Chapter 702: Experts as Thick as Clouds!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
In the blink of an eye, Wang Chong returned to normal. His eyes immediately turned to a cliff on his right. But by this time, several massive boulders, thrown down from the cliffs as fast as lightning bolts, were already crashing down around him.
Wang Chong didn’t much care at first, but when he took two steps forward and his vision suddenly went dark, he quickly paled.
At almost the same time, two figures flew down from the cliff. One was a graying elder of more than fifty years wearing a yellow robe, while the other was a middle-aged woman with a beauty spot at the corner of her eye.
“Botian, hurry and leave. I’m currently using the formation to hold him down. Hurry and call Chief and the elders to deal with him. Ruorong, how are you doing?”
The yellow-robed elder propped up the woman, his face fraught with concern.
“Wanshi, Botian, you need to be careful. This young man is very bizarre. My mental thorn rarely fails, but I just used mental energy to deal with him and was only able to control him for a few moments. I even suffered mental backlash. I’ve never encountered such a situation before.”
The woman’s complexion was pale and she seemed to be in great pain.
“Elder Du, Elder Fang, you…”
Huang Botian stood on the remains of the Stone General, hesitating to speak. Wang Chong had truthfully gone easy on him, but alas, Elders Du and Fang had come too quickly. Before he even had time to say anything, Elder Fang had used her metal thorn on Wang Chong while Elder Du had thrown boulders and set up a formation to imprison him.
Huang Botian was currently in an awkward situation, as it was already too late for him to say anything.
At this moment, a familiar voice rang in their ears. “Hahaha, what a formidable formation. This trip was worth it just to witness this.”
The three trembled and turned their heads, and they saw that the owner of that familiar voice was now confidently striding out of the formation.
Behind him were Gao Feng, Nie Yan, and the other guards.
“!!!”
All was silent. Elder Du, Elder Fang, and Huang Botian were all stunned, their faces covered with disbelief.
“This is impossible! No one can come out from my ‘Four Symbols Yinyang Soul Trap’ so quickly and easily!”
Elder Du’s entire body was frozen, as if he had received some massive mental blow.
To his sides, Huang Botian and Elder Fang, who knew the secrets of the Four Symbols Yinyang Soul Trap, were also terribly shocked.
The Four Symbols Yinyang Soul Trap was a formation that was meant to protect Wushang. In every generation, only two or three people could use it, and only when encountering extremely formidable foes.
This formation used the Eight Gates1 of Life, Pain, Rest, Open, Stop, View, and the others. The positions of these gates would be constantly changing, and taking the wrong step would immediately lead to death.
As for how to leave the formation, only the person controlling the formation knew of the method. Even if Huang Botian were imprisoned in the formation, he would find it just as difficult to get out.
“Just what’s going on here? No one knows the method to get out of the Four Symbols Yinyang Soul Trap. Could he really have some relationship with the Chief?”
Huang Botian’s emotions were in turmoil, the expression in his eyes constantly shifting.
He had long ago heard that Xiaoyan was leading a group of outsiders into the village. As one of the village’s Protectors, he knew every person that entered and exited the village. Huang Botian had been confident that these people were only capable of tricking a little girl like Fang Xiaoyan.
But now, seeing Wang Chong easily stride out of the formation, Huang Botian felt his confidence waver.
That Wang Chong was able to leave the formation so quickly meant that he already knew how to get out of the formation. There was no other explanation except that he had an extremely intimate relationship with the village.
“Elder Du, Botian, the two of you leave first. I’ll deal with him!” the middle-aged woman known as Elder Fang nervously said. Right now, only she could halt Wang Chong’s advance for a few moments.
“Wait a moment. Elder Du, Elder Fang, these people aren’t bad people!”
With a whoosh of wind, Huang Botian jumped out of the ruins of the Stone General and hurried to stop the elders.
“If they harbored ill intentions, I would have already been finished!”
“Botian, what nonsense are you saying? Can you not even tell the difference between friend and foe?”
“Damn it, can you pay attention to the situation? Now is not the time for your martial mania to act up!”
Elder Du and Elder immediately noticed that Huang Botian’s old ailment was breaking out again. Although Huang Botian was powerful, anyone who defeated him would immediately win his favor. He would start treating them as friends, and a classical manifestation of this phenomenon was phrases like, ‘this person isn’t a bad person’ and ‘these people aren’t bad people’.
Every time Huang Botian began to act like this, all the villagers began to get headaches. He was always particularly stubborn about this, pushing the other villagers to the limit.
“Elder Fang, Elder Du, this isn’t about my fondness for martial arts. Since he can see through the Four Symbols Yinyang Soul Trap, it means that he’s definitely no ordinary outsider, and didn’t he come in with Xiaoyan? If they harbored ill intentions, how could Xiaoyan have remained unscathed, and why have none of the villagers died yet?” Huang Botian said.
Elder Du and Elder Fang were instantly stunned.
“Haha, it’s still Protector Huang that understands. This one did not come here with evil intentions. Otherwise, with my strength, everyone probably understands that Wushang Village would not be in this state.”
Wang Chong chuckled, and as he spoke, he slowly walked in the direction of the trio.
His eyes shone brightly as they passed over Elder Fang and Elder Du.
Wushang Village was truly a den of crouching tigers and hidden dragons. One expert could use a powerful formation while the other could utilize formidable mental assaults.
Such experts were extremely rare in the martial world, but Wushang Village had them.
Suddenly, a dignified and elderly voice came from within the village, as resounding as a bell. “Let him in. The rest of you, withdraw.”
At this voice, everyone trembled, all the villagers showing extremely respectful expressions.
“It’s Chief!”
Elders Du and Fang first looked at each other and then gave a complicated look at Wang Chong. Although they were unwilling, since the chief had spoken, they had to yield the path.
“Young man, I don’t care where you came from or what your background is, but in this place, it’s best if you act wisely and temper your actions. You want to meet our chief, right? Enter!”
With these words, Elders Du and Fang stood to the side.
“Thank you!”
Wang Chong smiled and held his head high as he headed into the depths of the village.
Qin Qicheng had been defeated, as had Huang Botian, the formation had been useless, and the mental attacks had failed… Although the Chief of Wushang had surprised the villagers by making his view known, Wang Chong had expected it.
I can finally see the Chief of Wushang Village… I’m truly filled with anticipation!
Smiling, Wang Chong walked past Huang Botian, Elder Fang, and Elder Du.
The Chief of Wushang Village led the fifty to sixty thousand Wushang and was the strongest existence in the village. All the legends regarding the village revolved around its chief. When Wang Chong arrived at this village in his last life, the person he had wanted to see the most was the chief.
Alas, in the great calamity, all the elites of Wushang Village had been lost, including the mysterious chief. It was said that a veritable mountain of corpses of otherworldly invaders had been found around his body.
Of all the invaders that had died in that battle, more than half had died around him!
When Wang Chong heard of this, he was filled with respect, but he could only feel regret on missing a chance to meet him. Wushang Village had appeared like a comet, shocking the world but disappearing just as quickly as it had come.
All the core members of Wushang Village—its chief, elders, and protectors—died in the great calamity, taking many of Wushang Village’s secrets with them. Even though many survivors from Wushang became his subordinates as the famous Wushang Cavalry, those lost secrets were irrecoverable.
Thwishthwishthwish!
Figures began to appear from all around as Wang Chong led his guards into Wushang Village. The villagers had begun to climb down from the cliffs and form a crowd, following Wang Chong and watching him with wary gazes.
Wang Chong remained relaxed and confident, his eyes seeming to not see these people. He had defeated Qin Qicheng’s group and Huang Botian, so it would be stranger if the Wushang had a good impression of him.
“Everyone, disperse!”
An elderly and majestic voice came from out of the village. The moment this voice spoke, all fell quiet. The villagers following Wang Chong showed hesitation, but in a flash, the majority of them dispersed, swiftly climbing like apes along the steep mountainsides.
Only a small portion remained, but the atmosphere now was completely different.
Wang Chong followed a path cut out of the stone, around two zhang wide, observing his surroundings throughout. Although Wushang Village seemed to be a place of steep and lofty mountains, once one passed the edge of the village guarded by Huang Botian, everything changed.
The Wushang villagers had built a smooth and level path leading into the village.
Several hundred meters from the outermost perimeter, a large plaza made of tens of thousands of bricks appeared. Here, Wang Chong finally saw simple houses made of rough mountain stone arranged in picturesque disorder.
The figures of people packed the area between these houses and the plaza.
The moment he stepped onto the plaza, Wang Chong immediately felt an aura of strictness, like he had stepped into a military camp. On the plaza, countless gazes turned to watch him.
For some reason, Wang Chong could also sense a stifling aura of tension in the air.
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1. The Eight Gates are a Daoist concept that is apparently used in fortune-telling. The Gates of Life, Open, and Rest have good connotations, the Gates of Death, Alarm, and Pain have bad connotations, and the Gates of Stop and View hold the middle ground.↩