Chapter 160: Thousand Army Saber’s First Battle
Yi Yun knitted his eyebrows as the youth said, “Let me introduce myself. I’m Zhou Kui from the Xuanwu* Army!”
The entire Tai Ah Divine Kingdom did not only have the Jin Long Wei as its only military division. The Xuanwu Army was one of the other trump military divisions of the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom.
A normal Xuanwu Army soldier was on average, inferior to a normal Jin Long Wei warrior. But the size of the Xuanwu Army was ten times that of the Jin Long Wei.
Besides that, the Xuanwu Army also specially nurtured an elite corps. The people from this elite corps were not weaker than the Jin Long Wei elites.
The Xuanwu Army was stationed in the north of the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom and there were branches in the Jing state. Hence, accompanying Yi Yun and Song Zijun were a large number of Xuanwu Army personnel.
When Yi Yun was stopped by Zhou Kui, the other Jin Long Wei personnel came over.
The military was a cohesive entity. Whenever there was a conflict, people of similar backgrounds would help one another unanimously against external threats. If a fight was to occur, it was a fight to fight together!
“Brother Yi, what’s the matter?!” Xu Zheng, who Yi Yun had gotten to know, came over. He too was from the Jin Long Wei.
Yi Yun sent a signal with his eyes and the people immediately understood what was going on. “Hehe, with five rooms, we should allocate them accordingly, but the Xuanwu Army wants them all?”
“That’s too high-handed! Who do you think you are!?” said someone behind Yi Yun.
Immediately, all the Xuanwu Army personnels stood behind Zhou Kui.
The soldiers’ bodies from the Xuanwu Army were generally bigger than the Jin Long Wei members.
In contrast, the Jin Long Wei soldiers only number a dozen, a lot less.
A dozen against three dozen.
Yi Yun took a look at the stout Zhou Kui. He knew the intentions of the Tai Ah Divine City. By arranging there to be a few middle-class rooms mixed in with the lower-class rooms, without any allocation, it was to put the warriors who came into the Tai Ah Divine City into a competitive state from the very beginning.
Competition, battling, elimination. This was the purpose of the Divine wilderness campground’s deadly goalpost!
A simple competition for residence spots reflected this.
Zhou Kui clearly understood the rules too. He said without fear, “In the Tai Ah Divine City, strength is king. The five middle-class rooms placed here are obviously for us to compete over! Hehe, I like to compete! The Jin Long Wei wants to take a spot for themselves? Sure! We can have a competition here today. Whoever wins gets to stay in it!”
The Xuanwu Army had a daunting presence, and they had the advantage in numbers. As Yan Menglong said, none of the young heroes who could stand here were weaklings. The Jin Long Wei’s dozen people against the Xuanwu Army’s three dozen people had a predictable outcome.
Even Yi Yun, who was confident in his own strength, could not fight one against many.
“I know Zhou Kui. His cultivation level is at the middle stages of Purple Blood, nearly entering the late stages!” Xu Zheng said beside Yi Yun.
The situation was that they would definitely suffer if they went to battle. But if they did not fight, the Jin Long Wei would be disgruntled to just hand over all the middle-class rooms.
The Xuanwu Army had encircled the rooms. Zhou Kui laughed as he cracked his knuckles, giving off a provocative feeling.
His muscles tightened up and became similar to granite. It was hard to imagine that he was actually a fourteen-year-old teenager.
“Today, I’ll stand here and represent the Xuanwu Army. Who wants to come up and fight me? If you beat me, you will have the right to take one room.”
Zhou Kui knew that with such an arrangement by the Tai Ah Divine City, it was alright to have private matches as long as the opponent was not maimed.
Yi Yun looked at Zhou Kui. Zhou Kui had two weapons, a war blade and a warhammer. They were both hanging along his back.
It was rare to see a hammer as a weapon. Only people with great strength used hammers as their attack speed was slow, and were incomparable to swords and sabers.
As for the war blade Zhou Kui had, it was an extremely heavy war blade with a thick handle. It was completely different from Yi Yun’s Thousand Army Saber.
The Thousand Army Saber’s blade was long and narrow and had a tiny curvature, making it look more like a sword.
Compared to Zhou Kui’s war blade, they were two completely different weapons.
Yi Yun muttered slightly as his eyes flashed strangely.
The Tai Ah Divine City was a place with cut-throat competition. Since he was here, Yi Yun decided to accept the rule that the weak were the prey of the strong. There were too many geniuses in the Tai Ah Divine City; if you did not suppress others, others would suppress you.
In fact, not only in the Tai Ah Divine City, on the long martial arts path, if one wanted to carry walking down that path, one would continuously face competition. To mature and become stronger meant one had to fight for what belonged to them!
Yi Yun did not say a word and slowly unbuttoned his collar buttons. He took out a light chiffon, and handed it casually to Xu Zheng.
“Help me hold it,” Yi Yun said. He had handed Xu Zheng his Flowing Mercury Gown.
Xu Zheng paused because he could not tell what Yi Yun had handed him.
Zhou Kui did not react either. His arms were still held by his chest as he stood there boldly waiting for a challenger. His eyes swept the surroundings without much care. Even Yi Yun’s action of taking off the Flowing Mercury Gown was not given much attention, just a short glance. His attention was not on Yi Yun specifically as he did not think Yi Yun was anyone special amongst the dozen Jin Long Wei people.
At this time, Yi Yun moved! Without any warning or words, his body shot out like lightning.
His speed was extremely fast!
“Cha!”
The Thousand Army Saber was unsheathed!
Ever since he grasped at the entrance of the large success stage of Minute Subtlety, his speed could only be described as terrifying.
“Twang!”
The Thousand Army Saber slashed through the air generating a sharp sound. But this sound could not follow the Thousand Army Saber’s speed!
“Huh!?” Zhou Kui’s pupils constricted. His reaction was extremely fast as he retreated quickly. At the same time, he released the arms across his chest and was about to take out the war blade and war hammer from his back.
But just as he touched the blade’s and hammer’s handle and retreated three steps, Yi Yun’s Thousand Army Saber blade had reached Zhou Kui’s throat!
The cold blade had a murderous chill!
Zhou Kui’s neck started to bleed. If Yi Yun had not withdrawn the Thousand Army Saber in that hundredth of a second, Zhou Kui’s neck would have been cut apart!
This long saber was not any ordinary short saber. Just the blade was almost the same height as Yi Yun. When held by Yi Yun, he had an awesome aura!
Zhou Kui stood motionless as his forehead was sweating. In that moment, he had sensed death.
The people standing around were silent as they looked at this scene with stunned looks.
“You… attacked sneakily!!!” Zhou Kui’s eyes stared at Yi Yun’s blade. He said it while holding his breath. If he breathed too vigorously, he could not guarantee that the blade would not cut through his throat.
Zhou Kui was nursing a grievance. He had been crossing his hands in front of chest, with his blade behind him. He had just announced the match, and Yi Yun suddenly attacked him!
He had not even reveal any of his abilities and had nearly been instantly killed by a kid half a head shorter than him!
After hunting hawks for his entire life, to be pecked in the eye by a sparrow was a great humiliation.
“On the battlefield, will an enemy ask you if you are ready before killing you?” Yi Yun did not withdraw his saber. The blade tip was still against Zhou Kui’s neck, making it difficult for him to speak.
Zhou Kui shut his mouth because the ultra-long battle saber in Yi Yun’s hand gave him too much pressure.
At this time, the Xuanwu Army exploded. They were disgruntled and began shouting, “Too despicable. It was a sneak attack, and yet he made it sound so high and mighty.”
“If you have any ability, withdraw your saber and fight a decent match with Brother Kui!”
Zhou Kui’s strength was one of the highest among them. Due to his exceptional strength, when Zhou Kui used that war blade and war hammer, there was no one who could face him.
As for Zhou Kui’s speed, it was relatively weaker.
But Yi Yun, he was noted for his speed. Together with his sneak attack, it made Zhou Kui not even have the chance to pull out his blade, hence causing him to be in a situation where he lost in a single strike.
But Yi Yun could not be bothered with their words.
If anything was to blame, it was on Zhou Kui’s arrogance. His hands were still crossed around his chest when he announced the match.
“If this was a battlefield, you would already be dead,” Yi Yun said lightly.
Zhou Kui’s face turned red. He was resentful, but, he knew that what Yi Yun said was the truth.
He was someone flexible. Whether it was Yi Yun’s sneak attack or not, or whether his strength was greater than Yi Yun, the truth of the matter was that he had lost to Yi Yun.
“You sure are ruthless!” Zhou Kui gnashed his teeth saying. “One of the middle-class rooms is yours!”
Zhou Kui conceded and Yi Yun sheathed his saber.
Zhou Kui looked angrily at Yi Yun, “What’s your name?”
“Yi Yun.”
“Yi Yun? Good! I fell against you today, but I’ll remember you. I will take back the pride you took today. I will let you know the taste of my Ghost King Blade and the Cranium Crusher!”
Yi Yun did not take Zhou Kui’s word of resentment to heart. He carried his Thousand Army Saber and walked into his room.
These five rooms could not all be given to the Jin Long Wei. The Xuanwu Army had no way of taking them all. It all depended on who had the ability and the strength.
Yi Yun could not help the weak.
Yi Yun sized up the room. It was a plain stone house with extremely simple furnishings.
A beam made from desolate bones, a stone bed, a stone desk, a chair and a spirit gatherer array.
The desolate bone was nothing special; and with age, there was extremely limited energy left within it.
As for the stone bed, it did not even have any bedding. It was empty and hard. This bed would cause a normal person’s body to hurt after a night’s sleep. The reason why there was no bedding in the Tai Ah Divine City’s rooms was to tell the warriors coming here to train that they should replace sleep with meditation.
Coming to the Tai Ah Divine City was not to enjoy life. If they wanted to enjoy life, they should stay in their fiefs. In their six years in the Tai Ah Divine City, one had to train hard and strive to move forward!
Translator Note: Xuanwu is also known as the Black Turtle, one of the four mythological creatures in the Chinese constellations.