Chapter 1026 - Overcoming All Difficulties
"You took a while to get here," the snow man said.
"Were you waiting for me?" Ye Qingyu smiled and continued, "If I rushed over, I would have missed out on many beautiful views."
"If you continue making your way forward, there will be five checkpoints you'll need to pass. It won't be an easy task making your way up this mountain," the snow man said as he slowly rose to his feet and held his long spear with both hands. Then, abundant energy that was as full as the sun slowly unfurled and the snow that covered his body instantly disappeared to reveal his burly feature, handsome and tough features, as well as an undeniable will to fight.
Ye Qingyu nodded and said, "Your Highness, many thanks for your guidance. Are you the guardian of the first checkpoint?"
The snow man was none other than the third prince of the Mzar Race, Yin Kaishan.
He didn't deny it either and answered, "You're right. I'm the guardian."
"If the matchless third prince of the Mizar Race is the guardian of the first checkpoint, then the remaining four checkpoints would be even more challenging," Ye Qingyu's expression changed slightly. Although he had never exchanged blows with the third prince of the Mizar Race, he knew how terrifyingly powerful the Heaven's pride of the Mizar Race was. Yang Wanqu, the Young Lord of Sinful Pit and the others paled in comparison to him. This was the true top-level Heaven's pride and before Ye Qingyu's period of self-isolation, he had even speculated that if he were to run into the third prince of the Mizar Race, he would definitely find it challenging to beat him.
"I don't know who other guardians of the next few checkpoints are," Yin Kaishan the third prince of the Mizar Race said. "However, you're right to deduce that they are all terrifying. They are so powerful to the point that I wouldn't dare to face them."
"But I need to scale the mountain, so I guess I'll just have to pass through one checkpoint at a time," Ye Qingyu said with a smile. Then, the white mist that swirled around him together with all his sweat suddenly vanished without a trace. He looked like he was in great spirits as he did some stretches and said, "I've long wanted to battle against the third prince. With all due respect, it is my opinion that very few experts throughout the Vast Thousand Worlds live up to their title as a Heaven's Pride and you're the only one who ignites my will to fight."
Yin Kaishan was slightly surprised by Ye Qingyu's words.
He had planned to say these words to Ye Qingyu but to his surprise, Ye Qingyu said these words before he did.
At that moment, he suddenly respected Ye Qingyu as a fellow hero.
Yin Kaishan was well-aware of the foreign domains' perception of him in recent years and knew that they had labeled him as a fool who had been bewitched by the Four Stars Holy Girl. This was the same opinion that many within the imperial court of the Mizar Race held as well. He knew that they despised him beneath their respectful facade and he had seen too many people who had the same reaction, including those who knew him extremely well.
Therefore, he hadn't expected Ye Qingyu who he had only met a few times on opposing sides to hold such a high opinion of him.
If anyone else had said those words, Yin Kaishan would've probably brushed it off and remained unmoved but since those words came from Ye Qingyu, the weight and significance that they held were completely different.
"Look below at the myriad of foreign races who have gathered. They are like a heap of loose sand," Yin Kaishan used the tip of his spear to point toward the bottom of the cliff and said, "You've made a wise choice by not encouraging these foreign races to follow you."
Ye Qingyu took a few steps forward to stand beside Yin Kaishan and looked down at the scene below.
Through the snowstorm, he could clearly see the bottom of the mountain where he had battled earlier from this vantage point. Almost 10,000 foreign race experts continued to wait at the vast plains outside the entrance to the mountain path and as he looked down at this group from above, they indeed resembled an army of ants. It was had to associate these group with the top-level experts of the Vast Thousand Worlds that they were supposed to be from this angle.
The authority of Quasi-Emperors pervaded the entire Capital Sky Peak so the foreign race experts at the foot of the mountain would naturally not be able to spot them above and wouldn't know that they were being watched.
Ye Qingyu realized that Yin Kaishan must've witnessed his astonishing battle earlier on.
"I'm not sure if I'd be able to defeat you," Yin Kaishan said as he retracted his long spear. "Please go ahead."
Ye Qingyu was slightly stunned.
"Many thanks," he didn't stand on ceremony either.
Although meeting Yin Kaishan had ignited a strong combat will in him, it clearly wasn't the best time for them to battle.
He saluted him with both hands, then he walked to the edge of the cliff and leaped up in the void. There was another cliff that was about 10 meters away and after he landed, the winding mountain paths reappeared. As he headed up the mountain earlier, he had already noticed that the path up the mountain was on the other end of the cliff. However, since the Quasi-Emperor's mighty force field blanketed this entire area, it would have been extremely hard even for an average Great Saint to jump even 10 meters. The difficulty level was pretty high.
Fortunately, it was only a distance of 10 meters, so it was nothing to him.
Yin Kaishan who was standing on the opposite end of the cliff let out a soft sigh.
Even without the Four Stars Holy Girl's instruction for him not to engage Ye Qingyu, he wouldn't have attacked either.
"He's an outstanding talent who managed to kill 10,000 single-handedly. I don't want to make things even difficult for you under such circumstances. I hope that you'll truly be able to fulfill your wish of scaling the mountain peak to look at the most beautiful and frightening view in the world!"
He gazed after Ye Qingyu as he disappeared along the winding paths.
"The guardian of the second checkpoint was still someone from the Four Stars Sect… What exactly is the relationship between the Four Stars Sect and the 'camp'?"
Ye Qingyu wiped the blood off his sword.
Knife qi and sword slash marks could be seen all around the surrounding mountain face and ice rocks and there was a dead body 10 meters away. All signs showed that a fierce battle had just ended.
Ye Qingyu had seen his opponent before – he was a guardian Great Saint who was by the Four Stars Holy Girl's side.
His opponent was a peerless expert well-versed in knife techniques and his knife qi, knife radiance, knife will, and knife force were all extremely powerful. He would have probably ranked amongst the top 10 knife experts of this generation.
Under normal circumstances, this highly skilled knife Great Saint expert would have probably failed to even handle three blows from Ye Qingyu but since they were on the Capital Sky Peak where the Quasi-Emperor's mighty force field pervaded the entire area, this changed everything since it suppressed their yuan qi and rendered many divine skills and occult techniques useless. This meant that the simple and purest form of wielding a weapon became even more terrifying. Once this Great Saint held his knife, he would be able to effortlessly kill an army of 1,000. With him guarding the checkpoint, even 10,000 men might find it hard to get through the checkpoint on his watch.
Even Yin Kaishan would probably not be his match under such circumstances.
This was likely why the Four Stars Sect had confidently assigned him to guard the second checkpoint.
Unfortunately, his opponent was Ye Qingyu who was an almighty swordsman with an incredible grasp of the way of the sword.
When they battled purely by relying on their moves, Ye Qingyu killed his opponent in 50 moves.
Who would be the third guardian?
Ye Qingyu continued to make his way along the mountain path.
He arrived at the third checkpoint two hours later.
It was a bridge formed out of a single rock that was 100 meters long and only wide enough for one person. This bridge connected two peaks that were 30,000 meters tall and an extremely deep abyss was beneath the bridge. Cloud and mist swirled around and the abyss was so deep that it seemed bottomless. Due to the Quasi-Emperor force field that blanketed the surrounding area, Ye Qingyu would only be able to leap slightly more than a dozen meters with his current physical cultivation. If he fell from the stone bridge, he would be seriously injured even if he escaped death. Most importantly, if he fell, that would mean that he would need to start his journey all over again.
A burly figure clad in a crimson dragon armor stood on the stone bridge as the winds billowed around him.
He was a middle-aged man who looked around 30 years of age. He was much taller and bulkier than an average Human but his burliness didn’t make him seem overly corpulent. On the other hand, he exuded a vibe that was both striking and full of youthful vigor. He looked extremely handsome and also exuded an air of elegance, which was further highlighted by his crimson dragon armor. He looked like an otherworldly and distinguished god of war. He carried a blood-colored halberd that swirled with reddish-black mist and this was clearly a frightening weapon that had the ability to kill countless mighty experts.
This middle-aged person's appearance looked very similar to that of the Human Race but the two golden horns that protruded out of his forehead definitely marked him as a non-Human.
Dragon Human Race!
Ye Qingyu was a little surprised.
He hadn't expected to run into Dragon Human Race experts in this place.
Since the Reincarnation Hall of the Chaos Demon Emperor descended upon Clear River Domain, he hadn't encountered a single Dragon Human Race expert within at all.
From this person’s outstanding aura and elegance, it showed that he held a powerful position amongst the Dragon Human Race.
Could he be？
A name that he had heard far too many times suddenly flashed past his mind.
He slowly stepped onto the narrow stone bridge.
"Hand it over," the Dragon Human Race said coolly when he saw Ye Qingyu approach him but his gaze was assessing as he looked at Ye Qingyu, as though he was coming to some sort of decision. The Dragon Human Race expert slowly stretched out his hand when Ye Qingyu was approximately 10 steps away from him.
Ye Qingyu clearly knew what he was after.
"I've handed this over to the Dragon Human Race experts twice but it doesn't seem to want to remain in the hands of the Dragon Humans," Ye Qingyu reached out into the void behind him and summoned the Dragonblood Halberd. "We'll just have to see if it acknowledges you as its master."
Then, he flung the Dragonblood Halberd at his opponent.
The Dragon Human Race expert raised his hand and caught the Dragonblood Halberd.
He smiled confidently and said, "If I, Xu Wuya, fail to bring this halberd back to my Race, then it shall henceforth belong to the Ice Sword Killing God”The moment he held the Dragonblood Halberd, it vibrated slightly but this vibration was different from the previous two times it vibrated when it was held by the third princess of the Dragon Human Race. When she held it, it vibrated to struggle out of her hands but this time, it was a joyful vibration as though it had finally found its master and it let out a series of dragon hums that echoed throughout the valley.
Xu Wuya?
He mentally pulled out all the information he had on Xu Wuya.
So this was the legendary war god of the Dragonblood Dynasty, the commander of the Dragon Teeth Army, Xu Wuya.
After the Dragonblood Dynasty fell apart due to the death of the retired emperor of the Dragon Human Race, the commander of the Dragon Teeth Army Xu Wuya was determined to take action and made a series of preparations, defied the edict of the current Dragon Human emperor to act on his own accord. He wanted to open the domain gate of Heaven Wasteland Domain and invade the domain and even proclaimed that the entire domain must be annihilated. He was a classic aggressive character who advocated war and his stance was extremely firm and hard-line.
He hadn't expected Xu Wuya to appear here.
Did this mean that the Dragonblood Dynasty and the Four Stars Sect have formed an alliance?
"Since you've returned the Dragonblood Halberd to me, I'll let you execute the first three moves," Xu Wuya's aura skyrocketed once he held the Dragonblood Halberd and red mist swirled around him along with multiple rays of true dragon phantoms. He was extremely powerful. This ancestral weapon of the Dragon Human Race didn't seem to be constrained by the Quasi-Emperor force field and looked as though it could still be wielded effectively. Ye Qingyu felt his heart skip a beat.
The guardian of the third checkpoint was none other than Xu Wuya.