Chapter 290 – Valley of Beasts

Translator: Coca5156

Editor: Drea

A group of people soon surrounded Gu Lingzhi. Graduating in the same year, Lang Jingchen snorted, “Power derived from external sources is still borrowed power. You will pay the price eventually.”

Everyone who could participate in the final graduating examinations were all at the top of the Royal School and they would naturally be well-informed. They knew very well the animosity between the two of them and stood staring by the side. They wanted to see how Gu Lingzhi would respond to Lang Jingchen’s challenge.

Nie Sang glanced at the people waiting to watch the show and said before Gu Lingzhi could say anything, “Even if the power you got was from external sources initially, it does not mean that it will never be yours. It is ultimately, still better than your spiritual power worsening.”

Lang Jingchen’s face immediately soured.

He did not listen to Rong Yuan’s orders when the Spirit Tribe’s Sacred Lands were open and decided to move by himself. But his luck was obviously bad and after staying for a few days in the Sacred Lands, all he found were a few common Spiritual Plants and he became the target of several assassins from the North Qiu Kingdom. Although he managed to survive, he suffered quite a few injuries. He even damaged his Spiritual Roots and his cultivation worsened quite a bit. Whatever he managed to gain from the Sacred Lands were not worth it compared to what he had lost.

Nie Sang was obviously shaming him with this. Lang Jingchen’s face changed as he clenched his fist, suppressing the anger in his heart. He then mocked, “You are really the Third Prince’s dog, protecting your master now aren’t you?”

Lang Jingchen’s words were extremely vulgar and Gu Lingzhi wanted to teach him a lesson but was held back by Nie Sang. He looked at Lang Jingchen pitifully, “So it seems like that is how you view your followers? I really pity those that serve you. In your eyes, they are all dogs...”

In the Tianyuan Continent, a person’s strength was highly respected. Anyone with power would definitely attract admirers. It was like him and Yuan Zheng, with their abilities they could very easily leave Rong Yuan. With their talent, they would have a lot more room to develop, but they admired Rong Yuan and willingly stayed by his side as a subordinate.

As one of the students on the Golden List, Lang Jingchen similarly had a lot of followers that were willing to pledge their loyalty to him. With what Nie Sang said, even if they knew he had said this intentionally to create trouble, Lang Jingchen’s subordinates would feel a knot in their hearts even if they did not feel disappointed.

Realising with error with his words, Lang Jingchen clenched his fists and turned away. He was frustrated with himself for losing his cool today.

He had wanted to finish the final examinations peacefully and go back to recuperate. But when he saw Gu Lingzhi, he could not help but think of Rong Yuan. It was Rong Yuan’s sly and cunning ways that caused him and Tianfeng Wei’s relationship to become more and more distant!

After the North Qiu Kingdom’s plot failed, he had followed everyone else and left the Sacred Lands to return home. Unfortunately, the sight that greeted him was a failed marriage that could not be fixed.

The Martial Sage elder who was the backbone of the Lang family had secluded himself and seemed to have gone down a bad path. He could no longer control his internal spiritual energy and was throwing it out everywhere. He was in danger of exploding at any time. Unfortunately, the medicinal pill that could control this belonged to the Jiang Family.

However, the condition given by the Jiang Family was that Lang Jingchen had to take Jiang Feixue as a concubine.

If it were anyone else, they would be filled with joy with that condition. However, to Lang Jingchen, whose entire heart belonged to Tianfeng Wei, this was just going to create even more tension in their already stressed relationship.

But their house had only that one Martial Sage elder and if anything were to happen to him, there would be severe consequences to the Lang family. The current situation now did not allow him the luxury of time to look for another source for the medicine. Met with the pressure from the elders in his clan and his duty to his family, Lang Jingchen had no choice but to agree.

Thereafter, in the shortest time possible, he wedded Jiang Feixue into his family in three days. It was only on their honeymoon night when he learnt from Jiang Feixue that the medicine had miraculously appeared at the Jiang Family’s doorstep that Lang Jingchen realised that all these could have been planned by Rong Yuan.

If not, how could it be so coincidental? His own elder had gone crazy and the medicine to cure it had coincidentally appeared at the Jiang Family’s doorstep? It was impossible for him to believe that Rong Yuan had no part to play in this.

It was a pity that he found out too late and had already married Jiang Feixue, becoming a thorn in between him and Tianfeng Wei that cannot be resolved.

“I know that you do not like me and only married me for the medicine. But I am the daughter of the Jiang Family and I cannot be disliked by my husband the minute I marry into the family. Give me at least three months, if you still do not like me after the three months have passed, I will voluntarily leave,” Jiang Feixue blurted out as Lang Jingchen turned to leave the room.

It was also because of this that made him decide to stay.

What Jiang Feixue said was right, this was their first night. If he were to leave like this, news would spread and how would Jiang Feixue be able to face anyone? The Jiang Family would not just stand by and watch as they see Jiang Feixue be mistreated.

He then spent the night sleeping on the floor on the second honeymoon night of his life.

Like what she said, Jiang Feixue wanted to make Lang Jingchen like her in three months. She changed her normally bratty self and stayed serving by his side. On the second day of their marriage, she helped him wash up and change like a serving maid. Her eyes were filled with anxiety and fear of rejection that prevented Lang Jingchen from saying the words he had intended to say to push her away and let her be.

Anticipating that he would not reject her, Tianfeng Wei’s eyes were filled with malice. She started a fight with Jiang Feixue on the second day. Not wanting others to know that he was beneath Tianfeng Wei, Lang Jingchen intentionally ignored her for a few days, resulting in her quarrels with Jiang Feixue lasting for a few days.

Thinking about how he could count the number of times he spoke to Tianfeng Wei with his fingers, Lang Jingchen felt himself get angry. If not for Rong Yuan, how would he have landed in this situation? As Rong Yuan’s wife, she would naturally be the target of his anger.

When he returned this time, he should explain things to Xiao Wei...

Sighing internally, Lang Jingchen was not one that could be cold towards Tianfeng Wei for long. She was the one that he truly loved.

“Okay, can all 23 participants of this year’s final graduating examination gather? We are ready to set off.” Jiang Xian, who was the teacher overseeing the examination, did a headcount before turning around.

Gu Lingzhi immediately followed him.

The graduating final examination was different from the usual final examinations. The beasts that they had to catch could not be planted in the Red Leaf Hill. The participants of the final graduating examination would always be brought to a different location for their assessment. This year’s location was the Valley of Beasts.

As its name suggests, the Valley of Beasts was like a heaven for beasts. It was a gigantic valley that existed since ancient times and there were an uncountable number of beasts that resided there. According to rumors, in the deepest part of the Valley of Beasts, there were Demigod level beasts.

The objective of their examination this year was to kill twenty beasts that were of the same cultivation level as them and come out of the valley alive.

For the examination to be fair, the 23 participants will be sent to different locations on the back of 23 different flying wildebeests.

The place that Gu Lingzhi was sent to was an area with lush vegetation. When she was on the back of the flying wildebeests, Gu Lingzhi had a sense of how huge the Valley of Beast was as she could not even see the end of it. Now, standing inside she felt as if she was being watched by beasts.

All four directions of the Valley of Beasts were covered in mountains, anyone who entered voluntarily was like sending themselves to the mouth of a beast, carrying with them a sense of constriction. Gu Lingzhi knew that this was because there were too many beasts in the Valley and the mixture of the different energies emanating from the beasts gave off a foreboding aura.

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“Twenty Martial Teacher-ranked beasts in fifteen days. It’s expected of the final graduating examination of the Royal School. Only they would dare to set such a task for their students,” Gu Lingzhi muttered to herself. She did not hesitate as she stepped into the area. She retrieved a white cloth, measuring three meters long from her Storage Ring. It was given to her by Jiang Xian before she left.

Every student in the final examination had a white cloth like this. It was made by good quality silk from Snow Silkworms. It was similar to the material used in their school flag.

It was a tradition of the Royal School to create their school flag from the silk after it has been stained by the blood of beasts.

In the year that Rong Yuan graduated, the flag at the school entrance was made by the silk that Rong Yuan had stained with the blood of beasts.

Patting her Storage Ring, Gu Lingzhi’s eyes were filled with vigor.

In fifteen days, she was going to prove to everyone that even if her cultivation rose due to external help, she was fully capable. She was not a wastrel that only relied on Spiritual Medicine.

The suspicions and doubts people had of her improvement of her cultivation made her want to show them what she was capable of.

The gigantic Valley of Beasts was like a small kingdom. The different levels of beasts were located in accordance to their power in different areas. Nearing the centre, the level of the beasts would increase.

On the first day of her entering the Valley of Beasts, Gu Lingzhi crossed the low-level beasts without any issues and rested in a cave for the night. From the beasts that she was encountering, in order to reach the Martial Teacher-ranked beasts, she would need to walk for at least another day.

On the other side, after sending Gu Lingzhi off, Rong Yuan was silently counting down the days till when he would see Gu Lingzhi again. What was he to do? It had only been three days and he already missed her. This stupid final graduation examination, why can’t it be held two months later when the war had stabalised?