-Isolated Ruins-
Tempted by Jie's devilish whispers, Qianjin started to explain everything he knows about this secret space that was about to open here in the Lyon Kingdom. Sitting on the spot he was standing and pulling out a small gold wine bottle, he took a big mouthful from it and started his storytelling session.
"Millions of years ago, when this land we are living on was at its infancy and life was yet to appear, experts from other realms tend to occupy this place to wage bloody battles among each other. Afraid of destroying their own land, they would choose some unpopulated realms or lower realms to do their fighting.
As a result, this land was splattered and bathed with the blood of many fearsome, bloody experts and monsters. Even demons would sometime appear here to fight with those powerful ancestors. Their blood was soaked into the ground, and their qi flooded the whole world. Many years after that when the first sign of life appeared here, they were inherently powerful due to the tempering of these powerful and berserk Qi and harsh environment. It was the reason why we the descendants of this realm are inherently talented and powerful from those from other realms.
Okay, I am getting off track here…the point is, when those super experts waged war among each other, their cultivation and Qi would destroy the very space they were in. Altering the laws and completely making them inaccessible to others. After their death, that piece of land they fought in…it would become completely cut off from outer world…making it an inaccessible land, even when it was a part of Divine Wind Continent.
But laws were strange things…every thousand years that piece of land which is the proof of a bloody and world-changing battle that was normally cut off from the rest would become accessible to others. The tiny dimensional gate would remain open for ten days and ten nights. The experts from all over the continent would send their young geniuses to explore these ruins and gain their own enlightenment and treasures or ancient weapons and cultivation techniques. The current generation had given the name 'isolated Ruins' to these strange land which was used to be a part of Divine Wind Continent." After he finished his explanation, Qianjin had a proud expression when he saw a look of astonishment on the face of Jie. He felt oddly accomplished by that.
"Wait! If they knew that such spaces would have a huge amount of treasures, why would they sent young people with limited strength when they could send their elders or ancestors?" although he found the Isolated Ruins more intriguing, he found the actions of these sects even more curious.
"About that, it was because of the chaotic space and laws that restrict the gates to enter the realm. The higher is one's cultivation the more impossible for them to enter the dimension. Only those with limited cultivation could enter without any problems. After a millennium of study, the cultivators finally deduced that only cultivators under the Nascent Soul realm could safely enter through the gates. Anyone above that, their body and soul both would be trapped in a continuous loop of chaotic space and time and tortured for eternity."
"So it's like this! Chaotic space and time you say? I am suddenly getting excited. Okay, we will go…we will definitely go there. If nothing else, I want to explore the ruins left behind by super experts who could rupture space and time with their strengths." Jie suddenly lit on fire as stars appeared in his eyes. His excitation level had already burst through the maximum limit. He wanted to see it…he wanted to see how these so-called powerful people were. He wanted to have a taste of their left behind energies that would no doubt still moving around that enclosed dimension or else it wouldn't have been still cut off from the main dimension.
More than anything, he wanted to compare the path of their strength to the path of his. He wanted to confirm if these cultivators are strong or ESPers. No doubt they both have their uniqueness…but from what he observed so far, these cultivators seem to have the upper hand with their continuous level up probability. Only a few ESPers like him could achieve the same and continuously grow strong.
"Wait! That would be only possible if we get the key." Qianjin was quick to douse Jie's flames of enthusiasm.
"Key? What's that? Didn't you say that it is just the fluctuation of space and time? Since when did one need keys to enter such fluctuations?" feeling discontent at his burnt out spirit shouted angrily at Qianjin.
"Well about that, we didn't need keys to enter…rather to find the place where the gate would appear. Although its called key, it's actually a compass that was made to sense the spatial and temporal fluctuations. Using it one could perfectly guide through the destroyed space and safely land on the ruins, or else they would forever be lost in the chaotic space." Qianjin seeing Jie's angry eyes explained himself. Nonetheless, this boy could flatten him like a mosquito. Qianjin felt he shouldn't push his luck too far.
"And, where is this key?"
"There are actually 5 keys. Once every thousand years, there would be a huge martial competition organized all 6-star sects. In that competition, even the two star and one-star sects are allowed to participate. The top five winners would be the one to get the key. Right now, as we speak the martial competition was going full blast for the ownership of the keys. It's just that, our sect who was one of the previous holders of the keys had collaborated with other 4 sects to secretly explore the ruins, not giving a chance to others. The martial competition was nothing but a distraction at this point. If we succeed to find any treasure, our overall battle strength could increase and we might successfully upgrade to a 7-star sect." Qianjin explained after gulping another mouthful of wine.
"Deceiving much! Aren't you guys afraid that other sects would collaborate with each other and uproot your sects when they find out about your treachery?" Jie calmly addressed a loophole in their plan.
"Master, about that question. I can answer it in place of his. In reality, it's already been 1000 years since the last appearance of the ruins. Nobody of the current generation really knows how the key actually looks like. We have also planted spies in the respective sects to wipe away and alter all the concerning details about keys from their library. All the parties who even remotely knew how it looked were silenced during all these years. Taking advantage of the situation, the six sects are prepared to hand out fake keys to everyone.
Without the true key, the disciples are bound to forever lost in the chaotic space. Naturally, the keys they hold would also be lost. In this way, they can mislead everyone into believing that the keys were forever out of their reach. By doing so, the ancient ruins would become their backyard for eternity. With no competitors left, they could milk the place for all its worth." This time, it's Ru Xue who decided to answer. She knew Qianjin wouldn't know such inside details, so she volunteered herself to explain. As the most favored concubine of the lord, she had heard about this from the mouth of the lord during one of their rendezvous.
Not only Jie, but even Qianjin also held a surprise-filled look after listening to Ru Xue's explanation about the situation. He really didn't know such insider information and thought that the 6 sects had a secret backer who could relieve the situation. He never knew that it was actually a conspiracy going for thousands of years. He thought it was the current lords' plans all along.
No wonder this year's martial tournament had many attractive rewards in accordance with keys for the winners.
"This is really…deep!" Jie didn't find any word that could describe the situation more perfectly. If nothing else, he could really respect the patience of these old fogies who had planned a thousand years or maybe many years ago from that. Their meticulousness, their far-reaching thoughts…not even the so-called tacticians from earth could think of this and stick to it for this long.