Chapter 421: First Realm, Fighting Beast
Nightmare Palace’s Young Princess had always had a consistently good reputation, and her veiled face only added mystery and expectation to herself. No matter which faction’s young expert it was, including the Soul Palace Young Masters, they all wished that they could see her legendary beauty.
Without a doubt, Princess Jin Rou was the focal point of all the males in the hall. Regardless of where she went, it was possible to see numerous devoted and enamoured guardians.
Princess Jin Rou had already noticed Chu Mu. At the beginning, she didn’t know it was Chu Mu, but after remembering that in Wogu City, Chu Mu had taken the fake name of Chu Chen, and carefully checking, she confirmed that this changed face person was Chu Mu.
Since Chu Mu didn’t come up and greet her, Princess Jin Rou naturally wouldn’t run over there for so reason. Thus, after looking at him a few times and remembering his appearance, she continued to courteously cope with these restless young men.
……
“Chu Mu, it’s Shen Yicheng.” Ye Qingzi lightly pushed Chu Mu’s arm as she spoke to him in a soft voice.
Shen Yicheng’s appearance caused Ye Qingzi to involuntarily quiver. She was clearly a bit afraid of this man still, especially encountering him at this location.
“You can hold onto me.” Chu Mu told her.
Ye Qingzi blinked her eyes and soon after understood his meaning. She, somewhat embarra.s.sedly, stretched out her slender arm and grabbed onto Chu Mu’s arm.
Shen Yicheng walked over to Chu Mu, alone. His expression was normal. Perhaps to him, he and Chu Mu were already at irreconcilable positions, but at such an occasion, he would never allow others to feel that he was akin to someone who had lost his cool and was seeking a to carry out a vendetta by intentionally running over to the person who had harmed him to needlessly start an argument.
“If you can’t reach the eighth realm, I’ll be very sad.” Shen Yicheng glanced at Ye Qingzi before speaking to Chu Mu.
“You soul has been restored?” Chu Mu looked at Shen Yicheng with interest and spoke to him in a provocative tone.
“You don’t need to worry about that.” calmly said Shen Yicheng. After speaking, Shen Yicheng’s gaze fell on Ye Qingzi again. With a mocking tone, he said: “Qingzi, are you relying on a faction or relying on a man? If it’s the latter, at least pick a man who is truly worth relying on.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.” Ye Qingzi aptly used the words Shen Yicheng had just spoken to reply.
A trace of anger flashed across Shen Yicheng’s eyes. After coldly sneering, he turned around and walked somewhere else.
An anger had already been ignited in Shen Yicheng’s heart. He had originally been amongst the strongest in the second grade and at such an occasion be sought after by numerous young generation members in attempts to get to know and curry favors with him; he would also be looked at by countless beautiful women throwing hints at him.
However, after that matter had occured, his reputation had plummeted. This could be clearly felt from the att.i.tude the people around him were giving him.
Shen Yicheng was a person who could swallow his anger and would absolutely not lose his mind over this completely different treatment he was receiving. However, the feeling of being looked down upon by the people who used to curry favors with him was truly extremely aggravating. Thus, Shen Yicheng silently swore that in the Battle of the Realm, he would definitely make every person present today, who was deliberately mocking and looking down on him, regret this.
……
Chu Mu merely symbolically walked around the hall a few times before leaving with Ye Qingzi.
Chu Mu and Ye Qingzi didn’t like these sorts of occasions, because neither of them had partic.i.p.ated in these social activities before while growing up. Instead, all their pa.s.sion was focused on their own matters. To them, to be able to achieve success through different means and make friends with everyone was very hard. They were only willing to interact with people who they already knew.
“Let’s walk in the forest?” Chu Mu turned his head and asked a question to Ye Qingzi.
After Shen Yicheng left, Ye Qingzi had continued walking forward purely out of her subconscious mind. When Chu Mu asked her this question, she suddenly realized that she was out of it and stealthily relaxed her hands.
Ye Qingzi nodded her head and followed beside Chu Mu.
They stepped on the soft leaves as they wandered around the slightly dusky forest. The two of them, neither of which enjoyed talking much, walked forward in silence.
Neither of them felt the silence was awkward either. They were both used to this feeling as if the two of them had been lovers for a long time already. Each was accustomed to the other.
“Why did you struggle so hard to escape only to return here just to vie for the second grade’s honor?” after awhile, Chu Mu broke the silence by asking Ye Qingzi a question as he looked her in the eye.
Ye Qingzi’s eyes were very beautiful and Chu Mu enjoyed gazing into them. They emanated intelligence, tranquility and always contained a l.u.s.tre of wisdom that could see the intrinsic character of something.
“The reward of the second grade’s ultimate honor is a spirit item. This spirit item can instantly raise the the fighting strength rank of any soul pet regardless of its attribute. In truth, however, a trace of my teacher’s surviving thoughts was integrated inside this spirit item. It happens to be my teacher’s dying words as well as…” at this point, Ye Qingzi paused and didn’t continue speaking. Chu Mu looked at Ye Qingzi and from her expression, he could feel that the reason why she didn’t continue wasn’t because she didn’t trust him, but because it was her own secret not to be divulged….
“Chu Mu, my brother and I will help you obtain the second grade’s honor. All of the other items will belong to you; we only want that item. Is that alright?” Ye Qingzi lowered her head and spoke in an very soft voice to Chu MU.
“You have continuously helped me control my soul temperature. My life is essentially in the palm of your hands and yours to command. How can I not agree to your request?” Chu Mu cracked a smirked and freely laughed.
“Shameless.” Ye Qingzi looked at Chu Mu who was smirking. A slight blush rose on her cheeks and her beautiful eyes revealed a charming expression.
Ye Qingzi inadvertently displayed a beautiful and flirtatious expression, causing his heart to beat a bit faster. He felt like there was a voice in his body telling him to use his arm and wrap it around this beautiful women who made one’s heart beat faster. It then told him to lean in closer to her face, before pressing his lips against her ice cold yet burning hot lips.
This voice carried a unique charm causing him to lose control of his own body. Yet, at the same time, there was another voice that unceasingly told him that if he did this, she would perhaps not reciprocate or feel it wasn’t right, or even tell him that he was rus.h.i.+ng things…
Chu Mu was clear about what sort of person he wanted, and didn’t enjoy forcing the issue on anything.
Chu Mu glanced once more over at Ye Qingzi, and found that her head was tilted slightly down. She was clearly brooding over something.
“Let’s obtain the spirit item for her first before speaking of this matter.” Chu Mu intelligently retracted his half raised arm, and continued to wander with Ye Qingzi in this small forest.
……
Ye Qingzi really was brooding over something, but she had also noticed Chu Mu’s half raised arm.
Ye Qingzi possessed the temperament to keep people far away from her and could resist all external things. She would thus deter all men who liked her and were vain for her.
However, in truth, when it came to truly knowing a man, Chu Mu was really the person who was the closest to her. Therefore, when she sensed Chu Mu’s action, she became extremely nervous…
Ye Qingzi didn’t deny that she liked Chu Mu, but in her view of emotions, liking someone was far from enough. It was just as Shen Yicheng had said before: she couldn’t love a man in such a short period of time because with her temperament, it would inevitably be the case that she use time to test the person who she truly wanted.
Chu Mu’s ultimate action to wisely retract his hand was a sign of respect to Ye Qingz,i because she didn’t like it when impulse and liking someone were the underlying emotions. Yet, she also clearly knew that if she could stay in a long term relations.h.i.+p with someone, she hoped it would be Chu Mu…
……
……
The start of the Battle of the Realm submerged the entire Tianxia City in a impa.s.sioned atmosphere.
Every compet.i.tor was exceptionally looking forward to the announcement of the compet.i.tion’s first realm. They resembled compet.i.tive runners ready to start the race. The moment the compet.i.tion authorities gave the command, they would shoot forth like arrows and fly towards the finish line.
Every compet.i.tor had been entered into a numbering system by the internal compet.i.tion authorities before being mixed up. Then, they would enter different break through realm rounds. This process was overseen by virtuous members of various large factions so there was no chance of cheating occuring. After all, the relations.h.i.+ps between the large factions wasn’t that harmonious.
Ting Lan had told Chu Mu beforehand that he had been entered into the ranks of the Realm Defenders. This meant that Chu Mu would be the defender of the realm for one of the realms of the rounds.
Of course, according to his strength estimated by the large factions, they naturally would not put Chu Mu, this second grade expert, in the first realm. In any case, there were many people who were striving for the third grade honor, so putting a second grade expert as the first realm guardian was not giving others any chance to compete for the honor.
Chu Mu, Ye Qingzi and Ye Wansheng went together to Tianxia City’s hall. From their respective compet.i.tion authority, they obtained their individual first realm round.
Their break through realm tasks were different from each other’s, but not too different. Ye Qingzi’s was to defeat any three opponents, while Ye Wansheng’s was challenging an expert.
As for Chu Mu’s, he had been a.s.signed to Soul Pet Palace, and was required to defeat all of the soul pets released in Soul Pet Palace’s Beast Fighting Arena.
Soul Pet Palace had raised many mature soul pets. Many of these soul pets had been captured by hunters and raised by Soul Pet Palace before being used to train soul pet trainers.
Beast Fighting was actually a relatively prevalent compet.i.tion of skill and method of issuing a challenge in the soul pet world. Chu Mu prefered actually fighting beasts in the wild and had never partic.i.p.ated in Soul Pet Palace’s Beast Fighting Grand Compet.i.tion.
The rewards in Beast Fighting Grand Compet.i.tion were extremely high; they were not inferior to seasonal compet.i.tions or annual compet.i.tions. Moreover, due to their comparatively authentic nature, the number of spectators were extremely many. Soul Pet Palace’s Beast Fighting was a compet.i.tion of skill and was a place where an expert should truly stand.
“Soul Palace - Chu Chen. Once you’ve finished preparing, enter the Beast Fighting Arena. You can select a difficulty.” said the compet.i.tion authority.
Chu Mu nodded his head. He had heard about this previously from Ting Lan.
While breaking through a realm, the referee would appraise a rank of difficulty according to the partic.i.p.ant’s capacity. He or she would be a.s.signed to the servant rank, warrior rank, commander rank, monarch rank or emperor rank. Once the appraisal ranks were composed, they would form the Tianxia Ranking and would be published in the most conspicuous place in Tianxia Hall. Those who ranked the best, would receive rewards.