Chapter 224: Those Who Harm Others, Harm Themselves

Translator: Minotauruz

“This little lady’s aptitude isn’t too bad. Ah-Jie, take a look – what do you think of me accepting her as my disciple?”

This sect elder from the Zephyr Sect had been observing Jun Xiaomo during the battles for some time now, and he quipped lightheartedly to another sect elder beside him as he stroked his own beard.

The Zephyr Sect was a Greater Sect which was second to only the Limitless Sect and the Frozen Sword Sect. These three sects were the mainstay among the top three Greater Sect after every iteration of the Greater Inter-Sect Competitions. These three sects were naturally also Greater Sects that almost all disciples of the Secondary Sects dreamt of entering.

That said, the Zephyr Sect’s recruitment of disciples was extremely peculiar and arbitrary. Whilst they considered the disciples’ potential, abilities, character, and the like, none of the sect elders adhered to any fixed rules when they picked out their next chosen disciples. Thus, whether past or present, nobody had been able to figure out any common threads in how the Zephyr Sect picked out its disciples.

Right now, this sect elder named Rong Ruizhen had obviously set his sights on Jun Xiaomo and recognized her aptitude.

“Let’s keep watching. I get the feeling that she’s rather reckless to be facing this Scarlet Heavenly Wolf all alone. Whether she can survive this trial is still very much an unknown for now.” The other sect elder criticized.

“That’s true. Let’s wait and see, then. We’ll revisit this if she’s able to survive this ordeal.” Tong Ruizhen stroked his beard as he chuckled heartily. His eyes gleamed with anticipation and sophistication.

Just as the sect elders were having that exchange with each other, Jun Xiaomo had already completed the first round of her Constriction Array. The Scarlet Heavenly Wolf howled in fury and attempted to charge out. However, it was blocked and repelled back by the walls of the Constriction Array. At the same time, the radiance of the Constriction Array darkened slightly.

These Constriction Arrays were incredibly powerful, but they would not be able to last for too long if Jun Xiaomo did not continue to strengthen it.

Thus, she made full use of the downtime while the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf was repelled back. Before the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf could shake of its momentary stupor, Jun Xiaomo made a few hand seals, added a few spirit stones onto her formation array, and then changed some lines within the formation diagram itself.

The Scarlet Heavenly Wolf charged at her once more, and it was again repelled back...

Just like that, the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf continued to charge straight towards Jun Xiaomo, yet it was time and again repelled by Jun Xiaomo’s formation array. Furthermore, every time it was repelled, the amount of space for it to manoeuvre would diminish ever so slightly.

In fact, there was one occasion where the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf’s frenzied state escalated to the next level and it nearly broke through Jun Xiaomo’s formation array. Fortunately, Jun Xiaomo managed to overlay another layer of Constriction Array over the others in the nick of time, and she barely averted the crisis by a hair’s breadth.

As time wore on, the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf finally found itself completely restrained under Jun Xiaomo’s formation array, and it was completely unable to move any longer.

Outside the marshlands, several people finally heaved a sigh of relief on Jun Xiaomo’s behalf. In fact, several sighs rang out at the same time, and everyone glanced at each other as they realized that everyone else in the audience had all been watching Jun Xiaomo’s confrontation with the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf with bated breath.

It was truly...nail-biting and enrapturing!

Sparse applause began to ring out in some parts of the audience. Then, within moments, it escalated into a thunderous applause as everyone gave their sincerest adulation to Jun Xiaomo.

“This young sprout is pretty good! I’ve decided to accept her as my disciple!” Tong Ruizhen’s eyes curled into a delighted squinch as he exclaimed with joy.

“Don’t be too pleased with yourself just yet. My assessment of this young lady is that she’s rather stubborn and has her own way of thinking. She might not necessarily agree to be your disciple.” The other sect elder beside Tong Ruizhen rained on his parade.

“Hey! The Fifth Elder of the Zephyr Sect wishes to take her as a disciple! What else could she ask for?” Tong Ruizhen huffed in response.

“Nothing much. Don’t forget that your specialty lies in formation arrays and talismans, but not everyone wants to become an array master or a talisman master. Don’t put the cart before the horse.”

Tong Ruizhen was mildly taken aback by the other sect elder’s explication, and he rubbed his nose and grew taciturn.

That’s right. Most cultivators who had potential and aptitude would never consider becoming an array master or a talisman master because the process of learning these disciplines took far too much time, and it would necessarily encroach on the time that these cultivators would otherwise have set aside for their cultivation.

On the other side, having completed a series of transformations and overlays to her Constriction Array, Jun Xiaomo walked towards the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf tightly bound by the Constriction Array.

“I have the ability to bring you out of here and return you your freedom. Will you trust in me this once?” Jun Xiaomo slowly explained.

She knew that the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf had already unlocked a profound level of spiritual awareness. Otherwise, its eyes would never possess such depth of personality and emotions.

Naturally, the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf’s eyes were presently a peculiar deep red in colour, as though blood would spurt out of it at any moment. It was repulsive to look at.

Several members of the audience admired Jun Xiaomo’s bravery and audacity to talk terms of a transaction with a vicious beast before her.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The Scarlet Heavenly Wolf glared coldly at Jun Xiaomo as it attempted to raise its paws that were tightly bound by the Constriction Array. A breath of hot air spewed from its nostrils. It was evident that the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf had the urge to get up and tear Jun Xiaomo to shreds at this moment.

But it was also evident that the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf could not do so right now.

Jun Xiaomo continued to gaze into its eyes with determination. Slowly but surely, the frenzy in the depths of the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf’s eyes began to diminish. Its eyes were still filled with vigilance against Jun Xiaomo, but it no longer possessed the intention to attack Jun Xiaomo.

Jun Xiaomo smiled at it as she retrieved a talisman from her Interspatial Ring and explained, “This talisman can temporarily suppress the hex in your body, but you’ll also have to cooperate with me. If you agree to let me apply this talisman on you, give me a response.”

The Scarlet Heavenly Wolf continued to glare coldly at Jun Xiaomo as it remained taciturn.

The audience outside began to stir. Everyone thought that Jun Xiaomo must be mad. After all, how could a spirit beast in the Golden Core stage of cultivation understand human speech to begin with?

Such maturity of spiritual awareness generally required the Nascent Soul stage of cultivation, at the very least.

But what they did not know was that spirits beasts like the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf would already possess a certain level of spiritual awareness ever since it was born. Thus, after some time, it barked in response to Jun Xiaomo, and it even nodded its head slightly.

“It...did it just nod its head?!” Wei Gaolang exclaimed in astonishment. He was standing some distance away as he watched this scene unfold before his eyes.

Meng Huanqiu smacked his head as she responded, “Brother’s observations aren’t wrong. It did just nod its head.”

Wei Gaolang stared back at Meng Huanqiu in a daze, before he gingerly rubbed his head where Meng Huanqiu had smacked.

Meng Huanqiu smiled mischievously. The look that was plastered all over her face right now was proud and arrogant, completely destroying any image accompanying her good looks.

Alright, the truth of the matter was that she did not have much image to begin with. After all, she had on countless occasions revealed her abnormal personality to the audience throughout these group battles.

In front of the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf, Jun Xiaomo gingerly applied the talisman onto its body. Moments later, the talisman shone with a bright blue light as it melded into the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf’s body.

Thus, the coldness in the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf’s eyes completely vanished, and in its stead was an unprecedented calm and steadfastness.

“What the heck?! She’s really succeeded!” Someone exclaimed in the audience. Others were equally as astonished as they wondered where Jun Xiaomo had fished out these strange and peculiar talismans from.

Jun Xiaomo was unaware of the commotion outside in the audience. She simply curled her lips into a smile and attempted to pat the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf’s large head.

Roar! The Scarlet Heavenly Wolf cried out once. Everyone in the audience immediately shuddered in fear as they expected the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf to devour Jun Xiaomo in the next moment.

Yet nothing happened to Jun Xiaomo. The Scarlet Heavenly Wolf was incredibly obedient to Jun Xiaomo. It was as though its personality had been renewed and transformed.

It’s a miracle! Several members of the audience sighed in their hearts.

At this moment, Wei Gaolang and the others had also begun to huddle around the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf and surround its body. Despite that, they discovered that apart from wagging its tail in frustration, the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf did not attempt to do anything else. Thus, everyone heaved a sigh of relief as well.

“Martial sister, you’re amazing!” Wei Gaolang’s eyes were filled with a renewed sense of admiration for Jun Xiaomo.

“I just got lucky.” Jun Xiaomo smiled. However, her smile was filled with placidness.

-----------------------------------------

As a result of the Eternal Summit Sect abandonment of the competition, the Heavenly Peak had taken the title of champions on behalf of the Dawn Sect.

Even though the Dawn Sect had managed to obtain the title of overall champions of this iteration of the Secondary Inter-Sect Competition, the Dawn Sect’s Sect Leader He Zhang and its Sect Elders hardly revealed any expression of delight or joy on their faces.

In fact, when the Dawn Sect was announced to be the overall champions of the entire competition and He Zhang was invited on stage to collect their prize on behalf of the Sect, his face looked completely distraught. It was as though he had just tasted fecal matter.

Then, when the chief referee presented him with the reward for taking the title of champions, He Zhang forcibly plastered a stiff smile on his face. At this point in time, even he found it difficult to put on the pretenses he was usually so adept at.

That said, it was not difficult to imagine why this was so. After all, He Zhang had done everything that he could to change the list of participants for the group battles to include only Heavenly Peak disciples. With the aid and involvement of the Du Clan Head, he had expected the Heavenly Peak disciples to be completely annihilated over the course of the group battles. That being the case, how could he simply accept the fact that Jun Xiaomo managed to tide through all these ordeals and come out on top of her predicament?!

Not only that, the Heavenly peak disciples had thoroughly displayed their skills, and He Zhang knew that there were several Greater Sects who had cast approving looks at the Heavenly Peak disciples during the group battles. Conversely, the disciples of the other Peaks had simply faded into the background without a word as a result of the Heavenly Peak disciples’ showing.

Most of the Peakmasters harboured a grudge against He Zhang for making the decision to substitute all of their disciples with the Heavenly Peak disciples right now. As a result of that, their own disciples had lost out on the prime opportunity to display their skills and earn the approval of sect elders from Greater Sects.

He Zhang felt incredibly aggrieved by the unexpected turn of events.

That said, the ones who were most aggrieved by this turn of events were none other than the Eternal Summit Sect’s Dai Yanfeng. Over the course of these group battles, the Eternal Summit Sect had forfeited the competition mid-way though and obtained a “zero” score for their group battles. In one fell swoop, the Eternal Summit Sect instantly fell out of the top ten placements among the competition’s overall standings.

Thus, not only did the Eternal Summit Sect fail to maintain their usual position among the top three, they were not even listed among the top twenty sects of these competitions.

This stunning turn of events would undoubtedly make them the greatest laughingstock of these competitions for a good time to come.

At the same time, Dai Yanfeng continued to have a thick swathe of blood lodged in his throat as a result of these unforeseen circumstances.

However, the matters that left him with the greatest despair and despondence was still the mess that had been created by the Du Clan disciples. The Du Clan disciples had watched idly as other sect’s disciples perished in front of their very eyes; they had used the disciples of other sects as cannon fodder to whittle away at the Heavenly Peak faction’s defensive capabilities; and they had even used several other insidious means to deal with the disciples of other sects. These actions had completely smeared and tarnished the Eternal Summit Sect’s reputation so much that the Eternal Summit Sect was practically at rock bottom right now.

Several sects swore in their hearts that they would never interact or cooperate with the Eternal Summit Sect ever again. They dared not deal with the devil.

Furthermore, the Eternal Summit Sect came under suspicion and investigation for the appearance of the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf as well. The truth of the matter was that the Eternal Summit Sect was not the one who had released the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf into the marshlands. However, such a spirit beast that was in the advanced-tier Golden Core stage of cultivation was clearly a massive threat to the disciples who were participating in the group battles. Thus, the organizing committee could not let this pass without proper investigations.

And the most important thing to note was the fact that this spirit beast had gone through the process of refinement, and such refinement techniques were considered forbidden magics. Thus, despite their generally upstanding reputation, even the Eternal Summit Sect had to be investigated for the appearance of the Scarlet Heavenly Wolf.

To top it all off, as a result of the Eternal Summit Sect’s antisocial performance during the course of the group battles, everyone looked upon the Eternal Summit Sect with disdain and took delight in their misery.

Indeed, those who harm others, harm themselves.