Chapter 44
Surely He Cheated
The will of the XianTai Stage had almost fused together with Yang Chen, with only three tenth left unfused. But when Yang Chen had reached the top of Heavenly Stairs, the fusion had started to rapidly slow down. It seemed that the excitement of the slaughter in the later part of the Heavenly Stairs was already enough to make the fierce will interested. The process of fusion finally halted slowly, a moment after Yang Chen had ascended the peak.
Even so, Yang Chen who was standing tall and straight at the top of the Heavenly Stairs was still emitting a killing intent, which could make everyone tremble and shudder, from head to toe. When those JieDan experts who were sitting nearest to him absorbed this intent, the nine of them who had sustained rather heavy injuries groaned and then, soon afterward, fainted. Only one person, Xu Cheng Xin, was conscious and although a fear had emerged from within his heart, he was still extremely delighted, because, after all was said and done, Yang Chen was still a disciple of the Pure Yang Palace and this was magnificent feat, which would add to the face of his sect.
Within Yang Chen’s body, a portion of spirit power that was valiant to the extreme rushed in. It had the strength of the blood essence, spat out by those JieDan experts in the final moment. Ten portions of spirit energy rapidly circulated within Yang Chen’s meridians, attempting to facilitate the complete fusion of Yang Chen with the will of the XianTai Stage.
After this fusion had stopped, the leftover spirit power began to crazily restore Yang Chen’s body. Ten JieDan stage experts, even if they had reached the state where the oil in the lamp had dried up, the blood essence they had released with their last spirit power was still far better, when compared to the medicinal strength of ten Profound Yang Fruits, moreover, this portion of spirit power had passed through the Heavenly Stairs and had been transformed into pure spirit power by this formation, which even rendered the need to purify the medicinal power unnecessary.
The Reverse Yin and Yang five phases crazily revolved, using this gigantic amount of spirit power it began to compress and refine it to the extreme. Fortunately, the Heavenly Stair’s spell formation had already slowly stopped working after losing the people responsible for managing the spell formation, otherwise, Yang Chen would not be able to endure this enormous spirit power.
His meridians expanded at an unprecedented pace. Luckily Yang Chen’s body has been transformed by the life essence of countless immortals, and had become incomparably strong, so although it had already been pushed to the extreme, it was still able to support him.
It was Yang Chen’s luck that the Heavenly Stairs’ sensory spell formation had discovered that a large amount of spirit power was required for the fusion of Yang Chen’s will and the will of the XianTai Stage, which was then pulled out from these ten JieDan experts. Currently, the fusion was still not complete, but if there were still people ready to take care of the spell formation, Yang Chen would absolutely explode, due to overflowing spirit power. If he were to be allowed to once again face the barrier, where the pressure had suddenly increased, the remaining spirit power was nothing he would be worried about.
Finally, someone discovered the current circumstances of the JieDan experts. Greatly alarmed, the people watching were unable to pay any more attention to him. Soon, Yang Chen began to have a moment of realization at the peak of the Heavenly Stairway. Thereupon, flustered people started appearing to support the ten JieDan experts and soon they started using their own magic potions to help them, trying to outdo one another. This time, could be used to sow good karma with JieDan stage experts. Compared to a few magic potions, this was far more valuable.
Gongsun Ling raised her head to look at the figure of that person sitting upright at the peak of the Heavenly Stairs and satisfaction flashed within her eyes, however she discovered, that within her heart, she was not all that amazed, as if it was a natural affair for Yang Chen to ascend to the peak of the Heavenly Stairs. This sensation was similar to the one that she had felt when she met Yang Chen for the first time, merely at that time she had not discovered this.
The people of the Thousand Autumn Pavilion very rapidly arranged a good place for Xu Cheng Xin to rest and Gongsun Ling also didn’t need to be worried about receiving any surprise attacks at this time, so she was simply sitting at the same place and began to comprehend what she had gained at the Heavenly Stairs bit by bit, very quickly entering the state of enlightenment.
Yang Chen at the peak of the Heavenly Stairs had to worry about someone approaching him with harmful intentions even less. Not to mention the many people who were attentively watching him, just the imposing manner emitted by his body could make people develop a sense of fear from far away and make their soul shudder, so there had been no one daring to approach within a radius of one hundred meters around his body.
An unconvinced and evil person launched a talisman gem. His intention was to probe Yang Chen’s breath, however as soon as the talisman gem had barely approached the circle of a hundred meter radius, that middle grade talisman gem immediately began to shudder as if trying to break itself free from its master’s control. Scared, the master of the talisman gem hurriedly withdrew the talisman gem. Just this one moment of effort had already caused the talisman gem to drop half a grade, making the talisman gem’s owner extremely regretful.
Seeing this example, naturally any other person did not have any thoughts either, everyone could only look at Yang Chen with a gaze which contained extreme envy, sighing in their hearts about the good luck of the Pure Yang Palace. Two disciples, one had reached the sixty second step, another had directly climbed to the top, could it be that from now on the Pure Yang Palace would greatly flourish?
The Reverse Yin and Yang five phases were operating automatically within Yang Chen’s mind, however, this time, it was unprecedentedly relaxed and steady. If the previous him had still not approved of becoming Heavenly Court’s executioner and seizing all sorts of opportunities, he had now completely approved of his previous decision.
The Heavenly Stairs were a Heart Finding Path, it made Yang Chen’s will even more resolute, and furthermore gave him a sense of direction. The fusion with the will of the XianTai Stage had already made him aware of what sort of road should he choose. At the time of his rebirth, Yang Chen had merely decided to not be the previous benevolent Yang Chen, but at this moment, Yang Chen had decided to become a Yang Chen who could face countless untold dangers and cut a bloody path through them.
The spirit power passed on from the Heavenly Stairway, like a gentle and unending stream, which made it relatively simple for Yang Chen to refine these ten portions of spirit power one by one. When Yang Chen had thrown himself wholeheartedly into refining this spirit power, the efficiency of the Reverse Yin and Yang five phases had greatly increased in the process, the speed of absorbing the spirit power had also increased somewhat.
The violent will of the XianTai Stage reflected its stubbornness abundantly at this time. The spirit power entering into Yang Chen’s body was immediately constrained by this will, not daring in the least to rush disorderly and create upheaval, allowing Yang Chen to be able to make steady progress in compressing and refining this spirit power, bit by bit.
The surrounding people had not idea what Yang Chen was doing, but seeing Yang Chen sit in meditation they all believed he has gained some enlightenment. The Heavenly Stairs suddenly emitted multicolored rays of light, as if, even without JieDan experts, it could still operate as before. No one was aware of what was happening, however, they did understand that they should not move recklessly. Countless messages were sent to each and every sect.
Those disciples of different sects meditating and comprehending at the foot of the Heavenly Stairs continuously began to wake up. Only Yang Chen was left sitting motionlessly at the top. In the next few days, these circumstances stayed the same and the sects near the Floating Mountain already sent many experts, while the injured JieDan stage experts also all woke up and began to heal.
Finally, Yang Chen awoke from this state. When he opened his eyes, he immediately began to check his body from top to bottom, he felt a relaxation which couldn’t be described in words. Within all of his body’s meridians, a portion of overflowing spirit power was incessantly migrating and this sensation made him extremely delighted.
After careful examination, Yang Chen jumped on the spot, scared by the change in his body.
The yin and yang five phases of spirit power within his body, which had been compressed and was refined, had already broken through the criterion of reaching the third qi layer. In other words, Yang Chen had unconsciously broken through the second qi layer and reached the third qi layer, after climbing the Heavenly Mountain.
Previously it had cost Yang Chen one year to break through from the first qi layer to the second qi layer: the first eight months he was burdened by the Hidden Pavilion, then he went through three months of bitter cultivation and finally, after just setting, out he spent time at the ancestor’s place, where, while he was trying to collect the sword box by borrowing spirit power from the underground spirit vein, he had broken through to the second qi layer.
From that breakthrough until now, merely half a year had passed at most. This half year Yang Chen had leisurely followed a routine to cultivate and didn’t try to painstakingly upgrade his strength. Who could have thought that with the assistance from the Heavenly Stairs, he would surprisingly make a breakthrough to the third qi layer?
It was not that his total spirit power had increased and he had broken through to the third qi layer because of that, but rather, after using the Reverse Yin and Yang Method, the spirit power had become highly condensed and compacted, and at the same time it not only consisted of just a single phase of spirit power, but rather all of the five phases. Furthermore the five phases have both yin and yang spirit power, which would absolutely surpass an average third qi layer disciple.
What made Yang Chen even more surprised was that, because of the fusion with the will of the XianTai stage, his body had seemingly began to emit killing intent which was visible to the naked eye again, it was only because of the multicolored light reflected by Heavenly Stairs that the other people did not clearly notice it. Moreover, this killing intent was condensed to the extreme, it only appeared in a radius of a hundred meters around him, outside of this region other people could barely sense some fear, but it couldn’t make their souls shudder as if they were in front of a killing god.
This kind of killing intent, was the best result of Three Purities Secret, thinking about this, Yang Chen opened his eyes after sensing the changes within his body, and immediately closed them again, beginning to cultivate the second stage of Three Purities Secret.
The killing intent covering the surroundings of his body slowly began to get absorbed, this was the killing intent that the XianTai Stage had accumulated over countless years, condensed over thousands and tens of thousands of years, perhaps an immortal could utilize it with more power than Yang Chen, but it was still better than ordinary cultivators. Even under the crazy absorption of the Three Purities Secret, it still took a day and night worth hard work to transform everything into spiritual awareness.
With the assistance of this killing intent, Yang Chen’s spiritual awareness finally reached the level of an expert at the peak of the foundation stage. The spiritual influence completely scattered and as it did, it directly enveloped an area of several hundred meters and each and every moment in the surroundings seemingly started to be monitored by Yang Chen.
After spending seven or eight days of time, Yang Chen had increased his understanding of the Heavenly Stairs to the maximum. Apart from the people of the Pure Yang Palace, Thousand Autumn Pavilion and Gongsun Ling, nobody else was watching. Yang Chen’s waking up hadn’t given rise to a great many people’s attention.
Nevertheless, for someone to reach the peak of the Heavenly Stairs, this had already caused a ruckus in the entire cultivation world. In those days when Shi Shan Shan climbed to the sixty third step of the Heavenly Stairs it had already caused a great commotion and anyone who had eyes could see how rapidly Shi Shan Shan’s cultivation had improved afterwards and everyone in the cultivation world had tried to gain Shi Fairy’s favour. In association with this, even the ranking of the Green Jade Immortal Islands had increased among the sects of the cultivation world.
At that moment Pure Yang Palace showed off two talented disciples, one person climbing to the sixty second step, Gongsun Ling, and the other person was Yang Chen, who had directly climbed to the peak of Heavenly Stairs. To what sort of change this would lead, no one knew.
The only thing that was certain was that, Yang Chen and Gongsun Ling would definitely spread their names under the heavens as cultivation geniuses and Pure Yang Palace would possibly shine in the future because of these two extraordinary talents.
Shi Shan Shan and Gongsun Ling had a difference of just a single step. Thanks to her graceful and elegant bearing, as long as she does not make any large blunder, maybe not long ago in the future the name of Gongsun Fairy would also be heard.
As for Yang Chen, no one dared to judge anything. Actually, no one had thought highly of Yang Chen’s potential or rather they were just unsure to what extent Yang Chen’s future will become better. As for the reason, Yang Chen’s spirit root was very common, his will however was pretty firm, rarely seen in one’s life. Everyone who had seen him ascend the Heavenly Stairs had already admitted to this point.
However, a person with a firm will but common aptitude, was still not equal to Shi Shan Shan or Gongsun Ling’s natural talent whose wills were also pretty good. With regards to the cultivation world, people who were wholeheartedly cultivating but not having any advancements were many, like a river of garbage, but there were not many who could stick out. After all, cultivation was a thing dominated by talent.
Xu Cheng Xin had recovered by quite a lot in the past few days, the wear and tear of his spirit power should be recovered within one month according to his estimates. These past few days were also the proudest days for Xu Cheng Xin, in the past all of the other sect’s dispatched disciples would climb over thirty, forty or fifty steps of the Heavenly Stairs, and afterwards brag in front of Xu Cheng Xin, but this time, at last it was his turn to stand out among his peers.
But unfortunately, the other nine JieDan experts were still getting healed. Their injuries were at least ten times more serious than his, even having their cultivation fall down one level, originally they were at JieDan fifth stage but now they were at JieDan fourth stage. Although this was only a small difference of one realm, but this could not be recovered with just cultivating for ten days or half a month, at the JieDan stage it would take at least five to ten years to be able to advance again. This was a huge loss, but it was too late for regret for these people.
If they had known earlier, they would not have followed that guy from the Tian Quan Sect and make things difficult for Yang Chen. A disciple at the second qi layer, how could he threaten them? They immediately came up with attacks on Yang Chen’s identity as an executioner, however they hadn’t anticipated that for the other party this was not a weak point at all, but on the contrary had helped Yang Chen succeed in climbing the Heavenly Stairs. If they had known about this earlier, maybe they would have just followed the routine. If they had stopped using this as his weak point after he had climbed the first few steps maybe he wouldn’t have been able to climb to the peak.
However regretting now had no use, they could only accept this fact. Suddenly falling down one level and even getting seriously injured, now, at least, they would not have to see Xu Cheng Xin show off, so he couldn’t annoy them, maybe this was a very small compensation by the heavens for them!
Even if these JieDan experts who had ulterior motives didn’t speak much, the same did not apply to other people. To step to the peak of the Heavenly Stairs, what great honor was this, how could a second qi layer disciple with mediocre talent achieve this, moreover before he had started with his cultivation, this guy was an executioner who killed people without consideration, so his hands were dyed red with blood.
“How could it be that Pure Yang Palace’s Xu Cheng Xin just had his spirit power exhausted, while the other JieDan stage experts had a drop in level?”
There were plenty of people who were not convinced, so finally, when the experts of other sects arrived, they raised this objection.
Even Xu Cheng Xin didn’t know the reason, he was only sincerely controlling the spell formation and the other nine JieDan experts found it embarrassing to speak out about their thoughts. Nine JieDan experts trying to suppress a second qi layer disciple, declaring this would not suppress Yang Chen but rather would add to his splendor.
“That Pure Yang Palace’s Yang Chen, surely he is a fraud!”
When people raised these questions, immediately someone raised even bigger questions, Greatest Sky Sect’s JieDan stage expert Cheng Wen Cai, after listening to the words of his sect’s younger generation, immediately started talking as if he was giving a verdict:
“That guy, must be killed!”