Reborn as a Mountain: I Defy the Heavens with a Smile

"Stop there Ye Chen! If not, I will be forced to attack!" Chang Bai stated with a cold look as he saw Ye Chen flying towards the pearl.

The crown prince, Ji Feng, also didn't look pleased.

However, Ye Chen treated them as air and landed straight towards the 'Emperor Void Pearl.'

Witnessing him not caring about his warning, Chang Bai's expression turned ugly, and without any hesitation, he attacked.

Swoosh!

A sharp blade of Qi shot through the air, directly aiming at Ye Chen's vitals. The attack was very strong; if anyone at the early stage1 of Qi-refining faced this, they would be seriously injured if not dead, so the best choice was to evade it.

However, Ye Chen didn't even look at the attack and flicked his sleeve, releasing a Qi wave.

Clang!

As soon as the blade Qi clashed with the Qi wave, it shattered instantly, and all the energy from it dispersed into the void.

Watching how easily Ye Chen did this, Chang Bai's expression became ugly, but before he could think of anything, the Qi wave closed upon him with speed.

Without any hesitation, he waved his sword with all his power, thinking he could stop it, but the next moment, his expression changed.

He tried to stop his attack, but it was too late, and his sword collided with the Qi wave.

In that instant, the whole Qi wave lit up with brilliance and exploded fiercely, sending shockwaves through the air and scorching the area around it.

As for Chang Bai, he was sent flying by the explosion and smashed into a few trees before stopping.

Fortunately, he had life-saving methods on him, so except for a few burns and scratches, he was completely unharmed.

The next moment, his body turned into a golden light and escaped through the forest.

"Ye Chen! You will pay the price for taking my things!"

Chang Bai's voice, filled with humiliation, echoed as he escaped without any hesitation. Well, how could he not when he saw golden needles appearing in Ye Chen's hand?

"Sigh, he ran away too fast," Ye Chen shook his head with disappointment, but he made no action to chase him.

The mystic realm was open for a month, so there was a lot of time if Ye Chen wanted to kill him.

"Crown prince, why are you not escaping? Aren't you afraid of death?" he inquired as he saw Ji Feng standing there calmly.

"I am afraid of death, but I don't think Brother Ye Chen will kill me," Ji Feng spoke with a slight smile.

"Oh? Why do you think so? I find killing a royal prince exciting. They have many strong cultivators protecting them; moreover, it would be quite fun to see the king getting angry and sending an army to kill me. Don't you think so?" Ye Chen replied with a chuckle.

Hearing him, Ji Feng's mouth couldn't help but twitch. However, he adjusted his emotions and spoke with a smile.

"Brother Ye Chen, let's not joke and talk about important issues. You should already know that with your heaven-defying abilities, many would try to recruit you, and even the royal family will.

"However, you must be careful and not join sides with any princes, as you will be in a disadvantageous position. Furthermore, you should be careful of the eighth prince, Ji Yemo, and the second prince, Ji Xuanhao. They both like to do things their way and don't leave anyone alone who can threaten their interests. It would be better if you just avoid them, although it is less likely with your abilities," Ji Feng advised with a serious expression.

While hearing him, Ye Chen nodded with a nonchalant look.

"Is there anything else, or is that all?" he inquired as he played with the trembling 'Emperor Void Pearl' in his hand.

"There is one more thing, and that is the fallen sects' disciples as well as heretical sects' disciples who have entered the mystic realm. Also, I think there will be someone from each prince's side contacting you, so be careful," Ji Feng said, after which he took a glance at the pearl.

"Does that pearl belong to brother Ye Chen?" he asked hesitantly.

"No, this is not mine. I just felt something good was in this direction, so I flew here. But if the crown prince wants it, I will part with this. However, this thing is quite resistant, so the crown prince has to refine it immediately," Ye Chen replied with a calm look as he glanced at Ji Feng, thinking of him as a test subject.

The crown prince couldn't help but feel a shiver run down his spine and instinctively shook his head in rejection. He felt the offer was too good to be true; furthermore, he had seen the same pearl on the wrist of Ye Chen.

Although it was just a slight look, he could tell this pearl must have belonged to him. This explained the reason why the pearl was afraid of him.

"Brother Ye Chen, there are countless opportunities in this world, but not everyone has the fate to obtain one, and the same could be said for me, as I can't catch this pearl alone. But you did it without any external help, so I think this opportunity is meant for you, not me," Ji Feng expressed with a regretful tone and took out a green jade token with complicated inscriptions drawn on it.

This jade token was the advanced version of a voice talisman, which can transmit a voice message up to a thousand miles or even further.

"This is a voice transmission jade. With this, Brother Ye Chen can contact me if there is any trouble. Although I will need some time to come, I guarantee I will be there as soon as I can," he said as he sent the jade token flying towards Ye Chen.

After this, he said a few more words and bid farewell.

Ye Chen played with the green jade token in his hand while looking in a certain direction with disappointment.

"A pity he didn't want to refine this pearl," he sighed faintly.

He was really looking for a test subject, but since the crown prince didn't want to, he could only give up on the idea. There were other disciples in the mystic realm, but how many could hold the pearl or stop it from escaping?

Clearly not many, if not, there would be hundreds of disciples running after the pearl, not just Ji Feng and Chang Bai.

"Well, go where you want to," he said and released the Emperor Void Pearl.

He was, after all, curious about why it ran in a certain direction rather than hiding its presence and pretending to be a dead pearl.

Swoosh!

As soon as the pearl gained its freedom, it hesitated no more and flew off, heading towards the deeper area of the mystic realm.

Ye Chen also followed behind, making sure not to take his eyes off the pearl.

Who knows whether it was intentional or not, but the pearl flew above the areas of flying fierce beasts.

A pity that they were only at the Qi-refining realm, so Ye Chen killed them in a few moves before once again following the pearl.

This continued for an hour, then two, three, and four.

The mystic realm had a separate sun and moon, so the night arrived. However, the pearl kept flying deeper, and Ye Chen followed without any rest.

For any normal Qi-refining cultivator, flying for this long was impossible, not to mention a Qi-gathering cultivator. However, Ye Chen's cultivation technique was able to absorb the dense spiritual Qi throughout the whole flight, so he didn't have any issues, especially since he wasn't flying at full speed.

Just like this, the night transpired into day, and the sun was hung in the sky. Yet the Emperor Void Pearl and Ye Chen continued flying deeper into the mystic realm, traversing rivers, mountains, and lakes.

However, they had only traveled a few hundred miles so far. The reason was the swarms of flying beasts they encountered at night.

The pearl was deliberately leading Ye Chen into fights so it could shake him off. However, it soon regretted doing this as it entered the nest of flying beasts who lived in the number of thousands. There was not even time to run away before the pearl ended up in the belly of a bird, and Ye Chen had no choice but to clean up the trouble it caused.

It took him a whole night to do this since the one who ate the pearl was the queen of the flying beasts. How could they let him get close to her? In the end, he could only kill them one by one.

Fortunately, most of them were in Qi-gathering while a part was Qi-refining, so it didn't pose any problems, and he successfully rescued the pearl, which had gotten weaker after flying for so long.

It was no wonder it failed to escape. After this, the pearl didn't play any tricks and honestly led the way, finally arriving at the destination it desired.

However, the pearl didn't dare to move forward and waited by Ye Chen's side.

"You want me to fight with a Qi-condensation realm fierce beast? You are dreaming!" Ye Chen rolled his eyes. Nevertheless, he walked towards the giant cave opening, which could fit a four-story building.

/Early: Stage 1 to Stage 3,

/Mid: Stage-4 to Stage-6

/Late: Stage-7 to Stage-9