Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
Hao Ren steadied his realm in the cave. Soon, Xie Yujia and the other three girls returned to the valley with the casualty information.
The three small sects had lost over 200 cultivators, one-fourth of their total headcount. More than half of the loss was Qi Refinement Realm cultivators, and the rest were Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. However, the Seven Star Sect lost a Core Formation Realm elder.
Xie Yujia and the others allocated 40 elixir pills to them due to their low realms. Level 4 elixir pills were too much for them to take, so several cultivators had to share one pill.
For the three small sects, surviving on the dangerous Fifth Heaven meant success. Although they had been prepared for sudden attacks, they didn’t expect that Sky Mountain Sect would attack them.
“Huh…” Hearing Xie Yujia’s words, Hao Ren sighed slightly.
On Fifth Heaven where all kinds of conflicts took place, the small sects with only dozens of years of history could be destroyed the next day.
“Are you ok?” Xie Yujia stood at the entrance of Hao Ren’s cave abode and asked him after telling him the situation.
“It doesn’t matter. I just have some damages in my meridians. Su Han was affected by Old Grandma’s dharma note by mistake, and she’s cultivating in your cave abode. Linlin, Lili, are you ok?” Hao Ren asked.
“Gongzi! We’re ok! We’ll recover gradually with cultivation!” Lu sisters said immediately.
With the best cultivation body type, their realms were only temporarily locked by the dharma, and they could beak the lock after a while of cultivation.
However, the situation was different with Su Han and the other Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. Su Han had the metal water body type, and most of the other Nascent Soul Realm cultivators only excelled in one elemental attribute. Like an invisible lock that trapped all five elements, the essence-locking note could only be dissolved by five-elemental nature essence.
“Gongzi, you must cultivate in peace!”
Afraid to disturb Hao Ren’s mind in cultivation, Lu Linlin and Lu Lili didn’t tell him the things they knew. Instead, they followed Xie Yujia and Zhao Yanzi to Xie Yujia’s cave.
In fact, by activating Zhao Haoran’s 1000 years of cultivation strength, Hao Ren’s nature essence was in chaos, and the smoothly-working Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll almost stumbled in each of his acupoints.
However, the streaks of mystic energy had locked up Zhao Haoran’s 1000 years of cultivation strength.
Zhao Haoran’s cultivation strength decreased each time Hao Ren used it. However, since this mysterious spiritual core already formed in Hao Ren’s body, it would suck away nature essence from Hao Ren to maintain its form like a black hole every time after use.
If not for the abundant nature essence in the valley, the assistance of the array formation in his cave, and the power of the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll, Hao Ren would have died of energy exhaustion!
While the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll was circulating with full force, Hao Ren became the agent between nature and the spiritual core. Hao Ren couldn’t move a muscle. If he moved slightly, his spiritual core would become unstable, and he would die!
If anyone pushed Hao Ren right now, he would explode immediately.
Bam!
In a secret chamber at Sky Mountain Sect, Duan Ye, the Sect Master of Sky Mountain Sect, slammed his palm on the table.
As a peak Core Formation Realm cultivator, he could charge into the Nascent Soul Realm anytime. His wife, Duan Yao’s mom, was also a peak Core Formation Realm cultivator. They both looked serious.
With bruises on her face, Duan Yao sat beside Duan Ye in clean clothes, biting her lip.
Sitting around the table were the eight elders of Sky Mountain Sect and Lingwu Master.
Although Duan Ye hadn’t reached the Nascent Soul Realm, he had reached peak Core Formation Realm. Equipped with the elixir pills stored in Sky Mountain Sect, he would surely succeed in entering the Nascent Soul Realm.
However, he might have to cultivate in seclusion for 100 years to reach the Nascent Soul Realm. Since he had to manage Sky Mountain Sect, and the new generation of disciples had not matured yet, he had been postponing the seclusion cultivation.
Since Duan Ye was a would-be Nascent Soul Realm cultivator and a favorite of Lingwu Master, none of the elders dared to look down on him.
After losing hundreds of Core Formation Realm cultivators, how could he, the Sect Master of Sky Mountain Sect, remain calm?
What was more? All the buildings on the hillside were destroyed, and the Scroll Pavilion on the back mountain collapsed while he was cultivating!
Ever since its establishment, Sky Mountain Sect had never suffered such a severe blow!
Even during the war in the cultivation world, Sky Mountain Sect only lost only two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators and over 60 Core Formation Realm cultivators. After entering Sixth Heaven, the sect had prospered. It had tens of thousands of cultivators and hundreds of Core Formation Realm cultivators!
However, the battle today cut the foundation of Sky Mountain Sect in half!
“Whatever the background of Ethereal Summit is, we must fight it out with them. If they attack us again after a short rest, we would all be killed.” Duan Yao’s mom looked at Duan Ye’s face and said after a moment of consideration.
The eight elders remained silent. After all, they knew that Ethereal Summit had two peak Nascent Soul Realm cultivators on its back, and it had connections with Eighth Heaven and a Soul Formation Realm cultivator!
With their unusual powers and special statuses, the Soul Formation Realm cultivators could be called Earthly Immortals who could travel on the land and in the heaven freely. However, the person who could cultivate in seclusion on Eighth Heaven was not an ordinary Soul Formation Realm cultivator.
Godly Cloud Dao, the sect that occupied the entire Eighth Heaven, was extremely arrogant and would kill the cultivators of Seventh Heaven if they trespassed onto Eighth Heaven.
Eighth Heaven kept to itself and didn’t have any dealings with any sects on Seventh Heaven. It was said that it had several Soul Formation Realm cultivators.
Ordinary Soul Formation Realm cultivators could move around on Eighth Heaven, but it didn’t mean that they could take a cave abode on Eight Heaven and cultivate there.
Therefore, the elders of Sky Mountain Sect knew that the Soul Formation Realm cultivator who was cultivating in seclusion on Eighth Heaven either belonged to God Cloud Dao or was powerful enough to rival with God Cloud Dao!
“Master, shall we… send a letter to Seventh Heaven?” Duan Ye asked.
Since Sky Mountain Sect excelled in making elixir and raising beasts, it was in good terms with a few sects on Seventh Heaven. Duan Yao’s Big Dipper Constellation Scroll had been acquired from a Seven Heaven sect through trading.
There were altogether seven sects on Seventh Heaven, and three of them had relationships with Sky Mountain Sect which provided them elixirs regularly in exchange for their protection.
There had been only four Nascent Soul Realm cultivators at Sky Mountain Sect. However, due to the fast development of the sect, five more Nascent Soul Realm cultivators appeared in the last 50 years, making the number of Nascent Soul Realm cultivators reach nine, far surpassing the other sects on Sixth Heaven.
About 200 hundred years ago, one sect was kicked to Sixth Heaven from Seventh Heaven, so the ambitious Sky Mountain Sect had been hoping to elevate to Seventh Heaven.
However, this battle turned all their efforts into nothing.
“Forget it!” Lingwu Master waved his hand.
“This…” Duan Ye looked at Lingwu Master in bafflement.
With Soul Formation Realm cultivators in the sects, the Seventh Heaven sects would help Sky Mountain Sect due to the good relationship between them.
Duan Ye knew their enemies had a Soul Formation Realm cultivator at their back, but Sky Mountain Sect wasn’t without its connections!
At least the two parties could settle this matter with the appearances of their respective Soul Formation Realm cultivators, and Sky Mountain Sect could be able to recover some of its losses!
However, Duan Ye didn’t know that the Soul Formation Realm cultivator who helped Ethereal Summit lived on Eighth Heaven.
After sensing that the Soul Formation Realm cultivator had attacked from Eighth Heaven, Lingwu Master immediately knew that Sky Mountain Sect had no chance of winning.
“That’s settled.” Lingwu Master’s eyes flashed. “Yao, you are grounded for half a month wearing Ice Fire Shackle!”
Duan Yao widened her eyes while her mom sighed and led her out of the secret chamber.
Ice Fire Shackle was a special dharma treasure which brought extreme cold and heat alternatively to the person who wore it. It was impossible to resist with nature essence for cultivators under the Nascent Soul Realm.
It was the harshest punishment except for destroying the cultivation physique. The cultivator with the Ice Fire Shackle on couldn’t eat and would start dying after ten days. In the 15 days of punishment, Duan Yao would die if her mom didn’t sneak elixir pills to her.
“As to Ethereal Summit…” Lingwu Master thought for a moment and said, “Pay them 30,000 spirit stones, 6,000 spiritual herbs, 20 level 3 snow lions, 600 blood condensation pills and… Ten mid-tier dharma treasures as our apology.”
“This…” Duan Ye widened his eyes, just like Duan Yao.
After losing hundreds of Core Formation Realm cultivators, the temporary reduction of realms for eight elders and Lingwu Master, the shattering of the Sky-Turning Stamp, and the destruction of their sect, they were going to… apologize to their enemies!
The supreme spiritual treasures were indeed powerful, but the Soul Formation Realm cultivators on Seventh Heaven must also have them!
Duan Ye was surprised that Lingwu Master, who had been an aggressive man, would come up with such a solution!
Lingwu Master waved his hand tiredly and said, “If they are still not satisfied, we’ll increase the compensation.”
“This…” Duan Ye was so stunned that he didn’t know what to say.
Duan Ye had come up with his ideas according to Lingwu Master’s personality. However, the aggressive Lingwu Master, who had gone through all kinds of great conflicts and killed several Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, now backed off!
“Eight nephew-disciples, you must hurry up and break the lock. If the guys such as Lieyang recover their cultivation strengths before you do, our Sky Mountain Sect will really drop to Fifth Heaven,” Lingwu Master said with an ashen face.