If someone could see the inside of Gongyi Tianheng’s body, they’d discover that a set of formerly light-gray bone pearls had become dark-gray. They constantly revolved within their acupoints and almost produced a whistling noise, like countless gusts of wind shuttling back and forth. However, it definitely wasn’t a wind. That thing traveling back and forth inside was a surge of black gas that formed into a swimming dragon, erupting with frightening power!
At the same time, after that black gas shuttled between the bone pearls, it faced towards a Heavenly Spirit Acupoint and dashed over. It constantly squeezed and condensed, combining with countless strands of true qi from other bone pearls before unleashing a sudden and violent boom!
In a split second, a bone pearl was formed!
From this moment on, Gongyi Tianheng had broken through to the Xiantian Realm!
Yet, this Heavenly Spirit Bone Pearl was still snow-white.
On the contrary, that complete set of bone pearls that had absorbed the poison gas had changed into a light-black at this moment.
Tianheng could detect that there was an insurgence of thoughts filled with a concentrated negative energy, which converged from a higher power. This negative energy also gradually vanished into that set of light-black bone pearls, becoming a part of them. Combined with the poison gas and true qi in the bone pearls, the negative energy was gradually a.s.similated.
It seemed this had formed a new kind of power, which bore a sinister flavor. He could sense that if he prompted this negative energy, all of his martial skill moves would carry this flavor. He could even instantaneously imbue this negative energy with toxins — To put it briefly, while the functionality of the poison gas was still present, it seemed that the negative energy could contain things other than just the poison gas. Filling the gaps would strengthen the negative energy’s might!
Merely, Gongyi Tianheng was unable to find out what he still currently needed. If he wanted to continue strengthening the negative energy, he could only absorb countless toxins first.
Even though he already advanced to Xiantian, this thirst for toxins would only deepen.
What was even stranger was Tianheng had found that after he started absorbing ambient qi again, the true qi stored in his body had undergone a change. There was still true qi within the other bone pearls, but only the things that entered the light-black bone pearls would transform into negative energy.
— After the successful breakthrough, Gongyi Tianheng opened his eyes.
What he encountered was Gu Zuo’s concerned features.
Tianheng’s expression was gentle: "Ah Zuo, I’m alright."
Gu Zuo’s psychic power was extremely keen. At this time, it was seen that his dear big brother had a smooth breakthrough. He promptly smiled and said: "Congratulations, big brother, for your advancement to the Xiantian Realm!"
Tianheng smiled and stood up: "It’s thanks to Ah Zuo for giving me that Poison Pill."
Gu Zuo shook his head: "It’s big brother’s astonishing IQ."
Seeing Tianheng’s success, it was only natural that Dragon One and Dragon Two were incomparably happy. The other five enslaved martial artists also didn’t dare to be casual.
First of all, one shouldn’t say that they were being controlled. Even if there wasn’t any control, in the end, they had relied on the Xiantian Pill to have this kind of quick breakthrough. As for this master of theirs, he was unexpectedly completely self-reliant. He wasn’t a full twenty years old and could become a Xiantian martial artist. These prospects were really too powerful compared to them.
Gongyi Tianheng satisfyingly opened his five fingers and reached out to faintly grab something.
The slender qi flow, which was twisting between his fingers, produced a slight qi explosion in this grasp.
It could clearly be seen that the power contained was extremely frightful!
Gu Zuo could detect that the pressure that the current Tianheng gave off was several times greater than the previous Tianheng. His heart couldn’t help being a little curious: "Big brother, about how many times stronger are you now than before your breakthrough?"
Tianheng closed his eyes and faint perceived things. He raised one finger.
Gu Zuo stared: "Only one? That’s impossible..."
Tianheng’s eyes carried a trace of mischief: "One hundred times."
Gu Zuo: "..."
This was also impossible!
Tianheng saw this shocked expression of his and no longer joked around. Rather, his expression normalized and he stated: "At least ten-fold. I can easily slay wild beasts of grade seven and below. If it’s a martial artist, I can fight on par with a Qi Gathering Realm stage three martial artist. I’d have a hard time dealing with Qi Forming Realm martial artists."
Gu Zuo was speechless.
So to say, this big brother of his could deal with a Xiantian stage six martial artist? As for Xiantian stage seven and above, he also wasn’t completely without the strength to strike back?
With this kind of talk, were there no opponents with realms equal to his big brother?
So powerful.
The Tiandu Body was so scary!
Gu Zuo evaluated himself.
His psychic power was also very good and his sneak attacks were especially cool. But if one wanted to talk about his fighting strength, the maximum limit he could protect himself against was Xiantian stage three and below. Any higher and there wasn’t a guarantee that hey could injure the other guy even if he set up an ambush. Moreover, a moment of inattention could allow him to be sensed by someone. Perhaps the other would already avoid it before he even acted... Ah, he really didn’t have the fierce strength of his big brother.
However, when he thought about it again, Gu Zuo calmed down.
He was a pharmacist, and his skills were the most important.
In addition, the more medicinal pills he refined, the more item books he obtained. He also gradually discovered that he actually needed to defend himself. He definitely couldn’t only rely on his psychic power and nothing else.
For example, a few Trick Pills with strange effects?
When he had free time, he could refine quite a few.
With his thoughts in a mess, Gu Zuo flung his head back and reined in his train of thought which was flying away: "Right now, big brother has broken through to Xiantian and isn’t twenty years old yet. You can directly become an inner sect disciple."
Gongyi Tianheng nodded his head.
Gu Zuo asked straightforwardly: "Then, how does big brother feel about it?"
Tianheng pondered for a little bit: "First, let’s take on the Xiaowu Leaderboard."
Tianheng led Gu Zuo over to the Xiaowu PaG.o.da.
His subordinates and slaves all had their own arrangements and thus didn’t follow along.
The Xiaowu PaG.o.da was located in the outer sect and was the place where outer sect disciples normally went to in order to compare notes and spar. It was also the place outer sect disciples most frequently visited. On the Xiaowu PaG.o.da’s exterior was an expansive leaderboard. What was written upon it were the rankings of outer sect disciples who crashed their way through the Xiaowu PaG.o.da.
The Xiaowu Leaderboard’s ranking represented a martial artist’s reputation and strength.
Those who were capable of appearing on the Leaderboard for a long time also could be noticed and roped in by inner sect intermediaries in advance even if they hadn’t broken through to Xiantian. As for those who held the top ranks for long periods, once they broke through to Xiantian, they might not necessarily receive the a.s.sessment and could directly enter the inner sect, even if their age exceeded twenty years.
— This definitely wasn’t unusual. Because, not only did the Xiaowu PaG.o.da let outer sect disciples to compare notes, this was also the location where outer sect disciples were evaluated to enter the inner sect.
The a.s.sessment’s contents resembled the contents of taking on the paG.o.da. Those guys who could usurp the leaderboard should already have been considered to have pa.s.sed the test.
When they arrived, Gu Zuo saw a paG.o.da in front of him. It was called the Xiaowu PaG.o.da, but the dwelling wasn’t the least bit small. One could see with a casual sweep that it had a dozen or so floors. It was much taller than the majority of paG.o.das he’d seen in the modern era. This paG.o.da looked simple and unadorned, but the interior was a place of charm and beauty. There was a total of six paG.o.da gates, and each one could accommodate six outer sect disciples entering at the same time.
Right now, there were very many outer sect disciples entering and exiting.
Seeing how some outer sect disciples entered optimistically and came out with dejection on their faces, Gu Zuo noticed that this Xiaowu PaG.o.da wasn’t easy to take on. Then, he looked off to the side at a stone tablet’s golden leaderboard. The names written on it were already set and were ones that rarely changed.
Gu Zuo clearly saw that the one on that leaderboard he recognized, Kang Wenhong, was in seventh place. As for that You Jiong, he was in ninth place. Two people he took seriously were experts among the outer sect’s top ten — Yes, in addition to those previously mentioned, the Xiaowu Leaderboard also represented the outer sect’s powerhouses.
Thus, if a martial artist wanted to develop their influence and increase their reputation in the outer sect, they would have to take a stand.
Currently, however, there was a problem.
Previously, Gongyi Tianheng had been preoccupied with trifling matters and couldn’t challenge the leaderboard. How could he challenge it now that he was already a Xiantian martial artist? It was said that this Xiaowu PaG.o.da was only opened to Houtian martial artists, so could Xiantian martial artists go, too? But if they went, it wouldn’t be too fair for other disciples... The grand Qingyun Sect shouldn’t have overlooked this point.
Just as he was thinking, Tianheng pat Gu Zuo’s shoulder, leading him to turn towards another direction.
Gu Zuo stared.
Gongyi Tianheng said: "For the time being, I’ll go challenge the paG.o.da. Is it okay for Ah Zuo to wait for me here?"
After his explanation, Gu Zuo then realized that while the Xiaowu PaG.o.da had more than ten floors, the first nine floors corresponded to the Houtian Realm’s nine stages, which martial artists used to improve themselves. The region from the tenth floor and onwards was where Xiantian martial artists could eke out success. The outer sect disciples who wanted to take the a.s.sessment usually stayed on these floors.
The number of outer sect disciples was too high. Although it could be argued that Meridian Condensing peak stage three martial artists were the strongest ones, they were no match for some martial artists who’d broken through to the Xiantian Realm. During the short time when they’d yet to pa.s.s the a.s.sessment, they’d have to stay in the outer sect. They could also challenge the tenth floor and above.
It was just that Xiantian martial artists weren’t included among the Xiaowu Leaderboard’s rankings. Normally, a Xiantian martial artist could crash their way through several times before being able to enter the inner sect. To them, these rankings were completely meaningless.
Of course, Gu Zuo politely agreed: "Okay, I’ll wait here for big brother to come out."
Gongyi Tianheng gave him a smile and walked towards the Xiaowu PaG.o.da.
At this time, it just so happened that the positions in the paG.o.da weren’t yet full. Tianheng brought his outer sect disciple token and smoothly entered the paG.o.da gate. Immediately after that, a certain side of the Xiaowu PaG.o.da flashed with light — This showed the activation of the paG.o.da’s closure.
Only, it was a pity that those outside basically wouldn’t know what was happening, nor see how the martial artists within were challenging the paG.o.da.
To put it simply, the people outside were ones who had to sit and wait.
Gu Zuo watched the paG.o.da for a little while. After discovering that the second floor of the paG.o.da was activated in a brief period of time, his heart rested easy.
The several floors above were also Houtian Realm floors. To his big brother, it would be a piece of cake!
After waiting for a while, Gu Zuo looked around and came to several places where one could sit down.
The vicinity of the Xiaowu PaG.o.da had many vendors. The people who maintained the booths were mostly all nominal disciples. They sold things like medicinal pills, food, and tea. The life of an outer sect disciple wasn’t easy. If there was a chance to make some money to earn a living, then one should do their best to do so.
This was a pretty good place for it — Inevitably there’d be people who wanted to come by to issue a challenge, right? Maybe they would get help to form a group. Maybe they’d bring some subordinates to wait outside for them. On occasion, there’d be some who challenged the paG.o.da at the same time and were distrustful of each other, wanting to start a fight. This could attract many people who enjoyed watching such bustling scenes. There were even more of this kind of spectator.
And with more people, wouldn’t they need a place to rest? Besides resting, wouldn’t they get hungry or thirsty? Wouldn’t they want to eat or drink something? Otherwise, they’d get injured when it was time to fight. Also, wouldn’t they need to buy some pills?
In addition, it was because there was a lot of people here that some outer sect disciples tried their luck here when they couldn’t sell their stuff in comparatively larger booths at the Qingyun Sect’s Market Street. Maybe it could give them extra revenue or let them exchange for items that were useful to them?
The place Gu Zuo took a seat was at a tea shack.
He’d been standing in front of the paG.o.da for a while and felt a little conspicuous. With no on in front or behind him, he felt a bit insecure. In the end, this tea shack was unique. The back had something to block the wind and there were a couple other disciples inside. He went to a corner and sat down — Immediately, his sense of security returned.
As for the tea... He ordered a pot in pa.s.sing.
It was said that this one used a first-rate, thirst-quenching tea infusion. A pot worth one gold arrived. He drank it and there wasn’t any profound feeling, but there was a bit of taste to it. On the contrary, the thirst-quenching was true.
He could afford this bit of money.
It was rare to have a bit of time to wait contentedly. Gu Zuo suddenly heard the sounds of a dispute, and he turned his head to get a look. It was two groups of people making a ruckus.
Both sides didn’t look like they were easy to handle, and they were pushing and shoving each other. There were several nominal disciples who were even revealing weapons. It looked as if they were going to start fighting.
Gu Zuo felt it was a little strange.
He’d read through the outer sect’s rules, and apparently, fellow disciples couldn’t casually a.s.sault one another... Even if there was justification for hitting, taking a person’s life wasn’t allowed. Don’t even mention the instability of a "wide-scale armed confrontation".
— Wait a minute.
Gu Zuo paused abruptly.
He suddenly found a familiar face among the crowd of disciples!
Although, he didn’t remember the name... He should’ve been a member of the Duanmu Clan.
But how could a member of the Duanmu Clan casually stir up trouble? Could it be that Cang Yu and them had encountered some matters that were out of their control?
Just as Gu Zuo was thinking this, the two groups of people really broke out into a fight.
It was a chaotic melee. Both side’s strengths were comparatively equal, so the outcome wouldn’t be revealed at the moment. The spectators standing on the sides also gradually increased, and the tea shack slowly filled with lots of people.
Basically, everyone watched the fight with schadenfreude.
Gu Zuo had no relationship with the others, and it wasn’t good to go over to ask about the whole sequence of events. Thus, he strained his ears in an attempt to filter out the insider information.
Facts had proven that, no matter the location, there’d always be those who knew more than others and were impatient to show off their first-hand knowledge. However, it was also a fact that these people kept others become well-informed.
Following this, Gu Zuo clearly heard that this was a matter of one side wanting to crush and rob the other. As for the other group’s unwillingness to resist, that group’s leader found that the levels of this group of people weren’t weaker than their own. With rather fierce fighting, the outcome of this cliche narrative wouldn’t appear for some time.
...But why did he feel that perhaps this matter wasn’t so simple?
Very quickly, Gu Zuo heard someone in the tea shack let out a scoff: "All this talk is baseless hearsay! A robbery is a robbery. Such a pompous provocation isn’t idiocy, there’s an ulterior motive."
Other people had some reactions to his words.
Ah, right! Such a noisy robbery was completely idiotic. Being discovered with great fanfare and not being willing to reconcile things in private was even more idiotic!
Later, someone recognized something and softly responded: "Shhh—"
"What?"
"There’s someone in the middle of a showdown. I heard someone getting ticked off right outside. One of them isn’t willing to let matters rest and the other also got aggravated. Both want to trample each other!"
"An arch-nemesis?"
"Right! They’re arch-nemeses!"
For a moment, many people were giving comments one after another.
"Since they’re arch-nemeses, this kind of action seems small-scale..."
"There’s nothing to be done. They still can’t drop all pretenses. The two have... En, they both have backers. There’s also a contest behind the scenes. One side is determined and the other side isn’t willing to concede. So they’re still in the middle of a dispute..."
"So it’s like this. The smell of gunpowder is getting thicker!"
"Quiet down. Don’t follow the crowds for a closer look!"
Gu Zuo listened and listened, and increasingly became aware of this familiarity. He suddenly understood.
This definitely was that d.a.m.nable You Jiong!
At that time, their group had saved Kang Wenhong. After returning, he must’ve made trouble for You Jiong. As a matter of fact, was this that matter’s follow-up? While the specific circ.u.mstances were unknown, it currently looked like one group was You Jiong’s faction and the other had a Duanmu Clan descendant, which should’ve been Kang Wenhong’s person. Otherwise, perhaps it was possible that they’d made friends with someone else afterwards and were deliberately suppressed by You Jiong’s people, releasing a mouthful of resentment?
In the end, it was unknown whether Kang Wenhong was in charge.
Gu Zuo thought of this, and let out a sigh.
With too little information, the situation was unclear to him. After returning, he hadn’t heard how they were doing. During that time’s a.s.sistance to Kang Wenhong, Gongyi Tianheng had let Cang Yu and the others lead Kang Wenhong back first. This was accepted tacitly for Cang Yu to engage with the network related to Kang Wenhong. Right now, it seemed like there was still a troublesome remnant that hadn’t been swept clean.
Only, from the looks of it, even if Kang Wenhong hadn’t arrived, Cang Yu should’ve also obtained the news and come to help.
As expected, Gu Zuo didn’t think wrongly.
Over yonder, the two groups’ dispute had reached the boiling point, and the fighting between both sides quickly erupted into flames. Suddenly, a dozen people aggressively rushed over, but they definitely didn’t come to join the fight. Rather, they started to intervene.
The person in the lead shouted: "For all of you who don’t stop, once Kang Wenhong gets here, it’ll be too late to regret! The matter is that you all looted your fellow disciples first. If you don’t stay your hands, don’t cry about receiving the Disciplinary Hall’s punishment!"
Those people’s faces quickly flashed with panic, but those unaware were still reluctant to admit their mistakes: "Who’s afraid? You say we looted, but do you have proof? Without proof, the Disciplinary Hall is just making false accusations! Moreover, you’re all being malicious. Treating us so ruthlessly is truly without justification!"
After that, the group that started the provocation unexpectedly began fighting and struggling even more fiercely, dragging those who tried to intervene into the melee. With the appearance of wild tigers, it was looking like those who hadn’t played a big role weren’t willing to let it go!
Gu Zuo stared blankly.
Obviously, those people were scared. This appearance right now... Why did it have that feeling of injuring a thousand enemies for the price of harming eight hundred of their own? No, no, no. It was more like mutual destruction! Could everyone go to the Disciplinary Hall together? This wasn’t the question of explaining any justification. This was one specialized by an evil-hearted person!
Other spectating martial artists all saw it.
They also thought that this ruckus had the feeling of...approaching storm clouds.
In the end, this "armed confrontation" couldn’t have been stopped in advance. One side fought like their lives depended on it and, consequently, the other side had no choice but to sullenly fight back. Nothing could be done. There were so many people.
In a crowded, public s.p.a.ce, if someone accidentally killed their opponent, wouldn’t that person who was originally justified become an unlucky rule breaker? Unfortunately, it seemed as if each and every one of them wanted to clash weapons with their chests held high. It was both shameless and reckless!
In actuality... In actuality it was too depressing!
As more time pa.s.sed, the few among that group of people became even more frenzied. They suddenly lashed out, and bodies were deeply wounded. The other group was also extremely cautious. They seemed clear about a matter, lest they really did something irreversible.
Even though it was like this, the qi energy of those people became weaker and weaker, and their bodies suffered serious injuries...
Suddenly, a severe shout could be heard from the sky: "I command you to stop!"
When those words were spoken, several dozen chains descended from the sky and wrapped up the martial artists still fighting on both sides. The chains were locked up, preventing them from taking action again.
Gu Zuo faintly squinted his eyes.
Just then, he carefully used his psychic power to carefully look it over. The chains that bound Duanmu’s group seemed to be a bit tighter than the ones that bound the other group. And the chains that bound them was loosening a lot.
There was a problem!
In the blink of an eye, a seriously injured person, who was filled with grief and indignation, dragged the chains and stumbled forward. The other side never antic.i.p.ated that he could still rebel like this. There wasn’t enough time to sheathe their weapons before it already pierced through the injured person’s body! The injured person twitched for a moment before dying just like that. It seemed as if he was still wanted to ask questions while under the urge, but the other side took the opportunity to kill him!
This was...totally unexpected!
At the same time, several Disciplinary Hall members dropped down from a flying wild beast high in the sky. The leader immediately shouted: "You sure have guts to dare slaughter your fellow disciple in the presence of my Disciplinary Hall!"
Gu Zuo’s heart shuddered.
This was a set up!
There was certainly a conspiracy afoot!
The person whose hand was holding the weapon was...none other than that Duanmu Clan descendant.
T/N: Slowly making lots of small retroactive changes throughout the entire translation thus far. If you notice sudden discrepancies, don’t be alarmed. It will take me time to go through all the chapters.
