Translator: Seventh Peril Editor: Anuvrat
The atmosphere that was originally filled with excitement suddenly turned stiff. Under Ye Zhong’s seemingly smiling gaze, a strange expression appeared on Xiang Qiyu and company.
Obviously, after Xiang Qiyu and You Siling experienced the two recent incidents, they already had the thought of retreating. After all, with their strength, being able to reach this step was already pretty good. If they withdrew now, no one could say that they had not done well enough. However, Qu Xuan came to the Wave Listening Pavilion for the Innate Command Token. If Ye Zhong’s guess was right, she probably wanted to ascend the Nine Stairs to Heaven, entering the Innate Gate to fight for the inheritance of the Innate Temple.
After a moment of silence, Qu Xuan lifted her head to look at Ye Zhong. After a moment, she turned her head back and spoke softly to Xiang Qiyu and You Siling, “Qiyu, Siling, I’ll take care of the rest myself. You two carry your things and leave first. There’s no need to take risks for me.”
“We refuse. If we let you go alone, we won’t feel at ease. In this place, even our Senior Brothers and Sisters from the Xingxiang Sect might not be able to survive. With such a treasure in your hand, you might become a public target. After Xiang Qiyu and You Siling looked at each other, both of them spoke up with a resolute expression.
“Don’t be like this. If you two follow me, I really can’t guarantee your safety.” Qu Xuan frowned. “You two, just listen to me, okay?”
“Hee hee, little beauty, at this point, you still want to abandon us? I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Didn’t I have two mid-grade Spirit Vessels? With these items, we won’t be afraid of those guys. Humph…” Xiang Qiyu reached out her arms to embrace Qu Xuan’s slender waist and said smilingly. It was obvious that no matter what Qu Xuan said, the two of them wouldn’t leave at this time.
Looking at the three of them, Ye Zhong could not help but stretch out his hand and touch his nose. How come they made him look like a bad person?
After a sigh, Ye Zhong forced a smile and said, “Alright, you three don’t have to push each other around here. I can take you three to the depth, but it’s up to you whether or not you guys can compete for the Nine Stairs to Heaven, and I absolutely can’t help you with that. Furthermore, if the competition is not possible, then you might as well give up. Because you all know very well that the ones who are after the inheritance of the Innate Temple are definitely not easy to deal with.”
Hearing this, Qu Xuan gave Ye Zhong a strange look, and after hesitating for a bit, she nodded her head. Apparently, they were relatively at ease with Ye Zhong by their side. No matter what, Ye Zhong was no ordinary character.
Hearing Ye Zhong’s words, Xiang Qiyu grinned at him, a sly look flashing in the corner of her eyes. Ye Zhong sighed when he saw it. He knew just now they were mostly acting, but with the situation developed to this point, was he really going to stand by and watch the three of them die?
“If there are no other questions, we will set out on our journey. For the sake of the Wave Listening Pavilion, we have wasted quite a bit of time. If we were too slow, we might have missed the competition over the inheritance of the Innate Temple.” Ye Zhong sighed again and waved his hand before heading out of the Wave Listening Pavilion.
After this, the party of four did not waste any time. Instead, they checked the route on the map and urged their speed to maximum. They quickly headed towards the direction of the Nine Stairs to Heaven.
Along the way, they could also hear the sounds of swords and sabres clashing and battle cries, but the four of them pretended not to have heard anything. Just like this, he followed the directions on the map. After roughly half a day, the environment of lush and verdant forest finally disappeared. The surrounding great temples that would occasionally appear were also nowhere to be seen.
Then, in the far distance ahead, there was an enormous block of white square. At the centre of the square, there was a gigantic building that was wrapped by clouds and mist. Everything within this gigantic building was blurry to others. In mid-air, there was only a huge white jade gate that was clearly visible.
And in the front, there were nine stone stairs which extended to the area in front of the huge white jade gate. This scene looked extremely mysterious.
Obviously, this gigantic building shrouded in clouds and mist should be the most important place in this Innate Temple, the place of inheritance. And that huge white jade gate should be the Innate Gate. As for the nine stone stairs, it should be the Nine Stairs to Heaven!
At this moment, on the huge square, there were already many figures in front of the Nine Stairs to Heaven.
All of these figures were filled with a bloody aura, just standing there, there was an extremely powerful aura spread out from their bodies. With so many powerhouses gathered together, their combined auras caused the entire world to tremble!
In this place, the powerful experts could be seen everywhere!
Ye Zhong and his party slowed down, as he looked at the front, his eyes could not help but reveal a hint of surprise. Unexpectedly, these guys made a move really quite fast. Apparently, there should be quite a few people who knew about the Nine Stairs to Heaven, the Innate Gate, and the Inheritance Grounds.
As Ye Zhong and his party reached the edge of the crowd, he suddenly frowned because he could notice that there was someone staring at him with a hint of killing intent.
When Ye Zhong felt the undisguised killing intent, he suddenly shifted his gaze, then, he saw that not far away, there were dozens of people gathered and all of them were wearing ink-black martial robes. At the very front of them was Mo Fanlong, who was kneading two bone balls.
Ye Zhong noticed that Mo Fanlong’s eyes varied between awe and amazement for a moment, he then gave a faint smile. The fight seemed inevitable between them.
Upon seeing Ye Zhong’s smile, Mo Fanlong’s eyes turned even more ferocious, though he did not expect that Ye Zhong could actually make it here alive under his arrangement. However, this did not matter to him, all he needed to do was to kill Ye Zhong right here!
The next moment, Mo Fanlong took a step forward, his slightly sinister voice reverberating across the entire square, “Ye Zhong! You really are still alive, it’s really very good! However, since you luckily ran away last time, this time, I will crush all the bones in your body one by one!”
Apparently, after what happened that day, Mo Fanlong had finally figured out Ye Zhong’s identity.
As Mo Fanlong’s voice rang out, all eyes fell on Ye Zhong. Speaking of which, Mo Fanlong was a local snake in Qingshan Town, and his reputation was already well-known. In the past few days, the news about Ye Zhong’s previous actions had spread all-around so many people had already heard his name by now.
Right now, when they heard that Mo Fanlong was going to make things difficult for Ye Zhong, many people’s eyes flashed with a meaningful look. One was a local snake of the Qingshan Town, the other was a leaping dragon [1] of the Xingxiang Sect. The final outcome of such a collision was really promising whether the leaping dragon could suppress the local snake or not.
After all, Ye Zhong was now quite famous in the Innate Temple. So, nobody believed that he was not qualified to fight against Mo Fanlong.
Ye Zhong looked at Mo Fanlong, whose killing intent was boiling. He smiled and said, “The few pieces of trash you sent before have all died by my hands. Now that you want to personally make a move, aren’t you afraid that you will reach the point of no return?”
Mo Fanlong’s eyes instantly turned a bit strange. Originally, he thought that his subordinates and the Mo Clan’s Elder should have just missed out on this brat. However, he never expected that they would actually be killed by him! At this moment, his eyes became more serious. However, in the next instant, he coldly laughed and slowly walked out.
From his eyesight, he could perceive that Ye Zhong’s strength had improved. So what if it did? It didn’t matter what kind of cheap trick this brat had come up with, as long as he could completely get rid of him now, it would be fine.
As Mo Fanlong took a step forward, an extremely violent aura instantly spread out, causing the surrounding Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth to slightly surge.
Fifth Layer of Body Tempering – Pulse Opening Stage!
Obviously, Mo Fanlong did not know that Ye Zhong had already seen through his true strength at the Sixth Layer of Body Tempering. Therefore, he did not intend to reveal his true strength at the moment. Instead, he had restrained his strength to the Fifth Layer of Body Tempering, prepared to finish off Ye Zhong.
“Fifth Layer of Body Tempering—”
Xiang Qiyu and the others who were behind Ye Zhong, their faces all turned pale. They did not know how Ye Zhong had messed with the local snake of the Qingshan Town, but no matter what, they could not leave him alone at the moment.
“Ye Zhong, if we attack together, we might deal with him!” Xiang Qiyu clenched her teeth and said.
Ye Zhong noticed the solemn look on Xiang Qiyu’s face and felt his heart warm up slightly. It was somewhat worth fighting for them, at least the three of them didn’t abandon him right away.
Laughing blandly, Ye Zhong spoke softly, “The three of you just watch and see, it’s just a mere Mo Fanlong, he can’t do anything to me. This time, it’s a free gift from me, and this fellow is most likely your rival in the competition for the inheritance of the Innate Temple. I’ll settle it for you right here, don’t forget to thank me.”
As his voice faded, Ye Zhong took a step forward, a cold look surfaced in his eyes. The last time he had fought with this guy, although he had gained a bit of an advantage due to the sudden attack, he was absolutely no match for him in a direct confrontation. So, this time, the outcome would be very hard to say!
TL note(s):
[1] “leaping dragon” probably implying “rising star” or a person who is growing quickly in popularity.