by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
It was like raising pigs. Once they were fat enough, you would slaughter it. After each battle, the soul inside would be exhausted, and the cave age would be reset to zero.
Each corrupt corpse that had its head cut off wasn’t actually dead. But the soul sealed within the corpse would have used up so much energy that it needed to rest. The elders would just find another corpse to replace it with, switching them out.
And the monastery had a rule that the age of the corrupt corpse's cave could not surpass 500 years. If it did, the Elders would personally go kill those corrupt corpses, using up all their spiritual energy and putting in a new corpse.
That was because corrupt corpses that had surpassed a cave age of five hundred years had already surpassed the limit of what a Blood Condensation genius could handle. Entering such a cave would only result in death for them.
That Elder’s face was deathly pale now. He was in charge of these caves, but he had made such an error. That was definitely an extremely great error.
“Elder Tu Fang…” That Elder sadly sighed. But he was also a straightforward and upright person. He knew he had made an extremely grave mistake, causing a genius to die. He would accept his punishment.
Tu Fang shook his head. “This matter isn’t your fault.”
Tu Fang had been in the Xuantian Monastery for many years. He already completely understood all the Elders. This Elder was an extremely attentive person. It was normally impossible for him to have made such a mistake.
And in the past five hundred years, all the other caves that had surpassed the five hundred year limit had been reset to zero. Only this one had remained. That was definitely odd.
In the past five hundred years, the three Elders in charge of the caves had never noticed it.
And when Tu Fang saw that cave, he had immediately thought of a possibility. Perhaps it was simply that fate had foreordained Long Chen to choose that cave.
But he, of course, wouldn’t dare to say that out loud. He remembered what the sect leader had repeatedly warned him about. He was admiring the sect leader even more for his courage to prove Long Chen was a true Divergent.
That Elder was completely confused as to why the normally completely strict Enforcement Elder Tu Fang would so easily forgive his error.
“How could Long Chen possibly pass such a high cave age? Why aren’t you going to save him?!” Tang Wan-er angrily raged.
Tu Fang shook his head. “It’s already been this long. Even if we went in now, it has no meaning. Right now, we can only hope that Long Chen is lucky.”
“What?!” Tang Wan-er had only barely managed to avoid death when her cave age had only been in the four hundreds!
The higher the cave age, the faster those souls would cultivate. Naturally, that represented an exponential growth in strength as well.
Tang Wan-er ground her teeth and turned, rushing over to the stone wall.
“Wan-er, come back!” Qing Yu was given a fright. She knew Tang Wan-er was planning on personally going to save Long Chen, and it was already too late for her to stop her. Tang Wan-er had already reached the stone wall.
BOOOOOM!!!!
A huge heaven-shaking explosion rang out just at this moment. People raised their heads to see that the cave Long Chen had been in had completely exploded, and a wretched figure had flown out.
“Is it Long Chen?” Someone called out.
Long Chen was fleeing for his life. As soon as he had jumped out, a huge palm image had shot out, narrowly missing smashing him.
That hand was just an empty image, but the berserk energy within it shook everyone. The entire stone wall was quivering.
After that palm image attack, an angry roar rang out, filled with icy killing intent. “You wretched brat, you dare trick me?! Die!”
Following that shout, a black figure flew out of the cave, its entire body covered in black mist.
As soon as that figure flew out, it was immediately lit up by the light of the stone pillars. That black mist around its body was immediately burned away with a sizzling sound.
“AHH!!! You’ve really angered me now. Brat, stand still!” That figure actually decided to chase after Long Chen in front of everyone’s appalled gazes despite being covered by that light.
“Long Chen!” Tang Wan-er, on the other hand, was celebrating.
“Foolish girl, what are you just standing there for? Run!”
As soon as Long Chen had jumped out of that cave, he had seen Tang Wan-er looking up to him. Long Chen immediately pushed her forward, sending her flying away.
BOOM! She had only just been pushed out of the cave when a huge hand fell from the sky. Long Chen didn’t have time to dodge and was smashed into the ground.
A huge crater formed with Long Chen at the center. Even some of the surrounding stones were completely destroyed.
Everything was happening so fast that no one had even reacted yet. But at this time, Tu Fang shouted, “Form the White Tiger Dragon Sealing Formation!”
Those Elders all immediately slammed their hands on the stone pillars in front of them. Lines appeared over the sixteen stone pillars. A huge net surged out of the pillars and covered that figure.
Long Chen crawled out of the ground at this time, completely bruised and battered. And that was only because his physical body was exceptionally strong. He was so dazed he was seeing stars.
But seeing that Gui Sha was finally trapped within that grand formation, he finally relaxed. At the very least he had managed to escape alive.
Everyone was completely shocked. They blankly looked at that black figure. Black mist still surged out of his body, making it so no one could clearly see his features.
But although they couldn’t see him clearly, they could all clearly sense that he was a powerful corrupt corpse.
Those people who had failed to pass the trial and managed to flee from the caves had also had corrupt corpses chase them out, but as soon as those corrupt corpses had gone out of the cave, they were lit up by the stone pillars’ light and immediately turned into a true corpse, the soul inside completely scattering.
But the corrupt corpse that was fighting Long Chen was actually able to resist that light and chase him out of the cave.
Being trapped by this formation, no matter how he struggled, Gui Sha was unable to move. It was as if he were bound by countless invisible ropes.
“Long Chen, something unexpected occurred during this trial. However, it is still within the scope of the trial. So right now, your trial is still not over.
“You can now choose to continue taking the trial, or you can give up. But if you give up, you will have failed to join the monastery.” Tu Fang looked at Long Chen.
Long Chen directly rolled his eyes. What kind of joke was that? You want me to fight against this strong of a monster? Isn’t that just sending me to my death?
Within the cave, Long Chen had been humbly learning Gui Sha’s Netherworld Ghost Steps the entire time. That set of footwork was extremely amazing.
It was an extremely profound footwork technique. And he had not only memorized the technique’s mnemonic that Gui Sha had originally taught him, but he had also asked many questions about practicing the technique, getting many details that Gui Sha had been holding back from him.
Originally, Gui Sha had only been using the mnemonic in order to fool Long Chen. However, Long Chen continuously asked him more and more details over and over, and despite his intense rage, he could only swallow his anger in order to achieve his goal. He explained everything, wasting a great deal of time.
Everytime his anger was about to explode out, Long Chen would say that if he refused to teach him more, he would commit suicide so that he couldn’t achieve his goal.
Gui Sha had been taken advantage of with no choice out of it. Furthermore, Long Chen was actually extremely crafty, and his knowledge of circulating qi and the routes within his body was even greater than an old demon like him! And so Gui Sha was unable to even make things up. After that long
of a time, he ended up explaining all of the Netherworld Ghost Steps to Long Chen.
He could only console himself that once he entered Long Chen’s body, he would immediately devour his soul. It was fine for Long Chen to have a slight advantage for now.
Finally, Gui Sha had begun to tell Long Chen to make his preparations to have his soul extracted from this corpse and inserted into his Dantian.
First, Long Chen had to place his finger between Gui Sha’s eyebrows. Gui Sha then began to circulate his Spiritual Strength to attack his seal.
The moment Gui Sha’s Spiritual Strength began to circulate, the corrupt corpse immediately began to glow with countless lines, trying to seal in his Spiritual Strength.
But in the end, Gui Sha had managed to open up a hole at his forehead. Telling Long Chen not to resist, he had sent his Spiritual Strength flowing through Long Chen’s finger to his Dantian.
Long Chen had also assented at that time. So Gui Sha was focused on resisting the runic power while also bringing out his soul. That process was extremely tiresome and slow.
Long Chen could sense Gui Sha’s terrifying Spiritual Strength sharply dropping as it resisted those runes.
At that time Long Chen had stealthily begun to make his preparations. Over half of Gui Sha’s soul had been injected into his finger and was now flowing through his arm.
Long Chen knew the moment had come. The thunderforce he had kept all that time was sent viciously slamming into Gui Sha’s soul.
Spiritual Bodies were most afraid of thunderforce. Even someone as powerful as Gui Sha was unable to bear it. He had let out a miserable scream and flown back, an extremely heavy injury appearing on his soul.
Long Chen had then immediately fled for his life with his greatest speed.
But Gui Sha was too terrifying. Even having lost half his Spiritual Strength, he had quickly reacted.
His anger had already completely exploded out now. He knew Long Chen had been playing him the entire time and never had any intentions of cooperating with him. Thus, he began to attack him crazily.
Unfortunately, Long Chen had already run out. Due to his incredible anger, Gui Sha was willing to do anything in order to kill Long Chen and had even chased him out of the cave. Using a secret technique, he was able to temporarily block the light coming from the stone pillars. But before he could kill Long Chen, he was trapped.
Seeing Long Chen looking at him disdainfully, Tu Fang tossed out another condition. “You can invite your companions to help.”
Chapter 170 Three Heroes Fighting an Old Ghost
“And I will tell you the truth right now. Under the suppression of the White Tiger Dragon Suppressing Formation, his strength will at least be cut in half.
“That is also a compensation to you from the monastery. As for whether or not you accept it, that will be up to you,” said Tu Fang.
Tu Fang’s words immediately caused shock to ripple through the crowd. He could work with his companions? How was that compensation? That was clearly cheating!
Before Long Chen could even reply, Qi Xin had angrily stood up. “Elder Tu Fang, how can you handle it like this? Previously you said that luck was also an important part of strength.
“Since Long Chen entered that cave, it can only be said that his luck is bad. For you to offer him an easy path is completely unfair.”
Qi Xin had yet to recover, but he absolutely wouldn’t just stand there as Long Chen got a huge advantage.
Everyone else was also looking at Tu Fang. Qi Xin’s words were completely correct. By doing it like this, Tu Fang truly was favoring Long Chen.
Tu Fang only indifferently replied, “In order for the monastery to develop, it naturally formed some rules that favored the powerful.
“Of course, if you can’t accept that and think it’s unfair, then alright. I can place this corrupt corpse back into the cave. As long as any of you can manage to stay alive for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, I will give you three core disciple positions.”
Tu Fang’s words caused everyone’s heart to pound. Three core disciple positions? Had they heard wrong?
“Hmph, but let me tell you, this corrupt corpse’s soul used to be a powerful expert. Only someone with the sect leader’s top-level power was able to subdue him.
“Although he’s sealed within this corrupt corpse, he hasn’t used up his spiritual energy in over a thousand years and has already recovered to possess a frightening strength.
“Within that cave, even the Bone Forging Elders would all be killed by him. Now is there still anyone who is unconvinced and wants to take that test?” Tu Fang icily swept his gaze over everyone.
He could kill Bone Forging Elders? Everyone turned numb, involuntarily turning to look at Long Chen. They could not understand how Long Chen had managed to get out alive.
Let alone them, even the Elders were bewildered. Since this corpse was able to resist the light from the stone pillars and charge out to kill people, that meant its strength had reached a shocking point.
According to common sense, for such a person, killing Long Chen would be pretty much the same difficulty as killing an ant. But when Long Chen had come out, his clothing had still been intact and not even his hair was a mess. That was completely incomprehensible. Had that brutal old monster just been having a nice conversation with him?
The funny thing was, that sarcastic joke was actually the right guess. That old ghost had just been chatting with Long Chen the entire time, wanting to steal away his body to escape the Xuantian Monastery.
Tu Fang’s words immediately caused Qi Xin to shut his mouth. He wasn’t an idiot and knew Elder Tu Fang had already become slightly irritated with him.
Obviously, Tu Fang possessed great authority within the Xuantian Monastery. It had been many years since anyone had dared to retort against him. For him to have not angrily cursed Qi Xin was already giving him face.
For a moment, the entire crowd was completely silent as everyone stared at Long Chen. They were watching to see how he would reply.
Long Chen looked at Tu Fang. “How weak has this old ghost’s combat ability dropped to?”
“He needs to use his Spiritual Strength to control the black mist, and he’s also being restricted by the White Tiger Dragon Suppressing Formation. His current combat ability should be around thirty percent greater than the corrupt corpse that fought against Tang Wan-er.” Tu Fang examined the corrupt corpse that was completely suppressed by the formation to the point that it was unable to even move.
Only then did Long Chen relax slightly. Walking to Tang Wan-er, he asked, “Was the one you fought powerful?”
Tang Wan-er nodded, “Extremely powerful. The fact that I could kill him was also thanks to my luck. If we fought again, I wouldn’t necessarily win again.”
Thinking back to that previous battle, Tang Wan-er shivered in fear. That corrupt corpse had been too strong, its corpse hard as iron. Her wind blades had been unable to break its body.
But for the corpse, any part of its indestructible body was a lethal weapon. If it had landed a direct blow on her weaker body, she would definitely have been heavily injured, if not dead. And so she had had to fight extremely carefully the entire time.
“Long Chen, this danger should be worth it. With me and sister Wan-er helping you, we should have a large chance of success.” Ye Zhiqiu had also walked up now.
Although they had both already fought previously, after two hours of recovery and with the assistance of medicinal pills, they had at least recovered to eighty percent.
Long Chen was moved. According to Tu Fang’s explanation, it was definitely possible to win this battle, but he knew that it would be extremely difficult and risky.
“Before the battle, let me give you a warning. Opportunities are always combined with risk. There are no free lunches in this world.
“If you succeed, Long Chen will obtain a core disciple badge, receiving a core disciple’s treatment.
“But if you lose, tho
se two core disciple positions you two have obtained will also become invalid. So think about it carefully,” Tu Fang warned.
Long Chen raged, “Can you not explain the rules all in one go? Are you trying to mess with us?!”
Why are there so many ridiculous rules?! Aren’t they just playing around with us?! During despair you give a bit of hope, during hope you give me some more despair! Long Chen raged inside.
As for the other Elders, they were stupefied. It seemed it had been many years since anyone had dared shout at the Enforcement Elder like this!
Tu Fang was also a bit startled, but he didn’t really become angry at Long Chen. In this situation, it was true that the monastery was in the wrong.
“That’s why I said opportunity and risk exist together. You guys can discuss it,” said Tu Fang lightly.
Now it was much more difficult for the three of them. Ye Zhiqiu and Tang Wan-er had risked their own lives to obtain their core disciple badges. If they lost it, they would be left with nothing. That kind of gamble was far too large.
“You two can leave for now. I’ll try it on my own,” said Long Chen. He didn’t want to drag these two down with him.
Tang Wan-er shook her head. “You don’t know how terrifying that corrupt corpse is. Your chances of winning on your own are too low. But as for sister Zhiqiu-”
Ye Zhiqiu didn’t wait for Tang Wan-er to finish before shaking her head, “You don’t need to try and dissuade me. Since we are in an alliance, I refuse to back down when you need me. In my entire life, I’ve never gambled on anything. Now I want to see how my luck is.”
Ye Zhiqiu’s expression might be always icy, but her heart was warm. Last time after they obtained the Profound Spirit Fruit, both of them had said they didn’t want it, leaving it for her.
Although they both said the Profound Spirit Fruit wasn’t useful to them, that wasn’t really true. It was just that both of them purposely left it to her who needed it the most.
That favor was always remembered by her. Now that Long Chen needed help, her honor would not allow her to turn her back to him.