Chapter 166: Extreme Upgrade
In the wilderness, the team slowly advanced forward. Su Wen discovered that his cultivation base had actually started to rapidly increase.
And in the palm of his right hand, a "10" number was actually condensed out of Saint Qi!
The more Saint Qi acc.u.mulated in his body, the faster he absorbed the Heaven Earth Origin Qi. In fact, it also quickened up the pace of his cultivation technique.
It could be said that Su Wen"s cultivation speed was dozens of times faster than usual!
How would he know that there were such hidden rules in this world!
The trial-takers who had a lot of Saint Qi in their bodies would receive some form of external augmentation.
From the first to the tenth!
At that moment, Su Wen had leapt to become the cultivator with the most Saint Qi in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and he had just managed to step into the 10th place!
On the other side, the young monk frowned.
Just a moment ago, the speed of his cultivation had slowed down significantly. Although it was still faster than when he was outside the mystic realm, it was still much slower as compared to before.
He bit into the freshly roasted meat and held out his hand for a look. The number that had originally been in his palm had disappeared. The young monk wiped his mouth and grinned.
He was surrounded by corpses!
"Looks like I have to find some more guys to kill! I"m about to reach 2nd Grade Earth Rank as well."
The little monk"s cultivation speed could be said to be terrifying. Although he had lost his augmentation, he did not care too much. After all, the limit of this world was at 3rd Grade.
After that, Su Wen and the others walked for three days before they encountered the next oasis. However, at this moment, Su Wen"s cultivation base had already reached the pinnacle of the 9th Grade Star Rank!
He was only one step away from breaking through to Earth Rank!
Another oasis appeared in front of the Third Prince and company, along with a tribe of beastmen.
This place was full of feline looking beastmen with leopard heads and human bodies. They were all half-naked and only wore gra.s.s skirts.
There were over a hundred of them!
The Third Prince released his perception and could clearly sense the leader here. He had a 2nd Grade Earth Rank cultivation, and there was another female Leopard Human with 1st Grade Earth Rank. On a side topic… she possessed a really bountiful chest…
"What should we do, Your Highness?" Su Wen asked with a smile.
The Third Prince looked coldly at the leopard man and said, "No problem. Their leader is a 2nd Grade. Leave him to me. I"ll leave the 1st Grade to you. We have the advantage in numbers when it comes to 9th Grade Star Ranks. As for the rest of them, they"re tras.h.!.+"
In his opinion, it would be much more difficult for Su Wen, a 9th Grade Star Rank martial artist to defeat the 1st Grade Earth Rank leoparddess as compared to him fighting the 2nd Grade!
Although they were one grade apart, Su Wen was in the end a Star Rank.
The difference between Star Ranks and Earth Ranks was like the difference between heaven and earth! That was a major realm!
Even though Su Wen had killed Guo Qingzhi, in the eyes of the Third Prince, it was merely a sneak attack.
In the face of this female leopard, Su Wen might not even be able to defeat her.
It was even possible to die in the hands of the other party!
However, no matter what, as long as Su Wen could stall the female leopard, he would have a chance to kill the leader on the other side!
Once he killed the leader, he would be able to enter the group like the wolf thrown into a herd of sheep and kill these Star Rank leopard men, harvesting their Saint Qi.
As for Su Wen… he would only take over the fight with the female leopardess when Su Wen died. It was a good opportunity to establish his prestige.
"Your Highness! All the best! You can definitely defeat him!" Su Wen roared.
"Hmph, take care of yourself!"
The Third Prince took the lead and charged straight at the leopard leader!
Su Wen"s speed was not slow either as he followed closely behind!
As the two charged forward, the Third Prince suddenly felt intense Origin Qi fluctuations in the surroundings.
Turning around, he sensed that Su Wen"s aura was gradually changing!
"Breakthrough at the last minute?" The Third Prince did not expect such a thing to happen.
How could he have known that Su Wen"s cultivation speed had increased tremendously after obtaining the boost from the Saint Qi? However, he did not choose to break through after obtaining enough True Qi. Instead, he recklessly injected all his True Qi into his Moon Palace area on purpose.
If he and the Third Prince were to encounter a powerful foe with the same cultivation, wouldn"t he suffer a great loss if the guy chose not to attack?
The Third Prince"s cultivation was one grade higher than his. If they were to encounter a powerful enemy, the Third Prince would have to face the enemy instead!
How would the Third Prince know that he was so scheming?
When he saw Su Wen breaking through at the last minute, he could not help but sigh to himself at how unlucky he was!
On the other hand, the morale of the Star Rank experts behind them were greatly boosted!
"Young Master Su is mighty!"
"Awesome, Young Master Su!"
"Kill these monsters!"
Along the way, Su Wen"s True Qi underwent a qualitative change.
All the Qi within his body turned fiery red, becoming even more scorching and violent!
With a breakthrough in his cultivation, the Heaven & Earth Great Solar Sutra had entered a new realm! It started to further display its power as a Heaven Ranked technique.
Initially, Su Wen"s punch only released heat waves. Now, Su Wen"s punch was akin to holding a complete flame in his hands!
Both sides clashed!
The Third Prince immediately felt the pressure.
That 2nd Grade Earth RAnk leopard leader had actually practiced an Earth Ranked martial technique. Moreover, his degree of study was extremely profound. With this, in addition to his slightly higher cultivation, the two of them were actually evenly matched!
On Su Wen"s side, he met the female leopard and shouted, "Watch my Rippling Palms!"
He pushed his palms out, aiming straight for the female leopard"s chest.
"Ah~!"
The female leopard couldn"t dodge in time and let out a moan.
This technique was more lethal to female characters than to the males!
"Take another!"
"It"s so hot!"
"And another!"
"Hot… hot… hot…!"
Su Wen exchanged a few moves with the leopardess with his bare hands. He mainly wanted to test the strength of his True Qi, and had no other intentions. Yes, yes!
His True Qi indeed had a lot more horsepower. Although the female leopard was protected by her True Qi, she was still screaming from the heat!
The feeling of her chest felt pretty good on his bare hands as well.
At this moment, Su Wen noticed from the corner of his eye that the Third Prince had gotten the upper hand!
"No! I can"t keep pressing anymore. If this kid beats me to it, I"ll lose big!"
A light flashed in Su Wen"s hand, and his ring transformed into a long saber.
"Nine Waves Return to Origin!"
Su Wen no longer held back.
With a slash, nine streaks of fiery red True Qi flew out. They combined into a single Qi blade in mid air, before erupting into raging flames.
After Su Wen obtained an Earth Rank cultivation, the power of this secret technique became even more terrifying.
The leopardess" head was directly chopped off!
Meanwhile, the Saint Qi in Su Wen"s body immediately surged.
Not only that, the violent Saber Qi continued flying out and killed more than ten leopard men behind her.
At this moment, Su Wen turned around and yelled at the Third Prince, "Your Highness" skills are unparalleled. I"ll help the brothers first!"
The Third Prince had just gained the upper hand, but after being yelled at, he lost his focus and took a kick from the Leopard Leader!
When the leader saw that the female leopard was dead, his eyes widened and he roared, "I"m going to kill all of you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" After he shouted, the True Qi burst forth from his entire body as he charged towards the Third Prince!
The Third Prince"s jaw dropped at this scene.
It"s not like I f*cking killed him! Go f*ck Su Wen! Why are you looking at me instead?!
Unfortunately, in front of so many Great Zhou martial artists, he could not shout out these words no matter what.
Just as he was fighting with the leopard leader, Su Wen had already killed dozens of other leopard men.
The Third Prince suddenly realized that in the crowd, Ni Hongxiao was holding Su Wen"s Demon Martial Bead and absorbing Saint Qi from the corpses.
Although the people she absorbed were only the people Su Wen killed…
It still infuriated the Third Prince!
Su Wen was killing with more and more joy!
The number in his hand unknowingly turned to nine!
As for another country"s martial artist that was walking through the wilderness, he sighed as he saw his number drop. He quickened his pace.
While Su Wen was killing everyone, he still helped the Great Zhou martial artists drink some soup…
[Ding-dong. The host has received Mi Sun"s grat.i.tude. +120 Emotional Value.]
[Ding-dong. The host has received Ge Chao"s admiration. +300 Emotional Value.]
[Ding-dong. The host has received Zhao Ze"s anger, resentment, hate, jealousy, envy… +1,000 Emotional Value.]
When Su Wen saw this notification, he couldn"t help but curse. "F*ck me!"
Zhao Ze was the real name of the Third Prince!
What was this guy doing?
Was he crazy? He even contributed a thousand points to him in one go.
Ever since Su Wen had the system, he had never met anyone with such strong emotions.
And this mix of emotions had even reached such an extreme.
Su Wen immediately turned towards the Third Prince who was still fighting and asked loudly, "Your Highness, do you need help?"
"No need!"
Zhao Ze said sternly.
He did not care anymore! He had to kill this leopard leader anyway.
Su Wen asked with concern, "Your Highness, is there really no need? What if this guy escapes?"
Before Zhao Ze could say anything, the leopard leader had already calmed down by now. The moment he heard Su Wen"s words, he suddenly turned around and ran!
His sudden escape left the Third Prince in total disbelief.
"Where do you think you"re going!"
He roared and chased after him.
Su Wen turned around and shook his head at the group of martial artists. "Let"s wait for a while. I don"t think he"ll be back anytime soon."
He could tell. He didn"t know if it was because of his talent or something else, but the leopard leader was extremely fast!
Su Wen began to meditate in the meantime.
He had just achieved a breakthrough and his cultivation was still not stable yet.
At this moment, the speed at which he was absorbing the heaven and earth origin Qi had become even faster. Furthermore, Su Wen could faintly sense that the Saint Qi within his body was producing some indescribable changes to himself.
Su Wen fell into deep thought.
He had to quickly raise his ranking. From the looks of it, the higher his ranking, the faster his cultivation would rise.
Although the limit in this world was only at 3rd Grade Earth Rank, the earlier one reached the limit, the safer it would be.
After about two hours, the Third Prince returned with an ashen face.
He looked at Su Wen with an unfriendly gaze!
"Why were you so talkative?" The Third Prince clenched his teeth.
Su Wen smiled. "Am I not reminding Your Highness? You were the one who did not want me to interfere, hence allowing the leopard man to run away. Otherwise, if I were to attack, how could the leopard man escape?"
The Third Prince was speechless.
In the Great Zhou Royal Palace, Emperor Zhou frowned as he looked at the jade token.
Su Wen was still ranked first, and in addition, there was even the number "Nine" emblazoned on the tablet!
The young monk also reclaimed the tenth spot.
Emperor Zhou sighed and said, "I didn"t expect this. It"s really as you said. This Su Wen is actually so ferocious. He was able to kill his way to ninth place. I wonder if his ranking can increase further."
As he spoke, he turned to look at the Third Prince and gritted his teeth, "Meanwhile, this d*mned number three, how dare you slack off. Your ranking hasn"t increased in a few days. How hateful!"
The eunuch quickly consoled him, "Your Majesty, in this mystic realm, besides strength, one must also rely on lucky chances to obtain the Saint Qi. Perhaps the Third Prince just didn"t get a chance in the last few days."
"I hope so! I wonder how much Saint Qi those people at the top have! It"s a pity I can"t see it!" Emperor Zhou sighed.
The old eunuch smiled and said, "The difference shouldn"t be too big. It hasn"t even been a month, and the jade tablets didn"t break too much this time. It doesn"t seem like it"s a mystic realm where they are made to slaughter each other."
Emperor Zhou shook his head and said, "Even so, it"s hard to say how many of them are still alive. I hope that my Great Zhou can have a few more martial artists that make it back."
How would he know… if he did not meet Su Wen… how would the Third Prince have this scenario where his Saint Qi did not grow for the past few days?
In the following period of time, Su Wen and the Third Prince started to form a team. During this period of time, some Great Zhou martial artists entered and the team kept growing.
The Third Prince gradually realized that Su Wen"s Nine Waves Return to Origin saber move was just too perverted!
Even he wasn"t sure he could survive this move.
Hence, the Third Prince another factor for Su Wen to control the battlefield
Basically, every time they went forward to tangle with their opponents, Su Wen would kill their opponents with a single slash and sometimes, he would even manage to kill two of them in one go!
Then, he would start harvesting and help the others to harvest as well1
While Su Wen"s Saint Qi was surging, the Third Prince could only follow behind to get some sc.r.a.ps.
However, the rest of the members were still quite satisfied.
After all, these people gained something each time, and the team"s strength gradually increased!
One by one, people who had achieved a breakthrough to Earth Rank appeared.
In the meantime, Su Wen"s cultivation speed was rising to the moon!
His ranking was now first!
Number one among everyone in the mystic realm!
Once he started cultivating, the Heaven Earth Origin Qi could no longer be described as entering his body, but rather stuffing his entire body full of it!
Su Wen also had a vague guess that apart from speeding up his cultivation, this ranking would also involve the final settlement reward one obtained.
However, it was obvious that it was also a question of whether he could maintain it for a sustained period of time!
This was practically forcing him to continue killing because no one knew when the people behind him would catch up.
In the royal capital, Yan Luoying was in a good mood recently. After all, they were newlyweds. Although Su Wen had gone to the mystic realm, she believed that he would definitely return safely.
Now that she was Su Wen"s wife, she had also come into contact with some unknown matters.
For example, Su Wen"s intelligence network.
Although it was very simple, new information would be delivered every day.
She would occasionally take a look as well.
"The Crown Prince had a discussion with the envoy of the Qiang Tribe in a restaurant. He wants to marry Seventh Princess Zhao Wanrou to the Qiang Tribe and exchange her for three cities in the northwest. This has been verified against a waiter in the restaurant."
This news made Yan Luoying frown.
She looked into the distance.
"Little Luo… I mean, Ma"am… it"s time to go to the Patrol Office." Old Zhou was not used to the new term of address yet.
Yan Luoying said softly, "I"m not going today."
"Huh?"
Old Zhou was shocked. Yan Luoying was a conscientious person, and had never slacked off since she took office.
"Uncle Zhou, please leave. Let me think about something."
Old Zhou did not say anything and quickly retreated.
"Husband likes Zhao Wanrou. If she marries somewhere far away… it will be a good thing for me… but I"m afraid my husband will be sad…"
"The Crown Prince is discussing this matter for the sake of his political achievements… to show his face before His Majesty…"
"What should we do… if it"s Husband, what would he do?"
Yan Luoying fell into deep thought.
Early the next morning, Emperor Zhou was in a very good mood.
Su Wen was ranked number one. Ever since Su Wen hit the number one position, Emperor Zhou was in an extremely good mood.
He had even forgotten about the fact that the Third Prince could not keep up with Su Wen"s ranking!
"Dear ministers, do you have any news?"
Emperor Zhou didn"t ask the eunuch, instead casually tossing it out to the court.
At this moment, the Crown Prince stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "Royal Father, after my discussion with the Qiang Tribe envoy yesterday, they are willing to give up Zhuo City, the Western Hu Pa.s.s, and Anshu City to our Great Zhou!"
Emperor Zhou raised his eyebrows and said happily, "Is this real?"
The Crown Prince smiled. "Of course."
The entire royal court was instantly filled with discussion and praise, making the Crown Prince incomparably satisfied.
He continued, "Not only that, the King of Qiang Tribe, Huyan Wuqi, is willing to become the Emperor"s son-in-law and marry Seventh Sister Wanrou!"
The Crown Prince spoke with a.s.surance and poise, "Wanrou has the blood of the Hu tribes to begin with, so marrying into the Qiang Tribe can be considered a beautiful story. It can even be said that from now on, our Great Zhou"s northwestern border will obtain peace, and we can also draw out more troops to attack the Country of Yan and the Southern Barbaric Lands."
The Crown Prince had chosen her after careful consideration. Zhao Wanrou was of the Hu bloodline, and she had no support in the royal court, so she was naturally the most suitable sacrifice.
Su Changqing looked at the Zhou Emperor. He himself was hesitating whether he should stop this matter or not.
He knew very well what Su Wen was thinking, but at the same time, he also knew that if he did not know when to draw the line, he would only end up in trouble!
In Su Changqing"s eyes, Su Wen and Zhao Wanrou were not a good match! After Su Wen married Yan Luoying, his chances with Zhao Wanrou were too slim.
If the Seventh Princess were to marry into the Hu Clan from afar, that would be a good thing. It just so happened that Su Wen was still in the mystic realm, so there was no need to worry about Su Wen stopping this affair and causing trouble.
But Old Su still doted on his son!
At the end of the day, out of his three sons, he was the closest to Su Wen.
If he did not stop this, would Su Wen blame him?
Su Changqing, who had always been decisive, hesitated. He wanted to see what Emperor Zhou would say first.
Logically speaking, with Su Changqing"s understanding of Emperor Zhou, he should have agreed.
It was just a daughter!
Emperor Zhou tapped the dragon throne lightly with his index finger, feeling conflicted.
To Emperor Zhou, using Zhao Wanrou to exchange for three cities and a short period of peace in the Northern Frontier was worth it.
The problem was, he had his own considerations. Su Wen was now ranked number one in the mystic realm!
If he maintained this posture, he would definitely reach the Heaven Rank!
How to control Su Wen would become another problem.
Zhao Wanrou seemed to be a good choice to help shackle him in that regard.
But at the same time, if Su Wen were to die in the mystic realm in a few days after he rejected the tribes, wouldn"t he have lost out completely?
"Let"s discuss this later!" After thinking for a while, Emperor Zhou decided to use the method of dragging things out!
However, his lack of a firm att.i.tude meant that he was tempted. It was just that he hadn"t made up his mind for some reason. Everyone could tell that.
After the court session ended, Emperor Zhou returned to his inner palace.
The news spread as well.
At this moment, Zhao Wanrou was writing down what she wanted to say to Su Wen in a letter.
"May you return safely."
"May you be invincible."
"May you think of me all the time."
"May you not touch the other flowers."
Whatever was written here would eventually be burned or torn to pieces.
No one else would know.
"Princess! Bad news! Bad news!"
The maidservant rushed in and said, "Princess, the Crown Prince has proposed to send you to the Qiang tribe to marry the leader today…"
Zhao Wanrou"s pen stopped.
"Pa da… Pa da…"
Tears dripped onto the paper, and the words blurred.
"Got it… leave me."
There was no anger…
It seemed very calm on the surface.
After the maid left, Zhao Wanrou chuckled to herself.
"Everyone wants to squeeze my worth… That"s what the Royal Family is about…"
"It doesn"t matter anymore… Su Wen promised me…"
"It"s just… he"s still in the mystic realm…"
"It"s okay… It"s okay…"
She consoled herself before lightly writing down on the paper a poem:
Hoping to see Sire during the long nights in the gilded palace, wearing my yearning as an evening gown.
While our words are only faintly whispered by the ear, the sincerity and intentions are all real.
Fate is unrestrained, it comes and goes; I only hate that kindness does not exist in the life of royalty.
This body and my feelings only belong to Sire in this lifetime, and I pray that Sire does not ask why I choose to enter the Yellow Springs.
After penning this down, a carefree expression appeared on Zhao Wanrou"s face.
She tore the paper apart.
After which, she opened the wardrobe and took out the evening gown Su Wen gave her.
She placed the mirror in front of her as she started to dress up.
If the royal decree was truly given, she planned to immediately commit suicide in this dress…
If the threat of suicide Yan Luoying had given Emperor Zhou back then could be said to be 30% true and 70% false…
Then Zhao Wanrou right now had 100% intention to go through with her plan!
In the mystic realm, the number of people in Su Wen and the Third Prince"s team increased!
As the number of people who broke through increased, Su Wen also promoted to the 2nd Stage of Earth Rank!
It was too fast. His cultivation was akin to sitting on a rocket!
Su Wen felt that if he were to cultivate freely here, with this speed, he would be able to reach the pinnacle of 9th Grade Earth Rank in just half a year.
The methods of the Nine Saints were truly terrifying.
What a pity!
Su Wen was now no longer in a hurry after reaching the 2nd Grade. After all, no matter how fast his cultivation was, he could only promote to the 3rd Stage at most here.
It would be interesting if he accidentally broke through to the 4th Grade in one go. Wouldn"t it be ridiculous if he was sent out?
After all, he hadn"t obtained the Heaven Rank battle techniques he wanted yet!
He began to consolidate his cultivation. Under this kind of Origin Qi infusion, he first solidified his foundation.
At the same time, he began to cultivate the Body Tempering Method!
Similar to the Heaven & Earth Great Solar Sutra, the Body Forging Technique could not be directly upgraded with the system"s Emotional Value. He could only cultivate it slowly.
In this mystic realm, the effects of having an extreme upgrade in cultivation was shown!
The strength of his body and the strength of his meridians were constantly increasing. With the Origin Qi constantly pouring and fusing into his body due to his first placing, it was even a hundred times faster than the outside world.
Every day, Su Wen could feel his own rapid improvement.
However, they also encountered teams that were sent from the city to hunt them down.
It had to be said that the strength of these specialized teams far exceeded that of the ordinary natives in the oases!
Whether it was their racial abilities or their cultivation techniques, they were incomparable to the ones outside.
Even Su Wen felt the pressure.
He no longer tried to make things difficult for the Third Prince. Instead, he went all out to kill the enemies. Su Wen even took the initiative to take on the mission to take over the strongest enemy.
No one wanted to die.
Su Wen"s popularity among the team also rose rapidly.
In the end, everyone hoped to follow the strong.
Finally, Su Wen and the others arrived at another oasis.
They discovered a village there!
Right now, no one in the group would be soft-hearted. Everyone knew that the people of this world would definitely not hold back when they had the chance to kill them.
It was the same even for the human natives!
The two were ultimately different!
They had completely tempered their hearts into a rock!
The villagers also discovered Su Wen and the others and quickly organized their men to resist.
Now everyone knew that those who descended from the Immortal Realm would destroy everything and kill all living things.
In the village, Wu Lie, Lin Duo"er, and a group of villagers were gathered together by the village chief, Lin Duo"er"s father, Lin Fusheng. He said with a serious expression, "A group of martial artists has arrived outside. They should be people who have descended. There are many experts of Earth Rank within them. Everyone, be careful! Go, prepare to face the enemy."
After everyone left, he called out to Wu Lie alone and said in a deep voice, "Ah Lie, you are now the strongest person in the village apart from me. You must protect Duo"er well!"
Wu Lie gritted his teeth and nodded.
After spending some time together, he actually liked Lin Duo"er a little. However, he knew very well that things were impossible between the two of them!