THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 3 - Season 11 Episode 64

The young man in front of Zen obviously came from a prominent family. He had a well-defined face, a finely-embroidered robe that looked quite expensive, and excellent manners.

The four bodyguards at the Life and Death Realm he had with him informed Zen that this young man’s status was not modest by any means. He might even actually be a prince, like the one he had met so long ago back in Immortal Mist’s celestial tomb.

If he wasn’t a prince, he was at least a very important figure here in the Harlen Divine Kingdom.

Zen wouldn’t really know for sure. He had just arrived after all and was consciously making an effort to be careful since he was still unfamiliar with how things worked here.

But, no matter how careful he was, trouble just seemed to gravitate towards him.

“Are you also a candidate?” the young man said haughtily. Despite the good manners and fine facade, Zen knew that it would’ve been impossible for this young man to not have an arrogant side to him.

“Yes,” Zen answered curtly, trying to suppress his annoyance.

“Great! I haven’t seen any independent warriors that are around the same cultivation level as you. I’m also going to participate in the assessment. Follow me,” the young man ordered arrogantly.
Martial houses functioned differently from the sects in Central Region. Here, they gathered multiple warriors in order to select those with decent enough strength to compete against the other divine kingdoms in the secret places.

In Cloud Hall, the system would be to gather its own disciples. However, in the divine kingdoms, there was no such thing. Whoever had the strength could enter the secret places and excavate the treasures within.

Zen froze at his command.

‘Follow him?’ he thought to himself before shaking his head.

“I’m sorry. I’ve always been alone and I’m not really used to being someone’s follower,” he refused politely.

One of the guards erupted into a white-hot rage at Zen’s words. “How dare you! Our young master has thought highly of you and granted you the honor of following him!”

The guard’s anger did not faze Zen. “Since you think highly of me, surely you wouldn’t make things difficult for me, would you?”

His words made the young man chuckle. “Good! You have guts. I like you.” He looked back at his guards. “Let’s go!”

His reaction left Zen feeling quite confused and a little bit shocked. He didn’t think he’d leave him alone that easily. He had actually gotten himself ready for a fight just in case. The four guards the young man had with him surely wouldn’t be an easy kill.

Nevertheless, he was grateful for the avoidance of unnecessary drama.

Though he knew he could take out warriors at the Life and Death Realm, he preferred to conserve his strength in case he had to escape from a warrior at the Soul Sea Realm.

Francis let out a sigh of relief beside him. “Thank goodness you held yourself back.”

“Why?” Zen asked, raising an eyebrow. “Who was he anyway? Who was that guy?”

“If I’m not wrong, that guy is Lord Randy of the Harlen Divine Kingdom,” Francis answered.

“Lord Randy? That young man is a lord?”

Zen couldn’t help but remark in surprise.

Francis had already given Zen a brief rundown of how the four divine kingdoms worked. Their customs and frameworks were very similar to a hierarchical dynasty.

The divine kingdoms had a multitude of princes which made it difficult for them to ascend to the throne.

Given the amount of resources and treasure at the hands of the divine kingdoms, fostering and producing a warrior at the Soul Sea Realm here was very much possible. A ruler had to reach this level in order to be heralded and respected as a leader.

An emperor at the Soul Sea Realm, therefore, had unprecedented strength and an extremely long lifespan of more than 10, 000 years. It was due to this impressive lifespan that an emperor could also be expected to sire around 10, 000 children.

Perhaps even more!

It was their sheer number that made it difficult to attain the throne. All the princes would need to compete with their siblings to curry their father’s favor. Those unfortunate to be less than stellar and failed to get their parent’s attention could never hope to be granted the honor of talking to their father their entire lives.
It could be said that the competition among these princes was much more difficult and cutthroat than the competition among ordinary warriors.

For a warrior, strength was everything. If two warriors did not have enough strength to topple each other, they still had the chance to get along well.

However, the rules of the divine court were different—if you did not have strength, you were effectively doomed to have a fate worse than a beggar.

So for a young man like Randy to have reached his status at such a young age, his strength should by no means be underestimated.

“Lord Randy is the pride of the Harlen Divine Kingdom. His status is only second to the crown prince, so it’s best we steer clear of him to avoid giving offense,” Francis warned Zen.

Zen nodded at his words and walked in the general direction Randy had gone to.
There were naturally many warriors in the martial house—those at the nature level, Illuminating Soul Realm, and Internal Elixir Realm.

They did not pay much attention to Zen. Those who noticed that he was a warrior at the Virtual Tribulation Realm with a warrior at the Life and Death Realm following behind him only took a quick glance before carefully walking away with lowered heads.

Countless courtyards were set up from the martial house entrance all the way to the foot of the mountain.

From the instructions before, Zen would have to find the one where he could register for the assessment.

It did not take long and, once he arrived, he saw that it was mostly independent warriors who came to register for the exam. However, they were subdivided according to their realms.

There was a long line for the courtyard of nature creatures, so long that one wouldn’t be able to see where it ended or where it began. Zen could estimate that there were more than ten thousand warriors lined up.

“How long will this take? There are so many people here,” he asked in bewilderment.

“It’s actually quite common for warriors to line up for one or two months. It’s not really a big deal since it’s for the sake of entering the martial house,” Francis told him with a chuckle.

Zen thought back at the ones he saw in the open space outside the martial house. There were some who had been kneeling outside for several years or even decades just to get in.

Next to the nature creatures’ courtyard was the one for those at the Illuminating Soul Realm. It was also hard to see where this one ended, but there were considerably less people here than the last courtyard.

In the next courtyard was the line for the warriors at the Internal Elixir Realm and it seemed only a few hundred came to take the exam.

Even in the divine kingdoms, it seemed only a few people could enter the Internal Elixir Realm.

The next courtyard was for those at the Virtual Tribulation Realm where only a handful of warriors waited. There was actually no need for them to even line up at all.

A warrior at the Virtual Tribulation Realm was regarded as a mighty warrior here in the divine kingdoms. The respect was still high but they were not as feared as they would’ve been back in Central Region.

Those below the Virtual Tribulation Realm entered the martial houses for the multitude of things it could offer—resources, cultivation methods, pills, and cultivation rooms.

The divine kingdoms themselves provided these resources and the higher the grade of the martial house, the better and more outstanding items they were given. This was the primary reason why so many lower-level warriors fought to enter the martial houses.

Warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm were different.

These warriors had been on the path of cultivation for a long time and ordinary cultivation resources that the martial houses provided wouldn’t really be of much use to them at this point.

Even the Tower of Sin could only breed top-level war lords. Warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm could only rely on themselves if they wanted to advance through experiencing life and death situations and making breakthroughs through adversity. If they were lucky, they might be able to obtain a good opportunity during their advancement which would then effectively open up the road towards enlightenment.

It was this good opportunity that they all yearned for. The warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm that had come to sign up had the same goal as Zen—to represent the Harlen Divine Kingdom and enter the sea of miracle.

Some were independent warriors while a few came from other martial houses.

They were probably from third-grade or even fourth-grade martial houses and came here to a higher grade martial house to be able to enter the sea of miracle.
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Hopping from one martial house to another did not really mean that one had turned his back to his original martial house. All martial houses worked for divine kingdoms after all.

A woman at the Internal Elixir Realm came up to Zen as soon as he entered the courtyard. She welcomed him and asked if he wanted to participate in the test to obtain the Harlen Token.

This Harlen Token was what he would need to enter the sea of miracle.

According to the agreement among the four divine kingdoms, each would issue a corresponding number of tokens every year to those deemed worthy. These tokens were equal to the licenses to the Feather Holy Sea and those issued by the York Divine Kingdom were called York Tokens.

Zen naturally nodded. His purpose was to enter the Feather Holy Sea after all.
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