“A bet? Haha!”
In a grand hall of the Martial Arts Hall, the Martial Arts Hall Master was teasing a beautiful bird that had fire-red feathers. Hearing the report of Manager Yang, he kept on laughing, so much that the silver earring on his left ear began to sway and let out a crisp ring.
Manager Yang didn’t know whether the Martial Arts Hall Master was furious or pleased. His heart was perturbed, thinking that Jiang Yi penetrated himself into a bull’s horn 1 . Jiang Yi wholeheartedly wanted to join the recruitment ceremony of the Mt. Spirit Beast College and didn’t want to spar with the top ten prodigies even if he had to die. Manager Yang had no choice but to report this problem. He couldn’t afford to take responsibility if they were to offend the five great clans.
“He would unconditionally be a sparring partner for ten years if he failed?”
The Martial Arts Hall Master mumbled a sentence and suddenly turned to look at Manager Yang. “Bring the kid here.”
Manager Yang frantically left with an even more perturbed heart. The Hall Master always had an arrogant attitude. It was normally impossible for a regular clan head to meet with him, but he was actually summoning Jiang Yi? Would he actually kill Jiang Yi out of anger?
Jiang Yi was soon brought here. He, too, didn’t think that his bet would actually reach the ears of the Martial Arts Hall Master. But if he couldn’t enter the Mt. Spirit Beast College, he wouldn’t have any other ways to leave Skyplume City. That would ultimately mean ‘death’ for him. He ground his teeth and walked into the grand hall.
“Lone Wolf offers his respects to the Hall Master!” Jiang Yi didn’t kneel like before but bowed with cupped fists instead.
The Martial Arts Hall Master didn’t even look at Jiang Yi and continued to tease the beautiful bird within the cage. His face didn’t have any reactions. Jiang Yi and Manager Yang didn’t dare to say a word and patiently waited while holding their breaths.
Two minutes later, the Martial Arts Hall Master turned around. He glared at Jiang Yi with cold eyes and asked softly, “I heard that you want to violate the agreement?”
Jiang Yi got stunned but quickly tried to explain: “It isn’t like this, Hall Master…”
“There is no need to explain!”
With a hand gesture, the Martial Arts Hall Master interrupted the words of Jiang Yi and said with a severe tone, “I don’t want to listen to any explanation. Don’t talk to me about gratitude or things like repaying in the future. Our Martial Arts Hall isn’t a monastery: we are not going to rescue the poor or the needy. We are doing business here. To the Martial Arts Hall, there are no friends—just business partners or… enemies! If you were to violate the agreement, then you would become our enemy. Let me ask you one last time, are you sure you want to violate the agreement?”
As the Martial Arts Hall Master finished his statement, an imposing presence suddenly arose. Even though there were just slight traces of it, it caused Jiang Yi to breathe heavily and made his entire body shudder. The aura from a martial artist, who was at the peak stage of the Purple Mansion Realm, was too overwhelming. It was remarkable that Jiang Yi didn’t kneel from the pressure.
Jiang Yi took a deep breath and clenched his teeth while saying each word, “I do not want to violate the agreement, but I must participate in the Mt. Spirit Beast College’s recruitment ceremony.”
The years of oppression in the Jiang Clan forged Jiang Yi’s patient character and, at the same time, made him extremely obstinate. Once he was determined on a certain matter, he would not change. Take it for example when Jiang Ruhu demanded him to kneel, he would rather die than kneel!
“Swish!”
A huge palm whistled as it approached. Jiang Yi couldn’t even clearly see how the Martial Arts Hall Master moved; he only saw a palm expanding limitlessly in his eyes.
“Huh…”
Manager Yang was shocked but didn’t dare to say a word as he knew the Hall Master too well. The Hall Master was a temperamental individual that was firm in his decisions to kill. Manager Yang was afraid if he was to beg for mercy, he would be slaughtered in seconds, too.
Jiang Yi didn’t move, not even his eyelids twitched; and he didn’t utter any sound either. He seemed ready to receive his death.
“Hu-hu!”
The huge palm slammed down quickly and brought up a burst of a whirlwind, that made Jiang Yi’s hair and robes dance violently in the wind. But the palm ultimately came to a stop in front of Jiang Yi’s face. The forceful pressure pushed Jiang Yi back by three steps.
Jiang Yi’s eyelids remained still, but his forehead was obviously sweating; and the cloth on his back was drenched in sweat, too.
The Martial Arts Hall Master stood in front of Jiang Yi and looked at him with emotionless eyes. He then uttered coldly, “Not afraid of death? Good… I shall give you an opportunity. I can accept your bet, but the conditions shall be set by me!”
“Huh…”
Jiang Yi let out a long breath. It wasn’t true that his heart didn’t panic earlier, but he expected that the Martial Arts Hall Master wouldn’t kill him. Because the Hall Master said it himself that the Martial Arts Hall was doing business; if he killed Jiang Yi, the Martial Arts Hall would suffer a loss.
Jiang Yi paused for a moment before speaking, “Hall Master, please set your conditions!”
The Martial Arts Hall Master nodded and said, “Since you are so confident that you can get one of the five enrollment spots with your mere strength in the fourth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm. Shall we have a bigger bet? If you manage to take one of the spots for enrollment, not only would the five-year agreement with the Martial Arts Hall be written off, I will present you with a hundred earth-tier inferior-grade elixirs, three manuals of earth-tier inferior-grade cultivation technique, and a treasured artifact! But if you were to lose, then you should be a slave of the Martial Arts Hall for life!”
“A slave of the Martial Arts Hall for life?”
Jiang Yi was shocked at the ruthlessness of the Martial Arts Hall Master. If he were to truly lose, he would be a slave and had to slog for the Martial Arts Hall for the rest of his life!
Manager Yang looked at Jiang Yi and sighed slightly. No matter how one looked at it, Jiang Yi was just a 15-year-old kid; and it was too cruel for the Martial Arts Hall Master to set this trap for Jiang Yi to fall into.
How could Jiang Yi get one of the spots with his mere strength? Ji Tingyu, Jiang Henshui, and Leng Qianqian were set to grab three of the spots. People like Ma Heiqi, Liu He, and Liu Zhan were all at the eighth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm. No matter how insane Jiang Yi’s reaction speed was, he would be defeated in the face of absolute strength.
“Alright!”
Who would have thought that Jiang Yi would agree after a short consideration? It was done bluntly without a trace of reluctance.
“Great spirit!”
The Martial Arts Hall Master smiled; it was a resplendent smile. He waved his hand and turned around to continue playing with the little bird. He looked at Manager Yang with his peripheral vision and gave his instructions: “Put out a notice saying that Lone Wolf will not accept the invites to a sparring session with the top ten prodigies. Those that already registered shall be compensated with thrice the fees. If they are unsatisfied, get them to look for me. Carry on!
“Lone Wolf. The recruitment ceremony of the Mt. Spirit Beast College is about to start in two weeks. Do some preparation and I shall look forward to your exciting performance.”
“Many thanks, Hall Master!” Jiang Yi bowed deeply with cupped fists and left with Manager Yang.
“Sigh…”
Exiting the grand hall, Manager Yang shook his head and spoke in a soft voice, “Lone Wolf. You, kid, made a rash decision!”
“Rash? I don’t think so.”
Jiang Yi smiled slightly and denied. After all, he didn’t have any other paths to pick. Even if he were to lose the bet, it wouldn’t be an entirely bad thing. At least, he would be much more valuable to the Martial Arts Hall; and if the Jiang or Ma Clan wanted to touch him, the Martial Arts Hall wouldn’t sit and watch.
…
The notice that stated Jiang Yi would no longer be sparring partners with the top ten prodigies was posted out. Ma Heiqi got so dispirited that he nearly vomited blood; Jiang Henshui was similarly dispirited, too. The other young masters and ladies that wanted to try felt that it was a pity. But this was the direct orders from the Martial Arts Hall Master, and no one dared to raise any opinions. He was the no.2 combatant of the Skyplume City, and he had the entire Martial Arts Hall to back him up.
The rest of the young masters and ladies were in delight. Those top ten young masters and ladies couldn’t request to spar with Lone Wolf, but they could. Especially those various clansmen that had almost the same level of strength as those top ten prodigies. They rushed to the Martial Arts Hall like madmen, wishing they could spar day and night with Jiang Yi.
Jiang Yi got extremely busy. Except for the sparring session, he constantly cultivated, broke the runic patterns on his seal, and researched on the black essence force—all in hopes to have a breakthrough progression in his overall strength.
However, after cultivating for around eight days, Jiang Yi had used up all the elixirs that Manager Yang gave to him. He was still far from breaking through to the fifth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm. The runic patterns remained the same and had no hope to unseal it within a short period of time. His cultivation pace had increased, but it was still too slow.
As for the black essence force, he tried it on all parts of his body and couldn’t find any other abilities. He came up empty-handed even after researching the Exploding Essence Palm for days, and his cultivation was reaching a bottleneck.
“Forget it, forget it!”
After circulating the black essence force throughout his entire body, Jiang Yi let out a hopeless sigh and opened his eyes when he couldn’t find anything. It was impossible for him to increase his strength in such short notice. He could only rely on his current strength and stake it all; he left it entirely up to heaven on whether he would win or lose.
Pow! Pow!
He slapped his forehead and ridiculed himself: “I was conceited about my unparalleled instincts and thought I could comprehend this Exploding Essence Palm. It seems like I am too naive. I think that, even if my stubborn brain was able to work ten folds faster, I still wouldn’t be able to comprehend anything!
“Huh?”
A thought flashed across Jiang Yi’s brain and his body shook with an inspiration. He thought of a possibility, if… he were to circulate the black essence forces into his brain, would it cause his brain to be more efficient and be able to comprehend martial arts faster?
“No, no way! The brain is the most important part of the human body; how can I meddle with it carelessly? I would be done for if I become a retard!”
Jiang Yi immediately shook his head and mumbled. Jiang Yi had basically tried all parts of his body except for his brain and crotch. He didn’t even allow the black essence forces to go anywhere near them. He was afraid he would either become a retard, or his private part would become mutated. He would be a goner if he had to stay erect forever.
“There shouldn’t be any problem, right? Since this black essence force was cultivated, it had never hurt me before but the ability to enhance instead. What’s more, the blue essence force could be circulated around the brain area; why not do the same for the black essence force? What if it helps my brain comprehend martial arts faster?”
The other thought in his brain was like a devil enticing him. Jiang Yi was placed in a dilemma. He took an entire hour to consider… when suddenly the gambler spirit within his bones broke out. He decided to give it a try.
Carefully circulating a wisp of the black essence force to the nearby area of his brain, he couldn’t get any reaction. Jiang Yi then clenched his teeth and controlled the black essence force to enter the mind.
“Boom!”
The moment the black essence force entered Jiang Yi’s brain, he felt as though his entire mind shook. He blinked his eyes and couldn’t find anything different. His suspicious mind began to run wild as he quickly found a trace of difference.
His train of thoughts became exceptionally clear; his entire mind was like a machine. It was as though it wasn’t his mind, and it was terrifyingly calm.
He was secretly pleased but then immediately concentrated on comprehending the Exploding Essence Palm, and the results were shocking!
Even without the technique on how to condense one’s essence force, he could see the circulation trajectories of the Exploding Essence Palm. He could actually emulate images in his mind—seeing how much essence force to circulate, which meridians to circulate through, what path he should use, and finally, how to use a unique method to release it from his hands. A clear image was formed in his mind, but this image was damaged because it lacked the technique on how to condense the essence force.
This scene was extremely bizarre, so much that it felt frightening.
Luckily, Jiang Yi was used to the insane abilities of the black essence forces, which helped him to restore his cool. He began to meticulously research on the image in his mind, trying to see if it could help him comprehend the Exploding Essence Palm.
Soon enough, Jiang Yi was in ecstasy as he utilized the insane ability of his mind to constantly deduce, verify, and gradually mend the damaged image in his mind. It formed the flawless circulation route of the Exploding Essence Palm and continued to release this Exploding Essence Palm in the body. In other words… he might comprehend the secrets of the damaged portion.
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