Chapter 297: Return Home For Revenge
As she was imprisoned on Hell Mountain, Yan had been separated from her family members for several years. She was also almost completely isolated from the outside world. Yan did not expect that when she finally saw her brother, Zen, she would hear the news of her beloved father's death.
Yan felt great sorrow, and the urge to avenge her father was strong. Killing desire boiled inside her.
Yet, her killing desire was shown in a very gentle way. Even though her eyes became red and welled up with tears, she still looked elegant and beautiful. In her brother's eyes, she looked like a little wounded female leopard, on the edge of bursting with her grief and anger.
Obviously, he had sensed the life vitality, in the shape of sharp spikes, floating around her. Yan practiced a unique cultivation method. It was so special that the life vitality around her was a reflection of what she was thinking, which meant that she could visualize her thoughts through her life vitality.
She turned her head suddenly, and all spikes were aimed at Elder Xu.
Her abrupt action startled Elder Xu. Of course, with his strength, Elder Xu was naturally not afraid that Yan would hurt him. Instead, he was worried that Yan would not be able to withstand the grief she was feeling. After all, she was still a little girl, even younger than Zen.
“Elder Xu, I want to leave Hell Mountain for a few days,” Yan said calmly.
Elder Xu was lost in silence for a while. According to the rules, it would be unwise for him to allow Yan to leave Hell Mountain. Cloud Sect had imprisoned Yan at Hell Mountain in the name of cultivation. If she left and something dramatic happened, it would hurt Cloud Sect's reputation.
“Didn't our sect leader give her that permission before? He said that my sister, Yan, could leave Hell Mountain for a short time,” Zen reminded Elder Xu about the permission given by the head of Cloud Sect.
“Well, I am not saying it's impossible,” Elder Xu said as he thought, 'After all, the Eastern Region is not close to the Central Region, and even if Yan leaves for a short while, the people in the Central Region may not find out about her leaving.'
“In that case, please allow me to leave for a while. Although I am trapped on Hell Mountain in the name of my practice, no one dictates that I have to practice all the time and that I can't go out for a walk and some fresh air, right?” Yan reasoned calmly.
She had long known about the fact that she had been chosen to be a sacrifice for an evil array by a certain mighty master. Yet, she had decided how she would deal with the fact.
If someday in the future, that mighty master managed to gather three women with the Purple Power Body and the cultivation level of Internal Elixir, Yan would commit suicide if she had not found alternatives. In this matter, she was indifferent, unlike Zen, because she could choose to kill herself at any time and no one could stop her.
“I can apply for permission on your behalf from our leader. But I need to know what your purpose for leaving Cloud Set will be.” Elder Xu asked, wanting to confirm the details.
Yan looked at the distant mountains with cold eyes. Although she was a girl, she was also a warrior practicing martial arts. If she didn't have a strong heart after stepping on the road to practice martial arts, she would have no long-term development. Thus, although the terrible news of her father's death saddened her, Yan would not behave like other girls by immersing herself in grief and self-pity.
The world of cultivators involved blood, killing, cruelty, and firm will. Still, she was not completely cruel and cared for her brother and father. Now, her father's death hardened Yan's heart and made her appear harsh.
She gritted her teeth and uttered four words, “Return home for revenge!”
These four simple words sounded powerful and full of killing aura!
Hearing Yan's words, Elder Xu nodded. He understood Yan's reaction. It was impossible for anyone to swallow such pain, and any cultivator would kill those who had murdered a member of their family.
Elder Xu then looked at Zen as he waited for his answer. Elder Xu did not care about the private business of the Luo Clan, but he knew a little bit about it. As Yan's brother, Zen should make decisions about such matters.
Zen heaved a big sigh. He knew that he had to return home to handle family affairs. After much thought, he said, “I've been away from home for so long. It's time to return. But there is still one last competition between Patrick and me! After the competition, we'll head home.”
“All right! I also want to watch this competition. I want to see for myself if my brother is lying! Are you that awesome?” said Yan, blinking her eyes.
Elder Xu said with an awkward smile, “You little girl, I am a senior elder. Do I need to lie to you about this kind of thing?”
“It's possible!” Yan said as she adjusted her mood and gave a soft smile. Her smile was so dazzling that it lit up her face and added a layer of soft splendor and beauty.
Although Yan believed in Zen, she still found it hard to accept. How could her brother compete for the first place during the All Peaks Competition only through his strength at the second grade of the nature level?
She wanted to see it with her eyes.
For the next three days, Zen practiced in a secret room and processed everything he had learned from the All Peaks Competition.
The most important thing for a cultivator was talent and foundation.
For example, although some disciples from the top seven noble clans might have high talents, their actual combat effectiveness was not strong. On the one hand, they did not work hard to practice, and more importantly, they took well-refined pills to cultivate and improve their cultivation level. Thus, their foundation was somewhat unstable despite their virtually high level.
It was not impossible to practice by taking well-refined pills, but before taking the pills, one should build a solid foundation.
If his foundation were not stable, it would negatively affect the top level that one might reach, which meant that he might meet the ceiling and could not make a breakthrough.
Some talented cultivators would choose not to boost their progress. On the contrary, they would suppress their level until it could not be suppressed and then they could make a natural breakthrough in their current level!
Although Zen's level was improving very slowly, a major reason was that he had not taken any well-refined pill. So far, he was at the second grade of the nature level, but his foundation was far more stable and solid than other cultivators.
However, after the All Peaks Competition, Zen had a subtle feeling that he was about to make a breakthrough, and this feeling was growing stronger and could not be suppressed anymore.
After three days of practice in the secret room, Zen left with improved strength. He had now reached the third grade of the nature level.
During these three days, Zen was busy practicing and comprehending. As a result, he felt that with the blink of an eye, these three days had slipped away. Not only had he made a breakthrough in his level, but he had also acquired a certain understanding about the killing aura, or the malicious aura.
After establishing a connection with the Killing Sword Mountain, Zen had researched on the fundamentals of the malicious aura, and he found that the malicious aura was actually a kind of strange energy.
Earlier, Zen felt that the malicious aura was a destructive force. After all, killing and slaughtering other living creatures was a catastrophe for them.
Yet, Zen quickly overturned the idea after he took advantage of the malicious aura that came out of his sword spirit, Lily. He studied the aura and tried to find answers to his questions.
The malicious aura was quite different from a destructive force—it was actually a life force.
When any creature was being slaughtered, it would be very reluctant, angry, and sad. It would curse the beast that killed it so that the beast wouldn't have a peaceful and natural death. Then, the creature would die with deep resentment.
And a malicious aura was formed in such a situation. As a matter of fact, it was a kind of cursing force reserved by a dying creature at the last moment of its life.
Even if a creature was rather small, such as an ant, it could still curse before its death. But the ant might not have a mind of its own as it worked for the queen ant all its life. And so, how could it send out the power of a curse?
Zen did not understand about that. So he concluded that it was due to the miracle of the Creator!
But ants were so small and weak that the force of their curse could be almost negligible. The stronger the creature was, the more powerful its life energy would be, and the more powerful its curse would be!
The force of these curses was attached to the body of the killer, and as time went by, it gradually formed the malicious aura!
Because a malicious aura was originally the cursing power released by a living creature that was unwilling to die but was killed, it was regarded as something harmful.
Nevertheless, there were so many geniuses in this world. At some point, a genius invented the method of using a malicious aura to transform what was originally harmful to his body into his way of attack! Malicious auras contained life force, and naturally, they were very powerful. Yet, as the saying goes, every coin has two sides. Despite the power, malicious auras also had terrible effects. The greater the number of creatures killed, the larger the number of malicious auras earned by a cultivator. In the process, the disciple who practiced this kind of cultivation method might be inadvertently attacked and controlled by the malicious aura in his body. As a result, he would become mad.
But for Zen, the negative effect of a malicious aura was not a problem. He had connected with the Killing Sword Mountain, where he could deposit and withdraw malicious auras as he wished.
The only problem for him was that he was not a bloodthirsty killer and he had no source of malicious auras. The more malicious auras he consumed, the fewer it would become.
The problem could only be solved later as he hadn't found any feasible solution so far.
Currently, he had to focus on his last competition. The area around the battle ring of the All Peaks Competition was now filled with more people than any competition before.
Because the previous competitions were over and this was the final match between Zen and Patrick, the highlight and championship event of the All Peaks Competition, the disciples of Cloud Sect, whether inner or outer disciples, were no longer restricted to watching the match on site.
The senior leaders of Cloud Sect had made a rule that each disciple who wanted to watch the match on site needed to pay one point for the entrance fee. After all, a large organization like Cloud Sect would not want to lose such a brilliant business opportunity.
A point was not a significant cost for inner disciples. Even for the common disciples who were promoted as inner disciples, they could more or less complete some tasks to earn some points. What was more, some of the inner disciples who did not qualify to participate in the All Peaks Competition would be happy to enter the arena at the cost of one point.
It was a well-known fact that watching a competition was a great way to improve strength, and perhaps, the onlookers would experience a sudden epiphany and make a breakthrough in their current level.
But a point was too costly for outer disciples. Only disciples from noble clans could bear such a cost. Even so, they gnashed their teeth when they used two cubic crystals to exchange for a point. The poor disciples were worse off—they didn't have enough cubic crystals and couldn't complete tasks in exchange for points. Finally, they had no choice but to miss this great opportunity and watch the competition through the Picture Slab with the function of a live broadcast.
The picture quality on Cloud Sect's Picture Slab was pretty good, but it was not the same experience as watching the match from the arena.
The points collected during the competition were estimated to be over a hundred thousand based on the number of the disciples on the site of the All Peaks Competition. In fact, there were so many disciples that they surrounded the arena in several concentric circles!
Yan wore a purple mask and stood in a corner. Her perfectly shaped eyes were filled with astonishment when she saw how many people had come to witness the match. She had attended the All Peaks Competition before, but she had never seen so many onlookers on site and such a large-scale competition like today. 'Has Cloud Sect developed far beyond my imagination in the past few years? I keep hearing so many of them talking about Zen. Since when did my brother gain such popularity?' Yan wondered.
Even Yan, a rising star, didn't receive so much attention and such popularity the year in which she participated.
Her mind was unable to find rational answers to all these questions. But in a few moments, she didn't want to think more about it. Her long eyelashes flickered as she took a deep breath. Then her eyes narrowed into crescents the moment she saw Zen walking into the arena and waving at her!