Translator: Seventh Peril Editor: Anuvrat
Ye Zhong smirked. Facing Ye Yiyin’s terrifying attack, his right hand shot out as fast as lightning. Four-Layered Shura Sword Seal brought an extremely fierce wind, and struck onto the wooden palm.
The seemingly limitless power of wooden palm trembled for an instant before exploding into rays of light that filled the sky with a loud bang.
After breaking Ye Yiyin’s attack, Ye Zhong did not slow down his punches in the slightest. Instead, he punched out with all his might and landed a heavy blow on Ye Yiyin’s chest.
“*Puff—*”
Ye Yiyin’s defensive stance broke almost instantly, while the clothes on his chest burst apart and his body flew backwards like a cannonball. After crashing into the ground, he bounced a few times like a ball, before colliding heavily with a huge rock. Immediately, a mouthful of fresh blood was spat out.
The entire square instantly burst into an uproar as everyone looked at the crushing defeat of Ye Clan members and Ye Yiyin who was leading them. Everyone’s eyes were filled with disbelief. Although they thought that Ye Yiyin might not be able to subdue Ye Zhong, they would never think that Ye Zhong would be able to sweep away the Ye Clan’s warriors and defeat Ye Yiyin with such a valiant posture.
“How is this possible!?”
Above the Nine Stairs to Heavens, even someone as strong as Mo Fanlong’s eyes were twitching. He felt like he was about to collapse, any moment. The battle power of Ye Zhong was beyond his imagination! That Ye Yiyin couldn’t be considered weak. His strength at the Fifth Layer of Body Tempering was real, so how could he lose so miserably?
“What kind of Spiritual Secret Art of Body Tempering does he cultivate!?” Song Shaochen and Rong Tian, the two Inner Disciples of the Xingxiang Sect, were shocked. They did not know much about Ye Zhong, but they could at least tell that Ye Zhong was not cultivating the Spiritual Secret Art of Astral Body, but even more powerful Secret Art of Body Tempering!
Despite the shock and disbelief in the eyes of the onlookers, Ye Zhong remained calm. He stared coldly at Ye Yiyin, whose blood was gushing wildly. In the next instant, he leaped toward him, ready to kill him directly.
Ye Zhong’s actions caused the defeated members of the Ye Clan to run away one by one, and Ye Yiyin was so scared that his face turned pale. But this time, the Ye Clan warriors who were retreating had no choice but to turn back while gritting their teeth and charged towards Ye Zhong. Obviously, they could not just sit by and watch Ye Zhong kill Ye Yiyin.
“*Bang— Bang— Bang—*”
However, these warriors who were defeated once, were defeated again even more quickly, only the cries of pain were heard all over, this time, Ye Zhong no longer held back, obviously intending to kill. In an instant, many of the Ye Clan warriors lost their limbs, and some even vomited blood and fell to the ground, severely injured as if they were drawing their last breaths.
This time, Ye Zhong was still unstoppable again.
After casually taking care of these small fries, Ye Zhong appeared in front of Ye Yiyin amidst his shocked gaze. He reached out his hand to grab Ye Yiyin’s throat and slowly lifted him up into the air.
Looking at Ye Yiyin, whose face was flushed and was struggling to survive, the entire square turned silent in an instant. As the shocked gazes of the onlookers fell on Ye Zhong, the corners of their eyes twitched.
Ye Zhong’s face was calm as he scanned his surroundings, and said indifferently, “Now that I’m going to ascend the Nine Stairs to Heaven, there should be no one who has a problem with it, right?”
The young man’s voice slowly rang out, but the entire square was so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping onto the ground could be heard. Everyone held their breath, not daring to voice any doubts.
This fellow’s approach was already so ruthless when facing the Ye Clan. If the other factions provoked him blindly, the outcome would probably be even worse than the Ye Clan just now, right?
Looking at the silent crowd around him, Ye Zhong smiled and exerted force in his hand. Under Ye Yiyin’s incredulous gaze, he broke his throat and threw the dead body of Ye Yiyin to the ground. Ye Zhong smiled then slowly walked towards the stair closest to him and sat on it.
“*Buzz—*”
The Innate Command Token in Ye Zhong’s hands shimmered slightly, and floated above his head. The token merged with the golden light and formed an extremely strange scene, as if an ancient aura was enveloping Ye Zhong.
“No matter what, Ye Zhong is still surnamed Ye!” At this moment, Ye Yihao’s face was unsightly to the extreme. He could only helplessly watch as his fellow clan members were defeated and Ye Yiyin was directly killed. He did not have the slightest courage to make a move, causing his face to turn bright red with anger.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to make a move, but he understood that even if he did so, the outcome would absolutely not be any different than Ye Yiyin.
“It seems that you don’t want the spot of the Nine Stairs to Heaven, isn’t it?” Ye Zhong slowly lifted his head and looked at Ye Yihao, “If you don’t want it, there should be a lot of powerhouses who want it, right? Hand over the token and I won’t kill you.”
“You!”
Hearing Ye Zhong’s cold voice, Ye Yihao’s expression changed, and he almost vomited a mouthful of blood.
“You should know that if you don’t know what’s good for you, I might not be able to make a move now. However, after entering the Innate Gate, I’ll kill you like clay chickens and pottery dogs.” As his soft voice faded, Ye Zhong closed his eyes and no longer looked at Ye Yihao.
Ye Yihao’s face turned ashen upon hearing this. Now that Ye Yiyin had been killed, all the warriors of the Ye Clan were defeated. Coupled with Ye Zhong’s threat, those powerhouses who did not have the Innate Command Token were eyeing Ye Yihao covetously.
Obviously, in this situation, it was extremely difficult to keep the Innate Command Token. And even if he did, Ye Yihao didn’t think that Ye Zhong would let him go in the Inheritance Grounds!
When the surrounding powerhouses heard Ye Zhong’s words, many of them had an astonished look on their faces. The way they looked at Ye Yihao became somewhat curious.
As the saying goes, ‘when a wall is about to collapse, everybody gives it a push’ [1]. At this moment, Ye Yihao was not just the falling wall, but also the wall in front of the treasury as he had an Innate Command Token in his hands. If those who didn’t have the token didn’t have any thoughts of seizing it now, who else would have!?
“Hehehe, since Young Master Ye had made such a suggestion, it seems that we can compete for that Innate Command Token as well, right?”
“Young Master Ye Yihao, I beg your pardon. You can only blame yourself for having the Innate Command Token in your possession right now.”
At this moment, many powerhouses with strange expressions were already slowly walking out. Their eyes were all fixed on Ye Yihao and were filled with greed. Obviously, they were extremely interested in the Innate Command Token in Ye Yihao’s hands.
“Brother Su Xuan.” Ye Yihao’s expression was ugly as he turned around to look at Su Xuan.
Su Xuan’s face was indifferent, shaking his head slightly after a moment, it was obvious that even if he had a cooperative relationship with Ye Yihao, he didn’t want to forcefully take action at this moment. If he were to provoke the powerhouses present who were already ready to make a move, and got implicated in this, then even he might lose the qualification to ascend the Nine Stairs to Heaven too.
The cold response caused Ye Yihao’s face to instantly become extremely ugly, his resentful gaze fell upon Ye Zhong. He gritted his teeth and flipped his hand, the Innate Command Token appeared in his palm. With a flick of his finger, the token fell into the mass of powerhouses in front of him.
As Ye Yihao surrendered his Innate Command Token, those extremely greedy powerhouses in the square immediately began to fight fiercely. This was because almost all the powerhouses understood that although Su Xuan also had the token, it had nothing to do with them. They only had this one chance to obtain the token and ascend the Nine Stairs to Heaven.
Therefore, after several fierce exchanges and confrontations, this Innate Command Token finally fell into the hands of a dark horse powerhouse, who then occupied the eighth spot.
Seeing that the eighth spot had been occupied, a burst of sighs sounded out, and then, under everyone’s gaze, Su Xuan slowly walked out. He expressionlessly landed on the last stair with an indifferent look.
At this point, each of the Nine Stairs to Heaven had their own owners. Apart from Ye Yihao who had unexpectedly lost the qualification, almost all the key figures had ascended the Nine Stairs to Heaven as expected.
Looking at the nine figures on the Nine Stairs to Heaven, all the powerhouses present sighed slightly. No matter how they looked at it, it was extremely difficult to ascend the Nine Stairs to Heaven.
And these nine people who had ascended the Nine Stairs to Heaven, would be able to enter the Innate Gate and set their foot on the Inheritance Ground! However, there should only be one portion of inheritance in the Inheritance Grounds. At that time, these guys would probably start an intense confrontation, and no one could predict who would rise above the others and obtain the inheritance of the Innate Temple.
About one incense stick of time, after the appearance of all the owners of the Nine Stairs to Heaven, the Innate Gate suddenly showed signs of activity. Numerous strange lights were emitted and enveloped around the upper end of the Nine Stairs to Heaven.
At the end of the stone stair of the Nine Stairs to Heaven, the light stairs were forming upward step by step. The last step where the light stairs converged was the inner area of the Innate Gate.
Looking at the scene before them, all nine of them stood up simultaneously. With the exception of Ye Zhong, the eyes of the remaining eight were burning with fervor. And then one by one, they all moved and followed the stairs to enter the Innate Gate. Once a person entered, their respective light stair would instantly disappear, interrupting the thoughts of the onlookers.
When the surrounding powerhouses saw this, they all let out a sigh and their eyes became even more peculiar.
“I wonder who will obtain the inheritance of the Innate Temple this time!”
TL note(s):
[1]. “when a wall is about to collapse, everybody gives it a push” means “everybody hits a man who is down”