Chapter 245.3: Deity Fragments, Contemplating the Law, Glimpsing the Origin of Heaven and Earth! (III)

This location... The Setting Sun Mountain Range?

The Setting Sun Mountain Range was vast, but the message included precise coordinates, so the exact spot was not difficult to find.

Lu Changsheng set out from Han City toward the mountains. Limited to the strength of his physical body alone, his travel was somewhat slow, and it took a full month before he arrived.

The location specified in the communication stone was a valley, but upon arriving there, there was absolutely no one around. Lu Changsheng frowned, then immediately sent word that he had reached the appointed place, after which he found a spot and waited quietly.

Several days slipped by.

Whoosh.

At last, there was movement outside the valley. An elderly man with white hair, a youthful face, and a ruddy complexion appeared within it.

"Fellow Daoist Lu?" the old man called out loudly.

"Are you Fellow Daoist Xuanyang?" asked Lu Changsheng, revealing himself. He studied the old man, and from what he knew of immortal cultivators, the other was most likely one of them.

"Xuanyang, of the Saint Alliance."

"Lu Changsheng, of the Azure Mountain Sacred Land."

True Lord Xuanyang was in fact the Azure Mountain Sacred Land's liaison, so Lu Changsheng naturally presented himself under that banner. After all, he genuinely counted as an elder of the Azure Mountain Sacred Land now.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, please come with me."

Neither of them wasted words, and Lu Changsheng fell in behind True Lord Xuanyang. Neither drew on any transcendent power, relying on the strength of their physical bodies alone as they raced through the mountains.

Before long, they entered an unfamiliar valley containing an underground passage, and after walking it for quite some time, they reached an opening.

Lu Changsheng was taken aback. "This place..."

It was enormous. The Nascent Soul True Lords and Martial Saints all around were releasing their auras and their power without the slightest restraint, as though they had no fear whatsoever of being noticed by the deities.

"This is one of the Saint Alliance's branches," True Lord Xuanyang said with a smile. "We have formation flags and enchanted treasures bestowed by Heavenly Saints of the Martial Dao and by the Immortal Dao, and with them we've laid out a great sealing formation that guarantees not a trace of our aura escapes. So inside a Saint Alliance branch there's no need to conceal your aura, and you may use any power you like."

Lu Changsheng nodded. Enchanted treasures at the Heavenly Saint Realm, or the Void Refinement Realm, could shut out every trace of aura, beyond even a deity's ability to detect.

Getting such treasures in here had to be difficult and quite costly. The fact that the Saint Alliance could establish bases at all was surely closely related to the Heavenly Saints and the Void Refinement cultivators.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, everyone at a Saint Alliance branch must swear on their Dao Heart never to divulge any information about the branch or its location," said Xuanyang.

An oath sworn on the Dao Heart, if broken, would raise unseen obstructions that left one's own cultivation unable to flow smoothly. Of course, some were not worried in the least, and opinions on the matter differed. Anyone truly set on leaking something had no shortage of ways to do it. In the end, the oaths were merely a formality. It was not thanks to them that the Saint Alliance had survived to this day.

Lu Changsheng followed the rules all the same and swore on his Dao Heart never to reveal the branch's information or location.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, the Saint Alliance is simply a place for Fellow Daoists of the Immortal Dao and the Martial Dao to exchange information. You may cooperate with anyone you please, or refuse anyone you please, but there is no fighting in private within the Saint Alliance. Take any grievance to the arena and settle it there, where life and death are no one's concern.

"Remember, never raise a hand on your own, or you'll be expelled. And the Saint Alliance forces nothing on anyone."

With that, True Lord Xuanyang took his leave.

Lu Changsheng nodded in understanding. The Saint Alliance amounted to a base for the Martial Dao and the Immortal Dao. It gave martial artists and immortal cultivators a foothold in the Divine Region, so that they were not left struggling to survive and hunted at every turn.

Clearly, it was the work of Heavenly Saints and Void Refinement cultivators. If the Heavenly Saint and Void Refinement experts of old had been able to drive the deities into the Divine Region, what was strange about them establishing bases inside it?

Lu Changsheng was in no hurry to seek out a deity, and instead wandered the Saint Alliance for a while to learn how things worked there. After a few days, he had gained a decent understanding of it.

The Saint Alliance was mainly a place for trading information and intelligence. Someone would learn the particulars of a given deity, then invite Martial Saints and Nascent Soul cultivators to form a team and attack it together, with the division of spoils settled in advance.

The targets were almost always deities at the Human Saint Realm, which were True Gods. As for Divine Kings, few dared to hunt one, as a Divine King rivaled an Earthly Saint.

For martial artists and immortal cultivators using deity fragments, the fragments of a Divine King were undoubtedly the most effective. It was said that a single Divine King's fragment could let a person sense a Law with perfect clarity and thereby master it.

But to surround a Divine King with Earthly Saint strength while being only in the Human Saint Realm was far too risky. One misstep and the entire party would be wiped out.

Lu Changsheng had no need to take such risks. With his Perception, an ordinary True God's fragments were enough to let him contemplate a Law, and he had no need of a Divine King's fragments at all.

Besides, he had no wish to join a team. Teaming up carried risks of its own, and there was always the risk of being stabbed in the back. Profit often swayed men's hearts more than oaths.

Lu Changsheng would much rather acquire a lead on a True God and act alone, even at a somewhat higher price. Of course, that approach was quite risky too. After all, the intelligence could be inaccurate, pushing Lu Changsheng to unknowingly target a Divine King instead of a True God.

Or perhaps a Divine King could be lurking somewhere nearby the True God he was targeting. To strike then would be to walk a lamb into a tiger's den, a road with only death at the end.

Thus, although many people were selling information on True Gods, few dared to buy it. Only those willing to gamble ever did.

Lu Changsheng noticed one Martial Saint who had been trying to sell a piece of intelligence for a long while.

"You have the precise location of a True God?" he asked.

"I do."

"And what do you want for it?"

"If you come away with more than one deity fragment, give me one. If there's only one, it's yours."

"I see. Is the lead solid?"

"Absolutely! There's no Divine King nearby either, and the nearest one would need at least an hour to reach the place. An hour should be enough, right?"

Lu Changsheng weighed it briefly. From the first strike to the destruction of a True God, one hour was ample time to flee. The offer sounded good, but the reliability of the intelligence was a crucial variable, and Lu Changsheng could not trust this Martial Saint just based on his word.

"I can accept your terms, but I have a requirement of my own. You come with me to find the True God. You don't need to lift a finger, you can stay back in the crowd, but you go with me and you don't run. If you dare run, I'll kill you!"

The man's expression shifted. "Huh?"

The Martial Saint seemed to grasp what Lu Changsheng was implying. However, he was startled by something else.

"You're going alone? Without a team?"

"That's right."

"Daring to hunt a True God alone..." The Martial Saint stared at him, eyes bright and searching.

He had been in the Saint Alliance a long time and knew what it meant for someone to dare hunt a True God alone. Anyone willing to undertake such a quest was either mad or genuinely powerful and awfully confident. Almost all of them were Earthly Saint scions, with a strong chance of becoming an Earthly Saint in the future.

"Let me think it over..."

"Three days. That's all I'm giving you. Give me your answer then."

With that, Lu Changsheng turned and left. He knew the man still did not want to take the risk, that he only wanted to hand over the lead and go on waiting quietly in the Saint Alliance.

However, such bargains were almost too good to be true. No one would buy a lead for nothing, stake his life on it, and then hand over one of the fragments he had bled for. If selling leads were that easy, the man would not have waited so long at the branch without a single buyer.

Lu Changsheng was confident that in the end, the man would agree with his terms.

Three days later, Lu Changsheng came before the Martial Saint again.

"Have you decided?"

Clearly, he could not have sold his lead to someone else in just three days.

The Martial Saint drew a deep breath, then said heavily, "Fine. I accept your terms and I'll go with you. But I will not raise a hand. The moment it starts looking like you're going to lose, I'm out of there."

"No problem," Lu Changsheng said with a smile. If the man was willing to come along, then the information had to be accurate.

"Still, I'm skeptical that you can do this by yourself. Why don't we go to the arena so you can show me your strength?" proposed the Martial Saint, his gaze sharp. Naturally, he wasn't going to follow some random Martial Saint to his death.

"As you wish," Lu Changsheng said with a nod.

And so, the two of them headed straight for the arena.