The woman was uneasy at being asked that. But in the end, she nodded.

“Someone like that is able to be an Elder? The higher-ups of the outer branches must be blind,” sneered Long Chen.

They wanted to play such a ridiculous game with him? This was far too immature for Long Chen.

The woman was too nervous to even speak in front of Long Chen, afraid of angering him.

“Tell me, do you understand the Blood race?”

“Yes!” The woman seemed to have found some hope. “I was first place in history in the college.”

“The college?” Long Chen was startled.

Through her explanation, Long Chen learned that she was called Li Jing and was someone with no background, no support to rely on within the outer branches. She had a bit of talent but was never given an important position. She was even squeezed out by others.

To use her words, someone ugly with no background wasn’t viewed favorably no matter how hard they worked. When she had been sent here to Long Chen’s side, she had first been delighted, thinking that her efforts were finally being rewarded.

Only when she saw the way that other people were looking at her did she sense something wrong. Then when she heard that the outer branches had created enmity with Long Chen, she understood that they had pushed her into a fiery pit.

Unfortunately, the Elders refused to let her run away, even saying that if she didn’t do well, she would be expelled from the outer branches. She had come here knowing that she was most likely going to die.

Hearing this, Long Chen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Was he really so frightening?

“I don’t understand, if you’re so afraid of death, why not leave? The world is so big, and you are a Life Star expert. You can live happily no matter where you go,” said Long Chen.

“I’ve never interacted with the outside world. I’m afraid.” Li Jing lowered her head.

She wasn’t afraid of walking toward death but was afraid of the foreign outside world? Long Chen couldn’t quite comprehend that thinking.

“You don’t need to be afraid. Those old bastards might want to screw with me, but I won’t make things hard on you. I’ve arranged things with the divine families to have someone with knowledge about the Blood race with me in battle. Since you say you understand them, I’ll trust you for now. Why don’t you tell me about the Blood race’s history, their combat power, and their experts,” said Long Chen.

He was testing Li Jing. If she actually knew nothing about the Blood race, he would immediately go to the outer branches and drag out those elders. He wouldn’t stop until he had slapped them to the point that their heads reflected their dog-like nature.

Hearing this, Li Jing brightened. She even seemed to grow more confident. “The Blood race comes from the Blood Pool star-field. They cultivate bloodline divine abilities, and powerful runes flow within their blood. Their blood contains all their power. Their realms aren’t much different from those of the human race. The only difference is that the core of their power isn’t in their Dantians but in their hearts. Based on the records, they have ninety-three races with various talents. They can be roughly split into three…”

Li Jing did seem to be a master of this particular knowledge, and she gave Long Chen a detailed explanation of the Blood race. She knew how to differentiate them and what kind of special attacks they had. Which ones were specialized in physical power, which were specialized in spiritual attacks, she knew them all.

Long Chen ended up gathering all the Dragonblood warriors so that they could all listen. Only once they were familiar with their enemies could they come up with a strategy.

“Young lady, you’re not bad. You know a lot,” praised Long Chen. This Li Jing was truly useful. She not only knew history, but she even had some of her own opinions sprinkled in amongst her information, which related to their weaknesses.

Although they had yet to even start fighting against the Blood race, just relying on Long Chen’s own experience and Li Jing’s conjecture, they could come up with a battle plan.

“Many thanks for senior apprentice-brother Long Chen’s praise. All my years of studying are finally being useful. Hopefully, others won’t laugh at me in the future.” After talking with Long Chen for so long, she found that he wasn’t as terrifying as what she had heard.

She didn’t sense any feeling of disgust toward her looks, and she found that not one member of the Dragonblood Legion looked down on her. They were all listening seriously.

“It seems that we need to thank those old fellows. Your knowledge is very useful for us,” said Long Chen.

“My mother said that an ugly person has to study. It seems that she was right.” Even Li Jing began to joke around in the Dragonblood Legion’s lax atmosphere.

“Looks can’t be eaten. But actual ability can. You don’t need to sell yourself short. Plus, you aren’t even ugly,” said Long Chen. 

It was true, Li Jing wasn’t ugly. She would probably be viewed as average. But in this world, there were many ways of improving one’s looks. In a world of beautiful girls, she ended up appearing ugly. The fact that she didn’t go around changing her looks showed that she had her own strong views about this.

“Dark lady- cough, you don’t mind if I call you this, right?” asked Guo Ran awkwardly.

Meng Qi and the others glared at Guo Ran. Who would call someone by their shortpoint like this?

“It’s fine. Dark lady’s a lot better than what I get called normally.” Li Jing waved her hand.

“No, I just think dark lady makes us feel especially close, don’t you think?” explained Guo Ran.

“It’s fine. You can all call me dark lady or dark girl,” said Li Jing indifferently.

“That’s right, everyone can call each other what you want. For example, that baldie, you can call him bald brother or big brother shiny. These two also have dark faces, and you can call them earth brothers. As for my handsome and stylish self, you can call my big brother handsome…”

Gu Yang, Li Qi, and Song Mingyuan imitated vomiting, making others laugh.

“Dark sister, why are you crying? I won’t call you dark anymore if you don’t like it. Li Jing is fine!” Guo Ran suddenly saw Li Jing crying.

“No, it’s just… I have no friends. Others only bullied me…” Li Jing tried to hold back her crying.

Li Jing had her own story. She had always been squeezed out of things amongst the outer branches. She was getting emotional with everyone joking around here.

“Dark sister, don’t be afraid, I’ll make you a powerful set of armor that will allow you to crush anyone who bullies you!” promised Guo Ran.

“No, no…” Li Jing hastily waved her hand. Clearly, she didn’t like fighting.

Long Chen glared at Guo Ran, making him stop teasing this guileless woman. He waved his hand, sending Guo Ran and the others back to work. Now that they knew more about the Blood race, they could finish their preparations.

When Long Chen was alone with Li Jing, he asked, “I’m curious, why would the Blood race attack the Martial Heaven Continent?”

“They want our Root Qi. The Blood race has Spirit Blood, but it lacks Spirit Roots. If they take our Spirit Roots, through some special methods, they can create their own Spirit Roots for themselves, just like how we refine them into immemorial essence blood,” answered Li Jing.

Only then did Long Chen understand. It felt that the Blood race viewed the Martial Heaven Continent as a pasture. They wanted their Spirit Roots.

“Then what do you know about the Devil Spirit Mountain’s devil race?” asked Long Chen.

“I’m sorry senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, before coming, the Elders warned me that I was only permitted to answer questions relating to the Blood race. Everything else is forbidden…”

“That’s fine, I was just curious. It’s not too important.” Long Chen hastily comforted her, knowing that she felt bad. He wasn’t about to force her to betray her orders.

Long Chen continued asking about the Blood race. He also asked about how Sovereign Mo Li had suppressed the Blood race.

According to Li Jing, back then, the Blood race had occupied over fifty percent of the Central Plains. That battle had lasted over ten years, with rivers of blood flowing.

Sovereign Mo Li had risen at that time, charging to the peak of the martial path and leading the experts of the continent against the Blood race. In the end, he killed the leader of the Blood race and sealed the entrance to the Yin Yang World.

However, the passage between the two worlds had mysterious origins, and eventually, every now and then, the Yang World would face the continent, allowing the continent’s experts to enter the Yin Yang World.

The Blood race used the Yin Yang World as their garden, but the continent’s experts had then started plucking their fruit. There were many inexplicable aspects about this, aspects that even Li Jing didn’t know. The information within the ancient records had many holes that couldn’t be explained with just logic.

“Even the divine families’ history is incomplete?” asked Long Chen. Long Chen was growing wary. Were the historical records really incomplete or someone had intentionally concealed a portion of history to mislead people?

Or was it that because of the Sovereigns, there were many things that couldn’t be exposed? Long Chen felt that this world was hiding far too many secrets.

Just as Long Chen and Li Jing were talking, more and more experts gathered here. Xia Chen and Guo Ran had already discussed it and wanted to start setting up their arrangements. During this battle, there couldn’t be the slightest mistake.