A Will Eternal

“The Chosen battles this time around... ai.” Up on the balcony, Sect Leader Zheng Yuandong shook his head helplessly. The peak lords sitting around him smiled wryly.

The Chosen battles were supposed to be a solemn occasion, but not this time around, and everyone knew it.... Things had begun normally, but the simple addition of Bai Xiaochun into the mix turned everything sour.

“Bai Xiaochun... his name sounds good, but he isn't the least bit pure in any sense of the word.” Elder Zhou chuckled wryly, looking down at Bai Xiaochun hiding in the crowd, and then over at the countless enraged north bank disciples.

It was at this point that the peak lord from Irispetal Peak, the old woman, smiled darkly and said, “It's fine. Bai Xiaochun might be naughty and mischievous, but he’s made himself the archenemy of the entire north bank. We just need to find an opportunity to transfer him to the north bank; that would calm him down quite a bit.”

The eyes of the others present flickered thoughtfully. The only one who reacted differently was Li Qinghou, who looked over at the old woman sympathetically. Based on how well he knew Bai Xiaochun, he was fairly certain that if Bai Xiaochun was transferred to the north bank, the unlucky party wouldn’t be him....

As the group continued to ponder the situation, the third match began.

Ghostfang fought Xu Song, and Shangguan Tianyou took on Gongsun Wan’er, but neither battle was even worth watching. Both Ghostfang and Shangguan Tianyou were so strong that they won easily.

The disciples of both banks, as well as the sect leader and the others, were all watching the third battle zone. Gongsun Yun was the first to enter the area, pulsing with energy and icy coldness. Moments later, Bai Xiaochun strolled up, looking like a powerful hero.

Instead of yelling in rage, the north bank disciples glared murderously. To have so many eyes glaring at him like that left Bai Xiaochun more than a little jumpy.

Taking a deep breath, he looked over at Gongsun Yun. Aphrodisiac Pill in hand, he said, “Why don’t you concede?”

Gongsun Yun looked coldly back at him, eyes shining with hatred. Waving his sleeve, he sent countless black beetles flying out from within his clothes. There were also red centipedes that scurried across the ground at top speed.

The sight of so many bugs was completely shocking.

Voice cool, Gongsun Yun gave Bai Xiaochun no chance to say anything further. “My bugs might be classified as male and female, but they’re not beasts. Your medicinal pill won’t work on them.”

The bugs caused an ear-splitting droning sound to fill the air. They were like a sea, surging directly toward Bai Xiaochun.

Every bug that made up the sea possessed a certain level of attack power. Although defensive shields could resist them, when their power was combined, they would be quite formidable. Bai Xiaochun was even fairly certain that in this situation, Gongsun Yun actually had a bit of an advantage.

“Don’t force my hand, Gongsun Yun,” Bai Xiaochun shouted, backing up at top speed, his face paling. “Concede immediately. I really don’t want to attack, you know. Once I do... you’re done for!”

Gongsun Yun chuckled coldly. “Let’s see which happens first, your flesh getting eaten off your bones, or me being done for.” Looking even more scornful than before, he waved his hand, sending even more bugs surging forth.

The crowd from the south bank looked on in fear and astonishment. Everyone watching had already been convinced of how powerful Gongsun Yun was. Not only was he adept at using bugs, he also had powerful magical techniques. He was able to defend against one of Ghostfang’s finger attacks, and even forced Shangguan Tianyou to attack three times with his sword, tiring him out significantly.

The north bank audience looked on, their excitement building.

“Nice job, Elder Brother Gongsun! Take Bai Xiaochun down!”

“Hahaha! Let’s see how you fight back this time, Bai Xiaochun! You just wait! Those bugs are going to burrow into your flesh and eat you alive!”

“Your comeuppance is at hand, Bai Xiaochun!” The countless north bank disciples were extremely excited. Furthermore, their battle beasts could sense their masters’ excitement, and began to howl in response.

In the blink of an eye, the black beetles were right in front of Bai Xiaochun, slamming into his defensive shields, ripping and tearing at them with their mandibles. The shields quickly began to fade and grow dim.

Then the red centipedes arrived, causing his defenses to weaken even more quickly. Some of them even managed to gnaw their way past the shields.

Bai Xiaochun’s scalp tingled with fright, and his eyes went bloodshot.

“Gongsun Yun, you’re forcing my hand!” Bai Xiaochun was reaching the point of having no choice but to use his trump card, something he’d hoped to avoid. Taking a deep breath, heart pounding, he sent a surge of energy into the shields, blasting away a significant portion of the bugs. Even as they turned to charge back toward him, an Aphrodisiac Pill appeared in his hand, which he threw in the direction of the north bank audience.

The pill shot through the air with a whooshing sound, and before anyone could react, was in the air above the stands on the north side of the arena. The disciples gaped in shock, and at the same time, Bai Xiaochun shouted, “Detonate!”

A boom rang out as the Aphrodisiac Pill exploded, transforming into ash which drifted down in all directions, covering nearly half of the north bank disciples.

Gongsun Yun’s eyes went wide with shock.

Bai Xiaochun actually wasn’t sure whether or not the pill would have an effect on humans; he had never dared to personally test out any of the mystery pills he'd concocted. However, he was certain that the pill was effective on animals, and would stimulate them to a shocking degree.

In the blink of an eye, the ash that was the remains of the Aphrodisiac Pill had fallen down onto the battle beasts below, which began to throw their heads back and howl. Their bodies grew larger, their eyes turned red, and they began to pant heavily. In turn, their masters cried out in alarm and began to back up.

It took only a moment for the north bank disciples to devolve into a stampede, quickly clearing the entire area of people. The only thing that remained were the howling beasts, sitting there looking around for a target.

The north bank disciples all began to shriek at the tops of their lungs. “Bai Xiaochun!!”

At the same time, beads of sweat popped out on Gongsun Yun’s forehead, which was shocking considering that after beginning to cultivate the Dao of bugs, he had never sweat.

Now, though, he was panting heavily as Bai Xiaochun slowly pulled out another medicinal pill. As soon as he did, the stimulated battle beasts began to tremble in excitement. Gongsun Yun couldn’t help but think about what had occurred when a pill just like that had been shattered and then spread onto Beihan Lie.

“You....”

An intense feeling of foreboding rose up in his heart, and he began to tremble. Images flashed through his mind, and he began to back up. Even his legs were shaking. He could well imagine what would happen if Bai Xiaochun crushed that pill on him... and then the battle beasts pounced.

“You forced my hand,” Bai Xiaochun said with a despairing scowl. “I didn’t want to do this.” With that, he pulled his hand back in preparation to throw the pill.

“I concede!!” shrieked Gongsun Yun in the most high-pitched voice that had left his mouth in his entire life. His face was ashen as he raced off of the arena floor. Only when he was safe amongst the crowd did he look back in fright at Bai Xiaochun.

“Uhhh...” Bai Xiaochun’s jaw dropped at the sight of the terrified Gongsun Yun hiding in the crowd. Then he looked at the trembling battle beasts, and suddenly had a very bad feeling.

Many of them were howling at the tops of their lungs, eyes fixed directly on the medicinal pill he held in his hand. They were already started to edge toward him. Drops of sweat broke out on his forehead, and he suddenly turned to look at the crowd of north bank disciples.

That simple turn of his head caused the north bank disciples’ hearts to seize with fear.

Bai Xiaochun turned to look in another direction, but quickly found that any place he looked at would quickly become devoid of people. Everyone would scramble away at top speed, screaming in desperation.

Finally, his gaze came to rest on the south bank disciples.

Instantly... their scalps went numb, and they began to back up. In the blink of an eye, everyone had retreated by thirty meters.

“We’re on the same side, Sect Uncle Bai!” people began to cry out. “The same side!”

Even Ghostfang and Shangguan Tianyou were backing up, their faces flickering with shock.

ROAR! More of the stimulated battle beasts began to walk forward, their eyes crimson, salivating as they eyed Bai Xiaochun.

“What do I do?” he thought. “What do I do?! Didn’t I warn you people to concede? Didn’t I say that I fear my own attacks!?”

Feeling that he was completely innocent in the matter, he gritted his teeth and looked over at the north bank audience. “Didn’t you people just say something about putting a bounty on my head?!”

None of the trembling north bank disciples dared to even look Bai Xiaochun in the eye.

Bai Xiaochun’s heart was also trembling. In his heart, he believed himself to be a good person, and wasn’t willing to simply throw the pill out in a random direction. Anxiety building up within him, he looked at the increasingly stimulated battle beasts, and then finally happened to glance up into the sky above him and notice the proud, arrogant phoenix of Elder Zhou's.

Eyes shining, and having no time to consider the matter, he launched the medicinal pill at top speed toward the phoenix; it transformed into a beam of light shooting through the air.

The phoenix was in the middle of gloating over Bai Xiaochun’s misfortune, and didn’t even notice the pill flying toward him at first. When he did, his feathers all stood on end, and he let out a miserable shriek. Just when he was about to dodge, the pill exploded, covering him with a fine powder.

The phoenix stared in shock as the battle beasts below began to howl. Eyes burning as if with fire, they began to leap up into the air as if to chase down the phoenix.

The sect leader and the others gasped, crowding around the edge of the balcony to look down at what was happening.

At one point, one of the random elders asked, “Is attacking the audience... against the rules?”

However, nobody seemed to care about that at the moment. All of them were staring down into the north stands, at the area devoid of people but filled with battle beasts. The remaining three peak lords from the north bank all had strange looks in their eyes as they stared at one particular beast among the crowd.

It looked like a deer, and was currently howling up into the air under the effects of the Aphrodisiac Pill.

“Before, I assumed that pill’s effectiveness was limited to beasts with third order bloodlines.... I never imagined that it would also be effective on second order bloodlines!”

“That pill... would be incredibly useful to us on the north bank!” The three peak lords from the north bank were trembling in excitement. The old woman among their number then waved her right finger through the air toward the phoenix.

Instantly, the phoenix trembled as a powerful force wrapped around it and dragged it down toward the balcony. At the same time, the battle beasts roared and flew in the same direction.

The old woman snorted coldly and looked down at the beasts, which then began to howl mournfully. Another powerful force swept them up, sending them spinning toward her. As they approached, they shrank down and disappeared into her sleeve.

The old woman looked over at the miserable, shrieking phoenix, eyes shining as she turned to confer with the other peak lords.

Off to the side, Elder Zhou’s face had turned green....

Bai Xiaochun seemed no worse for the wear. Heaving a sigh of relief, he was just about to walk off the arena floor when the north banks disciples recovered from the fear of the threat which had been levied against them, and began to roar in anger.

“I'm gonna kill you, Bai Xiaochun!”

“Bai Xiaochun, the north bank will never rest until you’re dead!!”

“Exterminate Bai Xiaochun!!” The north bank disciples had veins bulging out on their necks and faces as they howled in fury. In response, Bai Xiaochun turned back to look at them, and raised an ordinary medicinal pill up into the air as he stuck his jaw out.

Instantly... the entire crowd trembled and went completely silent.

Bai Xiaochun waved his sleeve and chuckled darkly. Popping the medicinal pill into his mouth, he left the arena floor.... Behind him, the north bank disciples erupted in rage yet again.