970 Stumbled
Dyon laughed. “See? If I had worn sweat pants, would we be lamenting a loss right now?”
Ri rolled her eyes, flicking Dyon’s forehead. “Luckily, I bought an identical set.”
If others so how this husband and wife pair were so casually strolling through this trial, even to the point of joking around with each other, they would only be able to shake their heads and bow out in shame.
Dyon stopped laughing suddenly, a serious expression on his face. With a last step, the crossed the trial and entered a fog filled valley.
As far as Dyon was aware, after passing through the final trial to enter the valley, groups of individuals who entered were randomly teleported through the outer regions of the valley.
Although it was called the Valley of Geniuses, it wasn’t much like a normal valley at all. Instead, it was shaped like massive, layered bowls. The most outer regions were of the highest elevation, while the closer to the center you ventured, the further down you went.
Very few could make it to the lowest elevation, but it was estimated that it was more than a 10000km below sea level.
One would think that since progressing required downward momentum, it would be easier. However, this wasn’t the case at all.
Not only were the lower regions of much higher pressure than the higher regions, they were also filled with this bland fog that had hallucinogenic properties. Geniuses who ventured here not only had to guard against the pressure and ensure that they didn’t run out of stamina, they also had to guard their minds and souls.
This was very bad news for Dyon. After all, he couldn’t even see through the bewitching techniques of the twins back at The Cathedral. The good news was that Dyon was aware that they were attacking his senses although he couldn’t see through it due to his Perception. In addition, Dyon had the Dragon King by his side.
Now, the only question was whether or not he’d be recognized by any of these statues with his soul sealed. It was quite possible that he had made this trip for nothing. After all, resonance required these past geniuses to brand his soul with their legacies. He didn’t know whether or not it was possible to do this with his soul sealed away.
Regardless, he had to come. He needed those Soul Market bastards to think that he had received a legacy.
“We have some time.” Dyon suddenly said. “Most of those out there would take a few hours to cross the trial. Do you want to take a look around the outside first, or directly go to the center?”
“I want to go to the center.” Ri said firmly. She had heard of a powerful ice legacy left behind by an ancestor of the Water Mist Sect. It was likely the very same legacy Chrysanthemum was aiming for, but she wanted it for herself.
“Alright, be careful Little Feu Glace.” Dyon needed to test something in the outer regions before he ventured forward. If his theory didn’t work out, then he wouldn’t have any hope of gaining any legacies here.
“Mm.” Ri squeezed Dyon’s hand before flashing forward. A pair of incomparably beautiful wings of ice, spanning hundreds of meters bloomed from her delicate back, causing Dyon’s eyes to widen.
Ri’s giggle came from far away, “Your wife is amazing, no?”
Dyon could only shake his head in defeat. If Ri combined this movement technique with her understanding of void will, wouldn’t she be even faster than Clara? Truly inconceivable.
There was no need to worry about Ri. Since her soul had broken into the celestial realm, how could illusions meant for saints effect her? He was full of confidence in her.
‘Oh?’ After Ri disappeared into the abyss, Dyon realized that he wasn’t as affected by the illusions as he thought he would be. At first, he thought this might have meant that he had already fallen into the illusions, but when he consulted with the Dragon King, he came to a sudden realization.
‘Little fool,’ The Dragon King snorted with disdain, ‘Did you forget your mind is protected by The Seal? Even True Empaths can’t read your mind anymore, let alone mere illusions meant for saints.’
‘But, the twins…’
‘You’re thinking about it incorrectly. Instead of underestimating The Seal for not protecting your mind against those twins, it’s more appropriate to raise your wariness toward those two sisters for being capable of ignoring the abilities of The Seal.’
Dyon frowned. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of this possibility, it was just that it was far too ridiculous. Those twins were already 20 or so years old, yet were barely at the essence gathering level. Of course, this made them astounding geniuses of the 98th quadrant, but in the upper ranks of quadrants, their cultivation was pitifully slow.
Because of this, Dyon had unconsciously underestimated them and underestimated the abilities of The Seal.
‘Don’t overthink it either,’ The Dragon King continued. ‘With your soul sealed, it’s likely that The Seal took a hit in its abilities as well. Although protection of the mind is one of its passive abilities, you’d be naïve to think that it’s not at least partially crippled by you.’
Dyon sighed. There were too many things in this martial world that he didn’t understand. But, at the same time, this filled with fighting spirit. His race of people had created branches of thought the martial world had never even begun to conceive and it seemed like it was up to him to continue this tradition.
First, though, he had to test a theory.
Dyon quickly switched out of his torn blue robes and into his Soul Rending Peak disciple robes, strapped his faction badge to his waist and allowed the mask to disappear from his face before unbandaging his broad sword. Since he was going to be in the outer regions for now, there was no need to continue on with his identity as Ri’s husband.
p-A- n-d-A-n-0-v-e-1、(c)om It was good that teleportation was random. This could be his excuse for how he escaped Clara. Obviously, someone of Clara’s status wouldn’t hold hands with someone like Dyon Jafari just for the sake of not losing a servant.
Looking around, Dyon realized that he was in the furthest reaches of the valley, there weren’t even any statues here. He would have to continue forward before he reached any of them.
Dyon walked toward the edge of the abyss. He couldn’t see to the bottom. In fact, the edge he stood on extended in both directions so far that it looked nothing like the massive bowl he knew that it was, instead, it looked like a straight edged cliff.
Although the size of the valley of geniuses surprised Dyon, after a moment of thinking, it made sense.
The tower had been in existence for hundreds of millions of years, and although only a rare few geniuses would earn a spot in this valley, over such a long period of time, the sheer number of them would baffle anyone.
At the same time, there was a lot of turnover in the outer regions of the valley. Obviously, whenever a legacy was earned, the statue would then disappear to be later replaced by another genius. However, this occurrence was relatively rare. Among the millions that entered, maybe only a few thousand would be lucky enough to resonate completely.
Unfortunately, this was entirely because the past geniuses were stingy. It was just that those of the martial world were vile individuals. Unless one had proper protection while they were resonating, the jealousy of others would run rampant causing quite a few tragedies.
Fighting while resonating was like looking in two directions at once, there was no doubt that your battle prowess would fall drastically. Only the strongest could simultaneously receive a legacy while also fighting off others. It was for this reason that the valley allowed group teleportation.
Dyon allowed his feet to slip, causing him to plummet into the endless fog. ‘Old Lizard, do you have a statue here?’
‘You think this esteemed ancestor would have a statue on the pitiful saint floors?’
‘Hey, watch it. Don’t insult my master.’
Although Dyon said this, he did find it weird that his master was on the saint floors. She was the guardian beast of the first ranked sect in the cosmos. Even if she was younger then, her talent had to be unmatched by many. Even though her celestial bloodline had fallen to the transcendent rankings, it was still a celestial bloodline.
On top of that, according to Dyon’s understanding, only supreme beasts could be born as humans. Transcendent beasts wouldn’t be able to transform into humans until they reached dao formation.
However, when Dyon… ‘stumbled’, cough, upon his master’s intimate relations with his martial uncle, he saw them committing their dirty deeds in their human forms as well as their beast forms. The problem was that according to those same members, Dyon’s master had only been a celestial at the time. So, clearly, celestial bloodlines were quite special even at the transcendent level.