Heavenly Peak City, Dragon Gate Port.
Thick smoke continuously rose from a crater at the harbor. This smoke originated from Dream Pills being burned by Side General Lin Ze of White Cloud Province’s garrison.
As the Side General of White Cloud Province’s garrison, Lin Ze might be the sole person in White Cloud Province who didn’t fear the White Cloud Governor Wan Ben.
He was upright and above flattery, hating all evil.
His attitude towards the Ren Race was completely different from the White Cloud Governor Wan Ben’s.
Although the royal court of Northern Han Country had issued the order to destroy all the Dream Pills in Dragon Gate Port, if not for Lin Ze prevailing over all dissenting views, White Cloud Province might have been helpless to proceed with this matter.
On this day when the Dream Pill cache was destroyed by fire, young martial artists from all over Heavenly Peak City had come to observe the scene.
Lin Ze announced a matter on the spot. To support young martial artists of Heavenly Peak City, he would choose several people to take to White Cloud Capital, and they could enter his Side General Residence as seeds to be nurtured.
This matter was naturally more important to martial artists than burning Dream Pills.
Thus, Lin Ze directly created an arena at the port and ordered a young martial artist under him to accept all challenges.
This martial artist’s name was Lin Chen.
He was a Peak Rank Six Martial Vein martial artist at 16-years-old, so his future was limitless.
The requirement was simple: anyone who could exchange over a hundred moves with him was qualified to accompany him to White Cloud Capital.
Lin Ze was sitting on the judge’s seat wearing military attire. Dashing and spirited, he was tall and handsome.
Although he was already over 50-years-old, his healthy body seemed to contain terrifying power.
Just sitting there, he greatly pressured the crowd.
However, the strange thing was that no matter which side he was observed from, Lin Ze appeared to only be an ordinary martial artist.
People were confused. Where did his powerful pressure come from?
Perhaps, only those above Martial Master could truly understand how terrifying Lin Ze was.
Lin Ze looked like an ordinary martial artist because he had already cultivated to the terrifying level of restraining his true essence. Without any aura-restraining martial arts, he could restrain his true essence.
This was why he was so powerful and terrifying.
In addition, as a General, the number of alien martial artists who had died at his hands was not small.
Like that, he had comprehended a murderous aura, which was not something that could be cultivated through pure cultivation.
According to rumor, by the time Lin Ze was thirty, he had become a Rank Nine Martial Vein martial artist who had opened all nine martial veins.
That year, he had relied on his own power to take the heads of thousands upon thousands of enemies and saved the life of the Sacred Dynasty’s prince.
In that war, he had even slain more than ten same-ranked martial artists, shocking the entire country. He alone had utterly routed the aggressors.
Even more terrifyingly, after he had taken the Side General post, in order to hunt down a Ren Race’s assassin who had snuck into White Cloud Capital and assassinated the former governor, he actually decapitated a rank nine demonic beast in one move, before ultimately cutting off the head of that Ren Race’s assassin.
There were many legends about this person. Even among the common folk, many scripts and stories circulated about him. In the entire Northern Han Country and even the entire Sacred Dynasty of the Human Race, people who had not heard of Lin Ze were truly rare.
This time, Lin Ze had come to Dragon Gate to destroy the harmful Dream Pills and even fought against three Rank Nine Martial Vein Ren Race experts by himself, killing all three.
Otherwise, he couldn’t have seized so many Dream Pills.
Because of this, the martial artists in Dragon Gate and Heavenly Peak City were driven crazy.
After all, the strongest person in Heavenly Peak City was Ling Xiaotian, the Patriarch of the Ling Clan, and he was only a Peak Rank Seven Martial Vein martial artist.
In front of Lin Ze, Ling Xiaotian was an infant not worth mentioning.
Now, Lin Ze had given everyone a chance to follow him!
Who would not be tempted?
Merely, the martial artists of Heavenly Peak City truly disappointed Lin Ze.
From beginning to end, not a single martial artist could endure three of Lin Chen’s moves.
Now that over a hundred people had challenged his champion, Lin Ze gradually lost his patience and began to doubt whether his decision this time had been correct.
In fact, he had a reason for doing all this.
He had heard that Ren Race’s Heavenly Ren Academy had visited Heavenly Peak City in search of talent and obtained some called Li Xinghui and someone called Shi Yulian.
When he had seen both, they had indeed been outstanding. With a bit of tempering, they could truly become useful talents.
It was precisely because of this that he had thought of holding such a selection here.
However, reality disappointed him.
“Can it really be that I can’t find even a single talented martial artist in all of Heavenly Peak City? Or were all those with good talent already recruited by Heavenly Ren Academy?”
Lin Ze shook his head and examined the sky. It was almost dark, but he firmed his resolve to wait until sunset to end this boring selection.
However, a person suddenly appeared.
“Junior Ling Feifan greets the Side General!”
“Ling Feifan?”
Lin Ze vaguely remembered that the Ling Clan seemed to have tenaciously survived the joint attacks of the Ren Race, Shi Clan, and Li Clan.
There must be several talents among the Ling Clan.
“Lord, this subordinate has heard of it before.”
Lin Chen whispered from the side, “This subordinate had the privilege to visit Heavenly Peak City before and also visited the Ling Clan. At that time, this Ling Feifan was hailed as the most outstanding talent among the younger generation of the Ling Clan. Like Li Xinghui, he was one of the four noble sons of Heavenly Peak City!”
“Oh?”
“Moreover, that was a year ago. The current Ling Feifan looks even stronger than a year ago.”
Lin Chen continued.
“Since that is the case, test him, but you are not allowed to show leniency. If he can exchange over a hundred moves against you, we will take him; otherwise, let it be. Then, we will finally stop this boring selection.”
Lin Ze said so with a reason.
Since Ling Feifan was, like Li Xinghui, one of the four noble sons, he should be the top among the younger generation of Heavenly Peak City. If even he couldn’t do it, it was useless to test others.
“This subordinate understands!”
Lin Chen would naturally not be lenient. He was about the same age as Ling Feifan, and he followed General Lin Ze. If Ling Feifan defeated him, not only would he lose face, but Lin Ze would also lose face.
“This young man is pretty good. At just 17 or 18-years-old, he had actually reached Rank Six Martial Vein. This is very rare, at least in a small place like Heavenly Peak City.”
Lin Ze evaluated Ling Feifan carefully.
After all, he was much better than those young martial artists who had previously taken the stage.
Ling Feifan looked at Lin Ze with excitement beating in his heart.
He had actually returned to Heavenly Peak City long ago, but at that time, the Ling Clan had been besieged, so he hadn’t dared to return. Thus, he had come to Dragon Gate Port, seeking to leave Heavenly Peak City by boat.
This was because he had felt the Ling Clan was finished and that he would die for sure if he had stayed.
However, ‘Man proposes, but God disposes.’ He had learned about Dream Pills in Dragon Gate Port and used them to rapidly increase his strength, reaching the Peak Rank Six Martial Vein realm.
However, the terrible side effects of those Dream Pills had forced him to pledge allegiance to the Ren Race.
His appearance was also the arrangement of the Ren Race: he had to infiltrate the Side General Residence and become one of their planted agents.
