Chapter 216 Bounty Everywhere in Primal Chaos
nly Zhao Yanzi herself knew how bad her English was."Hmm, take your time then. How about her performance in school" Zhao Hongyu followed up.Hao Ren was taken aback for a moment, thinking that Zhao Hon...Chapter 216: Primordial Chaos
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A white mist enveloped the two figures. For every meter they advanced, the fog retreated by a meter, leaving only a visibility of half a meter in diameter.
Without the guidance of the compass, Hao Ren would have wondered if he had already gotten lost.
Just as they were unsure how far they still needed to walk, a black stone temple suddenly appeared before them.
The base was square, layer upon layer stacked up. Looking up towards the tower's peak, one found it had already stretched into the white mist!
A Heavenly Ascension Tower!
Roughly constructed from huge stones, a primordial aura enveloped them.
Zhao Yanzi pulled Hao Ren's arm closer. "How much time do we have left"
"We've walked 12,000 steps, which is about an eight-kilometer distance, using up around an hour and a half," Hao Ren replied.
"That means four and a half hours remain." Zhao Yanzi nodded. Realizing that she had walked more than ten thousand steps with Hao Ren's hand also set a record for her.
She loosened her grip slightly, but seeing the dark mysterious temple before them made her fearful once again. Thus, she awkwardly held Hao Ren's palm again.
Hao Ren didn't notice these little actions of hers; he merely unfolded his map and scrutinized it carefully.
The entrance was located a bit ahead, and there were routes marked by previous explorers inside the temple. As long as they followed these paths, they could enter the core area of the main hall.
"Let's go!" Hao Ren put away his map and tugged Zhao Yanzi into the temple.
Zhao Yanzi followed closely behind Hao Ren, entering through the black door on the east side of the temple, then following him down a dark corridor.
Swish!
Hao Ren produced a ball of flame from his palm. This was converted from fire-elemental sword energy and used as a torch for illumination.
The black corridor was constructed with unknown black stone blocks; even without skeletons or cobwebs, the reflection of this light and echo of their footsteps made Zhao Yanzi feel nervous.
Hao Ren checked his map at every turn. Although there might not be traps or mechanisms in this temple, taking a wrong path could waste an enormous amount of time.
Within this temple, the oppressive feeling they had when outside on the barren land vanished instantly, meaning that these black stones should be able to block the spiritual energy absorption effect of the wasteland.
"Uncle Hao, I'm a bit scared," Zhao Yanzi suddenly said after walking with him for a while.
“With a map guiding us, what’s there to fear” Hao Ren replied as he walked and looked at his map.
The map showed that they were close to the main hall. With just three more turns, they could enter it.
"If we can't get out, will we be stuck here for life" Zhao Yanzi asked.
“Come on, you’re a little dragon who cultivates, don’t be so timid,” Hao Ren thought but nearly said aloud.
Looking at Zhao Yanzi's small face in the light of the flame, Hao Ren could only gently comfort her. "Don't worry; if it was truly dangerous, your mother wouldn't have let you come.
"Um, Zhao Yanzi hesitantly replied and moved closer to Hao Ren.
To the left, then up a sloping path, and then turn right again,
The brightly lit Yuanlong Grand Hall immediately came into view for Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi.
A nearly hundred-meter-tall black Yuanlong stone statue stood in the main hall, radiating dazzling black light!
Eighteen black claws each holding eighteen weapons, while its mouth contained a massive golden bead!
It was this golden bead that illuminated the entire grand hall as brightly as daylight!
Around the stone statue walked a circle, and at each of the four directions—east, south, west, and north—were four incense stands. The three directions of south, northwest, and northeast already had three sticks of burning incense!
This meant that another party arrived here before them! And judging by how long the incense burned, Zeng Yitao from West Sea was the first to arrive!
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"Let's light our incense too," Zhao Yanzi urged.
“Mm,” Hao Ren led Zhao Yanzi back to the eastern incense stand and took out an incense stick emanating spiritual energy, igniting it with fire-elemental sword qi. Then they respectfully inserted it into a simple ancient-style censer.
This incense stick was fine; it emitted fragrance as it slowly burned. In this Yuanlong Grand Hall, even Zeng Yitao wouldn’t dare tamper with things!
Holding Zhao Yanzi's hand, Hao Ren bowed towards the stone statue and then followed the map to lead them
However, Hao Ren was slightly puzzled; from the outside appearance, the top of this temple tower seemed to pierce through fog at an enormous height. But inside the grand hall, the head of the Yuanlong stone statue was almost touching the ceiling—meaning that there were multiple floors in this temple. Even several dozen floors! Yet along the path they took from the eastern entrance into the grand hall, there wasn’t any way to access the upper floors. Or perhaps there weren't ancient teleportation arrays leading upwards.
There was no time to study this conjecture now anyway; and with a Level 12 Hao Ren paired with Unranked Zhao Yanzi, they didn't have the strength to explore it either. So Hao Ren suppressed his curiosity and stepped out through a white-glowing door in front of the statue.
The moment they passed through the white light, Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi felt their vision suddenly clear up!
The oppressive atmosphere from before dissipated; instead, there were mountains, rivers, green fields!
However, these weren’t ordinary mountains, or ordinary rivers, or ordinary grasslands. Various unfamiliar herbs rich with spiritual energy carpeted the entire plain! The river was surging with spiritual energy, all holy water! The mountain peaks were towering, each one seeming to stretch several thousand meters high!
Primordial Wilderness—this was truly the beginning of creation's primordial wilderness!
Different from what legends described, there weren’t any divine beasts or demonic beasts here; only these wild fields full of immortal herbs!
The little white in Hao Ren’s necklace chirped excitedly when it sensed the spiritual energy outside through his Space of a Grain.
Hao Ren remembered that Little White had come along too. He opened up his Spatial Bag and let it out.
Little White rolled over once, transforming into snow lion form in midair before landing steadily on its paws.
If cultivators liked staying in places rich with spiritual energy, divine beasts preferred such environments even more! The spiritual energy here was hundreds or even thousands of times denser than that inside the Spatial Bag!
"Roar!" Little White raised its head and proudly roared!
Hao Ren looked at this landscape of green mountains and clear waters, put away his map, and stepped out of the Yuanlong Grand Hall. The next step was to find one of the nine branch shrines.
The positions of these branch temples are not fixed and are scattered in unknown corners of the world, making their discovery purely a matter of luck.
In the past, Zhao Hongyu and Zhao Guang struggled through great hardship to find one "negative quality temple," which was already considered good fortune. Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi's physical strength and cultivation level are not as high as they were back then, and since they have already used up an hour of time after coming out from the Yuanlong Grand Hall, it would be quite difficult for them to walk and find any branch temple.
"Purple, which direction should we go" Hao Ren looked sideways at Zhao Yanzi.
Zhao Yanzi was also unsure. She could only close her eyes, spin a few times, then point in one direction before opening them again. "Alright, let's head this way!"
"Okay." Hao Ren didn't hesitate and pulled her towards that direction.
Seeing Hao Ren trust her like this made Zhao Yanzi feel slightly touched; she even forgot to blame him for holding her hand without asking.
The red flowers and green grass. Thinking of the rare precious herbs under his feet, Hao Ren felt he was living luxuriously.
Since they were urgently looking for a branch temple now, if they couldn't find it in the end, then collecting these spirit grasses would be some consolation. Anyway, with his Jiezi Space being as large as an entire room and capable of storing various types of immortal herbs, even if he couldn't cultivate or refine them into medicinal pills, it should still be a considerable wealth.
Little White rolled around on the grassland without any of the decorum expected from a snow lion. It was like a huge dog.
They walked to the end of this plain and reached the foot of the nearest mountain. Zhao Yanzi already showed signs of exhaustion. This area is controlled by the ancient grand array of the temple, making it impossible to fly on swords; thus they could only rely on walking.
To reach a branch temple, one would need to climb at least to the peak of an adjacent mountain not too low in height, and from there survey the surroundings with hopes of spotting where the branch temple is located.
Thinking of having to climb this mountain which was hundreds of meters high made Zhao Yanzi's face turn red as she felt out of breath.
Grrr! Grrr!
Little White circled around Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi, shaking its head and wagging its tail in great joy.
"Dead Little White, you're the most energetic; I'm about to drop dead!" Zhao Yanzi couldn't help but punch Little White.
Her fist hitting Little White's soft body felt like scratching it. This "dead dog" simply lay on the ground and showed its belly as if hoping Zhao Yanzi would scratch its tummy again.
Zhao Yanzi was both angry and frustrated, indeed pounding its belly randomly.
Then Hao Ren suddenly had an idea.
"Huh" Zhao Yanzi hadn't quite caught up with him.
"With Little White's size, you should fit just fine." Hao Ren squatted down, patted Little White’s face to stop it from being cute and asked it to turn over so Zhao Yanzi could sit on its back.
“Little White, is this okay” Zhao Yanzi hesitated as she looked at the giant Samoyed-like Little White, asking Hao Ren.
"Lazy Little White, eating without working isn't acceptable." Hao Ren pressed down on Little White's neck and lifted Zhao Yanzi to sit onto its back.
Little White was initially somewhat reluctant and crouched with all four limbs but stood up again after Hao Ren lightly tapped its butt.
Now he understood that this Little White liked eating and avoiding work. Without some encouragement, it wouldn't exert itself.
Zhao Yanzi had only ridden a horse in the park before; she had never ridden a "lion." Sitting on Little White's body made her somewhat nervous, but with its back nearly one meter high, Little White’s size was no less than that of a small horse.
"Up the mountain!" Hao Ren grabbed onto Little White’s mane and pulled it up the mountain like leading a horse.
With a dragon core in his body and having practiced Split Light Sword Shadow Technique, as long as the land here didn't absorb spirit energy, he wouldn’t have any problems with stamina.
"Little White, go," Zhao Yanzi, now more steady on Little White's back, treated it like a horse. She casually broke off a stick from the roadside and lightly tapped Little White’s butt.
The little white's black eyes were filled with委屈 (grief). If only it had stayed in the mustard seed space. It wouldn't have insisted on coming out.
A mountain path five hundred meters high, without any steps carved into it, made climbing very strenuous. Time ticked by slowly. Hao Ren was anxious but couldn't do anything about their pace.
In the primordial chaos era, everyone relied solely on brute strength and instinct or innate abilities; no one could use cultivated magical power!
Back then, anyone surviving in that chaotic world would climb mountains step by step. No one would fly on a sword!
Zhao Yanzi sat on Little White's broad back, plucking fruits from low branches: red ones, green ones, blue ones... all stuffed into Little White’s mouth.
Finally reaching the summit, Hao Ren silently calculated and found they had spent another hour climbing! This was already the result of him hastening their steps to a near run while urging Little White to keep moving!
The trees atop the mountain were sparse. Hao Ren climbed onto the highest rock and looked out.
Below, vast plains stretched endlessly with numerous high mountains dotting the horizon. Zhao Yanzi rode on Little White and came to Hao Ren's side, her eyes wide as she scanned for the branch temple’s location.
"There! There!" Zhao Yanzi suddenly called out in joy.
Hao Ren followed her gaze and indeed saw a black dot situated far away at the center of another plain.
"It's too far. At our speed, we won't make it there in time."
Zhao Yanzi felt slightly disappointed but then squinted her eyes to search elsewhere carefully.
In this expansive world, the nine branch temples were incredibly tiny! Even with a broad view, they could only appear as small black dots and might easily hide behind some mountain range!
Hao Ren channeled his spiritual energy into his eyes, allowing him to see clearly within hundreds of meters. He could also get an overview of the scene within several kilometers.
"There's one over there."
Zhao Yanzi widened her eyes and tried hard to look but couldn’t make it out clearly while Hao Ren saw very well: a branch temple was hidden at the foot of that mountain. Although only part of its pillar was exposed, it had to be a branch temple!
"Alright, let's head there!"
Zhao Yanzi couldn't see clearly but trusted Hao Ren’s sharp vision and made her decision.
Hao Ren mentally calculated that this was the closest branch temple in sight. Even though he saw one even further away than Zhao Yanzi's, time was precious now. Would they have enough time to search after an hour-long descent and another two-hour trek It was hard to tell!
That’s why Zhao Hongyu said that getting three treasures would be a great harvest, while two would already be quite good— even one would still count as success.
"Little White, let's head down the mountain!"
Little White yelped and swiftly carried Zhao Yanzi down. It dodged left and right to easily bypass trees on the slope.
Hao Ren followed closely but felt somewhat strained!
Suddenly, Little White let out a long roar, leaping over a large boulder blocking their path!
Boom!
In mid-air, white flames flared from its claws.
Lifting Zhao Yanzi aloft instead of falling, it flew through the air!
Talented innate ability! white long robe hanging beside her and quickly put it on. The robe dragged slightly on the ground for half its length, making it very elegant; however, with Su Han's sharp and decisive strides, she l...