Chapter 515: Exertion of Dominance
AGM 515 – Exertion of Dominance
The path of leveling up one’s Mandate solely depends on one’s comprehension. Many people were unable to advance in their cultivation not because of a lack of resources but rather, because of the difficulties faced when leveling up their Mandates. Usually, only people at the peak of Heavenly Dipper would have Mandates at the Perfection Boundary of the second level. There were also many at the peak of Heavenly Dipper that even failed to achieve that, being stuck at the Transformation Boundary of their second level insight for the rest of their lives.
However, Qing`er was only at the sixth level of Heavenly Dipper, yet her Mandate of Space had already reached Perfection? One can only imagine how great the rush of impact this was to everyone present.
For people whose Mandates exceeded the level of their cultivation, these people would usually have outstanding, terrifying achievements in the future. They didn’t need to worry if they’d be stuck in their cultivation, unable to break through. This was an ironclad rule and hence nobody doubted that Qing`er would certainly be able to step into Celestial Phenomenon in the future. Although the step from Heavenly Dipper to Celestial Phenomenon was like a barrier that had blocked so many, it would be no trouble for existences like Qing`er.
“A Mandate of Space at the Perfection Boundary.” Even Shang Tong’s golden eyes were glazed over by shock. Earlier, he had still wanted to recruit Qing`er to the royal clan and become his consort, but now he understood that he might not even be able to control someone at her level. Qing`er, with a cultivation base at the peak of the sixth layer, and having her Mandate of Space at the Perfection Boundary? Even if he were to fight against her, he didn’t have the confidence that he’d prevail in the end.
However, what was unbearable to Shang Tong was that a goddess like Qing`er actually stepped out, because she wanted to help Qin Wentian.
“It’s her.” Jun Yu immediately recognized Qing`er the moment she walked out. He’d met this woman before in Grand Xia, and although he hadn’t considered Qing`er as being very powerful, she had still managed to leave a deep impression on him. After all, she was extraordinary in her bearing.
“Qing`er, I’m still not in mortal danger yet.” Qin Wentian smiled as he transmitted his voice to her. Although it was dangerous for him to fight over ten sixth-level Heavenly Dipper Sovereigns from the other eight great sects, the battle itself had yet to begin. In the past, Qing`er would definitely not appear until the last possible instance, but today, Qing`er was actually choosing to appear even before the battle had been fought? Her decision surprised him.
It would seem that after interacting with him for so long, Qing`er’s personality was subtly undergoing a change as well.
After all, for close to a decade, Qing`er had always protected him from the shadows. Back then, she was only following the orders of her master, Fairy Qingmei, but now, she willingly protected Qin Wentian. In this, she was following her heart and not because of her master’s commands.
“Oh.” Qing`er’s eyes blinked. And as the silence stretched on, just when Qin Wentian thought Qing`er wasn’t going to reply, she suddenly spoke.
“But…aren’t they bullying you?” Her melodious voice transmitted into Qin Wentian’s mind, causing him to be slightly stunned as currents of warmth flowed in his heart. Although the words she spoke were slightly strange for the context, this was precisely Qing`er’s personality.
With a gentle smile on his face, Qin Wentian stared at that fragile-looking, but beautiful silhouette standing protectively before him. Stepping out, he stood shoulder to shoulder next to Qing`er, and they faced the sixth-level Sovereigns from the eight great sects together.
“Qing`er, let me be the vanguard,” Qin Wentian spoke in a low voice. Qing`er glanced at him, before slowly nodding her head. “I will support you from behind then.”
“Okay.” Qin Wentian didn’t refuse. His aura exploded forth as he stepped outwards. Qing`er’s spatial walls were too incredibly dense—despite breaking free of their restrictions, even after the experts combined their strength and frenziedly landed several blows on the spatial walls, they still failed to breach the barrier.
“Bzz!” A raging wind gusted by, Qin Wentian dashed forwards, piercing out with his scarlet demon halberd. The spatial barrier between him and his target instantly dissolved into nothingness, allowing the scarlet demon halberd to descend onto the poor victim. As the halberd neared, a nightmarish dream-will gushed into his mind as scenes of blood and death played out, one after another. Qin Wentian resembled the god of demons as he wielded the halberd. When facing him, there was no way to resist at all.
Qin Wentian’s Mandate of Dreams was originally already at the Transformation Boundary. In addition to the augmentation provided by the scarlet demon halberd, his dream-will was basically inescapable.
“BANG!”
The demon halberd directly penetrated the head of the victim, instantly killing him. Qin Wentian’s movements didn’t stop, and he continued onwards to his second target.
Qing`er followed behind Qin Wentian, escorting him protectively. Whenever he neared a target, spatial walls would close around the three of them, separating them from the outside world. Born from the Mandate of Space at the Perfection Boundary, such innate techniques left the onlookers completely astounded. It was simply too terrifying.
“Puchi!” Yet another slicing sound echoed in the air. Very swiftly, another expert fell beneath Qin Wentian’s scarlet demon halberd. Held in a secluded place that was provided by Qing`er, it was a fair, one-on-one duel between Qin Wentian and his target. Yet despite being from one of the nine great sects, his target had no way to stand against him at all.
“RUN!” One of the experts on the stage abruptly called out, breaking the silence. If this carried on, they would all be slaughtered by Qin Wentian, one after another.
“Don’t even think about it.” Qing`er’s voice was ice-cold. With a wave of her hands, spatial energy erupted outwards, transforming into golden strands of space that formed into a spatial prison, locking up each individual inside a separate space.
“Spatial prison…”
Even the lead-representatives from the nine great sects were all similarly shocked by Qing`er’s prowess. The experts they’d sent were all already on the battle stage. But now that Qing`er had isolated them separately, they had no way to join their strengths. Since that was the case, then considering how overwhelming Qin Wentian’s strength was, there was only one path left for their members who had already stepped upon the stage—death.
And in the blink of an eye, already eight more experts fell to Qin Wentian’s scarlet demon halberd.
At that moment, Qin Wentian came to another segment of the prison and was facing off against an expert clad in blue, whose eyes flickered with a fearsome light.
Qin Wentian didn’t hesitate, and he directly stabbed out with his scarlet demon halberd as a resplendent beam of light fired forth from the center of his brows.
The blue-robed young man had an increasingly wary expression on his face after seeing Qin Wentian walk over to him earlier. At the instant the nightmarish dream-will gushed into his mind, he instantly pushed his palms out as an umbrella appeared before him, containing terrifying energy fluctuations. The instant it was opened, wave after wave of overwhelmingly destructive lightning energy converged together into a laser beam. Capable of turning anything it touched into dust, it blasted towards Qin Wentian.
“CAREFUL!” Qing`er called out. The lightning beam’s violet streak continued on its way. Qing`er instantly dashed in front of Qin Wentian and slammed a palm outwards, intending to extinguish the energy beam.
“RUMBLE!” The two attacks collided together, their respective impacts cancelling out the other. Qing`er angrily shot out a golden lotus, burying it within the blue-robed man as terrifying spatial fluctuations rocked the entire space. An instant later, a golden light imploded within the blue-robed young man as his body faded away into the void. The only thing that remained behind was that lightning umbrella.
Earlier, when he’d noticed this particular item appearing, Qin Wentian’s perception had already warned him of the dangers. He instantly executed Stellar Transposition to dodge backwards, while flinging the demon scarlet halberd towards the umbrella. Even after Qing`er and his halberd had absorbed part of the force from that attack, the shockwaves were sufficient to cause his skin to tear as fresh blood dripped out.
“Fifth-ranked divine weapon, a lightning-attributed, attack-type divine weapon.” Blood leaked from the corner of Qin Wentian’s lips, his countenance slightly pale. He didn’t think this man would possess such a trump card. In fact, with a fifth-ranked attack-type divine weapon, that person could have broken past the spatial prison and escaped much earlier. Yet, he chose to wait here for him, trying to mount a sneak attack to kill him for a chance to acquire the Heaven Mending Pill from Shang Tong.
“Imbecile,” In the direction of the Violet Thunder Sect, Yin Ting’s uncle cursed in a low voice. That lightning-attributed umbrella was a treasure of his and could only unleash the power of lightning bolts for a total of five times. He loaned it to that young man for the sake of killing Qin Wentian yet right now, the blue-robed man failed and his divine weapon was even taken away by Qin Wentian.
“MY SON!” An expert from the Violet Thunder Sect howled. His eyes reddened as he turned and glared dangerously at Yin Ting’s uncle. “Who are you calling an imbecile?”
“…” Yin Ting’s uncle shivered as he glanced down, not daring to say anything more despite the fury in his heart. He’d lost such a valuable divine weapon and Qin Wentian was still alive.
Qing`er’s animosity hadn’t dissipated yet, and she took out her anger on the cultivators trapped in the surrounding cells. Under her perfected control of space, no one could put up any resistance.
“Qing`er, I’m fine.” Seeing how angry Qing`er was, Qin Wentian stood up and a smile blossomed on his face. Qing`er turned her head to glance at him, but she didn’t say anything else.
“This divine weapon is no joke, I guess it should belong to an expert from one of the great sects.” Qin Wentian mused. He then stowed the umbrella away, before turning his sharp eyes towards the others before continuing his slaughter. Those people trapped on the battle stage all had expressions of despair. Qin Wentian alone was already extremely tough to handle, and now, even the monstrously powerful maiden Qing`er was also joining the fray. How could they even stand a chance against them?
The killing continued and after a while, other than those spectating experts who’d wanted to kill Qin Wentian earlier were all completely annihilated. Such a scene caused the nine great sects, who had sent out those experts, to feel pain in their heart. Their members had all perished. Not only did they fail to acquire the Heaven Mending Pill, they’d even even paid with their lives.
“Trying to bully one with many?” An old man from the Battle Sword Sect mockingly laughed. He then spoke, “Is there anyone who wishes to continue? Anyone below the seventh-level of Heavenly Dipper can come up the stage if they want to die.”
No one replied. Everyone knew that if they went up they would be forced to fight one-one-one against Qin Wentian because of Qing`er’s support. And if they fought one-on-one, they knew that in terms of using a weapon or fighting bare-handed, none among them would be able to defeat Qin Wentian.
“Can I join the Battle Sword Sect too?” Qing`er asked in a light voice. Lin Shuai glanced at her as laughter flickered in his eyes. “Just based on the fact that your Mandate of Space has already reached perfection, the test would have no meaning to you. You may.”
Upon hearing this, the other eight great sects felt extremely uncomfortable in their hearts. The Battle Sword Sect had already acquired a monstrous genius in Qin Wentian. And now, they would have the even stronger Qing`er? This made them all speculate, was it really worth not offending Jun Yu and Shang Tong for these two demon-level geniuses?
“These two are too unruly, on the battle stage we only seek guidance from others to improve ourselves and would usually stop short of the fatal blow. Yet these two killed all of them. We should remove the restriction limit of cultivation bases and kill them both.” Yin Ting’s uncle bellowed in rage—he was extremely unwilling to accept such an ending.
“That’s right! There shouldn’t be any limits imposed on cultivation bases.” An expert from the Yin Clan stood up and shouted.
However at this moment, in the direction of the Battle Sword Sect, an old man suddenly stood up. This old man seemed extremely calm, and in the next moment, his silhouette abruptly vanished, transforming into a beam of sword light, shooting across the space.
“ARGHH!” A miserable scream rang out, shocking everyone in the crowd. To their utter amazement, the resplendent beam of sword light could still be seen in the air but in the direction leading to the seating area of the Violet Thunder Sect. Yin Ting’s uncle’s eyes were wide-open in death, as though he’d died with regrets. Blood leaked out from the center of his brows as a gaping hole could be seen. Someone had actually assassinated him out in broad daylight?!
“Removing the restriction limit on cultivation bases, right? Who else wishes to kill the new disciples of my Battle Sword Sect? I’m right here waiting for all of you.” As the old man appeared up on the stage, that beam of sword light disappeared. He was just like an ordinary old man with no hints of any aura exuding from him. Yet, the swiftness of his earlier attack caused everyone’s hearts to pound in terror.