Proofreader & Editor:Peter Pan
The crowd fell into a sudden hush.
Although Lan Haitian knew Chen Mobai was a natural-born battle immortal with astonishing talent in combat, in his understanding, the latter had yet to experience a fight at the Foundation Establishment level. He would need to join the Mending the Sky Division, be led on a few missions by Lan Haitian himself, before qualifying to become a member of the sixth group.
However, the current situation had greatly exceeded his expectations.
That guy, that sword just now, was that "Sword Light" ?
Isn't he just at Foundation Establishment?
How many years has it been since a cultivator at the first level of Foundation Establishment has grasped such a realm of sword cultivation?
Must have been a thousand years, right?
"Or, you could just work another decade or two, and after you retire, let him take over as the group leader. I'd be quite content as the deputy leader."
The hesitant voice of his deputy leader reached Lan Haitian's ears, prompting a wry smile from him.
Suddenly, the woman from the Ascension Sect who was previously eager to challenge Lan Haitian, upon witnessing Chen Mobai's one-sword kill of Tuoba Wanyi, didn't hesitate at all.
With a Whoosh.
She transformed into a streak of silver lightning, speeding away over the sea.
"Should we chase her?"
The magnetic voice of a woman sounded beside him. Lan Haitian nodded and glanced at Chen Mobai, signaling her to stay and handle the aftermath.
"After all, she's a cultist. Although I've scared her off, I need to see her leave the Immortal Gate's territory with my own eyes to be at ease."
After saying this, Lan Haitian, harnessing the power of magnetism, followed the silver lightning from afar.
Chen Mobai scratched his head as he watched the two figures, previously locked in a fierce confrontation that shook the heavens and earth, disappear before his eyes.
[Perhaps they're avoiding the aftermath of the battle, seeking an uninhabited place overseas to fight freely.]
While he was pondering this, a pair of soft arms wrapped around his neck, and a warm breath washed over his face.
"Brother-in-law, you're amazing!"
Yang Jing's fair cheeks were slightly flushed, her eyes wide with the relief of surviving a calamity, as she clung tightly to Chen Mobai with her arms and legs.
After waking up, she had just seen Chen Mobai pull out his hairpin and, with a casual stroke in the air, bisect the half-beast creature that had easily restrained Qing Nv and Kong Feichen.
Girls always dream of heroes.
But due to her past experiences, Yang Jing only dared to transform into a snake, hiding in the shadows.
Yet today, Chen Mobai's invincible posture as he cut down his enemy rekindled the fiery beat of her heart, which she had kept frozen.
She felt a warm current flowing through her body, causing her to tremble.
The deep purple sword light, in the moment it struck down the enemy, seemed to break the shell that had imprisoned her for over twenty years, allowing her to feel an emotion called excitement once again.
Chen Mobai, being so close to a girl for the first time, realized that Yang Jing, who usually liked to wear hats and long sleeves, was actually a very pretty girl.
Feeling the softness and fullness pressed against him, he noticed that Yang Jing's figure was far more outstanding than Qing Nv's.
"Don't talk nonsense, Qing Nv and I are just very good friends."
As Chen Mobai spoke, he immediately released his left hand from Yang Jing's slender waist, signaling that the danger was over and she could come down.
"But brother-in-law, I can't fly."
Yang Jing refused to let go, but eventually, a hint of a girl's shyness emerged. She released her legs from around Chen Mobai and leaned into his embrace, hugging his neck tightly.
Chen Mobai also realized that since she hadn't reached Foundation Establishment and his own cultivation wasn't sufficient to fly like Lan Haitian, he could only let Yang Jing hang from his neck.
"You're okay, that's good. Qing Nv is very worried about you, give her a call to let her know you're safe."
Upon hearing this, Yang Jing came back to her senses. She held onto Chen Mobai's neck with one hand and took the phone with the other, dialing the number she knew by heart.
The sisters' conversation was naturally filled with sobs, and Qing Nv kept thanking Chen Mobai over the phone.
"I just exerted a little effort, it's nothing."
Chen Mobai was sincere in his words. Not to mention the ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator he had killed in a second, he definitely wouldn't stand a chance against the woman from the Ascension Sect who could shake the heavens and earth in a confrontation with Lan Haitian.
He felt that if he hadn't brought Lan Haitian, a notorious figure, to face the two cultists from the Ascension Sect alone, he would have been able to save his own life at best.
He certainly wouldn't have been able to rescue Yang Jing.
[With such strength and still so humble, my sister is really lucky.] As Yang Jing returned the phone to Chen Mobai, that's what she thought to herself.
"Let's wait here for a while."
Thinking it over, Chen Mobai felt it wasn't right to just go back like this. After all, Lan Haitian had come to help. They should at least wait until dawn.
Moreover, although it was in self-defense, he had killed someone.
This was in the Immortal Gate, and he didn't know how to resolve it?
He wanted to ask Lan Haitian.
But the deputy leader of the sixth group, hiding nearby, felt there was no need for Chen Mobai to waste time like this, especially since the group leader, who was chasing away the Ascension Sect's people, didn't know when he would return.
Beep Beep Beep!
Just then, Chen Mobai's phone rang.
He thought it was Qing Nv calling again out of concern, but to his surprise, it was actually Lan Haitian.
"You guys go back first, I might not be able to return for a couple of days."
Is this guy really that strong?
He can send texts during a fight?
Chen Mobai was shocked, realizing he had underestimated the strength of a fully cultivated Foundation Establishment expert. Indeed, there was still much for him to improve.
Not wanting to disturb Lan Haitian's peak duel with the strong opponent, he didn't reply to the message, planning to have a detailed chat after the latter returned.
However, Chen Mobai realized that since reaching Foundation Establishment, he had become a bit complacent.
It seemed that having achieved his lifelong dream since childhood, he had lost some motivation.
Then he set a new goal for himself.
Strive to reach Lan Haitian's realm as soon as possible!
At full Foundation Establishment, he could perfectly harness and display the strongest realm of the Sword Rainbow Splitting Light. By then, facing a powerful opponent like the white-eyed woman from the Ascension Sect, he could fight alongside Lan Haitian!
Thinking of not becoming a burden, Chen Mobai secretly made up his mind.
"Hold on tight, I'll take you home."
Hearing these words, Yang Jing immediately tightened her grip, her long, slender legs ready to spring up, but Chen Mobai gave her a look, and she stopped, embarrassedly lowering her head.
Watching the two leave, a female head with short gray hair emerged from the void. Her skin was pale, her eyes brown, but the lower half of her face was covered with a black mask, obscuring her features.
Behind the head, a right hand appeared, holding a phone.
It was she who had logged into Lan Haitian's number and sent the text to Chen Mobai, telling them to go back first.
A strange picture: a head and an arm floating in mid-air. If seen, it might be mistaken for someone practicing the art of flying corpses.
"Where did the group leader find such a monster!"
As the deputy leader of the Mending the Sky Division's sixth group, Lin Yin, who had been through many battles, recalled the most dangerous one against a sword cultivator from the Ascension Sect. During the duel with Lan Haitian, the opponent had used the realm of Sword Rainbow Splitting Light, sending a sword light slashing towards her.
It was that sword light that nearly cut her in half like Tuoba Wanyi just now.
A sword cultivator who has mastered Sword Rainbow Splitting Light at the first level of Foundation Establishment is no longer a genius!
He should be described as a "monster" !
But this was also good, ensuring that the leader of the sixth group would always be a "monster".
Lin Yin had no idea that Chen Mobai had no intention of joining the Mending the Sky Division.
Without Lan Haitian's magnetism to carry them, Chen Mobai and Yang Jing arrived in Danxia City just as dawn was breaking.
After reaching the apartment, the scene of Qing Nv and Yang Jing hugging each other was too beautiful, so Chen Mobai and Kong Feichen stepped out onto the balcony.
"Thank you, I owe you my life."
On the balcony, Kong Feichen said solemnly to Chen Mobai.
"It was just a helping hand."
Chen Mobai waved it off, indicating there was no need for such formality.
"Do you want to know the story of the three of us?"
At that moment, Kong Feichen suddenly asked.
Now that you mention it, I am a bit curious.
Chen Mobai nodded.
The two sat on the small sofa on the balcony, Kong Feichen opened a bottle of beer, and began to talk as he drank.
"We three grew up in a laboratory. There were hundreds of kids like us there. From the moment we were conscious, we were kept in cube-like rooms, like insects."
"Every so often, some kids would be taken out for various experiments. Some never returned."
"You've probably guessed it, the experiments were about how to create superior spiritual roots. We were their most satisfactory products."
Chen Mobai frowned at this point, realizing that stories he had only seen on TV actually existed in reality.
Kong Feichen rolled up his sleeve, revealing a dark tattoo on his chest: E2
"I'm a second-grade spiritual root holder. It seems the experiments were exposed at some point, and a bunch of people from the Immortal Gate came to clean up."
"We three were then sent to an orphanage here in Danxia City."
"But before leaving the lab, we were all given a curse that prevented us from speaking about anything that happened there."
Chen Mobai found this very strange.
"Then why can you tell me?"
"I've been studying at the Medical Academy these past few years, and I managed to break the curse during my Foundation Establishment, which is why I failed."
"No wonder, with your talents and all the spiritual resources we prepared for you, you still haven't succeeded in Foundation Establishment."
Hearing this, Chen Mobai's expression cleared up, resolving a doubt in his mind.
"Actually, there's one more thing, even my sister and Yang Jing don't know."
At this point, Kong Feichen put down his glass and said something that caught Chen Mobai's attention.
"What?"
"I've also practiced the Two-Part Soul Technique."
"Hmm?"
Kong Feichen looked towards the sofa where Qing Nv and Yang Jing, exhausted from crying, were huddled asleep.
"When Yang Jing was little, she thought if she could turn into a snake, she could crawl out of the cube-like room to see the green grass and fresh flowers outside."
"And I thought, if I could become a bird, I could soar freely in the blue sky and white clouds."
"The sealing technique given to us by Captain Gan back then was correct, but the one I gave you, I tampered with."
Chen Mobai's expression changed dramatically, and as he stood up to act, he found his body heavy and unable to move.
"Did you poison this beer? What have you done to Qing Nv and Yang Jing?"
At this point, Chen Mobai realized something was wrong.
With Qing Nv and Yang Jing's cultivation, no matter how tired, they shouldn't be sleeping so deeply.
And they didn't come out even as Kong Feichen recounted such important past events.
"It's not poison, but a drug that can enhance the quality of spiritual power. I've been the top student in pharmacology at the Medical Academy for four years, praised by my mentor as a genius who could change the landscape of Immortal Gate's pharmacology."
Kong Feichen took out an empty glass vial from his chest, explaining as he spoke.
"This spiritual medicine is called 'Knot'. You can think of it as an upgraded version of Condensing Liquid. It can solidify a cultivator's spiritual power. As we all know, turning liquid spiritual power into solid is the process of forming a core."
"This medicine simulates that process, though it only has one ten-thousandth of the efficacy of the Golden Elixir of Jade Restoration, but it allows you to experience higher quality spiritual power a bit earlier."
"However, since your body and consciousness are still at the Foundation Establishment level, you can't mobilize such high-quality spiritual power, and the effect can only last half a day."
After finishing his explanation, Kong Feichen placed the empty glass vial on the table in front of them and downed the rest of his beer.
"By the way, this drug only works on liquid spiritual power. For a Qi Refining cultivator like me, it's really just beer."
"What are you going to do?"
Chen Mobai tried to figure out a way out while probing Kong Feichen's true intentions.
"Nothing much, just unable to let go of my past."
Kong Feichen pointed to the tattoo on his chest, laughing self-deprecatingly with a slightly twisted expression, his eyes suddenly turning a dark gold color.
"I practiced the Two-Part Soul Technique, hoping to bury and seal away my past hatred, pain, and despair, but I overestimated myself. I just can't do it."
Seeing this, Chen Mobai knew that Kong Feichen was now controlled by another personality within him.
Or rather, the two personalities had reached an agreement in their hatred.
"I've been looking for a solution to the Two-Part Soul Technique at the Medical Academy these past few years. The only way is the source of this forbidden technique, the Devouring God Technique."
Kong Feichen walked into the living room, picked up Yang Jing from Qing Nv's arms, covered Qing Nv with a blanket, returned to the balcony, and activated a talisman.
A silver ring of fire opened a portal in the void in front of the balcony.
"Take care of my sister. I'm taking her to get treated."
After saying this, Kong Feichen stepped into the ring of silver fire with Yang Jing.
And at that moment, a gray-haired female head appeared in mid-air. Lin Yin, holding a dagger, silently slashed at Kong Feichen's neck.