Chapter 7: Ancient Flame Grass

  In the valley, the three major sects of Qingyun, Bihai and Taihang gathered in a triangular formation before a large gate that appeared out of thin air. At the forefront of each sect stood three to five True Immortals at the Earth Yuan stage. At this moment, their gazes were all deeply fixed on the large gate in mid-air, ignoring the arrival of their own sect's disciples behind them.

  Fang Tiannan handed over his identity token and entered the valley, also falling far behind in the queue. Subconsciously, when three different teams appeared before him, Fang Tiannan naturally stood in the middle and joined the team belonging to Qingyun Sect.

  The entire valley was eerily quiet at this moment.

  Unlike the hustle and bustle at the entrance of the valley, anyone who enters the valley will be shocked by the sudden appearance of a large gate in the void in front of them, as if they are afraid that their own voice is too loud and will cause this gate to disappear.

  Fang Tian Nan also had an expression of surprise on his face.

  The gate in the void was not magnificent, and if one only looked at its appearance, it was just a simple layer of white energy similar to two doors. On top of it, the shapes of two demonic beasts floated and appeared, each occupying one side of the gate. Fang Tian Nan did not recognize these two demonic beasts. The one on the left resembled a snake with horns on its head, and it had four legs hidden beneath its body. It was baring its teeth and brandishing its claws. The one on the right looked more like a flying bird, with a crown on its head and long, beautiful tail wings. From the occasional discussions in the crowd, it seemed that these two demonic beasts were of extremely high level, or perhaps they came from the distant ancient era that people had speculated about.

  At least, among the ordinary children present, there was no one who knew him.

  The gate was made of pure gray-white energy, extremely pure and full of ancient implications, with a hint of overbearing aura. The threshold of the gate was about three feet away from the ground, which naturally wouldn't hinder the entry of warriors, but none of those present showed any signs of movement.

  Fang Tian Nan took a few steps forward, and he could clearly feel the obstructive force emitted by the grayish-white energy emanating from the gate. No wonder the top masters of the three major sects, who were closest to the gate at this time, still had a distance of over ten meters. It wasn't that they didn't want to step through the gate, but rather they couldn't.

  Apart from a few local Jieyuans, behind each sect stood several attendants. The age of these attendants appeared to be similar to that of the local Jieyuans on the surface, but in reality, most of them were at the peak of the Renyuan boundary. Behind these attendants were naturally the inner disciples of each sect. Every single one of them possessed Renyuan boundary cultivation.

  Further back were the outer disciples of the sect and a large number of ordinary disciples.

  Fang Tian Nan originally fell behind the large group of people who came to the You Ming mountain range, and by the time he entered the valley, there were already very few people outside the valley who would come in.

  Of course, Fang Tian Nan also noticed that in a place slightly farther away from the three major sects, there was a small group of people gathered together. They did not belong to the three major sects, but were figures from several smaller sects near the You Ming Mountains, mostly in the later stages of Huajing Realm or even Yuan Realm and Di Yuan Realm cultivators. These people, representing any single force, could not be compared to the three major sects, however, gathering together naturally did not suffer from the expulsion of the three major sects.

  Everyone in the valley seems to be waiting for the instructions of those few local domain cultivators who are closest to the gate in the void!

  。。。。。。

  Time slowly approached midnight.

  In the small valley, flames shot up to the sky. In fact, it was not necessary to burn too many torches, just the energy light balls emitted by the grayish-white gate that appeared in the void were enough to illuminate the entire valley. However, perhaps to boost their courage or perhaps to dispel the chill brought by the night, there were still quite a few disciples from the three major sects who held up torches for lighting.

  Fang Tian Nan noticed that even after waiting for a long time, the people around him rarely showed any anxious expressions.

  The elders and deacons gathered together, the inner disciples, outer disciples, and ordinary disciples each formed their own groups, everyone quietly exchanging information they had heard. Slowly but surely, Fang Tian Nan more or less figured out what was going on.

  The great gate in the void, the reason for its appearance is still unknown. What kind of world will be behind the gate, everyone is also guessing. On the contrary, after the first batch of violent tremors on the ground, the people who appeared in the valley were found by the crowd. They were indeed three inner disciples of the Qingyun Sect.

  Among these three people, Fang Tiannan had only heard of one person's name: Gu Yanruo.

  It seemed to be subconscious, Fang Tian Nan's eyes drifted towards a figure among the disciples of Qing Yun Sect.

  Her plain green dress didn't make her stand out among the many inner disciples, but her slender figure and the faint aura of coldness emanating from her body had indeed become the focus of everyone's attention. It seemed that as long as she stood there, no one could ignore her presence. Even now, she just stood quietly, ignoring the gazes cast upon her by the surrounding crowd, instead looking towards the large gate in the distance, appearing detached and independent amidst the throng of people.

  She is Gu Yan Rao, one of the inner disciples of Qing Yun Sect.

  Compared to other inner disciples, Gu Yanran's reputation is the largest in the range of Qingyun Sect. When Fang Tian Nan first arrived at Qingyun Sect three years ago, Gu Yanran had just entered the Yuan stage with his outstanding talent at the age of 20 and became an inner disciple of the sect.

  For three years, in Qingyun Town, there have been too many legends about Gu Yanruo.

  Including Fang Tian Nan, many ordinary disciples of Qing Yun Zong took Gu Yan Yuo as a model for their life struggles and worked hard to cultivate themselves. The female disciples mostly discussed and cared about Gu Yan Yuo's cultivation situation; while the male disciples would unconsciously gossip about Gu Yan Yuo's figure and appearance.

  However, Gu Yanrou rarely appears in Qingyun Town, living a simple life and cultivating her skills. Her energy attribute is fire, but she has a cold demeanor, earning her the label of being "cold and beautiful". As for interpersonal relationships, Fang Tian Nan doesn't know much about them, but he does know that even among the inner disciples, Gu Yanrou has considerable prestige and many supporters.

  Originally, there was no possibility of any intersection between Fang Tiannan and Gu Yanrou. However, just as Fang Tiannan glanced at Gu Yanrou, a glimpse from two days ago, when he had just left the valley, suddenly appeared in his mind.

  That fleeting blue color has always lingered in Fang Tian Nan's heart.

  Fang Tiannan had always suspected that he was able to obtain the third-stage earth dragon's tail because Gu Yanran had killed the earth dragon. With Gu Yanran's identity, after collecting most of the valuable materials from the earth dragon's body, he chose to leave, giving Fang Tiannan an opportunity to pick up the earth dragon's tail.

  Thus, Fang Tian Nan's gaze at Gu Yan Rao was filled with a few more hints of unspoken words and unclear intentions.

  The only pity is that Gu Yanran probably can't feel anything at this moment.

  。。。。。。

  A slight burning sensation on his chest made Fang Tian Nan suddenly come to his senses. He casually touched it and found that it was caused by the metal badge.

  At this moment, the metal plaque gave Fang Tiannan a strange feeling. The cold metal, at midnight, emitted warmth that warmed people's hearts. Even when held in his hand, along the palm of his hand, Fang Tiannan could feel the heat transmitted from the metal plaque.

  Is this a sign of successful washing seal?

  The first thought that flashed through Fang Tian Nan's mind was the nineteen contribution points he had wasted on the washing agent. However, he quickly denied this speculation. Then, Fang Tian Nan pondered that the abnormal reaction of the metal plate must be related to the current time or location.

  It had been two days since Fang Tiannan obtained the metal plaque. Last night at midnight, although Fang Tiannan was still in the Youming Mountains, he had already reached the outer perimeter and was preparing to return to Qingyun Town, but he did not feel any signs of the metal plaque heating up.

  So, in terms of location, Fang Tian Nan had a bold guess. This metal sign was originally picked up in this valley. At this time, Fang Tian Nan returned to the valley again and looked at the large door in the void in front of him. Fang Tian Nan muttered to himself, could it be related to the appearance of this strange big door?

  At the time of Fang Tian Nan's confusion, the metal plate in his hand was still heating up and continuing to rise in temperature. For a moment, Fang Tian Nan felt like he couldn't bear the scorching heat and was about to throw away the metal plate. Suddenly, the metal plate in his hand made a "ding" sound and sank into Fang Tian Nan's palm, disappearing from sight.

  Fang Tian Nan could clearly feel that the metal plaque had moved up his arm in a very strange way and arrived at his Dan Tian. Suddenly, all the Qi that had gathered there from the Dark Energy Realm was completely dispersed by the metal plaque.

  It's not exactly scattered, but rather like a metal sign occupying the central position of the dantian, and the original concentrated energy is dispersed around the periphery of the metal sign, dense and impenetrable.

  This made Fang Tian Nan feel somewhat unbelievable.

  In Fang Tian Nan's understanding, it seems that there is no metal plaque in the dantian of any warrior, and it occupies the position of storing internal energy. To know, the most intuitive manifestation of a warrior's strength is the amount of internal energy in their dantian.

  As long as you can generate internal energy in your dantian, it shows that you are a martial artist of the Ming Jin realm. When the internal energy in your dantian is sufficient to condense into a ball, then you have reached the An Jin realm. Once these condensed internal energies become dense and misty, it indicates that you have begun to enter the Hua Jin realm.

  What's going on with this foreign metal plate occupying the energy ball inside my dantian?

  Fang Tian Nan was speechless, wanting to control the metal plate and separate it from his dantian, but he couldn't do anything about it, completely at a loss.

  At the same time, the huge gate standing in the void of the valley, with a grayish-white energy, also dimmed slightly, and the pressure on everyone suddenly weakened.