by Shian Jeen
‘This is?!’
As fear crept into the two disciples’ eyes, Huwang Xiao’s hands were holding them up by the neck.
“Mercy, Senior!” The two disciples struggled to speak, begging for mercy.
Ignoring the cries for mercy, a ‘soul’ character condensed in Huwang Xiao’s eyes and entered the two disciples’ forehead, directly searching their memories.
Huwang Xiao’ current soul force made it easy to search two late-First Order Highgod Realm masters’ memories.
The soul-scouring ended shortly.
In these two disciples’ memories, he finally found the information he wanted. From their rough knowledge of that Azure Dragon Galaxy disciple’s face, there was a ninety percent chance it was Xiang Mingzhi!
Xiang Mingzhi!
A fierce light glinted in Huwang Xiao’s eyes, ‘I finally found you!’
He then flicked out two wisps of Black Tortoise Divine Fire onto the two disciples, burning away all traces of them, and sped away on his Mulberry Sword at the fastest speed to the said valley.
By now, four months of the competition had already passed, he had to locate Xiang Mingzhi as soon as possible!
A while later, Huwang Xiao had flown out of the city.
That valley where Xiang Mingzhi was said to be wasn't too far from the city, at a distance of less than twenty thousand li. Using his fastest speed, Huwang Xiao could reach that location in half an hour’s time.
Along the way, the First Order and Second Order Highgod Realm lightning beasts he came across were all killed with a soul force sword, not stopping for a moment.
As for other disciples that were also heading in the same direction, they were scared away by his horrifying speed. Huwang Xiao’s fastest speed on his sword was comparable to a late-Third Order Highgod Realm master
While Huwang Xiao was rushing to the valley, at the Aeon City’s Surging Waves Mansion, Feng Yang ended his practice for the day and called for his three disciples. Today, they were going to the square.
Despite the fear of disappointment, Feng Yang still carried a thin thread of hope, hoping to see his disciple Huwang Xiao’s name on the ranking list. It mattered not even if it was on the 3,000th rank, the last place.
A short while later, Feng Yang and his disciples arrived at the Aeon Square.
“Master, Feng Yang that old man is here!” Ceng Chu was the first to notice Feng Yang’s group arriving.
Qin Yi didn’t look so good. More accurately, for a month and a half, he had a sullen expression on his face.
Although Huwang Xiao’s ranking was in the nine-hundreds, incomparable to Xiang Mingzhi’s position, seeing his name in the top one thousand left a bitter taste in Qin Yi’s mouth. That feeling was worse than swallowing flies.
When Feng Yang arrived, he immediately noticed there was something different in Qin Yi’s group, which perplexed him. In the past four months, when Qin Yi’s group noticed him from afar, they would already be mocking him, yet today there was nothing?
Liu Yun and Qi Wen were also baffled by the change, but they did not give it much thought and looked toward the ranking list.
Every time they come here, they would start searching from the bottom of the ranking list, going up name by name.
Not at the 3,000th place!
At the 2,999th place, not there!
All the way up until the 2,000th place, there was still no sign of Huwang Xiao’s name.
The disappointment on Feng Yang’s face grew more obvious. The majority of those ranking from 2,000th to the 3,000th place were peak late-Second Order Highgod Realm disciples, and higher up, the ranking list was dominated by Third Order Highgod Realm and above. In Feng Yang’s opinion, it wasn’t likely for Huwang Xiao to be in the top two thousand.
Feng Yang inwardly let out a heavy sigh, but he kept on reading upward.
After reading the 2,000th name, Qi Wen had given up reading further up. Her eyes wandered around without purpose. At this time, her eyes swept over the rankings in the nine-hundreds and froze, then widened in disbelief, even her heartbeat quickened. Her dainty mouth opened and closed soundlessly. All of a sudden, her eyes were teary and red-rimmed.
“Master, it’s, it’s…!” Qi Wen was too excited to string a complete sentence, pointing at a certain spot of the ranking list.
Hearing Qi Wen’s intelligible words, Feng Yang, Liu Yun, and Qi Wen looked where she was pointing at, the ranking range of nine-hundreds.
The three people’s gazes finally stopped at the 921st place.
Ranking: 921st, Huwang Xiao, points: 21, 642.
Shock ran through them as they froze on the spot, ‘This, this…!’ This result was so shocking that the master-disciples dared not believe it. Did they see wrong? If it was only one of them, that might be the case, but could all four of them have seen wrongly?
It could only be true!
It was true!
Feng Yang’s body was trembling visibly, feeling a hot wetness in his eyes. Top one thousand, in the top one thousand names, his disciple was in the top one thousand!
Huwang Xiao, this disciple that he placed hope on did not disappoint him!
Liu Yun and Qi Wen were also ecstatic, their gazes fixed on Huwang Xiao’s name at the 921st place, afraid that it would fall out of the list if they so much as blinked.
Not far from them, the Azure Dragon Institute Principal Qin Yi, Ceng Chu, and the rest were watching Feng Yang’s group, looking at their happy and excited expressions. Qin Yi’s group wore even more unpleasant expressions.
Some time later, Feng Yang turned his gaze in Qin Yi’s direction, and couldn’t hold back his laugh, “Qin Yi, you old dog, didn’t you all say that my disciple is ranked after ten million? Do you see that? My disciple is now in the top one thousand!”
Watching Feng Yang’s proud face, Qin Yi snickered with disdain, “It’s just in the nine-hundreds, that's like the distance between heaven and earth compared to my disciple. It’s too early for you to feel happy, Huwang Xiao won’t be able to protect his spot till the end.”
“That’s right, that Huwang Xiao must have run into some dog shit luck and chanced up on a group of injured late-Second Order Highgod Realm disciples and killed them. He only managed to get there by getting others’ points.” Ceng Chu coldly snorted.
Feng yang laughed hearing this, “If my disciple ran into dog shit luck, then that Xiang Mingzhi must have run into super-duper dog shit luck, otherwise how could he appear in the top one hundred?”
Both sides were going at it tit-for-tat on the square.
…
Half an hour later Huwang Xiao reached his destination.
Looking at the waves of lightning energy flowing out from the valley entrance, Huwang Xiao did not hesitate, flying through it into the valley.
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Just as Huwang Xiao entered the valley, an overwhelming pressure from the lightning energy pressed down on him.
This lightning energy contained a destructive force so powerful that an early Second Order Highgod Realm master would suffer heavy injuries as soon as they stepped inside the valley.
Huwang Xiao circulated his Asura qi to form a small Hell Asura Barrier around himself, warding off the lightning energy flowing in the surroundings as he continued flying forward.
After half an hour of flying, the lightning energy around him grew thicker.
Strands of lightning energy moved in space like ropes, filling every corner of the valley. Intertwined with it was a kind of dark gray mist that, although not poisonous, could block divine sense.
When Huwang Xiao tried to spread out his divine sense, the furthest he could sense was a thousand zhang around him.
Suddenly, Huwang Xiao sensed a faint energy fluctuation in the air and instinctively dodged. Just as he disappeared and turned back to look, he saw a two-winged python baring its sharp fangs, lunging at him again.
Although this winged python had a large body, its speed was terrifyingly fast, comparable to a mid-Thir
d Order Highgod Realm master.
Still, Huwang Xiao was even faster.
He disappeared in a flicker, appearing in the air above the winged python’s crown. A long black halberd appeared in his hand, stabbing down at the winged python’s head.
Pale blue-blood spurted into the air and the giant winged python let out a blood-curdling scream.
The winged python’s physical defense surprised Huwang Xiao. Just now, when his halberd stabbed down, the winged python’s skin felt extremely elastic and slippery, thus, the earlier attack that was sufficient to pierce through its head had merely penetrated a few inches deep into its skin.
After it was wounded by Huwang Xiao, the winged python’s attacks became even more ferocious and frenzied due to pain.
Watching this, Huwang Xiao no longer dodged its attacks. A thousand arms emerged from his back and one thousand Great Void Divine Fists punched out.
In an instant, fist imprints filled the sky.
The winged python was sent flying at an even faster speed, crashing into a cliff wall several miles away. Its burnt body then fell from the cliff to the ground.
Wanting to make quick work of dealing with the winged python, Huwang Xiao’s Great Void Divine Fists were imbued with a trace of Black Tortoise Divine Fire.
The Black Tortoise Divine Fire drilled into the winged python’s body, ending its vitality, leaving it deader than dead.
Huwang Xiao turned and flew away without a second delay. Going deeper into the valley, the strength of the lightning beasts he came across increased. The strongest of them actually reached mid-Third Order Highgod Realm.
In general, Huwang Xiao easily dealt with lightning beasts below early Third Order Highgod Realm with two or three moves, whereas those lightning beasts of mid-Third Order and above, he would speed away quickly on his sword to cut off their pursuit.
Against a peak mid-Third Order Highgod Realm lightning beast, he could easily deal with them using the Heavenly Mountain, but the most urgent matter right now was finding Xiang Mingzhi!
However, a frown gradually emerged on Huwang Xiao’s forehead and deepened when he still failed to sense Xiang Mingzhi’s presence an hour later.
Moreover, this valley was deeper than he had estimated, seemingly without end. Flying as fast as he did on his sword, he could make a full circle around the whole Martial Spirit World.
Along the way, he did find some one-million-years-old medicinal herbs, but nothing older, forget something as old as three-million-years-old. Of course, the better ones could have been taken away by people who were here before him, most likely Xiang Mingzhi!
From what he could gather from the two disciples’ memories, few disciples knew that this valley contained a three-million-years-old medicinal herb, no more than ten people.
Therefore, even an hour after Huwang Xiao entered the valley, he did not run into any other disciple.
At one point, while he was still flying, Huwang Xiao sensed something. ‘This is?’ Delight rose to his face, Xiang Mingzhi! It was the energy signature of the mark he left on Xiang Mingzhi’s body!
As expected, it was Xiang Mingzhi who entered in this valley, and he was not far from him! Huwang Xiao accelerated.
As he grew closer to Xiang Mingzhi, the faint vibration from the mark left on his body felt stronger to Huwang Xiao. There were also a few other strange fluctuations coming from the direction in front.
While Huwang Xiao was rushing forward, beside a lake, Xiang Mingzhi glared coldly at the four disciples closing in on him.
All four disciples’ strength was at mid-Third order Highgod Realm. Furthermore, two of them were peak mid-Third Order.
Not far from them, there were three disciples lying on the ground, and judging from the look of things, it hadn’t been long since they took their last breath. It was hard to tell whether they had been killed by Xiang Mingzhi or the four disciples.
Hovering slightly above the waters at the center of the lake was a nine-colored flower enshrouded in layers of nine-colored glow, emitting a fresh fragrance.
This nine-colored flower was the mythical Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower that possessed unimaginable medicinal properties. As for what its medicinal properties were, no one knew. This Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower floating above the lake surface had reached an age of three-million-years.
One of the four disciples encircling Xiang Mingzhi spoke, “Brat, if you give up competing for this Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower, we can let you leave here alive.”
In fact, the four of them did not expect the brat in front of them who looked like a late-Second Order Highgod Realm yo actually have battle strength rivaling a late-Third Order Highgod Realm master.
If it wasn’t for this reason, the four of them wouldn’t be wasting time in this manner.
Xiang Mingzhi took a quick glance at the four disciples, then he let out a laugh, “What a joke, just the four of you want to compete with me? I changed my mind now; this Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower, I want it! Not one of you should dream of leaving here alive!” A bright azure light burst out from Xiang Mingzhi’s body.
Gleaming azure dragon scales rapidly covered his skin like an armor, dragon spikes growing out from his arms and legs.
This was the Azure Dragon Institute’s highest technique, the Body of the Azure Dragon.
At the same time, glaring lightning crackled around Xiang Mingzhi as lightning clouds began to gather and roll. Xiang Mingzhi had released the power of his Extreme Lightning Destruction Physique.
While the four disciples were still astonished, Xiang Mingzhi seized the chance to attack.
Angry lightning struck at the four disciples from all directions.
Furious, the four disciples no longer held back and began raining down attacks on Xiang Mingzhi.
Loud booms and crackling thunder sounded all at once. The fierce energy shockwaves from the five people’s battle blasted holes in the ground, shattered the rocks flying in the air, then exploded into dust. The strange thing was, the destructive power of their battle silently disappeared when it reached the Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower.
The intense battle continued.
Over an hour later, Xiang Mingzhi glanced coldly at the four new corpses sprawled on the ground, then swayed unsteadily as he got to his feet. Before he could steady himself, warm blood spurted out from his mouth as he coughed, dying the soil at his feet red.
In the beginning, Xiang Mingzhi thought his recent breakthrough to late-Second Order Highgod Realm, adding his Body of the Azure Dragon technique, his Extreme Lightning Destruction Physique, as well as the Azure Dragon Divine Fire, would allow him to kill the four disciples with only some light injuries on his part. Who knew the four disciples also had their hidden trump cards, actually causing him grave injuries.
‘However, this Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower is mine now!’
Xiang Mingzhi turned around, looking at the Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower with a feverish gaze. If it was any other three-million-years-old herb, he wouldn’t have fought so hard, but the Hallowed Nine-Colored Flower was different. By coincidence, he came across a record of this flower in an ancient book.
Xiang Mingzhi was about to step toward the lake when he heard footsteps.
“Who?!” Xiang Mingzhi panicked. When he saw the owner of the footsteps, he was stunned: “Huwang Xiao!”
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Huwang Xiao wore an amiable smile on his face, “Yes, it’s me.” As if the two of them were best friends that hadn’t met up for a long time.
After a brief surprise, Xiang Mingzhi’s mouth widened into a smile, “Huwang Xiao, you actually dared to come looking for me?” He shook his head as he said this, “Should I say you’re tired of living or that you're a pig brain?”
Huwang Xiao continued to approach Xiang Mingzhi with slow steps, a relaxed air about him, “You broke through to late-Second Order Highgod Realm in such a short time... Initially, if you weren’t heavily injured to this point, it would have taken quite a lot of effort for me to
kill you, but now there’s no difficulty.”
Xiang Mingzhi laughed out loud hearing Huwang Xiao’s words, “A measly God Realm ant like you wants my life? No difficulty? Huwang Xiao, you think can kill me?” Xiang Mingzhi’s expression was chilling as his killing intent surged madly, “I’m going to let you know that, even if I’m heavily injured, killing you takes no more than the effort of lifting a finger!” As Xiang Mingzhi said this, he lifted his hand and pointed a finger at Huwang Xiao.
“Lightning Dragon Finger!”
A myriad of lightning streaks flew out from Xiang Mingzhi’s finger, forming a lightning dragon that spiraled in the air, arriving before Huwang Xiao in an instant.
The surrounding temperature shot up and the air currents became turbulent.
Lightning force struck like an angry hurricane.
Watching the loud and violent lightning dragon from Xiang Mingzhi’s finger, Huwang Xiao also lifted his arm and countered with a finger attack.
Shrill shrieks of strange creatures rang out, a thick fog rolled and expanded as an overwhelming force came from Huwang Xiao’s finger.
The Absolute Soul Finger!
A thunderous collision shook the heavens.
The lightning dragon formed from Xiang Mingzhi’s finger force exploded in midair, but Huwang Xiao’s Absolute Soul Finger force also turned invisible.
Shaken by the Absolute Soul Finger’s force, Xiang Mingzhi swayed and staggered back two steps.
“This!” Xiang Mingzhi was shocked, stared at Huwang Xiao with disbelief. He was extremely confident that his Lightning Dragon Finger could knock Huwang Xiao into the air, gravely injuring him to the extent of hanging by a breath, yet he himself was forced to retreat two steps!
When Xiang Mingzhi’s shock subsided, he tensed up. When he looked at Huwang Xiao once more, there was a heaviness in his eyes. Even though he did not use his full force in that attack, the fact that Huwang Xiao was able to force him to retreat showed that Huwang Xiao’s strength was not any weaker than his.
But, didn't that mean the current Huwang Xiao’s strength was comparable to a late-Second Order Highgod Realm master.
