Chapter 263 - Shen Cangsheng
Up in the mirror-clear sky, a youth stood, wielding a golden war spear. His fighting spirit flashed through his eyes and he carried himself with a dazzling air that attracted everyone’s attention.
Mu Chen also looked at him in surprise. He’d heard about this number one from the moment he entered the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. As far as the student body was concerned, he was, perhaps, the only one who could become the undisputed overlord.
His place as the first of the Heavenly Rankings was unshakable.
Mu Chen never imagined that the rarely-seen first in the Heavenly Rankings would make an appearance here.
Mo Longzi watched Shen Cangsheng from a short distance away, with his hand tightly wrapped around the dragon-scaled longsword. Then, he smiled. “You’ve been chasing me for two months now. Aren’t you tired yet?”
“I accepted your bounty mission. How could I return without your head?” Shen Cangsheng smiled back. His golden spear trembled slightly.
“You can’t kill me.”
Mo Longzi shook his head and lazily replied, “You’re formidable, but not even the elite team could kill me. There’s no way you could accomplish it all by yourself.”
“At the very least, if I keep chasing you, then you won’t be able to kill more students of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.”
Shen Cangsheng smiled as a light flashed across his eyes, “Furthermore, I’m good at finding opportunities. The moment you slip, you might find your life belonging to me.”
Mo Longzi narrowed his eyes and the demonic dragon on his forehead writhed even more viciously. He gripped his longsword and lightly said, “Well if you put it that way, then, wouldn’t it be better for me to kill you, so you won’t cause me any more trouble?”
“If you’ve finally thought it through, then come and fight me.” Shen Cangsheng challenged as he pointed his golden spear towards Mo Longzi. His eyes overflowed with his fighting spirit.
Mo Longzi coldly stared at Shen Cangsheng. A forest of sword lights slowly took shape around him, until even the space around him seemed like it’d been sliced into ribbons.
The spear in Shen Cangsheng’s hand trembled and surged with a golden energy. His body flared with a brilliant light, as if he’d turned into a golden sun. His fighting intent soared, as if he was a god of war.
“If you treat me like that moron Yu Yuan, then you’re going to get the worst of it.”
Mo Longzi lightly smiled as a sword-sharp look filled his eyes. He took a step forward and the longsword slightly shook. That instant was filled with the sounds of swords cutting through air. An ashen-grey light rose from behind him and turned into an earth-shattering quantity of sword images.
Each sword image looked genuine, and his sword aura surged into the skies, as if it could tear the sky apart.
“Dragon Scaled Sword Art, Sky Shattering Myriad Sword!”
Onom!
The longsword whistled through the air, raising another wave of sword images that rained down on Shen Cangsheng in an astonishing display.
Mu Chen’s expression was grave as he watched the terrifying attacks. Mo Longzi was powerful, indeed. Mu Chen guessed that he’d probably already reached the Heavenly Completion Stage.
His talent must be monstrous to reach the Heavenly Completion Stagee at such a young age. But since Mu Chen came to this world, such monstrous talents were in no short supply.
Even though Mo Longzi was his opponent, Mu Chen couldn’t help sighing in admiration. From the looks of it, Mu Chen was only four or five years older; however, Mu Chen was still speechless at his strength. No wonder he was the number 2 on the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy’s Bounty Board — he was someone who could make the Punishment Team fail every single time.
Shen Cangsheng raised his head, and the myriad of swords were reflected in his pupils. He tightened his grip on the Celestial Lotus Wargod Spear, which flickered with golden light. Then, his arm trembled and the spear thrust forward.
“Celestial Lotus Rain!”
Onom!
A golden light flickered as a golden lotus bloomed on the tip of his spear, expanding until it was a few hundred feet wide.
Shhhuuuuuu! Shhhhuuu!
The golden lotus slowly revolved as it blossomed, before it burst into thousands of individual petals, all bathed with golden light.
That golden light filled the skies and shattered the spectacular golden rain. Its beauty contained deadly power.
Boom! Boooom!
The shattered lotus petals gathered again and formed a single golden pillar. The column streaked across the horizon and crashed down on the sword images. In that instant, everything between heaven and earth trembled from the collision.
A series of loud explosions rang out as a wild Spiritual Energy rippled out. The forest below suffered a fatal blow and was leveled. The surrounding majestic mountains were sliced into huge boulders before they fell into pieces.
The two flowing powers crashed as each attempted to destroy the other; however, neither was able to gain the upperhand. After remaining in a deadlock for more than half an hour, they finally dispersed and released powerful gales of Spiritual Energy.
“Haha, no wonder you’re ranked first in the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. It’s not surprising that Yu Yuan fell by your hands. As far as today goes, we’ll let you off. But if we meet again, you won’t be so lucky.”
Mo Longzi focused on the disappearing sword images, then turned to smile at Mu Chen and his friends. Then, he disappeared. In the span of only a few breaths, he’d completely vanished; however, his faint voice still echoed over the forest.
Mo Longzi was very straightforward with his actions; with Shen Cangsheng there, he wouldn’t be able to gain an advantage, forget about killing Mu Chen’s group. Therefore, it’d be better for him to retreat and save his energy.
Shen Cangsheng looked in the direction that Mo Longzi had vanished to, but he didn’t give chase. His fingers twitched and the golden spear disappeared. Then, he turned around to face Mu Chen, who was still hovering in midair. Black flames still blazed around him, showing his cautiousness.
A look of shock flashed across Shen Cangsheng’s face when he finally had a chance to study those black flames wrapped around Mu Chen. He didn’t know why, but something made him feel slightly threatened.
Mu Chen sensed Shen Cangsheng’s gaze. Finally, he allowed the black flames to gradually retreat into his body and revealed a body covered in blood and wounds.
“Many thanks, Senior Brother Shen.”
Mu Chen cupped his hands towards Shen Cangsheng as he made a hard smile. If Shen Cangsheng hadn’t shown himself, Mu Chen might’ve had to endure a savage battle. His wounds would’ve become even graver.
“You killed Bai Xuan?” Shen Cangsheng asked as he looked at Bai Xuan’s corpse on a nearby mountain slope. There was a smear of astonishment in his voice.
Of course, he could tell that Mu Chen’s cultivation was still that of a Heavenly Fusion Stage Middle Phase. There was a wide gap between him and Bai Xuan. But even still, before Shen Cangsheng had shown himself, Mu Chen had dared to stand against Mo Longzi. His courage was commendable.
Mu Chen lightly nodded, but didn’t care to fill in the details. He’d only been able to kill Bai Xuan because of the Great Meru Demonic Pillar’s ominous energy in his body.
“Mu Chen is a freshman who enrolled in our Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy only a few months ago. But don’t underestimate him! If it wasn’t for him, I’m afraid that we wouldn’t have escaped safely.” a soft and gentle voice sounded. Su Xuan and the other three had flown over.
“A freshman?” Shen Cangsheng was stunned as he looked at Mu Chen again. His voice was filled with surprise as he spoke, “I never thought that such an excellent freshman would appear in the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. It seems like the future will be lively.”
“I only relied on a few backdoors[1. A euphemism for barely legal cheating.],” Mu Chen smiled.
“Having access to backdoors is also a form of power. In a battle of life and death, only the result is of consequence,” Shen Cangsheng said firmly.
Mu Chen felt the same. If he were caught in a life and death battle, of course he’d use every means to survive. It didn’t matter if they were backdoors or not.
Next to him, Guo Xiong stared at Shen Cangsheng with blazing eyes. The very thought of meeting this Ranked 1 excited him.
“Your wounds are grave. Here’s a Profound Life Pellet. It should help your current state.” Shen Cangsheng extended his hand and revealed a tiny, exquisite box resting in the center of his palm. Inside the box was a faintly glowing white medicinal pellet. Circles of light revolved around the pellet as its fragrance permeated the air and drew their attention.
Mu Chen was slightly stunned. This pellet didn’t look like an ordinary one. It would be a great help for any wounded person. However, the gesture felt too heavy and made him hesitate briefly.
But his hesitation didn’t hold out for long before he accepted it and cupped his hands. “Many thanks for the pill. I, Mu Chen, will remember this favor. I will return it when chance arises.”
Right now, Mu Chen desperately needed such a medicinal pellet to help him recover from his injuries. Refusing too hard would be pretentious — he obviously needed it — so why not accept it? At most, he’d owe Shen Cangsheng a favor. All he had to do was return it when he got the chance.
Shen Cangsheng smiled. He was pleased with Mu Chen’s lack of pretentiousness. As for the favor, he could care less. At Mu Chen’s current strength, it’d be hard for him to return it.
“I’ll have to trouble you this time.”
Su Xuan gave Shen Cangsheng a grateful look. If Shen Cangsheng hadn’t reached them in time, then their small party would’ve suffered a considerable loss, given the situation at the time.
They didn’t know what tricks Mu Chen had pulled from his sleeve, but whatever he’d done, he’d paid a high price. She didn’t want to see him suffer for saving them.
Shen Cangsheng shook his head. “I’ve been chasing after Mo Longzi for the past two months. He seemed to have received some sort of message from the Demonic Dragon Palace and rushed over here. I only followed him, and never expected to run into you guys.”
Guo Xiong inwardly smacked his lips. Shen Cangsheng was probably the only student in the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy who could pursue Mo Longzi.
“What are you going to do next?” Shen Cangsheng asked Su Xuan’s party.
“We’ve accomplished our mission. Now, we’ll be returning to the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.” Su Xuan answered. Their journey had been half a month long and filled with danger. Therefore, they should return to the Academy and get a long, good rest.
“I’ll see you guys there. Junior Brother Mu Chen was gravely injured; therefore, your fighting strength should be down by quite a bit. Mo Longzi is vicious, merciless, and unnaturally cunning. Who knows when he might secretly turn back.” Shen Cangsheng muttered.
“Then, we’ll have to thank you again.”
A relieved sigh passed around their small party. With Shen Cangsheng guarding them until they returned, their group would be entirely secure.
Mu Chen also smiled as he looked north. They could return the Academy at last.