Chapter 1120: Challenging Access
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When Su Qingyin directed her sight toward Lin Jing, everyone else shifted their attention to her as well. All those slightly popular top powers had already made their moves, except Mu Chen and his team…
Mu Chen heard what Su Qingyin said, and as such, he could tell that she was clearly more interested in Lin Jing than himself. Furthermore, the only reason she gained interest in him was that Lin Jing was around.
However, Mu Chen did not really care. He looked at the dazzling bright Dragon Entrance Gate, took a deep breath, and took a step forward.
As Mu Chen advanced, countless stares were suddenly upon him. In fact, even Su Qingyin shifted her attention to Mu Chen as well. However, the indifferent look on her face showed that she was clearly not pinning her hopes on Mu Chen.
“I’ll give it a go,” said Mu Chen as he smiled at Nine Nether and Lin Jing.
Nine Nether smiled and nodded, and Lin Jing raised a small fist and said cheerfully, “Do your best to become a Disciple of the Golden Dragon!”
Her laughter wasn’t concealed, and it evoked smirks on the faces of the countless top powers. Even Su Qingyin had only gained the status of a Disciple of the Azure Dragon. For Mu Chen, who was at the 20th place on the List of Powerhouse, becoming a Disciple of the Golden Eagle was already no easy feat, let alone becoming a Disciple of the Golden Dragon.
Nonetheless, Mu Chen did not mind the derisive gazes from all the top powers. He stared at the Dragon Entrance Gate, and as he made a quick move, his body instantly became a beam of bursting bright light.
Swooosh!
When his body appeared before the Dragon Entrance Gate, bright light surrounded him and completely engulfed him.
As Mu Chen entered the Dragon Entrance Gate, people mumbled to each other again. The top powers did not even pay any extra attention to the Dragon Entrance Gate. Instead, in awe and reverence, they turned to look in the direction where the three golden dragon light beams emerged.
Clearly, in their minds, a top power who was placed 20th on the List of Powerhouse, and who was a mere half-step Grade Nine Sovereign, was not someone to hope for.
The only ones still paying attention to the Dragon Entrance Gate were Nine Nether and Lin Jing. They understood Mu Chen and knew well that his skills exceeded the level of a half-step Grade Nine Sovereign.
In fact, even the top powers behind them, who were from the Northern Territory Alliance and Ming Xuan Sovereigns, did not care much. After witnessing that even a person like Su Qingyin could only become a Disciple of the Azure Dragon, they could not harbor any faith in this half-step Grade Nine Sovereign.
However, Mu Chen was unaware of what people outside the gate thought of him. After he was engulfed by the Dragon Entrance Gate, he felt the space around him quake and become distorted by the light in front of him. By the time the bright light subsided, he was already inside a gigantic arena.
The arena appeared boundless and was filled with an ancient atmosphere. The Bluestone Arena was covered in many trenches of different depths, as if it had been through countless battles.
“Is this the Dragon Entrance Gate’s appraisal area?” asked Mu Chen as he assessed the ginormous arena. His glance swept around and stopped suddenly to look at a place far in front of him.
There stood dozens of gigantic stone pillars. On those pillars were some stone carved figures. The figures seemed remarkably naturalistic, as if they were real human beings. Indistinctly, an astonishing wave of spiritual energy surged from the pillars.
Mu Chen stared at the stone figures and knew that they were the true tests of the Dragon Entrance Gate. As he looked from right to left, his face started to become more and more serious. He realized the more leftward the stone figure was positioned, the heavier the sense of threat he felt. In fact, the leftmost stone figure gave him the most chills.
That stone figure seemed young. He had a long pike in his hand pointing sideways. It emitted palpitating pressure that hovered in the atmosphere of the arena and distorted the space.
Buzz.
As Mu Chen was sweeping his glance over the stone figures, a strange wave of movement rippled through the atmosphere. He felt as if the ginormous arena had gently vibrated.
“The challenger, half-step Grade Nine Sovereign. Challenge access, Disciple of the White Eagle,” said an old voice as the arena rumbled. It was a voice without any spiritual intelligence, as it sounded extremely vacant.
The Dragon Entrance Gate used to be a sacred object possessing low spiritual intelligence. But now it seems that the low spiritual intelligence has been destroyed, judging from the soulless voice… Mu Chen sighed.
“Challenge access, Disciple of the White Eagle?” Mu Chen mumbled, raised his head, and saw the stone figure on the third pillar move slightly. It charged forward abruptly as if coming back to life and landed heavily right in front of Mu Chen.
The stone figure was equipped with heavy armor and had a lifeless body like an iron tower. It gave off a terrifying energy, causing the ground to shiver.
“Half-step Nine Grade Sovereign…” Mu Chen took a glimpse at the stone figure and was able to gauge its strength. At that point he realized that the Dragon Entrance Gate could recognize the strength of a challenger and provide them with an appropriate challenge of access.
For instance, the gate had detected his strength as that of a half-step Grade Nine Sovereign, and thus assigned his test to another half-step Grade Nine Sovereign, a Disciple of the White Eagle. In this case, if Su Qingyin were to enter the gate, she could immediately challenge a Dragon Disciple.
“Don’t tell me that I’ll need to keep fighting round by round?” murmured Mu Chen.
Boom!
As he was murmuring, the iron tower-like stone figure roared and charged toward him. It threw a punch that bombarded the space, sending out ripples.
Within Mu Chen’s eyes, the fist that contained such petrifying energy was quickly enlarging. And yet, the expression on his face remained calm. Right before the fist hit him, he stepped away, locking all five fingers, and threw out a punch.
Buzz!
As blazing golden lights exploded, there was a vague but loud dragon cry.
Bang!
As Mu Chen’s punch met with the stone figure’s fist, the earth shook. His body did not move even a little, but an incredibly daunting force was bursting out from the fist. With that overwhelming force, the stone figure was knocked down and flew away. Its body burst into beams of light as it reached mid air. A single punch was enough to kill the stone figure in seconds.
Mu Chen remained expressionless as his punch crushed the stone figure. Well, if he had to do more than what he just did against a half-step Nine Grade Sovereign, then he didn’t deserve to continue anyway.
In the arena, the space was a bit quiet after the stone figured was killed. However, the silence did not last long, as there was another rumbling sound. Mu Chen looked up and saw that the stone figure on the sixth pillar seemed to be gently awakening. Then, it opened both of its eyes.
It was a man in a gray robe with a white dragon stitched on it. The white dragon bared its fangs and brandished its claws, emitting a fierce force.
“Disciple of the White Serpent?” Mu Chen’s gaze was slightly stunned when he saw what had happened. He was rather shocked, as he didn’t think that his challenge access would upgrade by so many levels at once. It seemed that the Dragon Entrance Gate was able to assess his fighting strength from his one-hit kill of the Disciple of the White Eagle. Now, it activated the leapfrog mode.
According to Mu Chen’s estimates, the strength of this Disciple of the White Serpent had reached the peak of Grade Nine Sovereign. It had about the level of godly figures such as Liu Kui, Wang Tongxian, and Sovereign Xuan Ming.
The Disciple of the White Serpent came off of the stone pillar and appeared before Mu Chen. Without words, it raised its palm with an indifferent expression. Suddenly, there were rays of light concentrated on both of its hands. Looking from afar, it was as if the hands were made of white jade silver. As beautiful as they were, there was a chilling power hidden inside them.
All of a sudden, the white jade hands formed a seal. Bright rays burst out, and a white jaded lion vaguely appeared. “Jade Lion Spiritual Seal!” A nonchalant sound came out of the Disciple of the White Serpent’s mouth, and a fist print charged forward.
Roar!
The blazing white glare transformed into a massive jade lion. The lion sped its way through, stepped on and crushed the void, and pounced straight toward Mu Chen. When the Disciple of the White Serpent made a move, it made sure that the move was the strongest and deadliest so that no one could prepare himself in time.
However, when Mu Chen saw the coming attack, nothing changed on that young face of his. He took one step on the ground, and a golden light exploded. The Great Solar Undying Body was forming behind him.
Eight rounds of Golden Blazing Sun rose from the Great Solar Undying Body. Finally, they shattered into rolling gold torrents. The golden light condensed in front of the Great Solar Undying Body, rapidly transforming into a giant golden light wheel. The light wheel was like a hefty yet magnificent plate.
“Eight Solar Sky Wheel!” Mu Chen let out a low groan. He didn’t hesitate to use his ultimate tactic to go against the Disciple of the White Serpent. In fact, he performed this offensive yet defensive move in one perfect go, putting the technique to good use.
Boom!
The jade lion was charging toward it and clashed with the golden light wheel. However, there was no staggering sound of explosion. This was because the jade lion suddenly turned away as the golden light wheel spun in reverse, charging toward the Disciple of the White Serpent. The surrounding space was completely torn.
Bang!
A storm of spiritual energy swept across the space. The Disciple of the White Serpent’s body instantly crumbled under the attack from the wheel and turned into a bright light which gradually subsided.
Disciple of the White Serpent, defeated!
Mu Chen stood on the Great Solar Undying Body, and the golden rays around his body gradually faded away. He did not take a look at the Disciple of the White Serpent that had become a ray of light at all. Instead, he looked downward gently and waited patiently.
He wanted to know which level of challenge the Dragon Entrance Gate would give him next.
Silence hung in the arena for a while. Finally, Mu Chen felt the ground quake. He looked up quickly and saw that the stone figure on the third pillar from the left was gently awakening.
A great white dragon was entrenched on the sleeve of the stone figure. A strong oppressive force spread across the arena like tidewater.
That was… the Disciple of the White Dragon.