Chapter 562: Who’s the Prey Now?
“Jiang Chen, on behalf of the pill recipe, I can make an exception and answer any of your final questions. You can die a knowledgeable ghost.” Ding Tong had no other impression of Jiang Chen other than prey already in his grasp.
“Did you purposefully come down from the Ninesuns Sky Sect to the Myriad Domain to kill me?” Jiang Chen suddenly asked.
“You think far too highly of yourself. Coming here just to kill you? Do you think you command that much face? You hop up and down in the Myriad Domain, but you’re just a small cockroach in the eyes of the geniuses of my sect. I, Ding Tong, was originally here to help the Tristar Sect put their plans into motions. You’re just something I’m taking care of on the side.”
The geniuses of the Sky Sect were all quite confident and sure of themselves. With Ding Tong’s background of the Sky Sect, he didn’t even think much of Tristar Sect Head Zhu, much less than Jiang Chen. Although the sect head’s cultivation level was just a bit superior to Ding Tong’s, Ding Tong was less than one tenth the sect head’s age. With the latter’s potential and cultivation, he naturally wouldn’t think much of a sect head from a mere Lower Realm region.
As for Jiang Chen, although his pill dao potential was stunning, Ding Tong was using the mighty gaze of a superior in assessing the Myriad Domain. So, he naturally didn’t place much importance on Jiang Chen. In the Upper Eight Realms, pill kings were as common as chickens, and great pill masters as numerous as dogs. How would a fourth rank sect like the Regal Pill Palace, someplace without a pill king to their name, ever enter his eyes?
Their own Ninesuns Sky Sect had nine manors and more than three thousand divisions. Even if the Sky Sect wasn’t founded for pill dao, they had at least a dozen pill kings on a stipend, to speak nothing of anything else. So what did he care about a mere pill dao genius from the Regal Pill Palace? If it wasn’t for the Longevity Pill being radically above the Myriad Domain’s level, and Ding Tong having verified its effects with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have thought much about it either.
“That means your Ninesuns Sky Sect has long since had the desire to swallow up the Myriad Domain?” Jiang Chen flung out another question. “The Tristar Sect has likely existed in the Myriad Domain for many years already.”
“Hmph. Doesn’t a small character like you feel embarrassed asking these kinds of questions? You’re hard pressed to save even yourself, and here you are worrying about the Myriad Domain. How laughable!” Ding Tong looked at Jiang Chen as if he was looking at an idiot. “If the Tristar Sect hadn’t been supported by my Sky Sect, how would a mere fifth rank sect have risen to fourth rank so easily?”
He waved his hand impatiently. “Enough of the idle chatter. Don’t think that delaying tactics are going to save you. There’s no one else in a radius of a hundred kilometers, and no one will be able to save you even if they come flying to your rescue! Jiang Chen, are you going to hand over the recipe like a good boy and wait to die, or do you want me to do it myself and search your soul!” Ding Tong’s face darkened, his patience reaching its end as his killing intent flared.
Jiang Chen suddenly grinned. “Is your appetite that small, hmm? A mere Longevity Pill recipe is enough to buy you off? I also have the recipe for the Pine Crane Pill that can extend the lives of emperor realm cultivators for five hundred years. Wouldn’t you rather have that too? I also have a magnetic golden mountain with an unending source of metal power, don’t you want it? Not to mention the exotic variant of a divine level Bewitching Lotus of Fire and Ice. Don’t you want that? Oh right, I haven’t even brought up the blood and two crystals from a true dragon. Aren’t you interested in any of that?”
Jiang Chen flipped over his hand to display a few dragon crystals. He tossed them lightly in the air, a bizarre curve to the edges of his lips.
Ding Tong’s pupils abruptly contracted rapidly as his eyes lit up with enthusiasm. It was obvious that he had also recognized what Jiang Chen was casually playing with. Those were true dragon crystals! It was a first for even Ding Tong to recognize a dragonic aura that was so pure.
“Do you… do you really have the blood of a true dragon?” He whispered.
Jiang Chen laughed leisurely and took out another small flask. “You don’t believe me?”
When the stopper to the flask was flicked open, the massive presence of dragon blood filled the air, making Ding Tong’s body twitch involuntarily. A look of unparalleled greed instantly appeared on his face. He murmured, “It really is the blood of a true dragon! Kid! It looks like I’ve completely underestimated your wealth! I was originally just going to kill you to fulfill Third Senior Brother’s orders. To think that there was such an unexpected surprise in this little errand! Hahaha, it looks like I made the right move in coming to the Myriad Domain this time!”
Ding Tong laughed proudly. It’d been the sect who’d sent him here, and he hadn’t been too pleased about it to begin with. He was just fine training in the Sky Sect’s abundantly rich spirit energy. In his eyes, being sent to the Myriad Domain was no different than being exiled to the border or a wasteland. Therefore, it was only because he had to follow orders that he was here.
But now that he saw Jiang Chen take out the dragon crystals, Ding Tong was utterly delighted. He’d never dreamed that items as extraordinary as dragon blood and crystals was hidden in such a forsaken place. One had to realize, a drop of such pure dragon blood was hellishly difficult to obtain even in the Upper Eight Realms! As for dragon crystals, although they weren’t as precious as dragon blood, they were still exceedingly rare treasures. If he could obtain the pieces in Jiang Chen’s hand, his personal wealth would soar to stunning levels, not to mention the incalculable benefits that the dragon blood would bring him.
Ding Tong stopped laughing and gazed deeply at Jiang Chen, his lips drawing back into a teasing smile. “Jiang Chen, it looks like I owe you some sincere thanks for making this trip worth it. In return, I’ve decided to make your death a less painful one than normal. So I’ll ask you one more time, are you going to hand over the recipe nicely or do I have to do it myself?”
Ding Tong’s aura, the aura of an earth sage realm cultivator, was a terrifying thing. He was also in the mood to purposefully terrorize Jiang Chen, so he exerted his aura to its maximum, floating into the air. After all, one could fly when one had an earth sage realm cultivation.
Ding Tong looked down from a lofty height, as if a solemn god descending to the earth. His very presence covered a span of several thousand meters. Although Ding Tong had the ability to search one’s soul, he didn’t particularly want to use it. It was particularly draining on the consciousness, and there wasn’t even the guarantee of complete information. Besides, it was much more pleasant to force Jiang Chen down with his aura and capture him without a single drop of blood spilt. Completely suppressed, the prey would then hand over the Longevity Pill recipe of his own initiative. In Ding Tong’s eyes, if Jiang Chen didn’t want to suffer through torture before his death, his best choice was voluntary participation. Ding Tong looked down at Jiang Chen from a position of superiority, judgement in his gaze as he examined his prey.
“I’ll give you ten breaths of time.” There was a finality in Ding Tong’s tone as if all he saw in front of him was Jiang Chen’s cooling corpse. His aura surged and roiled, crashing onto Jiang Chen as if thousands of mountains in rapid succession. Ding Tong felt that Jiang Chen would collapse before ten breaths had elapsed.
However—
To his great surprise, Ding Tong actually discovered a smile playing about the corners of Jiang Chen’s lips. This smile was actually quite bizarre, and almost seemed to have a trace of mockery hiding within it.
“You can actually still smile?!” Ding Tong’s gaze was like the tundra before he suddenly wondered whether Jiang Chen had been scared completely out of his wits. Shouldn’t he be looking on in horror and shivering out of fear by now?
“And why can’t I? Ding Tong, it seems I need to sincerely thank you too.”
“What are you thanking me for?” Ding Tong’s gaze was akin to absolute zero at this point. For some reason, Jiang Chen’s smile was going the extra mile in pissing him off. This idiotic excuse for prey simply didn’t have the self awareness of knowing when it was being hunted. Ding Tong decided to change his mind. Regardless of whether Jiang Chen handed over the pill recipe or not, he would certainly not have an easy death no matter what. That smile was irksome enough to deserve a slow torturous death. Jiang Chen would only die after he’d suffered as much as he could.
“First of all, thank you ever so much for telling me that there’s no one around for a hundred kilometers. I owe you a second thanks for telling me that there’s an idiot called Yong Xingyun hiding and waiting for me up ahead. It would’ve been a great bother if I’d reached the Upper Eight Realms without knowing that someone had already put me in their sights, wouldn’t it? ”
Ding Tong started in surprise, and immediately began laughing loudly. “Do you still think you have a future?”
Jiang Chen nodded. “I certainly have a future, but you definitely don’t.”
Ding Tong’s pupils contracted violently as he laughed; a cold, cutting thing, “A mere fifth level origin realm? Are you sure you’re not talking crazy?”
Jiang Chen didn’t respond as he smiled faintly, “Tell me what cultivation level your third senior brother Yong Xingyun is. I’ll see if he has the privilege of having me remember him.”
One had to say, Ding Tong was completely flabbergasted at this flippant attitude Jiang Chen was displaying. At this point, he was wondering whether Jiang Chen’s brain had just fried itself. Had he so utterly lost his mind when faced with a struggle of life and death that he’d started spouting this idiocy? “Do you think I’ll let you off just because you pretend that you’ve gone insane? An origin realm ant like you, are you even worthy of asking about my Third Senior Brother’s cultivation level? But since you’ve asked, I won’t mind opening up your eyes. Third Senior Brother sits right now at the peak of the sage realm, at half step emperor realm. Even that Dan Chi of your Regal Pill Palace can never dream of reaching this stage, never mind a mere insect like you!”
Ding Tong suddenly felt that explaining so much to an ant was a bit beneath himself. His expression darkened. “Jiang Chen, looks like you’re refusing a toast to drink a forfeit instead.”
Jiang Chen nodded. “Half step emperor, hmm? This makes things a bit more interesting. I suppose if Long Juxue hadn’t died, she actually would’ve pushed him into the emperor realm if she’d properly functioned as his cauldron.”
Ding Tong laughed coldly. “As long as you know.”
Jiang Chen had completely cleared up all of his doubts at this point. He smiled faintly at Ding Tong. “Ding Tong, the biggest mistake of your life wasn’t joining the Ninesuns Sky Sect. But rather, even as a Sky Sect disciple, you’d made your way to the Myriad Domain. From there, of the series of bad decisions you’ve made, the worst of your crimes was to come and irritate me like this.”
“Brother Long, it’s up to you!” Jiang Chen chuckled softly as he swiftly backed away.
Before Ding Tong could react, a black light exploded in front of him. In the very next moment, he felt like the very air around him had been sealed, encircled by numerous invisible nets. An aura that was no inferior to his, like that of a god’s descent, filled the void.
“What the hell?” Ding Tong growled. Although he was inwardly surprised, he was still a genius of the sixth level sage realm after all. An unexpected situation was hardly enough to rock his composure.
He lifted his hands, and brought them down in a motion that resembled two great blades cleaving through the waves. He hurtled forwards, propelled by the wind, as if he wanted to slash through the cage of air that had trapped him. Two hand blades cut through the space like white tipped waves and crashed into the invisible nets with an explosive bang.
Clang!
Rays of black light shimmered in the air. Something that looked like black scales was crisscrossing through the entire area, completely locking down the space. Ding Tong’s attack had created an ear piercing shriek, but had otherwise proved to be completely useless, like a rock sinking into the ocean.
“How is this possible?” Ding Tong was breaking out in a cold sweat. A faint foreboding feeling was crawling up his spine as he faintly felt that things weren’t looking so hot. He’d thought that Jiang Chen’s calm earlier had been a ploy, but now, here, something in his analysis had gone terribly, awfully amiss.
