Chương 39: Qi Temple Realm Battle Strength
Following Yaan's overwhelming victory in his first match in the bloody arena, the majority of True Yuan Qi realm gladiators withdrew their challenges, becoming completely unwilling to fight him. There were many Qi masters who retained confidence in their abilities though. Eventually, an arrogant young girl with an equally arrogant Qi Temple realm grandfather issued a challenge against him, to which Yaan gladly accepted.
After dispelling the girl's icicles with his sword blade, not even using a technique to do so, Yaan calmly rushed towards her. The girl became enraged and cast a spell which rapidly condensed hundreds of icicles directly above Yaan's head.
With a quick glance, Yaan ignored the icicles entirely and continued with his charge towards her. He performed his Air Blade Shield Arts at the last second to deflect every sharp spear of ice away from his body, then utilised the movement aspect of the Agile Sword Arts to run across the sharp tips that formed the cold spiky landscape below. The girl seemed to be caught off guard by his shocking adaptation to the altered terrain. She hastily blocked with an icy wall spell, but Yaan's Flowing River Blade was too strange. Even though he stabbed straight into the wall, the blade somehow curved around like a whip and stabbed through her neck, stunning everyone in the audience!
CHI!
Yaan pulled the blade out from the girl's throat, stopping calmly and flicking the blood from his sword. As her body hit the floor, he began walking away, but suddenly paused and turned back around.
The girl was very much dead…but her grandfather was totally enraged! Despite being an aged and experienced Elder, his love and doting for his granddaughter was too deep, whilst her demise came about too suddenly. He lost his rational mind in this moment and the seemingly inadequate security failed to restrain him in time. The old man arrived before Yaan in an instant, raising his hand and forming a giant golden palm that reached upwards, tens of feet into the sky. Yaan swallowed as he looked upwards at the old man. As the old man's aura pressured down against Yaan's soul, his giant golden palm and his white beard which flowed in the wind made him look like an enraged god!
Whoosh!
The palm rapidly descended and Yaan felt a sense of extreme life and death crisis. The arena guards were a second too late, they wouldn't arrive in time to stop this attack! With no time to ponder over the strangely lax security, Yaan's expression became ferocious. He stared the old man dead in the eyes and charged forwards, as if he was ignoring the calamitous palm from above.
"Courting death, ignorant swine!" The old man snorted angrily, by this point, his eyes were shockingly bloodshot, showing that he had completely lost his mind!
Everyone in the audience had the same thought; the red robed child was done for! Even if there was something strange about his cultivation technique, a True Yuan Qi realm Qi master couldn't hope to survive the attack from a Qi Temple realm Qi master, even a recently ascended one…right?
If Yaan was truly just a Qi master, this might have been true.
At the last second, when the palm was just ten feet above him, a shockwave tore out from Yaan's body. Everyone was bewildered when they saw the grey circular shield that flowed around his body and seemed to be formed by a typhoon of water…what the hell kind of spell was this? It clearly didn't even contain any spiritual energy, so how did it exist in this form…how were they able to see it?!
Only one person saw through the truth. An older man stroked his black-grey beard as he watched curiously, seemingly unperturbed by the rapid development of events. This person who was seated within the VIP region, was actually a Ghu Clan Elder! This man heard from Ghu Nadda that he had assigned his own clan guest, and that this person possessed unimaginable potential. Still, what he saw today was beyond his expectations, making him feel glad that he had bothered to test this child. Of course, the fact that he was partially responsible for Yaan's current life and death crisis wasn't something that he would admit to others.
"A typhoon of blades! This sword art is wide spread amongst sword focused Qi masters at the Qi Temple realm, but to use it like this, without any Yuan Qi added for strengthening, only the essence of the sword and illusions…interesting. Utilising illusions to make up for his lack of Yuan Qi, allowing him to display battle strength which can just about match the Qi Temple realm…"
The Elder's eyes shone as he muttered to himself and stared forwards intently. Despite his high cultivation level, it seemed that for now, he had no intention of intervening.
The wind and water surrounding Yaan was just an illusion. Well, the air was certainly moving, but only because a single sword had become this typhoon, creating such an incredible illusion that looked completely real to almost everyone present!
The old Qi Temple grandpa paled in fright as he rushed into the typhoon, but then roared out loud and threw out a chain of beads. However, his expression paled as the beads were sliced in half, one after the other in rapid succession!
Whoosh!
As suddenly as it came, the typhoon vanished. Unknowingly, the grandpa had been cut across all of his major tendons! He dropped to the floor and looked up in terror, only to see a disguised figure in a silky red robe stabbing down towards his face! The thin sword pierced his eye and cut through his brain, then mercilessly slashed down through his body and ripped his dantian to shreds, eliminating any possible hope the old man may have had.
Like this, he had no chance of surviving, no matter what strange methods he may possess.
Yaan was breathing heavily. Although on the surface it might seem like he dominated that fight, but in reality, destroying that chain of nine beads forced him to utilise his full strength. Each destruction of a bead created a rebound force that tore through his body, ripping apart his tempered flesh like paper. If it was before his physical body had been tempered to this stage by the unique body tempering pills, Yaan would have no doubt died to the 2nd or 3rd bead!
He was covered in injuries and quickly swallowed a Rank 3 vital recovery pill. In normal times like this, a single one of these pills was actually extremely effective for him. Within 5 minutes, the worst of the injuries were already healed over.
Yaan slowly turned his head and cautiously stood up, looking towards the strange older man who had suddenly appeared on stage. Unease lingered in Yaan's eyes and his heart beat sped up, because he simply hadn't seen this person appear at all!
Who was this person, what did he want?
With Yaan's experience, he immediately saw that the older man was actually a Demon Core realm powerhouse!
"No need to worry young friend, I am Nadda's teacher and great grandfather. I just wanted to see what sort of person drew the interest of that lonesome child, but I think I understand now. Hmm, consume this immediately after ascending to the 3-Star realm, it should be of help." With that, the strange old man flicked his hand and a blood red pill appeared in Yaan's palm. His eyes widened as the pill's bloody aura assaulted his body upon making contact with his skin. To think this was merely the residual effect released by the pill, it was too shocking!
He quickly hid the pill in his pocket, then, after realising that the old man had left, Yaan hastily made his way to the exit.
Yaan rested for five days as he reflected on the unexpected fight against the old Qi Temple realm grandpa. Honestly, Yaan felt shocked by his own abilities…he had no clue that he was capable of such power!
He felt a severe sense of life and death crisis in that moment…after recalling that feeling, he realised that this was the catalyst that allowed him to fully form the Cutting Typhoon. He was still far from mastering this art, but he had at least attained a level of comprehension where, with some practice, he should be able to reliably produce that typhoon again at will!
After spending three days doing just this, Yaan was visited by Ghu Nadda, who brought with him good news.
"I found what you asked for…the complete 3rd and 4th stages of the Flowing River Blade Art…"
"Thanks Nadda…really, I never would have improved this quickly were it not for all your help." Yaan replied honestly and with a genuine smile, something that he hadn't shown for years. Ghu Nadda paused for a second…he was surprised to see Yaan smiling like this. Usually, Yaan carried with him a lonely, solemn aura, the aura of someone who had experienced too much loss, and didn't know what else to do but to continue walking forwards. It was an aura that Nadda was familiar with, because it was a similar aura possessed by many Ghu Clansmen.
For a long time, Yaan really had felt lost, and really, he still felt a ceaseless loneliness, even now. However, despite the dangers, the suffering and everything else he had endured these past years, he actually felt that life had been quite peaceful.
He wasn't obsessing over revenge, or hate, or his past mistakes and regrets. He was simply trying to walk forwards, one step at a time. There were many things he didn't understand about this world, and even more that he didn't understand about himself, but…Yaan felt that so long as he continued moving forwards, then he was at least living. During his confusing and hate filled life back at the Heavenly Path Sect, he wasn't truly living, he was just driven insane by resentment and confusion.
Maybe he ran away from it all because he couldn't bring himself to face that place or those people any longer. But so what? Right now, he preferred this city where nobody knew him, where people didn't ask questions about your past. Sure, cultivation was arduous, and for a demon it was outright dangerous and painful. But still…this suffering was nothing compared to the soul crushing turmoil he was forced to endure from before.
He didn't know how long this situation would last, but for now, Yaan enjoyed this sort of 'peace'. Even when that peace was actually filled with pain, blood and violence, his heart at least, felt peace for the first time since his family's departure from this world.
Over the following month, Yaan continued to participate in the bloody arena. He accepted any challenges from True Yuan Qi realm Qi masters. Even if they wanted to fight as a group, he accepted the challenge without needing to think about it.
He also accepted challenge invites from 1st Layer Qi Temple realm Qi masters, but he reviewed each and every challenge, declining all of them in the end. Everyone that applied seemed to have some grudge against him and just wanted him dead, for whatever reason…maybe they knew the old guy from before. All of these people were old fogeys with decades of experience and some hidden agenda against him, of course he wouldn't accept such high risk battles! Yaan was only using the bloody arena to train himself after all, he could take some risk, but he wouldn't fight in a battle that almost guaranteed his death.
Although he killed that old grandpa, that person had only recently ascended to the 1st Layer. On top of his unstable foundation, he was blinded by rage, he attacked without caring for defences, and he severely underestimated his opponent. Against a normal strength 1st Layer Qi Temple realm Qi master, Yaan believed that he would be more likely to lose than to win.
And so, he announced that he would only accept the challenge if they had reached the 1st Layer at most 5 years prior, and that they could only bring at most two spiritual treasures into the battle, and no potions or pills. Seeing that there weren't any takers after two days, Yaan enlisted Ghu Nadda help once again. Using his identity as a Ghu Clansman, Nadda announced that the prize for defeating the hidden silk robed child in this unique battle in the bloody arena, would be a shocking sum of ten Rank 4 recovery pills!
This promise made by a Ghu Clan representative set off a shockwave amongst the weaker Qi masters. The youngsters viewed the unknown boy with reverence and awe, whilst those 1st Layer Qi Temple realm Qi masters who met the qualifications were unable to suppress the greed in their hearts.
An average recently ascended Qi Temple realm Qi master would possess around 5-50 Rank 3 recovery pills in disposable funds. Of course, after adding up the value of everything in their possession, it would amount to much more. Still, a Rank 4 recovery pill was definitely more than they could afford, perhaps even after selling everything they owned! And now, there was a chance to earn ten times this in a single match against a mere junior!
Even though he had the track record of decimating a group of nine Peak True Yuan Qi realm warriors…even though he had already killed a 1st Layer Qi Temple realm Elder…the Elders still didn't take Yaan as a serious threat. Before, they were unwilling to lower themselves by killing a junior…now though, with the Ghu Clan offering such incentive, everything changed!
Just one day after the announcement, 14 eligible candidates immediately signed up. Yaan scanned through the list of information regarding each of these competitors, information that he was apparently privy to thanks to his status as Ghu Nadda's guest. It wasn't long before he quickly chose his first opponent.
He wasn't stupid, he obviously started with the weakest.
"Shin Jinni…" Yaan muttered. The more he examined the Ghu Clan's information on this person, the more his lips curled upwards into a smile.
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