by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
Elder Sha looked at Long Chen. He had an urge to say something, but in the end, he kept his mouth shut. He returned the pendant back to Long Chen and returned to his indifferent appearance.
Long Chen sighed inside. It seemed even Elder Sha’s knowledge was limited. But he had still learned a bit.
“Elder Sha, could you perhaps refer me to a certain direction?” probed Long Chen.
“The world is large. It requires you to walk it with your own feet. What difference is there whether I answer you or not?” said Elder Sha lightly.
Long Chen bitterly smiled. But his words were right. For him to learn about this now didn’t really have any meaning.
Once he reached that level, he would naturally learn the truth. Before he reached that level, what was the point of knowing? Elder Sha was clearly telling him that he didn’t have the qualifications to know such things.
Furthermore, Elder Sha strictly followed the rules. He didn’t like trouble, and although he had questions inside, he didn’t ask them.
Of course, that was the main reason Long Chen dared to ask Elder Sha about this. Because Elder Sha’s mouth was kept tightly shut, making it safe.
Originally, Long Chen had wanted to continue questioning Elder Sha and see if he could learn about the structure of the entire Martial Heaven Continent and the distribution of powers, but this reply of Elder Sha’s clearly showed that asking would be useless.
“Many thanks, Elder Sha.” Long Chen bowed slightly. Just as he turned to leave, Elder Sha opened his mouth once more.
“Let alone the entire Martial Heaven Continent, just attempting to stand out within the Xuantian Dao Sect will be very difficult. If you want to contend for supremacy within the entire continent, you should first set yourself up in the Xuantian Dao Sect.” A complicated expression appeared in Elder Sha’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but give Long Chen a final warning.
Long Chen was startled. Elder Sha didn’t like to speak, he hadn’t revealed his cultivation base, and he always appeared like a wooden old man, but Long Chen’s intuition told him his power was terrifying.
“Many thanks for senior’s pointers,” said Long Chen humbly.
“It wasn’t anything important. Once you arrive at the Xuantian Dao Sect, you’ll understand that even if you can dominate the other four regions, you still won’t have any superiority amongst the Central Plains’ heavenly geniuses. To sum it up, avoid pride and impatience, avoiding showing off your sharp point, be more evasive and sly, and your journey will be easier,” said Elder Sha.
“Disciple understands. Many thanks.” Long Chen bowed.
Although Elder Sha was being subtle, his meaning was obvious. Long Chen might be the top amongst the disciples from the Eastern Wasteland, Western Desert, Southern Sea, and Northern Source, but compared to the geniuses from the Central Plains, his foundation was lacking. He was losing right at the starting line.
In truth, the reason why the Xuantian Dao Sect had established branch sects in the four outer regions wasn’t because they had many hopes for the disciples raised there. To put it frankly, the four outer regions’ disciples were nothing more than cannon fodder, fireflies to show off the brightness of the moon.
Elder Sha was warning him kindheartedly. He had lived for a long time, and he had seen batch after batch of disciples who had gone to the Central Plains full of hope and passion, only to be given grievous blows from reality. He had seen countless promising geniuses fall one by one. Now he was almost numb to it.
It was precisely because he was numb that he didn’t have much interest in things anymore. He just did his job, following the rules. Rather than aiming for the best possible result, he just avoided making mistakes.
“Unfortunately, disciple’s stubbornness is something you’ve seen. No one can change me, not even the heavens. Others might find me foolish, but I am not a fish, so I don’t know a fish’s pleasure. In the same way, others are not me. What I want is to skyrocket, to be the Kunpeng that breaks through the restrictions of the heavens. Even if I fail, I won’t mind. If I didn’t have those guts, living wouldn’t have any meaning. However, disciple appreciates Elder’s kindness. If I have a chance, I will definitely return the favor,” said Long Chen.
Each person could have their own principles, and all those principles might sound right. But they might not suit you. As an expert, you needed to find your own belief, a truth that you believed in the most, a truth that wouldn’t change after ten thousand years, a truth that wouldn’t change in life or death.
Long Chen’s belief was that in his life, he had to go all-out. From the day he had cultivated the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, it was fated that he could not walk the ordinary path. Since he was different from others, why bother taking on their principles?
Seeing that Long Chen’s thoughts weren’t affected at all despite his words, Elder Sha shook his head slightly and remained silent.
“Heavens, this many seventh rank sea demons!”
Suddenly, a startled cry rang out. Countless powerful auras rapidly approached the flying boat.
“They’ve finally been baited.” Long Chen smiled. Returning to the deck of the boat, he stood with everyone else. Huge waves surged in the sea below.
[1] The way of the king is contrasted by the way of the hegemon/tyrant. A king is benevolent and wise, while a hegemon/tyrant is tyrannical, arrogant, overbearing, etc.
Chapter 977 Stunning Attack
Countless sea demons surged over from all directions, and over half of them were seventh rank sea demons.
“Brothers, the food has come. Hurry and kill them!” shouted Wang Mang.
Seeing this many seventh rank sea demons delighted Wang Mang. He thought of his conversation with Long Chen, and seeing his unchanging expression, he knew that these sea demons had something to do with him.
Seventh rank sea demons were equivalent to normal Sea Expansion cultivators. The Dragonblood warriors could kill them easily, and even the Eastern Wasteland’s disciples were able to kill them without much trouble.
With Long Chen’s orders, the senior disciples were only in charge of extracting the Neidans, which was extremely simple for them. This way, not even one Neidan would be wasted.
Although only a portion of the Dragonblood warriors were participating, their terrifying killing power rapidly dyed the sea red.
With all the seventh rank sea demons being killed, Long Chen asked Wilde if he wanted them. After all, these sea demons were extremely ugly and strange. No human would want to eat them.
But Wilde didn’t care about that. He said that as long as it was edible, he wanted it. Long Chen had everyone gather the seventh rank sea demons’ corpses when they weren’t busy extracting Neidans.
Wilde wasn’t picky about food, so this was an excellent chance to gather rations. As time passed, more and more seventh rank sea demons appeared.
“We’re rich!” Wang Mang and the others were ecstatic. They had participated in the hunt last time, but they hadn’t encountered this many seventh rank sea demons back then.
In just a few hours, they had gathered more Neidans than what they had had over three days back then. This profit made them almost go crazy.
As more sea demons appeared, it became harder for everyone. More and more Dragonblood warriors joined in.
Elder Sha frowned slightly as he looked at this unending tide of sea demons. He was curious. He had never seen this many seventh rank sea demons being drawn over during a hunt.
Suddenly, a roar rang out. A terrifying pressure caused everyone’s hearts to shake. “Eighth rank sea demon!”
Wang Mang and the others were startled, and they hastily formed a formation. A huge figure appeared within the sea and flew into the air. It was a fish with two wings.
This three-mile-long fish covered the sun with its wings. Its mouth opened and water arrows rained down on them.
Those dark green water arrows whistled over with a space-tearing noise, and they released a nauseating scent. They w
ere clearly poisonous and shouldn’t be touched.
“Collective shield!”
With Wang Mang—the one with the most experience—in the center of the formation, all the senior disciples formed hand seals. Light barriers manifested, covering everyone.
Those light barriers were rapidly blown apart one by one, but in the end, half of them endured. The water arrows were unable to menace them.
When the water arrows fell to the sea, quite a few sea demons were struck and their bodies began to emit smoke. The spots struck by the water arrows corroded.
“What a terrifying attack!” exclaimed someone. If these water arrows had landed on them, they would have probably been corroded into a skeleton.
Although Wang Mang hadn’t fought sea demons on the sea before, he had participated in many battles and had plentiful battle experience. Otherwise, even if he had bribed people, he wouldn’t have been able to be able to become the leading disciple of this mission. “Everyone, this is a powerful eighth rank sea demon. We have to work together to handle it. Listen to my directions: first, we-”
Just as he was shouting, a sword-image soared into the sky, shaking heaven and earth. It was stunningly beautiful, and like a flash of light, it disappeared in an instant.
That huge winged sea demon was cut in half. Blood filled the air and it fell to the sea.
Yue Zifeng sheathed his sword. That attack had been from him.
“Beautiful!” Long Chen was the first to praise him. Yue Zifeng was getting stronger and stronger. It seemed Ling Yunzi had given him some pointers, and now that his Heavenly Dao energy had been erased, he was even more terrifying.
That sword seemed to fill the entire world. It was like there was some invisible power behind it that made it unstoppable, capable of slicing apart heaven and earth.
Yue Zifeng had always been a genius of the Sword Dao, but through Ling Yunzi’s guidance, his comprehension of it had grown even greater. That attack had been full of the specific terror of sword cultivators.
Even Elder Sha’s expression changed. He hadn’t noticed Yue Zifeng before this. Yue Zifeng wasn’t very eye-catching, but once he attacked, he instantly killed an eighth rank sea demon, and so easily at that. That made Elder Sha re-evaluate Long Chen. Someone with Yue Zifeng’s power wouldn’t be drowned out even within all the geniuses of the Xuantian Dao Sect. But such a figure was actually willing to follow Long Chen?
“Quick!! Grab the corpse!”
Wang Mang and the others were too stunned to react at first. The sea demon’s corpse smashed into the sea, causing huge waves. They hastily used magical arts to gather the two halves of its corpse. Looking at the flat and smooth cut, they sucked in a cold gasp.
Yue Zifeng’s attack was refined to the point that it was unbelievable. The wound was completely straight as if drawn with a ruler, and it was right in the middle. The two halves were the same, and even its bones, which were comparable to Treasure items, had been cut cleanly. Such a terrifying attack shocked them.
“Don’t just stare. Another one’s coming,” said Long Chen.
Just at this moment, the sea surged. A huge figure rapidly grew under the water.
“Die!” Gu Yang shouted and his spear unleashed a mile-long spear-image that stabbed into the water. A huge body flew into the air.
It was also an eighth rank sea demon. Its head had been pierced by Gu Yang and it was dead. Only once they saw the corpse flying toward the boat did everyone react and dodge.
The flying boat was bigger on the inside than the outside. So no matter how big the sea demon was, it would fit.
“Ridiculous!” Wang Mang and the others were stunned. Eighth rank sea demons were overlords of the sea in places like this. Even Foundation Forging experts would have to go all-out to kill them, and there was a chance of being heavily injured in the process or even dying.
But Yue Zifeng and Gu Yang each killed them with one blow, and a seemingly simple blow at that.
Eighth rank sea demons were not things that seventh rank sea demons could compare to. Even their corpses were valuable. However, their Neidans were still much, much more valuable.
To gain two eighth rank Neidans made the senior disciples almost start dancing.
Wilde was also close to dancing with joy. Long Chen had said that all the sea demons’ corpses would be his. He felt blessed. It seemed he wouldn’t have to worry about getting hungry in the future, and he had an urge to start eating right now.
“Another eighth rank sea demon!” shouted someone. But this sea demon wasn’t coming at them from the front, but charging out from right below the flying boat.
The flying boat was knocked into the air, and countless people were thrown off and forced to hastily summon wings.
With the flying boat knocked into the air, Elder Sha decided to keep it floating. That would make it more convenient when the battle started.
“Someone, go out as bait,” said Long Chen. Fighting on the flying boat truly wasn’t convenient.
“Let me.” Guo Ran was the first to fly out and stopped about a mile from the surface of the water. He had only just paused when a huge mouth devoured him, causing Wang Mang and the others to let out startled cries.
“This show-off.” Long Chen was speechless. Even now, he was pursuing his goals.
The startled cries were cut short as the eighth rank sea demon’s head exploded and a golden armored freak appeared.
“I swept through the four seas, crossed a thousand mountains, caused huge billows in heaven and earth, slaughtered demons, eliminated devils, plucked the stars and moon. If you want a chivalrous hero, you can come find me, Guo Ran! If you want to eat me, then we’ll have to see if you have the teeth for that!” said Guo Ran flashily.
Long Chen facepalmed. Would this fellow die if he didn’t show off for a day? There weren’t even that many outsiders here, so what was the point? It made others feel embarrassed for him.
“Everyone prepare yourself. More and more sea demons are coming. So far, all we’ve had is the appetizer, and the full course is coming now!” Long Chen could sense countless powerful auras rushing over. “Guo Ran, Gu Yang, Wilde, you’ll fight at the frontlines and draw the sea demons’ attention. Meng Qi, Wan-er, Zifeng, you’ll launch long-distance attacks as support. Wang Mang, you’re in charge of gathering the corpses and Neidans. When you’re busy, make sure to focus on the big targets. Don’t drop the melons because you’re trying to pick up sesame seeds. As for the others, spread out. Squad leaders, you’re in charge of any fish that slip through the net. Those not given a task, help Wang Mang gather the Neidans. Remember, we don’t care about corpses below the eighth rank anymore.”
Guo Ran, Gu Yang, and Wilde stood at the front. Guo Ran should have been placed at the back for support, but he liked to show off, so Long Chen let him.
The Dragonblood warriors quickly spread out, finding the best spots for themselves. They didn’t need any direction for that, as after so many life and death battles, they had long since come to a tacit understanding.
As for Wang Mang and the others, they were also highly experienced. They quickly found their own positions in accordance with the Dragonblood warriors. But the Eastern Wasteland’s disciples were clearly not so organized. They didn’t even know where to put themselves.
BOOM!
Suddenly, explosions came from the sea. Huge figures charged out, each one of them as big as a mountain and releasing powerful pressures.
Chapter 978 Blood Dyes the Blue Sea
“They’re here!”
Wang Mang and the others were a bit nervous. Although they were Foundation Forging experts, they hadn’t experienced a battle of this scope. There were over ten eighth rank sea demons charging at them.
However, Long Chen stood indifferently with his hands clasped behind his back. Each one of the Dragonblood warriors had similarly relaxed postures. They didn’t show any nervousness, because they had all experienced even more nerve-wracking battles than this. This little scuffle
was nothing.
The surface of the water exploded as huge figures charged at them. The first ones they charged at were Gu Yang and the others, as they were the closest.
However, because eighth rank sea demons were so huge, despite the three of them having spread out, a few of them charged higher, going directly at Meng Qi and the others.
“Kill!” Guo Ran shouted, and with a wave of his hand, three house-sized spheres flew into the open mouths around him.
Their mouths were huge, so no matter how he tossed them, he wouldn’t miss. These were his powerful bombs. As his cultivation base grew, his forging efficiency also increased, so it was no longer so painful to toss out his treasures.
These cold-blooded sea demons had very low intelligence. Without even understanding what was going on, the bombs exploded in their mouths, causing their heads to explode.
Guo Ran killed three eighth rank sea demons in an instant. Although it was a bit lucky, this efficiency was shocking.
Gu Yang had also erupted with his full power. Powerful Blood Qi soared from him, and his spear danced. He killed one in the first instant as well.
As for Wilde, he had summoned the Barbarian Blood Bronze Body. With a single smash of his hammer, he blew a sea demon to smithereens. His power caused the sea demon to explode along with its Neidan.
“Wilde, pay more attention. If you hit them like this, you won’t get anything.” Long Chen was speechless. When would this fellow grow some brains? If he fought this way, its Neidan and corpse would be gone. What was the point of this?
“Oh, what should I do?” grumbled Wilde.
“Go gently. Just hit its head. I’d rather you beat it half-dead than make it explode,” said Long Chen. Wilde’s intelligence almost seemed to shrink as he grew stronger. He couldn’t even figure out something like this.