Chapter 8 – Life and Death Arena

Half a month later.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Cool Breeze Gorge. A young man in green clothes stood on an enormous rock while holding a tree branch that was around a meter long and thick like an index finger while ceaselessly stabbing it forward, flicking it diagonally, slashing vertically, and slicing horizontally. Every single time the young man swung the branch, it would cause a light pop from the air being torn apart to resound. Moreover, as the young man increased the speed of these actions, the light sounds of the air being torn apart started to resound like firecrackers on the enormous rock.

At a certain point in time, the young man’s eyes focused before he tossed the branch in his hand towards a large tree in the distance. The branch was extremely swift, and everywhere it passed, numerous light sounds of the air being torn apart resounded without end. The brand had practically traversed a distance of over 10 meters within the time of two breaths to arrive before the large tree.

Bang!

The branch penetrated through the lower parts of the tree’s trunk that required three people holding hands together to embrace it. After that, it penetrated through a second tree, and when it successively penetrated through five trees, the branch finally stopped in the sixth tree.

As he looked at the small holes on those trees, the young man said in a low voice, “With the Energy Stones and Meridian Shield Pills Elder Qian gave me and coupled with the ceaseless tempering of my light golden Profound Energy, the strength of my body is countless times stronger than before! It’s just a pity that I’ve completely consumed all 10 Energy Stones and the Meridian Shield Pills.”

The young man was naturally Yang Ye. In this half a month of time, amongst the 24 hours within a day, he’d practically spent 20 hours on cultivating. Under such hard work, he hadn’t just improved his cultivation to the sixth rank of the Mortal Realm, even his Basic Sword Technique from the Sword Sect had been cultivated to perfection.

The Sword Sect’s Basic Sword Technique wasn’t anything rare, and every single Outer Court Disciple would get one. Besides Yang Ye, practically no Outer Court Disciple within the Sword Sect would cultivate such a common technique. After all, no matter how formidable one’s Basic Sword Technique was, how could it compare to those sword techniques that were ranked?

In the past, Yang Ye had such thoughts as well. However, after he was reduced to a Labor Disciple, he had no choice and could only choose to cultivate in the Basic Sword Technique. After cultivating in it for two years and along with the ceaseless strengthening of his cultivation and physical strength, he’d become more and more skilled in the Basic Sword Technique, and Yang Ye felt that this sword technique seemed to be not as useless as everyone thought.

This sword technique was a technique that contained simple moves like stabbing, slashing, sweeping, chopping, and upwards slashes. However, under his ceaseless practice throughout these two years of time, these simple moves had already become not so simple. Just like that scene from before, every single swing of his sword caused a light sound of the air being torn apart. This sort of effect was something that even some Yellow Rank sword techniques within the Sword Sect were unable to attain.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

So, Yang Ye decided to continue practicing it diligently as he wanted to see where the limits of the Basic Sword Technique were!

Yang Ye raised his head to gaze at the sky to determine the time. When he noticed it was high noon, Yang Ye patted his hands together and said in a low voice, “I must successfully craft a Strength Talisman today!”

Within the Five Element Talisman Marking Technique Bao’er gave him, the method of crafting the Strength Talisman wasn’t very complicated. After all, it was only a basic talisman. However, to a newbie like Yang Ye that had just come into contact with talismans and didn’t possess the guidance of anyone, it was already extremely complicated. In this half a month of time, he hadn’t succeeded a single time, and the main reason was that he’d been too impatient at the beginning.

With the experiences derived from his failures during this time, Yang Ye had become smarter. In the last week, he hadn’t tried to draw the Strength Talisman, and he’d studied the Strength Talisman for a week instead. He’d forcefully committed to memory all the pathways and especially important parts of the Strength Talisman.

Yang Ye recalled all the details of the Strength Talisman. After a short while, Yang Ye sat cross-legged on the enormous rock and withdrew the talisman paper and talisman brush Bao’er had given him. After that, he withdrew the Darkbeast blood and Spirit Herb Sap Bao’er gave him. Once he’d prepared everything, Yang Ye moved from a sitting position to a crawling position instead, and then he held his breath in concentration.

After a short while, the light golden Profound Energy within his body slowly poured into the talisman brush, and then he started to draw according to the method of crafting a Strength Talisman within his mind.

As he held the talisman brush, Yang Ye carefully moved it on the talisman paper, and traces of light golden Profound Energy from within his body flowed into the talisman paper via the talisman brush. After numerous lines of light golden Profound Energy entered the talisman paper, they instantly started crawling about like numerous little worms. When he saw this, Yang Ye hurriedly utilized the talisman brush to guide them to form all sorts of strange shapes.

During this entire process, Yang Ye didn’t even dare breathe heavily, and he was fully concentrated on slowly guiding the talisman brush on the talisman paper. After 15 minutes of this, a light golden shape of a flame gradually appeared on the talisman paper, and after another 15 minutes, Yang Ye lifted the brush while a light golden flame had appeared on the talisman paper.

Yang Ye took a deep breath when he saw the flame had taken form, and his expression relaxed. Of course, this wasn’t the end because he’d only finished the first step, and there was another step, a step that was of utmost importance. Imbuing spirit into the talisman!

The process of imbuing spirit into the talisman was to imbue the Spirit Herb Sap and Darkbeast blood into the talisman paper and utilize the two of them combined with the energy of the heavens and the earth to allow the talisman to possess spirit.

This step was the most difficult, and he’d failed once a month ago. Because he had to draw the flame once more while utilizing the Darkbeast blood, Spirit Herb Sab, and his own light golden Profound Energy at the same time!

If he failed during this entire process, then the entire talisman would be a failure!

Yang Ye took a deep breath and tried to make himself calm down. After a short moment, he picked up a white jade bottle and poured out a drop of liquid from it onto the talisman, then he quickly picked up another white jade bottle poured out a drop of Darkbeast blood. Once the two drops of liquid had dropped onto the talisman, Yang Ye hurriedly circulated the Profound Energy within his body and forcefully mixed the two drops of liquid.

The two drops of liquid mixed without any difficulty under the effect of Yang Ye’s light golden Profound Energy, and then Yang Ye hurriedly held the talisman brush and guided the liquid according to the pathways of the flame.

This process was said to be the most difficult because Yang Ye had to utilize his Profound Energy to envelop the two drops of liquid during this entire process, and this carried extremely strict requirements towards one’s control of Soul Energy and Profound Energy. During this entire process, the slightest bit of carelessness or the inability to completely imbue the talisman with spirit in one go would cause the crafting of the talisman to fail!

Because once the Darkbeast blood and Spirit Herb Sap weren’t enveloped by Profound Energy, then they would instantly separate. Once the two of them separated, the flame on the entire talisman would definitely be thrown into disorder. At that time, everything Yang Ye had accomplished before this would be in vain.

Numerous droplets of cold sweat ceaselessly appeared on his forehead, yet Yang Ye didn’t even dare blink as he was deeply afraid that his drawing would become slanted while he blinked.

Just like this, after drawing carefully for around 30 minutes, a smile gradually appeared on Yang Ye’s face, and the excitement in his eyes was impossible to conceal. After another 15 minutes, Yang Ye suddenly raised his brush. As soon as the brush left the talisman paper, the flame on the talisman paper instantly emanated a light golden flaming glow just like a real flame, and the entire flame was lifelike and seemed real as it resided on the talisman paper!

“I’ve finally succeeded, I’ve finally succeeded. I, Yang Ye, am a Grade One Talisman Master as well, Hahaha!!!” As he gazed at the flame on the talisman paper, Yang Ye couldn’t help but roar excitedly with laughter.

Based on the Five Element Talisman Marking Technique that Bao’er gave him, Yang Ye possessed some basic information about Talisman Masters. Talisman Masters were just like Profounders, and they were divided by realms as well. The first grade to the fifth grade were grades related to inscribing talismans, and it was the basic crafting of talismans. The realms after grade five Talisman Master was Spirit Talisman Master, Earth Talisman Master, Heaven Talisman Master, Immortal Talisman Master, and Divine Talisman Master.

The first five grades were related to inscribing talismans, and one gained a grade for every talisman one could successfully craft. If one was able to craft five basic talismans and achieve mastery of all five elements, then one had attained the fifth grade. Yang Ye had successfully crafted a Strength Talisman now, so he could be considered as a Grade One Talisman Master!

Yang Ye suppressed the excitement in his heart and picked up the Strength Talisman on the rock. He observed it for some time before a wisp of surprise appeared in his eyes, and he said in a low voice, “Talismans are divided into the defective-grade, low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade. This Strength Talisman of mine caused the flame to seem like it’s alive, and it ought to be considered a high-grade talisman. However, didn’t the scroll say that the possibility of crafting a high-grade talisman is extremely low? Could it be that it’s because of my light golden Profound Energy?”

Yang Ye found out from the introduction within the Five Element Talisman Marking Technique that talismans were divided by grades as well, and talismans of different grades had different effects as well. For example, a low-grade Strength Talisman was at most capable of increasing the user’s strength by 50%, a mid-grade Strength Talisman increased it by around 100%, whereas, a high-grade talisman was able to increase it by 300%. As for a top-grade Strength Talisman, it was able to increase the user’s strength by six or seven times.

Even though the effects of high-grade and top-grade talismans were shocking, the difficulty of crafting them was extremely great as well. The possibility of successfully crafting a high-grade talisman was extraordinarily low, so he’d never expected that this talisman of his would actually be at the top-grade. Could it be that I’m really an extraordinary genius? Yang Ye was bewildered.

Looks like I have to ask Bao’er about it in the future! Yang Ye stopped thinking about this problem. He gazed at the Strength Talisman in his hand while the corners of his mouth raised slightly to form a wisp of a strange smile. If I fight someone in the future, then under the circumstances there isn’t much of a gap in our strength, I’ll definitely be able to make my opponent die a grievous death if I suddenly slapped a talisman on myself.

When he thought up to here, the smile on the corners of Yang Ye’s mouth grew wider, and he smiled with slight complacency. After a short moment, he carefully put away the Strength Talisman before walking towards the exit of Cool Breeze Gorge.

After he left Cool Breeze Gorge, Yang Ye arrived at the training grounds. As soon as he arrived here, he was stopped by a disciple in green clothes. This young man was around 17 or 18 years old, and there was a tiny ‘Outer’ inscribed on the left shoulder of his green clothes. This was the symbol of an Outer Court Disciple!

As he gazed at this green clothed young man that revealed killing intent towards him, Yang Ye knew that this person before him was probably Du Xiu’s cousin brother, Duan Jun, who had attained the eighth rank of the Mortal Realm.

When they saw Yang Ye being stopped by Duan Jun, some of the nearby Labor Disciples instantly shook their heads and sighed. Because of Yang Ye, all the Labor Disciples on Labor Peak weren’t bullied by Du Xiu and the others any longer, so they had a good impression of Yang Ye.

Now, Du Xiu’s cousin brother had returned from the mortal world, so the consequences Yang Ye faced were obvious.

Duan Jun gazed at Yang Ye as well while his eyes flickered with ghastly and cold killing intent. When he returned here from the mortal world today, he noticed that Du Xiu and Manager Xu had actually been sent to Star Ore Mountain, and the culprit was actually this Labor Disciple who was standing before him. After all, all the Labor Disciples of the Sword Sect and even some Outer Court Disciples were clearly aware that Du Xiu was his cousin brother, and Manager Xu was his subordinate. One had to consider the status of the master before beating a dog, and this person before him had slapped him on the face without disguising it at all!

Moreover, most importantly, Du Xiu and Manager Xu had to give over 10,000 gold coins to him every single year. Only with this wealth would he be able to buy even more cultivation resources, yet now, this source of wealth was gone because of this person standing before him! Over 10,000 gold coins, that was his main source of wealth, and even his heart was bleeding because of this.

When he thought up to here, Duan Jun’s eyes narrowed before he said, “Trash, is the cousin brother of I, Duan Jun, someone you can bully? Die!” As soon as he finished speaking, his figure flashed while his palm slapped towards Yang Ye’s face.

When he noticed Duan Jun attacking directly and even directly executing a lethal strike, Yang Ye’s face sank, and he shouted in a low voice while his fist smashed down towards Duan Jun’s palm.

Bang!

The palm and fist collided. Yang Ye took three steps back while Duan Jun similarly took three steps back.

In their first collision, the two of them were equally matched.

A wisp of surprise flashed past Duan Jun’s eyes when he noticed himself being forced back by Yang Ye, and he sized Yang Ye up before he said, “You’re already a Profounder? But so what if you are? I only utilized 10% of my strength just now, so it’s time to die now!” As he spoke, the Profound Energy in his body surged while he was prepared to attack once more and annihilate Yang Ye.

“Wait!” Yang Ye took a step forward and gazed at Duan Jun while his eyes similarly flickered with killing intent. Because Duan Jun was aware that Du Xiu and the others had been punished by Elder Qian, yet he didn’t dare to look for trouble with Elder Qian, so he came looking for Yang Ye instead. Moreover, he executed a lethal strike as soon as he attacked, and this caused Yang Ye to be infuriated.

“What? You intend to beg for mercy?” Duan Jun said with ridicule, “If you knew this would happen, then why act in that way? Even though my cousin brother was only a Labor Disciple, he wasn’t someone a piece of trash like you can bully. Now, kowtow 1,000 times to me and shout loudly that you were wrong, and then get the fuck out of the Sword Sect. Then, maybe I can consider sparing your life!”

“I challenge you to a battle on the Life and Death Arena!” Yang Ye stared at Duan Jun in the eyes as he spoke with a firm tone.

Silence, deathly silence. All the Labor Disciples in the surroundings and Duan Jun himself were stunned.

A Labor Disciple challenged an Outer Court Disciple? And it’s even on the Life and Death Arena?