Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  The other Qi Practitioner that followed Zhong Yue continued to trail his advancement and replied, “Of course, although he is not as good as Fang Jiange, Feng Wuji, and those with innate spirit bodies, he is still very remarkable. However, his concealment of his strength has increased my workload. I need to stick closely to him just in case he loses control of his strength and kills his opponents.”

  In the previous years, Zuo Xiangsheng and Tian Yanzhong had also hidden their true strengths. They revealed their trump cards and crushed their foes, winning the title of the strongest disciple in the upper house and the strongest spirit in the Ethereal Palace in their respective years. This allowed them to establish a bright future for themselves.

  These two were among the best of their time. Although they were not as good as Fan Jiange, Feng Wuji and the others that had innate spirit bodies, they still managed to get their hands on the strongest spirits in the Ethereal Palace. Due to that, they improved quickly and they were not any weaker than Fang Jiange and the others.

  However, Zuo Xiangsheng had failed to control his strength and killed his opponent accidentally. This caused an uproar in that year and both he and the Qi Practitioner that was responsible for the safety of the deceased participant were punished.

  This incident was closely related to why Zuo Xiangsheng had been dispatched to the outer hall to assist the Tian Feng Clan in managing the Cloudless Hall. If it wasn’t because of this incident, he would have become a hall master in the Swords Gate instead of teaching the outer hall disciples.

  Zhong Yue was aware of the Qi Practitioner that followed him closely in the air. He tried to shake off the Qi Practitioner by changing his movements and path but to no avail.

  There is one Qi Practitioner following me and another one with the Tian Myriad Mother, along with the Shen Dragon who watches over the whole battleground, will I really be able to kill Tian Myriad Mother in front of them?

  However, little did Zhong Yue know that the Qi Practitioner that followed him was greatly shocked by his actions. He knew deeply that Zhong Yue was not a Qi Practitioner and he had not learned any other techniques from any Qi Practitioners. However, when Zhong Yue changed his movements and sped up, he almost failed to keep up with Zhong Yue!

  Like a Jiao Dragon awaiting its time to ascend, waiting for its chance to move with the thunder and wind to become a real dragon! This Zhong Shan Clan member has almost everything he needs to become a Qi Practitioner. The only thing he needs now is to sense the spirit!

  This Qi Practitioner then continued his thoughts, He has accumulated so much strength, his chance to improve even more will come as soon as this battle ends!

  On the ocean, many of the remaining disciples had encountered each other. They fought each other fiercely all over the water. The weak would die out and the strong would survive. Those who were weaker were all disqualified on their way to the city and had no chance to enter the top ten.

  Those who took part in the battle were those who were confident in their own strengths. However, the crucial determining factor was the participant’s strength. They must have achieved the level of psyche materialization. This was required to overcome the obstacles and step foot in the city above the ocean.

  In addition, one would also need high-grade pillar totems, soul weapons, and powerful techniques as their support to step foot in the city!

  Zhong Yue stood on the Jiao Dragon and charged toward Tian Myriad Mother as she defeated her opponents and got up to the city above the sea.

  Zhong Yue dashed into the city and saw god shrines and edifices everywhere. It was just like the trees in a jungle. On the other hand, Tian Myriad Mother was nowhere in sight.

  The entire city was made with Shen Dragon’s psyche. The city was incredibly realistic, which made it almost impossible to find a particular someone in this huge city.

  The Qi Practitioners follow us in order to protect us. I could actually look for the location of those participants through the Qi Practitioners and ambush my opponents!

  As he thought of this idea, Zhong Yue looked up and saw the Qi Practitioners. They stood at the edge of the city instead of following the upper house disciples inside.

  This won’t work as well….

  Zhong Yue then saw one disciple flying up the air. They formed a huge bird as a medium of transport before continue to search for his opponents.

  Reckless action.

  As he thought of this, one after another incredible psyche could be sensed. Immense amounts of thunder, creatures, waves, and totems were formed, before inflicting heavy wounds on that upper house disciple. Luckily for him, the Qi Practitioners at the edge of the city saved him in time. Otherwise, he would have died from those attacks.

  Zhong Yue’s eyes blinked and he focused on the water elemental totem. Then, he dashed into the city and headed toward that direction.

  Tian Myriad Mother possessed the body of Junior martial sister Shui. In order to protect her cover, she had to use water elemental skills. At the same time, Shui Qinghe had been disqualified. As such, the water elemental attack just now must have been launched by her!

  He ran through the streets quickly and the others in the city also moved faster. Similar to Zhong Yue, the others were also looking for their opponents through the location where the attacks were launched.

  On the side of the streets were buildings that were as tall as tens of feet. As he ran, Zhong Yue heard a voice asking, “Are you looking for me?”

  Zhong Yue stopped running and looked above, only to find a young girl standing in between two blocks of buildings. Under her feet was a strand of long string that pierced through the two buildings.

  This girl was ‘Shui Qingyan’. She stood barefoot on the string with clear eyes as she measured Zhong Yue curiously.

  When their eyes met, Zhong Yue unconsciously hoped that Shui Qingyan was not fully dead yet. He showed her the scar he received from a beast when he saved her. Then, he said with a smile, “Do you not recognize me anymore, junior martial sister Shui?”

  ‘Shui Qingyan’ turned her head and measured him curiously. She showed signs of confusion before saying, “I felt your killing intent quite a few times already and I want to know why?”

  “Junior Martial Sister Shui, do you still remember this scar?” asked Zhong Yue again.

  However, she did not reply and instead asked, “I am pretty sure I have not offended you in any way, so why do you want to kill me?”

  The two of them said what they wanted to say instead of answering each other’s questions. They remained quiet for a while before ‘Shui Qingyan’ tipped her toes and said, “Seems like we have no mutual topics here, I guess we’ll have to fight now.”

  “Be careful!”

  In Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, Xin Huo said, “She wants to kill you now! It must be because you showed your killing intent toward her previously. That made her grow suspicious of you!”

  Zhong Yue inhaled a long, deep breath and focused on the situation at hand. He unsheathed half of his Dragon Scale Sword and a dragon’s roar could be heard.

  ‘Shui Qingyan’ floated down and the strand of string rolled together. It became a cocoon that dangled on her hair.

  “Brat Yue, be careful of this sword!”

  Xin Huo said with a serious tone that Zhong Yue had never heard before. Xin Huo continued, “This sword is incredible. If you place your soul in your sword, do not let your sword touch with her sword or it will shatter along with your soul!”

  “That is a sword?”

  Zhong Yue was stunned and he looked over at the silver cocoon. The silver cocoon was tiny but sword energy could be seen faintly from it. It really was a sword except it was as thin as silk, a tenth of the width of a hair!

  Sword silk － Sword Cocoon.

  The sword cocoon was made of high graded dark steel. The steel was refined and branded onto the sword body of the silk-thread-sized sword cocoon. Totem carvings were created while the tenacity and flexibility of the sword were maintai
ned!

  As the sword reached the length of ten feet or above, it could then be rolled into a sword cocoon. The sword cocoons were very small and they could be hidden everywhere. While they were exquisite, they could be extremely lethal at the same time!

  The sword cocoons could be hidden within the hairs or the clothes. It could also be hung at the waist as a decoration, which made them harder to detect and less attention drawing.

  Such soul weapons were always extremely dangerous. As they were incredibly hard to detect and could be used to form a killing array easily, those who were caught off guard would be cut down effortlessly!

  “It seems like you are one of those knowledgeable ones.”

  ‘Shui Qingyan’ saw Zhong Yue looking at her sword cocoon and she laughed while saying, “This is a sword cocoon and you actually know of its lethality. As such, I assume you are a competitive one.”

  At the same time, two Qi Practitioners outside the city also noticed the situation. One of them looked at the sword cocoon that dangled on her hair and his faced changed quickly. He said, “Oh no! That’s the Sword Cocoon crafted by Elder Shui Zhian! Why did Elder Shui let his clan’s disciple wield such a malefic weapon?”

  “Sword Cocoon?”

  The other Qi Practitioner was shocked as he said, “One of the ten malefic weapons, the Sword Cocoon? One of them will definitely die this time! What should we do now? Should we let them fight?”

  All of the Swords Gate’s ten malefic weapons were soaked with blood. The Sword Cocoons were soul weapons crafted by Elder Shui Zian. The swords were as fine as silk with the length of two hundred feet. They were tough and razor sharp; there was a total of sixty-four Sword Cocoons.

  They were named as a malefic weapon because of a massacre by Elder Shui Zian. When he was young, his enemies had a sinister plot against him. However, with sixty-four Sword Cocoons combined in a sword array, he slaughtered his more than a hundred foes and sliced them into mashed flesh. Not a single limb or bone was left behind!

  After Shui Zian acquired his own Sword Qi, soul weapons were practically useless to him because his Sword Qi was way better. From then on, the malefic soul weapon was left behind.

  To the elders, soul weapons were of little use to them. Most of the elders had their soul weapons sealed and left in the corner only to collect dust.

  The elders of Swords Gate once evaluated the soul weapons of all the elders. The Sword Cocoons were ranked among the top ten malefic weapons, which were ten soul weapons with the strongest killing intent!

  Although ‘Shui Qingyan’ only had one out of the sixty-four, she could slaughter humans like pigs with just that single strand of Sword Cocoon. Once she intended to kill, not even the Qi Practitioners or Shen Dragon could save the victim!

  “Go inform the elders, I will watch over them!”

  One of the two Qi Practitioners turned and quickly flew away. The other one watched closely at the two, praying that they would not engage in a battle.

  Zheng!

  A loud and clear metallic sound could be heard, behind Zhong Yue, the Dragon Scale Sword entered the scabbard. He raised his leg that was surrounded by the Jiao Dragon and slashed toward a stone pillar beside him. Ka-cha, the stone pillar broke into half.

  He grabbed the stone pillar that was over a hundred meters in length and said solemnly, “Shall we?”

  Chapter 52: The Battle of Arts and Skills |

  “The two started the duel!”

  The Qi Practitioner’s heart turned bitter, he looked around, the other Qi Practitioners were all busy watching over the duel of the other upper house disciples, he could only overlook the duel between Zhong Yue and ‘Shui Qingyan’ alone.

  In the castle beneath him, the two youngsters fought as if they were life and death enemies, the Qi Practitioner’s heart tensed up watching the two dueling each other.

  Zhong Yue’s leg crushed the stone pillar in half, what was shocking was that he did not use that stone pillar as a close quarter combat weapon but rather he launched it out like a javelin – Hu! – He twisted his waist and hurled the stone pillar out with all his might!

  The stone pillar was like a strong and powerful javelin, when it was thrown into the air, the winds around it were blasting and trembling the eardrums of the others beside it as if their eardrums were on the verge of bursting away, it pierced through the air like a flash of lightning towards ‘Shui Qingyan’!

  “【Water Dragon Twist】!”

  ‘Shui Qingyan’’s sleeves fluttered in the air, her psyche gushed out into billowing waves of water currents and formed into three cerulean water dragons, the three water dragons twisted around each other like a gigantic hemp rope, whirling while striking towards the stone pillar.

  Shrill sounds could be heard and the shattered rocks scattered all around the place; the stone pillar came hurling with immense strength and force but when met with the three water dragons, the hundred over feet long stone pillar was pulverized into stone powder!

  The ground unburrowed and one after another, cerulean water dragons flew out from the underground and pounced down towards Zhong Yue with their dreadful dragon claws. He quickly moved backwards to evade the dragon claws, wherever the water dragons struck, stones and rocks cluttered around and the street path was clustered with craters!

  The water dragons twisted themselves in groups of three whirling and pouncing down on Zhong Yue, if they missed they would drill into the ground and disappear, leaving only deep holes on the floor!

  The next moment, the three Jiao Dragons erupted out from the ground and launched a deadly assault on Zhong Yue!

  “True quintessence of Shui Tu Clan’s【Water Dragon Visualization Art】!”

  The Qi Practitioner in the mid-air was shocked, the disciples that were imparted with the true quiddities were usually the exceptionally talented ones, who would know that ‘Shui Qingyan’, who was usually insignificant was also imparted with the true quintessence of an art and cultivated the【Water Dragon Visualization Art】to such a level.

  Shui Qingyan’s water dragon had all the elements – skin, flesh, bones, veins, blood, spirit and aura.. It was all seemingly genuine and authentic. Her psyche was also at the level of actualization of virtuality, the Jiao Dragon she formed was ever-changing and ethereal, with such prowess, there would definitely be a spot for her in the top ten rankings among the upper house disciples!

  On the other side, Zhong Yue was taking steps back to avoid the water dragons while his fingers continuously flickered in the air. Every flick of his fingers would cause his psyche to coalesce a lightning dragon and compel it to strike through the water dragons towards ‘Shui Qingyan’!

  The thin and tiny lightning dragons were like lightning and Jiao dragons but they were actually Sword Qi formed by his psyche containing the force of the lightning and the power of the Jiao Dragons.

  Among the two techniques, he had only grasped the true quintessence of the Spring Thunder Sword Skill while the sword skill was far weaker than the【Water Dragon Visualization Art】. But along with the power of the Jiao Dragons and the totem carvings of the Boundless Great Sword Qi as the core, the little lightning dragons were in fact, no weaker than any soul weapon!

  This was also why when Zhong Yue was dueling with Shui Qinghe, the lightning Jiao Dragons-formed Sword Qi was able to triumph over Shui Qinghe’s Bazhen Swords.

  Zhong Yue’s lightning Jiao Dragon Sword Qi was more shocking, they flashed around like lightning and in seconds, pierced through the water dragons to the sides of ‘Shui Qingyan’, the dragon-shaped Sword Qi slashed and cuts fiercely!

  Right at this moment, there were shields with aqueous patterns appearing out of nowhere around ‘Shui Qingyan’, locking down the dragon-shaped Sword Qis, the moment they clashed together, the water patterns rippled while the totem carvings on the shields were sliced broken but the Sword Qi still could not break through her defense.

  Kacha kacha!

  When Zhong Yue was moving backwards, his legs wer
e like two big scythes slicing the sides of the street; one after another, the stone pillars were slashed and as the young man slammed his palms on the broken stone pillars, they were all hurled towards Shui Qingyan, the sound of the winds shattered the windows on the buildings into pieces!

  Thankfully, all the buildings in the castle were the psyche transformations of the Shen Dragon, they were not physical objects as if they were, the buildings would collapse the moment the two youngsters clashed together.

  “Even the shield is of true quintessence!”

  In mid-air, the Qi Practitioner stared at the water shields around ‘Shui Qingyan’, his heart was filled with disbelieve.

  The water shields were also one of the secret techniques of the Shui Tu Clan, a water style technique that goes by the name of【Riptide Shield Visualization Art】.

  ‘Shui Qingyan’ was only a young little girl that entered the upper house as a disciple for less than half a year but she was already practicing the true quintessence of two secret techniques and possessed the Sword Cocoons of the Shui Tu Clan elder Shui Zian. The Qi Practitioner quickly realized that Shui Qinghe was not the core disciple of the Shui Tu Can, but rather, the young lady beneath him was the true core disciple!

  “Could it be that this little girl has an innate spirit body, or otherwise how did her prowess increase so rapidly? But that doesn’t make sense either, if she is an innate spirit body, she would be a Qi Practitioner by now….” The Qi Practitioner was confused.

  Suddenly, Zhong Yue’s heart was alerted, he halted for a split second and a sudden flash of lightning burst out from his feet, pushing him into the air. The moment he launched himself into the air, the ground beneath him erupted, a lotus made its appearance and with its flower buds bloomed out gracefully, the flower pistils shot out like swords towards Zhong Yue.

  At the same time, the sound of the soil erupting could be heard as the ground trembled and the street was filled with water lotuses. Their pink-colored flower buds bloomed and the pistils shot into the air; all of a sudden, the whole street was flooded with the water Sword Qi!