Chapter 17: The Nine Great Immortal Gates

Song Dianlai’s attitude was completely different merely because Chi Yixuan had successfully advanced. So this was what people meant by acting arrogant before and respectful after.

Chi Yixuan was not surprised by Song Dianlai’s change in attitude, because the changes brought by advancing had finally made him understand why everyone below Foundation Establishment was classified as mortal.

If sensing spiritual power during Qi Refining was like listening to the tide through a closed door, then after Foundation Establishment, it was like flinging that door wide open and letting his eyes take in an entire surging sea.

Damp sea breeze brushed over his entire body. Slightly salty vapor filled his nose. Every rise and fall of the snow-white waves echoed his heartbeat.

One beat, then another, and another… He stood beside the reef, as though he could ride the wind and rise at any moment.

And he truly did ride the wind upward. Spiritual power transformed into a pair of invisible hands that lifted him up and carried him into midair, where he faced off against the ill-intentioned Song Dianlai from a distance. He Nianyuan emerged from his shadow and stood silently at his side.

Looking at Song Dianlai’s stiff expression, Chi Yixuan let out a dry laugh. “Your Excellency came here carrying malice, so why are you showing fear now?” As he said this, he secretly had his shadow guard remain on alert at all times. At the same time, the seal magic artifact and the two whips, one on the left and one on the right, were both waiting solemnly inside his sleeves.

Chi Yixuan knew very well that although his side had two Foundation Establishment cultivators against one Foundation Establishment cultivator, they might not necessarily win.

First, he had only just succeeded in Foundation Establishment and had not fully mastered his power yet. Second, his actual combat experience was almost zero. Although he practiced in his room every day and even had his life-bound artifact help control some moving targets for drills, he had only transmigrated five days ago. He felt that in terms of real combat, he might not even be able to beat Guo Qianshan, and he was still at a great disadvantage against a true cultivator. Third, his shadow guard was a ghost without any magic artifacts, and its duration was limited.

Taking all this into consideration, even though Song Dianlai was the only cultivator before him, Chi Yixuan did not dare let down his guard. His greatest advantage right now was that Song Dianlai did not know his background, and also seemed not to have noticed that He Nianyuan was a ghost, so he did not dare start a fight with him lightly.

If a fight really broke out, he would follow the tactics he had planned earlier. First, he would use the seal magic artifact to spring out a barrier and protect himself. At the same time, the shadow guard would entangle Song Dianlai. Then Chi Yixuan would flick the whips in his left and right hands and give him a bit of shocking clothes-shredding impact. He refused to believe this man would still have the nerve to fight him while naked. Even if he did, it would definitely affect his performance. That would balance out Chi Yixuan’s slight weakness in combat experience.

Song Dianlai naturally did not know Chi Yixuan’s sly tactics. At first, he had indeed wanted to teach these mortals a lesson and, while he was at it, interrogate them about what method they had used to suppress the Sea of Suffering Path. But he had not expected there to be two Foundation Establishment cultivators here!

He was used to throwing his weight around in the Easternmost Continent. Now, seeing these two cultivators, he abruptly recalled how wretchedly he had been suppressed by all those proud sons of heaven in Dongchen Continent years ago. Without him realizing it, that arrogance faded.

What was more, according to his common sense, no cultivator would be willing to serve as another cultivator of the same realm’s attendant. The master-servant relationship between Chi Yixuan and the dark, strange-aura cultivator beside him was obvious. This meant Chi Yixuan had another backer behind him. He was very likely the disciple, nephew, or junior relative of some Perfected One who had gone out to gain experience.

Thinking of this, Song Dianlai’s back unconsciously hunched a little. “Fellow Daoist, this is all a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding!”

Chi Yixuan actually did not understand the rules of the cultivation world very well. The original host had never entered an immortal gate, and within the life-bound artifact’s scouting range, almost everyone was mortal. Therefore, he did not know all the twists and turns running through Song Dianlai’s mind. But he keenly detected the change in Song Dianlai’s bearing, and immediately pushed his advantage further, asking in a sarcastic tone, “A misunderstanding? I think you saw a soft persimmon here and made a special trip over to squeeze it, didn’t you?”

Song Dianlai felt wronged. After all, he had been assigned to oversee the Sea of Suffering Path. Now that the Sea of Suffering Path had been sealed, and a small village had appeared beside it, he had to come over even if it was a hard persimmon!

Song Dianlai said, “Fellow Daoist, to be perfectly honest, this Sea of Suffering Path in the Easternmost Continent has always been under the jurisdiction of my Tyrant Blade Sect. For many years, I have been dispatched by my sect to oversee this place. Now that Fellow Daoist has occupied it without cause, I came to investigate. This truly falls within my duties!”

The appearance of an outsider cultivator had already drawn the valley residents’ attention.

Ma Hongxuan was registering identity documents for the slaves one by one. Those with a native place and a name had them filled in directly. Those without a native place or surname were allowed to choose a surname for themselves.

Halfway through writing, he suddenly heard a hired hand beside him remind him, “Look up there. That person facing off against the boss.”

The moment Ma Hongxuan heard the word “boss,” he immediately raised his head with keen alertness. When he clearly saw Song Dianlai floating above the valley entrance, he practically sprang out of his chair. “That’s the hall master of Strange Treasure Hall!”

Although Ma Hongxuan had only worked as a hired hand in Strange Treasure Hall in the past, because he had summoned his life-bound artifact early and yearned for cultivation, he had once racked his brains to meet the hall master of Strange Treasure Hall in person.

That meeting had bitterly disappointed him. Hall Master Song Dianlai was indeed a cultivator, but he looked down on everyone and was arrogant to the extreme. He regarded mortals as ants, and the cultivators who associated with him were all cut from the same cloth. This had once made Ma Hongxuan feel extremely upset. Had cultivators not once been mortals too? Could it be that every member of their clan was a cultivator? Did they not have mortal relatives? Or did becoming a cultivator cause one’s temperament to change completely?

But ever since entering Nameless Valley, ever since following the boss, he had never thought about these things again. Life in the valley was peaceful and harmonious. There was no scheming against one another, and there was no need to bow and scrape. In a short five days, he had almost forgotten his experiences in Strange Treasure Hall. Now, seeing Strange Treasure Hall come to their door with his own eyes, fury and worry boiled up together in Ma Hongxuan’s heart.

The Sea of Suffering Path had already been suppressed by the boss. No one in this valley was interfering with Strange Treasure Hall in any way. Why had they still come looking?

The boss was kind by nature and broad-minded. How could he imagine how wicked people’s hearts could be? How could he guard against this kind of petty villain?

Ma Hongxuan was burning with anxiety and immediately went to call people over. It was currently dusk, still a busy time. Everyone was occupied with work. Who had nothing better to do than look up at the sky? The moment they heard Ma Hongxuan say that people from Strange Treasure Hall had come to make trouble for the boss, those with cultivation and those without alike picked up whatever was beside them and ran over.

Wan Tianyou was in the Medical Workshop studying how to extract venom. He hurried out with the smell of medicine all over him. Guo Qianshan had just brought people back with several cartloads of timber. Hearing the news, he summoned Ghost-Slayer and rushed over. The others also summoned their life-bound artifacts if they had them, and picked up tools if they did not.

With their cultivation, going up against a cultivator was no different from moths flying into a flame. But everyone had forgotten this point and only hoped they could be of some help.

Those below Foundation Establishment could not ride the wind. Everyone raised their heads and stared anxiously upward, completely unable to hear what the people above were saying.

Seeing Song Dianlai move closer to Chi Yixuan, Wan Tianyou clenched his fists. “Damn it, that man is definitely about to do something nasty!”

As everyone shared the same hatred, Guo Qianshan said calmly, “Everyone, don’t act rashly. With the boss’s abilities, that man is definitely no match for him.”

Ma Hongxuan shook his head and said with needless worry, “Of course I’m not afraid of that. I’m worried that petty villain will use some despicable trick to secretly harm the boss!”

As soon as these words came out, Guo Qianshan’s pupils trembled. That was right. The boss’s abilities were naturally stronger than Song Dianlai’s. But when it came to underhanded schemes, how could the open and upright boss compare to Song Dianlai?

They absolutely could not let that scoundrel harm the boss!

But the sky was too high. They could not get up there!

Guo Qianshan looked left and right. “We climb the mountain!”

…

Chi Yixuan was busy dealing with Song Dianlai and still had no idea that his subordinates were already preparing to take a desperate risk.

He had originally guessed that Song Dianlai had someone behind him. His plan had been that if Song Dianlai brought other cultivators with him, Chi Yixuan would use every underhanded means available, and together with his shadow guard, he should be able to fight the other side to a draw. With his life-bound artifact monitoring from the side, if he took a bit of a risk and spent points within his territory to use Skill Three: Son of Heaven’s Decree, he could more or less land one or two critical hits. If he got lucky, taking the other party’s life would not be a problem.

But Song Dianlai had come alone, so Chi Yixuan had even more confidence in his plan. First, kill Song Dianlai and take five thousand points, while also looting his spirit stones. Given the Longevity Realm’s work efficiency, by the time the people behind Song Dianlai came over, perhaps Chi Yixuan would already be at Golden Core.

But now, hearing Song Dianlai mention that he had a Tyrant Blade Sect behind him, Chi Yixuan did not reveal anything on his face, though his heart grew somewhat more solemn.

The Longevity Realm was filled with immortal gates. Aside from the Three Great Sects, whose names were renowned across the fourteen continents, the most famous were the Nine Immortal Gates. Tyrant Blade Sect was one of them.

He only knew that the Three Great Sects were responsible for the main seal of the Bitter Sea, while the other Sea of Suffering Paths were handled by their respective regions. He had not known that the Sea of Suffering Path in the Easternmost Continent was recorded under Tyrant Blade Sect’s jurisdiction. One had to know that the sect masters of the Nine Immortal Gates were at least Nascent Soul cultivators. They could wipe out him and Zhaoge, which now barely counted as a small village, in minutes.

“This cannot be blamed on you. You only transmigrated five days ago, and Strange Treasure Hall only had two Qi Refining mortals responsible for the Sea of Suffering Path. Anyone would inevitably underestimate the opponent. Please do not be dejected.”

Chi Yixuan was not dejected at all. He rapidly changed his strategy and decided to fool Song Dianlai into joining Zhaoge.

It was just that fooling him required method. Someone like Song Dianlai bullied the weak and feared the strong. If Chi Yixuan accidentally exposed a weakness, that wretch would absolutely not let go of any chance to tear a bite out of him.

So Chi Yixuan quickly eased his expression and put on a look of shock. “What? This place is Tyrant Blade Sect’s territory? When did Tyrant Blade Sect decline so badly? You even want a place like this?”

Song Dianlai choked. What did he mean, Tyrant Blade Sect had declined? Our Tyrant Blade Sect ranks ninth among the Nine Great Immortal Gates! Anyone who isn’t a heavenly genius isn’t even worthy of entering the sect. But this sentence also made Song Dianlai relax slightly. From the other party’s meaning, he still had some apprehension toward Tyrant Blade Sect.

So Song Dianlai said, “It seems Fellow Daoist has only just arrived in a remote backwater like the Easternmost Continent and doesn’t understand the inside story. Our Tyrant Blade Sect originally assisted the Three Great Sects in jointly suppressing the main seal of the Bitter Sea. It was only because Donglai Kingdom could not withstand the havoc caused by the Sea of Suffering Path and pleaded repeatedly that my sect sent me here to stand guard.”

Song Dianlai had only just finished speaking when a large net suddenly appeared out of nowhere and covered him completely. Before he could react, stones, blades, poisonous fog, scale weights, and even rags and flour were hurled at him all at once.

Song Dianlai: …

Chi Yixuan: ???

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