THE MARTIAL KING VOLUME 2 - Season 10 Episode 58

At the Sky Water Pavilion of the Fish Dragon Sect

Steam was curling upwards from a cup of tea. Ten maids were dancing gracefully to a soulful tone of music.

The head of the sect, whose surname was Xiao, was sitting on Zen’s left side with a big smile on his face. He asked, “Zen, there is a rumor in the Central Region that you died in the celestial tomb. Now that you’re here, all safe and sound, I am sure no one will ever believe that rumor again.”

Zen didn’t care about what people were saying about him. Instead, he directly asked in return, “You were saying there was a reason for the ambush? What was it?”

Xiao sighed deeply and replied, “Looks like you haven’t been in the Central Region the last couple of years. You seem to be completely unaware of the situation here!”

“I came here for that very reason precisely,” Zen replied seriously. It was true. If it weren’t for his innate desire of finding out more about this region, he wouldn’t have stayed in this third-grade sect!

Xiao nodded his head, and then continued, “After those fourth and fifth-grade sects visited the Mist Celestial Tomb and got back with treasures, the Central Region was quite peaceful for a while, though, and no problems were ever faced. That is, until about half a year later, when a new force suddenly rose from inside the Central Region itself. It was formed by Eddie and known as the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom.”

Zen’s expressions immediately took a serious turn at the news about Eddie. Eddie and Cloud Hall were his priorities.

The former was highly related to Yan’s fate while the latter was associated with Letitia. However, despite his concerns, Zen showed no outwards signs of worry and listened attentively without interrupting Xiao.

“It’s Eddie’s self-proclaimed kingdom. The warriors of our Central Region do not acknowledge it at all! However, that does not mean it is not causing troubles!” Xiao sneered.

When a sect reached the sixth grade, it was qualified to be termed a sacred place. In theory, a sacred place was still a sect only, just like the Purple Heart Sacred Place on the Sea God Continent. When Zen had been there, it was a sixth-grade sect, while the Heavenly Feather Sacred Place was a seventh-grade sect.
But establishing a divine kingdom was different, because the divine kingdom he created would belong entirely to Eddie alone! He could ascend to the throne of the kingdom just like an emperor!

From what Zen could reckon, Eddie had established the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom in the Central Region only to gain more power. He was aiming to force the various fifth-grade, fourth-grade, and even the remaining lower grade sects into bowing down in recognition of his power.

The warriors in the Central Region weren’t going to let that happen.

As soon as Eddie had established the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom, all the sects had issued a joint statement, refusing to acknowledge the existence of his so-called Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom.

The point was that neither the World Commercial Alliance nor the Ethereal Spirit Sect would object to Eddie forming his own sect. He could call it Heavenly Evil Sect or Earthly Evil Sect as he liked, and they couldn’t care less. After all, every year, numerous new sects were formed in the Central Region, and some of them would become quite strong very soon. But they couldn’t allow Eddie to call his force a divine kingdom.

On the other hand, Eddie had already made up his mind. After naming his kingdom, he had begun to recruit people without restraint, continuously taking in independent warriors from around the entire Central Region.

Many years ago, someone had postulated a theory that the biggest power in the Central Region was not the World Commercial Alliance, nor was it the Ethereal Spirit Sect; rather, it was the independent warriors.

These were the martial artists who hadn’t joined any sect. They relied on their own strength and experience instead of resources from sects and were their own masters.

Their cultivation environment was a far cry from that of a sect, and most of them weren’t as capable and accomplished in martial arts as disciples from the big sects. After all, geniuses from the martial arts world were often unearthed by large sects.

However, the number of such independent martial artists was enormous. With so many geniuses recruited by so many sects, there were always some talents that were left out.

Therefore, such independent martial artists were a force that couldn’t be ignored.

Eddie was doing the clever thing of integrating all these independent warriors from the Central Region, and the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom was expanding quickly.

“Actually, our Fish Dragon Sect isn’t too keen on absorbing independent martial practitioners.” A bitter smile appeared on Xiao’s face. “Some of these independent martial artists were looters originally and progressed by mere fluke of luck. They are bad for our sect’s reputation.

However, I had no choice but to do so due to the circumstances!”

Since Eddie was taking in independent martial artists, his kingdom was expanding rather rapidly and to counter this effect, the World Commercial Alliance had no choice but to join hands with the Ethereal Spirit Sect and Cloud Hall. They asked all the sects in the Central Region to also begin to accept independent martial artists.

For many young independent martial artists, sects might have a great attraction, but for the mature martial artists, the sects’ attraction was quite far from strong, because after entering a sect, they would be bound by the sect’s rules, and they were used to being free, so how could they be willing to join a sect?

In theory, the same problem plagued the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom too, but relatively speaking, the kingdom had just been established, which meant it did not have much control over its warriors.

Eddie was alone and couldn’t stop warriors from leaving. On the contrary, he had promised a lot of benefits to these independent martial artists, claiming that when the kingdom matured in the future, all those who joined him would reap great benefits and rewards.

The sects in the Central Region all tried their best to recruit more independent martial artists than the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom. They threatened them, coerced them, and tempted them with benefits.

As the situation grew, these independent warriors were left with fewer and fewer choices. They could only either join the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom or one of the sects. No matter which sect one joined, they had to become a sect disciple, or else there would be trouble coming their way.

“Why is that?” When he heard Xiao’s words, Zen found it a bit hard to believe.
“In the beginning, no one had expected things to go this far. Now, almost no one in the Central Region is daring enough to say that they are an independent martial artist,” Xiao laughed. “I think that there’s bound to be a fight between Eddie and these sects pretty soon.”

Zen nodded. His eyes sharpened when he heard Eddie’s name.

“There is one more thing,” Zen suddenly interrupted Xiao’s tale.

“Feel free to speak.” Xiao had an extremely attentive expression. He had been angry at Elder Yu. Firstly, Zen was not someone he could afford to offend. Cloud Hall was now a fifth-grade sect.

The Fish Dragon Sect would not be able to catch up to it even if they tried their best. Moreover, Zen’s runic techniques had already become a legend within the entire Central Region. If Xiao’s sect was on good terms with Zen, the sect officials might get him to bestow a sect-protecting array on them. It didn’t have to be as powerful as Cloud Hall’s sect-protecting array of course. But even one that was a third as powerful would benefit the Fish Dragon Sect enormously.

“Is Eddie’s Lustful Demon Array completed?” Zen asked carefully in a hesitant tone. Actually, he was unwilling to ask this question because he was afraid of hearing the answer. However, he knew that there were some things in this world that he had no choice but to face.

Xiao was aware of Zen and Eddie’s history. He knew that Zen’s sister, Yan, had fallen into Eddie’s hands, so he understood why Zen was asking the question. “Not yet. It’s said that every single person in the Heavenly Evil Divine Kingdom is looking for women with the Purple Power Body,” Xiao answered immediately.

When he heard Xiao’s words, Zen heaved a sigh of relief. This was what had been worrying him the most in the past two years.

It looked like luck was still on Zen’s side.

Seeing the happiness on Zen’s face, Xiao reassured him, “Don’t worry. The Purple Power Body is so rare that it won’t be easy to find one.”

Zen nodded his head. Now that he had returned to the Central Region, the feud between him and Eddie was going to be settled once and for all.

“You said that you were still healing. I can provide you with a place to stay. My Fish Dragon Sect has all kinds of medicine,” Xiao hastily added.

Zen smiled and declined politely, “That’s all right. I’m only passing by here. Since I’ve returned to the Central Region now, I must hurry back to my area. Thank you for your hospitality. Now I must rush back to Cloud Hall.”

After a long discussion with Xiao, Zen had managed to capture two pieces of information. Firstly, Cloud Hall was still safe and sound, and secondly, the third Purple Power Body hadn’t been found yet. Zen was satisfied with these two pieces of news.

“Since you have important matters to attend to, I won’t keep you.” Xiao knew he couldn’t stop Zen even if he wanted to. He stood up to send him off, and even summoned the three Virtual Tribulation Realm elders to escort Zen out of the Fish Dragon Sect.

After Zen had turned into a streak of light and disappeared into the horizon, Elder Yu asked in a sullen voice, “Master Xiao, why are you being so courteous to this kid?”

He knew of Zen’s identity, but since Zen didn’t have the slightest connection with Fish Dragon Sect, he couldn’t understand why Xiao was so polite to him.

Xiao coldly snorted as he scolded, “What do you know!”