Chapter 101
The skill [Holy Sword] actually needed to be charged with [Storing Power], or at least this is the case at Long Hao Chen’s current cultivation level; he needed to prepare it for at least a few seconds to possibly use [Holy Sword].
But this time, after he borrowed [Divine Obstruction]’s might to parry his opponent’s attack, he immediately used the skill [Bright Vengeance], and used it to form [Holy Sword]. His use of this formidable secret skill showed how astonishing his background was. [Holy Sword] was not even among the secret skills recorded by the Knight Temple.
“Good.” Yang Wenzhao suddenly smiled; he didn’t expect Long Hao Chen, who could temporarily only use a single sword, to take advantage of this situation to counterattack. Stretching his two arms in front, he, like Long Hao chen, emitted a holy aura from his whole body. The only difference was that his swords both started to emit a dazzling holy light.
Clearly, he was planning on using [Holy Sword] with his two swords to answer to Long Hao Chen’s single [Holy Sword].
“Hmpf”. Long Hao Chen snorted coldly, completely ignoring Yang Wenzhao. He lifted his head, looking at his Light Sword upraised, filled with a dazzling holy radiance. At this very moment, a peculiar red color filled his eyes.
With his astonishing perception, how could he not feel that Yang Wenzhao wasn’t going all-out in this battle against him? This was something Long Hao Chen couldn’t accept, even more than defeat.
“Huh?” From the platform, the first one to see that something was wrong was the Saint Knight Head Han Qian. He suddenly stood up, and said, full of astonishment, “This child is really determined to win by all means. He is going as far as to use the skill of the seventh step, [Sacrifice]. Is Long Xing Yu mad? Don’t tell me he’s not afraid of spoiling things through excessive enthusiasm?” Having seen Long Hao Chen’s performances of the last days, he had naturally already guessed from whom his Inheritance Ring came.
[Sacrifice] was a skill that could be learnt by both specialities, Guardian Knights and Retribution Knights. It was a secret skill for knights of the seventh step.
However, what Han Qian didn’t know was that Long Hao Chen’s innate internal spiritual energy was at the 97th level. If it wasn’t the case, how could Long Xing Yu possibly do something that could harm his own son? He had carefully thought before putting the seals on this Retribution Ring.
Yang Wenzhao was a genuine knight of the fifth step, so it was naturally a lot easier for him to use [Holy Sword]. However, being the closest to Long Hao Chen, he discovered at the same time as Han Qian from the platform that something was wrong with the current Long Hao Chen.
What is he doing? Yang Wenzhao was startled, and he didn’t dare ignore this threat; he had faintly sensed the crisis that was facing him.
[Assault]. Yang Wenzhao instantly broke out, with a three times faster speed than previously. Feeling that the situation was getting dangerous, he decided without the slightest hesitation to go all out! Directly using all his strength, he immediately made this decision.
Two swords were crossed, it was a [Radiant Cross Cut].
In the middle of his [Assault], Yang Wenzhao simultaneously waved his two swords, forming a cross with them; it was a [Radiant Cross Cut]. It could be considered as a combinatorial skill. Long Hao Chen had previously relied on [Holy Sword] to break through the defense of the
knight of the fifth step, Han Yu, so one could imagine how powerful this
[Radiant Cross Cut] that used [Holy Sword] as its foundation was.
A milky white-colored [Radiant Cross Cut] filled with an incomparable holy aura a
And at this very moment, an overwhelming golden-red-colored radiance filled with sadness, desperation, and sharpness loudly erupted from Long Hao Chen’s body.
This gold-red light was actually not a mixture of light and fire at all. It felt as if the current Long Hao Chen was all alone, confronting countless enemies. An isolated knight.
Filled with his self confidence and with the purest fighting spirit going through his blood, this gold-red radiance was completely filled with madness.
Placing his Flame Sword horizontally, he used [Divine Obstruction].
The sharp gold-red radiance instantly turned into a [Divine Obstruction]; it seemed as if a sort of gold-red mantle was entirely covering Long Hao Chen’s body.
One has to know that [Divine Obstruction] is excellent to resist physical attacks, and it is very hard for it to completely block attacks made of energy, but the current Long Hao Chen actually did it.
Bang–
The gold-red radiance glittered even more intensely as Long Hao Chen unexpectedly took on the [Radiant Cross Cut] without taking a single step back. It only caused a mouthful of blood to appear in the corner of his lips.
Taking a step forward, he appeared like an enormous lump of bright light. Charging straight towards Yang Wenzhao, the Light Sword chopped down, as a blood-colored [Holy Sword] filled the atmosphere.
Yang Wenzhao didn’t expect his own [Radiant Cross Cut] to be so easily broken. And at this very moment, he recognized the skill Long Hao Chen was using.
[Sacrifice]? So he could unexpectedly use [Sacrifice]? To dare use [Sacrifice], can it be that he’s not afraid of dying from having his blood depleted?
To knights, the skill [Sacrifice] was used as a last resort; for one to sacrifice himself to protect his comrades; to sacrifice himself to deal with his enemies.
If he wanted to use this skill, one had to be determined enough to put his life at stake, and as a requirement, he had to completely grasp the Ten Rules of a Knight. Upon using it, one’s blood will completely fuse with his spiritual energy, forming a single entity, and completely bypassing the actual strength provided by his cultivation level. But the duration was short, and a single mistake could cause him to die from his blood being completely dried up. At least, it would greatly deplete his vitality. From Yang Wenzhao’s point of view, this was nothing more than a little competition, but Long Hao Chen went so far as to use an ability like [Sacrifice] for the sake of victory.
Why did he do so? He did it for his honor as a knight. At the moment Long Hao Chen felt that his opponent wasn’t fighting with his full strength, he became completely obstinate; his thirst for victory as well as the humiliation he felt from this act pushed him to use this ability, even though he had never really managed to comprehend it.
“Clang–” Yang Wenzhao used [Divine Obstruction] as well, to block this blood-colored [Holy Sword], but was knocked five steps back.
He could clearly feel that this blood-colored [Holy Sword] contained a willpower that reached an extremely frightening level. Considering the intensity of his spiritual energy, even after using [Sacrifice], he was only at most at equal level with him. However, his astonishing willpower made Yang Wenzhao feel as if he was somehow inferior.
At this very moment, from Long Hao Chen’s chest, a white glow of light appeared, and immediately following, a similar red glow appeared on Yang Wenzhao’s body.
Knight skill used by both specialities, [Lock]. Skill of the sixth step.
“A Saint Spiritual Stove!” From the platform, Han Qian cried out in astonishment. With a single glance, he saw that Long Hao Chen’s [Sacrifice] aftereffects were suppressed by his Saint Spiritual Stove, as he launched the skill [Lock].
Just like [Storing Power], it was an auxiliary skill, but [Target Lock] was an extremely practical skill that all knights who reached the level of Radiant Knight could learn. In the case that an opponent was locked on, all the attacks of the knight who used [Lock] would automatically target it. Even [Assault], [Charge] and this kind of abilities aiming in straight line would have the effect of pursuing the target.
The sparkling golden red glitter surrounding Long Hao Chen rose in the air as he used [Lock]. Waving his two swords, he whirled, aiming straight towards Yang Wenzhao.
It was [Holy Sword] combined with [Condemning Revolving Sword], and under the effect of [Sacrifice].
With Long Hao Chen’s current cultivation level, his [Sacrifice] could only last at most 10 seconds. As a result, he didn’t waste time and directly used his most powerful attack.
A dragon cry sounded; facing [Sacrifice], how could Yang Wenzhao dare be careless? He once again used [Ascending Dragon’s Strike]. After all, he had noticed that [Condemning Revolving Sword] was at its weakest when it was just launched. As time passed, its power would just unceasingly increase.
The speed of this [Ascending Dragon’s Strike] launched by Yang Wenzhao, that just followed his [Divine Obstruction], was incomparable to his previous one.
Bang
The same skill as the one he used previously had an entirely different result this time. In the instant the [Ascending Dragon’s Strike] accompanied with a dragon cry collided against [Condemning Revolving Sword], it was smashed in the ground. Furthermore, [Condemning Revolving Sword] chased after him immediately after he fell.
So powerful. Yang Wenzhao was shocked. Facing an opponent whose cultivation level was far from equalling his, he was suppressed to an extent he would never have expected.
Chapter 102
Long Hao Chen, under the effect of [Sacrifice], had entered a new boundary, facing death without fear. He had completely gone all out and unleashed all his potential.
Actually, after he received Lin Xin’s medicine from him as a present, he could rely on it to temporarily improve his cultivation level. However, seeing that his opponent didn’t even summon his mount, how could Long Hao Chen accept to rely on medicine to contend against him? Under the pressure of Yang Wenzhao’s enormous might, his comprehension of [Sacrifice] had burst forth. At this very moment, after his five years of training the abilities used by Retribution Knights surged out, it could be said that his comprehension was at its peak; he could be called almost a complete master of all the abilities he studied.
Yang Wenzhao sighed to himself and from his chest, drops of blue light floated out. Each of these drops were filled with a sparkling gloss; it seemed as if they were some sorts of blue-colored treasure stones. And suddenly, it collided against Long Hao Chen.
A spiritual stove!
He was confident in his ability of resisting Long Hao Chen’s attack, but if he directly took it on, he would definitely end up wounded. And Yang Wenzhao’s ambitions weren’t limited to with this first round; what he aimed for was the first place of this knight competition, and the first place of the final stage of the Demon Hunt Selection. At such a moment, how could he let himself end up wounded?
An, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…
Repeated explosions unceasingly sounded on the revolving spiral formed by Long Hao Chen. Each dot of sparkling blue crystal flew out, colliding with his body, and producing intense explosions. Each of these explosions reduced the intensity of the gold-red radiance surrounding Long Hao Chen by a little bit, together with his rotating speed.
When Long Hao Chen drew close to Yang Wenzhao, his [Spiraling Revolving Sword] could already not be maintained anymore.
Bang.
The two people fell back simultaneously; Yang Wenzhao took three steps back while letting out a golden fog around him, coming out from his chest, as he took a little breather.
From afar, Long Hao Chen stood, leaning on his swords. The red color on his eyes started disappearing, and almost all his spiritual energy had melted. But as before, he stood straight, gazing at Yang Wenzhao, with a face like golden paper, with blood continuously spilling from his nose and mouth.
“To compel me into using my Starsea Spiritual Stove to stop your attack, my respects. It wasn’t easy to beat you.” Yang Wenzhao gave Long Hao Chen a thumbs up, “I look forward to when you’ll obtain a mount, we will have another spar at this moment.”
“The match is over, #1 victorious.” The referee eagerly called out, and immediately following, from the podium, from the direction of the VIP platform, a small amount of silver whitish light dropped down, illuminating Long Hao Chen’s body.
[Holy Heal], Guardian Knight skill of the seventh step.
The minuscules drops of silver-colored glorious light fell on Long Hao Chen’s body, entering it, purifying his body and blood and healing his internal injuries.
“Hao Chen.” At the same time the referee declared the match over, a protective mantle appeared from around the stadium; it belonged to Ye Hua, who immediately rushed into the stage, standing there with difficulty, beside Long Hao Chen.
Still, he spat out a mouthful of blood. Despite the effects of [Holy Heal], Long Hao Chen fell unconscious in Ye Hua’s bosom. However, no one paid attention to the fact that on his chest, a white glow was faintly undulating.
From the corner, Han Yu still stood there, he had been motionl
A spiritual stove! They both unexpectedly had a spiritual stove, this little detail was enough to make Han Yu breath with difficulty.
What was this skill Long Hao Chen used? He knew about [Sacrifice], but he didn’t have any idea about what this skill that made Long Hao Chen seemingly whirl was. He wondered; what if it was him? Without relying on his mount, could he win against Long Hao Chen going all out and using the Sacrifice mode?
Han Yu didn’t wish to think about it further, because he clearly knew the facts. The fact is that he lost against Long Hao Chen in a fair fight.
And this was without mentioning the crucial point; he was only 14, only 14 years-old!
Often, one’s nature could determine his successes and failures. If it was someone else, he would probably have been discouraged upon seeing such an attack, but Han Yu, having the nature of someone who becomes braver when facing hardships, had instead realizing something important. He suddenly realized his grandfather’s scheme.
That’s right, if this year, he was only 14 years-old, but could already match knights of the fifth step, what could his limit possibly be? He was himself 8 years older, so he was older by a wide gap. How challenging was it to chase after him! Similarly, he possessed an incredibly high potential. In regard to his future experiences and improvements, it was obvious that staying by his side would not only enable him to became a part of a Demon
Hunt Squad, but would also enable him to accumulate a lot of experiences. Perhaps, it could even be the best choice possible for him.
The previous painfulness and bitterness in his eyes gradually disappeared, leaving behind a firm look; full of resolve, he kept his goal firmly in mind to never lose sight of it again. The existence of a super- genius like Long Hao Chen was a steady source of encouragement for him.
Cai’er calmly stood in the street, she was there since early morning and felt that the sunlight which was shining upon her was becoming more and more intense, as she showed a gentle face.
Thinking about her conversation with Long Hao Chen on the previous day, she couldn’t stop her heartbeat from accelerating. As an assassin, this kind of feelings was something that should never appear in her, but she couldn’t refrain from thinking about him.
Her hand was slender, vigorous; her palm was wide, and everytime he held it, it felt to her as if her palm was about to cry out, begging forgiveness: she liked this feeling of being protected. Since her early childhood, it was the first time she experienced this.
She could never forget that time when they met, long ago. At that time, Long Hao Chen was only nine, but he used his feeble body to protect her. During the event, he was very little, but his courage and his kindness were beyond limits. Even if it was an adult instead of Long Hao Chen, would they have protected her like he did? She decided to offer him the ‘forget- me-not’ ring which was incomparably important to her, because at that time, little Cai’er trusted her intuition.
Actually, she hadn’t expected that she would come to meet Long Hao Chen once again, but she happened to recognize the ring she had offered him, full of resolution, ‘forget me not’. She didn’t know whether she wanted to keep this secret for herself or wanted him to discover it by himself.
From her early childhood, she lived her life in an ice-cold world. To her, warmth was a hostile feeling, and also a feeling that only Long Hao Chen
managed to make her feel. Led along by his hand everyday, walking on a short road was the happiest period of Cai’er’s life. She was looking forward to this moment even more than him. Compared to this happiness, even something like the Demon Hunt Selection was no big deal.
Thinking about the Demon Hunt Selection, Cai’er couldn’t help but reveal a smiling expression from behind her veil. He said that he would hold my hand forever, and protect me. During the final stage of the competition, I will lend him a hand.
To an ordinary blind person, losing his sight was undoubtedly painful, but blind people’s inner worlds were a lot richer than ordinary people’s, to the extent that their imagination power couldn’t possibly be compared.
Calmly reminiscing every little detail of their story, Cai’er was soaked in happiness while waiting for him. A little later, she would once again let him take her hand and lead her to this road filled with warmth and comfort.
Time gradually passed. She was calmly waiting, still standing at the same place. Facing the sun’s heat, that was gradually becoming an afternoon’s tepidness. She wasn’t the slightest bit fretful, and only calmly waited.
He hasn’t come, he still hasn’t come.
As the sun’s heat disappeared, a burst of cold wind brushed her face, and Cai’er suddenly felt a shiver.
How long? This is a cold breeze that should only be produced in the evening.Having stayed in Holy City for so long, this was something she was absolutely sure about.
He didn’t come? Why didn’t he come? Can it be that he is already regretting? Sincere and painful faint tears gradually flew down from Cai’er’s eyes, about to inundate the surroundings.
He will come, he will definitely come. Cai’er grasped her bamboo cane, gradually tighter and tighter. It could clearly be seen that her knuckles were already turning white.
The twilight of the sunset gradually dissipated, and the night scene was filling the scenery of the whole Holy City, lowering the temperature further, but it couldn’t compare with the coldness of Cai’er’s heart. This petite girl looked like she felt incredibly lonely, and silent, it looked almost like her shadow was completely covering her.
Why? Why didn’t you come?
Drops of tears followed from Cai’er’s face, quietly sliding along. He won’t come, it’s already deep night.
Slowly turning around, Cai’er turned around, towards her hotel, as she started walking unsteadily to return back.
Suddenly, her steps stopped, and she opened wide her eyes. He… He had a match today. Could it be that it is because something happened to him that he couldn’t come?
Having this thought, Cai’er suddenly became anxious from the bottom of her heart. She didn’t know why, but she would have prefered to go back on yesterday’s promise rather than having any kind of accident happening to him.
He definitely had an accident. In the next instant, Cai’er was completely sure about this supposition. Thinking back about what happened between them earlier, she immediately felt ashamed. To make such stupid suppositions, she was really shameful. Considering his nature, the first thing that should have come to her mind wasn’t whether he could have gone back on his promise; even if he really went back on his promise, was it really worse than if something happened to him? No, definitely not!
The bamboo cane hit on the ground in successions as her unsteady steps disappeared. In an astounding speed, she disappeared in the middle of the boundless night.
Half an hour later.
Cai’er was calmly seated on a chair, in her room, her hand still grasping her cane. But her body’s coldness filled the whole room, turning it at least ten degrees colder than the outside of the building.
Three meters afar, in front of her, a fully armored black-clad person said in a low voice, “It’s as I said. Long Hao Chen has been healed by the [Holy Heal] of a powerhouse of the Temple, so his life shouldn’t be harmed, but his vitality is likely to be depleted. Whether he can participate in the later stage of the competition or not is still unknown though.”
“You may withdraw.” Cai’er’s ice-cold voice seemed to completely freeze the air.
“Yes, this subordinate is taking his leave.” The black-clad man left the room with large strides, and after he left, he could clearly feel that his own blood had been frozen by the murderous intent released by Cai’er.
Chapter 103
“Coma due to serious wounds, he is really in a coma because of serious wounds.” The temperature in the room dropped down once again and astonishingly, the cane in Cai’er’s hand pierced the floor of the room.
“Yang… Wen… Zhao. ” A pitch-black ring appeared and twinkled from Cai’er’s chest, and in the next instant, she, who was previously seated on the chair, started to disappear, little by little. More precisely, it was her afterimage that was gradually fading away.
Yang Wenzhao was just having dinner; after having beaten Long Hao Chen, he had already entered the top five, and he was now one step closer to his final goal. Only, this fight left him with a feeling of unease. It was the kind of feeling that hadn’t arisen in him for several years.
How old is he exactly? After the match, Yang Wenzhao investigated on this matter, but didn’t get any answer. One should know that even though some matters have kept him from coming, he still had an important position within the Temple.
“He’s at least four or five years younger than me.” Yang Wenzhao murmured to himself, “Only, I don’t know whether it is his innate talents that are better than mine or his efforts. Perhaps, in a couple months at most, he will break through to the fifth step. And I am currently only at the third rank of the fifth step. If he keeps improving at such a rate, he will most likely be my greatest rival in the future.”
At this point, Yang Wenzhao revealed a faint smile, “It’s good like that, having this kind of rival will be a source of motivation for me, it will have
beneficial effects on my future progression. This kind of person finally appeared in the Knight Temple; only, I hope that his mount won’t disappoint me.”
During his spar with Long Hao Chen, he was greatly shocked, especially when Long Hao Chen used the skill [Sacrifice]. Even though the consequences were unknown to him, after he used it, Long Hao Chen became an extremely hard opponent to deal with. If not for his Spiritual Stove’s ability, even though he could normally hold out for the duration of [Sacrifice], he would definitely have ended up wounded.
“Saint Spiritual Stove? There’s still a wide gap between it and my Starsea Spiritual Stove.”
The Starsea Spiritual Stove was ranked 18th among the spiritual stove that knights could fuse with. It surpassed by far the Saint Spiritual Stove in terms of ranking, and could evolve up to three times. Yang Wenzhao had currently already completed the first evolution: it was what he had mostly relied on during his previous match.
“Ga… ap?” Suddenly, these two words echoed in Yang Wenzhao’s room. What made him turn pale with fright was that this voice could be heard from all directions, he could basically not determine its source at all. And even with his good senses, he didn’t feel this person’s arrival at all.
The window trembled, and in the next instant, a slim silhouette quietly emerged in front of Yang Wenzhao.
Yang Wenzhao swiftly took a step back. As one of his hands glittered, two claymores appeared in his hands and a strong radiance erupted from his body, instantly lighting the whole house. In such a crisis, he calmly reacted to the situation, but inwardly, his fear was far from having disappeared. If not for the fact the person before his eyes had revealed herself voluntarily, there was no way he would have detected her arrival, so if she had mounted a sneak attack…
Yang Wenzhao didn’t dare think any longer about that, and focused on the perilous situation he was currently facing.
“An assassin?” He calmly voiced out, while carefully observing the person he was
A black long skirt, a part of her face was hidden by a black veil, her right hand was grasping a blue cane, and her feeble body was blowing like a gust of wind. Her purple hair hung behind her body, but the thing that astonished Yang Wenzhao the most was that her eyes, which were not hidden by the veil, didn’t contain the slightest emotion.
“You shouldn’t have wounded him.” Each word Cai’er let out was causing Yang Wenzhao’s heart to palpitate.
“Magic sound waves going through the mind?” Yang Wenzhao instantly became careful, the radiance surrounding his body materialized, forming after condensing a faint armor covering his whole body and from his chest, drops of blue shining rings were released. Facing this girl he never saw before but who was about to threaten his life, he could only go all out.
“Pf–” Cai’er’s hand was still gripping her cane at the same place, as she stood there, completely motionless.
Completely sensing his surrounding, Yang Wenzhao suddenly lifted up the claymore in his right hand.
With a Danglang sound, a gold-colored radiance appeared, it was [Divine Obstruction]. A black silhouette instantly leaned forward, it was the Cai’er who still stood at the same location; she started to progressively disappear.
[Shadow Doppelganger].
Yang Wenzhao was completely astonished, thrusting the claymore in his left hand into the ground, he immediately made [Heavenly Battle Array] break out, and simultaneously, ten minuscule blue-colored balls of light came out from his chest.
These minuscule blue-colored balls of light didn’t need his command to instantly head towards the direction of the enemy and explode.
Cai’er appeared by Yang Wenzhao’s side; [Divine Obstruction] blocked her first blow, and Yang Wenzhao’s reaction speed was extremely fast, the blue-colored balls of light released by his Starsea Spiritual Stove immediately exploded, covering her in their range.
But without even letting Yang Wenzhao the time to take a breath, an unimaginable scene took place.
Cai’er’s right hand that was put aside from beginning to end still didn’t move the slightest bit, and on her right hand, a gold-colored dagger appeared, brutally creating sparkles. Then, Yang Wenzhao could clearly see that each of the Starsea Strikes launched by his Starsea Spiritual Stove were unexpectedly shattered.
Cai’er’s speed was so fast that Yang Wenzhao had completely lost sight of her. Each swing of the dagger in her right hand destroyed a ball of light completely scattering it as if they were clouds. In the next instant, all these minuscule blue balls had completely vanished.
After everything that was said, Yang Wenzhao was still a true genius who had beaten Long Hao Chen, and in addition, a Retribution Knight; as such, he had already calmed down. When facing an assassin, a knight had a natural advantage, because knights’ defensive capabilities were high, and their offensive power wasn’t lacking either. In addition, they had a lot of powerful abilities that could restrain assassins. Assassins had powerful offensive capabilities, but their defense was their fatal weakness: as long as they could be hit once or twice by the knight, they were very likely to lose the ability to keep fighting.
Simultaneously shaking his two hands, he launched a pair of [Light Thorns]. A great amount of light energy surged out from the two claymores, turning into numerous sword shadows aiming at all directions. Considering the speed of this assasin, this attacking pattern was the most effective possible.
Cai’er let out a cold snort as her frail body started to move according to a peculiar tempo. It appeared that her body only moved slightly and with
simple movements, but she avoided all these gold-colored sword shadows aimed at her that had basically no way at all to hit her.
From Yang Wenzhao’s point of view, the current Cai’er was like a ghost’s shadow, as she easily avoided all his attacks. But wasn’t this… the secret skill that could be used by assassins of the fifth step, [Spectral Dodging]?
Yang Wenzhao didn’t manage to hit the enemy at all. A strong gold shine suddenly erupted from within his body, and a dragon cry could be heard, it was [Ascending Dragon Strike]. Only, this time, [Ascending Dragon Strike] wasn’t directed upward, but forward.
[Ascending Dragon Strike] wasn’t only a skill with an extremely powerful firepower: it was an ability that combined both attack and defense in one. With the help of the [Light Thorns] aimed forward, he took the opportunity to launch [Ascending Dragon Strike]. At that moment, his Starsea Spiritual Stove glittered once again, and another dozen of minuscule blue-colored balls of light rushed forth, aiming this time to defend him, rather than attacking. They revolved around his body at a great speed.
Yang Wenzhao’s aim was to take advantage of [Ascending Dragon Strike]’s momentum to break out of the room, because in this narrow space, he had no way to bring out the most of his capabilities. Once he was outside, he could at least summon his companion mount. At that moment, he would not be forced to stay so passive anymore.
Cai’er’s sparkling figure suddenly froze; she suddenly stopped to dodge and stood right in the middle of the path of [Ascending Dragon Strike]. Her delicate figure slightly stretched forward, and in a split second, a pitch- black shadow appeared. This shadow was shapeless and looked like a reflection of Cai’er.
Bang–
The bright light disappeared and Yang Wenzhao’s soaring figure was forcibly pushed back. His [Ascending Dragon Strike] technique that gave Long Hao Chen a lot of trouble had simply been blocked off by the overwhelming effect of this black shadow.
Yang Wenzhao stumbled back, he had never encountered a force such as the one that had just appeared in front of his very eyes. It was so imposing that it left a dozen of marks on his two swords.
[Despotic Stab] was another assassin skill of the fifth step, but more importantly, Cai’er’s body emitted a sort of cold air that seemed as if it contained death itself, making her opponent feel as if he was about to be stabbed by a sharp blade. This frightening sensation was extremely hard to take.
However, at that time, Yang Wenzhao didn’t even have the time to analyze the situation. By chance, he had his Starsea Spiritual Stove to partly protect him. Even this tyrannical Starsea Spiritual Stove could not even display its mighty power, and could only be suppressed under the influence of Cai’er’s dagger.
Suddenly, Yang Wenzhao woke up to reality. This is the particular assassin skill known as [Sly Stab], if I remember well. I think it is aimed at countering magic effects, including the effect of the opponent’s spiritual stove. This female assassin is clearly extremely young, but she was an incredible threat to him.
It would be so great if he could use the skill [Lock]. If it was the case, he could at least deal with her [Spectral Dodging] with it.
As he was thinking to himself, Yang Wenzhao didn’t stay idle: [Assault], [Thorny Charge], [Shining Solar Strike], these three abilities were launched at one go, and a blue radiance was emitted from the Starsea Spiritual Stove in his chest, turning into a blue topaz armor covering his whole body. This was the ability his spiritual stove gained after its first evolution, [Starry Spiritual Armor].
Yang Wenzhao clearly understood that if he kept fighting in such a narrow space, he would have to fight more and more passively. He would rather let himself be hit by the opponent’s attack if it enabled him to rush out. Although this assassin was quite formidable, as long as he could summon his mount, he should be able to match her.
Cai’er was blind, but her attacks were even more tyrannical than those launched by assassins who could see. Her dominance was absolute. Actually, she had a lot of ways to attack him and achieve better results, but she remembered what her subordinate told her about the way Long Hao Chen’s match took place, and the fact Yang Wenzhao’s and Long Hao Chen fought head on from beginning to end.
Head on? Then let’s go head on too.
“Dang.” The black glow amplified, taking the [Shining Solar Strike] head on. Her strategy was completely un-assassin-like, but rather warrior- like.
Yang Wenzhao felt that his [Shining Solar Strike]’s piercing power was completely taken away as this radiance as dazzling as the sun disappeared.
In terms of spiritual energy level, Yang Wenzhao could feel that his opponent wasn’t a lot stronger than him, but her spiritual energy was compressed to a frightening extent. It felt as if she had completely fused with her deathly aura.
Bang–
Yang Wenzhao’s body ruthlessly collided with the wall, shaking the whole hotel. In the next instant, thousands of hundreds of white lights suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Block them? He had no way to block, and in a split second, Yang Wenzhao’s mind became completely blank.
If Long Hao Chen was there, he would definitely have recognized that the white light that came out from Cai’er’s chest was corresponding to the Thousand Strikes Spiritual Stoves.
Tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut…
A series of meat cutting noises resounded, as countless blue rays splashed down from the air.
An ice-cold voice directly echoed in Yang Wenzhao’s ear, “You used your spiritual stove to wound him, so I will use my spiritual stove to break yours.”
Tut—-
All these dots of lights suddenly stopped in midair; Cai’er stood extremely close to Yang Wenzhao, sticking her sharp knife into the middle of his chest. As the direct victim, Yang Wenzhao felt as if the spiritual energy in his body was completely depleted. And from beginning to end, Cai’er had only used her right hand.
Chapter 104
It started to become hard to breath for Yang Wenzhao; his voice also started to become rougher. He had never felt so close to death before that moment.
She had come for his sake, for Long Hao Chen’s sake.
Cai’er’s last attack pierced through the right side of his chest and left him a shred of hope because she didn’t aim for the middle of his chest. If she did so, she would definitely have completely destroyed the Starsea Spiritual Stove, and if it was instead the left side of his chest that was penetrated, it would simply have led to his death.
How could such a skilled assassin miss her target? She was actually just being lenient towards her opponent.
Feeling her blatant killing intent, Yang Wenzhao revealed a bitter smile,
“The Six Temples are originally a whole entity, and yet… you…”
Cai’er turned the dagger in her hand around, and instantly, Yang Wenzhao became speechless.
“So you know that the Six Great Temples are originally a whole entity? Then as someone who’s from the same Temple as yours, why did you still seriously injure him?”
Everyone feared death, especially geniuses.
Yang Wenzhao tried, with difficulty, to explain himself, “He started it, by using the ability [Sacrifice], and anyway, it’s just a competition.”
Cai’er coldly answered, “I don’t care; anyway, you’re the one who hurt him. If not for this competition, you would already be a corpse right now.”
At this very moment, her ear moved slightly, and she retreated back, retracting her dagger. Immediately, blood surged out from Yang Wenzhao’s chest, but with her astonishing speed, Cai’er didn’t even come in contact with his blood.
Her shadow twinkled, and in the next instant, she disappeared into the night, together with her blue cane.
Yang Wenzhao tried to force himself to treat his wound. He currently looked extremely dull, and his body was still leaning against the wall, slowly slipping down. Deep inside, he wasn’t really resenting her, but he mainly felt powerless. He couldn’t help but feel that he had just avoided an even worse calamity. Perhaps, even with his mount, he wouldn’t have been a match for this female assassin.
By chance, the [Starry Spiritual Armor] had blocked the overwhelming majority of her attacks, but still, her Thousand Strikes Spiritual Stove had left dozens of wounds, each one of them being an inch long deep cut, and in addition, he was severely wounded on his chest. He felt already dizzy because of the huge amount of blood he had lost.
Gradually coming back to his senses, Long Hao Chen opened his eyes with difficulty. He felt that his throat was completely dried up, as if he was currently inside of a smelting furnace. He was, from the head to toe, filled with a scorching hot feeling.
After struggling for a little while, Long Hao Chen finally felt that all the pain in his body had disappeared. Looking around with difficulty, he found out to his astonishment that there wasn’t even a drop of his internal spiritual energy left, and as before, the Saint Spiritual Stove was motionlessly hovering in his chest. However, its brilliance had dimmed.
What an overbearing skill this [Sacrifice] is! It only has a duration of 10 seconds, but it weakened him to such an extent. Fortunately, there wasn’t
any harm done to his internal organs, and he could feel that a gentle holy aura was uninterruptedly moistening his body.
He didn’t know it, but it was the effect of [Holy Healing], a healing ability used by powerhouses of the seventh step that acted on his internal organs, preventing heavy sequelae. Even though he was currently weakened, there weren’t any injuries left on hi
It was also because of his Scion of Light physique, possessing the most pure spiritual energy made of holy light possible. Even though [Sacrifice]’s consumption was frightening, because of the purity of his internal spiritual energy, this consumption only had the effect of arousing his potential and igniting his senses. It was also one of the reasons why Long Xing Yu dared include this ability to those that were unsealed at the fifth step. He originally prepared it for him to use it in case he was in an extremely dangerous situation. But he didn’t expect that as Long Hao Chen was on the verge of having his spiritual energy liquefied, during the fight against Yang Wenzhao, he would make such an all-out effort. Actually, in the Inheritance Ring, the seal for the abilities unlocked at the fifth step, were unlocked during the time of breakthrough, so he managed to use this ability even though he was only at the fourth cultivation step. If not for [Holy Healing]’s effects, he would have had to stay lying in bed for a whole month.
As he recovered his consciousness, the pain Long Hao Chen was feeling gradually weakened. He could vaguely feel that within his Saint Spiritual Stove, a sort of autonomous spiritual energy had been accumulated. He had no idea about how to control this spiritual energy, but he could feel that it hadn’t completely disappeared from his own body. His spiritual energy’s recovery was only a question of time now.
A smile was being drawn in the corners of Long Hao Chen’s mouth; even though he lost his match against Yang Wenzhao, he was still quite carefree. Long Hao Chen was convinced that after this struggle, by the time his spiritual energy was recovered, he would really break through to the fifth step.
This Yang Wenzhao was an extremely tough opponent; he even had a spiritual stove, and furthermore, an offensive one. In this situation of a 1v1 fight, his Starsea Spiritual Stove obviously had a lot more utility than Long Hao Chen’s Saint Spiritual Stove.
Father was right, the best method for a Retribution Knight to progress is to go through unceasing battles, to feel and comprehend everything in the middle of them. By the start of the next stage of the Demon Hunt Selection, I should have completely recovered. According to the days count, the Six Great Temples should have at least three days of preliminaries left, because there should be a lot of people left on the side of the Warrior Temple.
After the preliminaries, there will be three days of rest, so it will make a total of six days of rest. It should be enough for me to recover completely. The best would be if I can break through the fifth step by then. Even though Hao Yue is not here at the moment, it doesn’t mean I cannot get a good ranking during the main stage of the competition.
This contest will have a lot of benefits for me, but why is it that I feel that I am forgetting something even more important?
Suddenly, the smile in Long Hao Chen’s face became frozen. Opening his eyes wide, he suddenly became pale and his complexion changed completely.
Cai’er, Cai’er…
Long Hao Chen felt as if he received a heavy blow on his chest, and he suddenly tried to force himself to enter a sitting posture.
This change of posture caused a significant pain in his body, and he did not manage to change his posture.
Damn it, damn it, I missed our appointment. I was excessively focused on the match and my opponent. I missed our appointment, I missed it…
Long Hao Chen, completely filled with anxiety, forced himself to get up. He had a troubled expression and completely lost his previous calm state. In
his mind, there was only this blue cane, softly hitting the ground, and accompanying her petite figure.
She’s definitely waiting for me and has definitely waited for a long time, for so long. I should, hic…
Long Hao Chen ferociously gave himself a slap, making his body spasm with an intense pain. Standing with difficulty, he had to support himself by leaning on the wall, as he headed towards the door.
I have to find her, I have to find her. At this very moment, his mind was entirely filled with this thought.
It was already deep night. As Long Hao Chen left the hotel, unsteadily walking out, he could feel a nip in the air, that violently blew on his face. His internal spiritual energy was completely dried up so it couldn’t protect him at all. By chance, the cultivation of his external spiritual energy made his body robust, so even though a weakening feeling constantly attacked his senses, in his innermost being, a strong determination drove each of the steps he took forward as he walked away from the hotel, advancing towards the place where they met up everyday.
The aftereffects of “Sacrifice” were really overbearing: Long Hao Chen was currently experiencing intense pain, reaching from head to toe. Almost each step he took caused his body to sweat profusely, almost losing his balance. There were even several times when he was on the verge of falling down.
Fortunately, the hotel where he resided and the place where they met up were quite close. While stumbling, he slowly advanced. The current Long Hao Chen felt extremely ashamed; yes, the competition was an important matter, but still, how could he miss his appointment with Cai’er? She was going to be extremely disappointed!
Taking one step after another, Long Hao Chen’s sight was still fuzzy, as the cold of the deep night gradually attacked his very body.
Finally arrived, finally arrived! This extremely short road still took him half an hour to cover. And finally, he could see the place where he used to meet up everyday with Cai’er. Only, Cai’er wasn’t there; the location was entirely empty and quiet.
Pong, Long Hao finally couldn’t keep standing firm, and tumbled down on the ground. He could see countless stars revolving around him.
Of course! Cai’er has already left… The sky was already so dark, so how could she have not left yet?
Long Hao Chen’s lips twisted into a bitter grimace. As he fell on the ground, his heart was filled with regrets. If he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t have tried so hard in his match against Yang Wenzhao. He didn’t know since when it was the case, but he discovered to his astonishment that to him, sending Cai’er back had already become more important than his training.
I have to go to the hotel to look for her and to apologize. But will she forgive me? She cannot see the road and waited for so long before finally leaving by herself, how painful was this experience… Will she still be willing to forgive me?
That won’t do, I cannot look for her. It’s already so late at night, so she is definitely sleeping after her tiring day, by now. How can I disturb her?
She must have been waiting for a long, long time. Since it’s this way, I will be waiting there for her. I must wait for a longer time than her, if I want to seek her forgiveness.
At this point, Long Hao Chen gasped for breath before slowly standing up. An intense dizzy feeling filled his head; he had never felt so weak before. This feeling was absolutely horrible. He felt like he could lose consciousness at anytime.
No, I cannot faint, I must be waiting for her there, it is the road she takes everyday.
As he thought that, Long Hao Chen used his hands to support himself and slowly got up. After standing up, he tried his best to stay up. He was afraid that if he sat there, he would soon either lose consciousness or fall asleep.
Time passed, a minute after another, a second after another, but Long Hao Chen stood there, at the same dizzy state from beginning to end. Every time he couldn’t support his body anymore, he would fall down, and temporarily manage to stay awake because of the shock. And then, he would once again crawl down to stand up once again.
Cai’er blankly stood before Long Hao Chen’s bed; she was at a loss about what to do: Why is he not here anymore? Where has he gone?
After inflicting serious damage to Yang Wenzhao, Cai’er came back to that place. She was blind, but her five other senses were extremely sharp. As soon as she entered, she discovered that Long Hao Chen wasn’t there anymore.
Chapter 105
Some remnant of his smell was left in the air, and some warmth was left on the mattress; this was the proof that he was previously sleeping there, but it was already so late, where could he have gone?
As her silhouette flashed, Cai’er disappeared from the window like blue smoke. Appearing once again in the street, she looked at the changes in the surroundings, looking for traces of him. Her bamboo rod lightly hit the ground as she headed directly to her hotel, full of worry. Not finding him, she searched in every room, including Li Xin’s and Ye Hua’s. In every room, she carefully used her perception to detect the changes in the atmosphere and look for the place where he was. But all these efforts were fruitless; he wasn’t there, there weren’t any trace of him anywhere else than in his room.
Can it be that something happened to him? The blue cane in Cai’er’s hand became noisier, as her feet were wrapped in a layer of cold energy. If something really happened to him, no matter who the culprit is, I will never let them off.
Returning to her residence, she sat cross-legged on her bed’s couch. But how could Cai’er possibly calm herself down? She said to herself that this was the headquarters of the Temple Alliance, and that as a competitor of the Demon Hunt Selection, he wasn’t likely to be in danger. Even when she raided Yang Wenzhao, didn’t the Alliances’ forces quickly save him? But then, where could he have gone?
Even after a total of half an hour, Cai’er could not calm herself down.
I have to find him.
Going down from her bed, Cai’er took her blue cane and left the hotel once again. Because of her impatience, in the middle of the night, she had forgotten to wear her veil.
The coldness of the night, and the blowing wind awakened Cai’er. Her mind in disorder because of the panic, she finally managed to calm herself a down little, and started to ponder over the place where Long Hao Chen could have gone. If it wasn’t that he was captured by someone else, where could he have gone?
Could it be that…
Suddenly, she realized something; that he could be at that place, waiting for her. But it was already so late; was it really possible?
No matter what, regardless of whether he could have gone there or not, that place was still a final possibility.
Ordinarily, she and Long Hao Chen took half an hour to cover this road, but as she leaped around, it took her no more than the time of ten breaths to cover the distance.
Moving the tip of her nose, Cai’er’s complexion changed. It was his smell! It was his smell! He was actually really in that place!
Cai’er took quick steps forward with her blue cane, following the tracks of the familiar relaxed atmosphere she felt.
Long Hao Chen was already having a lot of difficulty maintaining his consciousness, and he was further weakened by the fact he fell continuously to the ground. The current him was even already unable to clearly see the scenery in front of him. Gritting his teeth and bearing the pain, he stood there; his body was like that of a drunk old man that was unceasingly shaking.
“Du, du, du.”
“Du, du, du.”
A familiar noise vaguely entered his mind. Was it her? Or am I just having fantasies?
“Long Hao Chen.“ Cai’er anxiously called out to him.
Immediately following this call, a long and thin blue bamboo cane faintly touched Long Hao Chen’s body.
Long Hao Chen, who was previously unsteadily staying, immediately fell down upon hearing this call, but the fall made him a little more clear- headed.
A black long skirt, purple hair scattered around, in disarray and draping over her fac
Her skin was a bit pale, her eyes expressionless, but her delicate and beautiful face wasn’t in the slightest bit covered. It’s her, it’s her!
From what he could remember, it was the first time Long Hao Chen saw Cai’er’s face. Her extremely refined senses and the cold atmosphere she let out were completely opposite to her beautiful face, as glossy as jade, with jade-like eyebrows. And although her jade-like skin was a bit pale, it was still as sparkling as a fresh and exquisite litchi. And at this moment, her elegant face seemed to have instantly penetrated the depths of Long Hao Chen’s mind.
“You… How are you?” Sensing that Long Hao Chen had fallen down, Cai’er became instantly anxious, hastening to crouch down and gently stroked him with her two hands.
His clothes were faintly wet, and obviously, his body was intensely shaking, having stayed for so long in this night road, and his breath was extremely unsteady.
“Cai… Er, Cai… Er. I’m… sorry.” As he saw Cai’er, Long Hao Chen became extremely joyous. He still felt dizzy, and couldn’t even ponder
about the reason why Cai’er appeared. Still, he couldn’t control the 〖joy〗in his heart. Holding her little soft hand, he said, without being able to control his breath, “I, I… didn’t miss… our appointment… on purpose… will you agree to… forgive me..?”
Held by his hands, Cai’er’s heart was instantly shaken because she could clearly feel that his hand was incredibly cold; there was nothing left of its former warmth.
Hurrying to hold back his hand with force, in a little instant, Cai’er could feel how weak his current state was. And because of the fact he stood here, waiting for her, he was currently on the verge of collapse.
“I forgive you.” Cai’er stooped down, gently leaning toward him to hug him, placing her soft hand on his back and gently passing her spiritual energy to his〖body〗, helping to dispel the chilliness in his〖body〗and
weakening the cold air around him that made him feel so bad, so as to avoid
that he fell sick.
How could she not forgive him? As soon as she discovered him here, she immediately guessed everything he was thinking about. He was extremely feeble, and yet all he thought about was his appointment with her; how could she resent him?
More importantly, it wasn’t on purpose that he missed their appointment.
Cai’er’s spiritual energy was warm, but Long Hao Chen was currently feeling too weak. His eyelids felt heavy, really heavy; right before muttering some words.
After a short period, Long Hao Chen was already back to his room.
Cai’er carefully put him down on his bed before sitting on his bed and holding his hand.
In this moment, under the effect of Cai’er’s spiritual energy, Long Hao Chen’s hand had already become a lot warmer, and wasn’t as cold anymore.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have doubted you.” Cai’er’s elegant face seemed even more charming, as she gently and cautiously lifted up his hand, gently touching his face and the tip of his nose, intimately stroking his delicate skin. Like that, Cai’er’s pale face gradually started to blush.
A dim gold-colored light twinkled, and a dagger calmly appeared in her hand. Her tender fingers appeared like that of a dexterous artist. She moved her dagger, forming the shape of a little character, at the side of the bed, before covering it with his hand.
Then, she gently stroked his cheeks, somewhat unwilling to part with him, still blushing. At this moment, she still remembered Long Hao Chen’s words before falling unconscious. What he said was: “Cai’er, you are really beautiful.”
Alliance’s office palace. The Saint Knight Head Han Qian, whose position within the Temple Alliance was only second to the almighty powerhouses of the ninth step, currently wore a cold face and stood in front of the broad table. A loud sound could just be heard, produced from his hands slapping the table.
“Ying Suifeng, today, if you don’t have a good explanation, don’t blame my Knight Alliance for becoming hostile.” Han Qian was full of rage. as he made this declaration. Why was he angry? It wasn’t only him actually; currently, all the high ranked knights stationed in the Temple Alliance were furious, and even those almighty powerhouses of the ninth step who were normally in seclusion were alarmed as well.
This year, the Knight Temple was the favorite for becoming number one of the competition, because of their Retribution Knight Yang Wenzhao who even possessed a spiritual stove. However, he had just been seriously wounded by someone. And without a doubt, the culprit was from the Assassin Temple. The proof was clear, besides the signature skills from the Assassin Temple that they used, there was also their Thousand Strikes Spiritual Stove, a noticeable sign of the fact they belonged to the Assassin Temple.
It was bright morning when Han Qian immediately made the trip to aggressively complain to them. The representatives of the Six Great Temples were all, without exception, stationed at the Alliance’s office palace. Every ten years, a committee would be elected to represent the Great Temples, in order to unify the affairs of all Temples. Among their
core were 36〖main〗committee members, six for each of the temples. As a result, even though the Knight Temple was nominally the leader of these Six Great Temples, they didn’t have an overwhelming status within the Temples either.
Han Qian was one of the six〖main〗committee members for the Knight Temple, atop of being a Saint Knight, leader of the 36 Saint Knights of the Knight Temple and in charge of handling daily affairs in regard to the Knight Temple, as a vice hall master. His status was extremely honorable, only below the three Divine Knights in this regard. And with his status of elder, even among the three Divine Knights, only one really had more power than him.
In front of Han Qian, sitting on the other side of the table was a slim elder. He appeared to be clad in average black clothes, had gray-colored short hair and a quite ordinary appearance. The only thing that made him look different from ordinary people was his distinctive and terrifying eyes. This pair of eyes seemed completely dead, and didn’t have the slightest expression. If he was lying on the ground, there would definitely be people who would be thinking of him as dead.
As one of the highest ranked seniors of the Knight Temple, Han Qian’s eyes looked different from ordinary people’s as well. And as the Heroic Assassin Parlor, his counterpart was in control of the 36 Heroic Assassins and was also a vice hall master, Ying Suifeng. At the same time, he was in charge of handling the daily affairs of the Assassin Temple, as a supervisor.
The Assassin Temple and the Knight Temple were different in one regard. On many occasions, the former had given a big headache to the 72 demon gods, forcing them to be constantly taken over, succeeded by others of their kinsmen. In the span of 6000 years, 91 demon gods had been killed by the Assassin Temple’s manpower. This was so glorious an era for them
that none of the five other Great Temples could ever compare to them in this regard.
Even within the Alliance, no one knew how many hidden trump cards the Assassin Temple had, except from the Assassin Temple’s 〖 main 〗committee members and their powerhouses of the ninth step. Within the Six
Great Temples, the Assassin Temple was the existence anyone would fear
the most to mess with.
Ying Suifeng wasn’t shaken by Han Qian’s furious mood in the slightest, and simply said, “For such a big affair, I will naturally give you compensation.”
Hearing his answer, Han Qian slightly calmed down, pulling a chair, and crushing his buttocks on it. In a rage, he stared at Ying Suifeng.
Chapter 106
The Six Great Temples were closely linked to each other. Just like how the Mage Temple and the Warrior Temple have an extremely close relation between them, the Knight Temple and the Assassin Temple’s relationship is among the best. An Assassin is after all the best partner possible for a Knight. The knight is the one who can defend the assassin the best and the assassin is the one who can provide the best offensive power to support him. A stable holy light, a wandering dim shadow, complementing each other while countering each other.
Because of the incident, the higher-ups of the Knight Temple were furious, but they didn’t immediately send punitive forces against them, and instead, they announced the facts of the night before to the Assassin Temple, letting them investigate thoroughly. And on this day, on the early morning, Han Qian was facing Ying Suifeng.
Ying Suifeng who had kept a serene face all along was suddenly shocked, calmly replying, “After examining the events of last night, I have a rough idea of the sequence of events. It was certainly a member of our Assassin Temple that intervened. For this reason, I apologize to the Knight Temple on behalf of our Assassin Temple.”
As he spoke, he calmly straightened himself, slightly stooping and performing a salute towards Han Qian.
Hearing that, Han Qian immediately glared at him. He had dealt with military matters throughout all his life, and on numerous times, he had risked his life when fighting against the army forces of the demon race.
“Suifeng, was it really someone from your Assassin Temple who did this?” This time, Han Qian became a lot colder, the way he addressed him changed as well, and his face became an extremely ugly sight to look at.
His relation with Suifeng was pretty good; sixty years ago, they were fighting alongside each other as comrades-in-arms, belonging to the same Demon Hunt Squad. And it was thirty years ago that their status started to rise within their respective temples. They had started to age, and came to the decision of disbanding their Demon Hunt Squad, to start their careers as people working in the affairs of their respective Temples.
Upon hearing Ying Suifeng’s acknowledgement, how could he not feel anxious? This kind of act akin to internal struggle could be seen as an act of jealousy from one of the Temples. This kind of act could obviously arise complaints or riots within the Alliance, and obviously affect its prestige and harmony.
Ying Suifeng let out a sigh and said, “Since we are the culprits, why would I not recognize this act? Please calm down, and listen calmly to me. Actually, this matter has been caused by you, Knight Temple. Let me ask you, the one Yang Wenzhao injured during yesterday’s match was a knight competitor right? And Yang Wenzhao caused him to be heavily wounded.”
Listening to him, Han Qian suddenly realized something, and his complexion changed completely, “Are you saying that Long Hao Chen hired an assassin from your Assassin Temple?”
If it was the truth, then things would be even worse! Without a doubt, to the Knight Temple, Yang Wenzhao was among the most outstanding youths of their generation. But in Han Qian’s heart, Long Hao Chen had more value. Although Long Hao Chen lost yesterday, he displayed an incredible talent, greatly shocking, once again, this Saint Knight Head. He discovered even more facets of this child; it was simply a genius destroyer! His appearance was something that could simply cause all the other geniuses to be ashamed of their talents.
Besides, his grandson Han Yu was arranged to accompany Long Hao Chen as his retainer knight. If Long Hao Chen had really hired an assassin to deal with Yang Wenzhao, then even he wouldn’t be able to defend Long Hao Ch
By just thinking about that, Han Qian turned pale with fright.
This time, it was Ying Suifeng’s turn to frown, “What kind of person is this Long Hao Chen? How could he cause such concern? Brother Han, you seem to treat him favorably as well, right?”
Han Qian snorted once, replying impatiently, “Please don’t care about this first, and hurry up to tell me: after all, was it Long Hao Chen who hired him?” Long Hao Chen could be called the Knight Temple’s secret weapon; especially since he’s so young, his information was already classified as a major secret. His relation with Ying Suifeng was good, but for the sake of the Knight Temple’s status among the six Great Temples, he couldn’t lightly reveal this information.
Ying Suifeng shook his head, and replied, “Of course it’s not the case, How could a little guy who had already lost consciousness hire an assassin? Actually, things are like this: this Long Hao Chen has a good relationship with a member of our Temple, and the information on how he was wounded came to our Temple. Right after this member of our Temple learned this information, she was in a state of total wrath and acted personally, without notice, to raid this Yang Wenzhao. Only, she was quite lenient and didn’t kill him for real.”
Upon hearing that Long Hao Chen didn’t hire this assassin, Han Qian immediately relaxed, but was exasperated by his light tone. Pissed off, he said, “You are speaking so lightly. Do you know who the hell Yang Wenzhao is? He’s old Yang’s grandson. Without mentioning his importance to our Knight Temple, considering his status, who will you send to explain this to old Yang?”
Ying Suifeng let out a light sigh and said, “His identity is already something we are looking into. Only, now that this affair has already taken place, what we must do right now is to settle it. After all, his
spiritual stove hasn’t been damaged, although he has been lightly injured. With your Knight Temple’s healing capabilities, he should be able to recover rapidly, and there shouldn’t be relapses. If the injuries are really serious, we are willing to request a priest at the rank of red-clad sect master or above, from the Priest Temple to treat him. This should partly compensate your Knight Temple; how about it?”
Han Qian was quite smart, from Ying Suifeng’s words he deduced a few facts, and his complexion changed, “So you are saying that you don’t plan to hand over this assassin to us, right? And you don’t even plan to punish her?”
Ying Suifeng nodded in silence, “Old Han, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry about that.”
Han Qian stood up, completely furious, before hitting the desk once again, “Ying Suifeng, so this is the explanation you are giving me? Do you know what the consequences of your actions will be?”
Ying Suifeng sighed once again, replying, “I know, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Not speaking about me, even our most heroic seniors cannot deal with her.”
Han Qian coldly snorted, “He was greatly wounded, and don’t forget who the one responsible is. If we leave this matter to be handled by the Alliance, there’s no way it stays unpunished. I advise you to let it be treated in private between our two Temples.”
Ying Suifeng’s eyes flashed with a particular sparkle, and he thought to himself, This little girl is really carefree. It looks like the Knight Temple isn’t going to let this go easily. Furthermore, if it was her who was heavily wounded like that, I would have had the same reaction. ARGH!
“Brother Han, please don’t get angry like that. I know this matter is making things difficult for you. I will go find this heroic senior and sincerely apologize to him. We wish to settle this matter behind the scenes. I have a single condition.”
“Behind the scenes?” Han Qian was startled.
Ying Suifeng nodded, and said, “I believe you know what I mean by behind the scenes; we cannot afford to treat this person lightly. I only want Brother Han to pledge me something; after we settle this matter behind the scenes, I want you to inform your seniors divine knights that everyone shall keep their mouth completely shut! To preserve our Temples’ thousand years of relations, we absolutely don’t want this matter to be lightly spread.”
Han Qian stared at him, from Ying Suifeng’s serious tone, it looked like the fact that this matter had to be handled from behind the scenes was extremely important to the Assassin Temple.
“Okay, I give you my promise. Speak, now.” Although he didn’t formally pledge to him, his promise was as valid as an oath. Within the Six Great Temples, knights were the most strict in regard to discipline; if one happened to break his promises, no matter whom he promises to, he would have no way to stand on his honor.
Ying Suifeng silently shook his head, and continued to speak, “From whichever side of the Six Great Temples when fostering a talent, the most important factor to determine his potential of future development is the innate internal spiritual energy. In every Temple, people with different innate talent are treated differently. For instance, in your Knight Temple, an innate internal spiritual energy above the 70th level is known as a physique of angel, and above the 80th level it is known as a physique blessed by gods, right?”
Han Qian seemed to have vaguely understood something, and took a deep breath, “From what you are implying, this fellow who wounded Yang Wenzhao has an innate internal spiritual energy above 70, and is rather young, right?” A young age was something that couldn’t be determined arbitrarily; from Yang Wenzhao’s description of his opponent, she shouldn’t have reached the sixth step yet.
Ying Suifeng revealed a bitter smile, “If it was only that much, for the sake of the relationship between our two Great Temples, we would
nevertheless have given her some punishment. But the fact is that over the past 3000 years of our Assassin Temple’s history, a sole and unique person exceeded the 90th level of internal spiritual energy, obtaining a physique of a Scion of Samsara. It is equivalent to the physique of Scion of Light of your Knight Temple. The importance of this girl to our Assassin Temple is exceeding the importance your Knight Temple gives to a Divine Knight. You shouldn’t forget that 3000 years ago, our Assassin Temple was almighty; that Scion of Samsara relied on his formidable strength and innate talent and managed to get rid of seven of the demon gods. At the very end, he even managed to deal with the first demon god, and had been inflicting serious damages to the demon race for thirty years. And yet, that Scion of Samsara only had his innate internal spiritual energy at the 91st level. And back to our era, she’s the one we found to succeed that killing machine of a Scion of Samsara. Her innate internal spiritual energy is even greater compared to his former 91st level; it was originally at the 93rd level, but after she inherited the spiritual stove of the previous Scion of Samsara, it reached the 100th level! According to legends, this level is even given another title: the one known as the Saint Daughter of Samsara, an existence that will in the future be able to challenge the first demon god! If we compare her to the Yang Wenzhao from your noble temple, who’s the unimportant one and who’s the important one?”
Han Qian’s eyes were already wide opened, and completely shocked, he answered, “Innate internal spiritual energy, 100…. Is… is this for real? This… This…”
Ying Suifeng let a bitter laugh, “Do you think I would fool you in this kind of matter? This is the biggest secret of our Assassin Temple. To all our almighty temples, a saint girl of this kind is something that would cause anyone to cry out in dread and fall down out of fear. Furthermore, she started her training at the age of five years old, for a total of 9 years by now. Her formidable innate talents are undoubtedly already manifesting. And she did not only manage to grasp control of the Thousand Strikes Spiritual Stoves, she also fused with the main stove this Scion of Samsara used to fight with, the first ranked spiritual stove from our Assassin Temple, the Six Paths of Samsara. You ought to know the
might of the Six Paths of Samsara. Therefore, I cannot lightly hand her over to you, because actually….”
Han Qian gave him a somewhat sluggish look, and after a long while, he gently revealed a forced smile, “I understand…”
Chapter 107
News of people from the Assassin Temple injuring a talented youth from the Knight Temple during the Demon Hunt Selection could not possibly be covered up. In fact, the nature of the act was so extremely vile that it would affect the very roots of the Six Great Temples.
However, against all expectations, the Knight Temple stayed silent on this matter. They didn’t file a complaint to the Temple Alliance and the Assassin Temple also stayed low key, both parties acting as if nothing happened. When the committee members from the other Great Temples asked them about this, the Knight Temple and the Assassin Temple gave exactly the same answer, saying that it was a misunderstanding.
These two Great Temples came to a mutual understanding, so naturally, the other Temples didn’t dig deeper into the matter. After all, there wasn’t any loss, so as long as everything was settled, they wouldn’t insist any longer.
The qualifiers of the Demon Hunt Selection of this year were about to come to an end; the overwhelming majority of the matches were already over, and most of the results were already out. Long Hao Chen lost and Yang Wenzhao ended up seriously wounded, so they both lost the possibility of continuing to compete in these preliminaries. Because of Long Hao Chen’s especially outstanding performances in his match against Yang Wenzhao, he was ranked sixth for the preliminaries of the competition. After entering the top 5, Yang Wenzhao was unable to keep competing and had to drop out, forced to end up fifth.
Exerting force to stretch his hand, Long Hao Chen awoke from dreamland. Some of the pain from last night was remaining, but he felt a lot better as he woke up.
Rubbing his eyes, Long Hao Chen got into a sitting position. It was a long time since the last time he slept so deeply.
Cai’er. As soon as he recovered his consciousness, the first thing that came into his mind was that beautiful face. Despite his very feeble mental state on the previous night, the little moment he had to watch her face was deeply engraved in his memory.
Was I dreaming last night? Long Hao Chen wasn’t sure that what happened last night was for real, especially since he felt so weak at that moment.
“Eh?” As something brought up his attention on the side of the bed, he used his finger to touch it carefully; there seemed to be some handwriting here.
Hurriedly straightening his posture, he looked at this handwriting.
Indeed, some little words where engraved on the side of the bed.
“Recover well, and do not bother about me. When the next stage of the competition resumes for you, we will meet again. Cai’er.”
It wasn’t a dream, haha, it wasn’t a dream. Long Hao Chen was immediately in high spirits after discovering this message. He clearly remembered that last night, Cai’er had told him that she didn’t blame him.
We will only see each other during the competition? What does this mean? Last night, last night, it seemed that Cai’er used her spiritual energy to help me recover. Can it be that she’s also from one of the Six Great Temples? But she’s blind! To which Temple could she belong?
He unceasingly asked this question to himself but how could he possibly find the answer?
A short while later, Ye Hua and Li Xin came to visit him. As brother and sister who lost their matches, they could rest for the five incoming days, until the start of the real competition.
Ye Hua had come to inspect his situation, especially his meridians and his internal organs, but he discovered that [Sacrifice] didn’t leave any permanent injuries to his body. This was a source of great rejoicing.
“You are really an idiot.” After his inspection, Ye Hua immediately cursed
Long Hao Chen lowered his head and said, “Teacher, I only wished to test my capabilities through actual combat, and to arouse my potential this way. Using the skill [Sacrifice] is just something I did on a whim. Don’t be angry, I won’t be so impetuous again in the future.”
Ye Hua was furious, “Bullshit. Do you think I am angry because you have challenged Yang Wenzhao? You are wrong. It is because of your foolishness. Let me ask you, who’s the stronger between you and Yang Wenzhao?”
Long Hao Chen started and gave him a puzzled look, “It’s naturally him.
”
Ye Hua coldly snorted, “So you know that he’s the powerful one, right?
Then why did you still choose to clash with him head-on? Were these fighting tactics I taught you these two last years some dog food? It was delightful to clash with him head-on right? But have you thought about what would have happened if this was a fight against the demon race? What if your opponents were demons? And what if you had comrades by your side, waiting for your assistance? Would you have fought the same way?”
These series of questions left Long Hao Chen speechless.
Ye Hua coldly continued, “How many fighting abilities have I taught you? That’s right, an all-out battle will arouse your potential more efficiently, especially against an opponent that is more powerful than you.
But if you really want to increase your fighting experience, then you cannot consider this as a match, but a life-and-death battle. And how do battles to the death take place? Don’t tell me I’ve never taught you this before?”
Long Hao Chen further lowered his head, “Rely on your skills and techniques to cope with your opponent, and do the utmost to preserve yourself.”
Ya Hue strongly clenched his fist. “Luckily, you still remember. Tell me now, are you a Guardian Knight or a Retribution Knight in the end?”
Long Hao Chen fell silent. He didn’t know how to reply to this question of Ye Hua’s.
Ye Hua said indifferently, “In terms of genius, even if ten of me cannot match you, in terms of experiences, neither can ten of you match me. Let me help you to answer this question. When you need to attack, just be a Retribution Knight, and when you need to protect, be a Guardian Knight. But you have to be careful when you are using your abilities as Retribution Knight; you should never forget your second status. Your innate talent is so high that you can bear both roles, but since that’s the case, you should just combine them to fully exploit your capabilities. Don’t let me see such silly acts again, or else, you don’t deserve to be the disciple of this Ye Hua.”
“Yes.” Long Hao Chen hurried to respectfully reply. Ye Hua was scolding him, but more importantly, he was full of concerns. He knew that his teacher was afraid that he would take the wrong path!
After washing his face, Long Hao Chen started to cultivate. Even if this morning, his body already felt a lot better, he still had to let his external spiritual energy and the wounds on his body recover. However, as before, there wasn’t a drop left of his internal spiritual energy; only, the Saint Spiritual Stove seemed to have recovered its original radiance.
There were already not many left of the cultivation pills Lin Xin gave him. This time, Long Hao Chen didn’t take one, and simply sat cross-
legged, calmly, entering a meditative state, paying careful attention to the fluctuation in his Saint Spiritual Stove.
Soft, deep, vast. After his consciousness entered his Saint Spiritual Stove, he immediately felt these three sensations.
ly, he could not feel any spiritual energy circulating in his Saint Spiritual Stove, but now, he could see drops of a gold-colored liquid.
These bright droplets were small, but were extremely striking, in the middle of this milky-white Saint Spiritual Stove. These golden droplets had the size of grains of rice, but what surprised Long Hao Chen indescribably was that these golden droplets were actually in a completely liquid state.
Liquid spiritual energy?
Could it be that after using the skill [Sacrifice], I accidentally reached the state of having my spiritual energy liquefy?
Unconsciously, Long Hao Chen started to cultivate accordingly to his previous training methods.
Because there was no internal spiritual energy left in his body, his speed to feel the fluctuations of the external light essence was a lot slower. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that he had his Scion of Light physique, so his light element affinity was far beyond comparison to ordinary people’s.
The gentle external light essence started to enter Long Hao Chen’s body, as he immediately noticed that he didn’t need to urge them at all. This light essence seemed as though it had found a sort of source, as it quietly headed towards the Saint Spiritual Stove before directly merging with it.
The Saint Spiritual Stove’s reaction was serene, simply emitting a bright shine from its milky-white body.
Inspecting the interior of his spiritual stove once again, as expected, Long Hao Chen discovered that the light essence, which had been absorbed and
converted into a drop of gold-colored liquid, had turned into a part of the spiritual stove.
Because the light essence absorbed from the air was extremely thin, it could hardly compare with a true drop of liquified spiritual energy, and as a result, this rice grain-sized drop of liquified spiritual energy didn’t show any reaction at all.
However, this didn’t affect Long Hao Chen’s excitement at all. Without the slightest hesitation, now that he had really managed to refine liquid spiritual energy, the next question was how he was going to strengthen it, as well as how he was going to make it come out from his Saint Spiritual Stove.
Thinking up to this point, Long Hao Chen took out a Spiritual Gathering Pill, used for cultivation; it was the name he gave it personally.
As soon as he took the Spiritual Gathering Pill, Long Hao Chen’s blood was aroused, and suddenly, his body’s reaction to the external light essence in the air was greatly increased.
The Spiritual Gathering Pill was a pill of the Fourth Tier, and as such, one needed to have reached the fourth step to take it. Although Long Hao Chen had lost his internal spiritual energy, his body was still that of a Grand Knight of the fourth step. His meridians absorbed the energy of this pill without any rejection.
Naturally, after taking the Spiritual Gathering Pill, his absorption speed of the external light essence was greatly accelerated. This light essence in the air was absorbed from all directions, directly passing through his pores and entering his body to be immediately absorbed by his Saint Spiritual Stove.
The current Saint Spiritual Stove was like a bottomless abyss. Regardless of how much light essence Long Hao Chen absorbed, it swallowed everything. The only change that appeared was that the golden color emitted by the Saint Spiritual Stove’s body started to gradually strengthen. The liquid spiritual energy also started to show signs of amplification.
Just like that, Long Hao Chen was completely immersed in his moment of cultivation. This cultivation moment was dull and uninteresting, but it brought him an intense sense of satisfaction to be able to stack these droplets one after another. This aspect was something common to all vocations.
In a flash, three days had already passed. During these three days, aside from eating, Long Hao Chen was completely immersed in his cultivation state. He told everything about his present cultivation to Ye Hua, who seemed to not understand completely in what kind of state he was.
Then, he silently waited for Ye Hua’s instructions. To Ye Hua, what happened was certainly a good thing, and although he didn’t know what kind of subtle mysteries surrounded the Saint Spiritual Stove, Ye Hua wished to see Long Hao Chen in this kind of state. Yes! In addition, how could the growth of the Scion of Light be controlled by others?
Chapter 108
However, Ye Hua had a lot of experience in cultivation methods, so even with his very weak innate talent, he had still managed to break through to the step of Earth Knight, and had researched countless cultivation methods. As a result, he carefully pondered over the matter, before telling him that it was the Saint Spiritual Stove that helped him produce spiritual energy. ‘Nurtured’ spiritual energy.
Long Hao Chen’s cultivation obviously hadn’t reached the fifth step, so in these circumstances, making liquid spiritual energy appear was supposed to be impossible. Even if these drops of liquid spiritual energy had appeared by pure coincidence, Ye Hua was completely sure that if it was anyone other than Long Hao Chen, even if he could manage to use [Sacrifice] at his level, he would never be able to do the same.
The only explanation to this phenomenon was the effect of the Saint Spiritual Stove. Inside of the Saint Spiritual Stove, a special space was produced, helping Long Hao Chen to compress his spiritual energy, liquefying it. When Long Hao Chen relied on [Sacrifice], it used up his own spiritual energy while igniting his blood.
Spiritual Stoves were the most mysterious objects in heaven and earth, protecting their users quite well. The Saint Spiritual Stove is very likely to be what prevented the last drop of Long Hao Chen’s internal spiritual energy from being consumed, before provoking this internal phenomenon of internal compression. Long Hao Chen already had the comprehension of the liquid spiritual energy in itself, the greatest characteristic of the threshold of the fifth step. It was also through the means of his cultivation, the method that used the skill [Storing Power], that he managed to
gradually find out the compression method. Only, he was unable to directly launch this process of compression. Relying on the skill [Storing Power] only helped him to find his senses.
But now, the situation was different. With the existence of the Saint Spiritual Stove, his problem of compression was already solved, as it produced genuine liquid spiritual energy. As long as he could find a way to extract this liquid spiritual energy from the Saint Spiritual Stove and train his spiritual energy above the 2000th level, the daunting bottleneck of the fifth step would be no problem to him.
With this news, Ye Hua was naturally delighted as well. He urged Long Hao Chen repeatedly to go to his room to firmly cultivate; after all, even delaying the Demon Hunt Competition wasn’t a big deal. He was still young, so in the future, he would have the opportunity to participate in this great competition again. In comparison to this competition, to grasp the opportunity to break through the stage of Earth Knight was far more important.
The Saint Spiritual Stove was far from being huge: its body was approximately like that of a little cup worth three coins. The quantity of spiritual energy such a small Spiritual Stove could contain was something anyone could easily imagine.
After three days of bitter practice, Long Hao Chen had completely used up his stock of Spiritual Gathering Pills, and the Saint Spiritual Stove was almost at its peak condition. Its interior was filled with a thick liquid spiritual energy.
These three days of cultivation were actually quite painful. Because no internal spiritual energy was left in his body, Long Hao Chen had to absorb external light essence; this was quite a slow process. If not for the aid provided by the Spiritual Gathering Pills, perhaps even within 10 days or half a month, he wouldn’t have filled the Saint Spiritual Stove. In that case, he would really have ended up unable to participate in the competition.
What Long Hao Chen didn’t know was that originally, when Long Xing Yu gave him this Saint Spiritual Stove, he
Long Xing Yu was a Divine Knight, and as such, he had experienced the cultivation process from the first to the ninth step. As a result, he understood pretty well how important the cultivation process was. For his training, he wanted Long Hao Chen to break through the fifth step at the earliest time possible, but didn’t want to help him too much, making him become a powerhouse with an exaggerated ease. If he really did so, even if Long Hao Chen was a Scion of Light, he would have no way to break through the threshold of the ninth step in his whole life! Thus, he chose to let Long Hao Chen do things at his own pace, slowly and continuously strengthening himself, to experience by himself the difficulties of the cultivation process.
Long Xing Yu had absolute confidence in Long Hao Chen. If a Scion of Light didn’t have enough perception, who would?
This particular ability of the Saint Spiritual Stove was called nurturance. It wasn’t only a Spiritual Stove that helped in battles, but it was also also a training assisting tool. This was one of the greatest secrets of the Knight Temple.
Because the Saint Spiritual Stove was only really useful to Knights and Warriors in combat, the other vocations didn’t have much interest in this Spiritual Stove. And a Warrior’s self-recovery ability was far beyond comparison with Guardian Knights’, so at this point, this Saint Spiritual Stove could be pretty much considered a spiritual stove exclusive to knights.
Saint Spiritual Stoves were quite rare, so when the other Great Temples found a Saint Spiritual Stove, they would choose to exchange it with the Knight Temple.
Only the Knight Temple, after countless trials, had some suppositions. It was that as long as the first spiritual stove of a human was the Saint Spiritual Stove, and he got it below the fourth step of cultivation, this special effect of nurturance of the Saint Spiritual Stove would be stimulated.
This special effect called ‘nurturance’ required the user of the Saint Spiritual Stove to discover it by himself and ordinarily, its manifestation wouldn’t be obvious to notice. It only gave an extremely weak boost to cultivation and nothing more.
However, in critical moments, the Saint Spiritual Stove’s ‘nurturance’ would have immense effects. For instance, it would have the greatest effect when Long Hao Chen would come to the liquefaction of his spiritual energy, as well as when the time would come for his spiritual orifices to condense when breaking through the step of Radiant Knight. With the assistance of the Saint Spiritual Stove, it could be said that he was bound to break through.
Everyone does some self-study, and Temples aren’t exceptions. If the other temples discovered the assistance effect provided by the Saint Spiritual Stove to the process of cultivation, there would probably be no one willing to sell this kind of stove to the Knight Temple. As a result, this mystery was kept secret all along. At least up until now, no one from the other Temples had discovered it.
Actually, even if Long Hao Chen hadn’t used the skill [Sacrifice], he would still have quickly figured out this use of the Saint Spiritual Stove. Because as long as he completed the first evolution of his Saint Spiritual Stove, the effect of ‘nurturance’ would automatically help him break through the fifth step. Actually, Long Hao Chen previously saw the fifth step as an opportunity to make his Saint Spiritual Stove evolve.
So it’s finally full? Teacher said that the essence should start to spill over at this moment, so since it seems to be finally full, it should start spilling over to some extent.
Regardless of the calm attitude Long Hao Chen ordinarily, when breaking through the fifth step, he couldn’t help but feel nervous, deep inside.
His cultivation was ongoing, and as it was going on, the liquid state of his spiritual energy started to become richer and richer. Drop after drop was being accumulated, visibly spilling over.
Finally, the Saint Spiritual Stove stopped accumulating more liquid spiritual energy, and a drop of gold-colored liquid after another started to flow down from the edge of the Saint Spiritual Stove.
Bang–
At this very moment, Long Hao Chen felt his body shaking as it started to be emit a dense holy aura. A golden ring of light rose at the top of his head, vaguely being condensed to form a lump of golden light essence. This was the sign of an advanced Ascending Spiritual Cloud. Only when breaking through a high step would this Ascending Spiritual Cloud appear.
The droplets of liquid spiritual energy were few, but they illuminated all the meridians in Long Hao Chen’s body. A familiar holy light was rapidly spreading through his meridians, quickly spreading to every corner of his body.
Compared to the previous thin gold color of the internal spiritual energy, this color was a lot deeper, its splendor was already approaching that of the bright gold color.
Even though, up till now, only a single drop of liquid spiritual energy had spilled on Long Hao Chen’s body, the light essence was being absorbed at a phenomenal speed.
Meanwhile, the Saint Spiritual Stove was emitting an intense and bright light. What could clearly be seen was that on Long Hao Chen’s chest, a rich brilliant ring had formed, spreading all around. enveloping his whole body in it. The Saint Spiritual Stove slowly rotated around his chest, causing the drops of liquid spiritual energy, one after another, to spill out. Having taken a golden color after welcoming all this liquid internal spiritual energy inside, it finally came back to its former milky-white color. After these trivial struggles, mystical patterns had started to appear on the surface of the Saint Spiritual Stove.
It evolved, the Saint Spiritual Stove evolved! Long Hao Chen immediately discovered something. It wasn’t only the Saint Spiritual Stove that evolved, but he could also clearly see that a soft gold-colored liquid
was revolving around this Saint Spiritual Stove. As surprising as it could seem, it was liquid spiritual energy.
In the past, when he used [Storing Power] for his cultivation training, liquid spiritual energy had also appeared, but at that time, as long as he let [Storing Power] fade, this spiritual energy would immediately regain its original state.
But now, things were different. In his body, around the Saint Spiritual Stove, what appeared was genuine liquid spiritual energy. Despite the fact that there were only something like a total of a hundred of these drops of liquid spiritual energy, with so many drops, wouldn’t he be back to his peak condition soon?
2000. My spiritual energy has definitely already broken through the 2000th level! The fifth step! I am now an Earth Knight!
A dim-witted smile appeared on Long Hao Chen’s face. How could he not be excited? He reached the fifth step at 14 years old! This was something completely inconceivable! What he needed now was to recover completely his spiritual energy. Recovering the 2000 units of liquid spiritual energy will make him be at a totally different level.
Yang Wenzhao, the next time we meet, I will really have the strength to challenge you.
On the following days, Long Hao Chen was deeply immersed in his cultivation, transforming like a sort of chrysalis. These short few days were enough to make astonishing changes take place within him.
Alliance’s government palace.
Just like Holy City, the Alliance’s government palace was a building that belonged to the Six Great Temples, the core location for making important decisions.
The Demon Hunt Selection was of the utmost importance for the Temple Alliance. Three days later, the qualifiers would end. The sixty most
outstanding youths were about to compete together. It signified that the Temple Alliance would have ten new Demon Hunt Squads, pouring fresh blood into the Demon Hunt Squads.
Chapter 109
Today was the day of drawing lots for the final stage of the competition. The 60 competitors would be divided into six groups through lots, and a round-robin tournament was going to take place within these six groups.
In other words, within each group, each competitor will undergo nine matches. This way, not only would the possibility of winning by chance decrease, but it would also enable these youths to further increase their combat experience. Then, the best two of each group and four of the six people who ended up third, the ones with the better performances, would enter the top 16, and would participate in a knock-out competition.
This final stage was going to be even longer, but one had to firmly remember that, unlike the preliminaries where there were almost no rewards, during the final stage, there were three spiritual stoves as rewards! To anyone, regardless of his vocation, the meaning of a spiritual stove was great!
During the qualifiers, because matches took place among members of the same temple, the matches would be rather peaceful, but during this final stage, the competitors would try to get rid of their opponent by all means. To fight over these three spiritual stoves, they wouldn’t show the slightest bit of restriction.
The Alliance’s office palace had a dozen of staff members checking each and every competitor’s identities.
During the final stage of the competition, the competitors’ teachers were not authorized to look after them anymore. The Demon Hunt Squads were a
secret with a very high status within the Alliance. As such, they were kept strictly confidential, even if it was involving new recruits.
The report time only lasted half an hour, and if it was missed, the opportunity to participate in the finals was lost. The Alliance was extremely strict in regard to time, because if a powerhouse didn’t even have the notion of punctuality, he would be quite likely to make big blunders in his future.
“Haha, we are going to participate the final stage. I’m really full of expectations!” A candid laugh erupted loudly. Two people were headed to the office palace, a male and a female.
The female was wearing a red armor, and was quite tall. Her lovable body was completely covered by her armor, making her look extremely valiant and formidable. Her red hair was loosened at the back of her head and she didn’t wear a helmet. Her face was a quite moving scene to behold: her gracious appearance was quite impressive, and made the degree of cultivation of her internal spiritual energy seemingly come out.
But the youth beside her stuck out even more. Compared to this female, the youth looked slightly shorter, with black hair draping over the back of his head. His limpid golden eyes were faintly shaped like a revolving halo. His handsome and refined appearance was even more impressive than the girl by his side. His pupils looked gentle and ordinary, and from beginning to end, his face was brimming with a faint smile. No matter how one looked at him, they would only see a harmless little cute boy.
Once they arrived at the door of the office palace, these two youths immediately met the staff. In order not to waste the fighting strength of the Six Great Temples, these external officers in service were ordinary people that were hired and didn’t belong to any of the six great vocations.
“Did you two come to participate in the final stage? Show me the number plate you have been given at the beginning of the competition.” This young staff had a respectful attitude toward them. It was because he knew that if they could enter the final stage of the Demon Hunt Selection, within the youngest generation of youths of the Alliance, they would have an excellent future.
This boy and this girl’s
“Knight Temple, Long Hao Chen, Li Xin. Please come with me, both of you.”
This boy and this girl were precisely Long Hao Chen and Li Xin, brother and sister who came together.
Suddenly, at this very moment, a pleasantly surprised voice sounded from their back, “Wait! Wait! Wait for me!” With a friendly voice, a clumsy-looking man rushed to their side.
Long Hao Chen and Li Xin turned around, suddenly seeing a familiar handsome face. Deep green hair was draped over his shoulder and swayed past it. With a single movement, he would definitely make people mistake his gender.
Wearing a white mage gown, he still had the same outstanding appearance, and looked even more overjoyed than Long Hao Chen.
“Lin Xin?” Long Hao Chen gave him an astonished look.
Lin Xin laughed and said, “Apparently, my choice to bet on you was the right one! Your luck is really correct, I didn’t expect both of you to really manage to get past the preliminaries. Wah, Sis Li Xin, you are even more beautiful than before, this light armor really does give you a vigorous appearance. Hey, if you seize a place in the top three, how about choosing me? I’ll be supplying you pills.”
Li Xin fell in laughter, and answered, “Do you really believe it is possible for me to seize a place in the top three? Hurry up to report your presence, and let’s enter together.”
Towards Lin Xin, Long Hao Chen immediately had a good impression as soon as he saw him. If not for his encounter with him, he wouldn’t have found the orb that seemed so important to Hao Yue. In addition, the pills that Lin Xin gave him were really outstanding, for what they cost him.
Without the bottle of Spiritual Gathering Pills, Long Hao Chen couldn’t have broken through the fifth step so quickly.
Upon hearing Li Xin’s words, Lin Xin hurried to nod in approval, and took out his number plate before handing it to the staff member. These staff members clearly become astonished upon discovering his plate number, giving him an even more respectful look than the one they gave to Long Hao Chen and Li Xin.
“Mage Temple, Lin Xin. You three, please come with me.”
The three youths entered with the staff members, and Long Hao Chen said with a pleased expression, “Brother Lin is indeed powerful, your qualifiers must have gone without a hitch haven’t they?”
Lin Xin proudly answered, “It was okay. Luckily, I ended up as the first competitor in the ranking of these qualifiers.”
First of the qualifiers? Long Hao Chen and Li Xin looked at each other in dismay, completely astonished. They had experienced the qualifiers, so they naturally knew how intense they were. The number of people competing within the Mage Temple weren’t as numerous as in the Knight Temple, but the viciousness of their competition wasn’t a joke.
Lin Xin unexpectedly obtained the first place of these qualifiers. How strong could he be? At least, he was also at the fifth step. It looked like Teacher’s guess wasn’t wrong. What an amazing person!
Long Hao Chen gave him a bewildered look, and said, unconvinced, “Since Brother Lin is so strong, I’m afraid that in the finals, you will be more likely than me to enter the top three.”
Lin Xin shook his head, replying, “Not sure, not sure. The final stage is different from the qualifiers; actually, luck will be quite important.” Hearing Long Hao Chen’s words, he gave a reply that wasn’t completely foolish. If the final stage was like the qualifiers, and he could end up easily entering the top three, wouldn’t he be able to choose the most powerful
partner available for his squad? Choosing a partner by himself was of course the most preferable choice possible.
As they were discussing, they had already arrived inside the Alliance’s office palace. Before a wide arched door, serving staff were standing, making a welcoming motion.
Once the door was opened, they saw that there were two warriors included inside, in a wide hall.
This hall was circular-shaped, a 1.65 meter high terrace stood above, with countless chairs arranged circularly. It seemed that roughly 500 people could be accommodated at the same time.
An enormous crystal-clear chandelier hung down from the roof, illuminating the whole hall.
Lin Xin said in a low voice, “This is the little official business hall of the Alliance’s office palace. Today, it should be here that we’ll draw lots.”
Li Xin gave him an unconvinced look, and spoke back, “Are you familiar with this place?”
Lin Xin chuckled, “I have come a few times in the past.”
Long Hao Chen and Li Xin exchanged a glance, finding this friend Lin even more mysterious than before.
At the same time, within the official business hall, several other people arrived. Long Hao Chen unconsciously looked around, and quickly, he came to see Yang Wenzhao. Similarly, Yang Wenzhao also saw him.
Compared to when the qualifiers took place, Yang Wenzhao’s face was a lot paler, and as soon as he saw Long Hao Chen, his complexion changed completely as he displayed a look clearly filled with hostility.
Eh? What’s up with him? His complexion didn’t look very good! Long Hao Chen was secretly thinking this, and moreover, the fighting spirit in him rose consequently; if he had the opportunity to have Yang Wenzhao as
his opponent once again, he would definitely challenge him another time. With the experience of the previous combat, Long Hao Chen knew where he was lacking. Teacher was right, why did I just fight him head-on? Can it be that I am just too lacking in terms of technique?
Quickly, he saw another familiar person. Not far ahead, a huge bald head was sparkling because of the crystal clear lighting that shone upon it. Wasn’t it that Sima Xian?
So he also made it past the qualifiers! Recalling his grotesque fighting style, Long Hao Chen couldn’t help but reveal a smile. It was a priest that couldn’t heal!
“Du, du, du.” Hearing a familiar sound behind him, Long Hao Chen had a conditioned reflex and turned around.
It wasn’t only him; but in the whole official business hall, there were at least ten pair of eyes that simultaneously turned around. And the overwhelming majority were people from the Assassin Temple. They wore a black veil that covered their faces, but their -word for expression of eyes- couldn’t conceal their reverent looks.
Yang Wenzhao simultaneously heard this sound that made everyone who recognized it look sluggish. It was her, it was her, IT WAS HER!
Yang Wenzhao didn’t know why the Knight Temple left this matter unpunished; he himself didn’t go to request his grandfather’s help. This loss was a shame for him, so he wanted to get back at her with his own capabilities. Only, as soon as he saw Cai’er again in this place, his heart became incomparably shaken.
The fact she could appear here implied that she was also a participant of the Demon Hunt Selection. As such, her age was definitely below 25 years old.
Recalling their battle of the other day, Yang Wenzhao couldn’t help but sweat; the wounds on his body were already completely healed, but he felt
as if his wounds suddenly started to ache. Cai’er’s tyrannical attack had left an unerasable mark in the depth of his mind.
At this very moment, he saw Long Hao Chen’s reaction upon seeing this blind girl using a blue-colored bamboo staff.
“Cai’er, you really came!” Long Hao Chen took quick steps forward. Having not seen her for several days, upon hearing this familiar noise coming from the bamboo cane, he could only feel as if something had been set free in his heart. Almost without a single hesitation, he suddenly took her hand.
The blue bamboo cane hitting the ground, Cai’er looked back slightly, before avoiding Long Hao Chen’s hand and with an extremely shy voice, she sensitively said in his ear, “You know, there are many people here.”
Long Hao Chen felt somewhat awkward as he shook his head, “Sorry, I… Shall we start by sitting on the side?” As he spoke, he didn’t take Cai’er’s hand this time, but still grabbed her blue bamboo cane and walked with her forward to find a place to sit in this direction.
Yang Wenzhao looked at their direction. His heart was completely filled with grief and indignation, naturally directed toward this stinking little brat. What an absurd calamity!
The assassins from the Assassin Temple didn’t think the same way as him though; their eyes filled with grotesque looks were staring at him. It seemed that he was a knight! What kind of relationship did he have with big sister #1? Despite the fact that Cai’er was only ranked 10th at the qualifiers, all the assassins that went through this trial were filled with something akin to worship towards her!
Chapter 110
Long Hao Chen grabbed Cai’er’s bamboo cane and came back to sit at the location where he was previously seated, letting her sit on the vacant place next to Li Xin, and helping Cai’er to sit there.
Lin Xin was quite curious; after all, he hadn’t known Long Hao Chen for a long time, but Li Xin appeared completely astonished.
“Lil’ bro, this person is?” Long Hao Chen started to blush, as he replied,
“This is Cai’er, Sis, she’s my friend.”
Li Xin looked at him, before looking at Cai’er, before her face started to display a grotesque smile, “Hehe, so she’s your little girlfriend. Lady Cai’er, hello, I am Li Xin, Hao Chen’s sworn big sister.”
“Hello.” Cai’er said in a low voice, but kept silent after saying this.
Long Hao Chen said in a low voice to her ear, “Cai’er, you came to participate to the competition as well?”
“Mh.” Cai’er nodded in approval.
Long Hao Chen couldn’t help but immediately tell her, “But you have never told me about that before.”
Cai’er spoke back, “You also never asked for which purpose I came to Holy City.”
Long Hao Chen scratched his head. Yeah, it seemed that he had never asked her before.
Li Xin said, “Lady Cai’er, seeing your black mask, you should be from the Assassin Temple, right?”
Cai’er calmly nodded. On the side, Lin Xin was also astonished, a blind assassin? But as far as he knew, it didn’t seem very convincing. Naturally, he didn’t voice his opinion to stay polite; even though he was astonished, he still didn’t raise the question.
In the second floor of the official business hall, several black-clad people wearing black veils looked down; from their grey hair, it could be seen that they weren’t young anymore.
“So it’s this little youngster? How did he get familiar with the Saint Girl?” A black-clad elder couldn’t help but ask.
“It is unknown. From our investigation, it seems that the Saint Girl didn’t know this person in the past.”
“Didn’t know? How could someone she didn’t know get her to wound the grandson of the Yang old man from the Knight Temple? Hey, you from the falcon clan, make sure to investigate this, okay? ”
“Old Ying, don’t get angry. You should know the temperament of this Saint Girl and her perception. She doesn’t like to be monitored by us.”
“Hmpf.” Standing in the center of this hall was a black-clad elder who was also the vice hall master of the Assassin Temple, the heroic and magnificent master Ying Suifeng. No matter how he looked at him, he didn’t see Long Hao Chen favorably. He dared “use” the Saint Daughter of Samsara. It was lucky that this old object, Han Qian, was the one who was sent to complain to me. But the one to complain should be me. Someone from their Knight Temple dared “use” our Cai’er. The more Ying Suifeng thought about this, the more he became angry. His eyes couldn’t help but become filled with an intense murderous spirit. As Cai’er was currently below, joyously chatting with Long Hao Chen, the latter felt a shiver covering his whole body, and instantly, the blood in his body rose up. A strong golden light instantly bursted forth from his body, instantly spreading
out, and turning out extremely condensed. Above Long Hao Chen’s head, a faint condensed golden shape of sword appeared, “Ehh?”
Ying Suifeng, completely astonished, said in a low voice, “Fifth step?
Not fourth? Old Eagle, how did you conduct your investigation? ”
“Huh? But the information saying that he’s at the fourth step cannot be wrong!” The elders standing by his side had looks full of doubts, “Unless… Unless he broke through during these last days.” Ying Suifeng instantly appeared to be in a bad mood: “What should I do? Tell me what I should do? This little brat from your Knight Temple wants to ab… to abduct our Cai’er!” He almost let the two words ‘Saint Girl’ slip out.
Han Qian said, full of anger, “What ‘abduct’? They both mutually consent. It is visibly a love that rose by itself, do you understand?”
Ying Suifeng didn’t weaken the slightest bit, as he continued, still as angry, “Love that rose by itself, my ass! Our Cai’er is only 14 years-old, your Long Hao Chen is clearly an old cow eating light grass!”
Han Qian said in fury: “Your ass filled with farts, you mean! You’re the one who should be called old cow eating light grass! Our Long Hao Chen is still 14 years old this year, he’s at most older than her by a few months.”
“What?! Still 14 years-old!?”
A faint smile appeared in Ying Suifeng’s face, “A knight of the fifth step aged of 14 years-old, this is really terrible.”
Han Qian clenched his fist aggressively, because Ying Suifeng suddenly released towards Long Hao Chen some murderous intent; Han Qian was still extremely resentful towards the Assassin Temple for having wounded a youth with high status. If Long Hao Chen was the issue, the relation that had been built for so many years between the two Temples could really be destabilized to some extent. But Ying Suifeng didn’t expect what he said right afterwards, “My mistake, he’s 24 years-old.”
Han Qian immediately calmed down and together with his anger vanishing, he calmly said this. Ying Suifeng stepped forward, and with a loud laugh, he patted his shoulder, “Right, 24 years-old, I understand, I understand. Now tell me the truth, from your mouth to my ear. After all, what’s our relation? I will definitely keep that information confidential. Just like you will as well keep secrecy for us. Isn’t this a good way to keep our two Temples in a familiar relationship?”
Han Qian was at this moment in an internal struggle. Looking at Ying Suifeng with a gloomy face, he coldly snorted.
“You two old bastards are ganging up, what kind of shameful act are you preparing together?” At this very moment, an elderly voice resounded. This elder had a gold-colored gown, his doubtful face looked at these two people standing out. Han Qian lifted up his hand, scattering isolating light, “It’s nothing, Ying Suifeng is just having spasms, I am keeping an eye on him.”
Ying Suifeng conveniently nodded in agreement, seemingly in a good mood, “That’s right, I just had a spasm, but it’s already all right. Old man Lin, the drawing of lots is about to start. I heard that this youngster from your family entered these finals as well, right?”
The complexion of this old mage instantly changed, “Humpf, don’t bring up this little bastard, just thinking of him makes me angry.”
Ying Suifeng almost fell over laughing, and said, “Calm yourself down. Actually, aren’t you extremely proud of him? Isn’t this grandson of yours with great attainments in alchemy a great source of admiration within your Temple?”
The old mage opened wide his eyes, and replied, “This little bastard’s accomplishment in regard to alchemy are pretty good, but he doesn’t even know himself for which reason he wants to join a Demon Hunt Squad.”
Han Qian said, “It’s still a lot better than this little brat from my family; arrogant beyond limits, but cannot even pass the preliminaries.”
“Eh? Didn’t that youngster Han Yu break through the fifth step? Then how is it that he couldn’t even get through these preliminaries?”
The old mage looked extremely curious, but he didn’t even conceal the mocking face he wore, “Lin Chen, old fool, is it fun to laugh on other people’s misfortune? Humph!”
Han Qian suddenly became in a bad mood. Lin Chen had a good laughter, before speaking back, “How could I be laughing on other people’s misfortune? I just thought that my family’s little bastard was only a source of loss of face, but it turns out that the one from yours is also the same. This makes me really feel at ease; at least, my family’s brat got through these qualifiers.”
“You…” Han Qian cast an angry look at Lin Chen, “What’s up with you? Are you looking for a fight? Then come! I’m the closest to break through the ninth step, after having studied a forbidden spell as a mean to train. It’s still not completed yet, but I can take on you to try you out, if it’s what you want.” Lin Chen didn’t have the slightest hitch of fear.
“Okay, okay. You two, don’t start a cock fight as soon as you run into each other. Are you okay with being treated as laughstocks by the others?” A soft female voice resounded, and a middle-aged woman wearing a white gown slowly approached. Her golden hair draped over her shoulder from behind, and white embroideries covered with golden advanced mystical characters were drawn. She wasn’t young anymore, but her charm and her beautiful traits were still left. Looking at her, Han Qian and Lin Chen became sluggish. Each party groaned before shutting up. Ying Suifeng faintly smiled, nodded at this woman dressed with a white gown, and said, “Greetings, Cardinal Ruoshui.”
Anyone who could hear how she was addressed as would definitely be shocked. This white gowned woman who looked in her forties was actually a Cardinal from the Priest Temple, the eighth step of the vocation! And looking at Han Qian and Lin Chen’s behaviour, it was clear that they were giving her face. Ruishui nodded, wearing a smile, as she said, in return, “Greetings, Hall Master Ying”
With a light sigh, she went on, “About the situation you were speaking about, during the qualifiers, a little freak has also appeared in our Priest Temple.”
“Eh?” The other three people simultaneously looked down. The Six Great Temples had a competitive relation, and the Demon Hunt Selections were one of the several means through which they competed among themselves. As such, the qualifiers of the other Temples were something they didn’t keep track of. Currently, Ruoshui looked like she was having a headache. Naturally, the others were quite curious. Ruoshui sighed lightly, before saying, “During the next qualifiers, I am afraid that we’ll have to change the rules of this competition.”, At the same time as she spoke, her gaze was directed at the bald guy below.
In the official business hall, Long Hao Chen’s sudden use of his holy light attracted the attention of all the other competitors. However, this previous murderous intent had quickly disappeared, so Long Hao Chen quickly came back to his normal state. Only, at his back, some cold sweat was left. Cai’er’s look was filled with hostility; as previously, Long Hao Chen had felt that intense murderous intent. Her left hand had already been lifted up, but right after it disappeared, she quietly lowered her hand.
“What’s going on?” Li Xin suspiciously asked this question. Long Hao Chen shook his head, and answered, “Shame on me, for a split second, I thought I felt someone’s attention focused on me, filled with an intense murderous intent.”
Lin Xin’s face looked indifferent as he answered,”Never mind, it’s those people who are testing you, do you see them? On the second floor, the high uppers of the Six Great Temples are attending a ritual before the drawings of lots. What you felt definitely came from the direction of these bored old guys. After all, who would dare cause trouble in our Alliance’s office palace?”
Just at that time, an elder wearing a thin-gold-colored armor appeared on the terrace of the official business hall.
This elder had a tall and sturdy stature, and felt even sturdier than the bald youth. His grizzled short hair were erected, and despite his age, he didn’t look the slightest bit loosened. His muscles, as robust as granite, were covered by an imposing armor. This thin-golden-colored armor was embroidered with eight silver dragons, and his gaze was filled with an incredible prestige. As he appeared, his imposing presence naturally attracted the attention of all the competitors that were currently present.