Chapter 131: Li Dun Sen Lin

Tang San could do nothing about him, so he had to find a way to go ask Wu Qi about the situation first.

However, Wu Qi and the others had already gone out for training; how could he find their tracks?

After searching to no avail and learning the news, Yu Xiaogang was certain that Wu Qi had gone out to avoid the limelight, simply not wanting him to break through to level thirty.

As the saying goes, ruining someone's future is like killing their parents; Yu Xiaogang was full of disgust for him.

He kept speaking ill of Wu Qi, and since the person himself could not appear to defend himself, over time, Tang San's heart also began to waver.

With the completion of Seven Treasure Academy, it officially began recruiting students.

The enrollment requirements for Seven Treasure Academy were consistent with those of Shrek Academy (Lanba Academy).

The team members who had previously had their spots revoked were dissatisfied with Shrek Academy and, one after another, took their followers to transfer to Seven Treasure Academy.

One must know, the financial backer behind Seven Treasure Academy was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Although the backer behind Lanba Academy was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family, in terms of financial resources, ten Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Families could not compare to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Water flows to lower ground, and people strive for higher places.

Since they met the enrollment standards of Seven Treasure Academy, why not join a better academy?

As the momentum passed, Shrek Academy (Lanba Academy) had seen a significant drop in the number of new students in recent years, with the entire academy totaling just over one hundred and fifty students.

Impacted by Seven Treasure Academy, over fifty people transferred all at once.

Compared to established Spirit Master academies, one like Shrek Academy was less able to retain people. Plus, they were very close to Seven Treasure Academy, so their future source of students would inevitably be affected.

Ning Fengzhi had not expected that so many Spirit Masters would come to sign up, so he stayed up all night to revise the academy's design plans and expanded the scale of enrollment.

The two sides were in direct competition, and since Shrek Academy was at a disadvantage, Tang San and the others instinctively loathed Seven Treasure Academy.

Consequently, they also grew to loathe everyone in the Seven Treasure team.

……

After many days of travel, the Seven Treasure team's carriage drove into the territory of the Hagendasi Wangguo.

Beforehand, Sun Buyu had already formulated a training plan for everyone.

The North valued martial arts, and every year major cities would hold martial arts tournaments; Sun Buyu proposed that everyone sign up for the competition to exercise their personal strength.

Dugu Bo looked at everyone with a strange expression, "Say, with your talents, why go to so much trouble to find partners? Just let word out, and there are plenty of families in Tiandou City who would send people to your door."

"Old man, what are you talking about?" Wu Qi was puzzled.

Why did a perfectly good martial arts tournament lead to this?

Seeing their confused expressions, Dugu Bo suddenly realized, "So you don't know the meaning of this martial arts tournament?"

Rubbing his forehead, he explained: "In the North, not only do men value martial arts, but women do as well."

"Every year, the Chengzhufu screens age-appropriate women to serve as 'add-ons' for the martial arts tournament. And this tournament is, in reality, a matchmaking event."

"If you come out on top, you can choose a woman who is peerless in both beauty and strength. And, this is mandatory; you must choose. Of course, both sides must agree."

Along the way, Wu Qi had seen quite a bit of scenery.

The North was sparsely populated, and villages were far apart; it was to ensure population growth that they created this kind of matchmaking tournament.

Of course, this method of choosing a spouse through martial arts could also effectively prevent Spirit Masters from fighting in private.

Sun Buyu's old face flushed red, and he lowered his head.

Once, while traveling, he had seen a martial arts tournament, but he hadn't seen the whole thing and didn't know it was also a matchmaking event.

Fortunately, they hadn't gone to compete directly, or it would have been a huge blunder.

Wu Qi did not blame him; he took the map from his bosom and pointed to the route, "Then let's not stop for a moment and go to Li Dun Sen Lin for training first, and take the opportunity to see if that secret realm has opened."

This kind of small forest was heavily influenced by human activity; once over-developed, it would disappear.

Of course, there was more than one Soul Beast Forest nearby; if Li Dun Sen Lin was gone, they could go elsewhere.

……

Two days later, the carriage drove into the entrance of Li Dun Sen Lin.

The eastern part of this forest had traces of human development, and the scale of the forest was one-fifth smaller than before, but the Soul Beasts within did not seem to have been greatly affected, and the forest remained full of vitality.

The secret realm recorded in the ancient texts was under a cliff on the outer periphery of the eastern part of the forest.

According to the traces of human activity, the secret realm was no longer within the scope of the forest.

It is worth mentioning that as long as it is a Soul Beast Forest, there will be Spirit Hunting teams.

The scale of Li Dun Sen Lin was not much larger than the Spirit Hunting Forest established by the Spirit Hall, but the strength of the Soul Beasts inside was not weak, and ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts even appeared occasionally.

The Spirit Hunting teams here were mostly Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor level powerhouses, much stronger than the teams before the Spirit Hunting Forest.

The road ahead was not easy to walk; Wu Qi and the others temporarily left the carriage at the Soul Beast Town and traveled on foot to the location of the secret realm.

"What you consider a secret realm is, strictly speaking, just ruins left behind after the fall of powerhouses thousands or tens of thousands of years ago."

"A true secret realm is a small world of its own; that is where the great opportunities lie."

Given that many treasures can often be unearthed from ruins, they are also categorized under the concept of secret realms.

What Dugu Bo said was merely a strict classification.

Everyone knew what was going on and did not dwell too much on the words.

……

Three hours later, following the route map provided by Wu Qi, the group arrived under a cliff.

There was absolutely nothing here that looked like ruins; a village was situated within.

Qiangu Changkong hesitated and said, "Brother Wu, are you sure the ancient text didn't record it incorrectly?"

The ancient text was on Wu Qi's person; how could he have misread it?

It was just that one could easily tell from the binding that the ancient text came from the Spirit Hall, which is why he hadn't brought it out.

He shook his head, "This ancient text is a 'Grade A' one; its authenticity must have been verified."

Within the Spirit Hall, books were divided into Grade A, B, C, and D; Grade A records were complete and could stand up to scrutiny.

Dugu Bo said, "The ancient records are from a long time ago, and having gone through many years of vicissitudes, it is inevitable that the location might have changed."

At this moment, what Wu Qi worried about was that the ancient records were more than a thousand years old, and the ruins might have already been explored by others.

The number of ruins on the continent is not small, yet they are extremely difficult to find. Once one is finally found, anyone would hold the mindset of hunting for treasure.

After a moment of silence, Feng Xiaotian suggested, "Let's go into the village and see the situation first."

"In any case, the purpose of our trip is considered traveling; if there are no ruins, we'll just treat it as sightseeing, there's no loss."

For now, this was the only way.

This village consisted of low wooden houses, and countless long-rotted tree stumps could be seen nearby; clearly, this village had not been established here for long, only about ten years.

For the sake of safety, Dugu Bo did not walk together with the group, but instead quietly lurked in the shadows.

……

Seeing outsiders appear, the young man standing guard at the village entrance quickly pulled the alarm.

In no time at all, the villagers, holding long spears, surrounded Wu Qi and his group.

"Could this be a primitive tribe?" Qiangu Changkong frowned.

Wu Qi pressed his hand down and took the initiative to step forward, "The weather is too cold; we are passing through this place and would like to buy some food."

As soon as he finished speaking, a middle-aged man dressed in a fur coat walked out from the crowd, sizing up Wu Qi and his group.

(End of this chapter)