Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 71-80

Chapter 71 Enemies Often Cross Paths, A Dual Dose.

When the Fei Li Battle Team resumed their travels, they had changed to three horse carriages, which Zhou Weiqing had ran to the closest town to purchase. In truth, they only numbered eight, and a large horse carriage should have been sufﬁcient. However, since there were four wounded, Zhou Weiqing decided to just splurge a little and buy three. Crow, with her immense weight, and Shangguan Bing’er would share one as the only two females. As for the other two carriages, each held three members, with Zhou Weiqing and Ye Paopao each taking care of two injured companions. This way, they would be able to get sufﬁcient rest during their travels, and also heal faster.

At this time, Zhou Weiqing found that he missed Ming Hua. How good it would be to have a Life Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master with them right now, to help with all the wounded.

Even though the horse carriages were each pulled by four strong horses, the speed of travel was naturally a lot slower than on horseback. By the time they reached the ZhongTian City, ﬁfteen days had already passed, and it was only ﬁve days til the start of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. In the distance, a large canyon was right ahead, and there were obviously a lot of people crossing it. According to the carriage driver, they were about to reach the ZhongTian City.

Lin TianAo gave the instructions to the carriage drivers to stop all the carriages, and got everyone to get off.

“Boss, are’t we about to reach the ZhongTian City soon? Isn’t it better to rest once we reach the city?” Drunken Bao asked curiously.

Lin TianAo smiled faintly, and said: “Raise your heads and look up, I want to let you all know where the Heavenly Jewel Island is.”

Only then did everyone look upwards, and when they did so, an intense shock impacted them deeply.

They were currently on the main road, and from their position, they could clearly see about a few dozen li away, a huge, thick stone pillar rising up into the sky and disappearing into the clouds. Just with the naked eye, they were unable to truly estimate how huge the stone pillars were, but just standing there seeing sixteen of these huge pillars rising into the sky, it was a rather stunning scene. Even the Little White Tiger, Fat Cat, peeked her head out from Zhou Weiqing’s bosom to stare at the scene, a cold light ﬂashing in her eyes.

That is the ZhongTian Mountain, and it is the greatest landmark of the ZhongTian Empire. Within the sixteen Heavenly Pillars lies the entire ZhongTian City, while right on top of the sixteen Heavenly Pillars is the Heavenly Jewel Island of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. The ZhongTian Empire has always been proud to call themselves the Center of the Mainland, and they indeed do have the right to be proud. Such a miraculous scenery is truly only found here.

“That is too shocking. These huge pillars are like a chain linking the world to the skies, the name of Heavenly Pillar is indeed apt.” Little Four exclaimed in admiration.

Zhou Weiqing stood there with his head raised, thinking to himself. No wonder the ZhongTian Empire was considered the strongest empire in the entire mainland. From the ZhongTian City in the belly of the hill, to the Heavenly Jewel Island at the top, they could be considered the most miraculous places in the world. He felt a greater sense of expectancy towards the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, and couldn’t help but wish they could get into the ﬁght soon. No wonder everyone was so eager to get to the top four! Even if there wasn’t that insane prize, everyone would still be eager to ascend the Heavenly Jewel Island to have a look! What kind of strange sights would they see?

Lin TianAo said passively: “We are about to reach the ZhongTian City, and we have barely a few days left before the tournament starts. I will now proclaim Zhou Weiqing as the temporary team leader, and the tournament matters will be determined by him.”

Zhou Weiqing looked at Lin TianAo in surprise, and he nodded back, giving an encouraging look.

Drunken Bao said: “Boss, that isn’t necessary right? Even if your wounds aren’t healed, there would be no affect on directing everyone!”

Lin TianAo shook his head and said: “No, now that Weiqing is the mainstay, he is the clearest about his own and Bing’er’s powers. I will be at his side to give advice, but I trust that he will not do anything that he does not have conﬁdence in. I think he is very suitable to be the temporary leader.”

After the last dozen or so days of rest and recovery, the entire team was in much better state. However, the few with serious injuries, especially the internal ones, were still not in any shape to ﬁght. Even though Heavenly Jewel Masters had strong physiques, it was still impossible to recover from such injuries in a short period of time.

Lin TianAo nodded to Zhou Weiqing and said: “For the Tournament, each round is held every three days, allowing contestants to have some rest between rounds. From the state of our injuries, it will take at least ten days to recover. Xiao Yan and Drunken Bao are in worse shape, so they will probably take much longer. As such, you will have to lead the uninjured members to get through at least two rounds. This is extremely difﬁcult, but I hope that you will be able to do so. Perhaps, our team can ride on your high personal luck, and we will not meet any tough teams too early.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “There is no point making any guarantees to everyone, but I will deﬁnitely do my utmost. Come on, let’s get into the ZhongTian City and ﬁnd a place to stay, so we can have a good rest.”

In the past few days, although they had been on the road the entire time, but it could be said to be the most hardworking Zhou Weiqing had ever been. Since he had pledged to be the mainstay, he felt a huge weight on his shoulders. Even though his Heavenly Energy had raised up a level to the ﬁrst stage of Heavenly Shen Energy, he was still after all a mere three- Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. From the state of the members of the Heavenly Jewel Academy, he could tell that those who joined the Tournament would likely be at least four to ﬁve Jeweled, and perhaps even greater.

Even though it was sharpening one’s spear only just before entering battle, it was still good to work hard and improve every bit he could before the ﬁght started.

Although they could already see the Heavenly Pillars, the distance was rather deceptive. By the time they reached the ZhongTian City, it was already late in the evening.

As they ﬁnally reached close to the city and saw up close how huge the sixteen thick pillars were; each pillar was at least a few thousand metres in diameter, and the ZhongTian City’s walls were using these sixteen pillars as a base and built around. Without even guessing, everyone knew that this was deﬁnitely the largest city in the entire mainland. As they neared it, they could not even see the borders. Zhou Weiqing was extremely sure that even the entire Heavenly Bow Empire was not as huge as this city, which was more than ﬁve thousand square kilometres large!

For most cities in the world, farming and other agricultural industries were all outside the city walls. However, this ZhongTian City was just too huge, and even their agriculture industries were within the city! Just the huge, thick wall alone was at an unknown, immense cost, and the entire ZhongTian City was just like a small empire of its own right. The air above the city was currently shrouded in mist, and the sun could only shine in through the sides, and no one could see the Heavenly Jewel Island right high above.

After reaching within range of the ZhongTian City, it was already dark by the time they entered the inner city. The inner city was the heart of the entire city, and just the inner city portion was already much larger than the Fei Li Empire’s capital city, Fei Li City.

When the entire team had settled down, it was already past midnight.

As the temporary leader of the team, Zhou Weiqing had chosen an unassuming looking, small inn for them to settle down. The reason for this was not to save money, but to ensure that they could have peace. Without question, with the Heavenly Jewel Tournament nearing, the entire ZhongTian City was bustling and busy. With the young powerhouse of the world gathering here, they were all rivals after all, and if they met, there was bound to be friction between them. With so many of them injured, especially Lin TianAo, it was deﬁnitely not the right time for them to get into any unnecessary clashes. As such, Zhou Weiqing would rather stay in a simple, ordinary inn, allowing his injured teammates to get their required rest. After all, there was still ﬁve more days until the Tournament started.

Their ﬁrst night in the ZhongTian City was uneventful, and the next morning, after everyone had their breakfast, Lin TianAo called everyone to his room. He was the only one who had attended the Heavenly Jewel Tournament before, and it was time for him to inform the entire team about the rules and things to be noted, especially to Zhou Weiqing, who was now the temporary leader.

Lin TianAo looked at his companions seated around him, and said seriously: “The Heavenly Jewel Tournament is about to start. Xiao Yan, Little Four, Drunken Bao, for the ﬁrst two rounds of the Tournament, you all do not to attend. My wounds are slightly lighter, and I will join Weiqing and the rest to attend. Of course, I will not take any action unless absolutely necessary, lest my wounds worsen.”

“In the entire mainland, there are over thirty Empires, small and large. Out of those, to be able to ﬁnd and gather at least ﬁve young Heavenly Jewel Masters, there are about twenty or so Empires. The entire tournament is split into two sections, the preliminary heats and the ﬁnals. In the preliminary heats, all the teams will be split into four large groups by drawing lots. Each group will have a seeded team, which will be consisted of the Four of the Five Great Saint Lands, with the exception of the Heavenly Demon Sect. Of course, to the outside world, the proclamation is that the seeded teams are from the previous champions. Of course, all these years, the

top four has always been amongst those supported by the Great Saint Lands. In the preliminary heats, it will be a round robin series. That is to say, in a group, every single team will have to ﬁght with every other team in that group.”

“In the preliminary heats, each group will have the top two teams with the best results advancing into the ﬁnals, that is the top eight of the entire Tournament. After which, they will ﬁght once more to determine the top four. The ﬁnals between the top four will be held in the Heavenly Jewel Island itself.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “It seems the Tournament is rather straightforward then.”

Lin TianAo smiled and said: “Indeed, it is very straightforward, yet at the same time, extremely difﬁcult. The seeded team in each group usually gets the ﬁrst in the group to advance, and the other Empires will have to ﬁght their might just to get the second position in the group. Three years ago, we fought for all our might, at the cost of two seniors becoming permanently disabled, before barely making it to the second round. Without question, we were easily beaten in the top eight match. In order to safely enter the second round, we deﬁnitely have to beat every other team in the preliminary heats.”

As a notion struck him, Zhou Weiqing said: “Do you mean to say, we will forfeit the match against the seeded team of our group?”

Basically, means making last-minute preparations that might be too late Lin TianAo nodded and said: “That is deﬁnitely the choice of all the other teams, that is to ensure that we maintain sufﬁcient strength to beat all the other Empires’ teams to get into the top eight.”

“After all, these seeded teams are extremely powerful. Even if we really had the power to defeat them, it would likely come at a severe costs, how could we possibly beat the other teams to enter the top eight then? Let alone the top four.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded his head. However, in his mind, a seed of an idea grew. Perhaps if the circumstance permitted it, it might not be necessary to wait until the top eight to ﬁght with the seeded team.

“The tournament rules are as such, but what about the actual ﬁghting? Is it single combat or team based?” As Zhou Weiqing pondered on the matter, he asked Lin TianAo for further details.

Lin TianAo said: “The preliminary heats are four matches of single combat, and one two vs two match. For the ﬁnals, it is elimination style. That is to say, each team will send ﬁve members out, taking turns to ﬁght in single combat. The victor stays, and the loser is eliminated, until one side has all ﬁve eliminated. As for the top four onwards, I am not sure what the style is.”

“For the four single combat matches in the preliminary heats, no one is allowed to represent their team twice. However, in the two vs two match, members who have represented in the single combat matches may ﬁght once more.”

The Heavenly Jewel Tournament rules and styles were rather simple, and with Lin TianAo’s explanation, the team quickly understood it. This was the main reason why Lin TianAo had agreed to Zhou Weiqing’s suggestion to carry on. At the preliminary heats, it was actually possible to ﬁght with only four members, though that would be extremely tough. Especially so for the members who would have to ﬁght twice in the two vs two.

“During the preliminary heats, it is only necessary to win three out of the ﬁve ﬁghts. The ﬁrst two single combat ﬁghts are carried out ﬁrst, then the two vs two, followed by the last two single combat ﬁghts. As such, as long as the ﬁrst three ﬁghts are all wins, it is possible to have the four members ﬁght once each only.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “I understand.”

Lin TianAo continued: “Weiqing, the registration point is near the ZhongTian Empire Royal Palace’s entrance, and you can already head there to register for our team now. I have already passed you the required documents yesterday, so you can head there directly and get our team plaque. We will remain here to heal up and cultivate, and we’ll go to draw lots for the group stage the day before the tournament begins.”

“Alright, you all have a good rest here, I’ll head out now.

Bing’er, come along with me.”

“I want to go too!” Crow grabbed hold of Shangguan Bing’er’s arm, an excited look on her face. Although she had a huge physique, she was after all still very young, and still had the disposition of a young girl. Now that she was at this totally new, mysterious place, she was extremely curious. Shangguan Bing’er was grabbed by her, and the two standing together just put their huge difference in size into perspective once again. Zhou Weiqing laughed heartily and said: “Alright, let’s go together then. Come on.”

The ZhongTian City was indeed extremely large. Last night, they had entered the city when it was already dark, and the size had not struck them so hard. Although it was still early in the morning, when they exited their inn, the sheer hustle and bustle of the city hit them right in the face. The buildings along the streets were all tall, with most being three stories or more. The buildings were rather quaint and old fashioned in design, with various different statues and carvings around the walls and roofs, and they were clearly not new, with an ancient yet mysteriously artistic air to them. It was indeed a very different feel, and the arts and culture of the city was quite clearly much deeper than compared to the Fei Li City.

As they walked along on the street, Crow deﬁnitely drew a lot of attention; even Shangguan Bing’er’s beauty was almost ignored due to that, as almost every passerby stared at Crow as they walked past.

Towards the strange gazes, Crow seemed oblivious, as she walked on coolly without any sense of embarrassment, even shouting out at times: “What are you staring at, haven’t you seen a beautiful lady before?” Zhou Weiqing’s skin was thick himself, and naturally he didn’t feel any sense of embarrassment either. Holding on to Shangguan Bing’er’s soft little hand, he looked around at the various shops curiously. Many of the specialty local goods in the ZhongTian City were alien to him, and he had not even heard of them. Of course, what attracted him the most were those specialized food stores. The various smells caused his stomach to growl, sparking his appetite. However, he decided to ignore it and complete the registration ﬁrst; after all, he couldn’t leave his injured companions hungry in the inn while they enjoyed themselves. When they returned, they could buy some food back and let everyone enjoy together.

It was easy for them to ﬁnd the Royal Palace, a quick question to a passerby got them the directions and before long they were there. Although the inner city was still large, but at least it was nothing compared to the entire outer city as well. Before long they were in front of the ZhongTian Royal Palace, right smack in the middle of the inner city.

“They are truly the top Empire! Such a magniﬁcent palace!” Looking at the wide main plaza in front of the Royal Palace which was more than a square kilometre large, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but exclaim to himself. Right in the centre of the plaza, there was a thirty metre tall, large statue, which attracted their attentions as soon as they reached the plaza. The statue was of a man, with long hair down to his shoulders, a wide and strong build, with a set of huge wings stretching out behind his back. The thing that attracted Zhou Weiqing’s attention instantly was his hands, where there were twelve pearls carved around the wrist. Although they weren’t coloured due to it being a statue, but the number alone said volume! It signiﬁed the 12 Changes of the Heavenly Jewels being completed, a God Tier powerhouse of the greatest level! Could it be that in this ZhongTian Empire, there was actually a twelve-Jeweled, God Tier Master?

The Plaza in front of the Royal Palace was not restricted in access, and they could see that there was a constant number of people walking towards the large statue and worshipping it. Looking at their devout faces, it was without question that the person depicted by the statue was of extremely high status in the ZhongTian Empire.

They quickly stopped a passerby to ask, and they soon found that the statue was of the Founding Emperor of the ZhongTian Empire, and his name was Shangguan Yulong. Not only did he found the ZhongTian Empire, he had also created the Heavenly Jewel Island and the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, and he was indeed the true Dynasty Emperor of the ZhongTian Empire. The entire statue was carved from Diamond Rock, and would stand strong nigh forever, and since the time it had been erected, it had stood there weathering the elements for over two thousand years, overlooking this ZhongTian City.

“Bing’er, the Royal Family of the ZhongTian Empire has the same family name as you!” Zhou Weiqing smiled at her.

Shangguan Bing’er furrowed her brow slightly, before saying: “Mother has never been willing to talk to me about Father. When I was in school, I asked my teacher once, and he said that Shangguan is deﬁnitely a family name from the ZhongTian Empire. It is highly likely that my father is really from the ZhongTian Empire. When I was very young, before I can even remember anything, mother had already taken me along and left home, so I have never seen father before.”

Zhou Weiqing held her gently in his arms, and said softly: “Bing’er, don’t feel sad. When there is time, I’ll accompany you around the ZhongTian Empire to search for your father. You’re so beautiful; I’m sure looking for your father will not be difﬁcult.”

“En…”

Zhou Weiqing then turned to Crow, who was staring ﬁxedly at the statue, saying: “Come on Crow, let’s go. We need to register our team.”

Crow sighed appreciatively and said: “That statue is certainly so robust and well built… if only the heavens will gift our Gold Crow Tribe some robust men…”

“Come on, let’s go. I’m sure the heavens will gift them to you. If the heavens do not do so, when we return, I’ll help you look!” On hearing Crow’s desire for men, Zhou Weiqing did not feel that it was funny at all. He could totally understand the feeling, the desire from Crow, the worry in her heart about the survival of her tribe… something he could truly identify with!

The registration point for the Heavenly Jewel Tournament was right near the entrance of the Palace, and the ZhongTian Empire had indeed placed much importance on the tournament, actually building a new building specially for the registration, with a large sign at the top with the words Heavenly Jewel Tournament engraved in large gold words.

The registration process went very smoothly, as Zhou Weiqing led the two girls into the building. With the invitation and identity documents from the Fei Li Empire that Lin TianAo had passed to him, he quickly registered for their team and got their team plaque. He was also informed to report back at the Plaza for the drawing of lots three days later. At the same time, he also received the details and keys to the living arrangements that the ZhongTian Empire had arranged for them. Of course, Zhou Weiqing did not think of moving their team over; after all the rest of the teams would likely be there, and it was not an opportune time for them to get into any possible conﬂicts.

Just as the three of them completed their registration and were heading out, they ran into a group of people who were just heading in.

The group consisted of over a dozen people, and they were clearly here to register as well. The strangest thing was that the leader of the team was actually someone that both Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er recognized!

A few years back, not long after Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er had met, after his Heavenly Jewels had Awakened, they had met with an assassination attempt on Shangguan Bing’er. The leader of that assassination attempt had been Bai Jiu, the ninth prince of the Kalise Empire. At this moment, this same person was right in front of them.

As soon as both sides met, Bai Jiu started. Towards Zhou Weiqing, he did not have a strong impression, but he naturally easily recognized Shangguan Bing’er. After all, she was not only his enemy Empire’s youngest genius and only Heavenly Jewel Master of their generation, she was also a beauty of the highest order, and he had a strong impression of her. Besides, she had also been the target of his assassination previously.

“It’s you?!” Bai Jiu stared at Shangguan Bing’er scorchingly, then lifted his head to look at the words ‘Heavenly Jewel Tournament’. “What a joke, your Heavenly Bow Empire can actually enter the Heavenly Jewel Tournament?”

Standing beside Shangguan Bing’er, Crow said uncertainly: “We are representing the Fei Li Empire.”

Bai Jiu’s handsome face immediately showed a hint of disdain. “I never thought that the youngest genius of the Heavenly Bow Empire, their only Heavenly Jewel Master, Miss Shangguan Bing’er, would actually abandon your country and defect to the Fei Li Empire! Haha, looks like our Kalise Empire will soon be able to take over the Heavenly Bow Empire! Zhou Shui Niu has truly no successor!”

Zhou Weiqing raised his brow and asked: “Are you saying that you are representing the Kalise Empire to join the tournament?” His attention was not on Bai Jiu; after all, according to his memory, Bai Jiu was only a Physical Jewel Master, and not a Heavenly Jewel Master. With his current cultivation level and power, Bai Jiu was deﬁnitely not a threat to him. The ones he was taking note off were his companions. They were all about

thirty years of age or younger, each with a stable, profound aura and cold expressions. Although they looked rather ordinary on the surface, Zhou Weiqing could sense some danger from them. Although the group of people were following Bai Jiu, they seemed to ignore Zhou Weiqing’s trio, as if in their hearts, they were emotionless. This was also the thing that sparked Zhou Weiqing’s vigilance the most.

Bai Jiu lifted his head and said proudly: “Of course, how can your Heavenly Bow Empire compare with our Kalise Empire?! These few behind me are all Heavenly Jewel Masters, does your Heavenly Bow Empire have that many?”

Shangguan Bing’er said coldly: “I did not betray my Empire, not now, not ever. Your Kalise Empire has the power to join the Heavenly Jewel Tournament? Hah, from what I see, it’s just the second team of the Bai Da Empire right.”

“So what” A strong hatred ﬂashed in Bai Jiu’s eyes. That time, he had peed in his pants, and that would always be in his mind! Towards Shangguan Bing’er, though she was such a beauty, he was only full of hate, and not any hint of tender, protective feelings. “Even if we are the Bai Da Empire’s second team, at least that shows the Bai Da Empire is supporting us. What about you? Even if you have entered the Fei Li Empire, with your cultivation level, you’re likely just a mere reserve team member. At least I’m the leader of the Kalise Empire team, even if I can’t enter the battleﬁeld, it’s still better than you being controlled by others.”

Shangguan Bing’er wanted to continue arguing, but was held back by Zhou Weiqing. “Bing’er, let’s go.” After saying that, he led Shangguan Bing’er and Crow out.

As they passed by Bai Jiu, Zhou Weiqing’s eyes narrowed as he said softly: “I hope we’ll have good luck when drawing lots, and be placed in the same group with your Kalise Empire Team.” Although he really wanted to kill this fellow in front of him, he knew that this was not the right time; after all, they will still at the Heavenly Jewel Tournament registration spot.

“You…” Bai Jiu was about to retort, but Zhou Weiqing’s trio had already walked out. His loyal follower, Luo Xiaoye, quickly said: “Your Highness, do not lower yourself to argue with them, it will affect our grand plan.”

Bai Jiu looked at his loyal follower, and his expression calmed down. Stroking him on the face, he said gently: “Alright, I’ll let them off for now. Hmph. It should be I who hopes to meet them in the tournament.” Luo Xiaoye ﬂushed a little, looking at Bai Jiu with a slightly dazed expression.

Once again stepping into the Plaza, Zhou Weiqing let loose a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding. Shangguan Bing’er could clearly feel that his muscles had been tensed tightly.

Zhou Weiqing looked up in the sky and muttered to himself: “Next round, for the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, I will deﬁnitely lead our Heavenly Bow Empire into this stage. At that time, we will only have one goal, that is, the champion.”

That was Zhou Weiqing’s last word before they reached the inn. He did not even buy the snacks and foods as he had planned earlier, instead rushing back to the inn, dashing back into his room and cultivating. Shangguan Bing’er did not try comforting him; she knew that her man’s ﬁghting spirit had been sparked. Not because of that Ninth Prince, but because of how weak their Heavenly Bow Empire was.

…

Three days passed quickly, as if in a blink of an eye, and soon it was time for the teams to draw lots for their groups. It was still early in the morning, but the ZhongTian City was already bustling with activity. From the night before, the entrance into the inner city was being controlled as they started to limit the inﬂow of visitors. The Heavenly Jewel Tournament was open to the public to watch, but there were

just too many residents in the outer city. If all of them were to attempt to enter the inner city, there would just be insufﬁcient space. Although the actual ﬁght would only start tomorrow, the lot drawing ceremony still attracted quite a number of audiences; after all, many citizens wanted to know how the groups went – many were betting the Heavenly Jewel Tournament.

The ZhongTian Royal Palace Plaza was now cordoned off, and the area from the Royal Palace to the huge statue now looked extremely different.

In front of the palace, a twenty metre tall platform had been erected, that would be used to hold the audience, and it could hold several hundred people at once – clearly only the upper echelons of the ZhongTian Empire and other important guests would be able to ascend that platform.

In front of the VIP platform, a 50 metre long and wide square platform was also complete, about 5 metres tall, right in perfect vision from the VIP platform. Without question, that would be the platform where the ﬁghts would be actually held.

The entire tournament platform was created using a huge diamond rock, the tough material aimed at preventing the powerful Heavenly Jewel Masters from destroying the platform with their attacks.

Besides that, around the tournament platform, besides the main VIP platform, the other three sides were also surrounded by freshly built houses, they were clearly for the various battle teams to rest and watch from.

There were exactly twenty four Empires who registered teams for this year’s Heavenly Jewel Tournament; divided into four groups, it was six teams per group. As such, there were also twenty four houses surrounding the platform. Amongst them, facing the VIP platform and on the opposite end of the tournament platform were the four largest houses. Without question, the four were for the seeded teams. Class and rank was important no matter where one was.

As the sun rose higher, the various battle teams had their plaques checked as they entered the area. In front of each rest house, there was the team’s Empire’s names on the door, and they entered their respective house. For the Fei Li Battle Team, only Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er came. For the other teams, it was about the same, with only 1 to 2 members here. The looks and dispositions of Heavenly Jewel Masters might sometimes reveal what they were good at; since the actual competition

had not started, they naturally did not want to reveal themselves too early.

During the previous tournament, the Fei Li Battle Team had a good result of ﬁfth position. As such, their rest house was just to the left of the four seeded teams, and was one of the larger houses.

As Zhou Weiqing walked towards their rest house, he paused at the door, looking curiously towards the four seeded teams’ houses. He realised that none of them were occupied; the four seeded teams had not even bothered sending anyone to draw lots!

Such arrogance! In their minds, no matter what group they were in, they had already secured the ﬁrst position. As such, they did not even bother coming to understand which other teams would be in their groups. Of course, their arrogance also stemmed from their power; although Zhou Weiqing knew that in his mind, but that caused the notion in his mind, the refusal to lose, to grow even stronger! Representing the Kalise Empire to draw lots was Bai Jiu and his little Follower. As they had not joined the previous tournament, their position was at the most external end.

Alas, Zhou Weiqing’s wish did not come true, and he did not manage to get into the same group as the Kalise Empire. However, it was indeed a small world; when Zhou Weiqing examined his ‘Group Three’ lot, he realised that their Fei Li Battle Team was in the exact same group as the Bai Dai Empire! Indeed, enemies often cross path!

For their Group Three, the seeded team was from the large Empire at the South of the Boundless Mainland, the Dan Dun Empire, which had the Blood Red Hell of the Five Great Saint Lands supporting it. The Dan Dun Empire was about as large as the Fei Li Empire, but with the Blood Red Hell supporting it, their overall power was much stronger than the Fei Li Empire.

Besides the Dan Dun Battle Team, Fei Li Battle Team and Bai Da Battle Team, the other three teams in their group were from the Mi’Ou Empire, TieCheng Empire and the KaXi Empire.

These three Empires were relatively small Empires from the East side of the Mainlands. Although they were relatively small, they were much more powerful than Heavenly Bow Empire or the Kalise Empire.

In the East of the Boundless Mainland, there were two large powerhouse Empire, the Amber Empire and the Gerry Connaught Empire. These two large Empires were extremely powerful, especially the Amber Empire, who had the support of the Top Valley of the East, the Passion Valley. Under these two Empires’ pressure, the surrounding smaller ones had to pay tribute to them. However, just like in the west, where the Bai Da Empire and the Fei Li Empire were enemies, the Amber Empire and the Gerry Connaught Empire were not on good terms. Luckily, they were further apart, on the southeast and northeast portions, with seventeen smaller empires separating them; thus they did not actually ﬁght as much.

Furthermore, these smaller empires were quite close to the central ZhongTian Empire, which resulted in these two large Empires not daring to easily invade them, causing a rather uneasy peace.

For the seven strongest Empires in the Mainland, four of them were supported by the Great Saint Lands; the WanShou Empire, ZhongTian Empire, Dan Dun Empire and Amber Empire. They were also the four seeded teams. As for the rest of the three powerhouse Empires, the Bai Da Empire and Fei Li Empire had actually been drawn into the same group. WIthout question, this Group Three was now considered the Group of Death, with the toughest ﬁght. Furthermore, these two Empires were old enemies! Of course, no one else knew that this current Fei Li Battle Team was extremely incomplete, with

Zhou Weiqing, a mere three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master as their mainstay.

Chapter 72 In front of Absolute Strength, Tricks are Useless

When Shangguan Bing’er stopped suddenly and stared into the distance, Zhou Weiqing started, following her gaze. He saw, right at the end, Bai Jiu and his follower were talking with a black clad girl. Looking at their expressions, they seemed very respectful towards her.

“She is the girl who attacked us last time.” Shangguan Bing’er said softly.

“En?” Zhou Weiqing was shocked in his heart as well. He had not experienced the previous ﬁght himself, but he had heard the other team members’ descriptions. Even though during that ﬁnal ﬁght with her, most of their members had been exhausted or wounded, it still had not changed the fact that she had personally taken down the entire Fei Li Battle Team by herself; she was deﬁnitely extremely powerful.

Furthermore, along with their descriptions, Zhou Weiqing had quickly realised that the black clad girl who called herself the Little Witch deﬁnitely had both the Darkness and Demonic Attributes. Furthermore, she could use some plants to support her, that likely signiﬁed the Life Attribute. This allowed him to think of another place – the Heavenly Demon Sect. The Heavenly Jewel Masters with the Demonic Attribute were hunted throughout the world, and only the Heavenly Demon Sect could possibly have such a powerful Demonic Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master. Furthermore, seeing as she was so young, it was likely she was someone important in the Sect.

At this moment, for Little Witch to actually be together with Bai Jiu and Luo Xiaoye, that was deﬁnitely bad news for Zhou Weiqing. He did not fear the Kalise Empire, even if they had the support of the Bai Da Empire, they were still only the second team of the Bai Da Empire. However, if the Heavenly Demon Sect was joining in, then it would be a totally different matter. After all, Zhou Weiqing was clear on how powerful the Heavenly Demon Sect was; he had almost died at the hands of Ming Wu.

Perhaps sensing Zhou Weiqing’s gaze on her, Little Witch lifted her head and looked towards them. As their gazes met, Zhou Weiqing saw the spirit and vivacious ﬂexible intelligence in her eyes, yet with a terrifying depth; while Little Witch saw the aggressive, almost invasive nature of his gaze. Next, Little Witch saw Shangguan Bing’er beside Zhou Weiqing, and a curious look appeared on her face. Naturally, she remembered the battle a few days back clearly, and yet Zhou Weiqing had not appeared during that battle. Bai Jiu and Luo Xiaoye also followed her gaze to see Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er. On seeing it was them, Bai Jiu quickly said something to Little Witch softly, clearly explaining their origins.

Little Witch inclined her head towards Zhou Weiqing, revealing a cute smile as she winked at him. At that moment, Fat Cat, who had been sleeping in Zhou Weiqing’s arms, woke up suddenly, poking her head out, her deep purple eyes looking towards Little Witch.

Seeing Fat Cat in Zhou Weiqing’s bosom, Little Witch’s body shuddered slightly, a look of utter shock ﬂashing in her eyes momentarily. Due to her shock, she lost composure for a second, but quickly her expression frosted over as her mouth curled in an amused, pondering look before she turned and left.

Bai Jiu gave them an arrogant, disdainful look before chasing after Little Witch.

Watching them leave, Zhou Weiqing held Shangguan Bing’er’s hand and said a little worriedly: “It looks like we might be in some trouble. If the Little Witch is representing the Heavenly Demon Sect, and they are really supporting the Kalise Empire, then our Heavenly Bow Empire might truly be in trouble soon.”

Shangguan Bing’er furrowed her brow and said: “Should we report them? After all, the entire world is hunting these Evil Heavenly Jewel Masters; as long as we report them, perhaps they will be disqualiﬁed from the Heavenly Jewel Tournament.”

Zhou Weiqing shook his head and said: “No. They have been hunted for so long, yet their Sect has stayed around for all this time. They deﬁnitely have some methods to hide their powers. Even if we report them, it will be difﬁcult to prove anything. On the other hand, that will totally anger the Heavenly Demon Sect; if they haven’t thrown their support behind Kalise Empire, that might push them to do so. Not only will we be in trouble, our Empire will be in even greater danger. Do not worry so much, let’s use this Heavenly Jewel Tournament to observe how much support the Heavenly Demon Sect is throwing behind the Kalise Empire. To be honest, the Kalise Empire is way too small for the Heavenly Demon Sect… even if they wanted to support an empire, it should be a large empire like Fei Li or Bai Da. My guess is that the Kalise Empire might just be their puppet, while their true target is to get to the top four and enter the Heavenly Jewel Island. If my guess is right, then this just proves that the Heavenly Jewel Island has many good things. What we have to do now is to take things slowly, step by step, beating all our opponents while observing the situation.

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, a gentle smile appeared on Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful face, as she said softly: “My Little Fatty has truly grown up.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and leaned his head to her ear, saying: “Heh heh, that’s right, I have grown up… does that mean you will no longer restrict me from being intimate? Don’t worry, I will be very careful, I will not let you have a small Little Fatty, how about that?”

Shangguan Bing’er giggled as she said: “You… a leopard truly cannot change its spots! You’ve only acted honest for two days, and you’re back to your roguish ways. The Heavenly Jewel Tournament is so important, yet your mind is still so full of dirty thoughts!”

Zhou Weiqing said smugly: “How am I dirty? I am being very serious here! Anyway, does that mean that… after the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, we can…”

Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed a deep red: “Let’s go back quickly, everyone is waiting anxiously for us.” When they returned to the inn, Zhou Weiqing explained the situation of their group to the rest of the team. To his surprise, when they heard that they had been allocated to the same group as the Bai Da Empire, none of the team members were sad about it, instead all revealing excited expressions.

“Awesome! Weiqing, your luck is just too good!” Little Four said with a look of praise on his face. “I have always wanted to teach those Bai Da Bastards a lesson. Weiqing, you have to take care of those teams in front, when we meet the Bai Da Battle Team, we will deﬁnitely destroy them! Let me tell you, if we manage to destroy the Bai Da Battle Team in the preliminary stage, even if we do not reach the top four, we will still be heroes when we return home.”

Drunken Bao rubbed his hands together gleefully: “I can’t wait for that, I almost feel like my wounds are recovering faster. Weiqing, this lot drawing of yours is really great. This will not do. I’m going back to cultivate now, I must recover in time for the Bai Da Battle Team ﬁght.”

Xiao Yan was not as vocal as the other two, just saying softly: “I have already recovered almost to my seventy percent, even if I have to burn my life force again, I will be able to ﬁght.” A cold light also ﬂashed in Lin TianAo’s eyes. “Bai Da Empire.

Hmph. Bai Da Empire. Very good.”

Zhou Weiqing stared at them with a stunned look on his face: “Why are you guys so excited when you hear it’s them? So exaggerated?”

Drunken Bao said: “Weiqing, you are from the Heavenly Bow Empire. If we meet the Kalise Empire Battle Team, what would you be like?”

Without hesitation, Zhou Weiqing replied: “Of course, I’ll beat them til their mothers’ cannot recognize them!”

Drunken Bao grinned and said: “Heh, exactly! It is the same for us, we are mortal enemies with the Bai Da Empire, the hate between our countries is so deep and going way past into our history, it can be said to be almost an ethnic hatred. When we were ﬁghting against the Wan Shou Empire, the Bai Da Empire has caused us so much trouble. I can safely say that all Fei Li Empire citizens hate the Bai Da Empire much more than the Wan Shou Empire.”

Crow stood up abruptly, walking out. Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but ask: “Crow, where are you going?” Crow said: “Sharpening my axes.”

Ye Paopao said in a depressed tone: “Come on, all you bosses, you can’t do that! I want to ﬁght as well! Weiqing, why couldn’t your luck extend a little, if only we could ﬁght them in the ﬁrst round.”

Zhou Weiqing said exasperatedly: “Damn, it is sure easy to be the temporary leader, I do not even need to upkeep your morale. Look at all your excitement, I do not need to sa anything more, all of you, go and cultivate and train up. Bing’er, come on, let’s go back to our rooms and do what we love doing.”

Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed red again, glaring at him and muttering as she turned and ran off.

Ever since the entire team had sustained such heavy injuries, they had been rather suppressed, almost depressed. However, now, after the results of the group draw, it had lifted their spirits and lit a ﬁre beneath them. This was something that Zhou Weiqing had not expected.

… A fresh new day.

The Heavenly Jewel Tournament was ﬁnally about to begin. With twenty four battle teams, each round alone was twelve ﬁghts, with each group having three ﬁghts, and they would all be held in a single day, and the next round would be held three days later.

As the temporary leader, when Zhou Weiqing led his team out of the inn, he was rather dismal. The reason was simple, he did not even have ﬁve main team members gathered; even counting himself there were only four of them.

After hearing that they had the Bai Da Battle Team in their group, the injured team members threw themselves even crazier into cultivation and recovering; they were certainly full of ﬁghting spirit. According to their draw, they would meet the Bai Da Battle Team in the third round, as such most of them were trying to recover as much as possible in order to be battle ready by that time. As such, they did not even attend today’s ﬁght, going easy on the team today. After all, with just four people, they would be able to go through all ﬁve ﬁghts; of course, if they had to ﬁght twice it would take a toll on them.

As compared to yesterday, the Plaza was even more crowded and lively than before. It was still extremely early in the morning, but the Plaza, and its surroundings, was already packed to the core. If not for the fact that the ofﬁcials had arranged for a dedicated passageway for battle teams, they might even have had trouble entering the competition grounds. As compared to yesterday at the grouping ceremony, the atmosphere at the Plaza was obviously full of ﬁghting spirit and killing intent. Every battle team was there in strength, even the seeded teams, with the lowest numbers being eight and the highest up to more than ten. The only exception was naturally the Fei Li Battle Team and our dear Leader Zhou Weiqing, with their mere four.

When Zhou Weiqing led Shangguan Bing’er, Crow and Ye Paopao to the Fei Li Resting House, they immediately drew the attention of all the other battle teams, including the four seeded teams.

Even for the four seeded teams, all ﬁve main team members and three reserve members came, eight in total. In everyone’s point of view, the Fei Li Battle Team was just too arrogant; having only four members come was tantamount to announcing to others that they were so conﬁdent in winning today that only four members were required.

Of course, the one with the ugliest expressions was undoubtedly their opponent for today, the Mi’Ou Empire’s Battle Team, and they were currently glaring hard at the Fei Li Battle Team.

Alas, our dear Leader Zhou’s skin was extremely thick, and no matter how everyone stared at them, he just had an expression of ‘It is not my problem’, sitting down openly in the Resting House.

The side of the Resting House facing the main stage was not covered, and seeing him sit there so casually, everyone’s impression of the Fei Li Battle Team’s arrogance rose once more.

It wasn’t long before all the teams were gathered. From the distance, they could also see that the VIP stage was also full of people. Zhou Weiqing glanced towards it before looking away quickly. It wasn’t that great to have such a high sensitivity in this case, just that single glance had given him a huge scare, as cold sweat covered his entire back. He couldn’t tell what power levels most of the people in the VIP stage were, but he was sure that there were at leasts more than twenty who were more powerful than Ming Wu!

What sort of concept was that? That was to say, there were more than twenty nine-Jeweled Zong Stage Masters or greater on that stage alone! Each of them were powerhouses that could shake the world.

At this moment, a middle aged man of around forty stood up from the VIP stage, heading to the front. He was dressed in a yellow dragon robe, with a gold crown on his head, with several beautiful gemstones mounted on it. His waist was also studded with eighteen snow-white jades. He was not very handsome, giving off a stable, simple aura, but there was a lustrous gleam in his eyes that could not be hidden, and it was hard to determine how old he truly was. He was also one of the people which Zhou Weiqing had sensed as having a stronger power level than Ming Wu.

“Hello, all you youths from twenty four different Empires, it is good to meet you. I am the Emperor of the ZhongTian Empire, Shangguan TianXin. I would like to welcome all of you to our ZhongTian Empire, to join the great Heavenly Jewel Tournament held every three years.” His voice was soft and gentle, yet like mercury seeping into the ground, pervasive; and everyone could hear him clearly.

The competitors in the houses quickly walked out, bowing towards the VIP stage in greeting “Greetings Your Majesty.” Amongst them, the eight members of the ZhongTian Battle Team kneeled down respectfully. The several hundred thousand citizens who were surrounding the plaza also knelt down at the same time, shouting out loudly: “Long live, Long live, Long live Your Majesty!”

Several hundred thousand people shouting at once was deﬁnitely a stunning experience, as the huge sound waves reverberated around the air, it was likely that they could even be heard from the Heavenly Jewel Island several thousand metres above! This was the prestige and might of the Emperor; even though Shangguan Tianxin did not reveal any majestic aura, in front of his many citizens, he quickly became the focus of the entire area.

Zhou Weiqing also bowed slightly, but was surprised to see that Shangguan Bing’er, who was beside him, seemed rather dazed. “Bing’er, what’s wrong?”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head softly, saying: “Nothing, I just had a sudden feeling like his voice was so soothing and comfortable.”

By now, Shangguan TianXin spoke once more. “The Heavenly Jewel Tournament rules are as they have always been. Today is the ﬁrst round, and I hope that all you promising youths can display your full potential, and get good results.”

“The battle teams entering the top four will be able to enter the Heavenly Jewel Island to attend the ﬁnals. At the same time, they will also get tremendous prizes there. This is your stage! That’s all I have to say. Shangguan Longyin, where are you?”

“Here I am” An old man stepped forward from the side, bowing respectfully to Shangguan Tianxin.

Shangguan Tianxin said: “Longyin, you will be the overall judge of this year’s Heavenly Jewel Tournament, and you will supervise it, with your Skill Storing Palace staff as judges.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Shangguan Tianxin’s gaze swept across the members of the twenty four teams, and his own citizens, before saying solemnly: “Let the games begin!”

“Long live, Long live, Long live Your Majesty!” Another huge outcry arose as Shangguan Tianxin returned to his seat in the center of the VIP stage, and Shangguan Longyin replaced him at the previous position in front.

As compared to Shangguan Tianxin’s gentle appearance, Shangguan Longyin looked to be imposing and strict, his face impassive and a ﬁerce light in his eyes, as if he were a sheathed sword.

Ye Paopao said softly: “I’ve heard of this man, he is the ZhongTian Empire Skill Storing Palace Master, and is one of the most important persons in the entire ZhongTian Empire. Furthermore, it is rumoured that the upper echelons of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace is also made up of the members of the Royal Family. As such, although the ZhongTian Empire is so huge, the Shangguan Family’s status has never been shaken, and the seat of Emperor has always been theirs.”

‘ZhongTian Empire Skill Storing Palace Master’, the rank alone gave Zhou Weiqing chills. Even the Fei Li Empire’s Skill Storing Palace Master was a Heavenly King ranked powerhouse, and this Master in front of him was deﬁnitely even more powerful. Yet, he wasn’t even the most powerful person in the ZhongTian Empire, with the Heaven’s Expanse Palace above him! The world is indeed huge, and his eyes had indeed been opened. Shangguan Longyin’s imposing gaze swept past the audience, and they actually instantly quietened down. Impressive, as there were more than a few hundred thousand people! If one were to examine their faces closely, they would be able to see the fanatic light in the citizens’ eyes.

“First round, Group 1 Fight 1, ZhongTian Battle Team versus TianFeng Battle Team. Both sides, please send out your ﬁrst participant. Skill Storing Palace Judge, ascend the stage.”

Under the anticipating looks of the audience, the ﬁrst to ascend the stage was a middle aged man wearing a cream coloured robe – the Judge. On his robes were silver thread embroidery decorating it, and right in the middle of the chest area, the silver thread formed a large ‘Zhong’ word.

The ZhongTian Battle Team was one House away from Zhou Weiqing’s, and in a ﬂash of white light, a huge youth leapt up the stage. The ZhongTian Battle Team’s uniforms were pure white, with embroidery looking similar to the judge’s robes, though their uniforms weren’t robes, but tight ﬁtting clothes suited for ﬁghting, while the threads were gold, but similarly forming the ‘Zhong’ word in the center of the chest area.

As soon as the ZhongTian Battle Team member ascended the stage, the TianFeng Battle Team shouted out: “We admit defeat.”

The judge turned towards them and asked: “Do all of you admit defeat?”

“Yes.”

On hearing that, the ZhongTian Battle Team member did not seem surprised, remaining expressionless, as if he had already expected that this would happen. After bowing towards the judge, he walked back down, returning to his Team House.

According to the tournament ﬁxtures, the ﬁrst four ﬁghts would be the four seeded teams’ ﬁghts, followed by the other.

Facing a seeded team in the preliminary heats and admitting defeat instantly was not something that was shameful, but rather an intelligent choice. After all, defeating the seeded teams was extremely difﬁcult, or maybe even impossible. Even if there was a chance of success, they would not do so during the preliminary heats. Avoiding a tough ﬁght that would take too much of a toll, saving strength to take care of the others in the preliminary group in order to take the second position; this was deﬁnitely the stance that most, if not all, of the other teams. As expected, in the next three ﬁghts, the other three seeded teams also won without a ﬁght, easily getting their ﬁrst victory.

Next up was the second ﬁght of each group; this was ﬁnally the start of the actual ﬁghts!

Zhou Weiqing sat in the rest house, watching closely. Watching the two teams of Group 1 ﬁghting, he was rather surprised in his heart. Both of these battle teams were from small empires, but their power was not to be underestimated. Out of the ﬁve who actually fought, both sides were all with 2 3-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters, and 3 4-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters. For youths of less than thirty, this was already considered extremely powerful. Furthermore, their combat skills and ﬁghting styles were all pretty good, as they fought hard on the stage, Heavenly Energy ﬂying all about. It was pretty impressive, after all, these two teams were merely relatively ‘bottom-feeder teams’ in terms of ranking amongst the twenty four.

Finally, the ﬁght ended with one side barely winning with a 3-2 score.

When it came to the second group’s second ﬁght, Zhou Weiqing was unable to watch any further; mainly because the next round was their group three’s turn to ﬁght .

“Crow, you take the ﬁrst round. Paopao, the second round. For the third round, 2 v 2, Crow and I will take it.” As the temporary leader, Zhou Weiqing quickly assigned their roles.

Although she was not assigned to ﬁght, Shangguan Bing’er did not complain, just sitting silently beside Zhou Weiqing. Towards her man, she had a total unrelenting conﬁdence and support towards him.

The second round ended rather quickly, as one of the teams was from a rather large empire, similar in strength to the Fei Li Empire, the Gerry Connaught Battle Team. They displayed their sheer power and superiority here, winning easily by just sending 4 members, 2 4-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters and 2 5-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters.

Whenever every ﬁght ended, the judge on the stage would be changed. At this point, a new judge stepped up onto the stage and shouted out: “Third Group, Second Fight. Fei Li Battle Team versus the Mi’Ou Battle Team, both sides, please send your ﬁrst participant onto the stage.” Crow had been waiting for the ﬁght for so long, and she quickly stepped up towards the stage. When she reached it, she did not even bother using the stairs, stamping hard on the ground with her right foot, ﬂying up and landing straight on the tournament stage.

Zhou Weiqing quickly clapped his hands to his ears, and in the next instant, a huge explosion rang out, shocking everyone. Indeed, it was a huge explosion, and that was the sound when Crow landed on the stage. With her 600 jin weight and her tough bones and skin, jumping from such a height onto the stage, how could it not cause a powerful commotion. Others usually jumped up swiftly and quietly, yet she decided to do the reverse. Of course, there was no doubt that it had a stunning effect. In that instant, she drew the attention of everyone, including the four seeded teams and the VIP guests.

The Fei Li Battle Team uniforms were dark green, also with gold thread embroidery. The difference from the ZhongTian’s uniform was that the embroidery was mostly on the left part of the chest, forming the symbol of the Fei Li Empire, the Cross Sword.

At that point, even the judge on the stage was startled by Crow’s jump, and looking at the slight crack in the Diamond / Titanium ﬂoor, his mouth twitched a little.

At the same time, the Mi’Ou Battle Team Member also ascended the stage. He was a tall, well built youth. Originally, he had moved out at the same time as Crow, but when Crow landed on the Crow, he had been startled and lost his balance. Looking at this girl in front of him who was even larger and more muscled, this youthful member from the Mi’Ou Empire couldn’t help but have a strange expression on his face, as a sense of wariness and danger crept up on him.

Zhou Weiqing continued sitting relaxedly in the Rest House, his expression content and pleased, looking every bit like a genius strategist who had planned everything, as if everything was in his grasp. There was a reason why he had used this lineup; no matter which team, everyone attached an extremely high value on the ﬁrst ﬁght. After all, a good start would also be a good omen, giving a boost to morale, and generally advantageous to the team. As such, the ﬁrst member was usually one of the stronger team members. That was also the reason why Zhou Weiqing had assigned Crow to be the ﬁrst; he was extremely conﬁdent in her abilities, no matter in terms of physique, strength or combat skills, she would deﬁnitely be able to stun any opponents.

Normally, the second member to be sent out would likely be slightly weaker than the ﬁrst; after all there were ﬁve ﬁghts in total. By sending Ye Paopao as the second member, Zhou Weiqing estimated that there would be at least a seventy percent chance of winning. Added on to the fact that he was extremely conﬁdent of winning the third ﬁght with himself and Crow, even if Ye Paopao lost the second ﬁght, he would personally take the fourth ﬁght to seal the deal.

On the stage, the judge said solemnly: “Both sides, introduce yourselves.”

Crow said casually: “Fei Li Battle Team, Crow.”

The opposing team member said solemnly: “Mi’Ou Battle Team, Wu Zhengyang.”

The judge continued: “The rules are very simple, both of you can attack as you please, there are no restrictions on weapons. Beastmasters are not allowed to use Consolidated Equipment and Stored Skills. As long as anyone admits defeat, no one is allowed to continue attacking. Understood?”

Both sides nodded in agreement, and the judge quickly gave the start signal, and the ﬁrst ﬁght of the Fei Li Battle Team had ﬁnally began.

The Mi’Ou Battle Team Member Wu Zhengyang shouted out loud, instantly releasing his Heavenly Jewels, and they could all clearly see four Icy Jade Physical Jewels appear around his right wrist.

Looking at his Physical Jewels, Zhou Weiqing’s mouth twitched upwards in a happy smile. Towards Crow, the worst type of opponents were Agility Type Heavenly Jewel Masters with high offensive capabilities, just like Little Four. Since this Wu Zhengyang was a Strength Type Heavenly Jewel Master, how could he possibly compete in strength with Crow? After all, he wasn’t Zhou Weiqing!

Crow also released her Heavenly Jewels, and when the three Icy Jade Physical Jewels and three Star Ruby Elemental Jewels appeared around her wrists, loud cries of surprise rang out from amongst the audience.

Crow was just too tall and large, and although her uniform was specially tailored for her, it could not withstand this girl’s ﬁghting spirit, as she rolled up her sleeves as soon as she ascended the stage in a ﬁghting stance, thus revealing her Elemental Jewels for her everyone to see.

Originally, seeing that Fei Li Empire had been so arrogant as to only send four team members, all the teams had estimated that this Fei Li Empire had deﬁnitely come prepared. None of them had expected to see that the ﬁrst member to ﬁght would be a mere three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, no matter how valiant or strong she looked. After all, in the Heavenly Jewel Master world, physique did not usually have a large impact on determining victory.

Seeing Crow’s three sets of Jewels, Wu Zhengyang started, especially since Crow’s Elemental Jewels did not seem to be unique, just ordinary Fire Attributes. He couldn’t help but exclaim: “So, you’re just here to attempt to intimate people!”

Crow grinned and said: “Heh heh, so what if I’m intimidating?” As she said that, she took a step forward, charging towards Wu Zhengyang.

Wu Zhengyang gave a cold humph, the four Physical Jewels around his right wrist lighting up. Although Crow only had a three-Jeweled cultivation level, he did not underestimate her. To be able to represent the Mi’Ou Battle Team, especially to be sent out ﬁrst, he deﬁnitely had his own merits; no matter in terms of power levels, battle experience, or mentality, he was deﬁnitely very outstanding.

A long, nearly 1.5 metres long and half chi wide heavy sword appeared in his hands. At the same time, a shield appeared in his other hand, along with a shoulder pauldrons and chestplate. Glimmering with a silver light along with the Icy Mist, without question, out of the four Consolidated Equipment he had summoned, at leasts three were a set.

As soon as his Consolidated Equipment coalesced, Wu Zhengyang aura and ﬁghting spirit rose dramatically. With a sliding step forward, he swung the heavy sword with a single arm towards Crow’s head.

Facing Crow, who had not even released a single Consolidated Equipment, he naturally did not rush to use his Stored Skills. In the Mi’Ou Battle Team, he was the second most powerful person, with only their mainstay being able to beat him. As such, it was possible he had to ﬁght in the 2v2 match once more, and reducing any unnecessary expenditure of Heavenly Energy was extremely important. At least, he would have probe out Crow’s actual power ﬁrst.

A four-Jeweled Strength Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master, in addition to a Consolidated Heavy Sword, the power of the sword as it whistled down was rather stunning, causing a screeching sound as it ﬂew through the air. His own strength, the additional boost of the Consolidated Equipment Set, accompanied by his ﬂowing style of movement, Wu Zhengyang’s strike could be said to be nigh perfect. He even covered his own body with the shield in his left hand, protecting himself while he attacked; this was truly the best strategy to test out someone’s real power. It was also a position where he could unleash a continuous ﬂurry of blows in succession, and he was extremely conﬁdent that he could ﬁnish this ﬁght against this lower cultivation level Heavenly Jewel Master quickly.

In truth, Wu Zhengyang’s judgement and strategy was not wrong at all; alas he had still underestimated Crow, using a normal Heavenly Jewel Master’s power to judge her. Yet, was she normal at all?

Looking at the heavy sword rushing towards her, Crow stopped abruptly. Her ﬁghting skills and combat abilities were deeply ingrained in her, and with a quick lift of her left hand, she actually used her naked hands to grab the Heavy Sword, and even more so, doing so on the blade itself!

No matter what, Wu Zhengyang had not expected Crow to grab his blade just like that! *Claangg* A huge sound rang out as he felt as if his Heavy Sword had embedded itself deep into a steel vise. Despite exerting all of his considerable strength and Heavenly Energy, it did not budge even a little, and Crow’s hands did not move as well. As for her, she looked on with a smile on her face as her hands were still grabbing onto the Heavy Sword, looking completely relaxed. Crow’s movements were always simple and straightforward. Whenever a simple action could solve the problem, she would not go for the complicated method. With her left hand still grabbing hold of her opponent’s Heavy Sword, her right leg kicked out savagely. Although there was a large Heavy Sword in between them, but Crow just lifted it up and the thick, powerful long legs of hers lashed out in a straight line, smashing into Wu Zhengyang’s shield.

*Peng*!

The entire audience’s’ jaws dropped as Wu Zhengyang ﬂew like a launched cannonball as he was kicked by Crow. Along with his four Consolidated Equipment, he ﬂew all the way out of the stage, past the Resting Houses, before smashing heavily into the Plaza.

And so, the ﬁrst ﬁght between the Fei Li Battle Team and Mi’Ou Battle Team ended; the entire ‘ﬁght’ taking barely a few seconds.

Shock. Absolute shock. Even the great powerhouses on the VIP stage stared with their jaws open. As the saying goes, ‘In front of Absolute Strength, Tricks are Useless’, and Crow truly showed that in front of everyone in that ﬁght. When Crow had kicked Wu Zhengyang’s shield and the loud ensuing sound rang out, many hearts clenched tightly and twitched, as if their owners had been the one kicked.

Wu Zhengyang smashed into the ground, stunned totally until he wasn’t even able to get up. His Consolidated Equipment Shield showed several slim cracks, and it was his fourth Jewel’s Consolidated Equipment! What kind of terrifying strength was required to do something like that?! After all, he was also a Strength Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master.

Crow stood proudly in the middle of the stage, her hands at her hips as she said airily: “That little gigolo sure didn’t have his meal! Come on, next one!”

Only then did the judge recover his senses, and he coughed politely: “About that… Participant Crow, everyone can only ﬁght in one 1v1 ﬁght.”

Crow started, then scratched her head sheepishly: “Ohh, right. I forgot about that totally. So, does that ﬁght just now count as my win?” The judge could only stare at her helplessly, before nodding quickly and saying: “First ﬁght, Fei Li Battle Team wins.”

Crow grinned, bowing to the judge, before jumping off the stage. This time, quite a few of them closed their eyes as she landed with another loud thud. This girl deﬁnitely had a very unique character!

Zhou Weiqing remained seated in the Rest House, an amused smile dancing on his lips. Crow sure knew how to act! In that ﬁght, she had acted so naive and simpleminded. Together with her huge physique, it was easy for others to dismiss her as a ‘musclebrain’.

Of course, if anyone thought that way, they would be very wrong, and would be falling right into her trap. After all, previously when Zhou Weiqing had bet with Little Four, Crow and Xiao Yan had not joined in the bet. Under the guise of her honest, simpleminded exterior, she deﬁnitely was extremely intelligent. Of course, her acting skills was good enough to impress even Zhou Weiqing.

Wu Zhengyang was carried back to the Resting House by his team members. When he ﬁnally gained his breath, he couldn’t help but vomit out a mouthful of blood, his expression turning green. That wasn’t because he had sustained any heavy injuries, but rather because he had been just too vexed by that loss. He had not even used much of his power, yet he had lost just like that. He hadn’t even used a single Stored Skill! What the…

Alas, a loss was a loss; as long as he fell off the stage, that counted as a loss, and there was nothing he could do about it. By then, the Judge shouted out: “Second ﬁght, one vs one. Get ready, both sides please send your respective team members.”

Ye Paopao stood up, arranging his uniform gracefully as he strolled forward. As compared to Crow, he was much more normal, as he walked up the steps to the stage.

Chapter 73 An unexpectedly powerful opponent

Ye Paopao was representing the Fei Li Battle Team for the second ﬁght, while the representative for the Mi’Ou Battle Team was a skinny youth. When they both ascended the stage, he looked over Ye Paopao carefully, and as soon as he deemed that Ye Paopao wasn’t like Crow, he heaved a sigh of relief. That scene earlier had deﬁnitely imprinted itself in his mind.

“Fei Li Battle Team, Ye Paopao.” “Mi’Ou Battle Team, Zhu Heisan.”

The judge shouted out: “Second ﬁght, begin!” There were after all twelve ﬁghts in total today, and they had no time to delay.

Ye Paopao ﬂicked his wrist, and the Consolidated Staff appeared in his grasp. As for Zhu Heisan, he immediately charged forward towards Ye Paopao, a completely black Consolidated Dagger held in his right hand He moved extremely swiftly, and in a few steps he had reached Ye Paopao. Ye Paopao’s Physical Jewel was the Yellow Jade signifying toughness, and was mainly for defense. Facing the opponent’s charge, he lifted his left hand calmly, and a Consolidated Shield appeared in front of him.

Naturally, as compared to Lin TianAo, his shield was much weaker, and also a lot smaller, a round shield with a mere 1 chi diameter. However, there was a sparkling sapphire socketed on the front of the shield – his Elemental Jewel.

*Ting* a soft sound rang out as the two clashed for the ﬁrst time. Perhaps the Mi’Ou Battle Team were worried after the ﬁrst loss, and they sent out another four-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master for this second ﬁght. Furthermore, this Zhu Heisan’s Physical Jewel was the Agility Dragonstone Jade.

Although Zhu Heisan’s ﬁrst attack was blocked by Ye Paopao’s Consolidated Shield, but his attack did not stop there, as he erupted into a ﬂurry of attacks, a green light shining forth from his left wrist as his entire person seemed to become a bolt of furious lightning, as several dozen attacks encroached upon Ye Paopao’s position from all directions.

Back in the rest room, Shangguan Bing’er cried out in surprise: “Ultimate Agility Heavenly Jewel Master!” Indeed, that Zhu Heisan was another Ultimate Agility Heavenly Jewel Master like Shangguan Bing’er, with the Emperor Tourmaline Elemental Jewel and the Dragonstone Jade Physical Jewel.

“We do not to worry that much.” Zhou Weiqing said calmly. “The Water Attribute Element has the strongest control amongst the lower levels. Our luck is relatively good.”

As soon as Zhou Weiqing ﬁnished speaking, the scene on the battleﬁeld chaned once more. Facing Zhu Heisan’s whirlwind- like ﬂurry of attacks, Ye Paopao knew that he would not be able to dodge them. With a wave of the staff in his hands, an ice shield appeared behind him, coalescing in place to defend his back and sides. As for the Consolidated little round shield in his left hand, he moved it swiftly, blocking off Zhu Heisan’s attacks from the front, and holding his own.

With the Defense Physical Jewel, Ye Paopao was well versed in long ranged offense and closed range defense. Furthermore, during this period of time, he had been humbly learning much from Xiao Yan, and he had deﬁnitely learnt much, improving in terms of Control of Heavenly Energy, Usage of Skills and general combat abilities, causing his overall power to jump up by leaps and bounds.

Zhu HeiSan fully displayed his speed, making use of his Stored Skill Gale, causing his entire body to seem like green smoke as he sped up, as his attacks seemed to ﬂow from all directions. Alas, every attack seemed to be blocked or countered somehow. Ye Paopao was not fast, but his defense was steady, with his Ice Shield Skill and the Consolidated Shield in his left hand, he was able to block off wave after wave

of attacks.

Zhu HeiSan was naturally faced with the same problems as Shangguan Bing’er. As a Ultimate Agility Heavenly Jewel Master, their greatest weakness was their lack of offensive power. Ye Paopao with his defensive Physical Jewels was able to hold his ground and stave off all the attacks, and Zhu HeiSan was unable to break through and actually deal damage.

Most of the watching audience did not realise that as the two fought and clashed constantly, a diluted, faint Icy mist slowly sprang out from Ye Paopao’s feet. To outsiders, it might seem like the mist from the Ice Shield, but this mist actually spread out slowly, pressed down closely to the ground. In the time that the ﬁght had taken, it had slowly spread out to a ten yard radius surrounding the pair.

Just as Zhu HeiSan’s ﬂurry of attacks paused for a second as he regained his breath, only then did that icy mist suddenly spring up in action silently. All of a sudden, Zhu HeiSan felt that the temperature of the air dropped drastically. Just as he was about to retreat, he heard Ye Paopao say softly: “Freezing Field!”

In that instant that the Icy Mist sprang forth, Zhu HeiSan felt as if his body was surrounded by countless particles of ice, clinging onto his body with a bone chilling cold freezing his very ﬂesh down to his meridians, causing them to harden.

At such a critical moment, it was down to who had the better trump card. Zhu HeiSan did not hesitate at all, waving his right hand, and three bouts of green light shot forth from his hands into the air. It was three throwing darts, with each imbued with the power of his Dragonstone Jade.

Who would have thought that for Zhu HeiSan’s four Physical Jewels, three of them were actually the exact same weapon, and just ﬂying darts!

As the three darts ﬂew into the air, they struck each other in midair, abruptly sticking to each other. In the dense green light, they seemed to meld into a single large dart, yet not losing its insane speed as it drew a beautiful green arch in the sky, speeding forth towards Ye Paopao’s right chest. Of course, as an Ultimate Agility Heavenly Jewel Master, Zhu HeiSan knew about his own lack of offensive powers. His three darts were an Assembly Set just like Lin TianAo’s shield, bringing about a similar effect. However, in his case, it was used for attacking, and it was only made of three Jewels.

Added on to the fact that its base offense wasn’t extremely high, as such, it was still a lot weaker if compared to Lin TianAo’s shield.

Still, that was only in relation. The three ﬂying darts merged together was deﬁnitely not something to be overlooked, greatly increasing Zhu HeiSan’s offensive powers. Adding on the the fact that it came as such a huge surprise and speed, Ye Paopao was not even able to react.

In the Resting House, Zhou Weiqing’s expression changed. It all happened too fast that even he was unable to reach forward to help even if he wanted to.

However, at such a moment of critical danger, the calmest person was actually Ye Paopao. Earlier, when Zhu HeiSan had waved his right hand at him, he had already started making preparations.

The Icy Mist of his Water Attribute Elemental Heavenly Energy that he had released earlier, along with his Freezing Field Skill, he knew it had deﬁnitely dealt a large blow to Zhu HeiSan, at least restricting his speed. Without question, Zhu HeiSan’s had just used a skill in an attempt to strike out before he got Controlled fully. In truth, Ye Paopao’s battle skill and instincts were not that lacking, and he had been trying to force his opponent’s hand, who had fallen right into his expectations.

*Swoosh* the Consolidated Flyin Dart ﬂew right through Ye Paopao’s right chest. However, Ye Paopao was not injured at all, because right at that instant, two Ye Paopaos appeared on the stage.

Water Attribute Seven Star Rated Support Skill, Mirror Image. The user could use Water Attribute Heavenly Energy to form a phantasm which was exactly the same as their own main body. At the same time, when using this skill, all Water Attribute Abilities were boosted. At Ye Paopao’s current four- Jeweled cultivation level, it would actually boost his Water Attribute Abilities by almost twenty percent.

Even though he had been prepared for it and unleashed it at the fastest possible speed, he still only just managed to barely dodge his opponent’s massive blow with that Mirror Image skill. Indeed, Ye Paopao was given an alarming scare, causing him to break out in cold sweat. Zhu HeiSan’s power was deﬁnitely beyond what he had expected.

The three Assembly Set Flying Dart missed its target, and it swiftly returned back to Zhu HeiSan’s hands. However, Ye Paopao would not give him any further chances to attack.

With the Icy Mist and Freezing Field boosted by the Mirror Image Skill, their effect grew stronger, and Zhu HeiSan’s speed had been restricted, almost fully controlled, and he felt as if his entire body was frozen in place.

A plain looking ice shield pressed hard against his body and arms, causing him to be unable to unleash his Flying Darts once more. When he tried to retreat, he found another three Ice Shields pressing against him from behind, locking him in place.

As an Ice Spear began forming in Ye Paopao’s hands, a cold female voice rang out from the Mi’Ou Battle Team. “We admit defeat for this loss.”

Ye Paopao did not pursue his attack. After all, although Zhu HeiSan’s earlier attack with his Consolidated Assembly Set Darts was shocking, he had only aimed it at his right chest, not at his heart. The two did not have any deep hatred for each other, and forcefully attacking and injuring the opponent was absolutely unnecessary, even foolish.

Quickly releasing his Ice Spear, and Zhu HeiSan from his ‘prison’ of Icy Mist and Shields, Ye Paopao gave a slight bow and smiled towards Zhu HeiSan, saying: “You’ve let me win.”

Zhu HeiSan said a little vexedly: “Ahh, I have lost out. I should have gone all out and used my three Jeweled Assembly Set right from the get go, perhaps I might have had a bigger chance.”

In truth, in terms of overall combat prowess and power, Zhu HeiSan was no weaker than Ye Paopao. However, he did not want to reveal his powers so quickly, but Ye Paopao was tougher than he expected and seized the opportunity swiftly, otherwise the match would have been a lot closer, and the result up in the air.

Once again, the Judge proclaimed the victor to be the Fei Li Battle Team, and both sides bowed to each other politely before descending the stage. That was a rather normal ﬁght indeed, but before the audience could recover, the immense and shocking Crow suddenly appeared in their vision once more.

Naturally, she was back on stage for the third ﬁght, the 2v2!

Another explosion sounded out again as Crow jumped up onto the stage. Zhou Weiqing grinned, unlimbering his muscles swiftly as he stretched quickly, before he walked towards the stage.

“Little Fatty, be careful.” Shangguan Bing’er said concernedly. Earlier, the triple Assembly Set Flying Darts had given her a small shock. Indeed, this Heavenly Jewel Tournament was a collection of young talents, and no one could be estimated, as no one knew what secret or unique skills could be seen.

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Do not worry, you know my motto, safety ﬁrst!”

Seeing that Crow had ascended the stage for a second time, Wu Zhengyang rushed out unhesitatingly from the Mi’Ou Battle Team again. He had really been vexed by his ﬁrst loss, and he wanted to gain back his face, or he would be too embarrassed to even stay in the team.

Right behind Wu Zhengyang, a young lady followed from the Mi’Ou Battle Team. She looked to be around twenty ﬁve years of age, with a small, almost delicate, frame. Her features were above average, but with a cold expression on her face as she examined Crow with a wary look.

Crow looked to Zhou Weiqing and asked softly: “How do we do this?”

Zhou Weiqing’s smile froze as he said: “How do we do this? What do you think, ﬁnding a sexual partner? We deal with one each, that gigolo is yours, and the beauty is mine. Fair enough?”

“Alright.” Crow nodded immediately in agreement.

That’s the literal translation of 承让, it’s a polite term used in chinese martial arts combats where the victor is just being humble. We can take it as a phrase similar in meaning to ‘Good ﬁght.’ or the sort. He is making a pun on words, or misreading her words. Basically Crow said ‘ 怎么搞’ – which means ‘How do we do this?’, but 搞 also has another slang meaning of ‘having sex’… hence his words. “Fei Li Battle Team, Crow.”

“Fei Li Battle Team, Zhou Weiqing.” “Mi’Ou Battle Team, Wu Zhengyang.” “Mi’Ou Battle Team, Jiang Fei.”

After the four introduced themselves, the judge gave the signal to start, and the 3rd ﬁght between the two teams began.

As both sides simultaneously summoned their Heavenly Jewels, the surrounding audience gave a loud cry of surprise. Not only because Zhou Weiqing also only had three sets of Jewels, but also because that small young lady called Jiang Fei had actually ﬁve sets of Jewels! At her age, that deﬁnitely put her at one of the top few talents in the world, and she was undoubtedly the mainstay of the Mi’Ou Battle Team.

Accompanying the Judge’s command, the ﬁght started ofﬁcially. Although Wu Zhengyang’s face was unreconciled and full of regret, he did not just blindly charge forward. Releasing his Heavy Sword, a bright glow ﬂashed upon the tip of the sword, and his right arm ﬂexed as the Heavy Sword whistled forward, and the glow ﬂew out swiftly as an ethereal sword strike towards Zhou Weiqing and Crow.

Both sides were more than twenty yards apart, and naturally by the time it reached Zhou Weiqing, the sword glow’s power was deﬁnitely not able to harm them. That sword only had one motive, to prevent Zhou Weiqing and Crow from charging forward towards them into close range. Although he was not satisﬁed with the previous result, Wu Zhengyang had to admit that in terms of pure physical strength, he was deﬁnitely no match for Crow.

However, who would expect that both Crow and Zhou Weiqing stood there unmoved, with not even the hint of wanting to move, just watching as the sword strike dissipated right in front of them.

Crow turned to Zhou Weiqing and asked in a puzzled tone: “What is he doing? Chopping the air?”

Zhou Weiqing shrugged casually: “How would I know? Perhaps he landed on his head earlier just now, and damaged his brain?” Crow was her usual naive, almost foolish look, and Zhou Weiqing had his customary honest looking smile as soon as he ascended the stage. This pair was deﬁnitely a great pair of actors, as they played off each other’s words, causing many of the audience to burst out laughing.

Wu Zhengyang was so enraged that his face turned red, then white, and he was about to react when Jiang Fei said solemnly from behind: “Do not fall into their trap. Steady yourself and defend ﬁrst.”

Strangely, as soon as Jiang Fei spoke, Wu Zhengyang immediately calmed down. Brandishing his Heavy Sword, he glared at Zhou Weiqing and Crow as he focused his mind on the ﬁght.

A four-Jeweled Light Attribute Heavenly Jewel MAster was deﬁnitely an superb partner to anyone. Amongst the Greater Attributes, the Light Attribute was relatively more common, but it was still a Greater Attribute after all.

With Zhou Weiqing’s power, with his Alexandrite Cat’s Eye and Legendary Consolidated Equipment, he would have no problems ﬁghting and beating those of a higher cultivation level up to four Jewels, but facing a ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master would likely be more problematic. After all, the difference in Heavenly Energy was just too huge. In the past, when he had managed to get an advantage in the ﬁght with Ming Wu, that was because Ming Wu had truly underestimated him, ﬁrst through the bet, and later also not unleashing his full power, allowing Zhou Weiqing to seize the opportunity and succeeding in a sneak attack.

Of course, the current Zhou Weiqing was truly strong. After all, he had a large number of Skills, six times more than any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master of the same level! Furthermore, he had Stored so many high ranking Skills, especially Control Skills; as such, it would boil down to how the ﬁght came to pass.

Standing behind Wu Zhengyang, Jiang Fei raised both her hands, and they could clearly see the ﬁve Red Jade Physical Jewels, signifying the Coordination Attribute around her right wrist, light up all at once.

Zhou Weiqing’s heart clenched involuntarily, and he couldn’t help but complain to himself inwardly: Yet another Consolidated Equipment Set?! Didn’t Master Huyan say that it was extremely rare, why is it in this Heavenly Jewel Tournament, it seems like these Sets are like wild cabbages, found everywhere?! In the previous ﬁghts, there have been at least ten competitors releasing various sorts of Consolidating Equipment Sets already…

However, Zhou Weiqing quickly realised that his judgement was in error – the ﬁve Physical Jewels that Jiang Fei had released was not a Consolidated Equipment Set.

All Consolidated Equipment Sets had a consistent, or even identical, markings, as well as a close connection with each other. However, the ﬁve Consolidated Equipment that appeared around Jiang Fei was actually very different.

A black metallic glove, a long black staff, a single black armguard on her right arm, a black right shoulder pauldrons and black helmet. Strangely, all ﬁve of her Consolidated Equipment seemed to be consolidated on her right, and all of them had a single socket, currently already socketed with her Elemental Jewel, the black pearls signifying the Darkness Attribute.

Zhou Weiqing was not an ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master, he was also a Consolidating Equipment Master, and on seeing Jiang Fei’s equipment, a chill ran down his spine as he suddenly thought of something. Quickly, he shouted out: “Crow, be careful! That girl is an Ultimate Offense type Heavenly Jewel Master, likely a ranged specialist.” An Ultimate Offense type Heavenly Jewel Master referred to one who had focused all their power into offensive capabilities, totally ignoring defense or control. No matter their Consolidated Equipment or Stored Skills, they would only concentrate on offense. Their Consolidated Equipment were usually imbued with certain skills, usually boosts on offense like empowering strength or elemental damage. In addition, with the sockets, they could usually improve the power of their Elemental Jewel Stored Skills. Judging from her equipment and the staff in her right hand, Zhou Weiqing quickly made a snap decision on her.

To totally sacriﬁce defense to focus on offense, such an ultimate offense type Heavenly Jewel Master deﬁnitely played things to the extremes, and could be extremely risky. However, when done right, their power was extremely terrifying.

The truth was indeed as Zhou Weiqing had guessed. Jiang Fei’s ﬁve Consolidated Equipment were all imbued with a boost to her Darkness Attribute, causing her ﬁve Stored Darkness Skills to be strengthened to an insane level. Under such extreme measures, her offensive capabilities alone were comparable to that of a top grade six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. Zhou Weiqing had not expected to meet such a tough opponent on just their ﬁrst round of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. At the same time that he shouted out the warning to Crow, his Overlord Bow appeared in his hands. As Wu Zhengyang was fully focused on support and defense, he would certainly not be so easy to take down. At the same time, Jiang Fei would be behind him attacking with her terrifying offense. As such, Zhou Weiqing knew he had to suppress them with his attacks, in order to have a chance.

Despite Zhou Weiqing’s warning, Crow still charged forward valiantly. At the same time, Jiang Fei’s ﬁrst attack was launched.

With a wave of her black staff, a jet black ball of light immediately ﬂew towards Crow; at the same time, a black shadow extended from her feet, growing slowly towards Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing also took action at the same time as her, the Overlord Bow in his hand ﬂashing as an arrow shot out like a bolt of lightning. Both sides were so close, and it was almost like he had just lifted the Overlord Bow when the arrow had already ﬂown out.

For Wu Zhengyang on the other side, the moment he saw Zhou Weiqing summon out his Overlord Bow, he reacted swiftly by summoning a shield of light. As the brilliant gold light coalesced in front of him, it also covered Jiang Fei. Though it was shimmeringly transparent and seemingly unsolid, it would be a mistake to underestimate it. This Shimmering Light Shield was a six star rated skill, and amongst Elemental Jewel Stored Skills, it was one of the top defensive abilities. Without doubt, since Jiang Fei was an ultimate offense type Heavenly Jewel Master, in order to better coordinate with her, her teammate had to have a great defense.

However, Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁrst arrow was not shot at the two opponents, instead ﬂying towards the the black ball of light that Jiang Fei had shot towards Crow. With a huge explosion which caused the air to reverberate, and the black ball and arrow both evaporated at the same time.

Jiang Fei started a little, while Zhou Weiqing’s brow also arched up slightly. Without question, Jiang Fei was surprised that Zhou Weiqing, at only three-Jeweled cultivation level, was able to break her powerful attack with just a single arrow.

Of course, Zhou Weiqing’s arrow was no simple arrow, and it actually held his Heavenly Lightning Shock Skill, with its specialised ability to disrupt or break Skills, in addition to the Overlord Bow’s explosive effect, it just barely managed to break her attack. However, he had also clearly felt that his arrow had disintegrated the moment it touched the ball of black light. If not for the fact that the imbued Skill had managed to release right before it happened, perhaps it would have been swallowed by the ball as well.

The was the difference in offensive power and level.

No matter how genius Zhou Weiqing was, no matter how many powerful and high rated skills he had, he was still after all only at the three-Jeweled cultivation level, while his opponent was not only a ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, but also a genius ultimate offensive Darkness Heavenly Jewel Master! Under such a circumstance, if he tried to take her attacks head on, even with his legendary hammers, he might not necessarily be able to block them.

Jiang Fei’s surprise only lasted a split second before she recovered, her gaze still cold as she waved her staff once more. This time, ﬁve balls of black lights ﬂew out, still targeted at Crow, moving at an even greater speed than the previous single one. At the same time, it seemed like there was a faint line connecting all ﬁve of them, causing them to be joined somehow in some unique meaning.

At the same time, the black shadow extending from Jiang Fei’s legs had also ﬁnally reached Zhou Weiqing. In this 2v2 ﬁght, it could be said that Jiang Fei and Wu Zhengyang had displayed an amazing teamwork and coordination. One light, one dark; one offense, one defense, it showed great cooperation and tacit understanding.

Zhou Weiqing did not know what the black shadow approaching his feet were, but he was clear that it was deﬁnitely not to be underestimated. If he got entangled by it, it could possibly be a powerful control skill or offense.

Caught in such a situation, Zhou Weiqing displayed the amazing archery he had learned and trained in the Heavenly Bow Unit. Five arrows appeared in his ﬁngers, and they shot out simultaneously in a single whirring sound. Almost at the same time, ﬁve explosions rang out at the other end; he had once again chosen to break Jiang Fei’s attack on Crow. Simultaneously, Zhou Weiqing jumped up from the ground; in order to help Crow, he had no chance to deal with his incoming problem directly.

The shadow which had reached Zhou Weiqing’s feet leapt up abruptly, as if it were Zhou Weiqing’s shadow, as it striked out at him. By now, Zhou Weiqing was quite sure that this was a powerful Sealing Technique. From its slow movement speed, its power was likely extremely terrifying. If he were sealed by it, not even mentioning the rest of this ﬁght, he could probably forget about ﬁghting for the rest of the ﬁghts as well.

Still in mid air, Zhou Weiqing forcibly turned his body, the Overlord Bow in his right hand, while his left hand slid forth and waved at the incoming shadow. In a ﬂash of silver light, a large, three yard wide tear in the air appeared below his feet.

As the black shadow clashed with the rift, an earsplitting sound rang out in the plaza. At that point, Jiang Fei’s Darkness Skill, and its terrifying offense, was displayed in its full glory. Even facing Zhou Weiqing’s Spatial Rend, her Sealing Technique was still not disrupted. Although a portion of it vanished into a puff of black smoke, some of it managed to get around the Spatial Rift, continuing to chase Zhou Weiqing. The strangest thing was that, as they passed each other, it seemed to leave a black stain in the air, as if even though weakened by the Spatial Rend, it had left its mark in the air. If Zhou Weiqing had been at the same cultivation level as Jiang Fei, at ﬁve Jewels, even without any boost from Consolidated Equipment, his King Stage Skill Spatial Rend would deﬁnitely be able to block her Darkness Sealing Technique. Alas, the difference in power levels and Heavenly Energy quality was just too great, and even the King Stage Spatial Rend was unable to completely dissipate the attack.

Right at that moment, two consecutive explosions rang out, as Crow had ﬁnally reached Wu Zhengyang in her charge, under the cover of Zhou Weiqing’s arrows. Having fought with him earlier, she knew that he was no pushover and she immediately released her legendary axes and swung them savagely at his shield of light.

Wu Zhengyang was at the four-Jeweled cultivation level, one Jewel more than Crow, but how could Crow’s attacks be looked upon with ordinary logic. With the legendary axes each weighing more than a thousand jin, along with her terrifying strength, what sort of power did that hold?

Even though Zhou Weiqing had his pair of legendary Consolidated Equipment Hammers, but their main strength was from their set bonuses, various imbued buffs as well as their boost to Elemental Skills. Without making use of any skills, and just in terms of pure physical combat, Zhou Weiqing was deﬁnitely sure that his plain attacks were not comparable in any way to Crow.

Despite the fact that the Shimmering Light Shield had an impressive defense, cracks still appeared upon it when Crow’s ﬁrst blow chopped down hard. As her second axe landed on it, it wavered as more cracks appeared, and was clearly on the verge of breaking.

At this point, the ZhongTian Emperor, Shangguan Tianxin, who was seated comfortably in the VIP stand, smiled faintly as he said: “These two three-Jeweled little fellows are very interesting. To be able to see the Spatial Rend Skill here, impressive. And that little girl with the huge physique… that pair of axes aren’t ordinary as well. As for that little girl from the Mi’Ou Empire, she is impressive herself, her power levels is almost at our ZhongTian reserve team level.”

Jing Fei did not look at Zhou Weiqing, nor did she hesitate a moment. Right after her second round of attacks targeted at Crow was once again disrupted by Zhou Weiqing, she launched a third salvo, still the ﬁve balls of black light as before. However, this time, it would not be as easy for Zhou Weiqing to disrupt the attack, as he was now facing the threat of the black shadow nipping at his heels. At this point, the easiest, and perhaps best solution for Zhou Weiqing was undoubtedly to use the Blink Skill to avoid the shadow; that way, even if it continued chasing him, he would still have time to plan and react. However, if he did that, Crow would have to face the two opponents by herself during the period when Zhou Weiqing was dealing with the shadow. As such, Zhou Weiqing ignored that easy option, and instead did something that no one else understood.

Still in midair, Zhou Weiqing stopped dodging and running, instead using his right leg to kick at the shadow, as if doing so in a subconscious movement. At the same time, he swiftly shot an arrow into the air. It was already too late for him to shoot ﬁve arrows to block the ﬁve black balls speeding towards Crow, but he had his own plans to deal with that.

The remaining shadows instantly swarmed into Zhou Weiqing’s right leg, without making a sound. At the other end, Jiang Fei’s mouth curled up into a smile. In her eyes, Zhou Weiqing was ﬁnished; without her help, he would not be able to break free of that, and with that skill, she could even take his life. Of course, she did not think of killing Zhou Weiqing, but would wait until the ﬁghts were all over before she would help him remove the seal, also known as the Necrosis Decay Seal. At the other side, the ﬁve balls of black light had reached Crow, just as she had ﬁnished her second blow and destroyed the shield of light.

Jiang Fei had supreme conﬁdence in her Skill. Not to mention a three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, even a similar ﬁve-Jeweled Master would be hard pressed to take on her fully boosted Skills head on. After all, the Darkness Attribute’s greatest strength was its continuous and sustained attacks; once it hit, its destructive capabilities would last for quite a long time.

“Heaven Destruction!” Crow shouted out loud, and the two legendary axes in her hands suddenly glowed in a brilliant maleﬁcent crimson light. At the same time, her sleeves evaporated as her muscles bulged out, and it could clearly be seen on her large arms a blood-red glow similarly shine forth. As she swung the axes, the red glow followed, dancing around eerily as they slashed through the air, striking hard into the ﬁve balls of black light which were actually smashed apart, losing control and falling to the ground.

An earsplitting *chih chih* sound rang out, as the black balls of light fell onto the ground one by one. The tough diamond rock was actually dissolved in a one yard diameter for each ball, causing a huge hole to form in the stage, and it was spreading wider.

At that point, Crow turned to smash her glowing red axes into the shield of light once more, and in a large explosion, the shield of light shattered, dissipating into many golden glows of light. Like a whirlwind of death, she continued charging towards Wu Zhengyang.

On the VIP stage, when the many powerhouses saw Crow’s arms and axes glow in that sudden brilliant red light, they all exclaimed in surprise: “Blood Sacriﬁce Legendary Weapon?”

Even Shangguan Tianxin’s expression changed. “No wonder I felt that the pair of axes were special, they are actually Blood Sacriﬁce Legendary Weapons, requiring speciﬁc bloodlines to activate. Since she is from the Fei Li Empire, and with such a physique, she must be from the Gold Crow Tribe then. Haha, this Fei Li Battle Team is quite remarkable!”

No one had expected Crow’s sudden outburst, and Zhou Weiqing had also not expected that she would be able to break through both their opponents’ attacks so easily. As such, their understanding and teamwork ran into problems. The charging Crow suddenly found herself stopped in her tracks, as a silver light enveloped her, just managing to save Wu Zhengyang, who was just about to be struck by her whirling axes.

Alas, that skill was Zhou Weiqing’s Spatial Shackles. As it turns out, when Zhou Weiqing had been unable to take care of the last ﬁve black balls, in order to protect Crow, after releasing the arrow into the air, he had used the Spatial Shackles on her. His plan had been for the Spatial Shackles to land just as Jiang Fei’s balls struck, which would block most, if not all, of the attacks, allowing him time to react after dealing with the shadow. Unfortunately, he had not expected Crow to power through the balls so swiftly, and his Spatial Shackles ended up being more hindrance than help, causing him to stare helplessly for a split second, at a loss whether to cry or to laugh.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* The Spatial Shackles did not block Crow for long, only standing for less than two seconds before she cleaved through it with her axes with the ‘Heaven Destruction’ in effect. However, Wu Zhengyang had seized the opportunity to catch his breath, and another Shimmering Light Shield sprang up. At the same time, the Heavy Sword in his hand slashed forward, glowing with the effect of his skill as he struck towards her from behind the shield. At that moment, the one who was most surprised was actually Jiang Fei; not because of Crow and her arrows, but because of Zhou Weiqing. When Zhou Weiqing had landed on the ground, he had actually drawn his bow again, as if the Necrosis Decay Seal had not taken effect at all.

However, surprise was surprise, it did not stop her from acting swiftly. Jiang Fei raised her hands once more to unleash another ﬁve balls of light. This time, it wasn’t on an attack, but ﬂoating above her head in a circle, the linking thread between them seemingly growing more solid until it seemed to form a black shield, blocking the arrow descending from the sky. Using an attack as a defense, such control over her energy and skills was indeed top quality. She knew that for Zhou Weiqing to take an attack to unleash that arrow, it deﬁnitely couldn’t be just any simple arrow.

The truth was indeed like she expected; in shooting that arrow upwards, Zhou Weiqing had used an archery skill to extend the duration it stayed in midair, and when used as a sneak attack, it indeed would have a good effect.

This was actually the Heavenly Bow Unit’s Transvestite Yi Shi’s secret technique, called the Sky Descent Arrow. Although Zhou Weiqing had only learnt about ﬁfty percent of it, but its effect was not to be denied. *Puff* The Sky Descent Arrow fell right smack into the black shield made out of the ﬁve black balls above Jiang Fei, melting instantly. However, it still managed to released its skills.

This arrow was what Zhou Weiqing had planned to use to turn the tides, how could it be that simple? With a huge explosion, uncountable bolts of purple blue lightning spread forth in the sky. Naturally, Jiang Fei was protected by her shield of black balls, and did not sustain any damage. With Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy, even with the explosive effect of the Overlord Bow, it could not hurt her. However, that was not the only Skill that Zhou Weiqing had socketed, nor was it only targeted at her.

Thousand Lightning Strikes. Currently, Zhou Weiqing’s only AOE attack skill. As it exploded forth, its huge area of effect meant that Crow would actually be in the attack. However, due to the fact that it descended from the sky, it ended up behind the ‘enemy lines’. In front of Jiang Fei and Wu Zhengyang was his Shimmering Light Shield, which ended up blocking the bolts spreading out in that direction, actually protecting Crow from it! As such, the only unfortunate recipient of the entire skill was Wu Zhengyang.

The offensive power of the Thousand Lightning Strikes was not great, especially since it was an AOE type skill. However, being struck by nearly the full impact of it, and so unexpectedly, Wu Zhengyang was still dealt a huge blow, causing his entire body to go numb, his hair standing, and a burnt smell emitting from his body.

At the same time, Jiang Fei did not go unscathed. That was because Zhou Weiqing had imbued a second skill in the arrow – Absolute Delay.

Chapter 74 Darkness Self Sacriﬁce Skill

Every Heavenly Jewel Master had their own rhythm, and when Jiang Fei was struck by Zhou Weiqing’s Absolute Delay, she did not know what happened that her speed would be affected like that. The Absolute Delay skill was just too well hidden, and was not a well known skill; even the 9-Jeweled Ming Wu had been affected by it without know what happened. In any outsider’s eyes, even in Jiang Fei’s own eyes, it was the Thousand Lightning Strikes that caused her to slow down.

Crow’s power was ﬁnally able to be unleashed to its maximum potential, and the ‘Heaven Destruction’ effect on the Legendary Axes made its already powerful strikes even more formidable. The huge axes in her hands were swirling and dancing around like two huge fans; Wu Zhengyang’s Heavy Sword was also strong, with his Elemental Jewel Skills in combination… but paled in front of the two legendary axes.

Originally, Wu Zhengyang was already unable to keep up with Crow’s attacks, no matter in terms of speed or power. Now that he was abruptly struck and numbed by the Thousand Lightning Strikes from Zhou Weiqing, the victory was easily decided. *BOOM* The ‘Heaven Destruction’ and Legendary Axes smashed apart the Shimmering Light Shield once more.

This time, Zhou Weiqing did not make any mistakes. Once more, the lightning fast drawing and release of the Overlord Bow, as arrow after arrow streamed towards Jiang Fei. As long as they won this 2v2 match, they would take this entire series and ﬁnish it today. As such, Zhou Weiqing did not hold back at all, circulating his Heavenly Energy to its maximum, and placing the Spatial Shackles skill onto the arrows.

If Jiang Fei was not affected by the Absolute Delay, with her power, she could easily handle his incoming attacks. Alas, the three seconds duration of the Absolute Delay played its critical part in this time-sensitive ﬁght, and the arrows struck.

Earlier, Jiang Fei could still use her own attacks to take them down, but with her speed slowed down considerably, she was ﬁnally hit by an arrow. Although it wasn’t able to damage her at all, protected by her considerable Heavenly Energy as she was, the effect of the Spatial Shackles still landed upon her. That was the entire lynchpin of Zhou Weiqing’s plan; to not allow her to rescue Wu Zhengyang from Crow.

Right after Crow had destroyed his Shimmering Light Shield, Wu Zhengyang recovered from his paralysis. After all, his cultivation level was higher than Zhou Weiqing’s, and the Thousand Lightning Strikes’ offense wasn’t great, thus the paralysis wouldn’t last for long. Alas, by that time it was already too late, as Crow had already charged in front of him, her axes hurtling down towards him.

Wu Zhengyang had already experienced Crow’s terrifying strength ﬁrst hand in his previous ﬁght, and he immediately knew he could not take that blow head on. Immediately, he backpedalled, the Heavy Sword in his hands striking upwards in an attempted parry. At the same time, he also unleashed a protective skill, as gold light shone forth from his body and covering him.

Unfortunately, all his efforts were to no avail. As Crow’s axes smashed down, Wu Zhengyang’s Consolidated Heavy Sword was knocked out of his hands, and Crow swiftly took another step forward and launched a heavy kick. History seemed to repeat itself, as her foot lashed out and struck his shield. Next, the exact same ‘deja vu’ moment recycled itself as the sorrowful Wu Zhengyang ﬂew back like a cannon ball, landing in same spot he had in the ﬁrst ﬁght. The protective skill had indeed protected him, especially since Crow had not tried to deal any lethal damage, but it deﬁnitely did not protect his ‘face’. This time, he had not been taken by surprise, and it was Crow who had overpowered him totally. Crow had just ﬁnished dealing with Wu Zhengyang, and at the other side, the Absolute Delay on Jiang Fei had just worn off when she was enveloped in the silver glow of the Spatial Shackles.

The eyes of this young lady, with her ice cold countenance, ﬂashed with an even colder light as a resolute glow ﬁlled them. Just as the Absolute Delay effect ended, and she was still in the Spatial Shackles, the black staff in her hands shattered into pieces.

That was right. Shattered. Not withdrawn. As soon as the staff shattered, it split into a large mass of swirling thick black light, gathering around her palms.

With a soft pop, blood spurted out of Jiang Fei’s mouth, spraying onto the black light in front of her. The next moment, the other four Consolidated Equipment she was wearing glowed with a brilliant light, and the Spatial Shackles dissolved instantly. Zhou Weiqing’s following arrows seemed to be steered by a mysterious force, melding into the black light and dissolving as well, and none of the Skills imbued within were even given the chance to activate.

In the corner of the stage, the judge’s expression suddenly changed. Lifting his left hand, six brilliant glowing Star Sapphires appeared as he quickly summoned his Elemental Jewels, instantly releasing twelve solid Ice Shields in front of himself.

“Crow, come back now!” Zhou Weiqing shouted, instantly keeping his Overlord Bow.

Crow had lifted her axes in preparation to attack, but hearing Zhou Weiqing’s voice, she started, looking back at him puzzledly.

Zhou Weiqing shouted: “Quick, jump off the stage.” As he said that, he was afraid Crow wouldn’t react in time, and his right leg struck the ground, leaping towards her and grabbing her arm before jumping off the stage and dragging her along.

Crow did not know why Zhou Weiqing was doing this, but she did not resist his pull as he jumped down. Their feet had just touched the ground when they felt an unbelievably thick, cold aura blaze into air right above their heads, ﬁlled with the scent of blood and darkness. The entire plaza seemed to darken for a moment, before the sun once again shone upon them.

Looking back at the stage, they saw Jiang Fei with an ashen pale face, standing dazedly, swaying as if she was about to faint at any moment. The Consolidated Equipment she had worn had now disappeared. On the stage, a huge, nearly thirty yard diameter hole had appeared, and the entire stage was now nearly destroyed.

Without Zhou Weiqing’s explanation, Crow immediately understood why he had pulled her down. That attack of Jiang Fei’s was just too ﬁercely terrifying. If they had not jumped off the stage in time, even if they had managed to survive that blow, they would deﬁnitely be heavily injured.

“So ﬁerce?” Crow muttered to herself.

Zhou Weiqing shuddered in trepidation as he thought back retrospectively, before saying: “The Darkness Attribute’s most overbearing self sacriﬁce skill… just like Xiao Yan’s Flame of Life where he burned his life force. How can it not be ﬁerce? She was already putting her life on the line, if we didn’t run, we would just be waiting for death.”

At the other side of the competitors stage, the judge was also in bad shape. Although he at the six-Jeweled cultivation level, and Jiang Fei had not targeted the skill at him, he was still caught by the backlash. All twelve of his ice shields had been shattered, and his face was pale as he forcefully restrained himself from vomiting blood. Just like Xiao Yan, this was a ﬁve-Jeweled level of self sacriﬁce skill… but do not forget that Jiang Fei’s Attribute was a greater attribute, and she was also an ultimate offense type Heavenly Jewel Master!

Zhou Weiqing made a quick comparison in his heart, and estimated that this Jiang Fei’s offensive capabilities were even greater than Xiao Yan’s, although her combat expertise and experience were perhaps lower than Xiao Yan. Overall, their total strength might be somewhat equal. If he had to deal with her on a one vs one ﬁght, he might actually have an eighty percent chance of losing, unless he used his Demonic Change to secure the win. With the huge difference in power, Control Skills had limits on their power. Zhou Weiqing was starting to understand why Tang Xian had said his Absolute Delay was so unbelievable after all.

The judge ﬁnally suppressed his injuries, and he said solemnly: “Third match, 2 vs 2. Mi’Ou Battle Team’s victory.”

Jiang Fei looked coldly at Zhou Weiqing standing below before saying coldly: “Coward.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh, beautiful lady, the saying goes that bimbos have large breasts and no brains, but your breasts aren’t large but your brains aren’t much to speak off! Why should I be so reckless as to take your blow for no reason? Earlier, we already won two ﬁghts, so we can afford to lose this one. Since you already used the Self Sacriﬁce skill, you will not be able to join the future ﬁghts. If you have the ability, you can always send out another member of your Mi’Ou Battle Team as powerful as yourself. Since I am conﬁdent of winning anyway, why should I risk potential injury or death to take

your bow? Do I look that stupid to you? I’m very scared of dying you know? Anyway, come on, who’s ﬁghting the fourth ﬁght.”

“You….. shameless!” Jiang Fei’s face turned even whiter, as she vomited another mouthful of blood with a *Wah* sound.

Wu Zhengyang and Zhu HeiSan quickly jumped up onto the stage, supporting Jiang Fei as they glared at Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing gave an innocent look as he shrugged: “What… is being scared of death against the law? You’ve already won this ﬁght, why do you still say I’m shameless? That’s called strategy!”

“Both sides, please get off the stage, we will need to repair it.” The judge’s rather gloomy voice sounded out. Zhou Weiqing smiled at Jiang Fei and said: “Beautiful lady, I’ll see you later then.” As such, he headed back to the Rest House.

As soon as he entered the Rest House, the smile on his face vanished as he sucked in a deep breath, saying to the other three members: “What a terrifying self sacriﬁce skill… what a powerful ultimate offense Heavenly jewel Master. Just now, I saw that the stage was still being corroded and eaten away constantly, lucky we dodged the attack just now.”

Crow said curiously: “Weiqing, do you also know this Self Sacriﬁce skill?” She knew that Zhou Weiqing also had the Darkness Attribute.”

Zhou Weiqing said with a bitter smile: “No, I do not. Each and every self sacriﬁce type skill are all secret techniques, they are a learned skill, not Elemental Jewel Stored Skills. I do not have any teachers in that matter, nor have I researched into it myself, so I naturally do not know. I am sure that my dad knows though, in the future I will learn it from him. Earlier, when I dragged you down the stage, it was actually because of the judge’s reactions. His shocked face, his quick summoning of his defenses… as a six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master trusted to be the judge, if he has such a reaction, naturally it will be something we will ﬁnd extremely difﬁcult to handle. That was the main reason why I guessed it was a self sacriﬁce skill.”

Ye Paopao furrowed his brow and said: “This Mi’Ou Battle Team is surprisingly tough, if their other team members are just as strong, we will be in deep trouble.”

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly and said: “The Mi’Ou Empire might be stronger than my Heavenly Bow Empire, but not by such a huge margin, and is deﬁnitely weaker than the Fei Li Empire. For it to have one or two geniuses is not surprising, but if a large number of geniuses appear, I’m sure that their surrounding empires will be the ﬁrst to react. Do not worry, I am very conﬁdent that Jiang Fei is their strongest member, and none of their other members will be as powerful as even Wu Zhengyang.

That ﬁght was probably the most exciting, most violent ﬁght of the tournament thus far; having even the entire stage destroyed!

In all the battle teams’ respective Rest Houses, all the members were discussing the ﬁght. Without question, Jiang Fei’s power had totally eclipsed Zhou Weiqing and Crow’s light, and could be said to have overshadowed everyone thus far. A Darkness Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master who knew the self sacriﬁce skill was deﬁnitely a terrifying force, furthermore she was an ultimate offense type Heavenly Jewel Master. However, any discerning observer could tell that this was likely the end of the Mi’Ou Battle Team’s run in this tournament. Jiang Fei had been too rash, using the self sacriﬁce skill in the ﬁrst round. Although it might not be as damaging to oneself as the Flame of Life Skill, it would still take her at least half a month to fully recover. Without her power as the mainstay, how could the Mi’Ou Battle Team possibly reach second in the group, especially with this round likely being a loss.

An old man abruptly appeared out of nowhere, dressed in the robes of the ZhongTian Skill Storing Palace, but with a purple- gold crown on his head. Walking slowly, almost casually, he stepped into the air as if walking up the stairs, and in moments he stood above the tournament stage.

Lifting his right hand, he pressed downwards in the air towards the stage, and it was clear to the observers that the air seemed to twist violently as a silver light ﬂashed. In the next instant, the huge stage that was still being corroded suddenly vanished, with not even a speck of dust to show it was once there. All the battle team members who had been chatting animatedly amongst themselves were suddenly silenced by that sight, as if their necks had been gripped by an invisible vice. The entire plaza fell into a strange silence as they watched in fascination.

Next, several men dressed in the ZhongTian Skill Storing Palace uniform came out one after the other, supporting a huge Diamond Rock. Within the time taken to brew a pot of tea, a brand new stage had been built.

The old man ﬂoating in the air said passively: “Let the tournament continue then.” After saying that, he seemed to take a step forward in midair, vanishing instantly.

If one observed very carefully, one might discover that in the corner of the VIP Stage, a person appeared suddenly.

Ye Paopao swallowed hard, saying with some difﬁculty: “What sort of power level is that?”

Zhou Weiqing sighed and said: “Spatial Attribute… If I’ve not guessed wrongly, he is likely a King Stage Heavenly Jewel Master with the Spatial Attribute. Ahhh, damn, just too strong! No wonder they say that from the nine Jeweled cultivation level onwards, it’s a whole new frontier. Just like that old man just now, I’m sure he could take out all of us twenty four battle teams easily without breaking a sweat.”

After saying that, Zhou Weiqing stood back up and headed towards the stage, while a short, plump youth walked forward from the Mi’Ou Battle Team at the same time.

The judge had also changed, and the new one said solemnly: “Fei Li Battle Team versus Mi’Ou Battle Team, fourth ﬁght, one versus one, both participants please introduce yourselves.”

“Fei Li Battle Team, Zhou Weiqing.”

“Mi’Ou Battle Team, Little Worm.”

On hearing his opponent’s name, Zhou Weiqing almost laughed, thinking to himself: With your size, you’re still called Little Worm? You should be called Meat Worm!

“Begin!”

As the judge shouted, the ﬁght ofﬁcially started, and both sides sprang into action. Little Worm took two abrupt steps back, his stubby arms lifting up as a thick yellow light shone forth. Instantly, a tall earth wall sprang up in front of him like an immense shield, and his next movement was actually to push this three yard wide, 2 yard tall wall as he charged towards Zhou Weiqing with it in front of him.

What was that about? Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but think curiously as he released his own Heavenly Jewels.

Little Worm ran rather quickly, and wall after wall rose rapidly on the stage, closing in from both sides of Zhou Weiqing, boxing him in and restricting his movement.

As Little Worm unleashed his earth walls, Zhou Weiqing saw the Physical Jewels around his right hand; similar to his own, there were three Icy Jade signifying the Strength Attribute. As Zhou Weiqing had expected, the three members who had appeared in the ﬁrst three ﬁghts were already the most powerful amongst the Mi’Ou Battle Team.

Watching Little Worm push the earth walls towards him, Zhou Weiqing suddenly understood what he was trying to do.

Obviously, he was afraid of his arrows, and was using these earth walls to restrict his movement and his arrows. As for pushing the wall towards him in a charge, it was likely to use that to knock him off the platform. Although this plan was rather strange, against an ordinary archer and with the rules of the tournament of ﬁghting on the platform, it would have

some chance of success.

Alas, Zhou Weiqing was no ordinary archer, and was also a Strength Heavenly Jewel Master. Furthermore, just like Crow, his strength was far beyond any normal Strength Heavenly Jewel Master!

As Little Worm’s wall reached almost ten yards from Zhou Weiqing, and just as Zhou Weiqing was about to react, he suddenly felt his body dip down in a strong sense of pressure. The entire platform seemed to be ﬁlled with a strange power drawing his body down, impeding all his movement.

What is this? Increased Gravity? Zhou Weiqing was caught by surprise. After all, amongst all the Earth Attribute Skills, this was a powerful nine star rated skill. Just a single Jeweled level was able to double gravity, and each Jewel would increase it by another 100%. With three Jewels, Little Worm could already increase gravity by threefold. Although this Skill had a huge drain on Heavenly Energy and also with an area of effect, it was extremely rare to be found on a three-Jeweled cultivation level Heavenly Jewel Master. It could be seen as a yellow glow around Zhou Weiqing’s feet.

When the increased gravity was activated, Little Worm abruptly accelerated, using his full power, hoping to seize the chance to quickly knock Zhou Weiqing off the platform.

Impressive, this increased gravity Skill! Zhou Weiqing praised in his heart. Clearly, Little Worm had noticed that he was also a Strength Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master, and just using his own strength behind the Earth Wall alone would likely be insufﬁcient to deal with Zhou Weiqing. However, this Increased Gravity was something like a surprise attack.

However, once again, the phrase was ‘Great plan, but alas, he had met Zhou Weiqing.’

Taking a step forward and dipping his shoulder to brace himself, Zhou Weiqing prepared to take the incoming wall directly. Although he was under all the increase gravity, it did not affect Zhou Weiqing from preparing himself in such a stance.

*BANG* A loud crash resounded across the plaza as the earth wall slammed savagely onto Zhou Weiqing’s shoulder, as Little Worm exerted all his power. However, the wall still held still, not moving a single inch further.

On the other side of the earth wall, Little Worm had exerted his considerable strength to his absolute maximum, but still found that he could not budge the wall any further. As for Zhou Weiqing, he also had a look of absolute concentration and strain, his forehead full of sweat, as if he was having the worst time of his life but holding on through sheer resolve.

Back in the Rest House, Crow who was seated beside Shangguan Bing’er said: “Bing’er, your man sure knows how to act.” After all, it was just a mere Earth Wall and a Three- Jeweled opponent, how could he possibly have so much trouble holding on? If that was his strength, she would deﬁnitely not have lost to him!

Shangguan Bing’er giggled, and Ye Paopao shook his head at the other side, saying: “Sister Crow, this is a tactic. After all, the Mi’Ou Battle Team isn’t our real opponent. Didn’t you also hide your true power; you didn’t even unleash your Elemental Jewels.”

The two on the stage were stuck in a stalemate situation, but the other members of the Mi’Ou Battle Team had an ugly expression on their faces. After all, even though both sides seemed to be struggling at their maximum, they were clear that with the extra use of the Increase Gravity Skill and Earth Walls, Little Worm’s drain on Heavenly Energy was deﬁnitely a lot greater. Such a stalemate situation actually already signiﬁed his loss. In truth, Little Worm’s combat abilities weren’t that strong, but he had been lucky enough to Store the Increase Gravity Skill, earning him a spot on the team.

As expected, as time went past, both men stood locked in the same stalemate, their faces almost warped from the exertions. Little Worm’s pushing power slowly grew weaker, while Zhou Weiqing’s resistance also grew weaker at nearly the same rate. As such, they both maintained the stalemate!

For this victory, Little Worm was putting in everything he had, almost willing to lay his life down. Alas, sometimes, the heart is strong but the body is weak, and eventually his Heavenly Energy ran out. By that time, he was unable to maintain the Increase Gravity and Earth Walls, collapsing to the ground on his butt, panting heavily as sweat covered soaked his entire shirt.

Zhou Weiqing’s acting was top notch as usual. When his opponent’s skills vanished, he even stumbled to the front before ‘barely’ regaining his balance, panting just as heavily. However, he still stood there, hands to his hips, looking the very picture of ‘I’m on the verge of dropping as well, but I will hold on!’

From the start of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, this could be said to be the weirdest series. The unbelievably violent Crow, the Darkness Self Sacriﬁce Skill, two sides pushing on a wall… each and every ﬁght was just so strange, so weird…

The judge looked at the two panting participants, almost speechless, before he ﬁnally proclaimed the result: “The fourth ﬁght, Fei Li Battle Team’s victory. Third Group, First Series, Fei Li Battle Team defeats the Mi’Ou Battle Team.”

Zhou Weiqing raised his hands smugly, before generously offering his hand to help Little Worm up, saying with a sigh of sympathy: “Bro, it was a close ﬁght. Great ﬁght indeed! Good luck in your next ﬁght.” After saying that, he descended the stage and returned to the Rest House.

On the VIP stage, the ZhongTian Emperor Shangguan Tianxin looked towards Shangguan Longyin beside him and smiled faintly, saying: “Longyin, what do you think of that little rascal just now?” Shangguan Longyin said: “Earlier, he used at least the Spatial and Lightning Attributes, combined with his Consolidated Bow, he certainly has something going for him. That Spatial Rend Skill is from the Silver Emperor, and I heard that not

longer ago the Fei Li Skill Storing Palace managed to capture one… but I really do not know how they managed to get this little High Level Shi Master to actually succeed in Storing the Skill.”

Shangguan Tianxin smiled and said: “I have the feeling that the little rascal is not as simple as he looks. Earlier, that little girl from the Mi’Ou Empire lost control inexplicably… From what I see, there has to be some connection with him.”

Shangguan Longyin’s expression changed slightly as his brow arched: “Your Majesty is indeed observant. I will observe him carefully for the next few rounds, let’s see what he has up his sleeve.”

At this point, on the two sides of the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House, the members of the seeded teams had a rather disdainful look on their faces.

A pale faced, frail looking youth said: “The Fei Li Battle Team this year is at such a level this year? Three members, two of them three-Jeweled and one four-Jeweled. They are even weaker than last Tournament. Looks like, this year they will not even be able to keep their ﬁfth position. It looks like it will be likely that the Bai Da Battle Team will ascend together with us then.”

If the description isn’t clear, each Jewel adds a fold on top of current gravity eg. 1 Jewel = +100% gravity , 2 Jewel = +200% gravity, 3 Jewel = +300% gravity, so on so forth Right in the middle of the Dan Dun Rest House sat a long haired beautiful young lady, looking about eighteen years of age, but with a calm expression on her face. Despite that, she had a faint smile on her face, and she seemed so at peace, as if nothing could make her ﬂustered.

“Do not judge their entire team so quickly. Furthermore, these two three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters of theirs are rather interesting… one with some impressive physical strength, the other with superb archery. More importantly, he is very clever. Also, they deﬁnitely will not be the only four sent by the Fei Li Empire. The tournament has just begun, and nothing is set in stone yet. Alas, in this preliminary ﬁght, we will be unable to see ZhongTian, BaoPo and WanShou Battle Teams’ ﬁghts. This year, we cannot place fourth any longer!”

When the ashen faced youth heard the young lady speak, a look of respect crossed his face as he said: “Leader, you’re right. From what we see so far, when we get ﬁrst in the group, after the top eight, during the top four we might meet the WanShou Battle Team.” The young lady furrowed her brow as she said: “WanShou Battle Team… they are indeed a problem.”

Having passed the ﬁrst round smoothly, Zhou Weiqing and team were extremely happy. No matter what, they had earned three days of rest for Lin TianAo and the other injured members. Their second round would also be a relatively weak from a small Empire, but the critical moment would be the third round when they had to ﬁght with the Bai Da Battle Team. As for the seeded team, DanDun Empire, would be their last ﬁght. That was decent luck, but not great; if they could meet the Bai Da Battle Team on the last ﬁght, then Lin TianAo and the other injured members would have time to fully recover. Still, it was good enough, at least they did not have to meet them in the ﬁrst round.

“Come on, let’s head back and tell leader and the rest the good news.” Zhou Weiqing stretched lazily as he said.

Ye Paopao said: “Don’t we want to see the other teams?

Especially the Bai Da Empire.”

Zhou Weiqing laughed and said: “No, let’s not. If we watch, we will be misled easily. After all, just like ourselves, the Bai Da Battle Team will be treating us as their main opponent, and they will also hold many things back during this ﬁght. We might as well not watch, and when our ﬁght comes, we shall just ﬁght to our best abilities. Furthermore, there is another round three days later for us to watch. Since we scarcely have the opportunity to come to this ZhongTian City, I’m going to walk around with Bing’er, we need to strike a proper balance

between work and leisure after all, heh heh. If you guys do not want to walk around, then you can head back to the inn to let leader know about the news.”

Ye Paopao couldn’t help but chuckle, saying: “I’ve never seen anyone as carefree as you. Alright, you two go ahead and enjoy, I will head back to report to leader. Crow, how about you?”

Crow grinned and said: “Yesterday, we saw so much good food near the inn, I want to go and enjoy myself, I feel like I have lost weight recently. Sigh… when can my weight go above a thousand jin!”

Zhou Weiqing and the rest stared at her helplessly. A thousand jin… are these Gold Crow Tribe members really human??

By now, another ﬁght had started on the stage, but many of the teams still noticed the four members of the Fei Li Battle Team leaving. Although everyone was free to go after their own ﬁght was over, but most, if not all, of the other teams would stay to watch the other ﬁghts. As the saying goes, ‘Only by knowing one’s own strength and the enemy’s strength, can there be a sure way to victory’, the Fei Li Battle Team was deﬁnitely the only one who left the plaza.

However, at this point, nobody really felt that they were being arrogant any longer. Although they had won their previous match, but the power they displayed wasn’t overbearing, and they had even lost a ﬁght. In most of their eyes, the victory earlier had some overtones of luck, perhaps even a large proportion. Especially for the last ﬁght of Zhou Weiqing versus Little Worm, with Zhou Weiqing barely winning by exhausting his opponent’s Heavenly Energy. As such, them leaving just sealed the impression in most of the team’s minds that the Fei Li Battle Team members were just out of their minds, and no one had a good outlook on them. Even the other weaker teams in their groups were rubbing their hands in glee internally, thinking they had a chance to beat them. As for the Bai Da Battle Team, they were even more delighted, their conﬁdence bursting at the seams, a cold smirk on their faces as they watched the four members of the Fei Li Battle Team walking away.

Leaving via the tunnel for participants, they exited the plaza before separating. Ye Paopao and Crow headed back towards the inn together, while Zhou Weiqing held onto Shangguan Bing’er’s little hand before walking onto the street. The usual bustling streets of the ZhongTian City were a lot quieter than normal, as most of the population of the inner city had went to watch the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, naturally causing the amount of pedestrians to be reduced drastically.

Holding on to Shangguan Bing’er’s soft warm little hand, he led them aimlessly for a bit before ﬁnally stopping a passerby to ask: “Big bro, could you please tell me where I can ﬁnd the area to purchase Consolidating Equipment Scrolls or the materials for Consolidating Equipment Scrolls?” As the largest city in the entire mainland, Zhou Weiqing expected it to have quite an impressive selection of materials and scrolls. Although he was not lacking in materials currently, he still wanted to visit and experience the sights for himself, and perhaps collect some rare materials if possible. After all, he wanted to make this rare trip worth his while.

The passerby looked rather strangely at Zhou Weiqing and said: “Little bro, you two are deﬁnitely not our ZhongTian Empire citizens right?”

Zhou Weiqing asked curiously: “Yes, how did you know that?” The passerby said laughingly: “If you were a ZhongTian citizen, you wouldn’t have asked that question. Our ZhongTian Empire has our Consolidating Equipment Pavilion, and everything to do with Consolidating Equipment Scrolls can be found there. Its status for Consolidating Equipment is akin to the Skill Storing Palace for Skill Storing. Of course, this is only for our ZhongTian Empire, no other empire has the power to do so. If you want to go to the Consolidating Equipment

Pavilion, just follow this road down all the way until you reach the third right crossing, then follow that down a short distance. It is the largest building in sight from there.”

After saying that, the passerby left, leaving the rather stunned Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er.

Consolidating Equipment Pavilion? In this ZhongTian Empire, there actually was a speciﬁc place to buy and sell Consolidating Equipment Scrolls and materials! In other countries, to buy Consolidating Equipment Scrolls was not a matter of having money, but rather a lack of supply… what kind of power did this empire have?

More importantly, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er could deeply sense the sheer pride of that passerby. Pride for his empire, in his empire, and in being a citizen! That was just a normal citizen, not a Jewel Master… the strength of the empire had given even an ordinary citizen such pride, the ability to hold their head up high!

Shangguan Bing’er could feel Zhou Weiqing’s grip around her hand tighten slightly, as he said softly: “One day, in my lifetime, I will deﬁnitely make our Heavenly Bow Empire citizens proud, just like that.”

Shangguan Bing’er pulled his hand up, placing it on her face, saying gently: “I believe that my Little Fatty will deﬁnitely be able to do that.”

Following the passerby’s directions, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er quickly found the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion.

Just like the passerby had said, the Pavilion was the largest building on the entire street, equal on sight to the Fei Li Empire’s Skill Storing Palace, needing to ascend nearly thirty large steps before reaching the huge, ancient styled building. The Pavilion had six levels, with elaborate carvings decorating it, glowing in the sun like they were treasures, and could be said to be one of the top architectures of the world. There were guards in the front of the door, requiring all visitors to register and be issued with an identity plaque before entering, although that did not require any fees. In that, it was much kinder than the Fei Li Trading Center.

Upon entering, the ancient beauty of the wide hall struck them, simple and tasteful yet full of beauty. It did not seem to be a place for buying and selling, but more like a grand library. Zhou Weiqing examined the wood of the ornaments, and was surprised to see that not only were the ornaments made of the same wood, the pillars and even walls were also… More importantly, the wood was extremely familiar to him, the extremely rare Stars Wood that was only produced in the Heavenly Bow Empire!

In the Heavenly Bow Empire, it was considered a valuable strategic material, reserved for crafting bows and arrows. Yet, here, it was merely a building material.

Shangguan Bing’er had clearly also discovered the same thing, and was equally surprised. Just as the two of them were staring in shock, a tall youth dressed in white robes walked up to them, bowing slightly before saying: “Hello honoured customers, what are you looking for? I am a guide in the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion, and I can introduce you and bring you to what you require.” Zhou Weiqing laughed and said: “I wish to purchase some materials for Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, may I know where I can ﬁnd them?”

The white robed youth said politely: “Sir, this is your ﬁrst time in our Consolidating Equipment Pavilion right? Let me give you a quick introduction. There are six levels in total for our Pavilion. The sixth level is our auction level, and an auction is held every week. As for the other levels, they are all selling Consolidating Equipment Scrolls or materials. Each level is separated into ﬁve zones, respectively selling Consolidating Paper, Consolidating Ink Materials, Completed Consolidating Ink, Completed Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, and advice or counsel with Consolidating Equipment Masters. All ﬁve levels are the same in that regard, with each level having different limits, naturally the higher the level, the higher level the items sold.”

Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but praise admiringly in his heart as he asked the youth: “Alright, for us, what level are we able to ascend to?”

The white robed youth said: “Currently, both of you may only shop at the ﬁrst level. Only after spending more than a million gold coins can you enter the second level, the third level would be ten million gold coins.” Zhou Weiqing was dumbfounded. “So much? Is there any preferential treatment?”

The white robed youth continued: “Of course there is. If both of you are Heavenly Jewel Masters or Consolidating Equipment Masters and join our Empire’s Skill Storing Palace or Consolidating Equipment Pavilion, you can enter the ﬁrst three levels without any limits.”

Zhou Weiqing sighed inwardly. It was clear that the more powerful the Empire, the greater and wiser their methods of drawing powerhouses to join them. Of course, they had the resources, ability, and power to do so!

Shangguan Bing’er asked curiously: “What about the fourth and ﬁfth level? Who can enter?”

The youth smiled faintly and said: “The fourth level and ﬁfth level are the VIP areas, and the requirements for entry are a lot more stringent. Only members of our Empire’s Skill Storing Palace or Consolidating Equipment Palace are able to ascend to the fourth level, and they must be Heavenly Jewel Masters of at least Lower Level Zong Stage and above, otherwise no matter how much spent, you will still not be able to enter the fourth level. As for the ﬁfth, it is even more stringent, with only Higher Level Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Masters and above being able to enter, with the addition of having contributed signiﬁcantly to the empire, and with two current level ﬁve VIP guests to introduce you.”

Not sure if I phrased this correctly, as the Fei Li Empire has the Trading Centre for Heavenly Jewel Masters, which has shops selling materials etc. However, this is very different – an entire government organization, like that Skill Storing Palace of Consolidating Equipments, thus a whole different ballgame.

The phrase is actually referring to a speciﬁc building style from the ancient times

Chapter 75 Heaven’s Expense Inﬁnitum Set

Hearing the guide’s introduction, both Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er sucked in a cold breath. The requirements to enter the fourth and ﬁfth level of the Pavilion were actually the seventh and ninth Heavenly Jewel, with an additional caveat of them being members of the ZhongTian Skill Storing Palace or Consolidating Equipment Pavilion! Such an overbearing requirement, yet they could easily do it.

Seeing their surprise, the white robed youth continued: “Both of you should not feel uncomfortable about not being able to enter the higher levels. In truth, our ﬁrst three levels are all top quality products that are sufﬁcient for most needs. Although their prices may be slightly higher than outside, the quality is deﬁnitely guaranteed.

After a brief moment of surprise, Zhou Weiqing recovered and continued asking: “What about the auction level? Are we able to enter? What sort of items are sold there?”

The youth replied: “Deﬁnitely, only the best items are sold there, top quality guaranteed. Most of the times, each auction is only a single or two items, but to enter the auction level, one needs to be able to at least enter the fourth VIP level or higher.” Hearing his words, Zhou Weiqing understood instantly. Indeed! If he were the leader of the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion, or part of the ZhongTian government, he would also do something similar. After all, that was the only way to ensure that the best resources and talents would be kept within the Empire, and also best able to recruit the top talents from outside.

Looking at Zhou Weiqing who seemed deep in thought, the youth asked: “Sir, do you have any other questions?”

Zhou Weiqing shook his head and said: “No, thank you very much. We will head to the ﬁrst level and look around.”

Their guide continued giving them some simple introductions as he led them to the ﬁrst level, pointing out the various zones before turning to leave so they could look around on their own.

Shangguan Bing’er muttered: “Little Fatty, no wonder so many people want to enter the Heavenly Jewel Island. In the ZhongTian City alone, there is already such an amazing place like this Consolidating Equipment Pavilion… can you imagine what sort of quality items and power they have on the Heavenly Jewel Island? I think that the items sold on the fourth and ﬁfth level are likely to be from the Heavenly Jewel Island.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “You are right indeed, that is a high possibility. The ZhongTian Empire’s ability and method of recruiting talent is indeed much more brilliant than most other empires. Come on, let’s go around to have a look.”

As the two of them walked around the ﬁrst level of the Pavilion, wandering around the various zones. Before looking, he hadn’t had a huge expectation, after all it was just the ﬁrst level, but after much walking around, Zhou Weiqing was stunned, sucking in a deep breath. All along, he had thought that Consolidating Equipment Scrolls were extremely expensive, but exploring the Pavilion, he realised he had been a frog in the well.

Here, not even counting the completed Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, even a set of Consolidating Ink for a low level Consolidating Equipment Masters cost a sky high price of three thousand gold coins, while a set of Consolidating Ink for High Level Consolidating Equipment Masters cost over twenty thousand gold coins! As for the completed scrolls, their prices were even more absurdly high, with even low level Consolidating Equipment Scrolls costing more than a hundred thousand gold coins. As the saying goes, when something is rare it becomes more valuable. However, this was just the ﬁrst level, and he could already see several hundred different Consolidating Equipment Scrolls for sale. Naturally, most were low level ones, with some mid level and even a few high level ones.

After a simple look around,. They both ﬁnally stopped at a shop selling complete scrolls. Shangguan Bing’er said softly: “Little Fatty, the scrolls here are just too expensive, at such a price that is so unbelievable. Look, the only High Level Consolidating Equipment Scroll they have here is actually eight hundred thousand gold coins! Now I feel that Senior Huyan’s prices were so cheap!”

Originally, when Zhou Weiqing had been trying to buy his socketed Overlord Bow from Huyan Aobo, he had quoted them a price of three hundred thousand… and it was a Grandmaster Level Consolidating Equipment Scroll!

Zhou Weiqing furrowed his brow and said: “The prices here are a little too absurd, there’s something strange here. Let me ask.”

As he said that, he walked to the counter, asking the middle aged man who was also dressed in a similar white robe as the guide earlier. “Hi, are you the boss here?” The middle aged man had been sitting behind the counter with his eyes closed, meditating. On hearing Zhou Weiqing’s question, he lifted an eyelid to look at the pair, before nodding and saying: “Yes, I am the boss here. What are you looking for?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “I just wanted to ask a question. Aren’t your Consolidating Equipment Scrolls a little too expensive? Your High Level Consolidating Equipment Scroll actually costs eight hundred thousand gold coins, and the Low Level scrolls a hundred thousand gold coins?”

The middle aged man was not as courteous as the guide earlier, and he twisted his lips as he said: “Our scrolls here are all priced ofﬁcially. Both of you aren’t ZhongTian citizens right? Let me tell you, this is because we are in ZhongTian City… in any other city, even if you looked for their Empire’s Royal Family, you would not be able to ﬁnd so many scrolls. Our prices might be expensive, but our quantity and quality is assured.”

A notion struck Zhou Weiqing and he asked: “Boss, do you accept Consolidating Equipment Scrolls here? I am a Consolidating Equipment Master.” “…Oh? You are a Consolidating Equipment Master?!” On hearing that Zhou Weiqing was a Consolidating Equipment Master, the middle aged man’s attitude improved, and he stood up. “Yes, we do accept them, of course we do. We will accept as many as you have. Low Level scrolls at ﬁfty thousand gold

coins, mid level scrolls and above would depend on the quality, ranging from one hundred to one hundred and ﬁfty thousand gold coins. High level ones would be around one hundred and ﬁfty thousand to three hundred thousand gold coins. Little bro, since you are a Consolidating Equipment Master, you should know that High Level scrolls and Grandmaster Scrolls have a huge difference… once you reach the Grandmaster stage, the price will be more than ﬁve hundred thousand gold coins.”

Hearing the boss’ words, Shangguan Bing’er couldn’t help but exclaim: “Boss, your proﬁt margin is just too insane. Buying high level scrolls at one hundred and ﬁfty thousand to three hundred thousand gold coins, but you are selling them at eight hundred thousand gold coins! This…”

The white robed middle aged man laughed heartily and said: “That’s why I mentioned that you both are foreigners. The prices stated here are all targeted at foreigners. After all, if our prices are too cheap, all the other empires would run over here to buy up all our scrolls. If it’s our Skill Storing Palace or Consolidating Equipment Pavilion members, they only need to pay 30 percent of the price. As such, the price I’m offering is deﬁnitely a standard price, our normal proﬁts are not that high, but only huge on foreigners.”

Shangguan Bing’er furrowed her brow and said: “Isn’t that bullying people?”

The middle aged man looked at her and grinned, saying: “That isn’t bullying, it is called protectionism. Although our ZhongTian Empire is a powerful Empire with many resources, we aren’t just going to allow others to gain from us so easily right…” As he said that, he suddenly noticed Shangguan Bing’er’s features, and was suddenly shocked into silence.

Zhou Weiqing pulled Shangguan Bing’er and said: “Come on, let’s go. Let’s see if we can buy anything in this Consolidating Equipment Pavilion.” As he said that, they turned to leave.

The ﬁrst level of the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion was not much more well stocked than the Fei Li Trading Center, furthermore their prices were just too high, and Zhou Weiqing wasn’t willing to pay the exorbitant prices. After all, if he bought materials from here, it would not be easy for even him to make a good proﬁt. …

After the two of them had left, only then did the boss of the shop recover, rubbing his eyes as he muttered to himself: “Did I see wrongly? Just now… just now… that was… Oh my god!” In that moment, his originally smug face had turned ashen, as cold sweat streamed down his face, causing his shirt to be soaked.

“No way, I have to report up quickly. Damn, why did I have to meet her.” As he said that, he quickly rushed to the back of the shop.

…

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er did not know what transpired behind them as they walked slowly towards the exit. As they moved, they exchanged helpless glances, seeing the look of resignations in each other’s’ eyes.

Indeed, this Consolidating Equipment Pavilion had given them a helpless feel. “What the boss had said was indeed true. Consolidating Equipment Scrolls and their materials were extremely important strategic materials… if they were in the position of the ZhongTian Empire, they would also not allow such important resources to easily leave their hands. Selling them at high prices was indeed a good option. Every scroll they sold, they could purchase raw materials from other empires, and with their power and status, they could easily get a lower price for the materials. This was why the large, powerful empires

grew stronger, while small empires like our Heavenly Bow Empire had things so tough.”

As Zhou Weiqing said that, he shook his head helplessly.

There weren’t many customers in the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion, and they quickly reached the main hall and were prepared to leave.

Right at that moment, an abrupt, urgent voice sounded out from behind them. “Wait… Wait…”

They both turned around to look, and accompanying the sound of running feet, they saw the white robed middle aged man from earlier accompanying an old man who was also wearing a white robe, but with gold embroidery. Before long, they had reached Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er. The old man in front was extremely fast, and before they could blink, he had appeared in front of them. Even Shangguan Bing’er, who was well versed in speed, could only stare in amazement. The two of them could sense a strong pressure from the old man; this was deﬁnitely a powerhouse with a cultivation level way above their own.

The old man did not look at Zhou Weiqing, and as he stopped, his gaze landed on Shangguan Bing’er. The next moment, they heard him draw a sharp breath as he took two steps back swiftly, bowing down to the waist. “Your subordinate, Consolidating Equipment Pavilion Level One In Charge, Wu Wenjie, is ready to serve miss.”

The boss of the shop they had met earlier was even more exaggerated, dropping down to both knees instantly, shivering as he kowtowed to Shangguan Bing’er. “This subordinate was blind, please punish me Miss.”

Seeing the respectful duo in front of them, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er were taken aback, at a total loss. Zhou Weiqing looked to Shangguan Bing’er and asked: “You know them?” Shangguan Bing’er shook her head in confusion, before saying: “You both, please stand up. I do not recognize you!”

The in-charge of the level, Wu Wenjie, seeing the confusion in Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes, actually revealed a look of realization before saying: “Yes, of course. Miss would not recognize us naturally. Since Miss is here to inspect the Pavilion, you can instruct us if you have any requirements, this subordinate will do his best to complete any tasks.”

Shangguan Bing’er stepped closer to Zhou Weiqing, saying: “But… I really do not recognize you two!”

Wu Wenjie said respectfully: “Yes… yes… Of course Miss doesn’t recognize us. Uh, perhaps we have made a mistake. Since that is so, since you have already come to our Consolidating Equipment Pavilion, and this subordinate has been blind and rude, please take this plaque with you. With it, you can enter any of the levels. If you or your friend has anything you need, you can just take it directly.” As he said that, he respectfully held out a gold plaque in both hands, holding it in front of Shangguan Bing’er.

The gold plaque was embedded with ten gemstones of different sizes, shapes and colours, forming a ‘Consolidated’ word, and it seemed to give forth an aura of Heavenly Energy itself.

Shangguan Bing’er was about to reject it, but Zhou Weiqing abruptly took the plaque on her behalf, giving her a meaningful look. Shangguan Bing’er could only say: “Thank you then.”

Wu Wenjie said respectfully, with some trepidation: “No need, no need. It is this subordinate’s great honour to be able to serve you. I shall not disturb you any further and take my leave now, you can inform any of our staff if you have any requirements. Thank you.” After saying that, he bowed deeply towards Shangguan Bing’er again, before leaving with the middle aged man.

Looking at that valuable plaque in Zhou Weiqing’s hands, Shanguan Bing’er said in confusion: “What is going on? Why did they call me Young Miss?” Zhou Weiqing laughed heartily and said: “I do not know either, that fast switch from arrogance to deference, they sure changed faces quickly. My guess is that they have recognized the wrong person… perhaps some important person in the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion looks like you.”

Shangguan Bing’er: “Then are we really going to use the plaque? Won’t that get us into trouble?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Of course we should use it, after all they gifted it to us, we did not steal or rob it. Even if we are found out, it is their mistake, not ours.”

Shangguan Bing’er giggled and said: “They even said to let us take anything we want.”

Zhou Weiqing: “As for taking things, that would be too far, and if we’re found out that would truly cause trouble. We can go and have a look and expand our horizons, but we better not take anything; such advantages are not to be taken easily.” Although he had never thought himself to be a good person, but taking advantage of such situations so easily was not something he wanted to do. Furthermore, this was the ZhongTian Empire… it was better to play safe. The stairway from the ﬁrst level to the second level was at the main hall, guarded by two white robed guards. Perhaps they had seen Wu Wenjie bowing politely to the two of them, as such they weren’t even stopped or asked for any identiﬁcation.

When the two of them had ascended the stairs, only then did Wu Wenjie and the white robed man appear once more from the corner.

The white robed man said: “Manager, is that really Young Miss? I knew it, I had seen Young Miss once before, and with her looks, I couldn’t possibly be mistaken.”

Wu Wenjie’s digniﬁed air returned as he said solemnly: “This time, you did very well. That is undoubtedly Young Miss.”

The white robed man continued asking curiously: “But… why did Young Miss not admit it? She should deﬁnitely recognize you!”

Wu Wenjie glanced at him and said: “You wouldn’t know this but that was probably Second Young Miss just now. Her character is lively and vivacious, mischievous even. Not even counting us here, even if it were on the Heavenly Jewel Island, even the Palace Masters have a headache dealing with her, known as their dear little demonic girl. I heard that her favourite game is to act out roles, who knows what she is acting as this time. The only thing I do not know is who that youth beside Second Young Miss is… for her to hold his hand, that is

something I have never heard of.”

The white robed man said respectfully: “Should we report this to the higher ups?”

Wu Wenjie glared at him and said: “Report what? Let alone you, I myself would be in deep trouble if we anger Second Young Miss. Although First Young Miss is rather cold, but she at least listens to reason. Second Young Miss wouldn’t care what our reasons were if she was angry. For you, today just never happened, understood?”

The white robed man started, staring blankly for a while before recovering, and he nodded quickly as he said: “I understand.”

Right at that moment, from the entrance of the Pavilion, a young lady walked in. She was dressed in a white gown, with the sleeves and neck embroidered with purple-gold thread. Her hair was black, tied up neatly with a gold hair tie. Her expression was slightly cold as she walked in. Seeing the young lady walk in, both Wu Wenjie and the white robed man started, and Wu Wenjie waved his hand saying: “See? That is our First Young Miss, only she has noble grace and aura of a goddess. You head back ﬁrst, I shall greet her.” The white robed man glanced once more at the young lady before rushing away.

Wu Wenjie straightened his clothes before walking forward.

The young lady’s gaze was naturally drawn to Wu Wenjie who was walking towards her, and she stopped.

After walking to about ﬁve yards from her, Wu Wenjie stopped as well, bowing down as he greeted: “Subordinate, First Floor Manager greets First Young Miss.”

The young lady said passively: “No need to be so polite Manager Wu, I am just here to head to the ﬁfth level to see if there are some materials I require. Please go ahead.” Her voice was emotionless, although it could not be said to be distancing, it sparked a pressure and respect instantly. Wu Wenjie nodded and bowed respectfully again. Just as the young lady was about to continue to head up the stairs, he quickly remembered something and said: “Oh, right, First Young Miss, Second Young Miss was just here as well.” “Oh?” Hearing his words, signs of emotion appeared on her gentle face. “Second sis is here? Where is she?”

Wu Wenjie said: “Second Young Miss went up the stairs with her companion.”

“Understood.” The young lady said passively, before heading up the stairs, almost as if she were gliding like smoke from a ﬁre.

…

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er naturally did not know what happened below them. As they reached the second level and beyond, although there were guards, with the plaque from Wu Wenjie, they easily passed the guards to head upwards.

Before long, they had reached the fourth level. As soon as they passed the third level to the fourth, the scene in front of them changed. The stairs of the ﬁrst three ﬂoors were constructed of ordinary Stars Wood, but at the fourth level, it was made out of Purple Dawn Wood. At the entrance of the fourth level, a large screen blocked it, made out of a huge green jade, with carvings of mountains, rivers and animals upon it, giving a rather gentle imperssion. “Little Fatty, I am going to the toilet ﬁrst, wait for me here.” Shangguan Bing’er said softly, a little shy.

Zhou Weiqing released her hand and grinned, saying: “You take the plaque then, I’ll stand here and wait for you, and admire this jade screen while waiting for you.” The carvings on the jade screen gave him a strange feeling, as if each line was so natural, as if it were inborn and not carved by man. It was as if the entire carving was part of nature, and there was no sign or markings as if it had been done by the human hand. Zhou Weiqing had the strange feeling that these markings had something to do with Consolidating Equipment, and more so, held some strange similarities with the designs he had seen previously on his Legendary Consolidating Equipment Designs.

Shangguan Bing’er turned and left, while Zhou Weiqing continued standing there admiring the carving. The more he looked, the more he felt as if something was sparked in his heart, as if his Consolidating Equipment Master accumulated knowledge was being raised. This wasn’t something that could be described, but he knew in his heart that these lines were sparking a change in his understanding towards Consolidating Equipment and their designs.

Right at that moment, Zhou Weiqing suddenly felt a strange coldness in his body, as if a block of ice was approaching him. Involuntarily, he turned back to look, and couldn’t help but start in surprise.

Shangguan Bing’er was walking up the stairs, but she wasn’t wearing the Fei Li Battle Team uniform anymore, having changed to a set of beautiful white robes.

With the accentuation from the white robes, Shangguan Bing’er looked like a beautiful white orchid rising from the stairs.

Zhou Weiqing did not think much, as a ﬁre lit in his heart. Seeing that no one was around, he suddenly used the Blink skill, appearing right in front of Shangguan Bing’er, holding her in his embrace and kissing her soft red lips.

Walking slowly up the stairs, ‘Shangguan Bing’er’ was caught by surprise by this sudden ‘ambush’, and her entire body stiffened as she stared in shock, her eyes widened. Looking at Zhou Weiqing right in front of her, his eyes ﬁlled with ﬁery hot passion, it was as if her body had turned into an ice statue, frozen in place. At that moment, her mind blanked. From young, no male had ever done that to her. No one but her relatives had even gone near three yards of her, let alone hug and kiss her! 100 years Stars Wood, ie the Purple Dawn Bow Kissing ‘Shangguan Bing’er’s red lips, Zhou Weiqing suddenly felt something was wrong. This was not his ﬁrst time kissing her after all, and they were usually sneak attacks like this, he still remembered the taste and feel of her lips very clearly… soft, warm, and with a faint fragrance.

Yet, currently, the lips had a strange coldness, and the fragrance was rather different as well. More importantly, they were stiffened and frozen, and the wide eyes of shock caused Zhou Weiqing to realise something was wrong.

Subconsciously licking the cold with his tongue, only then did Zhou Weiqing feel the coldness seem to melt a little. However, that also caused the owner of the lips to awaken.

A huge irresistible force surged forth from the beauty in his arms, and Zhou Weiqing, who had never expected that “Shangguan Bing’er” would attack him, had his arms knocked back. In the next instant, a snow white palm blurred into a shadow as it had intimate contact with his face. Hard. *Pak* A loud sound rang out, and Zhou Weiqing’s body ﬂew into the air in an amazing 180 degree turn, before slamming savagely into the huge jade screen. Even the white little tiger Fat Cat was thrown out of his bosom as he ﬂew out.

Although Zhou Weiqing’s face and skin was much thicker than any normal person, that strike still caused his face to feel numb on the side!

That was also because after “Shangguan Bing’er” had been ‘assaulted’ by him, she was in an unsteady state, and did not manage to use her full strength in that hit. If not, perhaps our dear Little Fatty would have perished on the spot there and then.

“I’ll kill you!” A cold voice rang out, almost as if it could freeze the entire world itself. An awe-inspiring, cold light shot forth from “Shangguan Bing’er’s” hands, as if a bolt of frozen lightning, striking out towards Zhou Weiqing’s heart. Her speed was just too fast, and the entire air was seemingly sealed by the blow, constraining Zhou Weiqing’s body as well. Furthermore, he was still stunned by the slap, how could he possibly react in time?

In such a time of danger, Fat Cat once again saved his life again. The moment she had been ﬂung out, she had woken up from her sleep, and seeing Shangguan Bing’er trying to kill Zhou Weiqing, she was surprised, but seeing the strong incoming blow, she knew that not only would the current dazed Zhou Weiqing not be able to react in time, even if he were at full capacity, he might not be able to dodge or block it.

Fat Cat’s body froze in midair, a gold light shooting from her mouth to strike the incoming cold light. *Ding* a loud crisp sound rang out as they clashed, reverberating around the room.

At that point, only then did they clearly see a snow white sword in “Shangguan Bing’er”’s hand. It was three chi long, one inch wide, its snow white body was unadorned, but giving forth a chilling aura of death, causing anyone who looked upon to shiver. Right after the clash, “Shangguan Bing’er”’s body ﬂashed in a dark gold light… a light that Zhou Weiqing was extremely familiar with, the light that only appeared when a God Tier Consolidated Equipment was being summoned!

After Fat Cat had spat out the gold light, she had quickly grown into her large three metre long form, standing in front of Zhou Weiqing, her purple eyes glowing as she stared at “Shangguan Bing’er” in surprise. By now, Zhou Weiqing had been startled out of his shock, his hand ﬂying to his cheek as he clutched it. His entire left face was swollen, and even his mouth was a little crooked as he exclaimed in a mix of confusion and anger: “Bing’er, are you mad? Why did you hit me?” Seeing the snow white longsword in “Shangguan Bing’er”’s hand, another look of surprise ﬂashed on his face.

“Shangguan Bing’er” was now full of killing intent, causing Zhou Weiqing to feel as if his very blood was being curdled. She raised up her sword, pointing it at Fat Cat, saying coldly: “Heavenly Snow Mountain, I do not care who you are, but please get out of my way now. If you insist in protecting him, then our Heaven’s Expanse Palace will declare war on the Heavenly Snow Mountain. To. The. Death.”

Since young, she had never been so vexed, so wronged and humiliated by anyone, and she had never been so angry before. That… that was her ﬁrst kiss! And it had been stolen in such a ridiculous fashion by that pervert! “Shangguan Bing’er”’s heart was aggrieved and ﬁlled with rage.

Hearing her words, Fat Cat’s eyes grew serious. She could sense that the sword this “Shangguan Bing’er” was holding was from the Heaven’s Expanse Palace… their Legendary Set Heaven’s Expense Inﬁnitum that only the Palace Master or the heir could Consolidate.

In the Heavenly Jewel Island, the entire Heaven’s Expense Palace, this was the top Legendary Set!

On the Heavenly Jewel Island, there was a Chart, known as the Consolidated Equipment Chart, which listed all the strongest and most powerful known Consolidated Equipment in the world. This Heaven’s Expense Inﬁnitum was ranked top of the Consolidated Equipment Sets, and had been so since the Chart was ranked. It was said that the complete Heaven’s Expense Inﬁnitum Set was eleven pieces, and was the only completed eleven piece Legendary Set in the world today.

If an Eleven-Jeweled Heavenly Emperor Powerhouse wore such a Set, they would even be able to challenge a Twelve- Jeweled Heavenly Shen top-end Powerhouse!

It was exactly because of this Heaven’s Expense Inﬁnitum Set that gave the Heaven’s Expanse Palace their fame, and it was this set that also allowed them to suppress the Wanshou Empire and the Heavenly Snow Mountain to become the strongest amongst the six Great Saint Lands. As such, when this “Shangguan Bing’er” wearing the set stated that line, it wasn’t just a simple threat, but a truth. She was probably not the Palace Master, but highly likely to be the heir!

“Bing’er, you… you want to kill me?!” Zhou Weiqing stared at her in shock. By now, he had ﬁnally woken up from his dazed reverie, and abruptly he cried out. “No! You’re not Bing’er. Seven Jewels?!”

Indeed, around “Shangguan Bing’er”’s right wrist, seven Icy Jade Physical Jewels were glowing brightly, accentuating the snow white blade she was holding, completing the chilling picture of death.

Naturally, this white robed young lady in front of them was not Shangguan Bing’er. After all, Shangguan Bing’er was only at the three-Jeweled cultivation level, and in comparison with this young lady in front of them, it was heaven and earth. Yet… her looks, it was exactly the same as Bing’er! As familiar as Zhou Weiqing was with Shangguan Bing’er, how could he make a mistake so easily?

The white robed young lady saw that Fat Cat did not move, and the icy aura around her grew. She ignored Zhou Weiqing totally; in her eyes he was already a dead man. “Move aside. I do not want to have to order a war between our two Great Saint Lands. From your aura, I can tell you deﬁnitely are not stronger than me. Furthermore, this is the ZhongTian City, in the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion. You know you cannot stop me.” The chilling aura around her grew continuously, so much so that even Fat Cat’s fur was covered in a thin layer of ice.

Right at that moment, a ﬁgure walked over from the side. Seeing the scene in front of her, she was stunned. “Little Fatty!”

That cry caused Zhou Weiqing, the white robed young lady, and Fat Cat, to all turn towards the newcomer. Instantly, all three of their gazes turned weird; another Shangguan Bing’er had appeared, this time in the Fei Li Battle Team Uniform. As she stared in shock at the scene in front of them, she naturally saw Zhou Weiqing ﬁrst. Seeing his face swollen like that, she quickly leapt forward, a look of heartache on her face. “Little Fatty, your.. Your face. What happened? Who beat you up?” She stroked her face lightly, a rare light of anger sparking in her beautiful eyes as a light killing intent arose. She spun around, glaring at the white robed young lady.

Earlier, when Shangguan Bing’er had arrived, besides Fat Cat, she had noticed that there was someone else. However, as she had been focusing on Zhou Weiqing, and the wound on his face, she had not really paid attention to the third person. However, since there was only one outsider in the area besides Zhou Weiqing and Fat Cat, she naturally guessed it was that person who had taken action. As such, she spun around towards the person.

As soon as she took a closer look, she stopped in her tracks, stunned. No matter who it was, seeing someone looking exactly like herself, as if she were staring into a mirror, would have that exact same expression.

The white robed young lady recovered quickly, saying angrily to Shangguan Bing’er: “Second sis, stop playing? Move aside, I want to kill him!”

Shangguan Bing’er was startled out of her reverie by the scolding. No matter how similar this girl looked like her, it wouldn’t change the fact that she had hurt her Little Fatty. As such, she got angry as well as she exclaimed: “Who’s your sister? If you want to kill my Little Fatty, you’ll have to get through me ﬁrst.”

As she said that, Shangguan Bing’er released her Heavenly Energy. As green light surrounded her body, three Dragonstone Jade Physical Jewels and three Tourmaline Elemental Jewels appeared around her wrists, and with a ﬂick of her wrist, ﬁve Wind Blades sped towards the young lady.

When the white robed young lady saw the Physical and Elemental Jewels on Shangguan Bing’er’s, it was her turn to be dazed as her expression turned even stranger. As the ﬁve Wind Blades sped right in front of her, a ﬂash of white light appeared as her Heavenly Energy released in front of her and the ﬁve Wind Blades disappeared like a raindrop into the sea.

“You.. you’re not Fei’Er?” The white robed lady stared as she exclaimed.

Chapter 76 Shangguan Xue’er

The sheer shock had caused her to temporarily forget the humiliation she had just suffered at the hands of Zhou Weiqing. Although the look and attributes of Elemental and Physical Jewels could be disguised by items like the Ring of Concealment, their numbers could never be hidden by any means, not even a twelve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master could change that. Seeing the three sets of Heavenly Jewels around Shangguan Bing’er’s wrists, she was muddled. This was deﬁnitely not her sister, who had six sets of Heavenly Jewels; furthermore Shangguan Bing’er’s Elemental Jewels were only ordinary Wind Attributes. “Wait!” The white robed young lady shouted, taking a step forward, attempting to step around Fat Cat.

Fat Cat gave a low howl, a thick gold light emitting from its body, forming a shield which forcibly blocked the white clad young lady from stepping forward. At the same time, the ‘King’ tattoo on Fat Cat’s forehead lit up brightly, and right in the middle of the word, a dark purple gemstone ﬂoated out from where it was hidden, as a rich purple light shone forth along with it, slowly surrounding Fat Cat’s head and turning into a purple crown which nestled onto her proud head.

As the crown appeared, Fat Cat was surrounded by a brilliant purple treasure light that rose constantly, as the gold shield around her was stained with a strange tinge of purple, looking gorgeously magniﬁcent.

The white clad lady’s eyes narrowed as she exclaimed: “Divine Descent Heavens Set! You are…”

“Rooarr” Fat Cat gave a low growl, interrupting the white robed girl’s words, her eyes ﬁlled with a warning look.

Just as the two were facing off, tension in the air as they prepared to ﬁght, Zhou Weiqing suddenly cleared his throat. With one hand, he pulled Shangguan Bing’er back, walking to the front and looking at the white clad young lady with an embarrassed look on his face. Smiling bitterly, he said: “Wait, everyone. Don’t ﬁght. This… this is a misunderstanding.”

Shangguan Bing’er looked at him inquiringly: “Misunderstanding? Little Fatty, what’s going on?”

Zhou Weiqing had a gloomy look on his face as he said helplessly: “Just now, I was admiring this jade screen when I suddenly felt a cold behind me. When I turned around, I saw her walking up towards me, and I thought you had changed clothes. So I… I… uh… wanted to be intimate with you… and so I took advantage of her… and thus my face became like this.” As soon as the real Shangguan Bing’er appeared, Zhou Weiqing had immediately understood what happened, and realised that he had recognized the wrong person, causing the dramatic scene to take place before them. Although it was technically his fault, he was also rather helpless. After all, if

even he couldn’t tell them apart, who could?!

The white clad young lady also understood what had happened, and her face changed rapidly, turning red and white in succession. Her right hand gripping her sword turned almost green as she exerted too much strength.

Indeed, this was a misunderstanding, and she was also extremely curious about this young girl in front of her who looked exactly like her. Did they have some connection? But… that was her ﬁrst kiss! For it to be stolen away just like that in such a ridiculous scenario, she was even more vexed and gloomy than Zhou Weiqing.

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s explanation, the anger in Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes immediately vanished. With her understanding of Zhou Weiqing, though he was stuttering a little, she immediately understood what had happened. She said exasperatedly: “Hmph, who asked you to always be so bad. Serves you right!” However, though she said that, Shangguan Bing’er immediately turned to the white clad young lady. The enmity on her face had disappeared, replaced with curiosity. After all, no matter who it was, seeing someone looking exactly like them, that would be the natural reaction.

“This lady, I’m really really sorry. This is truly a misunderstanding. Little Fatty deﬁnitely did not take advantage of you on purpose. As you see, you look exactly like me, and he recognized the wrong person. Although he did take advantage of you, I’m sure he did not take things too far. Since you have already beaten him up, could we let bygones be bygones please?”

At that point, Shangguan Bing’er showed her grace. Although Zhou Weiqing had been beaten up, it was him at fault after all. Of course, it was due to a misunderstanding, but it did not change the fact that he had taken advantage of a girl.

The white clad young lady’s breathing was rather ragged as she visibly restrained herself, glaring hard at Zhou Weiqing as the killing intent was almost piercing, causing him to feel a large pressure on his chest.

“What is your name?” She asked. Of course, that question was directed at Shangguan Bing’er, and when she asked the question, she ﬁnally kept her sword and reined in her aura. Although she did not state things clearly, her actions showed that she had agreed to Shangguan Bing’er’s suggestion. Although her nature was cold, she was not an unreasonable person. This time she had indeed lost out, but it was truly a misunderstanding. However, although she restrained herself, her impression of Zhou Weiqing was still terrible.。

Shangguan Bing’er said: “My name is Shangguan Bing’er.

What about you? Why do we look so alike?”

The white clad young lady’s eyes revealed surprise as she said: “My name is Shangguan Xue’er.”

“Shangguan Xue’er?” Both Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er both exclaimed at the same time. At the same time, Fat Cat quickly released the crown and gold light, as she leapt back into Zhou Weiqing’s embrace, her body turning small in midair as she snuggled back into her usual spot.

Shangguan Bing’er and Shangguan Xue’er. The two names were just too close. Hearing Shangguan Xue’er’s words, Zhou Weiqing revealed a thoughtful look, while Shangguan Bing’er grew excited. “Shangguan Bing’er? You… you…” Shangguan Xue’er also had an excited look on her face, as she examined Shangguan Bing’er’s face closely, as if her gaze could penetrate skin. When she conﬁrmed to herself that it was no disguise or makeup, the surprise in her eyes grew stronger.

As both girls stood there staring in shock at each other, they were rendered speechless.

Zhou Weiqing also stood at the side, looking left and right, trying to ﬁnd any difference between the two. Alas, he was still unable to make out any difference, both girls looked exactly the same, from face to ﬁgure, with only the nature in their eyes having some difference.

Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes were gentle, with a soft, warm aura. Shangguan Xue’er’s eyes were rather cold, with their brilliance and essence hidden, giving others a ‘Strangers, keep away’ sort of feel. Perhaps, the only way to tell them apart was that aura.

Shangguan Xue’er bit her lip as she said abruptly: “Could I please ask if your mother’s surname is Tang?”

Shangguan Bing’er said in surprise: “How did you know?!” Shangguan Xue’er’s body shuddered, and her voice was shaking as she said: “You… you…”

Shangguan Bing’er asked hurriedly: “Lady Xue’er, do you know my mother?”

Shangguan Xue’er took a deep breath, her eyes reddening as she muttered: “How heartless of you, mother! Bing’er, you are my sister! We are triplets, you are my third sister! Please, stay here a moment, I’ll be right back, this is regarding your birth background!”

Shangguan Bing’er was rather dazed, a hint of resistance in her eyes. “I… I don’t know.”

Shangguan Xue’er stepped forward towards her, holding her hand and saying seriously: “Please, I beg you, wait for me. You must deﬁnitely wait for me to come back.”

“Alright, we will wait here for you.” This time, the one who spoke was Zhou Weiqing. He agreed on behalf on Shangguan Bing’er. Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, Shangguan Xue’er nodded towards him, before disappearing in a ﬂash.

After watching her leave, Zhou Weiqing extended his arms and enveloped Shangguan Bing’er slowly into his embrace, comforting her shocked heart. “Bing’er, calm down. No matter what, I’ll be beside you.”

Shangguan Bing’er lowered her head and said: “Little Fatty, you know, since I was young, every time I tried to mention my father, mother would always be extremely angry, shouting that he was disloyal. I… I do not know if I should go on with this, I’m afraid that mother will not be happy. After all, it must have been father’s fault that caused mother to be so angry and leave.”

Zhou Weiqing asked: “Did aunty ever mention you have sisters?”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head lightly, saying: “No, mother never spoke of it. However, I often saw her sitting by herself crying. Little Fatty, I really do not want my mother to be heartbroken. How about let’s leave now, I would rather not ﬁnd my father if that is so.” With their looks so alike, with her intelligence, how could Shangguan Bing’er not know that what Shangguan Xue’er said was true, and that they were sisters. However, at that point, her kind heart could only think of her mother.

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said: “Bing’er, trust me, it will all be ﬁne. As the saying goes, ‘In order to untie the bell, it is best for the person who tied it to do so.’ No matter what happened in the past, since aunty often cries by herself, it shows that she truly loves uncle. At this time, you should not run and hide, but face everything bravely. As a daughter, what you should do is to try to resolve the issues between uncle and aunty, to let them come together again so that your family can be whole once more. If you run away today, in the future, aunty will not be the only miserable one, you will also be in the same state. As such, I agreed on your behalf. Let’s wait here for her, I believe that the truth will come to light. As long as uncle still loves aunty, no matter what problems they have between them, I believe it can be resolved.”

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, Shangguan Bing’er was comforted, her expression relaxing a little. She rested her head on his shoulders, listening to his heartbeat. At this moment, they no longer had any interest in touring the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion any longer. Zhou Weiqing could clearly feel that Shangguan Bing’er’s heartbeat was still very erratic; showing how much turmoil her heart was in.

The fourth level of the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion was very quiet. Normally, there weren’t many customers, and at this time, no one came to disturb them. Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er stood there for almost an hour without seeing anyone pass.

As the time came by, Shangguan Bing’er slowly calmed down. She knew that what Zhou Weiqing said was right, no matter what happened between her parents, as their daughter, she would have to try her best to help them.

All of a sudden, two bright white lights ﬂashed up like a bolt of lightning striking from below, and the two of them felt a ﬂash before their eyes as two people appeared abruptly before them.

One of them was naturally Shangguan Xue’er, her hand held by the other person. It was a man, looking around thirty years of age, dressed in a plain long white robe. A head of black hair neatly combed behind his head, and his handsome features were enough to cause Zhou Weiqing to have a bout of envy. This man gave Zhou Weiqing a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

The middle aged man was clearly emotionally agitated, his white robe seeming to reﬂect his feelings as it rippled in massive waves. He felt as if he was an ordinary person, not giving forth any aura or signs of power, but that somehow gave Zhou Weiqing an even scarier feeling.

“You… you’re Bing’er?” The middle aged man’s voice was quavering as he spoke, and Zhou Weiqing could clearly see that his lips were also quivering as he stared at Shangguan Bing’er, who was in Zhou Weiqing’s arms. His eyes were red, as if the tears within were brimming and on the verge of falling out.

Shangguan Bing’er seemed to sense something, and stood up from Zhou Weiqing’s embrace, staring blankly at the middle aged man as she said softly: “Yes, I … I am Shangguan Bing’er.”

“Bing’er, Bing’er, my daughter!” The middle aged man abruptly took a step forward, enveloping Shangguan Bing’er in his embrace as tears streamed down his cheeks. As soon as he started crying, Zhou Weiqing was startled to ﬁnd that the entire atmosphere seemed to be ﬁlled with a sorrowful air, as if thousands of people were gathered there solemnly sorrowful. His own body felt as if it was being affected by the atmosphere, moving his emotions as well, and

he almost teared as well.

What kind of power was that? Was that even in the realms of human possibility? Zhou Weiqing stared at the middle aged man. At the same time, he could sense Fat Cat squirming deeper into his embrace, as if trying to hide, and could sense its terror.

Shangguan Xue’er, who was standing behind the man, was also crying, her eyes blood red.

“Let… let go of me.” Shangguan Bing’er protested softly. Before this middle aged man, she had only been hugged by another man, Zhou Weiqing, and she was not used to being in a stranger’s embrace.

The middle aged man stiffened, slowly releasing his arms as he looked at Shangguan Bing’er agitatedly. “Bing’er, I am your Father, I am your Father! Did your mother ever tell you that your father’s name is Shangguan Tianyue. I was wrong, all of it, it is all my fault. Years ago, I let down your mother! Quick, tell me, where is your mother staying? I have been looking for you both for nineteen years!”

Hearing the words Shangguan Tianyue, comprehension suddenly dawned upon Zhou Weiqing. He ﬁnally understood why the middle aged man in front of him looked so familiar. His looks were very similar to the ZhongTian Emperor, Shangguan Tianxin! No, it could be said to be almost exactly the same, but that day they had been just too far from the VIP stage in the plaza, and Shangguan Tianxin had been wearing a dragon robe, which looked so different from the one Shangguan Tianyue was wearing now, and he had not recognized him right away.

Without question, this Shangguan Tianyue and Shangguan Tianxin were related, perhaps even brothers… does that mean my Bing’er is actually a princess? And… a princess of the ZhongTian Empire!?

Shangguan Bing’er took a step back, leaning onto Zhou Weiqing as she stared at Shangguan Tianyue in front of her, her eyes ﬁlled with a confused, complicated look as tears streamed down from them. Logic told her that this was indeed her father, but she somehow couldn’t call out the word ‘Father’. Shangguan Tianyue ignored Zhou Weiqing, as if he were air, instead asking urgently: “Bing’er, I’ve ﬁnally found you. How about your mother? Did she come as well? Is she ﬁnally willing to forgive me?”

Right at that moment, a dozen or so people rushed up and down the stairs, reaching them before kneeling at a distance, saying respectfully: “Greetings, Second Palace Master.” Amongst them was the ﬁrst level manager they had seen earlier, Wu Wenjie.

Shangguan Tianyue furrowed his brow, a little irritated at the interruption. “Please, get up, we do not need you here. Carry on.”

The dozen or so powerhouses who were clearly the managers of the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion vanished quickly.

Shangguan Tianyue took in a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down as he turned back to Shangguan Bing’er, who was still staring dazedly as she cried. In a gentle tone, he said: “Bing’er, this isn’t the place to talk, come back home with father? We can talk when we’re home, okay?” As he said that, he lifted his hand to pull on Shangguan Bing’er, but she was like a startled little bird, and in a ﬂash she had moved behind Zhou Weiqing.

“Senior, please calm down, do not scare Bing’er.” Zhou Weiqing quickly moved his body to shelter Shangguan Bing’er behind her. Although he knew that his cultivation level was likely impossibly far from this father-in-law-to-be of his, he still stood in front of Shangguan Bing’er. As a man, even if he was afraid of death, if his woman was in danger, he would not hesitate to protect her.

“Who are you?!” Shangguan Tianyue saw a stranger standing in front of his daughter, and his voice turned icy instantly.

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly and said: “Senior, I am Bing’er’s ﬁance.”

“Fiance?” Shangguan Tianyue’s voice raised up much higher, as he swept a ﬁerce gaze on Zhou Weiqing. He then said rudely: “You? A mere Higher Level Shi Stage Heavenly Jewel Master, barely breaking thirteen level of Heavenly Energy? You? Want to be my daughter’s ﬁance?” Hearing his words, Zhou Weiqing was shocked. He was not using any Heavenly Energy, and with just a single look, Shangguan Tianyue had been able to tell his cultivation level so accurately.

“Senior, my cultivation level has nothing to do with the feelings between Shangguan Bing’er and I.” Zhou Weiqing said simply. neither servile nor overbearing.

Shangguan Tianyue said coldly: “How can there be no connection? To be my Shangguan Tianyue’s daughter in law, you must be a dragon or phoenix amongst men. What are you? No looks, no cultivation, and you want to marry into my Heaven’s Expanse Palace?!”

Zhou Weiqing’s face turned cold. If anyone else looked down upon him, insulted him, if his power was sufﬁcient, he would deﬁnitely leave them with an unforgettable experience, and if his power wasn’t sufﬁcient, he would hold back, remember that, and show them in the future. However, this person in front of him was Shangguan Bing’er’s father, his future father- in-law, this could possibly determine whether or not he could be with Shangguan Bing’er in the future. Furthermore, he said that in front of Shangguan Bing’er; as such, our dear Little Fatty was unable to hold himself back from retorting. “Senior, you are right. I do not have the looks, nor do I have the cultivation level. In your eyes, I may be nothing, just a small fry. However, I love Bing’er, and am willing to do anything for her. Furthermore, Bing’er is already mine, we have already been intimate, and there is nothing you can do to change that. You are so obstinate and conceited, I can understand why Aunty Tang Xian left you.”

“What did you say?” Shangguan Tianyue said angrily.

Zhou Weiqing felt his entire body tighten, and before he knew what happened, he was in Shangguan Tianyue’s hands, held by the neck and unable to breathe, and it was as if he had lost connection with his Heavenly Energy, and unable to do anything at all.

Shangguan Tianyue held Zhou Weiqing with one hand, while he looked at Shangguan Bing’er. His entire body shivered in rage, as he could easily see that she was no longer a virgin.

“Let go! Let go of him!” Shangguan Bing’er was extremely urgent, and she quickly ﬂew forward to clutch at Shangguan Tianyue’s arm. A profound meaning ﬂashed, hidden, as he said solemnly: “Bing’er, follow me home and I’ll let him go. Otherwise, I’ll kill him now.”

Without hesitation, Shangguan Bing’er said: “I’ll follow you home, quick, let go of him.”

Shangguan Tianyue ﬂung his right hand back out, and Zhou Weiqing’s body ﬂew and landed right at the spot he was in earlier, as if he had not moved before.

Shangguan Tianyue pulled Shangguan Bing’er as he glared coldly at Zhou Weiqing and said: “Even if you stole my daughter’s virginity, that does not mean you can become my son in law.” After saying that, he did not allow the two to speak any further, and in a ﬂash of bright light which enveloped both him and Shangguan Bing’er, they vanished.

Shangguan Xue’er glanced at Zhou Weiqing, hate in her eyes, before she chased after Shangguan Tianyue. Zhou Weiqing was left alone in the chamber, panting hard.

In the next moment, Shangguan Tianyue appeared outside the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion. Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful eyes were ﬁlled with rage. “Why did you treat Little Fatty like that? This life, I will only love Little Fatty.” Shangguan Tianyue gave a warm smile. Towards this daughter he had been parted from for so many years, his heart was ﬁlled with love and affection. “Foolish girl, although we father and daughter have only just been reunited, but how can I not see your feelings for him? I am helping you. You must know, an outstanding man is like a sharp blade, only when it is ground will it become sharper. When you have to ﬁght for something, only then will you treasure it more. Of course, there is one line that I was not joking about. To be my Shangguan Tianyue’s son in law, it isn’t so easy. I am your father, don’t I have the right to give the man my daughter loves some tests?”

Listening to and thinking about Shangguan Tianyue’s words, Shangguan Bing’er’s expression ﬁnally warmed slightly. In the next moment, a soothing gentle white light surrounded them once more, and the surroundings turned hazy. The three of them disappeared in a ﬂash once more.

Shangguan Tianyue did tell his daughter one thing. If not for the fact that they had already been intimate, perhaps Shangguan Tianyue might not have even given him that chance. …

When Shangguan Tianyue and his daughters left, Zhou Weiqing stood there. His breath had calmed down, but he had entered a strange state.

There was no anger. At this moment, he had no anger, no negative emotions in his heart. In his eyes, the only thing that sparked was a cold calmness that had never been there before.

Although Shangguan Tianyue had said all that to him, and brought Shangguan Bing’er away, Zhou Weiqing did not hate him at all. The reason was very simple, at that point when Shangguan Tianyue had grabbed him by the neck, Zhou Weiqing suddenly thought of something. If he was Shangguan Tianyue, if he were in the same shoes, perhaps, he would be even worse than Shangguan Tianyue!

Without exception, any father would not feel good when his daughter was being married off, and would always be extremely careful when picking a son in law. Furthermore, Shangguan Bing’er was so beautiful, and Shangguan Tianyue had also been separated from his daughter for so many years. One could imagine how much love he had for her, yet at that point he was greeted with the sight of an unknown son in law, who looked so unexceptional, how could he possibly be happy. All he must be thinking should be ‘I’ve ﬁnally found my daughter after so long, how can she be snatched away by another man!’

After thinking about that, Zhou Weiqing could no longer bring himself to hate Shangguan Tianyue. Of course, not hating him did not mean he did not take the words to heart. Shangguan Tianyue’s words had stabbed deeply into his heart.

From the time that Shangguan Xue’er appeared to Shangguan Tianyue taking Bing’er away, the entire process gave Zhou Weiqing a lot of information.

At this point, he was extremely calm, and was analysing everything.

Fat Cat’s strange actions aside, it was without question that Shangguan Xue’er and Shangguan Bing’er were sisters. Also, from what Shangguan Xue’er said, there was yet another sister, and with her calling Bing’er third younger sister, that meant they were triplets, not twins! That was to say, there was another sister looking exactly like them, and her name should be Shangguan Fei’er. Shangguan Xue’er, Fei’er and Bing’er, three sisters. Zhou Weiqing touched his swollen red cheeks and couldn’t help but feel rather speechless at the whole happenings. In the future when he met Shangguan Bing’er again, he would have to make sure before doing anything, lest he made the mistake again and got himself beaten up again!

As he thought up to this point, Zhou Weiqing’s mouth moved upward in a strange smile, as the pain in his heart was slightly diminished. He was thinking to himself: If I marry Bing’er in the future, will we also have twins or triplets? Perhaps that is hereditary as well!

The next thought that struck Zhou Weiqing was this: Who exactly was Shangguan Tianyue. Earlier, the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion Managers had called him Second Palace Master. Without question, in the ZhongTian Empire, the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion had equal rank to the Skill Storing Palace. As such, if Shangguan Tianyue was just the Second Palace Master of the Skill Storing Palace, he shouldn’t be treated so respectfully and a little afraid by those Consolidating Equipment Pavilion Managers.

If he was not from the Skill Storing Palace, then what other palace could have such a powerhouse like Shangguan Tianyue? There could only be one answer, the ZhongTian Empire’s protector and backer, the true boss of the Consolidating Equipment Pavilion, one of the Great Saint Lands, the Heaven’s Expanse Palace!

If Shangguan Tianyue was the Second Palace Master of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, then everything made sense. From his name, according to the usual sun, moon, star placement, he was likely to be the Emperor Shangguan Tianxing’s elder brother. That meant that there could possibly a third brother, an older one? Could they also be triplets? Could the eldest brother be called Shangguan Tianri? Such a terrible name!

The Second Palace Master of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. Such a title… just thinking about it caused Zhou Weiqing’s heart to twitch a little. His Bing’er was not just a princess of the ZhongTian Empire, but also of direct lineage of the leaders of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace! How powerful was the Heaven’s Expanse Palace? From Shangguan Xue’er, it was easy to tell. After all, she was triplets with Shangguan Bing’er, that meant she was only nineteen as well, yet she had already reached the seven Jewel cultivation level! At that age! Zhou Weiqing knew his talent was outstanding, and with the Immortal Deity Technique which was extremely fast, but he knew that when he reached nineteen years old, he would deﬁnitely not be able to reach the seven Jewel cultivation level without any miracles. With all the analysis and judgements in mind, only then did Zhou Weiqing truly understanding the daunting task that lay before him, and to truly understand how Shangguan Tianyue felt as he spoke. To be his son in law, or to be clearer, to be the Heaven’s Expanse Palace son in law, that was deﬁnitely not an easy task.

“Bing’er, wait for me. I will deﬁnitely let your father see my power. You are my wife, and no one will ever be able to take you away from me, not even your father. Furthermore, I will not marry into the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, but have you marry to me.

After muttering that to himself, Zhou Weiqing shook himself, waving his right arm as the stubborness deep within his bones was sparked out. His character had always been one a stubborn purpose who grew in adversity, and in this, he was extremely similar to his father Admiral Zhou. Originally, when Admiral Zhou had asked him to learn under the God Eye Scoundrel Mu En, it was because he was afraid that his son could not cultivate, and with the same character and disposition as himself, would get him into trouble that he could not handle.

However, although Zhou Weiqing had learned to be scared of death, to learn all the survival methods, the roguish and scoundrelly ways of Mu En, deep inside, some things in the character could not be changed. After all, in his body ﬂowed Admiral Zhou’s blood!

…

When Zhou Weiqing returned to the inn, he directly went to Lin TianAo’s room. When he pushed open the door and entered, he discovered that all the Fei Li Battle Team members besides Crow were present.

Seeing Zhou Weiqing return was no big deal, but when the members saw the slap imprint and swollen face of his, they all had interesting expressions on their faces.

Drunken Bao raised a brow, saying: “Weiqing, what evil things did you do? Looking at your swollen face, with such a slim hand imprint, that has to be a female. Heh heh heh.”

Little Four was even more direct, laughing out loud as he said: “Weiqing, you already have Bing’er, how can you still go around trying to pick up chicks. That is totally wrong, our team still has Crow, why go around looking for others instead of close by. Hmmm, although maybe that was a good decision of yours, with Crow’s large hands, if she slapped you like that… Hahahahahaha!”

Ye Paopao and Lin TianAo did not say anything, just looking at him with an amused look on their faces. Surprisingly, the one who spoke last was the usually quiet Xiao Yan, though he only said simply: “I wonder if that swelling will subside in three days.”

After all, if in three days the slap imprint had not subsided, if Zhou Weiqing went on the stage to ﬁght, he would not only be throwing his own face, but also the faces of the entire Fei Li Empire!

Zhou Weiqing said gloomily: “Don’t you all have any compassion? After all, I did just bring us our ﬁrst victory!”

Little Four put his arm around Drunken Bao’s shoulder as he continued saying laughingly: “Who has compassion for perverts! Haha… looking at you, although you were slapped, but there is no hate in your eyes. Added to the fact that it is a woman’s palm print, there can only be one possibility, you were making a move on a woman and got hit, right? Since that is so, who will have compassion for you?” Zhou Weiqing said angrily: “You guys! Hmph, I shall not talk about it anymore. Leader, I came here to tell you something. In the future matches, Bing’er will not be able to join us any further. Just now, we met her long lost relatives, and she was brought home.”

Lin TianAo said curiously: “Meeting relatives? That shouldn’t affect the tournament right?” Although Shangguan Bing’er’s personal offense capability was likely the weakest in the entire team, but without a doubt in any team ﬁght or two versus two ﬁght, her amazing archery skills was deﬁnitely not to be underestimated. Suppressing the enemy, harassing them, or supporting her teammates, those were things she excelled at. Losing such a talent, especially at their current state, it was deﬁnitely not good news for the team.

Zhou Weiqing said gloomily: “If the relatives were anyone else, it wouldn’t matter. However, the problem is that her relatives are from the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, and as long lost relatives, I do not even know when she will return. We had better make preparations that she might not be able to join us for any further ﬁghts.”

Hearing the three words of Heaven’s Expanse Palace, everyone’s expression changed. Lin TianAo thought for a moment, then said: “Weiqing, what about the second ﬁght. What is your plan?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “To be safe, I’d like leader to join us. If the three of us aren’t able to handle it, we may need you to take action.”

Lin TianAo nodded and said: “That is probably for the best. En… Weiqing… you… should go heal the wound on your face. You can go to the Skill Storing Palace and pay some money to look for a Life Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master, that will heal such a small wound in a short period of time.” As he said that, he couldn’t help but give a wry smile.

This kind of chinese, basically the yue (⽉) in Tianyue means moon, and xing(星) in Tianxing means star. I’m not sure what’s the placement, but I guess it’s Sun ( ⽇ri） > Moon > Star from the context, probably from ancient times when they’re just comparing size

Pun master Zhou Weiqing at work again, ⽇ ri also is a slang for having sex

This might not make sense to most readers, but this is actually a big deal in Chinese culture / tradition. Generally, the wife (and children) will take the Male side of the family name in any traditional marriage. To marry into the female side of the family is usually only when there is a disparity in ‘power’ or ‘status’, and is somewhat of a social stigma. In that case, he would become Shangguan Weiqing, taking the family name of Shangguan. My translation might thus sound a little awkward as well, since I don’t think there is a proper corresponding phrase in English (please correct me if I’m wrong)

Chapter 77 Three Thousand Skill Tempering

Facing the teasing smiles of his teammates, Zhou Weiqing ﬂed out the door with a quick “I’m going to cultivate.” As soon as he left the room, he heard a loud explosion of laughter behind him. In their eyes, he had deﬁnitely been trying to ﬂirt with a girl and gotten slapped, and were all extremely amused. Of course, Zhou Weiqing did not try to tell them the truth, that he had been slapped because he had mistaken the identity of his wife…

Having a thick skin had a great beneﬁt, by the time Zhou Weiqing returned to his room, he had already dismissed the teasing jokes.

Power was the best way to prove himself, and only if he could display his true power, would Shangguan Tianyue accept him.

The Second Palace Master of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, what kind of status and power was that? He should be at least a Heavenly King Stage or higher, perhaps even emperor or god stage! No wonder he looked down on such a lowly three- Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master like himself. In the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, at his age and still being three-Jeweled, there should be at least a few hundred or more. Of course, it was impossible for him to raise his Heavenly Energy in a short period of time, and he had just reached the ﬁrst stage of Heavenly Shen Energy not long ago. Even though the Immortal Deity Technique was extremely powerful, and now that he had completed the second portion of it, he had

thirteen energy whirlpools working all the time, allowing his cultivation, training and even recovery rate to be much faster than any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Masters. Even the Immortal Deity Shield had improved. Despite that, it would still take time and effort to continue improving, especially since he had not raised to the 13th stage on his own effort, but due to Fat Cat’s evolving. Up to now, he still had not ﬁgured out what

exactly had happened yet.

Since his Heavenly Energy could not be increased in such a short period of time, there was only two methods for him to improve his combat prowess and power. One, was to use the Demonic Change, and the other was combat skill, and to improve his Skills.

What was his greatest advantage? Naturally, it was his six attribute Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Elemental Jewel. Tang Xian was Shangguan Tianyue’s wife, and as a powerhouse herself, she had naturally seen a lot as well. If even she had been surprised to see his own six Attribute Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, that meant that such an Elemental Jewel would be extremely rare, even for Heaven’s Expanse Palace. Among his six main attributes, the ones he used the most were the darkness, spatial, wind and lightning attributes. Of the four attributes, there were twelve skills he had stored in total, and amongst those only the Darkness Seal Skill Blood Rites was not able to be used in direct combat. Adding the Absolute Delay of the Time Attribute, he usually had twelve skills which he used often in his combat.

Earlier, when they had all been on the road to ZhongTian City, Zhou Weiqing had sought the advice of Lin TianAo, Xiao Yan and the rest regarding how to make full use of his Stored Skills. At that time, Xiao Yan had told him: When studying a book you read it a hundred times, and you will comprehend it; when training a skill, you practice a thousand times, and you will comprehend it.

At that time, when Zhou Weiqing had heard it, he had not thought much about it. To practice each skill a thousand times continuously without stopping, wasn’t that a huge amount of time? Furthermore, Xiao Yan had said, the thousand times had to be done without any breaks in between in order to gain the beneﬁt, to fully understand and grasp the true meaning and usage of the Skill. Yet, each time one used a skill, it was a drain on Heavenly Energy. For any Heavenly Jewel Master, to even be able to use about a dozen or so Skills continuously without running out of Heavenly Energy, that was already considered very good. With speciﬁc Consolidated Equipment to reduce the amount of Heavenly Energy needed, they would still at most be only to use about two dozen Skills continuously. After expending all their Heavenly Energy, they would have to cultivate and meditate to recover; in order to continuously practice a skill for a thousand times, even three days and nights of continuous training would likely be insufﬁcient.

Without sleeping or eating for that amount of time, who could

take it?

At that time, Lin TianAo had given his opinion that the effects of such a training method were extremely good, but the side effects were also quite huge, taking a large toll on the mind and body of the practitioner. Generally, every person would only go through this once on a skill, and not more than once, as the ﬁrst time usually had the best effect. Of course, most Heavenly Jewel Masters placed a greater focus on cultivating their Heavenly Energy, and not spending time on such tempering and training of skills. Not only was this method of training boring and tough, the constant lack of sleep and eating would take a huge toll on the body, causing long term damage. At that time, Lin TianAo had suggested that given sufﬁcient time and energy, going through all his skills once over would still be good.

Originally, Zhou Weiqing had thought of trying this method once they returned from the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. However, at this moment, provoked by Shangguan Tianyue, he immediately thought of this training method. Perhaps, this was the only way for him to raise his power in a mere three days. Hmph, wasn’t it just a thousand times of using a skill? For Bing’er, I’ll risk everything!

As he thought up to this point, Zhou Weiqing charged out of his room, running to the dining hall of the inn to have a large meal. After which, he carried two large bottles of drinking water back to his room, and told everyone else not to disturb his training before he started on his ﬁrst journey of this rather ‘crazy’ training method.

Although he couldn’t stop during the training, without food and sleep, he still needed to take a quick drink once in awhile. After all, without water, he probably wouldn’t last more than a day of such intense training.

After all the preparation, Zhou Weiqing went through all his skills in his mind, ﬁnally deciding upon the Spatial Rend as the Skill he would train. The reason why he chose it was because it was the highest rated skill out of all his skills, and furthermore it was a skill that held both offensive and defensive capabilities in one. More importantly, it was also part of the fused skill together with the Wind Attribute Silver Emperor Wing Slash, which was his most powerful offensive skill! Without question, to temper this skill ﬁrst would give him the greatest beneﬁt.

In truth, Zhou Weiqing’s greatest advantage was his Immortal Deity Technique, which did not require him to sit down and meditate to cultivate his Heavenly Energy. As long as was using and expending Heavenly Energy, the energy whirlpools at his Death Acupuncture Points would constantly draw in energy from the atmosphere, replenishing his Heavenly Energy and constantly building up and improving. Once a sufﬁcient amount had built up, it would be followed by breaking through the next Death Acupuncture Point, thus breaking through to the next level. Although each time he attempted break through was nigh tantamount to dying once, it was without question that it was a much simpler process than any other cultivation method. As such, even when Zhou Weiqing was tempering his skills, it would not affect the speed of his cultivation of Heavenly Energy!

Even Zhou Weiqing did not realise that he had stumbled upon the training and cultivation method that suited him the most!

A bout of silver light appeared around Zhou Weiqing’s hands, as the Spatial Rend drew a long three chi rend in space. It lasted for about three seconds before slowly disappearing. To Temper the Skill, it was not just a matter of continuous using the skill, but while using the skill, one had to feel the profound secrets and mechanics behind the skill, to fully understand it.

As Zhou Weiqing sensed the changes of the Spatial Rend, he slowly realised that when the Spatial Rend appeared, it would have a great suction effect on the other attribute elements in the air, yet it did not have any such effect on actual objects. However, it was like a strange shield, if an actual object attacked it, then the Spatial Rend would actually have a powerful cutting effect, even normal metals would be sliced apart instantly. If this was used on a human body, it wasn’t necessary to describe the sheer power and effectiveness of that.

That was also one of the reasons why the Spatial Rend could fuse together with the Silver Emperor Wing Slash to increase the offensive power. After all, a King Stage Skill like the Silver Emperor Wing Slash already had great destructive powers, and was extremely sharp, adding the Spatial Rend’s cutting powers and the explosive effect after the Space itself was torn apart, naturally the increase in power was so strong.

Three seconds quickly passed, and Zhou Weiqing released the Spatial Rend again the second time. He constantly put his senses to the max in feeling the skill as he used it over and over again, as Spatial Rend after Spatial Rend appeared in the air in front of him. His Heavenly Energy also started draining at high speeds, and his thirteen energy whirlpools at his Death Acupuncture Points started whirling at full speeds, aiding his recovery.

Without any stopping, he continued releasing the Spatial Rends. Zhou Weiqing also wanted to try out how many he could release continuously without rest.

The cooldown of the Spatial Rend skill was about six seconds. That was to say, after using a Spatial Rend, which lasted three seconds, he would have to wait three more seconds. That was already his maximum output of the skill, and corresponding Heavenly Energy.

Amongst all of Zhou Weiqing’s skills, the Spatial Rend was not the one which expended the most Heavenly Energy. This was also one of the reasons why its rating was so high. It wasn’t that the higher level the skill, the greater the toll on Heavenly Energy. The greater the power with the lower expenditure, the greater the rating the skill would have.

After using the skill repeatedly, Zhou Weiqing discovered that as he continuously used the skill, every nine times that he used it, the recovery rate of his energy whirlpools would recover enough for him to use the skill one more time. This was of course impossible for normal Heavenly Jewel Masters, but with his Immortal Deity Technique, he managed to do so.

After using it seventeen times, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally depleted his Heavenly Energy. That feat was accomplished without using any Consolidated Equipment to aid him! Furthermore, the skill was currently at the three-Jeweled stage, but Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy was only at the thirteenth level, still relatively far from the sixteenth stage! To be able to use the Spatial Rend seventeen times, that was indeed an impressive number.

More importantly, at this point, Zhou Weiqing did not need to sit down to meditate and recover his Heavenly Energy. He just needed to stand there waiting, and as soon as he had sufﬁcient energy, he would release another Spatial Rend instantly. This also caused his Heavenly Energy to be in a constant state of depletion, with his thirteen energy whirlpools to be at the maximum draw.

Just depending on the energy whirlpools to recover Heavenly Energy, Zhou Weiqing could use the skill once every minute! That was already a startlingly impressive state of training. Every hour, he could release sixty Spatial Rends! During every minute of waiting, he made use of the time to think and ponder about the Spatial Rend, what happened when he used it, its unique reactions etc. Furthermore, he constantly changed angles, directions, in releasing the Skill, trying out every possibility he could think off as he continued ‘dissecting’ the skill, as if making it part of his own life force.

As he continued using the skill, thinking pondering, experimenting, changing, improving, he fell into a trancelike state, becoming almost infatuated with it. This method of training, which he originally thought was a rather clumsy and awkward one, gave him a feeling he had never experienced before, as if the Spatial Rend was a tightly sealed door which was slowly opening, revealing its secrets to him.

This went for an entire day, as he went through the training without eating or sleeping. It was only then that he realised how tough it was for any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master to complete this thousand-tempering training, perhaps three days and three nights would not even be enough, requiring more than ﬁve days. What kind of toll would that take on their body, without food and sleep for so long, and even the time to drink water had to be snatched quickly when pondering the skill.

It was no wonder that even someone so resolute like Lin TianAo would not easily go through this training method.

Zhou Weiqing was fully immersed in this wonderful feeling, almost unwilling to break out of it. Tempering the skill, understanding it, there seemed to be no end in sight; as soon as you felt you understood it better, a new mysterious understood struck you, and every minute change gave a strange feeling.

As the day passed, Zhou Weiqing had already completed one thousand seven hundred Spatial Rends! As immersed as he was, he had not even realised when Fat Cat had leapt out of his embrace.

This time, Fat Cat did not sleep. When she discovered that Zhou Weiqing had actually managed to unleash more than a hundred Spatial Rend in two hours, her deep purple eyes were ﬁlled with shock. Although in her eyes, Zhou Weiqing’s cultivation level was extremely low, that unbelievable recovery rate was unparalleled, not even a Zong Stage Master could compare! It was rumoured that only upon reaching the Heavenly Dao Energy stage, linking with heaven and earth, only then could one’s body reverberate together with the energy of the world, allowing their own personal Heavenly Energy to recover quickly.

Fat Cat’s cultivation level was much higher than Zhou Weiqing’s, but she knew that just in terms of recovery of Heavenly Energy, she was no match for him.

The recovery rate of Heavenly Energy was directly linked to sustainability of combat power, and could also allow one to train and temper their skills at a much faster rate. Furthermore, she sensed that Zhou Weiqing’s training method was deﬁnitely unique, and had many more secrets locked behind it. If Zhou Weiqing continued on with it, perhaps his cultivation speed would rival or surpass the training methods of those Great Saint Lands!

Zhou Weiqing stayed in this training state all the way until the evening of the second day, and that was only because when he subconsciously grabbed the water container to drink, nothing entered his throat, and he was taken aback for a moment. At that point, a purple light shot forth from Fat Cat’s eyes, entering Zhou Weiqing’s forehead, rousing him from the state.

As he fully awoke, Zhou Weiqing started. The next instant, his body folded down and he sat down on the ground abruptly as a strong sense of weakness overcame him, ﬂooding every inch of his body. He felt as if his brain was a mess, blurriness threatening to overcome him. His entire body was a miasma of pain, down to his very meridians, as if it were piercing right into his soul.

It took an hour of rest before Zhou Weiqing’s consciousness fully recovered from the pain, and by then his clothes were fully soaked in sweat. For him, whose body was extremely powerful and had been transformed by the black pearl, such a circumstance was deﬁnitely very rare. As such, the ﬁrst thing that came to Zhou Weiqing’s mind was that… for any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master to use this tempering method, to use ﬁve days to complete a thousand times, what would he feel? Probably much worse!

Indeed, his guess was right. When they had been advising him, Xiao Yan had seen that Zhou Weiqing had not taken this training method to heart, and naturally did not continue telling him about the side effects. Any normal Heavenly Jewel Master who underwent this training would be bedridden for at least half a month before recovering fully. Such overwhelming pain was one of the reasons why they would not want to continue using such a method, especially not often. Once again, Zhou Weiqing settled down to rest, taking out some dry rations from his Spatial Necklace and gnawing upon it. After about an hour of rest, the sky had fully darkened, and he had recovered some energy. He quickly ran to the dining area to get a large bowl of porridge and some minced meat to eat, but even then the feeling of feebleness did not leave him.

Returning to his room, Zhou Weiqing collapsed onto his bed, and almost instantly fell into a deep sleep, as if he had fainted.

When he awoke from his sleep, it was already noon of the next day. He did not dare eat anything solid, having another large bowl of porridge with some more minced meat and diced vegetables. Only then did Zhou Weiqing feel alive again, though he was still feeling feeble and weak.

His stomach satiated, Zhou Weiqing returned to his room. That feeling yesterday night after the training was just too terrifying; not just the weakness in his body, but also the mind. He had been unable to think, as if he was on the verge of death.

However, now that his mind had recovered, Zhou Weiqing could fully feel the beneﬁts of this training tempering method. In the two days, he had used the Spatial Rend three thousand times! That gave him a rather unique feeling, as if in the past the Skill was just like a tool to him, although using it was not difﬁcult, it was clear it was just a direct use of the Skill only.

However, after these two days of tempering training, he found that his Spatial Rend now felt different from all his other Skills. The rest were still like tools, but the Spatial Rend felt connected to him, as if part of his own life, part of his soul.

The myriad different profound meanings behind the Spatial Rend were slowly melding with him. It was still the same Skill, but it felt totally different now.

In truth, even Zhou Weiqing did not realise that a normal thousand-tempering training did not have such a powerful effect. That was because no one else could duplicate what he just did, to temper three thousand times! Three thousand times, it wasn’t as simple as three times of a thousand- tempering! A Continuous three-thousand tempering, the understanding that Zhou Weiqing got from it allowed him to truly understand the Skill, the understanding behind the attribute, the various profound mysteries. Without a teacher, being able to do this was almost impossible. Fat Cat was sleeping now, but Zhou Weiqing was extremely excited. He couldn’t wait til tomorrow when he could put his new understanding of the skill to use in the ﬁght tomorrow.

Chapter 78 Self created Fusion Skill

The ZhongTian Plaza was still ﬁlled with people. In order to get a good place to watch from, many had already rushed here since last night to snatch their spots.

This was the second actual day of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. After the ﬁrst round of the ﬁght, the citizens and audience were really psyched up and excited.

The ZhongTian Ofﬁciating side did not try to collect any viewing fees, but they strictly restricted anyone from placing side bets, instead having a specialised ofﬁcial betting ground set up by the country. How many people were there in the ZhongTian City? At least ten million, and this betting ground deﬁnitely had a huge draw; not just to the ordinary citizens, but also to nobles and the rich. This was deﬁnitely the biggest betting spree in the ZhongTian Empire, happening every three years.

Furthermore, the ZhongTian Empire was pretty kind in that aspect. There was no betting allowed for the ﬁrst round of the tournament. That was to allow the citizens to have a basic understanding of the teams in order to better place their bets. The ﬁrst bet was from this second round onwards. As such, there were even more people here to watch as compared to the ﬁrst round, the entire Plaza crowded, and even all the way to the heart of the city. In order to maintain safety, the ofﬁcials had stationed several hundreds of soldiers all around to maintain order. There were almost three thousand betting stations spread around the entire ZhongTian City, allowing ease of access to place bets.

In fact, there were betting stations all around the ZhongTian Empire, not just in the ZhongTian City!

Zhou Weiqing, Lin TianAo, Crow and Ye Paopao left the inn very early. As soon as they knew that the betting stations were open, everyone unhesitatingly took out all their savings and placed a bet on themselves.

Today, the Fei Li Battle Team’s opponent was the Tiecheng Battle Team, and the odds on the Fei Li Battle Team was 1 to 1.3, and the odds on the Tiecheng Battle Team was 1 to 3. That was to say, if you bet ten gold coins on the Fei Li Battle Team and won, you would get back thirteen gold coins, with a proﬁt of three; if you bet on the Tiecheng Battle Team and won, the return would be thirty gold coins, with a proﬁt of twenty!

From a certain perspective, the difference in odds was also the perceived difference in the teams’ strengths. Zhou Weiqing had sold all of his remaining Mid Level Consolidating Equipment Scrolls in order to scrounge out as much money as possible, managing to get four hundred thousand gold coins. That was the advantage of being a Consolidating Equipment Master; after a certain level he would never be lacking gold coins.

As compared to Zhou Weiqing, the rest were not so rich. Besides Ye Paopao, the rest of them added together had barely reached two hundred thousand gold coins. Of course, Ye Paopao, as the Premier’s son, had casually taken out ﬁve hundred thouand gold coins!

The competitors had their own betting station, right beside the tournament area, and they did not need to queue up like the rest of the citizens. The team members placed their bets and headed over to their resting house.

Ye Paopao said rather gloomily: “If I had known about the bet, I should have brought more money. I only brought ﬁve hundred thousand.”

Lin TianAo glanced at him speechlessly before ﬁnally saying: “You’re complaining that ﬁve hundred thousand is too little? I only brought twenty thousand gold coins, and that’s my life savings, most of which was all the prizes and awards that I had worked hard for from the academy. You nobles… the well fed truly do not know how the starving suffer.”

Zhou Weiqing did not place much thought on the bet. Although money was important, the tournament and the ﬁght itself was now much more important to him. With a rare look of serious concentration, he said: “Today, I’ll be the ﬁrst one to ﬁght.” With his physique and recuperation rate, he had mostly recovered from his training, and in that time the swell on his face had also subsided.

Lin TianAo nodded and said: “Alright, you ﬁght ﬁrst, Crow second. Let’s look at the results of the ﬁrst two ﬁghts ﬁrst before we decide who to ﬁght in the third round of 2v2. I’ll only be taking action if absolutely necessary.”

Zhou Weiqing asked: “Leader, how much have you recovered?”

Lin TianAo said: “I’ve recovered about eighty percent of my power. Although that day I was severely injured, I was still in better shape than Drunken Bao. Little Four was just exhausted, and he should also be recovering soon. Drunken Bao is probably at seventy percent, but Xiao Yan isn’t doing too well. After all, he had drained his life force quite severely, and he’s currently only at barely sixty percent. The next round, we’ll be facing the Bai Da Empire, and if possible we should try not to let him and Drunken Bao ﬁght.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded in agreement before closing his eyes. Facing the ﬁght in front of him, he was extremely calm, sitting there as if without a care in the world, not interested in the other ﬁghts starting out in front of him as he continued to immerse himself in the understanding of the Spatial Rend that he had been rewarded with after the two days of intense training. He was preparing himself for the ﬁght ahead in his own way, bringing his status to maximum. No matter who his opponent was today, even if it was another ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master again, he would no longer retreat. He believed that Shangguan Tianyue would deﬁnitely send someone to monitor him and his progress, and he wanted to prove himself to his future father in law, that he had the power to marry Bing’er.

As a loud cheer arose from the audience, the second day of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament ﬁnally started.

Just like the ﬁrst day, the ﬁrst ﬁghts were all the seeded teams. Similarly, all their opponents chose to surrender without a ﬁght once more. During the preliminary heats, the ofﬁcial betting system had a unique method of dealing with the seeded teams. First of all, during this period, the team facing the seeded team had to decide if they wanted to surrender or not. Outsiders could only bet whether or not they would surrender or not, with a 1 to 2

odds. Of course, the attending team could not bet on this themselves; if they tried to proﬁt from this, not only would they be disqualiﬁed from the tournament, they would also be blacklisted and no longer allowed in future tournaments. No Empire would risk such a result for a mere proﬁt from a single betting round, let alone risk offending the ZhongTian Empire and possible worse repercussions.

Of course, if the team actually chose not to surrender, and to ﬁght, the bet would change. The odds on the seeded team would be a mere 1 to 0.001, while the opposing team would be a 1 to 100 bet! That was to say, even if one bet on the seeded team and won, a thousand gold coins would only earn him a single gold coins. With such a rate, hardly anyone would choose to bet on them. In fact, many would even place a small amount on the non seeded team in such a case. After all, with a 1 to 100 odds, just a small bet could net them a tidy proﬁt!

Of course, such a strange method of betting was only for the preliminary heats. Once the tournament entered the top eight, the odds would be rearranged accordingly. The tournament continued steadily and ﬁght after ﬁght went on. The various teams and members were all the elite of their empires, and they all fought to their best efforts. From the ﬁrst round up til now, not a single dark horse had appeared as the ﬁghts went on. BY the time it was time for the third group, and the Fei Li Battle Team to ﬁght, it was already almost noon. It was also the last ﬁght of the morning, and there would be a period of rest before the remaining ﬁghts resumed in the afternoon.

“Weiqing, it’s our turn.” Lin TianAo patted Zhou Weiqing on the shoulder.

Zhou Weiqing opened his eyes, standing up from his seat and stretching himself before heading to the stage.

Looking at his back, Lin TianAo suddenly felt a strange sensation. That day after Shangguan Bing’er had been taken away by her family, Zhou Weiqing seemed to have changed totally, especially in terms of his disposition. In the past, he had always been cheeky, mischievous even, treating things very light heartedly. Yet now, he seemed extremely solemn and steady. Amongst the entire team, Lin TianAo was perhaps the only one who truly knew how powerful Zhou Weiqing was. After all, he had seen Zhou Weiqing’s Alexandrite Cat’s Eye! Not only that, he had a God Tier Consolidated Equipment. Let alone three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters, even four- Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters would be hard pressed to defeat him. As long as he did not face a ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, Zhou Weiqing had a high chance of winning. Of course, even against ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters, the type Zhou Weiqing was afraid of the most was the defensive type ones like Lin TianAo; as the difference in Heavenly Energy was too great.

Zhou Weiqing walked slowly up the stage, and by the time he ascended, his opponent was already standing there.

“Fei Li Battle Team, Zhou Weiqing.” “Tiecheng Battle Team, Lichuan.”

With the proclamation from the judge, the ﬁght started.

Four Waxy Jade Physical Jewels appeared around wrist of the youth called Licheng. He was of medium build, looking about twenty or so of age. As soon as the judge’s shout to begin came out, he charged forward, as if sliding across the ground right towards Zhou Weiqing. In the ﬁrst day, Zhou Weiqing did not watch any other ﬁghts, but that did not mean that others did not watch his, or take notice of him. Although they had lost in the 2v2 ﬁght, in the Tiecheng Battle Team, his contributions were not to be ignored though he was only of the three-Jeweled cultivation level. His archery had played an extremely important role as well. As such, as soon as Lichuan saw that his opponent was Zhou Weiqing, he did not hesitate and immediately decided to go for close combat. He was after all with the Flexibility Attribute,

and he was best in close combat. Naturally, he would choose his strongest point, which he also thought was Zhou Weiqing’s weak point.

As he charged forward, Lichuan’s left hand also lifted up in Zhou Weiqing’s direction at the same time, and seven Wind Blades ﬂew out towards him. In mid air, the Wind Blades actually split apart, like a ﬂower splitting apart into separate petals, ﬂying in seven different arcs as they sped towards Zhou Weiqing in tricky angles.

This was superb control over his Elemental Jewel Stored Skills, and to have such control, it showed that Lichuan had deﬁnitely spent much time and effort on this low level Skill.

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er were relatively weaker in terms of their Stored Skills and their control and usage of them. That was because in their time in the Heavenly Bow Unit, they had been focused on training with their archery. In the two years, they had learnt many amazing archery skills and assassination techniques. After all, none of the Heavenly Bow Unit members were Heavenly Jewel Masters, and in terms of Heavenly Jewel Master techniques, they were unable to give much teaching or advice.

If it were the Zhou Weiqing of three days ago, facing such an attack, he would probably have to use the Blink to dodge the Wind Blades, following with an attack, making use of his superior number and quality of skills to suppress the enemy, perhaps winning with his Control Skills.

However, the current Zhou Weiqing was no longer that Zhou Weiqing. The three days of learning and understanding had not just given him a much better understanding of the Spatial Rend Skill, but also in terms of control over skills.

In the next instant, his left hand drew a small circle in the air, and a dim ﬂash of silver lit up, as a black circle enveloped in silver light appeared in his palm. Indeed, this was the Spatial Rend. However, the current Spatial Rend was formed in a small circular shape, not its original straight line. As the circle formed, the rend in space formed a ring, collapsing the space within among itself, forming that small one chi diametre black hole.

The suction power of it was more than three times stronger than the old straight-line Spatial Rend, and Zhou Weiqing stood still as the seven Wind Blades were drawn in and swallowed up by the terrifying suction of the black hole.

In the midst of charging, Lichuan’s heart gripped as he saw that. Just as he was about to make his next move, a strange sight occurred, as the black hole and the silver light around it disappeared abruptly.

It had to be known that although the Spatial Rend Skill was incredibly powerful, it had a ﬁxed position once used.

In the next moment, a loud bang occurred, and without a chance to react, the Spatial Rend gravity hole appeared in front of Lichuan, who smashed right into it. No one would have thought that the Spatial Rend would suddenly move ﬁve yards to the front, right into Lichuan’s path as he was charging! Luckily, Lichuan had been in the midst of trying to make another move, and his speed had slowed down. Even still, accompanying the earsplitting cutting sound was

the utter shattering of Lichuan’s white Heavenly Energy surrounding him, and also the front of his clothes.

Making use of the shockwaves of the impact, Lichuan stumbled backwards to save himself, though the front of his chest was now a bloody mess. Most of his Elemental Jewel Stored Skills were offensive ones, as he had much conﬁdence in the Flexibility of his body. However, when Flexibility met with a head-on Spatial Rend, it was like a scholar meeting a gangster, no amount of reason can save you. As such, a quick meet up, and he was severely injured.

Not only did that black hole have its suction force strengthened, its cutting capabilities were also strengthened. In order to stop this ten-star rated skill from shredding his body apart just in that moment, Lichuan had expended almost a third of his entire Heavenly Energy.

From the moment the Spatial Rend appeared til it dissipated, it was only three mere seconds. A very short time. Yet it felt so long, long enough to do so many things. Zhou Weiqing stood there, not taking any more action, instead saying passively: “Surrender. You should know that I had already shown you mercy.”

Lichuan gritted his teeth, suppressing the pain in his chest as his face turned red and white. Finally, he sighed and said: “I surrender.” After saying that, he quickly jumped down the stage to receive healing treatment.

Up on the VIP Stage, the ZhongTian Emperor, Shangguan Tianxin looked on with a surprised expression. “That little fellow has actually started to understand the profound secrets of the Spatial Attribute! Good… very good. This will allow him to fully utilise the power of this ten-star rated Skill. Not bad at all, he has already quite a good understanding of the skill.”

The Emperor was not the only one who revealed a look of surprise, as many of the other powerhouses also took notice of Zhou Weiqing. More importantly, the four seeded teams had also started paying some attention to him.

In the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House, Ye Paopao looked curiously at Zhou Weiqing who was walking down slowly from the stage, and asked Lin TianAo: “Leader, did he just win like that? What’s going on? That Lichuan still has ﬁght left him in right?” Lin TianAo shook his head and said: “Weiqing has deﬁnitely given me a big surprise. Indeed, that Lichuan still has a lot of ﬁght left in him, but he knows that no matter what he will not be able to defeat Weiqing. Let me explain it simply, as long as Lichuan has no skill or equipment that can block the power of the Spatial Rend, since Weiqing can make it appear right in front of him at will, he could easily move it in front of his neck. Furthermore, even if he did have a powerful equipment to block the Spatial Rend, since Weiqing is able to move it at will,

he can still place it at a position that isn’t protected. A ten-star rated Skill, how can the offensive power not be strong?”

“More importantly, it showed that Weiqing has already started understanding the profound mysteries of the Spatial Attribute. He actually managed to fuse the Spatial Rend and the Blink skill together, allowing the Spatial Rend which originally is unable to be moved to be teleported around by the Blink Skill. This, is the true power of a fusion skill.”

Ye Paopao’s jaw dropped, and he said in shock: “Doesn’t that mean that he is invincible amongst all low defense Heavenly Jewel Masters?”

Lin TianAo smiled and said: “It looks like your Fei Li Military Academy does not give you all enough guidance on ﬁghting as Heavenly Jewel Masters. Of course he isn’t invincible. After all, both the Blink and the Spatial Rend have their own individual restrictions. For example, Blink can only move things through the air. I’m not sure how exactly Weiqing was able to use it on the Spatial Rend, but I can be sure that he will not be able to break that restriction. As such, as long as he uses the Spatial

Rend, if you stand still and do not move, no matter how he moves his Spatial Rend, it will not be able to harm you. Another ﬂaw of the Blink skill is its distance, even with some leeway given, as long as you stand more than ten yards from him, he will not be able to use this Fusion skill on you.”

As comprehension dawned upon Ye Paopao, he said sincerely: “Leader, thank you for your guidance. It looks like there is a long road for me to become a powerful Heavenly Jewel Master.”

By this time, Zhou Weiqing had returned. He had heard Lin TianAo’s words, and said with a sad face: “Leader, I was barely able to think of a useful skill, and you revealed all its weaknesses!”

Lin TianAo laughed heartily and said: “Since you can think of one, can’t you think of a second one? Furthermore, the skill is not the important thing, but how you use it in actual combat, and you can deﬁnitely use it in many different ways. It is easy to theorize, but another thing to actually counter it in a real ﬁght. If you can actually make that Spatial Rend actually move, that would be really terrifying.”

Zhou Weiqing spread his hands in an ‘oh well’ position, saying: “It isn’t that easy. To allow the Spatial Rend to move, that is actually changing the very laws of the Spatial Attribute, and I do not have such a power. At least, not anytime soon. Perhaps, if I reach the ten-Jeweled cultivation level, I can try again.”

As they were chatting, the second ﬁght was already about to start.

Once again, Crow showed the audience her brutal violent strength. Legendary Axes. Charge. As simple as that.

The Tiecheng Battle Team had indeed an accurate estimation and planning. They had guessed that Crow would be the second ﬁghter for the Fei Li Battle Team, and they had sent a Water Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master – Water Attribute Elemental Jewels with Defense Physical Jewels. The plan was to make use of the Water Attribute forming ice to bolster the defense, and its Control Skills, in order to deal with Crow, especially since he was a four-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. Alas, in order to suppress Crow’s strength and power, it wasn’t as simple as the difference of a single set of jewels. Furthermore, Control Skills were usually Stored from Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts and above, it wasn’t as easy as just wanting to have them. The Tiecheng Empire was a rather small Empire, and did not have the background and resources of the Five Great Saint Lands, nor did any of them have Zhou Weiqing’s almost cheat-like Skill Storing ability. Naturally, the result of this ﬁght was the opponent’s attack being smashed away by Crow’s Legendary Axes, followed by a charge, and it all ended.

When it came to the third round of 2 versus 2, the Tiecheng Battle Team surrendered. The reason was simple – Lichuan was their mainstay, and seeing Zhou Weiqing and Crow ascend the stage together, they immediately decided to give up on this ﬁght. As such, the Fei Li Battle Team won their second match with a 3-0 score, and more impressively, only Zhou Weiqing and Crow had actually fought.

In the Dan Dun Battle Team’s Resting House, the seeded team of Group Three, a youth said solemnly: “It looks like these two Upper level Shi Heavenly Jewel Masters from the Fei Li Battle Team are not as simple as we thought.” The young girl seated at the main seat said passively: “Who can say what happens in three years? Go and ﬁnd out their ages. Perhaps, once they reach the ﬁve-Jeweled cultivation level, they might be of some threat to us, but now they are still lacking.”

The morning ﬁghts ended with theirs, and the various teams left respectively to have their meals and some rest. The Fei Li Battle Team members did not plan to come back, as Lin TianAo agreed with Zhou Weiqing to not watch the Bai Da Battle Team. They would ﬁght in three days time, and it was the most critical match of the preliminaries for them. At that point, both sides would take on their enemies with full force. That’s right, enemies, not opponents. For the Fei Li Empire and the Bai Da Empire, both sides were mortal enemies.

As they left from the competitors tunnel, Zhou Weiqing suddenly saw an absolutely familiar ﬁgure, one that he had dreamed about so much for the past three days.

“Bing’er!” Zhou Weiqing rushed forward anxiously.

“If you do not want to die, stop right there.” A voice as cold as the winter’s breeze froze Zhou Weiqing in mid step. Looking at that familiar face, but with eyes that did not radiate warmth, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but shudder.

Naturally, that familiar ﬁgure was not his Bing’er, but the one that he had accidentally kissed three days ago, Shangguan Xue’er.

Seeing Shangguan Xue’er, the rest of the Fei Li Battle Team were shocked. They had originally thought it was Shangguan Bing’er, but quickly they realised that something was wrong. Even from the limited time they had spent together, they knew that Shangguan Bing’er would never speak to Zhou Weiqing like that. Furthermore, the aura emanating from this young girl, who looked exactly like Shangguan Bing’er, was so cold and deadly that even Lin TianAo couldn’t help but shiver, feeling the threat of death!

Zhou Weiqing took a deep breath, but he was unable to calm himself down. Urgently, he asked: “Where is Bing’er?”

Shangguan Xue’er said passively: “Since Bing’er is ﬁnally home, she is naturally staying at home. I am here to help her with two things. This is for you.” As she said that, she tossed a ring at him, which fell right into Zhou Weiqing’s hand. That ring was the Spatial Ring that had been on Shangguan Bing’er’s hands, containing the two Icy Soul Heavenly Bears. “Bing’er asked me to give to you. Also, she asked me to tell you, no matter what, you should not overdo things, she will wait for you.” “That’s it?” Zhou Weiqing asked agitatedly. As the saying goes, one only truly treasures something when they lose it. Previously, being together with Shangguan Bing’er everyday, although he loved her deeply, it was only until she left that Zhou Weiqing felt that love and thought of her that seared his bones everyday, to know how truly important she was to him. One of the reasons why he chose to go through the tempering training technique was not just to improve himself, but also to make use of the suffering to escape the pain of missing Bing’er.

Shangguan Xue’er said passively: “That’s it. That was the ﬁrst thing. The second thing is from my father. He said that you are of the younger generation, so it isn’t convenient for him to bully you. We are of the same generation, so if you want to marry my little sister, you’ll have to wait until you are able to beat me.”

“Defeat you?” An intense spark shot forth from Zhou Weiqing’s eyes. Even with Shangguan Xue’er’s cultivation level, she was surprised by the heat in his eyes.

Shangguan Xue’er swept him with a cold gaze, turning to leave. However, she paused suddenly, saying passively: “Originally, father wanted you to be able to beat him before he allowed you to be together, but Bing’er threatened to kill herself if he did that. As such, Father changed his mind. Do not disappoint Bing’er. In ten years time, if you are unable to defeat me, I will ﬁnd you, and I will kill you, preventing Bing’er from wasting her life away waiting for you. However, if you are able to pass this Heavenly Jewel Tournament and enter the Heavenly Jewel Island, perhaps I can help you meet her once.”

After saying that, Shangguan Xue’er turned around and left, disappearing swiftly into the crowd.

As they watched her leave, Ye Paopao couldn’t help but say: “That’s Shangguan Bing’er’s twin sister right? The one who slapped you last time? Is her cultivation level more powerful than Bing’er? Weiqing, why didn’t you give it a try?”

Crow said solemnly: “That woman is very dangerous, several times more dangerous than Bing’er.”

Lin TianAo said passively: “I felt the threat of death from her as well.”

Zhou Weiqing took a deep breath and expelled it, slowly wearing the ring onto his left middle ﬁnger with much care before saying solemnly: “I will deﬁnitely beat her in the shortest possible time, but not now…”

Ye Paopao said curiously: “Why?”

Zhou Weiqing glanced at him, then said bitterly: “Because, with my current strength, I am no match for her at all, not even close.”

With the second round ﬁght of theirs ﬁnished, this time Zhou Weiqing did not go out to explore the city. After having a huge meal, he once again shut himself in his room, preparing the same amount of water as before.

The Tempering Skill training did not just expend one’s physical strength and stamina, but also their spirit and energy, perhaps even one’s life force. If he overdid the training, it could cause irreparable harm to his body. It was a huge credit to Zhou Weiqing’s vastly improved physique that he could maintain it for so long and with so few repercussions; one could only imagine how difﬁcult and dangerous it was for any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master to go through this training.

That actual ﬁght earlier had proven the importance of understanding the profound mysteries behind the skills, and attributes. This time, Zhou Weiqing chose a skill that he did not use often, though it was an extremely powerful skill. It was the skill that could fuse with his Spatial Rend, also Stored from the Silver Emperor, his other ten-Star rated Wind Attribute Skill: Silver Emperor Wing Slash.

Given sufﬁcient time, Zhou Weiqing might not have chosen to temper these two skills ﬁrst, as they had such a huge drain on his Heavenly Energy and spirit. Furthermore, their profound mysteries were much more complicated and difﬁcult to understand as compared to the lower star rated skills, and that would exhaust him more compared to doing those earlier. However, given the limit on time, he did not have a choice. If it could be said that his previous wish to win was because of curiosity about the Heavenly Jewel Island, it was now for Bing’er. He needed to improve his ﬁghting capabilities the best he could in the shortest amount of time, no matter how dangerous or tough it was. In order to see Bing’er, even if he had to use the Demonic Change, he would take that risk.

Just as Zhou Weiqing was preparing to start on his training, a sudden gentle voice travelled from the corridor.

“Is Zhou Weiqing here?” Zhou Weiqing had almost entered training and was interrupted by the sudden voice, and he stood up to walk out. He had a very good memory, but could not remember such a voice before.

The rooms of the Fei Li Battle Team members were all next to each other, and they also came out as Zhou Weiqing opened his door. However, the expressions on their faces were vastly different, serious and conﬂicted. That was because the owner of that voice was almost their nightmare.

Little Witch stood there dressed in a black dress, smiling gently as her long hair fell gently at both sides, looking extremely good with her large clear eyes. Her soft creamy white skin was accentuated by the black dress, and anyone who saw her for the ﬁrst time would see her as a harmless beautiful girl next door.

However, as soon as Lin TianAo and the rest saw her, their faces fell. In their eyes, this beautiful little girl was like a ferocious monster.

Originally, when Little Witch had appeared, she had almost wiped out their entire team. Even though it was also because their entire team was exhausted, it did not change the fact that this six-Jeweled girl with the Darkness and Evil Attributes held a power that none of them could counter individually. Without hesitation, Lin TianAo stepped beside Zhou Weiqing. Although he did not release his Assembly Set Shield yet, his Heavenly Jewels instantly appeared as he prepared himself for any possible ﬁght. Little Witch’s attack patterns were extremely strange, and he did not know what to expect.

Not only was he the leader of the Fei Li Battle Team, he was also Zhou Weiqing’s Follower, and he would deﬁnitely protect him with all his might.

Little Witch did not seem to notice the nervous tension in the air, ignoring the battle stances of the Fei Li Battle Team as she focused on Zhou Weiqing, smiling and she asked: “Hey, are you Zhou Weiqing?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Yes, I am.” As a man, he deﬁnitely had some interest in this girl, or perhaps it could be said that any beauty would catch his attention. Of course, he did not have any good feelings towards her; not only did her Demonic Attribute mean she came from the Heavenly Demon Sect, just the fact that he had injured his team members previously meant that he would treat her like an enemy.

Little Witch smiled happily and said: “Can we speak alone?” As she said that, her face revealed a pleading look. If they had not known about her terrifying power, they might have been tricked by her pitiful look. However, the smile on her face soon froze in the next instant with Zhou Weiqing’s words.

Zhou Weiqing twisted his mouth and said: “Speak alone?

What for? Borrow my seed?”

*Pffft* Little Four burst out laughing, pointing a big thumbs up to Zhou Weiqing as he thought to himself: Weiqing, this little rascal, he sure dares to talk. Although the rest of them did not give any signals, their expressions deﬁnitely turned weird.

“What did you say?!” A cold aura erupted in the air as Little Witch’s eyes blazed with anger. Right at that point, almost coincidentally, Fat Cat’s lazy little head popped out from Zhou Weiqing’s arms.

Looking at Fat Cat’s dark purple eyes, Little Witch reined in the cold a little, saying softly: “Please do not insult me okay? Since young, no one has spoken to me like that. I just want to talk to you. You are someone that Tian’er has spoken for, I wouldn’t do anything to you.”

Hearing her mention Tian’er, Zhou Weiqing’s eyes twitched as he swept his gaze on her. As he did so, he thought to himself: This little girl might look like a loli, but her ass sure is pert. In terms of looks alone, she beats Ming Hua already, perhaps almost a match for Bing’er. From her words though, she probably has high status in the Heavenly Demon Sect.

“Alright, so be it, come in then to speak.” Zhou Weiqing gave a reassuring look to Lin TianAo, motioning that he would be alright. However, Lin TianAo frowned with a furrowed brow, and did not budge.

Zhou Weiqing patted his shoulder and said: “Trust me, I am a person afraid of death, and I will not joke around with my life.”

Only then did Lin TianAo nod, waving his hands and motioning for the rest of the team to return to their rooms. He also returned to his own room, which was right beside Zhou Weiqing’s. He knew how powerful Zhou Weiqing was, and although Little Witch was also extremely strong, he was conﬁdent that she would not be able to kill Zhou Weiqing in a single strike. He remained on guard; with just a wall between them, he was conﬁdent that he would be able to charge forward to protect Zhou Weiqing if anything cropped up. With the condition of the Fei Li Battle Team members now, even if Little Witch took action, she wouldn’t ﬁnd them as easy to take down as the previous time. Little Witch followed suit into Zhou Weiqing’s room, as if walking into her own home, with a skip she went directly into the couch in the room.

Zhou Weiqing shut the door, seating himself on the bed. Although he believed that Little Witch would not attack him, he did not try to sit next to her on the couch. After all, as the saying goes, a gentleman won’t stand beside a collapsing wall. Of course, only he would actually describe himself as a gentleman.

“Alright, speak then, why are you looking for me.” Zhou Weiqing said passively, eyeing Little Witch’s body impudently as he spoke.

Little Witch smiled and said: “Actually, you were right, I am actually here to borrow your seed. If you agree, you can pick any girls from our Heavenly Demon Sect, with the exception of myself. As long as you can impregnate any of them, even if you do not join our Heavenly Demon Sect, you will still be considered our honoured guest. Our Heavenly Demon Sect is ﬁlled with beauties, this should be a good deal for you right.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned, a perverted light in his eyes. “What if… I’m only interested in you? I am happy to lend you my seed… how about we start now? Come on, let’s create a little person now heh heh.”

As he said that, he pounced towards Little Witch, but she disappeared in a puff of smoke, naturally causing him to fall onto the couch as she appeared at the door.

Chapter 79 Zhou Weiqing, are you asking to die?

Zhou Weiqing had pounced at Little Witch with a perverted look, but she dodged it swiftly by turning into mist.

This time, Little Witch could no longer hold her mask, as her eyes blazed in a cold fury. “Zhou Weiqing, are you asking to die?”

Zhou Weiqing did not chase her, instead lounging on the couch, his eyes cold and no longer ‘perverted’ as he said passively: “In the past, Ming Hua and Ming Wu both tried to kill me. I have never thought your Heavenly Demon Sect had any good feelings towards me, nor is the feeling mutual. If I am not wrong, the Kalise Empire is able to send a team because of the support of the Bai Da Empire… or should I say more accurately, your Heavenly Demon Sect is supporting the Bai Da Empire, which in turn is supporting the Kalise Empire? You should know my origin… once I saw you with the Kalise Empire, and the fact that you attacked my companions… there is no longer a need for us to speak.”

Little Witch stood there, the smile which had been on her face disappeared as her expression also turned cold. Looking at Zhou Weiqing, she shook her head slowly, saying: “No, your guess is not totally right. Indeed, you are correct that we are supporting the Kalise Empire, but that has nothing to do with the Bai Da Empire. Even if we want to support the Bai Da Empire, they would not dare accept our support. As for supporting the Kalise Empire, it is solely for this Heavenly Jewel Tournament, and only that. We need to enter the Heavenly Jewel Island, but amongst the ﬁve Great Saint Lands,

our Heavenly Demon Sect is heavily persecuted and

suppressed, and our power is deﬁnitely the lowest amongst the ﬁve. Without sufﬁcient Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, we face the risk of having our future Demonic Heavenly Jewel Masters wiped out totally.”

“If you are willing to cooperate with us, I can promise you that after the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, we will not have anything else to do with the Kalise Empire.”

Hearing Little Witch’s words, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but be surprised, as he heard the sincerity in her words, and saw it in her eyes as well.

Little Witch glanced at Fat Cat, who had squirmed her way out of Zhou Weiqing’s bosom, and continued saying: “This time, the reason I am here has nothing to do with the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, and I am here specially for you. As for that time when I attacked your friends, that was a misunderstanding. At that time, I only sensed that the presence of a Heavenly Beast from the Heavenly Snow Mountain breaking through, and I was just attempting to interrupt it. If I had known it was you and your team, I would not have taken action.”

“I’m not afraid to tell you that our Heavenly Demon Sect truly needs a ﬁrst generation Awakened Demonic Bloodline. It has been over a hundred years since we had a fresh infusion of bloodlines, and without a powerful Demonic Jewel Master, especially a ﬁrst generation one, we will not be able to hold our own against the other Great Saints Lands.”

“For the sake of our Sect, if you really want me, that isn’t a big problem. However, I am the Holy Girl of our Heavenly Demon Sect, and I must keep my chastity, as my husband will be the next Sect Leader of our Heavenly Demon Sect. If you are willing to join us, with your ﬁrst generation bloodline, you have a huge chance of becoming our future leader. Alas, the Heavenly Snow Mountain have taken a liking to you, and we know that we do not have the power to rival them, so we know that it will be impossible to ask you to join us. I only hope that we do not become enemies. This time, I have come personally to look for you, to make use of our Sect Secret Manuals to get your friendship, and hopefully leave a seed of hope for us.” Looking at Little Witch’s sincere look, Zhou Weiqing furrowed his brow slightly before saying: “That’s not possible. Even if I ‘lend’ you all my seed, the child is mine. I will not leave my child without a father. I may like beauties, but I do not want to just become a stud horse.”

Little Witch giggled and said: “What’s wrong with being a stud? Isn’t that what all you men dream of?”

Zhou Weiqing suddenly asked: “You were all constantly saying that a ﬁrst generation Demonic Jewel Master’s Demonic Attribute is able to match the three great saint attributes. Does that mean, as a ﬁrst generation Demonic Jewel Master, even if I use the Demonic Attribute, the other four Great Saint Lands will not cause trouble with me?”

Little Witch thought for a while before saying: “There’s no harm in me telling you, but that means you owe me a favour. In order to have the four Great Saint Lands accept any Heavenly Demonic jewel Master, it is not necessary to be a ﬁrst generation; as long as you can control your Demonic Change. The purer the bloodline, the easier it is to control the Demonic Change, especially through our Sect’s secret manual.”

Zhou Weiqing asked curiously: “How many people in the Heavenly Demon Sect can control the Demonic Change then?” Little Witch glared at him exasperatedly before saying: “That’s a secret of our sect, how could I possibly tell you like that? Unless you join our sect.”

“Zhou Weiqing, no matter what, you cannot change the fact that you are a Demonic Jewel Master, and we Demonic Jewel Masters can only survive in this current day and age. Otherwise, you will just be considered a heathen, a person they hunt. If you are willing to join our Sect, I can make the decision that you do not have to go through any Sealing, and as long as you can successfully practice our Secret Manual and control your Demonic Change, I … I will marry you and you will become the heir to Sect Leader.”

As she spoke up to that point, her beautiful face ﬂushed deeply. “You should know, although our Heavenly Demon Sect is the weakest amongst the ﬁve Great Saint Lands, we are still a powerful Saint Land with thousands of years of heritage and resources. Becoming the Sect Leader, you will be leading one of the top powers in the entire world.”

Seeing the ﬂush on her face, Zhou Weiqing said in a serious tone: “Your suggestion is very tempting, and I would deﬁnitely love to have the power of a great Saint Land behind me. Alas, if it were any other Great Saint Land, I would have agreed, but I am afraid I cannot do so far the Heavenly Demon Sect. That is because, no matter what, you all cannot walk out and show yourselves under the sun.”

“You…” Little Witch said angrily. “What do you want before you agree?!”

Zhou Weiqing said helplessly: “I truly am not able to help. I already have a ﬁancee, and I will not let her down.”

Little Witch said scofﬁngly: “Don’t give me that… Ming Hua already told me what a pervert you are. What’s the point of acting like a gentleman now?”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said: “You are right, I am perverted, but I deﬁnitely will not want to become a mere stud horse. I can feel your sincerity, and I believe that no matter what condition I give, you will try your best to fulﬁl it. However, I truly am unable to agree to that. The only guarantee I can give you is that as long as you all do not help the Kalise Empire, we will not be enemies. As for being friends, we will have to see how things develop in the future.”

Little Witch said angrily with a twist of her mouth: “As a Demonic Jewel Master, aren’t you even the slightest bit interested in our secret arts? After all, this is a Great Saint Attribute comparable to the other three Great Saint Attributes! If used well, our Demonic Attribute can even be more powerful in terms of offensive capabilities, when compared to the other three.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Of course I am interested, I would be a fool not to be. However, I know that there is a cost to everything, and there is no such thing as a free lunch. After considering everything, I have decided that it is better for me not to have the secret arts for now. If you have nothing else, please leave now, I have to prepare for my next match. Oh yes, I have to remind you, since you have sent people to represent the Kalise Empire, if we meet in the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, I will not hold back at all.”

Little Witch gave a humph and said: “Hold back? Don’t think too highly of yourself. You are just at the three-Jeweled cultivation level. One day, you will deﬁnitely come and look for me.”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said: “I truly cannot wait for such a day to come.”

Little Witch gave another angry humph before turning to leave. After Little Witch left, Zhou Weiqing sat there, deep in thought. Although her appearance today seemed like a simple recruitment visit, or perhaps just a peace offering of sorts to clear the air, in truth it had told Zhou Weiqing many things. The most important thing he had learnt was that the Heavenly Demon Sect was in dire straits.

Just like what Little Witch had said, he was just a mere three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. For the Heavenly Demon Sect to send their Holy Girl of their Sect to look for him, and to actually give so any promises, it showed how terrible of a position they were in, and how desperate they were. Although he knew his talent was extremely outstanding, it wasn’t so much for any of the other Great Saint Lands to lower themselves to look for him, let alone with so many beneﬁts.

As for the Demonic Attribute Secret Arts that Little Witch mentioned, although Zhou Weiqing truly wanted to learn that, but what Little Witch did not know was that his Demonic Attribute was unlike any other Demonic Jewel Master. He had not Awakened the attribute by himself, but it had been inherited from the black pearl! Zhou Weiqing was not entirely sure what the black pearl had given him, but at least he knew that his Demonic Attribute already had the Devour Skill, which had appeared on its own and not Stored by him. Furthermore, that day when Fat Cat had leveled up, his Demonic Attribute had evolved in some way. As such, his thirst for the Demonic Attribute Secret Arts was not that strong.

After some simple thought, Zhou Weiqing calmed himself down, glancing at Fat Cat who was once more sprawled on the bed, eyes closed. He knew that with his current power levels, it was pointless to think too much about the intricacies about the ﬁve Great Saint Lands. It was much more important for him to improve himself now.

Once again, Zhou Weiqing started on his skill tempering training, and a sharp green light started ﬂashing in his room.

During the previous skill tempering training of the Spatial Rend, Zhou Weiqing discovered that not only did it help him in understanding the profound mysteries of the skill and attribute, it also actually improved his cultivation speed by almost several fold!

After all, he had reached the ﬁrst stage of Heavenly Shen Energy not long ago, yet he could sense that he was already on the verge of breaking through. Such a cultivation speed was deﬁnitely nigh unthinkable, and yet another beneﬁt of the Immortal Deity Technique was shown. Bing’er had left, and the pressure that Shangguan Tianyue had given him had caused him to ignore that fear he had about the pain when breaking through Death Acupuncture Points. As long as he reached the limits of his Heavenly Energy, he would break through without hesitation and start on the third section

of the Immortal Deity Technique. Another three days passed, and once again it was time for the next match of the tournament.

The Plaza was once again crowded with masses of audience, and they were all chatting about the main attraction of the day, the highlight ﬁght. Naturally, that was the ﬁght between the two large empires, Zhou Weiqing and their team’s Fei Li Empire, as well as the Bai Da Empire. This was likely the most important ﬁght in the entire preliminaries. After all, in the preliminary heats, the seeded teams usually did not even have to ﬁght. Furthermore, with the added history and enmity between these two large empires, one could imagine how tough and deadly the ﬁghting would be.

In the ﬁrst two rounds of the tournament, the Fei Li Empire had only sent out four members. However, today, they all attended, of course, besides Shangguan Bing’er who had been taken away by Shangguan Tianyue. Under Lin TianAo’s leadership, Zhou Weiqing, Drunken Bao, Crow, Little Four, Xiao Yan and Ye Paopao arrived at the tournament grounds.

The ﬁrst thing they did was to retrieve their winnings from their bet on the last round. Naturally, the one who won the most was Ye Paopao, his ﬁve hundred thousand gold coins turning into six hundred and ﬁfty thousand gold coins. Similarly, Zhou Weiqing’s four hundred thousand turned into ﬁve hundred and twenty thousand gold coins. The others also had a correspondingly satisfying return.

Once more, the seven of them did not hesitate to bet all their winnings on themselves once more.

This was not only conﬁdence in themselves, but also a push on themselves, to put pressure for them to win.

The ﬁrst two ﬁghts for the Bai Da Battle Team were good for them as well. They had surrendered to the seeded Dan Dun Battle Team, and for the other one, they had only sent out two members to gain the win in a crushing manner. As such, both teams had almost equal odds today.

The odds on the Fei Li Battle Team was 1 to 1.8, and 1 to 1.9 for the Bai Da Battle Team. The reason why it was slightly favouring the Fei Li Battle Team was because they were the top 5 team three years ago; as well as the fact that some of their team members had not even been seen before today. Just as the Fei Li Battle Team members had ﬁnished placing their bets, another team arrived as well, dressed in yellow uniforms.

On their yellow uniforms was a silver thread lining, and silver embroidery on their chest of their empire’s symbol.

When the opposing teams spotted each other, the entire air was ﬁlled with ﬁery tension. That was naturally because the yellow uniform-ed team was the Bai Da Battle Team.

The eight of them walked ahead to the Fei Li Team members. They were also here to place their bets, and their leader’s gaze landed on Lin TianAo and he smiled, saying: “Bro TianAo, it’s been a long time. Looks like this time you are actually the leader of the Fei Li Battle Team.”

This leader was extremely huge, even taller than Lin TianAo, though perhaps not as well built. Bushy eyebrows and large eyes with thin lips, he gave an impression of being a harsh character. His hands were broad, matching his broad frame, giving forth a sharp edgey feel, a contrast from Lin TianAo’s stable, a little introverted character. Lin TianAo said solemnly: “That’s right, I am the leader.

Lang Xie, it’s been a long time indeed.”

Both of them shook hands, and as their large hands clasped together, the members of both teams could clearly sense the air almost explode in that instance, the sheer force of the two palms causing the light in the air to almost seem twisted.

The ‘handshake’ lasted almost three seconds before they let go at the same time. From the surface, it seemed like no one had lost out, both of them without any change to their expressions.

Lang Xie continued smiling, saying: “Bro TianAo, let’s meet on the stage then.” After saying that, he swept his gaze across the members of the Fei Li Battle Team, before turning to the betting booth and saying: “I place a million gold coins on the Bai Da Battle Team.”

Drunken Bao sidled closer to Lin TianAo, saying softly: “Boss, he is trying to show off.”

Lin TianAo said passively: “He is right, let’s meet on stage to let our ﬁghting do the talking. Let’s go.” Although their ﬁght had not started, the ‘smell of gunpowder’ between the two was already extremely thick, the tension and enmity clear between both sides as they walked past each other.

Amongst the seven remaining members of the Fei Li Battle Team, only Zhou Weiqing was not actually a Fei Li Empire citizen, yet even he had been inﬂuenced by his companions. He could clearly sense how different the state of his companions were. It wasn’t just excitement, it was also that sheer need to win, so much so that their eyes were all red. Even Lin TianAo, who was normally very stable and not emotional, was clearly agitated, as he walked energetically towards their rest house.

As they sat down, Little Four quickly spoke out: “Boss, what’s the plan. Let’s ﬁnish them all.” Without needing any pep talk, all of the Fei Li Team members were raring to go.

Lin TianAo said solemnly: “I just want to remind everyone that in every Heavenly Jewel Tournament, as long as our Fei Li Empire has met the Bai Da Empire, there has always been bloodshed. Both sides will deﬁnitely not hold back, or show any mercy, and many a life has been lost on either side in the history of this tournament. For the glory of our Empire, even if we have to sacriﬁce ourselves today, we must not lose!” “For the glory of the empire!” Besides Zhou Weiqing, all the team members shouted out immediately, at such a volume that all the surrounding teams preparing themselves could hear them. Of course, the Bai Da Battle Team which were on their way to their own Rest House could also hear them.

Lang Xie gave a cold humh, shouting out loud: “Bai Da Victory!” And his own team members also shouted out loud in unison.

The rest of the battle teams couldn’t help but reveal a smile. The ﬁght had not yet started, but the two teams whose ﬁght everyone was looking forward to were already clashing. Without question, this would be a clash of two titans, one of the deadliest ﬁghts thus far.

Lin TianAo’s eyes narrowed. No one knew when his hands had gripped into tight ﬁsts.

“Boss, let me be the ﬁrst one!” Drunken Bao said excitedly. My wounds are already healed; even if I do, I will deﬁnitely be able to kill one of those Bai Da cretins!”

Lin TianAo lowered his head, looking at his tightly gripped ﬁsts. He seemed lost in thought for a few moments, before he ﬁnally said solemnly: “Today’s ﬁght… I will leave the direction to Weiqing. He has proven himself, and I am unable to keep a clear head today. Weiqing, you arrange our team’s ﬁght today.”

“Me?” Zhou Weiqing started. He had not expected Lin TianAo to say something like this, and all the members turned to him, as if they were hungry wild beasts, causing Zhou Weiqing to feel a chill down his spine.

Giving a bitter smile, he said: “Leader, this isn’t an easy task you have assigned me. First of all, I must get all your assurance that you will listen to all my instructions. No matter who I send out, or what instructions I give, you must follow it to the letter for this to work.”

Lin TianAo nodded and said: “No problem, I will guarantee this. You are now the team leader. No matter who you send out, we will listen to your arrangement.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “All the way to the individual tactics?” By now, Drunken Bao was too anxious, exclaiming:

“Weiqing, stop talking rubbish! Hurry up and assign us!” Zhou Weiqing nodded, turning to Lin TianAo and saying: “Leader, if it were you, with your current state of mind, who would you send out ﬁrst?”

Lin TianAo thought for a while before saying: “If everyone was at full strength and not injured, I would deﬁnitely let Xiao Yan ﬁght ﬁrst. He is probably the second most powerful in the entire team. This ﬁrst round is extremely critical, especially for the morale of the team… in fact, it’s true for both sides. After all, who wouldn’t want an auspicious start.”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and nodded before saying: “Very good.

In that case, for the ﬁrst ﬁght, Ye Paopao, you’ll ﬁght.”

“What?!” Almost everyone exclaimed at the same time, staring at Zhou Weiqing with wide eyes. Without question, amongst the entire team, Ye Paopao was likely the weakest. Even though he was at the four-Jeweled cultivation level, in terms of combat strength he was no match for the three- Jeweled Zhou Weiqing and Crow, let alone the other members. Although Ye Paopao was thirsting to ﬁght, he had deﬁnitely not expected that he would be assigned to this all important ﬁrst ﬁght.

After a moment of shock, Ye Paopao quickly recovered, rushing to Zhou Weiqing in joy and saying: “Weiqing, in the future, you are my bro! Do not worry, even if I have to sacriﬁce my life, I will ensure the glory of our Empire is shown on the stage. No matter what, I will ensure victory!!”

Ye Paopao was excited, but Drunken Bao was anxious. According to Lin TianAo’s plan earlier, Xiao Yan would have been assigned. However, since Xiao Yan had not fully recovered yet, while his own injuries were almost fully healed, as the next highest cultivation, he should have been given the ﬁrst ﬁght. Alas, Zhou Weiqing had assigned Ye Paopao to ﬁght instead, how could he not be anxious. With a quick step forward, he grabbed hold of Zhou Weiqing, exclaiming: “Weiqing, I did not offend you before right, why don’t you let me ﬁght ﬁrst!”

Zhou Weiqing glared at him exasperatedly: “Are you the leader or am I the leader? Since you all already agreed to let me direct this ﬁght, then you should listen to my arrangement.”

Lin TianAo said solemnly: “Weiqing, this is an important ﬁght, are you sure?”

Zhou Weiqing pulled Drunken Bao aside. In terms of pure physical strength, Drunken Bao was naturally no match for him. He walked in front of Ye Paopao, saying seriously: “Senior, this time you will have to go through ignominy. For the victory of the team, are you able to sacriﬁce your personal honour?”

Ye Paopao started. “What do you mean?” Zhou Weiqing said solemnly: “For the ﬁrst ﬁght, I want you to just put up a token struggle, make use of all your most powerful abilities as soon as possible and deal as much damage as you can before you surrender. Your main job is to ensuring that you remain uninjured before you surrender.”

Zhou Weiqing could sense everyone’s shock, disappointment, puzzlement, confusion, and even anger, and he said earnestly: “IF our target today was just to simply defeat the Bai Da Empire, and to enter the top eight, then I believe with Leader’s original plan we have the power to do so. I do not doubt that at all. However, is our main target just the top eight? No! Our target is to enter the top four, to enter the Heavenly Jewel Island. As such, we need to make use of strategy and tactics against the Bai Da Empire. There is still some time before our ﬁght starts, so I’ll explain my idea simply. If everyone thinks it is workable, then we shall go ahead with it. If not, I’ll return the command to Leader.”

“My plan goes like this…”

… Very quickly, the entire Fei Li Battle Team Rest House fell silent. While explaining his plan, Zhou Weiqing put up his Spatial Shackles in order to totally prevent anyone from listening.

If any outsider could look into the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House, they would see each and every team member with strange, and changing looks on their faces… From puzzlement… To shock… To excitement… And ﬁnally fanaticism! Their looks at Zhou Weiqing slowly changed from ‘looking at a lunatic’, to praise and even awe.

The 3rd day of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament ﬁnally began. However, the audience were not extremely interested in the ﬁght in front of them, as everyone waited for the highlight match to start. It was rumoured that today’s bets had totalled an hitherto unheard of amount, especially on the Fei Li Battle Team vs Bai Da Battle Team match. Of course, no matter which side won, the ZhongTian Empire ofﬁcials was the biggest winner!

As match after match ended, the crowd grew more and more excited. When the judge ﬁnally announced the long awaited match had begun, the crowd erupted into a deafening cheer. Even in the ZhongTian Empire, the number of Heavenly Jewel Masters paled in comparison to the sheer number of citizens. Percentage wise, it was pretty much the same around the entire world. Of course, with their prosperity and power, most of the citizens were still relatively familiar with world of Heavenly Jewel Masters, and their knowledge and ‘eyes’ were

deﬁnitely better in comparison to other Empire’s regular

citizens, and they were eager to watch some high level ﬁghts. Alas, the top ﬁghts of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament were usually held in the Heavenly Jewel Island, and they were unable to watch those. As such, they were extremely happy and eager whenever the preliminary heats had such exciting matches. Both the Bai Da and Fei Li Empires were famous large empires, and well known for their enmity; how could the audience not be excited?

Ye Paopao stood up and walked slowly towards the stage. As the representative member, his face was calm, his eyes expressionless and he walked steadily ahead.

As for the Bai Da Battle Team, their representative for this match was a young lady looking to be around twenty six years old. Her looks were average, perhaps even a little premature aging, with withered yellow hair; not very attractive at all. However, her eyes were very unique, a strange deep darkness within them. Her movements were soft and graceful as she walked up the stage, not making a sound, as if she were a spirit ﬂoating up the stage.

Looking at the young lady, Ye Paopao’s heart gripped in warning; at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel admiration for Zhou Weiqing’s arrangements. Without question, this young lady was one of the top powerhouses in the Bai Da Battle Team. Just like Lin TianAo said, facing such a ﬁght, both he and Lang Xie were lusting for victory, and were especially determined to get the ﬁrst one.

Alas, this time, the leader of the Fei Li Battle Team was Zhou Weiqing, not Lin TianAo.

When Lang Xie saw that the enemy member on the stage was Ye Paopao, his face changed. He was clear that usually the ﬁrst ﬁght between their two empires were usually between at least ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters. However, Ye Paopao had shown his cultivation level in the previous matches, and was only a four-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master.

However, that surprise only lasted for a moment before Lang Xie dismissed it. After all, the pair of Zhou Weiqing and Crow, who were both merely three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Masters, had already shown their powers earlier. Perhaps this Ye Paopao had also some hidden strength that was comparable to the ﬁve- Jeweled cultivation level… could he have some secret techniques?

Lang Xie had done a lot of research on the Fei Li Battle Team members, and in his eyes, the greatest threat was naturally the leader Lin TianAo. He knew he was pretty much equal to Lin TianAo, or perhaps even slightly weaker. After all, three years ago, he had also attended the previous Heavenly Jewel Tournament, and he had seen Lin TianAo then as well. At that time, Lin TianAo had just reached the four-Jeweled cultivation level, but his Assembly Set Shield had deﬁnitely left a deep impression on the members of the Bai Da Battle Team of that time. Alas, the two empires had not met in combat three years ago, as such he did not have a clear understanding of Lin TianAo’s exact powers.

Lang Xie was a careful person, as such he planned to consider Lin TianAo’s match as a writeoff. However, he was still determined to take the ﬁrst victory. As the leader, he would not be the ﬁrst to take the stage, and he believed that both sides would deﬁnitely ﬁght all the way to the ﬁfth ﬁght. The ﬁnal two rounds were deﬁnitely their ﬁnal determining ﬁghts, and as long as he managed to clinch two victories in the ﬁrst three ﬁghts, he would be able to force Lin TianAo to ﬁght the fourth ﬁght. Even if they lost that one, he could take the last ﬁght and secure a win easily. However, Lin TianAo’s arrangement had surprised him. Could this Ye Paopao with his four-Jeweled cultivation level be more powerful than expected?

As Lang Xie pondered to himself, the ﬁght ofﬁcially started. “Fei Li Battle Team. Ye Paopao.”

“Bai Da Battle Team. Qing Qian.”

The young lady from the Bai Da Battle Team had a rather unique name indeed.

As the judge proclaimed the start of the ﬁght, Ye Paopao did not hesitate in launching his attacks. He did not have any strategies or even thoughts of conserving energy, and right from the beginning he launched everything he had.

The temperature of the air fell dramatically as Ye Paopao released a freezing skill towards Qing Qian. Such an area of effect skill which affected temperature of the surroundings was not something that could be dodged. Under Ye Paopao’s maximum effort, the temperature dropped swiftly. At the same time, three ice shields formed in front of him as he ﬂew backwards, his Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment all coalescing around him, including the staff in his hands, bringing his combat power to the maximum as he gathered all his Heavenly Energy.

In any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master’s eyes, Ye Paopao’s actions were pretty decent. Facing an unknown opponent, he had spent the least amount of time in launching both an attack and defense, moving back and giving himself time to react.

However, in the eyes of skilled ﬁghters like Lang Xie, only one term could be used to describe Ye Paopao’s actions. Worthless. The reason was simple – such actions from him were just too draining towards Heavenly Energy.

Facing Ye Paopao, Qing Qian had already released her Heavenly Jewels. Towards Ye Paopao’s actions, she was not worried at all; although the freezing skill would affect her a little, as long as she was circulating her Heavenly Energy to block out the cold, it would greatly reduce the effect on her. This was especially so since there was a gap between their cultivation levels, as she was a ﬁve Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master after all.

As the ﬁve Dragonstone Jade Physical Jewels swirled around her wrist, the Agility Attribute stones glowing with a dim green light, Qing Qian looked at ice shield around Ye Paopao with scorn as she lifted her left hand. A dark, shadowy glow ﬂew towards Ye Paopao instantly, almost like a bridge as it connected the two of them.

The Cursing Arts. Although Ye Paopao did not know exactly what Skill Qing Qian had used, it was deﬁnitely one of the cursing arts of the Darkness Attribute. Without question, this young lady had one of the greater attributes, Darkness.

A strange expression appeared on Ye Paopao’s face, and his following actions were puzzling and almost unfathomable to the watching audience. Lifting his right hand, the three Ice Shields started sliding towards his opponent, as he totally ignored the curse and did not even attempt to defend himself. By this time, his Freezing Skill had already caused a layer of ice to form around the entire stage, and that allowed his ice shield to slide along at a rather swift rate.

As the black shadow quickly enveloped Ye Paopao, he felt his body turn cold, as if the connection between him and his Consolidated Equipment was diminished, and his entire body slowing down a little.

The entire audience could see that after being afﬂicted by the curse, a black symbol appeared on Ye Paopao’s forehead. In the Rest House, Zhou Weiqing muttered to himself: “Curse of Sluggishness. Slowing down the opponent’s physical speed, and also speed of circulating Heavenly Energy. A 5 Star Rated Darkness Skill, a decent control skill indeed.”

Of course, this Curse of Sluggishness was not comparable to his own Curse of Doom.

Seeing the three ice shields sliding towards her, Qing Qian gave a cold humph. Her leg struck the ground as she ﬂew into the air; her Physical Jewels were the Agility Attribute after all, and her speed and jumping abilities were deﬁnitely top notch.

However, nobody else expected what came next. Just as Qian Qing jumped into the air, the three Ice Shields suddenly exploded, shattering into an icy mist that rose into the air. The reverberation of the explosion also sent Qing Qian to spin uncontrollably for a moment, just sufﬁcient time for the icy mist to envelop her.

Chapter 80 Battle to the death! Bai Da Battle Team!

Although Ye Paopao had been struck with the Curse of Sluggishness, he was still conﬁdent in his battle strategy. As soon as his ice shields exploded under his command, he had already unleashed another Freezing Skill once again, causing the icy mist around Qing Qian to consolidate around her.

The audience could clearly see a huge block of ice forming around her in midair, and right in the middle of the ice was a mass of black light.

*BANG* A loud crash resounded as the ice fell onto the ground. With a quick step forward, Ye Paopao appeared in front of the block of ice, placing his hands onto it, pushing his Heavenly Energy to his maximum capacity as he manipulated the Freezing Skill, strengthening the ice and lowering its temperature. His Heavenly Energy was draining at an insane rate, like a dam of a river had been destroyed and its water surging out, and he did not hold back anything at all.

At the other side, Lang Xie was staring at the ﬁghting stage with his brow furrowed. “What is he doing?! With his cultivation level, is he trying to win with such a Freezing Skill? What wishful thinking… the most he can do is to drain Qing Qian’s Heavenly Energy.

Little did Lang Xie know that indeed Zhou Weiqing had given Ye Paopao that exact mission – to drain Qing Qian’s Heavenly Energy to the best of his ability!

As the time passed, the ﬁght was locked in a stalemate. However, everyone could see clearly that the black light within the ice was growing stronger, while Ye Paopao’s ice was starting to show small cracks. It was obvious that his ice would not be able to hold her for much longer.

All of a sudden, Ye Paopao laughed heartily out loud, the Consolidated Equipment on his body vanishing. With a pale ashen face, he took a few steps back, saying weakly: “I am out of Heavenly Energy. I surrender.” After saying that, he did not even wait for the ice to shatter, jumping quickly off the stage and heading back to the Rest House.

*Bang* the thick black light spread out swiftly across the entire stage as the huge block of ice shattered, sending shards of ice ﬂying in all direction. Qing Qian’s body appeared in the midst of the black light, as the light corroded the remaining ice, causing them to disappear. Her eyes were bloodshot, almost emitting an uncanny red light. “Fei Li Empire, are you all cowards?” Although she had won the ﬁrst ﬁght, she couldn’t feel any sense of elation at the way she had won at all.

When Ye Paopao had jumped off the stage, she had felt as if she had been tricked somehow. It might seem like she had won so easily, but in truth, she had not even used any techniques or strategy, none of her formidable combat prowess. Ye Paopao had struck ﬁrst and with his strategy forced a stalemate and situation where they were both wasting huge amounts of Heavenly Energy. At that time, she had no choice but to use a lot of her Heavenly Energy to release the Darkness Attribute in order to block the ice, otherwise it might have injured her and caused an even worse result.

It could be said that, from the beginning, Ye Paopao had not planned to win, but to drain her of as much Heavenly Energy as possible, and he had been successful.

Accompanying Qing Qian’s angry shout, admonishing cries could also be heard from the surrounding. The audience had been expecting and looking forward to exciting ﬁghts, but this ﬁrst one had deﬁnitely been disappointing. This was even more so for those who had bet on them! Zhou Weiqing stuck his thumb out at Ye Paopao. “Senior, well done. Your control over your skills has truly improved. I believe that even if you really fought, you could give her a run for her money.”

Ye Paopao heard the admonishing cries, and said with a bitter smile: “I only hope that when I return to home, I don’t get scolded to death by my father. Such a humiliating act, please don’t look for me to do this again please. In the future ﬁghts, I need to regain my face.

Zhou Weiqing nodded, a gleam in his eyes. He then said solemnly: “For the second round… Crow, it’s your ﬁght.”

“Alright!” Crow jumped up from her seat excitedly. The chair which was barely holding her six hundred jin weight broke from the abrupt movement.

Zhou Weiqing said seriously: “Crow, this is an extremely critical ﬁght for us for my plan to work. No matter what, you have to win. Do you understand?”

Crow grinned, looking at Zhou Weiqing as she said: “Do not worry. I will deﬁnitely not lose.” After saying that, Crow turned and strode towards the stage, ascending it swiftly.

Even though Lang Xie felt there was something amiss about their ﬁrst victory, he couldn’t help but have a smile on his face. This was not some marathon ﬁght after all, and they only needed to win three out of the ﬁve ﬁghts. Winning the ﬁrst one would already give them a large advantage, and he decided to continue with his original plan and send out the second member of his team.

As both sides ascended the stage, the member from the Bai Da Battle Team was a short but stout fellow. He was only 1.6 metres tall or so, but his shoulders were almost as broad as his body’s length! His arms were thick and muscled, and with a ﬂick of his wrist, four Icy Jade Physical Jewels appeared in a thick mist, before two large heavy hammers appeared in his grasp swiftly – his Consolidated Weapons.

His two heavy hammers were not as huge as Zhou Weiqing’s, but they were still over one chi in diameter! Together with his well built frame, it painted quite a sight.

Crow, seeing that this stout man had two Physical Jewels Consolidated into a pair of hammers, had a gleam in her eyes. Grinning, she brought out both her legendary hammers, crying out: “Shorty, you want to compete in physical strength with me?”

“Compete we shall. Your Father, I, have never been afraid of anyone in terms of physical strength. You big chick, do not think I might be small, but in terms of ‘that’, I am extremely powerful. Haven’t you heard of the term, short but powerful? Heh heh.” As he said that, he gave a lustful leer.

Crow struck her axes in front of her, giving forth a loud clash as she exclaimed as well, not backing down: “Shorty, this ‘old mother’ will sandwich you to death! Come on!”

Hearing the two exchange words, the judge immediately broke out in cold sweat; he was almost suspecting what this two were here for. Quickly, he shouted out: “Both sides, mind your words, if not I’ll suspend both of you. Do not forget that you are representing your empires. Introduce yourselves.”

Hearing the judge’s warning, both Crow and the stout fellow from the Bai Da Battle Team reined it in.

“Fei Li Battle Team, Crow.” “Bai Da Battle Team, Xu Chuan.”

The judge did not bother reminding them of anything else, quickly saying: “Begin.” He then leapt back, not wanting to be caught between the two.

As soon as the judge shouted, Xu Chuan stomped his feet on the ground. *TONNGG* His short body shot forth like a cannonball, his hammers striking down from the sky towards Crow’s head.

In a strange coincidence, that Xu Chuan’s Elemental Jewels were also ﬁre! His seemingly simple attack was actually not as simple as it seemed. At the four-Jeweled level, he was one of the lower cultivation levels in the entire Bai Da Battle Team, but just like he said, he was similar to Crow, his forte being physical strength.

As he jumped up into the air, a round shaped pauldrons appeared around both his shoulders. Naturally, those were his other two Consolidated Equipment. More importantly, all four of his Consolidated Equipment had sockets, and they were clearly all at least Grandmaster Consolidating Equipment or higher. At this point, all four of them lit up in a brilliant red light, as his shoulders were enveloped in a ﬁery red light, and as his entire body ﬂew in mid air, he seemed like a huge round ﬁreball.

The light in Crow’s eyes brightened, and she moved her legs apart in a ready stance, the axes in her hands sweeping upwards as she shouted: “OPEN!”

With a loud explosion that reverberated in the ears of the entire crowd, it almost shook the Plaza. The Battle Team members in their respective Resting Houses were the closest to the stage, and in that moment, many of their ears were ringing, and they had to swiftly circulate Heavenly Energy to protect their hearing.

As the axes and hammers clashed, Xu Chuan bounced back upwards, while Crow’s feet both sank deep into the stage. In the next moment, Xu Chuan struck down again, and the axes and hammers clashed continuously, a ﬁerce ﬁery light sparking constantly, accompanying the loud explosive crashes as a clash of might happened on stage.

Xiao Yan, seated beside Zhou Weiqing, exclaimed suddenly, his face changing. “That’s a Secret Arts Fire Warrior! Someone has actually cultivated in that route?!” Zhou Weiqing asked curiously: “What is the Secret Arts Fire Warrior?”

Xiao Yan said solemnly: “Basically, the Secret Arts Fire Warrior requires the Heavenly Jewel master to have both the Strength and Fire Attribute, the focus being a powerful physical strength. When cultivation, all their Physical Jewels are Consolidated with Equipment that boosts their Strength. At the same time, all their Elemental Jewels are Stored with the same Skill – Flame Strength Blast. This Flame Strength Blast Skill is actually a very simple skill, simply adding an explosive strength to one’s attacks.”

“Although this skill is only rated at three-stars, it has quite an obvious increase in strength. Furthermore, with the Secret Arts Fire Warrior Storing this Skill multiple times, with their effects stacking, although it might not be to such a degree like Boss’ Assembly Set Shield, it is still able to boost their strength to a considerable, almost terrifying degree. Of course, the drawback of this cultivation method is that there is almost no possibility of breaking past to the ninth Jewel level or higher. That is to say, his highest possible future level will only be an Upper Level Zong Stage. As such, anyone with outstanding talent would not choose such an extreme method of cultivation. However, at lower levels, they indeed have a huge advantage over most others, especially in the battleﬁeld where they are nearly unstoppable.”

“It is rumoured that several hundred years ago, there was an army formed out of Secret Arts Fire Warriors, all of whom were at the Upper Level Zong Stage. Although they only numbered a hundred people, they were almost invincible in the battleﬁeld. Even Heavenly King Powerhouses were not willing to face them. For now, we do not know how much of the combat styles and secrets of the Secret Arts Fire Warrior Xu Chuan has mastered, but we do not need to worry that much; after all, the true power of the Secret Arts Fire Warriors are usually only when they reach the Zong Stage.”

Hearing Xiao Yan’s explanation, Zhou Weiqing’s interest in these secret arts were deﬁnitely piqued. In truth, these so called secrets were mainly in the the matching of Consolidated Equipment and Stored Skills. The explosive power of Fire fused with the Strength Attribute… and how they matched together.

In order words, having the Physical and Elemental Jewels focusing on boosting in the same direction. This was also the base principle behind all the Ultimate Heavenly Jewel Masters, like the Ultimate Agility of Shangguan Bing’er. Zhou Weiqing was a Consolidating Equipment Master, and hearing about these Secret Arts Fire Warriors, it was as if a door opened in his mind, broadening his horizons and giving him much food for thought. Of course, it was not for himself, but rather for his classmates and Followers who would be using his own Consolidating Equipment Scrolls. They could be said to have just entered the Jewel Master world, though they were not Heavenly Jewel Masters and were still low level, this would also allow him to shape them!

At this point, the ﬁght on the stage was reaching its climax.

As a Secret Arts Fire Warrior, Xu Chuan’s strength was not inferior to Crow’s. As such, as both of the clashed time and again, the shockwaves reverberated around the plaza, causing the sturdy stage to tremble.

Crow’s face was calm, the axes in her hands swirling about with all her martial skill, smashing hard into Xu Chuan’s hammers as he ﬂew about in mid air, making use of the force of their blows to stay in the air, then using the downward force of his blows to increase their strength against Crow.

Such a contest of strength was deﬁnitely a crowd pleaser, and the audience cheers swamped the entire plaza like waves. As compared to the ﬁrst ﬁght, this one deﬁnitely roused their spirits and ﬁred their blood.

In their Resting House, Zhou Weiqing, Lin TianAo and the rest of the team were smiling. They knew that barring any major surprises, they had secured this ﬁght.

Although Xu Chuan’s secret arts had allowed him to boost his strength to terrifying levels, it was still after all the boosts from his Consolidated Equipment AND Stored Skills.

On the other hand, Crow was only using Heavenly Energy to boost herself, mainly using her own physique inherited from being a member of the Gold Crow Tribe. She had not even used her Consolidated Equipment or Stored Skills at all!

As such, despite seemingly a stalemate, the disparity in terms of expenditure of Heavenly Energy was huge. Xu Chuan would eventually tire himself out, and though Crow’s cultivation level was lower than his and with a lower total amount of Heavenly Energy, she would deﬁnitely be able to outlast him… and by then, there would be no doubt in who the victor would be.

As for Xu Chuan constantly staying in mid air, it might seem he was taking the initiative in doing so, making use of gravity. In truth, any skilled practitioner could tell that it was actually Crow who had the situation in hand, forcing him to be unable to land.

Any human’s strength came from their physique, connected to the earth. Only then would they be able to leverage positioning, leveraging their own strength, and deﬂecting opponent’s strength. With her martial combat skills, Crow had been able to force Xu Chuan to stay in mid air, not giving him the time to slow down, recover; he could only attack continuously and clash forcefully.

She wanted to end this as soon as possible.

Xu Chuan naturally understood this as well. Alas, Crow’s strength was just too terrifying, as was her skill with the axes, and once she had gotten the advantage, he was unable to leverage anything to break himself out of the rut.

Although he had seen all of Crow’s other ﬁghts, at that point he had just felt that her strength was powerful, but that he was no weaker. Only now that he fought her personally did he know he was wrong. Just standing there, Crow gave him the impression like she was an insurmountable mountain. Every clash reverberated right through his body, causing his body to feel a quick numbness, and his arms slowly started feeling leaden.

Crow – Six hundred jin of weight, and a thousand three hundred jin weight of the legendary axes.

Such a terrifying mass accompanied by her strength, one could never imagine the sheer power without experiencing it for themselves. This was simply not human. As compared to her physical strength, the boost from her Heavenly Energy and Fire Attribute Skills were much lesser.

Such a clash of pure strength was naturally a huge drain on a Secret Arts Fire Warrior like Xu Chuan. After all, he was still at the four-Jeweled cultivation level, and was not able to fully make use of all their secret arts to their maximum capabilities. Feeling his energy draining rapidly, he was starting to get worried.

In the next clash, when Xu Chuan’s body bounced back upwards in midair, he gave an abrupt shout, the diminishing ﬂames around his body suddenly ﬂared out once more, blazing in a new life as the red ﬂames turned orange. His entire aura suddenly changed as well. Strangely, he actually paused in midair for a second, before he struck downwards at Crow once more.

This time, his speed was obviously slower than before, but the hammers in his hands were stained an orange red ﬂame, giving it a horrifying feel that struck to the very soul.

Just like how all the members of the Fei Li Battle Team were so adamant about victory, so was the Bai Da Battle Team. In order to achieve victory, Xu Chuan was not afraid to sacriﬁce himself.

In the Fei Li Battle Team Rest House, everyone stood up abruptly on seeing what had happened. What Xu Chuan was using was just too familiar to them… as Xiao Yan had just used it previously against Little Witch – Igniting his Flame of Life!

In order to secure this victory, Xu Chuan had decided to ignite his ﬂame of life before he fully ran out of Heavenly Energy.

The watching members of the Fei Li Battle Team gripped their ﬁsts tightly, their eyes ﬁlled with concern. Even though Crow’s strength and defense were formidable, could she face down Xu Chuan who was pitting his life to use his Flame of Life?

However, in the next instant, everyone was stunned, as the scene played out in front of them in an unbelievable way.

*Swooosh* Without any warning, or any leverage, Crow suddenly shot back over a dozen yards, her axes held in front of her protectively. No one knew when she had done it, but only the members of the Fei Li Battle Team could see from their vantage point that Crow had somehow attached her Consolidated Equipment Chain to the edge of the stage. Indeed, she had made use of the chain to pull herself backwards instantaneously without any leverage.

*BANG*

Alas… unfortunately for Xu Chuan, the blow for which he had risked his life smashed savagely into the ﬂoor of the stage. It was as if a meteor had struck the diamond hard stage, with rubble and dust spraying into the air along with the huge explosion, erupting into the air like a ferocious volcano. As the air cleared, a twenty yard diameter huge crater was revealed in the center of the stage, and the very atmosphere around the stage seemed to have turned orange-red with the sheer heat. The explosion was just too violent, the resulting shockwaves still reverberating across the plaza, almost breaking the various Rest Houses as the wave passed them.

Although Xu Chuan’s cultivation level was only four-Jeweled, such a strike with his ignited Flames of Life behind it, even a six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master would not want to take such a blow easily.

It took the time of several breaths before the intense heat in the air dissipated, though the air was still dusty. At that point, another dark red light lit up, ﬂying forward with a *wuuu* sound. “WE SURRENDER!!” Lang Xie shouted out immediately. Alas… he was too late.

One of Crow’s Legendary Axes, weighing over six hundred jin, spun in the air with a deatly air, burying itself deep into Xu Chuan’s chest. Already weak from burning up his Flame of Life, Xu Chuan was smashed to the ground by it.

With its weight and Crow’s strength, such a blow was at least three thousand jin or more, let alone the fact that it was the axe blade that bit into his body. Not even mentioning the fact that Xu Chuan was an ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master; even if he were a Gold Crow Tribe member like Crow, their reinforced skin and bones would not be able to take such a blow. His entire chest caved in and split apart, every single rib and lungs smashed into bits. Before he could even cry out, Xu Chuan’s life had been swiftly taken by

the ﬂying axe.

Crow stood up from the other side of the stage, looking at the judge innocently: “Aiiii, he was so ﬁerce, I thought he still had the ﬁght in him. Leader Lang Xie, you should have surrendered for him earlier, look, making me feel so bad… sigh… to have a life just gone like this. I didn’t do this on purpose, alas you were too slow in admitting defeat.”

“You….!” Lang Xie almost spat out a mouthful of blood in rage as he glared at Crow, the ﬂames in his eyes. The other Bai Da Battle Team Members were also enraged, almost charging forward towards Crow.

Right at that moment, several ZhongTian ofﬁcials from the Skill Storing Palace appeared, blocking their path.

When they released their six sets of Heavenly Jewels, no matter how angry the Bai Da Battle Team members were, they had no choice but to hold themselves back. Even the judge on the stage couldn’t bear to look at the mangled corpse of Xu Chuan. Crow walked over, pulling her axe from his body, a sorrowful look on her face as she mourned: “Aiii, I did not want to kill you… Why did you have to be born in the Bai Da Empire? Alas, you shouldn’t have called yourself a Secret Arts Fire Warrior; without learning their secrets properly, you dared come on the stage to play around, sigh… dying in my hands, it was not unjust after all.”

After the judge proclaimed the Fei Li Battle Team victory, Crow walked down the stage.

Such a bloody scene caused the entire audience to lapse into silence. They had originally been looking forward to an exciting ﬁght, but only then did they realise that the hate between the two empires were to such a degree. This was truly a ﬁght to the death for both sides.

As the ofﬁcials once again cleared up the stage, the members of the Bai Da Battle Team all had bloodshot eyes. Under such a circumstance of certain victory, Crow had still ﬁnished off Xu Chuan; this had deﬁnitely angered all of them. As Crow returned to their Rest House, all the Fei Li Team Members gave her a big thumbs up.

Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but say: “Too cunning, that shorty did not die in vain!” No matter who, if he or she made the mistake of underestimating Crow and thinking she was all brawn and no brain, then they would deﬁnitely perish in her hands.

Crow said innocently: “I didn’t say that I would clash recklessly with him to the end. Alas, his cultivation level wasn’t strong enough to properly control his Flame of Life, and he could only strike down hard. Why wouldn’t I dodge it? Alas, he wasn’t thinking clearly at the end, so I had no choice but to help him go to his second life…”

Lin TianAo laughed and said: “You, your bloodlust is too strong. However, well done! Every powerful Bai Da Empire Heavenly Jewel Master we kill will save hundreds and thousands of our Fei Li soldiers. Alright, enough about that. Weiqing, who are you assigning to the next ﬁght?” Zhou Weiqing thought for a moment before saying: “Originally, I wanted to have Crow join me for this upcoming ﬁght. However, she is pretty drained from her previous ﬁght, and this is a critical ﬁght for us. To be safe, Leader, you and I should take this one.”

Lin TianAo nodded and said: “Alright.” Even a person with usually as safe and stable a character like him was stirred up by the previous ﬁght, and there was a brilliant gleam in his eyes.

Zhou Weiqing lowered his voice and whispered in his ears, and Lin TianAo nodded. It was time for their 2v2 ﬁght!

In the ﬁrst two ﬁghts, both sides had each scored a victory. Without question, this third ﬁght was now an extremely critical one. Whoever won this would not only gain a huge upper hand, but also match point, possibly leading to victory!

Zhou Weiqing’s plan was actually very simple. In the ﬁrst round, his motive for sending Ye Paopao was because he had expected the opponent to send out one of their top two players, and using Ye Paopao with a strategy to drain the opponent’s Heavenly Energy before surrendering, allowing them to ‘take out’ a powerhouse without any loss to their own main strength. Since they had expended one of their top members in the ﬁrst round, and would likely reserve their best member or leader to the last few rounds, that meant their member in the second ﬁght was probably not too powerful. Sending Crow, one of their strongest few, would allow them to defeat that opponent and bring them to a draw.

As long as they could achieve victory in the third ﬁght, then the Fei Li Battle Team would be able to win the entire match with the lowest possible cost. Of course, the lynchpin of this entire strategy was Zhou Weiqing himself, as he would be the mainstay in both the third and fourth ﬁghts.

Very quickly, the stage was repaired. From the start of the entire Heavenly Jewel Tournament, the only two times the stage had to be repaired was for the Fei Li Battle Team’s ﬁghts; and more amusingly so, both times the one who destroyed the stage was their opponent!

As Zhou Weiqing and Lin TianAo ascended the stage, the opposing leader Lang Xie and the Darkness Heavenly Jewel Master who had fought in the ﬁrst ﬁght, Qing Qian, also ascended the stage. Without a doubt, Lang Xie was also determined to take this important third ﬁght. Both he and Qing Qian were the strongest two in the entire Bai Da Battle Team, and in their entire team, only the two of them were at the Five-Jeweled cultivation level. Although Qing Qian had expended a lot of Heavenly Energy in the ﬁrst ﬁght, she was still in relatively decent shape. More importantly, since she had already fought in a 1v1 ﬁght, and if the team wanted to utilise her power, the only was for her to ﬁght in this 2v2 battle as well.

Looking at the anger in Lang Xie and Qing Qian’s eyes, Zhou Weiqing smiled: “Hello, you two. Do not worry, both Leader and I are much kinder, and not as violent as Crow. Sigh… such a shame… Such a four-Jeweled Secret Arts Fire Warrior, it must have been tough to cultivate him up right?”

Qing Qian exclaimed angrily: “Stop acting and shedding crocodile tears. I’ll deﬁnitely kill you later!”

Seeing that the animosity between both sides were so strong, the judge quickly interrupted: “Both sides, report your names. Fight, Start.” He totally skipped over all the formalities, and after saying that retreated swiftly to the corner of the stage.

After both sides had introduced themselves, Zhou Weiqing swiftly released his Overlord Bow.

This critical 2v2 match had ﬁnally begun. The ﬁrst one to take action was Qing Qian. A ﬂash of black light spread out swiftly from her feet, rushing towards Zhou Weiqing. It was the Curse of Sluggishness once more.

The Bai Da Battle Team had deliberated hard on Zhou Weiqing’s appearance in the previous matches. Although he was only at the three-Jeweled cultivation level, his performance in those ﬁghts had deﬁnitely given them a sense of danger and pressure. That was especially so for the previous ﬁght three days ago, when Zhou Weiqing had used his Spatial Rend to claim victory in such an overwhelming fashion, leaving them with a deep impression. For a mere three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master to be able to make use of skills at such a level, and to be able to represent the Fei Li Battle Team in such important matches, he was deﬁnitely someone of status and rank within the team. As such, Lang Xie and Qing Qian would not underestimate him at all.

At the same time as Qing Qian struck out at Zhou Weiqing, Lang Xie charged forth towards Lin TianAo Lifting his hands, a huge spiked mace appearing in his hands. Surprisingly, his spiked mace was also an Assembly Set Consolidated Equipment!

Lang Xie’s Physical Jewels were also of the Strength Attribute, and his spiked mace was actually a Five-Jeweled Assembly Set Consolidated Equipment, almost the antithesis of Lin TianAo’s ultimate defense.

The spiked mace was fully silver in colour, with ﬁve sockets around the mace. Surrounded with a thick glowing layer of Heavenly Energy, it gave forth a terrifying aura of death and destruction.

Lang Xie’s Elemental Jewels was of the Wind Attribute, and with the intention to pursue an ultimate speed for close combat, his Elemental Jewels were all Stored with supporting skills that boosted his speed! As such, not only was his movement speed extremely quick, even the attack speed of his huge spiked mace was immensely boosted. In order to achieve maximum offensive capabilities, Lang Xie did not focus on defense at all.

A powerful offense added to high speeds, Lang Xie was a rapid meatgrinder on the battleﬁeld. This ﬁght was the ultimate clash between offense and defense, as the ﬁght between the two leaders heated up into a white hot intensity.

Lifting his left leg, Lin TianAo took a large step forward, his ﬁve-Jeweled Assembly Set Shield smashing into Lang Xie’s two metre long spiked mace, which was as thick as a man’s thigh. As both powerful Consolidated Equipment clashed against each other, silver and yellow light sparked respectively from the impact.

Both were the leaders of their respective teams, and were also the most outstanding talents of their generation. In terms of combat ability, skill and experience, they were almost equal, and to easily exploit their enemy’s mistakes was deﬁnitely not easy. As such, a tough stalemate continued between the two.

With a loud crash, Lin TianAo stood there unmoving, while Lang Xie staggered back a step.

Both sides were using Assembly Set Consolidated Equipment, all Socketed, with nearly equal cultivation level, yet why did Lang Xie lose slightly in a direct clash? The answer was simple, that was because Lin TianAo was an Ultimate Defense Heavenly Jewel Master, his Earth Attribute combined with Defense Attribute both boosting his defense. Although Lang Xie’s Wind Attribute improved his speed, it did not help in his offensive power. As such, his sheer power was lacking compared to Lin TianAo’s, whose combat skill was sufﬁcient to deal with his increased speed.

Lang Xie also knew that in terms of power, he was slightly inferior to Lin TianAo. However, at this point, he did not hesitate or hold back, striking hard at Lin TianAo. Both sides were pursuing extremes, extreme offense against extreme defense, and the two clashed in a whirlwind of perfect strikes, displaying their sheer skill and power to the entranced audience. In truth, Lang Xie’s plan was very simple, to hold back Lin TianAo and preventing him from interfering with

Qing Qian. On the other hand, Qing Qian would be in charged of ﬁnishing off Zhou Weiqing as quickly as possible, before helping him with Lin TianAo. With both of them against Lin TianAo, it would be a much easier ﬁght.

In Lang Xie’s eyes, with Qing Qian’s cultivation level and power, it should be easy for her to deal with Zhou Weiqing. Although he had shown his power, he was after all still just merely at the three-Jeweled cultivation level? No matter the level of control over his Skills, it would not be able to overcome the sheer difference in Heavenly Energy and power.

Alas, the script did not necessarily follow his wishes.

At the other side, as Zhou Weiqing saw that Qing Qian had activated the Curse of Sluggishness on him, a black light also ﬂashed under his feet. However, in his case, it was released towards Lang Xie. Same like Ye Paopao, he did not even bother attempting to dodge Qing Qian’s curse. When Qing Qian saw the black light under Zhou Weiqing’s feet, she was caught by surprise. From the start of the Heavenly Tournament until now, although Zhou Weiqing had fought several times, he had only shown his Spatial Attribute.

In the ﬁrst ﬁght, although the arrows he shot out had other attributes, but it gave everyone the impression that it had been the imbued skill of his Overlord Bow. However, this time, with Zhou Weiqing clearly activating the black light of his Curse of Doom by himself from the feet, only then did Qing Qian realise that this three-Jeweled youth had both the Darkness and Spatial Attributes! Furthermore, his skills were all extremely high rated!

Qing Qian was not the only surprised one to see the Curse of Doom, even many of the powerhouses on the VIP Stage revealed shocked expressions.

Shangguan Tianxin said in surprise: “Darkness and Spatial Attribute Elemental Jewel, furthermore both are Great Attributes. No wonder the Fei Li Battle team has placed such importance on him, to even allow a three-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master to ﬁght in such an important ﬁght. Earlier, he was also leading the team, a well kept secret indeed. This young man has indeed given us many surprises.” The Skill Storing Palace Master Shangguan Longyin said solemnly: “Your Majesty, should we approach him?”

Shangguan Tianxin waved his hands, saying: “There is no rush, let’s see how far this Fei Li Battle Team can go ﬁrst. It seems like this little fellow has some other hidden secrets; we can always decide and act after looking clearly. Two Great Attributes, that is rare indeed! Looks like his Elemental Jewel is an Alexandrite after all. Hmm, Longyin, report this to the Heaven’s Expense Palace. Such a young man is a rare ﬁnd. Also, investigate what is his current age.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Shangguan Longyin nodded as a pondering look appeared in his eyes, and he turned to look at Zhou Weiqing with greater focus.

Cerita silat IndoMandarin

Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 71-80

Chapter 71 Enemies Often Cross Paths, A Dual Dose.

Chapter 72 In front of Absolute Strength, Tricks are Useless

Chapter 73 An unexpectedly powerful opponent

Chapter 74 Darkness Self Sacriﬁce Skill

Chapter 75 Heaven’s Expense Inﬁnitum Set

Chapter 76 Shangguan Xue’er

Chapter 77 Three Thousand Skill Tempering

Chapter 78 Self created Fusion Skill

Chapter 79 Zhou Weiqing, are you asking to die?

Chapter 80 Battle to the death! Bai Da Battle Team!

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