Chapter 680: Eternal and Endless
When Xiao Chen saw their acceptance, he smiled faintly and went to attend to his guests, preparing tea for them personally.
In a loft within the courtyard, the three looked at the beautiful scenery of the lake before them. As they sampled tea, they chatted, passing their time leisurely. They only parted after sunset.
This vast Kunlun Realm was rife with mutual deception, a fierce competition offering no quarter. Hidden dangers filled the place; one might get sabotaged at any time.
Xiao Chen sincerely hoped that these two friends from the Sky Dome Realm would not fall on this arduous path of cultivation. If he could give them a hand, he would do so and more.
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There were still ten days or so left before Xiao Chen could collect his monthly stipend. So he used this period to continue solidifying his cultivation as a peak late-stage Inferior Grade Martial Monarch.
Xiao Chen devoted his days to comprehending the Sea of Lightning Saber Light Chop.
The Sea of Lightning Saber Light Chop’s might was comparable to a Heaven Ranked Martial Technique. Because he adapted a Sword Technique to the saber, there were still many flaws in the Martial Technique. He had managed to identify these after testing it out in a few battles.
As time passed, Xiao Chen slowly tweaked the Sea of Lightning Saber Light Chop, fixing the defects. Furthermore, he also personalized it.
Xiao Chen’s state of thunder contained an immortal attribute, which was different from the others. Infusing it perfectly into the Martial Technique would definitely take the might of the move to the next level.
Immortal, immortal. Why is it called immortal? Not a thousand years or ten thousand years, instead, it was eternal and endless!
When Xiao Chen thought about it, the immortal will of thunder in the Thunder Emperor Valley had lasted for a thousand years, and yet its might remained undiminished. Even a Martial Sage did not dare face the sharp will of thunder.
This clearly showed how strong the power of immortality was.
Xiao Chen muttered to himself in the courtyard, “The Sea of Lightning Saber Light Chop can be separated into three parts. The first part is the saber images. The key is in the word ‘light.’ The entire sky is filled with saber lights to make it hard for the opponent to differentiate the real ones from the fakes.
“I have already perfected this part, more or less. The key to the second part is the sea of lightning formed by my state. I need to infuse in the attribute of immortality into it. This will require more time.
“Then, there is the final saber light’s unpredictability. This is the essence of this move. The previous generations have already perfected this to the point where it can’t be improved further. I am unable to think of any ideas.”
Actually, this move could already be called perfect. It was definitely not weaker than the original move. However, Xiao Chen was nitpicky. He wanted to used his own special characteristics to make this move even stronger.
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Ten days later, Xiao Chen had gained some comprehensions after executing the Sea of Lightning Saber Light Chop thousands of times in the courtyard.
He leaped up in the courtyard, and the instant the saber light lit up, he sent out seven saber images. Then, each saber image sent out another seven saber images.
This formed forty-nine indistinguishable saber images, more than double of the previous. Right then, saber lights flickered endlessly in the courtyard.
Each strand of electric saber light was as dazzling as the shining sun, a bewildering sight.
However, this lasted for only an instant before all the saber images vanished without a trace. This made one wonder if the resplendent saber lights from earlier had been real.
In the next moment, a sea of lightning suddenly formed in the air. This sea of lightning was not vast. However, it carried an immortal attribute, making it more difficult for others to shatter.
“Xiu!”
The sea of lightning vanished, and a strand of saber light leaped out. Aside from being astonishingly fast, it moved unpredictably.
The biggest difference of this saber light, when compared to the previous version, was that it shared the immortal attribute of the sea of lightning.
This additional attribute gave others the vague feeling that this strand of saber light had been around for hundreds or even thousands of years. The saber light projected a vast and ancient aura.
The Martial Technique now gave the intangible impression that an expert had fine-tuned it to a whole new level.
Boundless saber images, an immortal sea of lightning, and a mysterious saber light. Xiao Chen completed all three parts in one breath. He now felt exultant.
He could not help but reveal a faint smile as he pulled back his saber and sheathed it. Then, he muttered, “I finally completed it. In the future, this Martial Technique will be called Ghostly Image Chop. This will be my unique Immortal Ghostly Image Chop!”
Xiao Chen had upgraded the Sea of Lightning Saber Light Chop and perfected it into the Ghostly Image Chop, increasing its might by twenty percent. It finally contained some of the might of a Heaven Ranked Martial Technique.
Inside the Sage Sky Lantern, that senior had said that the might of this move would continue to increase with one’s strength, reaching the peak.
At that time, when one executed it, the sky would be filled with thousands of three-kilometer-long sword lights. The sea of fire formed could burn half the sky. The might of the sword would tear apart the heavenly dome.
Utterly fascinated with this potential, Xiao Chen had spent so many days honing this move. It could be said that he had not wasted his time.
After another five days, due to his monopoly of a Spirit Vein, he already reached the bottleneck of peak Inferior Grade Martial Monarch.
The drops of purple Quintessence liquid in his dantian gave off an intense glow, dense and pure.
Xiao Chen tested this bottleneck a few times, and he could feel a formless barrier every time, preventing him from proceeding.
The flexibility of that barrier had a strong tenacity to it, making it extremely difficult to break.
After verifying the bottleneck several times, Xiao Chen frowned and said, “The ten Medial Grade Spirit Gathering Pearls from getting the top rank in the Contribution Ranking would probably not be enough.”
This meant that he would have to gather enough Medial Grade Spirit Gathering Pearls before he could break through.
“I won’t think about this for now. I should go and get the monthly stipend and the remuneration for the Contribution Ranking first. Worst-case scenario, I will just take more three-thousand-contribution-point missions and spend a little more time. That’s all.”
Today, Xiao Chen could finally go and collect the monthly stipend. After taking a bath and tidying his clothes up, he left the courtyard.
Along the way, Xiao Chen met a lot of inner sect disciples. When they saw Xiao Chen, they quickly fled to a side. Their eyes were filled with respect and fear.
Half a month ago, Xiao Chen had defeated the five faction leaders single-handedly in a great battle.
After that, Xiao Chen trounced Situ Gang, who had mounted a sneak attack on him. Within the inner sect, his fame was undoubtedly the highest after the mysterious Yun Feiyu.
That day, Xiao Chen had been very decisive and fast. He had not shown any mercy, chopping off the arms of those faction leaders without any hesitation whatsoever.
Then, there was the recent news that Xiao Chen displaced Yun Feiyu from the top of the Contribution Ranking, pushing him to the heart of the struggle. Several people were guessing that Yun Feiyu would have a showdown with him soon.
Yun Feiyu was similar to Xiao Chen; they both operated alone. However, no one dared to seek trouble with him. This was because Yu Zhiqiang and the others had suffered in a similar manner in the past.
These two men were not people who liked to stand out. However, because of the pride in their hearts, they would not be willing to admit defeat.
There was a saying, “A mountain cannot contain two tigers.” A duel between these two was necessary and inevitable. There could only be one top disciple in the inner sect, and that would always be the case.
Xiao Chen was already accustomed to these evasive gazes. He did not have any superfluous thoughts or bother about the whispers of these people.
When he entered the vast hall of the place to collect the monthly stipend, there was a huge crowd. The hall was filled with inner sect disciples waiting to receive their stipends.
When Xiao Chen saw an empty corner, he walked over casually. As he walked, he brushed past a blue-clad swordsman.
After a couple of steps, the two stopped when they sensed each other’s extraordinariness. Then, they turned at the same time.
Xiao Chen looked at this person. This blue-clad swordsman had a medium stature and a skinny figure. He had a stern face and thin lips. His eyebrows were sharp like they were sculpted to perfection. He looked very clean and neat.
A strong, gushing sword intent, like a waterfall, hid deep in his black eyes. With a single gaze, the horrifying sword intent could be released at any moment.
This person had already advanced to early-stage Superior Grade Martial Monarch, putting a faint pressure on Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen automatically compared this person to the true inheritor he had seen before, Chen Xiao. He realized that this person was not much weaker than Chen Xiao; this swordsman was powerful.
Within the inner sect, who could have such cultivation, strong enough to give even Xiao Chen some pressure? The answer was clear. Aside from Yun Feiyu, it could not be anyone else!
As Xiao Chen measured Yun Feiyu up, Yun Feiyu likewise measured him up. After that, Yun Feiyu revealed a smile filled with some disdain and said, “White Robed Bladesman, Xiao Chen. Not bad. Today, I finally met you.”
“Xiu!”
Right after Yun Feiyu spoke, the withdrawn sword intent in his eyes launched themselves at Xiao Chen like two sharp knives. The sword intent buzzed in the air, giving off an impassioned, melodious hum in the air.
Xiao Chen focused his gaze, and the saber intent in his eyes clashed without any fear. Likewise, his perfect sixty-percent-comprehended saber intent became sharp knives that launched from his gaze.
“Dang! Dang!”
Two metallic clangs came from the air, sounding like real weapons clashing with each other, fighting intensely.
As the two stood off against each other, a strong wind blew through the hall, sending their clothes aflutter.
As the strong sword intent and saber intent fought in the wind, the weapons of the other inner sect disciples waiting in the hall to collect their stipend trembled.
Some disciples did not manage to grab their weapons in time. Their weapons came unsheathed, flying chaotically around the hall.
Such a scene fixed everyone’s gazes on Yun Feiyu and Xiao Chen.
“The two of them really clashed with each other. I knew that they would end up fighting.”
“Xiao Chen is really strong. He is able to stand his ground against Yun Feiyu’s seventy-percent-comprehended sword intent, not losing at all.”
Everyone immediately revealed excited expressions. When the onlooker saw that Xiao Chen was not at a disadvantage, they were even more astonished.
This development filled everyone with anticipation for their fight. If Xiao Chen lost immediately in this exchange, then it would not be interesting.
A strange light flashed in Yun Feiyu’s eyes. He did not fight for real in the hall, withdrawing his sword intent. Then, his lips curled up as he said, “A perfect sixty-percent-comprehended saber intent. No wonder you have the confidence to fight with me. However, that is all. It is insufficient.
“You best know what is good for yourself. Don’t do anything that you will regret.”
After Yun Feiyu finished speaking, he immediately turned around and left without waiting for Xiao Chen to say anything.
From the start to end, Yun Feiyu did not attach any importance to Xiao Chen at all. He merely tested Xiao Chen out and disdained to converse with him.
Xiao Chen watched as Yun Feiyu left. He had a somewhat grave expression on his face. Indeed, Yun Feiyu was as rumors claimed: an arrogant person who looked down on everyone.
Xiao Chen looked around and discovered four people waiting for Yun Feiyu outside the hall. These people had stern expressions and aloof demeanors as though they were above everyone else. No one dared to get within a hundred meters of them.
Watching from afar, people all bowed respectfully to them in greeting. Their medallions indicated they were actually true inheritors.
Seeing Yun Feiyu arrive, the four condescended to speak politely to him. Then, they went off into the distance.
“Indeed, that is Yun Feiyu for you. Even the true inheritors have to be polite to him.” When the disciples saw this scene, they all revealed expressions of envy.
Then, they looked at Xiao Chen. Although they felt that he was flourishing, he was far from comparable to Yun Feiyu.