Pingyang County, suburbs, altar.
Xu Lian took Miao Yueyue, Jiang Yunyan and Huo Xin'er and stood up. He said, "Let's go to Qifeng Mountain." He took out 120,000 spirit stones and placed them on the altar, 30,000 spirit stones per person. This was the starting price for using the altar. Then, he began to add spirit stones to the altar.
Keep adding.
Keep adding...
After adding one million spirit stones, there was still no movement in the altar. Xu Lian's mouth twitched, and he had to continue adding.
When more than 1.3 million spirit stones were added, the altar finally began to glow.
One million spirit stones disappeared out of thin air, presumably taken away by Mian Pavilion. The remaining three hundred thousand or so transformed into spirituality and flowed into the altar to be used for its maintenance.
In the strong light, the four people closed their eyes.
When I opened my eyes again, I was already in the space tunnel.
Except for Miao Yueyue who was frightened by the humanoid monster, the other three didn't feel anything.
Xu Lian took the opportunity to hug Miao Yueyue and comfort her with warm voice to cultivate her favor.
Jiang Yunyan and Huo Xin'er both looked calm, this was the way the world was, too difficult, with only two tastes, sweet and bitter, so much so that they didn't even know what vinegar was.
The strong light appeared again and the four people closed their eyes.
When the strong light faded, the four of them were already standing at the foot of an extremely huge mountain.
It was a volcano, a volcano that couldn't be hotter. From the top to the foot of the mountain, it was all red and cracked, and full of rivers of magma. The whole thing looked like a red giant standing tall, blocking half of the sky.
The four of them were standing far away at the foot of the mountain and they could already feel the rolling heat wave.
Huo Xin'er said, "It is said that a long time ago there lived a phoenix bird with a little phoenix blood here, so this place became like this."
Above the top of the mountain, there is a big crack, as if the sky has split.
Inside the big crack, one can vaguely see an ancient and magnificent city, which must be the imperial capital without a doubt.
The altar is here.
A lot of people have gathered.
There were men, women, young and old, and most of them were male geniuses, probably rushing here to participate in the election for the prince consort... Take a chance, and the iron sword will turn into a flying sword
Moreover, the altar was flashing with bright light from time to time, and it was obvious that many people were coming in an endless stream.
Of course, not all of them come here to participate in the selection of the imperial prince consort. People in this world are very realistic and do not like to daydream. Some people probably come to the imperial capital to trade for spiritual resources, or for some other purpose.
Everyone looked at the imperial capital inside the big crack in the sky, and each of them had a troubled look on their face.
"How do we get up there?"
"The Imperial Capital appears in a different location each time. You can only figure out how to get in and out of the Imperial Capital on your own. The You Dynasty royal family doesn't care about that."...
An old man waved his hand and released a small flying sword, which swelled up in the wind and turned into a large flying sword. He stepped on it as if taking a leisurely stroll in the garden and said with a smile, "Come on, come on, anyone who wants to go to the imperial capital can ride on my flying sword, one million spirit stones per person."
Everyone's eyes widened, as if they had seen a ghost.
"One million spirit stones, why don't you go and rob them?"
"Do you think we are fools?"...
Although Xu Lian had more than 30 million spirit stones in his hand, he would not spend them like this, and certainly would not ride on the old man's flying sword.
Huo Xin'er took out a flying sword and released it.
She pulled Xu Lian up, Xu Lian pulled Miao Yueyue, Miao Yueyue pulled Jiang Yunyan...
"Girl, can your flying sword carry people? How many spirit stones does it cost?"
Someone asked the price.
Huo Xin'er refused, "I don't have that much control over the flying sword. Carrying a few people is already my limit."
A novice, and a female driver at that... Xu Lian's heart skipped a beat when he heard this, and Jiang Yunyan and Miao Yueyue were also a little nervous.
Huo Xin'er made a hand gesture with one hand, controlled the flying sword to take off, and flew towards the top of the mountain shakily.
Everyone was dumbfounded and worried about the four people.
Xu Lian held Miao Yueyue tightly. Once he found the "flipping sword", he would protect Miao Yueyue immediately. As for Huo Xin'er, who was at the eighth level of cultivation and Jiang Yunyan at the seventh level of cultivation, they would definitely not die from the fall...
The people gathered in twos and threes to discuss how to go to the imperial capital.
Some people wanted to catch a flying mount, but the mountain was too hot and there were no flying birds around;
Some people planned to climb to the top of the mountain first. Standing on the top of the mountain, they would be not that far away from the big crack and maybe they could jump up.
Some people think that they can display a Dharma image, then jump up, let the Dharma image hit the footboard with a palm, and use the thrust to fly to the imperial capital.
Some people also think that darts can be used, just like "skipping stones on water", throw a dart up, step on it, throw another one, and then another one... and step on the darts like this.
Anyway, everyone just shows off their talents and figures out a solution on their own.
Although Huo Xin'er's flying sword was a little shaky, fortunately there was no "sword flipping" accident. It flew higher and higher, gradually reaching the height of the mountainside. After flying for a while, it finally reached the top of the mountain.
Feeling the scorching heat rising into the sky, Xu Lian released golden energy, enveloping Miao Yueyue. Miao Yueyue had only been practicing martial arts with Jiang Yunyan for a short time and had not even reached the skin refining stage.
Huo Xin'er continued to fly upwards on his flying sword. The height had already exceeded some clouds. Seeing the scene here, Xu Lian and Miao Yueyue were both surprised to see that this place was not empty.
Instead, there were many things floating around, including broken corpses that had been dead for who knows how many years; broken ships covered in rust; and the remains of strange beasts that were as big as mountains and could not be named. They seemed to have lost their weight and just floated here, emitting a faint black mist. They were obviously very difficult substances.
"No wonder no one would fly in the sky casually. The dangers in the sky are more terrifying than on the ground."
Xu Lian remembered that when he went to Yuanfu County with Jiang Xianyu's caravan, he talked about the taboos in the sky.
Jiang Yunyan said solemnly, "According to some records left by our thirteen clans' ancestors, these things already existed in the sky in their ancient times."
Xu Lian was shocked, because this meant that these things in the sky were even older and could no longer be traced.
When the flying sword controlled by Huo Xin'er flew into the big crack, the distance shook and it almost "flipped over". The four of them broke out in cold sweats. Falling from such a high height, serious injuries were inevitable.
Fortunately, there was no danger. The flying sword entered the big crack and arrived at the imperial capital, where he could see its appearance clearly.
Unlike the loose appearance of other cities, the imperial capital is like an unbreakable whole, with layers of streets stacked up like stairs.
Xu Lian roughly counted and found that there were 3,764 steps. What is the meaning of this number
The top layer is shrouded in golden mist, and the shape of a palace can be vaguely seen. It should be the imperial palace, or the residence of the royal family of the You Dynasty.
Apart from the imperial palace on the top floor, the most eye-catching thing is the arena on the street on each floor. Each arena is surrounded by huge crowds of people. The arena is filled with vigorous energy and sword energy. Bursts of light burst out from time to time, and the confrontation is very intense.
"There is an imperial notice posted there."
Miao Yueyue pointed to the city gate. Xu Lian had told them the purpose of coming to the imperial capital before he came. They knew that Xu Lian was here to participate in the selection of the prince consort.
Xu Lian led the three of them to the city gate and read the imperial notice, which stated the rules for selecting a royal consort.
The age limit is young men under 35 years old, and there are no other restrictions.
For geniuses from top forces, they can go directly to the Ministry of Rites. After their identities are verified, they can skip the preliminaries and preliminary rounds and enter the knockout rounds.
For ordinary people, they need to start fighting from the arena on the first floor of the street, and fight their way up one level after another until they reach the arena on the 3,700th floor of the street, then they will enter the knockout round.
"Fighting from the first floor to the 3,700th floor, wouldn't that be exhausting?"
Miao Yueyue stuck out her tongue cutely, "If we fight in one ring a day, it will take a full ten years... The selection of the prince consort has already ended."
Jiang Yunyan smiled and said, "You definitely can't fight in one arena a day, or even ten arenas a day. You have to fight in at least a hundred arenas a day to enter the elimination round before the selection of the consort is over.
Ordinary people definitely can't do it. Only geniuses with a strong enough talent can accomplish it. This is obviously a way for ordinary people to give up when they see the difficulty."
"Haha, with such a high difficulty level, there are still so many people participating. Don't you find it strange?"
The old man who rode up on the flying sword was also looking at the imperial notice. He smiled and said, "For the general young generation, they don't even think about entering the knockout rounds. They just want to perform well on the stage and attract the attention of the princes and nobles in the imperial capital. Maybe they will recruit them as sons-in-law. This is called catching a son-in-law off the stage. It is also a tradition in the imperial capital."
Xu Lian, Jiang Yunyan and Miao Yueyue all suddenly understood, while Huo Xin'er looked indifferent, as if she had known this custom for a long time.