14 Forbidden Ground

It's been a week since Hou Yan came to Flowing Stream City. Nothing unusual happened except that the number of cultivators in the city increased by a large margin. That was due to the fact that the forbidden ground was about to open up.

It must be known that forbidden grounds like these that open up during specific times contain higher rewards but also higher risks.

During this week, Hou Yan didn't laze around and do nothing. He rather checked out those that came to the city and see if any of them were formidable opponents. The cultivators were divided into two groups, rogues and disciples were sects. The disciples from the sects were living a luxurious life while staying in the city. Meanwhile, the rogue cultivators were rather training themselves for the upcoming event.

Hou Yan was hiding behind a tree waiting for the forbidden ground to open up. It was said that the forbidden ground was going to open up in 10 minutes so Hou Yan couldn't let himself be seen by his fellow sect disciples otherwise trouble would be inevitable.

While Hou Yan was hiding, the ground near the forbidden ground began to shake. This was a signal that the forbidden ground's entrance was opening up. All of a sudden two huge gates appeared out of nowhere and began to open up slowly. When the gates opened up, all you could see was a purplish portal. It turns out that this forbidden ground was located in a mysterious realm.

Mysterious realms are manmade realms. Only those at the peak or above void shattering could do it. Inside many mysterious realms, there are treasures, monsters, and/or tomb of the creator.

Finally, the earthquake stopped and the entrance of the forbidden ground was open. All of the cultivators who were waiting began to jump inside including Hou Yan.

Inside the mysterious realm, what caught everyone's attention wasn't how big the realm was but rather the ginormous palace in front of them. The palace alone occupied millions of acres of land. It was so big that the palace's height could touch the skies.

From the information Hou Yan gathered yesterday, he discovered that this forbidden ground opened up every decade. It was only open for 2 hours and after 2 hours, everyone was kicked out except the dead. Their bodies would rot inside the mysterious realm. Another interesting thing was that only those at the Foundation Establishing realm and lower could go inside this forbidden ground.

The palace had a huge entrance and with a lot of hallways. Each hallway had boundless of rooms and each room was as big as a house.

The palace was truly huge and whoever built it must've taken years to make it. Forget about building the palace, whoever made such a huge mysterious realm must truly be an expert who was at the pinnacle of this world before the restriction.

Hou Yan opened many doors yet found nothing. Not even a cockroach or anything like that. He had to fight many monsters because the hallways were occupied by monsters. Some even set up nests in some hallways which made them inaccessible.

"System, can you hold back my breakthroughs? I don't want to get kicked out of the realm."

'Finally, you are using your brain. There, I locked your breakthroughs but your experiences will be piling up.'

"Thanks, system, I knew you were amazing."

'Hmph, should've realized it already.'

From the number of monsters Hou Yan was killing, he predicted that he would soon breakthrough to Core Formation realm so he had to hold back his breakthrough or else he might get kicked out of the mysterious realm.

While Hou Yan was killing monsters and looting(barely finding anything) the rooms, he heard a bunch of disciples exclaiming they found a treasure.

"These stupid spoiled brats don't even know how to be covetous. Don't they know that the wolf's eyes are always watching them?"

'Heh, for a second I thought they were your children.'

"Fuck you, system."

' Who would want to fuck you?'

Hou Yan was truly irritated by how annoying the system could get. But now wasn't the time to complain because he had to steal *cough* claim a treasure waiting for him.

Going into invisibility mode and retracting back his aura, Hou Yan began to sneak behind those disciples. He believed that no one under Void Shattering middle level would be able to detect him.

Behind the disciples, Hou Yan was studying the treasure they found. It was a golden key that was shining brightly. All of a sudden, the key began to shake and began to float in the air. Then, it made its way down the hall and began to move towards a specific location.

Hou Yan and the other disciples followed after the room thinking that the key was about to lead to a treasure trove. Although they were about to obtain a bunch of treasure, they knew that this came with risk and the risk was could cause them to lose their lives.

Hou Yan didn't do anything to these disciples but rather followed after them. He planned to use them as a meat shield till everything was safe. Like encountering traps and such.

After a while of following the key, it stopped near a huge door. The door had the same color as the key but it was rather dull in contrary to the key. The key plunged itself into the only keyhole the door had and with a *GACHA*, it unlocked the door.

The disciples were vigilant and slowly got color to the golden door. With a push, the door began to open slowly.

*CREEEEK*

Inside the room, there were a bunch of treasures. Hou Yan didn't enter with them as he was vigilant. Thanks to being vigilant, Hou Yan truly escaped a crisis.

From the shadows, a bunch of disciples appeared. It looked like these disciples were from the Heavenly Saber sect. Their arrogance was truly overbearing. Their heads were bent back so far that it looked like they were looking down at the sky.

"Sheesh, such arrogance. I truly want to drop them in that forest and see if they are able to keep their arrogance in front of those old men. Hehe, the old men might even stop going after me if I give them these boys."

'And here I thought you were innocent. Such a scheming bastard.'

Ignoring the system, Hou Yan watched the disciples of Heavenly Saber sect block the doorway of the room.

"You lowly peasants, hand over all your treasures and we will spare your lives."

When the disciples inside the room heard the voice, all of them looked towards the door.

"How did you find us?"

One of the disciples asked, already knowing the answer.

"Heh, you bunch of lowly peasants yelled out that you found some kind of treasure and we, of course, followed after you."

One of the Heavenly Saber sect disciples answered. His tone contained such arrogance that if one measured it, it would truly pierce through the sky.

"You think we will hand these treasures over without any resistance? If so, then you must be dreaming!"

Finishing off his sentence, the disciple launched himself towards the Heaven Saber sect disciples with a spear in his hand. When the other party saw the spear, they looked at it with disdain.

"You think you can beat us with such a filthy weapon? You must be dreaming!"

The Heavenly Saber sect also launched themselves at the other party with their sabers.

It turned into a group battle and Hou Yan was just sitting at the corner enjoying the show. Blood was spilling everywhere as people were getting injured or killed.

After an intense battle, the fight came to a conclusion. The Heavenly Saber sect's disciples were the winners with 3 dead and all of them injured. Now they only had 3 members left. The other party of 5 that lost were all dead.

Huffing and puffing, the surviving disciples were truly worn out. They didn't think that the other party would put up against them such great resistance. They lost 3 members of their team and the remaining were all injured and tired but they could not pass out right now. In front of them were a bunch of treasures and without resting, the disciples began to put all the treasures inside their storage rings.

When Hou Yan saw the storage rings, he was truly elated. He only had a storage bag but now he can actually get a storage bag.

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

When the remaining party heard the claps, their body began to tense up. If the person who was clapping was an enemy, they were fucked. That's because they were so tired that they could sleep for a year.

"Who is there?! Reveal yourself!"

"Oh my, what an arrogant fella. Are you suppose to talk to your reaper with that tone? Currently, I have control of your lives, whether you die or live is in my control."

When the disciples heard his words, they began to tense up even more. This guy must have been watching them fight each other and only came out at the end in order to steal all of the treasure when they didn't have any energy left.

"You shameless and despicable person! You waited till we were tired and decided to attack us then!"

"Oh my, who is the real despicable person here? I'm pretty sure those dead guys found the treasure first, but you guys decided to be despicable and murder them for the treasure."

"Hmph, you think you will obtain these treasures without any resistance? You must be dreaming!"

"Isn't that what they said? now look at them. Also, I'm not stealing your treasures, I am just borrowing them for a while."

When the disciples heard his last sentence, they were truly enraged! Did he think they were toddlers who could be easily tricked?

"You f*cker! You better not look down at me!"

One of the disciples ran towards Hou Yan using all of is remaining strength. Hou Yan waited till the attack was close to him and just moved out of the way. Because they were tired, their speed was slow.

*BOOOOM*

The disciple crashed into the wall and the shock generated from his attack damaged him further. Now, he was just a living corpse. His body has been crippled from the shock generated from his attack but he was still alive.

"NOO! LUO SHENTIAN!"

One of the female disciples screamed. Turned out, that guy was her lover.

"Sigh, truly a sad love story."

"YOU! I WILL KILL YOU!"

The female gripped her saber launched herself towards Hou Yan.

"NOOO!! JUNIOR SISTER COME BACK!"

One of the disciples screamed towards her but she paid no heed to it and continued with her attack.

Hou Yan decided to test out his new move, Heaven Burning Punch. Getting into a stance, he readied his fist and began to gather Qi around it. When the female disciple got near, Hou Yan launched himself at her and threw a punch towards her.

"Heaven Burning Punch!"

*BOOM*

The whole area was engulfed with fire and the heat that was coming from it was truly unbearable.

"JUNIOR SISTER!"

All of the disciples were screaming.

"Sigh, this attack is truly overpowered as fuck. Just one punch and she was turned into ash. Good thing her storage ring still exists."

Hou Yan was muttering to himself, ignoring the screaming of the disciples.

"YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU KILL JUNIOR SISTER!"

"If I didn't kill her, she would've killed me. Are you stupid?"

"YOU!"

"Time is running low and only 10 minutes left before being kicked out. I better end this fast and leave."

Hou Yan decided to wrap up the whole situation. He took out the sword he bought and ran towards the Heavenly Saber sect. They were truly scared witless. Even some of them peed their pants. Just looking at him made them think he was a reaper coming for their lives.

"YOU! DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE? WE ARE FROM HEAVENLY SABER SECT! YOU BETTER LET US GO!"

"What if I say no?"

"The sect will revenge for us!"

"Oh, so the sect won't revenge for them but they will for you? Sigh, sometimes I wonder if cultivating turns you cultivators dumb."

"YOU!"

"You what? Shut the fuck up with the 'YOU YOU YOU'! Sheesh, how many times do you have to keep on saying you."

When Hou Yan arrived next to them, he used his Executioner's slash, first move.

"Executioner's slash, first move! Deadly slash!"

*SLAAAASH*"

With a huge slash, all of the disciples' heads fell on the ground. Not wasting any more time, Hou Yan began to gather all of the treasures and storage rings he could find and stored them in his pocket.

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*Outside the forbidden ground*

The Heavenly Saber sect's elder that was sent with the disciples had a dark face. 6 disciples' tokens broke. This meant they were dead. Out of the 12 disciples that came with him this time, 6 of them died. Although it was possible to get killed by the monsters, one had to know that those 6 disciples were at the peak of Foundation Establishing realm.

"Who dares kill my disciples! Once I find out who it was, I will truly fist you to death!"