Chapter 776: Calm Before the Storm
Jian Chen did not care about the artifact spirit helping the competitors escape at all - he did not feel that the spirit was in the wrong. After all, protecting the competitors was the spirit’s responsibility. Radiant Saint Masters were not as common as fighters, let alone Class 6 Radiant Saint Masters. They could not afford to lose any of them.
Jian Chen stood up and carefully checked his entire body. When he discovered that all his wounds were already completely healed, a sliver of shock appeared in his heart.
Although he was unconscious before, he knew exactly how bad all the wounds on his body were. Even with the terrifying regeneration of his Chaotic Body, these injuries would take at least a day or two to completely heal. Yet, though he clearly felt that it was less than half an hour ago that he was injured, his body was completely healed. It was quite unbelievable.
Even Class 7 Radiant Saint Masters could not achieve such a godly speed of healing. After all, he had just received an attack from a Saint King. If it were not for the terrifying defense of his Chaotic Body, he would struggle to even survive an attack from a Saint Ruler, and if he did end up surviving, he would need to spend up to several years, or even decades, to heal.
At this moment, Jian Chen vaguely remembered that there was an extremely pure Radiant Saint Force that traveled through him while he was unconscious. He could not help but have a gleam of light flash through his eyes as he looked at the man, “Artifact spirit, was I healed using the origin energy of Radiant Saint Force?”
The artifact spirit nodded, “Yes overlord. That was the saint artifact’s origin energy, but unfortunately it’s already been refined by this one and no one else can use it. Otherwise, this one would be able to help overlord in reaching Class 7.” Although the artifact spirit was like a god within the artifact, it remained filled with dread and respect towards Jian Chen. Even though in his eyes Jian Chen was still very weak, because the artifact spirit had already been utterly terrified by the sword spirits, he did not dare to show any disrespect at all. How could the person who was referred to as master by the sword spirits be someone ordinary?
A sliver of disappointment appeared in Jian Chen’s eyes. The artifact spirit soon left after being thanked.
With the spirit’s departure, the only people left in the cave was Jian Chen and the white tiger. Jian Chen stood up and stared at the human-sized tiger with complicated emotions. In his eyes, there was joy as he sighed emotionally, “Xiao Bai, you’re now much more formidable than before.”
The human-sized tiger was indeed much more formidable than before. He carried the air of a king, a respected lord of great status, someone who lead thousands upon thousands of horses and men.
“Mrrr…” Xiao Bai gave out a deep growl. It rubbed its big head affectionately against Jian Chen’s face. Even though it was Class 6 now, Jian Chen’s status, as always, remained the same to it.
Currently Xiao Bai seemed like a gentle little lamb, greatly different from the powerful, vicious beast that had dispersed the souls of several dozen Radiant Saint Masters, pursued Yun Tian, and opposed the artifact spirit.
Jian Chen’s gaze towards the tiger was filled with gentleness. Although Xiao Bai had only followed him for a few years, Jian Chen had watched the tiger grow to such a level from a cub who could not even walk. Their relationship was deep, like a father’s and son’s, much more complicated that what ordinary people could imagine.
Jian Chen rubbed Xiao Bai’s furry head before pulling out and donning a clean white robe from his Space Ring. He said, “Xiao Bai, the purpose we came here for isn’t completed yet. Let’s go deal with the proper business first. We can’t just let people collect those points like this.” With that, Jian Chen finished putting on his clothes. He walked towards the exit of the cave.
“Mrrrr…” The white tiger’s large body shrank quickly, becoming the size of a small cat once again. With a light leap, it landed solidly on Jian Chen’s shoulder, lying there idly.
Jian Chen smiled, before affectionately rubbing the white tiger’s fist-sized head. He arrived outside.
Currently it had only been half an hour since Jian Chen was injured, so the Radiant Saint Masters that had gathered outside to look on had yet to fully disperse. No matter if it was Zaar Tilos’ Saint King strike, or the roar of a beast of antiquity ending the souls of several dozen people, the whole matter had dealt an extremely heavy blow to their hearts.
The moment Jian Chen emerged from the cave and appeared before everyone, all the people gathered outside shuddered. They unconsciously retreated a distance, and stared at Jian Chen like they were staring at a monster. Their faces were filled with disbelief.
None of them could believe that after taking a strike from a Saint King, not only did Jian Chen survive, but he had even recovered completely so quickly. He seemed like he was completely fine, as if the attack had not hurt him at all.
“Wha- why’s this? Jian Chen was clearly heavily injured. Even if he didn’t die, it definitely would’ve been unpleasant. How did he fully recover so quickly?”
Currently, similar thoughts appeared in the minds of all the people. Even Kara Liwei and Quan Youcai, who hurried over from the distance, were stunned by this. However, even more gazes gathered on the currently cat-sized white tiger on Jian Chen’s shoulder.
Due to the white tiger’s gentle-looking appearance on Jian Chen’s shoulder, all the Radiant Saint Masters present could not help but feel envy and admiration in their heart. They all sighed that Yang Yutian was just too lucky, to actually be so deeply connected with a beast of antiquity.
Jian Chen looked around before quickly focusing on the specks of white light floating in the sky. The specks of white light were the points from the Radiant Saint Masters who had ganged up on Jian Chen. After having their souls obliterated by the white tiger’s roar, all of the points they had collected naturally burst out. There were over a thousand points.
The points floated in the air, but no one dared to go collect it.
Glancing over the points floating in the air, Jian Chen revealed a sliver of joy. He did not hold back at all, immediately collecting some of them. Very soon Jian Chen’s points exceeded seven hundred, a value high enough to stably stand within the top ten.
Jian Chen stopped his collection of points. Looking towards a section of the crowd, he cried out, “Quan Youcai!”
Hearing his name being called out Quan Youcai involuntarily jerked, before immediately flying out of the crowd with a dazzling smile. At first he glanced over the white tiger on Jian Chen’s shoulder in fear, before looking at Jian Chen with a smile that stretched from ear to ear, “Brother Yang Yutian, I never thought you’d still remember Quan Youcai. It’s overwhelming me with honor. If there is anything brother Yang Yutian needs me for, I will definitely give it all I have.”
Although Jian Chen’s friendship with Quan Youcai was not very deep, Quan Youcai had come out to help him fend off enemies under the risk of offending both the Zaar family and Yun Tian. No matter what, Jian Chen could not forget this, even though he knew that Quan Youcai had done it for the three great Radiant Artes.
“Quan Youcai, I already have enough points. Take the rest of it - it should be enough to get you into the top ten.” Jian Chen said indifferently.
Quan Youcai was overjoyed. After thanking him many times, he immediately began to collect the remaining points in a flurry. As for the Radiant Saint Masters that had followed Quan Youcai here, they all wore expressions of regret. If they had known earlier that the remuneration would be so great, they definitely would not have chosen to just watch on.
“Yang Yutian, your injuries?” Kara Liwei stared at Jian Cen in both surprise and bewilderment. Even though it was happening in front of her eyes, she struggled to believe that Jian Chen could recover so quickly from a Saint King’s strike.
Jian Chen clasped his hands at Kara Liwei, “Thank you for Miss Kara Liwei’s concern. My injuries have already completely healed and they’re no longer a problem. I definitely will not forget Miss Kara Liwei’s kindness in helping out earlier.”
Afterwards, all the Radiant Saint Masters dispersed one by one, but Jian Chen did not leave. Instead, he returned to the cave, waiting quietly for the competition to end and the artifact space to close up. Now that he had collected enough points, placing in the top ten was something set in stone. He did not need to continue to fight with people for mere points.
Quan Youcai did not leave either. Instead, he stayed behind with Jian Chen shamelessly, but he ended up becoming Jian Chen’s manpower. Under Jian Chen’s orders Quan Youcai buried the several dozen Radiant Saint Masters who had been killed by the white tiger’s roar, while the Space Rings they carried all ended up with Jian Chen.
Kara Liwei did not stay with Jian Chen and instead continued to pursue the remaining competitors, collecting their points.
With all that had happened Jian Chen’s name became even more well-known among the Radiant Saint Masters, and the matter about the beast of antiquity was naturally learned by everyone. He could anticipate that once the competition ended and all the competitors were sent out, the news of Yang Yutian’s beast of antiquity would spread across the entire Holy Empire and even to further lands in an extremely short amount of time.
Jian Chen did not do anything at all to stop this. This was because he knew that the identity of the Winged Tiger God would not be exposed so easily, due to the extremely low number of people who actually knew about the Winged Tiger God. In addition, the identity of a beast of antiquity was not necessarily bad for the white tiger, as it helped it conceal its true identity.
What really made Jian Chen worry was how he was going to handle the Zaar family after leaving the artifact.
Outside the artifact space, white light constantly flashed in the huge square outside the headquarters of the Radiant Saint Union in the City of God. With each flash, a person appeared in the empty square. These people were the competitors who had failed within the artifact space and were sent out by the artifact’s energy.