Chapter 972 – Making Enemies

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“Sir Huo, we can’t let things end like this. That Lin Ming is far too rampant!” Next to Huo Yanguang, several disciples that weren’t part of the Huo Family Clan shouted out. They joined the Huo Family Clan with the status of non-family disciples. In the Ancient Phoenix Clan, the competition was fierce. It was difficult for a martial artist of common origin to succeed here, and even if they managed to obtain some lucky chances, they might even be killed for their treasures.

In the world of martial artists, a man’s wealth was his own downfall. This was the simple truth. In order to seek protection and also more resources, common martial artists had to join prestigious families.

These disciples that joined the Huo Family Clan certainly had to flatter Huo Yanguang. They became the butt of the joke in front of so many witnesses, and now they were gnashing their teeth in hate.

“Humph, I will avenge this insult sooner or later.”

“Sir Huo, how about this, you can apply for a top grade saint artifact from your family clan. With Sir Huo’s status, I’m sure that it isn’t impossible to borrow one. When you have a top grade saint artifact, you can battle with Lin Ming and openly and honestly win his Phoenix Blood Spear while slapping him across the face.” A non-family disciple suggested on a whim. He felt this idea was quite good.

However, he didn’t think his words would draw a disgusted look from Huo Yanguang. This caused him to be confused. What? Was there something wrong with what he said?

“I don’t need the likes of you to teach me what to do!” Huang Yanguang coldly said. That disciple immediately turned quiet as he was yelled at. His flattering had clearly backfired on him.

“Haha, Third Brother, you seem as if you’re not confident you can defeat Lin Ming.” Behind Huo Yanguang, a red haired youth smiled. This youth was also a direct descendant junior from the Huo Family Clan as well as Huo Yanguang’s cousin. “Otherwise, with your status, you should be able to borrow a top grade saint artifact.”

“Humph, a top grade saint artifact is worth dozens of high-grade saint artifacts. If the stakes weren’t so high, I wouldn’t care about provoking Lin Ming. If I win then it’d be good, but if I lose I could still bear it. But if the battle concerns two top grade saint artifacts, I have to choice but to be careful!”

“Saint Artifact Pavilion’s artifact spirit might not be too strong, but it has seen countless geniuses these past few hundred thousand years. I fear it has seen a hundred million geniuses pass through its doors! Its sight isn’t what the average person can compare with and that’s the only reason why Phoenix Cry Palace would be so relaxed about letting the artifact spirit assign saint artifacts as it wishes! Although there are countless factors involved in the growth of talent, since Lin Ming could obtain the approval of Saint Artifact Pavilion’s artifact spirit, he definitely has his strengths. Although my cultivation is higher than Lin Ming’s by three stages of Life Destruction, the Phoenix Blood Spear is more than enough to make up for the difference. Even if I am proud of my abilities, that doesn’t mean I have a 100% chance of winning the battle. If I fight him and lose and recklessly lose a top grade saint artifact, there will be no way I can escape punishment once the family clan investigates me. If I lose, my loss will be deducted from all the resources I receive in the future. It will greatly affect my future achievements!”

“Moreover, such an important battle for two top grade saint artifacts will attract attention from everywhere. If I lose, I won’t have any face left. The loss will become a heart demon that haunts me, and I have no idea whether or not I would be able to overcome something like that!”

Huo Yanguang said these words only to his cousin with a true essence sound transmission. He naturally wouldn’t say words like these that increased the fame of others while ruining his own.

“Hehe, Third Brother, you are quite the calm one!” The red haired youth laughed. In fact, he also felt that Huo Yanguang didn’t have a 100% chance of defeating Lin Ming.

“Humph! I’m not afraid of fighting, I’m not afraid of competition, nor am I afraid of gambling. But in a situation where I don’t have an absolute grasp on victory, I won’t do something so stupid as betting my entire property and future. Even if I were to add up everything I have, I still can’t even match up to a fifth of a top grade saint artifact!”

“Then are you going to let it go like this?”

“Let it go? Of course not! I, Huo Yanguang, have never suffered a loss. It’s always me stepping on others, not others stepping on me. The only exceptions are if their backgrounds and talents are far more dangerous than mine. But I wouldn’t offend that type of person to begin with. This Lin Ming fellow is merely a small fry from the lower realms, he’s no different from a monkey in my eyes. Yet this monkey dared to use my own words against me and shame me in front of everyone here, leaving me with nothing to say! If I let someone slap me like this without retaliating, how can I still stay in Phoenix Hall? If I don’t vent this anger, my thoughts will not be smooth and even my meridians will be blocked. It will affect my cultivation.”

A martial artist with thoughts that weren’t smooth was the same as a mortal that seethed and sulked over something. This sort of seething and sulking would eventually ruin their health. If a martial artist felt they were aggrieved and their thoughts weren’t smooth, this would hinder their training and harm their cultivation.

This was the so-called ‘sick with anger’.

Some mortals were so angry they would lose their breath and even turn ill. Similarly, there were martial artists that were so angry that this anger would shatter their heart of martial arts, causing them to have tremendous difficulties taking even the tiniest step forwards in their cultivation.

“Oh? Then what do you plan on doing?” The red haired youth asked, his eyebrows arching upwards.

“I will soon break through to the ninth stage of Life Destruction. The ninth stage of Life Destruction is perfection. To seek the Nine Divine Shifts is to seek Ninefall first. The ninth stage of Life Destruction is the symbol of transformation through rebirth, the process of mortal to divine. In the entire Phoenix Hall there are only 28-29 martial artists who in the ninth stage of Life Destruction. From the eighth to the ninth stage, there is a significant leap in strength. When I reach this step, I will put out the gambling bet, defeat Lin Ming, and obtain the Phoenix blood Spear!”

“Good!” However, when you reach the ninth stage of Life Destruction, Lin Ming might not accept your challenge. He isn’t an idiot. If he clearly knows he will lose the fight, why would he be so stupid as to jump into the pit?”

“Hehe, he’ll accept. Of the common disciples of Phoenix Hall, which one hasn’t suffered a loss or paid with blood? The waters of Phoenix Hall are deep, but the rewards are actually limited. Normally, only the top few will receive rewards, but if one climbs, others will drag them down. It’s only natural for geniuses without any great background to be pushed aside and suppressed. Lin Ming thinks that just because he joined Fairy Feng he will have someone to watch over him, but what he doesn’t know is that Senior Sage Jiuyang will act against Fairy Feng sooner or later. This will be before the Palace Master abdicates!”

With Huo Yanguang’s level, he actually wasn’t able to come into contact with someone like Sage Jiuyang. Even so, he was able to speculate on some matters. Many people believed that the Palace Master would abdicate in around a hundred years or so, and that would be the time when blood would spill in the struggle between Fairy Feng and Sage Jiuyang. But this was a wrong way of thinking. Sage Jiuyang now held the advantage, so how could he stand idly by and watch his competition grow?

“Third Brother, you’ve considered this quite carefully. Not bad, I’m starting to favor your chances of winning against Lin Ming more and more. From the moment you were born in the family until now, you’ve seen all sorts of intrigue and plots happening behind the scenes. Your insight is not what Lin Ming can compare with. He is nothing but a martial artist from the lower realms, no different from a country bumpkin. How could his vision possibly match yours? Even if he has talent, if he doesn’t have brains, then he’s nothing more than a brute. There’s no need to fear him at all!”

“Humph! To the Divine Realm, those martial artists from the lower realms are nothing more than ants. Lin Ming can at most be called a king ant. If he chose to hide his abilities and keep a low profile after entering the Divine Realm, being patient and slowly gaining strength, he might have been able to become someone. But currently he lacks strength and background. He pretends to be so awesome and daring, but he is standing on the top of the wave. He has managed to offend so many people from everywhere, he is simply an idiot. He even dared to insult my dignity. I will take his Phoenix Blood Spear and beat him into the ground in the presence of everyone. I will shame him, ruin him, and leave a heart demon within him that he will never manage to get rid of. I will make it so that he will never be able to recover from this loss!”

As Huo Yanguang spoke, his eyes flashed with a cold light. All sorts of calculations happened in his mind as his plan began to come together.

……

After Old Man Sun’s lecture, it was dinner time. In the Sky Spill Continent, a top sect would enjoy all sorts of vicious beast meat, high quality spirit vegetables and spirit grains. If a single vegetable leaf were to fall into the world or mortals, it would sell for an astronomical price with the effect of extending a mortal’s lifespan for several years.

In Phoenix Hall the food was even more exaggerated. Everything here could be considered heavenly materials!

Many heavenly materials would have impurities or toxins. Although they could strengthen one’s cultivation, eating too much for too long a time would cause the toxins to accumulate and form irregularities in their true essence.

However, Phoenix Hall had a method to deal with this. All of these heavenly materials would be processed to rid them of their impurities and toxins as they were turned into food. Even if they had to lose most of their medicinal efficacy, this was still acceptable!

Phoenix Hall had a pill furnace named the Nine Phoenix Royal Yang Furnace; this was a spirit artifact!

This was a pill furnace. However, it wasn’t used to concoct pills, but rather to process food materials and melt away the impurities.

The Nine Phoenix Royal Yang Furnace could only create a limited amount of food per day. Only disciples of Phoenix Hall and important sect figures had the privilege of enjoying this food. The disciples from Vermillion Bird Hall and Golden Crow Hall did not have such luxurious treatment.

At this time, Lin Ming was eating a bowl of noodles. The noodles looked ordinary, just a bit fresher than normal. As he ate them, he immediately felt his mouth salivate as the noodles melted on his tongue with an incomparably delicious taste. They entered his stomach, turning into a stream of heat that spread through all his limbs and body. Lin Ming had inherited the memories of a Divine Realm’s alchemist so he was knowledgeable in medicinal effects; he naturally knew what was happening as he ate these noodles.

“What great noodles. Just these noodles have dozens of medicinal ingredients fused into them. They were beaten for at least a thousand times and then boiled in solar origin spring water. I’ve also drank solar origin spring water during the final phase of the general level smelting combat at Divine Phoenix Island and it was extremely beneficial to my cultivation. At that time, I treated it like a treasure and stocked up on it, even using it to refine the Nirvana Dragon Root. But here it’s actually only used to boil some noodles because these noodles are far more valuable than solar origin spring water. By tasting it, I can tell there are at least 32 different kinds of medicinal herbs, and all of them are priceless treasures. If a single one of these ingredients were placed in the Sky Spill Continent, it would arouse the greed of every single fourth-grade sect. Once they obtained it, they would treat it like a treasure, raising it for decades before using it to concoct a pill.”

Lin Ming ate the bowl of noodles in a single go, then began to sip on a soup made with the bones of several spirit birds. “This soup should be prepared from the five-colored spirit birds that have the phoenix bloodline. The Ancient Phoenix bloodline can transform common birds into immortal cranes. This bloodline would be bred onward. Phoenix Cry Palace should have many pens with Ancient Phoenix bloodline spirit birds that constantly reproduce, then they’re used to make food. Although the bloodline of these spirit birds isn’t too rich, they’re still screened and bred by Phoenix Cry palace. They’re far from what the several vermillion birds of Divine Phoenix Island can compare with after their bloodline was diluted over 100,000 years. The vermillion birds are the saint beasts of Divine Phoenix Island, and I recall that Yin Yang Profound Palace once sorely struggled for them. But if the vermillion birds were placed here, they wouldn’t even be qualified for boiling soup. There really is just no way to compare.”

Lin Ming sighed and drank the spirit bird soup until not a single drop was left. He suddenly felt the light in front of him being blocked. As he looked up, he could see five youths standing side-by-side in front of him. They casually sat down, a playful smile hanging on their lips.