Chapter 349: Master Shuiyue’s Resentment
The first day of the Hundred Challenges had ended. There were at least ten who had achieved successive wins, but the best out of them had only obtained three in a row. Most were like Jiang Chen, having reached two wins in a row.
Jiang Chen had voluntarily stopped, which left his scores slightly unimpressive at the moment, but also placed him solidly in the top ten.
He’d adjusted his strategy and even purposefully reined in his strength in the afternoon match, leaving many red herrings in the ring of gravity.
But even so, he’d been unable to shake off Master Shuiyue’s attentions.
Master Shuiyue usually had nothing to do with secular disciples, but she’d formed some prejudices against the mystic quadrant champion after hearing of Guo Ren’s matter.
This fellow’s enmity towards the Purple Sun Sect had been apparent in the ring of fire today. Although Ouyang Jian wasn’t one of her disciples, she didn’t want to see a Purple Sun Sect disciple being killed by someone else in the ring, so she’d interfered despite her identity as the keeper of this quadrant.
Master Shuiyue’s personality had always been domineering, and she was renowned amongst the four sects as someone without the slightest hint of womanly virtues.
Her name was that of someone who’d cast off all earthly shackles, but her temper was more fiery than any ordinary person’s. Her arrogance had been further reinforced now that she’d accepted a genius disciple with an innate constitution.
Jiang Chen had been born of the ordinary world and had dared publicly question her authority in the ring. Although his tone hadn’t been to the point of being openly hostile, it was already an enormous transgression in Master Shuiyue’s eyes.
She called up the images of today’s matches after returning to the examiners’ area.
Master Shuiyue felt that there was something amiss in the match between Jiang Chen and Ouyang Jian. She’d be watching on the sidelines, but hadn’t been part of the action and thus had no idea what’d actually happened in the ring.
However, even after watching the playback in the pricey recording gems, Master Shuiyue still came up empty handed.
“Ouyang Jian isn’t a mediocre talent. His ranking as first level and number 23 of all candidates in the earth quadrant are well deserved, thanks to his talents and cultivation. What does he rely on? He leverages his talents of fire and that Raging Tide of Flames, and Sixteen Blows of the Raging Python of Flames. However, his two trump cards seemed to have been useless against this secular swine?”
Master Shuiyue studied the images. She wanted to know, just what had happened?
Why had the Raging Tide of Flames ceased to continue when they’d reached three meters from the secular candidate? Why had all the angry flames suddenly disappeared when the fellow flourished his sleeve?
It wasn’t that Master Shuiyue was unable to do the same.
She had a natural affinity for water and she could enclose a thousand li in ice with one move. She could easily destroy Ouyang Jian’s Raging Flame of Tides.
But, what level was she at? She was a boss in the sky spirit realm, and only a step away from the peak of the sky spirit realm and one of the nine heavyweights of the Purple Sun Sect.
It was easy for her strength to destroy Ouyang Jian.
But could a secular candidate be mentioned in the same breath as her?
Master Shuiyue looked at the images a few more times, and a look of deep contemplation appeared on her still lovely face. “This secular swine is arrogant and intractable, and possesses great enmity towards my Purple Sun Sect. If we cannot subdue him, we absolutely cannot allow the other sects to have him. Otherwise, he’ll become a great scourge for our sect in the future.”
Master Shuiyue was a decisive person. Many ways to resolve the situation had already appeared in her mind when she examined the problem.
However, she still decided to first obtain forefather Sunchaser’s thoughts.
According to the rules, the four forefathers weren’t allowed within the four quadrants. Therefore, Sunchaser and the others weren’t located in the Eternal Spirit Mountain.
Elsewhere, Sunchaser suddenly snatched out with his hand. A message glyph landed in his palm.
It sparkled like a firefly for a moment as Master Shuiyue’s features appeared in his hand.
“Forefather, a secular genius has appeared in the earth quadrant. He’s the champion of the first selection. This person has bad relations with our Purple Sun Sect, please advise on our course of action.”
This glyph was quite marvelous. It disappeared when Sunchaser closed his hand.
“That freak genius with the boulder’s heart again?” Sunchaser murmured to himself. “Although the other three old freaks say that the disappearance of the magnetic golden mountain has absolutely nothing to do with him, why does my intuition keep telling me that the mountain’s disappearance has much to do with him?”
“I was anxious that day and asked him a few questions. It looks like although he submitted on the surface, he still held a grudge. Otherwise, why else would he still act with such enmity against my Purple Sun Sect disciples?”
To be honest, Sunchaser had held some expectations for the champion of the first selection.
After all, his results had indeed been stunning. Even if the best amongst the four sects had participated, they might not have gotten the same results either.
However, admiration was one thing, it didn’t mean that Sunchaser would unconditionally cater to a mere secular disciple.
“Contending with my sect? Interesting.” A vicious streak flashed through Sunchaser’s face. “A secular disciple lacks shrewdness in the end and can’t hide their thoughts. How easy would it be to emerge from the masses in this selection? Progress will be difficult after offending my Purple Sun Sect. Mm. Let’s roughen him up a bit. If he really is a worthy talent, I naturally have my methods to lure him into my Purple Sun Sect. If he’s just an overweeningly arrogant character and makes it out of the earth quadrant, there will naturally be countless geniuses who will kill him in the sky quadrant.”
When Sunchaser’s thoughts traveled here, he made some gestures with his fingers and sent out a message floating through the air in the direction of the earth spirit quadrant.
A spot of light landed in Master Shuiyue’s hands.
“Allow him free rein for now, there’s no need to suppress him. Recruit him if he can be tamed. If not, there are countless geniuses in the sky quadrant who will take care of him. You are an examiner, there’s not need to overly interfere.”
There was a tone of warning in Sunchaser’s message. It was obvious that he knew of Shuiyue’s temperament and knew that she often acted on emotions and easily destroyed plans. If she incited public anger and was censured by the other three sects, she would lose a great deal of face if she was unceremoniously switched out.
Light danced in Master Shuiyue’s eyes when she received forefather Sunchaser’s decree. She finally sighed a deep sigh.
“The forefather’s decree cannot be ignored. Can it be that I must watch this kid strut around in front of me over the next three months?”
Master Shuiyue didn’t dare go against forefather Sunchaser’s decree, but in the depths of her heart, she still didn’t wish to accept a secular disciple preening in front of her.
Even though Jiang Chen’s behavior was far from arrogant, the prejudiced Master Shuiyue still found him swollen with arrogance and was irritated by the very sight of him.
“When did such an abnormal factor arise in the secular disciples’ sixteen kingdoms? This child gives me an instinctive feeling of rejection and disgust. With my level of cultivation, I wouldn’t randomly form these thoughts. Can it be that his identity truly is suspicious?”
The thought that made Master Shuiyue the most uneasy flashed through her mind again.
“Jiang Chen was the one with the greatest reputation amongst the sixteen kingdom secular disciples before the great selection. Can he truly be Jiang Chen?”
Master Shuiyue had always had this speculation that hadn’t been able to be verified.
“If it really is Jiang Chen, then I am confident I can convince the forefather to change his strategy. However, this evidence will be difficult to obtain. The forefather obviously still has hopes to tame this child. But if it really Jiang Chen, he’s destined to be at odds with our sect. Mm, if I can find evidence that he is Jiang Chen, I will surely be able to make the forefather retract his thoughts…”
A hint of a cold smile eked out from the corners of Master Shuiyue’s lips. “Jiang Chen! Freak genius of the boulder’s heart! You better not be the same person. If you are, the four areas of the selection are destined to become your resting place.”
Master Shuiyue recalled the news that Chu Xinghan had brought back to the sect that day.
The second ranked disciple beneath her, Chu Xinghan, had brought back Long Juxue from the Second Passing in the Eastern Kingdom, and had also brought back the news that a mysterious man had saved Jiang Chen.
The mysterious man had also said clearly that if the Purple Sun Sect sent more people after Jiang Chen, he would personally demand an explanation from the sect. He’d also said that Jiang Chen and Long Juxue should settle their grievances themselves.
This problem had always been disturbing Master Shuiyue. This was also the reason why she hadn’t sent her disciples to pursue and kill Jiang Chen.
It wasn’t that she’d been scared by that threat, but that she felt that with Long Juxue’s talents, it’d be as easy as killing a dog to get rid of Jiang Chen when she grew into her own.
Therefore, she’d thought that there was nothing bad about letting Long Juxue handle the matter herself.
“Even Chu Xinghan had felt that this mysterious man was fathomless. His cultivation level is surely not less than mine. Jiang Chen then went to the Skylaurel Kingdom and stirred up quite a ruckus there. In this regard, the person who threatened Chu Xinghan might’ve been Ye Chonglou, spirit king protector of the Skylaurel Kingdom!”
Some traces of fear appeared on Master Shuiyue’s face when she thought of Ye Chonglou’s name.
As arrogant as she was, Master Shuiyue knew that there was still a gap between her strength and Ye Chonglou’s.
She’d just set foot into the ninth level spirit realm and touched the peak of the sky spirit realm. There were still many who could defeat her at this level.
However, although Ye Chonglou was also the peak of the sky spirit realm, he was the publicly acclaimed “spirit king”.
Ordinarily speaking, there were none within the same realm who could defeat those awarded with this title, or even come close to their level of cultivation.
Therefore, although a spirit king was the peak of the sky spirit realm and hadn’t set foot into the origin realm, he was someone that no ordinary peak of the sky spirit realm could measure up to. A spirit king was an invincible existence and one that could vaguely feel the doorframe to the origin realm. One was only a half step away from the next realm.
As cocky as Master Shuiyue was, she too felt a headache when thinking of Ye Chonglou and wasn’t willing to offend him.
“In my opinion, the person who threatened Chu Xinghan was likely Ye Chonglou. If he was the one, he does actually have the right to say such words. Humph. The great selection is an event being held by all four sects. What can he do? Blades are without eyes, and blows without mercy in the selection. No one can find fault if a secular disciple loses his life. Even if he wants to start something after the selection, can he be more domineering than forefather Sunchaser?”
As strong as a spirit king was, that was still within the radius of the spirit realm.
In the eyes of the four origin realm forefathers, a spirit king was just a spirit realm cultivator, in the end a completely different level from them.
Master Shuiyue’s mind was full of random thoughts. She intuitively felt that the freak genius of the boulder’s heart was possibly Jiang Chen.
But she had no way of convincing the forefather without tangible evidence.
