Chapter 1406: The Three Thousandth Person
“Supplemental dao is not forbidden in the Dragonling a.s.sembly.” The Dragonsea city lord shook her head.
The Azure Scaled-Dragon King opened and shut his mouth, not knowing what to say to that.
“Supplemental dao is supplemental. It is an aid to cultivation, not some deviated, unnatural way,” Miao chuckled. “If just using treasures goes against one’s original cultivation intent, then all of the half step kings on the bridge below should throw away their flying swords and fight using only their fists.”
Azure Scaled-Dragon flushed, but continued doggedly, “That Stellar Sword is refined from Stellar Stone Magneticus—the light within is one of the sharpest in the realm. Even you and I would have to treat it with caution. Him wielding that kind of weapon is a bit unfair to the other half step kings, no?
“I’m afraid that much of the credit for him using only three strokes to kill a thousand arcane beasts goes to the keen edge of the Stellar Sword.”
“How do you still not understand?” sighed the little fox. “The Stellar Sword is just a king grade treasure at the end of the day and it contains only one dao rule. In terms of ranking, it’s on par with Qing Ting’s Azuresky Sword.
“Do you think that just any random person in the Hongmeng can wield Stellar Light Magneticus? If you’d dared touch it when you were a half step king, the first thing it’d cleave into two would be yourself instead of the enemy!”
Azure Scaled-Dragon opened and shut his mouth once more; Crippled Dragon patted his shoulder and shook his head. He knew what his peer was thinking. Azure Scaled-Dragon nursed enormous enmity toward the Immortal PaG.o.da and Coiling Dragon City after Qing Di’s loss had lost an ultimate and half step Hongmeng treasure for Azure Dragon City. This was a very bad turn of events.
It’d be one thing if it was just Coiling Dragon City—the city lord there was the Azure Dragon city lord’s younger brother. The two were compet.i.tors, but would never be enemies.
The Immortal PaG.o.da, however, was different. With its current level of influence, it was far too easy for it to handle a mere Azure Dragon City. It didn’t even need to do anything as there were plenty of high level kings in the realm who wanted to curry favor with the paG.o.da. If the Immortal King was willing to personally refine a king grade treasure for them, their strength would grow by leaps and bounds.
Pills of Creation were also highly coveted by all kings.
Be enemies with the Immortal PaG.o.da?
The Supplemental Dao Alliance could do so, the Immortal Region could do so. Even Dragonhollow Mountain or the Enforcer Alliance could afford to do so. But if a tiny Azure Dragon City dared entertain the thought, it would be exterminated in the next second.
Azure Scaled-Dragon came to his senses with a violent shake and realized that his mentality had s.h.i.+fted off balance. If things continued in the same vein, he would start to oppose the Immortal PaG.o.da and cause trouble for the Trueriver Sect. Once everything ballooned out of control, it would drag down his entire city into the mess.
Everyone understood the potential chain reaction if they dared seek revenge for their juniors being robbed in Dragonsea City. They were the seniors of the half step kings on the rainbow bridge and had taken out a ma.s.sive amount of purple crystals after their faction’s juniors lost all of their possessions. Despite that, no one flew into a rage at the humiliation—not even when they had to buy back their own ident.i.ty tokens.
Though they coveted the purple crystals currently on Lu Yun, they would never show it.
……
None of the arcane beasts dared draw near after Lu Yun and Qing Ting slew more than a thousand of them. Instead, they turned to attack the other cultivators on the bridge.
Many grievously injured cultivators filtered back, requesting shelter. The rainbow bridge was a place where life and death were decided at every second; their decision was the correct one. There was nothing more to consider if one died, everything would be over. Only in staying alive was their hope and the possibility of realizing their grand ambitions.
Lu Yun naturally didn’t turn them down. He drew a circle that was one kilometer across with his Stellar Sword. Anyone who entered it would be under his and Qing Ting’s protection—no one else could pursue them.
Otherwise, Lu Yun and Qing Ting would commence a ma.s.sacre of the arcane beasts.
Struggles of life and death continued on the rainbow bridge. Arcane beasts died, cultivators died.
A bedraggled Azureclad, Crimsonclad, and Leng Che fled back to safety. You Cang was dead. An arcane beast had swallowed him alive.
Soon after, desperate Blackclad, Seven Slaughters, and the other t.i.tled dukes who’d founded the Robber Slayers came sprinting into the circle. Of the twelve t.i.tled dukes who’d established the alliance, only six survived.
It was easy enough to imagine the grisly struggles on the bridge.
Qing Di returned as well in the end. He’d kept a rather open mind about things as he fought when he could and ran when he couldn’t. The arcane beasts couldn’t do anything to him, but they were starting to coordinate their attacks. If he was surrounded by a herd of them, there could be no other end for him but death.
“That little girl was something… she suppressed a group of Terra Bears by herself!” he recounted, still shaking when he thought of the scene. “She appeared when they almost surrounded me and charged right into them with nothing but her fists!”
“So you left your savior behind and ran back here yourself?” Qing Ting frowned and questioned him pointedly.
“I…” Qing Di’s jaw dropped and he didn’t know what to say.” “No, she’s not one of us. I’ve never seen her before—she’s probably an arcane beast!” he said hesitantly after some thought. “An arcane beast in human form that’s not yet a t.i.tled king!”
“The little girl is the three thousandth person,” Lu Yun suddenly said. “Qing Ting and I took two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine ident.i.ty tokens in the city. Excluding the two of us and the one that Ghost Dragon destroyed, that leaves one that we didn’t take.
“The little girl should be the three thousandth person… with the last ident.i.ty token. Don’t worry, she should be quite strong if she could protect her token and hide from me and Qing Ting.”
“Who’s worried about her?” Qing Di mumbled. “She laughed at me for being a weakling…”
“It’s the truth,” Qing Ting agreed with all seriousness. “You are a weakling.”
Qing Di’s eyes reddened, but he didn’t say anything. Qing Ting had violent tendencies and he wasn’t stronger than her. If he continued to argue, she’d probably beat him black and blue again.
“Ahem, sister, that’s not nice to say about Qing Di,” Azureclad coughed awkwardly. This was their relative, after all, and they were all in the same boat at the moment.
“You’re a weakling too.” She glared at brother. “All of you are weaklings!”
Some shame and humiliation appeared on the faces of the cultivators around them.
“There’s too many arcane beasts and they’re traveling in packs… We can’t withstand them all,” Blackclad huffed helplessly.
“If the beasts are traveling in packs, why don’t you? You were real tough when you formed up into the Robber Slayers to take down me and the Champion Duke!” Qing Ting scoffed.
One thousand out of twenty-five hundred cultivators had been eaten in less than a day!
“The arcane beasts aren’t having an easy time either, apparently they ran into some trouble too. Someone killed fifteen hundred of them in one go—I wonder who?” Seven Slaughters grabbed a piece of meat on bone and started gnawing. “Haven’t you guys encountered any arcane beasts in staying here? And where did all this meat come from?”
etvolare"s Thoughts
Well, my young padawan...