Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Blood splashed through the air. The wind blades that filled the air faded away. The Corrupt disciple facing against Tang Wan-er collapsed, his eyes losing any expression.

“Victory!”

By the the time this final core disciple fell, there were no longer any Corrupt disciples on the battlefield.

This was a complete victory. Only a dozen disciples had been injured, and those injuries were all quickly healed by the Healing Hall. Those injuries had not been severe, and they were already fully recovered.

This battle caused everyone’s confidence to sharply rise. The Corrupt path’s disciples weren’t so strong!

“Long Chen, I won!” Tang Wan-er excitedly walked over to Long Chen. But she saw there was not even the slightest smile on his face. Instead, it was frighteningly gloomy.

Everyone quickly saw that and their cheering came to a sudden stop. They didn’t know what had displeased Long Chen.

“This was a battle with a huge power disparity from the start. Do you think victory is something to be arrogant about?” Long Chen icily stared at them.

“Although they also had close to a thousand people, they only had four core disciples. But how many did we have?

“Do you think such a victory is worth being arrogant about? Look at how you were fighting. You were basically just playing around. Do you think this is a game?

“Yue Zifeng, as a sword cultivator, do you think you’re very grand? When you run into those weaker than you, you disdain to attack?

“Do you think ignoring those who follow behind you to charge into the crowd and kill the stronger ones will display how much stronger you are?

“And as for the other core disciples, do you really think you’re unrivalled? Are you all idiots?”

Long Chen’s expression was ashen as he shouted at everyone, “How many times have I told you, we are one team? Don’t try to be a hero. Do you think no one else knows how take the limelight?

“If we want to really possess the power of teamwork, then you all need to understand what it means to mutually match with each other. Did my words before fall on deaf ears?

“You core disciples, the enemies you were facing this time might seem weak to you, but to the disciples behind you, they are a fatal threat.

“They go all-out to protect your backs, but what do you consider them? Cannon fodder? Tools?”

The core disciples’ faces turned red with guilt. They truly had lost themselves in the fight just now. After they had taken control of the situation, they had just gone out killing as much as possible without caring about the disciples behind them.

One reason was because of their excitement, but another reason was because of their own vanity. Seeing some of the other core disciples showing off how powerful they were, they were unwilling to fall behind.

At the beginning, they had still maintained the formation, but as they killed more and more, they began to fight for themselves, forgetting all about Long Chen’s deployment.

Many of the core disciples lowered their heads. Long Chen had already told them that if they wanted to awaken their ancestral marks, they had to have something precious in their hearts.

But just now they had completely forgotten about what he had said. Their hearts had only held themselves. They stared at the ground in shame as Long Chen berated them.

“And you, Tang Wan-er, let me ask you, if you had gone all-out in that fight, do you think he would have lasted more than ten exchanges with you?” Long Chen’s fury had yet to run out. 

Tang Wan-er stiffened. This was the first time Long Chen had become angry with her, causing her to feel wronged.

“I…”

Tang Wan-er was about to argue, but she was sobbing too hard to say anything. She bit her lip, unable to speak.

Qing Yu’s heart hurt seeing Tang Wan-er like that, and she gave Long Chen a look, but Long Chen acted as if he didn’t see it.

“Let me tell you then. If you had fought with your full strength, he absolutely wouldn’t have lasted more than seven exchanges.

“But you exchanged almost fifty blows before you managed to kill him. Are you excited about such an achievement?

“Do you know? Acting in that way will cause the entire group to enter danger. If that Corrupt disciple had had a one-time, vicious technique or treasure, then maybe you would have been able to escape with your life, but you would have caused all those behind you to die. Do you understand?

“How many times have I said that this isn’t a competition? The goal is always to kill your opponents. You have to use as few moves to kill them as fast as possible.

“And you two, Ye Zhiqiu, Gu Yang, you still aren’t ruthless enough. You clearly had several opportunities to kill your opponents, but you didn’t dare risk the danger and wasted those precious chances.

“When two equal opponents fight, the braver one wins. If you are afraid of death, just give up cultivating. Why bother participating in the battles between the Righteous and Corrupt paths? Are you trying to be a whetstone for others?

“Why was I able to kill Wu Qi who had a higher cultivation base and was stronger than me? That was because I dared risk my life, while he didn’t.

“The more you fear death, the more likely the one to die will be you. That’s why he is dead while I am still alive, standing here and scolding you.

“Today, you’ve really all disappointed me. If you act like this next time as well, then all of you can get lost. I’ll just go out to slaughter them with my two brothers. That’ll save me from being so infuriated watching you!”

Even after scolding them for this time, his anger still didn’t fade. He had clearly explained this all extremely clearly on the way here. But as soon as the battle started, they forgot everything. Anyone would be angry.

The one who disappointed him the most was Tang Wan-er. She had such a powerful strength, but she was unable to bring herself to wield it. He really couldn’t understand that.

“Long Chen, I was wrong… Don’t be mad, I understand… Can you forgive me?” Tang Wan-er stuttered through tears. She had realized that the majority of Long Chen’s fury was because of her performance. 

At the beginning, it had been her who had pleaded Long Chen to lead everyone, hoping everyone would be more impassioned with him in charge.

Her conduct today had been in complete contrary to her own wishes. She had gravely injured Long Chen’s trust.

She had her own difficulties. Although she was powerful, she was a woman who hadn’t experienced much life and death battles. It was too hard for her to change her fighting style so abruptly.

“Sigh, just return to your station. Perhaps you’ll only truly understand what pain is when those behind you fall. Then you’ll know what the purpose of a battle is.” Long Chen took a deep breath, calming himself down.

Tang Wan-er bit her lip, returning to her troops. They were all completely silent. Even those ordinary soldiers who had luckily managed to survive didn’t dare breathe loudly in this heavy atmosphere.

Long Chen sighed, “Don’t wait to lose something before realizing how to treasure it. Don’t wait to lose something before knowing what pain is. Don’t wait to lose something before realizing what it means to protect.

“Let me tell you a cruel fact. In this battle between the Righteous and Corrupt paths, if even half of us manage to live, that would already count as a heavenly blessing.

“If you still don’t grow up, then maybe it would be better for you to die in the upcoming battles. At least then everything would be over for you. But if you manage to survive without understanding what I’m telling you, then you’ll feel remorse for the rest of your life! Do your best now so that you don’t leave any regrets!”

“Senior brother Long Chen, don’t worry, we’ll only make this mistake once. There definitely won’t be a second time!”

Those core disciples all shouted. They had already been wholeheartedly won over by Long Chen. Not only was it because he was powerful, but it was more because of his vision and wisdom that far surpassed them.

Long Chen nodded, “Now that we’ve arrived on the battlefield, we can no longer use flying Magical Beasts.

“If my guess is right, the Elders and senior apprentice-brothers are already being held in check by the experts of the Corrupt path. Right now, we can only rely on ourselves.

“These are only the advance troops of the Corrupt path. There will be many more of them who will be even stronger rushing over.

“Our monastery was extremely close to the battlefields. There are negatives about that, but there are also positives. The negative is that the other Righteous path disciples that are supposed to assist us are still en route.

“But there’s also a good thing! Hehe, right now, there’s nobody fighting with us over heads. You guys should understand.”

Seeing Long Chen had finally calmed down and smiled, everyone’s excitement once more ignited.

“A couple of you come over and cut off those heads that are still intact. Those are all free points.”

Suddenly Long Chen turned to Wilde. “Wilde, can’t you pay more attention and be a bit more gentle? With just one smash of your club, two hundred thousand points have disappeared.”

Everyone felt some pain when they heard that. 

“It was all because he was glaring at me.” Wilde swung his club around, speaking very righteously.

“Okay, well just pay more attention to your strength in the future. And if we run into anyone strong, try to just smash their lower body and leave their head intact.” Long Chen could only helplessly sigh. Although he knew Wilde’s memory wasn’t so good, it was at least better to explain it to him than not.

“Are there any close cities around here?” Long Chen asked those regular soldiers.

“Reporting to great lord, four hundred miles south is Nanli City. That city is over ten times larger than ours. We don’t know whether it has received an attack or not,” respectfully reported one of them.

Long Chen nodded and gave them a thumbs-up. “To use your own lives to protect the commoners inside your city, you’re all true warriors.”

Long Chen brought everyone rushing southwards. Other people from the monastery would quickly go to bring those people to withdraw, so they didn’t need to worry about it.

Their task was to kill those Corrupt disciples who were part of the advance squads to invade their territory. They had to reduce the civilian casualty count as much as possible.

These advance squads might be extremely hateful, but they weren’t actually the main disciples of the Corrupt path. They only came from some second-rate powers. The main army was still behind them.

These advance squads were simply closer to the frontlines. After having been given the order to attack, they were the first to start killing.

They were like a pack of wolves unleashed on the commoners. They crazily slaughtered them to temper their weapons and spirits, as well as making progress with their cultivation techniques.

The souls of commoners weren’t as powerful as disciples of the Righteous path, but if the quality was lacking, they could make it up in terms of numbers. 

These early Corrupt disciples all came from weak powers inferior to the Xuantian Monastery. When the real battle began, they probably wouldn’t be able to gain anything, and so they were hoping to use the advantage of their position to quickly get some benefit before retreating to the back.

But they hadn’t expected the place they had chosen to be so close to the Xuantian Monastery. They had only just arrived when Long Chen and them caught them head-on. Since they hadn’t had enough time, they hadn’t gained much before they were destroyed. 

As Long Chen brought everyone rushing south, they suddenly saw a huge city in the distance. There were over a thousand Corrupt disciples savagely charging forward in front of the city gates. They were only a dozen miles from entering the city gates.

“Crap, the Corrupt disciples are about to enter the city!”

Everyone was worried. If they entered the city, many soldiers and civilians would be killed. They all quickened their footsteps, hoping to arrive their as soon as possible.

But suddenly Long Chen’s pupils shrunk. Atop the city gates, a hooded, cloaked man appeared. Only the lower half of his face could be seen.

When he saw those Corrupt disciples were about to reach the city, an ancient and multi-colored bow appeared in his hands.

His right hand lightly pulled back the bowstring. A golden arrow appeared on the bow.

“Cloudbreaking Arrow!” A cold and grave shout rang out. Although that voice wasn’t loud, everyone hundreds of miles around could somehow hear it.

A golden arrow of light shot over towards the Corrupt disciples.