The white mist surrounded them, and the visibility there was only half a meter, reduced even more from the beginning.
If it were not for the compass, Hao Ren would have thought that they were totally lost.
They were wondering how much more distance they needed to cover when the black grand palace made of huge rocks appeared before them.
Even though the tower was in a cylinder shape, the foundation was in a square shape.
They looked up and found that the tip of the tower was not visible in the white mist.
The Tower of Heaven!
The huge tower made with huge crude rocks greeted them with a surge of prehistoric essence!
Zhao Yanzi tugged at Hao Ren's arm and leaned toward him. "How much time is left?"
"We have walked 16,389 steps in total which is about 8,000 meters. It took us about one and a half hours," Hao Ren answered her.
"Then, we still have four and a half hours." Zhao Yanzi nodded. She realized she had been walking with Hao Ren, hand in hand, for more than 10,000 steps, and it was a little milestone on its own.
She released her grip slightly, she became afraid seeing this black palace and grabbed onto Hao Ren's hand again, slightly embarrassed.
Oblivious to her little movements, Hao Ren opened the map and began to study it.
The entrance was a bit further from where they were. After entering the palace, they could follow the route that was drawn by earlier explorers and enter the core region of the grand palace.
"Let's go!" Putting away the map, Hao Ren pulled Zhao Yanzi toward the entrance of the grand palace.
Zhao Yanzi followed him closely through the black gate in the east of the palace and into a dark and gloomy tunnel.
Swoosh!
Hao Ren released a mass of fire which he made with his fire-elemental sword energy. It was used as a torch to illuminate the surroundings.
The black tunnel was made with unknown black rocks. Although there was no skeletons or spider webs, the echoing of their steps and the shadows made by the fire made Zhao Yanzi nervous.
Hao Ren consulted the map at each turn. Although there were no traps in here, one wrong step could cost them precious time.
However, in the palace, the suppression they felt out in the wasteland disappeared, which meant that this palace could block the unique essence-sucking force of the wasteland.
"Uncle, I'm afraid," Zhao Yanzi said abruptly after a while.
"With the map, we have nothing to fear," Hao Ren answered, checking the map while walking.
The map showed that they were now only three turns away from the grand palace.
"If we can't get out, we'll spend our lives meandering in the palace, right?" Zhao Yanzi asked.
"Damn! You are a small cultivating dragon! Where's your courage?" Hao Ren thought to himself and almost said the words out loud.
However, when he looked at Zhao Yanzi's small face illuminated by the fire, he saw that she was, after all, a schoolgirl. He comforted her in a gentle voice, "We are fine. If there are any dangers here, your mom wouldn't have let you come."
"Ok…" Zhao Yanzi answered hesitantly, leaning closer to him.
They turned left, walked down a slope, then went forward and turned right… A brightly illuminated Origin Dragon Grand Palace suddenly entered their view!
The black stone statue of the Origin Dragon which was nearly 100 meters tall stood majestically in the center of the grand palace, emitting glittering black light!
Its 18 black arms were holding 18 different weapons, and its mouth held a huge gold bead!
It was this gold bead that illuminated the entire grand palace as if it was daylight.
They walked around the stone statue and found four incense desks in the four corners around the statue. The desks in the south, west, and, north all had three burning incense sticks on them.
It meant that the other three teams had been here earlier than them. Judging from the remaining lengths of the sticks, they knew Zeng Yitao of West Ocean was the first to reach this place.
"Let's hurry up and light the incense sticks," Zhao Yanzi urged.
"Ok." Hao Ren took her back to the incense desk to the east. After taking out an incense stick that was emitting Nature Essence, he lit it up with fire-elemental sword energy before respectfully sticking it into an ancient-looking incense furnace.
The incense stick burned slowly, emitting a fragrant scent. Obviously, in the Origin Dragon Grand Palace, even Zeng Yitao didn't dare to set a trap for them.
Hao Ren kneeled and kowtowed before the stone statue with Zhao Yanzi. Then, he consulted the map and took her to the main gate of the grand palace.
However, Hao Ren was baffled. Looking from the outside, the palace had its tower top up into the depth of the mist, and he guessed that it was taller than 100 meters. But in the grand palace, the dragon head of the Origin Dragon statue nearly touched the ceiling of the palace, which meant that there should be several or dozens of levels on top. However, while he walked from the eastern entrance to the grand palace, he didn't see any paths or any ancient teleportation array formations leading to the higher levels.
There wasn't enough time for Hao Ren to figure this question out, and he and Zhao Yanzi were really weak and couldn't explore the palace. Hao Ren put aside his bafflement and walked toward the main gate facing the stone statue. There was a faint white light screen on the gate.
The moment they went through the white light screen, their vision suddenly cleared!
The gloomy mist vanished, and Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi could finally see mountains, rivers, and meadows!
They were not ordinary mountains, rivers or meadows.
All kinds of unknown celestial herbs emitting intense essence were spread all over the plain, and celestial water flowed in the rivers with surging essence!
The mountains were so high that each of them was at least thousands of meters tall with their peak out of their sights!
Prehistoric Land! This was the true Prehistoric Land, a piece of land that was there when the world was just created!
Different from the Prehistoric Land in the legends, there were no Spirit Beasts or Demon Beasts; there were only lively and abundant celestial herbs all over the mountains and plains.
Seeming to have sensed the Nature Essence in the air, Little White chirped in Hao Ren's necklace.
Hao Ren suddenly remembered that Little White had come in here with them in his necklace, so he opened the hidden space and let it out.
Little White rolled in the air, turning into its Snow Lion form before landing on the ground.
Cultivators liked places with intense essence, and so did Spirit Beasts. The intensity of the essence was hundreds and even thousands of times higher compared with the hidden space in the necklace, and Little White ran around Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi in extreme happiness.
In fact, the high intensity of essence in the Prehistoric times was the main reason there were a large number of Spirit Beasts and Demon Beasts at that time. As a Spirit Beast, Little White felt like at home here!
"Roar! Roar!" Lifting its head, Little White roared in exhilaration!
Putting away the map, Hao Ren looked around the beautiful scenery of green mountains and blue rivers. They were now out of the Origin Dragon Grand Palace, and the next step was to find one of the nine branch palaces.
However, the branch palaces had no fixed positions. They could only rely on their luck to find them.
When Zhao Hongyu and Zhao Guang were here, they had worked hard and were lucky enough to find Fuxi Palace. With much weaker physical strength and cultivation strength, it would be hard for Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi to get to any of the branch palaces by foot with the limited time.
"Zi, you tell me which direction we go." Hao Ren turned to look at Zhao Yanzi.
Zhao Yanzi closed her eyes and turned around in circles before pointing in a random direction. She opened her eyes, saying, "Ok. This direction."
"Ok!" Without further ado, Hao Ren pulled her toward the direction she pointed at.
Zhao Yanzi was a bit moved by Hao Ren's trust and forgot to scold him for grabbing her hand without her permission.
Walking pass by the rare and precious herbs, Hao Ren felt a bit guilty.
His mission now was to find a branch palace. If they couldn't find one, they would pick some of the celestial herbs as compensation. Anyway, his hidden space was as big as a room. A roomful of different kinds of celestial herbs would be valuable for making elixirs.
Little White rolled and tumbled in the meadow, without the dignity of a Snow Lion. It looked just like a large dog.
When they reached the end of the plain and came to the foot of the nearest mountain, Zhao Yanzi was fatigued. Under the power of the ancient array formations in this world, they couldn't fly on a Dharma Treasure, and walking was their only way of getting around.
To find a branch palace, they must climb to the top of a nearby mountain so that they could have a clear view of their surroundings.
Thinking of climbing up the mountain which was at least 400 meters tall, red-faced Zhao Yanzi began to pant.
Roar! Roar!
Little White ran around Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi, shaking its head and wiggling its tail happily.
"Damn you, Little White! You are so energetic, but I'm dying of exhaustion!" Zhao Yanzi gave Little White a small punch.
Her punch on the soft body of Little White was so light that it felt like she was petting it. The 'demanding dog' laid down on the ground and exposed its belly, inviting Zhao Yanzi to rub it.
Frustrated, Zhao Yanzi rubbed its belly frantically.
Suddenly, an idea dawned on Hao Ren. "Zi, you can ride Little White!"
"Huh?" Zhao Yanzi didn't understand.
"With its size, it can carry you with ease!" Hao Ren squatted before Little White and patted its face, getting it to stand up.
"Can I ride it?" Looking at Little White who was like a huge dog, Zhao Yanzi hesitated and asked Hao Ren.
"The lazy Little White has been eating without working. Now, we have some work for it to do." Hao Ren walked over and held down Little White's neck before helping Zhao Yanzi to get on its back.
At first, Little White was a bit reluctant and bent its legs. But one pat on its rump from Hao Ren made it stand up immediately.
Obviously, Little White needed some urging to do its work.
Zhao Yanzi had ridden horses, but she had never ridden a lion. Sitting on its back, she felt a bit nervous. With the height of nearly one-meter, Little White was as big as a pony.
"Let's get up to the mountaintop!" Hao Ren clutched the mane beside Little White's ear and led it up the mountain as if he was walking a horse.
With the Dragon Core and Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll, his physical strength was enough to sustain him as long as the land here didn't suck out his Nature Essence.
"Little White, go!" Sitting steadily on Little White, Zhao Yanzi treated it like a horse. She broke off a stick from a tree branch to lightly whip its rump.
Little White looked sullen, seeming to have regretted its decision of coming out of the hidden space…
There were no stairs on the 400-meter path, and this made climbing especially difficult. Time ticked away, and Hao Ren felt the pressure of time. However, he could do nothing about their slow speed.
In the prehistoric times, people had to rely on their natural strength, instincts, and possible innate powers since no one could cultivate at that time.
The people born in the prehistoric times had climbed the mountain step by step like what he was doing right now.
Sitting on Little White's wide back, Zhao Yanzi picked some red, green, and blue fruits from the low bushes and stuffed them into Little White's mouth.
When they finally reached the top, Hao Ren calculated silently and found that another hour had passed. In the past hour, he had quickened his steps almost to a jog, and even Little White had begun to trot under his urging.
The trees on the mountain top were not dense. Standing on the highest rock, Hao Ren looked into the distance.
Around him were vast stretches of plains and tall mountains!
Riding on the back of Little White, Zhao Yanzi came to his side. She widened her eyes and also looked carefully for the branch palaces.
"Over there! Over there!" Zhao Yanzi suddenly yelled in joy.
Hao Ren followed her gaze and saw a black spot in the center of a far-away plain.
"It's too far. We can't reach it in time with our current speed," Hao Ren said.
Disappointed, Zhao Yanzi began to search other places.
In this big world, the nine branch palaces seemed very tiny. Even with an eagle eye view, they were just some small black dots if they weren't hidden behind mountains.
Hao Ren circulated the Nature Essence and poured it into his eyes. He had a clear view of the area several hundred meters around him and could even make out things several kilometers away!
"Over there!" Hao Ren pointed to a direction on his left and said.
Zhao Yanzi widened her eyes and looked hard but couldn't see it. However, Hao Ren had a clear view of the branch palace partially hidden at the foot of a mountain. Although he could only make out a pillar, he was certain that it belonged to a branch palace!
"Ok! Let's go there!" Zhao Yanzi couldn't see it, but she trusted Hao Ren's acute sight.
Hao Ren calculated in his mind. This was the closest branch palace he could see. Although he had spotted another branch palace even farther than the one Zhao Yanzi found, time was not on their side. It would take them one hour to get down from this mountain and another two hours to reach the branch palace partially hidden behind the foot of that mountain. There would be almost no time left for them to search for treasures.
He now understood why Zhao Hongyu told them that it would be a big success if they got three treasures.
"Little White, let's get down this mountain!" Hao Ren patted its chubby rump.
With a roar, Little White jumped down the mountain swiftly with Zhao Yanzi on its back, dodging the trees on the mountain agilely.
Hao Ren found it hard to keep up with it.
Suddenly, Little White roared and leaped up over a huge rock blocking its way!
Boom!
In the air, four flames appeared and enveloped Little White's four paws!
Carrying Zhao Yanzi on its back, it didn't drop onto the ground. Instead, it flew into the air.
Innate Power!
(TL NOTE: Hey guys, here are the two chapters for today. Zi is on this little trip with MC, but don't worry Team Yujia, she will be back soon!)