Chapter 390: Everything was an illusion
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Everything was an illusion!
Zhou Bao sighed. He stepped on the door of the Qianyuan Mountain. After suppressing Master of Golden Lights Cave with the fairy weapon Furnace of Immortality and roasting him in the Tusita Fire for nine days, Zhou Bao finally managed to distill the new Individual Immortal into a soul. Through this soul, he mastered everything about Master of Golden Lights Cave.
Actually, he did not have much of a history to boast about. He just got lucky and inherited the medieval period Sword Divine School’s teachings.
Just that he was a little stubborn. He was determined to bring glory to the medieval period Sword Divine School and to continue passing on the teachings. However, after reaching cultivation Level Nine, Master of Golden Lights Cave lost all the luck he had. The sect that he spent almost all his life’s efforts to build could not go any further. From then, he turned abnormal. He chose to form an alliance with Mingyi School. He needed to use the strong Mingyi School as a backing. At the same time, Mingyi School needed a hatchet man like him. It was a win-win combination and they worked well together.
After working and progressing together for a couple of decades, Qianyuan Mountain’s Golden Lights Cave had become a strong influence being second to none except Jin’s Three Great Sects. He had disciples that had reached the Expert Realm. However, this was not enough, far from enough.
To revive the glory old days during the medieval period, he needed bigger forces, heavier influence, and this was not easy.
Whatever profits there were in the world, they already had their rightful beneficiaries. Be it great quality resources or fairylands or cave paradises, they all had owners. To advance one step to get more profits and benefits, the only way would be to seize what others had.
This was not easy! This was not realistic!
Once Golden Lights Cave’s influence reached a bottleneck, the alliance partner’s attitude started to change and became ambiguous. He was helpless in such situation. He understood why Mingyi School would have such an attitude change. If the standstill continued, his Golden Lights Cave would eventually turn towards Mingyi School’s profits. This was something that Mingyi School would never want to see happening.
So, Golden Lights Cave was in a tight predicament yet again.
He understood very well where the challenges were–Golden Lights Cave had no history, strong sect nor solid backing. To change any of these, he had a long way to go. So he quietened down, as though he was a wild beast, waiting to pounce on any opportunity. He started to wait and wait that seemed endless. As he waited, he accumulated strength until the opportunity arrived.
Zhou Bao’s rise was an opportunity. He saw hope, but what he saw was not Zhou Bao’s northwest territory. What he wanted was to build a sword practitioner’s sect and not a country. Although the northwest was wide, and rather well-managed by Zhou Bao, it was lacking that one thing that should not be lacked.
Spirit vein!
With spirit vein, there would be no fairyland, no cave paradise, no hope for a sect to develop and to grow. So, in the very beginning, he did not notice Zhou Bao. Even after Zhou Bao received the title of the desolate northwest, he did not pay any attention to Zhou Bao. It was only when the Pure Yang Celestial Device appeared in Zhou Bao’s hands did he sit up and started to pay attention to Zhou Bao.
He realized that there must be a tremendous secret behind this young man, Zhou Bao. Maybe even an unimaginable power behind supporting him. Otherwise, it was impossible that he could cause such a ruckus.
From then on, Master Golden Lights Cave started to pay close attention to and feared Zhou Bao’s abilities. He started to covet the Pure Yang Celestial Device in Zhou Bao’s hands. At the same time, he also found out that because of his past negligence, he no longer had the confidence to rein in this young, powerful force. It was really frustrating.
This frustration did not last. After a long training retreat, he felt himself almost breaking through the bottleneck. There was just this one thin layer left, and after tearing through it, he would reach the Mysterious Realm. With this progress, his thoughts started to run wild once more. After paying an enormous price to the Dragon Thunder Palace, Master managed to get the one-time right to enter the Mysterious Realm. He got the Innate Green Lotus Seed in the Realm. With the use of this spiritual item, he successfully broke through the Mysterious Realm and was in line with the Immortal status.
The great strength of the Mysterious Realm gave him confidence. Master was prepared to make a move until news came. Zhou Bao, alone, went into the Azure Secret Area and defeated Ye Qingtian.
Although Ye Qingtian could not be considered an expert in the Central Mainland Region, Master would somewhat have an understanding about Ye Qingtian’s abilities in his current position. After he heard that Zhou Bao left Mingyi School unscathed after beating Ye Qingtian, Master hesitated once more for the same reason. He once more realized that he did not have the strength to defeat Zhou Bao.
All he could do was wait and wait for another opportunity. Then, when the news of Zhou Bao possessing the Yin and Yang Dust Formation reached his ears. Master could not wait any longer.
In comparison to his Mountain-protecting Sword Formation and Seven Stars Facing the Moon, the Yin and Yang Dust Formation was much more powerful. Most importantly, he knew the most crucial element of the Yin and Yang Dust Formation–the Innate Qi Talisman. This could be extracted from the Innate Green Lotus Seed and he, coincidentally, knew of the way to do so.
He could imagine himself possessing the Yin and Yang Dust Formation. This would mean that Qianyuan Mountain’s Golden Lights Cave would finally be strong and impregnable. Even if it could not immediately be as big a sect as the Mingyi School, with time it would slowly accumulate strengths, develop depth and become more powerful. He was in the level of the immortals, he would live a long life and would definitely get to see the brightest days of the Golden Lights Cave.
The only thing that made him hesitate was news of the defeat of Snow Mountain Great Wheel Temple. With the protection of the Yin and Yang Dust Formation, he was definitely no match for Zhou Bao. To attack without strategy would only result in one ending–he would be bombarded to pieces by Zhou Bao.
What should he do?
He thought of Mingyi School and then thought of the School of Five Virtues right behind it–the Divine Wind Palace!
He knew Mingyi School in great depth. He knew that for the School of Five Virtues, for the Divine Wind Palace, the Yin and Yang Dust Formation was tremendously tempting. This resulted in a series of actions and moves from him which eventually amounted to today.
It was not that he did not expect Zhou Bao to attack directly, but like everyone else, he thought Zhou Bao managed to defeat the Bigwheel Temple solely based on his Yin and Yang Dust Formation. Skills of formation are good for defense, but stands nowhere if used for offense. This is especially so for strong formations like the Yin and Yang Dust Formation. It was impossible to bring it around and be mobile. It was the defense formation that protected his old nest Qianyuan Mountain. Although this formation is not as powerful as the Yin and Yang Dust Formation, it had the ability to lock and seal off the earth vein and spiritual qi within miles. Once released, it would have formidable power. Plus, with the cultivation of the Mysterious Realm he had attained with his own ability. Even if a Genuine Immortal attacked him, Zhou Bao would have the capability to inflict serious injuries and defeat them.
Master never thought Zhou Bao would really come, never thought that Zhou Bao would have such a strong force and never thought that Zhou Bao would have a fairy weapon that would crush him till grounds of no return!
“Pfuuuu!” Zhou Bao exhaled deeply as he finished analyzing and breaking down the mind of the Master of Golden Lights Cave.
“Didn’t think he was already plotting against me from so long ago. This shows that what I’ve done is right. Crushing him and destroying his sect were unavoidable. Otherwise, to ignore would only mean that this tumor will continue to grow. Now it’s perfect. He’s dead. Besides getting his Pure Yang Flying Sword, I also got his heritage of the Medieval Sword Deity. What a fruitful harvest!”
He sighed that everything was only an illusion. The Master of Golden Lights Cave’s dreams, ambitions, and duties all became dust in front of his strength. They had become shapeless clouds. At the same time he continued to recount what he had benefitted from the Master of Golden Lights Cave.
While he recalled the good stuff he got, an eccentric smile appeared on Zhou Bao’s face. “I already have the Blue Sword, why would I need the Green Rapier? The two Pure Yang Flying Swords are of not much use to me. Li Xiu, that rascal, isn’t he focusing on swordsmanship recently? Then, I’ll hand these two swords down to him. Hmm, I wonder what he would bring to exchange? The largest bit of the Master of Golden Lights Cave.”
Zhou Bao and Li Xiu could be considered to be somewhat good friends. However, there is a saying that goes, even true brothers of the same blood should make sure their accounts are calculated correctly. This meant that no matter how good of a friend they were to each other, it was not possible to be completely honest with each other. He was focused on supporting Li Xiu not because of any friendship ties, but because he wanted to make use of the power of the Li Family of Pingzhou. This was just like how the Master of Golden Lights Cave wanted to use the power of the Mingyi School. In the world, it is not possible to survive with only strength and without “friends”.
Now he held the Anyuan Store. Plus, he had relations with the Sect of Flame in the South, the Wu Family and Tian Long Taoism in the North and his own power in the Northwest–in the Jin imperial court, he was the emperor’s son-in-law. These were all the roots of his power and strength. He was not solely relying on his own powers!
No matter how powerful he was, he was only a human being. In this world, there would definitely be a presence stronger than him. So to only rely on his own power to take down the world, it would not possible. In fact, more than often, relations would play an extremely important role.
While Zhou Bao was strengthening his own skills, he also paid attention to build his net of relationships. This was how the Wuyang Region got to where they were today.
The Li Family of Pingzhou was the key to building his relations with the millennium family.
Even though the Tian Long Taoism and the well-known families of the world had ambiguous relationships, these were indirect links. He could not make use of any of them. He had to build his own.
Hence, he gave great support to Li Xiu. Once Li Xiu gained power of the Li Family, he could then have a closer partnership with the Li Family. Zhou Bao believed that within a few years, his Wuyang Region would finally truly be the strongest vassal state in Northwest. This also meant that he would be relieved of some stress in the future.
“This time I trashed the Golden Lights Cave and made the School of Five Virtues lose face. I wonder what kind of reaction the School of Five Virtues would have. Hehe. Divine Wind Palace, ah, Divine Wind Palace, this time you guys didn’t even protect the closest ally you had. Scheming to get my formation map? You’ve got a long way to go!” His fierce thoughts continued, “You all have always schemed against me. I will also scheme against you. This is only the first step. Wait till the Azure Secret Area, I’ll give you all a bigger surprise!”