Long Chen turned away and without looking back, walked towards the barrier.

He threw a stone at the barrier to test it. The stone couldn't pass through and dropped to the ground. Observing that the barrier only prevented things from leaving, he couldn't note anything else noteworthy. He turned towards the populace and his eyes fell on someone.

"You! Come here!" The guard instantly fell to his knees when he realized Long Chen was calling him.

"Please, don't execute me! I—I have a child waiting for me at home!" The guard said, frozen to his place as tears streamed down his cheeks. His gaze was on Long Chen.

"Don't fret. I'm not going to kill you. Had I needed to, I could kill everyone present without moving from this spot. You just need to come here," Long Chen sighed with frustration at the guard's words.

After hearing Long Chen summon him again, he got up and staggered towards Long Chen.

"What do you know about this barrier?" Long Chen inquired.

"It's our Empire Protecting Barrier. It is meant to be used only during emergency situations. Usually, when we are under attack or facing a strong enemy, the barrier helps us stall them while we prepare," he replied hastily.

"Interesting. What else?" Long Chen asked, his gaze settled on the guard.

"It—it can only be used once every thousand years as it needs a massive amount of energy to be used. Hence, it uses up the thousand years' worth of energy that needs to be accumulated once again. Once the barrier is erected, it lasts for seven days, during which not even Monster Emperors can break it," he finished.

"Hmm… seven days huh? I can stay here for seven days and waste time, but I don't want to stay here a second longer. After all, it's a place where the Queen herself tried to destroy my reputation by accusing me of being a thief!" Long Chen's voice boomed as he used his Qi to amplify it.

Hearing his statement, the public started chattering softly amongst themselves.

"That's what happened? The Queen accused him wrongly?" Somebody amongst the crowd let out.

"It might be true. I saw the queen ask him to return her treasures and assault him first. Anyone would react this way if they were attacked and falsely accused. No wonder he retaliated! I am confident that even great master Tian Shen from thousands of years ago would have been outraged as if somebody accused him like this," another person whispered.

"That must be it! Why would he lie? He is so powerful that if he liked something, he could've just taken it by force. He would not do a shameless thing like stealing, right?" A girl in the crowd said.

Long Chen, who was listening to the crowd chattering, had a slight smile. But as soon as Long Chen heard the girl, his face turned beet-red and he coughed in embarrassment.

Xun started to laugh at this scene as she emerged near Long Chen. "I told you to take the path of the brave, but you chose the shameless one," she said. Long Chen was glad no one except him could see or hear her.

"You can go now," Long Chen told the guard, ignoring Xun's continued giggling.

Long Chen took a few steps back before crouching into a fighting stance.

"Seven Forms of Saint Sword- First form: Cleansing!" Long Chen assaulted the barrier with his martial skill. Nothing happened as the attack landed on the barrier. It remained intact, not even a scratch to be seen.

"This barrier is really solid," Long Chen muttered as he inspected the area of impact.

'Let's see if I can shatter you with my strongest attack or not! If I can't, I'll just wait in this tribe for seven days,' Long Chen thought as he prepared to attack again.

"Seven Forms of Saint Sword- Fourth form: Desolation!" This was the strongest attack he had learned so far.

An arc of light-filled with sword aura bolted towards the barrier. Everything that fell in its path turned lifeless as the contents disintegrated completely.

Although the barrier didn't shatter on impact, Long Chen couldn't help but smile. He saw a small crack materialize on the spot.

"It's clear that you are not invincible. I'll see how long you can last!" Long Chen declared. He struck the crack, making the crack grow even deeper. Long Chen estimated that with two more strikes of the same intensity, the barrier would break.

'Only a bit more and I can leave,' Long Chen thought as he continued his assault.

"Seven Forms of Saint Sword- Fourth form: Desolation!"

The arc of light struck again. The barrier tried its best to withstand Long Chen's attack, but couldn't even hold on for five seconds. It shattered into thousands of pieces like glass. Yet the light from his attack didn't dematerialize completely and continued to move forward, cutting down the trees in its path before disappearing completely.

"Hah, finally!" Long Chen muttered with a gleam of joy. Long Chen did not walk towards the barrier. Contrary the crowd's expectations he went in the opposite direction.

He appeared in the same spot after a while. Only, this time he was not alone. Long Chen sat on the Elphia horse that Xia and Terra left to ease his travel to the Elphia tribe.

'When you gave this horse to me you said that it was nothing special. But as it turns out, it is a really helpful gift,' Long Chen thought with a smile when he remembered Xia's words.

The horse galloped, taking Long Chen away from the tribe, bringing calmness back to it.

Some guards rushed forward with the royal physician to inspect the Queen's wounds. Although her hands could not be restored, the excruciating pain was elevated.

--------

A few hours before the battle at Banshee tribe, a monster concealed himself in the forest a long distance from it. The creature looked identical to a gorilla but with green fur and a menacing horn at the center of its forehead.

He glared at the gates of the Banshee tribe and kept an eye on all those who went in and out. He was Monster General Baek, the one who had informed the Monster Tribe of Long Chen's existence and appearance.

"What the he** is transpiring here! Why did the Banshee tribe use their life-saving formation? Do they already know I am hiding here? Wait, even if they did know, they wouldn't waste the formidable barrier on me," Monster General Baek muttered as he gawked at the barrier.

"What? It broke so soon. Shouldn't it last for a week? Is there something wrong with it?" He was shocked to see the formation shatter.

A few moments later, Monster General Baek grew alert upon seeing Long Chen speed out of the Banshee tribe lands. He watched until there was some distance between Long Chen and him and followed the human. His whole team stalked the human alongside their general.

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