Chapter 171

- The Might of Zhen Yuan
The sturdy man raised his head and growled towards the sky,
Thunder Freer! Do you have any idea regarding the consequences of killing us, the leaders of the Purple Sun Martial School’s assassin group?!


Right now, you still have the chance to leave, I assume you don’t want to be hunted down by our Top Elder again, do you?
The malicious-looking elderly man was not as calm as the sturdy man. He clearly knew that the latter could easily end both of their lives in a moment. If the other party insisted on killing them, escaping would be futile. They could only hope that the other party would be afraid of their top elder, and give up on protecting Ye Chen.
Bang!
An even thicker lightning bolt struck down from the sky, splitting into two in the air. Each bolt struck both the sturdy man and the elderly man, and just like the middle-aged man who had a gloomy face, both of them were instantly burnt to ashes along with their protective Zhen Qi. Two huge, deep craters were produced on the ground, and flames that contained slivers of lightning bolts was blazing in all three holes; while streaks of lightning lingered in the air, letting out popping and crackling sound.

Is this the power of an Astral Reaching Realm martial artist?
Ye Chen finally realised what had happened just now, and instantly knew it was an Astral Reaching Realm martial artist protecting him. However, what had still shocked him was that, three advanced Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists were completely burnt to ashes before they even had the chance to fight back. The gap between the two grades was astoundingly wide, such that he couldn’t even imagine how wide that gap actually was.
From above the skies, a lightning bolt tore apart the cloud layer and descended with a speed that far exceeded the speed of sound, and faintly, a human silhouette could be seen within the lightning bolt.
The lightning bolt dissipated in the next moment, and the person landed on the ground not too far away from Ye Chen, murmuring,
You might have survived if you didn’t mention that old Lie Huo bastard’s name, but mentioning that damn name, I moreso won’t let you live.

Ye Chen gasped deeply, then bowed with his hands cupped, and said politely,
Thank you for saving my life, dear senior Thunder Freer!

Turning around, Thunder Freer spoke with a grin,
That old bastard, Xian Yunzi, is an old friend of mine, so I still have to help him out with this small problem; besides, I’ve been annoyed by that old Lie Huo bastard for such a long time.


Old Lie Huo bastard? Is he the Top Elder of the Purple Sun Martial School?

Ye Chen once heard from Luo Hanshan that all five top-ranked institutions of the Windy Nation was under the protection of their Top Elder, and only Astral Reaching Realm or higher grade martial artists could become a Top Elder of the institutions. This was the main reason as to why the Ghost Artist did not dare to directly attack the five top-ranked institutions. The Ghost Artist was also an Astral Reaching Realm martial artist himself, but he hadn’t fully recovered from his old injuries yet.
Thunder Freer nodded and said,
Yes, he is. That Lie Huo bastard don’t have much of an upright moral character, yet, he is the strongest amongst the three of us. He has already reached the medium Astral Reaching Realm, while both Xian Yunzi and I are still in the early Astral Reaching Realm. Back then, he didn’t dare to be so aggressive twenty years ago because your Top Elder, Wu Yunzi, was even more powerful than him. However, Wu Yunzi was too easily goaded, and died at the hands of the Nine Evil Cult’s besiegement. That Lie Huo bastard was definitely heavily involved in it, I suspect, at the time, he colluded with the remaining forces of the Nine Evil Cult.


Colluded with the remaining forces of the Nine Evil Cult? Wouldn’t this have enraged everyone back then?


He wasn’t the only one involved. At that time, the Nine Evil Cult was doomed, and none of their remaining forces could change their fate. Thus, many people began scheming; they used the remaining forces of the Nine Evil Cult to destroy their enemies and suppress the other institutions. The previous patriarch of your Sky Cloud Martial School, Wu Yunzi, had a very short temper, yet, he was genuinely an upright person. As he couldn’t bear watching any unfairness, he got trapped and killed by others, as well as many other powerful Sky Cloud Martial School’s martial artists; after that, your school degraded into rank 9 from rank 8. Fortunately, the old bastard, Xian Yunzi was full of cunning tricks, that under an extremely dangerous situation, he saved your school and set another trap, that killed one of the Lie Huo bastard’s junior brothers and a few of the most powerful inner elders of the Purple Sun Martial School. As such, he barely weakened Purple Sun Martial School and made them equally powerful with you again.

Hearing this, Ye Chen nodded. Conflicts would always happen in anywhere that had people living in there, from tricks to schemes, from families to institutions, this kind of things were constantly happening in every corner of their world, on a single piece of land. These things probably would stop only until all human beings had lost their humanities and turned into dolls.

That Lie Huo bastard might become so angry when he learns that I’ve killed these three, however, he can only do nothing to me. I’m all alone and free, not like him, who has an institution to protect.

Thunder Freer lazily said as he grabbed the calabash and drank a mouthful of wine.
This was the very first time Ye Chen met an Astral Reaching Realm martial artist face to face, he deeply understood that this was a precious chance, so he hurriedly asked,
Dear senior, is the gap between the Clasping Yuan Realm and the Astral Reaching Realm truly that tremendous? I saw you killing all three of them as easily as crushing a couple of ants.


Look.
Said Thunder Freer as he gulped his wine and raised his left hand.
Buzz!
A dazzling light burst out from his palm then condensed into a dark blue Zhen Yuan sphere. The Zhen Yuan was incredibly pure, even purer than crystal and a lot shinier than gemstones. If it could solidify, it would be equally valuable to an entire country back in Ye Chen’s old world.

Have you discovered anything?
Asked Thunder Freer.
Ye Chen pondered and said,
It’s more than ten times purer than Zhen Qi, is it extracted from Zhen Qi? Just like my Great Mystery Art, I will be able to extract a mouthful of Zhen Yuan until I reached the top level, and that will allow me to destroy any martial artists on the same level.

Thunder Freer nodded and praised,
Hm, you’re a smart kid. Zhen Yuan is the essence of Zhen Qi. With your current total amount of Zhen Qi, you can barely extract a mouthful of Zhen Yuan. Even if you can, that would be thin and could only support you for a single move. However, Astral Reaching Realm martial artists’ bodies are filled with Zhen Yuan, therefore, if I couldn’t kill an advance Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist with a single move, I would be too ashamed to call myself a martial artist.


Ah, I understand. The difference between inner Qi and Zhen Qi is not that big, but the difference between Zhen Qi and Zhen Yuan is incredibly huge, after all, inner Qi and Zhen Qi are only different in forms, while Zhen Qi and Zhen Yuan are different in qualities, not even at the same level.
Murmured Ye Chen.
Thunder Freer continued,
However, there’re always exceptions. A few Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist had indeed managed to defeat Astral Reaching Realm martial artist, but it was not as easy as it sounds. Let’s take you as an example, if your sword intent can’t keep maturing, then you can never gain any special opportunity. You might as well be crushed by a single attack launched by me, even if you stepped into the advanced Clasping Yuan Realm, it’ll be the same nonetheless.

Ye Chen remained silent. That was perfectly true. As the grade of a martial artist continuously grew higher, the difficulties of breaking through the higher grade would become even greater. With Ye Chen’s current power, he could only be counted as the most talented one within the Sky Cloud Martial School, but if he went to the South Zhuo Region or the True Spirit Continent, he would instantly become an ordinary martial artist who wasn’t even worth mentioning.

Haha, I’m not trying to frustrate you, just making an example. With your talent, your sword intent would never stop maturing. If your sword intent could reach a great success, and obtain other opportunities, you might soon be able to survive an attack launched by an Astral Reaching Realm martial artist; however, if you wanted to fight one, that is more difficult than you thought. In recent centuries, only very few martial artists have managed to do that. The Mysterious Queen is one of them. Back then, when she was only an advanced Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist, she had even killed quite a few Astral Reaching Realm martial artist on her own. That person is literally terrifying, and has been seen as a total legend among all supremely talented geniuses in the world even now.

The Mysterious Queen, her again. Ye Chen had already heard her name for many times. She was the definite top one of all kinds of martial-related records; no one, not a single one could ever surpass her. She was the most domineering among all geniuses. She was the true queen among all martial artists for centuries, no one could even compare to her.
Ye Chen couldn’t even imagine just how talented the Mysterious Queen was when she was young, but he was sure that if she was of the same age as him, she could totally crush him. This could be simply seen in her history, that she had become a Condensing Reality Realm martial artist at eleven years old, stepped into Clasping Yuan Realm at fourteen years old, Astral Reaching Realm at eighteen years old, Sea of Souls Realm at twenty-five years old, and broke into the Life and Death Realm in her thirty-five, becoming the youngest Life and Death Realm martial artist for a whole thousand years. Only this record had made Ye Chen shiver and gave him goosebumps; he was now seventeen years old yet he still was in the early Clasping Yuan Realm, it was already hopeless for him to catch up to the queen, unless he could have multiple great opportunities that came one after another, even more than the queen herself had ever had.
Thinking of this, Ye Chen’s determination became even firmer than before. He had to push himself out of his comfort zone and temper himself, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to become a Life and Death Realm martial artist within five hundred years, not to mention catching up to the Mysterious Queen.
Pausing for a short while, Thunder Freer then continued,
It’s good that you want to go out of the Windy Nation and travel around. Staying another day in the Windy Nation would reduce the possibility for you to become a truly powerful martial artist by a little bit; if you just stay here and do nothing for a few years, your hope would be lost. You have to know that time isn’t going to wait for you, you have to grasp every second, especially when you’re young; literally, I mean every second. I think you can understand me. Young people should fight as hard as they can, because when you’re older, your mindset would change and your improvement would slow down, till then, you would hardly be able to maintain your peak body condition. Since the beginning of the world, every single truly powerful martial artist was raised in his or her development phase. If you can’t reach the top while you’re young, you probably won’t be able to reach it in your entire life.

Ye Chen nodded and said,
I am deeply aware of that, dear senior. This is why I am so eager to temper myself, grasp every single opportunity that is meant to be mine, and even those which supposedly are not.


Ah, opportunity, haha, opportunity! This is an essential thing! Only with great opportunities can you possibly become truly powerful. Ah, such a shame, I haven’t gained too many opportunities back in my prime, perhaps I will just be stuck in this Astral Reaching Realm for the rest of my life.
Sighing, Thunder Freer continued,
When you reach the medium or advanced Clasping Yuan Realm, you have to find yourself a higher level art, the higher the better.

Ye Chen somewhat understood but not too clearly, therefore, he asked,
If practising low level martial arts could only inevitably improve a martial artist at a slow rate, I wonder what realm your Heavenly Thunder Art belongs to?


Mid-ranked Earth Realm. Not a single high-ranked Earth Realm martial art existed in this Windy Nation. That Mountain and Water Art possessed by the Emerald Martial Palace is only an incomplete art and can’t be counted as a proper high-ranked Earth Realm martial art. As for the reason why I told you to find yourself a higher level art, that is because when you’re about to break into the Astral Reaching Realm, a lower level art would make you waste too much time. While in mid-ranked Earth Realm, I spent a whole ten years to break through the Astral Reaching Realm from the Clasping Yuan Realm, ten years! So much time was wasted. If I had a higher level art back then, I might’ve gone even further.

‘It would take ten years to reach the Astral Reaching Realm from the Mid-ranked Earth Realm?!’ Ye Chen was slightly shocked by this, but soon realised that it was absolutely reasonable. The leaders of all five top-ranked institutions of the Windy Nation had been stuck in the peak-level advanced Clasping Yuan Realm for quite a few years already, yet none of them managed to achieve a breakthrough till now. Ye Chen assumed that the main cause for this was their martial arts that were all at a relatively lower level, and their Zhen Yuan could only be extracted at an extremely slow speed.