Chapter 524: Chapter 523: Fairy on the Rooftop
"Although the Yi Sword Skill is a first-rate intermediate sword skill, it doesn’t have specific moves, and its power is somewhat inferior to the Death Claiming Fifteenth Sword."
Shi Xiaole smiled contentedly.
Having mastered the complete Death Claiming Fifteenth Sword and enhanced it with thirty percent of Demonic True Intent, his strength had truly reached the Intermediate Lord Level.
However, he must be the weakest at this level. The fact that he had killed two Elders of the Hell Gate with two strokes was greatly due to the Red Dragon Sword he held.
Unfortunately, neither the Red Dragon Sword nor the Demonic True Intent could be revealed in public, thus, Shi Xiaole was still considered to have the strength of a low-level Lord on the surface.
He searched the two elders and only found two pairs of lower-grade spirit-level gloves and several hundred silver notes. Nothing else.
Experienced martial world practitioners, except for their weapons, would not keep valuable items on them, in case they ended up in the hands of the enemy. Shi Xiaole had no choice but to sit cross-legged on the spot and regulate his breathing.
After about a half 2-hour period, the array plate automatically cracked and the Binding Heaven Array also disappeared. Shi Xiaole didn’t delay and swiftly left the scene.
...
This was a gloomy hilltop. Starting halfway up the hill, a large number of palaces could be seen, surrounded by buildings, artificial mountains and lakes. However, whether it was the palaces, artificial mountains, lakes or even the trees, everything was engulfed in grey.
It was as if a colourful world had been filtered into a purely grey hue, creating an overwhelming sense of depression and coldness.
In the palace at the center of the mountain, two people were playing a game of Go.
One was a stunning young man with thick eyebrows and slightly thick lips. Although he appeared modest, there was a certain evil vibe about him.
The other was a seemingly refined middle-aged scholar.
"Young Master Lin, today a crow cried at the door; a bad omen might be upon us."
Placing a black stone on the go board, the middle-aged scholar frowned as he spoke.
The young man across the table with an evil aura remained silent, his expression unchanged, just pondering over the Go game, planning his every move.
Half a 2-hour period later, he beat the middle-aged scholar by three pieces.
"No wonder Young Master Lin, at such a young age, has achieved great accomplishments, and even the elders at the headquarters look at you differently. Just this kind of composure makes students like me look up to you."
The middle-aged scholar sincerely admired.
The young man with the evil aura showed his dimples and said, "Mr. Liu, you mentioned earlier that a bad omen might be upon us. It seems that you were implying something. Would you care to tell me?"
The middle-aged scholar took out a rusted copper coin from his bosom and laughed, "I consult the I Ching every three days. Today I happen to have spare energy, so I’ll seek some insight for Young Master Lin."
While muttering to himself, he moved his hands over the copper coin which trembled slightly in the center of the table. Lin Jiyang could clearly feel that a mysterious aura was being drawn in from all around.
"Rise."
The copper coin suddenly sprung up and quickly fell back on the table. The middle-aged scholar took a look and said, "Bad news. Young Master Lin, did you recently send out any trusted aides? They’ve been killed."
Lin Jiyang laughed and asked, "How did you figure this out?"
"These are some of the methods I learned from my master. They are not worth mentioning."
Without intent to delve further, Lin Jiyang continued to smile, "In that case, can you tell me who killed my trusted aides?"
The middle-aged scholar just stared at the copper coin, and his face first showed disbelief, then extreme shock. He doubted, "Strange, I can’t see the life phase of the murderer, as if it’s covered in a fog. This is a natural phenomenon, just like Young Master Lin!"
"Oh?"
Lin Jiyang’s eyes flashed, he said, "Recently I did send my trusted aides out to handle something. Since the murderer has a natural aura, I guess I know who the murderer is."
"Who?"
"The ’Green-clothed Sword Marquis,’ Shi Xiaole."
A hint of sarcasm appeared at the corner of Lin Jiyang’s mouth.
As the Young Master of a top-level division of the Flying Horse Dynasty, he naturally had his pride. In his eyes, Shi Xiaole could be considered a genius, but nothing more.
To know that the so-called Fifty Youth Talents of Shuntian Capital was a list compiled after excluding the disciplines from all the top-level divisions. It might be credible in the Martial World, but in Lin Jiyang’s circle, it was nothing more than a joke.
Even the Young Master of the division of the Divine Strategy Academy located in Xuanwu State had once admitted this fact.
So when he heard Liu Niansheng saying that Shi Xiaole was a natural phenomenon like him, Lin Jiyang’s first reaction was not surprise, but humiliation!
What Lin Jiyang didn’t know was that Liu Niansheng had lied to him.
Shi Xiaole was not a natural phenomenon at all, but a void. He had no life phase, no fate, no past or future. Everything about him was void.
Compared to this, Lin Jiyang’s so-called natural phenomenon could only be called ordinary.
For some inexplicable reason, Liu Niansheng became infinitely curious about Shi Xiaole, he said, "This person may pose a certain threat to Young Master Lin. Last time you saved me, and I had no way to repay you. This time, let me take a trip and remove this threat for Young Master Lin."
"If it can be avoided, then avoid it. If such a talent could be recruited under my command, wouldn’t that be better?"
The best way to seek revenge on a person is not to kill him, but to control him, to make him work for you like a bull and a horse.
"Haha, Young Master Lin really has an extraordinary tolerance."
After Liu Niansheng left, Lin Jiyang’s smile faded, he said, "Send someone to follow him and see if he is loyal, and if he really finds Shi Xiaolen, immediately take action."
In the shadows, a figure bowed and then disappeared into the darkness.
...
"Cultivation growth is truly hard."
In the inn, Shi Xiaole woke up from his meditation, feeling somewhat helpless.
A person’s cultivation level is greatly related to his body’s foundation and ability to sustain it.
Shi Xiaole’s foundation is undoubtedly robust, but his physical talent is only average, so his cultivation reached a saturation point after achieving the late stage of the Dragon Gate Realm’s seventh tier. Even with a magical skill like Karmic Conversion, he could not continue to progress.
At this moment, he couldn’t help but envy those Horizontal Practice Martial Artists. By always refining their bodies, their endurance far surpassed ordinary people. Their powers would either not progress, or, once they did, they improved by leaps and bounds—an utterly terrifying feat.
"To solve my current issue, I either need to find a relevant spirit medicine or cultivate a profound Horizontal Practice Martial Art."
However, spirit medicine that could enhance one’s physical foundation was rare—where could he easily find one?
As for the latter method, cultivating a Horizontal Practice Martial Art is an external art and a different path from internal cultivation – a long and drawn-out process. Moreover, Shi Xiaole had not come across any Horizontal Practice Martial Art which he found satisfactory.
Therefore, the only option he currently had was to slowly solidify his foundations and gradually enhance his strength.
After pushing open the door and checking out of the inn, Shi Xiaole left. After several days of rest, he planned to go to Tiantai Cliff to keep his promise.
...
Tiantai Cliff was located in the coastal region of Xuanwu State. Although it was called a cliff, it was actually a steep mountain range and not particularly famous. Shi Xiaole had only managed to find this secluded place through the information from Divine Strategy Academy.
Due to the sheer number of surrounding mountains, each reaching the sky, he had to be patient in his search to avoid missing any signs of human activity.
On a particular peak in the southeast.
The sound of the zither had ceased for a while, but the birds on the tree branches were unwilling to leave, still hoping to hear the heavenly music again.
The woman behind the zither, however, merely sighed quietly.
"Mistress, please come back with us, I sincerely invite you," said a man, not hiding the enthusiasm and greed on his face. The people behind him were even more unbearable, some swallowing their saliva, some blushing, and some even laughing lecherously.
They had never seen such a stunning beauty.
From her face to her collarbone, from her shoulders to her waist, everything was absolute perfection. It was as if she was a fairy only seen in dreams. Her ethereal beauty surpassed anything on earth or in heaven.
"When Sect Master Yu was injured, I intervened because I could not bear to see you killed. Yet my intervention attracted trouble. What can be done now?" The woman sighed.
Her intoxicating voice, soft as cotton, made people unable to resist falling for it. Her pitiful demeanor made the group of people dizzy, and only a select few felt the impulse to stand up and change the Sect Master’s decision.
"Mistress, a celestial being like you shouldn’t be hidden on a lonely mountain – who would save you if anything happened? Rest assured, I, Yu Chengzhi, have decided that I will marry you today. From now on, you can enjoy a blissful life."
Yu Chengzhi was feeling extremely elated, as if numerous cat claws were scratching his gut.
When she had cast her spell briefly last time, she disappeared as light as a feather exactly when he was powerless to stop her. Once he recovered from his injuries, he frantically led his entire sect to search for her in the mountains. As luck would have it, he finally found her.
Even if God would come today, he wouldn’t dare stop him.
Thinking of this, Yu Chengzhi burst into laughter, leaping up and grabbing the woman’s soft arm. Apparently, he was a powerful fifth-tier expert in the Dragon Gate Realm.
"Who dares to touch her, get lost!"
Just then, a voice bellowed. At first, the person was hundreds of meters away, yet in a blink of an eye, he was close by. It was a handsome young man dressed in purple clothes.
"It’s you who should get lost."
Before Yu Chengzhi could move, the high-level warriors from his sect had already made their moves. A riotous mix of Vigorous Air surged towards the handsome young man.
There were 36 high-level warriors in the Spiritual-Passage Realm. Their combined Vigorous Air was something even a high-level Dragon Gate Realm expert couldn’t resist—it had to be broken down one by one.
However, the handsome young man neither dodged nor retreated but directly struck with an iron rod.
"Idiot!"
"Looking for death?"
The thought had just emerged in people’s minds and their smiles had yet to spread when they were suddenly frozen.
That’s because the unstoppable tide of Vigorous Air didn’t grind down the iron rod as expected, but, under the strike of the iron rod, cracked inch by inch and eventually erupted with a bang.
"So powerful!"
The commotion behind him scared a cold sweat out of Yu Chengzhi, and it even caused him to pause his action.
The handsome young man’s strength was clearly above 90 percent of Dragon Gate Realm experts, and he might even have reached the Lord Level. Yu Chengzhi was undoubtedly not his opponent, but luckily the young man seemed very protective of the woman. To gain the upper hand, he had to capture her.
"Delusional."
As if reading his mind, the handsome young man sneered. He swung his rod, and the shadow of the rod seemed to ignore the distance of hundreds of meters and whisked past Yu Chengzhi.
Thud.
Yu Chengzhi fell to the ground, lifeless. His slightly parted arm indicated that he intended to make a move, but before he could, he was struck dead by the shadow of the rod.
