The Thunder Flame Kingdom, Blue Cloud City

The weather was great today. It was already noon and the sun had long risen into the sky.

The vast expanse of the sky seemed like a large blue crystal, with the yellow sun hung in the middle as if held by an invisible string. The day was postcard perfect. The weather was gorgeous with a baby-blue sky accompanied by an ambient temperature with no wind.

As one of the biggest cities of an old powerful kingdom, Blue Cloud City was very prosperous and bustling with activities.

In order to facilitate the huge crowd of people living in the city as well as maintaining order and security, the nobles and the people in charge divided the city into four sections.

The East, South, and the Westside of the city was mainly comprised of residential areas. They were also the safest place within the city to live in. It was forbidden to fight in these three parts of the city as they were occupied mostly by the nobles and the wealthy.

If anyone dared to fight in these three parts of the city, that would mean that they were challenging the prestige and the authority of the City Lord, the overlord of the city.

As for the Northside of the city, one could say that it was an industrial and commercial area. It was also the largest part of the city. That's where most of the restaurant, the Inn, and shops were located.

In the bustling, rowdy, lively Northside of the city, battles were also forbidden in the streets like any part of the city. However, it was as though this rule was nonexistent. No one really abided by this rule and nothing would happen if someone were to fight in the streets. But of course, that was if that person didn't get caught.

At this moment, within the Northside of the city, the road was swamped with many people. Streets stores littered on both sides of the streets and they had all kinds of strange and fascinating treasures and tools on display.

Currently, within the bustling streets of the north part of the city, two old men wearing a white loose robe was slowly walking among the crowds of people.

Just judging by their outward appearances, the words wise, powerful, and honest would be an apt description.

They looked like two immortal sages descended from the sky, surrounded by an otherworldly aura. It was impossible not to notice them no matter how crowded the streets were.

Many people even took the initiative to courteously greet them as they passed due to their appearances and the otherworldly aura they gave off.

"Fang Lan, how did your training progress during these three months?" Ling Chen asked while looking at the current Fang Lan who seemed to have been already adapted to his current persona.

If he wasn't the one that cast the illusion spell on Fang Lan and he also didn't have any power to see through the illusion, he would have really thought that Fang Lan was really an old man. That's how convincing their illusions were.

Like many of you had already guess, these two old men were still Ling Chen and Fang Lan in their disguise.

"I am still at the peak of the Martial King realm. The amount of true qi essence needed for me to break through the next stage it's a lot and the true qi energy in the secular world is so thin that it's almost nonexistent." Answered Fang Lan with a disappointed look on his face.

When he had first broken through the martial king realm and rebuilt his meridians with the help of the black fire fruit, he was beyond happy and couldn't wait to serve Ling Chen to show his gratitude.

However, after spending three months with Ling Chen, he realized that the true enemies that Ling Chen was facing were far stronger than himself. He couldn't be of any help to his young master except when they were facing some small fries.

Furthermore, his young master has given him a lot of pills and high-grade True Qi stones, but he was still unable to take the last step and breakthrough the Martial Emperor realm.

"Well, don't worry too much about it. It's been three months since you broke through the Peak of Martial King realm. Some people even take decades before they could take the last step." Ling Chen said nonchalantly.

"Also, I heard my father always said that breaking through the Martial King realm to the Martial Emperor realm is about one's Heart Dao and mood or something."

"So don't force yourself. You'll breakthrough the Martial Emperor realm when the time is right." Added Ling Chen.

Even though Ling Chen was an Early Martial Venerable realm powerhouse that had already broken through the Martial Emperor realm, Ling Chen had no clue about how one could break through the martial emperor realm.

In fact, he had no idea how to properly cultivate as he has never done that in his entire life. Because of his weird body and the dark tree within him, Ling Chen could only get stronger by absorbing the life force of others. He didn't even know what a bottleneck felt like.

As such, he had no idea how to help Fang Lan from his bottleneck. He could only tell him what he once heard from his father.

" Wu wu wu."

While Ling and Fang Lan were slowly strolling the bustling streets, Hu'er that was lying on Ling Chen's right shoulder suddenly made a wu noise as though she was trying to tell them something.

"Don't worry Hu'er, I haven't forgotten why I came here for." Ling Chen hurriedly said.

Upon hearing Ling Chen's words, Hu'er eyes shone brightly as she licked her lips.

Even though Hu'er still couldn't talk and they weren't able to communicate properly, Ling Chen was still able to understand her.

Last night, he had promised Hu'er to look for some medicinal pills and spiritual fruits in order to soothe her anger. Because she was mad at the time, Ling Chen thought that she had long forgotten about it. However, as soon as Ling Chen woke up this morning, it was the first thing that Hu'er reminded him.

"Hello, there young man. Could you tell this old man the location of the Golden Merchant Association?" Ling Chen stopped a middle-aged man who looked to be relatively good-natured and politely asked him.

"Golden Merchant Association?" The man assessed Ling Chen and Fang Lan from head to toe.

He then quickly extended his hand and pointed: "Senior, head north straight from here, after crossing about four streets, turn left and keep walking, then you'll arrive."

" If you want I can take you there, Senior."

After seeing the look of Ling Chen and Fang Lan, the middle-aged man had a respectful look on his face.

Just by looking at them, the middle-aged man could tell that these two seniors were powerful and had a powerful background. They could even come from one of those powerful immortal hidden sects.

Looking at the respectful and revere look on the man's face, Ling Chen was laughing inwardly because he could clearly tell what the man was thinking.

' I wonder what his reaction would be if he knew that he was addressing a ten years old child as a senior.' thought Ling Chen.

Nonetheless, even though Ling Chen was laughing inwardly, he still kept on a straight and serious look on his face as he said" It's ok young man. Nonetheless, this old man thank you for the offer."

After saying his thanks, Ling Chen and Fang Lan didn't waste any time as they walked toward the direction the man pointed to. After passing four extremely long streets, they took a left turn. After continuously walking for another twenty minutes or so, they finally made it to their destination.

In front of them was large four stories magnificent building that seemed like a grand palace.

At the top of the building was a banner fluttering like a dragon and a phoenix dancing in the wind, with the words "Golden Merchant Association" written on it.

Although they were only three words, they carried an inexplicable deterrent force. It was different from the bustling and liveliness on the other streets; not only were the number of people that passes through very few, but most of them also walked with hurried footsteps and with their mouths tightly closed. Let alone being bustling, there wasn't even anyone that spoke loudly as if they were afraid to disturb something wich clearly showing the status of the Golden Merchant Association in the city.

Furthermore, stationed on both sides of the huge door were two guards who were all dressed in shining golden armor, their weapons were heavy swords, which were one and a half meter long and almost a foot thick! The heavy swords were rested on the ground, with their both hands grasping the sword hilt, as their ice-cold gazes kept a constant lookout on every passing pedestrian.

"So, this is the Golden Merchant Association." Ling Chen quietly muttered to himself.

After a short pause, Ling Chen and Fang Lan walked towards the entrance of the Golden Merchant Association.

The two guards usually checked people and even asked questions before they let anyone entered the Golden Merchant Association building, however, once they looked at both Ling Chen and Fang Lan, they didn't dare to stop them nor questioning them as they went straight inside the building. historical

However, as soon as they both entered the building, unbeknownst to Ling Chen and Fang Lan, there was a middle-aged man that was looking at them with a sinister smile on his face from the other side of the street.

"After one month of chasing after you, I finally found you, Ling Chen." The middle-aged man said with cold killing intent in his eyes.