Book 7: Chapter 38 – I Can Wait
Evening, in the Water Rites Town.
Xue Ying and Jing Qiu were currently having dinner on the second floor of a quiet, secluded restaurant. On this floor, instead of crystal lamps, there were lanterns installed. The hazy lighting of the red, violet and blue colored lanterns created a dream-like ambience.
There were quite a few couples present.
Xue Ying and Jing Qiu had transformed their facial appearances. As long as the facial lines changed slightly, strangers would not be able to recognise them.
When they were within the Snowrock Castle, they would occasionally come to this Water Rites Town as a couple.
“It’s bustling with so much activity.” Jing Qiu supported her chin with her hand as she looked down the street. There were currently many people walking around, attracted to the many shops and restaurants. The sounds of these people and the conversations of others affected the overall atmosphere. There were even some relatively extravagant carriages surrounded by several formidable-looking guards. They clearly belonged to a rich and noble clan. Although many noblemen and wealthy merchants had already left for the province, due to the exorbitant prices of the land there, many of these noblemen and merchants could only afford to buy small pavilions for their direct descendents to live in. The many remaining members of the clan continued to live in their ancestral lands. Furthermore, a large number of employees would have to stay at their various establishments for businesses to carry on.
Thus, many small towns remained extremely crowded.
The number of demons was several times greater than that of the Transcendents. When taking into consideration the entire Xia Clan’s World, however, the number of demons was actually quite low. Under the pursuit of the Xia Clan’s Transcendents, the demons would have to hide in any corner they could find. It was merely those rank five demons who brought out their Demonic Avatar out to kill.
The lives of the mortals remained relatively peaceful.
“Of course it’s bustling with activity. Even though the Water Rites Town may be small, it has a population of one million people.” Xue Ying laughed.
“Look over there, there are quite a lot of people on top of those boats by the river, near the end of the bridge,” Jing Qiu commented. “There are actually many noble clans living in Water Rites Town.”
“Being able to live an oblivious life is such an enviable matter.”
Xue Ying smiled at all the things happening around him.
These mortals really lived in quite a safe environment. Many rich, noble clans continued to enjoy themselves and get drunk whereas the ordinary commoner had a hard time working to earn a living. There were also many mortals who diligently cultivated while others went on adventures, risking their lives.
All these were some of the flavours of how the mortals of the Xia Clan lived. These were what Xue Ying and the other Transcendents had to protect.
If the Transcendents were to fall…
Countless mortals would be captured and raised as animals by the demons. Large numbers of them would be grown for their souls as food for the demons. By then, every day would be a nightmare for these people living their lives like zombies.
Suddenly—
Xue Ying and Jing Qiu received messages from the Infernal Palace on their communication wristbands at the same time.
“They actually failed?” Jing Qiu had a huge change in her expression.
“Still a failure. As expected, no miracles have happened.” Xue Ying shook his head. “It seems trouble has beset us.”
The Infernal Palace had just sent out a message—the elite Transcendent team sent specially to invade the minor Transcendent World occupied by demons had failed in their task. All Transcendents would have to be careful.
Previously, when the Transcendents of the Xia Clan started dying one by one, everyone could guess that an unforeseen circumstance had happened. After all, they had many historical instances of demon invasions. This invasion of the minor Transcendent World by the demons had always been a conundrum faced by the Xia Clan, and it was also one of the problems that had never been solved.
“Minor Transcendent Worlds can, at most, allow Saint realm Transcendents to enter.” Jing Qiu shook her head. “From a historical viewpoint, the demons have dispatched their elites into the world. Furthermore, they’ve set up some formidable arrays that we have an extremely low chance of breaking through.”
“That’s right. The elites.” Xue Ying nodded. “Below the realm of Demigods, the demons hold too large of an advantage over us.”
According to the intelligence provided about the demons…
There were already a total of twenty-nine rank five demons investigated! The weakest amongst them could match the might of a top ten Saint ranker, and there were already three demons confirmed to be stronger than the first Saint ranker. The more important point, however, was that the current intelligence provided on the demons was not accurate. All they could do when writing the intelligence report was to estimate from the information obtained by interrogating the captured demons.
The strongest rank five demon was actually a demon called ‘Ji Er Luo.’ According to previous intelligence investigations, he had grasped hold of two different grade three True Meanings, with one of them confirmed to have reached the second stage realm!
After grasping hold of a True Meaning, one’s comprehension of it would continuously deepen…
As the comprehension of the realm became deeper, it would eventually reach the peak, and one would be able to condense a True Deity Heart.
This ‘Ji Er Luo’ was the strongest rank five demon known to date—at least according to all those captured demons. His combat power was even greater than Chi Qiu Bai when he was a Saint!
Other than Ji Er Luo, there were others like ‘Bi Ya’ and ‘Wu Lang’ who had been confirmed of having grade three True Meanings as well.
That demon called ‘Wu Lang’ had grasped hold of the True Meaning of Shattered Space and was also the subordinate of General Yan Ze! Thus, Xue Ying, Chi Qiu Bai and the others had suspected… that the demon who killed Cheng Ling Shu could very well be this demon called ‘Wu Lang.’
“Demons are different from us,” Jing Qiu said. “From my understanding, they number in the billions of billions. From the moment they are born, they have to kill and fight for their survival, and they grow through battles. The weaker demons would have either been killed or trampled on at the lowest level.”
Rank three, four and five demons normally reached the peak stage Saint realm in terms of their Demonic Energy.
That was equivalent to human Transcendents achieving the peak stage Saint realm in their Qi! But in terms of combat power, it was incomparable.
Demons were categorised based on their combat power into rank three, four and five. Those demons who could reach rank five… would already be the elites of elites amongst the many demons.
……
After their failure, along with the formidable prowess of the demons, Xue Ying and the rest started feeling anxious . Before he grasped hold of a complete True Meaning, he could only look on with his eyes wide-open! His heart ached, but he could only endure it!
Xue Ying.” Suddenly, he received a message.
“Palace Head Chen,” Xue Ying replied.
“I’m sure you know of the latest news. However, you should understand… during this period of time, you have to endure even more.” Palace Head Chen continued, “They have already taken control over a minor Transcendent World. This is our Xia Clan’s biggest problem with almost no chance of solving! However, our generation is quite different. We have you, who grasped hold of the embryonic form of a grade two True Meaning. Furthermore, it is the embryonic form of the strongest offensive True Meaning!
“The moment you grasp hold of the complete True Meaning, with its extreme offensive might, even though you might not be able to overcome the top ten Demigod rankers, you would not lose out to Gong Yu and the rest,” Palace Head Chen transmitted. “By then, you can definitely attack right at the forefront without having the need to enter the array. Your combat power will be unmatched, and you’ll be able to force your way in, break through the array, and completely destroy it!”
“I understand,” Xue Ying replied.
A grade two True Meaning was indeed extremely powerful.
Even still, his Qi would be too weak when compared with others like Chi Qiu Bai who, after stepping into the Demigod realm, had his body filled with the Qi of a Demigod, increasing his combat power tremendously. Furthermore, he had gotten a hold of a Deity weapon, causing his combat power to further increase. Thus, the areas of ‘Qi’ and ‘weapons’ were still relatively important.
If he were to depend solely on a grade two True Meaning, he would merely be stronger than Demigods like Gong Yu and could only match the might of some senior Demigods.
“The information of you grasping hold of the embryonic form of a grade two True Meaning is still kept a secret even today! You are the biggest ace amongst our hidden cards! That is to the point that I originally wanted to continue keeping your grade two True Meaning a secret even after you completed it. But, we’ve no choice now… they have conquered five different minor Transcendent Worlds. This is akin to having five daggers stabbed in the chest of our Xia Clan, and we need you to get rid of them! Now, you are the only one left to exterminate them!”
“Mn.” Xue Ying simply acknowledged it.
That was right.
When his combat power reached a sufficient stage, he would of course get rid of those demons!
“The reason I contacted you this time is solely to ask you to keep enduring! I’m afraid that you might do something rash during the most crucial of times,” Palace Head Chen said. He was merely too worried that something might happen.
“Rest assured. I understand the severity of this matter,” Xue Ying replied.
“You have already grasped hold of the embryonic form of the True Meaning when you were still in the Scarlet Cloud Mountain. I estimate that you should be able to complete the True Meaning… in about ten years or so. Ten years. It’s just ten years. Compared with the war against the demons which might extend up to thousands of years, it cannot be considered much. Thus, you must wait! Within these ten years of time, the loss of our Transcendents can still be afforded,” Palace Head Chen reminded.
……
Day by day, month by month, year by year passed by…
The war between the Transcendents of the Xia Clan and the demons continued!
During this time, the Xia Clan had set up various intelligence networks in many different areas in order to understand the current situation. As time passed, the demons were unable to withstand their thirst. There were so many humans under their eyes that they were salivating from just the sight alone. So how could they resist for such a long period of time? Thus, some of them, especially those weaker rank one and two demons, had already started to act secretly.
By borrowing power from the intelligence networks and the Transcendent patrols, the Xia Clan discovered one demon after another. Demigods were also acting in all four directions, capturing all these demons alive.
As for the human Transcendents, occasionally, they would also be spied upon by the demons. The moment they were discovered, there would be Demonic Avatars from rank five demons coming to kill them!
Even though numerically, there were more demons dying or being captured alive than Transcendents, the total number of human Transcendents was too small, and thus, every single death made the Xia Clan feel heartache!
