Chapter 48
Translator: penny
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Dao Tournament (6)
The faction where Ping Yurang was born, the Qing faction, was one of the two powers that divided the world's largest continent in half.
These two factions were perpetually locked in war over the cultivation resources on the continent. As a result, their cultivators—unlike those from other factions—pursued not quiet cultivation, enlightenment, and the Great Dao, but the Great Dao forged in the fires of killing and being killed through Dao combat.
Their sects, unlike High Heaven Sect where elders served as masters to support and guide their disciples, who in turn respected and followed their masters, operated more like armies. Disciples offered absolute obedience to their master's commands: fight when ordered to fight, rest when ordered to rest, cultivate when ordered to cultivate.
Ping Yurang. Age 355.
Three hundred and fifty years ago, she had been kidnapped by a cultivator from the Qing faction.
There, along with her, were a thousand other children. The cultivator called them out one by one and made them pick up weapons placed on a stone.
"Listen up."
At the cultivator's command, the first child grasped the weapon and strained with all her might to lift it.
But the weapon didn't budge an inch.
"A worm, eh."
Bam!
The cultivator instantly killed the child, who lacked the spiritual root aptitude to lift the weapon, then summoned the next one. That child burst into tears and tried to flee.
But she couldn't move a muscle and was dragged before the weapon, forced to grab it. Unable to lift it, she met the same fate.
By the time twenty-four children had died, it was Ping Yurang's turn.
Ping Yurang lifted the weapon with all her strength amid sobs, and it came up lighter than expected, sending her tumbling backward onto her rear.
Ignoring her, the cultivator examined the weapon. It glowed with yellow and red spiritual energy.
"Usable. A Two Elements Spiritual Root, is it?"
Someone might say: You could just glance at a child and gauge their spiritual root aptitude—why go through all this?
This was a hallmark of the Qing faction—and their rival power—cultivators: most embodied extreme traits. In such a brutal environment where the talentless couldn't survive, it was commonplace to sacrifice innate abilities unrelated to Dao combat as offerings in alchemy to boost one's cultivation base.
For instance, this cultivator had sacrificed his ability to perceive spiritual roots to elevate his base, hence resorting to this method to select disciples.
In the end, only three of the thousand children survived, Ping Yurang among them.
The other two had inferior spiritual roots, so he planned to raise them as "fodder" for her.
What the cultivator hadn't anticipated was that Ping Yurang never forgot her four-year-old little sister, who had been captured with her and burst apart in the process.
One day, Ping Yurang chanced upon a sword fallen from the heavens and presented it to her.
Adopting this dharma treasure, which she named the Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword, as her intrinsic treasure, she rapidly elevated her cultivation base through its wondrous power to condense the owner's combat experience into enlightenment. In the end, Ping Yurang slew her master.
"……."
Opening her eyes after recalling her past, Ping Yurang surveyed her surroundings.
The rowdy spectators looking down on the Dao Debate arena.
The High Heaven Sect elders silently observing from on high.
The Dragon Prince Worshipper Brigade, which had swelled a hundredfold in size over the past few days of the Dao Tournament, shrieking deafeningly.
The lively tunes of merchant vendors caught up in the festivities, treating the Dao Tournament as part of a grand festival while hawking their wares.
Amid it all, Ping Yurang focused solely on the man who had appeared before her so suddenly.
She was captivated by him.
It was a shock.
In that instant, she forgot the entire path of cultivation she had walked her whole life and moved entirely for that man.
The man who had shaken her Dao Heart to its core also boasted exceptional Dao combat prowess that transcended major realms.
She was drawn to that as well.
Ping Yurang followed her heart's pull to High Heaven Sect, entered the Dao Tournament, and now faced Yong Yoo once more in this fateful clash.
She liked the flow of it all.
"Ping Yurang of the Mountain River School."
Before the fight, introducing herself so demurely felt a bit ridiculous, and she found herself smiling unwittingly.
"Direct Disciple of High Heaven Sect's Sea Severing Peak—Yong Yoo."
Yeom Suk had defeated Je Sang-woo and advanced to the finals, awaiting her next opponent.
But Ping Yurang had no interest in Yeom Suk. All her attention was fixed on the man before her.
The moment Dao Debate began, Ping Yurang unleashed the formidable physical prowess of her dharma body twin arms, swinging the Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword faster than Yong Yoo could cast spells.
The Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword condensed her combat experience into enlightenment.
To that end, she wielded it aggressively in battle, naturally biasing her enlightenments toward swordsmanship.
She had learned minor spells like earth-forged weapons or fire-element attacks as contingencies for when she couldn't use her sword, but those were mere stopgaps—not her true power.
A massive slashing wave ten zhang long shot from Ping Yurang's Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword, and Yong Yoo countered simultaneously with a Water Essence Bullet Art fired from the nectar water in his Vast Bounty Gourd Bottle.
Kaboom!!!
The slash and bullet collided in an explosion. Right after, the aftershock of the slash pierced through, slicing across Yong Yoo's body in multiple places.
Ignoring the pain of his cuts, Yong Yoo whipped out his left arm. Ping Yurang spotted sharp winds erupting from beneath his left sleeve, swirling around her.
'Wind-element spell? …No, he's Foundation Establishment Realm.'
One could only learn spells outside one's spiritual root affinity starting from Core Formation Realm, when the root coalesced into a core.
'A treasure, then.'
Having identified it as a treasure, Ping Yurang gathered earth spiritual power into her Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword and swung. The resulting slash formed a solid wall, blocking the winds.
Obstructed by the slash-wall, the winds halted and revealed their true form.
Nine white needles—the Nine Sons Needles. Spotting them, Ping Yurang swiftly swung to bat them away. In that split-second distraction, a stream of fire shot from Yong Yoo and engulfed her.
But Ping Yurang absorbed the fire stream with her Blazing Wing Robe while casting an Earth Escape Art to burrow underground.
As Ping Yurang vanished into the earth, Yong Yoo recalled his Nine Sons Needles and used a Water Escape Art to take to the skies.
Ping Yurang had broadly slashed the entire Dao Debate arena. Feeling no feedback from her Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword, she realized Yong Yoo had flown skyward.
'Fled to the sky, have you!'
She immediately conjured weapons from the exposed earth in the arena's gashes with an earth spell and launched them skyward.
Yong Yoo deflected the incoming weapons with Blazing Palm Seals and Nine Sons Needles.
Ping Yurang, hidden in one of the weapons via Earth Escape, burst out stealthily the moment hers was knocked aside by a needle, swinging her glowing-red Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword.
The crimson blade ignited the air as it aimed for Yong Yoo's head.
Sensing heat on his nape, Yong Yoo panicked and entrusted all defense to the Nine Sons Needles while diving downward—but Ping Yurang adroitly pursued without mercy.
Realizing escape from the blazing blade was impossible, Yong Yoo formed hand seals to empower his treasure and unleashed his Refined Flying Sword. It swung with a scarlet edge to parry the Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword.
In the opening created by the Refined Flying Sword's block, Yong Yoo dove to the ground and fired multiple Water Essence Bullets mixed with Nine Sons Needles. Ping Yurang countered with a massive, wave-like slashing barrage.
'Her spiritual power is dense. Earth spiritual power, yet its intensity rivals metal spiritual power.'
Watching the slashing waves sweep away his Water Essence Bullets, Nine Sons Needles, and even his Refined Flying Sword, Yong Yoo pondered how to pierce that solidity.
'Blazing Palm Seals and other fire spells get devoured by the wing robe, and even my empowered Refined Flying Sword is easily blocked. She's wary of Seven Flash Starfall Chart too, denying me time to charge Water Essence Bullets. I need a powerful one-shot technique.'
Yong Yoo thought of Little Tiger lingering in his spiritual root.
'Save Little Tiger for Yeom Suk. Then...'
Decision made, he produced two treasures and one magic tool.
'Meant to save these, but no choice.'
The bracelet-shaped treasure and banner-shaped magic tool, acquired from Falling Star Sect cultivators, amplified spells.
Empowered by the two treasures and tool, Yong Yoo ignored the banner disintegrating after exhausting its spirituality and unleashed his spell in one go.
'Unified Sun Jade Seal.'
This spell, gleaned from the Blazing Palm Seal's secrets, differed greatly from simply expelling fire spiritual power from palm or sole.
The moment it activated, pure fire spiritual power condensed to its limit in Yong Yoo's hand, forming a miniature sun.
Yong Yoo controlled the tiny sun and hurled it at Ping Yurang in a flash. She urgently maneuvered her wing robe to block the Unified Sun Jade Seal.
But realizing the robe alone couldn't stop the densely packed spiritual power, she cast a Fire Escape Art to evade.
Yong Yoo pursued the fire stream Ping Yurang had become with his sun while launching Nine Sons Needles. The wind-transformed needles swirled violently around her, hindering her movement.
In the end, Ping Yurang couldn't escape and was caught by the Unified Sun Jade Seal.
Upon contact, it rapidly expanded hundreds of times over, blasting everything nearby with extreme heat and pressure.
Kabooooom!!!!
Even the array protecting the spectator stands couldn't fully block the shockwave and heat sweeping over the crowd.
"Arghhh!"
"Kyaaah!!"
The cultivators in the stands hastily deployed defensive spells or treasures, but Yong Yoo's Unified Sun Jade Seal wasn't done.
The erupting light intensified, as did the pressure, imprinting the sun's mark on the world as vividly as an emperor's jade seal on an edict.
When the Unified Sun Jade Seal finally vanished, only an enormous crater of unfathomable depth remained before everyone.
The moment all were certain of Yong Yoo's victory, Ping Yurang—who had barely escaped by sacrificing her Blazing Wing Robe—burst from the ground behind him via Earth Escape Art and swung her Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword.
But Yong Yoo, anticipating her breakout, clapped as prepared.
Clap!
Vines of wood spiritual power bound Ping Yurang's body, and ten incoming treasures flew past Yong Yoo to assail her.
Bam-bam-bam!
Ping Yurang used her Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword to deflect the Refined Flying Sword aimed at her, but couldn't block the Nine Sons Needles, punching nine gaping holes through her body.
The needles materialized immediately after piercing her. Bound by vines with thick spines embedded throughout, Ping Yurang gritted her teeth against the tightening squeeze.
As if there was nothing more to see, Yong Yoo turned and swung his Blazing Palm Seal-laden palm at her.
Ping Yurang dropped her Great Wisdom Heavenly Sword amid agony, forcing hand seals for an earthen shield—but Yong Yoo's palm melted it instantly and closed on her face.
"……!"
Ping Yurang stared at Yong Yoo's palm halted right before her forehead. He held still for a moment, then quietly withdrew it.
"Phew."
As Yong Yoo straightened with a sigh,
"Dao Debate concluded! Victor: Yong Yoo!"
The referee, who had fled far away, rushed over and declared the winner.
Bathed in the crowd's renewed cheers, Yong Yoo politely bowed to Ping Yurang, then recalled his Nine Sons Needles and Refined Flying Sword. Freed, she gazed at his Refined Flying Sword, Nine Sons Needles, Vast Bounty Gourd Bottle, bracelet treasure, and more, then spoke with hollow defeat.
"Next time, once I've gathered a bunch of treasures, shall we fight again?"
"Of course. Someone like Senior Ping is welcome anytime."
Yong Yoo gladly accepted her request and turned to leave the arena.
Ping Yurang persistently tracked his departing figure with an enigmatic expression until High Heaven Sect disciples escorted her to the medical ward.
"……Phew. Not easy."
As everyone anticipated the next bout, Yong Yoo consumed a pill bought from the market to restore his vitality, damaged from amplifying the Unified Sun Jade Seal's power.
To hide his full strength as much as possible, he hadn't used market-bought talismans, pills, Coiling Dragon Tempest Armor, Heaven-Fell Child Golden Crown, or Little Tiger—facing Ping Yurang solely with Refined Flying Sword, Nine Sons Needles, and spell-amplifying treasures.
Yong Yoo hoped his reckless gambit would pay off.