.
But Long Chen had appeared. Not only had he snatched Traceless Demon Shadow, he had even beaten Yang Jun in the arena. Yang Jun was so depressed that he had missed the window to advance into the Eighth River Stage. It would be quite some time before he could attempt it again.
They pinned all the blame on Long Chen, and Yang Jun was the one who hated him the most.
“Now that everyone is here, we should start the training exercise without delay.” The atmosphere was not right, and Zhao Qingyun naturally sensed it, but he decided to ignore it. In the previous training sessions, Zhao Qingyun didn’t have a disciple to take part in it. At that time, the Three Demon Elders were so arrogant. Now he finally had Long Chen to try and shake things up while bringing him fame. Zhao Qingyun did not reveal it, but he was secretly very happy.
In the tense atmosphere, everyone approached the entrance of the cave. Long Chen felt the heat without even entering. Xiaolang popped out from Long Chen’s shirt, and his eyes lit up when he felt the heat coming from the cave.
The reason why Xiaolang was sleepy all the time was most likely because he had burned his life fire.
Zhao Qingyun turned around and looked at them. “We are here. The training exercise will last five days. Whoever comes out with the most Fire Essences will be the winner. Are you ready?”
“We are ready!”
He looked around and asked another question on purpose. “If none of you have any questions, I will open up the entrance now.”
“Wait, I have a question.” Long Chen knew Zhao Qingyun was creating a chance for him. “Master, I want to know what would happen if I obtained more Fire Essences than the two of them? Can I obtain both stages of the Demon Seed Planting Technique?”
Long Chen was brave. He ignored everyone and cast a taunting look at Yang Danfeng.
Everyone was shocked by his question.
A mere Sixth River Stage cultivator wanted to collect more Fire Essences than two Eighth River Stage cultivators? The two Eighth River Stage Cultivators were also the two strongest youths next to Lin Zichen that had learned two Heaven-tier martial techniques!
“Are you joking? What can you do with the two stages at your cultivation level?” Yang Danfeng scoffed. He was confident in himself and thought Long Chen’s greed was hilarious.
The Three Demon Elders looked at each other.
Long Chen looked around and stated clearly, “The objective of the training exercise is to obtain more Fire Essences than the others. Those who obtain more are stronger than the rest. If I can get more than those two, doesn’t that mean I’m stronger than them? If they can compete for the second stage, why can’t I?”
“Idiot.” The others shook their heads.
“Stop messing around!” The First Demon Elder shook his head and looked at Zhao Qingyun. “Palace Master, what do you think we should do?”
“I will go with whatever you think is fair.”
Zhao Qingyun tossed the question back to the First Demon Elder. The First Demon Elder knew that the Palace Master was pressuring him. If he didn’t allow it, that meant the three Demon Elders were not confident in their disciples. But he was worried that Long Chen would create another miracle if he did.
“Looks like the three Demon Elders are not confident in their disciples. That’s fine, then. I’m sure everyone would think it unfair if I obtained the two stages at once.” Long Chen taunted all of them.
“Stop blabbering. Since the Palace Master told me to decide, we will agree to what you have proposed. My disciples welcome the challenge.” The First Demon Elder had no choice but to agree. If he declined, he would be laughed at by the others.
Zhao Qingyun had basically forced them to accept by giving the choice to the three Demon Elders rather than making the decision himself.
Long Chen was happy with the result.
“What are you getting happy about? You can’t even surpass Yang Jun, much less us,” Yang Danfeng said through gritted teeth.
Zhao Qingyun led them into the cave. It was a crimson cave that had a surprisingly high temperature even though there was no fire. The cave was filled with red rocks.
As they made their way deeper, Long Chen soon saw the end of the cave. There was a set of heavy iron doors blocking their way. They were rusty, as if they had been there since the start of time.
“Past these doors are the Pyro Passageways. There are ten corridors leading to ten different locations down there. I suggest that if you don’t want to search for Fire Essences on your own, you should quickly move around and team up with someone,” Zhao Qingyun explained to the disciples, but he was secretly advising Long Chen. Now that Long Chen had made everyone his enemies, it was possible that they would all band together to take him down.
Long Chen understood what he meant.
Zhao Qingyun gripped the iron doors and used all of his strength to pull them open. The sound of screeching metal filled the cave.