Chapter 274: One Year Later
While Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue were in retreat, a lot of things happened in the Cangxing world.
The first thing was a meeting held by the leaders of the most powerful factions in the world.
Since the Sea Cloud region and Celestial Sky region had fallen to the Death Flower Ascension Front, the meeting was attended by fourteen regional rulers, the head of the border guard faction, and the patriarch of the BlueStar Treasure pavilion.
Following the meeting, an alliance was established and the world began to formally resist the Death Flower Ascension Front.
However, the Death Flower Ascension Front was not easy to handle.
Although they were severely outnumbered, they had captured the Celestial Sky region.
For this reason alone, resistance became an uphill battle.
All instances of significant resistance seemed to have already been expected by the Death Flower Ascension Front and were met with appropriate reactions.
Because of this, the Death Flower Ascension Front was unable to capture another region while the alliance could not recapture the two fallen regions.
In this way, the war fell into a stalemate which led to another major event.
After more than one year of war, the leaders of the alliance met the leaders of the Death Flower Ascension Front.
The reason for this was that the Nine Treasures secret realm was about to open.
For the time being, the two sides called a ceasefire and agreed that neither party would monopolise the Nine Treasures secret realm.
Although the entrance of the Nine Treasures secret realm was in a region controlled by the alliance, the alliance didn’t plan to prevent the cultivators from the Death Flower Ascension Front.
The reason for this was to maintain a balance between the fighting forces of the two parties.
If the origin tempering realm cultivators of the Death Flower Ascension Front were left behind while those of the alliance entered the secret realm, the Death Flower Ascension Front would gain an advantage.
After a lot of consideration, the alliance leaders agreed it was better to also allow the origin tempering realm cultivators of the Death Flower Ascension Front to enter the secret realm.
However, the alliance didn’t plan to remain passive.
After the agreement was made, the alliance formed a council of origin tempering realm cultivators.
The council was made up of the representatives of the sixteen regions, the border guard faction, and the BlueStar Treasure pavilion.
Surprisingly, origin tempering realm cultivators from the Sea Cloud region and Celestial Sky region were also allowed to join the council.
However, everybody understood this move.
It wasn’t because the two regions were still considered regional rulers, it was because the council required the expertise of the remnant disciples of the Celestial Sky region.
In this stalemate state, time passed and only three months remained before the opening of the Nine Treasures secret realm.
At this time, Yu Nianzhen exited seclusion and Jiang Yue was already waiting for him.
"Azhen, I missed you." He said and threw himself onto his husband.
Yu Nianzhen smiled and caught the person.
"I also missed you." He said and hugged Jiang Yue tightly.
A few moments later, their lips met and an erotic dance was staged on the floor of their training area.
The dance was vigorous and when it finally ended, both people were sweating and breathless.
After that, Yu Nianzhen carried his lazy husband and brought him to the bathing pool.
In the pool, Yu Nianzhen leaned against the wall while Jiang Yue sat between his legs and leaned on his chest.
At this time, the two were blissful and the strife outside couldn’t enter their small world.
All that existed in their small world was the two of them and they couldn’t tolerate a third person.
"When did you come out of retreat?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
"Four days ago." Jiang Yue sighed.
After he woke up, he spent the following days consolidating his strength while waiting for Yu Nianzhen to wake up.
"How did your retreat go?"
"It was difficult at first. However, once I got the hang of the ancient elements in the formations, it became easier to comprehend the formation maps."
"I already comprehended more than three thousand first-level formation maps and gained access to second-level maps." Jiang Yue informed proudly and Yu Nianzhen chuckled.
"My XiaoYue is the smartest." Yu Nianzhen said and rubbed Jiang Yue’s hair.
His words weren’t perfunctory or biased.
Under normal circumstances, Jiang Yue didn’t like to exert himself.
However, when he made up his mind, he was extremely sharp and few things could stamp him.
In this case, he liked formations and was willing to give his best.
As a result, his progress was phenomenal and in one year, he achieved what others couldn’t achieve in ten years.
"Your cultivation realm has solidified a lot." Yu Nianzhen observed happily.
Right after the martial contest, his realm was very solid but Jiang Yue’s was a little worse.
However, after one year, Jiang Yue’s realm was almost as solid as his.
"Reading the stone monuments requires a lot of qi and soul power. It helped to solidify my realm."
"That’s good."
"What about you?"
"I have condensed a sword seed." Yu Nianzhen said and a silver light flew out of his body.
The silver light transformed into a small sword which was about five centimetres long.
"Is this it?"
"Hmmm."
"Can I touch it?"
Without saying a word, Yu Nianzhen manoeuvred the sword to land on Jiang Yue’s right palm.
If someone else tried to touch the sword seed, they would be attacked by the condensed sword intent and power concept.
However, Jiang Yue was Yu Nianzhen’s soul-bound Taoist companion.
They were the same soul in different bodies and the sword seed didn’t consider him an outsider.
"It looks solid but it isn’t." Jiang Yue said in wonder.
"It’s made of sword intent after all." Yu Nianzhen explained and Jiang Yue nodded.
After playing with the sword seed for a while, Yu Nianzhen took it back and continued talking.
"After condensing the sword seed and polishing it to this state, I was able to quickly break through to the third level of sword intent."
"Have you realised a true sword domain?"
"I have. It’s fledgling but its power concept is complete as compared to the previous domain."
"It seems we have both made a lot of progress." Jiang Yue said happily.
Although his formation mastery was only at the second level, it was comparable to his previous third level.
He could now arrange thousands of different formations.
However, the most important factor was the power of the formations.
At the moment, any random second-level formation was more powerful than the third-level formations he had previously deduced.
"Do you need to prepare more formation materials?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
"I do." Jiang Yue answered enthusiastically.
Although he had learned thousands of formations, he didn’t have the materials to arrange them.
More unfortunately, some of the formations couldn’t be arranged because the materials required were extinct.
However, Jiang Yue was not discouraged by this.
He felt that learning those formations was not a waste of time.
Even if he couldn’t arrange them, they served as good material which solidified his formation foundation.
Most importantly, his illusions also benefited.
Encountering so many formations had broadened Jiang Yue’s mind and his illusions had become more flexible and creative.
His speed of comprehending lullaby had also increased and he now had a fledgling self-created illusion art.
Given time, Jiang Yue believed he could create an illusion art that wouldn’t lose to Yu Nianzhen’s sword art.
"You have gained a lot." Yu Nianzhen said when he heard Jiang Yue’s explanation.
"I really have."
"The BlueStar Treasure pavilion auction is about to start. Maybe we will find some good refining material for your natal weapon."
"Maybe." Jiang Yue said but he wasn’t too anxious.
If they couldn’t find the materials in the auction, he didn’t believe they couldn’t find them in the Nine Treasures secret realm.
"Azhen..." Jiang Yue suddenly called and wiggled his butt against his husband’s lower body.
Yu Nianzhen groaned and caught the person’s hips.
"We don’t seem to have tried in the bathing pool." Jiang Yue said.
His voice was filled with intent and Yu Nianzhen was immediately caught.
He had never been able to resist Jiang Yue and this time was no different.
Most importantly, he had no reason or heart to resist.
"You seem to be right." He said and his right hand shifted from Jiang Yue’s hip to the area between his legs.
Although they had just finished a round of exercise, they were cultivators and had a lot of stamina.
As soon as Yu Nianzhen’s hand landed on his cock, Jiang Yue immediately stiffened.
He leaned back against his husband and closed his eyes to enjoy the sensation of Yu Nianzhen’s hand on his body.
"Does it feel good?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
His voice was a little hoarse and he seemed to be holding back.
"Mmmm."
Without needing more encouragement, Yu Nianzhen continued to caress the hardened member and Jiang Yue moaned in pleasure.
Soon after, Yu Nianzhen pressed Jiang Yue’s lower back and helped him bend over.
Fortunately, the effect of his previous preparation was still there and Yu Nianzhen slipped in without much difficulty.
"Nnnggg, it’s so deep." Jiang Yue exclaimed and his body trembled a little.
He always liked this position and it felt even better after more than a year of abstinence.
At his husband’s voice, Yu Nianzhen hardened even further and his body filled with impatience.
He wanted to claim Jiang Yue as his.
Mark him in every possible way that he could and make him unable to live without him.
"XiaoYue, you are mine." He said through gritted teeth as he rammed into Jiang Yue.
Jiang Yue didn’t answer but his moans were all the answers needed.
The two rolled from the bathing pool to the bed and five days passed in the blink of an eye.
When they finally left the ancient palace, there were only a few hours to the auction and Yang Xu had long been impatient.
"I thought you were going to miss the auction." He said and glared at the two.
He knew his disciple well.
Yu Nianzhen would have made preparations to leave his retreat on time.
However, the diligent young man had a fatal weakness and that weakness was named Jiang Yue.
As long as Jiang Yue was involved, Yu Nianzhen had the tendency to ignore the world and lose his common sense.
When Jiang Yue heard Yang Xu’s veiled complaint, he chuckled a little and pulled Yu Nianzhen to sit down.
"Don’t worry master. We kept the matter in mind."
Yang Xu rolled his eyes but didn’t continue to care about the matter.
"The two of you seem to have made some progress." Bing Lan said and looked at the two young men.
She had always thought she was excellent but after meeting them, she realised there were people beyond people.
They were less than fifty and their cultivation was almost catching up to her.
Most importantly, she was sure she couldn’t defeat Yu Nianzhen in a fair fight.
In the logic that tigers only associated with other tigers, she also suspected that she would also have a hard time against Jiang Yue.
’It’s a lot of pressure to be the elders of these two monsters.’ She thought and looked at her husband in sympathy.
’Why is she looking at me like that?’ Yang Xu wondered and then figured it out.
However, he had long gotten used to it.
Initially, he was under a lot of pressure because Yu Nianzhen’s cultivation was almost catching up to his.
There was also the fact that Yu Nianzhen was quite capable and was always helping him out.
However, Yang Xu couldn’t stay depressed forever.
After a round of self-hypnosis, he convinced himself that Yu Nianzhen was a junior and he should respect the elders.
As the elder, it was only right to receive his disciple’s filial piety.
"Just a little bit." Jiang Yue said, interrupting Yang Xu’s thoughts.
"It’s good you have improved. It will help you survive in the Nine Treasures secret realm." Yang Xu said.
"Has master been to the Nine Treasures secret realm before?"
"Mmmm." Yang Xu nodded and his thoughts seemed a little further away.
When he entered the Nine Treasures secret realm, he was a young man of less than one hundred.
He didn’t expect to enter again but such was life.
