Chapter 130 – Pre-Competition Bitter Training
Daybreak.
Chen Xi left the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect swiftly. This time, he didn’t avoid the Sect Guarding Sword Formation and instead took out an ancient command token, then he walked into the formation like he was strolling idly in a courtyard, moving freely within it.
This command token was the size of a palm with a vivid image of a tiny little sword inscribed on it, and with a glance, the little sword seemed as if it wanted to fly out from the command token.
This was a command token Bei Heng gave Chen Xi, and when he possessed this command token, it allowed him to enter and leave the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect at any time, and it made it convenient for Chen Xi to visit Chen Hao.
“Fortunately, Bei Heng won’t reveal his relationship with me before the Hidden Dragon Rankings end. I’ll be able to be at ease as I participate in the competition and guard by Chen Hao’s side to be ready for anything that might happen.” Chen Xi carefully recalled the details of his conversation with Bei Heng last night in his mind, and he only slightly set his mind at rest when he noticed there weren’t any small mistakes.
“Chen Xi, you must not put all your hope on that old goat.” Ling Bai stood on Chen Xi’s shoulder and couldn’t help but voice out a reminder.
“I surely won’t.” Chen Xi nodded, he suddenly seemed to have recalled something, and he asked. “Right, did you discern the strength of the beautiful youth that was disguised as a man?”
“It’s extremely terrifying, unimaginably formidable!” Ling Bai’s eyes revealed a trace of seriousness as he spoke slowly.
Chen Xi couldn’t help but be stunned. Despite being a 10cm tall, little Ling Bai was extremely proud and conceited in his bones, and he was afraid of nothing, yet that mysterious beautiful youth was able to cause Ling Bai to feel fear. Could it be that the cultivation of that beautiful youth has already attained the Heavenly Immortal Realm?
“Chen Xi, how are you her Little Junior Brother?” Ling Bai had a perplexed expression.
Chen Xi shrugged. “I’m wondering about this as well.”
“Where’re we going now?” Ling Bai suddenly said in excitement, “Why don’t we go capture a demon beast and have roast meat?”
“That won’t do. The Hidden Dragon Rankings are about to begin and I have to seize this period of time to cultivate properly.” Chen Xi refused flatly, and under Ling Bai’s resentful gaze, he quickened his pace to hurry in Dragon Lake City.
——
Su Clan, Main Hall.
The Su Clan’s Patriarch, Su Zhentian had been sitting here since last night, and when the sky grew bright now, his expression gradually became gloomy, and his expression was anxious and doubtful.
“Zhentian, could it be that Chan’er didn’t receive the transmission?” The Grand Elder, Su Lingfeng who wore a red robe and was like a young child asked in a sharp voice.
“No, I’ve already confirmed last night that he has received the jade slip. As for why he hasn’t captured Chen Hao and brought him over…” Su Zhentian’s brows knit tightly as he spoke in bewilderment. “Could it be that something unexpected has happened?”
“Absolutely impossible. Chen Xi’s younger brother, Chen Hao, has already been exiled to the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect’s Dragonhell Peak, and he’s no different than a lowly coolie. It’s as easy as flipping a palm for Chan’er to capture him, so how could something unexpected possibly happen?” Su Lingfeng shook his head endlessly.
It was at this moment that Su Jiao rushed in, and her face that was usually indifferent and reserved was already covered in frost. She didn’t care about greeting her father and the Grand Elder before saying directly, “A Wanderingcloud Sword Sect disciple came over earlier, and he helped Big Brother pass over a transmission jade slip.”
Su Zhentian and Su Lingfeng glanced at each other in the eye, and their hearts sank instantly.
Su Chan was the closed door disciple of Ancestor Ling Du. If it was an ordinary time, asking one to help bring back something was understandable. But, the matter last night was a top secret matter, and he didn’t do it himself yet asked someone to pass a transmission jade slip back to the clan. Could it be that unexpected change had occurred?
Su Zhentian took a deep breath and forcefully restrained the agitation in his heart as he said slowly, “What does the jade slip say?”
“My brother said….” Su Jiao’s expression kept shifting, and only after a long time did she say bitterly, “He said that Chen Hao is the personal disciple of Daoist Wen Xuan, and because of this matter, he has already been put under house arrest by Daoist Wen Xuan.”
Daoist Wen Xuan?! Su Zhentian gasped. As the Patriarch of one of the six great clans of Dragon Lake City, the Su Clan’s Patriarch, he knew much more of the things within the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect as compared to an ordinary person, and it was even to the extent that he even knew some things that the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect didn’t know.
According to his knowledge, this Wen Xuan was a Nether Transformation Realm expert, and Wen Xuan’s strength is so terrifying that even Ancestor Ling Du had to respectfully address Wen Xuan as Martial Uncle. Due to Wen Xuan living in seclusion in the rear mountain all year long, so his reputation was instead not as great as Ancestor Ling Du. But if anyone dared look down upon him, then that would be a huge mistake.
“Chan’er said…. That Chen Hao is the disciple of Daoist Wen Xuan?” Su Lingfeng still didn’t dare believe it, and he muttered endlessly.
Although he was honored as the Su Clan’s Grand Elder, yet his cultivation lingered at the perfection-stage of the Golden Core Realm, and he was only a step away to advance to the Rebirth Realm. However, even if he advanced to the Rebirth Realm, he would still be one realm inferior to Daoist Wen Xuan. Thus the shock in his heart when he heard that Chen Hao had actually taken such a great figure as master was easily imaginable.
“It ought to be like this. Otherwise, Chan’er would have capture Chen Hao back to the clan last night.” At this moment, Su Zhentian instead completely calmed down, and he said slowly, “In this way, I’m afraid that wanting to use Chen Hao to draw out his brother, Chen Xi, cannot be done.”
“Dammit! Not only can it not be done, if we annihilate his older brother, then once that Chen Hao goes into a violent rage and begs Daoist Wen Xuan for help, our Su Clan can’t withstand it.” Su Lingfeng cried out in a sharp voice.
“Hmph! Can’t withstand it?” A trace of a cold smile appeared on the corners of Su Zhentian’s mouth, and he said gloomily, “Grand Elder, perhaps you still don’t know yet. The Ancestor has already advanced into the Nether Transformation Realm a few days ago and is a Nether Transformation Realm expert now. Moreover, he has already comprehended the profundity of that thing, so if he goes against Daoist Wen Xuan, the outcome of the battle if 50:50. So long as Ancestor stands out, that Wen Xuan will be unable to do anything to us.”
“Ancestor… Has already become a Nether Transformation Realm expert? And has even comprehended… The profundity of that thing?” Su Lingfeng seemed to have recalled a terrifying thing, and he stared blankly as he fell into deep thought.
“Jiao’er, what else has your big brother said?” Su Zhentian shot his gaze at Su Jiao.
Su Jiao took a deep breath and said, “My Big Brother said that Chen Hao would be participating in the Hidden Dragon Rankings as well. So he suggests that Father makes a move at that time as it’s undoubtedly the best time to kill Chen Hao. Moreover, according to my knowledge, Chen Xi is participating in the Hidden Dragon Rankings as well. In this way, perhaps we can seize this opportunity to kill both of these brothers.”
“Not bad, his thoughts are just like mine.” Su Zhentian nodded and said, “During the Hidden Dragon Rankings, all the disciples would be sent into Buddha’s Trial Pagoda, and outsiders are utterly unable to interfere. So long as our Su Clan disciples that are participating in the Hidden Dragon Rankings gather together, they’ll surely be able to annihilate these two brothers.”
“Indeed. The Buddha’s Trial Pagoda contains a world of its own. Unless one crushes the Transportation Talisman, otherwise, they’re utterly unable to be transported out.” Su Lingfeng said gloomily, “We only need to seize the moment before the two brothers crush their Transportation Talismans to kill the two of them, and no one will be able to say anything. After all, there are plenty of disciples that lose their lives during every Hidden Dragon Ranking competition.”
“But, if they’re unable to kill the two of them before they crush their Transportation Talisman, then wouldn’t we not have the chance to annihilate them in the future?” Su Jiao frowned.
“There’s no need to worry. The Hidden Dragon Rankings is jointly held by the various large powers, and our Su Clan is one of them. It’s an extremely easy matter to tamper with the Transportation Talisman of the two brothers.” A trace of ruthlessness flashed on Su Zhentian’s face. “He actually dared kill a Golden Core Realm Elder and six Golden Hall Realm cultivators of my Su Clan. How can my Su Clan stand up in Dragon Lake City if we don’t annihilate these two brothers?”
——
When Chen Xi returned to the quiet courtyard that Duanmu Ze arranged, he saw that Du Qingxi’s group of three had long been waiting for him. Only after he asked did he know that the three of them were participating in the Hidden Dragon Rankings as well, and during this period of time before the Hidden Dragon Rankings, they would be cultivating behind closed doors within their clans. So they didn’t have time to take Chen Xi on a tour of Dragon Lake City.
This instead just happened to coincide with Chen Xi’s thoughts. After all, he wanted to seize this period of time to cultivate properly and prepare for the Hidden Dragon Rankings. As for touring Dragon Lake City, it was a leisure that wasn’t essential, and he would have time for it in the future.
After chatting about some things and rules that he had to pay attention to during the Hidden Dragon Rankings, it wasn’t long before Du Qingxi’s group of three left.
Chen Xi didn’t dally, he sat cross-legged on the bed and was just intending to start cultivating, yet he frowned and stopped.
Presently, my qi refinement cultivation just advanced to the 6th star of the Violet Palace Realm, and my body refinement cultivation has similarly advanced only recently to the 2nd level of the Violet Palace Realm. It’s obviously impossible to advance a level in half a month of time. In this way, it would seem that instead of wasting this time, I should properly cultivate my martial techniques.
Besides the Oblivionwind Flowinglight Sword Formation that’s formed from the eight Netherezim Flying Swords and the Windflow Divination Sword, I only possess the Grand Astral Palm as a technique to battle my opponents. The Grand Astral Palm is my trump card, and unless it’s necessary, it’s better if I don’t expose it… Chen Xi pondered silently.
The Hidden Dragon Rankings was a grand occasion for the entire cultivation world of the southern territory, where geniuses were numerous like the clouds and experts were innumerable. For example, Lin Shaoqi and Tang Xu that Chen Xi had defeated at the Immortal Assembling Pavilion were only the top cultivators amongst cultivators from outside Dragon Lake City. When compared to the genius figures of the eight great sects, three great institutions, and six great clans, they were obviously inferior by a level.
Earlier, when he was chatting with Du Qingxi’s group of three, Chen Xi had learned about many genius figures that were participating in the Hidden Dragon Rankings. There were figures such as the Azuresun Sect’s Qiu Leng who was called the Incorporeal Sword, the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect’s Elite Disciple Fei Lengcui, the Comet Gorge’s Elite Disciple Luo Xiu…
Almost all these geniuses of the younger generation had cultivations around the 8th level of the Violet Palace Realm. Their natural talent was outstanding, their comprehension extremely high, and their techniques had their own merits and were extraordinary. All of them were astonishing talents that the powers they were from had attached great importance on fostering.
They participated in the Hidden Dragon Rankings with the aim of spreading their reputation and becoming well-known in the southern territory; they wanted to use this to obtain even more support and favor from the powers they belonged to.
Actually, all the disciples that participated in the Hidden Dragon Rankings had these type of thoughts. They treated the competition as a springboard to soar into the sky and amaze the world with a single brilliant feat.
Chen Xi didn’t care about all of this, but he had to take these outstanding figures of the younger generation that would participate in the competition seriously. After all, he wasn’t fighting for himself any longer, and he still carried the responsibility of looking after Chen Hao.
Originally, Chen Xi didn’t have to worry about Chen Hao participating in the Hidden Dragon Rankings. After all, Chen Hao was a disciple of the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect, and even if he was eliminated, he wouldn’t suffer any harm.
But it was different now. Because of the existence of his enemy, the Su Clan, it caused Chen Xi to faintly feel that the Hidden Dragon Rankings this time would absolutely not be a simple competition for he and Chen Hao.
The Su Clan has probably already found out about Chen Hao taking Daoist Wen Xuan as his master by now. But during every Hidden Dragon Ranking competition, there would always be some disciples that lose their lives. If the Su Clan uses this as an opportunity, and carries out hunt for me and Chen Hao, then it would be dangerous… Chen Xi took a deep breath and shook his head, expelling out the distracting thoughts in his mind. I must resist and stop everything that comes at me. Thinking so much makes no difference.
Swish! Swish!
56 high-grade yellow-rank flying swords with oppressive spirit energy descended onto the floor before him. Chen Xi recalled the technique of the second level of the Oblivionwind Flowinglight Sword Formation once more, then he took up a flying sword right away before pricking open his finger and starting to draw talisman markings on the surface of the flying swords with his blood.
Exactly! He wanted to bind all of these 56 flying swords, then pool together the amount of 64 flying swords when combined with his eight Netherezim Flying Swords to cultivate the second level of the Oblivionwind Flowinglight Sword Formation!
After the transformation of his soul yesterday, it had already attained the level of Divine Perception, and it wasn’t inferior to a Golden Core Realm cultivator. Thus, he was already barely able to control 64 flying swords.
But the consumption of his True Essence would probably become extremely terrifying.
After all, amongst these 64 flying swords were eight top-grade yellow-rank flying swords, and the remaining 56 flying swords were all high-grade yellow-rank flying swords. So if he wanted to execute the second level of the Oblivionwind Flowinglight Sword Formation, how could the consumption of his True Essence be little?