Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Junior Brother Chu, you are here at the market? Did you hurt your head after the fall? Is this really a place for people like you?”
A young man with a fat head, big ears, short stature, and slender eyes stepped into the dome’s barrier with an arrogant and prideful look on his face.
The green and black external sect clothing were particularly tight on his short and fat body. The most striking thing was the green-grey storage ring on his finger.
The ring exuded a brilliant gleam, which caused some disciples beside him to cast a look of envy from time to time.
Unlike other cultivation objects, the storage ring was a treasure that every cultivator wanted to possess, but it was necessary for the Instrument Refiner to possess strong cultivation skills to create space in a small ring.
Therefore, it was extremely precious. In terms of price, it was beyond the reach of many external disciples.
It was said that among the internal disciples of Crystal Spring Sect, there were not many who owned storage rings. The arrogant and fat Yao Long in front of Chu Chen only had such a treasure because he had a distinguished cousin from the external sect who could cover the sky with only one hand …The external senior brother, Yao Jinghai!
Yao Jinghai, Crystal Spring Sect’s most gifted and outstanding genius among the external disciples of this year.
In less than a year since joining the sect, he went from an ordinary person who knew nothing to cultivate to the second major stage, the fifth level Spiritual Droplets Stage. With his vigorous cultivation regime, he fought and defeated the eldest senior brother of the external sect back then who was a few stages higher than he was, making himself the new eldest senior brother.
Two years had passed, and his ability had become unfathomable. What was surprising was that he had never chosen to enter the internal sect. When external disciples had cultivated to the sixth level of the Spiritual Droplets Stage, they could choose to enter the internal sect, entitling them to various favorable treatments.
Yao Jinghai said that he wanted to remain in the external sect to increase and accumulate a considerable amount of experience in anticipation for the future beyond the Spiritual Droplet stage.
There was also a rumor that he deliberately remained at the external sect for Tong Meng. He would not stop until Tong Meng was his.
However, the most surprising thing was that the sect’s managing elders actually agreed to his request to stay behind after consultation among themselves.
According to the rumor from the internal sect, the sect’s management had trained Yao Jinghai as a “true disciple”. Therefore, the sect never interfered with his cultivation plan and allowed him to make decisions of his own.
Yao Long even claimed to the public that his talented cousin chose to stay at the external sect so that it was more convenient for Yao Jinghai to take care of him. Backed by a heaven-defying cousin, Yao Long walked sideways at the external sect. He even dared to brazenly snatch some of the spiritual herbs and elixirs from the external sect’s senior brothers, of whom had a higher level of cultivation than himself. Many of the external sect’s disciples were furious but dared not speak up against him.
Yao Long was more or less Yao Jinghai’s most loyal follower, so he would often make things difficult for Chu Chen, hoping to force him out of the sect.
Regarding Yao Long, Chu Chen used to avoid him, but now that he had this encounter, Chu Chen was no longer afraid of him.
“Junior Brother Chu is here to buy elixirs? Are you going to break through the third level of the Spiritual Mist Stage? You really should be making a little progress after three years of diligent cultivation.” Yao Long said in a mocking tone, “Do you only have low-quality elixirs with you? Even my dogs wouldn’t eat that if I fed it to them.”
While Yao Long was talking, he flicked his right hand and prepared to knock off the elixirs from Chu Chen’s arms, but Chu Chen seemed to inadvertently turn his body and avoided it.
Yao Long was stunned for a moment but felt that this kid was just lucky to have inadvertently dodged his flick. He was too embarrassed to have another go at the lowly Spiritual Mist Stage disciple.
“Actually, you must also understand that regardless of how much elixir you take, it’ll be useless for a good-for-nothing bum like you. You’ll never be anything more than a dog, wagging around Junior Sister Tong Meng all day long and begging for mercy. Why bother staying when all you do is drag Junior Sister Tong Meng down? Why don’t you just leave the mountain as soon as possible and start a small business? In addition to that, persuade Junior Sister Tong Meng to be the Dao partner of a powerhouse like my cousin. There is no future for her if she stays with you.”
Chu Chen’s face sank. He would normally endure criticisms no matter how harsh they were, but any mention of Tong Meng would arouse his anger.
“I heard that Junior Sister Tong Meng went to the garbage dump at the back of the mountain to help you find the sect sword. Haih, what do I even say to you? You don’t even have the precious sect sword anymore. How do you still have the face to live? If I were you, I would smash my head against a wall to kill myself.” Yao Long was getting more and more pleased with himself, his saliva spluttered as he talked.
“You are in the first level of Spiritual Droplet Stage, right?” Chu Chen suddenly walked to Yao Long and asked coldly.
“That’s right, but why does it matter to you?” Yao Long looked at the sorry excuse of a man who had always been stuck at the second level of Spiritual Mist Stage with apprehension.
Chu Chen walked to Yao Long’s side and suddenly lowered his voice, “At midnight, we will meet each other in the rocky ravine at the back of the mountains. We will have a showdown where only we know the outcome. I will not tell anyone.”
Crystal Spring Sect prohibited disciples from engaging in unofficial fights. If disciples were found to have engaged in an unofficial fight, the punishment was extremely severe.
This was also one of the reasons why Yao Jinghai and the others had not driven him away although they had been making things hard for Chu Chen.
Yao Long did not expect that Chu Chen, a useless bum who had always been stuck at the second level of the Spiritual Mist Stage would dare to fight him, even going as far as to say that he would not tell anyone.
He thought it must be that Chu Chen was angry about his things being thrown away, and wanted to fight him, but was afraid of losing face.
When he thought about it, Yao Long could not help but flash a grim smile on his face as he watched the figure of Chu Chen who was leaving. “Chu Chen oh Chu Chen, of course, I won’t tell anyone about this…golden opportunity. You are to blame if anything were to happen to you. If you mysteriously disappear tonight, cousin will definitely reward me generously.”
After Chu Chen left the market, he did not return to his small courtyard and instead went straight to the martial arts field.
The martial arts field was the training square for disciples. Many disciples often try to improve their martial arts and sword skills through casual combat here.
When Chu Chen got to the edge of the martial arts field, no one paid attention to him at all. People came and left, there were moving figures everywhere.
Chu Chen sat atop a rock beside the martial arts field and slowly closed his eyes.
No one knew that the moment Chu Chen closed his eyes, he suddenly activated his spiritual consciousness, and a projection of the entire martial arts field appeared in his mind very clearly.
The disciples flying high and leaping low, the young men pushing their palms and sweeping their legs, the arc of their clothes, and the lights and shadows of the disciples who entered the Spiritual Droplet Stage when they made moves, were all made clear to Chu Chen.
All of this was completely captured by Chu Chen’s “freak spiritual consciousness”, but Chu Chen wanted more than that.
He suddenly opened his eyes again, and two blade-like rays of light suddenly burst from his eyes.
At that instance, the whole world around him had changed, and the passage of everything in Heaven and the Earth had become slow, whether it was the drifting clouds in the sky, the fallen leaves swirling in the wind, or even the beaming rays of light.
Those disciples who were in combat, their movements became extremely relaxed, as if they were going back and forth in slow motion, the sparks from the swords and palms were slowly expanding or contracting.
Chu Chen was still not satisfied. His brows frowned, and his eyes shot out rays of light again!
After Chu Chen magnified his spiritual consciousness to the limit, the flow of the world slowed down several folds again. This time, Chu Chen could finally clearly capture every movement, every bit of skill involved in the movement, every trace of the movement of the spiritual energy of the young disciples after they made a move with their swords or palms.
The center of Chu Chen was empty!
In the powerful scan mode through his spiritual consciousness, those seemingly unbeatable palm techniques and swords skills contained countless loopholes. It seemed as if they could be avoided with even the slightest movement!
Chu Chen even had a feeling that even if he leaped into the martial arts field by himself, he could kill the nearly hundred disciples present with his power.
Of course, Chu Chen knew that this was just a feeling, and with his current physical level and abilities, it was impossible to do so.
These seemingly slow movements were actually as fast as thunder for his body. If he wanted to avoid the attacks, he had to anticipate the enemy’s movements and calculate the opponent’s speed, strength, angle, and even the range of spiritual energy jets.
Chu Chen was very aware that when he activated his spiritual consciousness, he should be able to possess the consciousness and judgment of someone at a grandmaster-level. However, physically he was very far from that.
That was why he came to the martial arts field, so he could get used to using his spiritual consciousness to capture and familiarize himself with the opponent’s movement trajectory. After accurate calculations, he would then play the scenario out in the projection and memorize it.
Chu Chen watched as the figures in the martial arts field came and went. The flowing clouds in the sky drifted by and the daylight gradually faded out.