The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron

No one had tried this cultivation technique since it had been stored in the Red Blood Palace. As Su Yu concentrated on it fully, a phantom image that was holding a sword appeared.

It appeared to be a very tall woman. At first glance, one would assume that the figure was Bing Wuxin, but her temperament wasn’t as cold and heartless as the former’s. Instead, she seemed to be serene, gentle, harmless and calm, like a flowing river.

“Do you want to challenge me?” the person in the picture on the wall asked in a calm and pleasant-sounding voice.

Su Yu nodded and said, “That’s right.”

The woman in the picture on the wall nodded, then said, “Okay, I’m just a phantom image that is modeled after my true self. I will give you the opportunity to exchange just a single move with me, and if you can defeat me with it, it will be considered a success.”

“Understood. Let’s begin…” Su Yu nodded.

As the woman pulled out her sword slowly, her serene and gentle bearing changed completely. A sharp and indomitable aura emanated from her. It almost seemed like she had turned into the sword that was in her hand, as she was like a sword that would destroy everything in its path!

Su Yu was startled by her intense aura. He could clearly feel that the her cultivation was on the same level as his, but he could still sense that a shocking Sword Intent was still coming from her.

“A Sword Came from the West,” the woman phantom image shouted as she held her sword and thrust it at him.

Her movement was quite slow and she didn’t use any showy techniques. She just simply thrust it at him. However, in the face of this sword strike, Su Yu still felt like it would impossible for him to evade it, regardless of where he tried to flee.

He was startled by this, and he didn’t hesitate any longer before he shouted, “Heaven-shaking dragon!”

Su Yu then weaved some hand signs, causing a demonic energy to surge out from his whole body. His chest became scalding hot as a big dragon roar echoed out from it.

At the same time, a thirty-meter-long black dragon flew out from Su Yu’s body. It possessed a wild and ferocious aura. This imposing aura was distinctive to the Dragon Clan and engulfed the entire room.

Even Su Yu himself was shocked by such an imposing aura. This demonic dragon was stronger than what he had expected. Moreover, itl gave Su Yu a familiar feeling, as if he had once felt a similar aura somewhere.

When the sword and the dragon collided with each other, the sword energy ran through the demonic energy and obliterated everything in its path. At the same time, the demonic dragon whooshed through the space angrily, bombarding the dense sword energy.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

The whole illusory fighting room started shaking, which startled the people outside in the public fighting room. These people couldn’t help but look at Su Yu’s fighting room, surprise filling their eyes.

The facial expression of Tian Renyao, who was now taking liberties with a handsome man, became grave. As he looked toward the fighting room, surprise appeared on his face as he asked, “Why did he cause such a great disturbance? What is Su Yuxian doing?”

As the demonic dragon was contending against the sword energy, the completely intact phantom image announced calmly, “It’s a draw.”

Since they both couldn’t deal with each other, the fight ended up being a draw. After the phantom image spoke, it started to disappear.

As Su Yu didn’t manage to defeat it, he had technically failed his challenge. However, since Su Yu had mainly wanted to improve his mastery over his new technique through practice, he didn’t really take this challenge too seriously. Otherwise, if he went all out, he would have been capable of obliterating the phantom image easily.

Ding!

Then, a soft sound was heard as the stone gate opened by itself. A whole day had already passed by this time.

Why was it this quick? Even though Su Yu still wished to continue, he knew that he must curb his demonic energy and recollect the thread of the Devil’s hair, which had unexpectedly become much dimmer than before.

A great amount of its demonic energy was consumed when it created a dragon through cultivation. As such, it seems like I must look for objects that are filled with abundant demonic energy to help it recover… Su Yu thought.

He then stood up and left the stone room. As he left, Tian Renyao, came over to him.

After sizing up Su Yu and seeing that he was safe and sound, he asked in surprise, “Brother Yuxian, what are you doing here? You have caused quite a disturbance and have really scared me.”

Su Yu said, “I was just exchanging a move with the phantom image on the wall, practicing my new technique. That woman is quite strong!”

“Did you challenge Jian Wusheng?” Tian Renyao was startled by this, and after he examined Su Yu once again, he asked, “What was the outcome of the challenge? Did you concede?”

After he asked the question, Su Yu wondered to himself… Is that woman’s name really Jian Wusheng? That really seems like a man’s name!

Su Yu then replied, “Concede? I didn’t concede.”

Tian Renyao was taken aback by this and asked, “Then, what was the outcome of your duel?”

Tian Renyao couldn’t understand what was happening. Since Su Yu didn’t concede, he couldn’t understand why he was safe and unharmed. After all, he knew that the cultivation of the phantom image in the picture on the wall would be adjusted to the same level of its challenger.

He knew this because he had challenged her many times himself, but had never managed to defeat her. This wasn’t the case for him alone, as no one had managed to win the challenge against her yet.

This was because Jian Wusheng was an invincible legend in the Red Blood Palace and the Eighteen Blessed and Heavenly Lands. As such, no one born in the same aura as her could block even a single one of her sword strikes. She was undefeated to this day!

“It’s was a draw because that woman is too powerful,” Su Yu said.

Tian Renyao’s eyes as he sucked in a breath of cold air and asked, “You fought Jian Wusheng to a draw?”

When his words had just echoed out, many gazes looked turned and looked at the two men. These gazes were all filled with shock and horror. It was as if the people were looking at Su Yu particularly like he was a monster.

Su Yu realized that something was odd about this, and he asked in surprise, “Is Jian Wusheng someone special?”

Upon hearing this, everyone became deathly silent and stared at Su Yu as if they were looking at an alien. Tian Renyao glared at him, then asked, “Aren’t you from Jiuzhou? How can you not know who Jian Wusheng is?”

Su Yu was startled by this and spoke hurriedly, “I’ve been living in the depths of the forest since I was born, so I’m not really knowledgeable about the outside word’s circumstances. So, can you please inform me about her?”

Tian Renyao’s face was still filled with doubts, but he decided to not give much thought to it. After all, it wasn’t like people who lived in the depths of forests were uncommon in these parts.

He then explained to Su Yu, “Since you are a disciple of the Red Blood Palace, you must know Jian Wusheng’s distinguished name. She was also a disciple of the Red Blood Palace once, and she came from here. She was once the most powerful person in her era. No one could block her sword strikes!”

A peerless genius? Su Yu nodded.

He was not really surprised to hear this, as he had seen many peerless geniuses, Gu Taixu among them. He had even once exchanged several moves with him, discovering that he didn’t have any exceptional qualities that Su Yu could see.

“Well, then, is she still in the Red Blood Palace?” Su Yu asked casually.

Tian Renyao replied, “She left the Red Blood Palace several hundred years ago, and she’s now one of the nine prefectures’ kings. She’s the queen of the Lifeless Sword Prefecture.”

One of the nine prefectures’ kings? Su Yu was shocked to hear this. He didn’t expect that Jiang Wusheng would be a prefecture’s queen!

This meant then that he had just fought against a prefecture’s queen at the Level Three Fairy Realm! As such, it wasn’t surprising that the people here were this amazed that he had come to a draw against her.

Even though Su Yu was surprised by this new knowledge, he was able to quickly regain his composure. He felt proud at being able to hold his own against a true young prefecture’s queen.

“Well… I see.” Su Yu nodded.

When Tian Renyao saw the prideful and somewhat smug look on Su Yu’s face, he really had an impulse of choking Su Yu to death. “Can’t you wear another expression on your face? You don’t understand at all what a shocking thing you have just done.”

Su Yu shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and asked, “Oh, really? The room is open now, so if you want to challenge her as well, you should go in quickly.”

At the moment, Su Yu was short of money. He only had 2,000 merit points left, which wasn’t enough for him to go in again, not even a single time.

Tian Renyao’s whole body shivered from anger, and he quickly went into the private room as he said, “Okay, I will give it a try. The phantom image must have some issues, so I will go and check it out…”

“Ah!” Just five minutes after his entry, a miserable scream came from inside the room. Immediately thereafter, Tian Renyao ran out, while holding his shoulder.

While wearing a sullen expression, he screamed again and said, “Ah! The phantom image doesn’t have any issues! It’s brother Yuxian who has an issue! You… You are the true demon of the Demon Mountain!”

As this news spread quickly, it shocked everyone who heard it!

Meanwhile, in a side room in the alluring Cabinet Mistress’ residence, Wei Zheng and Xue Qi were sitting opposite to the alluring Cabinet Mistress.

“Aunt, why don’t you go back to the inner sanctum?” Xue Qi entreated her.

The alluring Cabinet Mistress was still indifferent, and she cast a glance at her and asked, “What? You also came back here from the inner sanctum to watch the seasonal exam and choose people for the Left Palace Master!”

Xue Qi was helpless against her, and she knew that it would be useless to try to persuade her to leave. So, Sse let out a sigh, then said, “Providing assistance to senior brother Wei is just one of the reasons why I came back. I came here mainly because I heard that Su Yuxian had returned and I wanted to thank him for saving me.”

The fact that Su Yu had saved her once was no secret.

“Okay, he is in the Demon Mountain now, so you can go and look for him at any time,” the alluring Cabinet Mistress said casually, not seeming to care much about the matter.

Wei Zheng chuckled, then said, “Senior sister Xue, you must go there quickly and take care of this matter. It will be better to pay him back for such a favor early on, so that he won’t entangle with such a debt later on. That will then cause people to assume that he’s from the Left Palace Master’s camp, which may then allow him to make use of the Left Palace Master’s name in the future to run amok in the outer sanctum, which would taint our reputation!”

Upon hearing this, Xue Qi furrowed her brows. Wei Zheng was too mean! Even though she hadn’t known Su Yu for long, she still felt that he wasn’t such a snobbish person who would act in such a way!

“Senior brother Wei, if he wanted to join the Left Palace Master’s camp, he would have agreed to do so yesterday. Why would he need to use our name and exploit his connections with us to intimidate people? It makes no sense!” Xue Qi said with displeasure.

Wei Zheng still wore a faint smile as he replied, “Well… He probably knew early on that he isn’t qualified to join the Left Palace Master’s camp, which explains why he rejected the offer… To make himself seem more valuable! I have seen many people like him, so I wasn’t surprised by such behavior at all.”

Xue Qi was frustrated. Even though Wei Zheng was powerful, he was too haughty and always held people in contempt.

At this moment, a maid came in hurriedly to report something, which she whispered into the alluring Cabinet Mistress’ ears. Surprise appeared on the alluring Cabinet Mistress’ face as she asked, “Did this really happen?”

The maid replied, “It’s absolutely true. Many outer sanctum’s disciples witnessed it, and even Tian Renyao was there.”

Xue Qi raised her brows and asked, “Aunt, what happened?” It was her first time witnessing her aunt in such a state of shock.

The alluring Cabinet Mistress regained her composure and cast a glance at Wei Zheng. Then, while wearing a fake smile, she said, “It isn’t really worth mentioning. It’s just some news from the fighting room. An outer sanctum’s disciple challenged Jian Wusheng, fighting her to a draw.”

Xue Qi was startled by this. “That’s impossible!”

Wei Zheng’s faint smile stiffened and his pupils shone as amazement appeared in his eyes. “Who was it?”

Wei Zheng was pleasantly surprised. After all, no one had ever managed to fight against Jian Wusheng and end up in a draw.

Since this person had managed to achieve it, he must surely possess outstanding potential and could only be one of the geniuses from the other eight great factions that were affiliated with them. If he could recruit him into the Left Palace Master’s camp, he would surely be rewarded generously by the Left Palace Master!

The alluring Cabinet Mistress chuckled, then asked, “Why are you this startled? Didn’t you already see him?”

Wei Zheng was taken aback by this, and he started thinking back about the disciples that had been recruited from the factions that were affiliated with them. His mind started racing as he started considering which one of them had the highest chance of achieving such a feat…