Chapter 361
In front of absolute strength, everything was futile. The auction hall that was pierced by the power of light, which now had a large hole in the roof, immediately fell silent, and the contestants dejectedly left fast. No one dared to linger around.
Although a lot of people were dejected from that last incident, after the auction, the Alliance’s Great Auction House undoubtedly gained even more in prestige.
The first item presented in the auction was the magical crystal belonging to a Devil Dragon, but the last one they had kept in reserve was the Aria of the Goddess of Light. What item would be more desirable than that? Perhaps this was a piece of Legendary Tier equipment that would not necessarily be above a Devil Dragon crystal in utility, but its fame was far beyond any Devil Dragon crystal. Someone recognized as the master of this divine sword would at least become an honored guest of the Warrior Temple.
Ye Weiyang and Feng Ling’er were the last to leave the Great Auction Hall, and Ye Weiyang told Feng Ling’er to have a rest first, as she headed to a room in the rear of the second floor.
The door was tapped twice, “Senior, it’s me.”
“Please enter.”, came the answer in a downcast voice. It was exactly the person who shocked all the contestants with his might earlier.
“Yes.” Ye Weiyang pushed the door open and entered.
In the luxurious room stood a person, with his back turned towards the door of the room. This person was tall and clad in black, and didn’t turn around just because of Ye Weiyang’s arrival.
“Thank you, you did very well.” The downcast voice sounded quite sad. Ye Weiyang lightly shook her head, letting tears stream down her cheeks,
“I should be the one to thank you senior. With your assistance, the divine sword of my ancestor finally reappeared in the human world. He told me his name is Long Haochen.”
“Oh. If it’s him, he will lead the divine sword into a bright future, and perhaps even surpass your ancestor.”
“Oh?”
The black-clad man said in calm voice, “You will see in the future. He broke through to the sixth step at merely fifteen years of age. This is one year earlier than Ancestor. In the future, perhaps all the records that exist in the Alliance will be broken by him.”
Long Haochen didn’t know of this mysterious driving force backing the auctions of this time. After leaving the Alliance’s Great Auction House, he immediately removed his mask. Naturally, he wasn’t afraid of anyone recognizing him as the youth who just gained the approval of the Aria of the Goddess of Light.
Quickly, everyone from the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad met outside of the auction house.
“Captain, you…” Lin Xin rushed towards him with some excitement. Having just had a thought, he was however stopped from speaking with a gesture from Long Haochen.
“Let’s speak about this after heading back.” Long Haochen made a gesture to the others who hurried to leave, directly heading to the area of the villas belonging to the Demon Hunt Squads.
It could be said that this time, the results were extremely pleasing. Not only did Wang Yuanyuan obtain the spatial crystal she yearned for, and Lin Xin obtained quite a few good things for a good price. The amount of gold coins he used up wasn’t high, and more importantly, Long Haochen undid the seal on the Aria of the Goddess of Light, making it acknowledge him as its master. Even if its uniqueness and the soul of this divine sword weren’t considered, the weapon was at the peak of the Legendary Tier, leaving them greatly pleased.
As the captain and the soul of the team, the fact that Long Haochen obtained such a weapon would raise the battle strength of the whole team.
Returning to the villa, Lin Xin impatiently yelled, “Boss, hurry up to show us your divine sword.”
With a nod, Long Haochen outstretched his right hand. To everyone’s shock, it turned brilliant gold, just as if he had put on a glove, but this glove was completely fused with his hand. Emerging out from his palm, was a small round gem in dim gold. It was precisely the spiritual bead originally placed on the tip of the Aria of the Goddess of Light.
Long Haochen remarked, “This godly sword cannot be stored in the Eternal Melody. This seems to be due to its own pride. However, it can make its way into my hand, and I seem to be able to sense its power under those circumstances.”
Saying that, he lifted up his right hand. With a flash of golden light, the dazzling Aria of the Goddess of Light appeared once again before their eyes.
If it was only in terms of demeanor, this godly sword would be inferior to Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light. However, the aura released from it made completely up for that. While it reached a terrifying length of two meters, its blade also reached an extreme width of a third of a meter.
Without a doubt, if this godly sword were to appear on the battlefield, it would simply be a weapon of slaughter.
Long Haochen gave his sword an affectionate look. He really became fond of it, to the extent that his excitement from getting it even surpassed the reaction he had at the time he obtained Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light.
Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light was obtained through a trial, so he could be said to have subdued it, but this godly sword actually acknowledged him.
More importantly, Long Haochen cared about the glorious prestige of this sword’s past. In his heart appeared a certain urge to use it.
“I won’t let you remain in the darkness. I will let you shine with the same brilliance as back in the times the divine holy sword wielder Ancestor Ye roamed the whole continent.”
As if understanding Long Haochen’s words, Aria of the Goddess of Light made another buzzing sound.
The bright light of the sword vanished, and returned into Long Haochen’s right hand, whose palm turned golden again.
Long Haochen turned around, looking at his comrades, “Everyone should rest for today. Tomorrow, we’ll go and raise our grade in the Demon Hunt Squads’ Mission Tower. Then, we’ll try to find Legendary Tier Equipment for everyone as fast as possible, before getting some training in the Tower of Eternity and proceeding with our journey.”
This simple instruction explained all his future plans. After getting promoted to the commander grade, they would be able to head to the third floor of the Demon Hunt Squads’ Transaction Center to buy some Legendary Tier Equipment. After changing to new equipment, and returning to the Tower of Eternity to continue their training to increase their group’s battle strength, they could return to complete missions as a Demon Hunt Squad.
“Lin Xin, can you please go back to the Alliance’s Great Auction House tomorrow and offer one of our remaining Devil Dragon Crystals to lady Ye Wushang? Just tell her it’s a little something from me to make up to her.”
“Okay.” Although Lin Xin was a stingy person, he clearly knew about accounts; giving a dragon crystal for the Aria of the Goddess of Light was no loss for their side.
day, Demon Hunt Squads’ Mission Tower.
Demon Hunt Squads of different grades would come to accept different missions in the Mission Tower. When a Demon Hunt Squad wanted to get promoted to a higher rank, their members would have to apply for the upgrade at this place, and undergo a test initiated by the mission tower.
On the second floor of the Demon Hunt Squads’ Mission Tower arrived a group of youths, totalling seven people, who proceeded on their way after showing their tile as general grade Demon Hunt Squad.
The staff members behind the six counters stood at the same time, giving these youths respectful looks.
Ever since the problems about the mission ‘Exploring the Desolate Hissing Cavern’, the Alliance firmly cleaned the ranks of the staff members working in the Demon Hunt Mission Tower. And with the direct execution of the previous coordinator, the current staff members working there were not only a lot more prudent, but also showed a much better attitude. This was especially the case on the second floor.
“Excuse me, can we know the procedure to raise our rank to the commander grade?” This group of youngsters was led by a very handsome person. He looked like someone who came out of a painting, with his black hair draped over his shoulders, and his eyes of a limpid golden color. Even with a mere glance, his image would easily leave a deep impression.
The youth who asked this question was Long Haochen, and at his side were the others from the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad.
Long Haochen directly addressed the staff member behind a counter. In this place, there were only six counters, and six staff members to manage them.
“You want to rise to the commander grade?” The staff member was startled, but continued, “Respectable Demon Hunters, raising your rank to the commander grade requires all the members to have broken through to the sixth step of cultivation, and to pay a hundred thousand contribution points. Additionally, your squad has to undergo a test. Are you sure you want to proceed?”
Long Haochen nodded, “I am sure. But just what is this test about?”
This staff member appeared very patient, “Due to the fact that the missions increase marginally in difficulty after gaining a grade, the Alliance created a certain test for the sake of the Demon Hunters’ safety. Thus, at the time you want to raise your grade, you will need to pass this test, and only by succeeding can you indeed accept higher missions after advancing in rank. Of course, the contribution points required to rise to the next grade are only paid once. Even if you cannot pass the test now, you can try it again after raising your strength.”
Long Haochen nodded, “Okay. Then we want to take the test to rise to the commander grade.” The need for a test to ascend in rank was the t Alliance’s way to take responsibility for them, so they naturally had to go along with that. Demon Hunters always strived to pass missions of a high level of danger, but without sufficient strength this could easily result in their death.
“Okay. Then please wait a moment. I will ask you to pay 100,000 contribution points first.”
Without being told by Long Haochen Lin Xin stepped forward, and transferred 100,000 contribution points to that staff member. The staff member took out a form to be filled by Long Haochen, before leaving in hurry to inform the staff for the test.
The form was very simple. It only encompassed gaps where the team members had to fill in their names, strength, and original Demon Hunt Squad number.
Long Haochen filled the form this way.
21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad.
Captain: Long Haochen, Radiant Guardian Knight of the sixth step, internal spiritual energy 7,000 units.
Vice-captain: Cai’er, Stealth Master of the sixth step, internal spiritual energy 5,000 units.
Member: Wang Yuanyuan, War Ancestor of the sixth step, internal spiritual energy 5,000 units.
Member: Sima Xian, Red Cardinal of the sixth step, internal spiritual energy 5,000 units.
Member: Lin Xin, Magic Conductor of the sixth step, internal spiritual energy 5,000 units.
Member: Chen Ying’er, Beast Master of the sixth step, internal spiritual energy 5,000 units.
Retainer knight of Captain Long Haochen: Han Yu, Radiant Knight of the sixth step, internal spiritual energy 5,000 units.
When Sima Xian wrote the words Red Cardinal while filling the form, Long Haochen unconsciously looked at this Red Cardinal focussed on brute strength, and helplessly shook his head.
The staff member didn’t leave for a long time. As he returned, he glanced at the form filled by Long Haochen. After a mere glance, he lost his voice, “You are the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad?”
Chapter 362
Long Haochen gave him a doubtful look, “What? Is there any problem?”
“No, nothing.” The staff member clearly stuttered at the time he spoke, gulping his saliva. Formerly, they were the ones who raised an upsurge in the mission tower. And given how young they looked, let alone reaching the commander grade, the fact that they were a general grade Demon Hunt Squad was already extremely shocking.
However, he quickly welcomed the members of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad. This staff members didn’t dare ask about their circumstances, and only said respectfully, “Please follow me to the Alliance’s Great Stadium. I have already notified the Demon Hunt Squad inspection team. Your test will be conducted in the Warrior Temple’s Stadium.”
“Understood, thank you.”
The Alliance’s Great Stadium wasn’t far away from the Demon Hunt Squads’ Mission Tower. Rapidly, everyone arrived at the test grounds.
The serviceman from the Alliance hadn’t told them that the ones in charge for testing were already there. And furthermore, they were actually a group of six. From their equipment, it could be seen that they each came from their respective Temples, and all looked to be around thirty or forty years old.
Seeing the group of seven led by the staff member enter the stadium, these six examiners couldn’t help but exchange looks, displaying some great surprise.
They… They are just too young. Could it be that they mistook this location with the place of promotion from the soldier grade?
However, when the staff members showed the knight examiner the papers Long Haochen’s group just filled before, they understood that there was no mistake, and that they were really prepared to pass the test to rise to the commander grade. However, just how old were they? It didn’t even look like any of them reached twenty-five years of age yet.
That staff member from the Demon Hunt Squads’ Mission Tower rapidly retreated after delivering the form. He was going to act as supervisor.
Although they still felt doubtful, there was nothing these examiners could say. After all, the form Long Haochen’s group filled out was very clear. According to their respective cultivation, these youngsters indeed had the strength to take the test for a promotion.
Long Haochen strode forward, arriving before the six examiners. Placing his right fist on his chest, he gave a standard knight salute, “Examiners, Captain of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad Long Haochen reports.”
The knight examiner leading the other group also gave a knight salute, “Hello, I am the knight that will be assessing you this time. Every Demon Hunt Squad needs to undergo our trial to get promoted. The contents of the test will be explained soon, but first of all, we need to check the accuracy of your spiritual energy values. Then, we will be able to start the test of strength.
Everyone will need to pass the test for the team to get promoted. Have you made your preparations?”
Long Haochen gave a respectful reply, “Reporting, all the members of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad are ready.”
The knight examiner gave a nod, “Okay, then let’s undergo the test of spiritual energy. If everything written on this form is accurate, every one of you should be at the sixth step. Be prepared for individual tests right after that.”
“Yes.”
The others all moved forward and lined up in a row. Every examiner handed them a water crystal used to estimate internal spiritual energy, and the first task for them was to release their spiritual wings before undergoing the test.
This was to avoid cheating. After all, some pills could temporarily increase internal spiritual energy, but they couldn’t fake the symbol of the sixth step, the spiritual wings.
Under the examiners’ shocked gazes, the seven of them immediately spread eight pairs of spiritual wings. Intense surges of elementary spiritual energy immediately filled the air in the Warrior Temple Stadium.
The others examiners were still better off. Although they saw that these youngsters were still young, to have dared to accept the test, they should have their own secrets. But the knight examiner was completely startled.
Han Yu’s spiritual wings were ordinary, only a bit larger than the spiritual wings of ordinary knights of the sixth step, which was a visible proof of his great talent. However, at the time Long Haochen released those four wings sparkling in resplendent light, this examiner was absolutely shocked, immediately becoming blank and speechless.
What… What kind of spiritual wings are those? Being a high ranked knight, he had seen uncountable quantities of spiritual energy in the past, but it was the first time he saw such odd wings, consisting of two pairs!
The crystal in Long Haochen’s hand also gave a strong impression. The final count of spiritual energy was 7,316 units, actually showing some visible reservations on his form.
The other examiners also watched him attentively. These four wings were indeed just a too rarely seen thing.
The knight examiner finally came back to his senses with difficulty,
“Long Haochen, what happened to your spiritual wings?”
Long Haochen gave a loud reply, “Examiner, I don’t know either. It is very possibly resulting from a variation of spiritual energy.”
Sima Xian at his side couldn’t help but cut his way in, “Examiner, our Captain just has a superior talent, thus naturally did not turn out the same way ordinary people do.”
A superior talent? The knight examiner let the corners of his mouth twitch. Wasn’t his superior talent just too tremendous? This odd situation had to be reported.
“Please wait a moment. Because of your particular spiritual wings, we will have to report your situation to the Alliance, but the others can already start their own tests.”
Long Haochen was also somewhat helpless, but his spiritual wings were something he couldn’t change. At the time of release, they inevitably came in two pairs.
“Okay.” The knight examiner hurriedly left. While the other examiners also felt really curious, the test had to go on. Since the knight examiner left, Long Haochen and Han Yu naturally could only watch the rest from afar. According to the sequential order, the first to be tested was Wang Yuanyuan.
The others temporarily withdrew from the stadium, only leaving Wang Yuanyuan and the examiner of the Warrior Temple inside.
This warrior examiner had a sturdy build, and an imposing stature. On his left hand was a shield and on his right hand a heavy sword. He wasn’t complacent against Wang Yuanyuan. Demon Hunters and ordinary people weren’t the same. With both sides at the sixth step, Demon Hunters would
at least be able to handle two or three ordinary opponents. Although Wang Yuanyuan was very young, this examiner was still extremely prudent.
“Are you prepared?” The warrior examiner asked Wang Yuanyuan.
Wang Yuanyuan replied, “Please wait.” Her spatial armor was neatly worn, and looking at it, the examiner was full of envy. The other party was also only at the sixth step, but already clad in a piece of equipment at the Glorious Tier, while even as an examiner, he had just a spiritual armor.
Bang. The Gigantic Divine Soul Shield suddenly fell to the ground, giving the warrior examiner quite a fright. This terrible shield was even larger than Wang Yuanyuan herself, and carried a domineering aura that was brazenly spread out.
Yet another piece of equipment at the Glorious Tier? The mouth of the warrior examiner twitched once again; being a Demon Hunter truly looks enviable.
While embedding her three spatial gems in the Gigantic Divine Soul Shield, Wang Yuanyuan asked the examiner, “Examiner, how do we pass the test?”
The examiner replied with an agonized expression, “We examiners are all approximately at the fifth rank of the sixth step. You will have to defeat us to pass the test.” Because of the shock from the sight of Long Haochen’s four wings, the examiners actually forgot to explain the contents of the test. Their cultivation of the fifth rank of the sixth step meant that they reached the standard of an internal spiritual energy that was above 6,600 units.
“Okay, then I’m ready now.” Wang Yuanyuan nodded.
Their conversation was heard by everyone close to the field, and Sima Xian bravely declared, “Eh, fifth rank of the sixth step. What a lack of pressure from them.”
Long Haochen shot him a glare, causing him to shut up. Nonetheless, the nearby examiners didn’t look disturbed at all. To be honest, you’re just
equipped a bit better, but the gap of spiritual energy isn’t something that equipment alone can bridge. But right as their mood was wavering, the battle on the other side started, or more accurately speaking, ended. With a glint of silvery light, it was over in one blow.
That’s right, from beginning to end, Wang Yuanyuan only used a single attack, and actually went to test the ability of her own spiritual stove. Her attack was simple: she instantly teleported through the Spiritual Stove of Spatial Gate, before arriving at the back of the warrior examiner and continued brazenly with Space Splitting Sauté. That warrior examiner only made it in time to use his shield to resist instinctively, but immediately, the shield was broken and the man sent flying, landing twenty meters away. He violently crashed to the ground and left a ravine on the ground of the Warrior Stadium. Just like that, the battle, no, the test was over.
Wang Yuanyuan was all the more surprised from this result, murmuring,
“Spiritual stoves are really of great use!”
The other four examiner instantly looked petrified. What was that? Just like that? And that female warrior, didn’t she just used instant teleportation? A warrior able to teleport instantly?
Han Yu was the first one to react, launching a healing spell on that examiner from the Warrior Temple.
In truth, Wang Yuanyuan’s strength didn’t present such a large gap with this warrior examiner. But the Spatial Gate was just of too great utility, not only accomplishing instant teleportation, but also perfectly concealing the fluctuations of spiritual energy coming from Wang Yuanyuan in the process. If not for the fact that that warrior examiner unconsciously turned around due to sensing the danger, the Space Splitting Sauté would have hit him directly.
As her own strength went up, Wang Yuanyuan began to be able to bring out more and more of the power of the Divine Soul Shield. In itself, Space Splitting Sauté was a powerful ability of the Divine Soul Shield, and caught off guard like that, even if this warrior examiner had a stronger spiritual energy than Wang Yuanyuan, he couldn’t resist that. Thus, he suffered such
a huge loss. Of course, he didn’t end up seriously wounded, since Wang Yuanyuan didn’t keep attacking. Dejected and depressed, warrior examiner crawled up from the ground, and actually gave a look devoid of good intentions to Wang Yuanyuan, declaring the words, “Examination passed”, before leaving with a gloomy complexion.
Wang Yuanyuan came back to her comrades, shrugging her shoulders to hint that she didn’t actually expect the Spiritual Stove of Spatial Gate to be of such great use.
Chapter 363
Chen Ying’er gave a thumbs up, and said with a laugh, “So cool!”
The four examiners were still in a state of shock, while on the side of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad, Cai’er slowly approached the center of the field.
The assassin examiner instantly narrowed his eyes. Being a veteran assassin, he could tell from Cai’er’s footsteps that this person wasn’t weak at all! And furthermore, the form had said that this person was their vice- captain.
The other three examiners nodded to the assassin examiner with energy, hinting that he had to recover their lost face.
The assassin examiner’s eyes were filled with a sharp glint, as he headed on the field with meticulous steps.
Cai’er’s hand flashed, and the green cane she used before appeared in her hand, before she indicated to that assassin examiner, “I am ready.”
The assassin felt enraged. Am I not being overly looked down at, to the point that she wants to handle me using this green rod?
Resisting the anger with difficulty, the examiner disappeared in a flash.
This was the greatest Assassin ability of the sixth step, Invisibility.
Although an assassin would only be able to erase his presence completely after reaching the eighth step, the simple ability of disappearing in this way would give him a substantial gain in strength.
Facing the vanished assassin, Cai’er stood there motionless, just the same as a rock.
Suddenly, a shadow flashed in the air, and two black flashes entwined like dragons, aiming at Cai’er’s head from above.
Right at this time, Cai’er made her move. Seemingly, her shoulder only swayed slightly, before the original Cai’er turned into six.
There were exactly six of her now, and the six looked just as real as the original. More frighteningly, the six Cai’ers were actually all moving differently, and six green rods stabbed at six different places on the ground.
“Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop…” Six sounds were heard almost instantly, and immediately afterwards, the figure of the assassin examiner appeared in midair, followed by an astounding scene. The six Cai’ers kept showing different movements, attacking from below as the six green canes formed a gapless net in the air.
Following next? The battle simply ended.
The back of the assassin examiner crashed violently to the ground as the six Cai’ers instantly merged into one. The green cane was pointed at his throat, before she immediately headed back towards her comrades.
The assassin examiner didn’t take his loss that hard. He rapidly stood up, but didn’t leave in such hurry as the warrior examiner, only asking eagerly, “Why is it that your Doppelganger divided into six versions of you? Even as a Stealth Master of the sixth step, I can only divide them into three myself? And there should be two fakes and a real one, but you… ”
Cai’er calmly replied, “I don’t have any obligation to tell you, and you cannot possibly accomplish the same.” At the time she said that, she already returned to Long Haochen’s side.
Lin Xin remarked in low voice, “Looks like her domineering side is being exposed once again!”
The examiners had even more unsightly expressions. Facing Demon Hunters who wanted to rise to the commander grade, being defeated was absolutely normal for them, but being defeated this fast wasn’t normal. And the opponents defeating them were far from their level of spiritual energy!
“Should be my turn.” After the tests for the three close quarter vocations, the mage should be the one following. But Lin Xin went as far as to advance with a happy and excited expression.
The mage examiner however didn’t have such a good look, and entered the stadium with a very alert expression.
At the time he saw the Fire Cloud Crystal in Lin Xin’s hand, his expression became unsightly. Mage equipment couldn’t be assessed easily by a mere glance, but the thickness of the elemental fluctuations coming out of Lin Xin’s staff already told a lot about how powerful it was. And it possessed a highly violent fire. This mage examiner had the sole thought, I cannot end up covered in soot!
As soon as Lin Xin said he was ready, this mage examiner rapidly used one defensive spell after another. Being of the wind element, he covered himself with green barriers and relied on his spiritual wings to soar in the sky. In the air, wind mages were the most agile of all.
To be frank, given how fast the last two tests concluded, it truly gave him a fright. The reason was principally the surprise of the Spiritual Stove of Spatial Gate belonging to Wang Yuanyuan, and the exceptional power of Cai’er’s Doppelgangers. Although the final result from fusing three spiritual stoves was only a boost of the Spiritual Stove of Samsara, this was after all a fusion between three spiritual stoves! With the addition of her great natural advantage in talent, she managed to create six clones, each possessing their own offensive capabilities. This was how the two of them were wronged in such way, but if they had been focused on defense, they would inevitably have at least put up a fight.
This mage examiner learned from the past lessons and was prepared to fight steadily and surely, at least to recover some face. However, the opponent he faced was Lin Xin, the mage unable to use any offensive
magic. Seeing him being that defensive, Lin Xin was rejoicing. Lifting the Fire Cloud Crystal high, he started some chant. Soon, an intense fire elemental essence condensed frantically above his staff, giving off the false appearance of a mage about to use a powerful spell. And the mage examiner kept launching defensive spell after defensive spell, attempting to stop Lin Xin’s first round of attacks.
How could he know that Lin Xin actually wasn’t chanting any incantation, but only kept pouring magical power in his staff, preparing to launch a Fire Curse.
When an immense skull made of blue flames appeared, directly shooting towards the examiner, his only thought was to turn his head and run away.
After accumulating 5,000 units of spiritual energy in addition to the original amplification rate from Fire Curse, plus carrying the power of the fused Spiritual Stove, merged from the Heart of Flames and Spiritual Stove of Fire Phoenix, this thing was already something even a powerhouse of the seventh step wouldn’t dare to rashly meet head on. Moreover, Lin Xin gained a lot more compared for example with Wang Yuanyuan in the Illusory Paradise, or rather, was second to none in the team regarding the quantity of gains he got from there.
Finally, under Lin Xin’s control, the immense Fire Curse skull stopped in midair, and the mage examiner immediately admitted his defeat. Nonetheless, Lin Xin still overlooked something. After pouring almost all his spiritual energy into it, this thing was already uncontrollable, and finally, the Fire Curse exploded in the field. It’s huge explosive power struck both the mage examiner and Lin Xin, covering them in dirt from head to toes.
The three consecutive battles ended up as victories, and this gave a great boost to the morale of everyone from the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad. Following next, Sima Xian appeared on the field. He was their priest, their Red Cardinal.
Sima Xian’s opponent was the only female examiner. But when she saw the armored Sima Xian come to the field, her eyes filled with surprise.
“This is the priest test.” The female examiner reminded sternly.
Sima Xian’s Energetic Ball of Light wasn’t done being reforged, so that large staff from before was in his hand. Gesticulating, he declared, “But I am a priest! Didn’t you see my form and my answers? The Red Cardinal Sima Xian, that’s me!”
*giggles*, When Sima Xian said that, on the side of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad, everyone laughed simultaneously; even Long Haochen couldn’t help from doing so.
Lin Xin shifted his gaze, “What Red Cardinal? What I see is closer to a red butcher.”
Sima Xian gave them a glare, shamed into anger, before making gestures to the female examiner, using the staff in his hand, “Respected examiner, things are this way. I am a rather special priest, a rarely seen Discipline Priest. Have you heard about them?”
The priest examiner gave him a doubtful glance, “A Discipline Priest?
What’s that?”
Sima Xian replied in all earnesty, “That’s an individual in charge of control, responsible for the respect of the rules in the Priest Temple. Mh, bluntly put, that’s a priest adept in battling. Let’s do it this way. A normal fight of one against one between the two of us wouldn’t seem fair, so how about doing that: I’ll launch an attack from the air against you, and if you believe that you can block me, we’ll continue, but if you don’t think you can, let’s consider the test as passed.”
Saying that, he didn’t wait for the approval of the other side, and animatedly raised his staff.
Yes, Sima Xian’s spiritual stoves were fused, but he ended up being the most miserable one in the group at the time of the fusions, almost turned into barbecue. However, because of this, the overwhelming power of his fused spiritual stove was all the better.
Right then, after he lifted the staff in his hand, an intense light instantly flashed, and intense purple thunderbolts surrounded his staff. On Sima Xian’s chest, an intense purple radiance was lit, amplifying the color of his armor. His staff was moved to the side, and immediately afterwards, a golden bolt was sent flying.
But this wasn’t an ordinary bolt of lightning. Surrounding the light bolts were large amounts of thunder energy. Durng the flight of the bolts of light, that purple lightning appeared like a melted part of the golden bolt, turning it into completely purple gold, before…
Rumbles.
When the bolt of light landed on the ground, everyone felt their own body going numb, and in the center of the field, a three meter large hole appeared in everyone’s line of sight. This hole was over three meters deep, leaving everyone speechless from the sight of that destructive power.
More terrifyingly, around the current Sima Xian, purple golden bolts of light just like this one were revolving one after another, and they weren’t little in quantity. A total of nine bolts circled in the air. Each was fist-sized, but when his staff was lifted again, another bolt of light formed above his staff, gaining in size at an astounding speed.
“Okay, let’s say you passed.”
The female priest chose to admit defeat without hesitation. Was that a priest? Even if this female examiner was even gentler, she would still have the impulse of cursing him in this situation.
Therefore the fourth assessment was concluded.
“Wow Sima, you’re really a true priest…”
Chapter 364
Sima Xian returned to his comrades in complacency, shooting Lin Xin a glance, “See brother, this Spiritual Stove of Divine Purple Thunder isn’t bad. Hehe.”
Lin Xin replied with a snort, “It’s still inferior compared to my Spiritual Stove of Phoenix of Blue Flames.”
Sima Xian exceptionally didn’t retort, “Indeed, it cannot compare to your Phoenix of Blue Flames! Mh, Brother Lin, you see, I wondered, when you could introduce me to that girl…”
“Let’s talk about that later.”
Lin Xin didn’t find the name Phoenix of Flames eye-catching enough, thus he had added the word Blue. And after the fusion of Sima Xian’s two spiritual stoves, the final result was named Spiritual Stove of Divine Purple Thunder. And everyone saw the terrible offensive power of that stove. As for how to use it, even Sima Xian himself was still training in that aspect. The only sure thing was that the burst power of this spiritual stove was truly considerable, and it could be used to cause serious damage on the battlefield. The aftereffects also had a continuous flow, slowly turning this Red Cardinal into a red roasted pig.
The examiners gathered, looking at the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad, as if they were monsters. They were all at the sixth step, but how wide was the gap between them? Being all perspicacious people, they could perhaps not tell that Wang Yuanyuan and Cai’er’s power in battle came from spiritual stoves, but they could distinctly tell that the gap between Lin
Xin and Sima Xian’s abilities and their own was due to spiritual stoves. In particular, Sima Xian’s Spiritual Stove of Purple Divine Thunder was too special. Aside from their envy, the examiners felt only hateful toward the unfairness of fate.
Chen Ying’er animatedly approached with the little pig McDull in her arms, “Should be my turn, my turn.”
Seeing her like that, the examiner from the Spiritual Temple didn’t even move to the field, revealing a painful smile, “All right. There’s no need to keep assessing you. With the strength you just showed, even a veteran commander grade Demon Hunt Squad wouldn’t be comparable.
Let’s regard it as saying that you passed the test. After our last examiner comes back, we will just promote you to a Demon Hunt Squad of commander grade if he has no objection.”
Reaching this point, what else was there to test? Wouldn’t continuing the test just be the same as humiliating themselves? From Chen Ying’er’s expression, it could be seen that this person was also full of secrets. Their whole team was already more than strong enough to be qualified for the commander grade. As for that young knight? Given that this person was their captain and from the power of the members, could their captain be lacking?
Right at that time two knights clad in armor arrived, including the knight examiner from before. The other knight looked a bit younger, and was walking in the front, imposingly heading to the field.
Given the ability of each of the fields from the Alliance’s Great Stadiums to restore themselves, the traces left from the previous test had already all disappeared.
The knight examiner looked at everyone, and asked the other examiners,
“Didn’t I tell you to assess the others? Why did you stop?”
The mage examiner unhappily replied, “We are all finished. You’re the only one left: the others are all done being assessed.”
“So fast? Were you all defeated that quickly?” The knight examiner asked dumbstruck.
The other examiners didn’t answer his awkward question, giving him some supercilious looks before turning back.
The knight examiner recovered from his short time of shock, thinking secretly, That judgment was truly worthy of Sir Saint Knight Chief’s legendary reputation! From their looks, it’s only my luck that I am not the one assessing this knight. The others clearly suffered great losses.
Having these thoughts, he stepped forward to face Long Haochen. His tone was a lot more polite than before, “Hello Captain Long. Your situation was reported to Sir Saint Knight Chief. He said that due to the fact that you have a retainer knight, your test will increase in difficulty. You will be tested together with your retainer knight and face against this honourable Temple Knight. The two of you will have to join hands to defeat this Temple Knight and be promoted in rank.”
Long Haochen gave a startled look to Han Yu, and couldn’t help but react with hesitation, “Mister Examiner, this doesn’t seem very fair. Aren’t you trying to force us knights of the sixth step to defeat a powerful knight of the seventh step?”
The knight examiner gave the helpless reply, “These were the words of the Saint Knight Chief. He passed us the word that if you cannot do that, you can return to acquire more education. At the time you’ll be able to do that, you can come back to get examined.”
How could Han Yu not know his own grandfather well? The knight examiner had actually even imitated Han Quian’s speech pattern.
Han Yu gave Long Haochen a helpless look, telling him in low voice, “It looks as if grandfather doesn’t want us to become a commander grade Demon Hunt Squad so soon.”
Long Haochen gave a slight laugh, “Since things are like this, we shall try it. Grandteacher doesn’t know our current strength well either.”
“Hello respected senior Temple Knight. May I ask whether you are a Mythril Foundation Armored Knight?”
The Temple Knight shook his head, “No, I’m not. I am trying hard to get a Mythril Foundation Armor right now.”
Hearing that, Long Haochen and Han Yu relaxed their breath, and Long Haochen replied, “Then our test can begin.”
That knight examiner gave a startled look to Long Haochen and Han Yu, thinking secretly, Are these two really planning on accepting this test? From his point of view, the Saint Knight Chief Han Qian obviously gave this order to make things difficult for them, and because he didn’t want them to become a commander grade Demon Hunt Squad. From the expression of the Saint Knight Chief at that time, this should have been done for the sake of protecting them, but these two actually chose to challenge an opponent one step higher than them?
In the heart of the overwhelming majority, challenging an opponent a step above was an impossible task. The gap between steps came with an immense difference in strength, and overcoming it was supposedly impossible. It should be the same even in a situation of two against one. That was how qualitative the changes between the sixth and the seventh step were.
That Temple Knight didn’t say anything, nodding in response, and telling politely, “Please, Captain Long.” Saying that, he headed toward the stadium.
Hearing the familiar tone of this Temple Knight, Long Haochen asked as he also headed to the same field with Han Yu, “Senior, do I know you?”
The Temple Knight gave a smile in response, “I heard the stories of the miracles Captain Long produced on the battlefield. And I hold Captain Long’s strength in great esteem. You are a true hero.”
In a flash, Long Haochen realized that this person seemed to have heard of him through someone in the Southern Mountain’s City. Nonetheless, this
was nothing good for this test. Since the other party heard of everything that happened in the Southern Mountain’s City, he wouldn’t look down upon him in the slightest. A Temple Knight of the seventh step going all out in battle against him, this mere thought almost gave him a headache.
Right as Long Haochen and Han Yu looked a bit depressed, this Temple Knight summoned his own mount without reservations.
With a glint of bright light, a white unicorn appeared at his side. The Temple Knight mounted it, a lance in his hand.
The lance shone in a brilliant golden color, and its sharp brilliance appeared limitless. Given how out of the ordinary it looked, it should be a piece of Glorious Tier equipment. Although this unicorn wasn’t a formidable Starlight Unicorn, even as an ordinary unicorn, it had to reach the sixth step as a mount.
Long Haochen had a bitter smile across his face, “There is no need to be so serious mister, even calling out this mount.”
This Temple Knight revealed a smile, “This is a proper sign of respect towards a hero. I have no certainty of winning against the two of you, so I will naturally have to go all out. To compare notes with Captain Long, I would feel deeply honored if the two of you would also summon your own mounts. Then we can start the assessment.”
Although he summoned his mount in advance, he didn’t plan on attacking Long Haochen and Han Yu by surprise.
Banning helpless and bitterness from his face, Long Haochen revealed a serious look. On his forehead, a purple glint appeared, and next, an immense figure appeared before him. To everyone’s shock, that was Haoyue, who already gained a fourth head.
As soon as he appeared on the battlefield, his close to ten meter tall massive stature shocked everyone present, and the eyes of the Temple Knight abruptly shrank, sensing his powerful pressure.
On the other side, a Demonic Eye over one meter tall appeared behind Han Yu. Through continuous evolution, it already grew over four tentacles, which floated around it as it coldly eyed the nearby Temple Knight.
Long Haochen tapped his feet on the ground, leaping softly on Haoyue’s back. Placing his right fist on his chest before giving a knight salute, he declared in a grave tone, “Please give me advice, Senior.”
Haoyue’s four heads were raised at the same time, his four different colored pairs of eyes portraying a strong fighting intent.
After returning to the Priest Temple, Long Haochen had left Haoyue in the Tower of Eternity to recuperate, since anyway, Haoyue’s cultivation wasn’t affected no matter where he did it. And above that, after he grew his fourth head, he started to attract attention very easily, and couldn’t be taken back to Holy City. Thus, after summoning Haoyue, Long Haochen clearly felt that Haoyue’s fighting intent was extremely strong from having been constrained back in this black and red world for so long.
“This… Is this an Earth Dragon?” Standing afar, the observing knight examiner was drenched in sweat.
It wasn’t that he had never encountered Earth Dragons before: his own mount was also one, but it didn’t even have half the size of the ten meter tall Haoyue! Standing there, with over three meters height, Haoyue made Long Haochen’s opponent look extremely small. And what Earth Dragon was that? It clearly had four heads!
The other examiners were originally feeling depressed because of their defeat, but seeing Haoyue appear, their feelings of gloom were suddenly swept away.
They even suspected that they weren’t a match for this terrible magical beast alone. This mount was truly worthy of a Demon Hunt Squad! Especially considering how powerful these individuals were.
Chapter 365
The Temple Knight was still a veteran powerhouse who quickly returned to his composed self after the shock. After giving a knight salute to Long Haochen, he shouted loudly, “Let’s start then!” Saying that, his unicorn rushed towards Haoyue at a fast pace. It was surrounded by strong fluctuations of light, instantly bursting out from the knight. One could clearly see the powerful Holy Fire conjured on his unicorn. A powerful pressure exuded him, and the Temple Knight’s right hand turned transparent gold, from the use of Brilliant Body. He was really going all out from the beginning.
The other examiners activated the protective barrier of the Warrior Stadium without hesitation. This was a battle involving powerhouses of the sixth and the seventh step. And since they were all using mounts, heaven knew what destruction the battle would cause without the use of the barrier.
To everyone’s surprise, Han Yu and his Demonic Eye stood motionless on the side, not co-operating with Long Haochen at all. Only standing far from them, Han Yu had his sword in his right hand and his shield in his left hand, silently watching the battle.
No one had more confidence in Long Haochen than him. He personally witnessed the awakening of Long Haochen as a god’s chosen one. After that, what was a single powerhouse of the seventh step? Could a Temple Knight who recently broke through to the seventh step really defeat Long Haochen, who was currently at the sixth rank of the sixth step?
Without any need for Long Haochen to give him the instruction, Haoyue rushed forward at the same time the unicorn approached. Stamping the
ground with his four robust limbs, he crunched his four claws into the ground, directly rushing at the opponent. Some low-pitched and some resounding incantation sounds were heard at the same time from his four heads, and the light in his eyes intensified.
The unicorn unfolded its wings, brazenly rushing forward and taking flight. Instantly, a pair of large spiritual wings spread out on the back of that Temple Knight, and in tandem with the unicorn, he flapped his wings at a strong pace. His speed almost tripled just at that time, turning him into streams of golden light rushing towards Long Haochen on Haoyue’s back. The Temple Knight’s lance was aimed at him, and emitted golden streams from its point.
The two parties weren’t separated by a large distance anymore, and right after the Temple Knight and his mounted unicorn soared to the sky, they dove down in a split second, falling at an incomparable speed. But right at that time, Haoyue’s four heads were done casting their spells.
After evolving, Haoyue didn’t only gain the head Little Blue, but his evolution strengthened him as a whole. This was clearly reflected in all the spells he used.
A green glow appeared in the sky, directly aimed at the Temple Knight and his unicorn, greatly slowing down their rush forward. With a flap, the Temple Knight instantly strengthened the Holy Fire by twofold, routing that green light in the shortest time possible. This was Wind Constriction, a constrictive spell of the fifth step.
The wind spell was the fastest, but the following attacks were more powerful by a lot.
An enormous fireball and an enormous ice ball instantly rocketed in the air. The two balls soon reached two meters in diameter, and as they rose in the air, the red and blue colors formed a true combination of fire and ice. Furthermore, the instant they appeared and were locked on the Temple Knight and his unicorn, the air in the sky actually changed color.
The Temple Knight felt the air before him burning, while a cold chill reached his back. This was the true meaning of a combination of ice and fire.
Little Light aimed a golden glint at Long Haochen. A brilliant golden light bolt reached out for his chest. Right at that instant, Long Haochen felt the spiritual energy in his body seemingly rise up. He sensed his spiritual energy increasing by 2,000 units.
Because these additional 2,000 units of spiritual energy were coming from external help, it felt incompatible with his internal spiritual energy, but would completely affect his next attacks.
This was Spiritual Light Boost, a powerful supportive spell of the sixth step. Providing incredible support to powerhouses of the light element, it could rise spiritual energy by 2,000 units, which was a shocking number. In fact, usually a knight of the fifth step would only have a total of 2,000 units of spiritual energy or a bit more only.
Facing the powerful attacks of ice and fire, the Temple Knight didn’t dare to use Holy Fire and felt helpless. He could only control his speed and his direction downwards while pointing his lance downward too. Two gaudy golden bolts of light erupted at the same time as the shield in his left hand was shifted to the left side.
With two enormous bangs in the air, the unicorn clearly shook violently, letting out a pained cry, and even the Temple Knight felt very unwell. Although he destroyed the attack from Little Flame and Little Blue, the combined effects of ice and fire caused a change in temperature affecting the stability of the fluctuation of his own spiritual energy. Right at that time, he arrived before Long Haochen.
Pointing his spear forward, he aimed for Long Haochen’s chest.
Long Haochen was standing on Haoyue’s back, preserving a hunched posture. In his left hand, the Glorious Holy Shield was ready since long ago, and brazenly blocked the attack. Right at that time, a golden light silently rose behind him. Scarlet golden flames instantly surrounded Long
Haochen’s body, while an intense golden halo rushed against the attack of the Temple Knight.
All of this happened very quickly, and the spectating people only saw Long Haochen and the Temple Knight confront each other, meeting head on for the first time.
The Temple Knight rode his unicorn to attack from above Long Haochen, but in his defensive posture, Long Haochen only retreated slightly, illuminated by golden light from Divine Obstruction.
All the observing examiners were dumbstruck. At the sixth step against an opponent of the seventh step, he forcibly blocked his all out attack as if it was nothing?
How could they know about the boost granted by Haoyue and Yating, and the weakened state of the opponent? Long Haochen also used Divine Obstruction, known as the most powerful defensive spell for knights.
The fact that he managed to stop this full force attack implied that Long Haochen had the strength to deal with the opponent.
The unicorn did a turn in the air, once again confronting Long Haochen, and the expression on the Temple Knight’s face looked more serious. At the time his lance collided against the Glorious Holy Shield, his senses were assaulted like a shaking mountain. Even if he was greatly weakened, given his use of Brilliant Body, he should be suppressing Long Haochen completely on the elementary aspect. But things actually turned out contrary, and to his stupor, he found out that the one whose element was being suppressed was himself. Long Haochen’s light seemed a lot more pure, and above his shoulder floated a Light Element Fairy, but how did it look so substantial? And atop of that, it should have been one of her abilities that blocked him.
At that time, Yating stayed in the size of a third of the meter, silently floating above Long Haochen’s shoulder.
“Houuu” Haoyue raved with his four heads simultaneously, and indistinctly, a massive purple illusion appeared above Haochen’s head. It looked simply like a flash, and no one saw clearly that right at that instant, the unicorn suddenly came to a standstill before swaying in the sky in panic. It was forced to slowly land on the ground.
Forbidden sky? So Haoyue’s mere roar managed to trigger a Forbidden Sky?
Long Haochen was already experienced, so how would he let such an opportunity slip by? His spiritual wings rushed out from his back, and all four flapped. In a flash, he appeared before the landing unicorn. In his right hand, with a surge of light, the Aria of the Goddess of Light was thrown into battle for the first time under his control. A massive golden sword blow took shape in the air, forming a terrible glint of light in a circular sector, chopping directly at the Temple Knight.
The Aria of the Goddess of Light let out some sob-like buzzing sound, as if expressing its frustrations accumulated for more than a hundred years.
The Temple Knight was also outstanding. When facing such a sudden attack, he swiftly discarded the shield in his left hand, pushing this hand on the back of his unicorn instead. As he emitted a powerful surge of light element spiritual energy to help the unicorn stabilize, his lance was released like a bolt of lightning. He aimed right at the core of Long Haochen’s strike, actually looking for the sharp point of the Aria of the Goddess of Light in the midst of his Asura Strike.
“Ding.” A ringing clashing sound was spread widely all around.
It could be clearly seen that a golden trace was left on the armor of the Temple Knight, coming from the power of Asura Strike. Long Haochen’s attack was finally blocked by the Temple Knight.
However, this was just the beginning of the Temple Knight’s shock. At the time his lance clashed against the sharp end of the Aria of the Goddess of Light, it hit that spiritual pearl, and the sharp point of his own lance
dissolved at a shocking speed. The instant the two parties clashed against each other, his lance actually lost over a sixth of a meter in length.
Not only that, but with a flash of purple light, Haoyue unexpectedly appeared under Long Haochen. With an horizontal sweep of his tail, he violently whipped the unicorn and the Temple Knight.
“No good!” The Temple Knight secretly called out, rapidly grabbing the shield on the saddle with his left hand, while standing on his toes. Rushing out from the back of the unicorn, he clashed against Haoyue’s tail.
A shocking scene happened next, and Haoyue’s four heads became all purple colored right in the instant he clashed against the Temple Knight. Immediately afterwards, with a loud bang, a Shield Charge was launched by the Temple Knight, but was actually overpowered by Haoyue’s tail, causing the unicorn to crash against the ground, falling down in a trembling heap.
Of course, Haoyue’s massive figure also dropped down due to the effects of gravity.
However, Long Haochen landed before everyone else, flapping his four wings. With a purple gling he appeared next to the falling Haoyue. Although the shock from the fall still shook the ground greatly, this only raised some dust. This was the utility of their blood contract on the battlefield. After breaking through to the sixth step, the link between Long Haochen and Haoyue enabled a connection close to instant teleportation between the two of them, proving to be of massive use in battle.
Chapter 366
Right at that time, the staff in Yating’s hand was held high and when Long Haochen and Haoyue launched their attack, her incantation which was being chanted all this time was finally completed.
A total of eighteen golden bolts of starlight shot out. The first one was the slowest, but the second followed in a split second, and the same went for the third, the fourth, and so on until the eighteenth. Each golden bolt of starlight was fired without missing a beat, and their succession caused a peaked acceleration, forming a resplendent spear of starlight, directly shot against the Temple Knight.
This was the light spell of the sixth step, Starlight Spear.
The Temple Knight didn’t even have the time to be in shock, and unsteadily flapped the wings on his back. The lance in his hand pointing forward, clashed against the Starlight Spear.
With a loud bang, golden glitters filled the sky, and the Temple Knight was sent flying backwards, making a stuffy noise. Fortunately, his unicorn promptly flapped the wings on his back to help him land. However, the Temple Knight was already pale from these successive attacks he sustained.
With a glint of gold, Long Haochen already appeared once again before him, this time launching a piercing blow with the Aria of the Goddess of Light. In the instant of that attack, the massive image produced by the Aria of the Goddess of Light vanished, and the pearl on its tip burst out with a gaudy luster.
A penetrative sword blow burst forth, rushing against the lance of the Temple Knight. The clash of the Aria of the Goddess of Light’s main body and that lance shook both his mounted unicorn and himself.
With an ear-piercing crack, the lance emitted some golden light and broke into pieces, while an Asura Thrust followed next, aiming straight at the Temple Knight’s chest.
The Temple Knight only felt the terrible intent from the sword lock on him, and didn’t dare rush into action. Shifting his posture slightly, he avoided being crushed in the same way as his lance right before.
It was not only the Temple Knight that found the scene unimaginable, but even Long Haochen himself felt so.
He didn’t expect that he would actually defeat a Temple Knight of the seventh step single-handedly, and in such a short time. After this, he didn’t keep continuing his series of attacks.
With a golden glint, the Aria of the Goddess of Light vanished with some buzzes of excitement into Long Haochen’s hand. Long Haochen showed an apologetic expression.
The Temple Knight let out a bitter laugh, “You should be a Retribution Knight right? What a powerful burst power! I really lost fairly. You have a spiritual stove, and it’s surely an evolved Light Elemental Spiritual Stove. With the addition of the suppression from your mount and your own bursting strength, you won. That’s no wonder. You’re truly the hero who confronted a Moon Demon of the eighth step back in the Southern Mountain’s City.”
The two of them stood up from the ground, and after giving a knight salute to Long Haochen, the Temple Knight declared, “I will immediately report back to the Saint Knight Chief. You can continue your registration as a commander grade Demon Hunt Squad. I was honored to have this battle against you.” After saying this, he sent back his unicorn, and backed down in large strides.
Long Haochen unconsciously lifted up his right hand, giving it a look. He understood that the fact that he managed to win so easily was greatly related to the presence of the Aria of the Goddess of Light. This was the first time he felt that a good weapon could instantly turned the tides in battle.
This divine sword’s point looked dull, but the spiritual pearl on the tip actually had the ability to break the opponent’s weapon. And at the time he used Asura Thrust later, it seemed that the sword’s light and the sword’s intent released along with it were part of the ability of this divine sword as well. This was in the realm of the abilities carried by equipment of the Legendary Tier.
Now, those examiners gave Long Haochen looks filled with reverence. This young knight actually defeated a powerhouse of the seventh step and dominated the entire battle. His victory was thus proper and right, be it due to his powerful mount, his spiritual stove, or his own strength. This person truly deserved to be the captain of this powerful Demon Hunt Squad. Now with their strength as a whole, even among commander grade Demon Hunt Squads, they were most likely already among the strongest.
The examination being over, the following course of events proceeded smoothly. Half an hour later, the procedure was completed, letting them advance from being the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad to being the 64th commander grade Demon Hunt Squad. Indeed, commander grade Demon Hunt Squads were far more numerous than general grade ones. According to the staff member of the mission tower, the most numerous Demon Hunt Squads were at the commander grade and the king grade, followed by those at the emperor grade, and finally, those at the general, soldier and titled grade. Those at the commander grade, king grade and emperor grade also formed the Alliance’s main force.
Their Demon Hunt Squad Tiles were changed for ones made of mythril. Starting from that point on, Long Haochen’s group officially became a part of the Demon Hunt Squads forming the core of the Alliance’s strength.
Relying on their newly promoted tiles, Long Haochen led his allies to leave the Demon Hunt Squads’ Mission Tower, since their first goal was to go visit the third floor of the transaction center. The miraculous power of
the Aria of the Goddess of Light gave him even further awareness of the necessity of powerful equipment to bring out the best of their abilities in battle. As for getting promoted once again in grade, that was not a pressing matter. Thus, they were prepared to spend their remaining contribution points to rise their fighting strength to the greatest extent.
“How bustling!” Once reaching the third floor of the transaction center, Chen Ying’er couldn’t help but declare in astonishment.
In fact, compared to the two other floors below, this third floor was especially bustling. Although the area was only as wide as the first and the second floor, this place was filled with people to the brim. It seemed that some people were gathered in front of every booth, and in front of the offices were dozens of people.
Lin Xin declared, “I heard that the third floor is the most bustling place in the whole Demon Hunt Squads’ Transaction Center. This reputation seems to be well-deserved.”
Sima Xian asked in puzzlement, “Why?”
Lin Xin replied, “First, this is because Demon Hunt Squads of the commander grade are that numerous, and then because Demon Hunt Squads of higher grade would also come down to buy things here. And furthermore, because of the great number of commander grade Demon Hunt Squads, the sold items are of great quality and stock to the point that even some King grade Demon Hunt Squads would come down here to buy things. How could it not be bustling.”
Long Haochen nodded to Lin Xin’s words, “Since things are like that, we shall do it the same ways as last time. Everyone will look for equipment fitting their own necessities, before looking for Lin Xin to do the purchase. Let me emphasize that you should take the boost of our strength as a whole into consideration. Lin Xin, please check on them. Yuanyuan, Ying’er, Han Yu and you have the priority on the purchase. Yuanyuan takes the first priority and then does Han Yu. Han Yu, you’ll have to find a good sword.”
Long Haochen’s words came from the heart. After an overall consideration, he came to decide for these arrangements. Wang Yuanyuan didn’t fuse spiritual stoves in the Illusory Paradise and gained the least from the trip. And since the beginning, her main equipment was the Gigantic Divine Soul Shield. Although a spatial crystal had been found for her, in consideration for the sake of increasing their group strength, the priority was given to find her a piece of Legendary Equipment. Then, the urgency for Han Yu was his lack of a good weapon. As for Long Haochen himself, he evidently placed himself last in the priority order. Although the dragon crystal wasn’t delivered to Ye Weiyang yet, his Aria of the Goddess of Light could be considered to have been exchanged for a dragon crystal. In addition to this fact, he still had his Glorious Holy Armor and Glorious Holy Shield, so for the moment, no change was really required for his equipment. At most, he would get another sword at the Glorious Tier and that would be sufficient.
After everyone scattered, Long Haochen took Cai’er’s hand and searched on this crowded third floor. His first point of attention was to look for some good defensive or protective equipment for Cai’er. After all, since she reached the sixth step, the Necklace of Invisibility wasn’t of great use to her anymore.
After passing in front of two vendor booths, Long Haochen couldn’t help but let out a sigh, No wonder this place is so crowded, there are after all quite a lot of good items! Among the lot, the most present were magical crystals belonging to magical beast of the fifth rank at minimum. And he even saw a magical crystals of the eighth rank in one of the booths, belonging naturally to a demon powerhouse of the eighth step.
Magical crystals aside, rare materials and resources were innumerable, and conversely, equipment was present in the least quantity. Even if some equipment was present, it was only at the Glorious or the Spiritual Tier. After his visit of three booths, Long Haochen didn’t see a single piece of Legendary Tier equipment.
After arriving at the fourth vendor’s booth, still not seeing any trace of Legendary Equipment, he couldn’t help but ask the owner, “Hello, do you know where we could find Legendary Equipment on this floor?”
The owner was a middle-aged man who was above thirty years of age. Seeing Long Haochen and Cai’er after raising his head, and seeing their unexpectedly young age, he couldn’t help but show a surprised expression, asking the question, “Little Brother, you already attained the commander grade so young?”
Long Haochen smiled in response, “We got to attain the commander grade by a fluke, but we are not so young, it’s just that we rather look young and no more.” There was nothing to be done, after all, it wasn’t their own fault they were too young. Long Haochen didn’t want to become a target of focus for someone else, thus only said this much.
The owner replied with a laugh, “Interesting. So you just asked about Legendary Equipment right? Let alone that there are none here, I’m afraid you won’t find any on this whole third floor.
At the Legendary Tier, equipment reaches the level of rarity of magical beast crystals of the ninth step. The commander grade Demon Hunt Squads like us are the most numerous here. The conditions to reach the level of king grade Demon Hunt Squads are extremely lenient, which team wouldn’t have a large amount of contribution points in store? In case Legendary Equipment would appear, it would be bought instantly. Moreover, once getting some equipment of the Legendary Tier outside, which team wouldn’t be prioritizing the satisfaction of their own needs? Unless it is totally useless to them, no one would choose to sell. I recommend you to directly have a look at the counters belonging to the transaction center. Perhaps the odds to find Legendary Equipment will be better there, but their price will also be higher than from Demon Hunt Squads like us.”
“Thank you for your directions, mister.” As Demon Hunters, each side would naturally have goodwill to the other. Long Haochen gave his respectful thanks and prepared to look for the counters of the transaction center, when this middle-aged man suddenly called out for him.
Chapter 367
“Little brother, I have some pretty good equipment here though, do you want to have a look at it?” Saying these words, that middle-aged man threw a little wristguard at Long Haochen.
Now that Long Haochen reached the sixth step, he could judge the rank of a piece of equipment with his senses. However, this was merely a piece of Spiritual Equipment. Catching it, he mustered a serious expression.
“Mister, what uses does this have?” Long Haochen asked with curiosity. The middle-aged man replied, “It carries a secondary ability called
Absorption.
Don’t look down on it just because it’s at the Spiritual Tier. It has many great uses in particular situations. Its supplementary ability Absorption lasts for ten minutes, only consuming a bit of your own spiritual energy. Then, if you carry this wristguard, you will be capable of flight in any area free of obstruction for the duration of the Absorption. Unless your arm gets cut or you voluntarily deactivate it, these effects won’t stop. And every time you remove it, activating it the next time will require to invest a bit more spiritual energy.”
Long Haochen was filled with doubts, “Don’t all of us possess the ability of flight as ones who reached the sixth step of their vocations? This Absorption ability is…”
Not waiting for an explanation from him, Cai’er took the wristguard from Long Haochen’s hands and spoke with a nod, “If we want this piece of
equipment, how much would it cost?”
The middle-aged man smiled, “You sure are knowledgeable. Not much, just 10,000 contribution points.”
“Okay, please wait a bit.” Cai’er gave back the wristguard to the vendor, and quickly called Lin Xin over. Not bargaining further, she directly used ten thousand contribution points to purchase this wristguard, and put it on her left hand.
After leaving the booth, Long Haochen couldn’t help but ask, “Cai’er, is this piece of equipment at the Spiritual Tier really worth 10,000 contribution points?”
Cai’er revealed a smile and replied, “It may perhaps not be worth it, but this is the kind of good item that even the wealthy people may not find. It is quite an uncommon type, and all uncommon types of equipment carry some special abilities. This wristguard doesn’t carry an absorbing ability, but an ability known as Absolute Absorption, based on the seller’s words. Don’t think we can fly in any environment just because we have the ability of flight. This Absorption ability can save one’s life a lot of times. Let me give you a simple example, if we are in an environment forbidding flight or underwater, of what use will our spiritual wings be? Also, when facing magical beasts, by the means of Absorption, we can keep the enemy in a very unfavorable situation while attacking him uninterruptedly. As a whole, the opportunity to get this kind of item isn’t a chance to be missed. You’ll see its definite efficacy in the future.”
When the two of them were done talking, they already arrived at the official sales counters of the third floor, directly bringing Lin Xin along with them.
In front of the sales counter were quite a lot of people, and the reception clerks were also not few. Long Haochen’s group of three entered from the edge, and found a staff member receiving them with difficulty.
“Hello. Excuse me, do you have some Legendary Equipment for sale here? Any kind will do, we are looking to buy some.” Long Haochen told
the staff member
The staff member appeared startled, as if shocked by his rich and overbearing presence, “Please wait here. I have to check for that.”
Rapidly, the staff member was back, “There are presently two unsold pieces of equipment that are available for inspection, and two that are being inspected. Do you want to examine one of those two?”
The inspection he was speaking about was the right of the Demon Hunters to have a look at the equipment. After their evaluation, they would decide whether to buy it or not The two that were being examined should be in the hands of the other Demon Hunters in front of the sales counter.
Long Haochen nodded, “We want to inspect both.”
The staff member responded, “Please pay 20,000 contribution points as an examining fee first please. If in the end, you decide to take the equipment, the examining fee will be used as part of the payment to buy the equipment. If you renounce on buying it, the inspection fee can however not be recovered.”
Lin Xin unsatisfactorily called out, “Isn’t this a rip-off from you? We have to spend 10,000 contribution points just to have a look, why don’t you just directly rob us? Do you know how hard it is for us to gain contribution points from killing demons?”
The staff member replied with an unchanging face, “Sorry, these are the rules in the Transaction Center. Because there are many issues touching upon Legendary Equipment, examining it casually will be very hard for staff like us. If you have any problems, you can negotiate with the executives from the Transaction Center.”
Lin Xin seemed to want to say more, but was put to a stop by Long Haochen, “Let it be, Lin Xin. Give him the contribution points.”
Lin Xin was widely known as the one who would chase the furthest after benefits, but he couldn’t go against Long Haochen. Still feeling
unreconciled and unwilling, he transferred the 20,000 contribution points to the staff member, however, his eyes were whirling, making his thoughts a wonder.
“Please wait a moment.” After receiving these 20,000 contribution points, the attitude of the staff member immediately became all the more respectful. The fact they consented to take out these 20,000 contribution points was a proof that they truly had the buying power to buy the equipment. Prior to this, he felt quite contemptuous because of their young age, but now swiftly hid these feelings away.
The surrounding commander grade Demon Hunters weren’t few, and their move immediately attracted the attention of quite a few people. In fact, not all commander grade Demon Hunt Squads would have the courage to spend twenty thousand contribution points just to look at Legendary Tier Equipment. Otherwise, these two pieces wouldn’t still be up for sale.
After a wait of no less than a quarter of an hour, that staff member returned to the counter before two other senior staff members approached. These two were clad in white gowns, and appeared to be over fifty years old, filled with dignified bearing. In the hands of each of them was a case.
The staff member instructed the three of them, “If you three are from the same Demon Hunt Squad, you can examine them together.”
“Thank you.” Long Haochen’s group of three didn’t stand on formality, and entered the sales counter from the side door, which led to a room in the rear. The two senior staff members followed them.
The interior of the room wasn’t large. It looked like a place where staff members usually rested. These two staff members put the cases on the table, before making an inviting hand gesture, while their bodies emitted glints. A silver and a golden barrier spread out, sheltering the inside from every external presence. This was naturally to prevent the spiritual energy from the Legendary Equipment to leak out.
One of the elderly men told them, “You can start your examination. The total time for these two items cannot exceed half an hour.”
Long Haochen gave Lin Xin a meaningful glance, and the two of them headed in front of the two cases, opening them slowly.
The cases were very heavy, apparently entirely made of gold. When seeing these two cases before, Long Haochen understood that these two pieces of Legendary Equipment were probably weapons.
When Long Haochen’s case was opened, a rich water vapor was released, as a water blue staff appeared before their eyes.
This staff wasn’t long, only 1.2 meters approximately, and was covered entirely in crystallic blue. The material it was made of couldn’t be discerned, and the staff gave off soft and sleek vibes. From its bottom end to its sharp peak, it was covered by large blue snowflakes, giving off a cold aura.
The staff was shaped in a succinct and fluent design, giving off a noble and pristine feeling. Long Haochen carefully recovered the staff, immediately sensing an extremely cold breath spread out from the staff to his body. More extraordinarily, the blue color released by the staff dissipated upon his touch, turning into vapor, and exposed its pure white body. So the blue color from before was actually water essence close to a solidified state? That was no wonder from a piece of Legendary Tier Equipment.
“This staff is called Prideful Ice and Snow. It has only two abilities: one is called Ice Concentration, and the other one Icy Pride. Ice Concentration can be used by a water mage to strengthen his ice, and Icy Pride is a ability carrying exploding capabilities, enabling any water ability to detone through its effects. It will strengthen the power of all abilities as a whole. Simply said, if an Ice Cone pierces through an enemy before being blown by Icy Pride, the results will be as you can well imagine. The power of this ability will depend on the user’s strength, and this staff requires a mage of the water element to be used. His internal spiritual energy must be above 8,000 units, and the selling price is 250,000 contribution points.”
The elder standing to the side gave a little introduction of this legendary staff.
After this, the second elder continued, “These Wings of Fire Dragon contain the bone marrow of an ancient Fire Dragon as its core, which is supplemented by expansive resources, before adding the soul of the Fire Dragon as its engine, to give birth to such a legendary treasure. Fitting to fire warriors and mages, it gives a hundred percent boost to the gathering speed of fire essence and a hundred percent boost to the flight speed with the user’s spiritual wings. The supplementary ability it carries is called Fire Dragon Guard, and can be used three times a day. The requirement for use is an internal spiritual energy of 8,000 units and its selling price is 320,000 contribution points.”
These two pieces of legendary equipment included one of the water and one of the fire element. Lin Xin’s luck was undoubtedly very good. The Wings of Fire Dragon gave two boosts and an ability, and thus could be considered to be a rather powerful piece of Legendary Tier Equipment.
Two mini-wings were being held in Lin Xin’s hands, who asked the nearby old man with some doubts, “Senior, how is this item used?”
That elder replied, “When pressed against the back, the user’s internal spiritual energy will be linked to the item, gaining its boost. However, although you are a fire mage, does your internal spiritual energy actually reach 8,000 units?”
Lin Xin shook his head helplessly, “My internal spiritual energy is now at 5,000 units. It looks that I won’t be able to use this good thing for a little while. Boss, what’s to be done?” His last question was directed at Long Haochen.
Long Haochen gave a calm smile, “I want these two items.”
“What?” Those two elders were both startled, exchanging a glance with each other and letting out expressions of disbelief.
Long Haochen continued, “If the other two pieces of Legendary Equipment haven’t been purchased yet by the Demon Hunters examining them, we are willing to examine them as well. Lin Xin, pay the contribution points for these two pieces of Legendary Equipment to these two seniors.”
Lin Xin gave a dumbstruck look to Long Haochen, “Boss, no need to be so hasty to use up 570,000 contribution points! This is more than half of our savings. And furthermore, we don’t need an ice staff for our team.”
Long Haochen showed a slight smile, “Just do as I say and you’ll see.” In the team, his reputation had been already established through merits, and Lin Xin believed completely in him. Resisting the urge of showing his affected feelings with difficulty, he paid the price for the two pieces of equipment to the two elders.
These two elders were stunned. One reason was because of their age and the other because of their overwhelming wealth. Even to veteran commander Demon Hunt Squads, taking out over 500,000 contribution points wouldn’t be an easy thing!
In fact, killing a demon of the sixth step would often give at most one or two thousand contribution points. How could 500,000 contribution points be gathered so easily and then spent like that?
Long Haochen instructed Lin Xin, “Try out whether you can use those Wings of Fire Dragon.”
Lin Xin asked with doubt, “Isn’t there a requirement to have over 8,000 units of spiritual energy to do that?”
Long Haochen replied, “Have you forgotten about your Heart of Fire? Your flames are already different from ordinary mages’. It should somewhat lower the requirement for some equipment. Just give it a try. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll retry after increasing your strength.”
“You’re right! I didn’t think of that!” Lin Xin’s eyes were lit up, and as he said that, a faint golden red luster was released as the mini wings were
easily absorbed into his back, blending with his spiritual energy.
“Pop.” Blue flames ignited from Lin Xin’s body, and instantly, the temperature in the room shot up at an astounding speed. These two elders were astonished. Exchanging glances with each other, they couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration, naturally sensing the temperature from this fire.
Light dragon cries came out from the Wings of Fire Dragon, while the blue flames were poured inside frantically. Immediately, the original golden red Wings of Fire Dragon gradually gained a deep blue gloss. During this transformation, it seemed to gain some melted features.
Lin Xin lightly grasped the Wings of Fire Dragon in his hand, transferring his spiritual energy with full force for several minutes until those Wings of Dragon Fire suddenly gained greatly in brilliance. The dark blue fire on its peak suddenly vanished after that, and seemingly affected by the new equipment, Lin Xin spread the spiritual wings of blue fire on his back, letting the Wings of Fire Dragon dissolve into them.
Suddenly, Lin Xin’s spiritual wings’ size at least doubled, and they suddenly looked a lot more solid. Indistinctly, a layer of dragon scales densely covered his spiritual wings, and the dark blue dual wings yet again gained another trendy feature. The vigor coming out from him changed at once, faintly gaining the might of a dragon, and the Flames of Heart of Flames gained again in substance.
“Very good!” Lin Xin happily hummed, “That’s as expected from a good item costing 320,000 contribution points. Even when I don’t cultivate, my spiritual energy seems to increase even faster than in my past times of cultivation. That’s so pleasurable, really so pleasurable!”
Seeing him lose himself pleased in this joy, Long Haochen said with a smile, “Okay, retract your spiritual wings now. We should go now. Perhaps there will be some good things for the others.” Saying that, he returned the Pride of Ice and Snow to its case, and collected it back into the Tower of Eternity, before emphasising their desire to buy Legendary Tier Equipment to the two elders. Finally, they returned to the third floor of the transaction center.
Chapter 368
Coming out from the rear of the counter, Long Haochen’s group looked very calm, to the point that it couldn’t be said whether they gained something good or not. Although the Demon Hunters outside were very curious, no one approached to ask. These were the rules: no one could ask openly about others’ secrets. Furthermore, these commander grade Demon Hunt Squads were actually even more curious about the ages of Long Haochen’s group of three. After all, they looked far too young. Generally speaking, it was an ordinary thing to see Demon Hunters rise to the commander grade at thirty years of age. However, this group didn’t look close to thirty years at all and should be actually far from reaching that age.
“Boss, why did we buy those two pieces of Legendary Equipment?” Lin Xin asked, whispering into Long Haochen’s ear in a low voice. The excited look on his face had already disappeared, being replaced by a look of worry.
Two pieces of Legendary Tier Equipment had cost them 570,000 contribution points, and Lin Xin had spent 320,000 contribution points on himself alone. In spite of that, Long Haochen had said just before that Wang Yuanyuan and Han Yu were to be prioritized.
Long Haochen replied, “Haven’t you noticed already? Legendary Equipment can’t be purchased that easily. We can’t just make the equipment of our attribute appear at will. I have looked in some shops: Legendary Equipment is in very high demand. It’s actually possible that except at the transaction center, no one else has any for sale. This way, a change of plan was necessary for us, and the best would be to buy what we can first, and then give it to whoever needs it. Contribution points are just a number, but equipment is more dependable.”
Lin Xin appeared puzzled over that, “But, what about that Pride of Ice and Snow? We have no one able to use it”
On a side, Cai’er suddenly chided in a low voice, “You are intelligent in normal times, but why are you acting so dumb now? Just because they are unwilling to spend 10,000 contribution points as inspection fee, the Demon Hunters wanting to buy don’t know what pieces of Legendary Tier Equipment are available at the counter. What we bought was of no use to us, but don’t tell me no other Demon Hunter can use it? You’ll just have to set up a vendor’s booth to exchange this staff for something we need and that’s it. If needed, you just have to add some contribution points to compensate, and this way, we will at least get the opportunity to acquire some Legendary Equipment.”
“That’s right!” Lin Xin suddenly realized in a flash, slapping his own forehead. With a laugh and a turn, he went for a run, impatiently setting up a vendor’s booth.
Just as Long Haochen predicted it, the others didn’t find Legendary Equipment that matched them on the third floor of the transaction center, and even Lin Xin’s operation wasn’t smooth. They naturally wanted to exchange the Pride of Snow and Ice for spatial or light elemental attribute equipment, but equipment for the spatial attribute was extremely rare, while equipment of the light attribute was the most needed by people. The people paying attention to the Pride of Ice and Snow weren’t few, but no one was able to make a satisfying deal.
However, as a whole they got some good things out of this trip. At least, Lin Xin’s strength was enhanced one step further. Now with his acquired Spiritual Stove of Phoenix of Blue Flames and his Fire Crystal Staff carrying fire Curse, Lin Xin’s utility for the team only kept growing. After gaining the Wings of Fire Dragon, his strength increased, which was a good boost for the team.
Having still gotten nothing until the evening, everyone returned to the villa. After having dinner, Lin Xin and Sima Xian slipped away. Lin Xin naturally planned on sending Ye Weiyang the dragon crystal, and Sima Xian
proclaimed his glorified desire to ensure his safety, while his true aim was naturally…
In the bedroom, Cai’er and Long Haochen were seated in front of each other. Seeing Long Haochen’s pondering look, Cai’er asked, “Are you still worried about the equipment?”
Long Haochen relaxed his brows, replying with a smile, “Yes! I didn’t think that we would actually be unable to exchange the contribution points for good equipment.”
Cai’er shook her head, “Actually, you don’t need to think like that.” “Oh?” Long Haochen revealed an inquiring look.
Cai’er replied, “Don’t you think you are too hasty for instant benefits? Ever since our Demon Hunt Squad was established, we have experienced quite a few dangerous and painful situations, but our growth truly reaches the point of leaving anyone speechless. In one short year, we went up from the soldier grade to the commander grade. Actually, our current need is not to keep raising our strength at such high speed. Perhaps our cultivation is still stable, but everyone is truly getting too cavalier.”
Hearing her words, Long Haochen’s pondering look immediately eased away, and he replied with a nod, “You are right, please go on.”
Cai’er replied, “In our current state, everyone has at least one piece of Glorious Tier Equipment, and quite a few contribution points left. Of course, the best scenario would be to find Legendary Equipment for every one of us, but given our current strength, we may not be able to immediately use the powerful equipment. Of course, exchanging contribution points for fighting strength is the best, but it’s not the only way. In our current state, we still have many ways to get stronger. I believe that currently our most urgent need is to raise our strength to be in a more stable situation. As for the exchanges to gain Legendary Equipment, it’s totally okay to wait until we reach the seventh step to look for it.
I asked Grandpa Ying, and he told me that in a commander grade Demon Hunt Squad, a team possessing a piece of Legendary Tier Equipment is already pretty good. But what about us? Lin Xin’s new item aside, you have the Aria of the Goddess of Light, I have the Dagger of Samsara, Sima is about to get a piece of Legendary Tier Equipment from enhancing the Energetic Ball of Light, and Yuanyuan’s Gigantic Divine Soul Shield advanced to this level without doubt from getting another Spatial Crystal. That are already five pieces of Legendary Tier Equipment! And all of us have spiritual stoves. I daresay that with our team formed of six people with fused spiritual stoves, if there were to be a competition between all commander grade Demon Hunt Squads, we would probably be the final victors. Today, you actually defeated a Temple Knight of the seventh step by yourself. In the whole battle, Han Yu didn’t even have to do anything.
By saying this much, I wanted to tell you that our current strength is already great enough. For this reason, you need not to worry so much about raising everyone’s strength.”
Long Haochen nodded in response, “Then, what do you think we should do next.”
Cai’er replied, “We should proceed according to your original plan. We can keep looking for Legendary Equipment, letting Lin Xin set his vendor’s stall for half an hour a day will be enough. A piece of equipment of the Legendary Tier like the Pride of Ice and Snow will surely catch the public attention. As long as he keeps coming at fixed hours every day, someone desirous for exchange will appear sooner or later. We can also start to make use of the few remaining dragon crystals on our side, to start enhancing everyone’s external spiritual energy while having everyone cultivate spiritual energy. We should actually wait a bit before entering the Tower of Eternity. As long as we focus on cultivating internal spiritual energy, we can get rid of our reckless attitude and become more steady step by step. We will need only a short amount of time to recuperate like this. In the meantime, we can take out some contribution points to get the abilities we all need. After reaching the sixth step, we will need some powerful secret techniques to strengthen ourselves. This is another way to raise our fighting strength. And actually, I believe that focusing on
abilities is even better than to focus on equipment, because abilities can be used forever.”
Looking at Cai’er, Long Haochen showed a smile, “You’re right. You should have told me all of this earlier!”
Cai’er shook her head lightly, “Your decisions and your plans weren’t mistaken in any way. And moreover, you are the captain of our 64th commander grade Demon Hunt Squad. Let’s keep our private conversation between ourselves; you don’t need to tell them about my help to reach these conclusions. An excellent captain should better have a single voice, even for us…”
Reaching this point, her charming face blushed slightly but she didn’t keep speaking further.
Long Haochen took Cai’er’s hand, and declared in a quiet tone, “You are really my good wife. Can I give you a hug?”
“I don’t want to.” Cai’er replied in alarm, launching herself to the ground. Ever since the intimate moment between the two of them after the fusion of spiritual stoves in the Illusory Paradise, she appeared a lot more bashful than in the past, actually unwilling to let Long Haochen approach her lightly.
Long Haochen scratched his head in helplessness, “Don’t run away.
Don’t tell me you think I would force you?”
Cai’er giggled, “Annoying! Just who’s your good wife? How could you already be so perverted at fifteen years of age?”
Long Haochen smiled in response, “I just don’t know who insisted on sleeping on the same bed as me. It seemed to me that this person was younger than me.”
“You…”
In the morning.
Long Haochen, Cai’er and their comrades sat in a circle as they were used to, sharing their breakfast.
Sima Xian held a huge bowl of rice in his hands, eating his share in a wheeze.
Chen Ying’er couldn’t help but worry for the table, “Bald man, pay attention to your image, will you?”
Lin Xin revealed a mocking smile, “Ignore him, he’s really depressed now.”
Long Haochen spoke next, “Oh right, what did Miss Weiyang say when you went to offer her a dragon crystal? And what’s up with Sima?”
Lin Xin replied, “Miss Ye didn’t accept our dragon crystal. She said that you were right: a divine sword isn’t something that can be considered over money. Since you could make its light reappear to the world, Miss Ye is already satisfied. She says that if we really want to compensate her, we can support her in case she ever needs some help in the future.”
Long Haochen wrinkled his brows. He would actually have prefered to pay the cost of a dragon crystal over having a commitment towards the other side. After a short time of pondering, he gave the reply, “Then go back to her today, and tell her that helping her is okay, but this would be limited to me alone, and cannot involve our whole team.”
“Okay.” Lin Xin gave his agreement.
Long Haochen studied Sima Xian who was eating with great concentration, and gave Lin Xin an inquiring look.
Lin Xin laughed hard, “He has been struck hard. When seeing that pure beauty, she directly told him: ‘I don’t like baldies, and I don’t like bald priests all the more.’ Then she left, without giving him a single glance. And now, he’s trying to reduce his grief with food.”
Chen Ying’er laughed on the side, “Sima, you cannot give up just like that, you know!? Chasing after a girl is not so easy you see! However, I just feel that you shouldn’t hope for too much when pursuing that pure beauty. It’s the beauty and the beast, the contrast is too great, hahaha.”
Chapter 369
Sima Xian finally raised his head, though some rice grains still stuck to his face, “Who said I gave up?! Your bro gets braver the bigger the obstacle. She said she doesn’t like baldies? Has-drugs-bro, I’m going with you today as well, and with a wig on me this time. And she doesn’t like a priest? Then this man will go with his armor.” At first, this guy had tried to appear very polite and refined yesterday, intentionally coming with a priest gown to accompany Lin Xin to the Alliance’s Great Auction House.
Hearing him say that, everyone couldn’t help but break out in laughter, and Han Yu remarked, “Do your best Sima. We will support you whole- heartedly. Just try to forget about that pure beauty as early as you can.”
Sima Xian wasn’t ugly in appearance; on the contrary, he gave a manly and tough look, resolute to the bone and tenacious. His imposing build easily gave a sense of security.
Lin Xin laughed, “I think that you shouldn’t wear a wig. You’d better show your true self. Otherwise, if you really manage to succeed and she discovers you aren’t what you seem to be, won’t it come back to bite you?”
Wang Yuanyuan nodded, “Has-drugs-bro said it right. Since you are the one chasing the other party, you should show your sincerity. Without sincerity, what’s there to talk about?”
Sima Xian patted his own bald head, giving them a grieved and indignant look, “So, chasing after a girl is that hard? But how is it that it seemed so easy for our Captain?!”
“What did you just say?” Cai’er who stayed silent until then slowly raised her head.
“Hic… I didn’t say anything. Oh and, I’m done eating.” Saying that, the bald man tried to escape.
Cai’er turned to look at Long Haochen, “So it was easy? Then how about making things a little harder for you in the future? I’m also done eating.” Saying that, she stood up and returned to their room. Long Haochen just didn’t see that at the time she left, a smile adorned her face.
Staring dumbfounded at the vanishing silhouette of Cai’er, Long Haochen gave an innocent look, “Why am I unjustly accused without having done anything at all?”
Lin Xin laughed in response, “Boss, I am not picking on anyone, but Sima Xian just brought vice-captain up against you with his comments. If I were you, I wouldn’t bear with this.”
Long Haochen abruptly stood up, sweeping an indifferent glance towards Lin Xin, “I don’t need to bear with it.” Immediately afterwards, he called out to someone in the same room, “Sima Xian, follow me to have some training on close quarters battle.”
The auxiliary chief of the Temple Alliance, and auxiliary head of the Knight Temple, Saint Knight Chief Han Qian was lately in a very good mood.
Ever since a genius such as Long Haochen appeared in the Knight Temple, the matters he had to handle aside, the biggest part of his attention was focused on Long Hoachen as well as his Demon Hunt Squad.
When Long Haochen’s group passed the test smoothly, becoming a commander grade Demon Hunt Squad, Han Qian was indeed worried for some time. Although he was Long Haochen’s grandteacher, and had a huge influence in the Alliance, Demon Hunt Squads were independent existences, and even Han Qian couldn’t easily get involved in the Demon Hunt Squads’ matters.
When Han Qian had a Temple Knight of the seventh step challenge Long Haochen, his goal was simple. He wished for them to fail the test to become a commander grade Demon Hunt Squad and keep them from undertaking harder missions. Hadn’t the Alliance just given them a million contribution points? Couldn’t they behave well and settle down for a while? However, he didn’t expect Long Haochen to actually have reached such a level of strength. He managed to defeat a Temple Knight with his own strength.
Left helpless, Han Qian couldn’t subvert them any further, and right when he had to believe that Long Haochen and his squad would accept another mission and leave Holy City a short time later, they actually chose to train in seclusion, sealing themselves off in their villa to avoid any external disturbance. Furthermore, this seclusion already lasted for four months.
How could Han Qian not rejoice over these news? These outstanding kids actually didn’t let their confidence blind them, and chose to stabilize their strength under these circumstances, consolidating their progress through training behind closed doors. In fact, they could already be said to have the attitude of a powerful Demon Hunt Squad. These youngsters were actually even more level-headed than a lot of veteran Demon Hunt Squads.
That’s right, Long Haochen’s group was already in closed-door training for more than four months, and still remained in seclusion. For the time being, they didn’t plan on ending their seclusion, and to them, today was an important day.
Tower of Eternity.
Long Haochen, Cai’er, Han Yu, Sima Xian, Wang Yuanyuan, Lin Xin, and Chen Ying’er were lined up in a row.
“Boss, which one of us will go?” Sima Xian asked Long Haochen eagerly. In front of them was the red skeleton that made them go through continuous battles, training and tempering their strength. It was precisely with this skeleton powerhouse that they continuously crossed swords, giving everyone a chance to master ancient battle techniques. But today, they decided to pass all the trials of the first floor of the Tower of Eternity.
Over the past four months, following Cai’er’s warning, Long Haochen decided to prioritize everyone’s cultivation of internal spiritual energy. Calming down their scatterbrains, they got used to the changes in their strength upon reaching the sixth step. Their days went by, training their newly obtained abilities, searching for Legendary Equipment to buy, and using the Devil Dragon Crystals with precious drug ingredients to let them nourish their bodies.
The Devil Dragon Crystals were of even greater utility than they imagined. By the means of some rare ingredients getting rid of impurities along with the darkness properties, they gained extremely good results at every bath. Be it in strength, toughness, or attack power, they progressed in all regards.
However, after every use, the volume of the magical crystal shrank, until they completely disappeared. In a bit more than four months, they had already used up three Devil Dragon Crystals, and everyone felt that any further gain in external spiritual energy now amounted next to nothing. After that they stopped bathing with them. However, this external spiritual energy wasn’t gained for free. It was with the help of assistive medicine, which had cost them close to four millions gold coins and 150,000 contribution points.
They had obtained another two pieces of Legendary Tier Equipment. As they wished, they had bought a Legendary Tier sword for Han Yu and an accessory called Necklace of Prayers for Chen Ying’er.
The sword of the Legendary Tier was exchanged for the Pride of Ice and Snow, as well as 100,000 contribution points. Then, in addition to the Necklace of Prayers, Long Haochen bought another sword at the Glorious Tier and some secret techniques. Now the total amount of contribution points of the team amounted to only 50,000. So many hundreds of thousands of contribution points were used just so extravagantly.
Over more than four months, they could be said to have used up contribution points without inhibitions, so it was natural that their reserves were now used up.
“I will be the one going. This skeleton senior taught us what fiery encroachment is, so I wish to be able to truly defeat him in a one versus one, to show that his steady company wasn’t for nothing.” Long Haochen said in a serious tone.
No one objected, and after separating from each other, they made sufficient space for him.
With the Glorious Holy Shield in his left hand and the recently acquired sword Rippling Light in his right hand, Long Haochen walked in large strides towards that imposing red skeleton.
The two sides closed the distance quickly. On Long Haochen’s back, with a glint of golden light, his four wings unfolded. When he entered the range of twenty meters from the red skeleton, flames twinkled in the eyes of the red skeleton. Its three meters tall body immediately produced a spurt of flames aimed straight at Long Haochen.
Long Haochen didn’t step back. Abruptly speeding up he aimed to clash against the red skeleton, but didn’t use any dashing technique.
The distance was cut down, and when it was five meters, the red skeleton suddenly did a crouching motion, dexterously aiming the massive bone blade to cut Long Haochen’s neck.
Long Haochen already crossed swords with him innumerable times, and thus naturally knew what followed the red skeleton’s crouching motion. His charge didn’t slow down; only his footsteps appeared lighter and slower, while being a lot more dexterous. Abruptly bending his arms back, he flashed through the blade of the red skeleton.
The red skeleton put his power into his two legs, suddenly moving about with a half turn. Meanwhile, the shield in his left hand was swept toward Long Haochen in an earth-shattering motion.
To conform with the skeleton’s huge size, his shield was also extremely broad, giving Long Haochen an unavoidable resistance.
Of course, Long Haochen could rely on his spiritual wings for flight, but he didn’t do that. In the Tower of Eternity, the altitude was restricted. And if he tried to fly forcefully, avoiding the effect of Forbidden Sky would prove to be hard.
Against commonsense, Long Haochen who seemed to be unable to avoid the attack, suddenly did an unexpected movement: he started to crawl.
Precisely, in the instant the shield of the red skeleton was swept horizontally, he actually crawled on the ground in response.
That immense shield was swept above his back, almost making contact with it.
A Shield Back-charge was aimed at the ground, causing the crawling Long Haochen to instantly shoot up, letting his Rippling Light blossom with a myriad of brilliant rays. Against the red skeleton that temporarily lost the protection of his shield, he used a Demon Wiping Flash.
It could be said that Long Haochen’s response was quite imaginative. Along with the increase of his external spiritual energy, his flexibility increased incredibly, permitting him to do a lot of movements he was previously unable to do.
The red skeleton didn’t panic because of Long Haochen’s sneak attack. The immense bone blade instantly did a chopping motion, actually launching an Asura Strike. Exactly, he used Asura Strike with a single hand, and even with the backlash of his shield still affecting him.
After crossing swords with the red skeleton for so many times, Long Haochen and his group had painfully learned about the fact that in battle, no movement was superfluous.
However, this red skeleton clearly did a miscalculation. The myriads of light rays were suddenly condensed to another direction, aiming at the edge of the bone blade.
With a crispy Ding sound, the red skeleton fell back in spite of his massive build. As for the shield in his left hand, it couldn’t be used as a result of his previous action. This time, Long Haochen showed his ability to counterattack from a passively defensive state.
Chapter 370
With his left foot stepping on the ground, Long Haochen relied on the force from his own attack to rush forward, making his sword Rippling Light instantly turn dazzling white. Following the blade, an edge of white light burst out, aiming to strike at the red skeleton.
The white color covering the sword was of course a result from Holy Sword, but that white edge of light was a particular attack in the state of Holy Sword, called Holy Flower.
Even the red skeleton didn’t dare meet the attack from Holy Flower head- on. Left helpless, he could only use his shield for his protection. With a loud sound, Holy Flower pushed him back with its powerful force. And at that time, Long Haochen had already closed in.
The Holy Glorious Shield vanished, and Long Haochen only had the sword Rippling Light glinting with Holy Sword in his hands.
An Asura Strike was launched.
Right in that instant, Long Haochen seemed to have entered an extraordinary state, emitting an incomparable sword intent. This simple Asura Strike gave off a feeling of unity between the sword and its master, which was represented by a five meters large white halo spreading out from his body.
Because of Long Haochen’s fast combination, the red skeleton was unable to counterattack. Instead, he used his shield defensively, just like
before. At the same time, his body was inclined slightly, in an attempt to counterattack immediately after blocking this blow.
However, the power in Long Haochen’s attack was not to be underestimated. Right at that instant, it rose to the peak of it’s power, and Long Haochen gave off the impression of being able to overcome anything.
This impression resulted directly from the sword intent. It was based on an understanding Long Haochen obtained little by little from the Aria of the Goddess of light. The reason why he didn’t use his sword intent directly against him was just to avoid damaging the body of the red skeleton.
Bang! His shield broken in fragments, the red skeleton was sent flying by this blow, and because his body was inclined towards Long Haochen at the time of the attack, he was actually in a semi-inclined posture as he was hurled in the air.
The four wings on Long Haochen’s back eventually flapped, and a lightning-like golden flash covered the ceiling. Launching a kick against the red skeleton, he aimed Rippling Light against the bone blade held in the right hand of the red skeleton, breaking it into pieces. After completing these two movements in a split second, Long Haochen turned back and smashed his right elbow against the throat of the red skeleton.
This attack was completed in a flash, and in the next instant, the man and the skeleton parted with each other. The red skeleton was violently flung ten meters back, and hit the ground hard, the parts of his bone blade scattered on the ground.
Seeing this brilliant battle, everyone from the 64th commander grade Demon Hunt Squad couldn’t help but show fervent looks. They finally won. After close to a year, they finally won against this powerful red skeleton. And this was in a one against one duel, where Long Haochen didn’t use the support from Yating or Haoyue. He did this to show his respect towards this opponent.
Boo The red skeleton let out a sort of moan, crawling on the ground with the use of his left hand.
Long Haochen regained the Glorious Holy Shield from the Eternal Melody, and made preparations to continue the battle.
However, the red skeleton didn’t continue his offense, but watcHed Long Haochen attentively. This lasted for more than ten seconds, before he slowly gave a nod. He actually knelt down in front of Long Haochen, clearly showing his obeisance with this movement.
This?… Long Haochen looked at him with a start, “Elder, there is no need to act like that.”
“Master, the Twelfth Holy Guard reports to you.” A muffled and cold voice was heard coming from the red skeleton, “In any world outside the Tower of Eternity, whoever wants to harm you will have to walk over my smashed bones for that.”
After saying these words, the red skeleton abruptly turned into a red flash of light flying in Long Haochen’s direction. In the air, his body became smaller and smaller. When he arrived before Long Haochen, his body’s shape already became that of a small red flame. Instantly, he disappeared into the Eternal Melody.
Long Haochen felt a warm feeling on his chest. Pulling up his garment, he gave a look to the Eternal Melody, only to see that on the gem above the white skull shaped pendant a small red fire pulsed.
Twelfth Holy Guard?
Looking at the snapped arms, bone blade and shield disappearing into the ground, Long Haochen couldn’t help but look sluggish.
“Boss, what happened? Was it an ability or an increase of spiritual energy?” Sima Xian asked eagerly. They all got to see that red light, but didn’t hear the voice of the Twelfth Holy Guard, thus believing that everything was going on, the same way as before.
Long Haochen shook his head, giving a bitter smile, “I’m afraid that I am being forced to become a necromancer.” After repeating the words of
the Twelfth Holy Guard, he continued, “If my guess is correct, I should have gotten the ability to summon that red skeleton as guard. Wait a bit, I’ll give it a try.”
After saying this, Long Haochen slowly closed his eyes, before a red glint occurred and the tall red skeleton calling himself Twelfth Holy Guard appeared before Long Haochen, its previously snapped arm and broken shield were back to normal. He emitted a glowing and wild aura.
When Long Haochen closed his eyes, he learned that his own soul seemed to have gained connection with this red skeleton. He was now completely capable of giving him orders during battle. And atop of that, the skeleton had a self-awareness of his own, and the battle instincts their group already got to experience.
Everyone looked at each other, but no one seemed able to determine whether this was a good or a bad thing.
The calamity brought to the continent by the necromancers was something they were all aware of, and Long Haochen was moreover an outstanding knight privileged as the Scion of Light. If he were to really become a necromancer, things would be really messy and even the Temple Alliance would definitely not accept it. And furthermore, given that this Twelfth Holy Guard entered the Eternal Melody on his own, would it even be possible to drive him out of it? In the end, Long Haochen didn’t have absolute control over this pendant.
“Haochen.” Cai’er took Long Haochen’s hand. “Actually, I think that you are really overthinking this. In this world, there is nothing that can be categorized as absolutely good or evil. Necromancers can actually be light attribute users, so what could be impossible? The fact that you obtained this strength doesn’t mean you definitely have to use it. And in addition, this red skeleton detaining the soul of a powerhouse doesn’t have any of the bearings of an undead creature.When you’ll summon it, it will only be to fight against demons. What is there to worry about if you just use it to kill demon aggressors?”
Han Yu nodded, “Vice-captain is right. Although this Tower of Eternity is the dwelling place of the Holy Necromancer Elux, he doesn’t have any enmity towards you or us. On the contrary, it is because of his help that our strength keeps growing. As long as we aren’t disturbed by our own acts, the world’s view doesn’t matter. Moreover, there will be no problem at all about concealing his existence.”
Sima Xian responded, “That’s right! Over seventy percent of the Demon Hunt Squads die in the demon territory. Maybe we will come to die there someday, too. Boss, don’t overthink this. Just accept it. Let’s go now, we should keep advancing and have a look to see what else there is on this first floor.”
After getting the support from his comrades, Long Haochen’s face eased up. Actually, after all this time, he had already realized all this, but didn’t want for the harmony of the team to be disturbed by the matter. He was still underestimating the trust the others had in him: no one would actually question his intentions.
Connecting his mental force with the Eternal Melody, Long Haochen transmitted his thoughts and the Twelfth Holy Guard was again concealed as a red light. It was as if he was pulled in by the Eternal Melody.
“Keep our battle formation and advance.” Long Haochen shouted, showing the initiative by taking out the Glorious Holy Shield and the Rippling Light while placing himself at the front.
The additional ability carried by the Rippling Light was extremely powerful. When launching an attack, it would make it carry illusory ripples of spiritual energy, launching a second additional attack with roughly a third of the original attack’s strength.
In other words, when using the attack Holy Sword, at the same time, it would launch a second attack with a third of the Holy Sword’s strength. This was also the main reason that made the Twelfth Holy Guard unable to block Long Haochen’s attack. Of course, Long Haochen also understood that if the Twelfth Holy Guard had a set of equipment on par with his own, achieving victory against him wouldn’t possibly be that easy.
After all, in terms of battle techniques, Long Haochen still had things to learn from him.
This time, they advanced twenty more meters before the Tower of Eternity showed some reaction. And now, they seemed to be drawing closer and closer to the end of the first floor. Long Haochen vaguely saw a huge sculpture standing at the end of the first floor.
A sparkling blue light appeared out of nowhere and from it, a skeleton that seemed no different from the Twelfth Holy Guard slowly appeared. An ice-blue mass of light seemed to stream into it, but it actually didn’t expand to the size of the Twelfth Holy Guard, only reaching a height of a meter and eight centimeters. His whole body became deep blue, with two blue soulfires pulsing in his eyes. In his right hand, a long staff appeared quietly.
“A mage type skeleton! Be careful everyone.” Long Haochen gave a shout, dashing like a dart in the direction of that blue skeleton. It took him a mere instant to reach his peak speed. He had the premonition that this had to be the last test of the first floor. After passing it, they would have conquered the whole first floor of the Tower of Eternity.
A hot pure golden flame surrounded Long Haochen’s body, illuminating the whole Tower of Eternity. This was not only intended as a means to resist against an opponent of the ice element, but also to light up the surroundings for his comrades, so that everyone could find it easier to respond to the attacks from that blue skeleton.
The blue skeleton and the red skeleton of the sixth test had a significant difference in demeanor, which was that the former didn’t make the slightest sound after the ignition of his soulfire. He appeared incomparably calm. Against Long Haochen’s charge, his body slided sideways as if gliding on ice, meanwhile, with a shake of the staff in his hand, a fog of ice headed in Long Haochen’s direction.
“Hehe, now should be the time for this bro to show his strength.” said Lin Xin with a voice filled with excitement. Suddenly, a layer of blue fire appeared in front of Long Haochen.