Chapter 477: Deal!
Translator: TYZ Editor: X, TYZ
"Alkaid! Someone is injured!"
Pfff. The sword pagoda that was named Alkaid spat out an unconscious elementalist.
"Lou Lan is coming!"
Lou Lan, who was standing on one side waiting for action, immediately ran over and provided medical treatment to the injured elementalist.
...
"Chalawan! Someone has fainted!"
"Lou Lan is coming!"
...
Within two hours, more than 34 people had fainted. Lou Lan was running all over the place.
"End of training!"
Ai Hui’s unfeeling voice rang across everyone’s ears like a heavenly melody. One by one, wobbly figures tottered out of the sword pagoda. Their bodies were drenched in sweat and gave off surging steam, resembling steamed dumplings had just been taken out of a steamer basket.
Ai Hui flew out of the Megrez Sword Pagoda and swept his gaze across everyone. With a deep voice, he said, "Rest for one hour and prepare for the next training session."
Thud, thud. Everyone sat paralyzed on the ground, trying to make the most out of their time to rest. No one was howling in grief or whining. Ai Hui was extremely cold-blooded. He had a zealous attitude toward training.
One by one, over 100 people had left his combat division because they were unable to endure his high-intensity training. Exactly 300 people were left in his combat division.
The long-prepared bowls of elemental soup were quickly served to these elementalists. Without sufficient nourishment, such high-intensity training would hurt their bodies.
The sound of the elemental soup being ravenously devoured rang across the camping ground as a look of happiness appeared upon everyone’s face. Sword pagoda training was a hell with complete darkness to them. Lou Lan and his elemental soup were the beacons of light in their hell.
Gu Xuan was an ardent supporter of Lou Lan. To him, a magical sand puppet like Lou Lan was the most beautiful entity in this world. Other than his master, Lou Lan had no weakness at all.
Gu Xuan felt indignant. How was a bastard like Ai Hui fit to be Lou Lan’s master?
Nowadays, he did not have any respect for Ai Hui. A few days ago, he was still thinking about following the Lightning Blade to find his own path in swordsmanship. Now that he thought about it, he felt that he was as stupid as a pig then!
This bastard was actually vying with them over the elemental soup!
How was this bastard fit to be their leader! If not for the fact that he was more powerful than them, they would have killed him in the middle of the night.
After placing down the bowl that had been licked clean, Gu Xuan was still enjoying the aftertaste. However, he soon realized he did not have the time to do so. He had to seize the moment to do Circulatory Cycle Revolutions and absorb the elemental energy from the elemental energy soup that he had just consumed. Only by doing so could he endure the next training session.
Everyone had been through the preliminary selection and had already tried training in all of the seven sword pagodas. As said by Ai Hui, every tulip to its own hole. Everyone had to find a "hole" that suited them.
The aura of within every sword pagoda was completely different.
Yes, it’s aura, the sword aura.
Some were sharp, some were piercing cold, some were scorching hot, and some were thick and heavy. There were various types of sword aura. Everyone had to learn and produce every type of sword aura to find out which one suited them the best.
Gu Xuan understood the theories of swordsmanship. Any training program would require one to find a suitable path for himself or herself. This was common sense. However, the current training program was so crude and simple-looking that it raised their hackles. There was no sense of beauty to it at all.
Painstakingly, he had repeated the training program so many times that his consciousness was becoming fuzzy.
Repeating the training program seven times made Gu Xuan want to puke.
This was swordsmanship? What about those exquisite swordplay variations? Weren’t swordsmen known for their exquisite swordplay variations? How could swordsmanship be so crude and simple-looking?
Gu Xuan was assigned to the Merak Sword Pagoda and was the pagoda master. At the beginning, Gu Xuan was overjoyed. After all, who did not like being valued? Very soon, however, he realized this was completely different from what he had expected.
Merak Sword Pagoda had eight levels and it was preceded only by Ai Hui’s Megrez Sword Pagoda. In each level of the Merak Sword Pagoda, there were six elementalists. Including Gu Xuan, there were a total of 48 elementalists in the Merak Sword Pagoda and all of them were only learning one sword move.
Given Gu Xuan’s swordsmanship level, he could perform the sword move skilfully and effortlessly.
However, that did not mean anything here.
In order to pass, the 48 elementalists had to perform the sword move together without a single person failing. Failure by any one of the 48 elementalists would result in total failure.
Out of the 48 elementalists, only six of them knew the basics of swordsmanship.
All of the training sessions were appalling. If they could succeed three times out of 100 training sessions, they could count themselves lucky.
The thing that disappointed him was he couldn’t see any significance to this type of training program at all.
The simple sword move did not require much skill to execute. It did not have any exquisite variations and there was nothing formidable about it. Gu Xuan felt that he was here to pursue the path of swordsmanship, not to waste his time on such a boring training program.
"Boring?"
Ai Hui took a glance at Gu Xuan.
Gu Xuan’s hair stood on end. When Ai Hui became serious, he looked as if he had turned into another person, giving off a terrifying aura.
Ai Hui noticed everyone else was looking at him. After thinking for awhile, he said, "All right, I will show all of you a thing or two."
Members of Central Pine Valley had fought alongside Ai Hui before and had deep level of trust in him. No matter what decision or command he made, everyone would execute it without any hesitation.
The newly recruited elementalists did not have such a level of trust in him. As such, it was normal for them to doubt him.
Ai Hui failed to take this factor into account, a result of his lack of experience.
Ai Hui, who was self-reflecting, did not have any emotion on his face. He chose 17 rather strong elementalists to enter the Alkaid Sword Pagoda with him.
Alkaid Sword Pagoda was the shortest sword pagoda with only three levels. In each level, there were six men.
The rest of the Sword of Lighning’s members widened their eyes with excitement. Actually, everyone had felt doubtful all this time. Why were they training every day? What were the uses of this training?
"Get ready," Ai Hui’s deep and low voice echoed in the Alkaid Sword Pagoda.
Everyone in the sword pagoda became energized. Holding a sword in their hands, they stood at their assigned positions and braced themselves.
"Raise your swords!"
A deep roar exploded in everyone’s ears.
Everyone’s sword lit up at the same time. Buzz. A mysterious vibrating buzz resounded throughout the Alkaid Sword Pagoda. They could feel that the sword pagoda was trembling slightly. However, at this point in time, they could not focus on anything else. Subconsciously, they raised the swords in their hands and flicked them upward. Each of their swords released a streak of sword gleam.
18 streaks of sword gleam stacked upon each other and gathered at the apex of the sword pagoda!
This moment was a brand-new experience for Ai Hui. From the point when he came up with the idea of the sword pagodas to the point when the construction of the sword pagodas was completed, everything was near perfect. However, this was the first time that the practicality of the sword pagodas would be tested. At this instant, his sensory perception suddenly became unusually sharp. It was as if the range of his sensory perception had extended to a faraway place.
His mind became more and more focused. Suddenly, he sensed that a figure was spying on them from the depths of the sky.
Who was this person?
Suddenly, a brilliance erupted in his eyes. I have caught you!
He flicked the sword in his hand lightly.
Shiiiiiing!
A melodious sword chime rang across the air, sounding like the ringing of great bells in a Buddhist temple.
The sudden sword chime alarmed everyone in Lemon Camping Ground. All of them raised their heads skyward.
A thick and dazzling sword gleam shot out from the apex of the sword pagoda and ripped through the air. With a clear and crisp sword chime, it flew toward the depths of the sky.
"What’s that?"
"It looks like a streak of sword gleam."
"Is it possible that another master swordsman has been born?"
Everyone exclaimed in surprise as their faces were filled with shock.
The body of Shi Xueman, who was supervising the training of her own combat division, trembled. She quickly raised her head to see what was going on. Her beautiful eyes lit up and her lips curled into a faint smile.
Jiang Wei and Sang Zhijun had their mouths agape with surprise as they looked at the streak of brilliant sword gleam in the sky.
The dazzling sword gleam had a very long tail, resembling a shooting star flying toward the sky.
In the depths of the sky.
Le Buleng was slightly surprised. Ai Hui indeed lived up to his reputation.
Previously, Le Buleng felt weird when An Muda allowed his precious disciple to follow somebody else. Now, he realized that this lad named Ai Hui was rather skillful.
The altitude that Le Buleng was flying at surpassed the level of an ordinary elementalists. He was in the depths of the sky. It was very dangerous to fly at such a high altitude. Dire beasts that lived at these altitudes were powerful creatures like the humpback cloud whales.
The depths of the sky might seem very quiet and peaceful, but it was actually filled with extremely intense metal winds. These metal winds were so powerful that they formed a special zone that would shred any ordinary individual to smithereens in a split second if he or she were to stay here.
A speckle of dazzling light expanded in his vision at a terrifying speed.
Le Buleng let out a snort.
The sunlight over his head seemed to gather at his back. Suddenly, wisps of golden flames rose behind his back, resembling gold wings.
He reached out his finger and pointed it at the incoming sword gleam.
A wisp of golden flame shot out from his fingertip.
The sword gleam collided squarely with the wisp of golden flame.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion rang across the air. The sky looked as if it was trembling. Surging currents swept across the air and created distorted rippling energy waves through the sky.
The power of the sword gleam was three times more powerful than what he had expected.
At his current base level, he was extremely accurate with his judgement of one’s strength. Very seldomly would such an inaccuracy occur.
His interest was piqued.
He noticed there were a few pagodas on the ground and that the attack was launched by the shortest one. This was the first time he saw a sword gleam launched by a pagoda. Interesting, very interesting!
The deafening explosion in the sky caused Shi Xueman’s facial expression to change drastically.
Before she could react, a golden fireball suddenly appeared before her. A skinny old man holding an ice block that was a few times bigger than his body hovered 10 meters away from her.
"Young girl, do you still remember me?"
She Xueman was filled with shock. The speed of the old man was so fast!
Upon taking a closer look at the old man, Shi Xueman’s facial expression froze. After a while, she asked with uncertainty, "Uncle Le?"
The news of Le Buleng appearing in Lemon Camping Ground swept across the entire camping ground like a hurricane.
Who was Le Buleng?
Youngsters might find this name unfamiliar, but when older elementalists heard of this name, a look of respect and reverence appeared on their faces. To them, this was a legendary name.
The terrifying sword gleam that was shot out from the inner camp shocked the entire Lemon Camping Ground. At this point in time, the faces of those elementalists who withdrew from the Sword of Lightning were filled with regret.
In the inner camp.
Ai Hui’s glaring eyes looked as if they were going to pop out at any moment. With an unfriendly tone, he said, "Snow lava? At least 100 liters? Senior Le, I respect you as a senior. If you want snow lava, I can gift one or two liters to you as a form of respect, but now you want at least 100 liters? At least?"
Le Buleng dropped the gigantic block of ice onto the ground and said bluntly, "If you provide enough snow lava, he will become a Master and work for you for 10 years. Tell me now, deal or no deal?"
Ai Hui widened his eyes and sneered. With a lofty attitude, he replied, "Deal!"
In the blink of an eye, the ice-cold look on Ai Hui’s face defrosted as he broke into a wide smile. With an amiable tone, he said, "Senior, is he your only disciple? Do you still have other disciples? Come, come, I have enough snow lava. Where else can you find so much A-grade fire liquid? I will give you a 50 percent discount, five years of labor for your second disciple!"
Le Buleng, "…"