Rise of Humanity

Chapter 180 - Fire Spark Thievery

Xiao Qin’s head flew up while her other two heads contorted in horrified disbelief. The head on the left was about to yell and inform the higher ups of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race outside of the secret realm but Zhong Yue’s fist had already struck onto her mouth, crushing all of her teeth!

Then, his fist that struck on her mouth opened up and launched five Sword Qi that pierced through her whole head before splitting it open in half!

“High priest….”

The last remaining head shouted out but Zhong Yue turned around and pierced her last head as he shook his hand, unleashing the highly condensed power of five wheels to disintegrate her head into dust.

“All it took was one wrong move for your bitter defeat. Your thoughts and will were continually disrupted and eroded with everything I said. Your visualization and techniques thus suffered as a result, leaving your ultimate ending to be only death.”

Zhong Yue murmured while he sheathed his sword while the coiling Ao Yuan Shen that was battling with the Great Sun Golden Crow Yuan Shen suddenly stopped moving and put up a vacant expression before being shredded apart and eaten by the Great Sun Golden Crow.

“And most importantly, nothing I’ve said to you could ever be able to reach the ears of the concerned parties.”

Zhong Yue summoned his back Yuan Shen and he ascended into the air, step after step, before landing on the ground outside of the secret realm and he said to Feng Shouzhu as he bowed, “Elder Feng, I did not let you down.”

Feng Shouzhu nodded and he did not say much as he looked and said coldly to the high priest of Xiao Mang Celestial Race with an angry expression, “Senior Martial Brother Xiao, Xiao Chuqing is your daughter? Could you please tell me what is going on?”

The smile on the face of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s high priest stiffened up and he did not know what to say.

Feng Shui Zhu then continued saying coldly, “If she was disowned by the entire race, then there would be no problem, but if she was your daughter and was placed under our Swords Gate as a spy, then this is a huge problem!”

The high priest of Shan Shen Celestial Race smiled happily and said, “Senior Martial Brother Xiao is indeed cunning, sending your own daughter as a spy in the humans’ Swords Gate and killing her so that you could blame the Swords Gate in order to ask for a huge compensation. What a wise and brutal plan, I have to say that you have my respect on this!”

His remarks were even worse as this was a dirty move pulled off by him, pinning the death of Xiao Chuqing straight on her own father, the high priest of Xiao Mang Celestial Race.

All of this was because of the perennial conflict between the Shan Shen and Xiao Mang Celestial Race, therefore, the Shan Shen Celestial would eagerly jump at the chance to throw salt on the wounds of the Xiao Mang Celestial whenever they had the chance.

The Shen Ya Celestial Race’s high priest also said, “Xiao Chuqin’s death might not be related to Senior Martial Brother Xiao, but some other factions that wanted to sit on the fence and wait for their chance as the humans and Xiao Mang Celestial Race fought together. However, Senior Martial Brother Xiao really did pull an irrational move as before you sent your daughter to the Swords Gate, you must have known that the Swords Gate would not allow something like this.”

He too, would be more than happy to see the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s high priest swallow down his own bitterness, which was why he help the high priest of Xiao Mang Celestial Race and insulted him at the same time.

Then, the high priest of the Gui Shen Celestial Race said, “Senior Martial Brother Xiao has indeed crossed the line.”

The high priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race humphed and argued back, “The allegation that Xiao Chuqing is my daughter are rumors from a mere young boy from the Swords Gate, and you people trust his words more than mine? She is not my daughter if I say she is not! Can anyone prove that she is my daughter?”

Everyone around him quietened down as no one spoke and the Shan Shen Celestial Race’s high priest remained silent as well.

There was a huge gap between the identity and status of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s high priest’s and Zhong Yue’s. This gap was clearly seen in the weight that the high priest’s words carried over Zhong Yue’s, the latter seems like nothing more than a fart when placed against the former’s. This was not to mention the statement Zhong Yue made just now was nothing more than just a guess.

Therefore, it would be no use even if Xiao Qin publicly admitted that Xiao Chuqing was the daughter of the high priest as no one would be able to force the high priest to admit it if he did not want to.

“Nicely done.”

Out of the reach of everyone’s eyesight, Feng Shouzhu secretly gave Zhong Yue a thumbs up as he whispered to him before he signaled Zhong Yue to leave. He also showed no sign of being affected by the incident where the high priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race denied that Xiao Chuqing was his daughter.

Zhong Yue had executed everything nicely and although the high priest did not admit it, anyone who was not blind to see anything could clearly see that the death of Xiao Chuqing had been placed on the entire Xiao Mang Celestial Race. Originally, the Xiao Mang Celestial Race had accused Swords Gate for her death. Armed with their justifications, no one would have been able to say anything even if they destroyed Swords Gate. However, because of Zhong Yue, everything was reset back to square one.

Then, Zhong Yue bowed and went back to join Qiu Jin’er and the others but he suddenly had goosebumps all over. He quickly turned and looked around, only to find the high priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race staring at him. He then thought, This shitty old fogie has finally decided to kill me!

Zuo Xiangsheng suddenly moved and stood in between him and the high priest to prevent any unscrupulous moves on the part of the high priest that could potentially harm Zhong Yue’s Yuan Shen.

A grateful Zhong Yue then said softly, “Thank you, Hall Master Zuo.”

“You and I are both Qi Practitioners of the Swords Gate and we are both on the same boat.” replied Zuo Xiangsheng.

The same boat?

Zhong Yue asked himself as he felt that there were something else hidden behind the words of Zuo Xiangsheng. Similar to him, the spirit of Zuo Xiangsheng was also the sun spirit; however, it was not the Great Sun Golden Crow but rather, the Great Sun Fiery Crow. It may not be as strong as the Great Sun Golden Crow but Zuo Xiangsheng had managed to cultivate it to an extremely powerful level.

It was an oddly strange thing for Zuo Xiangsheng to obtain the spirit of the Great Sun Fiery Crow and cultivate the Great Sun Fiery Crow Yuan Shen as there were no such conditions in the Swords Gate that could allow him to do so.

Therefore, he must have encountered something else for him to be able to cultivate the spirit of the Great Sun Fiery Crow.

Tian Yanzong then looked at Zuo Xiangsheng as he said, “The fourth match is a very crucial match. If the Swords Gate wins this match, then there will be no more trouble but the situation could experience a sudden change if you lost as I could not win the Xiao Mang Celestial Clan’s Inner Core level Qi Practitioner.”

Zuo Xiangsheng then said, “Don’t worry, with me here, you would not have to fight for the fifth match.”

“The fourth match is set in an oceanic locale, you would be put at a great disadvantage there! Your Yuan Shen belongs to the element of fire and the oceanic locale would precisely suppress your Yuan Shen. I am sure this was the result of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s high priest’s decision to neutralize the power of your Great Sun Fiery Crow!”

Zuo Xiangsheng nodded and replied, “My name is well known and the high priest must have tried his best to select a stage like this to suppress me but unfortunately for him, nothing would be able to affect me at all.”

At the same time, the white-robed priest said, “The fourth match will take place on the oceanic locale. Contenders of Swords Gate and Xiao Mang Celestial Race, be prepared and you have only fifteen minutes to take a look of the battleground.”

Zuo Xiangsheng, along with the Xiao Chushan, the disciple of the high priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race then walked out at the same time. They were both strong Qi Practitioners at the level of Atman Body, both of whom had reached the peak state of that level. Zuo Xiangsheng even kept on suppressing his level so that he could postpone his advancement into the Inner Core level!

And Xiao Chushan bore the name “Chu”, signifying that he possessed a very distinguished bloodline as compared to Xiao Qin and the others!

It was common knowledge that whoever had the better bloodline in the celestial race would naturally have a stronger power.

Therefore, Zuo Xiangsheng's opponent would definitely put up a decent fight for sure!

Both of the candidates entered the secret realm and everyone realized that the secret realm had gotten bigger than before. It turned into an ocean with a radius of four hundred miles and there were also some islands on the sea.

This was because the candidates were Qi Practitioners of the Atman Body level, a realm that placed one among the middle class of Qi Practitioners; naturally, the power they possessed would invariably be much stronger power than that of the lower levels. Thus, an area that enabled Awakening level Qi Practitioners to fight without holding back would be insufficient for Qi Practitioners of the Atman Body level.

As soon as Zuo Xiangsheng entered the secret realm, he immediately stopped looking around after he roughly glanced around the surroundings.

This was all due to his Yuan Shen that caused him to despise water a lot and the ocean made him feel sick. On the other hand, Xiao Chushan took a look around the surroundings carefully, diving into the sea to observe the water current and the numerous characteristics of the landscape.

When put together, Xiao Chushan seemed to be more cautious and careful while Zuo Xiangsheng appeared to be very arrogant.

Outside of the secret realm, Feng Shouzhu frowned as he thought nervously, Zuo Xiangsheng may be the strongest Atman Body level Qi Practitioner, but that is only in the Swords Gate. It is unknown that if he could defeat Xiao Chushan for sure. But with that arrogant move, his chance of winning would only decrease further….

Fifteen minutes soon passed and as the white-robed priest gave up the signal, Zuo Xiangsheng and Xiao Chushan did not take action against each other but they immediately cast the Spirit-Body As One!

This move would merge the Combat Yuan Shen together with the body of the Qi Practitioner and form a special battle stance. If the Yuan Shen became stronger, the combat proficiency of the person would increase as well. The Combat Yuan Shen had always been very powerful and after merging with the body of the Qi Practitioner, one could guess how strong that union would be.

The Yuan Shen of Xiao Chushan was the three-headed coiling Ao whose height reached twenty plus feet and after he merged with his Yuan Shen, he too grew to the same height! He stood up highly on the sea level and carried a spear just like a three-headed God!

Whereas for Zuo Xiangsheng, he turned into a man with bird’s head and human’s body with bird’s claw and wings with fire all over his legs. In just a split second, the heat released by him boiled the sea water all around him, popping hot bubbles!

Outside of the secret realm, as the many observing Qi Practitioners saw this scene, all of them heaved gasps of praise at the terrific display of power, save for the high priest of the Shen Ya Celestial Race. The high priest’s face changed slightly as he saw the fire all over Zuo Xiangsheng’s legs and he murmured, “Something’s not right, this fire… Stop the battle!”

He suddenly got up and shouted after a cold humph, “Zuo Xiangsheng, are you the one who stole the fire spark of our entire Shen Ya Celestial Race?”

As he questioned Zuo Xiangsheng, an uproar occurred all over the observer Qi Practitioners and god knew how many gazes locked onto the high priest of Shen Ya Celestial Race. The white-robed priest then quickly halted the battle and Feng Shouzhu’s heart thumped as he felt the situation at the cusp of deteriorating to an irreconcilable stage!

Feng Shouzhu then thought, Ten years ago when Zuo Xiangsheng was still not a Qi Practitioner, he suddenly managed became a Qi Practitioner after going on a little adventure on the outside. Could it be that this brat ran into the territory of the Shen Ya Celestial Race, escaped alive and even managed to steal the fire spark of the celestial race?

The Shen Ya celestial race’s high priest’s face darkened and said, “We absorbed the fire essence from the sun and we used a million years only to forge one fire spark. Ten years ago, the fire spark disappeared and we couldn't even find out the culprit! Zuo Xiangsheng, your fire essence is so strong and it is impossible for you to cultivate it to such extent in a short period of time, so where did you get it?”

The high priest of Xiao Mang Celestial Race smiled and said to the priests around him softly, “Swords Gate won and lost at the same time. Who knew that the Shen Ya Celestial Race would even team up with us to wipe out the Swords Gate!”

The Shen Ya race took the form of the fiery crow; a celestial race that was gifted with the ability to control fire since birth. The fire spark that was created by this race after spending a million years must be very powerful and precious. It naturally came as a great humiliation to them that the fire spark was stolen. The Shen Ya Celestial Race had tried to keep this matter quiet but with the many prying eyes and ears of the other celestial races, it was inevitable that this incident wouldn’t remain a secret.

But who would have thought that the person who stole the fire spark would be found here!