Chapter 00223: Heavenly Absolute Palace
# Heavenly Absolute Palace
Chapter 223
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 223: Heavenly Absolute Palace
This Thunder Mountain Treasury was an open secret in the martial world; anyone who roamed the Jianghu had heard of it.
Basically, all the young swordsmen from minor sects and unaffiliated cultivators would swarm to it.
If they found something good inside, it could very well be enough to set them up for life.
This was no exaggeration.
Many of the great unaffiliated heroes in the martial world today had once ventured into the Thunder Mountain Treasury in their youth.
For any young person dreaming of making a name for themselves in the Jianghu, this place was a mandatory stop.
But the danger was actually more exaggerated than Li Yingluo had described.
A one-in-ten survival rate was already considered high; situations where everyone was wiped out were not unheard of.
Li Chengxi was initially a little interested, but upon hearing how perilous it was, he felt like backing out.
Yang Yiyi, on the other hand, was extremely excited when she heard about it and insisted on going no matter what.
It had to be said, this girl had the spirit of a death-courting expert.
To get to Thunder Mountain, they actually had to turn back.
The three of them had even passed it while riding their horses at full speed, but as daughters of officials, Li Yingluo and Zheng Yinping were not very interested in such things.
The distance wasn't too far.
It would take two or three days on foot, but only a single day on horseback.
Yang Yiyi immediately bid farewell to Li Yingluo, took the waist token gifted by Zheng Yinping's general father to a post station to get a horse, and then galloped nonstop towards Thunder Mountain.
The post stations of this era were not civilian facilities.
Their main job was to relay military intelligence and official reports, and their horses were far superior to any fine steeds owned by common folk.
Without a waist token, you really couldn't ride one away.
After a day and a night, Yang Yiyi had ridden to the nearest post station, returned the horse, and stayed the night.
The next day, she set out for Thunder Mountain on foot.
Another morning passed.
When it was nearly noon, after having lunch at a tea stall by the road, Yang Yiyi finally arrived at the foot of Thunder Mountain.
But this mountain was not without an owner.
At its foot was a vast cluster of buildings that looked almost like a palace.
That was the Heavenly Absolute Palace.
This was no minor sect.
Not only was it a major sect, but it was also one of great importance.
Many of the Imperial Bodyguards serving the emperor of the Liu Prefecture Kingdom came from the Heavenly Absolute Palace.
The reason they were so trusted by the officials was partly because the Heavenly Absolute Palace was very well-behaved in Liu Prefecture, and partly because it was said that the founding ancestor of the Heavenly Absolute Palace was a member of the royal family.
According to the genealogy record, the current emperor of the Liu Prefecture Kingdom would have to address the Palace Master of the Heavenly Absolute Palace as his old aunt.
The fame of the Heavenly Absolute Palace was so great that, to put it simply, even the ill-informed Yang Yiyi had heard of its name.
A couple of stomps from them and the entire martial world of the Central Plains would tremble.
But while the Heavenly Absolute Palace was indeed a major sect, its disciples acted in a way that was neither purely righteous nor purely evil, so their reputation in the martial world was not very good.
The orthodox and reputable sects disdained to associate with them.
Another thing that made them famous was this Thunder Mountain Treasury.
Apart from the condition that it was limited to young Jianghu swordsmen under the age of thirty, anyone could enter, regardless of their background or sect.
Therefore, many of the now-famous unaffiliated Jianghu masters had to acknowledge this favor.
The power of the Heavenly Absolute Palace was truly not to be underestimated.
No one knew what the Heavenly Absolute Palace was thinking, guarding this treasure mountain yet opening it up to outsiders.
But this didn't stop the swordsmen from all over the Central Plains from rushing over every twenty years when the Thunder Mountain Treasury opened.
All the people Yang Yiyi saw along the way were dressed as Jianghu folk.
The occasional commoners were just there to do a little business.
The Heavenly Absolute Palace was located at the foot of Thunder Mountain.
Its main gate faced the main road, and Thunder Mountain itself was named for its year-round cover of dark clouds and constant thunder.
Thus, from a distance, furious bolts of lightning could be seen flashing above the sect gate of the Heavenly Absolute Palace, giving it an intensely oppressive feel.
"I am Yang Yiyi. Having heard that the Thunder Mountain Treasury is open, I have come especially to see it."
When arriving at another sect's territory, one must first pay respects at the mountain gate.
Yang Yiyi still understood this bit of etiquette.
But the gate-keeping disciple only glanced at Yang Yiyi to see if she was old enough, then waved his hand, gesturing for her to go in.
Normally, when one paid respects at the mountain gate, the gate-keeping disciples would have to determine if the person was worthy.
One couldn't just enter casually.
But the disciple of the Heavenly Absolute Palace had a look that said, "Here comes another one, too lazy to check."
Yang Yiyi entered the gate in a daze.
Following the smooth road paved with bluestone slabs, she went around two arrow towers and immediately saw a huge plaza.
This plaza was so vast that it might take several minutes of walking just to reach the other side.
Directly opposite, under the shadow of Thunder Mountain's dark clouds, stood two massive, coiling stone carvings of golden dragons.
As expected of a sect with ties to the emperor.
An ordinary place wouldn't dare use dragons as decoration.
However, although the plaza was large, it was already filled with quite a few people, every single one of them dressed as a Jianghu swordsman, with hardly any two looking alike.
Any sect with some standing would not casually send their disciples to the Thunder Mountain Treasury.
On one hand, it was because they disdained to associate with the Heavenly Absolute Palace; on the other hand, the risk of the Thunder Mountain Treasury was very high.
For a disciple they had painstakingly found to die inside would be more painful than taking two slashes at their master.
No wonder the gate-keeping disciple was so casual.
The people gathered in the plaza were too numerous to count at a glance, at least a thousand of them, both men and women, all young talents under the age of thirty.
Yang Yiyi was like a country bumpkin seeing a great metropolis for the first time, her eyes wide as she looked around, even trembling slightly.
She lowered her head and said to the jade tablet in her bosom:
"Brother Li, this Heavenly Absolute Palace is way too big."
Yang Yiyi had never seen what a major sect was like.
Her understanding of a sect was based on the Green Robe Sect.
She had thought, no matter how big the Heavenly Absolute Palace was, could it be bigger than Li Yingluo's Situ Mansion?
But one look, and this place was almost like the Imperial Palace.
Yang Yiyi was instantly intimidated.
"Don't panic, act natural. Look, isn't everyone else very relaxed?"
Yang Yiyi probably felt a bit ashamed of her panic, feeling like a country bumpkin.
So she listened to Li Chengxi and tried to look straight ahead at her surroundings.
When others came, they were mostly with friends.
It was relatively rare to be alone, which might have been another reason for Yang Yiyi's nervousness.
"These people all look so powerful..."
"There are some powerful ones, but most of them are just small fry."
Li Chengxi was opening up their Character Panels one by one.
Many people's basic attributes were not as high as Yang Yiyi's, and quite a few didn't even have a mana bar, meaning they had no internal skill.
Many of them were probably just practitioners of crude martial arts, coming to the Thunder Mountain Treasury to try their luck.
With contestants like these, it was no wonder the death rate was so high.
The biggest reason Li Chengxi didn't stop Yang Yiyi from coming to such a dangerous place was that he figured if things got really bad, he could just reach out and pull her over.
With this ultimate insurance, there was naturally no need to panic.
After all, Viola and Audel had both come here before, so adding one more Yang Yiyi wouldn't matter much.
At most, Qian Sen might feel a little shocked...
Putting that aside for now, Yang Yiyi's timing was probably perfect.
The Thunder Mountain Treasury was open for a certain period, and anyone could enter at will.
You didn't have to wait for the opening day.
But coming in with a large group of people on the opening day was relatively safer.
So, many Jianghu swordsmen had lined up at the gate of the Heavenly Absolute Palace early on.
Yang Yiyi had arrived at just the right time, considered part of the first batch to enter.
While one of them was checking Character Panels and the other was admiring the magnificence of the Heavenly Absolute Palace's architecture, they heard a shout from the people queuing up ahead:
"They're here, they're here! The people from the Heavenly Absolute Palace are here!"
Following the voice, Yang Yiyi saw a man and a woman leap down from the dragon statue at the other end of the plaza.
The dragon's head was at least thirty to forty meters from the ground, yet the two of them landed as lightly as falling leaves, without even kicking up any dust.
Setting aside everything else, the lightness skill of this Heavenly Absolute Palace was truly exceptional.