Chapter 389
Chapter 389
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 390
Chapter Title: Pre-Qin Qi Refiners
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Chen Shi revealed a smile, tilted his head to glance at him, and chuckled.
"I slew Young Master Ge, defeated Li Qianyun, Xia Tianjie, and the others, yet you still believe I might not best you? What if I defeat Yang Bi as well?"
Zhang You laughed.
"Perhaps I'm no match for Yang Bi, but in a fight to the death, who prevails is forever an unknown."
Chen Shi gave him a deep look.
Zhang You had never made a move, neither during the provincial exam nor in the Buddhist hell. Chen Shi had never seen him unleash any spells or divine abilities. However, Chen Shi was proficient in the True King Tomb's secret arts, which included the Zhang family's techniques.
Zhang You sensed his gaze—intensely aggressive and oppressive. In an instant, it triggered a resonance in his qi.
His own qi and blood began to circulate on their own.
This circulation immediately exposed his cultivation method.
"The Mystic True Spiritual Treasure Oracle! No—it's the Yellow Emperor's Dragon Head Scripture—" No, that's not right either. His qi and blood circulation bears traces of multiple methods."
Chen Shi was astonished. Zhang You's internal qi and blood refinement had become unfamiliar.
He had broken free from the confines of the Zhang family's ancestral methods. His technique incorporated shadows of various Zhang family arts, and even hints from other clans' methods, but that wasn't what surprised Chen Shi.
What astonished Chen Shi was that Zhang You's method now contained elements of his own creation.
He was still in the exploratory phase, but to fuse other methods and develop something uniquely his own—even if just a little—qualified him as a grandmaster!
For instance, the Heavenly True Daoist had created the Yin-Yang Tempering Art, refining away his own evil qi and suppressing his degeneration into evil—that made him a great grandmaster!
Zhang You was far from the Heavenly True Daoist's level, but he was still young and had already shattered the Zhang family's framework. His potential for growth was immense.
"To have an opponent like you in this world is a fortunate thing." Chen Shi laughed.
Zhang You stood silently by his side. After a long while, he finally said, "Thank you."
Chen Shi laughed. "For what? You deserve the praise. In the future, I might be the one to send you on your way."
Zhang You smiled. "If death is inevitable, dying by Scholar Chen's hand would be my honor."
Chen Shi shook his head with a smile.
"I have a friend named Li Tianqing. He's from a scholarly family too—"
"I'm different from Li Tianqing. He received no benefits from his clan, only burdens. But I was taught by the Zhang family."
"I learned their methods, ate their food, carried out their orders—so I must brave fire and water for them."
Zhang You bowed deeply in farewell.
"Thus, even if I realize the Zhang family is wrong, I must defend them, even if it shatters my body to pieces. Top Scholar Chen, farewell."
Chen Shi bowed in return.
After Zhang You left, the white-clothed female immortal finally dared to emerge. With so many people around earlier, she had been very uncomfortable. Now, with only Chen Shi by her side, she relaxed a great deal.
"Could she really be the Perching Dawn Abbey female immortal?" Chen Shi wondered to himself.
The white-clothed female immortal was butting her head against him, circling around him, nudging from his chest to his back. Lately, she had taken a liking to this childish behavior. Chen Shi suspected it was because her skull was growing back—after all, he had struck her very hard back then, possibly cracking her head open and damaging her brain.
"But if she's the Perching Dawn Abbey female immortal, her skull should be extremely tough. So she probably wasn't addled by my blow."
Chen Shi thought, "It must have been the imperial cabinet activating the True King Nine Halls that addled her."
But then he considered: what if the True King Nine Halls had only cracked the female immortal's skull without addling her?
Was it possible that he himself, hugging a massive boulder and hammering her cracked skull, was what addled her?
Chen Shi sighed, using his hand to block the white-clothed female immortal's head and feel around for any cracks in her skull.
The white-clothed female immortal stood perfectly still, extremely docile, letting him examine her head thoroughly. Then Chen Shi reached out to touch her cheeks, her ears, and lifted her chin.
The white-clothed female immortal's face flushed red from his touches, her watery eyes gazing at him.
Chen Shi pinched her nose, burst into laughter, and released her. He thought to himself, "Penglai is disrupting my mind—I won't let it succeed!"
The white-clothed female immortal resumed butting her head against him.
Chen Shi suddenly realized: "She's not itching her skull—she's imitating Wen Wuyu! Wen Wuyu and I once turned into ox-headed imps, butting heads back and forth!"
Having realized this, he laughed. "I'll indulge you then!"
He bent down low and clashed his head against the white-clothed female immortal's.
*Thud!*
Chen Shi's vision spun, stars burst before his eyes, and as he fainted, a final thought flashed through his mind: "Her head is so hard—"
When he awoke, his ears were still ringing, his mind somewhat dazed.
Chen Shi opened his eyes to find himself lying in bed. Yang Bi stood with hands clasped behind his back by the windowsill, gazing outside. The window had been pushed open at some point, revealing the view beyond.
"You're injured again."
Yang Bi noticed him stirring and turned around, shaking his head helplessly.
"Top Scholar Chen, you've been in the Upper Realm less than ten days and you've been injured three times already. If word gets out, others will surely say the Upper Realm tried to assassinate you. But I know the Upper Realm hasn't laid a finger on you."
Chen Shi touched his forehead, where a large lump had swollen up. Pressing it, it felt soft—probably filled with bruises.
"Your soul has been injured too. Even your soul's Dao field has a hole smashed into it."
Yang Bi said sincerely, "Can you tell me who did this to you?"
Chen Shi glanced toward the corner of the bed.
Yang Bi followed his gaze and saw the white-clothed female immortal huddled in the bed's corner, clutching the quilt with both hands. Her eyes were filled with guilt and a hint of fear.
Her black hair cascaded like a waterfall over her shoulders, with some draping onto the quilt. She must have been tending to him while he was unconscious.
"Could the Perching Dawn Abbey female immortal have degenerated into evil, repeatedly harming Top Scholar Chen?" Yang Bi thought impassively, withdrawing his gaze.
Chen Shi threw off the quilt and got out of bed. He felt a bit dizzy upon standing but quickly steadied himself.
He activated the Sixth New Symbol to temper his fleshly body. He thought, "I'm still too frail. I butted heads with her like a bull and she knocked me out. I need to cultivate diligently."
The Sixth New Symbol was the finest Combined Body Realm method he knew, tempering body, soul, and Dao field simultaneously. However, Chen Shi estimated it would take him two or three days of cultivation to fully recover.
"The injuries I've sustained in these past few days outnumber and outweigh all those from the previous three years combined!" Chen Shi sighed. Yang Bi could only smile wryly. He had thought that once Chen Shi arrived in the Upper Realm, they could have a match, but so many twists had occurred in between.
At that moment, the white-clothed female immortal in the bed's corner revealed a startled expression.
"Kin... kin..." she struggled to say. It was still halting, but much improved from before.
Chen Shi was puzzled when suddenly the white-clothed female immortal leaped from the bed, not bothering with shoes, and dashed barefoot outside.
Chen Shi hurried after her. He saw her run out of the White Lang Palace to the cliff's edge, then leap into the air. She flailed her arms as if about to plummet, but thunder light flashed beneath her feet. In an instant, she had mastered the Third New Symbol, treading thunder toward the source of the evil qi.
"Wait for me!"
Chen Shi too summoned a bolt of thunder light and pursued her.
Yang Bi chased after the two, gradually closing the distance with Chen Shi.
Ahead, the white-clothed female immortal wobbled unsteadily—clearly her first time riding thunder—but even so, neither Chen Shi nor Yang Bi could catch up.
The three streaked like lightning, pursuing one another, weaving between towering mountains and soaring past those colossal heavenly gods.
The heavenly gods fixed their gazes upon them, watching the trio like tiny insects.
They crossed thousands of li. The white-clothed female immortal's speed increased, and she grew more accustomed to the thunder method, making it even harder for the two men to catch her.
Suddenly, the white-clothed female immortal stopped and looked around in confusion.
Chen Shi and Yang Bi caught up to her one after another, halting their forms.
Chen Shi came to her side and asked, "Your kin's aura vanished nearby?"
The white-clothed female immortal nodded.
Chen Shi surveyed their surroundings. The area was picturesque with mountains and clear waters, but no heavenly gods stood guard. Otherwise, nothing seemed amiss.
Yang Bi's heart stirred as he looked around. He thought, "She can actually detect this place. It's only a step away from the Upper Realm's Jade Firmament Heaven! This Perching Dawn Abbey female immortal, though gravely wounded by the True King Nine Halls, still possesses extremely keen senses! I wonder if she can detect the Jade Firmament Heaven?"
The Jade Firmament Heaven lay within the Upper Realm, the dwelling of the thirteen ancestors—like an immortal paradise. The immortal qi flowing through the Upper Realm originated from the Jade Firmament Heaven.
At that moment in the Jade Firmament Heaven, the thirteen ancestors sat with colossal bodies, legs crossed, holding their breaths in concentration as they observed the trio.
The white-clothed female immortal grew more puzzled. Suddenly, she raised her hand and waved lightly.
In the Jade Firmament Heaven, the Xia family ancestor Xia Gongjin smiled. "She's found us!"
No sooner had he spoken than his expression changed slightly. The sky trembled as another layer of heaven and earth emerged.
Xia Gongjin, Gao Xuan, and the other eleven ancestors' faces changed drastically. The white-clothed female immortal had not breached the Jade Firmament Heaven's barriers, but unveiled another heaven and earth hidden in the void!
"The aura she sensed wasn't ours! It's someone else!"
Zhang family ancestor Zhang Longhu instantly realized. "Her 'kin' isn't us!"
Chen Shi and Yang Bi's hearts jolted. They stood呆呆 in midair, heads tilted toward that other heaven and earth.
A colossal palace gateway towered before them, soaring like a mountain peak, immensely thick and heavy, adorned with intricate multicolored patterns that glimmered with light.
This palace consisted only of the gateway and some foundations now, floating in the void, very close to the Upper Realm—as if one could reach out through the void and grasp the massive portal.
Yet the gateway was so enormous that even a heavenly god of the Upper Realm would seem a mere speck within it.
In the void behind the gateway floated other remnants of this immortal hall: bronze pillars, crossbeams, brackets, and roof ridges.
There was also an incomparably massive head, several times larger than the palace gateway, quietly drifting in the void.
The head appeared to belong to a middle-aged man, his hair in an ancient bun evoking the style of antiquity, though without clothing, his era was indeterminable.
His eyes were tightly shut, floating motionless there.
Behind this head lay a shattered continent, scattered chaotically in the void.
In the Jade Firmament Heaven, the thirteen clan ancestors stared dumbfounded at the scene. They had never imagined that a foreign, broken heaven and earth lay hidden in the void beside their own!
They had assumed the female immortal sensed their gazes, but what she detected was entirely unrelated to them.
Perhaps she had sensed them but paid it no mind.
Maybe as they expanded the Upper Realm, carving out vaster territories in the void, they had drawn nearer to this shattered realm in the emptiness, allowing its aura to leak out and be noticed by the Perching Dawn Abbey female immortal.
Zhai Zhongming examined the ruined immortal hall and murmured, "A shattered immortal palace. A dead immortal. Is he an immortal from the previous age? Why does he have a face like ours?"
"Pre-Qin Qi refiners!" Gao Xuan suddenly declared.
The ancestors' hearts shook. Xia Gongjin rasped, "It's possible! Pre-Qin Qi refiners from the Divine Continent of华夏 may have arrived in the Western Ox Continent before us and achieved immortality here. Some calamity befell them, and they perished."
"Is your kin... him?" Chen Shi asked.
The white-clothed female immortal nodded vigorously. "Kin!"
Chen Shi gazed at the enormous head. So this was the white-clothed female immortal's kin?
At that moment, heavenly gods flew in one after another, blocking them from that other world, preventing any approach.
The white-clothed female immortal glared furiously with wide eyes at these heavenly gods, waving her little hands and babbling "ah-ba ah-ba" nonstop.
Yang Bi couldn't help asking, "What is she saying?"
Chen Shi whispered, "She's cursing. And saying she found this place first, but you all stole it."
Yang Bi smiled wryly.
The heavenly gods were the soul incarnations of successive sect masters from the great clans, prioritizing clan interests above all. Thus, even though the white-clothed female immortal had discovered the place, the Upper Realm's heavenly gods claimed it first, denying them any chance to explore.
Chen Shi called out loudly, "This place looks extremely dangerous—you'd best not act rashly!"
A white-haired youth approached with a smile. "Thank you for the warning, Scholar Chen. Though dangerous, my thirteen clans should manage."
Yang Bi's expression shifted slightly upon seeing the white-haired youth and hurriedly saluted.
Chen Shi sized him up and down, certain he had never met this man before. "May I ask who you are?"
The white-haired youth had an ethereal bearing, like an immortal detached from the mortal world. He smiled. "Third-generation Grand Secretary of the True King Court, Gao Xuan."
His gaze fell upon the massive immortal head floating behind the gateway. "Rest assured. During the True King era, we dealt with similar things."
Chen Shi was slightly taken aback. "Dealt with?"
Gao Xuan laughed. "It's a self-sealed calamity or disaster."
Another elder approached, with white hair and brows, exuding an air of immortal elegance. He said gravely, "Fortunate that you found it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be long before this shattered world collides with the Upper Realm, unleashing the calamity or disaster suddenly—we'd be caught off guard. This disaster must be handled with utmost care, lest Desolation Slope discovers the Upper Realm!"
More men and women emerged from nowhere, all wreathed in immortal qi, handsome and elegant.
Chen Shi looked toward them, puzzled in his heart. "They are half-immortals too, perhaps even full immortals. Why didn't the True King slay them when he sealed off immortality?"