Zhou Shuoyi looked down in disbelief at the sharp blade piercing through his heart. The blade was blackened, clearly coated in poison. He had been so focused on the attacks in front of him—usually so cautious about his blind spots—that a single second of carelessness had allowed a direct backstab.
“Ah! You bitch!”
He raised his hand, lashing out toward Yao Dai behind him.
But Yao Dai had anticipated this. She immediately dropped down, plummeting toward the ground, and then began sprinting toward Xie Tinglan at a breakneck speed.
“Xie Tinglan, hurry up and do something!”
She had originally detoured to avoid the fight, but she’d thought she might be able to pick up some scraps. Then she’d spotted a massive soaring serpent. Oh? Who else could that be but Xie Xiao’er? Is that the same snake demon who poisoned me?
“Ah!!!”
Fortunately, Xie Tinglan, who had received her Divine Sense transmission three seconds prior, flashed toward her. His serpent tail wrapped around her, hurling her far away from the battlefield to safety. Then, he immediately gave chase to the fleeing Zhou Shuoyi.
He unleashed ninety percent of his spiritual energy, exhaling a torrent of flames that carried the power of lightning straight at Zhou Shuoyi.
Seeing that he couldn’t escape in time, Zhou Shuoyi forced himself to swallow a pill and raised his hands in a desperate attempt to resist.
“Ah!”
He roared, the veins on his forehead bulging.
Having been stabbed through the heart by Yao Dai, his vital energy and blood were already draining rapidly. If he didn’t return for treatment immediately, he would certainly die today.
“Let me go, and I’ll give you all my Dharma treasures! If you kill me, the Xuandu Sect will hunt you to the ends of the earth! That bitch too!”
Blood flowed from the wound in his chest, trailing down the poisoned dagger. Blood began to seep from the corners of his mouth as his arms buckled under the pressure of resisting Xie Tinglan.
The soaring serpent exerted even more power. “I only want your life.”
“You want my life?”
Hearing this, Zhou Shuoyi let out a sudden, frantic laugh. “Hahaha! Then let’s see who dies first!”
“Master, save me!!!”
Zhou Shuoyi suddenly pulled out a jade plaque, spat blood onto it, and crushed it.
Instantly...
An unprecedented, powerful force surged forth from within the jade plaque.
Boom!
The entire sky, which had been bright and sunny just moments ago, darkened in an instant. A gray vortex flickered with continuous lightning, and a powerful, oppressive aura swept up the yellow sands, filling the air with dust.
A formidable, suppressing pressure surged forward, blanketing almost the entire area.
“Who dares harm my disciple?”
From within the hundreds-of-meters-wide vortex formed by the clouds, a figure suddenly manifested. As soon as the ancient, powerful voice rang out, it transformed into a magnificent and sharp attack.
It bore down directly on the massive soaring serpent.
“Pfft!”
Xie Tinglan was instantly wounded, coughing up a mouthful of blood. His pupils shook. He hadn’t expected this guy to be carrying such a thing. Hadn’t that dwarf old man told him that killing the young ones wouldn’t bring the old ones out?
He had lied to him!
In the distance, Yao Dai’s face turned pale. The Grand Elder of the Xuandu Sect had arrived.
It’s over, it’s all over. I joined the wrong team.
Senior Brother, I was forced into it just now, do you believe me? How about you stab me back and we call it even? Waaaaah.
She wished she could slap herself twice. Had she known, she would have just stayed on the sidelines and watched. In any case, Xie Tinglan and Zhou Shuoyi were evenly matched; the snake wouldn’t have been killed by him.
Zhou Shuoyi immediately flew up, his face pale as he made his accusation.
“Master, he attacked me for no reason, trying to take my life! And that little bitch—she’s a disciple of the Xuandu Sect, yet she stabbed and wounded me! She has betrayed the sect!”
Within the light gray vortex of clouds, a brownish figure slowly descended.
The old man’s white hair was neatly bound in a crown. Though his eyes were murky, they were sharp and clear beneath black eyebrows. He possessed a natural, imposing majesty, and his aura was restrained, steady, and terrifying.
As he stood in the air, the power of space paved a path beneath his feet. The vibrating dust and sand around him exploded in an instant before being forcibly frozen in midair. This pocket of heaven and earth seemed to be under his total control.
This person was indeed the Grand Elder of the Xuandu Sect: Zhou Wuwei.
The old man’s gaze slowly settled on Xie Tinglan, who had already reverted to his human form.
“So it is you. Oh? The bloodline of the Ancient Soaring Serpent. No wonder you have such talent.”
He then looked toward Yao Dai, who wished she could bury herself in the sand. A casual glance from him suddenly sharpened into a stare.
“Your spiritual root... it’s actually a Mutated Ice Spiritual Root. And why is your dantian unusual? I cannot see within it.”
Without Zhou Wuwei moving a muscle, Xie Tinglan and Yao Dai suddenly felt a powerful force envelop them. It rendered them completely unable to move. Their spiritual energy was instantly sealed, and they were pulled through the air to stand directly before him.
Zhou Shuoyi glared at the two with a vicious gaze, especially Yao Dai. They were dead meat. Today, they would pay the price.
“Who were you chosen by?”
Zhou Wuwei looked at Xie Tinglan, his voice low.
Xie Tinglan furrowed his brows. As the pressure on his soul intensified, more blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.
“...The Fuxian Sect.”
“Oh, so it’s him.”
Zhou Wuwei nodded indifferently. “Are you willing to switch to my sect? If so, today’s matter can be forgotten.”
Xie Tinglan let out a cold laugh despite the pressure. “Old geezer, do you think he sent me to kill your disciple just to give you a new recruit?”
Zhou Shuoyi snapped, “How dare you show such disrespect to my master!”
Zhou Wuwei waved his hand, and Zhou Shuoyi immediately fell silent. “Do you know why that fellow sent you?”
“I won our last encounter. Now, with a new Qingyun Gathering and new disciples, we decided to let the ones we chose compete once more. It seems I have lost this time. According to our bet, I shall give him the new poison I refined.”
With a flick of his hand, a bottle flew toward Xie Tinglan. This time, Xie Tinglan understood.
That dwarf old man had indeed told him to kill Zhou Shuoyi, but it hadn’t been a genuine order to kill. It was merely to have the two of them engage in a life-or-death struggle, acting as nothing more than fighting crickets for two old men to bet on.
They were toying with him.
Xie Tinglan’s gaze darkened. That dead old man was indeed treating him like a plaything again.
The bottle was forcibly placed into Xie Tinglan’s storage bag.
Zhou Wuwei then turned his gaze toward Yao Dai. “As for you.”
“Mmph!”
Yao Dai’s face went pale. A single thread of a powerful Divine Sense instantly shattered her mental defenses. Blood sprayed from her mouth. Her survival instinct flared to the limit, but she couldn’t even speak; her mouth was sealed by spiritual energy. No matter how she tried to resist, it was futile.
The veins in her neck bulged, and blood stained her cheeks. Even the Blood Vine Whip within her storage bag was being suppressed with a death grip.
Nearby, Zhou Shuoyi also realized what his own close call today signified. Already weakened by blood loss, his expression was dazed, but he was jolted back to alertness in the next second.
“Yi’er, how do you wish to dispose of her?”
Though the girl’s talent was decent and she was suitable to be trained as an alternate for the Qingyun Gathering, Zhou Shuoyi was severely injured and required a form of compensation and an outlet for his anger.
Zhou Shuoyi looked up, his eyes filled with bottomless hatred.
“Kill her. Extract her soul and refine it into a puppet. Let her never enter the cycle of reincarnation.”
Yao Dai’s pupils trembled. She wanted to move, to speak, to fight back, but she was powerless. Only panic and terror remained in her eyes.
Xie Tinglan immediately spoke up, “You wouldn’t dare!”
“If our true Master learns that you have harmed her, you will surely die, even if you are a Soul Formation cultivator!”
“Oh? You have a true Master? Who might that be?”
Zhou Wuwei looked intrigued.
Xie Tinglan hesitated again and again, but he didn’t dare truly leave Yao Dai to her fate. He could only close his eyes and utter Wen Li’s name.
“The top of the Aptitude Ranking, Wen Li.”
“...”
As soon as those words were spoken, both Zhou Wuwei and Zhou Shuoyi looked down at him.
How could they not know what that name signified?
However, in the next second, Zhou Wuwei let out a string of low chuckles—it was the laughter of someone genuinely amused by the words of an ant.
“If you had said your Master was the Ancestor of the Fuxian Sect or the Island Master of Jiuyin Island, I might have been slightly wary. Unfortunately, do you think the name Wen Li is one you can simply encounter in the Western Province? Even if you went to the Central Province, you might not see that person in your entire life. You’ve likely been scammed by some traveling con artist.”
Legend had it that the name at the top of the Aptitude Ranking had existed for tens of thousands of years. That person was likely one of the Great Powers of the Central Province, followed by countless Soul Formation cultivators. Why would such a person take two little brats like them as disciples in the Western Province?
Rate on N.U.
