Young Noble Be Monster Slaying

Chapter 543: Sincerity Is the Ultimate Strategy

When the spectators outside the illusory realm saw that scene, they marveled at the Penglai Supreme Sect's strength. A mere child had killed someone in front of the three senior brothers of the Thunderbolt Stronghold and even escaped from them. Furthermore, it seemed like those three senior brothers didn't dare to pursue the child into Misty Waters City.

In fact, they weren't Qi Lin'er's first victims. After clearing out Misty Waters City, the Penglai Supreme Sect's team already had enough soul crystals to enter the top ten, but they didn't stop hunting. Instead, they expanded their hunting grounds.

Xi Miaoxian, Yang Yuhu, and Qi Lin'er roamed outside the city. Whenever they saw a team passing by, they would strike. Each of them had the power to take down entire teams alone, and several more teams perished.

The fact that the Thunderbolt Stronghold team had only lost one person to a shameless ambush actually showed that they were strong.

Scholar Sun, who was sitting amid the spectators, muttered, "This child… has some mystical abilities."

"I heard Daoist Cangsheng carried him out from the Divine Ruins. He certainly has an impressive background," Elder Huang remarked. "There's even a rumor in the martial world that this child is Daoist Cangsheng's illegitimate son, but it doesn't seem like it."

The offspring of cultivators inherited some of their parents' spiritual qi, and that spiritual qi manifested as the offspring's exceptional talent. However, even if Qi Lin'er had been born from two eighth-realm cultivators, the amount of talent that he had was rather excessive.

"If he's from the Divine Ruins, he might even be a descendant of some ancient Hallowed One," Scholar Sun speculated.

Elder Huang sighed. "Haaa… Extremely gifted but hot-tempered, wild, hard to tame, and has no manners… Are all kids that are found outside and brought into sects like that?"

Scholar Sun glanced behind him. Then he suddenly sat upright and shouted, "Who are you referring to? Stop talking nonsense!"

"Who else but Ah Feng?"

Scholar Sun shook his head. "I think Ah Feng is a pretty good kid, quite courteous and amiable."

"Hah, she didn't even come today. What are you afraid of?" Elder Huang laughed. "What, is she going to suddenly pop out and punch me?"

Boom.

There was a sudden explosion in the spectator stands, drawing the attention of the various immortal sects.

Through the smoke and dust, they saw glimpses of a woman in a fire-red dress roughly lifting an old man off the ground and beating him repeatedly.

It was a very bloody scene. Yet, no one dared to intervene.

Those seated there were all senior cultivators of the Divine Nine and Terrestrial Ten, so they obviously recognized Di Nufeng.

What kind of person was she? She had spent her whole life eating well and going broke from drinking alcohol, and she had a great fondness for beating up old men. No one would dare to provoke her without good reason.

After a moment, the dust finally settled.

"Ah Feng, when did you get here? Why didn't you come say hello..." Elder Huang said, his eyes now bruised black and blue.

He straightened out his robes and sat upright.

"I just got here." Di Nufeng flexed her wrist. "I just ate and felt quite full, so I wanted to move around a bit."

Scholar Sun chuckled. "Well, that's some great timing."

Elder Huang stared at him furiously. "You saw her and didn't tell me. Instead, you even fanned the flames."

"Utter nonsense," Scholar Sun replied with a righteous expression, waving his sleeve dismissively.

Uninterested in their bickering, Di Nufeng sat down and asked, "How's the situation now? Is my sect doing all right?"

"It's a pretty good start," Scholar Sun told her. "Your little disciple is quite similar to you from back in the day."

"Then it's settled," Di Nufeng said with a grin. "As long as he has at least thirty percent of my power from back then, it won't be a problem for my sect to win the Assembly of Immortal Sects this time."

Elder Huang smiled as well. "Of course."

Nearby in the seating area for the Fog-Hidden Mountain of Immortals, Immortal Jiuyi sat with his arms folded in his sleeves. He seemed to sense that something was off and turned his gaze to the side.

Immortal Jiuyi was a bit worried.

…

"Keep watch around us."

On the totally secluded shore of a coast, there were four black-clad men gathered in the middle of some piles of rocks.

They were members of the Sea Dragon Gang from the Western Regions. Their sect was a new presence in the Assembly of Immortal Sects; they had no history of ever participating in it.

Their journey in the Assembly of Immortal Sects so far had been full of twists and turns. During the elimination tournament of the first round, they had fought all three duels in each match for three days in a row, narrowly qualifying for the Competition of the Hundred Sects. Despite achieving such a difficult feat, the Sea Dragon Gang did not attract much attention. That meant that their team would likely go fairly unnoticed in the second round.

Their actions seemed to strive for precisely that, as they had chosen to land on this desolate coastline that no one else would choose to land. It looked like they planned to hide until the competition was over. They were gambling on the likelihood that there would be fewer than ten sects at the end and that they would be lucky enough to advance.

Many small sects had the same idea in the past assemblies, but most of them never survived past the fifth day, as hunters would eventually find and kill them.

One of the men, a young man with an ordinary face, ordered his teammates with a serious expression, "Notify me immediately if anything happens."

After his companions spread out to keep watch, he sat cross-legged on the ground and began performing some strange cultivation technique.

Before long, his hands were covered with pitch-black dragon scales. Then in the blink of an eye, the scales spread to his arms and legs… Eventually, he was completely covered in black dragon scales, even his eyes.

Boom.

There was a sudden change in the transformation process, and he shook violently, falling backward onto the ground.

Quite a while later, the dragon scales covering his eyes fell off, and he opened his eyes. His expression was drastically different from before. It was cold and sinister… like he had become a totally different person.

The scales on his face slowly fell off next, followed by the scales on his hands, feet, and then the rest of his body. With his face visible once more, it was now clear that he had truly become someone else.

He looked completely different from before; he had taken on someone else's appearance!

From an ordinary-looking young man, he had transformed into a middle-aged man with a cold expression and sinister eyes, dressed in loose robes with wide sleeves.

The middle-aged man, who had taken the place of the ordinary young man, looked around with a strange smile and muttered, "The Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams..."

…

It was quite a while before Chu Liang appeared on the Divine Mirror's projection screen again.

That wasn't Immortal Jiuyi's fault for not giving him screen time though. The Mount Shu Sect's team just hadn't done much during that time. After allying with the Buddhist Cloud Monastery team, they had stayed hidden in a valley.

Meanwhile, Chu Liang went out alone, wandering in the direction that Pushan had mentioned where the Earthfire Sect team might appear.

The vast plains were totally empty.

After flying for a while, Chu Liang finally spotted someone. It was a young man in a coarse hemp robe, carrying a huge wooden box on his back. The box was larger than him and seemed to be very heavy.

Upon noticing Chu Liang, the young man was immediately on guard.

Without any hesitation, the two of them charged at each other!

Bang!

Brimming with intense murderous intent, Chu Liang threw a punch at the young man. Yet, he only used twenty percent of his strength.

Eight holes opened up in the young man's box, and a long wooden whip shot out from each one. Every section of the whips was engraved with intricate enchanted formations that made the whips incredibly flexible and agile, like the tentacles of a living creature.

Some of the wooden tentacles layered over each other to form a shield and protect the young man. Meanwhile, two more swung toward Chu Liang.

Thud, thud.

Two dull sounds sounded when Chu Liang's fist struck the defensive tentacles and the two remaining two tentacles struck Chu Liang.

Right then, two screams rang out in unison. "Aaah!"

One of the screams was Chu Liang's. He pretended to be overpowered by his opponent and turned to flee, hoping to lure the opponent into his trap.

Chu Liang quickly retreated several dozen zhang, only to realize belatedly that his opponent had screamed as well earlier. Instead of chasing Chu Liang, his opponent had fled in the opposite direction.

Chu Liang stopped in his tracks and looked at the hemp-robed young man in the distance.

Meanwhile, the young man in the hemp robe was retreating, seemingly because he was injured. However, realizing that Chu Liang was not reacting as expected, the young man turned back to face him.

Both of them felt a bit embarrassed.

Chu Liang was mentally stronger, so he broke the silence with a laugh."Haha. Brother, you… were trying to lure me too?"

"Yeah." The young man in the hemp robe awkwardly scratched his nose. "What a coincidence, huh?"

This was quite the situation. They had used the same trick.

It was Chu Liang's first time using this trick, so he had not expected this to happen. He obviously wouldn't be able to lure his opponent into his trap now.

After thinking about it for a moment, Chu Liang ultimately just asked, "So… are you coming with me, or should I go with you? Let's not waste this trip for both of us."

"Huh?" The young man in the hemp robe was stunned for a moment. He clearly had not expected such an offer and did not know if it was genuine. Nevertheless, he decided to just give it a try and ask, "How about you come with me? I've been out here all day. If I don't lure anyone back soon, my senior brothers will scold me."

"Sure." Chu Liang nodded. "I don't have as much pressure as you to perform well, so I'll go with you first. Just fly ahead like normal, and I'll follow as if I'm chasing you."

"Uh…" the young man in the hemp robe uttered, dumbfounded by Chu Liang's words. After a long pause, he said, "Thank you."

"Hey, there's no need to be so polite."

Chu Liang waved his hand, motioning for the young man to get going.

In actuality, Chu Liang had no other choice. It was impossible for him to lure his opponent into his trap anymore. To begin with, they were all in the same line of work; who would have fallen for such a trick?

Nonetheless, Chu Liang's goal was to collect soul crystals. So, if he could find a place with a large number of soul crystals, what difference did it make whether he lured the enemy or if they lured him? As long as his team could win, there was no difference.

The hemp-robed young man flying ahead probably hadn't considered that at all. In fact, he was in disbelief when he saw Chu Liang sincerely follow him at a distance of several dozen zhang, without the slightest intention of shamelessly pulling a sneak attack on him.

Who said the Assembly of Immortal Sects was all about life-and-death struggles? It turns out there are still people who were willing to talk things out nicely.

Sincerity truly is the best strategy.

GLTD Alternate Universe's Thoughts

Translator: LD