by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
Those distant spectators all clearly knew that no matter how powerful that corrupt corpse was, the Elders would definitely not let it harm them.
But despite that, they were still unable to suppress that terror that surged out of the deepest parts of their hearts. They all retreated further back. Some of them were already sweating and pale.
Long Chen was also surprised by Gui Sha’s action. He slashed his saber, his mind completely focused. Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu were also on opposite sides of him, closely watching Gui Sha’s movements.
Their expressions were slightly pale. At this close of a distance, that evil aura still struck fear in their hearts despite their powerful wills.
“Be careful! This old ghost has already killed countless people in his lifetime. His body has accumulated a great aura of death and resentment.
“Since he’s already died, that aura of death and resentment has already merged with his soul. That’s a formless kind of energy that will attack your state of mind!
“But for you two, this is also an extremely rare opportunity. Use this chance to temper your Spiritual Strength and firm your Dao-hearts!” said Long Chen.
That terror in Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu’s hearts stabilized a great deal. An unknown force was the most terrifying. Now that Long Chen had explained the mysteries within Gui Sha’s aura, their terror faded a great deal.
The two of them looked at each other. They could tell that they were both filled with admiration for Long Chen. He was normally such a wacky, glib-tongued brat, but in true life and death times, he was truly reliable.
“Jiejiejie…” Gui Sha sinisterly laughed, the sound was like insects crawling into their ears. The distant spectators actually turned pale immediately. Just the sound of his laugh caused their souls to ache.
“Little bastard, you actually dare scheme against me. I’ve never suffered such a loss in my entire life. You can die for me now!”
At this moment, Gui Sha’s body was completely covered in strange lines that looked like countless centipedes all over his body, appearing exceptionally terrifying. He sent a palm straight at Long Chen.
Long Chen didn’t dare to be careless, slashing his saber against his palm.
BANG! It was as if his saber had slashed on steel. He was sent flying back, his stomach heaving. His throat tasted sweet as he vomited a mouthful of blood.
Previously Long Chen had been able to fight him evenly, but now Gui Sha had injured him with a single blow, horrifying everyone. How powerful had this corrupt corpse become?
Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu were both greatly startled and sent out their wind blades and ice blades against Gui Sha.
Those two huge blades were several meters long. They mercilessly cut across the air. But the moment they arrived in front of Gui Sha, they came to a sudden stop.
Two black hands that were covered in centipede-like lines had firmly grabbed those huge blades.
With a light shout, the huge blades that had been condensed with Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu’s runic power were easily crushed.
Wild gales flew out from those blades exploding. Ice fragments rained from the sky. Two monster-class experts’ full strength attacks were nothing in front of Gui Sha. They were like children, easily brushed away by him.
“Fuck off.” Gui Sha suddenly pushed with his palms, releasing a fierce astral wind that swept towards the two of them. Before the astral wind even arrived, the land around them had already cracked and a tsunami-like energy attacked them.
Gui Sha’s speed was so fast that neither of them had even had a chance to dodge. They both smelled the scent of death. They knew that if they didn’t manage to block it, they would definitely die.
A firm determination appeared on Tang Wan-er’s face. Her hands continuously formed seals, and a faint image appeared in the space between her eyebrows.
When that image appeared, countless wind blades began to swirl around her body. There were at least a thousand of them.
Once those wind blades formed, they began to gather together, forming an absolutely giant wind blade over a hundred meters long. When that wind blade appeared, the sky began to thunder along with it, its pressure spreading everywhere.
At the same time as Tang Wan-er condensed that enormous wind blade, Ye Zhiqiu also formed hand seals, and a flower petal appeared on her forehead. That flower petal appeared to have been made out of ice crystals.
Following the appearance of that petal, an ice sword appeared before her, also over a hundred meters long.
When that ice sword appeared, the entire world seemed to slow down. Sound disappeared from the world. All that remained in the world was that terrifying qi.
“Excellent!” Tu Fang had been observing this entire time. At this moment when life and death were balanced on the tip of a needle, the both of them had achieved an initial awakening of their ancestral marks. That indicated their future cultivation path would be wide and long.
The ancestral mark was an innate talent left behind in their bloodline energy by an absolute peak-power ancestor. That was the greatest gift experts left behind for their descendants.
This talent would continue to be passed on along with the bloodline. But as the bloodline strength in the descendants grew thinner, that talent would also become weaker.
If too much time passed without anyone awakening the bloodline strength, that bloodline talent would completely disappear.
The first indication of the bloodline awakening was the revival of the ancestral mark. Those two images on top the two beauties’ foreheads were precisely their ancestral marks.
To revive the ancestral mark was incredibly difficult. It was said that only at life and death moments when one felt an intense, mortal danger would there be a slight chance of reviving the ancestral mark.
That was only an extremely slim chance. Geniuses which possessed a bloodline strength were already few and far between. No family would allow such a genius to actually risk their life for the slight chance of reviving the ancestral mark.
And so, many powerful families of experts had eventually faded away as their bloodline strength dried up. That was because it was incredibly rare for a person to awaken the bloodline later on.
In the secular world, there was a saying that wealth never survived three generations. That was because if the descendants were useless, then no matter how many riches there were at the beginning, those descendants would never be able to continue it and would quickly be ruined.
The cultivation world was also the same. If within one hundred generations of descendants the bloodline remained unawakened, then that ancestral inheritance would completely disappear.
And so the monastery also thought of many ways to try to stimulate those life and death trials, hoping to revive the ancestral mark and awaken the bloodline inheritance. But over many years, the results had been extremely lacking.
Within Tu Fang’s memories, there had only been one disciple who had awakened their ancestral mark in the past couple hundred years. And that was already something that had happened a long time ago.
But this time, there were two disciples who had revived their ancestral marks at once. How could Tu Fang not be overjoyed? Reviving the ancestral mark was just too difficult.
BOOM!
Neither Tang Wan-er or Ye Zhiqiu were even aware that they had awakened their ancestral marks. They were already slashing their enormous blades at their enemy. Three energies exploded.
The earth shivered, and a huge qi wave exploded out. Terrifying astral wind shot out everywhere. Even those people miles away were unable to stay standing in that wind and had to repeatedly fall back.
“Too terrifying!”
“What a powerful attack!”
“Is this really an attack of someone in the Blood Condensation realm?!”
Despite also being in the Blood Condensation realm, such an attack had already far surpassed their imaginations. That kind of difference was far too great.
Let alone fighting against
that kind of attack, if they were even a bit closer, they might have been smashed to a pulp.
Once the explosion ended, Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu were sent flying back by a terrifying qi wave. Their faces were as pale as paper, and they felt as if every bone in their bodies were about to break.
They had unconsciously awakened their ancestral marks, causing their strength to evolve to a new level. But they were unaware of how to use that energy. Just that one attack ended up overdrawing all their spiritual qi, and now they were completely exhausted.
Without spiritual qi to defend their weaker bodies, there was no way to defend against the aftermath of that collision, and they immediately coughed up blood.
“Go die.”
A huge palm image slammed down on the two of them as they were flying back. If they were hit by that palm image, the two of them would undoubtedly die.
The entire crowd let out startled cries. Some people even shut their eyes, not willing to see the scene of two beautiful women tragically dying.
“Parting Wind Slash!”
A huge saber image appeared in the sky, cutting apart that palm image.
With a huge explosion, dust filled the sky. One figure flew out of the dust. That was Long Chen carrying the already exhausted Ye Zhiqiu and Tang Wan-er.
“Long Chen, give up. We aren’t his match. He’s too strong.” Tang Wan-er quietly advised him sadly.
They had overestimated themselves and underestimated how terrifying their opponent was. She didn’t want Long Chen to die because of some impossible mission.
Long Chen gently put them down and smiled slightly. That slight smile immediately warmed their hearts.
“You two just watch from here. Leave the rest to me!”
Resting the saber on his shoulder, he slowly walked back to Gui Sha in front of everyone’s horrified gaze.
Chapter 173 Divine Ring Once More Shocks
One man and one saber. It was as if within all of heaven and earth, there was only that one person’s existence. That person’s gaze was filled with disdain, looking down on all others.
People blankly watched that figure. That scene was forever imprinted in their minds, something impossible to forget.
Even once they were old seniors, they would still tell stories to their grandchildren about that domineering figure.
“Jiejiejie, interesting. I can sense your anger, but I can’t sense your fear. You really are an ignorant fool. Do you really think you are able to fight against me?” Gui Sha laughed sinisterly.
“Old ghost, despite living for so long and proclaiming yourself an expert, you don’t even know what the source of a cultivator’s strength is.” Long Chen walked close to Gui Sha and stopped, standing there and mocking him.
“Then what do you say it is?” Gui Sha sneered. He had already seen through the circumstances and was able to break out of this formation any time he wished. But first, he wanted to grab a protective talisman. That would be Long Chen. He was just waiting for an opportunity.
Long Chen sneered, “The greatest strength of a cultivator isn’t their talent, willpower, not any techniques, but a will to protect.
“A cultivator can explode out with ten times his strength when facing death. But if you have something to protect in your heart, you can explode with ten times that strength; in other words, a hundred times the strength.
“That is because when we cultivators must protect our goal, protect what is important to us, we are able to give up anything, including our own lives. That is the power of a will to protect.”
Most people just blankly stared as he said that. But Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu came to a sudden enlightenment.
As for Elder Tu Fang, he was delighted and finally understood why both Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu would revive their ancestral marks at the same time.
For their companion’s safety, their own lives became no longer important to themselves. That had already surpassed the realm of life and death to an even higher realm.
Tu Fang sighed. Long Chen was not even a fraction of his age, but he already had such a profound understanding of cultivation. If he didn’t die, he would definitely become a heaven-shaking expert. Unfortunately… Divergents were doomed to have short lives.
“Only when you have something to protect can you push forward with all your strength. Only when you have something to protect can you possess a determination undeterred by death. Only when you have something to protect can your Dao-heart become firm, capable of bringing you through all the thistles and thorns on the cultivation path, advancing bravely.
“As for you inhuman corrupt apprentices, you treat your fellow humans as cultivation tools. You will never be able to understand what it means to protect something. So what qualifications do you have to jeer at me? You are the one who is ignorant,” said Long Chen icily.
“That’s just crap, hypocritical pompous nonsense you fools like to repeat. On the path of cultivation, who hasn’t stepped on top of other people in order to climb higher?
“This is a world where the weak are prey to the strong, survival of the fittest. None of you have the right to criticize us.
“If your reasoning really was correct, over these countless years, your Righteous sects wouldn’t have constantly been suppressed by our Corrupt sects.
“The weak have no right to speak so grandly. An amateur who has just entered the cultivation world also dares talk big? That’s truly laughable.
“Since you’ve said some crap about protecting, just bring out that power and show me what that trash is,” taunted Gui Sha icily.
From ancient times until now, the Righteous and Corrupt paths had always opposed each other. The war between them had never stopped. They both thought their own paths and reasoning were correct while the other was wrong.
So when Long Chen mentioned that, Gui Sha also retorted as well. The most infuriating thing to him was that Long Chen had tricked him into handing over the Netherworld Ghost Steps, which was blasphemy against his beliefs.
“With something to protect in the heart, the spirit always has somewhere to return; that is the source of a cultivator’s strength! Since you want to see it, then I will show you!”
BOOM!
Long Chen’s voice seemed to have come from above the heavens, shaking everyone’s hearts. When he finished, a terrifying wave of qi crushed the land. A huge three hundred meter ring of light appeared.
When that ring of light appeared behind Long Chen, the world began to incessantly tremble. Intense rumbling came from the air as the air seemed to become an ocean with huge waves surging towards Long Chen.
Terrifying energy released a powerful pressure. Some people had difficulty breathing, feeling as if they were being crushed by a huge mountain.
“What a powerful pressure!” Tu Fang was shocked. The current Long Chen’s strength had already far surpassed the Blood Condensation realm. That was completely inconceivable.
Just what was the ring of light behind him? How did it manage to constantly absorb spiritual qi from the world? Was it some kind of Battle Skill or part of a cultivation technique?
Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu were also shocked. Was that figure enveloped by that divine ring really the Long Chen they knew?
Just the pressure from the light made it hard for them to breathe. Was that the same glib-tongued fellow from before?
Guo Ran was standing amongst the crowd, looking at that figure with worship. His fists were tightly clenched; that was his unstoppable boss.
All the Elders looked at Long Chen with astonishment. But there was one of them who sunk into contemplation after that initial shock, a hint of greed appearing in his eyes.
“In order to protect those close to me, I have no fears; my heart is bright and a grand Dao fills me. How could you evil demons possibly understand that? Receive my saber!”
Long Chen stepped forward, the saber in his hand growing as Saber Qi filled the sky. But in just an instant, all that Saber Qi condensed into one saber.
&
nbsp; BOOM!
That saber slashed down, directly cutting a huge ditch into the ground hundreds of meters long. As for Gui Sha, he was at the end of that ditch; a huge hole opened in his chest, but no blood flowed out.
Looking at that long ditch, people were too terrified to speak. That kind of destructive strength was something they had never even dreamed about.
Perhaps, if it struck them, even a thousand lives wouldn’t have been enough to survive that attack. That Long Chen was even more monstrous than the monsters.
Lei Qianshang and Qi Xin’s expressions greatly changed, and a feeling of intense jealousy filled them. They were also arrogant geniuses, and being suppressed like this caused them to be indignant and furious.
“Bastard, if this corpse wasn’t such trash, I would be able to kill you with a single slap!” Gui Sha angrily roared.
He was an expert of the Corrupt path with many great skills. But now all that remained of him was his soul, he was suppressed by the formation, and this corpse was not at all on the same level as him, causing him to fly into a rage.
“Tch, who doesn’t know how to boast? If I had lived as long as you have, I could kill you with a single fart,” sneered Long Chen.
Tang Wan-er and Ye Zhiqiu exchanged a glance. It seemed the Long Chen they knew had returned.
“Bastard, die!”
Gui Sha charged at Long Chen, those strange lines once more lighting up his body, his devilish aura becoming even more terrifying.
“You aren’t a person or a ghost anymore, but you still haven’t died, so why should I?”
Long Chen slashed his saber at the coming Gui Sha. With those strange lines covering Gui Sha’s body, the two of them once more began to fight.
But people could clearly see some small things flying out while the two fought.
“What is that?”
“It looks like… that corpse’s flesh!”
“I understand now! Long Chen’s strength has risen to the point where he can already break apart that corrupt corpse’s defense!” exclaimed someone suddenly.
Everyone carefully looked, and it was true. Holes had appeared in Gui Sha’s fist. Those small things that were flying out were bits of his fists’ flesh.
