by Fang Xiang
Pia!
A light sound of rupture came from the depths of the fiendish mist.
Everyone’s expressions changed.
A Wen fell down face first. Before his body could reach the ground, he was caught by a black-armoured hand. It was Shu Long who had managed to get to him.
Xie Shan’s figure flashed and burrowed into the fiendish mist. He returned after two breaths, and had a panther on his hands. There was a hole the size of an egg on the fiend soul panther’s forehead. The hole penetrated the entire head. On Xie Shan’s hands, the fiend soul beast quickly turned into threads of black energy.
Zuo Mo hurriedly ran over to Shu Long. “How is he?”
“No great harm. Just exhaustion,” Shu Long said respectfully.
Zuo Mo’s heart landed now. He had originally wanted A Wen to test the power of the fiend soul beast. He had not expected this handsome person to have such a fiery personality and actually kill the fiend soul beast.
Everyone was shocked by A Wen’s spectacular attack, especially Vermillion Bird Camp that usually had bug eyes. They received the greatest blow. The biggest impression they had of Guard Camp was the [Crow Fiend Mo Kill Formation]. In their views, the individual combat abilities of the Hardship Guards was not strong.
But A Wen’s performance today completely flipped their entrenched impressions.
So Guard Camp had already grown to this level!
Zuo Mo’s attention was then put onto the fiend soul beast that Xie Shan had taken over. The fiend soul beast quickly dissipated, and only felt behind a paw and a bead.
The panther paw was covered in fine scales, and extremely hard. The sharp and curved long claws up to five cun long were the most eye-catching. The bead was the size of a thumb, glowing and transparent. It wasn’t ordinary. This was not the time to investigate these items so Zuo Mo carelessly threw them into his ring.
Zuo Mo suddenly raised his head, his eyes as sharp as a sword that pointed straight at the deeper parts of the fiendish mist.
Xie Shan and the others were only a beat behind Zuo Mo. They all raised their heads and looked with shock at the fiendish mist in front of them.
A black tide was quickly spreading from the deeps of the fiendish mist towards them with astounding speed. Everywhere it passed, everything turned to black void. This black tide came extremely quickly. In a blink, it came in front of Zuo Mo and the others. The void that seemed endless swallowed everything.
The fiendish mist that was so corrosive turned to nothing.
Zuo Mo’s procession seemed to be situated in a void.
A the middle of the void, an enormous sword reaching the sky entered everyone’s eyes.
Xie Shan, who was already in jindan, was completely pale now. Like his tail had been stepped on, he shouted in a high-pitch, “Sword essence!”
Ma Fan, Shu Long and the others had white faces.
Zuo Mo seemed to be struck by lightning. His body freezing suddenly, he dazedly murmured lightly.
“Eldest Shixiong… …”
Chapter 363: The Prison-Breaking Six
“These are the problems I encountered.” Huai Boy’s mouth felt bitter. He had thought he would become a hero and had unexpectedly ended up with nothing. He had received the heavy blow in a field that he had never thought would cause him trouble. In the next few days, his mind would be quite scattered.
He had memorized the problems, including the unsolved sixth problem.
The other supervisors came over.
“Little yao arts?”
“It is actually little yao arts?”
They all wore shocked expressions. Some people felt it was nothing. How hard could a little yao art problem be? Huai Boy saw the dismissive expressions, but he did not argue.
The noise quickly faded. After a while, everyone started to sweat. No one had a dismissive expression anymore.
In a patch of silence, everyone’s sweat increased.
———
“This junior’s name is Yi Zheng, a disciple of the Great Buddha Temple,” Yi Zheng rearranged his clothing and respectfully said with a bow. The greeting he gave was one of a junior. The worldly apparition had stunned him. He could clearly feel the difference of the sword xiu’s before and after states.
Was that core formation?
He wasn’t sure, but any breakthrough that was accompanied by a worldly apparition was extraordinary. This was why he had given the bow of a junior even though the other did not look older compared to himself.
Wei Sheng opened his eyes. The ephemeral presence around him suddenly disappeared like it had been brushed away by wind. His eyes became peaceful again like a sharp sword being sheathed so its edges could not be seen.
But after experiencing that soul-shaking scene, Yi Zheng did not dare to slack off and offend. Even more, he glanced at the remnants of the fiend soul beast that had been cut up into multiple pieces, and his heart tightened.
“I am Wei Sheng, from Wu Kong Sword Sect.” Wei Sheng smiled, his attitude warm and peaceful.
“It’s an honor to meet you at last!” Yi Zheng hurriedly said.
Wei Sheng roared with laughter. “Mine is a small sect. You definitely have not heard of it.”
Yi Zheng instantly became a bit embarrassed. He did not know what it was. Even though this Wei Sheng’s attitude was friendly and warm, but he still felt an invisible pressure. It was this invisible pressure that caused him to do some actions that he usually would not.
“You can just call me Wei Sheng.” Wei Sheng waved his hand. “Not Elder, I don’t want to be old so quickly.”
Yi Zheng instantly felt a predicament, but he had a spark of inspiration. “Big Brother Wei!”
Wei Sheng smiled and did not argue. He asked, “How did you come to this place?”
Speaking of this, Yi Zheng’s face instantly became a bitter gourd. “I don’t know either. I took a mission from my sect and assumed that I could earn some contribution points. I didn’t expect to be this unlucky and get sent to this ghastly place. I probably can’t go back.”
Finishing, he sighed.
“You definitely can go back,” Wei Sheng said. His tone was not strong and it was a sentence that was very ordinary; but when Yi Zheng heard it, he actually believed it.
“We will continue walking forward. Before this, I felt a sword essence in this direction.” Wei Sheng did not waste words. Raising the horse-chopping sword, he walked forward. Seeing the situation, Yi Zheng hurriedly followed.
The two hadn’t walked for a long time when Wei Sheng suddenly stopped walking. An excited expression abruptly came onto his face.
“Big Brother Wei, what is it?” Yi Zheng carefully asked.
Wei Sheng did not answer him, his eyes tightly staring at the fiendish mist in front of him. The excitement on his face grew until even his lips started to tremble. “Li Water sword essence… … Li Water sword essence … … Shidi … …”
The familiar Li Water Sword essence was faintly discernable in the fiendish mist ahead of him.
Wei Sheng unhesitatingly threw out the flying sword. Grabbing Yi Zheng, he stepped onto the horse-chopping sword. He currently wanted to to grow wings. Taking a deep breath, he urged the sword with all his power and charge forward.
———
Qian Liu was staring at the six little yao art problems in front of him. A moment later, he raised his head. “The little guy is a bit interesting.”
The fire-faced person asked in wonder. “Little yao art problems? This guy is really creative! I wonder which great master taught this little yao monster.” He then snickered. “There is good drama to be seen now. Little yao arts, ha, this slap in the face is really hard!”
Qian Liu did not pay attention to the schadenfreude of the fire-faced person and turned his gaze back to the little yao art problems. He was very curious what the remaining six problems were like. If it was said that he had been slightly curious before, then the six little yao art problems had successfully raised his curiosity.
“Little yao arts … …” Qian Liu murmured lowly as he thought inside.
In his memory, there had not been any Sky Yao that had such a style in the past eight hundred years. If one went even further back, then it was the thousand year war. The records from then were very chaotic, and it was the era they had lost the most records on. There were too many yao arts, too many Sky Yao that could not be verified.
“What are you thinking so much for?” the fire-faced person said unconcernedly. “In any case, there is a spectacle to be seen. If you are lucky, maybe you will be able to see the next six problems. Haha, I hope the little brats work hard, so yeye won’t be disappointed!”
Qian Liu helplessly rubbed his forehead. With the fire-person’s rumble, his line of thinking had been interrupted.
However, he agreed with the fire-faced person’s words.
This matter had just started. The good drama hadn’t even come on stage yet.
———
It was unknown who leaked the information, but the six problems of the Wasteland Beast Chessboard’s prison-breaking battle quickly spread. All the major yao channels were studying these six little yao art problems. When many yao first received these six problems, they were very dismissive. Many yao were even suspicious that these Prison-Breaking Six Problems were fake.
Little yao art problems, what a joke!
But no matter if it was those that were dismissive or curious, what all the yao did when they first received the six problems was strangely similar; they tried to solve them.
They quickly discovered just how laughable and naïve their thinking had been.
At this moment, those spectators that had been so bored outside the prison battlefield finally understood how soul-shaking the seemingly boring prison-breaking battle had been.
Little yao arts were the fundamentals of all yao arts. No yao or school of thought would doubt this. The study of little yao arts had only been of interest in the yao art houses for a few years before their studied was considered complete. It was not that the yao of the time dismissed little yao arts. It was the exact opposite. They put great importance on little yao arts. Due to this, they had put in great amounts of yao-power and ran through all the permutations of little yao arts. From that onwards, there were almost no new developments in little yao arts. Those with knowledge at the time started to put more effort into intermediate yao arts and high yao arts.
The Prison-Breaking Six Problems seemed to be like throwing six heavy stones into a peaceful pond churning the shores with great waves.
The six little yao art problems, put in their order, went from easy to hard. The first three were extremely easy and did not leave the scope of the present little yao arts. But starting from the fourth question, it went beyond the scope of the general understanding of little yao arts.
Truthfully, Huai Boy was very skilled to have been able to reach the sixth problem. With the aid of his firm foundation, even though there were new transformations, he still used his outstanding intelligence and managed to solve the fifth problem.
But up to here, he could not go any further. His head was filled with the sixth problem. He did not eat or rest, and his mind was scattered.
Higher yao, like Qian Liu, could detect a completely new road from these six problems that increased in difficulty, a road that was completely different than what the general understanding of little yao art was now. This discovery made them happy and filled with curiosity. As yao that cultivated to their level, how could their eyes be shallow?
Presently the six little yao art problems were the most popular topic of study for the yao art houses. The teachers of many yao art houses acted, but they quickly all encountered a roadblock. Consequently, many “Little Yao Art Study Teams” came out of every yao art house like spring bamboo after the rain.
———
Cang Ze stayed in the corner and didn’t dare to breathe. The reason was very simple. The room was too silent! Staring at the tips of his feet, his heart was a storm. This was definitely the most silent meeting of the Council of Elders in the clan’s history.
The elders of great status and power had furrowed brows and did not make any sound.
“What does everyone think?” The one that spoke was the clan leader, Cang Ze’s father. However, even though Cang Ze’s father was the clan leader, but in this room, Cang Ze did not have a place to sit. In fact, if it wasn’t that he had successfully established a dialogue with the master of the Wasteland Beast Chessboard, he wouldn’t even have had the qualifications to enter this room.
“The Genius Alliance will not rest,” an elder said hesitantly. “If we worsen our relations with the Genius Alliance, it won’t be good for us.”
“Everyone knows that, do you need to waste your breath?” an elder that did not have a good temper snorted coldly. “But he knows [Grey Scar Art]”
“That’s what he says, it may not be true.”
The room descended into noise. Those that were shouting, those that had faces red, those that were winding up their sleeves to start fighting. Cang Ze released a breath, and felt much more at ease.
The clan leader really could not bear it anymore and said in a deep voice, “Stop!”
The voices finally calmed. The clan leader turned around his face. “Chief Elder, what do you think?”
“Has everyone seen the six problems?” The Chief Elder opened his eyes, his voice was hoarse.
The elders all nodded.
“What does everyone think of these six problems?” the Chief Elder asked directly.
“Pretty interesting.”
“Profound.”
“Unique.”
The elders chattered.
The Chief Elder shook his head. He waited for everyone to stop talking before he opened, “In my view, these six questions open a new school of thought within Yao arts.”
When these words came out, the others rumbled. No one had expected the Chief Elder to have such a high opinion of the six little yao art problems, but no one doubted the Chief Elder’s judgement. Because his judgement in countless matters had proved that Chief Elder’s eyes were terrifyingly accurate.
“Do we have any relationship with the Genius Alliance?” the Chief Elder suddenly asked.
“No.” The other elders shook their heads together. They might have some power locally, but for them, the Genius Alliance was high up and unreachable.
“Without a relationship, there is no saying that our relations will worsen,” the Chief Elder said faintly. But his authoritative gaze contained a thread of heat. “Everyone seated here today understands what [Grey Scar Art] means to us. There are no free benefits in this world, so everyone should understand there is no profit without risk.”
The Chief Elder suddenly stood. “Does everyone remember their oaths when they entered the council of elders?”
The other elders were excited and simultaneously stood. “Do not dare to forget!”
“We have waited for this chance,” the Chief Elder looked at the old visages of the other elders and sighed deeply, “waited for too long!”
Chapter 364: Reunion
Standing in the middle of the five element sword formation, sweat was flowing down Zuo Mo’s back.
A glowing and transparent water-shaped flame jumped silently in the air above the formation. Two opposite presences of icy cold and explosively hot formed an exquisite balance. It was the first time that many people saw Zuo Mo’s Li Water Sword essence and they had curious expressions.
In their impression, Zuo Mo during battle was like an ancient wasteland beast, especially his brutal and physical attacks that gave people great shocks. They knew that Zuo Mo had once been a sword xiu but they rarely saw Zuo Mo using a flying sword.
It was true that Zuo Mo had decreased his use of a flying sword, especially after cultivating the Great Day mo physique. All six changes of the Great Day mo physique were extremely powerful, both speed and power were so strong it was almost absurd. The other important
reason was that his improvement on sword essence was not very large. He didn’t know why. If he cultivated mo skills and yao arts, he advanced a thousand li a day, but when he cultivated sword scriptures, he was just slightly better than the average xiuzhe. He gradually found that the power of the [Li Water Sword Scripture] could not satisfy his demands.
He had even gave the five element sword formation to Vermillion Bird Camp to use to comprehend sword essence.
When he discovered the sword xiu in the fiendish mist was very likely to be Eldest Shixiong Wei Sheng, he instantly started to hurry. What was most important now was to get in contact with Eldest Shixiong. Otherwise, if the two of them moved past each other, it would not be easy to find each other again in this fiendish mist.
The worldly apparition just now should be Eldest Shixiong making a break through.
As expected of Eldest Shixiong, Wei Sheng’s talent in the sword wasn’t just a bit stronger than his.
The Void sword essence that Eldest Shixiong had released during his breakthrough had given him inspiration. If Eldest Shixiong could detect his sword essence, couldn’t he get into contact with Eldest Shixiong? Eldest Shixiong had just made a break through, his energy and mind should be in his best condition, and it would be easier for him to detect the sword essence that was released.
In order to release the strongest sword essence, Zuo Mo even took out his five element sword formation that he had not used for a long time. In the five element sword formation, the water element formation was his Li Water sword essence, and it was perfect for this purpose.
The Li Water Sword Scripture that he had not used for a long time seemed multiple times more difficult to control at the beginning, but he gradually found the feeling.
In the cold and silent water flame sword essence, the explosive power was like the undercurrents beneath the surface of the water. Zuo Mo channeled ling power in and the five flying swords lit up. The sword essence also grew explosively. Zuo Mo’s sword essence had not improved, but his ling power and skill in formations were much stronger than before. When he used all his power, the sword essence instantly became large.
