Chapter 58 - Divine Battalion
Above a vast sea...
Two s.h.i.+ps were flying quickly, high up in the air.
At the forefront was Long Wanqing"s flying s.h.i.+p, White Cloud. The flying s.h.i.+p closely following it was jam-packed with armored soldiers standing on it.
Fluttering atop the pursuing s.h.i.+p was a giant flag, “Divine Battalion” written upon it in large characters.
At the bow of the Divine Battalion’s flying s.h.i.+p stood a handsome man dressed in golden armor. He had a robust physique and a valiant appearance. With his brow knit into a frown, the man stared into the distance while holding onto the railing. Occasionally, he would turn his glance toward the White Cloud.
A large group of people also stood atop the White Cloud.
Standing at the bow were Long Wanqing and Grandmaster Liunian, as well as an old woman dressed in yellow robes, with a walking stick in one hand.
"I wonder if the Xiantian Endgame World is still open!" wondered Long Wanqing, worried.
"Hall Lord, there is no need to worry. Generally, it will remain open for a year. There is still time!" Grandmaster Liunian a.s.sured her with a smile.
Long Wanqing nodded.
"Hall Lord, don"t worry, Meng Tai also entered along with a small batch of Earth Throne disciples. Although Meng Tai"s conduct is far from calm, his way of handling affairs should be a lot better than most people. Perhaps when we left for the Xiantian Endgame World, he had already acquired Wei Shengren"s information!" the old matron said in a heavy voice.
"Fire Throne Master is right; besides, isn"t Throne Master Gu also there? Perhaps, Gu Hai also has some clues!" said Grandmaster Liunian with a laugh.
Listening to this, the old matron frowned and said, "Grandmaster Liunian, Hall Lord had met that Gu Hai just recently, why did you promote him to Water Throne Master?"
"The Hall Lord has the power to make this decision!" said Grandmaster Liunian calmly.
The old matron"s eyes twitched. "Indeed, Hall Lord does have the power to make this decision, but Hall Lord is young. Grandmaster Liunian, should you not have guided her!? My Ascendant Hall"s name resounded throughout the world under previous Hall Lord"s administration, if it can"t reach that height in current Hall Lord"s administration, then...!"
"Then… what?" Long Wanqing"s eyebrows twitched as she spoke.
The old matron"s countenance changed ever-so-slightly before she said, shaking her head immediately, "Forgive me, Hall Lord, this old woman made an indiscreet remark. However, the Ascendant Hall"s glory didn"t come easily. I still beseech Hall Lord to take caution. This Elder Ding Rui and the other Throne Masters all hope that Hall Lord doesn"t take a wrong step and damage Ascendant Hall"s prestige!"
"Hmph! Prestige? So, you mean to say, the Ascendant Hall won"t have prestige if I am Hall Lord?" Long Wanqing replied, staring at the old matron with wide eyes.
"This Old Lady dare not!" responded the old matron, bowing immediately.
Long Wanqing stared at Ding Rui for a while before taking a deep breath; only then could she suppress the gus.h.i.+ng anger in her heart.
"Hall Lord, is Your Grace’s sister okay now?" asked Grandmaster Liunian, changing the topic.
Taking another deep breath, Long Wanqing nodded. "That d.a.m.n girl had nothing to do and was seeking her death. Now, she is a lot better. Although the problem wasn"t completely obliterated, that demon soul could not harm her with grandpa beside her. If I didn"t need to return quickly, I would have taught a good lesson to that d.a.m.n girl!"
"When all is said and done, your grandfather dotes on you, and your sister even more so. This time, when you returned to save your sister, your grandfather actually deployed the entire Divine Battalion to help you!" stated Grandmaster Liunian, gazing at the nearby flying s.h.i.+p.
"Grandpa didn"t deploy it, but the Divine Battalion commander, Li Haoran, volunteered to come along!" A smile showed up on Long Wanqing"s lips as she looked at the man on the bow far away.
"Li Haoran volunteered? What"s his motive?" Grandmaster Liunian"s countenance changed as he turned his head to look at the other flying s.h.i.+p, frowning.
A slight frown crept up on Long Wanqing"s forehead as she took a glance at Grandmaster Liunian.
"Grandmaster Liunian, that"s where you are wrong, Commander Li Haoran is just concerned about Hall Lord. Does this need any motive? Don"t think so badly of everyone!" Ding Rui said with a frown.
"Yes, Grandmaster Liunian, Li Haoran has received my mother"s generosity in the past. He should not have any motive!" agreed Long Wanqing, looking at Grandmaster Liunian.
"En?" Grandmaster Liunian"s eyebrows slightly twitched as he nodded; he no longer said anything. However, there was a meaningful glint in his eyes as he glanced at Li Haoran on the other flying s.h.i.+p.
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Xiantian Endgame World...
"That girl has been killed?" Suddenly, Wei Shengren"s figure started trembling, as if he was about to fall over.
"Yes, she was killed twenty years ago. Her murderer is still at large. Hall Lord is at her wit’s end. This time, This Lowly One entered the Xiantian Endgame World and caused so much chaos to ask senior to help her take revenge. All the friends and family of previous Hall Lord couldn"t do anything, only you can. Senior, did the previous Hall Lord die in vain?!" shouted Gu Hai.
"Senior, you came here eight hundred years ago. What happened between you and the previous Hall Lord, This Lowly One doesn"t know. However, since the previous Hall Lord kept this hairpin safe for eight hundred years, I think that previous Hall Lord wanted to meet you again. Or maybe, she has always been thinking of you!
"However, she could not wait anymore, as she had been murdered by someone, she died very unjustly! Maybe in absolute desperation as well!
"Senior, now, only you can avenge her! Can you let her die in vain?" Gu Hai asked once again.
"The girl is dead? Hahaha, dead?" Wei Shengren"s figure burst into trembling once again. His voice filled with sadness as well as a bitterly cold intent.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
With Wei Shengren as the center, the plants all around started to wither one after another.
"En?" Noticing this, the nearby Great Elder jumped up at once and flew up in the sky, getting far away from Wei Shengren.
The plants withered to death at an astonis.h.i.+ng speed! Soon after, the withering of plants continued to expand in all directions.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
It spread in all directions just like a deathly tide.
In a flash, the peak was laid bare as the plants withered away into nothing, and the withering continued to expand in all directions.
A look of surprise appeared on the faces of countless cultivators.
"Why are those trees withering?"
"Ah, look, look at that cheetah, look at that cheetah!"
Countless cultivators turned their gazes at a mountain valley, where a hunting cat was lingering. However, the moment that withering intent swept over it, the cheetah instinctively felt threatened and sped away from the outer ring at once.
However, as fast as the cheetah was, it couldn"t escape that withering intent in the end. Suddenly, the cheetah slowed down as the withering of gra.s.ses swept over it.
Noticeably, the cheetah"s fur turned white and fell down, it grew thinner and older by the second. Gradually, the shriveled-as-dry-as-firewood cheetah fell down on the ground and stopped breathing.
"It-it died of old age?" someone screamed in shock.
Not just the cheetah, the same was true of most of the creatures all around. Wherever the withering intent swept by, the creatures slowly grew older and older before succ.u.mbing to their deaths.
"No, let me go! Ahhh...!" a miserable cry rang from a nearby forest.
A man ran out from the forest. However, in just a few steps the young man grew incomparably ancient in the blink of an eye, to the point that it appeared that he would soon die of old age.
Perhaps that scream woke up Wei Shengren.
As Wei Shengren turned his head to look, that spreading withering intent also vanished in the blink of an eye.
However, in this short while, almost ten mountains, that once used to be lush and verdant, were laid bare; all the vegetation was withered away, while the creatures that used to live on them had all died of old age.
And that unlucky young man had now turned into an old man; his every action was incomparably sluggish. His face was painted with a horrified look.
"Ke ke ke, Senior, please restore me, please restore me, ke ke ke!" That now-old man kept on coughing; it seemed as if one foot was already in his grave.
However, Wei Shengren turned a deaf ear to his pleas and looked at the sky.
Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+
The cultivators all around fled away one after another at once. Their gazes were filled with horror as they looked at Wei Shengren atop the peak.
Too terrifying!
"Aging? Aging? He can actually destroy someone"s life… life element?"
"He can make someone older, ruin his life element? Who is he? How can he do this?"
"Get away from him quickly!"...
A horrified look appeared on every cultivator"s face.
The ultimate goal of everyone"s cultivation or the motive behind the attempt to s.n.a.t.c.h the Hundred Years Longevity Peach was to live longer, to have a long life, to have a lot of life element!
However, the man in front of them could ruin their life element!?
He was not killing them, but it was a lot more frightening than killing them.
He was a devil, a devil!
Everyone gazed at Wei Shengren with a horrified expression.
Wei Shenren remained silent for a while, seemingly dissipating the overwhelming sadness in his heart.
"Wei Shengren, you promised Grandmaster, you can"t leave!" screamed Great Elder.
Wei Shengren remained silent. Only after a good long while did he opened his mouth, "Great Elder, I have to go! I did promise Elder Guanqi, but I have no choice but to leave. I can"t stay here even for a moment, I don"t want to stay here for a moment!"
"But...!" said Great Elder anxiously.
"There is no but, some things you can"t understand. I have to do it. The girl is dead!? Hahaha! The girl is dead? Hahaha! I shouldn"t have promised Elder Guanqi, I shouldn"t have. Had I not stayed in the Xiantian Endgame World, perhaps the girl would not have been dead, would have not!" Wei Shengren"s voice sounded shaky.
The Great Elder was rendered speechless, he didn"t know what he could say to stop the other man.
Wei Shengren was determined to leave; he simply couldn"t stay.
Great Elder furiously turned his head and looked at the grand array. "Gu Hai, well done! Now, do you still want to cut my Weiqi Empyrean Court"s Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree?"
Said Gu Hai, taking a deep breath, "Weiqi Empyrean Court Great Elder, since I have already met with Senior Wei Shengren, naturally, I am not going to ruin this Hundred Years Longevity Peach Tree. I will return it to Weiqi Empyrean Court now!"
"En?" The Great Elder frowned at Gu Hai, Gu Hai was simply too eloquent.
"However, in accordance with the rules of this place, the treasures of this world were left behind by Elder Guanqi for predestined friends among us outsiders. So, the ten Hundred Years Longevity peaches are going to remain with me!" stated Gu Hai calmly.
"Humph!" the Great Elder coldly harrumphed. Apparently, he didn"t care about the peaches as long as the peach tree remained. He could have more peaches after a hundred years.
"Throne Master, earlier, you said that...!" Chen Tianshan looked at Gu Hai anxiously.
Glancing at Chen Tianshan and Gao Xianzhi, Gu Hai didn"t refuse and took out two boxes stretching his hand.
"As I promised, one for each of you!" Gu Hai handed the two boxes to Chen Tianshan and Gao Xianzhi.
Chen Tianshan beamed with excitement as he grabbed one of the boxes before opening it to look inside. Lying there was indeed the Hundred Years Longevity Peach.
Chen Tianshan"s face immediately gladdened with joy.
Having received the box, Gao Xianzhi didn"t dilly-dally in looking and took out the peach before swallowing it soon after.
BUZZ!
Soon after, a golden brilliance emerged all around Gao Xianzhi"s body.
"Gao Xianzhi, you are really extravagant!" Chen Tianshan looked at Gao Xianzhi in astonishment.
Glancing at Chen Tianshan, Gao Xianzhi said in a weird manner, "Chen Tianshan, you should also hurry!"
"What?" Chen Tianshan was confused.
"Since Throne Master promised that he would give it to us, he would have given it for sure. Why did you have to ask for it right now?" asked Gao Xianzhi, frowning.
"Why shouldn’t I?" Chen Tianshan remained unconvinced.
"You are really nonchalant, do you think you can take this Hundred Years Longevity Peach to Clear River Sect or some other place?" asked Gao Xianzhi with a wry smile on his face.
"Uh?" Chen Tianshan was slightly taken by surprise.
Turning his head and looking around, all Chen Tianshan saw were countless cultivators staring at him with greedy gazes.
Chen Tianshan"s expression froze. Finally, he knew why Gao Xianzhi ate the Hundred Years Longevity peach so anxiously. If he didn"t eat it now, and left the Xiantian Endgame World, their entire party would be doomed; all the cultivators would recover their strength and their party wouldn"t have any advantage. If he tried to guard the Saturn Peach, all of them would die completely.
SLAP!
Chen Tianshan slapped himself.
Opening his mouth in frustration, Chen Tianshan swallowed the Hundred Years Longevity Peach.
Only after seeing the Saturn Peach eaten did the gazes of cultivators all around him clear up.
However, many people"s gazes were filled with antic.i.p.ation, as well as fear, when they looked at Gu Hai.
Because Gu Hai still had a Hundred Years Longevity Peach with him.