Chapter 32 - The Four Lords’ Arrival (2/2)

A couple of hours had passed. As Ye Chen’s Lightning Pneuma Technique was slowly reaching consummation, he was starting to wonder which cultivation system to pick as the fifth to be practiced.

He recalled that the only remaining cultivation systems would be of those five — Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Then, he frowned. Owing to their nature, cultivation systems based on the Five Agents implicitly sealed off the practitioner’s chance to train with the second element that contrasted the first elemental cultivation system.

This quandary had been absent in his previous foray with the Four Forces of Nature because training with one of the Forces would not tank attempts on the other three elements in the set. However, training with the Five Agents was not going to be as clear-cut and easy simply due to their interwoven, non-linear connections with each other.

“They simultaneously give rise and destroy a fellow Agent in their own set…” Ye Chen muttered. “Wait. Could it be that the only way to train with all of them is to practice all five of them simultaneously?”

There was a bright glint in Ye Chen’s eyes as soon as the idea hit him. Quickly, he memorized all of their five discourses before formally practicing them.

Practicing all five cultivation systems together was no less a challenging feat. Yet ever since he had awakened the power that lay inside the Flying Dagger, Ye Chen’s dormant intuitive insights in cultivation seemed to have been awakened. Not only was it not going to be too daunting for him, Ye Chen even found immense pleasure in his cultivation.

Despite him juggling with nine different cultivation systems, the feat had not impose any tax on Ye Chen’s speed in mastering them. On the contrary, it seemed that practicing all of them at the same time had only accelerated his cultivation.

After consummating all of the First Grade Teachings of the Four Forces of Nature, Ye Chen’s Celestial Chi had once again improved to the point that he had already attained the peak of the Sixth Stage and was about to break through the Seventh Stage rank barrier. Maybe he could even break into the Seventh Stage before the Grand Tournament itself!

Regardless, Ye Chen had one ultimate goal: He must attain powers equivalent to the Seventh or Eighth Stage before the Grand Tournament, so that he could defend himself against his enemies, both during the tournament and outside of it!

Just thinking of the Grand Martial Tournament of the Eighteen Houses of Lianyun sobered the young man, as a calm determination was set in his eyes. The reasons behind the sudden Grand Tournament, especially when one remembered that it was to be hosted by the House of Yun, could not possibly be for something as simple as friendly sparring. No, Ye Chen was sure that they were just using the pretext of the Grand Martial Tournament to hamstring the House of Ye!

With impending troubles approaching, Ye Chen tacitly knew that his time for improvement was closing in fast.

His father had once told the young man that should he put effort into his training, it would be easy for him to surpass the Fifth Stage in a month and attain the Sixth Stage, before breaking into the Seventh Stage in the same year. How would his father react if he knew that Ye Chen was already at the verge of breaking through the Seventh Stage right now?

To be fair, Ye Chen agreed that his cultivation speed had exceeded any known logical speed within his cognition. Admittedly, he was a little fearful of how fast he was breaking through the Stags, too.

‘There isn’t going to be any drastic, unknown side effects to this… Right?’

Nevertheless, at this juncture, the young scion had no luxury of time to question his progress. His fear for the pernicious side-effects was tempered by the demand of rapid empowerment so that he could help the House of Ye during their direst hours!

After finally consummating the First Grade Teaching of Lightning Pneuma Technique, Ye Chen found his astral form to be further strengthened, which was much to his delighted surprise.

Just as his astral body was floating in the air, he turned his attention to outside of the Ye Castle and found an envoy of three or forty men. A few of them carrying some corpses with them.

‘The corpses belonged to recently-perished Yun Laoliu and his people!’ Ye Chen’s pupils constricted at the sight. ‘Baying for blood now, aren’t they?’

He quickly returned to his body and gave a glance at Little Tanuki. The creature had just opened its eyes as well.

“Little Tanuki, those people from the House of Yun are coming to visit us now. Let’s go and meet them.”

In an instant, Little Tanuki leaped up onto Ye Chen’s shoulder. Then, Ye Chen walked towards the direction of the main hall of Ye Castle.

“Report! The Second Lord of the House of Yun, Yun Yixuan, is coming to us as we speak. His companies include the Lord of Qin, Lord of Yan, Lord of Lin, and Lord of Wei.” In the Patriarch Residency, a clansman was quick to herald their arrival to the upper-echelon.

In response, Ye Zhantian gave Ye Changxuan a somber glance.

“That Yun Yixuan fella had just ‘visited’ us, didn’t he? Why is he here again so soon?” Ye Zhanlong remarked, frowning.

“Hmph. If troubles are dying to visit us again, we might as well as greet them eagerly,” Ye Changxuan sneered. Five Ninth Stage fighters coming to pay them a visit at once? What was the meaning of that?

By now, Ye Zhantian had successfully attained the Ninth Stage while Ye Changxuan had progressed to the Mid-Ninth Stage; The combative power of the House of Ye was now several levels better than they used to be before. Due to that, the upper-echelon of the family had started to become even more brazen with their disregard for the Yuns’ claimed superiority.

Besides, the House of Yun may have brought four other Lords with them, but it did not mean that these four would be willing to pay their lives for the Yuns either.

‘So let us see what’s the purpose of your visit this time.’