Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
BANG!
Xu Que felt an invisible, colossal force coming at him from all directions. This force hit his body in an overwhelming manner and then imprisoned it.
He felt as if he’d been zipped up into a sack. All parts of him, the front, back, and sides, were closed in by barriers, which were keeping him imprisoned and also squeezing him hard from all sides.
“Xu Que, with regard to your proposal, the three of us have accepted it. However…” Li Xuanqi’s voice rang out very close to Xu Que’s ears.
Xu Que glanced over at Li Xuanqi, who was looking at him without any expression. His lips moved, however, as he soundlessly communicated, “…there is a condition. You have to issue your apology in advance. Moreover, you have to suffer through this kind of punishment as a form of apology. Otherwise, how could my Heaven Palace Academy and the Sage Sect convince the crowds that you were being punished?”
“Oh, you…” Xu Que answered with a grin.
But he wasn’t allowed to finish his words. Li Xuanqi cut him off and said without emotion, “You have no choice. From now on, you will have to face our punishment, which is called death by a thousand cuts. Until tomorrow… Once we see your two Divine Artifacts, we will naturally let you go. But if the Divine Artifacts don’t show up, then at least you will realize what will happen to you.”
After saying that, Li Xuanqi waved his hand.
SWISH!
He shook the roomy sleeves of his robe through the air. The boundless Qi suddenly amassed from all directions and quickly turned into a huge blade that was flashing with cold, metallic sparkles and pointing toward Xu Que’s chest.
WHOOSH!
With a deafening sound, the blade cut through the void and landed on Xu Que’s body. Xu Que’s clothes were shredded into millions of pieces on the spot, but when the blade hit the surface of his skin, a series of sparks could be seen floating in the air, as if someone had been welding.
“Dang!”
The scratching of metal on stone could be heard. The blade that Li Xuanqi had somehow caused to materialize had failed to cut through Xu Que’s flesh. Instead, after raising a shower of sparks, it had flown away and been broken up into Qi in the air and then been dispersed by the wind.
“Huh?”
Li Xuanqi and the two Celestial Kings of the Sage Sect were blown away and completely flummoxed.
“How is his physical body…this strong?”
All the people who were present and watching this whole performance were also dumbfounded to a man. They looked in astonishment at Xu Que’s body. The surface of his fair skin seemed to be shining with specks of gold in the sun.
“What a powerful physical body.”
“Wow, even a blade formed by a Celestial King can’t wound his body?”
“The strength of his physical body must be even stronger than the Divine Being of Taoist Fetus’s.”
Everyone was yelling about their opinions.
The Divine Being of Taoist Fetus, Ming Yixuan, was also astonished at this moment. He found the whole thing incredible, and he stared at Xu Que’s body with clenched fists.
He had resigned himself to the fact that even if he entered the Celestial Stage of the Great All-Embracing Heaven and cultivated the Divine Being of Taoist Fetus to its peak cultivation stage, he wouldn’t be able to achieve what Xu Que had: i.e., holding up against a Celestial King’s blow and remaining unscathed.
“No way, this is absolutely impossible. How can there be a physical body stronger than my Divine Being of Taoist Fetus in the world?” Ming Yixuan’s expression was changing, gradually becoming more and more sinister.
The Divine Being of Taoist Fetus had always given him a superior quality that he was intensely proud of. He had been better than everyone during his entire lifetime, and only now he was being forced to discover that he wasn’t as good as this nobody. How could he ever accept this?
“I haven’t seen him in years, and he’s developed to such an extent.” Jiang Hongyan also watched Xu Que with bright eyes, which were actually glistening with tears of joy. She was happily surprised by Xu Que’s strength developing so fast.
“Holy Senior, ah, you are unaware to a large extent. It is not known how many benefits this boy has reaped over these years. However, Your Holiness and Master Duan have not even gotten a taste of it. Your Holiness is so mad that I’ve even lost weight.” Buttface puffed out his cheeks and grumbled, even sighing and shedding a tear or two. However, Jiang Hongyan knew him well enough not to take anything he said very seriously.
“Well, well, what Master Buttface says is correct.” Duan Jiude also sighed and lamented, as if he too had unspeakable grievances.
The next moment, a pair of cold eyes fell on Duan Jiude.
Duan Jiude started shaking on the spot and quickly shut his mouth. He beamed as he looked at Zixia Fairy and said, “Grand master, I’m an old man and I may have misspoken. I momentarily misspoke. What Buttface said was simply inhuman.”
“Damn, Old Man Duan, have you no sense of shame?” Buttface was instantly annoyed.
Mo Junchen couldn’t stand it any longer and communicated soundlessly, “You two, stop it and just shut up. Hurry up and figure out a way to save the Faction Leader. The sooner it’s accomplished, the better.”
“Save him?” Buttface and Duan Jiude spoke at the same time, asking in puzzlement, “Why do we have to save him? Is he in some danger?”
Jiang Hongyan and Liu Jingning also looked curiously at Mo Junchen.
Mo Junchen was suddenly struck completely dumb.
“What the h*ll? How can you look at me, a Guardian, with this kind of expression in your eyes?”
“Don’t tell me that I, a Guardian, has said something wrong?”
“Can’t you see the Faction Leader was imprisoned and is about to suffer their punishment of death by a thousand cuts?”
“Well, Holy Senior, I hope you don’t take any offense at what Mo Junchen is saying. This fool is a newbie, a Guardian that our Exploding Heavens Faction has just recruited. He doesn’t understand the rules yet.” Buttface reacted to what Mo Junchen had said and explained the situation to Jiang Hongyan.
Jiang Hongyan shook her head in understanding, and then she turned her head and continued to look at Xu Que.
“Was Xu Que in danger?”
“No.”
The followers who’d been with Xu Que for the longest amount of time definitely understood him very well. If he had been in any danger, this fool would definitely not be putting on such a performance.
In all these years that they’d known him, when had this guy ever consented to getting the worst of any situation?
Just based on how he’d used an illusion to achieve his aim with underhanded means, they realized that he was deliberately wasting time and getting ready to enact some kind of devious scheme.
In particular, the three Celestial Kings had also suddenly changed their minds, from not being able to wait to kill Xu Que immediately to slowly torturing him to death. It made Buttface, Duan Jiude, and the others understand that Xu Que had absolutely said something to the three Celestial Kings through soundless communication that had influenced them.
No matter what he had communicated to them, they all knew that the three Celestial Kings had been duped.
Moreover, after the appearance of the three Celestial Kings, Xu Que hadn’t said anything to any of them through soundless communication. This was enough to demonstrate to them that their boy had figured out how to obtain the victory in this battle, and furthermore it was well within his grasp. Most likely, he still had a hidden trump card somewhere which he was keeping as a backup. Anything else, it wouldn’t have been in keeping with what they knew about his character.
“Grand master, you mustn’t merge your Taoist Body by any means. This boy is extremely devious…ahem, I mean that this boy is resourceful. Don’t look at him suffering tight now. The three Celestial Kings are going to be the ones who will be most likely going to cry in a very short while.” Duan Jiude also didn’t forget to remind Zixia Fairy about what Xu Que had told her, since he was afraid that his grand master didn’t understand the situation, and might merge her Taoist Body to save Xu Que.
“I’m aware!” Zixia Fairy calmly nodded.
“How could she not know what kind of person Xu Que was?”
SWISH!
At that moment, another blast rang out through the air again.
This time, Li Xuanqi brought out a Celestial Artifact, which was a white sword. It looked exactly the same as the ink-black sword that was suppressing Xu Que from overhead, and it had been produced in the same way. A pair of swords, one black and one white.
The ink-black sword continued to suppress Xu Que while the white sword showed off its capability. The white sword had just been brought out and it had already left a faint mark from its edge on the void.
“F*ck, are you trying to kill me? Don’t you want those two Divine Artifacts?”
Xu Que took a look at the situation and got a little nervous. He angrily shouted at Li Xuanqi through soundless communication.
It could be said that he wasn’t afraid to suffer death by a thousand cuts because there was an automatic recovery ability in the System. He only had to suffer a little and not die.
But the white sword that Li Xuanqi had now introduced was rather ferocious. It had only stayed in the air for a second, and yet it was actually able to leave a mark in the void with a single cut. Would it be disastrous if it were to fall on his own body?
If this were to be played out here by any chance, would he have to pay with his life?
“Oh, so you can actually show fear also? Don’t worry, even if you want to die now, it’s impossible. If you don’t hand over the Divine Artifacts, however, you will discover whether you qualify for death.” Li Xuanqi sneered. His voice communicated clearly in Xu Que’s mind.
The two Celestial Kings of the Sage Sect were also full of shady smiles and sized up Xu Que’s physical body with ill intentions.
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, the white sword that Li Xuanqi was holding started moving.
It transformed into a streaking light and flew directly toward Xu Que. It flashed and faded in front of his chest, leaving only a shadow.
At first, Xu Que only felt a chill at the front of his chest, but immediately after it was followed by a sharp pain.
A wound had opened up on his chest. A second-rate Holy Body couldn’t endure a High-Grade Celestial Artifact wielded by a Celestial King.
No, this might not be something that a High-Grade Celestial Artifact could do. The ink-black sword overhead and the white sword complemented each other in order to produce such enormous power.
Soon, a trickle of blood flowed out of the wound on Xu Que’s chest, and it was suffused with a golden sheen.
“Golden blood?”
“My God, how can his blood be golden?”
“It’s…unheard of!”
“Can it be possible that this guy is not a human being?”
Almost at the same time, everyone present started exclaiming in shock, one by one, and looking astonished.
The three Celestial Kings’ faces also abruptly changed, as if they had just discovered a startling major event.
“Such a physical body as well as golden blood. Could it be…” The three Celestial Kings all looked at each other at the same time and said in unison, “A Holy Body?”
“Even though the so-called Holy Body in the records of ancient books is only a conjecture, the deductions of the Divine King and Hades have also been recorded, that if anyone has successfully achieved the Holy Body, he was no longer mortal. Even the blood will transform and become golden.”
When Li Xuanqi realized this point, he glanced at Xu Que again and said, “What exactly is this boy’s background?”
“Hee, hee, hee, no matter what his background is, regardless of whether he has a Holy Body or not, we are the ones who are going to profit today. Quickly, draw this boy’s blood out. We can also have the bloodline of a Holy Body.” The old woman Celestial King of the Sage Sect said excitedly.
“That’s right. Even if it’s not the Holy Body, once we absorb the golden blood, our physical bodies can rise to countless stages. If my Sage Sect’s Divine Being of Taoist Fetus were to absorb this blood, he could possibly be promoted directly to the true Divine Being.” The white-haired old man Celestial King of the Sage Sect was also excited.
At this moment, the Divine Artifacts that Xu Que had mentioned previously couldn’t be compared to the temptation of the golden blood that was sitting right there, in front of them!
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
In an instant, Li Xuanqi moved his mind, and the white sword instantly transformed into a streaking light in the air, which then interspersed in the void to interweave a concentration of swords rushing at Xu Que.
“D*mn, these three old things…”
Xu Que immediately got angry and berated these Celestial Kings to himself. But almost at the same time, his mind suddenly exploded.
DING! “Congratulations to the Host. The System upgrade has been completed. Your current version is now version 11.0. This system will navigate and protect you again.”
DING! “The System has detected that the Host has cultivated a variety of Magic Arts. Would you like to use the optimization mechanism to merge and upgrade the Magic Arts? The best optimization solutions have been filtered for the Host, please make your choice.”
DING! “The System has detected that the Host’s life is currently in danger. Would you like to enable the System’s defense mechanisms?”
DING! “An attacker has been detected. Would you like to enable the retaliatory mechanism?”
A series of familiar System beeps sounded in Xu Que’s mind.
The entire System interface had also changed, from a small window in the beginning to the current comprehensive surround-sound three-dimensional light projection in front of him.
Just looking at the new functions and capabilities spread out and displayed on it stunned Xu Que.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…”
The next moment, Xu Que suddenly started laughing out loud. He swept his gaze toward Li Xuanqi and the Sage Sect’s two Celestial Kings. He shouted, “You three old b*stards, you’d better cry for me if you don’t want to die!”
…..
