Chapter 11 – Lucky Chance

“Shixiong.”

“En?” Fang Yang’s voice interrupted Feng Ye’s thoughts. He turned to glance at him.

Fang Yang’s eyes were filled with stars, and he said with a look of irrepressible anticipation: “Is this the lucky chance mentioned in the storybook?”

Storybook? Feng Ye thought for a moment, then recalled what Fang Yang was talking about.

Although the fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy put most of his energy into cultivation, humans were not plants. After training hard, they also needed entertainment activities for rest and relaxation.

Fang Yan’s entertainment activity was reading storybooks, such as the recently popular “Legend of Li Aotian’s Cultivation.” This book told the story of a grassroots protagonist who grew step by step from a despised waste spiritual root person to a powerful being who dominated the world.

In this story, numerous lucky chances fell into the protagonist’s hands as if they were free, with more zeal than porcelain scammers. Of course, this kind of story must have a like-minded senior or junior sister with a secret crush on the protagonist.

But Fang Yang probably still wasn’t enlightened yet. He still had no comprehension of the relationships between men and women. It was written into the story in a rather subtle way, and to this day, he still thought that the women around the protagonist were all just good friends of his.

Fang Yang believed that the story focused on the series of adventures the protagonist experienced, as well as how to seek treasures in various spiritual realms. It made his blood boil, and it wasn’t enough for him to read it himself – he also had to strongly recommend it to Feng Ye.

Feng Ye flipped through a few pages and became irritated with the nonsense-filled article, whereupon he tossed it into the corner of the room, where it was gathering dust.

Although Feng Ye hadn’t read much of it, he could roughly guess what Fang Yang was referring to. Fang Yang probably thought that the Floating Island Secret Realm was of the same nature as the secret realms experienced by the protagonist of “Legend of Li Aotian’s Cultivation,” and that upon going there, all sorts of treasures would fall from the sky.

This, however, was complete nonsense. Not to mention whether one possessed the luck to encounter such treasures, the dangers that one must experience during the treasure hunt were not something a disciple at Qi Refining stage could handle.

On the surface, this place was a treasure trove of rare prizes, but underneath, there was no telling how many corpses of cultivators were buried there. 

Some died at the claws of the monsters guarding the spiritual plants, while others died at the hands of their companions.

It was not uncommon for brothers to kill each other because of their greed for treasure.

Feng Ye felt that he must shoulder the responsibility of a shixiong. He cleared his throat, intending to gravely explain the dangers to Fang Yang in order to calm his heated mind.

Just then, having been silent the whole time, Hao Chen suddenly cut in: “What storybook?”

Fang Yang, a die-hard fan of the book, excitedly gave Hao Chen a brief account of the story.

This sort of silly thing is only liked by young people who have never seen the world, thought Hao Chen, proud of his age and experience.

Fang Yang felt that this brief description was still not enough, so in order to prove that the book truly was good, he also gave an example: “My shixiong also likes it a lot.”

Feng Ye, who was suddenly implicated: “……” No, I don’t like it.

“Oh?” Hao Chen’s expression became very strange, and he looked at Feng Ye with a hint of incredulity. It turns out you like this kind of thing.

No, I really don’t like it. Feng Ye understood the look in Hao Chen’s eyes and refuted inwardly.

Feng Ye wanted to explain, but seeing how excited Fang Yang was to share his favorite thing with others, he was somewhat speechless. Should he tell Fang Yang that he had used the book as a footstool?

No, no. In order not to destroy their relationship as martial brothers, Feng Ye chose to keep his mouth shut.

“Silence!”

The voice wasn’t very loud, but for some reason, it felt like thunder ringing in everyone’s ears.

The bustling square fell silent, and everyone looked up at the middle-aged man standing suspended in the air above the stone steps, and the old man with a white beard and white hair standing next to him.

There was no one present who didn’t know of these people. Even Hao Chen, who had just arrived, could guess their identities based on their Nascent Soul stage cultivation.

Those at Golden Core stage were already powerful people who could stand on their own in the cultivation world, but those at Nascent Soul stage were the real top masters.

Although there was the Body Transformation stage after Nascent Soul, no one had broken through to Body Transformation in a hundred years, so Nascent Soul was currently the highest level in the cultivation world.

If all sects in the world – big and small – were counted, there were only a few dozen people who had reached Nascent Soul stage, and they were almighty beings who commanded respect wherever they went.

Most of these Nascent Soul cultivators were distributed amongst the top-ranked sects, as elders or simply sect leaders. 

Of these two people in front of them, the middle-aged man with a stern expression was none other than the current sect leader of Lingxiao Sword Sect – Ji Chengyue.

And the white-haired, white-bearded man with a gentle expression was a very experienced elder in the sect – Zhou Zhiqing.

These two were both major figures whom disciples in the outer sect usually never had the opportunity to meet. Today, they were present for an important announcement.

Seeing that the crowd below was silent, Ji Chengyue said: “You should have more or less heard the reason I’ve summoned you all here today.”

There were whispers below.

Ji Chengyue frowned, and was about to scold them when Elder Zhou Zhiqing took over the conversation and said to the crowd with a smile: “That’s right, this is about the opening of the Floating Island Secret Realm.”

Ji Chengyue was helpless in the face of Elder Zhou’s interruption. He didn’t know if it was due to age, but Elder Zhou was particularly tolerant of these young disciples. Ji Chengyue, however, was the opposite. He believed that there was no order without rules.

But Elder Zhou was a highly qualified person, and it could be said that he had witnessed Ji Chengyue’s breakthrough to Nascent Soul step by step. Ji Chengyue didn’t want to confront such a veteran figure outright, so he let Elder Zhou act as peacemaker.

Elder Zhou continued: “I won’t say much about what kind of treasure land the Floating Island Secret Realm is. You should all be aware. But as everyone knows, the Floating Island Secret Realm has shown signs of collapse, so the number of people who enter, as well as their cultivation levels, must be strictly regulated.”

“A hundred years ago, our Lingxiao Sword Sect took the lead in establishing a set of rules, according to which each of the top ten sects are allocated one hundred spots for Qi Refining stage disciples and ten places for Foundation Establishment disciples.”

“Everyone present here is in the Qi Refining stage, and the quota for Foundation Establishment has nothing to do with you. As for the hundred places for Qi Refining, there are also some disciples in the inner sect who are not yet at Foundation Establishment, for a total of twenty-one. These twenty-one disciples are directly qualified to enter the Floating Island Secret Realm. The rest of you will need to compete for the remaining seventy-nine spots.”

“The selection will be held in two days, right here in this square, with random grouping and qualifying rounds. The top seventy-nine will be eligible to enter the Floating Island Secret Realm in five days. Furthermore…..” Elder Zhou’s tone suddenly dragged out.

He kept everyone on edge for a while before stroking his beard with a smile: “The champion of each match will also be rewarded with the opportunity to enter the Armory Pavilion and choose an earth-level magic weapon of their choice.”

The moment these words were spoken, the entire room erupted.

The strength of a cultivator was not determined solely by the level of their cultivation; magical weapons were equally important, and could improve the combat effectiveness of cultivators to a certain extent. Some powerful magical weapons could even help cultivators with low cultivation defeat those who were stronger than them.

And magic weapons were divided into four levels: heaven, earth, black, and yellow according to their preciousness.

Yellow grade was more common, and could usually be bought for dozens or hundreds of spirit stones. And black was more precious, costing hundreds or even thousands of spirit stones. For ordinary disciples, including inner sect disciples, unless they possessed a particularly prominent family background, just by relying on the monthly salary of ten spirit stones from the sect, it would take more than ten years to save up to buy one.

As for earth-grade magic tools, the price must be increased by several times. A few thousand spirit stones were only the base price, and a good quality magic tool could even cost tens of thousands.

Heaven-grade spiritual tools were on a completely different level than the first three grades. Earth-grade tools could still be purchased, but heaven-grade tools were in short supply. It was rare to come across one, and they could not be measured by money.

Lingxiao Sword Sect taking out an earth-grade magic weapon at this time was a big deal. Of everyone present, aside from the two weirdos Hao Chen and Feng Ye, nobody was unmoved.

“Don’t be too hasty. I have one more thing to remind you.” Ji Chengyue spoke again, pouring cold water on the situation: “The Floating Island Secret Realm not only contains panaceas and treasures, but also extremely vicious monsters. In the last decade, of the one hundred Qi Refining disciples we sent in, only half returned.”

“The opportunities inside the secret realm are indeed great, but opportunities also come with dangers. Even if you do obtain a treasure, whether or not you can return alive is still unclear. You can consider the pros and cons yourselves. We will not force anyone to join. It is entirely voluntary. Those who wish to join, please sign up tomorrow.”

This was actually everything Feng Ye had wanted to say to Fang Yang. He cast a covert glance at Fang Yang’s expression from the corner of his eye.

The silly boy who had been exuberant just now had become solemn. There was a frown on his face, as if he was considering the risks of this journey.

Ji Chengyue and Elder Zhou left first when they were finished speaking. The group of junior disciples didn’t disperse immediately, instead discussing with their friends whether to sign up.

“Only half of the people came back. This trip seems really dangerous. Zheng-xiong, what do you think?”

The person named Zhen-xiong replied: “It is indeed very dangerous, but…..those of us who cultivate fight against the heavens for our lives. As the saying goes, wealth and honor can only be obtained through taking risks. If you’re afraid of consequences, you might as well go home and farm instead of cultivating immortality.”

“Zheng-xiong is right!”

“Wealth and honor come through taking risks!”

These words were unanimously agreed upon by those around. Feng Ye actually agreed with them too. Although he wanted to warn Fang Yang of the danger, he didn’t want to discourage the youth’s enthusiasm. He just wanted Fang Yang to make his decision after clearly understanding the risks and rewards of the journey.

Having heard these words, Fang Yang’s hesitant expression disappeared and his gaze gradually became resolute. He had made his decision too.

It seems I don’t need to say anything more, Feng Ye thought with some gratification.

“Fellow Daoist Feng Ye, what do you think? Will you go to the Floating Island Secret Realm or not?” Hao Chen abruptly asked from beside him.

Of course not, Feng Ye answered inwardly. He wasn’t afraid of the danger. Those monsters in the secret realm were dangerous to others, but to him, they didn’t even qualify as a threat. Besides, Feng Ye had no interest in the so-called treasures there.

But even though he thought this way, he couldn’t say it out loud. Feng Ye skewed his eyes, donning a trepidatious expression as he proceeded to speak nonsense: “I’d better not go. I’ve heard there are terrible creatures inside that will skin and debone people.”

As he spoke, he shuddered as if truly terrified.

His acting looks just like the real thing, Hao Chen noted.

But Hao Chen didn’t expose Feng Ye. Instead, he gave an identical shudder and said: “Fellow Daoist Feng Ye is right. The outside world is too dangerous. It would be best for us to cultivate diligently.”

The words of these two useless people were too different from those of the high-spirited junior disciples. Everyone could only look over, wanting to see which losers were so clear-headed and aloof from worldly affairs.

Upon closer observation, they turned out to be two celebrities.

Their contemptuous looks turned to understanding. After all, they were family men and didn’t want to take risks, unlike these single fellows. 

Feng Ye once again experienced those unspeakable, meaning-laden looks from that morning.

Feng Ye: “ ? ? ? ” What in the world?

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Chapter 10 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 12