Chapter 41 - The Battle of Cloud BeastsGao Xianzhi and Chen Tianshan were just right outside the cave, investigating the possible aftereffects of the sweet fragrance. Suddenly, a five-colored rainbow soared in the sky far away before smas.h.i.+ng into a huge white cloud.
Boom Boom Boom!
The white clouds scattered from the impact before rain came falling down.
However, the two stared at the ten-zhang tall peach tree floating in the sky.
"The Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree?" Chen Tianshan cried out, as his eyes went wide in surprise.
"The Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree was hidden among the cloud? Was that five-colored rainbow intentional?" Gao Xianzhi"s expression changed.
"Not good, I must go and grab it. Even if I can grab just one, it will still be a great harvest. Right, I have the golden piece, it might be possible for me to go up by congealing the cloud beast?" stated Chen Tianshan as his eyes became red as blood.
While speaking, he took out the golden piece, wanting to give it a try.
"Wait!" Suddenly, Gao Xianzhi blocked Chen Tianshan.
"Gao Xianzhi, what are you doing?" Chen Tianshan immediately shouted in anger.
"Senior Chen, wait, wait!" Gao Xianzhi said, shaking his head.
"Wait? Do you even know what is that? The Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree is one of rarest treasures in the world! As long as you can have one of those saturn peaches, you can add a hundred years to your lifespan, do you even understand what that means? Do you?" shouted Chen Tianshan right away.
"Calm down, Senior Chen, calm yourself down! The Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree would not be sent to us without any reason. How strong are you, anyway? Are you strong enough to grab it facing all the outside cultivators? Are you strong enough to defeat all the Weiqi Empyrean Court disciples? The Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree is indeed precious, I know that, you know that, but are others stupid? They don"t know that?" shouted Gao Xianzhi.
"Well?" Chen Tianshan immediately calmed down a lot after facing the loud shouting.
As expected, a faraway white cloud flew towards the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree. Upon the white cloud was a ginormous, three-hundred zhang long and hideous hydra.
ROAR!
The hydra let out another bellow as it arrived at the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree.
From three other directions, three white clouds also soared into the sky. Evidently, others also had golden weiqi pieces.
Chen Tianshan"s eyebrows twitched. Clenching his fist, he smiled wryly as he gazed at Gao Xianzhi, "Gao Xianzhi, thank you for dissuading me!"
"Don"t mention it, you and I are colleagues, we have to support each other!" Gao Xianzhi said in a gentle tone.
As a wry smile appeared on his lips, Chen Tianshan said "You don"t understand, you just don"t understand its preciousness. If you came to know, perhaps you wouldn"t be this calm!"
"Oh? Senior Chen, if it"s not too much trouble, can you explain it to me?" asked Gao Xianzhi, perplexed.
Gazing at the peach tree afar, Chen Tianshan nodded, "In this world, everyone has a limited lifespan, only someone with higher cultivation can have a bit longer lifespan. However, when all is said and done, they too would have to die of old age. Therefore, everyone continues to cultivate constantly so that they can live longer. Or why else does everyone cultivate? Isn"t it to live longer?
"Spirit herbs are the herbs that can be grown with various attributed energy. They are used as raw materials to refine pills that can be used to improve someone"s cultivation or heal, but they can"t be used to increase someone"s lifespan.
"Spirit herbs are already countless times more precious than ordinary plants. However, in this world there is a kind of herb which is even more precious, that is a longevity herb.
"It may not have a lot of energy, it may not be able to increase someone"s cultivation, it may not be able to help someone in cultivation. However, it can increase your lifespan, that"s more than enough.
"Isn"t the ultimate goal for which everyone cultivates to live longer? You can achieve it with the longevity herb.
"As long as you can eat one longevity peach, you can live longer. Therefore, in this world, no matter who sees a longevity herb, they will go crazy.
"It"s priceless. Do you understand now? As long as you have one of those golden saturn peaches, everyone will not hesitate to destroy ten of my Clear River Sects just to get it. Do you understand now?
"That"s just for one saturn peach. However, there is a tree here. The Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree will produce one fruit once every century. Can you understand its value?
"A precious herb like this can not number more than ten absolutely in this whole world. In the entire world, entire, world. Do you understand?"
Upon hearing this, a slight frown crept upon Gao Xianzhi"s face. "If what you said is true, than even more so, we temporarily can"t go!"
"Why?" asked Chen Tianshan, staring at him.
"You might have also realized, someone has intentionally revealed the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree. That Ninth Young Master is a member of the Weiqi Empyrean Court and has been guarding the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree. Clearly, the person who revealed it cannot be someone from the Weiqi Empyrean Court, it must be an outside force. An outside force has still not gone to pick it, even when they knew the whereabouts of the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree..." stated Gao Xianzhi in a solemn tone.
"Uh?" Chen Tianshan was slightly surprised for a moment.
"I can feel there is something dangerous about it. If you rush in now, you will just be cannon fodder. The Weiqi Empyrean Court and that unknown force have not taken any action. If you rush to the front, what do you think will be waiting for us?" asked Gao Xianzhi.
"Ah?" Chen Tianshan"s expression changed.
"The treasure is indeed precious, but you can only have it when you are alive, am I right?" Gao Xianzhi looked at Chen Tianshan.
Chen Tianshan remained silent for a moment before nodding, "Then according to you, what should we do?"
"We have to do some planning before taking any action. Furthermore, Throne Master has still not come out, we will wait first and have a look later!" answered Gao Xianzhi calmly.
"Okay!" nodded Chen Tianshan, suppressing the desire in his heart.
---
Meanwhile, in the sky...
BOOM!
Ninth Young Master"s hydra arrived at the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree as the clouds covered it from all directions and the hydra let out a roar, challenging the three enormous cloud beasts that were the first to rush in.
The hydra was three-hundred zhang in length. The three oncoming cloud beasts were a leopard, a tiger, and a wolf respectively. All three cloud beasts were only a hundred zhang in size.
Atop every cloud beast was a man, half of their bodies were embedded inside the cloud beasts’ heads, while the other half held a golden piece, controlling their enormous cloud beasts respectively.
The three stared at Ninth Young Master coldly.
"You have actually found the golden pieces so quickly?" Ninth Young Master looked at the three with wide eyes.
"This old crock had entered this world once two centuries back and naturally know that there are golden weiqi pieces here, and so I could get more power conveniently! This old crock is not greedy, as I can see there are a total of ten saturn peaches on this Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree, I will just take one and leave immediately!" an old man among the three said calmly.
"Humpy, I want three!" another also stated coldly.
"It won"t end up well if you and I fought each other, I want three as well!" the final man said, smiling coldly.
Ninth Young Master looked around the three as a cold smile crept upon his lips, "You aren"t greedy at all, you didn"t even want to take the peach tree with you!"
The three controlled the cloud beasts, slowly closing in on hydra.
"However, how could you encroach on my Weiqi Empyrean Court"s thing? Humph, today, I will use you to teach the others that anyone who has any intentions for the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree won"t have a good end!" Ninth Young Master"s voice turned cold.
ROOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR…!
The nine necks simultaneously raised their heads and let out a long roar together. At the same time, the hydra made a 360-degree pivot in place.
BANG!
BANG!
The hydra turned at an extreme speed, flinging its tail. Immediately after, the wolf and tiger-shaped cloud beasts were pushed back from the strike. After all, the hydra was way bigger.
The leopard-shaped cloud beast wasn"t pushed back, but rather had been caught by the hydra’s tail immediately after.
"Ah!" the man on that leopard-shaped cloud beasts cried out in fear.
The hydra was amazingly powerful, the man on the leopard-shaped cloud beast was simply unable to escape no matter how he struggled.
ROAR!
One of hydra’s heads suddenly opened its jaws to take a bite.
"Two, save me quickly!" shouted the man on cloud-shaped beast anxiously.
ROAR!
ROAR!
Following which, the other two cloud beasts rushed up; apparently, if they wanted to plunder the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree, they had to face the enemy together, otherwise, they won"t be able to plunder later.
BOOM!
The claws of their beasts ripped towards the hydra with a loud rumble.
CRAs.h.!.+
The hydra hurled its tail as it let go of the cloud leopard, sending it smas.h.i.+ng into the cloud wolf and pus.h.i.+ng it away, while the tail promptly coiled around the cloud tiger. However, one of the hydra’s heads opened its jaws and swallowed half of the cloud leopard"s body.
"d.a.m.n!" the man controlling the cloud wolf shouted in anger, as it once again pounced.
RUMBLE!
The three enormous cloud beasts suddenly crashed into each other, sending shockwaves that covered the entire sky before churning clouds spread in all directions.
Each cloud beast was as huge as a hundred-zhang tall building. Although the battle scene looked simple, it was still extremely shocking.
Countless cultivators on the ground stared as their eyes went wide. One after another, everyone was struck with a chill as they wondered, Can we even fight with them with our current cultivation of the Xiantian Stage?
BANG!
A loud crash reverberated in the sky as a large number of clouds collapsed. The cloud leopard, the cloud wolf, and the cloud tiger stood still. No, perhaps they were still struggling, but they were simply unable to break away.
The hydra’s jaws were too ferocious.
The three snakeheads of the hydra swallowed half of the cloud beasts respectively.
“AHHHHHH!”
"RELEASE ME QUICKLY!"
"LET ME GO!"
The three man shouted in fear.
GULP!
The cloud leopard along with the man controlling it were completely swallowed by a hydra head.
"No, No!" the countenance of the man controlling the cloud tiger became ugly as he suddenly jumped in the air, leaving the cloud beast; he didn"t care about the golden piece anymore.
AHHHH!
The man fell from thousands of zhang high in the sky thereafter.
The final man controlling the cloud wolf immediately withdrew the cloud beast back inside the golden piece and fell from the sky clutching the golden piece.
AWOOO!
Twisting its neck, a hydra head swallowed that man along with his golden piece immediately after.
“AHHHHHH…”
BANG...
Only the man who had let go of the golden weiqi piece fell into a faraway mountain forest. Whether he was dead or alive was unknown.
The cloud wolf, the cloud tiger, and the cloud leopard were utterly routed.
"Not good, that hydra became bigger?" cried Chen Tianshan in shock as his eyes went wide.
Whereupon, the three-hundred zhang long hydra digested the clouds beasts in the blink of an eye after having swallowed them. Its body quickly rose in size and reached an astonis.h.i.+ng length of three-hundred-and-fifty zhang in the wink of an eye.
"The cloud beasts can strengthen themselves by swallowing other cloud beasts and golden pieces?" Gao Xianzhi, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes.
---
High in the sky...
Ninth Young Master c.o.c.ked his head. "Three wastes, the weiqi skills congealed in the golden piece were actually just this little? My hydra only grew this little after swallowing your weiqi skills!? Humph!"
Ninth Young Master was rather dissatisfied. The countless cultivators, on the other hand, were struck by a chill upon seeing this.
------
Atop the summit of a peak, the Great Wisdom King watched quietly.
"Your Majesty, aren"t the cloud beasts just too few in numbers at the moment?"
"This is just the beginning, very soon, innumerable golden weiqi pieces will appear. By then, there will be more and more cloud beasts, and everyone will come to partic.i.p.ate. So, keep your eyes open!" said the Great Wisdom King coldly.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
---
At this moment, countless cultivators ran towards the man who had been controlling the cloud tiger and fell down; not to save that man, but wanting to investigate. Only then could they also have the cloud beasts.
The hydra was fierce, but it was simply unable to stop the fervent crowd of cultivators. That was the Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree! As long as they could get one, they could exchange it for a mountain of spirit stones.
In a flash, all the outsiders in this small world went crazy!