by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“You should be content. If it weren’t for Long Chen and the Four Heavenly Geniuses, do you really think you could have gotten to the 999th stair? The benefits you’ve gained from the 999th stair far surpass your imagination, so be happy!” sighed one of the monastery heads.
It really was a case of humans never knowing when enough was enough. They actually wanted to gain more treasures? These monastery heads didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Balls of light appeared beside Long Chen and the Four Heavenly Geniuses. There were only five treasures for the five of them.
Shui Guanzhi took out a scale armor, and each scale was the size of a nail. There were natural lines on it that sparkled with divine light.
“Damnit, all the good stuff is taken up by pigs. A dog’s luck really is good!” Long Chen couldn’t help cursing. That armor looked incredibly powerful. It seemed like a high grade Enchanted item.
Shui Guanzhi was delighted. Suddenly, he bit his finger and dripped a drop of blood onto the armor. The armor’s runes lit up for a moment before dimming again.
Long Chen knew that this level of Enchanted item needed blood to recognize a master. This left a brand on the item, and only then could you release its power. This idiot had clearly struck gold.
The next person to reach in was Zhao Wuji. He took out a long whip eight feet long. It was unknown what material it was made of, but a red light danced along it that made it seem alive. With just a glance, it was obvious it was no ordinary item. It was also a high grade Enchanted item.
Zhao Wuji tested the whip, and a simple flick caused space to tremble. That power was truly shocking.
But Zhao Wuji had clearly never used this kind of weapon before. After swinging it a few times, he ended up striking his own toe. The skin broke and Zhao Wuji clenched his teeth in pain.
People were shocked by how powerful the whip was and how easily it broke his defense. But it was funny that a grand Celestial would end up injuring himself with his own weapon.
Zhao Wuji’s expression was ugly. This was a good weapon, but unsuitable to him. It was also a red color, clearly for a woman.
Zhong Wuyan’s expression was also a bit ugly as she took out an incomparably huge hatchet.
Although she had been prepared, its weight caused it to clang onto the stair. Sparks flew.
The hatchet was too big. It was also a high grade Enchanted item, but it was completely useless to Zhong Wuyan. She could only go to see if she could trade it for something better in the Xuantian Dao Sect afterward.
It was the same as Zhao Wuji. Both their weapons might be high grade, but only a few people used them. The odds of them managing to trade for weapons on the same grade that they could use were low, so they were unhappy.
As for Yue Qianshan, everyone was startled to see him pull out a stalk of grass.
The grass was two feet long and half an inch thick. It looked just like a dagger. Its edges were sawtoothed, and strange marks were present on it.
“Heavenly Sword Grass!” Yue Qianshan suddenly burst into laughter. He seemed like a completely different person from his previous icy, arrogant self.
Long Chen immediately recognized it. This Heavenly Sword Grass was a strange item. It innately possessed the will of the Sword Dao and could help people comprehend it. It was a priceless treasure to a sword cultivator like Yue Qianshan.
Even the distant Yue Zifeng looked at it enviously. This grass possessed a fatal attraction to any sword cultivator. If you could comprehend the energy inside it, it was said that you could gain a chance to become a god.
Although gods were just legends that no one had ever seen, it still didn’t change the fact that the Heavenly Sword Grass was a treasure that sword cultivators would long for even in their dreams.
Seeing three of them obtain high grade Enchanted items and Yue Qianshan obtain a treasure perfectly suited for him, Long Chen was much more at ease. It seemed all the rewards here were top grade treasures.
He reached his hand into the last ball of light. Despite knowing that he was picking from the highest grade rewards of the Netherworld Heaven Staircase, he was still a bit nervous. He didn’t immediately pull it out.
It definitely wasn’t boots. It also definitely wasn’t a belt. It felt soft and flexible. He felt bumps. It should be from complicated runic marks. Long Chen was delighted, thinking he had finally obtained a treasure.
When he pulled it out and revealed the treasure, everyone became deathly silent.
It was red, woven from the finest silk. Two exquisite birds flapping their wings were embroidered onto it.
“A… blouse?”
Everyone was dumbfounded. That was clearly a woman’s garment, not some treasure. It was not an Enchanted item, and no fluctuations could be felt from it. It was clearly just an ordinary piece of clothing.
After a moment, laughter broke the stunned silence. A grand genius like Long Chen had actually obtained a blouse as a reward for the 999th stair? That shocking scene was too comical.
Everyone was laughing. The only one not laughing was the vice sect master. Looking at the blouse, he was filled with shock.
It had to be known that the chance of obtaining trash on the 999th stair was less than one in a hundred thousand.
He had run this trial many times. He had seen millions of disciples pick out their treasures.
But he had never seen such a scenario. Experts had to possess karmic luck, or they would die prematurely.
Even the ordinary disciples, as long as they had the qualifications to attend this trial, they had to be people blessed with karmic luck. And the Netherworld Heaven Staircase innately bestowed karmic luck onto the disciples on it. The percentages for obtaining treasures was based on having no karmic luck. But in truth, it was almost impossible for geniuses, people blessed by the heavens, to pull out trash.
In all his years, after seeing millions of disciples attending, he had only ever seen one disciple pull out trash, and that had been on the 333rd stair.
As for on the 666th stair, he had never seen anyone pull out trash. He had also gone through the history books. In hundreds of generations, no one had ever pulled out trash on the 666th stair.
By the 999th stair, the rewards were all peak treasures. The odds of trash were basically nonexistent. Although he didn’t have the qualifications to go through the other four regions’ records, he trusted that trash had never appeared on them.
One time was a coincidence, and twice was a miracle. But then what about the third time? Heaven-defying?
“Then could it be that Long Chen… But that’s impossible. Such people can’t live this long…” The vice sect master was completely bewildered.
“Hahaha, Long Chen, this blouse is not bad. Didn’t you get a belt previously? You should put the blouse on too!” Zhong Wuyan suddenly laughed, delighting at his misfortune.
“I’ve never worn such a thing. Can sister Zhong help me by demonstrating how to wear it?” Long Chen directly tossed the blouse to Zhong Wuyan.
Her expression sank. With a wave of her hand, the blouse was blown apart. “You despicable peon, shameless to the peak!
Long Chen was infuriated. How was she any better than him in this situation? “Why be so temperamental? I just wanted you to try it on. Furthermore, I didn’t even ask you to take off the rest of your clothes to do it. You could have just put it on over clothes, but you were too embarrassed about your chest. You could have worn it backward. In any case, your back is just as flat as your chest, so the effect would be the same.”
Everyone was startled. Long Chen’s mouth was a bit too vicious, wasn’t it? But quite a few people ended up looking toward Zhong Wuyan’s chest. As expected, it was a flat plain, a plain so flat that a horse could gallop on it.
Tang Wan-er was laughing uncontrollably while Meng Qi was shaking her head. Long Chen was like the ancestor of all scoundrels. Zhong Wuyan really had been asking for it by insulting him. Even if you cultivated for a hundred years, you wouldn’t be
able to beat him in this aspect.
“Die!” Zhong Wuyan erupted in fury and punched Long Chen. She appeared in front of him without anyone even seeing how she had moved. As expected, none of the Four Heavenly Geniuses was weak.
A faint layer of light covered her fist. Space seemed as if it was being torn apart, and an ear-piercing sound rang out.
Long Chen saw that her fist was strange, so he didn’t take it head-on. He dodged, appearing several meters away. His movements were strange. They looked as if someone had tied an invisible string to him and had pulled him. His dodging movements didn’t make any sense physically to others, and Zhong Wuyan’s fist ended up hitting nothing but air.
“If a flat woman like you is still alive, why should I go to die?” Long Chen shook his head.
Zhong Wuyan was ashen with rage. She was just about to erupt with her full strength when a small table rose from the center of the platform in front of them. There was a foot-high jade case on the table.
“The final treasure has appeared!”
Chapter 740 One Against Four
As soon as that small table appeared, Long Chen and the others charged over. They all knew that was the Netherworld Heaven Staircase’s final and top reward.
Although they didn’t know what was inside, for it to appear now, even an idiot would know how important it was.
“Water Dragon Twister!”
Long Chen had only just gotten to the top of the platform when a huge water dragon condensed and shot towards him.
Long Chen snorted. Circulating his spiritual yuan, he directly punched the water dragon.
The powerful water dragon was directly blown apart. Water droplets splashed everywhere. After condensing the Enlightenment Palace Star, Long Chen’s strength was incomparable to his previous self.
Back then, this water dragon had been difficult for him to deal with. The main reason was that the water dragon absorbed his energy.
But after condensing the Enlightenment Palace Star, even though it was just an initial form, his power had reached a point where the water dragon was unable to do anything. In his punch just now, he had concentrated his power, making it so the water dragon wasn’t able to absorb much of anything. It was directly blown apart.
That startled Shui Guanzhi. He had never expected Long Chen’s power to grow by so much in just a few days. Had he been hiding his power?
“Great Earthen Wall!”
Zhao Wuji slammed his hands on the ground. A huge earthen wall blocked Long Chen’s path.
Long Chen was just about to test the power of this wall when the sound of whistling wind came at him. He hastily punched out to meet it.
BOOM! This wind, which was released by a punch from Zhong Wuyan, knocked him back three steps. Long Chen was startled by how powerful she was.
Suddenly, cold Sword Qi stabbed at him from behind. It came so quickly that Long Chen had no time to react. The tip had almost reached his back when he instinctively dodged to the side. But the tip still tore through his robes.
Clamor erupted outside. How was it that the Four Heavenly Geniuses were all targeting Long Chen together?
“What are you doing?” Long Chen icily stared at the four of them.
“At this time, do you still have to ask such a stupid question? Are you a pig? I’ve already said that this battlefield is not yours. A bumpkin is a bumpkin. Although your luck might be good and you’ve managed to crawl to this height, that doesn’t represent that you have the qualifications to stand shoulder to shoulder with us, understood?” sneered Shui Guanzhi.
Zhao Wuji said, “Long Chen, if you’re smart, you’ll immediately scram. Although I really want to beat you up, now’s not the time. So if you don’t want to get beaten, get the fuck out of here!”
Zhong Wuyan also icily said, “If you leave now, you can still maintain a bit of your despicable dignity. The treasure here has no fate with you, so you can leave now.”
Even the always silent Yue Qianshan opened his mouth. “Just now, I was already merciful. If I had wanted to kill you, you wouldn't have been able to dodge!”
The four of them had actually decided to work together to get rid of Long Chen from the competition before deciding who would obtain the final treasure. Seeing this, the spectators were all shocked. Against the four of them, Long Chen would only be able to leave.
But this result was unacceptable to many. This was going too far. The Four Heavenly Geniuses were the apex figures in the Xuantian Dao Sect. How could they work together against someone in the same realm?
“Isn’t this going too far?!” raged the thirty-sixth supermonastery’s disciples.
“Idiots, how is it too far? Doesn’t Long Chen like to show off? It’s normal for people to find him irritating and want him to fuck off as soon as possible,” ridiculed a disciple from another supermonastery.
Suddenly, the sound of bones breaking rang out, accompanied by a miserable scream. That person had barely finished speaking before a Dragonblood warrior had charged over and punched him in the nose.
“Pay attention to your words. Don’t insult our boss again. If it weren’t for the robes you’re wearing, you would already be a corpse,” he said coldly.
“Intolerable! How dare you attack others!” An outraged crowd gathered.
“Stop!”
One of the monastery heads shouted, “Now you have the strength to fight? Why didn’t you have this strength on the Netherworld Heaven Staircase? Scram!”
The Dragonblood warrior snorted and returned to his camp. As for the person with the broken nose, although there was no danger to his life, his blood and tears intertwined, making him appear incredibly wretched. But this wasn’t the place to fight, and he could only swallow his anger.
“Will… will Long Chen be alright?” asked Tang Wan-er worriedly.
“Sister-in-law, don’t worry. That’s our boss. Boss is unrivaled. So what if he’s fighting the Four Heavenly Geniuses?” said Guo Ran completely confidently.
In the Dragonblood warriors’ eyes, Long Chen was no longer a human, but a god, an undefeatable battle god. They had more trust in Long Chen than anyone. That deep-rooted trust said that their boss was undefeatable.
Guo Ran’s words caused quite a few disdainful snorts from the other supermonasteries’ disciples. The Four Heavenly Geniuses had countless worshippers.
The only reason they didn’t say anything was because the thirty-sixth supermonastery had those unreasonable ‘country bumpkins’. They might get attacked just by saying something. The Dragonblood warriors felt that talking to these hypocrites who only knew how to use their mouths was a humiliation to them, so it was better to just directly use their fists.
The vice sect master didn’t say anything, nor did he reveal any expression. He simply watched those figures, lost in thought.
At this moment, the four of them had blocked Long Chen’s path forward. He sneered, “The reason you’re working together against me is because you’re afraid of me. This is the Four Heavenly Geniuses? What happened to your dignity?”
“Afraid of you? Tch, you’re nothing!” shouted Zhao Wuji.
Long Chen ignored him, continuing, “The four of you understand each other much more than you understand me. You know each other’s techniques, cultivation techniques, and fighting styles. But you know nothing about me or my true bottom line. The fact that I was the first to step onto the 999th stair has made you afraid.
“If you really had any confidence, if you really had any pride, you would never have done this. If you really believed you were unrivaled, how could you worry about that?
“Dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes. Having been raised by those wily foxes, you’ve also become so hypocritical.
“The cultivation path is inherently a path of struggle. It’s understandable that you would do this, so why must you refuse to admit it? You clearly want to cheat, but why do you still want to act so grand? Why bother with this act?
“This is all I
’ll say. The treasure is mine, and anyone who fights over it with me will have their fives limbs broken- cough, well, some people will only have four limbs broken.”
Long Chen suddenly realized he had misspoken, but it was too late to take back those words.
The outsiders looked at Long Chen oddly. His previous words had actually made sense, but then they ended up being so wretched.
“Scoundrel, rogue, shameless to the peak!” Zhong Wuyan gnashed her teeth. She had naturally realized that his correction was because of her.
“At least it's better than you sanctimonious hypocrites. At least I accept what I do,” sneered Long Chen.
Shui Guanzhi, Zhao Wuji, Zhong Wuyan, and Yue Qianshan’s expressions were exceedingly ugly. Long Chen’s words were extremely insulting and clearly a slap to their faces.
Furthermore, his words were right. The reason they wanted to kick Long Chen out first was because they were intimidated by him. They knew too little about him.
The four of them knew about each other’s abilities, and so they felt more confident against each other. Long Chen was an unknown variable that made them uncertain.
Although Long Chen’s words had been the truth, they didn’t want to admit it. Thus, having been exposed by Long Chen, they were infuriated. They glanced at each other and immediately came to a consensus. They weren’t going to just kick him out of here. They were going to take his life.
If just one of them killed him, he or she would receive a heavy punishment. But if Long Chen was killed in a brawl between the five of them, there was no way the Xuantian Dao Sect could punish them so heavily. Killing intent immediately formed in their hearts.
“What the fuck, you’re actually plotting to kill me?!”
Suddenly, Long Chen’s figure disappeared as the four of them looked at each other. Just like a specter, he appeared in front of each of them, his hand slapping across their faces.
POW!
A crisp and clear sound rang out. His speed was so fast that the four slaps sounded like one.
