Chapter 120 – He Feng
The figure stood on the mountain"s peak as the pa.s.sing wind swept across his body, his hair dancing in the breeze. He was clad in beast hide, and a savage aura radiated from him.
He was precisely the man whom Su Ming saw the previous night.
Blood veins surfaced from his body, forming a vast ma.s.s of blood qi that seemingly stirred the surrounding, only surpa.s.sed by the pressure of an Awakened. He was not yet at the awakened realm, but the number of blood veins on him had exceeded that of typical limit of seven hundred and eighty-one. At one glance, there were more than eight hundred.
His severe expression not only demonstrated his resolution, but also a ruthless determination to win at all cost.
"It"s He Feng!"
"It"s actually him! There were rumors that he had already attained the eleventh level of blood condensation, but his three attempts to breakthrough into the Awakened realm have failed. Even so, his strength is definitely the strongest besides the five awakened cultivators if we exclude the three ruling tribes of the city..
"He is one of the rare few in this city who came from a small tribe, and for some weird reason, prefers to wear the beast hide from his small tribe. His reputation is probably exaggerated by the ma.s.ses. Tackling the Han Mountain Chains is him overestimating himself!"
Besides Cang Lan whom managed to reach the sixth chain of An Dong Tribe ten years ago and was accepted into the Frigid Sky Sect, rarely does anyone succeed.
Su Ming looked at the man on the mountain top, his expression calm. However, his eyes subtly glinted. It was his first time hearing of the Han Mountain Chains, thus he carved this into his memory.
"In the recent couple hundreds of years, a total of sixty-five individuals challenged the Han Mountain Chains. This He Feng is the sixty-sixth. Out of the sixty-five though, only five had succeeded. An ancient voice sounded from the third level of the crowd. It belonged to the elderly man whom Su Ming encountered in the shop.
Walking forth without haste, the elder man watched He Feng who was in midair.
"Failure will result in death, although even that is not absolute." The elderly man muttered slowly, his expression calm.
Presently, not only did Han Mountain City sank into a furore of excitement. The reverberating bell rings had also aroused the attention of the three peaks that were connected to the city. It was obvious that He Feng"s challenge was taken seriously by the three ruling tribes.
Practically everyone was guessing which tribe"s chain would He Feng pick to tackle.
On the mountain peak, where the three chains intersected one another, He Feng"s eyes glinted astutely. He first set his sights upon the chain connected to Pu Qiang Tribe, but his expression quickly turned cold. That would not be his choice. Watching the mountain where Yan Chi Tribe was situated, the peak was shrouded in a heavy red mist. The face of a women seemed to fleet in and out in the mist.
Drawing a deep breathe, the savage-looking man raised his feet. Looking at Yan Chi Tribe"s chains, he approached it.
His every move was watched with antic.i.p.ation by the entire city, which had already sunk into a furore. Under countless gazes, He Feng had reached the chain that connected to Yan Chi Tribe, just about to take his first step.
A surge of pressure large enough to envelope all blood condensation cultivators in the city erupted suddenly from the second level. A purple-robed figure hurriedly came forth, stepping on air, seemingly in the direction of He Feng.
"He Feng!!" The purple figure immediately gave a low growl.
His voice was akin to thunder and resounded all around, threatening to deafen everyone. He Feng who was atop the mountain gave a shudder. Turning around fiercely, his expression was complicated mix of hatred and panic.
"An Awakened cultivator… …" Su Ming"s sight was fixated on the purple figure. Taking a deep breath, the present him no longer felt the awe and fear of the first time saw an Awakened cultivator.
"Lord XuanLun."
"That is Lord XuanLun, one of the five awakened cultivators not part of the three tribes."
Excited bursts of voices sounded out, obviously the majority of the people here did not expect that when someone was attempting to breakthrough the chains such a change would appear.
The purple robed figure stepped into the skies, but at this moment HeFeng"s figure stepped towards the chain leading towards the Dignified Lake Tribe, a cold harrumph sounding out from within the red mist.
The harrumph sounded distant but landed clearly within the ears of the purple robed figure causing his body to shake but not stop, he continued onwards towards the peak, his right hand transforming into a claw shape as he struck out.
He Feng"s face was pale but he did not dodge, rather he stared directly at the approaching purple robed figure, the momentary panic instantly transforming into a dense hatred.
As the purple robed man"s claw approached and collided with He Feng, all of a sudden a red mist erupted from He Feng and transformed into a fog screen.
With a bang, the purple robed man"s right hand collided with the red mist, his body shook as he was tossed several tens of zhang away revealing his appearance. This purple robed person was a middle aged man, with a gloomy expression filled with killing intent.
"YanLuan, what is the meaning of this!"
(TLN: Just to clarify this Yan (颜) in the name is the same as the one in the name of the tribe Dignified Lake (颜池) and Luan (鸾) is the same as the mystical Luan bird)
"I don"t care about your personal grudge with He Feng, but as he has chosen to walk the chains of my Dignified Lake, you are not to harm him. This was what was decided back then by the three tribes, I am sure even the Dusk Nomad Tribe is unwilling to disagree." A cold maiden"s voice slowly transmitted out from the Dignified Lake Tribe"s Peak in the distance.
(TLN: the I used here is (本座) which is the dignified way of saying I that kings use, but I feel that literally translating it as "This seat/throne" sounds funny in english so i"ll just leave a note here instead)
The entire Han Mountain City fell into silence, Su Ming too stood there as he witnessed this scene, his mind flashing with last night"s scene where this He Feng person anxiously waited for the white dressed maiden with a veil.
"That was not just one voice, perhaps it"s two…… the woman last night mentioned that he had to make use of one day"s worth of time to prove his worth. It would appear that this He Feng"s choice to try and breakthrough the chains is precisely to do this. But just what worth is he trying to prove…… If he wanted to join the Dignified Lake Tribe, there should be no need to do this, after all failure here would almost certainly mean death." Su Ming looked at He Feng and the purple robed man near the peak, without much guesswork required, he could tell from their conversation that the hatred between the two of them is not shallow.
"This XuanLun should know quite abot about this, but clearly he is worried about something which is why he had no choice but to choose to strike now, disregarding the three tribe"s regulations." Su Ming deeply thought, but as this matter truly had nothing to do with him, he would stop bothering about it after a little thought.
The purple robed XuanLun"s expression was gloomy but although he was clearly wary of the woman, he did not really want to give up. As Su Ming had guessed, he truly had no choice but to strike now, otherwise once the person dies, the thing he is trying to obtain would be lost as well
In his opinion, this person is definitely not going to succeed.
At this moment, from another mountain peak, within the Dusk Nomad’s peak shrouded in a black mist, from within the meditating skeleton, a grim voice reverberated across the skies.
"XuanLun, Han Mountain City prohibits personal fights!"
"Very well, but this man has killed my followers, his corpse, your Dusk Nomad Tribe is going to help me hind it!" The purple robed man coldly sneered after a moment of silence. With a flick of his sleeves, his body landed on the mountain peak and sat cross-legged, his smile towards He Feng growing colder and colder.
"You are the valued guest of my Dusk Nomad Tribe, this matter shall be done." The gloomy voice once more came from within the mountain peak shrouded in black mist.
As Su Ming witnessed this, his gaze landed on the man called He Feng. Under his watchful gaze, he saw this He Feng walk towards the chain.
As he moved, the surrounding people instantly forgot about everything else as they turned to watch. After all, this was something that did not happen often in Han Mountain City, in the past hundreds of years there were only sixty or so attempts.
Even the purple robed XuanLun too coldly looked over, his eyes filled with hatred as he stared at HeFeng"s figure, seeing him slowly walk towards the chain, the chain slowly shaking and trembling.
Just as He Feng stepped onto the chain, the surrounding ground trembled. From the bottomless depths of the Dignified Lake Tribe"s mountain peak shrouded in red mist, eight ten over zhang thick pillars shot out from the depths and supported the chain, breaking it into nine fragments.
Time slowly pa.s.sed and although Su Ming could not see what was going on with the chains, he could tell that He Feng"s expression was serious, each step seemingly made with all his strength, his body trembling as his veins were bulging all over his face, his mouth open as he rapidly took breaths.
Very soon two hours had pa.s.sed, in this two hours the entire Han Mountain City was silent, practically everyone was watching He Feng"s figure who had already crossed thirty percent of the first segment.
The cross-legged purple robed man sat with a frown with who knows what was in his mind.
Eventually, two hours then four hours…… then the entire afternoon pa.s.sed, the skies have darkened and the sunset"s glow transformed He Feng"s figure into but a shadow who has managed to cross the majority of the first section.
But at this moment, He Sheng did who knows what as his body suddenly burst forth with a powerful vigor as his strength soared to the peak, the power of an awakened cultivator faintly appearing from his body.
"As expected of someone who attempted to breakthrough the awakened realm multiple times, although he was never successful his body must have at least a shred of awakened qi. And to think he…… actually dared to attempt awakening once more there!"
"He dared to tackle this Han Mountain Chain so he must have some sort of preparation, to choose this time to tackle awakening, although he would fail, the momentary burst of power would allow him to take quite a few more steps."
"But I am really confused, even if he could burst forth with some power as he attempted awakening and breakthrough the first chain, this chain has nine segments, how is he going to tackle the others later?"
The surrounding was suddenly filled with soft discussions, Su Ming"s eyes flashed as he seemed to comprehend something, his eyes remained calm, but a faint understanding was reflected in his eyes.
"He is not planning on tackling the entire Han Mountain Chains, only this one section, to prove that he was qualified…… but just what on earth is he trying to prove himself for?"