As darkness fell, Xia Miaoyu left the tent to the injured Ning Chen. With no one to bother him, he sat down and began his meditation. Suddenly, a bloodstained golden scroll fell out from his upper robes filling the tent with a radiant golden aura. It then transformed into a ray of light that shot right into his Dantian, settling down within his formed Qi whirlpool, not moving an inch after.
(Dantian-> sea of qi or energy center within the body)
He stood there stock still throughout those scant few seconds, too shocked to react to the sudden change. With the situation returning to normalcy, he tried his hardest to activate his True Qi but was unable to force out the golden scroll.
With no other choice he left the matter aside for now, suppressing the anxiety within him. At the very least, he confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his body.
Just as he started to revolve his True Qi, a line of silver words flew out of the golden scroll, flowing alongside his revolving Qi as it passed through his meridians. After completing a meridian cycle, it vanished just as abruptly as it appeared.
A second later, his head was filled with shimmering projections. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that these contained the remaining portion of the cultivation method previously recorded on his golden scroll.
“This is?!”
His face fell as he skimmed through the words. Was this method even possible? The requirements were so harsh he might as well give up on it right now!
These words when put together merely showed him one skill. When used it would destroy his martial body, without any chance of survival.
“It’s really a body strengthening technique after all…”
He smiled bitterly at that thought. While the earlier portion of the words described a proper cultivation technique, the majority of them which took considerable effort on his part to decipher, described a skill that was basically worthless.
Mu Chengxue probably didn’t expect this when she gave him this technique.
Should he cultivate it or not? This was the conundrum facing him at the moment.
Truth be told, there was nothing for him to consider. After all, he didn’t know of any other skill or technique besides this.
No matter which martial technique it was, the cultivation technique and the skill both relied on and complimented each other. If one were to merely cultivate True Qi, all that would do was increase the amount of True Qi one had.
Skills required True Qi in order to activate, thus when one cultivated skills their True Qi would increase as well. Most of the time, martial practitioners would focus on cultivating skills to the point of neglecting their cultivation technique. This is because most skills had a training method that helped them condense and train their True Qi.
A pure skill such as the one described on the scroll was now a rarity in this world.
“I’ll do it.”
He sighed as he closed his eyes and began cultivating that “pure”, suicidal skill.
He knew very well that if one day he was forced to use this skill, whether or not it would kill him would probably be the least of his worries.
As the True Qi began revolving within him, his body started emitting a faint silvery light that filled the tent. A moment later, flakes of ice began forming around him, gently floating to the floor before disappearing abruptly.
At that same moment, the sword master and Xia Miaoyu opened their eyes and faced his tent; his Qi movements had formed a resonance within them.
“Looks like there’s more that I wasn’t aware of.” She murmured as she closed her eyes in thought.
Such Qi waves shouldn’t be possible in a first-grade practitioner. While it wasn’t enough to threaten her, it had even exceeded the range of what a third-grade could endure.
“He’s about to break through.” said the old man a moment later in a raspy voice as a glint appeared in his eyes.
As predicted, just as those words left his mouth, the spiritual energies outside the tent began to furiously rush towards it like a tidal wave.
“Such a huge commotion.”
By this time, a number of the experts within the capital army had begun to notice the maelstrom of spiritual energy. As if planned, the experts turned their heads in unison, their eyes fixed on what looked like a third-grade expert breaking through.
“Fine, I’ll help him just this once.”
Her brows furrowed in concentration as she sent out a wave of True Qi towards Ning Chen’s tent with a wave of her hand.
At the same time, the sword master shot out a blade of his sword Qi towards the very same tent.
With the aid of these two Ninth-grade peaks, the rampaging natural spiritual energies were forcefully suppressed by their overwhelming True Qi, which transformed the vortex into a calm stream that flowed into Ning Chen’s body. A second later, the chaotic phenomenon ended and the surroundings quieted down once more.
The wrinkles on his face faded as his pained expression slowly loosened itself, his cultivation had finally stabilized into the realm of Houtian Second-grade.
With that, the Qi surrounding him began to calm down. It was at this moment that a set of footsteps, neither too slow nor too heavy, approached the tent from a distance away.
Xia Miaoyu and the sword master immediately stepped out of their tents and peered into the distance at the approaching figure; their bodies tensed and their expressions grew grave.
The soldiers immediately put down their tasks at hand, focusing instead on the visitor’s unparalleled Qi; their faces as grave as the princess.
In the icy winds of night, a purple robe trailed in the wind as the heavy footsteps grew ever closer. The visitor was young, but he had the air of an indifferent master about him that weighed heavily on those gathered.
“The cult.”
The sword master’s face darkened as he picked up on the unique aura that only those of the cult possessed. In his youth, he had encountered such a person, the aura he felt back then was identical to the visitor’s.
The visitor stopped, his face as indifferent as ever.
“This one is called Jun Shaoqing!”
It was a simple sentence, but within it was an earth-shaking revelation. Jun Shaoqing! The divine child of the Eternal Night Cult. The strongest within the younger generation, and the strongest person under Xiantian.
As those words left his mouth, the sword master’s face fell even further. This was the worst situation possible. While they were both at the peak of Houtian, he wasn’t a match for the youth in front of him.
“Hand over the Scroll of Life and I’ll let you all go.”
Jun Shaoqing swept his eyes over the entourage before finally settling his gaze on Xia Miaoyu. Even though it appeared for just a split second, he managed to sense the scroll’s presence. If he hadn’t been so close, he would’ve missed it entirely.
“I do not possess this so called Scroll of Life, you have the wrong person.” She replied coldly.
“My apologies in advance for offending you.”
With that, the time for talking was over. He stepped forward and in an instant disappeared, reappearing right in front of the girl with his right hand outstretched.
*slash*
In that moment of danger, a wave of sword Qi sliced in between the two of them. The ancient sword had been unsheathed, with it a terrifying flash of light shot forward as the sword master sliced at the youth’s feet.
Jun Shaoqing frowned as his body flickered to the side several times, dodging the sword wave. With a wave of his left sleeve, he blasted a palm of energy towards the old sword master while simultaneously reaching out for Xia Miaoyu with his right hand.
“Hmph” She snorted, undeterred by the incoming blow. She gathered her Qi within her palm and with a leaping step, shot forward with a palm strike, whilst a sonic boom resounded from where she once stood.
*bang*
The air swirled violently around the pair as their True Qi collided in a violent clash of palms. The ground beneath their feet shattered under the massive shockwave, scattering rocky debris all over the battlefield and stunning the onlookers at the same time.
At the other side, the sword master was forced back by half a step as his sword blocked the incoming palm strike. His eyes narrowed and his blood boiled as he stared at this dangerous opponent.
In the distance, Ning Chen had long since hidden his True Qi. In this entire battlefield only he knew what the Scroll of Life was. However, due to his nondescript identity, no one had ever suspected that he held it.
What surprised him was the stir that this technique, given to him by Mu Chengxue, had caused. What surprised him even more was that someone was actually able to sense the aura of this technique.
“The Eternal Night Cult…”
His face darkened as he uttered the cult’s name. He had heard of this Jun Shaoqing before. He was a celebrity of sorts in this Divine Continent. The current Divine Child of the Eternal Night Cult was the strongest Divine Child in these past thousand years. He was barely past twenty and had already come into contact with the threshold of Xiantian. It was said that he was the most likely person to step into that fabled realm.
In order to prepare for this trip, he had gathered information about this world’s experts from Qing Ning, Jun Shaoqing was naturally included in that information.
When she touched upon this youth, she had only one word of advice for him. Run. Even if he knew that he couldn’t outrun the youth, just run.
The strongest person under the realm of Xiantian wasn’t just an empty title after all.
The Divine Child rarely stepped out of the cult’s shrine, but whenever he did, he would leave behind a shocking trail of victories.
Such an undefeated expert was naturally the object of worship for many. Even if they knew that he was a part of the Eternal Night Cult, the youth of Grand Xia still saw Jun Shaoqing as their role model to follow.
Back at the battlefield, over ten blows had been exchanged in the blink of an eye. Even against two opponents, Jun Shaoqing still held his own, his immense True Qi overwhelming his opponents with every blow.
The princess and the sword master weren’t ordinary people either, especially the princess. Each strike of her slender arms belied an uncharacteristic ruthlessness as she aimed for her opponent’s life with each strike.
Around them, the earth had been torn asunder, its barren exterior ripped to shreds, replaced by a jagged crater.
Fearing for his princess, the chief officer made the bold decision to step in. With the top seven experts of the army, he led them in a brave but foolhardy attempt at protecting their princess.
“Stop!”
The sword master shouted, his expression changed to shock as he realized what they were doing. However, it was too late.
“Fools.”
Jun Shaoqing muttered derisively as a look of annoyance crossed his face. He raised his hands, bringing forth a cataclysmic change in the heavens as the skies boomed with thunder. A violent gale ripped through the battlefield sending the eight of them flying; their pained shouts barely audible within the raging winds.
“Abyssal Thunder.”
In one frightening move, the youth caused the heavens to bend to his will; his powers exceeding the boundaries of mankind. Atop his hand, the rumbling skies boomed as if space itself was about to tear apart.
“A Feather’s Flight, The One Sword of the Heavens and Earth.”
The sword master focused his entire will into this one strike. His sword soared through the heavens, a thousand sword silhouettes combining into one feather flying ever forward ruthlessly, its target the Divine Child.
“Snow Wave Tomb.”
At the other side, Xia Miaoyu stimulated her cultivation base to its peak, sending forth a surge of True Qi. The surroundings chilled in an instant, flakes of snow rained down upon the battlefield as if heralding the advent of winter.
*boom*
As their ultimate skills clashed, it was as if the world exploded as the surrounding space began to warp. The sand surged into the air forming a curtain of sand that blocked all sight within several hundred meters.
As Ning Chen stared at the apocalyptic scene, his understanding of the world collapsed in an instant.
“Mankind can actually soar to such heights!”
Words couldn’t describe the surprise he felt as he watched the titanic battle unfold. His view of cultivation had been completely overturned by what he witnessed here today. Initially, the martial path was merely a side hobby of his, born out of the novels he read. Only now did he understand its strength that wrestled the attention of those who witnessed it.
*Argh*
As the raging sands settled, the three combatants were each on their own separate sides. A moment later, the sword master spat out a mouthful of blood, painting the soil red with his blood.
Beside him, the True Qi within Xia Miaoyu’s body trembled violently, causing a surge of blood flow throughout her injured body. Blood could be seen leaking from the sides of the girl’s slightly pale lips
In front of the pair, was an unperturbed Jun Shaoqing, his clothes slightly ruffled from the scuffle and his Qi aura just as overwhelmingly strong as before. The son of God had shocked the crowd once more with his strength.
“Hand over the Scroll of Life.”
He blandly said as he stepped forward.
It was a calm proclamation that held no threat within it and yet its pressure bore down upon the combatants like a giant hammer. A short distance away, the officer and his seven experts collapsed in a puddle of blood. One by one, they slowly breathed their last.
“Impossible.” She curtly replied, her anger roused by his actions.
“Pity.”
He sighed, what he lamented, no one knew. He began to channel his True Qi. From the scale of it, this was to be the final blow of this battle.
It was at this moment that a sinister and icy Qi aura flashed past in the distance. Shaoqing’s expression darkened as he immediately withdrew his Qi and took off in a flash of light, teleporting out of sight in the blink of an eye.
The sudden turn of events left the pair stunned. A moment later, Xia Miaoyu came back to her senses and in a deep voice, proclaimed, “Break camp, we set off immediately.”
“Understood.”
The soldiers responded in unison as they rushed about packing up their tents. Standing between the tents, a look of disappointment crossed the Zhenji emissary’s face. However, he immediately hid it, not daring to openly express his feelings as he started packing up his tent as well.
Such a pity, if she had died in the hands of the Divine Child, it would’ve been the best possible outcome for Zhenji.
Not only would it worsen the tensions between these two factions, it would also give Zhenji an excuse to renege on the deal.
That person had predicted that the Divine Child would come. However, his sudden departure was unexpected.
Everyone knew of Grand Xia’s fortune yet who would’ve thought that it extended to a princess who wasn’t a direct kin of the Emperor.
In this world, every dynasty, every man had a fate of their own. The strongest of them all was Grand Xia, followed by the Eternal Night Cult with the Mongols coming in third. Yet, when it came to the art of reading fate, there was no one in this world who could do so except for that inhumanly intelligent military strategist of the Mongols.
The fortunes of Grand Xia was in the end, the largest obstacle placed in front of the factions of this world…
