Chapter 398: Mid Gold Core Stage!

As soon as Bai Xiaochun took the seven-colored flag given to him by the Sky Quarter peak lord and stabbed it into the ground in that desert, everything in the 5-kilometer area around it became his personal property. The matter instantly caused a major commotion within Sky City.

The news spread like wildfire, until everyone in the entire city was talking about the matter in tones of complete shock and disbelief.

“Personal property?! How... how is that even possible?!”

“There are less than ten places in all of Sky City that count as personal property, and they’re only given out as rewards for people who perform incredible meritorious service for Sky Quarter Rainbow!! The Azure Dragon Society obviously has some powerful backers!!”

“That’s what I said! Everyone was wondering why the Azure Dragon Society dared to challenge the Celestial Sky Society, and now we know! The Boss Azure Dragon is incredibly mysterious and unfathomable. It wouldn’t be surprising if he had a deva on his side!”

Even as word spread in the city, the news was brought to the leadership of the Celestial Sky Society, who reacted with looks of dumbfounded shock.

They had worked themselves to the bone fighting against the Azure Dragon Society both physically and in terms of wits. Now, Bai Xiaochun had unleashed a deadly counter strike. Just when he seemed to have been defeated without possibility of recovery, he turned everything around. The Celestial Sky Society simply couldn’t accept the situation.

“Personal property!?!?!?” Countless cries of shock filled the Celestial Sky Society, and many members were filled with bitterness and hesitation.

In the briefest of moments, everyone’s opinions of the Azure Dragon Society had completely changed. After all, they now controlled the only entrance into the necropolis ruins.

As for everyone who had recently abandoned the Azure Dragon Society, their hearts swelled with regret, and yet, there was nothing they could do about the situation. The Azure Dragon Society wasn’t recruiting anymore, and rejected any people who took the initiative to apply for membership.

It didn’t take long before, there in the desert in the west district of the city, right next to the entrance to the necropolis ruins, a tavern was erected by the over 100 members of the Azure Dragon Society.

It was a huge tavern consisting of multiple structures, and even had outdoor seating under numerous tented pavilions. The more than 100 members of the Azure Dragon Society became waiters who specialized in selling spirit tea.

People who wanted to enter the necropolis ruins couldn't do so with a Celestial Sky Society command medallion. Instead, they had to buy a cup of tea.

It only took a few days to build the tavern, and then it was open for business. Of course, Sky City was a subsidiary of Sky Quarter Rainbow, and yet not a single peep had been heard from there regarding the matter. Apparently, no one up on the rainbow cared about what was happening, and that in and of itself was extremely telling. It also fueled even more speculation regarding the mysterious background of Boss Azure Dragon.

Time passed, and the Celestial Sky Society was forced to simply deal with the situation. Soon, the number of people entering the ruins returned to its normal rate, and before long, the fact that the Azure Dragon Society was only collecting ten percent of the profits from inside ensured that more and more cultivators chose that location to go on missions. Eventually, more than 100,000 disciples were entering the ruins on a daily basis.

Considering the volume of customers, it was little wonder that the Azure Dragon Society was very busy. Soon, the outdoor pavilion seating couldn’t accommodate the crowds, and they had to erect even more pavilions.

In terms of the merit point profit, when Bai Xiaochun checked into it, he gasped. They were earning so much more profit than when they had been selling Fantasy Pills that it was simply terrifying.

“The Celestial Sky Society must be filthy rich!!” he said, swallowing hard. Next to him, Big Fatty Zhang looked at the merit point reports, his eyes shining as he likewise denounced the Celestial Sky Society.

No one personally kept the merit point profits. They were collected in a command medallion belonging to the organization as a whole. That way, the millions of merit points wouldn’t accidentally force anyone to rise to the position of a yellow-robed disciple if they didn’t want to.

In fact, Bai Xiaochun was actually very worried that he one day might accidentally get himself promoted to yellow-robed disciple. If that happened, he would probably cry himself to death. Therefore, he was very careful never to have more than a few hundred thousand merit points on his person at any given time. Most of the merit points were stored in the Azure Dragon Society’s joint command medallion.

A few days passed, and the tavern continued to explode in popularity. As for the Celestial Sky Society, their income dwindled. They had lost the Fantasy Pills, and they had lost their control of the ruins. After much debate, they finally sent people to try to work out a deal with the Azure Dragon Society.

Bai Xiaochun had Master God-Diviner and Xu Baocai handle the negotiations. Naturally, the Azure Dragon Society didn’t agree to any compromises, and eventually just drove the Celestial Sky Society cultivators away.

Bai Xiaochun felt very, very pleased with himself. By now, Sky City truly felt like home, and his share of the merit point profits was very satisfactory.

“Ah, now this is life,” he thought, standing on a balcony in the tavern, looking down at all the hustle and bustle.

Even more pleasing to Bai Xiaochun was that because of his recent cultivation progress, he had reached the point of an imminent breakthrough. From what he could tell, it would only be a few days before he reached the mid Gold Core stage.

Therefore, he set aside external matters and went into secluded meditation in a secret room in the tavern, hoping to achieve that breakthrough as quickly as possible.

That session of secluded meditation lasted for a month.

At that point, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes snapped open, and a bright blue light could be seen in his pupils. At the same time, intense streams of frigid qi were roiling off of him.

The frigid qi soon filled the entire area, causing the temperature in the chamber to drop rapidly. Cracking sounds could be heard as ice began to cover the walls, ceiling, and roof.

“Frigid Acolytes can form frigid shadows and unleash the magic of frigid coldness. As for Frigid Adepts, they can freeze everything in a 3,000-meter area!” With that, he waved his hand.

Instantly, his hand turned as clear as crystal, making it possible to see the blood flowing through the veins beneath his skin. Apparently, the cold in the chamber didn’t affect him at all.

“Time to break through,” he said. Rising to his feet, he sped out of the secret chamber, and before anyone could detect his passage, was gone from the tavern.

He became a beam of light, shooting through the air to appear in a location deep in the desert. It was a remote area with no signs of life whatsoever, and definitely no cultivators from Sky City. Few people would ever come to a distant place like this.

It was a place that blistered with intense heat; despite being so close to the Heavenspan River and the Heavenspan Sea, this was still a desert, and the temperature was so high that it distorted the air, making it difficult to see anything clearly.

As Bai Xiaochun stood there, the blue light in his eyes grew more intense. After looking around to confirm that there really was no one present, he suddenly closed his eyes, whereupon a blast of intense frigid qi spread out to fill the 300-meter-area around him. Instantly, the blazing heat of the desert was completely neutralized, and the ground even froze up!

In fact, because of the sudden juxtaposition of hot and cold, thunderous rumbling sounds filled the air. However, things weren’t over yet. Bai Xiaochun rotated his cultivation base, and as the power of the Frigid School Will-Evolving Incantation erupted, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, causing the 300-meter-area of coldness to expand rapidly

RUUUUUUUUUUMBLE!

600 meters. 900 meters.... 1,500 meters!

And yet, the process was not over! Bai Xiaochun’s hair whipped around him, and although his eyes were closed, it couldn’t stop the blue light from spilling past his eyelids and spreading out in all directions. Both of his hands were as translucent as crystal, making it seem almost as if he were made of ice!

The area of frigid qi soon reached 2,100 meters, and the cracking sounds continued as the heat of the desert was driven away. Frigid qi erupted, spreading out to 2,700 meters!

2,760 meters. 2,850 meters. 2,940 meters. Within the space of a few breaths of time, the frigid qi had filled an area of 2,997 meters!

There were only three meters left!

Three meters to the Frigid Adept level!

“Frigid Adept!” Bai Xiaochun roared as his eyes snapped open. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out from his cultivation base as the frigid qi in his Heaven-Dao Gold Core continued to expand.

In that moment, the area covered by his frigid qi reached 3,000 meters!! The intense coldness within that area was such that the ground was completely iced over, turning the area into a world of freezing ice!

In that moment, Bai Xiaochun’s Heaven-Dao Gold Core broke through from the early stage to the mid Gold Core stage! Simultaneously, a Heaven-Dao aura spread out in all directions.

Outside of that 3,000-meter-area, the desert was just as hot as ever. However, because of the presence of the intense cold right next to it, even the air began to shatter. It was a completely and utterly shocking sight.

Bai Xiaochun’s eyes overflowed with excitement, and then flickered, causing numerous illusory projections to appear within the 3,000-meter-area, all of which looked exactly like Bai Xiaochun. These were none other than his frigid shadows!

Suddenly, he switched places with one of them. There was no speed involved, because it was just like a teleportation. If anyone had been there to see so many versions of Bai Xiaochun, they would definitely have gasped in shock.

Moments later, the numerous frigid shadows converged, revealing Bai Xiaochun’s true form. Waving his sleeve, he dispelled the area of coldness, allowing the heat to sweep back in. The resulting tempest sent his hair whipping about as he threw his head back and laughed heartily.

Translator: Deathblade. (Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest)

Editor: GNE. Memes: Logan. Meme archives: Tocsin. Chinese language consultant: ASI a.k.a. Beerblade. Transcendent Patrons: Daoist Elder N, BLE, ttre208. AWE Glossary. Xianxia-inspired T-shirts.