Chapter 521 – East Land’s Jade Ocean City

　　Gu Ruyu laughed and said, “It’s good to be on the road alone. It’s quiet.”

　　Yan Tianhen asked, “Do you two want to go with me?”

　　Qi Feiqing sighed and said, “I want to, but my elder brother probably would kill me.”

　　Gu Ruyu shrugged and said, “I have to protect those Yan family disciples along the way. There’s nothing that can be done about it; I can’t walk away.”

　　The Gu family was the iron wall of the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital for generations, and Marquis Gu was the irreplaceable right arm of the Purple Emperor. He specialized in guarding the public order of the Royal Heavenly Capital and commanded the Imperial Guard Corps.

　　Ever since ancient times, it was said that there were the Gu family guards in the open and the Black and White Crow Guards in the dark.

　　As the eldest son and grandson of the Gu family, Gu Ruyu did not take up a temporary post in the palace because of his young age, but this was something that was bound to happen sooner or later. Naturally, he wouldn’t be able to leave the Yan family’s disciples on this journey.

　　Although Yan Tianhen was a little disappointed, he could only say, “Forget it, then this Prince can only go on the road alone.”

　　Qi Feiqing said with a smile, “Maybe you can accidentally meet a beautiful young man on the road, and then start some kind of relationship with him — oh, that’s right, His Majesty did gift you with a bottle of lube. Don’t waste it! Hahaha.”

　　Yan Tianhen kicked him and said, “Shut up, you, say one more word, and I will use that thing on you.”

　　Qi Feiqing ran away while laughing, “Just let me off ah. Honorable me doesn’t like males. The rabbit doesn’t eat the grass beside the nest. You are so crazy.”

　　“Fuck off,” Yan Tianhen said.

　　Within a few days, Yan Tianhen went on the road alone.

　　Before leaving, he asked his father specifically, saying that he wasn’t going to bring any entourage or anything. However, if there was some accident on the way, what should he do?

　　You Ming replied with great peace of mind and said, “Don’t worry, son, you’ve been a tough one ever since you were a child. In the past, even the abortion pill didn’t kill you when you were in the womb. Unless it’s a great disaster, you generally won’t die.”

　　Yan Tianhen twitched his mouth and said, “Daddy, you actually took an abortion pill?”

　　Yan Tianhen walked on the road, still surprised that his life was so extraordinarily tenacious ah.

　　In this way, a handsome boy in disguise, with a black tiger cub, went on the road together.

　　The direction of Myriad Dao Academy was located in the overseas land connected by the East Sea and the North Sea. It was not under the jurisdiction of any one of the Nine Lands, and was thus called the Tenth Land outside of the Nine Lands.

　　It had a vast area, rich soil, and dense spiritual Qi. It had strict rules and was not controlled by the secular imperial court. Moreover, there were many experts and disciples. It was similar to a dynasty.

　　However, this place was different from the secular dynasties in that there was no imperial system or nobility. Even if you were a descendant of the Divine Clans from the secular dynasties, if you weren’t strong enough to earn people’s respect, you would also be looked down upon.

　　Myriad Dao Academy was the head of all the sects. There were so many secret scripts and magic treasures here. There were also countless celebrities and great powerhouses here, and the most powerful people in the entire Nine Lands were all gathered together.

　　The cultivators of the Nine Lands were all proud of being able to enter Myriad Dao Academy, including those disciples of the Divine Clans who were used to being at the top. There would always be someone better — the Qianyuan Dynasty couldn’t really be considered a colossus when compared to Myriad Dao Academy. There were many rumors that if those powerhouses in Myriad Dao Academy wanted to act as regent, then the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital would probably have to change rulers and surnames overnight.

　　Yan Tianhen didn’t believe this at first, after all, he didn’t really believe that Myriad Dao Academy had no fears.

　　It was nice and relaxing to travel alone. Yan Tianhen had a lot of magic treasures for transportation. In addition, he had learned to fly on the sword a few years ago, so it didn’t take long for him to reach the junction of the North Land and the East Land.

　　Although there was still a Northeast Land between the North and East Lands, the Northeast Land was relatively small and was completely enclosed by the continent, so it had no connection with the ocean. Thus, it was not a necessary stop when traveling to Myriad Dao Academy.

　　When Yan Tianhen arrived at the overseas border, it was close to the day of Myriad Dao Academy’s entrance exam. Therefore, it could be called a bustling place. The whole Jade Ocean City, which was located on the boundary line of the East Land, was crowded with disciples coming to take the entrance examination. It was estimated that there were no less than 100,000 people.

　　Yan Tianhen didn’t want to enter Myriad Dao Academy with his real identity, so he changed his appearance. But he soon found out the disadvantages of doing this!

　　“Aiya, Taoist Lord, it’s really unfortunate that our inn has been fully reserved a month ago.”

　　“What? Not even ten low-grade spirit stones will cut it — do you know that the people who reserved our inn are the Divine Clan’s Wan family? A brat like you can’t afford to provoke them.”

　　“Get lost, get lost. We’ve been exclusively reserved by Myriad Cloud Sect. Don’t dawdle here.”

　　Yan Tianhen expressionlessly walked out of the eighth inn he entered today. He silently looked at the setting sun that was already slanting west, thinking that he might be sleeping on the street on the first day he came to Jade Ocean City. Yan Tianhen found a hidden corner and pinched a sound transmission talisman to Qi Feiqing and Gu Ruyu, “Have you two arrived in Jade Ocean City already?”

　　After burning the talisman, there was no reply for a long time.

　　Yan Tianhen casually pulled a passer-by and asked, “Has that group of people from Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital already arrived?”

　　The passer-by glanced at him and said, “Are you new here? Those people from the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital have already arrived two days ago. The pomp is so big that half of the sky was completely covered, and they even reserved an entire street. I don’t know what was going on yesterday, but suddenly all of them had disappeared overnight. We guessed that Myriad Dao Academy sent someone to pick them up.”

　　At this point, this person said with envy, “It’s good to have a backer. For people like us who have no backer and no money, we can only wait for the day when the sect opens its doors.”

　　Yan Tianhen was full of disbelief. “They only stayed here for one night and then disappeared without a trace?”

　　The passerby nodded and said, “Yeah, don’t tell me that you think I am lying to you?”

　　Yan Tianhen, “…”

　　There was nothing to lie about. After all, he would know the truth at a glance if he just went to the street the Yan family had reserved.

　　However, Yan Tianhen was surprised because when he went to inquire about the situation on Quetong Street, which had been reserved by the Yan family, he found that even the bodyguards who escorted the disciples had disappeared. However, some of the luggage that they had carried with them were still in the yard.

　　Yan Tianhen suspected that something terrible had happened.

　　Yan Tianhen had a boat ticket in his hand. As said before, Myriad Dao Academy was located overseas, while the sea outside Jade Ocean City was an endless sea. The dark sea had no end at first glance. There were many barriers on it, and there were also countless monsters in the sea. If you wanted to reach Myriad Dao Academy successfully, you needed to take the boat sent by the Academy.

　　A person who got a boat ticket meant that they were qualified to take part in the examination. All the disciples of the Yan family who came to participate in the examination had a boat ticket. However, the other cultivators who had no background and no recommendation but still wanted to enter Myriad Dao Academy must wait for people from Myriad Dao Academy to come to Jade Ocean City. After several rounds of preliminary examinations such as spiritual root, cultivation level, talent, and age, those who passed the examination could get the boat ticket and advance forward to Myriad Dao Academy to participate in the real entrance exam.

　　It seemed that the Divine Clans had not received any preferential treatment, but in fact, if you knew the primary assessment criteria for Myriad Dao Academy, then you would understand just how much the situation favored the Divine Clans.

　　First of all, there were very strong restrictions on age and cultivation.

　　For example, those at peak Hardened Body Stage couldn’t be over 18 years old, those at Primary Realm’s Calcified Bones Stage couldn’t be over 25 years old, those at Primary Realm’s Condensed Pulse Stage couldn’t be over 50 years old, and those at Primary Realm’s Blood Breakthrough Stage couldn’t be over 100 years old.

　　Yan Tianhen was qualified on this point. Right now, he had just entered Primary Realm’s Blood Breakthrough Stage. As for Yin Nian’s earlier guess that he was already at Profound Realm’s Return Origin Stage, it was simply because he had brought a magic treasure specially used to disguise himself into seeming more powerful and deceived Yin Nian.

　　But one should know that cultivators who could reach the Calcified Bones Stage at the age of 25 were very rare, even in the Divine Clans. Of course, this was only for humans, and there were other requirements for the demonic beast clans, whose members accumulated their cultivation for much longer and whose infancy period could last hundreds of years.

　　Secondly, there were restrictions on spiritual roots.

　　If the number of spiritual roots was greater than three, they would be eliminated directly, and there would be no chance for the next step.

　　Finally, when testing talent, the talent stone was divided into seven levels. If the talent stone was not lit up more than half, the person would also be directly out of the game.

　　Putting it all together, if the Divine Clans really were required to go through these tests, probably half of them would be kicked out. The Yan family was a major family, and there were probably hundreds of disciples of the same generation as Yan Tianhen, but only thirty-two people got the entrance pass. In addition, officials such as the Gu family and the Qi family could also get one or two boat tickets. As for other disciples of the Yan family or other aristocratic families who wanted to come to Myriad Dao Academy, they would have to be evaluated in a regular manner by passing these tests.

　　Yan Tianhen observed here for a while, and finally gave up because he couldn’t find any traces of a fight. In the end, he took advantage of this and went straight to live in an empty room. Probably because the Yan family had reserved it for ten days to half a month, although all the people here had disappeared overnight, no one dared to come and find out, let alone live in it.

　　The next day, Yan Tianhen went downtown to look for clues.

　　However, he soon discovered that the other Divine Clans seemed to be particularly active. Those Divine Clans who came a few days ago were picked up by the ship of Myriad Dao Academy not long after they arrived. Countless people were envious.

　　After inquiring, Yan Tianhen estimated that there should be only the Wan family that hadn’t arrived yet.

　　Because Wan Yitong broke his relations with the Wan family, he would not be able to get the boat ticket, and his cultivation base couldn’t pass the 25-years-old cutoff, so he was not eligible to enter Myriad Dao Academy’s examination. This was a bit regrettable.

　　Just when he was thinking about it, the Wan family’s team had already arrived in the city.

　　The Wan family had a consistent tradition — even before the people arrived, the sound would arrive first. The melodious music came from far and near, which made people feel more comfortable. There were actually some cultivators who broke through the bottlenecks of cultivation because of the superposition of celestial music.

　　Looking up into the sky, Yan Tianhen saw fairy clothes fluttering and stepping on all kinds of musical instruments. The disciples of the Wan family were standing in the air in the shape of a pipa. Some of them stood with their hands clasped behind their backs, some played flute, some plucked their pipa’s, some plucked Guqin, and some directly shook the rattle-drum.

　　The Clan of Law and Music takes rhythm as their instrument and music as their soul.