Published at 19th of August 2020 12:00 pm

Volume 2, Chapter 490 Sheng, Tian, Di, Xuan, Huang

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"Nothing much. You'll just have to see for yourself," Shi Mu replied simply, not in the mood to talk more with her.

Bei Gu flipped his hand and a single green token appeared. He shook it and a single arc of green light flitted from briefly from the token and into the large stone gate.

The glyphs on the surface of the gate lit up instantly, emitting a sort of humming sound. Even so, the space within the gate remained as see-through as it was from before.

Bei Gu's robe started to billow as he suddenly took off from the earth and dashed into the stone gate. Before he could reach the center of the stone gate, however, the space within it rippled ever-so-slightly—and Bei Gu's body melted into it seamlessly.

The crowd followed suit, passing into the gate in turns and disappearing into the gate.

Shi Mu, too, followed. The first thing he saw was an endless white light surrounding him, blinding him for a few seconds.

Then there was a cool breeze gently sweeping into his face as he advanced, making Shi Mu feel so much refreshed and comfortable—and that was he noticed the scenery had changed.

He was deposited on a platform of some kind, made from green marble stone about several miles wide. He was not alone; all of the others with him had appeared on the same platform, albeit in a scattered fashion as well as wearing different expressions.

Appearing before them was a place so beautiful it might as well have been the heavenly abode of the gods. Mighty mountainous peaks stood tall and in different distances between each other, each of them rising into the clouds and mists above. A quiet creek whispered through boulders that seemed to be vying for everyone's amazement. It was incredibly picturesque.

Every once in a while, the group would encounter a small flock of cranes cruising before the soaring mountains, leaving only a small trail of sonorous cries. White puffs of clouds languidly moved through the sky, sometimes breaking up to cast technicolor rays to the earth below, basking them in dazzling, colorful lights.

Shi Mu took a deep breath, his heart beating fast as he realized that the spirit energy concentration in this area was so high that it was three times more than the air in East-Saint altogether.

"Where's our usher?" Bei Gu said suddenly.

"Here." A figure appeared in a blur not far from the group before revealing itself to be a gallant young man donned in a green shirt with long sleeves. He was crossing his arms before his chest.

Shi Mu fixed his attention on his sh*t and saw that an image of a lush green leaf was sewn on the right chest side of his shirt.

"I'm handing all one hundred and eight newcomers over to you, then. Show them around, let them get used to the Holy Land," Bei Gu said, his eyes turning to the young man.

"Understood," he replied dutifully.

With the arrangements made, Bei Gu's body flashed—and vanished right there and then, causing quite an awed exclamation to erupt among the crowd.

"Hello, my new Sect Brothers. This lowly one is called Ling Feng, and I'll be your guide and usher to the Holy Land of Qing Lan as per arranged by the masters," said the gallant young man, turning to face the crowd.

"Sorry for bothering you, Sect Brother," Qing Zhang Tian said with a smile, stepping out of the crowd.

Hearing him, the crowd was immediately cupping their hands before their chest to salute the young man.

"Um, it's really not that big of a deal…" Ling Feng smiled warmly, waving his hands as if to stop the tide of salutations. "We don't have much time left for the day, though. So please, come with me."

He turned and started towards a particular direction.

Shi Mu and the group followed. He looked on to the direction they were heading and saw that a few hundred yards away, at the edge of a square formed from green marble tiles, a rainbow about ten miles long had sprung right from there like an arch door, illuminating the sky with its multi-colored brilliance for over several yards high.

Through the arch-gate like rainbows was a single road about ten-odd yards wide reaching towards the deepest part of the Holy Land.

Standing on the road, Shi Mu quietly activated his magical eyes and stared ahead. He discovered that even in the Holy Land, rows of lush green trees sprung not unlike the forest on the outside world.

The road was surrounded by a thick patch of forests and natural groves, but through the little slits between the trees, Shi Mu could see a few towering buildings' roofs and grey walls. Quite apparently, hiding within the woods were houses and palaces as well as other kinds of buildings.

"My brothers, we're now merely on the first floor of the Holy land. You see, there are five floors in the Holy Land, and from the first to the last, the levels are respectively called, 'Sheng', 'Tian', 'Di', 'Xuan', and 'Huang'. Where we are now is the lowest floor—the Huang floor, which was where the Century Disciples live and train," Ling Feng swung his sleeve and pointed at the area before him as he spoke.

"Brother Ling Feng, who are the Century Disciples?" Qing Zhang Tian asked quizzically. Throughout the journey, he had been walking side by side with Ling Feng, showing himself to be quite the conversationalist.

The others in the group, too, quickly turned to Ling Feng.

"Well, well. Century Disciples are those who had been admitted into the Sect for less than a hundred years… such as yourselves. Comparably, we have other groups such as Millennium Disciples and [1] Age Disciples…"

Ling Feng had not managed to finish his sentence when the crowd erupted into an excited furor.

"When you said Age Disciples… You meant disciples who had been for a million years?" A girl in a red dress with pointy ears and rabbit-like thin lips cried.

"There's really nothing to be surprised about. Us Qing Lan Holy Sect was founded over hundred-millions years ago! To those who had achieved a certain stage of powers as well as to certain species, what's a million years to them, anyway?" Ling Feng answered above the din as an expression of pride crept into his handsome face.

Many of the group took a sharp inhale at hearing his words.

"The Millennium Disciples and the Age Disciples reside in the Di floor and the Xuan floor respectively, while the Elders and those disciples who had broken into the ranks of Saints would reside on the Tian floor. As for the highest floor in the Holy Land—the Sheng floor—it's the abode of His Excellency the Holy Lord of Qing Lan. Here, those from the higher floors could freely access the floors below them, but people are forbidden from crossing over to the floors higher than them unless specifically summoned, or unless they held special tokens to show invitation. Anyone who offended this rule is expected to be punished severely," Ling Feng explained, making sure to emphasize the very last parts of his speech.

"Well, I'm glad that the Huang floor is already a pretty big place. Or else it would be kinda boring staying here for a hundred years…" The gir-like Zi Ling, who seemed to have returned to her original adorable and droll nature, blurted.

"Hmm… My Sect Sister, do you honestly think that the Huang floor is the largest floor along all five levels of the Holy Land?" Ling Feng asked.

She tilted her head to a side. "Is it not?"

"Hahaha! No, no. The other four floors are similar to the Huang floor that we are now… All of the floors are independent, not exactly stacked on each other. The floors aren't layered the way you might have imagined, truthfully. You see, the higher you go, the larger the floor becomes. Meanwhile, the more concentrated the spiritual energy becomes," Ling Feng explained with a smile.

His explanation caused quite an uproar among the newcomers, perhaps excluding the elegant human youth who had taken the first place back in the test. He crossed his arms behind him, his eyes staring far ahead while his expression remained neutral… as if he had not been listening to anything Ling Feng had said at all.

Shi Mu, meanwhile, was just as shocked at the explanations. He mentioned that the concentration of spiritual energy could only improve even more drastically as one rises up the floors—and yet this layer of spiritual energy had reached several folds of East-Saint itself, which was already incredibly concentrated when compared that to Cerulean Sea Star…

His hands balled into a fist at the implications.

"Oh, I totally see it now!" Zi Ling said, nodding her head thoughtfully.

"Alright, my brothers. That's the end of the introduction for this part of the land. Come, I'll show all of you our Garden of Panacea," Ling Feng said, his body suddenly scintillating in violet light as he rose into the air.

Shi Mu waved his hand and summoned his trusty Green-winged Flying Carriage. Beside him, all varieties of strange and sometimes bizarre flying carriages appeared as the air was filled with sparks and colors of all kinds.

With a collective heave, the sky was suddenly illuminated with a huge drove of technicolor lights cruising towards the northwest of the land.

A few moments later, the group had landed among what appeared to be an unending chain of undulating hills. The area was quite low, however, causing most of the area to even resemble small mounds.

While still in midair, Shi Mu had spied some fields on these hills where thousands of people worked and gardened, planting all sorts of magical herbs. There were even areas surrounded by fences where spiritual beasts were reared.

"Brother Ling, are these people here precisely for the job of gardening the herbs and herding these spiritual beasts?" Shi Mu asked.

"Yes, Sect Brother. Us disciples of Qing Lan Holy Sect are allowed to have our subjects to help us out with things such as harvesting herbs. This garden of herbs and these animals you're looking at belong to Brother Li Xing Wu. He's an Elite Disciple, occupying the thirteenth spot on Qing Lan Ranking, so naturally, he has quite a number of subjects," Ling Feng explained.

"Qing Lan Ranking…?" Lu Jing the green-robed man, who had been quiet throughout the journey, suddenly muttered.

"In the Huang, Xuan and Di floors, disciples are assessed and arranged into Qing Lan Ranking. These rankings reflect the true prowess of each disciple in the respective floor—the more powerful one is, the higher their rankings are, and the more subjects and area they own," Ling Feng replied, smiling at Lu Jing. "Those who are within the first ten will have almost a million miles of land, with the number of subjects being so massive one could probably start a country with them."

Almost everyone in the group could feel a single flame of motivation lit up in their chest as they rubbed their hands together, eager to go up the ranks for those endless riches and resources.

Shi Mu's expression remained neutral, however. He was lucid enough to remember that he was never here for the resources, let alone those riches—but for a secret that cannot be told to anyone, certainly not on a field trip like this.

The group walked around the Garden of Panacea for a while, watching some processes of herbs being cultivated as well as spiritual beasts being herded, before flying away from the area following Ling Feng.

Fifteen minutes later, in the middle of the entire Huang floor where some low hills could be seen, large droves of lights illuminated the surroundings as flying carriages of different colors and size landed. From them, hundreds of people disembarked—they were none other than Shi Mu and the group.

Now standing before them was a large white tower, so lofty that it rose into the clouds, so lustrous that it radiated dazzling white light…

[1] An age is a million years! Or so I heard.

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