Chapter 238 – Jiang Lanjian
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“That kid may be considered invincible underneath the Pulse Condensation period, but once he meets a true Pulse Condensation talent, anything he does will be useless.” The black-clothed martial artist casually said. His name was Jiang Lanjian, and he was a direct descendent of the Sword Faction Founder Jiang Yu. In addition, he was also the second genius direct disciple of the Seven Profound Valleys’ Sword Faction, just underneath Jiang Baoyun.
Jiang Lanjian’s cultivation was already at the peak Pulse Condensation period. With such strength, he was considered among the best disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys.
“My sword wind has already reached the higher echelons; there is nothing that I cannot cut to nihility. Whether it is obsession, life, heart demons, which also includes soul attacks, or even the power of thunder, there is nothing my sword cannot pierce. Even if that boy was at the same cultivation level as me, he still wouldn’t be my match!
“After all, soul attacks simply aren’t the correct path. At first you will have wonderful results and your strength will rapidly grow, but once you reach a higher realm, they simply become weak. If you put in too much effort, it will instead be a limiter placed on your future strength and potential.”
Jiang Lanjian calmly commented as he quietly drank his wine, pointing out the details to the purple-clothed person. The purple-clothed person laughed. He knew that Jiang Lanjian had an extremely broad vision of the world, and there was nothing wrong with his review of abilities, styles, cultivations and so on. Even the Sword Faction Sovereign praised his judgment.
“How can the disciples of the 36 countries possibly compare with you? Even if they advance to the top 100, that can already be considered their greatest glory. If they luck their way into the top 50, that can be considered the highest praise to their ancestors. As for soul attacks, they certainly aren’t the proper path, but it is still better than those unorthodox methods.”
Jiang Lanjian no longer spoke. Towards the 36 countries, if they had a decent ability, it was better than nothing – even if it didn’t follow the proper path.
“Let’s go, the Acacia Faction hates being shown up the most. Now that Ouyang Ziyun has suffered so much this time, his big brother Ouyang Zifeng will surely take revenge for him. This young boy has gotten himself into no small amount of trouble.”
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While Lin Ming was fighting Ouyang Ziyun, Long Yun had already drank up some Bloodstone Milk to recover his blood vitality. He had recovered just in time to see Lin Ming defeating Ouyang Ziyun.
After finding out that Lin Ming came from Sky Fortune Kingdom, Long Yun was filled with emotion. The 16 martial cultivation families had also had a certain conceit and arrogance, because they had abundant resources and their own independent heritage. As for Long Yun, he was an outstanding genius of the Long Family, yet today, he had actually fallen far behind a young talent from the Sky Fortune Kingdom. Not only that, but what Long Yun was most unable to accept was that Lin Ming’s cultivation was lower than his.
“Thank you. I am Long Yun, a disciple of the 31st generation of the Long Family.” Long Yun stepped forwards, cupping his fists together in thanks.
The ancient martial cultivation families would often introduce themselves by stating which generation they stemmed from. This was also a way for these martial families to show off their heritage. For many martial artists, in order to not delay their cultivation, they would marry and have children at 30 or 40 years of age. If a family could have 31 generations of disciples, that meant they had to at least have a millennium of history.
“I am Lin Ming from Sky Fortune Kingdom.” Lin Ming politely stated his own name, then went to sit back in his own seat. Qin Xingxuan was waiting there and kindly handed Lin Ming a big bowl of keel soup. To her, Lin Ming’s victory was a natural matter. Not counting Lin Ming, even Ling Sen would have easily defeated that Ouyang Ziyun.
Long Yun also noticed that Qin Xingxuan was at the middle Bone Forging stage. This cultivation – in contrast with her young and incomparably beautiful appearance – immediately took him by surprise.
This young girl was obviously 15 or 16 years old, and yet she had such a high cultivation. Did she also have a high talent?
If she didn’t have some fortuitous encounter, then she was probably a sixth-grade martial talent.
Was she also from the Sky Fortune Kingdom? When did the Sky Fortune kingdom have so many talents?
The several people behind Long Yun also noticed Qin Xingxuan. For the past few months that Lin Ming had wandered in the Southern Wilderness, he had already grown up. His skin had tanned, his features became sharper, and his presence contained a dark edge. It wouldn’t be too much even if someone thought he was 17 years old. But as for Qin Xingxuan, she had a very sweet and young appearance. When they were the same age as Qin Xingxuan, their cultivations were only at the Altering Muscle stage.
Especially the young girl behind Long Yun. After she saw Qin Xingxuan, a deep feeling of inferiority and unworthiness emerged in her heart. After all, when two girls met, they compared not just their strength and talent, but even their looks.
Having lost in every aspect, the young girl could only give a heavy sigh. If she knew earlier, then she wouldn’t have come.
Long Yun hid his shock and sent a friendly smile towards Qin Xingxuan. Perhaps in five years, this young girl would become infamous throughout all 36 countries.
Seeing Long Yun smile at her, Qin Xingxuan only politely nodded her head.
Since Long Yun had no intention of staying, he quickly bid farewell.
“Brother Lin, if you go to Huoluo Nation, you can come visit my Long Family. My Long Family lives at the edge of Huoluo Nation, at Flower Spirit Mountain. Well then, goodbye.”
“Farewell.”
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Several hours later, Seven Profound Valleys Acacia Faction –
The mountain peak where the Acacia Faction was stationed was lush with perennial flowers and plants, as if it were a glorious spring morning. This was because the founder of the Acacia Faction, Ouyang Xun, had paid a steep price in order to set up a massive array formation at the peak of the Acacia Faction and prevent the cold mountain air from entering. Because of this, the entire mountain peak was green all year round.
Of course, because of this array formation, over 10,000 pure true essence stones were consumed every year. In a small country, this amount would already have been enough to bankrupt a great family.
As one walked up to the peak of the Acacia Faction, not only did they see gorgeous flowers, but there were also superb and exquisite women roaming around. This sight was simply beautiful to behold.
The faction within the Seven Profound Valleys with the most women was not the Zither Faction, who primarily took in female disciples, but the Acacia Faction.
For every male disciple of the Acacia Faction, there would be three or four female companions.
Some of these women were coerced, but most of them had voluntarily come. The cultivation method of the Acacia Faction had a greater benefit for the men, but if applied properly, would also benefit the women. Because of this, there were some fourth-grade talents who hadn’t been able to join the Seven Profound Valleys as disciples, who would rather enter the Acacia Faction and cultivate the ‘Divine Acacia Power’. With the assistance of the Acacia Faction, they hoped they would step into the Pulse Condensation period, or even the Houtian realm, before their looks began to wither from age.
If they could do this, they would have dozens of extra years of life, and they would be able to remain at the most beautiful point of their lives. To those beautiful women, this was a fatal temptation. Among them there were even many women who came from distinguished families of the 36 countries; their statuses weren’t much different compared to Bai Jingyun or Murong Zi’s positions in Sky Fortune Kingdom. If Bai Jingyun hadn’t preferred to die rather than join Ouyang Dihua, she would have entered here and also have become a companion in these halls.
At a gathering in the mountains, there was a group of female cultivators that had come together. They were celebrating the fact that they had just stepped into the Pulse Condensation period and attained several dozen years of youth. Most of them were in their mid-twenties; this was the time in a woman’s life when they were at their most mesmerizing and enchanting. Because they had good maintenance of their looks, and took a variety of pills, their skin was tender and moist like water. They looked no different from a young girl in her teens.
But as they were celebrating, they were surprised to see several Acacia Faction disciples hurriedly carrying someone up the mountain. This person was pale and his whole body was twitching, just as if he were an epileptic.
“That twitching person is probably… is that Ouyang Ziyun?” A woman recognized Ouyang Ziyun. There were a handful of promising future disciples that the female cultivators gave special attention towards. After all, if they cultivated with these geniuses, they would obtain more resources. If they took care of them, they might even obtain miracle medicines that would help them break through to the Pulse Condensation period. To these women, pill toxins were something that never entered their thoughts. As long as they entered the Pulse Condensation period, they had no problem, even if their combat prowess was horrible.
“It’s really Ouyang Ziyun. Heavens, how did he come to look like that?” Another woman covered up her mouth. Recently things seemed to have been occurring at the Acacia Faction. Just a while ago an Elder’s nephew, Ouyang Dihua, had been killed. And now, Ouyang Ziyun had become like this.
As they spoke, a middle-aged man and a youth came soaring down from the mountain. Apparently they had received a message in advance and had come down to receive them.
As soon as the middle-aged man saw Ouyang Ziyun’s pitiful appearance, his soul force swept out and he immediately understood his condition. After he reluctantly summoned the Purple Flame Bone Lance, he was attacked. The following backlash from the attack had turned him into this. It would take him at least half a month to recover.
Like this, he could not participate in the Total Faction Martial Meeting. This would be a large blow to Ouyang Ziyun. The middle-aged man frowned and asked, “What happened?”
This middle-aged man was Ouyang Ziyun’s father, Ouyang Wenzong. He was a Xiantian elder of the Acacia Faction. In the Acacia Faction, around 70% of the elders had the surname of Ouyang. This was because they were the descendants of the Acacia Faction Founder, Ouyang Xun. As they had a solid foundation already established, they were able to obtain more resources. Also, because their inherited talent was better than other disciples, the chances of them breaking into the Xiantian realm were quite high.
The several low-level Acacia Faction disciples were compelled by Ouyang Wenzong’s forceful aura, and immediately felt a heavy sense of pressure. They didn’t dare to say anything false, and reported what had happened with quivering lips.
As the middle-aged man heard the several people tell their story, his eyes flashed. “An expert soul attack user, but also has some ability to control thunder. He is able to instantly defeat any martial artist at his cultivation, and is invincible under the Pulse Condensation period?”
The three Acacia Faction disciples were only trying to shift the blame onto someone else, thus they had branded Lin Ming as brilliant and mysterious, giving him the title of ‘invincible under the Pulse Condensation period’. In their opinion, Ouyang Ziyun was already someone with only a rare rival underneath the Pulse Condensation period. If Lin Ming could defeat Ouyang Ziyun in an instant, then saying invincible underneath the Pulse Condensation period wasn’t an exaggeration.
“Humph. This world is so big, and yet he dares to call himself invincible underneath the Pulse Condensation period?” The youth snorted, obviously thinking otherwise. This youth was Ouyang Ziyun’s older brother, Ouyang Zifeng, and his cultivation was at the late Pulse Condensation period.
“Those martial artists that can use soul attacks are completely worthless against martial artists that are stronger. I will defeat him on the Martial Meeting stage, and make him pay a great price for what he’s done.”
“Mm. But only as far as the rules allow, don’t try to be provocative.” Ouyang Wenzong also wanted to have Ouyang Zifeng give some payback for his youngest son, otherwise it would frustrate Ouyang Ziyun’s heart and affect his future cultivation.
“Father, don’t worry. I understand.”
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On the fifth day since Qin Ziya and his team arrived at Profound Sky City, the Total Faction Martial Meeting began. The 520 disciples of the 36 countries within the Seven Profound territory, the 16 martial cultivation families, as well as the Seven Profound Valleys Total Faction, converged at the Profound Sky Mountain Range and waited to enter the entrance.
With so many young talents gathered, Lin Ming was inconspicuous in the crowd. Although he had aroused a lot of interest in Desert Flower Hall a few days ago, compared to the middle Pulse Condensation or late Pulse Condensation talents, he was only a little genius worth paying attention to, unworthy of being the cause of widespread discussion amongst everyone.