Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Broke the rules!
Jiang Yi’s eyes were closed and frozen this way. Yet—upon hearing those words, his eyelashes trembled, and his lips parted slightly. He discovered that there was no way he could even open his mouth to respond. He wanted to retort, but there was no way he could do so.
The Mystic Thearch’s phantom was quite real. He felt like a real person. Of course, while he was in the State of the Union of Heaven and Man, Jiang Yi could tell that this was just a phantom. There was no sign of life in the Mystic Thearch.
The Mystic Thearch looked at Jiang Yi. His sharp eyebrows trembled. With a wave of his hand, a gentle breeze blew past them. The ice on Jiang Yi’s body melted. At that moment, he realized that he could finally activate the essence force in his body. He quickly climbed to his feet and used his essence force to melt the remaining ice.
Swish!
When his body had recovered slightly, Jiang Yi did not even bother to look at the Mystic Thearch. Instead, he rushed to Yi Chan’s side and sent a ball of essence force into her body to warm her back up. Yi Chan was still unconscious. If he waited just a bit longer, she might never wake up again.
The Mystic Thearch was dressed in a green robe. His features and movements were extremely sharp. There was no expression on his face. His phantom exuded certain authoritativeness. Jiang Yi felt like the Mystic Thearch reminded him of a valuable sword being hidden in its sheath; although it had not been drawn, everyone could tell that it possessed great power.
Jiang Yi focused his essence force on helping to warm Yi Chan’s body up. Once he was sure that she would not die, he turned to the Mystic Thearch. He walked forward a few steps and got down on one knee and placed one arm across his chest in a posture of the greatest respect.
“There’s no use in bowing down to me now!” The Mystic Thearch exclaimed. “You broke the rules, and you can only die for that! That girl must die, too!”
“Uh—”
Jiang Yi looked up. He was not afraid that the Mystic Thearch would kill both him and Yi Chan. Instead, he was shocked at what the Mystic Thearch was saying. Was the Mystic Thearch not a phantom? How did he have sentience? If he had left these words behind a long time ago, he would not have believed it.
Of course, he did not dare to say a single word; neither did he dare to ask any questions. In front of a man like the Mystic Thearch, one wrong word could be deadly.
He looked up at the Mystic Thearch, looking calm and unworried. Without stuttering, he said, “I’m kneeling down to you because you are the Mystic Thearch, not because I want to break the rules that you have set. This junior only has one request—this has nothing to do with her. I was the only one who broke the rules. If you want to punish someone, you should kill me. Mystic Thearch, you are the Thearch through the ages. You would not kill an innocent woman, would you?”
“Hahaha!”
The Mystic Thearch laughed out loud, and he sounded terrifying. It caused the air around them to stir. The ice lake far away broke apart, causing waves to form in the lake. The strange thing, however, was that Yi Chan remained unconscious.
After he finished laughing, the Mystic Thearch looked at Jiang Yi. “I will grant your request. I can give you one chance. As long as you can do these three things, I will spare your life.”
“Alright!”
Nobody wanted to die, and Jiang Yi was no exception. He nodded vigorously and said, “Please make your requests, Mystic Thearch. As long as Jiang Yi can do it, he will try his best!”
“En.”
The Mystic Thearch nodded slightly and turned to Yi Chan. “I want you to leave the Nine Thearch Clans that I appointed unharmed. You are not to take them as your enemies; neither are you allowed to kill any single one of them. Can you do that?”
“Uh—”
Jiang Yi hesitated, his eyes twinkling. He quickly gritted his teeth and looked up. “I’m sorry, Mystic Thearch, I cannot do that! The North Thearch’s Clan killed my father. I killed She Fei. The Evil Thearch and his clan will not let me live. I can only promise you that I will only kill the North Thearch and the authoritative figures in his clan as much as I can help it. I will try not to implicate the innocent, and I will not kill off the widows and orphans in the family. As for the other eight Thearch Clans, if they don’t come after me, I will not go after them.”
“Keke!”
The Mystic Thearch laughed mirthlessly. Jiang Yi could not guess if he was joyful or angry. He did not pursue the matter any further. Instead, he looked toward the east and said, “Second, when you reach a certain skill level, kill off all the demons of the Endless Deep Sea. Don’t let even a single demon off because they are the greatest threat to mankind.”
“I’m sorry…”
Jiang Yi smiled bitterly. With his teeth still gritted, he said, “Ao Lu has been very kind to me. His granddaughter is my friend. The Shadow Emperor and Black Deity have shown grace to me as well. Therefore, I cannot do this either. I can only promise you that if the humans fight the demons, I will stand on the side of the humans for sure. This is because I am human myself.”
“If you can’t do anything, why should I let you go?”
The Mystic Thearch looked coolly at Jiang Yi. All around them, the temperature dropped once again. The Mystic Thearch’s phantom emanated a frightening aura, which caused Jiang Yi to feel like he was being crushed by a mountain. He almost fell over onto the ground.
The Mystic Thearch’s expression was sharp. His gaze was cold. After a full minute passed, he said, “This is the last request. If you cannot do it, you can die. Anyone who dares to work against me can only perish.”
The Mystic Thearch held back his powers and scanned Yi Chan. “Young man, you are someone with a lot of talent and prowess. I do not want you to be held down by women. Once you are plagued with troubles of love, they will be your weakness. There will be no way that your heart would be able to remain strong. A hero would never pass a beauty’s temptation.
“Therefore, I want you to let go of all the women in your life. That is the only way you would be able to reach the peak stage of the martial dao, shatter the void, and transcend. If you agree to this, I can grant you the Mystic Divine Palace, along with my Mystic Divine Saber and Mystic Divine Armor! Those are two divine artifacts!”
“Divine artifacts!”
Jiang Yi’s eyes lit up. Legend had it that the Mystic Thearch’s battle saber and armor had been left behind in the Mystic Divine Palace. They were the only two divine weapons of the Stellarsky Domain. Jiang Yi had no idea that these two things still existed. The Mystic Divine Palace did not take these two treasures away with him.
Yet, the Mystic Thearch’s phantom seemed to have a soul. At that moment, Jiang Yi wondered if the Mystic Thearch even transcended all those years ago. Why else would his phantom have a soul?
Jiang Yi had never considered that last request. Could he give Su Ruoxue, Yin Ruobing, Feng Luan, Qing Yu, and the others up?
He quickly bowed down, cupped his hands, and shouted, “Jiang Yi cannot do this. Please let me die, Mystic Thearch!
“Please let me die, Mystic Thearch…”
Jiang Yi shouted the last sentence, causing his voice to echo around the region. The Mystic Thearch’s expression changed. It was filled with a killing intent all of a sudden. He raised his hand up in the air and opened the door of the thatched house. A black saber flew out and landed in the Mystic Thearch’s hand.
“Since that is the case, I will grant you death. I will wait for the next successor to appear!”
The Mystic Thearch answered. His voice was so cold, much colder than the place felt. A huge burst of killer energy rushed toward Jiang Yi, causing his soul to tremble. The Mystic Thearch held onto the saber with both of his hands and raised it up. The essence force around them gathered inside the saber, which was no emitting a frightening aura.
At that moment, Jiang Yi fully believed that the saber was indeed a divine artifact. When faced with the wrath of the Mystic Thearch, even the nine-star formidable martial artists would have their bones crushed.
Tsk! Tsk!
The Mystic Thearch did not hesitate for even a second. When the saber became frightening enough, he struck it downward. A ball of energy flew out from the saber, cutting through the air and shooting straight toward Jiang Yi. It landed hard on Jiang Yi’s body.
Jiang Yi swayed, but there was no movement in his soul. He closed his eyes and prepared to die.
Boom!
A white light covered Jiang Yi. At the same time, there was a loud bang. Jiang Yi got thrown back about three hundred meters from the impact of the ball of energy. His body was thrown onto the side of the ice lake.
“Uh—”
What astonished Jiang Yi was that there was no wound on his body at all. It was such a frightening blow, and yet he remained unharmed? What was even more shocking was that the saber was there in front of him.
The Mystic Thearch’s battle sword was stuck into the ice in front of him. It was still vibrating from the impact like a Crested dog’s-tail1 swaying in the wind.
Jiang Yi looked up in shock at the Mystic Thearch, but he saw the latter’s sharp features spread into a smile. As he smiled, he said, “Young man, you passed the test. This saber is yours now. The Mystic Divine Palace and the Mystic Divine Armor are yours as well.”
