Beside the True Habitant of Nine Dragons, the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child appeared stunned too.
Jiang He?
Though she had not met him before, she knew who he was.
After all, she left the sect now because the True Habitant of Nine Dragons asked her to head to Jiang He’s house to break his array.
However, the others had been throwing a tantrum for half a day only for the man himself to be away from home… so what on earth were the Jade Hollow Child, Zhong Wanshan, and the others even doing?
As those thoughts crossed the minds of the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child and the True Habitant of Nine Dragons, Jiang He smiled. “If there’s nothing else, may I go back down?”
He turned to leave, but the True Habitant of Nine Dragons barked, “Stop!”
“Hmmm?”
Jiang He paused and turned toward the True Habitant of Nine Dragons, frowning. “What is it?”
“Did you think you could escape with my chieftain here, Jiang He?”
The True Habitant of Nine Dragons sneered, his full-fledged Yuan Spirit aura bursting while his dark-cloud shaped mystic treasure arose. Beside him, Cloudy Sky had taken one graceful step forward and said coolly, “Jiang He, you captured Nine Dragons and insulted my sect. Aren’t you going to make amends?”
Jiang He appeared taken aback before laughing out loud, seemingly not sensing the True Habitant of Nine Dragons’s oppressive aura at all.
His eyes fixed on Cloudy Sky, he calmy said, “A mere full-fledged Yuan Spirit like the True Habitant of Nine Dragons had the guts to show off in my face. It is only reasonable that I put it down. As for insulting your sect…”
Pausing, Jiang He then chuckled coldly and said, “It’s your just desserts!”
“You’re really seeking death!”
The True Habitant of Nine Dragons roared in rage.
He opened his mouth and breathed a gust of mystic energy into his own mystic treasure. The black cloud hence expanded rapidly, streaking toward Jiang He and attempting to blanket him.
On the other hand, both the Scarlet Flame Sword and the Autumn Water Sword flew out at Jiang He’s thought, and the Ice and Fire Duality Sword Array then promptly slashed out, tearing the black cloud apart. Then, it burst out with another Ice and Fire Duality Sword Array and shot toward the True Habitant of Nine Dragons.
Sent flying and coughing blood from that blow, the True Habitant of Nine Dragons’ face fell and he could not hold back from exclaiming, “No way! How could that strike of yours be that powerful?”
He had fought Jiang He before and Jiang He’s Ice and Fire Duality Sword Array could not do a thing against him at all then. It took the other stronger sword array to suppress him, but somehow the Ice and Fire Duality Sword Array that Jiang He had unleashed now could actually overwhelm a full-fledged Yuan Spirit like him.
Laughing out loud, Jiang He charged his Ice and Fire Duality Sword Array and bounded toward the True Habitant of Nine Dragons with utter arrogance, exclaiming, “I was merely a Yuan Spirit novice then. But now that I’m Yuan Spirit-intermediate, of course my abilities would improve drastically!”
Clang!
However, his strike was parried by a flying sword released by the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child.
“Convergence-intermediate?”
Jiang He, remaining fearless, burst out with his Sword Array of Five Elements and Six Pulses and charged toward Cloudy Sky.
Divine mists arose around Cloudy Sky then, and she used an unknown move to block the Sword Array of Five Elements and Six Pulses.
“I’m still too weak…”
Jiang He sighed inwardly with a look of utter helplessness.
Since he was merely Yuan Spirit-intermediate, he could not win against a Convergence-intermediate elite even with the Sword Array of Five Elements and Six Pulses. Moreover, they were too close to the isle below, and should the shockwave from their fight extend, his maid and pets might be hurt.
As such, Jiang He promptly threw out a Doom Shroom.
Would the True Habitant of Nine Dragons or the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child have seen one before?
The latter whipped out a long ribbon cloth that curled around the Doom Shroom and shattered it. All at once, a mushroom cloud of sparks erupted along with a resounding rumble—would there even be a trace of Jiang He left after the shockwave from the blast faded?
Over the horizon, Cloudy Sky appeared a little worn. Though her clothes appeared fine, she had actually used an inferior-grade sage item to protect herself from actually damage.
On the other hand, the True Habitant of Nine Dragons had suffered in comparison!
Without a sage item, his aura withered as the Doom Shroom left him coughing blood without end.
“Damn it!”
Blargh!
He cursed softly, pitting a mouthful of black blood and seething. “What was that? Such a terrible force… it could match a full-power blow from an average Convergence-tier elite!”
“A sage charm, perhaps.”
There was a fearsome flash in the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child’s eyes as she growled, “Let us return. That brat is far more troublesome than I’d imagined—there would be endless problems if we don’t eliminate him soon.”
A grudge was hence set between Jiang He and the Penglai Sect with no possibility of return.
With that being the case, they would never allow Jiang He to continue developing.
The True Habitant of Nine Dragons and the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child hence returned to the Penglai Sect.
But unbeknownst to them, in the ocean over their backs, a tiny particle flowing along the waves was following them from afar.
After the True Habitant of Nine Dragons and the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child had returned beneath the mountain-guarding array of their own sect, Jiang He appeared on the ocean’s surface in a flash. Scooping up the tiny particle, he stared at the direction from which the True Habitant of Nine Dragons and the Cloudy Sky Fairy Child had disappeared, a dark look showing upon his face.
“The Penglai Sect?”
“Hehe…”
It was only after a long while that Jiang He chuckled coolly.
He never once had a good impression toward those secluded immortal sects. It had especially worsened following the Sky Demons’ invasion, after he heard how Lin Tianzheng had knelt and pleaded the Penglai Sect and Wang Hou had begged the Taixu Sect of Mount Kunlun to offer assistance.
In fact, calling his feeling ‘disgust’ would not be an exaggeration.
Still, Jiang He would not have bothered himself with them if those secluded immortal sects did not provoke him and kept their act together when they leave their hiding place. But now that they had insulted him, Jiang He would not be Jiang He if he did not repay the favor.
“Still, I’m still lacking in ability.”
“There must be Mahayana-tier antiques among the sects. It would be impossible for myself to overwhelm them with my own power… for now, at least.”
Inhaling deeply, Jiang He took out a spirit condensation pellet and began cultivating.
Unwittingly, his Yuan Spirit rapidly grew.
Jiang He flew further into the oceans in a flash after that. He had put Dumbo, Trumbo, and the others in his farm already—he has no mood for games at all now that the immortal sects’ threat loomed like a dark cloud over his head.
***
Meanwhile, back at the Lingzhou City Martial Arts Department (MAD) at the Hua Nation, Duan Tianhe, Cheng Dongfeng, Pei Donglai, and Three Blades Lin were gathered at Duan Tianhe’s office.
They were drinking tea and looking through the window at Jiang He’s house from afar, as veins of mystic radiance flowed up in the air beautifully.
“Tut, tut.”
“Isn’t that Jiang He a little too much?”
“I say, did the kid start cultivating in his mother’s womb?” Three Blades Lin said, clicking his tongue in wonder. “Isn’t he just twenty-four… or was it twenty-five? Despite his youth, his martial arts cultivation is equal to my own, even ascending to Yuan Spirit as a cultivator. And now, he could lay out arrays too?”
Pei Donglai, who had always been a person of few words, could not bear listening to him just then and shot back with a question. “Brother, are you sure you are equals in martial cultivation? According to what I know, Jiang He is so impressive in martial cultivation that he could kill the Black King Drake at rank-eight, as well as the Violet-Crowned Golden Eagle and Golden-Crowned Black Eagle at rank-nine. He could fight the old man with his martial cultivation alone since he is divine-union now, and you have just reached divine-union yourself…”
Three Blades Lin cleared his throat and chuckled, “Why so serious, Brother? I was just exaggerating a little.”
Beside them, Cheng Dongfeng, Duan Tianhe, Chen Jingzhou, and the others laughed quietly.
Cheng Dongfeng, who was especially laughing non-stop, suddenly glared and cried out, “Look, there’s thunder over Jiang He’s house…”
Everyone promptly turned in the same direction only to find thunderbolts cracking above Jiang He’s house, with some actually striking ground and igniting flames upon it. Even from dozens of kilometers away, one could feel the terrific power the scarlet flames embodied.
“Is that an array too?”
Everyone traded glances, with Three Blades Lin almost leaving in a flash to see what was happening. Even so, he was stopped by Pei Donglai, who said, “Don’t go, Brother. Jiang He had already said that it’s merely an experimental array. If you go recklessly, you could get hurt, not to mention that you could affect his experiment.”
Three Blades Lin nodded, and turned towards the heavenly bolts and earthen fire with a pensive look.
An experimental array?
But wasn’t the power of that array utterly fearsome?
Even from so far away, he had the feeling that two of those heavenly bolts could blow him into smithereens.
Nonetheless, around two minutes later, the heavenly bolts and earthen fire was gone.
Three Blades Lin smiled. “You’re right, Brother. It should be Jiang He testing his array.”
***
Meanwhile, a thousand meters outside Jiang He’s house, Zhong Wanshan’s eyes were completely red as he cried, “Lin’er…”
“Mother!”
Beside him, Zhong Yue, who had just regained consciousness, was also crying out in heartbreak.
The Fourth Elder of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect, who was both a wife and a mother…
She had studied the array and proclaimed that she had a solution to crack the illusory array. That was why she had entered the array, although the Nine Heavens Thunderflame erupted after she had cracked it.
Being merely a full-fledged Yuan Spirit, she was instantly engulfed in heavenly bolts and earthen fire.
