Archfiend

Chapter 31: Assailing the Middle Stage (3)

 In Heavens Law, everyone who was at the initial stage of Qi Condensation—regardless of whether they were a teacher or leader—didn’t have the faintest chance to break through, so they had come to teach and become educators. Although 99% of students had never witnessed what a cultivation advancement looked like, in this flickering moment, Chu Zhaonan knew.

It was legion. Countless milky-white qi rays faintly radiated a splendid brilliance that formed a roughly twenty-meter-wide maelstrom of spiritual light. It slowly spun in the sky above the arena. Like a moon deity sprinkling starlight to fill the Milky Way, under the four mighty and simple characters of Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens, it was like a dream! 

“Who is it… Who?!” He fiercely clenched his fist, and looked at the vortex in front of him incredulously.

He, Chu Zhaonan, could be considered a successor of his ancestors’ knowledge. Moreover, his name was considered one that could shake China. At the mention of China’s Chu Clan, a great majority of people in China would have to give face. As for him, he was the third-generation scion of the Chu Clan, a person of great background. In the past eight or nine years to this day, there was still somewhat of a gap in distance from his qi sea flooding over. He hadn’t expected that one of his peers would surprisingly make a breakthrough on the day before the Qualifier, the day of struggle between lion kings as they contested for supremacy!

Yes, Xu Yangyi had already been in seclusion for four days. He hadn’t sensed it, but in the real world four days had hurriedly passed on by. At the center of the maelstrom of star-like spiritual light, he appeared to be insignificant, so much that he felt powerless. This was because nothing was in his control.

Simultaneously, the consecutive bangs of eight stone doors opening rang out. Eight grim-faced youths appeared on the arena, almost simultaneously. No one spoke. This scene was so beautiful that no one dared to breathe loudly. A camouflaged youth gritted his teeth. “Amazing… It really is amazing… Which city’s champion is this? They’re actually assailing the middle stage the day before the Qualifier!” 

“Maybe it isn’t a champion?” A girl looked at the ceaselessly revolving qi vortex in the sky with a fervent gaze, clenching her teeth.

“Impossible!” This time, everyone spoke in unison. 

They were all champions; they all had their own pride! They didn’t fully understand their fellow students, but it was impossible that someone else was making a breakthrough here! It had to be a champion, it could only be a champion!

“It’s him…” Chu Zhaonan’s gaze passed over everyone, and his heart ached terribly.

He had already anticipated that it was possibly Xu Yangyi. In kind, there wasn’t some reason, only a kind of premonition. But after he saw with his own two eyes that Xu Yangyi wasn’t among the people who had came out, and that the other’s stone door was still shut, a kind of feeling that could be called envy swiftly filled his entire heart.

Why? Why can’t I, Chu Zhaonan, compare to him? Why was he able to push his qi sea over the edge? Every month, I eat heavenly treasures and study arcane efforts that no one else here can learn. Why has he walked ahead of me?! I can’t accept this!

“Who is it?” A champion asked.

“Scram…” Chu Zhaonan rasped out a single word. He shut his eyes, feeling waves of sharp pain in his heart.

“Hehe…” The other student let out two hollow chuckles. Just as his laughter fell, he suddenly charged forth like an arrow let loose from its bow!

In the blink of an eye, the student came to a halt. This was because a silver rune-covered pistol had been drawn exactly level to his forehead. Not one second more, not one second less.

“Too weak…” Chu Zhaonan’s eyes went slightly red, and he gritted his teeth, laughing. “Too weak… Too weak, too weak!”

“And you dare call yourself a champion?!”

Bang! The butt of the gun immediately sent the champion spraying blood and flying back. “You’re nothing but trash in comparison to him.”

He used his crimson eyes to stare fixedly at the stone door. Suddenly, the qi maelstrom high above in the air moved. Like summertime fireflies hazy in sight, the entire qi maelstrom charged towards the stone door, neither urgently nor slowly. As if the stone door didn’t exist, the qi rays weren’t halted in the slightest and rushed inwards!

Swoosh… On the level above in the Heavens Law branch office, the sound of a machine echoed through the air. Upon hearing this noise, everyone set down their work and stared in astonishment at the tremendous human face in the air as it slowly opened its eyes.

Countless zeroes and ones streamed through the machine’s green eyes. In the next second, a robotic voice, indecipherable between male or female, echoed within the 1.5-hectare-sized room.

“Abnormal qi fluctuations detected. A student has assailed a realm. Repeat, abnormal qi fluctuations have been detected. A student has assailed a realm…”

At this instance, everyone was stunned. A Qi Condensation student breaking through a minor boundary wasn’t a big fuss. However… 

A Century for Foundation Establishment! 

Since the feat was dared to be claimed as “A Century for Foundation Establishment”, this was an average figure that the cultivation world had researched! To be precise, the length of time was 72.34 years!

In a great realm, there were three minor boundaries. Initial stage, middle stage, late stage, and the Great Circle was in fact only a title. It was the apex of the late stage. In other words… a single boundary was on average roughly 23 years!

“This… This came from below?!” A woman wearing glasses took her hand out from the pocket of her white coat and looked down under her feet, in amazement. “A decade… Doesn’t that mean someone charged into middle-stage Qi Condensation in ten years?!”

No one responded. How could this question, circling in all of their hearts, be given voice to?! In the branch, there were two Foundation Establishment cultivators, the branch master and the deputy branch master. How could the other Qi Condensation cultivators be unaware of how long it took for them to break through a minor boundary?

Ten years? Hehehe… Those who had broken through in twenty years were a common occurrence. Those that took thirty years constituted a dime a dozen!

If it wasn’t due to cultivators being able to change the age of their appearance, the branch would’ve become a camp of grannies and grandpas long ago. But now, in the second level under their eyes and feet, in one of the Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens Arena’s stone rooms, someone had surprisingly broken through a minor boundary in a decade!

“A genius…” The eyes of several old men who were arguing hotly flashed. They looked below their feet in excitement as if they could see through the floor. “A genius… second only to that genius Sunnihilator!” 

“Sunnihilator broke through a boundary in five years! Foundation Establishment in thirty! Now… there’s actually a genius who broke through a boundary in a ten years underneath us?!”

“Damn… Nantong Province has picked up a treasure this time!” 

“It’s unknown which city’s champion it is!”

“Why can’t it be someone else?”

“Someone else? Hehe, can others accomplish something that not even a champion can?”

Within a lobby, Firecloud, who was originally in the middle of holding a pair of small silver scissors and leisurely cutting a cuban cigar, suddenly stopped his hand. He shut his eyes somewhat suspiciously, doubting whether or not his senses had made an error.

In the next second. Swish! Swish!

In a different room, a similar sound rang out. Two great Foundation Establishment cultivators, Tigersplitter and Shadowslay, happened to both stand up at the same time. They gazed at the floor under their feet in pleasant surprise!

In the Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens Arena, someone had broken through a boundary! Ten years… This person had been treading the path of cultivation for at most ten years! And at this moment, they had unexpectedly broken through a boundary!

“This really is… an unexpected joy!” Tigersplitter crushed his cigar into smithereens. The smile on his face was so clear, as if he wanted his vision to penetrate through the floorboards. He locked his eyes, below his feet.

On a building in the Triumphant Virtue Plaza, a silver nine-tailed fox that had shut its eyes to rest opened them up by a sliver and sniffed suspiciously. “It’s a little familiar… Truly a talent that incites envy…” For the first time, the demon stood up. Its haughty gaze of unparalleled arrogance carried a trace of extreme jealousy as it looked across at the public park. “Come… Those human dregs... will soon undergo their ceremony and enter the true world… So what if it’s a genius… Hehe… There are far, far too many fallen geniuses…” 

“The entrance passage to the Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens Arena has presently been closed off. I repeat, the entrance channel to the Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens Arena has presently been closed off…” Heavens Law’s neutral voice was without sorrow or joy as it echoed through the entire room. There wasn’t anyone in opposition. 

But at this moment, inside a large surveillance room, there were three people without the faintest of smiles on their faces. 

“Number 1, Xu Yangyi.” Deputy Branchmaster Qi’s voice carried a hoarseness to it, and his voice was extremely complex. “The probability of his breakingthrough success to middle-stage Qi Condensation…” He personally moved his hand to press down on the button without pause. After a long time, he turned his head back to gaze at the two people behind him. “80%”

Chu Tianyi and Fang Tansheng were sitting behind him. There wasn’t anyone else. It appeared that this wasn’t a matter of concern to them, their faces without consternation like an old, dried-up well.

“How long until?” Chu Tianyi questioned serenely, looking at the scene of hundreds of qi rays swirling and rushing through a stone door in the Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens Arena on the monitor. The lighting concealed the wisp of madness hidden beneath his eyes.

“Ten minutes. After all, it’s just an initial-stage Qi Condensation breakthrough.” Ashen-faced, Deputy Branchmaster Qi sat down. He was somewhat regretting that even if this grade of talent wasn’t equal to Sunnihilator’s, it was absolutely levels above the standard! If this talent was set free, the Big Three wouldn’t allow one another to have it! 

An army of a thousand was easy to raise, but it was difficult to find a good general! Nevertheless… from the start of several nights ago, he understood even more clearly that he couldn’t let this person seize the top ranking. 

Such a cultivator would be better off dead later on. If Xu Yangyi didn’t die, and in case became a big shot, this matter would transform into a thoroughly planted seed of enmity. A trace of regret emerged within Deputy Branchmaster Qi’s heart for the first time.

Thud… As he was lost in thought, a cloth-wrapped bag was set down in front of him. Chu Tianyi pulled his hand back, his expression as usual as he made an inviting gesture. Deputy Branchmaster Qi forced down the complicated thoughts in his mind. Just as he opened the bag to look, he coldly gasped!

On the inside, there was a stone, round as a sphere. Fist-sized and entirely transparent, it was a bit worn. However, it wasn’t the same as an ordinary stone… Inside the stone, white qi had already condensed into liquid, taking the form of a spinning vortex! By merely holding the stone could one sense the boundless qi accumulated within!

“Secondary supreme-grade…” In his heart, another wave came forth again before the first wave had yet to settle. He absolutely knew why this item had been taken out now.

“Stop the Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens Arena’s qi connection.” Chu Tianyi’s face was covered in wrinkles, and a wisp of iron-blooded ruthlessness flashed through his sagging eyes. “Although I don’t know… how this insect’s battle strength will compare to Zhaonan’s after attaining the middle stage, this disparity should exist forever.”

“Ordinary people cannot climb to the heavens, nor should they hold such an extravagant hope.” His words were quite brief, but they contained a staunchness and killing intent that even made Fang Tansheng secretly shift his body away. This murderous aura was too sharp, making him somewhat uneasy.

“If it’s completely shut off, Heavens Law’s avatar will sense it.” Deputy Branchmaster Qi practically hadn’t give it much thought and immediately put the spirit stone into his pocket.

“Then find a way that it won’t sense it!” Chu Tianyi stood up. As a person whose position had stood at China’s apex for the past several decades, his might erupted in a flash. “Old Qi, I demand it to be absolute! That item can only return to my Chu Clan!”