Chapter 705 - Test (7)
The prior joy and excitement began to subside.
Many of the envoys revealed confused looks.
They were short of two marks.
And among the remaining people, only Ye Qingyu was capable enough to leave a mark on the Wall of Storm.
Who could provide the last one?
It seemed as if the outcome had been decided.
All of the hard work and sacrifice would end here, in front of the wall.
Domain rating would become but a pipe dream for the Heaven Wasteland Domain. Subordination, separation, occupation, enslavement, and all adversities and disasters would then sweep through the domain like an irresistible hurricane.
Regret, grief.
Profound pain, fear.
And an obscure vision of the future...
For a time, an extremely complex and grave atmosphere hung over the people of the Heaven Wasteland diplomatic corpsn.
They could not imagine and dared not imagine.
The kinds of disasters which would befall the Heaven Wasteland Domain, and the covetous foreign domain forces which would carve up and swallow the Heaven Wasteland Domain after the failure of domain rating.
Ye Qingyu, too, began to frown.
Countless ideas and names dashed through his mind as he considered how to deal with this situation.
"Hahahaha..." a fiendishly delighted, derision-filled voice rang out.
Huang Lin was laughing heartily toward the sky.
"Haha, I just knew you were all fluking it at first. How can you crickets and ants be allowed to pass a test designed by the Storm Martial Emperor!" he said excitedly.
He had long been waiting for this and praying to see the look of despair on Ye Qingyu and the other’s faces. Excited and invigorated, he could no longer suppress the feeling of triumph in his heart. Unconcerned about incurring Shangguan Wu's wrath, he brashly guffawed, "You're dead meat at this point. Haha, no one else can do it, eh?"
The envoy mission was infuriated.
Just then...
"Who said no one else could?"
A voice rang out from a corner of the plaza.
Taken greatly aback, Ye Qingyu looked in the direction of the voice when he heard it.
Old Fish suddenly parted a way through the crowd he had been hiding among all this while and walked out. He looked at Huang Lin and disdainfully snapped, "You're wrong, junior. Who says we don't have anyone else who can? To tell you the truth, the real top expert among our mission has yet to try. How can something so simple as leaving a mark on the wall trouble us!"
Old Fish talked big indeed.
After speaking, he swayed his body carefully as he headed toward the center of the plaza.
The other envoys were all stunned.
Him?
That elder?
The elder who Lord Ye greatly respected and always brought along?
Everyone's eyes fell upon Old Fish.
Could that elder of unknown identity and origin actually be a supreme expert hiding by Lord Ye's side?
Momentarily, a glimmer of hope rekindled in the eyes of the contingent members.
Ye Qingyu had some doubts as he looked at the elder walking out of the crowd.
Old Fish was indeed strong and tough like no other, but doesn't he only have consciousness power to scare people with left after suffering a Dao injury?
Or does this ten-thousand-year-old chicken thief still have a trick up his sleeve?
Or is he trying to mislead and frighten the enemy, just as he did at the Storm Sword Meeting?
Because the old man was highly unreliable most of the time, Ye Qingyu did not trust him too much and feared that he was up to yet another shenanigan.
The gazes of countless people centered on Old Fish.
"Heh heh... don't look at me like that!" As if sensing the misgivings of the crowd, Old Fish revealed a faint and mysterious smile and said, "I certainly won't do something as simple as leaving a mark on the wall myself. That would be too degrading of a king... Heh heh, this is the expert I'm referring to!
He suddenly held up a white and fluffy furball as he spoke.
"Woof! Let me go, ya old thing." It was none other than the silly dog Little Nine, which had disappeared after making a brief fuss!
That's right!
We still have this silly dog!
Ye Qingyu's eyes brightened.
How could I forget about this pup?
This silly dog is, after all, a weirdo of a battle pet which devoured four streaks of Heavenly Lightning without dying.
Perhaps... it truly has the strength and means to leave a mark on the wall? Wasn't it its pee that opened the city gate earlier on?
The looks of the other experts swiftly turned from shock into an odd expression, as if they did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Though they did not know much about the battle pet of the Lord of the Light Palace, they had been struck dumb on many occasions by the amazing things it had done on this journey, and time and again updated their understanding of it.
They could still vividly remember how it suddenly expanded in front of the city gate and scared off the Suanni beats subspecies with its appearance.
"Lil' fool, time for you to contribute, so behave well, 'kay?" Old Fish raised his hand and tossed the silly dog toward the wall. "Don't say I didn't remind you that if you end up saving the day, the Heaven Wasteland Domain will worship you as a hero henceforth. You'll be treated to free meals everywhere you go and won't have problems picking up any young bitch you fancy."
"Oh?" The silly dog narrowed its eyes. "Really? You aren't lying?"
Ye Qingyu nodded. "Yes, it's true. You'll receive your due benefits if you succeed."
The silly dog was certainly most turned on by the mention of benefits.
Therefore, it sashayed over to the wall, swaying its plump body and wagging its tail ostentatiously.
However, the nearer it got to the wall, the stranger the expression in its round pupils became.
"Huh? Odd, this wall has a smell... I recognize it from somewhere..." Squinting its eyes, the silly dog sniffed something along the way as it approached the wall. "Why don't I try this first..."
"Time's almost up. Stop dallying, you little fool..." Old Fish, who had been following behind the silly dog in silence, reached out a leg and kicked its behind unkindly.
"Oh, my! You old piece of..." Caught off guard, the silly dog crashed painfully into the wall. A dull bamming thud was swiftly followed by a short yelp.
Everyone was stupefied.
What's going on?
The eyes of the envoys fixed upon the white ball of flesh.
Its nose crashed into the wall?
Is this... considered an attempt?
I wonder if its nose is still intact...
"Old backstabbing bastard, I won’t play with you no longer... Huh? What's this? I've seen it..." The silly dog was barking madly when it suddenly saw a bizarre yet familiar mark.
The crowd first looked at the fallen dog which was covering its nose and baring its teeth, then at the spot on the wall where the dog's nose had rammed into.
Everyone's gaze went blank.
A wondrous expression surged frenziedly in their eyes.
Because at the foot of the wall was an extremely clear and distinct dent mark in the shape of a round nose tip.
Shock, disbelief.
Virtually everyone could not believe what they were seeing. After forcefully rubbing their eyes and verifying the mark several times, they finally erupted into vehement cheers.
"Hahaha! That was unexpected..."
"I'm not seeing things right... Haha, the ninth mark has appeared!"
"Excellent!"
"I never thought the nose of Lord Ye's battle pet was this powerful!"
"What a turn of events!"
Wave-like euphoria and cheering voices pervaded the entire test plaza.
The Violet Gold Divine Guards at the periphery of the plaza were completely flabbergasted and had entered a state of extreme shock, especially Huang Lin, who looked like he had seen a ghost.
"Simply... incredible... unimaginable... that dog's nose... how is this possible!?" Huang Lin felt that he was losing his mind.
He dared not believe anything his eyes had just seen.
Shangguan Wu, who was on the test platform, and Huang Tayun, who was to one side of the wall, also wore expressions of astoundment on their faces which even froze slightly.
Over several hundred years, they had seen many different marks left on the Wall of Storm, but had never seen a battle pet participating in the test, and moreover, that it could leave such a deep indentation on the wall just by using its nose.
A short while later...
"This... letting a dog... this is simply disrespectful to the Storm Martial Emperor!" Unable to contain his anger, Huang Tayun flung his sleeves and walked over to the wall, snapping, "This cannot count! This must absolutely not count!"
But his angry yells could not be heard through the hubbub of loud cheers from the Heaven Wasteland diplomatic corps, which was already reveling in the joy and excitement of impending victory.
Shangguan Wu had regained his senses by this time.
Donning a slightly strange expression, he walked through the crowd and up beside the listless grunting dog, which he took a few doubtful looks at before he turned to examine the fingernail-deep mark on the wall, when a hint of extreme shock flashed across his eyes.
What exactly is this dog's nose made of?
How did it manage to leave a mark like this on the Wall of Storm?
If it had bumped into a human instead, even an Immortal Step expert would be knocked dead, right?
If the place was not as crowded as it was, Shangguan Wu would have badly wanted to give the dog's nose a good rubbing while carefully studying it.
At this very moment, everyone's eyes turned toward him.
His verdict would directly decide whether they passed this test or not.
This was because they knew full well that leaving a mark on the wall was a piece of cake for the Lord of the Light Palace, Ye Qingyu, given his strength.
If this mark was deemed valid, passing the first checkpoint of domain rating would be a matter of time in their view.
In the crowd.
"Lord Shangguan, this mark cannot count!" A tinge of absolute hatred flashed across Huang Tayun's eyes. "It's simply madness to use a dirty dog's nose to strike the Wall of Storm. We should severely punish the Heaven Wasteland diplomatic corps for dishonoring His Highness, the Storm Martial Emperor!"
"You f*cking toad, who you callin' a dirty dog? I'm an authentic handsome dog, alright? Do you not believe I'll bite you to death?" Sitting up, the silly dog straightened its ears and bared its teeth at Huang Tayun.
Murderous spirit gushed out from all over the latter's body.
At this time, Shangguan Wu suddenly began to laugh.