Chapter 389: Pre-Qin Qi Refiners 48 |
Chen Shi revealed a smile, turning his head to glance at him, and said with a laugh, "I killed Young Master, defeated Li Qianyun, Xia Tianjie, and the others, yet you still think I might not be able to defeat you? What if I defeat Yang Bi?"
Zhang You smiled and replied, "Perhaps I am no match for Yang Bi, but in a life-or-death struggle, the outcome is always unknown."
Chen Shi gave him a long, deep look. Zhang You had never actually made a move, whether in the metropolitan examination or in the Buddhist hell. Chen Shi had never seen him cast spells or divine abilities. However, Chen Shi was well-versed in the techniques of the True King's Tomb, which included the Zhang Family's secret arts.
Zhang You sensed his gaze, which carried an intense aggressiveness and pressure. In an instant, it triggered a sympathetic resonance in his own Qi mechanisms, causing his blood and energy to circulate on their own.
This circulation exposed his cultivation technique.
"Mysterious True Spirit Treasure Seals. No, it's the Yellow Emperor's Dragon Head Classic... No, that's not it either. His blood and energy flow bears the shadows of many techniques."
Chen Shi was astonished. Zhang You's internal blood and energy refinement had become unfamiliar to him.
He had leaped beyond the confines of the Zhang Family's ancestral techniques. His technique bore traces of many Zhang Family methods, and besides the Zhang Family, there were shadows of techniques from other great clans. But that wasn't what surprised Chen Shi.
What truly amazed Chen Shi was that Zhang You's technique contained something of his own creation.
For instance, Daoist Tianzhen, who pioneered yin-yang purgation, refining away his own Demonic Energy and suppressing aberrant transformations, was a Grandmaster!
Zhang You was still far from reaching Tianzhen's level, but he was young, had already broken free from the confines of the Zhang Family's techniques, and possessed tremendous potential for growth!
"Having an opponent like you in this world is also a fortunate thing," Chen Shi said with a smile.
Zhang You stood silently beside him. After a long while, he finally said, "Thank you."
Chen Shi chuckled, "What's there to thank? You deserve the recognition. In the future, it might really be me who sees you off."
Zhang You smiled, "If death is inevitable, dying at the hands of Child Prodigy would be my good fortune."
Chen Shi shook his head with a smile and said, "I have a friend named Li Tianqing. He also comes from a great clan..."
"I am different from Li Tianqing. He never received the grace of the clan but instead suffered from its burdens. I, on the other hand, received the Zhang Family's teachings, learned the Zhang Family's methods, ate the Zhang Family's food, and carry the Zhang Family's mandate. Therefore, I must go through fire and water for them."
Zhang You bowed deeply in farewell, "Thus, even if I realize the Zhang Family is doing wrong, even if I am ground to dust, I will still protect the Zhang Family. First Scholar Chen, I take my leave."
Chen Shi bowed in return.
After Zhang You left, the white-clad fairy finally dared to come out. There had been too many people earlier, and she was very uncomfortable. Now that only Chen Shi was around, she relaxed a lot.
"Is she really the fairy from Qixia Taoist Temple?" Chen Shi wondered.
The white-clad fairy was currently bumping her head against him, circling around him, nudging from his chest to his back. She had recently developed a liking for this childish behavior, and Chen Shi suspected it was because her skull was growing. After all, he had hit her quite hard back then, possibly cracking her head open and injuring her brain.
"But if she is the fairy from Qixia Taoist Temple, her skull should be very hard. So she probably wasn't knocked stupid by me."
Chen Shi thought, "It must be the court Cabinet activating the Nine Halls of the True King that knocked her stupid."
But then it occurred to him, what if the Nine Halls of the True King only cracked her skull but didn't knock her stupid?
Was it possible that he himself, by smashing her cracked skull repeatedly with a large rock, was the one who knocked her stupid?
Chen Shi sighed, used his hand to block the white-clad fairy's head, and felt around for any cracks in her skull.
The white-clad fairy stood quietly, docile as could be, letting him run his hand over her entire head. Then Chen Shi touched her face, her ears, and even pinched her chin.
The white-clad fairy was touched by him until her face flushed, her watery eyes fixed on him.
Chen Shi pinched her nose, let out a hearty laugh, and let go, thinking, "Peng Qiao is trying to disturb my mind. I won't let it succeed!"
The white-clad fairy continued bumping her head against him.
Chen Shi suddenly realized something: "It's not that her skull is itchy. She's imitating Wen Wuyu! Wen Wuyu and I once turned into ox-head lesser ghosts and bumped heads with each other!"
Having figured this out, he smiled and said, "Let me satisfy you then!"
He bent down and bumped heads with the white-clad fairy.
"Bang!"
Chen Shi's world spun, stars exploded before his eyes, and before passing out, one thought flashed through his mind: "Her head is really hard..."
When he woke up, his ears were still ringing, and his mind was a bit fuzzy.
Chen Shi opened his eyes to find himself lying in bed. Yang Bi stood with his hands behind his back at the window, looking outside. The window had been pushed open at some point, revealing the scenery beyond.
"You're injured again."
Yang Bi noticed he was awake, turned around, and shook his head with a helpless expression. "First Scholar Chen, you haven't been in the Upper Realm for even ten days, and you've already been injured three times. If this gets out, people will definitely say that our Upper Realm is trying to assassinate you. But I know for a fact that we in the Upper Realm haven't laid a finger on you."
Chen Shi touched his forehead. A large bump had risen there. He pressed it, and it was soft. It should be full of blood stasis.
"Your Primordial Spirit was also injured. Your Primordial Spirit Dao Field has a hole punched through it as well."
Yang Bi asked with utmost sincerity, "Can you please tell me who actually injured you like this?"
Chen Shi looked toward the corner of the bed.
Yang Bi followed his gaze and saw the white-clad fairy sitting in the corner of the bed, hugging a blanket with both hands. Her expression was full of guilt and a little fear.
Her black hair fell like a waterfall over her shoulders, with some spilling onto the blanket. She must have been taking care of him while he was unconscious.
"Could it be that the fairy from Qixia Taoist Temple has undergone a Calamitous Transformation and is repeatedly harming First Scholar Chen?" Yang Bi thought, keeping his expression neutral.
Chen Shi threw off the covers and got out of bed. As he stood up, he felt a little dizzy, but he quickly recovered.
He activated the Sixth New Talisman, refining his physical body, and thought, "I'm still too weak. I head-butted her, and she knocked me out. I need to cultivate more diligently."
The Sixth New Talisman was the best Body Unification realm technique he knew, simultaneously refining the body, the spirit, and the Dao Field. However, Chen Shi estimated that it would take another two or three days of cultivation to fully recover.
"The injuries I've suffered in these past few days are more numerous and more severe than those I suffered in the entire three years before!" Chen Shi sighed.
Yang Bi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had thought that after Chen Shi arrived in the Upper Realm, the two of them could have a match. He never imagined so many incidents would occur in the meantime.
Just then, the white-clad fairy in the corner of the bed revealed a look of astonishment.
"Sa-sa-same... kind..." she said with great effort, still stumbling over her words, but much better than before.
Chen Shi was puzzled. Suddenly, the white-clad fairy jumped off the bed, not bothering to put on her shoes, and ran out barefoot.
Chen Shi quickly chased after her. He saw the woman run out of White Pearl Palace, arrive at a cliff's edge, and suddenly leap into the air. She flailed her arms and legs, as if about to fall, but then a flash of lightning appeared beneath her feet. In an instant, she mastered the Third New Talisman, stepping on thunder and heading toward the source of that Demonic Energy.
"Wait for me!"
Chen Shi also rode a bolt of lightning and chased after her.
Yang Bi pursued the two, constantly closing the distance with Chen Shi.
Ahead, the white-clad fairy wobbled unsteadily, clearly it was her first time trying to ride the thunder. Yet even so, Chen Shi and Yang Bi could not catch up to her.
The three of them were like three bolts of lightning, chasing each other from behind, passing between massive mountains, and zipping past those towering, imposing heavenly gods.
The heavenly gods stared, watching the three as if they were three tiny insects.
They traveled thousands of li. The white-clad fairy's speed grew faster and faster, and she became more and more familiar with this lightning technique, making it even harder for the other two to catch her.
Suddenly, the white-clad fairy stopped, looking around in confusion.
Chen Shi and Yang Bi each caught up to her and halted.
Chen Shi came to her side and asked, "Did the aura of your same kind disappear nearby?"
The white-clad fairy nodded.
Chen Shi looked around. The scenery here was beautiful, with clear waters and lush mountains, but there were no heavenly gods stationed here, nor could he see anything unusual.
Yang Bi's heart stirred as he looked around, thinking, "She can actually detect this place. This is only a stone's throw away from the Jade Firmament Heaven of the Upper Realm! This fairy from Qixia Taoist Temple, despite being severely injured by the Nine Halls of the True King, still has extremely sharp senses! I wonder if she can detect the Jade Firmament Heaven?"
The Jade Firmament Heaven was also within the Upper Realm, the dwelling place of the thirteen ancestral masters. It was like a fairyland, and the immortal energy flowing through the Upper Realm came from the Jade Firmament Heaven.
At this moment, within the Jade Firmament Heaven, the thirteen ancestral masters sat cross-legged, their bodies magnificent and vast, holding their breath and focusing intently on the three of them.
The white-clad fairy grew even more confused. Suddenly, she raised her hand and gently waved it.
In the Jade Firmament Heaven, Xia Family's ancestral master, Xia Gongjin, revealed a smile and said, "She found us!"
Just as he finished speaking, his expression changed. The sky trembled, and another world emerged.
Xia Gongjin, Gao Xuan, and the other twelve ancestral masters' expressions changed drastically. What the white-clad fairy had opened was not the barrier of the Jade Firmament Heaven, but the barrier of another hidden realm within the void!
"The aura she sensed was not ours! It was someone else!"
The Zhang Family's ancestral master, Zhang Longhu, suddenly realized, "The 'same kind' she spoke of is not us!"
Chen Shi and Yang Bi were deeply shocked, standing frozen in the air, looking up at that other world.
An incredibly massive palace gate stood before them. The lintel was as high as a mountain, thick and heavy, covered with complex patterns painted in various colors, shimmering with light.
This palace was nothing more than this gate and some foundations, floating in the void, very close to the Upper Realm. It seemed like one could reach out a hand, pierce the void, and grab this massive gate.
But this palace gate was so huge that even a heavenly god from the Upper Realm would be just a tiny speck standing in it.
Behind the gate, other parts of this immortal hall were scattered in the void: bronze pillars, crossbeams, brackets, and eaves.
There was also a massive head, several times larger than the palace gate, floating silently in the void.
The head appeared to be a middle-aged man. His hair bun had an ancient charm, but without clothing, it was impossible to tell which dynasty he was from.
His eyes were tightly shut, floating there silently, motionless.
Behind this head lay a shattered continent, scattered chaotically through the void.
In the Jade Firmament Heaven, the ancestral masters of the thirteen great clans stared dumbfounded at this scene. They had never imagined that beside the Jade Firmament Heaven, hidden in the void, there was another unfamiliar world, and a shattered one at that!
They had initially thought the fairy had sensed their gaze. Little did they know, she hadn't sensed them at all.
Perhaps she had sensed their gaze but simply hadn't paid it any mind.
Maybe it was because they had been constantly expanding the Upper Realm, carving out more and more territory in the void, causing them to draw closer and closer to this shattered realm, until its aura leaked out and was detected by the fairy from Qixia Taoist Temple.
Zhai Zhongming examined the shattered immortal hall and murmured, "A shattered immortal hall. A dead immortal. Was he an immortal from the previous era? Why does he have the same face as us?"
"Pre-Qin cultivators!" Gao Xuan suddenly said.
The ancestral masters' hearts trembled violently. Xia Gongjin said in a hoarse voice, "That's possible! Pre-Qin cultivators from the Divine Continent may have reached the Western Ox New Continent before us and become immortals here. Something happened to them, and they ultimately died here."
"Is he the 'same kind' you were talking about?" Chen Shi asked.
The white-clad fairy nodded repeatedly, "Sa-same... kind!"
Chen Shi looked at this massive head. This was the white-clad fairy's same kind?
Just then, a group of heavenly gods flew over, blocking them from that other world, preventing them from approaching.
The white-clad fairy glared angrily at these heavenly gods, waving her little hands and chattering non-stop, "Ah bah, ah bah..."
Yang Bi couldn't help but ask, "What is she saying?"
Chen Shi whispered, "She's cursing. She's also saying that she discovered this place first, but you all stole it."
Yang Bi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The heavenly gods were the Primordial Spirits of successive clan leaders from the various great clans, putting the clan's interests first. So even though the white-clad fairy had discovered this place, the heavenly gods of the Upper Realm had immediately seized it, not giving them a chance to explore.
Chen Shi loudly reminded them, "This place looks very dangerous. You'd better not act rashly!"
A white-haired young man walked over, smiled, and said, "Thank you for the warning, Child Prodigy. Although this place is dangerous, our thirteen great clans should be able to handle it."
Seeing the white-haired young man, Yang Bi's expression changed, and he quickly bowed in greeting.
Chen Shi looked him up and down, certain he had never seen this person before, and asked, "May I ask who you are?"
The white-haired young man had an ethereal bearing, with a transcendent, immortal-like aura. He smiled and said, "The third Prime Minister of the True King's court, Gao Xuan."
His gaze fell upon that massive immortal head floating behind the gate, and he said, "You can rest assured. During the True King's Era, we dealt with things like this before."
Chen Shi was slightly taken aback. "Dealt with?"
Gao Xuan smiled and said, "He is a self-sealed Calamity or Catastrophe."
Another old man walked over, with white hair and white eyebrows, and an immortal-bearing, solemn expression. He said in a deep voice, "It's a good thing you discovered him. Otherwise, before long, this shattered world would have collided with the Upper Realm. The sudden outbreak of a Calamitous Transformation or a Calamitous Change would have caught us off guard. This Catastrophe or Calamity must be handled as carefully as possible, and Despair Slope must not discover the Upper Realm!"
Then, one by one, men and women emerged from unknown places, all with immortal energy swirling around them, handsome and elegant.
Chen Shi looked at them, a question forming in his mind: "They are all half-immortals, and some might even be immortals already. Why didn't the True King kill them when he was sealing the immortals?"