In the Yu Clan…
Lin Feng was in his spirit world, seated cross-legged. In front of him, someone was running around at lightning speed unceasingly.
Suddenly, the silhouette exploded into fighting, booms accompanying every movement. Qi rolled as the air shook. Qi condensed into a punch and turned into a vortex. Cosmic energies dance and blew apart. That punch was pure strength!
"Dancing Windy Clouds," said a giant next to Lin Feng. The silhouette changed. Energies pulsed continuously. A hand streaked across the sky, leaving a beautiful trail behind. Many silhouettes appeared, the wind moaned and condensed, energies continued pulsing. The energies didn't completely condense, they dispersed and the silhouette fell back to the ground.
"It's still not enough. When your Nine Dancing Windy Clouds are better, you'll be able to control that body. But to control the full strength of that body, you'll need to study much more," said the giant. That silhouette looked at the giant and nodded.
Lin Feng controlled the Saint's body with his soul, it didn't have a consciousness so he could control it easily. He needed to "drive" it, though, and for that he needed to learn how to move it quickly and how to use its full strength. But his soul wasn't strong enough. He did his best, though, and tried to get more familiar with it. After all, a Saint's punch was much more powerful than his own!
"I'll continue practicing cultivation." said the Saint nodding. Then he continued running and getting familiar with that body. A thread of Lin Feng's soul came out of the body and moved back into his body. His real body opened his eyes.
—
In the Jing Clan…
People were still furious. Jing Yan's injuries were much better. At his cultivation level, as long as someone's physical body wasn't completely destroyed, they could recover. However, they couldn't have the same strength as before for a long time when their injuries were too serious, especially in Jing Yan's case, after all, Jian Mang's sword attack contained Light Dao.
"What should we do, master?" Many people were looking at an old man at that moment. He was one of the two Saint Emperors of the Jing Clan.
"Jing Yan, how many resources does your teacher have?" the old man asked Jing Yan.
"He has a lot of resources, he wants to create a deployment spell clan. But first we have to give him one third of the deployment mine," replied Jing Yan.
When the crowd heard him, they were stupefied. One-third of the deployment mine?! Did they want to destroy the Jing Clan?
"That's too much! Hand Mu Chen over! Even if we lose face, at least we won't need to lose one-third of the deployment mine!" said someone angrily. One-third was too much!
"Uncle, you're wrong. He wants to create a clan. He'll definitely make the Jing Clan happy," replied Jing Yan carefully.
His uncle frowned and said, "What you mean is that he'll destroy the three other clans?"
"Of course! Then we'll share equally. The Jing Clan won't lose anything that way!" said Jing Yan icily. He had suffered a crushing defeat. He didn't want the Jing Clan to give in and release Mu Chen.
"Can we keep the situation under control?"
"My teacher is greedy, but he won't go too far. Besides, he won't open a clan of deployment spell casters in Qing Shan City, he just needs resources," Jing Yan promised.
"If your teacher gets involved, can he definitely defeat those people? After all, they are extremely strong."
"Don't worry. All my fellow disciples are extremely strong. Those people won't be able to escape from them. Besides, many of their people have already fought. They must have, at most, one or two people who are strong as that blind sword cultivator. Regarding Yu Lin, none of my fellow disciples is weaker than him. One of my friends is even getting ready for the Meeting of the Continent of the Nine Clouds," Jing Yan said calmly.
He knew how strong his fellow disciples were. He couldn't invite his fellow disciples who were getting ready for the Meeting of the Continent of the Nine Clouds even if they were good friends, only his teacher could do that.
When the members of the Jing Clan heard Jing Yan, they all remained silent. One middle-aged man asked, "Jing Yan, what about your sister?"
"After that, we'll kill Mu Chen. Prevent her from leaving for a while, then after some time she'll forget about him and we'll introduce a nice and outstanding man to her." said Jing Yan. Everybody remained silent again. They all looked at the old leader of the Jing Clan. He was the only one who could make the final decisions.
Finally, his eyes glittered and he said to Jing Yan, "Tell your teacher about this. If he promises he won't open a Clan in Qing Shan City, and if he accepts sharing the deployment mines with us, invite him to come."
"Alright." Jing Yan's eyes glittered and he nodded. "Leave it to me!"
—————
The Yu, Wen, and Feng clans didn't know about this agreement. Lin Feng and Hou Qing Lin didn't know, either. They were calmly waiting for the three days to pass.
One day was left. Some news spread that the Jing Clan accepted the challenge. Also, they wanted to change the place of the battles to the central battlefield of Qing Shan City. They seemed to be conveying a hidden message: if we can't protect the deployment mine, it doesn't matter, nobody will be able to take it from us anyway!
The news spread everywhere in Qing Shan City. People in Qing Shan City were talking about it everywhere. Everybody knew and took delight in talking about the battle which had taken place two days before. Everybody knew what had happened and who Mu Chen was. They also knew that Mu Chen's disciples were terrifying. Now the Jing Clan had surprisingly accepted their challenge… did they have other trump cards?
Everybody was impatient and couldn't wait to see the battle. Some people had seen how strong Jian Mang and the others were, and they couldn't wait to see those who hadn't fought yet. Some of them had missed the battles, and they didn't want to miss them this time. Maybe this time the battles were going to be even better than two days before!
——
In the Yu Clan, Yu Xin saw Lin Feng, and told him the news. Lin Feng frowned. He hoped to rescue Mu Chen without a fight. However, the Jing Clan wouldn't give them such an opportunity.
"Does the Jing Clan have other trump cards?" asked Lin Feng to Yu Xin.
"No. The Jing Clan's strongest cultivator is Jing Yan and he suffered a crushing defeat. In any case, he can't fight again. The only trump card they have would cost them a lot: they'd need to ask someone outside for help. However, your friends are all so strong, asking for help would be useless. In Qing Shan City, there aren't such terrifying cultivators, unless…"
Yu Xin looked pensive and frowned.
"Unless what?" asked Lin Feng.
"You know that Jing Yan and Yu Lin are from the Celestial Remarkable Deployment Ministry. They have some contacts. Unless they ask the Celestial Remarkable Deployment Ministry for help, they can't do much, and I don't think Jing Yan can get them to help. He needs some extremely strong cultivators for that." said Yu Xin.
Lin Feng was suddenly a bit worried. It was indeed a resource the Jing Clan could mine…
"That bunch of bastards," said Tantai icily. "We should have destroyed them on that day and stolen their deployment mine."
"Things aren't that easy. The Jing Clan said they needed time, do you think the three clans could have started a war against them?" Yu Xin said to Tantai. The answer was obvious.
"Hmph! Even if they invite people from the Celestial Remarkable Deployment Ministry, so what? I'll crush them with one punch!" said Tantai. He hadn't fought the previous time. He was ready to fight now!
Yu Xin's beautiful eyes twinkled and she smiled at Tantai. "Big boy, how strong are you?"
"Eh, I think I should be able to defeat Jing Yan easily," said Tantai smiled and scratched his head. Yu Xin was stupefied and speechless. Jing Yan was the strongest cultivator of Qing Shan City in his generation. This guy dared say he could defeat him easily?
"What about him?" asked Yu Xin, smiling at Tantai and pointing at Lin Feng. Tantai listened to Lin Feng all the time, so if he could defeat Jing Yan easily, what about Lin Feng?…
Tantai shook his head and smiled, "I'm not sure either, to be honest."
Silly boy, thought Yu Xin looking at Tantai.
"Lin Feng, Yu Xin!" said someone at that moment. They turned around, to see Yu Ye and Su Mu arrived.
"Sister Ye!" said Yu Xin politely. After all, Yu Ye had a high position in the Clan, so she had to be polite. She couldn't act as naturally as she could when she was with Lin Feng and Tantai.
Yu Ye nodded and didn't look at her, turning and saying to Lin Feng, "Lin Feng, the Jing Clan doesn't intend to give up their deployment mine. It will be a deadly fight. It has nothing to do with you, however, there will be some dangerous fights. If you want, we can go and watch together."
"Alright, good," said Lin Feng, smiling and nodding. Of course he was going to go!
"The Jing Clan will regret everything!" said Tantai icily.
When Su Mu heard Tantai, he looked at him disdainfully and asked, "You think the Jing Clan will lose?"
"Of course!" said Tantai.
Su Mu shook his head and left with Yu Ye. He said indifferently, "This time, the Jing Clan accepted the challenge, it means that they will pay the full price and invite people from the Celestial Remarkable Deployment Ministry to come and help. With the strong cultivators of the Celestial Remarkable Deployment Ministry, they can't lose."
Su Mu was also from the Celestial Remarkable Deployment Ministry, he knew them quite well. If the Jing Clan invited people from the Celestial Remarkable Deployment Ministry, the Jing Clan couldn't possibly lose. The Jing Clan was able to oppress three clans alone before, and if Hou Qing Lin hadn't gotten involved, they could have taken all three mines themselves!