Pre-Chapter translator note: Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 67, Two Flower Petals
"Tenth layer Zhen Qi? Which tenth layer existence is that?"
"Who is this person?"
"When did Ling Wu sect have a person like this? Wasn"t there only the Ten Seeds?"
Within the valley, Mu Yi and the others exclaimed in surprise. Evidently, the person"s methods of concealing (his strength) had skirted their attention. Lin Xue and Su Mengyao had expressions of disbelief. Now that the opponent had revealed his strength after concealing it from day 1, the crowd of disciples were concerned.
Zi Chen had been struck in the pit of the stomach. He hurtled towards the lake. The python moved to receive Zi Chen and draped him over his back.
As a Xiantian python, it had a high intelligence. It knew that within the group of human cultivators, everyone but Zi Chen was out to get its blood. Hence, it decided to do him a small favour.
Zi Chen climbed to his feet and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. No matter how powerful his physique, he had still drew blood.
"Hmph! You"re still too inexperienced to fight with me." The youthful figure lightly landed back on the ground. Sneering, he pocketed the Water Spirit Flower in front of Zi Chen.
"What, still unwilling? After receiving a punch from me, how much battle strength do you think you still have?" The youth snickered.
Zi Chen said nothing. If this strike had hit him anywhere else, he would have sustained heavy injuries. However, when it hit the pit of his stomach, his mysterious heart had worked its magic. Zi Chen had only suffered superficial injuries. The blood he had coughed out before was only from his blood surging.1Honestly, I have no idea who came up with the brilliant idea of how spitting out blood means injury
"Youngster, you"re still too naïve. Being so foolhardy just because of having some strength, is practically begging for death. You have quite the guts to kill the Inner sect"s Ten Seeds. When you return to the sect, obediently accept your punishment. I trust Senior Brother Chen Feng will take a deep interest in cold-blooded murder of disciples of the same sect," the youth grinned sardonically, like an elder chiding a mischevious junior.
After a few deep breaths, Zi Chen injuries had fully recovered. He faced the youth stonily. "Are you done farting?"
"I beg your pardon?" The youth"s sardonic grin was immediately replaced with a chilling stare.2Translations put he turned gloomy but my inner writer won"t allow that
"I asked if you were done talking fart. If so, then obediently pa.s.s me the spirit medicine and I"ll leave you with a full corpse." Zi Chen repeated flatly.
"Talking big," the youth fumed, "Come and get it if you can."
"As you wish!" Zi Chen shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, totally unlike a heavily injured person.
"You aren"t injured?" The youth"s expression changed.
Zi Chen"s ferocious battle power was something everyone knew. Zi Chen was not weaker than him in any way. He had previously ambushed Zi Chen and wounded him, which was why he dared to be so pompous in his words. But Zi Chen had came out of his attack unwounded. It seemed that Zi Chen"s physique had pa.s.sed his expectations.
"Alright f.u.c.ker, seems like I have underestimated you. I had not thought that your physique was this strong." The youth admitted, bursting with tenth layer Zhen Qi. This was the eleventh existence in the Ling Wu sect that possessed tenth layer Zhen Qi. However, he had concealed his strength. Because of Chen Feng, the elites at the tenth layer of Zhen Qi that could enter the Spirit Medicine Garden were not many. The people that entered the Spirit Medicine Garden were largely subordinates of Chen Feng.
"The things that you haven"t thought of yet are still many." Zi Chen had already reached the rock. Drawing back a clenched fist, he struck at the youth.
The air whistled. The two attacks collided together.
"Peng!"
With one exchange, the youth had already backed up several steps, his face drained of colour. Zi Chen stood motionless, unaffected by the exchange.
"You"re this trash, and you still dare to act so unbridled," Zi Chen sneered. He had managed to grasp the level of his opponent"s strength in one exchange, and his opponent"s strength was evidently shallow. Pushing himself forward, Zi Chen struck out furiously several times.
"Peng!" "Peng!"
The sounds rang out unceasingly. The force of their battle began to split apart the rock beneath them. Finally, with a shuddering crack, the rock underneath their feet shattered.
The two figures stumbled as they landed into the water. The Xiantian python reappeared, grabbing hold of the two people.
"Peng!"
Zi Chen lashed out once more, repeatedly battering the youth against the serpent"s body.
The youth already had a swollen face and a b.l.o.o.d.y nose. He had finally realised the gulf between their strength. He had considered himself strong. If compared with Zi Chen, he believed there would be little difference. However, in this actual fight, he had realised the huge disparity in their strength.
"Without self-awareness, you still want to lecture others. You sure like to talk big." Zi Chen pummelled him.
"You"re also Chen Feng"s lackey. How reckless, hiding your strength so deeply." Walking upon the serpent"s body, Zi Chen stepped towards the youth.
The youth"s arm was stamped on. With a snap, the youth"s arm broke. The youth cried out in anguish.
"Wonder why I"m not using the Thunderbolt Finger? It"s because I"m afraid that it"ll damage the spirit medicine, although it"ll kill you in one hit. Garbage like you with strength so little only needs my bare fists." Zi Chen stomped on him again. Evidently, the youth"s ambush had left him less than pleased.
Snap! Another arm was forcefully stomped on by Zi Chen.
The youth screamed in anguish, crying out over and over again. Cold sweat trickled off his face. He stared at Zi Chen in terror, begging for forgiveness. "Zi Chen, I was wrong… Please spare me, this spirit medicine is yours. I can also vouch not to not report to Chen Feng anything that happened here."
"The spirit medicine was always mine." Zi Chen dug inside the youth"s clothes and drew out the Water Spirit Flower.
The Water Spirit Flower was l.u.s.trous, like a piece of jade. Under the glaring beams of the sun, the flower was dazzling. The fragrance of the flower tickled his nostrils, relaxing his mind. A thousand-year spirit medicine only bore fruit once in a millennium. It was a spirit medicine that was hard to come by. Examining it up close, Zi Chen discovered that the flower already had a trace of it withering. That meant that the blossoming was soon to reach a thousand years. When it wilted, it would grow a new Water Spirit fruit — a new thousand-year ripe fruit.
"The spirit medicine is nearing its two-thousandth age." Zi Chen"s eyes glowed. This was a treasure not seen much.
"The spirit medicine is yours. Can you let me off now? I promise not to saying anything pertaining to the Ten Seeds," the youth gasped.
Zi Chen kept the spirit medicine. "The spirit medicine was always mine. As for your life, I won"t kill you. However, I have no idea if you will be able to find your way out of here alive."
"As long as you don"t kill me, I can-!" The youth spluttered with elation. Of course, in his heart, he was more than prepared to double across Zi Chen. Before he had even finished, he felt strong gales of wind sweep against his body. The waters rumbled. A b.l.o.o.d.y mouth opened up in front of him. With a cracking sound, the razor teeth of the serpent had already snapped against the undefended youth"s body. The youth was swallowed.
At this moment, within the vast lake, there was only one man and one snake. Many broken logs and pieces of wooden rafts floated upon the surface of the lake. As for the others, a good lot of them had already retreated after spotting the python. The remaining disciples retreated upon seeing the battle that ensued between Zi Chen and the youth.
"Let"s go!"
Zi Chen stood on the python"s head.
The python was surprisingly obediently. Zi Chen was satisfied. The python had actually saved the lives of everyone present. It had killed Xu Yan, and Zi Chen had ate its energy fountainhead. The python was still not dead, so Zi Chen was also unwilling to kill the python.
The python brought Zi Chen back to the lake"s side again. It stared at Zi Chen"s stomach, a reluctant look in its eyes.
"Does this have any use to you?" Zi Chen produced the Water Spirit Flower from his clothes.
The python nodded its head wistfully. Then it seemed to realise what it had just done, and hurriedly shook its head, backing away from Zi Chen in fear.
"You helped me to defeat a big enemy. I have much grat.i.tude towards you and will not kill you. As for this Water Spirit Flower, it also has its great use to me. I"ll give you two petals of its flower. I hope you can recover your strength someday," Zi Chen gently said. Reaching out a hand, he plucked out two petals from the Water Spirit Flower.3I had to. I had to, okay. It put that Zi Chen said this entire thing indifferently but rly. Does this dude have a perpetual face of stone. Changed "indifferently" to "gently" because it fits sooo much better.
The bright petals melted into translucent liquids upon leaving the flower. However, they held together like gelatinous solids, and did not scatter apart. Within each semi-fluid contained an exceedingly dense amount of spirit power. They sparkled like smooth pearls under the sunlight, every inch resplendent. With a point from Zi Chen"s finger, the small pearls glided towards the serpent.4"Gelatinous" is slightly original[footnote]
With eternal gratefulness, the serpent swallowed down the two petals and dived back into the depths of the lake.
Zi Chen left the lake. Numerous eyes of envy and fear followed him.
The fight in the valley was reaching its end. Ferocious beasts began to scatter and flee leaving a sea of corpses in their retreat, both beast and human alike.
But Miao Kong and Zhang Haotian were at home here, scavenging many corpses. Not for collecting spirit medicine, but for collecting contribution points.
Miao Kong operated a qing"gong skill, nimbly darting from body to body. n.o.body could outdo him. Zhang Haotian took an even more direct approach; whoever tried to compete with him for hunting contributions points would get knocked away with a fist. Simple and cruel.
Zi Chen opened his mouth to say something upon seeing his best friends pilfering from dead bodies, but his weak protest was bulldozed by Zhang Haotian. "Death is not enough to pardon their crimes. Don"t bother with these things."[footnote]He referred to them as inanimate objects, effectively degrading their value. He tells Zi Chen not to treat them as human basically.
Zi Chen didn"t exactly have a good impression towards the deceased here. They had bailed out when he needed help, alright. However, the fact they had even spoke rudely and tried to discourage others from helping while maintaining a tone of righteousness was outright repulsive and vile.
"Senior Brother Zi Chen, what"s the plan now?"
Disciples approached Zi Chen after cleaning out the battlefield of ferocious beasts. "Ling Chen is outside. We need an idea to get out of here."
"Whoever"s with you, get out of my sight." Before Zi Chen could even reply, Zhang Haotian scowled darkly, his voice laced with poison.
"Senior Zhang Haotian, this is wrong. Now that we"re on the same boat, we should be cooperating together."
"That"s right. People should not be too selfish."5Lmaoo f.u.c.k off snakes
"Ling Chen is outside. We should work together instead of fighting with one another."
The group of disciples discussed amongst themselves.
"Now you know how to work together. Where the f.u.c.k were you guys before? You inhumane pieces of s.h.i.t, completely disappear from my sight!" Zhang Haotian snarled.
"Senior Zhang Haotian, this is wrong. We admit that our actions before were less than satisfactory, but we had no means of interfering. After all, it was still an issue within the Ling Wu sect."
"Yeah, Ling Wu sect has its customs. Fights within the disciples of its sect cannot be interfered with."
"That"s right, the 6 month time limit in the Spirit Medicine Garden is coming to an end soon. We still need to return to the sect."6Unsure of what this is referring to, so I"ll leave this here for potential translators. "不错，再说半年的事情很快就到，我们还要回到宗派，毕竟那里才是我们的天地。"
Some disciple had more meaning to their words.
"As long as Senior Brother takes us out, we will definitely be grateful to Senior Brother. When we return, we will not say much."
"Today, Senior Brother Zi Chen has displayed powerful might. When he returns to the sect, he will probably cultivate much. We can support Senior Brother in his interests, and help to spread word of his mighty power, so that Ling Wu sect disciples will adore Senior Brother Zi Chen."7They plan to spread news of his power so that others will find trouble with him when he becomes popular.
Some people even dropped naked threats.
"I had always thought human nature was beautiful. Who would"ve thought my impression of human nature would have changed this dramatically in a day after seeing so many shameless people. Zi Chen, let"s go." Su Mengyao who had been silent all the while blurted out. She could no longer stand it. She pulled Zi Chen by his cuff to the exit of the valley.
"Senior Sister Su Mengyao, you ought to be careful. Ling Chen waits outside. His nature is not any less than Xu Yan"s. We can leave together, the more people the more power…!" Another Ling Wu sect disciple called out. However, his words caught in his mouth as a figure burst towards him with tremendous speed. Like a demon, it appeared in front of him. At the same time, black light loped towards the disciple"s neck.
Chapter 67, END
Post-Chapter translator note:
If I had a nickel for every snake in here…
This time, there"s no cliffhanger so I don"t feel pressured to update it. Whew.