Chapter 173 – Rise to fame
Ye Xiwen did not want to look for trouble, but it did not mean that trouble won’t look for him or his friends.
When Ye Xiwen was indulged in closed-door practice, overnight, a news spread throughout Qianji Island and all the five forces paid attention to it.
“Did you hear the latest news? Eighth prince is aiming for that Ye Xiwen of Yi Yuan School. We may be able to see a stunning battle between the two.”
“What? Eighth prince, the universally invincible genius of this generation from the royal clan! He is considered invincible even among the peer disciples of the royal clan, but why is he aiming for Ye Xiwen, oh right, who is this Ye Xiwen anyway?”
“Till yesterday, even I didn’t know who this Ye Xiwen actually is, but today, I finally found out about his identity! The supremeness of eighth prince is widely known among the younger generation of royal clan, his followers can be seen throughout the five forces and various other large and small forces. He has also formed his own army by the name imperial guards, which claims to dominate the entire world! But that Ye Xiwen recently rose to fame in Yi Yuan School as an invincible genius, it is said that he has broken the records of the legendary genius, Qi Feifan, of Yi Yuan School. Just like Qi Feifan, Ye Xiwen is also considered a mythical figure, a myth in his sect!”
“But I heard that eighth prince was chasing down a devil and has gone inside the space crack. Why did he challenge Ye Xiwen right on?”
“I also just heard that the eighth prince chased down the devil all the way inside the space crack and actually discovered the remains of some treasure, he gained enormous benefit from it, and now has come back from there, as to say why he challenged Ye Xiwen right on, the reason is very simple, the eighth prince is very ambitious, he actually wants to conquer the entire world, dominate all of the landscape then bring the entire Great Yue state under the rule of the royal clan. He is also known as universally invincible, wants to defeat all the rivals in the younger generation one by one, and after that, he will even challenge Qi Feifan and the older invincible masters of the older generation.”
“It is said that the eighth prince had once fought with Luo Yifan, but now, Luo Yifan is dead, and rumors are that it was actually Ye Xiwen who killed Luo Yifan which aroused the interest of eighth prince. I heard that eighth prince issued the declaration of challenge right from the Asura battlefield, which arrived now.”
“Eighth prince is universally invincible, among the disciples of same age, perhaps only Jian Wuchen of Yuncheng should be able to compete with him.”
“Yes, but it’s ironic enough that Jian Wuchen belongs to a slave clan, but even so, he was able to achieve the reputation of strongest disciple among the younger generation of Yuncheng and it’s just like a slap in the face of those who belong to the strongest clans of Yuncheng and possess noble blood.”
“This is just like the collision between the most noble blood and lowly cheap blood!”
“Don’t forget, in addition to Jian Wuchen of Yuncheng, Mu Youran of Xueling sect and Yan shaoba of Tianfeng hall are also considered the top players among the younger generation, over the past decade. The rise of a genius in the younger generation was the most crucial matter for Yi Yuan School among the five forces, although there is Qi Feifan and three other peerless masters among the older generation, but none of disciples in the younger generation were splendid enough to be added to this list. Although Luo Yifan was an outstanding master but his strength was undoubtedly still not comparable to the others. Then suddenly, this Ye Xiwen came to limelight out of nowhere.”
“Eighth prince is ambitious, he wants to wipe out all of the experts of the younger generation and lead his imperial guards to sweep the entire world under the royal clan’s rule, I do not know how Ye Xiwen will be able to resist the moves of the eighth prince.”
Suddenly, the news about the legendary eighth prince personally challenging Ye Xiwen spread like forest fire, and in a short time, Ye Xiwen’s fame spread among the various forces.
Although originally, Ye Xiwen had defeated Luo Yifan in a one on one battle, but he also set a remarkable record in Yi Yuan School by breaking the records of Qi Feifan. Not to mention, too much time had passed since then and Ye Xiwen preferred to have a relatively low-key status, so his fame was limited only in Yi Yuan School, and almost nobody in the other sects knew about his exploits in Yi Yuan School, but the open challenge of the eighth prince suddenly pushed Ye Xiwen’s fame all the way to the top.
Ye Xiwen’s image as one of the notable figures in the younger generation began to embed in the hearts of countless people, but even so, no one was optimistic about his victory, after all, the eighth prince had been famous for almost a decade. When he began to become famous, perhaps Ye Xiwen had not even started practicing martial arts!
Although regarding martial artists, the time gap of ten years was not too much. When compared to the time of over a hundred years, the time period of ten years didn’t seem much significant, but as far as Ye Xiwen’s age was concerned, the last ten years were sufficient to cause a fatal disparity of several years.
Moreover, eighth prince had deeply infiltrated everyone’s heart, even if he and Ye Xiwen were of same age, no one would really be optimistic about Ye Xiwen, let alone knowing that Ye Xiwen was several years younger than him.
Although they could be counted as peers, but the age gap was significant to cause a disparity in their strengths.
In fact, none of the various forces were optimistic about Ye Xiwen, which also made some people of Yi Yuan School secretly angry. Originally, Ye Xiwen was not pleasing to the eyes of everyone, there were many people who did not like the way Ye Xiwen gained sudden fame, but this was a matter related to the honor of Yi Yuan School, and just because of that, many of them were standing on the side of Ye Xiwen and speaking in his favor.
Even if sects could inherit resources generations after generations, they always tend to keep an eye constantly on the performance of the younger generation, especially in the case of Yi Yuan School, which held the heritage of so many years and also had a lot of talented disciples, but even so, unlike other sects where outstanding talents took birth in the younger generation in the past decade, Yi Yuan School seemed to have only one hope, Luo Yifan, in their younger generation who could hold a chance of contending with the eighth prince. Although Luo Yifan was regarded as splendid in Yi Yuan School’s younger generation, but when compared to strongest disciples of younger generation in other sects, the discerning eyes could easily see the disparity.
But they were not optimistic about Ye Xiwen even if he had defeated Luo Yifan because they assumed that perhaps, Ye Xiwen was only slightly stronger than him and was definitely not the opponent of the eighth prince.
However, the open challenge from the eighth prince to have a duel with Ye Xiwen still made them feel incomparably aggrieved, because the eighth prince, Jian Wuchen, Mu Youran and other top figures in the younger generation of the major forces were considered at the helm of the younger generation of their respective sects, and the major sects, intentionally or unintentionally, never allowed them to have direct confrontation. Everyone felt that these top figures would eventually step into the legendary realm in the future and might go even farther, and perhaps then, they might collide in the future to determine the winner, but fighting now was somewhat early. However, the eighth prince causally announced the challenge and brought this to light that he would beat Ye Xiwen, which clearly explained that he looked down on Ye Xiwen, and radically speaking, the eighth prince did not consider Ye Xiwen as his equal.
In his eyes, Ye Xiwen simply did not qualify to be his match, but Ye Xiwen was already considered the strongest in this younger generation of Yi Yuan School after he defeated Luo Yifan.
Now that he disregarded Ye Xiwen and basically looked down on him, he also looked down on the entire Yi Yuan School, so even if they were not optimistic about Ye Xiwen, but overwhelming majorities were still in his favor.
“Eighth prince is not that great, if Ye Xiwen had practiced for few more years, he could easily beat the eighth prince.”
“Yes, if eighth prince thinks he is strong, he should fight with our Brother Qi, after all just like he is older than Ye Xiwen, Brother Qi is older than him.”
There were some people who turned to Qi Feifan.
“Brother Qi, stop their duel, it is so unfair for Brother Ye Xiwen.”
“Yes, if given few more years to a talent like Brother Ye Xiwen, he should be able to compete with this opponent!”
Ye Xiwen might not be pleasing to their eyes but this matter was directly linked with the honor of Yi Yuan School, hence it was closely linked with them as well, and they were well aware that its outcome would not be a good one.
But Qi Feifan had not made an appearance, because at this time, he was discussing the matter about Bai Mojiao with the leaders of other forces.
However from the beginning since this matter came to light, many of the inner disciples, core disciples and even some true disciples could not sit still.
The deterrence of eighth prince was not just for the disciples of younger generation, it was like a thorn in the back even for the true disciples of the older generation, it was just like disregarding the opinion of Yi Yuan School altogether, which immediately made them angry.
Eighth prince had always been rejecting the challenges from the younger generation of Yi Yuan School and once fought with Luo Yifan and almost missed from completely crippling him. If he had succeeded in crippling Luo Yifan, he would have completely cut off the one and only hope of Yi Yuan School, since Luo Yifan was considered the strongest in the younger generation. But now, Luo Yifan was dead and Ye Xiwen suddenly gained fame, so eighth prince decided to personally beat him and announce the beginning of his domination.
Now, on Qianji Island, only Qi Feifan was capable of stopping their duel.
However, the very first sentence that came out of Qi Feifan’s mouth was: “This generation’s conquest will advance!”
Obviously, Qi Feifan did not want to prevent the duel, moreover it was apparent from his words that he seemed optimistic about Ye Xiwen, which shocked many people. Regarding Qi Feifan’s vision and decision, no one would suspect because his very existence itself was like a legend and mythical, if his rise to fame had been somewhat late, then perhaps, he would belong to the generation of the eighth prince, Jian Wuchen and the others. In that case, he would be the only genius in his generation, like the one and only sun in the sky, filled with radiance, and all others would be overshadowed by his existence. This was the reason why even the other three top four true disciples of Yi Yuan School were scared of him, not to mention the eighth prince and the other strongest disciples of younger generation. However, in his generation, no one was able to reach his brilliance for decades, he was recognized as the first master of his generation, no one could compete with him, so later he was placed in the older generation and was allowed to join the ranks of top four true disciples of Yi Yuan School.
His words suddenly shocked everyone, as if they heard something wrong when Qi Feifan said in favor of Ye Xiwen, but eighth prince was already at the fourth stage of truth realm and there were rumors that he recently obtained some treasures and other great benefits and would soon step into the fifth stage of truth realm. Rumors were that he obtained some ancient relics and treasure which were enough to help him overwhelm all his peers and rivals.
Why Ye Xiwen?
What made Qi Feifan say in favor of Ye Xiwen’s victory, did he actually think that Ye Xiwen could turn out to be a rival of the eighth prince?