AGM 357 - Blasted into the River
Qin Wentian’s gaze was as fierce as lightning, filled with a terrifying glint of cold light. The bloodline limit in his body erupted forth, as the centre of his brows began to glow resplendently, as though a third eye were taking form.
“Yun Mengyi, freeze this space.” Qin Wentian’s voice was ice cold. With a single draw of her sword, Yun Mengyi’s frost intent enveloped everything.
Qin Wentian halted his group advancement, and instead, he chose to directly battle above the River of Life and Death. This scenario caused many to be taken aback—wasn’t Qin Wentian worried about the passing time?
Zhan Chen, Yang Fan and the rest frowned as well. Although they wanted to kill Qin Wentian, obtaining a good ranking on the Heavenly Fate Rankings was more important to them. They didn’t have time to play around with Qin Wentian.
“Erase Duan Qingshan.”
Qin Wentian’s voice was as cold as the depths of hell. He had once said that if he were to met Duan Qingshan ever again, he would definitely kill him. And yet Duan Qingshan still dared to make a move against him.
Since he had chosen this path, the price for his actions would be his life.
The black-robed figure held back Zhan Chen, while Chu Mang fought against Situ Po. Bailu Jing and Ouyang Kuangsheng were engaged in battle against Yang Fan and his lackey from the Star-Seizing Manor. Yun Mengyi turned her gaze onto Duan Qingshan as a coldness of absolute zero erupted forth towards him. Ice formed on his body, the chill so penetrating that it cut deep into his bones.
Abruptly, a formless energy blasted into his body, as a terrifying will wormed into his sea of consciousness. As he lifted his head and stared at Qin Wentian, the expression on his face was incredibly unsightly. A fearsome primordial beast took form in his mind, howling in rage as it tried to devour his consciousness. That violent impact felt as though his mind was being torn apart.
Qin Wentian’s will of Mandate could actually attack the sea of consciousness of his opponents directly.
Fan Le’s arrows fanned out, as Duan Qingshan’s countenance turned ashen. He rapidly retreated backwards, while aiming a powerful kick at Qin Wentian and the others. With a mere wave of his palms, he directed the formless energy to destroy the manifestation of the giant leg, and then carried on forward, blasting into him once again.
“This can’t be, his Mandate, it’s at the second level!” Duan Qingshan’s eyes widened in fright. How was this possible? Qin Wentian was only at the seventh level of Yuanfu, how could he comprehend second level Mandates? That was the prerequisite of stepping into Heavenly Dipper!
Yun Mengyi’s speed was extremely fast, as she too, had comprehended the Mandate of Wind. Her Mandate of Icesnow was slowing down Duan Qingshan’s movements, and so her current speed was faster than his. When she clashed against him, a sword slashed downwards as a beam from the heavens cascaded down with frightening force and terrible beauty. Duan Qingshan paled—everyone who entered the Unmatched Realm knew of Yun Mengyi’s prowess.
Duan Qingshan gave a howl of rage as his Astral Souls exploded forth.
However, he only saw Qin Wentian madly rushing over, with terrifying killing intent blasting out from him.
At this moment, Qin Wentian only had a single thought in his mind, the death of Duan Qingshan.
Duan Qingshan stared blankly at Qin Wentian sending out a palm, pressing forcefully against the space in front of him. In the next instant, a terrible force slammed into him, akin to a blow from a desolate beast at full-strength. That overwhelming force directly ignored his pathetic attempts at defense and forcefully pushed him downwards in the direction of the river.
Gushing sounds rang out, the sounds of the waves in the River of Life and Death.
“No…” Duan Qingshan glanced at the river, his countenance as white as a sheet of paper. Qin Wentian’s palm still pressing onto the empty space, ignoring everything in order to push him downwards.
“I said before, I would kill you if I met you here.”
As the sound of his voice faded, Qin Wentian sent out yet another palm, as a towering strength forced the air downwards, pushing Duan Qingshan directly into the river.
“Plop,” Duan Qingshan instantly transformed into bones, before flowing along with the river currents.
Duan Qingshan had fallen.
The spectators on both banks watched on as the white bones drifted past them, with intense shock rocking their hearts.
That was Duan Qingshan, someone ranked within the top thirty-six of the Heavenly Fate Ranking. He was forced into the river by someone whose cultivation base was two levels lower than his?
What a cruel test, how intense was the competition for the Heavenly Fate Ranking?
At the same time, this also made the others seriously contemplate this young man.
Who exactly was he? He had several allies by his side, as well as several enemies.
And in the case of the first test, he even broke the record, sounding out a total of twenty-one echoes.
Back then, none of the spectators thought it meant anything. After all, his cultivation was obviously one of the weaker ones here. Yet, he killed Duan Qingshan, and now there was no need to doubt Qin Wentian’s actual strength. If he was weak, it would have been impossible for him to blast Duan Qingshan down into the river.
When they witnessed this scene, those from the Ouyang Aristocrat Clan, all had incredibly ugly expressions on their faces.
Thoughts of revenge filled their heart. Qin Wentian set off a wave of commotion when he stepped into the Ouyang Clan. Back then he was still weak, with nothing noteworthy about him, yet now, he even had the strength to kill Duan Qingshan, and was also a good friend of Ouyang Kuangsheng. They couldn’t do anything to him.
As for Ouyang Ting, her countenance paled—she was frightened out of her mind.
How can this be? HOW CAN THIS BE? Duan Qingshan was slain by Qin Wentian.
Her eyes turned red as she gazed helplessly around, her mind telling her that this was impossible. Yet with the truth in front of her eyes, there was no way her heart could deny the same thing.
How had it come to this? Shouldn’t it be the opposite, where Duan Qingshan killed Qin Wentian instead?
All of this occurred in the space of a few seconds, yet a few breaths of time had indeed felt wasted because of that. In the next moment, Qin Wentian soared up to the skies as he surveyed his earlier attacks.
Zhan Chen, Situ Po and the rest knew that they couldn’t afford to delay any longer. They flew even higher up, unwilling to entangle themselves by fighting with Qin Wentian at length.“Quickly, let’s go as well.” Qin Wentian and the others madly rushed ahead. There were others still fighting in front of them, as contenders after contenders fell into the river. Such a scene made the spectators feel a chill in their hearts.
The contenders were all rare geniuses, of one-in-ten thousand, yet they had fallen here.
The candle was about to burn out, and the contenders continued to arrive at the end of the river, passing through the city gates.
A raging wind billowed, Qin Wentian and the rest also managed to reach the goal. The candle flame completely extinguished itself when they landed on the other bank, causing all of them to sigh in relief. Who would have thought that the River of Life and Death test would be so dangerous. Luckily, all of them made it through, without even a single casualty.
“Let’s go.” As they passed through the city gates, they met Zhan Chen and their earlier attackers again. Their gazes collided against each other, incomparably sharp as killing intent permeated the air.
“Consider it your good luck.” Zhan Chen’s eyes gleamed with a golden light as he coldly stated. After which, he turned his gaze onto the black-robed figure. This person had already spoiled his plans more than once.
Qin Wentian also glanced at the black-robed figure as he lightly nodded in gratitude. “Many thanks.”
The eyes of the black-robed figure flickered, giving people a sense of their elegance. It caused Qin Wentian to suspect—could this devil path practitioner be a female instead?
The tyranny of the Devil Arts was more terrifying than anyone could imagine. It was extremely dangerous, yet how strong the heart of the practitioner must be if they were willing to cultivate the devil path?
Yet these were merely his musings, he wondered if the black-robed figure was listed among the Heavenly Fate Rankings and more importantly, why was he or she helping him?
Over another half had been eliminated after the River of Life and Death. Currently, there were still many contenders, the one remaining were all elites of the elites.
For the battle over the positions in the Heavenly Fate Rankings, luck was sometimes required. For example, Duan Qingshan had the strength, and had been one of the thirty six Heaven’s Chosen. Yet he still died, even before making it past the test at the River. This indicated that his luck was pretty awful.
And in the course of the ranking battle, many would fight prematurely because of their individual grudges. Hence, even as an elite, if one was unlucky, they would also be one of the fallen.
In spite of the dangers, this was the grueling test that made the Heavenly Fate Rankings so sacred in the eyes of Grand Xia.
The great waves emerging from these tests were sifting through the sand in their quest to find gold. By the end of the competition, only those with sufficient strength and luck would remain. It was impossible to persist onwards if a cultivator was missing either one of these factors.At this moment in front of the contenders, there were several battle platforms.
Old Man Tianji and the other leaders leisurely walked on the air as they gazed downwards at the contenders.
On the left and right, countless spectators began to fill the winding paths, tightly squeezed together. They had all come up in hopes of a better view for the next test.
“This was where Ancient Grand Xia drilled its troops. Step up on the battle platforms, and an illusory opponent similar to your current strength level will appear. For those who can’t even get past the yellow-colored battle-robed warriors, they will immediately be eliminated. Let it begin.” Old Man Tianji gazed at the contenders as he calmly instructed.
As the sound of his voice faded, Chen Wang from the Great Solar Clan immediately moved—like a resplendent blazing sun, he stood on the centre-most platform. The platforms weren’t large in size, so if one was blasted down by the illusory opponents, they would be eliminated.
A burst of light inundated the area as an illusory figure took form in front of Chen Wang. This figure was clad in a red battle robe with a terrifying aura similar to Chen Wang’s at the peak of the ninth level of Yuanfu.
“Bzzz!”
The illusory warrior heaved a spear as he dashed out, instantly stabbing towards Chen Wang.
Chen Wang’s eyes flashed, it was as though a ball of flame was burning in his eyes. An instant later, the illusory warrior went up in flames. It was devoured into ashes before shattering, and then transformed into a stream of light shooting into Chen Wang’s body. Momentarily, a red battle robe appeared on Chen Wang’s body.
After which, two more opponents appeared. These two were clad in orange-colored battle robes.
Chen Wang took a step forwards, unleashing the Great Solar Universe Art to its extreme, blasting forth with two palms and then instantly incinerating the two manifested opponents. Momentarily, the color of Chen Wang’s battle robe turned orange.“Battle-robed Warriors. The manifested opponents will grow stronger and stronger as time goes by. The level of their ranks can be classified into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. In fact, there were people who once passed through all stages, fighting against platinum-colored battle-robed warriors.”
Ouyang Kuangsheng explained in a low voice for Qin Wentian’s benefit. By the end of this test, the battle robes that appeared on one’s body would have the color most fitting of their strength!