20 More People Means More Power (1/2)
The Misty Peak of Spirit Sword Sect had an excellent tradition of watching the fun together.
Initially, it was just the two older and younger disciples in black and white clothing who were bored, and thus, started to ridicule the participants’ performance in the Immortal Path. But as Hai Yunfan began to face off with the last hurdle in the Frozen Wind Valley, which was a category 3 ninth rank monster, more and more disciples in black and white clothing came over, and full of vim, they started pointing and commenting at his performance
“Hey, this kid is pretty fast. He went this far in just ten days?”
“So what if he’s fast? No one got through this Immortal Path for hundreds of years. The faster he walk, the closer he is from the failure. The last hurdle is a category 3 ninth rank monster… Huh, isn’t this the mammoth species from the Western Continent [1]? Who put it here? This big guy is one of the most overbearing monsters of its level; it’s probably even stronger than the seventh or eighth rank monster of the same category. He might as well give up.”
“You can’t be sure of that, he had used his magical treasures to weaken the mammoth to seventy percent of its original strength; its level had dropped by a category…”
“What’s the use? If Sect Leader’s cultivation level is reduced by one stage, would you then be able to defeat him?”
“Stop bickering, look, Hai Yunfan is making his move!”
“Oh, he actually wants to cut the thick and coarse skin of that mammoth with his toothpick of a sword, what a courage, truly admirable!”
“Yes, knowing that it’s a futile action but he is still wielding that sword, truly praiseworthy.”
“Ah, he’s been hit, oh, oh, look, he seems to fall off the cliff.”
“... Did he really fall off the cliff?”
“He didn’t? Let’s wait and see, perhaps he’ll fly up and make a comeback.”
“... It’s been a while, and he still hasn’t moved! He’s just lying motionlessly in the snow!”
“What is he doing? What about his hidden trump card? Where is that “comeback”?”
“He won’t die just like that, won’t he? Weren’t many of our Martial Uncles have a high regard for him? A few days before, Master also said he’s the most promising one to finish the Immortal Path. He can’t die here just like that!?”
“Master probably wanted to use this to teach us that anything can happen in the path of Immortal Cultivation, so we need to guard against arrogance and rashness.”
“... Ai, in short, he's finished. Everyone disperse, there’s nothing to see here anymore.”
In just a few minutes, the gathered crowd completely dispersed, leaving only the two original older and younger disciples.
After a while, the younger disciple asked, “... Senior Martial Brother, that Hai Yunfan is not really dead, right?”
The older disciple was staring at the animated cloud. He said somewhat hesitantly, “I think he did it on purpose? When he flew away after being hit, his posture seemed unnatural, although I am not entirely sure since I saw it through the cloud. But on the other hand, facing an opponent that is impossible to beat, perhaps jumping off the cliff could give him a chance to survive.”
“... Ah! Senior Martial Brother, he’s starting to move!”
The younger disciple exclaimed in a pleasant surprise as he pointed at the change in the animated cloud.
——
Hai Yunfan was, of course, not dead. If he died, his years of training his family’s secret swordsmanship, Soft Cloud Sword Art, would have been in vain.
Immortal Gathering would not accept someone who had already started cultivating, and Hai Yunfan also happened to only train in the martial art of the mortal world. While his talent in cultivation was only third rate, his talent in martial arts was first class. In the age of twelve, he had already mastered fifty to sixty percent of the Soft Cloud Sword Art, and he had used one of the three best weapons in the Grand Cloud Empire, Soft Cloud Flexible Sword, to display his exquisite swordsmanship.
A full-blown strike from the mammoth was extremely powerful. But to deal with a small insect-like Hai Yunfan, it did not need to go all out. It merely needed to swing its thick pillar-like trunk to make someone as small as Hai Yunfan meet a cruel death… Even if not death, it could always swing its trunk twice or thrice.
Hai Yunfan used his Sword Cloud Flexible Sword to block the mammoth’s attack at the precise moment, and then he borrowed the momentum to fly off the cliff. If he had just moved away to the side, the mammoth would have trampled him to death on the spot.
As for falling off the cliff, it was not too much of a problem for him because the Frozen Wind Valley was packed with thick snow. Moreover, he had also used the neutralizing power of his Soft Cloud Sword… Although the impact from falling off the cliff combined with the mammoth’s striking power almost made him spit out blood, but this could be counted as a victory for him, because a mere mortal had survived an attack from a category 3 ninth rank monster.
After shaking his head to cast away his dizziness, Hai Yunfan stood up and smiled. It was not a satisfied smile, but rather a bitter one. Although he had weakened the strength of the monster three times in a row, victory was still out of reach for him. He had no more card up his sleeve anymore. This time, his Immortal Path seemed to have stopped here.
Of course, this did not mean that he was about to give up. After thinking about it, he finally started to climb the cliff. Using his infinite stamina that he gained from the Peach Blossom Village, Hai Yunfan finally returned to the starting point of the last valley in the Frozen Wind Valley in three days. But by this time, another participant had caught up with him.
Surprisingly, the person who had caught up with him was Wang Lu’s errand boy, Wang Zhong!
When he looked at Wang Zhong, Hai Yunfan almost did not recognize him. The last time they met, he was still the timid little errand boy who followed his young master, but this time, he seemed to have become a gloomy young man. His previous innocent youth image had completely disappeared.
But this was not a surprise for Hai Yunfan who was born in the Royal family. The moment he saw Wang Zhong, he immediately knew that the kid had a rebellious nature. Especially in the Immortal Path, where everything was possible, the kid would not stay under someone else forever. Indeed, as Hai Yunfan had expected, the kid had broken up with Wang Lu. No wonder his face had changed dramatically. Sure enough, vicissitudes in life could make people mature.
When Hai Yunfan saw Wang Zhong, Wang Zhong also saw Hai Yunfan’s eyes. In a flash, his gloomy and dreary face was replaced by a sincere and simple smile.
“Your highness?”
Hai Yunfan also put a smile on his face; no matter what had happened between Wang Zhong and Wang Lu, he, as the third party, had nothing to do with it. In any case, they would face the last trial of the Frozen Wind Valley together, so why shouldn’t he be cordial to him?
“Wang Zhong? I didn’t think that I’d see you here.”
Hearing that the opposite party had accurately called his name, Wang Zhong was somewhat moved, but he immediately cut to the point, “Are you resting here, your highness?”
Although he asked that question, his eyes had swept over Hai Yunfan’s tattered clothes and the mud that covered all over his body. Moreover, Hai Yunfan was the first to leave the Peach Blossom Village, yet other people had caught up with him. All of these descriptions were enough to show that Hai Yunfan was in trouble.
Hai Yunfan did not conceal anything; he directly told him about his frustrating experience. The more he told his story, the more ugly Wang Zhong’s face became.
Along the way here, Wang Zhong had painstakingly tried his hardest. Half of the reward that he gained from the Peach Blossom Village had been used up because he thought that the remaining half would suffice for the rest of the journey. But upon hearing Hai Yunfan’s description about the monster, Wang Zhong knew that he had no chance at all.
He also did not hide anything. “I’ve got five Invisibility Talismans from the Peach Blossom Village. They can hide someone up to three meters away from the target, but they can’t cover the smell and the sound… If the monster blocking our path up there is like what your highness said, then I think my Invisibility Talisman is not going to be useful.”
Hai Yunfan said, “It’s not good even if we can get around that mammoth. I feel like we must think of a way to defeat it; sidestepping it wouldn’t count.”
“Defeat that monster? What kind of joke is that? How could we defeat that monster when we’re not even Immortal Cultivators?”
Hai Yunfan explained, “If we can take advantage of the environment, it is still possible. For example, we could lure it to fall off the cliff, look for another monster to fight with it… try to seek our own breakthroughs under this extreme natural condition, and so on. There’s always a way.”
Wang Zhong smiled but did not say anything. Hai Yunfan’s rhetoric just now made him remember his ex-young master, which made him somewhat uncomfortable.
Hai Yunfan continued, “In my previous encounter with the monster, I found that it was very intelligent. It had also lived in this Frozen Wind Valley longer than we had. So, I think it would be difficult for us to design a trap for it. Moreover, its strength is also far greater than the other monsters here, so pitting it against the third party is also unrealistic either… Oh, no wonder nobody was able to finish this Immortal Path for hundreds of years.”
Wang Zhong could not help but say, “Over the past hundred of years, there was also no Peach Blossom Village. Right now, we have the rewards from the Peach Blossom Village. We might have a chance.”