Chapter 314 – New Instance: Thousand Miles of Scorched Earth

The real world, Qingzhou, Supreme Purity Dao Palace.

As one of the Four Great Sacred Grounds of the Immortal Alliance, while the Supreme Purity Dao Palace was ostensibly located within Qingzhou, the easternmost territory of the Immortal Alliance.

Its true location was not actually in Qingzhou.

Because the Supreme Purity Dao Palace, along with the other Immortal Alliance Sacred Grounds and some sects slightly inferior to the Four Great Sacred Grounds, all possessed their own exclusive Blessed Lands.

The regions they occupied were within a special world known as ‘Sumeru’.

Unlike Secret Realms, which were completely independent new spaces separate from the real world.

The environment of the Sumeru Spirit Realm was almost identical to reality.

The Mountains and Seas Scroll created by the Shanhai Bureau was actually modeled after the Sumeru Spirit Realm.

Although the Sumeru Spirit Realm had abundant Spiritual Power and was highly suitable for Cultivators’ practice.

The Sumeru Spirit Realm was not a one-to-one replica of the present world.

Most areas of the Sumeru Spirit Realm were shrouded in mist.

Even Cultivators at the Nascent Soul Stage could only perceive up to ten meters around themselves upon entering, with significant limitations.

However, after many years of exploration, the Immortal Alliance had gained a general understanding of the Sumeru Spirit Realm.

The so-called Sumeru Spirit Realm was likely the ‘Celestial Court Ruins’ from ancient times.

That is, the remnants after the shattering of the Thirty-Three Heavens.

This was because many powerful experts of the Immortal Alliance had discovered numerous ancient relics and even Immortal artifacts when venturing deep into the Sumeru Spirit Realm.

The Celestial Artifact currently displayed publicly by the Immortal Alliance, the Nine Provinces Immortal Cauldron, was discovered within the Sumeru Spirit Realm.

It was precisely because the Sumeru Spirit Realm was filled with opportunities and offered an excellent cultivation environment.

That the Four Great Sacred Grounds not only placed their Sect territories here.

But also focused their main efforts on exploring the Sumeru Spirit Realm.

However, exploring the Sumeru Spirit Realm was a lengthy process that required considerable manpower.

And only a very small portion of the Sumeru Spirit Realm was suitable for the Human Race to inhabit.

Therefore, the real world remained extremely important to the Four Great Sacred Grounds.

After all, without the real world providing a continuous stream of fresh blood to the Four Great Sacred Grounds.

They would not only struggle to explore the Sumeru Spirit Realm but might even be unable to maintain their current Sect territories.

Because the Sumeru Spirit Realm was not inhabited solely by Immortal Alliance Cultivators.

It also contained various rare beasts and special exotic races not seen in the real world.

Moreover, due to the Spiritual Power density in the Sumeru Spirit Realm being ten times that of the real world.

The exotic beasts and races living here were exceptionally powerful.

Although the Sumeru Spirit Realm was independent of the Immortal Alliance, Evergreen Mountain within Qingzhou contained a perennial passage connecting to the Sumeru Spirit Realm.

The corresponding location was precisely the area of the Supreme Purity Dao Palace within the Sumeru Spirit Realm.

Although Evergreen Mountain was merely the outer branch established by the Supreme Purity Dao Palace in the real world.

Its scale was still considerable.

The Evergreen Mountain lineage alone occupied approximately one-tenth of Qingzhou’s territory.

And Qingzhou was the region with the highest vegetation coverage in the entire Immortal Alliance.

Endless evergreen landscapes were precisely as described.

Within Evergreen Mountain at this moment, as three deep bell tolls resonated.

Many Cultivators training in the Evergreen Mountain Dao Palace paused and looked up toward the direction of the Main Peak.

Before long, a massive celestial gate appeared at the location of the Main Peak.Then, a massive Sunflare Immortal Ark flew out from the Heavenly Gate.

Solar Luminaries—this was the Immortal Alliance’s classification system for immortal arks.

The Sunflare Immortal Ark was not only the largest and highest-ranked ark within the Immortal Alliance, but also the greatest conventional weapon the alliance could deploy aside from its cultivators.

Because the Sunflare Immortal Ark required vast amounts of Spirit Stones as energy every minute and second, the Immortal Alliance would not easily deploy it unless major events occurred.

Moreover, to unleash the full power of the Sunflare Immortal Ark, a Deity Transformation Stage cultivator was required to operate it.

Thus, the appearance of this Sunflare Immortal Ark signified another matter: a mighty Deity Transformation Stage expert had descended upon Evergreen Mountain.

Any affair requiring the intervention of a Deity Transformation Stage cultivator was naturally no trivial matter.

Though the people in Evergreen Mountain didn’t know what was happening, they all felt an impending storm brewing.

However, shortly after appearing, the Sunflare Immortal Ark continuously ascended in altitude until it completely vanished from the sight of those below.

As for where the ark ultimately went, no one knew.

What the people of Evergreen Mountain couldn’t imagine was that similar situations were occurring in two other locations within the Immortal Alliance’s territory at that very moment.

Three Sunflare Immortal Arks had simultaneously set sail at the same time, heading to different destinations.

If ordinary citizens of the Immortal Alliance learned of this, it would inevitably cause an uproar, as deploying three Sunflare Immortal Arks at once could never be considered a minor matter.

As these three Sunflare Immortal Arks sailed toward their destinations, a silent storm began to sweep quietly through the Immortal Alliance…

Li Province, Lihuo Dao Academy.

“Little Lu, you must have received the academy’s notice too, right?”

“Mm.”

During a public lecture at Lihuo Dao Academy, Mu Xiaoye secretly transmitted her voice to Lu Chen.

Naturally, Lu Chen knew what message she referred to—the upcoming Dao Academy Tournament.

As the only Golden Core Stage cultivator in the freshman year, Lu Chen had indeed received notification of his selection to participate.

However, for the current Lu Chen, the Dao Academy Tournament wasn’t of great concern. His willingness to participate stemmed mainly from the substantial rewards offered by the academy.

The Dao Academy Tournament generally consisted of two phases.

The first phase was the qualifying round, where ten academy teams would be selected from each of the four regions—east, west, south, and north—making forty teams in total.

Then came the second phase: the elimination round.

These forty teams would proceed to the host academy of that year’s tournament for the final competition.

Thus, students from the Four Great Academies, including Lu Chen, held significant advantages in the early stages of the tournament.

Due to the large number of matches required, the Dao Academy Tournament typically began quite early—usually three months after the start of the new academic year for the first phase.

Although the top four academies from the previous tournament couldn’t skip the first phase entirely, they didn’t need to participate in every match. They only needed to begin competing after the top twenty academies in each region had been determined.

Therefore, though the Dao Academy Tournament had already commenced, Lu Chen and his peers didn’t need to depart yet—they only had to wait patiently.Although Lu Chen didn’t care much about this Dao Academy competition, the other students of Lihuo Dao Academy felt differently. This was especially true for someone like Mu Xiaoye, who naturally enjoyed lively events. So right after class ended, Mu Xiaoye came to Lu Chen and asked him to accompany her to watch the upcoming academy duel.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Chen agreed to her request. However, his reason for agreeing wasn’t because he wanted to see the outcome of the duel between the two academies. Given Lu Chen’s current strength and Realm, he didn’t pay much attention to battles at the Foundation Establishment Stage level, nor even those at the Golden Core Stage. His real purpose was to see if he could find a way to unlock new Instances in other academies.

Back when Lu Chen was in Luocheng, he had unlocked three different Instances across three cultivation high schools. This had led him to believe he had discovered the method to unlock Instances. But later, Lu Chen realized he might have been oversimplifying things. If it were truly that straightforward, he should have unlocked a new Instance soon after arriving at Lihuo Dao Academy—and it should have been a relatively high-level one at that.

Yet the reality was that in the three months since coming to Lihuo Dao Academy, Lu Chen still hadn’t managed to activate a new Instance. This made him question whether his understanding of Instances was still too limited. Perhaps the reason he had been able to unlock Instances back then wasn’t just because the three high schools in Luocheng each had their own Secret Realms, but there were other factors at play as well.

As for what those other factors might be, Lu Chen wasn’t sure yet. So at this point, he was actually quite eager to figure out the key to this puzzle. Nanli City, being the largest and most populous city in Li Province, shouldn’t logically be unable to yield even a single Instance.

For Lu Chen at his current stage, relying solely on cultivation to quickly improve his cultivation level wasn’t practical. As for techniques and Divine Abilities, although Lu Chen knew that above the Transformation Dao Realm was the Enlightenment Realm, he still had no clue how to actually reach the Enlightenment Realm.

It wasn’t that Lu Chen hadn’t asked the instructors at Lihuo Dao Academy or searched for relevant records within the academy. But the results left him somewhat disappointed. The records related to the Enlightenment Realm at Lihuo Dao Academy were not only scarce but also vague in their descriptions. Apart from knowing that the Enlightenment Realm was a method of Immortals, Lu Chen had no other useful information.

Yet merely knowing it was an “Immortal method” wasn’t enough for Lu Chen to break through his constraints and unlock the experience bar for advancing to the Enlightenment Realm—that was clearly unrealistic.

Considering all this, Lu Chen ultimately decided to focus his attention on finding new Advanced Instances. After all, regardless of anything else, each previous Instance had not only given him significant insights into the ancient era but also substantially boosted his strength. Unlocking a new Instance was undoubtedly the most cost-effective choice for him at this stage.

“Let’s go, Xiao Lu! The first match is between Fire Toad Academy and Tianjiu Academy. Coincidentally, Xu Jianliang and the other two are students of Fire Toad Academy, so they can guide us there.”

After saying this, Mu Xiaoye grabbed Lu Chen’s hand and pulled him toward the exit of the teaching building. They weren’t the only students heading out—many others were doing the same. The academy had no objections to this, as Dao Academies generally allowed students considerable freedom in their cultivation and didn’t impose too many restrictions.

Nanli City, Fire Toad Academy, Drought Fiend Arena.”Lu Chen, Mu Xiaoye, over here!”

Zheng Liu, the girl from the former Luocheng trio, stood outside the Drought Fiend Arena waving enthusiastically at the three of them.

Naturally, Xu Jianliang and Chai Xi were by Zheng Liu’s side.

Although the three hadn’t interacted much with Lu Chen and Mu Xiaoye, their relationship had become quite good after several coincidental encounters.

At the very least, Lu Chen’s impression of them was even more distinct than that of many classmates.

“Lu Chen, Mu Xiaoye, come with me. We’ve already saved seats for you in advance.”

Mu Xiaoye looked at the enthusiastic Zheng Liu and said with a smile: “I knew you could handle it, Zheng Liu.”

Zheng Liu replied proudly: “Of course! These are just internal tickets – nothing I can’t easily obtain.”

As they spoke, the group prepared to enter the arena.

Strangely enough, after arriving at the arena, Lu Chen showed no urgency to enter. Instead, he seemed to sense something, intently gazing at the entire arena with focused attention.

His serious expression immediately made Mu Xiaoye and the others curious.

“Lu Chen, is there something special about this arena?”

Mu Xiaoye’s voice pulled Lu Chen out of his thoughts.

He took another look at the Drought Fiend Arena before him and shook his head: “It’s nothing, probably just my imagination.”

Imagination?

Mu Xiaoye looked skeptical, then also examined the arena that resembled a large coffin in appearance.

But aside from sensing the arena’s intense fire-attribute Spiritual Power, she couldn’t detect any other aura.

Yet Lu Chen’s earlier expression didn’t seem like he was joking.

Zheng Liu, who had been thinking about something, suddenly said: “I don’t know what Lu Chen just noticed, but there is an unverified rumor about our Fire Toad Academy’s Drought Fiend Arena.”

Hearing this, Lu Chen immediately turned to Zheng Liu, clearly interested in the so-called rumor.

Seeing his expression, Zheng Liu continued: “I don’t know if it’s true or not, so just treat it as a story.”

“As you can see, the Drought Fiend Arena looks like a large open coffin.”

“The rumor about this is that there’s an Immortal’s remains buried beneath this arena.”

“The entire arena, and even the whole Fire Toad Academy, are built upon these Immortal’s remains.”

“But whether this rumor is true or not, none of us know.”

“After all, matters concerning Immortals are beyond what ordinary people like us can comprehend.”

“Alright, enough about that. The competition inside is about to start, let’s go in.”

Lu Chen nodded and entered the Drought Fiend Arena with the others.

However, shortly after taking his seat, Lu Chen discreetly took out his phone and opened the mini-game on it… True Immortal Cultivation.

As expected, a new Instance icon had appeared on True Immortal Cultivation.

This was the fundamental reason why Lu Chen had paused outside the arena earlier.

At that time, he had keenly detected an unusual aura outside the arena.

But the aura came and went quickly.

By the time Lu Chen tried to trace the source of this aura, it had already disappeared.A similar sensation was something he had also felt back in the three high schools of Luocheng.

With a hint of curiosity, Lu Chen immediately clicked open this new Instance and skimmed through its introduction.

【Instance: Thousand-Li Red Land】

【Minimum Cultivation Requirement: Golden Core Stage】

【Instance Description: ……】

(End of Chapter)