At long last, a chosen from the Seven Sect Coalition had come to challenge the Seventh Peak, which up to this point, remained unchallenged.
The person to do it was Huang Yikun from the Dark Serenity Sect! He wore his violet robe inlaid with gold, and as the moonlight shone on him, he looked unusually extravagant. His expression was haughty as all four of his life flames burned brightly, as though he had an entire world burning within him. Especially noteworthy was his red glove, which bent light toward it, such that all the moonlight in the area seemed to sweep toward his hand. All of it made him seem like the most dignified and imposing thing on the Seventh Peak.
“So this is the miserable Seventh Peak? Pitiful.”
He slowly walked up the stairs, looking like he was merely going for a walk on a moonlit night. That said, he had an odd feeling. The Seventh Peak seemed too quiet and peaceful. There were no lamps lighting the path, and he didn’t detect any disciples about. It was as if the entire mountain was empty.
It was very different from how the challenges had gone on other mountain peaks. From what he had been told, there had always been lots of disciples present to watch things play out. He had sent a formal letter of challenge earlier, and had expected crowds to show up to watch. But at the moment, not a single person could be seen.
“They must be sore losers who can’t stand being beaten in public.” Huang Yikun sneered as he reached the halfway point up the mountain and slowly took off the glove. That was the location where his first challenge was supposed to be met.
The Seventh Peak’s third highness.
Huang Yikun had planned things out carefully. He was going to start with the third highness, then go to the second, and finally end the night’s fighting with the grand highness.
And now, at long last, he saw someone.
It was a young man on a boulder, leaning up against the bosom of a beautiful woman.
He wore a violet daoist robe, and had a tall white hat, upon which was embroidered the character ‘forbidden.’ He looked unhealthily skinny, as though he was drained from enjoying too much wine and women. He was none other than Third Highness, surrounded by a handful of nonhuman handmaidens who were all massaging him, all the while giving him flirtatious looks and moaning softly….
Upon noticing Huang Yikun, Third Highness looked up; the dark circles under his eyes were clearly visible as he smiled broadly. “You’re finally here. I’ve been waiting for so long!”
Huang Yikun stopped walking and looked at him. Something really seemed off here, and thus, a look of extreme caution appeared in Huang Yikun’s eyes. He just now realized that he couldn’t assess the third highness at all. The ‘forbidden’ character on his hat seemed to be a sealing mark, and for some reason, it caused a chill to run down Huang Yikun’s back. He felt like he was being stared at by a viper. And that look imparted a sense of deadly crisis. He usually only got that feeling from dharma protectors, and it caused him to struggle to control his breathing. Then he glanced at the handmaidens, and realized that he recognized the one upon whose bosom the third highness lay.
His eyes widened. This girl… was a chosen cultivator from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society! She was one of the three who had come to visit Seven Blood Eyes recently, and she had a four-flame cultivation base. However, she didn’t seem icily arrogant when she looked at the third highness. Instead, she seemed cute and even adoring. [1]
Huang Yikun inhaled sharply. He suddenly got the feeling that he had been negligent in issuing his challenge. Taking a few steps back, he chuckled dryly.
“I’m actually not fully prepared tonight. Let’s forgo the duel. I’ll take my leave now.”
He turned to leave. But then, Third Highness suddenly vanished from where he had been laying and appeared right in front of Huang Yikun, whose arm he grabbed.
The speed with which he moved was so incredible that Huang Yikun’s pupils constricted. And the fact that he had grabbed his arm caused Huang Yikun’s face to fall. Most alarming of all was that Huang Yikun was powerless to resist. He was a scrawny chicken compared to this person! Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.
“What are you doing?” he said. 𝗼𝐯𝐞𝐥．𝐜𝐨𝗺
“Calm down,” Third Highness replied, smiling. “How much money did you bring with you?”
Huang Yikun’s jaw dropped.
Third Highness looked back at him, eyebrows dancing. “You’re quite the shifty character, aren’t you? Okay, fine. Let me explain. I doubt you can beat me in a fight. But I know you’ve worked hard over in the Dark Serenity Sect. Since we’re all on the same side, we shouldn’t give each other a hard time. Therefore, let’s talk business. I’m not going to try to scam you. The going rate is 10,000,000 spirit stones. Pay that, and I’ll admit defeat. Don’t worry, I’ll make it look really good. You can go out and tell everyone I lost to you. You can even record some images for proof. Just like that, you’ll be free to go. Sound good?”
Huang Yikun’s eyes went wide, and without even thinking about it, he shook his head.
Third Highness was smiling as though he were in the middle of a business negotiation. Even upon seeing Huang Yikun shake his head, he continued to smile. However, the words he spoke next caused Huang Yikun to reel.
“You don’t agree? That’s fine, we can still negotiate. Those are some nice-looking fingers you have. You can pay your debt with one of those.”
Before Huang Yikun could even struggle, a cracking sound rang out as Third Highness ripped off one of his fingers….
A miserable shriek rang out of Huang Yikun’s mouth. Then, Third Highness waved his hand, and a massive force slammed into Huang Yikun, sending him flying backward until he slammed down onto the stairs. When he landed, blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his ashen face filled with astonishment. Just when he was about to look back over his shoulder, Third Highness’s chuckling voice reached his ears.
“You win. Now, let me see you out.”
Shivering, Huang Yikun looked down at his dazzling hand. Instead of five fingers, he now had four; intense humiliation swept through him.
“This is outright robbery!!” he blurted. He was so furious that his vision swam. And when he thought about how he had put a lifetime of work and resources into those five fingers, only to have lost one in an instant, his heart dripped with figurative blood. That said… he didn’t dare demand it back. Third Highness was simply too terrifying.
Boiling with rage, he was just about to fly off into the night when he remembered that flying was prohibited on the mountain peaks in Seven Blood Eyes. Feeling more forlorn than ever, he realized he would have to walk all the way down. He had no desire to stay on the Seventh Peak any longer….
However, along the way, he ran into someone.
Sitting cross-legged on a stone bench was a tall young woman. She wasn’t just tall. She was so well-built that her muscles seemed to ripple with explosive power. It was even possible to see veins snaking across her skin. Stabbed into the ground next to her was a gigantic greatsword that was terrifying to behold. It was about three meters tall and a third of a meter wide. Pitch black, it emanated a horrifyingly baleful aura. This was the second person Huang Yikun had written a formal letter of challenge to. The Seventh Peak’s second highness.
Seeing her sitting there, Huang Yikun’s heart skipped a beat and he stopped walking. The moment he did, Second Highness opened her eyes, looked at him coldly, and then erupted with a towering power of energy and blood that formed a tempest around her.
Her fleshly body is a half step into the Gold Core level!!!?When the wind brushed against him, his dharma apertures quivered. This second highness seemed exceptionally vicious. Huang Yikun was scared out of his mind. How could this be happening? Is she even human? Is this some freaking nonhuman innate ability? Some body cultivation thing? I didn’t even think you could reach this level with the fleshly body. This isn’t the power of a life flame. She’s not nourishing her fleshly body with her dharma apertures. This is straight body refinement!! I’ve never even heard of someone in the Seven Sect Coalition doing something like this!
Huang Yikun shivered as Second Highness approached, surrounded by a tempest of energy and blood. Already, Huang Yikun knew that there was no way he could beat her in a fight.
“Wait a second, I—”
Before he could finish speaking, she was upon him, her greatsword swinging through the air.
Intense booms rang out. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Huang Yikun slammed into the ground some distance away, blood spraying from his mouth, his body covered with bruises. Though rage filled him, he didn’t dare do anything but flee.
His right hand was missing another finger. Now he only had three left.
***
At the summit of the Seventh Peak, inside a building, two figures sat across from each other. It was Master Seventh and his servant, both of whom were watching events unfold.
After a while, Master Seventh sighed. “As usual, Third Sib is just trying to make some money. He’s willing to debase himself just to get some stupid finger!
“And Second Sib. Well. All she knows how to do is be reckless… Ai. At least she’s lucky. Last month she sent me a message. She said she ran into one of the Pengbird people, a Gold Core expert who specialized in fleshly body cultivation. He was just flying along when Flame Phoenix happened to be passing by and ran into him. The Pengbird fell out of the sky, dead. As a result, Second Sib just so happened to get his gold core and consume it before it exploded. Thus, she achieved a breakthrough…. She didn’t suspect anything, but let me ask you. Do you?”
The servant was shocked inside, but didn’t say a word.
***
Huang Yikun raced urgently down the stairs, coughing up blood. When he looked at his remaining three dazzling fingers, he wanted to weep.
I shouldn’t have issued those challenges. These people are vicious bullies! A fleshly body half a step into Gold Core? Even in the freaking Seven Sect Coalition nobody would dare to challenge someone like that. I admitted defeat, but she still beat me up!
These Seventh Peak highnesses are all villains. And they’re profoundly deceptive. I couldn’t even assess that viper of a third highness. If you said he was in Gold Core, I’d believe it. And that second highness is just downright terrifying. Each one ripped off one of my fingers!!!
Enraged, bruised, and humiliated, Huang Yikun finally reached the foot of the mountain. He was just about to leave when he looked up and saw a young man on the path in front of him.
The young man wore a gray robe and was eating an apple. Waving, he smiled. “Yikun! What are you doing here? Oh, did Second Sib beat you up?”
“Who are you?” Huang Yikun said, shivering as he realized that this person in front of him seemed even more terrifying than the third and second highnesses. In fact, when looking into his eyes, he almost didn’t seem like a human, but rather, like a grue wearing human skin as clothing.
The Captain looked in surprise at Huang Yikun. “You don’t recognize me? I’m good friends with your older brother Huang Lingfei. He never mentioned me?”
Seeing how nervous Huang Yikun was, the Captain sighed. Putting an expression on his face that made it seem like he wanted to join forces to fight a common enemy, he said, “Calm down. You got beat up by both Second Sib and Third Sib, huh? Those two are out of control.”
The Captain shook his head and took out a few medicinal pills.
Huang Yikun cautiously accepted them. He wanted to just keep walking, but at the same time, he didn’t dare. He had already guessed who this person was.
“Grand Highness?”
“You don’t have to call me that,” the Captain said with a brilliant smile. “It’s too formal. Just call me Eldest Brother. You see, I’m very different from Second Sib, Third Sib, and that other guy.”
“Eldest Brother…” Huang Yikun murmured hesitantly.
“That’s better! Now, don’t worry. I’ll escort you down the mountain. Come on.”
Trembling, Huang Yikun said, “No, that’s okay. I can see myself—”
“Oh, sure thing. I won’t?escort you down. But, one more thing. Those medicinal pills I just gave you are expensive. I hate to be a pain, Junior Brother, but can you give me one of your fingers to compensate?”
The Captain licked his lips, and a blue light flashed in his eyes. Within his pupils it was just barely possible to see an image of his face, eyes closed, but expression incomparably hungry.
When Huang Yikun sensed the immense hunger coming from the Captain, he was filled with the profound urge to flee. As the Captain took a step forward, Huang Yikun took a step back. But before he could even begin fleeing, his vision swam, and then he heard a cracking sound. Now he had two fingers instead of three.
The Captain had bitten a finger off.
The pain prompted Huang Yikun to scream in agony and run for his life.
Watching him go, the Captain chewed on the violet-gold finger. Smiling faintly, he murmured, “That kid wasn’t fun at all. Definitely not like our little Ah Qing.”
***
Atop the mountain peak, Master Seventh watched everything play out, then nodded in satisfaction. “Of all my apprentices, Big Sib is the most reasonable.”
The servant wasn’t sure what to say. How exactly had Grand Highness been reasonable…?
“That said,” Master Seventh continued, “it’s not exactly fair. Big Sib, Second Sib, and Third Sib all got fingers. But Fourth Sib didn’t get anything.” He waved his hand.
As the terrified Huang Yikun raced away from the Captain in terror, a wild wind suddenly swept him up. Scared witless, he could do nothing as he was tossed in the direction of Harbor 176. A moment later, he slammed onto the ground in front of the main entrance of the Violent Crimes Division there. As his head spun and his vision swam, and before he could even get his bearings, he heard the crisp, clear voice of a young woman speaking curiously.
“Who are you? Why’d you jump out in front of me? Are you trying to ambush me? Hmph! People who sneak around are always up to no good. Crush him, Stinker!”
All of a sudden, Huang Yikun was seeing things crystal clear, and a sense of extremely disturbing danger filled his mind. However, he had no time to flee.
A huge tentacle appeared, backed by Gold Core might that could crush any obstacle. As the tentacle wrapped around him, the Gold Core aura caused blood to spray out of his mouth, and then he lapsed into unconsciousness.
In his last moments of lucidity, he heard the voice of that young girl speaking into his ear.
“Not bad. Not bad at all. I’ll give this guy to Big Bro Xu Qing to experiment on.”
1. The cultivators from the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society showed up in👈