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Chapter 48: Curse
Emperor Chen of Han shouted. The pill fire sword turned into an extremely soft red chain that fell onto Emperor Yuanwu"s yellow sword.
The yellow sword sank slightly.
Yan Ying"s amputated fingers were just a dozen feet away from Emperor Yuanwu"s eyes. It was such, Emperor Yuanwu would not have the time to swing his sword to deflect the advancing pair of fingers in time. His eyes focused slightly, brightening into a yellow hue, just like his sword.
Pew! Pew!
The two severed fingers stabbed into his eyes like flying swords, emitting two dull sounds.
Everybody was shocked speechless.
A small ripple formed on Emperor Yuanwu"s yellow eyes. The energy of the two cleaved fingers had penetrated his eyes, but had immediately disappeared.
The severed fingers, that lost all power, immediately turned into dust in front of his eyes and were blown away by the wild wind.
It felt as though the power of those two fingers had been instantly consumed by Emperor Yuanwu"s eyes.
"Universe Gold Body," said Emperor Yuanwu.
He had finally confirmed the kind of vital energy spell that Emperor Yuanwu primarily cultivated. At this time Emperor Yuanwu did not give off any piercing light, but in the eyes of emperor of Chu, it was an exceptionally painful sight… he closed his eyes.
The emperor of Qi too closed his eyes in pain.
Soon after his ascension, Emperor Yuanwu had gone into seclusion, so everything about his cultivation had been a secret. The cultivators of the world had all kinds of speculations about whether he had truly reached realm eight. They all wanted to know secrets regarding Emperor Yuanwu"s cultivation. Yet, as more and more secrets were revealed, the cultivators of the different dynasties present were increasingly unable to accept.
The strongest group of cultivators in Changling of the past had come from the Ba Mountain Sword Field. But the "Universe Gold Body" had not come from the Ba Mountain Sword Field, but one of the formerly strongest prestigious families of Changling, the Yuhua Family.
Supposedly, when the "Universe Gold Body" was cultivated to realm seven, one could contain astounding amounts of vital energy in one"s body, and also absorb powerful energy and power from enemies. However, after the Yuhua Family created this cultivation method, no one else after that ancestor had been able to reach realm seven with the "Universe Gold Body."
Yet, after the destruction of Yuhua Family many years ago during the reformation, Emperor Yuanwu, who had destroyed the Yuhua Family, had managed to successfully cultivate this secret method. The members of the Yuhua Family may have known the secrets of this method, but the Yuhua Family had been wiped out without any survivors. The cultivators of the present could only speculate through Emperor Yuanwu"s performance in this battle what kind of monster, a realm eight cultivator who cultivated this method, would become.
Boom!
An astounding wave seemed to surge from the yellow sword.
The pill fire chains wrapped around the blade powerlessly scattered like a python without its skeleton.
Emperor Chen of Han"s abdomen spurted out several dozen waves of energy. Dozens of wounds split apart the flesh of his abdomen. It seemed like his energy sea had exploded completely and he was alive only due to the Heaven Stealing Pill.
The power contained in the attacking pill fire was stronger than blows from regular realm sevens. One streak even landed on Yan Ying"s body and left behind a deep mark.
When Yan Ying looked at Emperor Yuanwu who appeared more powerful and invincible as his cultivation and his methods were revealed, he was still extremely calm and determined.
Victory and defeat was not determined here.
He and Emperor Chen of Han did not have to kill Emperor Yuanwu. They just had to use up Emperor Yuanwu"s strength and inflict enough damage.
Thick smoke appeared on his face, as though the face of a black infant was taking form on his face.
"You are a very interesting cultivator."
Emperor Yuanwu, who had broken free of Emperor Chen of Han"s pill fire sword, did not immediately attack. He swung his sword forward.
The yellow sword light left only a faint mark on the ground in front of him. But this mark seemed to become a symbol which contained a kind of mysterious power. Countless bright lines of light from the sky fell onto this mark, forming a bright barrier of light that temporarily separated him from Emperor Chen of Han and Yan Ying.
His eyebrows raised, and looking with some bewilderment at Yan Ying said, "You are clearly realm seven and are able to fight a realm eight. There have never been many cultivators like you in the past, and nor many in the future. But this Lonely One does not understand. This Lonely One should not have many gurdges with the Qi cultivators. Why do you dislike this Lonely One so?"
A dislike that made one able to abandon life would be an exceptionally strong emotion. Emperor Yuanwu did not think that someone like Yan Ying would decide to fight to the death in order to gain some benefit for the Qi Dynasty at Deer Mountain Conference.
"Even if someone like you is going to die, you will only die for your own love and hate, not for an ephemeral city or several miles of land." Emperor Yuanwu looked at Yan Ying and added, "You should tell this Lonely One. Why?"
The cultivators who stood at the top were already inhuman. From a certain perspective, they had extremely eccentric quirks. This kind of matter was meaningless to most people, but very meaningful to them. So, at Emperor Yuanwu"s words, Yan Ying"s gaze suffused with disdain.
"You ask me something like this? I hear you do not like people with the surname w.a.n.g. Almost all the people with the w.a.n.g surname in Changling are not used. Could you tell me why?"
Emperor Yuanwu"s eyes narrowed slightly. The air above Deer Mountain was temporarily expelled out as though a vacuum would form.
"Is it not because of w.a.n.g Jingmeng, because you fear that person?"
Yan Ying looked at the silent Emperor Yuanwu and spoke ruthlessly without hesitation. "It"s laughable that you erased all the history books regarding him because you fear him. It is amusing that the people of Changling do not dare to mention his name for the fear of being killed. But don"t they still use "that person" to refer to him? "That person" has almost become his own unique p.r.o.noun."
Yan Ying"s voice echoed among the peaks. Thunder roared high in the sky as enormous things were pa.s.sing through the firmament and about to fall in fury.
"In reality, most people here know well that the glory the Qin Dynasty has right now is mostly due to him and the people of Ba Mountain Sword Field that followed him. You and Zheng Xiu are just shameful thieves that stole his credit."
The disdain in Yan Ying"s eyes grew, he continued without disguise. "You yourself also know that he was the strongest of Changling from start to end. Back then, you were lesser than him. If he were able to live until now, you would still not be a match to him. So, to cultivators of other dynasties like me, he was the number one enemy."
"Three years before your ascension, who among the grandmasters did not view him as their top enemy?"
"He is the goal I have pursued for my lifetime. Defeating an enemy like this could be said to be my only goal in my many years of cultivation."
"Yet, he died due to shameless betrayal and conspiracy. Even more hatefully, I feel I look down on you and Zheng Xiu."
"With the sudden disappearance of my opponent, my many years of cultivation suddenly became meaningless. Even more importantly, I even look down upon you. You replace him and appear in front of me, but I feel no respect … this is a dull thing."
Yan Ying looked at Emperor Yuanwu and continued talking.
His reason was something most could not accept, and would feel ridiculous. But everybody could hear the gravity in his tone. Everybody could hear that this was his true thoughts.
"Before his death, I only felt hostility towards him. But after his death, I have found many of his traits worthy of respect. There are many reasons in order to like someone. I do not like him very much. But it really does not take much reason to dislike someone."
Yan Ying looked at Emperor Yuanwu"s increasingly emotionless eyes. He said seriously, "So starting from your ascension, I decided to kill you."
Because Emperor Yuanwu had been the one to ask, he waited for Yan Ying to finish talking.
Then he said expressionlessly, "Only paranoid people can walk the furthest on this path. But regardless of how many surprises you have given this Lonely One, you are still stupid. A person like you with a high possibility of reaching realm eight, choosing death for a momentary dislike, is stupid. You do not even understand how to understand the situation."
"Who in the world is not stupid? Does not all the struggle turn to dust in the end?" Yan Ying laughed. "You do not understand what happiness is. A person that doesn"t even understand happiness will not be happy even if you get the world."
Emperor Yuanwu took a deep breath. He said slowly with an indescribably strong presence, "When this Lonely One obtains the world, this Lonely One will be happy."
Yan Ying glanced at him and said, "I fear that when you obtain the world, when you are about to die, you will not be happy even then."
His gaze was vicious and his tone too.
So the words sounded like a curse.
Translator Ramblings: In terms of ridiculous reasons to want someone dead, this probably ranks. You killed my enemy so I want to kill you.