Talented Martial Hero
Chapter 647 Looking For The Holy Tomb

A monstrous roar shook the air.

On his way here, Darren had absorbed a large amount of spiritual energy from the purple leaf.Thanks to the pyramid-shaped object rotating in his elixir field, he had accumulated a large numberof demonic internal force and the dragon blood aura.

So the minute the big guy launched his own attack, Darren turned into a dragon.

Had he not done so, he would definitely not be able to win this fight.

The genuine dragon, which was thirty feet long, had power unmatched in this world.

The newly-transformed Darren spun, swinging his dragon tail, and struck the man’s mace while itwas still in motion. There was an explosion of power as the big guy was blown back a greatdistance, taking his weapon with him.

The onlookers were dumbfounded to see this.

The man was anything but the weakest among them, and yet this dragon-man had swept him awaywith ease. Darren's power was terrifying indeed.

They turned toward Hobson and addressed him respectfully.

"Hey, buddy, your junior fellow apprentice sure is powerful,” one of them said.

"Who is he? Is he a legendary demon?" Polite though they were, the men were just as nervous. Thelast thing they wanted to do was offend the dragon which still hovered overhead.

"Humph, how can I explain this to you casually?” Hobson replied coldly as he straightened hisclothes. He figured now was the time to put on airs.

"Well, you should've told us how strong your brother is," one of the onlookers said. "Nixon would'vethought twice about messing with him!"

Hobson drew himself up. "What, then, are you going to blame me for this?"

The strongest of the men was quick to answer him, "No, that's not what we mean at all! We're notblaming you for anything. In any case, you're welcome to join us! Ha ha!" Saying this, he clappedHobson on the shoulder for good measure.

Just then, Darren changed back to his normal form and joined them on the ground. He had nointention of killing Nixon Cao, only intimidating him and, more generally, making sure these otherpeople knew better than to mess with him.

"You're welcome to join us," one of the men said, facing him. "What's your name?"

"Darren Chu," he replied without bravado.

"Nice to meet you, Darren." There was a murmur of greetings from the group, and each membernodded at Darren courteously.

Soon after this, Nixon Cao flew back to the scene and joined them.

His clothes were tattered, and he'd taken a fair amount of bruises and cuts. The impact of Darren'sdragon tail had left a sunken mark on his chest, which looked particularly nasty.

"I'm sorry to have offended you just now. Let us not fight anymore.” Saying this, Nixon Cao bowedtoward Darren. Though his apology was not entirely sincere, he wasn't about to sign up for anotherbeating either.

Before Darren could respond, Hobson spoke up in a magnanimous tone. "Think no more of thisincident. All is forgiven, and Darren will let you go this time."

Darren just smiled and decided to let it go.

"Well, I guess that was a fun little diversion,” he said, "but we should put it behind us. Right now, weneed to go for the Holy Tomb. That's going to take all of our might.”

"Wait a minute, what tomb are you talking about?" Hobson asked, genuinely confused.

One of the men said, "Ha! Are you serious, buddy? You don't know about the Holy Tomb?"

"No, I really don't.”

The man studied Hobson's expression. Seeing that he wasn't joking, he said, "All right. Well, even Ionly heard about this from the elders in secret, so you wouldn't have learned of it from yours.

To start with, we actually are not the only ones to venture to this place. Long ago, a lot of warriors ofthe Holy Realm came here in search of its treasures. However, none returned home alive.

There was once a holy rule cultivator of Conflicted Cultivation who left his avatar of soul among hissect before coming. Thus, he was able to relate everything he saw back to his fellows, and therecord of it was sealed up.

For various reasons, though, this information was leaked out in due time. It is said that the warriorswho had entered here all died and were buried in the same place. As for who exactly killed them,not even the secret record can tell that.

In any case, each of the leaders of the five sects actually have a copy of this record, as well as a mapof the Holy Tomb, where those holy warriors were buried.”

After listening to this explanation, Darren and Hobson finally understood everything.

It turned out that what they were looking for in the Life Forbidden Zone was not its treasures, butrather the things that had been left behind by the holy warriors.

"This is extraordinary,” Hobson said. "Do you have one of these maps, by any chance?"

"Of course," the young man replied. "Now, I have an agreement with the others that if I can replace theHoly Tomb, I get to keep thirty percent of the treasures for myself, and you can share the rest. Doyou agree to this?"

Hobson looked at Darren, wanting to know his opinion.

"No problem," Darren said after thinking for a short moment. "The map belongs to you, so youshould get more of the treasure.”

The other man looked relieved. "Excellent! I'm glad you understand. We should depart, then. Ourdestination is on the other side of a canyon near here. I should remind you, though, that we're sureto encounter unpredictable dangers in our journey. When the time comes, I hope we will all be ableto unite and count on each other for help to overcome these challenges.”

"Of course,” replied Darren.

"No problem," added Hobson.

Everyone else present shared their thoughts and seemed equally as confident.

As for what they would do when they finally met the dangers ahead, of course, nobody knew forsure.

After flying for a day, they finally arrived at a huge, majestic canyon filled with a mysterious purplemist.

"Do we really have to go this way?" one of the men asked warily.

"If we enter those mists, we won't be able to see anything. Even our spiritual senses won't help usprobe the place. The journey will be very dangerous indeed.”

"Yes, we have to," replied the young man. "The gate of the Holy Tomb is down at the end. If we flyover the mists or try any other detour, its gate will be sealed up by a strange restriction spell.” Hehad heard this from the elders earlier.

Nobody answered him. The entire group simply stared at the roiling surface of the mists. EvenDarren was not eager to be the first to fly down.

"Look, there's someone over there!" shouted somebody, pointing.

Darren looked and glimpsed something that looked like a head down in the purple mist.

"That's definitely not a human being," he warned, shaking his head.

"No, wait, I do see a man there,” someone else added. Even as he said these words, the fog hadalready swelled and thinned slightly, making the object a little easier to pick out.

"But it's at least a kilometer away," Darren urged. "How could we spot a normal human-sized headfrom here? And see, it's not even moving. It looks like a statue to me."

"A statue? No way," retorted the first man. "It looks like a person to me. I even see something likelight in its eyes."

"Don't be too sure about that," someone else put in. "This place is supposed to be dangerous andunpredictable, remember? I say we go down there and have a look."

The man who said this was so overwhelmed by curiosity that he didn't bother waiting for hiscompanions.

He just flew down.

When the man had disappeared into the fog, a sound like that of a stone falling into waterresounded through the canyon.

"Let's go after him," the strongest young man said after a moment. "He might be in trouble.”

"All right, let's go,” Darren said.

He flew down with the others, staying close to Hobson.

When they had descended several thousand feet through the mists, Darren realized that somethingwas wrong. He was being pulled downward by a force that was much stronger than mere gravity.Looking around, he saw that his companions were being sucked down even faster than him. Thestrongest young man, in particular—he was falling like an arrow.

This got Darren curious. 'Is it that the stronger one's level, the greater the pulling force?" he thoughtto himself.

In the end, though, he didn't care very much and just let himself fall for a while.

There was no point in panicking. After all, he was trying to get to the bottom of the canyon anyway.Soon enough Darren began to hear wet, plopping sounds echoing through the canyon. There wasindeed water at the bottom, and the group was beginning to reach it.

"Where is Aldric?" someone exclaimed irritably.

Aldric Wang was the first one who had gone into the mists.

"I don't know. Let's replace him and get back on track,” replied someone else.

With that, they all dived into the water.

A short time later, before Darren could join them, the other men emerged, dragging Aldric Wang.He was covered in mud and unable to see. "What the hell happened?!" he blubbered as he tried towash out his eyes and nostrils. "I was suddenly so weakened, I couldn't even pull myself out of themud! Another minute or two and I might have choked to death.”

Before Darren could come closer and try to get a better explanation of what had happened, he fellinto the water himself with a wet thump.

Caught off-guard, he sank into the depths like a stone.

A horrible chill spread through his body as he neared the bottom. As he thrashed about, he wasshocked to discover that a thickening layer of ice had spread over his skin.

Darren wasn't about to let that stop him. But just as he began to fight his way back up through thecurrents, he paused, frowning. Difficult as it was to pick out anything by sight, he could swear thathe saw a pair of bright eyes flashing away through the dark water.