Chapter 247 – He Has Returned
This place was the commoner's district of Pine Mist City.
There once stood an extremely old and shabby house here, and it was the place Chen Xi, his grandfather, and his younger brother had lived in for over 10 years. Now, the house was gone and was replaced by a mansion that occupied an extremely large area of land and was covered in limestone bricks and black tiles, and it was extremely magnificent.
Only a year had passed, however, when Chen Xi saw the two golden grand words on the plaque, he felt as if ages had passed.
This place is where the Chen Clan rises from in the future? Chen Xi unconsciously fiercely clenched his fists tightly, and he was even more resolute in his heart. No matter what, he would protect the Chen Clan so that it could multiply and prosper and rise brilliantly once more!
The vermillion entrance of the mansion was wide with two servants in azure clothes standing ramrod straight at either side. They had meek and young appearances, yet their expressions were neither humble nor arrogant. When they saw Chen Xi suddenly descend from the skies and walk slowly to stand before the entrance they guarded with an extremely exhausted expression yet emitting a sharp and awe-inspiring disposition, their eyes squinted yet they didn’t reveal any disorder.
“May I… AH!” When one of the azure clothed servants saw Chen Xi’s appearance clearly, his pupils instantly dilated, and he cried out in shock. “You… you… You’re Senior Chen Xi?”
Chen Xi was stunned. When he looked carefully, he recognized that this azure clothed servant was actually Imp, and an indescribable and complicated feeling couldn’t help but arise within his heart.
Imp was an attendant in the Zhang General Store. When Chen Xi was busy every day crafting talismans in Pine Mist City, this fellow was recruited into the store by Boss Zhan Dayong. Due to his intelligent mind and sharpness, Zhang Dayong had high regards of him, and Chen Xi frequently traveled to the Zhang General Store, so he naturally recognized Imp.
But what caused Chen Xi to have a complicated feeling in his heart was that the Zhang General Store was destroyed by the Li Clan, and the fate of Boss Zhang Dayong, who’d taken care of him for so many years, was unknown. At this moment, when he saw Imp had actually become the servant of his own clan’s mansion, he naturally felt an extremely complicated feeling in his heart and was filled with a thousand regrets.
“Imp, I have an urgent matter to attend to now. I’ll have a long chat with you on another day. Go notify my younger brother to come see me.” Chen Xi was only filled with emotion for an instant before restraining his mind right away and instructing.
As soon as he finished speaking, he started to carefully size up the structure and layout of the mansion, and he wasn't willing to waste the slightest bit of time.
Obviously, he’d exerted all his strength now before being able to throw Huangfu Chongming and the others far behind him, and he’d almost won three hours of time to breathe.
During these three hours, he must set up a barrier that could defend against Huangfu Chongming and the others according to the thoughts that he’d deduced in his mind since long ago, and use this to protect Chen Hao and the Chen Clan Mansion that had just been rebuilt.
So every single second was extremely precious to him, and it was like he was racing with the god of death, and he absolutely couldn’t allow time to be wasted.
“Alright!” Imp understood the severity of the matter from Chen Xi’s expression, and he didn’t dare dally in the slightest before charging like a puff of smoke into the depths of the mansion to inform Chen Hao.
Only the other azure clothed servant remained, he stood before the vermillion entrance while staring blankly at the towering figure that was surveying the layout of the mansion, and boundless shock gushed out from his heart.
This is the Jinx that everyone ridiculed all those years ago?
He was called Dong Zheng, and similar to Imp, he was appointed as a servant by the Chen Clan. He himself had been born and brought up in Pine Mist City, so he could be said to know everything about Chen Xi like the back of his hand, and it reverberated like thunder in his ears.
But he didn’t dare call Chen Xi a Jinx now, and he wouldn’t dare do it no matter how courageous he was. Not to mention him, there wasn’t a single person in the entire Pine Mist City that dared called Chen Xi a Jinx.
Because presently, all the cultivators in Pine Mist City knew that Chen Xi wasn’t the little talisman crafting apprentice that could be bullied and humiliated by everyone any longer.
Not only had he obtained the top ranking in the Hidden Dragon Rankings of the entire cultivation world of the southern territory, he’d even become sworn brothers with the Supreme Elder of the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect, Bei Heng. Even the Sect Master of the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect, Ling Kongzi, had to address him respectfully as Grand Ancestor!
In terms of status, identity, and cultivation, he towered above all the cultivators in Pine Mist City, so who would dare treat him the same as before?
Not to mention the Li Clan and Su Clan that had offended Chen Xi had been completely exterminated one by one. With these warnings before them, no one in the entire Pine Mist City dared look down on Chen Xi any longer.
Conversely, when they found out Chen Xi’s younger brother, Chen Hao, had returned to Pine Mist City and desired to rebuild the Chen Clan, the entire Pine Mist City was stirred. Not only did all the various powers not obstruct Chen Hao, they instead sent out large amounts of manpower and resources to assist in rebuilding the Chen Clan. Their objectives were extremely simple, all of it was for the sake of forming a good relationship with Chen Hao and to form some good faith between them. If they were able to indirectly attach themselves to the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect, then it couldn’t be any better.
It was precisely because of this that the Chen Clan’s Mansion that occupied an extremely large area was able to be completed in just one short year, and it was constructed grand and magnificently, and it possessed an extremely solid defense that was strong as iron.
Chen Xi didn’t know that a tiny servant like Dong Zheng would actually be so shocked after seeing him. His attention was gathered on the entire mansion as he swiftly deduced in his heart without daring to waste the slightest bit of time.
He only had a single final goal, it was to form those 10,000 plus high-grade earth-rank swords and nine top-grade earth-rank swords into the Grand Qi Atomic Sword Formation and set it up in the surroundings of the entire Chen Clan Mansion!
So long as the sword formation was completed, even a Nether Transformation Realm expert would surely be instantly minced to death by the boundless sword lights upon entering the sword formation, let alone Huangfu Chongming and the others.
But the setting up of the Grand Qi Atomic Sword Formation was extremely troublesome and complicated to the extreme. It was extremely simple to flawlessly envelop the entire Chen Clan Mansion under the protection of the sword formation, and what was difficult was that this sword formation was formed by 720 minor sword formations, 360 intermediate sword formations, and 180 grand formations. Moreover, these grand, intermediate, and minor formations weren’t independent of each other, and they were instead connected layer by layer and acted in cooperation with each other from a distance. Its difficulty was so great that it was like stringing up over 10,000 grains of sand with numerous strands of hair. Moreover, it still had to be formed into a variety of patterns. So long as a trace of a mistake appeared, then it was possible that it would leave behind an irreparable flaw.
Fortunately, Chen Xi had committed the various variations and essence of this formation to heart while he was in Qian Yuan’s Treasure Vault. He only had to assess the surroundings and choose the position of the foundation of the formation before he would be able to start setting it up.
After less than 15 minutes.
The pondering expression in Chen Xi’s eyes vanished as he took an exceedingly deep breath, and the dense exhaustion between his brows was instead impossible to conceal.
After fleeing for his life continuously for three days and having his body heavily injured by the medicinal strength of the Sky Jadeliquid Pill, his strength was currently on the verge of utter exhaustion. At this moment, exhausting his mind and strength to deduce the position of the distribution of the sword formation had already caused his eyes to become bloodshot, his countenance white as wax, and he seemed to be extremely haggard.
“Brother, what happened? Why have you become like this?” Chen Hao’s anxious and bewildered voice sounded out by his ears. Chen Xi forcefully endured his exhaustion to raise his eyes to look over, and he saw Chen Hao and Fei Lengcui standing together by his side.
After not seeing each other for a year, Chen Hao had grown much taller, with a wide shoulder and healthy body, seeming valiant and extraordinary, and he carried a sense of steadiness between his brows. Every single move Chen Hao made already carried a trace of awe-inspiring dignity.
At his side, Fei Lengcui, the genius of the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect’s younger generation from all those years ago, had become calm and outstanding, and when combined with her beautiful and elegant appearance, the two of them seemed like a match made in heaven and were pleasing to the eye.
When the two of them had returned to Pine Mist City one year ago, they’d already married each other. Now, when both of them appeared together before his eyes, Chen Xi wasn’t surprised, and he was only slightly guilty that he wasn’t at Chen Hao’s side on his wedding day, and he’d indeed let his younger brother down.
But these thoughts only flashed briefly before he recovered his calm, and he swiftly spoke of everything he’d encountered before finally instructing. “Gather all the members of our Chen Clan into the Mansion as quickly as possible. Without the order, no one is allowed to take a step out of the Mansion, whereas, I will make the best use of my time and strive to set up the grand formation within three hours. At that time, it’ll naturally destroy all danger.”
Chen Hao’s appearance held maliciousness. When he heard his Big Brother was chased all the way here and was almost unable to protect his life, the rage in Chen Hao’s heart was obvious.
But he also understood that it was currently a critical moment, and it made no difference no matter how angry he was. So, he immediately did according to Chen Xi’s instructions and hurriedly went to arrange everything.
During this past year of time, Chen Hao had relied on his reputation as Elite Disciple of the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect and Chen Xi’s splendid and glorious fame, and he’d indeed recruited many loyal young geniuses of good birth into the Chen Clan. Coupled with some servants and attendants, the entire Chen Clan already possessed over a thousand people. In terms of scale, it was one of the largest in the entire Pine Mist City, and it wasn’t the slightest bit inferior to the former Li Clan.
Presently, the Chen Clan only lacked in resources, reserves, and development. It had only been rebuilt for a year after all, and a clan’s development and accumulation of resources was absolutely not as simple as one would imagine.
Chen Hao had been busy ceaselessly all day and night with the large and minor affairs within the clan, yet there were still numerous aspects that required perfection and implementation. This was a huge project that couldn’t be completed in a short period of time.
After Chen Hao left, Chen Xi stood silently for a short while before gritting his teeth and once again withdrawing a Sky Jadeliquid Pill and consuming it. If he didn’t have abundant True Essence to support himself, it was utterly impossible for him to set up a grand formation like the Grand Qi Atomic Sword Formation.
Bang!
The vast medicinal strength that burned hot like an erupting volcano once again charged into his Dantian, and it fiercely trampled upon his Dantian and meridians that were already covered in wounds.
Strands of dark red blood seeped out from Chen Xi’s facial features, causing his appearance to seem extremely savage and terrifying, and he simply seemed like an evil spirit that had crawled out from a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses.
But at this moment, he didn’t have the mood to care about all this. He relied on the violent and raging medicinal strength in his body to soar into the sky, and with a command in his heart, thousands of swords appeared out of thin air.
Instantly, the swords stood vertically and horizontally while emitting sword aura that was like the tide, and the sky was completely filled with sword lights that flickered with cold lights. They seemed like wyrms and bolts of lightning with a ghastly, fierce, and swift impetus, and they seemed to want to fly above the skies to stab a hole through the sky.
“Seven swords of the east, derive Wood Qi, converge into position!” Chen Xi’s eyes were like bolts of lightning, and with a flick of his sleeve, seven swords were like black dragons returning to the depths of the sea as they tore through the sky and vanished in the blink of an eye.
“Seven swords of the west, derive Metal Qi, converge into position!”
“Seven swords of the south, derive Fire Qi, converge into position!”
“Seven swords of the north, derive Water Qi, converge into position!”
…
The entire sky instantly resounded with sword howls as sword lights flickered and tore apart space as they sparkled in the heavens and the earth. The swords that whistled and wandered about according to a profound trajectory had descended into the surroundings of the Chen Clan Mansion.
For a time, the entire sky above the Chen Clan Mansion seemed to have transformed into a sea of swords, and a ghastly sword aura that was fierce and sharp covered the entire world.
Pine Mist City wasn’t large, thus the unusual fluctuation in the sky above the Chen Clan Mansion instantly drew the attention of some of the nearby powers.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
At this moment, no matter if they were in closed door cultivation, entertaining guests, visiting a friend, or strolling about with their companions, all of them put down what they were doing and looked towards the Chen Clan Mansion.
“My god! So many high-grade earth-rank swords!”
“Why do I feel that figure is extremely familiar? Ah! I remember now, it’s Chen Xi!”
“Chen Xi? I never imagined that he’s actually returned. What’s he doing?”
“He’s actually setting up a formation! What extravagance! He’s actually using so many high-grade earth-rank swords to set up the formation. Once this formation is formed, I’m afraid no one can stop the rise of the Chen Clan!”
As they looked at the towering figure that stood in the sky above the Chen Clan Mansion, everyone in the surroundings was shocked in their hearts.
After Chen Xi annihilated the Li Clan a few years ago, no one from Pine Mist City had ever seen Chen Xi again. But Chen Xi’s name had frequently entered into their ears.
Chen Xi obtained first in the Hidden Dragon Rankings.
Chen Xi became the sworn brother of the Wanderingcloud Sword Sect’s Supreme Elder.
Chen Xi annihilated one of the six great clans of Dragon Lake City, the Su Clan.
They utterly didn’t have to walk out of Pine Mist City, yet news related to Chen Xi seemed as if it had grown wings and would fly to arrive at Pine Mist City before entering completely into their ears.
Originally, they thought that Chen Xi was already like a fish that leaped over the dragon gate, and he’d transformed into a dragon and gained success. So he wouldn’t return to this remote little city anymore. How could they have imagined that they would actually be able to see him again?
He has returned. Not only has he returned, he has even brought countless high-grade earth-rank swords along with the intention of setting up a grand sword formation to protect the Chen Clan!