The Attack of the Wastrel

The absence of Rong Yuan amongst Gu Lingzhi and Pan En set everyone in a discussion. Upon seeing this scenario, it was easy to guess what could have happened. Immediately, there were some who expressed sympathy for Rong Yuan, while others condemned the actions of Gu Lingzhi. More so, many lamented at how fortunate Pan En’s life was.

Not only was he born into the most powerful family of the Tianyuan Continent, he even had a soulmate now that could get spiritual treasures for him. He was definitely winning in life. It was just a pity for the Third Prince of the Xia Kingdom. Half of Pan En’s possessions could have been his but they were now pocketed by Pan En instead.

This made the crowd slightly suspicious.

Wasn’t Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan the first two people to ascend to the seventh level? Why had Gu Lingzhi become closer to Pan En while Rong Yuan was nowhere to be found? Didn’t he have any intentions on re-entering the main palace? Could it be that their fundamentals were harmed while accepting the challenge previously? With that being said, it was no wonder Gu Lingzhi was clinging onto Pan En.

A spiritual injury was the hardest to deal with. A minor injury could be healed upon a few days of rest whereas a major one might cause one to die and lose his soul. If the injury was too lethal, Rong Yuan might lose his reputation of being the Martial Artist that was most likely to become a True God.

Of course, there were people with more informed news and knew that Rong Yuan was held back by Ding Rou and was thus absent. However, such remarks only appeared for a few minutes before being drowned.

This was the root of many people’s inferiority — unable to stand the good in others. When people saw that others were met with a situation that could have two possible outcomes, they usually hoped for the worst.

Unknowingly, another three months had passed.

During this period, Gu Lingzhi would enter the main palace every few days to bring out the treasures for Pan En and Gu Rong. Under the approval of the North Qiu Kingdom’s Royal Family, Ding Rou would also bring Rong Yuan to witness how Gu Lingzhi endangered her life for another man.

Rong Yuan’s reaction made her ecstatic. He gave cold stares from watching how Pan En and Gu Lingzhi stood together before he hugged her waist and kissed her cheek. Afterwards, Pan En left without a second glance at Gu Lingzhi.

This kind of reaction led most people to think that Rong Yuan was completely disappointed with Gu Lingzhi. Only the people from the Royal School that were familiar with them both could sense the unusualness in their interactions.

Rong Yuan and Ding Rou had been occupied ever since their arrival in the North Qiu Kingdom. Only Xin Yi, who knew the truth, shook his fan-shaped spiritual treasure twice in his hands while watching Rong Yuan’s departure. He spoke with a cynical tone, “What goes around comes around. This is all self-inflicted and inescapable.”

This sentence successfully made Rong Yuan and Pan En, who were both present in the main palace, angry at the same time.

Rong Yuan was angered at how Xin Yi gloated while Pan En was vexed that Xin Yi was right. Gu Lingzhi’s loss of chastity has been like a poisonous needle for him and painful to swallow. If no one were to mention this, he could still lie to himself and notice only her virtues. Now that Xin Yi brought this up, he could feel the wrath and disgust engulfing him. His attitude towards Gu Lingzhi was no longer tender.

He had wanted to say some words of encouragement to Gu Lingzhi, but he no longer had the heart to do so. With him staring silently at the wounded Gu Lingzhi, it became another melodrama in the eyes of outsiders.

Upon seeing this situation unfold, Xin Yi clicked his tongue twice. His statement alone had caused Pan En to forget about what he was supposed to do. His attitude and expressions were all not precise enough even if it was just an act.

Su Nian, who took on the appearance of Rong Yuan, never appeared in the main palace again after taking Ding Rou away. Gu Lingzhi seemed to have completely cut ties with Rong Yuan. As long as her body recovered slightly, she would initiate to enter the hall. Judging by this speedy progress, it led some people to raise suspicion on whether she was having an affair with a man in the main palace such that she would be so eager to go in every time.

The speculation onlookers jokingly raised were quite right this time round. Rong Yuan had indeed stayed in the main palace.

“Pan Liwen is here.” As soon as he entered the main palace, Gu Lingzhi faced Rong Yuan who was sitting at the coffee table, drinking with Liu Yiyan.

Pan Liwen was a Demigod that was born into the North Qiu Royal Family more than a thousand years ago. He was a cousin of Pan Luming. He had been living in the North Qiu Kingdom’s Royal Palace and had long ago distanced himself from current affairs. No one expected that he would appear for the hunting of the top Martial Artists who came to the Sacred Lands in search of the spiritual treasures.

Rong Yuan held the cup and moved his hand slightly before taking a sip of the agar and laughed, “Even Chu Huan is here, it’s no surprise that Pan Liwen would be present too.”

Chu Huan, who is an old ancestor of the Chu Kingdom, had lived for almost two thousand years. He and Pan Liwen were born at around the same time and were both extremely talented. They had disliked and viewed each other as their opponents for life ever since they were young. If it was not for the existence of Lord Fashen whom they both admired to keep them both in check, they would have started a fight with each other within three seconds of talking.

Now that Chu Huan had come to the Sacred Lands to hunt for spiritual treasure, how could Pan Liwen, who had always regarded him as his enemy, let this chance go?

After thinking for a moment, Rong Yuan made up his mind and said, “We can start executing the plan.”

Half a year’s time was enough for the news of the Sacred Lands to spread throughout the Continent. The treasures from the main palace that Gu Lingzhi brought out were achieving its intended effects. Many of the best Martial Artists had come here after hearing the news.

Pan Liwen’s departure also illustrated this point. The North Qiu Kingdom was going to get rid of the top-ranking Martial Artists that had entered the main palace.

“I can finally take action. I have long viewed those from North Qiu unpleasantly,” Zi Zi interrupted before Gu Lingzhi could say anything. It floated in front of her and began to bare its teeth and claws.

Gu Lingzhi had discovered Zi Zi’s spiritual powers just a few days ago. As a Spiritual Squirrel with many talents, it not only had a strong intuition for spiritual treasures in nature, but could also freely enter places with treasures including Storage Rings.

With such a talent, there was bound to be a weakness, that is, the Spiritual Squirrel had a poor combat effectiveness. It had nearly no spiritual power for self-protection. This was also the reason as to why their tribe had become extinct so quickly. The inability to protect themselves coupled with the amount of jealousy harboured against them, they could only wait for their deaths just like the people of the Spirit Tribe. A tribe genocide had been triggered just because of one rumor. Even after so many years have passed, they were still not let off.

Thinking of the numerous ancestors of the Spirit Tribe that have lost their lives, Gu Lingzhi’s eyes flashed coldly. Upon touching the ring on the index finder of the left hand, the entire Sacred Lands became under her control.

“Damn, who exactly are you guys? We already said that we are unable to find any treasures at all and even offered our Storage Rings. Why are you still coming after us?” a scream came from a relatively remote place in the Sacred Lands.

It was a three-people expedition. They heard the news of what had happened and came to the Sacred Lands from a neighbouring kingdom in search of the treasure. It had already been more than ten days. Yet, the rumored formidable treasure was nowhere in sight. Instead, they encountered a few madmen that were behaving strangely and were thirsty for blood.

“Damn it, what exactly does this group of people want? Will I really be killed here?” Wang Wu, the man who was screaming earlier, roared while escaping. If he knew that the treasure hunting would not only be futile, but that he would be buried here, he would not have come no matter what.

It was too late to say anything now. Originally, there were five people in their team. However, in less than an hour, two were killed by the sudden appearance of this group of madmen. The three of them were like an arrow at the end of its flight. It was a matter of time that they would be caught.

“I don’t want to die yet. I haven’t married my wife yet. My family is still depending on me to carry on the ancestral line,” one of the men who looked the youngest, about eighteen or nineteen years old, could not help but cry. However, the sorrow in his voice was unable to change the minds of the killers behind. A cold light shot out from the sword used by one of the killers as he drew it into the heart of the young man. The sharp cries pierced the silence, as if the grim reaper had swept past the area. The face of the young man turned white instantaneously as the tears fell from his eyes.

“Ding!” The teenager staggered and fell onto the floor. With a pale face, he turned to look behind his back.

The sword that was supposed to stab into his heart had vanished mysteriously. The killer that drew the sword was stunned for a moment before he regathered his spiritual power for another blow.

“Yi Fei!” the other two companions of the young man exclaimed. It was too late for them to turn around to rescue him. After all, they both were unable to save themselves let alone others. At this moment, two men appeared at the direction they were heading towards. They looked like they were out for blood.

“Looks like I am really about to die here today,” Wang Wu laughed sorrowfully while watching the inevitable siege. He spat into his palm and clenched the Spiritual Hammer in his fits and roared, “Come! Kill me if you have the ability to! If I am unable to live, I will at least take one of you with me!”

As soon as his voice fell, he was taken aback by the scene before him.

The dozen or so people that were surrounding and charging at them with various kinds of Spiritual Weapons appeared to knock into an obstacle when they were one meter away. When they rushed to attack, they flew out and disappeared instead.

Having escaped death miraculously, a white light flashed before him as the scenes began to change. It was a trail they had walked previously, not far from the entrance of the Sacred Lands.

“This…did I step into a Teleportation Spell?” Since ancient times, there were sayings of the Spirit Tribe inventing a method whereby people could be transferred instantly from one place to another. However, as the Spirit Tribe diminished, such a Teleportation Spell disappeared with them. They did not think that they would be able to escape death just by stepping into a Teleportation Spell.

The three people who were teleported to the entrance had no time to figure out what had happened. They looked at each other before rushing in without hesitation.