Chapter 414: Who’s Teaching Who Manners?
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
As they heard the profanation from the elder from the Heavenly Lake Sect, everybody else started to frown.
The younger cultivators began laughing on the inside. What the nascent soul stage grandmaster said was as good as scolding himself.
Although it seemed like that particular nascent soul stage grandmaster from the Heavenly Lake Sect looked particularly furious and was careless with his speech from indignation, he had an ulterior motive. He wanted to fan the flames of everyone’s fury so that they would group together against the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
Zhu Yi, Shi Tianhao and company shared a look but were completely unfettered.
Zhuge Fengling giggled and said, "We were simply sightseeing and taking in the great scenery. But you, senior, wanted to follow us around. We were curious, and still are, as to the reason you did so?"
The intermediate level nascent soul stage grandmaster from the Heavenly Lake Sect erupted with anger. "You’ve got some balls saying that! Die, b*tch!"
With a wave of his arm, scattered streams of icy blaze surged towards the little girl on top of the Kui Cow King.
The expressions on the other cultivators from the Heavenly Lake Sect behind him were highly unpleasant as well. They released their mana and directed them towards Zhu Yi, Xiao Budian and the others.
One of them was an advanced level nascent soul stage grandmaster. Even though he didn’t really do anything, his gaze was fixed on the Kui Cow King and the Black Dragon Jieyu – his role was to prevent them from escaping.
As reputable as the Celestial Sect of Wonders were, their influence around the Northern Polar Sea region was nothing in comparison. Therefore, even though the throng of people were wary, they were not afraid, especially when they realized that the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, Lin Feng, was absent. Furthermore, with the Heavenly Lake Sect taking point, they were riled up and ready to act.
Zhu Yi watched the incoming trail of Icy Blaze quietly. He flew straight up, away from the head of the Jieyu, and met with the Icy Blaze head on.
He advanced through space with stable steps – not too slow and not too fast – and he was filled with unshakeable confidence.
Along with his advance, streaks after streaks of black and white mana billowed forward and formed a gigantic alter below his feet of an intricate mix of both colors.
The altar resembled the Mandala flower, yet not really. Rays of blinding light intertwined with pitch-black lines of darkness to form what seemed like the trails of star rotations in the sky.
Zhu Yi perched on top of the altar and faced the Icy Blaze coming towards him. Suddenly, his eyes began to change.
His right exhibited a dazzling radiance – yet the light was not one of warmth. It was pure, primitive and the brightest kind of light.
In his left eye, however, it was total darkness. His eye whites vanished and a hollow socket of pure darkness remained, much like the deepest and emptiest abyss without a single trace of light.
In the next moment, the light in Zhu Yi’s right eye suddenly dissipated and morphed into endless darkness. The scene was similar to the arrival of never-ending darkness, descending upon the world to consume it all.
The Birth of Light from Ultimate Darkness, Polar Reversal! The interchanging of light and darkness morphed in the sky to form mottled letters. The mix of light and darkness seemed disorganized and messy, but the interaction between light and darkness was delicately disconnected – light did not interfere with darkness and vice versa – while the brightest light and the quietest darkness integrated into one body while remaining distinctly separate.
The characters made of light and darkness were under Zhu Yi’s control and quickly transformed into vibrant prose. It was filled with grand essences about the theories of life and the revolutionary progression of humanity from history to a confident future. Going against the flow, those characters exploded forth to dissipate the Icy Blaze.
Once this spell was cast, the mass of Northern Sea cultivators that were ready to act suddenly felt defeated and their spirit faded.
Legend was one thing, but to see the legend for real was another. No matter how detailed the legends or the rumors were, the impact on people could never compare to perceiving those legends in real life.
They all saw that Zhu Yi could rival a cultivator of the intermediate level of the nascent soul stage. The people present began to hatch a surreal feeling. "Surpassing one entire level of mastery…"
"I thought the rumors had it that it as Shi Tianhao who achieved that? How could Zhu Yi accomplish this as well? Can it be that everybody in the Celestial Sect of Wonders are this powerful?"
The grandmaster from the Heavenly Lake Sect who engaged in battle with Zhu Yi was called the Snow Peak Grandmaster. He was not very old – not yet a thousand years old – therefore with his level of mastery, one could say that he still had great potential and was one of the alphas of the Heavenly Lake Sect’s middle generation.
Having just suffered a blow under the hands of Zhu Yi, the Snow Peak Grandmaster already felt humiliated. He laughed coldly and said, "You little shit, know your limits and what you can do or cannot?"
Even though he was furious, his disciple in battle was not compromised and he retained his precision as well as his ferocity.
The Icy Blaze that was dissipated by Zhu Yi flared up again and returned with a more brutish and fiery vengeance.
The Icy Blaze had expanded to a point whereupon all the white flames that looked as if they were solidified, though they still looked like flames, one could not really see their movements anymore.
The Icy Blaze, now seemingly solidified, quickly transformed into a giant cube and encaged Zhu Yi within like a prison cage.
The special ability of nascent soul stage cultivators, to restrict time and space, was being unleashed at this moment and firmly enclosed Zhu Yi within. Inside the cube of Icy Blaze, it was like a separate space, and completely independent from the outside world.
Inside here, Zhu Yi felt that he could not longer channel the spiritual energy between heaven and earth and lost his connection with the life of the cosmos.
The spiritual energy, which was one of heat and coldness intertwined together and was a complete product of the Icy Blaze’s transformation, began to repeatedly assault his body.
Zhu Yi witnessed the scene and silently approved of what he saw. "The standard of an intermediate level nascent soul stage grandmaster is indeed different from their beginner level counter-part."
He began to cast a spell and waved his hands. A sphere of brilliant lightning flew up into the air and morphed in the sky into a white electric web that was flickering with thunderbolts.
This was the nascent soul stage magic item that he obtained from Lin Feng, the Desolate Nine Thunder Divine Web.
The electric web expanded quickly in the sky and, in the end, it became a web so vast that it eclipsed the sun and blanketed the sky. Explosive thunderbolts surged along the webbing and made the giant web look like it was formed from a collection of thunder dragons intertwined with each other.
Within the white lightning, the air seemed to crystallize and began to fold over each other. They were trembling and meandering non-stop, and exploded and crackled as it clashed with the Icy Blaze of the Snow Peak Grandmaster.
At this point, the air and space that was originally arrested by the Icy Blaze began to loosen.
With the aid of the nascent soul stage magic item, Zhu Yi was about to unlock the cage of Icy Blaze conjured by the Snow Peak Grandmaster.
The surrounding cultivators of the snowy lands started to point around. The Snow Peak Grandmaster, however, cooled off and his face began to show signs of a smile.
His right hand began to cast a strange spell.
In the next moment, the cage created by the Icy blaze began to emanate thick clouds of white mist. When the white mist came into contact with the mana from Zhu Yi’s Desolate Nine Thunder Divine Web, they erupted into gigantic walls of flame with forceful ferocity and explosiveness.
The Heavenly Lake Sect’s secret mantra: the art of Burning Ice!
This spell could be said to be famous after all and many people recognized it. Even though they were not the target of the Snow Peak Grandmaster, they could already feel their skin crawling and their hearts beating out of their chests.
The Burning Ice Spell could draw on the power of the target’s mana to use as its own fuel and continuously increase the strength of its fire. The stronger the adversary’s mana, the greater the power of the Burning Ice Spell.
Any more mana injected by the adversary to resist the Burning Ice Spell would end up like dry branches thrown to the flames, and would only increase the strength of the Burning Ice Spell. That individual would only send his or her own mana to boost the strength of the enemy.
Upon witnessing the display of this spell from the Snow Peak Grandmaster, their expressions became much more solemn.
They witnessed the Burning Ice Spell before. During the Spiritual Conference of Huanghai, Dao Yuting used the same spell. The difficulty of mastering this spell was particularly great, and the general assumption was that even aurous core stage cultivators would not be able to master it and only nascent soul stage cultivators could properly control it.
Dao Yuting mastered the spell as a foundation establishment stage cultivator and impressed the world, and her talent became famous overnight.
The general praise for her talent was only because her level of cultivation was low but she could still grasp the complexity of the spell. However, to say that she attained a high level of control and understanding of the Burning Ice Spell would be highly unrealistic – all she achieved was akin to scratching the surface.
After all, as one of the most powerful spells of the Heavenly Lake Sect, the high difficulty of the Burning Ice Spell was undeniable.
However, when unleashed from the hands of the Snow Peak Grandmaster, one could see that he had almost full control and the practice was mature – so much so that one could say he had understood the spell to the very core.
Regardless of whether it was Zhu Yi’s light and darkness characters or the white thunderbolts from the Desolate Nine Thunder Divine Web, the power of his spells were all ruthlessly negated and destroyed by the white mist from the Snow Peak Grandmaster as they were used as fuel for the spell itself.
Zhu Yi’s expression was still calm despite all this. He waved his arms casually and remade a magnificent essay with his light and darkness characters. Only this time, Zhu Yi continued to compose the second stanza of his essay!
Once the second stanza was complete, on top of the foundational meanings of the original text flowed a greater, transcending and limitless truth. Every obstacle, every shackle and every difficulty and hindrance were no more – they were all overcome and defeated!
The enemy was soon to be conquered, the difficulty was soon to be overcome, time was soon to be overtaken and the boundaries of the world was ultimately soon to be transcended. Only the unstoppable greatness of humanity marched on!
The Desolate Nine Thunder Divine Web transformed into a patch of pure white lightning and wrapped itself around the magnificent essay composed of the light and darkness characters, much like mounting the text on paper.
The strength of the new power seemed to transcend all obstacles, so much so that even the Burning Ice Spell could not destroy it.
The lively essay transformed into rolling rays of light and seemed to gallop around the scene as it dissipated the mist and fire of the Burning Ice Spell and subsequently vanquished the Icy Blaze and unlocked the space that was initially arrested, and ultimately displayed all it had achieved to the world.
At the end of the flowing rays of light, Zhu Yi stepped out of it slowly. With every step, streaks of light and darkness extended forward to form a pathway.
The cultivators from the Heavenly Lake Sect were astounded, let alone the Snow Peak Grandmaster. Nobody expected Zhu Yi’s mastery of the mantra and abhijna to be so great. The Snow Peak Grandmaster, who was an intermediate level nascent soul stage grandmaster, could not do a single thing to him and even his most powerful spell was broken in the process.
The other cultivators from the frozen sea were even more astonished. "Zhu Yi got the upper hand?! Intermediate level aurous core stage facing off an intermediate level nascent soul stage, and it is the aurous core stage cultivator that ended up with the upper hand. Can this disciple from the Celestial Sect of Wonders be that terrifying?"
As he watched Zhu Yi saunter towards him, the Snow Peak Grandmaster began to feel a chill down his spine.
Over at the camp of the Heavenly Lake Sect, an elderly man with flowing white beard walked out and said, "Enough. Young man, it is the appropriate time to stop. Don’t crave mile when you’ve already been given an inch."
Zhu Yi replied plainly, "That statement would be more accurate if it was directed towards the Heavenly Lake Sect. Ever since the Spiritual Conference of Huanghai, you guys have been repeatedly harassing and challenging the Celestial Sect of Wonders. When have you guys known when was the appropriate time to stop?"
The white-bearded old man’s face sunk. "Perhaps then I have to teach you some manners. The Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders doesn’t know how to disciple his disciples, so I shall teach you a lesson on his behalf."
Zhu Yi replied plainly once again, "If you don’t respect yourself as an elder, then nobody will respect you."
"Heh!" The white-bearded old man said no more, and with a chilly laugh he began to unleash a fierce and vast pool of mana – his mastery was surprisingly at the advanced level of the nascent soul stage!