Chapter 625: Dragon's Peak
The place they arrived at within the Heavenly Dragon Gate’s World was a barren land. There was nothing but fields filled with snow as far as the eye could see, and there were no trees or other plants in the fields. There were not even traces of animals; it was the most desolate place Hui Yue had ever seen.
Although they were in the middle of nowhere, Pei Bai knew exactly where they were. He started flying towards the eastern horizon at a speed that was neither too fast nor too slow.
Pei Bai and Hui Yue were surrounded by a hundred guards, and Huli was nestled comfortably in Hui Yue's arms, so the entire trip had been peaceful. Now that they had arrived at their destined world, Hui Yue could not imagine that anything would go wrong.
It did not take them long to leave behind the barren, desolate snow fields behind and arrive at a more populated area. They saw multiple beasts and mortal villages on their way.
To be a mortal in this kind of environment, one truly had to be very hardy. There was no way to farm like one normally would here. There was no way to get food other than hunting beasts or selling snow herbs at the markets. Every type of grain or other items needed to be brought to this world from the outside.
Still, this world was one of the richest worlds in the entire galaxy exactly because of the herbs that grew in this world, and even these poor mortals were capable of living a decent life, albeit one surrounded by the cold, harsh environment.
"We will need to travel for a few days to reach the location," Pei Bai said as the group continued their advance, and Hui Yue nodded his head.
The group did not rest; they flew forward hour after hour and day after day. They came across immortal cities, mortal kingdoms, and fields filled with rare herbs. They passed taigas, lone mountains, mountain ranges, and deep valleys.
Everything they saw was white. Snow covered the entire world, and soon, Hui Yue saw that the lands he had previously seen as barren were actually not. There were many animals hiding within the snow, many plants masked by the white world. Everything was white on these animals even their fur and scales.
"We are almost there," Pei Bai suddenly said as Hui Yue was busy looking at a small animal in the snow. It looked like a fanged rabbit with a scaled tail. He had never before seen or heard of such an animal, and he was astounded when he saw it, so astounded that he almost missed what Pei Bai was telling him.
Raising his head and looking in the distance, he saw a massive lone mountain rising to the heavens. It seemed endless as it was at least ten thousand meters wide and the entire peak was hidden in the clouds above.
"Like the Celestial Sword Sect has the City of Endless Clouds this Heavenly Dragon Gate also has a place where they entertain outsiders and deal with everything that has to do with the sect and the outside world."
Hui Yue nodded his head as he looked at the mountain with great interest. Most cities were placed on flat ground with big walls surrounding them, but this city was built on the mountain side. Even the trees had been removed to make space for buildings. Marketplaces were carved into the mountainside, and some bigger markets were also inside hollowed out caves in the mountain.
Reaching the foot of the mountain, Hui Yue, Pei Bai, Huli, and the guards all entered through a tightly guarded gate, and as soon as they did, Pei Bai turned to look at the guards.
"This time you can all spend doing what you want. I will contact you when the debate is over. Do not get into fights; this city’s rules are the same as the City of Endless Clouds, fighting is forbidden."
Throwing a bag to the leader of the group, Pei Bai gestured for Hui Yue and Huli to follow him. The bag contained Worldpower Stones that would pay for their stay at this mountainside city.
"This city is known as the Heavenly Gate, the same name as the mountain itself. This mountain is the highest point within the entire Heavenly Dragon Gate's World; it is even bigger than the mountains of the main sect."
"Regarding size, this city is bigger than the City of Endless Clouds because of the sheer size of the mountain, but it is not as populated. It has a branch of the black marketplace as well, and if you have time, you should go and buy some materials. Because of these special herbs, many valuable things are for sale in this world, and you should buy some of the herbs here. You can sell them for much more in the City of Endless Clouds if you have no use for them yourself."
"Elder Bai, I am an alchemist alongside being a formation master," Hui Yue said with a smile on his face, "I haven't spent much time on alchemy since I became a God but I believe that I will need the herbs later. I will definitely make sure to enter the black marketplace later on and buy some herbs!"
Pei Bai was at first surprised to hear that Hui Yue was an alchemist as well but he quickly laughed at his lack of foresight. Hui Yue had great talent in formations, but did that necessarily mean that it was his only outstanding point? He had shocked so many experts over and over again, being an alchemist was truly not all that shocking.
"I hate this mountain," Pei Bai complained as he moved further and further up the mountaintop, his feet moving one step at a time, but each step covered a whole kilometer. He was not rushing, but he was not going slow either.
"This mountain is quite tall and getting to the Dragon's Peak, the Heavenly Dragon Gate’s pagoda, takes quite a long time. As you could probably guess from its name, it is at the very peak of the mountain."
Truthfully the walk towards the peak was not slow, but this mountain was exceptionally big, and it would take at least a couple of hours to reach the peak, even if they had walked at a rather fast pace.
Reaching the peak, Hui Yue saw a pagoda that looked very similar to the pagoda in the City of Endless Clouds; the pagoda was not taller nor shorter than the one in City of Endless Clouds, but completely identical!
"Everyone of the major sects has a pagoda that looks the same," Pei Bai explained. "By having them similar, we are not going to fight each other by seeing who can make the tallest pagoda, who can adorn it specially and so on."
"By making them similar, we avoid conflicts, so since long ago, they have looked the same. Anyway, let us not waste more time, let’s go and size up the competition."
Hui Yue just nodded his head as he squeezed Huli’s arm. He would be lying if he said that he was not slightly nervous and curious as to who this talented formation expert of the Heavenly Dragon Gate was. He wanted to know if there was a chance that he could defeat him.
Just as they were about to enter the pagoda, a group of Immortals of Creation ended up surrounding them their faces were menacing and their auras threatening.
"Who do you think you are? Trying to enter our Dragon's Peak just like this? It is currently an important time with guests from all over coming to our sect. Who are you to think you can enter?"
Pei Bai sighed and seemed as if he was used to people being ignorant in front of him. He flipped his hand, and a token appeared in his palm. On this token was a big star and next to the star was the emblem of the Celestial Sword Sect, a set of celestial wings with a sword in between.
Looking at this emblem for some time, Hui Yue frowned. The Celestial Sword Sect… Why was the sect named as such? The sect member were descendants of the Great Roc, and he had never before heard about a celestial sword, but here it was, in their name.
"I should ask Pei Bai or father later," Hui Yue mumbled to himself, but he quickly placed it in the back of his mind. Right now, the most important thing was the Formation Master's debate.
"I see, you are the delegation from the Celestial Sword Sect," the guard said as he saw the token, but his face showed no respect, in fact, he looked rather gloating as he observed Hui Yue.
Seeing this expression and his lack of respect Hui Yue frowned but said nothing. Displaying his strength was the way to prove that he was not one to be looked down upon, and the only way to make them understand would be to simply defeat all of the experts in the competition.
"The sects usually bring more than one member of the younger generation with them when they come to the Formation Master's debate, but I decided to put all my expectations on you alone. The other youngsters are simply not talented enough and would just have brought shame to us."
Pei Bai was unhappy as he remembered the many previous debates. Although the Celestial Sword Sect was one of the strongest sects in the galaxy, they had always ranked at the bottom in these debates, but this year things were different! This year they had Hui Yue!
Ignoring the guards, Pei Bai and Hui Yue walked into the pagoda. On the inside was a counter with a young lady who saw that Hui Yue and Pei Bai appeared.
"Young masters are here for the Formation Master's debate?" she asked shocked as she looked at the two of them. It was natural to be surprised since one of them had to be a Formation Master, yet both of them looked rather young, and thus it was hard to imagine that one of them really was such a mighty figure.
This woman paid much more respect to Hui Yue and Pei Bai than the others had done, and she personally stood up and guided them to the seventh floor.
This floor was one massive room, and a lot of experts had already appeared. At least thirty were already there, amongst which seven were Formation Masters, and the rest were formation apprentices.
"Introducing Pei Bai and Pei Yue of the Celestial Sword Sect," the woman's voice resounded through the room before she bowed and returned to the counter on the first floor.
"Pei Bai! To think you would show up again after the disgrace of last time. Although you are one of the most talented Formation Masters in the galaxy, your sects younger generation just happens to not have a lot of Formation Masters. Where did you find this poor lad? He was not with you last time; he couldn’t be below even a hundred seals, could he?"
The voice of a Formation Master came closer and closer as an elderly man stepped forward and looked at Pei Bai without any kind of friendly emotions on his face. He sent a glance to Hui Yue but ended up sneering.
It was clear that he did not put Hui Yue in his eyes, but surprisingly enough, neither Pei Bai nor Hui Yue seemed to care. Pei Bai picked his ear and shrugged his shoulders; a complete carefree expression was present on his face before he took Hui Yue to one of the walls and observed the rest of the room.
"Don't care about what anyone says. Just defeat them all one after another and bring fame to the Celestial Sword Sect!" Pei Bai smiled a sinister smile. It was clear that the last debate had truly gone horribly for him.