Chapter 127: Ancient Treasure, Warship
“Hu!”
A horrifying holy might burst out. The silver warship rapidly rose up. In the blink of an eye, it rose by a thousand meters, becoming a black dot in Xiao Chen’s vision.
Xiao Chen was startled and quickly flew up. The Gravity Spell was not a true flight Martial Technique. The higher Xiao Chen flew, the stronger the gravity he would experience; the amount of Essence exhausted would increase as well.
Xiao Chen flew higher and higher in the sky; he could see endless layers of clouds billowing, gathering around the pillar of light in the middle of the formation. It felt like he would arrive at the horizon after if pierced through these endless layers of clouds.
The Essence in his body was rapidly exhausted. Xiao Chen frowned; he could only still see the vague figure of the silver warship. He did not know how high it would fly.
Xiao Chen clenched his teeth and took out a Medial Grade Spirit Stone, holding it in his hand. A horrifying amount of Essence immediately flowed into Xiao Chen’s meridians. The Dense Essence instantly saturated his meridians.
A bloated sensation filled up every bit of Xiao Chen’s skin and muscle; he felt like he was about to explode. They were filled with an endless and boundless energy.
“Boom!”
Xiao Chen shouted, and his ascending speed suddenly increased multiple times. This body caused a shockwave in the air. In the blink of an eye, he caught up to the silver warship.
“Rumble…!”
The silver warship hovered at the peak of the pillar of light. With a loud sound, it instantly enlarged. There were banners with the word Yan (琰) on the bow of the ship, fluttering in the wind.
[TL notes: The raw says multiple 33 meters long, and 6.6 meters wide. This feels odd to put in, hence I decided to leave it out. The unit of measurement here is zhang (丈), one zhang is 3.3 meters. So it is tens of zhangs long and two zhangs wide]
Dark clouds surrounded the warship; thunder rumbled unceasingly, and endless bolts of lightning circled it.
“It can actually repair itself! How in the world did the ancient Sages refined this?” Xiao Chen was shocked when he saw lightning bolts surround the silver warship.
Xiao Chen was planning to repair the damaged formation markings himself. He did not expect the silver warship to repair itself after it regained its spirituality.
Xiao Chen suddenly thought of something, If it can repair itself like this, as the Secret Treasure of a Sage, it would have the mark of a Sage. Now that the Sages are all gone, it would automatically search for a person with the bloodline of a Sage and recognize it as its master automatically.
“I have to erase the mark of the Sage and brand it with my own mark,” Xiao Chen spoke to himself slowly, word by word; his eyes revealed a determined look.
He went past the boundless dark clouds and the endless flickering lightning bolts. Xiao Chen landed firmly on the bow of the warship. He cautiously looked at the Yan word on the banners at the bow of the ship.
The big black flag seemed to have descended from the ancient times. It stood silently at the bow, fluttering in the wind. The ‘Yan’ word on the flag was written in the cursive style of calligraphy. Every stroke seemed to contain a dominant force, revealing a strong power and looking very imposing.
Xiao Chen’s eyes lit up like a torch. He stared at the ‘Yan’ word. He knew what he had to do. He had to fight against the Sage, erasing the spiritual mark of the sage personally.
The danger involved was obvious; there was a high chance of death. However, Xiao Chen’s gaze was as resolute as ever. He had no intention to retreat. He stabbed his Spiritual Sense into the banner like a sharp sword.
“Boom!” In that instant, the surrounding scenery vanished. Xiao Chen appeared on a patch of dense magma. Occasionally, there were streams of flame spurting out. In the distance, there was an erupting volcano, releasing a relentless amount of surging fire and lava.
Strangely, there were nine suns in the sky. A huge deity stood in the sky; a glow, tens of thousands meters wide, was radiating behind him. His boundless might spread throughout this space.
“Pu Ci!”
That deity suddenly opened his eyes and fired a golden light, enveloping Xiao Chen. He shouted, “ How dare you show disrespect before a deity. Why are you still not kneeling?”
This voice was like the thunder of the nine heavens; it was very shocking. It reverberated unceasingly in the space; it was ear-splitting, creating fear in oneself.
Finally, this voice became an echo, repeating at the same frequency as Xiao Chen’s heartbeat. The echoes repeated faster and faster Xiao Chen’s heartbeat corresponded, thumping at the same pace like it was about to leap out of his chest.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Xiao Chen held his hand over his chest. He could feel an enormous pressure. He felt incredibly stifled; he felt pained and confused. His handsome face twisted and distorted. With a ‘putong’ sound, his right leg could not help but kneel.
“Still not kneeling!!!” the voice continued to reverberate in Xiao Chen’s ear, as though it was imprinting on Xiao Chen’s mind. It seemed impossible to get rid off.
The vast and mighty divine voice, above the highest of heavens, was a voice like thunder, each word a gem, like a saber or a sword, sharp without restraint. Mortals were like ants; how can they not fear?
[TL note: This bit feels like a poem, every phrase comes in four Chinese words.]
The might of the ancient Sage was so terrifying. Even though tens of thousands of years had passed, his mark still had such a terrifying might. It completely dominated this Mental Space.
This was a fight that transcended tens of thousands of years. Unless Xiao Chen’s Spiritual Sense could surpass this, he had no way of winning.
The moment his other knee feel to the ground, his Spiritual Mark will vanish forever; his body would become soulless.
Xiao Chen did his best to persevere, to preserve a stand of clarity in his mind. Is there anything that can break the might of this deity? Have I seen anything that would be able to trample the deity under its feet?
The ancient Sages have seen deities; thus he recreated a deity in this space. However, the strongest cultivator Xiao Chen had seen before was Yue Ying. How was she going to fight against a deity?
In Xiao Chen’s opinion, even the Thunder Emperor or the Tianwu Emperor would find it hard to be victorious against a deity. The might of the ancient Sages was definitely stronger than them; there was no doubt about that.
If even the Sages could not defeat it, then what could? The deities the Sages imagined were the legendary gods; their existence was more horrifying than the Sages or the ancient emperors.
A figure suddenly appeared in Xiao Chen’s mind. Suddenly, Xiao Chen remembered the man he saw in the Sage Dao Comprehension Picture. The mysterious man who was fighting against 18 Azure Dragons.
“Boom!”
Xiao Chen shouted and suddenly; 18 Azure Dragons appeared behind him. The dragons roared out ceaselessly, instantly breaking apart the divine voice that reverberated in this realm.
The deity in the sky roared angrily, the glow behind him flickering repeatedly. He shouted, “Ant! Do you know you have committed a huge sin?!”
Xiao Chen shut his eyes, and his mind cleared. The corners of his mouth curled up in a cold smiled. Then, he suddenly opened his eyes, and two beams of purple light shot out, clashing fearlessly against the golden glow of the deity.
“The so-called gods were just a figment of mortals’ imagination. They were born as a result of the people’s beliefs. If I believe in gods, then the gods are powerful and mighty, limitless and absolute; If I do not believe in gods, then everything exists in me. I am myself, and the gods cannot interfere.”
Xiao Chen looked at the deity in the sky and slowly said, “I should thank you. If it were not for you, this obsession in my heart would never have extinguished.
The road of cultivation was slow and long; the further one walks, the higher the requirement was on one’s mental state. The so-called ‘talent’ was no longer significant. There were many people in the Ancient Era, who had ordinary talents, who became Sages. What they relied on were a determined heart and a pure mental state.
Regardless of the world, it was normal for people to attribute things they could not explain to gods. However, do gods actually exist?
No one knows. Even if they did, it would not be the same as the one most people believed in. Xiao Chen now managed to get rid of such a thought in his heart. This would be a great opportunity for Xiao Chen as he trained his heart in future.
In the end, this deity was just a mark left behind by the Sages. As long as Xiao Chen was enlightened about this, there was no reason for Xiao Chen to lose this battle that transcended tens of thousands of years.
Just after Xiao Chen spoke, the light behind the deity slowly dimmed. The huge glow started to vanish, eventually becoming nonexistent.
“Rumble…!”
A limitless sea appeared behind Xiao Chen; the waves roared, and layers upon layers of waves surged violently.
A dragon's roar was heard, and an Azure Dragon leaped out of the sea. Standing on the dragon’s head was a man holding a saber. The moment he appeared, the 18 Azure Dragons around Xiao Chen immediately flew behind him.
The roars of the dragons continuously resounded everywhere. A crack actually appeared on the boundaries of this space, spreading out slowly.
The man who stood on the dragon head looked at the deity in the sky and revealed a disdainful smile. He pushed off with his feet, and his body vanished from its original spot.
“Pu Ci!”
The saber flashed, and the deity was decapitated. His speed was extremely fast; Xiao Chen did not even manage to see his shadow. It was not possible to follow his movements with his eyes.
The space suddenly broke apart, and the scene changed again. The volcano disappeared, and a large black banner appeared in the middle of a desolate land.
Xiao Chen seemed to have descended from the sky, slowly landing on the ground. He walked over to the black banner, and he saw a hazy Yan word on the banner.
Xiao Chen did not hesitate as he walked over and pickup up the black banner. Immediately, the clouds surged, and a strong wind blew, blowing sand and stone around.
“Hu!”
Xiao Chen opened his mouth and swallowed the black banner. He intended to swallow the Daos contained in the banner. The space immediately became silent.
Xiao Chen sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes, carefully comprehending the laws of heaven and earth, enlightened about the Daos the Sages left behind in the banner.
His surroundings changed continuously. For a while, the flames of war enveloped him. Blood scattered throughout an ancient battlefield. There were Sages falling and Great Demons dying. Then, for a while, it became a snowy night. Flower petals filled the sky under a full moon. It was a beautiful setting and extremely touching.
Then, it became a Sage comprehending the Dao. There were mysterious phenomena occurring on a mountain peak. Endless thunder roared out. The Sage was comprehending the Great Dao amidst the roars of thunder, developing his own laws.
Finally, all these vanished, leaving behind a boundless gray. A human figure stood in the sky, looking into the distance. There was an indescribable loneliness in his eyes
This was the life of a Sage. He had once gone wild as a youth, experiencing, love, regret, passion, and hate, turning the mortal world upside down. He had once been unrivaled, wandering through heaven and earth, plucking stars and pulling the moon; there was nothing he could not do.
However, in the end, he was still left with an immeasurable loneliness. There was no one who could understand his pain. He released a long sigh; the path of a Sage was lonely, and the world of mortals was empty.
Xiao Chen suddenly opened his eyes; chaos appeared in his gaze. He saw the life of an ancient Sage. It felt like ten thousand years had passed; yet it only took an instant, like it was a dream.