Nine Star Hegemon Body Art c1-2048
Page 428
Hearing that, everyone’s expressions became exceedingly odd. Gou Ridi[1]? Gou Jiba? Were you certain he wasn’t just wasting everyone’s time with nonsense?
“The Jiluo Prefecture’s Gou family?” asked the elder with sudden comprehension.
“Yes.”
“Cough, ah, sorry. It was a misunderstanding. As expected, the Gou family’s people really are amazing,” said the elder awkwardly.
At this time, others had long since helped Gou Jiba up and given him a healing pill. He gradually recovered.
“Senior, this junior truly is called Gou Jiba. The Ji refers to Jiluo Prefecture’s blue sea, while the Ba refers to pushing oneself to seek the heavens’ will,” said Gou Jiba extremely sullenly.
“It was my fault. Let’s continue. Name?”
“Gou Jiba.”
“Origin?”
“Jiluo Prefecture’s alchemist guild.”
“Alright, take the test.”
“Age: thirty-one. Excellent. Spiritual Strength: seventh tier Earth class. Excellent. The Gou family’s people really are not bad.”
The elder nodded with praise and wrote down a new rank: Outstanding.
Acceptable. Excellent. Outstanding. Now there was a third rank. This Gou Jiba was truly not bad.
Gou Jiba laughed heartily. But that ended up causing him pain as it pulled on his injury, and tears squeezed out of his eyes as if his extreme joy had turned to sorrow.
The failures all left sadly. The remaining people all had pleased smiles, which contained some ridicule toward those people who were still nervously waiting.
Out of Gou Jiba’s group of eight, four had failed and four had succeeded. The four failures could only leave, but the other four didn’t reveal any mourning. After some fake words of comfort, they said nothing more.
“Name.”
“Duan Tianqiao.”
Long Chen turned to see a female alchemist with surprise. She wasn’t tall, but she had a delicate figure. She was extremely unremarkable in the crowd.
Now that she was pointed out, she drew everyone’s attention. Due to the fact that women were on the Yin side but Pill Flame was on the Yang side, female alchemists were rare.
Even the elder was surprised. He examined her and continued, “Origin?”
“Lihua Prefecture’s alchemist guild.”
“Take the test.”
“Yes.”
She smiled and confidently walked up to the stairs. Light enveloped her.
“Age: twenty-six.”
When this number appeared, everyone was startled. To have reached the Xiantian realm at just twenty-six was truly terrifying.
Gou Jiba’s pleased smile stiffened upon seeing this. He had been thirty-one when he advanced to Xiantian, and that was already extremely impressive amongst alchemists. But this woman was much younger than he was.
“Spiritual Strength: ninth tier Earth class. Good, very good! With your soul energy, it won’t be long before you can refine sixth tier medicinal pills!” The elder was extremely moved. This was his first time saying so many words.
“Many thanks for your praise, senior. I simply want to devote myself to cultivating in the Pill Tower.” Duan Tianqiao bowed toward the elder modestly.
Although she acted modest, her eyes betrayed her excitement, proving that her inner heart wasn’t as calm as she appeared.
“Haha, good. Young people should not be arrogant to truly make something out of themselves,” praised the elder.
That made Gou Jiba displeased, as he had clearly been a bit arrogant just now. However, he was comforted to see that Duan Tianqiao’s rank was the same as his: Outstanding. In other words, they were still at the same level.
The people after Duan Tianqiao seemed to be influenced by her. Of thirty-plus people, only seven passed. Finally, Long Chen was the last one left.
“Name?”
“Long San,” replied Long Chen.
The elder frowned, looking at Long Chen. This name didn’t sound like anything outstanding.
“Origin?”
“Qing Prefecture’s Wild Horse Fat Sheep Pig Butchering Mountain Forest Village,” answered Long Chen.
This location was real. Back when he had encountered the Muxue Mercenary Unit, they had passed by this village. Long Chen still remembered it because this name was too memorable.
“You… are you trying to waste my time?!” The elder almost raised his hand and slapped him. But having made his earlier mistake, he held himself back.
Hearing this, everyone was dumbfounded. The people who arrived here all had to go show their various alchemy guilds’ tokens to enter. How had Long San managed to get in?
As for Gou Jiba, as soon as he heard this nonsense location, he thought that this Long San was doomed. But the slap he anticipated never came, almost making him explode in fury. Why had he been slapped for speaking his real name, while this brat didn’t get slapped when he clearly was just asking for it?!
“Definitely not. I’m telling the truth,” promised Long Chen solemnly.
“How did you get in?”
“I gave the guard my badge, and he let me in.” Long Chen showed his badge to the elder.
When the elder saw the badge, his pupils shrank. “Pill Valley’s badge? Where did you get this?!”
“My master gave it to me. On the eve of his death, he told me I could use this badge to join Pill Valley, and then I’d definitely have food to eat,” said Long Chen.
“Food to eat?”
Everyone was flabbergasted. A grand alchemist actually couldn’t even feed himself? Was that an insult to the Pill Tower?
“Who is your master?”
“He was called Yun Qi. I was raised by him, and he taught me alchemy deep in the mountains. I never left the mountains, but one day, he was heavily injured, and he gave me this badge before he died, wanting me to find a place to make a living. He said with my talent, I’d definitely have food to eat and wine to drink here. I could buy a carriage, a house, and even get multiples wives and concubines,” said Long Chen.
The elder almost laughed. The Pill Tower had been taken as a place to make a living? But this was an authentic Pill Valley badge, and they were very rare.
In truth, the Pill Valley had long since stopped issuing such badges. In fact, most of them had already been taken back. When running into this badge, the Pill Tower had to give the owner a fair chance. Those were the rules of Pill Valley.
“Do you know what we’re doing here?” asked the elder.
“No.” Long Chen shook his head.
“This is the centennial Pill Emperor Competition. It is to determine the true emperor amongst Pill Emperors. Are you sure you want to participate?” asked the elder.
“The true emperor amongst Pill Emperors? Will there be a good reward?” Long Chen’s eyes shone. He hadn’t expected to run into something that good.
The elder didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, feeling like this foolish mountain brat didn’t understand anything.
“Let’s not talk about the reward for now. Let’s see if you have the qualifications to even enter. We’re going to test your age and Spiritual Strength.”
The elder directly left a blank space for Long Chen’s origin and moved on to the next section.
Long Chen walked up the steps. Gou Jiba immediately sneered, waiting to see Long Chen’s embarrassment.
“Age: eighteen.”
Everyone was stupefied, looking at Long Chen like he was a freak. This dumb mountain brat was only eighteen years old? Had there been a mistake? Even the elder felt like something was wrong and redid the test, only to receive the same result.
“Eighteen-year-old brat and he reached the Xiantian realm. Isn’t this just nonsense?”
“How could an alchemist cultivate so quickly? He didn’t train his soul energy? Is he even an alchemist?”
Clamor erupted. Alchemists couldn’t cultivate quickly, because their cultivation base was secondary. Their Spiritual Strength and Pill Flame wer
e more important.
If they cultivated too fast, their alchemy skills wouldn’t be able to keep up. They would be crippling their future. So alchemists would all spend a great deal of time training their Pill Flame and Spiritual Strength. Duan Tianqiao’s age had already been the limit.
Long Chen couldn’t possibly be a real alchemist. No one would believe such an absurdity.
“Shut up! If you make such an uproar again, I’ll immediately expel you!” shouted the elder.
This elder was a Sea Expansion expert and a powerful alchemist. His Spiritual Strength was extremely powerful, and he sensed that Long Chen was different.
“Now let’s test your Spiritual Strength,” said the elder.
A small portal appeared in front of Long Chen. He felt a powerful pressure that was trying to suppress his Spiritual Strength. It was no wonder those people had been so confident but still failed. The problem lay here.
It seemed this test was completely different from what they had taken before. Long Chen hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he slowly sent in his Spiritual Strength.
When Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength touched the portal, the entire stone bloomed with light.
“This is… Heaven class! First tier Heaven class Spiritual Strength!” cried the elder with wild delight.
Heaven class?
Everyone turned wooden. Gou Jiba looked especially amazing. His jaw could not drop any lower, and his eyes were almost circular.
Eighteen-year-old Xiantian expert? Spiritual Strength that had reached the first tier Heaven class? Was this just a story?
The elder directly wrote down a fourth rank for Long Chen’s talent: Genius!
Acceptable, Excellent, Outstanding, and Genius. Long Chen’s rank was the highest until now.
Long Chen smiled slightly. This was just the slightest bit of his soul energy. If he had used his full strength, that stone would have instantly exploded. That would probably frighten a few of these people to death.
But doing so would be too much and not be favorable for his plans. After the registration, Long Chen asked around and found that there was a total of three days for registration. There were still many more people to come, and Long Chen was too lazy to watch them. Saying goodbye to the elder, he left.
Once he returned to the small alley, he suddenly noticed there were many more burly fellows than before. At the same time, he heard a wail from the small courtyard he was staying at. He quickened his footsteps.
“If you’re sensible, you’ll immediately scram!” Suddenly, two large men blocked his path.
[1] Sounds like something similar to dogshit.
Chapter 654 Junior Master Fang
Long Chen raised his hand and directly slapped the two of them in the face. These two were only at Blood Condensation, and they were directly sent flying, crashing into the dozen people behind them. Long Chen had no time to deal with their shock, and he rushed into the courtyard.
The courtyard was still there, but Xiao Cui and her grandfather were pushed into a corner. The old man’s face was bruised and bleeding. Xiao Cui was terrified but still trying to protect him, even begging for mercy.
“Please, stop hitting my grandpa!” cried Xiao Cui.
Within their group, there was a man with a scar on his face who angrily cursed, “Idiot peasant, we’ve already said that junior master Huo wants this land. We told you to scram, but you refused to leave. Now, if you still don’t leave, we’ll directly kill you.”
“Sirs, please have pity on us! I spent my life savings in order to buy this place so I could rely on it to survive! Kicking us out is equivalent to taking our lives!” cried the elder.
“Idiots, junior master Huo has long since placed his sights on this place. Can’t you see that everyone else has already left? Why would you still buy this place? Shut up and scram! In a few days, we will be constructing a grand residence here, and you’re obstructing our work,” shouted the scarred man impatiently.
“But… but we spent money on this place! We even have the deed! How can you kick us out?” cried Xiao Cui.
“Oh? You have the deed? Then that’s easy. Show me and we’ll compensate you with the original price,” said the scarred man.
Xiao Cui was delighted and hastily ran into the room. In just a moment, she came out with a tattered page.
“This is the deed! See, we weren’t lying!”
The scarred man took the deed and nodded. “Correct, this really is the deed.”
Then he smiled and tore the deed to pieces right in front of Xiao Cui, throwing the scraps into the wind. Xiao Cui immediately became dumbfounded.
“Now where’s the deed? Scram!” shouted the scarred man.
“You… you… you bully…!” Xiao Cui had never imagined these people could be so vile. They even destroyed their deed. She began to wail.
The scarred man frowned. He impatiently waved his hand to the people behind him. “Take them away.”
“Brother Dao, if they keep screaming like this, it won’t be good,” said one of them.
“Are you an idiot? Knock them unconscious. Could it be that you don’t even know how to do something like that? Find somewhere to bury the old man. As for the brat, hehe, she’s still a female. Do whatever you want to. And hurry up, because we still have work to do. If we’re too slow, none of us will have a good ending,” ordered the scarred man.
Several people’s eyes lit up. They were just about to move when an icy voice rang out.
“I’m really curious how you can be so repulsive without the heavens doing anything to put you in your place.”
The scarred man jumped. He hadn’t even noticed that another person had appeared in the courtyard. It had to be known that he was a Bone Forging expert.
Seeing the black-robed, suntanned man with an evil smile on the face, he shouted, “Who are you?! You dare meddle in our affairs?!”
“Big brother, they’re completely unreasonable…!” Xiao Cui seemed to have seen her final hope, and she cried out.
“Xiao Cui, don’t cry. This is just a dream. Sleep, and when you awake, everything will be over.”
Following his words, Xiao Cui and her grandfather’s eyelids became heavy, and they fell asleep.
Turning back to the scarred man, Long Chen didn’t say anything. He just indifferently looked at them.
“What… what are you planning?!” For some unknown reason, the scarred man felt a chill.
“I’m planning how many pieces I can cut you into, and just which way I should do it for it to be perfect,” said Long Chen, sizing up the scarred man.
“You… you really are looking to die! Don’t think that you can resist us just because you have some insignificant abilities! We’re doing the work of the Pill Tower’s Huo family!” warned the scarred man. Mentioning the Huo family, his confidence rose.
At this time, the others outside had also charged into the courtyard. Over forty people surrounded Long Chen.
“Friend, you should leave. Although you’ve concealed your cultivation base, you’re still only an ant in front of the Huo family,” said the scarred man.
The Huo family? We really are tied together by destiny. Could it be that the heavens fated me to fight with the Huo family? I didn’t even go find them yet, but they came to find me.
This matter was a bit thorny. Right now, his best option was to bring away Xiao Cui and her grandfather. These people wouldn’t dare to make it hard on him.
But that was something against his principles. If he didn’t kill these dregs, he’d feel like it would be unworthy of their appearance.
And yet, if he immediately fought with the Huo family as soon as he arrived, it would be too conspicuous. Although these people were just dogs, a dog’s death would still draw the attention of its master.
Suddenly, a huge figure flew over in the sky. It was a Xiantian falcon Magical Beast that whistled past them.
Long Chen ignored it. Looking at these fellows, in the end, he decided to exterminate th
em. Caring so much about consequences wasn’t his style.
Just as Long Chen was about to attack, the falcon returned and a dozen people jumped off its back.
There were both men and women. They were in luxurious clothes and were young Xiantian experts. The person at the lead had thick eyebrows and large eyes. He wore a golden crown on his head.
“Oh, why would the Huo family’s dogs come to bite people here?” That person disdainfully looked at the scarred man.
“Junior master Fang…” The scarred man immediately turned pale and began to sweat.
Pow!
A large hand slapped across the scarred man’s face, and that junior master Fang angrily shouted, “Fuck off! My name sounds so vile coming from your mouth.”
Long Chen’s eyes brightened. This junior master Fang was actually also an expert face-slapper! This slap in the face had been too beautiful. It was clean and efficient. It seemed he was also a generation’s genius, and Long Chen couldn’t help but have a good feeling toward him.
The scarred man didn’t dare get angry. This slap in the face hadn’t contained much power, but the humiliation of it was much greater.
Suddenly, the sound of Long Chen’s clapping rang out.
Junior master Fang’s expression sank, and he icily stared at Long Chen. “What are you doing?”
“Sir’s face-slap was simply too perfect. Your slap was smooth, while the arc was graceful. That handsome posture is truly admirable.” Long Chen smiled.
“Oh? Not bad, not bad. You were actually able to see that. Could it be that you’re also proficient in this Dao?” Junior master Fang’s eyes brightened.
“I don’t dare say that I’m proficient. I just know a bit,” said Long Chen modestly. Long Chen was extremely enthusiastic to discuss this shared interest.
“How about you try it? In all my years, this is my first time seeing a slap cultivator.” Junior master Fang looked at Long Chen excitedly.
Slap cultivator? Was he referring to cultivating face-slaps? This junior master Fang was truly a genius.
“Then I’ll give a display.”