Lightning spiritual roots were very different from the other elements, there was almost no way to restrain it, it was the most powerful of the spiritual roots. Fang Xinghai had the most useless fog spiritual roots, if Song Yufei wasn’t afraid of the consequence, he could eliminate him in a flash.
Fog spiritual roots were really good at concealment, he could turn invisible in his fog, and others had no way to cause him harm, but he could also suddenly emerge to attack unnoticed, this was Fang Xinghai’s biggest advantage.
Mo Yu and Zou Yiming had successively fallen to his scheme, but it was Song Yufei’s turn, and he refused to fall into the behavior pattern.
“Fang Xinghai, I haven’t seen you for a long time, but you still seem fond of hiding your head and show your tail. Your character is really despicable and cowardly, this fog spiritual roots is very suitable for you.” He raised his hand in a hand-seal and called down the Great Thunderbolt technique.
Purple lightning exploded in the air, conducting through the tiny droplets of water to instantly cover the entirety of the thick fog. For ordinary cultivators, using an AOE attack technique consumed a lot of spiritual power, but for lightning spiritual roots cultivators, their AOE attacks always caused great damage, but they only used a small amount of spiritual power.
This was especially true when water vapor was everywhere. Song Yufei had long ago learned that water was conductive.
“Lightning spiritual roots users are really impressive!” The other disciples stared at the thick fog wrapped up in lightning, and couldn’t help but sigh.
Zhou Yun Sheng, hidden in the fog, naturally felt the sense of paralysis caused by lightning coursing through his body, but he could bear ninety-nine Heavenly Tribulations, this lightning bolt couldn’t harm him. But the lightning was evaporating the water droplets, thinning out his fog.
His nebulous body loomed in the air, he lifted his hand to extract spiritual power to create more fog. His so-called extraction of spiritual power wasn’t from his own spiritual power, nor was it extracted from the atmosphere, it was Song Yufei’s spiritual power.
This fog was his masterpiece, the most terrible and most indefensible situation – infiltrate the spiritual energy in a cultivator’s body, and the spiritual energy would run out after the cycle. Spread, invade, absorb, dissipate, this was the characteristics of fog, and Zhou Yun Sheng had added these features to his cultivation method, making it his greatest power.
Seeing the lightning thinning the fog, Song Yufei smiled, then he used the thunder tactic again. Purple lightning spread everywhere again, issuing a scalp numbing buzzing sound. Wherever Fang Xinghai was hiding in the fog, he should be in a very uncomfortable situation at the moment. Song Yufei just had to wait for him to show his figure before attacking to break his Gold Core.
Grand Elder hadn’t said it, but in the end, life and death in the arena was not debatable. Since Fang Xinghai could treat others so cruelly, he could naturally repay him in the same way. If Grand Elder wanted to take revenge on him later, he could always leave Promise Immortal Sect before things got too big.
He had no deep attachments to the sect.
But soon, he felt the difference of reality from his imagination. The spiritual energy in his dantian began to uncontrollably flow through his meridians, escaping into the air through his pores, forming a white fog. The fog that was evaporated by his lightning became thicker again, if he continued attacking, he would only be wasting more of his own spiritual power.
How can this be? Song Yufei was frightened, he quickly used his spiritual awareness to search his dantian and found that a layer of white fog had somehow surrounded his Gold Core. He sent spiritual energy into his Gold Core, but even more spiritual energy poured out, like there was something outside drawing it out.
Fang Xinghai! In the end, it seems that I’d underestimated you! Song Yufei clenched his teeth, immediately using his power to try and disperse the white fog. However, as soon as the layer disappeared, it drew in the aura from outside, and soon there was another layer of fog, it was simply endless.
It was at this moment that Song Yufei realized that Fang Xinghai had found a way to attach his fog to spiritual energy itself. As long as he still needed to absorb spiritual energy, Fang Xinghai would be able to continuously extract his spiritual energy from his dantian. This kind of cultivation method was really extraordinary, no one could guard against it, nor could they flee from it!
Song Yufei let go of his pride and took out the Yin and Yang Air Bottle from the treasure chamber in the jade pendant. This was a top level magic tool, although it couldn’t be compared to natural treasures, it could absorb all living things and disperse evil. The bottle could suck in cultivators with cultivation bases up to two realms higher than his own and refine them into spiritual energy.
Song Yufei had relied on the Yin and Yang Air Bottles to escape countless murderous situations, and he’d secretly refined untold numbers of cultivators. They had been transformed into the spiritual energy now reverberating in his dantian. If Fang Xinghai’s cultivation method wasn’t so treacherous and unpredictable, he wouldn’t dare take this treasure out and risk exposure.
Fortunately, the area was filled with fog, covering up the two of them, and as soon as the fog was completely sucked into the magic device, he could hide it. Song Yufei opened the cork, then pointed the glittering bottle at the surrounding fog, if Fang Xinghai was hiding in the fog, he wouldn’t be able to escape the calamity.
With the sound of gusting wind, the dense fog was completely absorbed by the bottle, revealing the dense mass of the audience.
Song Yufei had quickly put the bottle back in the jade pendant before the fog had completely dispersed, he looked around and shouted, putting on an act, “Fang Xinghai, don’t hide again, come out and face me!” His shouting was punctuated by a few cracks of thunder.
The audience also looked left and right, searching for Fang Xinghai’s figure.
Song Yufei had already made up his mind to pretend to be unable to find Fang Xinghai. The jade pendant’s inside and outside was layered by numerous prohibitions placed by the Fairy, the Fairy had given her word- unless the Immortal Emperor or an Immortal Senior descended, no one in this realm could see into the jade pendant. As soon as the battle ended, he would immediately refine Fang Xinghai’s Gold Core, destroying his sanity and turning him into a blubbering idiot, then casually find a dangerous place to drop him off. By the time Grand Elder found Fang Xinghai, he would’ve already turned into a pile of bones.
Without proof of wrong doing, Grand Elder shouldn’t cause trouble for him, and if he insisted on condemning him, he could find a hidden Immortal Cave to escape the Grand Elder’s search. A spiritual energy abundant cave was not much different than Promise Immortal Sect, and once his strength advanced enough, he would naturally have the opportunity to return to the sect.
Song Yufei’s plans were very comprehensive, he even had the determination to burn bridges. He absolutely didn’t have the heart to forebear that vile scum Fang Xinghai. Even if he was willing to lose to Fang Xinghai in the tournament, would Fang Xinghai that villain really let him go in the future? No one understood the vindictiveness of that person better than Song Yufei.
However, he didn’t know, Zong Yi had long ago broken the woman’s seal, and had even used his Yuanshen to attack the woman. The woman was a dignified Mysterious Immortal, of course she hadn’t mentioned this matter to him. If he really sucked Fang Xinghai into the Yin and Yang Air Bottle, Zong Yi would immediately see through it and destroy his soul.
The stunning woman in the jade pendant saw his actions, guessed at his ideas, and had just opened her mouth to warn him when she noticed a strange anomaly.
She watched as the small water droplets attached to Song Yufei’s robe turned into a dense fog, which surrounded him again, a wisp of gray fog even entered through his nostrils and into his body, merging with spiritual energy to enter his dantian.
In the blink of an eye, the arena was once again enveloped in fog, puzzling the audience.
“Having fun?” Zhou Yun Sheng whispered into Song Yufei’s left ear, sensual like a demon.
Song Yufei swung a fist full of lightning towards his location, but only hit a mass of fog.
“You have a lot of treasures.” Zhou Yun Sheng whispered in his right ear next, snickering.
Song Yufei’s complexion was gloomy, knowing that the other man had taken a fancy to his treasures. Killing someone for their treasure was the norm in the cultivation world, if Fang Xinghai set his sight on his belongings, he’d be thrust into a dead end, because the man had an extremely strong master baking him.
So, he must kill Fang Xinghai today. Life and death in the arena was undebatable, this was the rules of the sect, Grand Elder wouldn’t be able to attack him openly, so he had time to plan a retreat.
Killing intent flashed across Song Yufei’s eyes, he ignored the spiritual energy suction in his dantian and used his most powerful technique, Deceitful Thunder Cloud. The blue skies outside the fog was suddenly covered by rolling black clouds, the sound of rumbling thunder echoing, resounding through the horizon.
At first glance, they looked just like tribulation clouds.
The audience immediately ran out from the scope of the dark clouds, so as not to be affected, but they also sighed at the power of lightning spiritual roots cultivators, they really had the most powerful magic.
Zhou Yun Sheng, hidden in the fog, smiled. He wasn’t even afraid of ninety-nine Heavenly Tribulations, how could this tiny lightning storm affect him.
Song Yufei repeatedly pushed power into the technique, then he placed a seal on the arena, one, to prevent Fang Xinghai’s escape, two, to increase the power of the lightning. In one breath, he’d laid down nine layers of prohibitions, at the same time, a thick lightning bolt crashed down, fiercely striking the arena.
The fog split open with a loud bang, turning into purple smoke, that formidable power seemed like it could destroy heaven to wipe out the earth. Song Yufei stood in the center of the array, constantly changing hand formations, trying to turn the arena into a complete lightning field, vowing to chop Fang Xinghai to pieces, until he was unrecognizable.
“You have this ability?” Zhou Yun Sheng condensed his body and sneered.
Song Yufei slightly lifted a fingertip, sending a few lightning bolts towards him.
“I’ll send you a thunderbolt too, so you can have a taste.” Zhou Yun Sheng’s body constantly turned into fog, then materialized again, swimming through and dodging the numerous pillars of lightning while preparing to discharge the ninety-nine lightning bolts he’d previously absorbed in his black hole.
A blood curdling roar suddenly echoed in the air, and an even more frightening lightning bolt than Song Yufei’s struck the thick white fog, aiming for Song Yufei.
Fang Xinghai clearly has fog spiritual roots, how can he control lightning? Song Yufei’s pace staggered under confused horror, and he was struck head on by the lightning bolt. It was reasonable to say that as someone with lightning spiritual roots, he shouldn’t be afraid of lightning, but the lightning of ninety-nine Heavenly Tribulations weren’t ordinary.
Not to mention, he was only at late stage Jindan, even a 9th Tribulation Loose Immortal would find it difficult to endure this kind of lightning.
His body was charred, his meridians all broken, his Gold Core repeatedly jolted until slight cracks started to appear, if things went on like this, he knew that he would fall. Song Yufei wanted to break free, but the dragon-like lightning bolt had tightly wrapped around him, he couldn’t bulge, the only thing left was complete despair.
“Fairy, save me!” He finally gave up his dignity, begging the stunning woman within the jade pendant for help.
The woman needed him to help her return to the Immortal World, she naturally couldn’t watch him die. She ran her spiritual power to separate him from the lightning, then threw him out of the arena and into the audience.
“I admit defeat!” Before landing, Song Yufei expended all his efforts to shout.
The crowd only saw lightning surrounding the fog, then a more powerful one appeared, making even the defense array the sect had laid around the arena border tremble, cracking the ground open with a loud rumbling sound. They thought it was Song Yufei’s lightning magic, and their hearts couldn’t help but quake with fear.
“Senior brother Song really deserves to be this term’s most outstanding disciple!”
“What is this technique? So powerful! It could probably even cut down a Yuanying Qi expert!”
“Lightning spiritual roots cultivators really do defy the natural order! This time, I fear that everything bodes ill for junior brother Fang!”
Everyone whispered amongst themselves, discussing spiritedly.
High in the spectator seats, First Thunder Peak’s master stared intently at the last few flashes of lightning with a contemplative look. This level of technique, not to mention Song Yufei, even a late stage Dujie like himself would not be able to cast it.
The rest of the peak masters and elders glanced at Zong Yi from time to time, fearing that he would react with fury.
Chi Xiao Zhenren looked at the arena with an expressionless face, but his heart was filled with waves of pleasure. If Song Yufei could successfully kill Fang Xinghai, he wouldn’t mind standing up to the Grand Elder to protect him.
Life and death in the arena was undebatable, that was the sect rule, no one could oppose it.
But in the next moment, his expression quickly turned into astonishment. He watched as the charred body of Song Yufei flew out from the thick fog, landing heavily in the audience seats, his mouth shouting the words for his admittance of defeat.
Some quick-eyed disciples had quickly reached out their hands to catch him, saw his appearance, and were immediately shocked. What’s going on? Doesn’t Song Yufei have lightning spiritual roots? How could he be struck by his own lightning bolt and end up in this kind of miserable condition?
Zhou Yun Sheng inhaled the thunderstorm and fog into his dantian and walked to the edge of the arena to look down at Song Yufei, then he mimicked digging out a Gold Core.
Song Yufei coughed up mouthfuls of blood as he crawled to Taiping Zhenren’s seat, his heart unwilling.
In the end, he was still his disciple, how could he watch unfeelingly as he was disgraced? Taiping Zhenren pushed a Revive Pill into his mouth, then cupped his hands towards Zong Yi, “Grand Elder, my small disciple has already conceded, this match should end before it goes too far, right?”
Zong Yi stood up and walked toward his small disciple, he casually opened, “Yes.”
The two men hopped onto a black sword and flew toward Silent Fire Peak, leaving behind the rest of the audience to look at each other with indescribable expressions.
It’s over? Not even staying for the tournament’s reward ceremony? Fang Xinghai really had just come for revenge. He’d fought three games, but no one managed to get a glimpse of the fights, his power was really unfathomable!
“Let’s go back.” Taiping Zhenren helped Song Yufei up, lightning flashed under their feet, and they disappeared in place.
Chi Xiao Zhenren waved his hand to dismiss the crowd, looked at the direction of Silent Fire Peak with cold eyes for a long time, then slowly left.
—————-
Mo Yu was lying in bed. Because her root bone had been removed, from head to toe, except her eyes, she couldn’t move a muscle, and unbearable pain pulsed from her abdomen.
“Was the scouting clear? Did senior brother Song kill Fang Xinghai?” Catching sight of Dao Tong pushing open the door, she asked viciously.
“Senior brother Song lost.” Dao Tong kneeled at the bedside and quietly opened.
Mo Yu’s eyes almost slit open, she roared madly.
“Why are you shouting?! If you hadn’t done such a stupid thing, do you think you would’ve come to this end today? You had excellent single spiritual roots, what were you doing stealing someone else’s Butian Herb?” Chi Xiao Zhenren walked up to the beside and coldly opened.
Mo Yu felt extreme regret, if she could turn back time, she would’ve never listened to Song Yufei’s urging to help him find a Butian Herb.
“Father, you must have the means to help me restore my spiritual roots and rebuild my Gold Core, right? Father, you’re the leader of Promise Immortal Sect.” She asked with a hopeful tone.
“Do you think I’m Grand Elder? The only thing in the world that can restore your spiritual roots and rebuild your Gold Core is the Steal Heaven’s Fortune Pill. However, refining the Steal Heaven’s Fortune Pill requires untold numbers of precious spiritual herbs, I’ve never even heard of some of them, let alone have a way to help you find them.”
“And even if I find them all, where would I find a chaos level alchemist to refine the pill? Don’t fool yourself into thinking I possess any extraordinary abilities. Right now, I’m only able to help regrow your root bone, but I’m afraid that I cannot restore your cultivation.” Chi Xiao Zhenren’s tone was cold, but his eyes were slightly red.
This was, after all, the destroyed cultivation base and shortened life of his only child. How could he not feel distressed?
“No! I don’t want to become a mortal! Father, do you really have the heart to watch me grow old, to turn into a handful of dust?” Mo Yu cried desperately, “Father please beg Grand Elder for me, make him give me a Steal Heaven’s Fortune Pill! I’m willing to apologize to Fang Xinghai, to kowtow him! If I see him in the future, I’ll turn onto another path, I’ll never provoke him again!”
The man had made her watch as he pulled out her root bone, destroyed her dantian, and crushed her Gold Core, like a scene in a nightmare, she had been really terrified. If she’d known earlier that Fang Xinghai’s methods would be so cruel and insidious, she wouldn’t have provoked him even if her life depended on it.
“You think the Steal Heaven’s Fortune Pill is so easy to make? Just ask and it’ll be given to you?” Chi Xiao Zhenren stormed out, thought deeply for a few hours, and finally put on a humble attitude and ran to Silent Fire Peak to apologize. At the foot of the mountain, however, a puppet servant boy relayed to him that Grand Elder and Fang Xinghai had already closed off their palace, and that it’ll probably be a few decades before they came back out.
Chi Xiao Zhenren couldn’t do anything about that, so he gave his daughter a Bone Regrow Pill, which made her regrow all bones, then spent a lot of money buying a Longevity Pill and a Maintain Youth Pill, to ensure her a life span of at least two hundred years and a youthful face. Then he had her sent to a hidden place in the mortal world. She’d offended no small number of people in Promise Immortal Sect, and now that she had no self-protection ability, someone would certainly aim for her life one day.
Mo Yu wept loudly and caused scenes, she even had the idea of breaking into Silent Fire Peak to beg for mercy. But Zong Yi had ordered previously, she wasn’t allowed to step a foot into the peak again, so without even giving the puppet servant boy a chance to block her, the peak’s defense array tossed her out.
Mo Yu regretted her past deeds, she laid down at the foot of the mountain and cried for a long time.
On the other end, Zou Yiming, whose Gold Core had been destroyed, lost his position as the Sect Leader’s head disciple and was relocated to the dormitory where the ordinary disciples lived. Once his abdominal injury was healed, he started drawing qi into his body again, but soon found that his dantian was filled with a ball of gray fog. That fog absorbed all the spiritual energy he drew in, then instantly pushed it along his meridians to discharge it form his body, he wasn’t able to retain even a fraction.
He repeatedly tried pulling in qi without success. His calm expression began to crack, tilting towards deranged.
“Fang Xinghai, this bullying is too much!” He kicked his door open and ran towards Silent Fire Peak. Now he was practically a mortal, he couldn’t even take qi into his body, forget about using a flying sword. If the fog in his belly didn’t dissipate, he would always be cut off from the immortal path, and that was harder to bear than just killing him.
Naturally, he was stopped on the way by the puppet servant boy, learned that Fang Xinghai had gone into retreat for at least a few decades, and immediately went crazy, hacking away at the trees besides him.
Song Yufei recuperated while also paying attention to Mo Yu and Zou Yiming’s situations. He learned that they had both become mortals, one was sent to the mortal world, and the other could no longer take in qi. He was taken away by a group of alchemists to be their drug test-subject for a variety of experiments, undoubtedly secretly terrified.
“What cruel methods! Fairy, if you hadn’t thrown me out of the ring in time, I would’ve probably faced the same end as those two.”
“Don’t provoke that master and disciple again in the future. Their methods are not simple. That was the first time I’ve seen a fog user control such a powerful lightning bolt, as strong as the ninety-nine Heavenly Tribulations.” The stunning woman’s expression was grave.
Song Yufei hesitated, “Whether or not I provoke him isn’t the problem now. He saw me take out the Yin and Yang Air Bottle during the fight, I’m afraid he already has me in his sights.”
“Then leave the sect and travel the outside world. Grow strong enough to not worry about someone setting their sights on you.”
“You’re right Fairy, I’d also planned to do that.”
The two quickly left the sect after their discussion, but after traveling halfway, Song Yufei finally noticed a problem with his own Gold Core. It grew dimmer each day, gradually turning from gold to gray-black, it seemed to be becoming a waste core.
“Fairy, how can this be?” Song Yufei’s voice was trembling.
The stunning woman was also at a loss. She sent her spiritual awareness into the Gold Core and found that it’s interior was eaten hollow, wrapped in a gray-black fog, and the fog had a very light medicinal fragrance, which was actually the scent of the cultivation world’s most insidious medicinal pill – Soul Melt Pill, this medicinal pill could dissolve the Jindan, Yuanying, and Yuanshen, then afterward, the cultivator would die. As early as ten thousand years ago, every major sect had gathered together to destroy the pill recipes, completely eliminating it from the cultivation world.
Who is it, to not only be able to refine this medicinal pill, but also silently put it into Song Yufei’s dantian under her own eyes? The stunning woman thought of all possibilities, but could only settle on Fang Xinghai.
Excellent sinister mind, excellent treacherous methods, she couldn’t help but want to drink a toast to him.
Song Yufei listened to the woman’s analysis and desperately wanted to immediately run back to the sect and disregard everything to kill Fang Xinghai. However, he knew that he wasn’t Fang Xinghai’s opponent even in his heyday, not to mention now.
Grand Elder was worthy of being the Grand Elder, he could even transform a waste like Fang Xinghai into a genius cultivator. Song Yufei’s eyes were flushed red with jealousy, he calmed down with great effort and asked the woman if there was a way to save himself.
The woman wasn’t sure, but she named a few spiritual herbs that could heal poisons, setting him out to find them. They concealed themselves and staggered westward.
————–
Forty years later, Zhou Yun Sheng woke up from his meditation, and Zong Yi also woke up. The two had their foreheads pressed against each other, their souls flowing together in the void, colliding into dazzling sparks. Zhou Yun Sheng was unable to hold back, he slanted his head upwards, capturing Zong Yi’s thin lips.
Zong Yi pulled him onto his lap and carefully savored the sweetness of his lips. On the subject of cultivation base, currently Zhou Yun Sheng was already able to breakthrough to Yuanying Qi, but the One Hundred Herb Secret Border would soon open up, he needed to find Fang Wen Guang’s bones and bring them back for burial, there was no time to bear tribulations. The body refining and soul refining methods were making him grow stronger and stronger, he had a hunch, once he cultivated to Dasheng Qi, he would be able to break free of the shackles of the Lord God, and have access to a completely new body.
After the kiss, Zhou Yun Sheng caressed Zong Yi’s rough stubble, smiled and asked, “I want to go to the One Hundred Herb Secret Border, will you come with me?”
“I’m missing an ingredient for a medicinal pill required in the seventh circle, I need to take a trip to the Devil Realm.” Zong Yi sighed regretfully.
The two acted love-dovey for a while, then opened the seal on Shattered Heaven Palace. Chi Xiao Zhenren heard the news and immediately went to visit, imploring the Grand Elder to gift him a Steal Heaven’s Fortune Pill, but Zong Yi mercilessly rejected him.
Refining the medicinal pill was a trivial matter for him, but Mo Yu was his small disciple’s enemy, that he hadn’t personally killed her was considered merciful, how could he help her get back on the immortal path?
It was best if she could die as part of the mortal world.
Chi Xiao Zhenren was helpless, he had no choice but to retreat, but his heart was secretly filling with hate for the master and disciple.
—————————————-
T/N:
Hacking away at the trees besides him– 劈砍身旁的樹木, idk what this means, so I’m treating it literally. He lost his mind and went on a mad tree chopping binge.
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