Chapter 177 - I Will Battle
Feng Shouzhu inhaled a deep breath of air, just when he was about to make his decision, Zhong Yue suddenly stood up, bowed and said, “Elder, I’ve advanced into the level of Awakening.”
Feng Shouzhu was on the verge of saying ‘Lei Teng will the battler,’ but when he heard Zhong Yue, he was stunned and mumbled to himself, “You’ve advanced into the level of Awakening … wait, what? You’ve advanced into the level of Awakening? You’ve successfully opened the realm?”He sprung up like a spring while gazing unbelievably at Zhong Yue, shocked and overjoyed, he said, “You’ve really successfully opened the wheel, opened the Yuan Shen secret realm?”
Zhong Yue nodded and replied smilingly, “I’ve just done it yesterday, I’ve opened the realms and become an Awakening Qi Practitioner.”
Feng Shouzhu took in a deep breath of air, joy climbed onto his face, he babbled, “Good child, good child, unexpectedly, you’ve opened the realm yourself … High priest, for the third round, the battler of the Swords Gate Awakening Qi Practitioner will be, Zhong Yue of the Zhong Shan Clan!”
Lei Teng who was readied for combat on the side opened his eyes widely as he could not believe his ears, gazing at Feng Shouzhu and Zhong Yue in low spirits.
Zuo Xiangsheng, Tian Yanzhong and the others were also feeling out of sorts, not knowing why Feng Shouzhu would made such an absurd decision.
Tian Yanzhong yelled loudly, “Elder Feng, Junior Martial Brother Zhong has just advanced into the level of Awakening, how could he be the battler? There is a great disparity in combat prowess between one newly opened realm and all five cultivated realms!”
Zuo Xiangsheng and the others nodded, they were all puzzled at Feng Shouzhu’s decision.
Even the high priest of the Xiao Mang celestial temple was shocked, staring at Xiao Chuqing in disbelief and exclaiming involuntarily, “Brother Shouzhu, you just said that there wouldn’t be any surprises, but you are giving me the shock of my life! This Zhong Shan Clan member has just broken through to the level of Awakening, and you’ve decided to send him up? Do you have any grudges or hatred towards him? Are you trying to make use of my celestial race to exterminate him?”
Feng Shouzhu laughed out loud in a voice that could be taken as either sincerity or sarcasm, “This brat is an arrogant, obstinate and rebellious rascal of my Swords Gate. Never once has he attended any classes, it’s been a long time I’ve wanted to bash on him. And during this trip to the celestial race, I’ve told them and warned them, asking them to learn to endure, to refrain from acting recklessly; and yet, look at what he’s done; ignoring my words and killing two celestial disciples. I’ve had enough of this rascal. This round, I’ll send him up, and the high priest must choose a strong and formidable opponent for him, help me teach him a lesson!”
His words threw the high priest out of sorts, the Shen Ya, Gui Shen, and Shan Shen Celestial Races were all aware that Feng Shouzhu was joking. However, for a reticent and unsmiling old man like Feng Shouzhu, making jokes would be very unusual.
The high priest of Xiao Mang Celestial Race hesitated and said, “This Zhong Shan Clan member has just advanced into the level of Awakening?”
Feng Shouzhu nodded and replied smiling, “Just yesterday.”
The high priest asked again, “The day before, he was still a Rebirth Qi Practitioner?”
“That’s true.” Feng Shouzhu nodded again, smiles continuing to overtake his wrinkled face.
The high priest then asked again, “You’ve sent up a human Qi Practitioner who has just advanced into the level of Awakening, and asked him to battle with my Awakening Qi Practitioner who has opened all five realms. Brother Shouzhu, is your brain working fine?”
Feng Shouzhu ignored the question and said smilingly, “Please, may the high priest help me in teaching him a lesson, let him know the immensity of heaven and earth.”
The high priest pondered deeply, trying to figure out what gave Feng Shouzhu the confidence to send a newly-advanced Awakening Qi Practitioner to battle, he then said, “Xiao Jin, since Brother Shouzhu wants this Zhong Shan Clan member’s life, we shall grant him his wish. You will battle!”
A celestial lady bowed and walked over. Behind her, a two hundred feet tall Pan Ao Yuan Shen appeared, and one after another, five light wheels emerged out from within the Yuan Shen —Zheng zheng zheng. They were spinning elegantly while emanating multicolored rays, she lifted her head up and cast her gaze over at Zhong Yue.
Zhong Yue smiled back, a two hundred feet tall Golden Crow Yuan Shen emerged —Wong— a light wheel emerged emanating multicolored rays — the Wu Xing Wheel.
The smallest wheel of all five wheels, the Dao Yi Wheel, was ten feet long, while the largest Wan Xiang Wheel was a hundred and twenty feet. In comparison, Zhong Yue’s Wu Xing Wheel was only the size of a plate. Peals of laughter rung out throughout the peanut gallery of celestial disciples as they mocked him.
Feng Shouzhu saw the ‘exquisite’ Wu Xing Wheel and his eyelids thumped violently as regret instantly swallowed his heart, This brat opened the five realms conventionally, he started with the Wu Xing Wheel! This is bad, not good! If he did it the conventional way, he wouldn’t be Xiao Jin’s match at all; sending him to battle, I might as well have chosen Lei Teng….
Zheng——
A crisp and clear sound could be heard as the Wan Xiang Wheel, which was only slightly bigger, emerged behind the Great Sun Golden Crow Yuan Shen. This caused Feng Shouzhu’s eyelids to thump again, He has opened two secret realms! This brat really surprises me a lot. But even opening the Wan Xiang Realm would not be of much use either, even the total size of his Wu Xing Wheel and Wan Xiang Wheel is smaller than her smallest wheel….
Zheng zheng zheng——
Behind the Great Sun Yuan Shen, the Shen Cai Wheel emerged, following by the Yin Yang Wheel sized like a teapot, and lastly, the Dao Yi Wheel which sized like a wine glass — the scene was utterly ridiculous!
What Xiao Jin showed were wheels, and what he had were cups; the differences were the two were enormously huge that the audience proceeded to erupt in another outburst of mocking laughter.
However, in the floating city above the celestial temple, the elder priests all stood up, their breaths were disrupted and their eyes filled with disbelief. The other Qi Practitioners might be mocking and criticizing at Zhong Yue’s little wheels, but the elder priests were feeling nothing but only deep shock!
“Opening all five secret realms in a day? What is this cultivation technique, how strong and pure must his cultivation base be?”
“All five Yuan Shen secret realms in one day, this is unheard of!”
The course of opening the five secret realms required the cultivator to cultivate step by step through the stages.
The first step was to open the Wu Xing Realm, and replace the internal organs with it, then the cultivator would cultivate and accumulate enough strength to open the next realm – the Wan Xiang Realm – which would replace the the muscles and bones. This was then followed by the Shen Cai Realm, which replaced the throat, heart, and the navel. The three aforementioned organs corresponded to heaven, earth and life. Next up, it would be the Yin Yang Realm, and finally would be the Dao Yi Realm.
These cultivation steps needed to be done one stage after another, step after step. It was impossible to open all five secret realms in one shot, or at least, the probability only existed in theory!
If the cultivator had an exceptionally pure and vigorous cumulative cultivation base, they could, in theory, open all five realms in one go even if the quantity of their cultivation base was lacking. And yet, Zhong Yue had done precisely that!
However, the five wheels from his five realms were so small, it did not look like he had the required cumulative cultivation base to open all five realms in a go.
And this, was the part that puzzled them the most!
Even Feng Shouzhu was stunned, all five realms, Zhong Yue had opened all five realms!
Did he reverse opened all five realms, or open them conventionally? If he had done it conventionally, he wouldn’t have enough cumulative cultivation base to open them all. But it’d be even stranger if he had reverse opened them. How exactly did he do it, opening all five in one shot … Feng Shouzhu was speechless from the shock.
Moments later, the white-robed priest recollected his thoughts and said, “The third round. The stage will be the celestial temples. Please, may the two combatants enter the secret realm. You will have fifteen minutes to familiarize yourselves with the stage.”
The topography in the secret realm changed abruptly, the mountains crumbled into ashes and the terrain shifted. One after another, celestial temples extruded out from the ground – dignified and majestic. The temple walls were carved with totem patterns. However, these celestial temples did not belong to the Xiao Mang Celestial Race; the totem patterns were different from the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s. The patterns depicted something huge and had long arms with eyes in their palms.
Shan Shen temple!
The temples of the Shan Shen Celestial Race were replicated in the secret realm.
The battlefields of all five battles were decided after rounds and rounds of serious discussions between Feng Shouzhu and the high priest. They fought and negotiated, each and every map was carefully selected so as to ensure that both parties would not gain geographical advantages due to their familiarity with the battlefields.
Initially, the high priest of the Xiao Mang celestial temple intended to use the Xiao Mang celestial temple as the battlefield for the third round of battle so that Xiao Jin would gain advantages from it.
After some discussions, they came to an agreement to use the Shan Shen celestial temples as the battlefield.
Many would think that organizing duels seemed to be a very easy and crude affair, needing only two Qi Practitioners to battle on the stage. But in truth, things were never as simple as they appeared. Each and every detail had to go through countless discussions, negotiations, and innumerable revisions. The discussions among the opposing parties were as much of a battle as the duels themselves!
Xiao Jin and Zhong Yue flew into the secret realm. The former did not scout around the terrain immediately, instead, she stood on the tip of the celestial temple. Rays flashed in her eyes as she looked at Zhong Yue and said softly, “You’ve come to our celestial race, and killed two of our celestial disciples?”
Zhong Yue also landed on the tip of a celestial temple, he said, “That’s right.”
Hovering in the air behind Xiao Jin was her huge Pan Ao Yuan Shen, opening her eyes wide gazing at Zhong Yue, her dreadful eyes were filled with joy, “I thought that my opponent was Lei Teng, but that man is no match for me, I will kill him, no … I will devour him raw.”
She licked her cherry mouth, the lady was in the form of a three-headed human, and all of her faces were extremely beautiful. Any one of her faces could be considered as a rarely seen beauty in the human race. One of them smiled gently and said, “However, if that’s the case, there’ll still be regrets that will lurk in my heart as I can’t kill you. Now, you are the first one to ever kill my celestial disciples in my celestial territory with absolute impunity; if you are to walk away freely unpunished, wouldn’t your existence be a living humiliation to us? Thankfully, albeit out of my expectation, you’ve broken through to the level of Awakening, and have offered yourself up to me.”
“How surprisingly this is, isn’t?” Zhong Yue replied in a smile.
“Indeed, it is.”
Xiao Jin’s second face turned over and smiled sweetly, “What an unexpected event that made me smile from ear to ear. I’ll devour you alive. One bite after another, you will be eaten away in front of your fellow humans.”
Zhong Yue was smiling as he said indifferently, “I’ll kill you, one punch after another, you will be battered to death.”
“I’ll keep you alive and let you witness your death as I devour you piece by piece.”
Xiao Jin licked her lips, her third face stared at him as she said smilingly, “Although you are now in the level of Awakening, your secret realms are too small, how strong can you possibly be? It’d be even easier and simpler for me to kill you than to kill Lei Teng.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
Zhong Yue placed his hands on the back, nonchalantly saying, “You are not the first and neither will you be the last. There’ll be more Xiao Mang celestials that’ll die by my hands. I’ve yet to instill the fear into your souls, but I’ll keep on trying, until one day, the only sound that comes out from your mouths will be that of your own moans of despair.”
Outside of the secret realm, the white-robed priest prompted them, “Challengers, fifteen minutes are almost due, the time is running out. Don’t the two of you intend to scout the terrain?”
“How is there a need to check out the terrain to kill him?” Xiao Jin chortled while gently swaying her furry and fluffy tail, appearing to be extraordinarily eerie.
“She won’t, but I will.”
Zhong Yue smiled abruptly, he then plummeted down to the ground, placing his palm softly onto the celestial temple.