Sovereign of the Three Realms - Chapter 1982

Chapter 1982: 1982

“Listen carefully, all communication items and their usage are prohibited during the competition . Any violations will be considered cheating! Also, you’re required to stay where you land for half an hour . Only after that are you allowed to move . Understand?”

The representatives from the sacred lands responsible for mediating the match emphasized this particular rule more heavily than the others .

This was to prevent participants from running into each other during the deployment process . They had to wait until everyone was in position before moving .

Every participant took the words to heart . They had to abide by the rules . Those who had wished to get lucky left their communication tools behind .

With messaging glyphs, it’d be easy to communicate on the island . If tools weren’t forbidden, the match wouldn’t be able to test teamwork at all .

The organizer banned the use of any tools so that every participant had to rely on their intelligence .

The deployment process thus began . Sixty geniuses entered one after another .

Jiang Chen knew that this kind of deployment must’ve been carefully calculated .

He stood under an ancient tree tall enough to reach the sky, surveying the dense forest . All around him were trees, tall grass, messy vines, and thorny bushes . There was almost no place for him to stand .

The environment greatly obstructed Jiang Chen’s God’s Eye . He focused his mind and couldn’t detect anyone within a few miles’ radius .

Given that he had to wait for half an hour, he wasn’t in a rush to move . Instead, he carefully considered his surroundings .

“The ancient tree is several arm’s lengths in circumference . I wonder how old it is . Perhaps the island has been here since the ancient times . ”

Jiang Chen could tell the island was on the primitive side, undisturbed by human activities .

He climbed onto a lofty tree and perched on a branch with his back to the tree trunk, closing his eyes to rest . He also summoned the Goldbiter rat king and had it command the other rats to stand on guard, on the look-out for any unknown beings .

There wasn’t any rule against employing the Goldbiter Rats .

Jiang Chen would do anything within the rules to win . The rats were undoubtedly his best helpers on such an island .

As soon as half an hour passed, he started moving .

“Wu You’s mastery is in speed . He can protect himself better . Gan Ning doesn’t have any particular strengths compared to the other participants . Thus, he’s in the most danger . I have to find him first . Of course, I’ll take whatever trial orbs I run into as well . ”

There were six hundred orbs in total, which weren’t that many . The island was more than big enough to hide the orbs .

It might not be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, but one wouldn’t be able to just stumble upon the orbs . Some careful consideration was required .

Fortune favored hard workers . After half an hour, Jiang Chen found an orb hidden under a leaf .

That was well-hidden . If I hadn’t utilized my consciousness to the fullest, I wouldn’t have found it .

The orbs were hidden better than Jiang Chen had expected . He suspected that some of the six hundred orbs would be left undiscovered in the end .

“Old Gold, do you know what the dominant vegetation on the island is?” Jiang Chen asked apropos of nothing .

The Goldbiter rat king chuckled . “There’s a great variety of plants on the island, but the one that’s particularly abundant is the wallowing tree . It’s everywhere . ”

wallowing trees could be identified by their unique leaves . They were thin and dense like droplets of tears, which gave the tree its name .

“Right, the wallowing trees . ” Jiang Chen smiled . “Please tell your descendants to pay attention to any cultivators who smell strongly of the trees . Have them immediately report back when they find anything . ”

“Why?” The Goldbiter King was puzzled .

“Just do it . ” Jiang Chen didn’t want to waste his time explaining .

“Alright . ” The rat king was sharp enough to recognize that Jiang Chen didn’t have the time to spare .

This was Jiang Chen’s first and most prioritized plan . He had told Wu You and Gan Ning to identify the most common vegetation on the island after entering and extract the essence to apply on their bodies . Then, Jiang Chen would be able to locate them quickly .

He had two other contingencies .

Plan B was for them to leave clues as they moved . He would follow the breadcrumbs and figure out their approximate locations .

That wasn’t as ideal a plan . A trail was easy to spot and even more easily destroyed .

Plan C was the least practical one . It was merely for backup, and ideally shouldn’t be of use .

Jiang Chen wasn’t going to waste the rats’ mobility on only locating his teammates . He had some of them look for the trial orbs, but not before warning them to exercise the highest of caution .

There were dozens of Myriad Abyss’ finest geniuses looking for the orbs . If the rats ran into them by accident, the spirit creatures would meet a terrible fate .

The rats’ strengths didn’t lie in individual fighting skills . A rat wouldn’t be able to survive an encounter with genius cultivator .

Nevertheless, Jiang Chen wasn’t too worried . The Goldbiter Rats were naturally cautious . They weren’t going to take unnecessary risks .

It was a wise move to mobilize the rats to look for orbs . In half a day, Jiang Chen had collected four orbs, two of which had been his find, the other two the rats’ .

However, it worried him that he still hadn’t heard anything about Wu You and Gan Ning . He wondered if his two teammates had run into strong opponents already, thanks to bad luck .

A faint sound disrupted his train of thought . He cast his God’s Eye to the right and noticed a branch moving slightly behind an ancient tree .

He rushed over and found nothing .

“Oh? Was someone spying me? Or was it merely a beast passing by?” Jiang Chen wasn’t sure . He hadn’t been entirely focused on his surroundings .