Chapter 272 - Sudden Unnatural Phenomena

Bulging blue veins appeared on Zuoqiu Yang’s forehead. His eyes were bloodshot, though no one knew if it was because of Xiao Chen or because he was practicing some demonic arts. He bellowed, “Xiao Chen! Prepare to die today!” He abruptly attacked Xiao Chen.

When Xiao Chen felt a strong gale slamming into him, he immediately lifted his palm to block the attack. The collision of forces resounded and he found himself staggering backward. To his surprise, he felt as if he wasn’t a match for Zuoqiu Yang.

Suddenly, he noticed a cold, murderous aura piercing his back. The aura originated from Huangfu Xin’er!

A pained screech shattered the air as a red orb of light descended. Traceless for Ten Miles, who was trying to ambush Xiao Chen, had his chest ripped open in five places. Blood gushed out of his wounds.

Huangfu Xin’er appeared beside Xiao Chen, with her maroon-colored nails increasing to a length of three inches. Her five fingers were soaked with blood.

Traceless for Ten Miles, as befitting of his name, was as swift as lightning. He could come and go as he pleased without notice. Were it not for Huangfu Xin’er, he would have succeeded in ambushing Xiao Chen earlier.

Shaken, Xiao Chen looked at Huangfu Xin’er and whispered, “Xin’er, you…” He was confused as to when she began practicing such a demonic set of martial arts.

She remained expressionless. Her red clothing billowed with air as she charged at One-dot Red. Zuoqiu Yang scoffed and attacked Xiao Chen once again.

Taking advantage of Traceless for Ten Miles’ injuries, Mu Shaoai dashed toward him and stabbed him in the chest. With a lightning-fast trick of the hand, he grabbed the Illusory Moon Pouch from the former’s waist.

Yu Yifeng and the rest started a chaotic fight with the other members of the Fallen Immortals Sect. Suddenly, a pained scream rang out from the distance. Then came a loud cry. “Senior Brother Zuoqiu! Thousand Feathers Sect stole my Hearts of Illusory Moon!”

Zuoqiu Yang’s gaze turned cold. He turned to look at Xiaoyue. “Xiaoyue, you shameless b*tch!” His voice hadn’t faded when Xiao Chen abruptly struck him in the back with Cyan Dragon Roars.

Amid the chaotic battle, a burst of applause erupted from the southeast direction. Then came a clear and bright voice of a man. “Not bad, not bad at all. So this is where everyone is.”

The speaker was an elegant-looking young master holding a folding fan. Beside him was a teenage girl in red. They were Su Zimu and Su Wan of the Su family.

“I’ve long heard of the exceptional Coalesced Colors Equal to Dust of the Thousand Feathers Sect. This untalented one wishes to challenge Fairy Xiaoyue to a fight,” Su Zimu said.

When he snapped his folding fan shut, three of him immediately materialized and attacked Xiaoyue. It turned out that he was using doppelganger arts.

Xiaoyue remained calm in the face of three enemies that were nearly impossible to be distinguished as the real thing. She unleashed the Coalesced Colors Equal to Dust and human silhouettes immediately filled the space around her. It was similarly difficult to distinguish which was real and which wasn’t.

Xiao Chen was fighting Zuoqiu Yang, Huangfu Xin’er had her hands full with One-dot Red, while Su Zimu was challenging Xiaoyue. Their respective battles took the six of them out of the forest and then into the air. No one noticed that fifteen minutes had passed. The commotion drew the attention of many cultivators from other sects. All of them gasped as they watched the fierce battles between the six unfold in the sky.

“Meow! Since when did so many people show up?” Zhiluan yelped in surprise when he saw the sudden appearance of so many unfamiliar faces.

His yelp drew the attention of quite a few cultivators, who looked at him in confusion. He was a strange cat that could not only fly but also speak human language. There was even a Lingzhi plant growing from the top of his head. What was he?

Detecting their attention on him, Zhiluan cried, “Oh no!” He unfolded his wings and flew away. Many cultivators unsheathed their flying swords and chased after him.

“Catch him! He’s definitely a treasure! We can turn him into a pill ingredient!”

Zhiluan was scared out of his wits. While flying haphazardly in the sky, he loudly cried, “How dare you! This great one is sent here on the Jade Emperor’s…” He then changed his tune and pointed at Xiao Chen. “That kid is my Elder Brother! He’ll kill you if you dare hurt me!”

“Hurry up and catch him!” Unconcerned with the possible consequences, everyone charged toward him in like a swarm of bees. A frightened Zhiluan yelped and immediately dashed out of the way, causing the cultivators to collide with one another.

“Why did you hit me?”

“Why did you get in my way?”

“You Divine Illumination Sect folks are looking for trouble, aren’t you?”

“Do you think we, the Nine Empyreans Sect, are afraid of you?”

The mid-air collision soon erupted into a battle. Zhiluan continued to weave in and out of the crowd, knocking in one cultivator and then another. Finally, he flew toward Xiao Chen’s direction. “Kid, quickly save me!”

Xiao Chen, who had his plate full dealing with Zuoqiu Yang, didn’t have the luxury of saving Zhiluan. Zhiluan yelled, “Kid, quickly save me! I’ll give you another half bottle of blood!”

Zhiluan hovering above Xiao Chen’s head had drawn the wrath of other cultivators’ Sword Qi on the latter. Xiao Chen pressed his forefinger and middle finger together and shot a blade of white light that enveloped Zhiluan. Swiftly later, he disappeared.

It was a simple Teleportation Formation. Xiao Chen had teleported Zhiluan to an underbrush more than one hundred feet away from the battleground. Zhiluan remained very still on the ground, not daring to move anymore.

Another fifteen minutes came and went. The battle turned even more chaotic. Suddenly, a howl erupted from the distant mountains and the ground began shaking with such great force that it felt like the world was collapsing.

A strange aura soon enveloped the entire place. Besides Xiao Chen and the other five, the other cultivators had stopped fighting. They carefully scanned their surroundings with their guard raised.

Meanwhile, the last day of the qualifying match had drawn everyone to gather at the rear of the Jade Terrace Mountain and watch the light screen. Some nodded repeatedly, while even more looked on in bewilderment.

The Jade Qing Sect was currently in the lead with more than four thousand Hearts of Illusory Moon. No one could have anticipated that the sect that was forever at the bottom of the ranks would make such an unexceptional rise to the top.

With a smile on his face, Zi Mo nodded repeatedly while smoothing out his beard. Beside him, Murong Xian’er was frowning. Her palms were wet with sweat.

“Brother Xiao Chen, please be alright…”

“Don’t worry, girl. That kid has an Undead Body. It won’t be easy for him to die,” Zi Mo told her, comforting her in a backward way.

In second place was Heartless Palace with only more than a hundred Hearts less than the Jade Qing Sect. In third place was the Fallen Immortals Sect, who was previously in the lead with more than seven thousand Hearts. No one could have imagined they would make such a sudden drop to the third place. They must have had a lot of their Hearts stolen by the Jade Qing Sect. Many turned to look at Perfected Immortal Qing Chen.

In fourth and fifth places were the Thousand Feathers Sect and Su family respectively. Both were in a very tight race as they tried to one-up each other. It was obvious just how intense the battle was inside the forest. In six place was the sect that self-proclaimed itself to be the strongest, the Divine Mist Sect. Perfected Immortal Feng Lan’s face had long turned green with fury.

In seventh place was White Mist Academy from the West Continent. The continent was so far away that the academy came into contact with very few people. However, they were fairly strong. It was even said that some of their disciples were capable of eye-opening magic skills.

The eighth, ninth, and tenth places were still changing. Suddenly, a disciple ran up to the Elders of the league and said, “Elders, an unnatural phenomenon is taking in place in the Forest of Illusory Moon. The formation is shaking. The Elders in charge of the teleportation suggested that we immediately stop the training and get everyone out of the forest as soon as possible.”

The Elders frowned and exchanged glances. One of them said, “Oh well, there are only four hours left anyway. We’ll listen to the Elders in charge of the teleportation.”

“Hang on!” Perfected Immortal Feng Lan cried, rising to his feet.

The Elders looked at him at the same time. One of them asked, “What suggestion do you offer, Elder of the Middle Continent?”

Feng Lan replied, “Everyone knows the last four hours are the most crucial hours with great changes in the ranking. How can we stop it now?”

The nearby Zi Mo suddenly smiled and chimed in, “No matter how great the changes will be, your Divine Mist Sect still stands no chance of topping the ranking. Your sect is short a whopping two thousand Hearts. It seems that someone’s legend of being an undefeated champion will end today!”

“You!” Feng Lan’s face immediately turned red with anger. Right at this moment, another disciple hastily ran up and said, “Elders, the formation is shaking too much! The Elders in charge of the teleportation said that we must stop the training at once! We can’t afford any more delays!”

The Elders knew that the circumstances were turning grave. One of them said, “Very well. Tell them to inform the cultivators inside to crush their jade notes and leave immediately!”

Inside the Forest of Illusory Moon, the ground continued to quake. The clear sky had turned dark. Strange phenomena occurred in every corner as the earth began to cave in. The cultivators turned pale. Out of the blue, a bright voice emerged in the air. “The training ends here! Competitors, please break your jade note immediately or we’ll forcefully expel you from the arena! Competitors, please break your jade note immediately or we’ll forcefully expel you from the arena…”

This was exactly what the cultivators were waiting for. They swiftly crushed their jade notes and teleported themselves out of the forest.

Xiao Chen and the rest continued to fight as none were willing to give in. Yu Yifeng panicked and yelled, “Junior Brother Xiao, hurry up and crush your jade note! Let’s go!”

Thanks to Zuoqiu Yang, Xiao Chen was currently seeing red. It didn’t matter to him that the mountains were collapsing or the ground was caving in. He said solemnly, “Go on without me! Don’t worry about me!”

Blue veins were popping prominently on Zuoqiu Yang’s face as he said viciously, “It’s either your death or mine today!” He then waved at the distance. “Disciples of the Divine Mist Sect, listen up! Retreat at once!”

Yu Yifeng looked behind his shoulder. “Junior Brother Shaoai, take the others and leave! Junior Sister Li, Junior Sister Luo, go and leave!”

Mu Shaoai and the team swiftly crushed their jade notes but Luo Shangyan, Li Muxue, and the others remained in place. Xiao Chen reached out to crush their jade notes with psychokinesis.

Qingluan and Ziyun’er immediately stepped forward. “Leave!” Xiao Chen bellowed and crushed their jade notes as well. “Brother Yifeng, you too!” He then crushed Yu Yifeng’s jade note as well.

Su Zimu looked at Su Wan, who was on the ground. “You should leave too.” He also crushed her jade note using the same trick as Xiao Chen.

The voice continued to echo in the sky. “Competitors, please break your jade note immediately or we’ll…” Then, the voice was suddenly cut off.