Chapter 333: Xuanhuang Four-Word Mantra
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Song Qingyuan summoned a weird spell. In the spaces between his fingers, it appeared as if a sheet of ice had frozen over it. Then, fires blazed over them. It all appeared perfectly harmonious.
In his right hand, his index and middle fingers were straight. Together, they were like a sword. However, he did not point his hand at Xiao Budian. Instead, he pointed it towards his own forehead.
Looking at this action, the first group to be shocked was the Heaven Lake Sect disciples. Everyone stared at Song Qingyuan who was in the Hidden Dragon Gorge.
"The Dual Sword Auras of Ice and Fire!" exclaimed a voice from the crowd. As the speaker was too excited, it sounded like a scream.
Every single Heaven Lake Sect disciple stared at their master, Cao Wei. "The Dual Sword Auras of Ice and Fire is the signature move of our master. Even the Two Elders of Ice and Fire do not know it."
Mu Jihai, who had long viewed Song Qingyuan as his competitor, appeared shell-shocked. It was as if his soul had left his body. He stared dazedly at Song Qingyuan and only regained his senses after a long while. He cried out, "Impossible! He's only putting a show!"
Only by convincing himself of that could Mu Jihai avoid total mental collapse.
For if Song Qingyuan could actually wield the Dual Sword Auras of Ice and Fire, that would mean that he was not on the same level as Mu Jihai. Mu Jihai's struggle up till this point was for his sense of pride and dignity. Now, it had been rendered a joke.
It was not even a funny joke, but one that made its listeners shake their head in disbelief and pity.
However, Song Qingyuan meant to deliver this blow to Mu Jihai anyway. The pressure Xiao Budian exerted on him only forced him to show his hand much more quickly.
After confirming that Song Qingyuan did indeed summon the Dual Sword Auras of Ice and Fire, a Nascent Soul stage elder from the Heaven Lake Sect said with certainty, "He'd won!"
Cao Wei looked calmly at the Hidden Dragon Gorge and then nodded his head slightly. Without this move, he did not believe that Song Qingyuan had a 60% chance of winning.
This was the trust he had in both his disciple and himself.
In the Hidden Dragon Gorge, Song Qingyuan pointed to his forehead as an endless amount of ice sheet engulfed his body. His entire body became an iceberg.
In the next instant, the iceberg disintegrated with a large boom, like a volcanic eruption. Endless amount of lava spewed towards the sky.
The iceberg steamed non-stop as blazing fire danced in the sky. The two of them quickly turned into two columns of smoke, one red and one blue. Then, they merged together into one and floated into the sky, before disappearing.
Within the Hidden Dragon Gorge, the sky remained blue and the water azure. Song Qingyuan's spell disappeared as if it had never even been cast in the first place.
However, everyone, particularly Xiao Budian in the Gorge, could feel that in the vastness of the sky within the Gorge, a huge amount of energy trembled and vibrated. It was as if doomsday had come early, paralyzing everyone with fear.
Invisible and non-corporeal, but one could definitely sense the terrible presence within. In one moment, it could be next to you, killing you in one fell swoop. You did not even have the chance to react.
Xiao Budian squinted his eyes as he noticed Song Qingyuan, who was not that far away from him, was calm. The two of them stared at each other like this for the longest while.
While their distance was extremely close, Xiao Budian could feel that should he take one step closer to Song Qingyuan, the sword aura that had enveloped the entire surroundings would come forward and slay him.
While it was invisible, it did not mean that it did not exist. Xiao Budian could feel becoming increasingly wary.
"Unless it's a Nascent Soul stage cultivator like Prince Chong Yun, he would be able to kill most early Nascent Soul stage cultivators with this spell. If he had the help of his Nascent Soul stage magic item the Aurora Polar Mirror, then he could kill maybe a few of Nascent Soul stage cultivators."
Xiao Budian then smiled suddenly, "However, it can't do much to me."
His tiny body approached Song Qingyun. His expression was carefree as his entire body brimmed and cackled with thunder and wind. At the last instant, they all went to his head before disappearing.
In Xiao Budian's eyes, there was an infinite amount of light dancing. At the start, there was only the tempest and storm. Later, they were filled with the incarnations of heaven and earth, fire and water, mountains and rivers and the various forms of the Eight Trigrams. They swirled, rose and sank, resembling the chaos of creation itself.
Above Xiao Budian's head, the thunder and wind had disappeared. However, what replaced it was a turbulent starry sky. It was as if the earliest universe had formed over Xiao Budian's head.
In that instant, Xiao Budian's gaze no longer fell on Song Qingyuan. Instead, it looked towards the distant nothing.
Only Zhu Yi, who was out of the Hidden Dragon Gorge, knew that Xiao Budian was looking at him.
Xiao Budian softly muttered a few words, "Second Senior, you have your impressive literary talent. As for me, I have my Xuanhuang Four-Words Mantra."
As Xiao Budian stepped forward, the ice in Song Qingyuan's eyes danced. He waved the sword symbol that he had formed with his right hand, as the entire Hidden Dragon Gorge began trembling. The Hidden Dragon Gorge began to glow as it prepared its defensive mechanisms.
Without a sound and without the vibration of any aura, nothing could be seen in the air. However, everyone could feel that a terrible energy had been activated by Song Qingyuan as it charged towards Xiao Budian.
In this moment, Xiao Budian finally turned his head around as he stared at Song Qingyuan. He raised his palms as he clenched them into fists in the air.
"Zì! (字, word)"
With Xiao Budian's gentle bellow, his entire surrounding began to tremble as the various dimensions collapsed upon each other. The various slices of space stacked themselves on top of each other, like a shiny, glittering wall.
In these broken dimensional slices, one could feel a mad energy trembling within it. It was like a trapped beast that had no mean to escape.
Xiao Budian slowly stepped forward as he recited, "There are four cardinal directions, they read 'Zì' (字). The wide heavens and the infinite amount of space are now under my command."
As Xiao Budian advanced, he continued his recitation. A limitless, and all-intrusive energy could be felt slowly coming down. Even Song Qingyuan's invisible sword aura appeared to have lost its luster in its wake.
Song Qingyuan's face changed color rapidly. To pull off his Dual Sword Aura of Ice and Fire, he needed to use all of his energy. Now, his sword aura had been suppressed by Xiao Budian along with his own spiritual energy too. He could do nothing but struggle.
In that instant, Song Qingyuan had lost his former calm. His facial expressions betrayed only fear.
He could have never imagined that after using his Dual Sword Auras of Ice and Fire, he was still no match for Xiao Budian.
In that instant, Xiao Budian had appeared before him. His calm expression had a sliver of tyranny and violence in it.
"As a disciple of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, only my seniors and juniors are fit to spar with me. The rest of you are not worthy!"
Xiao Budian looked at Song Qingyuan before smiling and then punching out. Song Qingyuan's entire person was sent flying.
In that instant, the defensive mechanism of the Hidden Dragon Gorge came into play. It protected Song Qingyuan, but at the same time, it declared him to be the loser.
Out of the Hidden Dragon Gorge, the atmosphere was solemn amongst the Heaven Lake Sect cultivators, as if someone had just died. The total amount of years everyone had spent cultivating was easily more than a thousand years, but they could not control the rising sense of helplessness.
They really wanted to look at their master Cao Wei in the hopes that he could provide them with some form of support and eliminate their sense of helplessness. But they did not dare to do so.
Reason told them to not disturb Cao Wei at this moment.
They noticed Cao Wei's sentiments, but others did not. The scene dissolved into chaos as everyone could only the frantic expression in each other's eyes.
Xiao Budian's previous performance made everyone think that there existed a great difference between Zhu Yi and him. However, looking at it now, regardless of the fact that Zhu Yi had just ascended into the middle Aurous Core stage, it was evident that Xiao Budian's powers were no less than Zhu Yi's.
Zhao Yan said with his mouth agape in shock, "Could... could this be the power to control space? While it was still raw and unrefined, it possessed an immense amount of awareness of the cosmos. It seems like the type of understanding only a Nascent Soul stage cultivator possesses."
Tao Yaoyao's face had an undescribably solemn expression as Zhao Yan's question was left unanswered.
The might of the disciples of the Celestial Sect of Wonders once again shocked everyone.
Cao Wei stared expressionlessly at the Hidden Dragon Gorge. His body appeared to have turned into a statue.
"I thank Master Cao for his generosity on behalf of my disciples," said Lin Feng, smiling. "I welcome you to take part in similar bets with me in the future."
"There are two more rounds coming next. Will Master Cao be willing to bet two more rounds? Oh, right, please give me your collaterals right now. I remember Master Cao saying once that he did not like to owe others stuff. We are similar in this regard."
Cao Wei finally moved. He turned over to look at Lin Feng in the eye as he took in a deep breath and said heavily, "If I dare to bet, I dare to lose. My Heaven Lake Sect can afford this loss."
Next to him, Prince Xian laughed, "Don't forget my Ice Mirror too."
Huo Xiu did not say anything, but as he was standing right there Cao Wei could not ignore him.
In that instant, despite Cao Wei's thousands of years worth of cultivation, he made an action similar to spitting blood.
The Supreme Radiance Swordmaster's expression was deeply respectful as he handed over the Shaoshang Sword Artifact. The Gambling Holy Man smiled bitterly before handing over his Eight-Veined Ginseng.
Cao Wei's Flying Snow Plumes and the Dual Polarity Divine Flower were flying over from the Heaven Lake Sect. They would not reach in an instant.
However, Lin Feng had already won big this round. When Xiao Budian and Song Qingyuan exited the Hidden Dragon Gorge, he demanded the Aurora Polar Mirror. Song Qingyuan, who was already depressed with his loss, almost fainted in anger.
If not for the fact that everyone's gaze was onto him, Song Qingyuan would rather battle to the death with Xiao Budian than to hand over his Aurora Polar Mirror. Even if he did not win, he could always run away. For him to surrender his Aurora Polar Mirror was like asking him to surrender his life.
However, with the pressure of Lin Feng and Cao Wei and the few other Immortal Soul stage cultivators on him, Song Qingyuan could only helplessly surrender the mirror. The sorrow in his eyes was akin to a young girl who had just been gang-raped by a thousand men.
Xiao Budian took the mirror gracelessly, looked at it for a while before smiling at Zhu Yi and asking, "Second Senior, now do I have a Nascent Soul stage magic item?"
Zhu Yi smiled in spite of himself. Xiao Budian's next words further triggered the already terribly depressed Song Qingyuan.
"This is good business. Second Senior, when it's your turn will you make a bet against Princess Xingyun?"
Hearing that, everyone from the Great Qin Empire, including the three Immortal Soul stage elders, bristled with rage.