Chapter 310: The Higher the Level, the Wider the Gap
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Faced with Huo Ming’s ultimate reckoning, Zhu Yi’s expression remained calm and natural, but his eyes were insidiously coloured pitch black.
In the next moment, in the uncanny tranquillity of the darkness, a brilliant radiance lit up from within – but it was one devoid of warmth and amicability. It was one of pure light.
"Birth of light from ultimate darkness, polar reversal?!" Outside the Hidden Dragon Teapot, Xiao Budian’s eyes lit up. "What a fantastic move from Senior Zhu!"
Within Zhu Yi’s pitch-black eyes, the light was blindingly radiant. From the depths of ultimate darkness came the birth of the brightest light, and the streaks of light became stronger and stronger until they morphed into a single ray of holy light of dazzling brilliance.
This ray of holy light had an unstoppable stance and directly pierced through Huo Ming’s Asura Array.
Once pierced by the holy light, the Asura Array began to tremble and shake and collapse into itself. This was not because he concentrated the destructive force of the Asura Array onto the tip of his blade and neither was this within his control – this happened because the Asura Array could not withstand the strength of the external assault!
Asura Array, the ultimate move of the Asura Doomsday Blade, could not withstand Zhu Yi’s ray of holy light that hatched from the depths of darkness and instantly shattered into pieces.
Huo Ming’s eyes froze as he witnessed what just transpired. Even though his mental strength was decent and he was relatively resilient, the sudden reversal and the fall from cloud nine into the abyss crushed him. He almost went mad at the dismal sight.
Compared to someone who had not experienced anything more crushing, there is no doubt that he wished it was right in front of his eyes, but only to realize that it was his erroneous understanding in the end.
"Kill!" Huo Ming had been suppressed for a long time, and the explosively murderous feeling drove him mad. The composed temperament was forced and reluctantly maintained, and now that it had been dashed to pieces his whole being was consumed by murderous fire. His eyes flashed red as he pounced towards Zhu Yi.
Even though his attack still had a form of some sort, but in the eyes of the audience there was only pity and heavy sighs.
The previous progress that he made to the next level was completely ruined and he slipped into regression.
At this point in time, he could never hope to defeat Zhu Yi. When the forces of the Hidden Dragon Teapot came into effect, Huo Ming was frozen to the spot with a look of gloom and dismay, as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head.
Since the inauguration of the Spiritual Conference, the Asura Holy Man, Huo Xiu, was stoic as a stone statue and did not utter a single word, as if nothing in the world deserved his attention. Suddenly, he began to move.
The five fingers on his hand straightened and whipped downwards in the direction of Huo Ming. There was nothing aggressive or murderous about this move and neither were there any ripples of mana.
However, a bleeding wound appeared across Huo Ming’s forehead. The opening was blood red but not a single drop of blood flowed out.
Huo Ming was taken aback and knelt down with his head bowed in front of the Huo Xiu in silence.
"When we return, go and find the person you’ve always wanted to avoid." Huo Xiu’s cold voice rang out in the air.
Huo Ming’s body shuddered. After a long while, he whispered his acknowledgement of his judgment. "Yes, sir."
As for the defeated Huo Ming, everybody’s attention was no longer on him as their gazes were transferred to Zhu Yi, who was not exiting the Hidden Dragon Teapot.
Perhaps it was because their opponents were too weak in the first round of competition that Zhu Yi and Xiao Budian had no trouble achieving victory and thus did not display any extraordinary qualities or moves. However, after Zhu Yi and Huo Ming’s battle, everyone witnessed the extraordinary strength of the disciples from the Celestial Sect of Wonders once again.
The pressure of the stirring performance of Zhu Yi, who was only in the aurous core stage, exceeded that of Wang Lin, Yue Hongyan and Yang Qing, who were only in the foundation establishment stage.
It seemed as if, the higher the standard and level, the gap between the disciples of Celestial Sect of Wonders and everybody else became wider and wider.
Wang Lin of the beginner foundation establishment stage had to take the fight to the final moments before she emerged victorious against Dao Yuting, who was already in the advanced foundation establishment stage. If not for the Finger of Rebirth that Wang Lin was hiding all along, the victor of the battle would be unclear.
On the other hand, even though Zhu Yi of the beginner aurous core stage was forced to play his new trump card to defeat Huo Ming of the advanced aurous core stage, it seemed as if there was a hint of ease about the fact.
Everybody’s expressions were solemn and heavy, especially the other aurous core stage participants of the competition.
Huo Ming, who just mastered the Asura Array, could be considered the best of the best amongst the advanced aurous core stage cultivators. Of all the aurous core stage participants of the competition, only a meagre few had a hundred percent confidence of defeating Huo Ming.
And they were in the advanced aurous core stage, just like Huo Ming.
Zhu Yi, who was only in the beginner aurous core stage, and his display of dominance brought intense pressure to the rest of the competitors. It was no wonder that many people placed him at position ‘demon king boss’.
Huo Ming had also exited the Hidden Dragon Teapot at this point in time and his head was bent over as he walked back to the Huo Family camp. Everyone in the Huo Family was devastated.
Yet, they could not really blame or reprimand Huo Ming. He even used the Asura Array and they could not possibly ask for more when he ended up in defeat.
It was not because Huo Ming did not put in enough effort – it was because his opponent was too otherworldly!
Naturally, Huo Chen was the one feeling better. Ever since the loss to Wang Lin, Huo Chen was in tatters.
He was in the advanced foundation establishment stage and he still lost to Wang Lin, who was only in the beginner foundation establishment stage. To Huo Chen, it was not just a simple loss; this was as close as it gets to humiliation.
Now that there was Huo Ming to accompany him, he began to feel less lonely.
Of course, he did not feel very good about another member of his family suffering a loss at the hands of a disciple from the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
Behind Huo Chen, a grey-clothed youth had more mixed feelings. He subconsciously glanced in the direction of the Celestial Sect of Wonders to look for the originally familiar but now extremely distant figure.
However, Wang Lin was shut in under the care of Lin Feng and Wang Zhuo naturally could not find him.
Wang Zhuo chuckled as if he were laughing at himself, but heaved a sigh in the end as he thought about when he first entered the Hengyue Faction. Back then, he was so ambitious and well-spirited and was doted upon by his seniors and masters.
Wang Lin used to be the laughingstock of the other disciples of the Hengyue Faction. Wang Zhuo, who was extremely egotistic was himself the one always laughing at him.
"I’m the joke now, right?" Wang Zhuo shook his head. His emotional state now was a lot more peaceful than before. When Wang Lin first entered the round-of-eight, he was severely affected.
And when Wang Lin defeated Huo Chen, Wang Zhuo began to feel that his entire world was crumbling.
When Wang Lin defeated Dao Yuting, who was even stronger, Wang Zhuo became completely numb.
He once again glanced towards the Celestial Sect of Wonders and at Lin Feng. A single thought ran around his mind again and again: "Is this Celestial Sect of Wonders and the leader so extraordinary?"
As for Wang Zhuo’s gaze, Lin Feng would naturally not pay any attention to it. He was smiling at Zhu Yi, who had just returned from battle.
"The Birth of Light from Ultimate Darkness… Zhu Yi, you did good today. If you reversed that, there was the beginning of darkness from the ultimate light," Lin Feng smiled as he said, "When light and darkness could be interchangeable like that, your understanding of the mantra would advance to a higher level."
Zhu Yi nodded his head repeatedly. "Thank you for your advice, master. I will mull over it."
Lin Feng continued. "Go and quietly observe the dawn and dusk, the sunrise and sunset. It will help with your understanding."
"Yes, master." Zhu Yi replied. Xiao Budian was giggling at the side and said, "Senior Zhu, when Huo Ming’s Asura Array came out I thought you were done."
Zhu Yi tapped Xiao Budian’s forehead. "You little shit. In your eyes, I’m always done for no matter what happened. I knew that."
Xiao Budian was over his head in amusement. His eyeballs rolled in their sockets and he sighed, "Senior Li’s luck isn’t so good, however."
Once Zhu Yi and Huo Ming’s battle ended, the second pair was about to begin. However, the pair battling it out were disciples of the sasme sect, Gu Lei and Li Kuiyin.
AT this point, besides the Blue Pavilion Holy Man who still had a natural expression, the other cultivators of the Purple Clouds Sect were all black-faced.
Of the round-of-sixteen, eight different sects held two spots each and the outcome was that Gu Lei and Li Kuiyin had to be matched together.
Even though this had happened before in the history of the Spiritual Conference of Huanghai, it was still a small chance in the end. Whoever ended up with such a situation could be said to be the most unfortunate.
Xiao Budian cupped his hands around his mouth in the shape of a loudspeaker and shouted, "Let’s go, Sister Li! You have to win!"
Li Kuiyin turned around and smiled. "With your luck, I will." She turned back and forced a laugh to herself. "The problem is, your encouragement and me putting in effort may not be effective."
Once in the Hidden Dragon Teapot, Li Kuiyin looked up and glared and Gu Lei. Gu Lei placed his hands out with a gesture and an expression of helplessness.
Li Kuiyin muttered with a tone of indignation and said, "Stop pretending. We have battled each other countless times within our doors and whenever you truly displayed your skills I have never beaten you a single time."
Gu Lei laughed and dimples appeared on his cheeks. "Anything goes for me, really. I’m only afraid of the seniors having opinions about what I do."
Li Kuiyin grunted and replied, "stop with your nonsense. I know where I stand. Even if you let me proceed to the round-of-eight, that will be the end for me. The sect has hopes for you to enter into the round-of-four."
Gu Lei shook his head and said quietly, "The Spiritual Conference of today is filled with strong competitors. Even if I advance to the next round I have a good chance of being knocked out in the round-of-eight."
"If I don’t meet the two monsters from the Celestial Sect of Wonders or Jiao Junchen, I may have a chance. Even so, the other competitors are not easy to beat either."
Li Kuiyin walked up and tapped him on the shoulder. "Believe me, the others are hoping not to face you in their next round."
She waved her fists in the air and continued, "The following rounds are all up to you. If you let us down, you’ll get it from me."
Once she was done, Li Kuiyin tilted her head upwards and muttered, "I admit defeat in this round."
The onlookers from outside the Hidden Dragon Teapot felt a little anticlimactic and were discussing amongst themselves. Even so, they did not really know what to say as those two were disciples from the same. From the looks of it, they had a good relationship and to hope that they would battle each other to the very end was highly unrealistic in the first place.
A tactical concession so that the stronger participant could advance to the next level and save his strength for the next round was a natural and forgivable choice in such a situation.
Except, now that this happened the audience’s expectations for the next round were much higher.
Zhu Yi and Xiao Budian’s glanced over at the Great Qin Empire’s camp at the same time. Over there, Shi Xingyun stepped out of the throng and walked towards the Hidden Dragon Teapot.
On the other side, from the Royal Houses of the Northern Tribes’ camp, a skinny youth walked out. He had a physical build much unlike that of normal youths from his region, and was also Shi Xingyun’s opponent, Sang Luohe.
Lin Feng looked at the participants about to enter the Teapot and an expression of excitement flashed across his face.
"Besides the mysterious mantras of the Northern Tribes, we should be able to expect more revelations about the Secret Manual of the Five Imperial True Dragons from this little girl, eh?"