Chapter 248: You Never Doubted the Obvious Clues?
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
All the puzzles have been answered.
How could Wang Lu, a mere low-level Xudan, manage to withstand the siege of more than twenty Shengjing Sect people?
How could Wang Lu use the borrowing strength from people against the other ten Shengjing Sect people yet still retain the ability to fight?
Why every time Jianglu felt Non-Phase Sword shook, Wang Lu immediately recovered with amazing speed?
At the same time, why must Wang Lu take these four gates as hostages and make a provocation to Shengjing Sect?
Based on Wang Lu’s intelligence, shouldn’t he know that after that provocation, Shengjing Sect has no other choice but to go all out? It was not clear how many levels were there left, and their contents were also extremely unpredictable, thus, even if Wang Lu has the determination to perish together with them, he might still be defeated under the rules.
Of course, he knew all of those. Therefore, when he made his provocation, he even designed his words to be extraordinarily exquisite.
"If you continue to increase your power, you can eventually break my one-foot sword defense… Even if all of you swarm me at the same time, I have the confidence to block you all for a little while. But during this little while, we absolutely have the ability to destroy the remaining four gates, do you believe it or not?"
If it had not been for this remark, Shengjing Sect would not go all out against him. And even if they wanted to make their move, the most rational choice was to use the twenty-five people junction array, where their magical power integrated and condensed, forming a magical power reservoir that surpassed that of a Jindan Stage. When the time came, every action and every movement would have the greatest might, and no matter how formidable Wang Lu’s Non-Phase Sword was, it would be impossible for him to resist; he would be defeated and even die in a single strike, and Bai Shixuan’s treatment would be of no use.
However, that provocation caused Shengjing Sect people to disregard their junction array and just attack him at the same time, which was entirely different had they used the array. What was the difference between the power of one hundred giants and the power of one hundred dwarfs?
Wang Lu being beaten into the pulp by the joint attack of twenty-five people and him single-handedly wounding nearly half of the twenty-five people team was the difference.
Of course, the majority of the credit should be attributed to Bai Shixuan who stood behind Wang Lu. By virtue of her raw magical ability, she managed to bring Wang Lu back from near death dozens of time. As an immortal beast, her inability to fight was completely compensated by her powerful healing ability, as if she has no flaw at all.
While looking at the infinitely shocked Jianglu, Wang Lu didn’t mince his words either.
"Stop staring at me like that, if just now I were by myself, I would’ve been killed by you guys dozens of times, let alone injuring many of you using my Nameless Sword’s Heaven and Earth Great Shift [1]. Essentially, you lost to the healing ability of a Jindan Stage level immortal beast, so there’s no shame in that. Moreover, Ancient Sword Tomb expelled all the Jindan Stage and higher cultivators, but Little White [2] being able to come here is thanks to her immortal beast body."
"What’s the use of saying this now? Expecting me to give up? Don’t make me laugh." While shaking his head, Jianglu continued to enhance his Power King True Body. Although his arm was broken, this injury actually inflamed his fierce determination. At this time, his whole body turned blood red in color, seemingly cold and stern.
Wang Lu wrinkled his brows and was about to say something when he suddenly heard Liu Li’s voice from behind him.
"Senior Brother, there’s a problem."
Wang Lu’s heart sank. He had taken a great deal of risk with Bai Shixuan to block the entire Shengjing Sect team. The main purpose of that was to cover and give time for Liu Li to break the rest of the eight gates. He didn’t care if there were problems that arose from provoking or making things difficult for Shengjing Sect people, but if Liu Li has a problem, then that was a big problem!
According to his calculation, prior to going out of the loyalty gate, all the later development would be totally in his control; Liu Li, along with Bai Shixuan’s help in controlling the power from the Feng Shui Line plus Brilliant Sword Heart’s extreme five elements effect, should have ample power to successively break the five gates into pieces. As long as Wang Lu could hold back the people from the Shengjing Sect, Liu Li shouldn’t have run into a problem!
Shengjing Sect was not the one that caused trouble for Liu Li because he was able to keep them all at bay. It was even more impossible for Kunlun Immortal Sect and Ten Thousand Arts Sect. Therefore...
Myriad thoughts flashed through Wang Lu’s mind as he thought of the possible reason for this to happen. Suddenly, he realized something.
Could it be...
Wang Lu immediately turned his head, and at the same time, an eye-popping scene appeared.
Just now, when Wang Lu was desperately fighting against Shengjing Sect people, Liu Li was breaking four of the last five gates through the help from the spiritual energy from the Feng Shui Line. However, at the last gate, the shame gate, she found out that it was far more solid than the other four gates. Three times she had struck it with her sword in succession but was still unable to break it. Brilliant Sword Heart promptly sent a message through her awareness that it was impossible. Thus, she immediately issued a warning to her Senior Brother.
The next moment, numerous flickering sands floated up from the ground, which wrapped by an invisible force. These sands then rapidly moved as they were molded, revealing the shape of a gate!
These sands melted into four gates; because the substance that constituted them was not an entity, these four gates were all half real half virtual. Then, before anyone had the time to react, these four half real gates suddenly flew towards a spot.
The last gate, the shame gate.
After fusing with these four half real gates, the shame gate lit up. Immediately, the gate was opened, and an irresistible and powerful suction force came from within. Suddenly, all the footing of everyone present became unsteady, and the next moment, their vision spun.
This turn of event was very fast, even faster than the fight between Wang Lu and Shengjing Sect. After Liu Li gave her warning, Wang Lu had just turned his head when he was confronted with a dark vortex that sucked everyone.
It was dark, but soon people quickly lit up their illumination method, making them see the situation around them.
It was still a stone chamber. A broad and simple stone chamber, fairly consistent with the first three stone chambers. Thinking of what just happened to them, it was easy to figure things out: they have been sucked in by the shame gate, and this was the inside of the shame gate.
At this time, the same cold voice that has appeared in the first few gates duly sounded.
This was the translation: "Due to unexpected change, temporary adjustments were done to the eight virtues trial. All the trial results from the previous four gates would be accumulated in this trial. Anyone who passes this trial also passes the previous four trials, therefore, winning the last five virtues."
After a moment of silence, the crowd went into a clamor. "Winning the last five virtues!?"
This short sentence contained too much information, which was quite unexpected to everyone. According to this statement, the advantages and disadvantages on the first three gates seemed to almost disappear, which was quite a shock! Everyone has a different reaction to this information. Even the perpetually calm Wang Lu also revealed a look of disbelief.
"Five gates into one!? There’s actually this move!? Where there’s a will, there’s a way, sure enough, an outstanding player is but a putty in the referee’s hand!"
When saying the last few words, Wang Lu even gnashed his teeth and became visibly irritated.
On his side, Hai Yunfan, Zhou Mumu, and the others could not help but show their look of sympathy.
Wang Lu’s calculation was already outstanding enough, unfortunately, human calculation was inferior to heaven’s calculation. This Ancient Sword Tomb initiated a dramatic change that rendered all his calculation moot… No wonder he was so upset.
Only Shengjing Sect people who, taking pleasure in others’ misfortune, felt elated. Just now, their more than twenty people attack was defeated by the collaboration of Wang Lu and Bai Shixuan; no doubt it was a tactical mistake, nevertheless, it was still ‘a mud in the face’ for all of them, causing them to feel ashamed. However, now, seeing that the situation has actually been reversed, they naturally couldn’t help but want to laugh.
However, the next moment, they saw that Wang Lu seem to think of something. He threw his head back, pointed upward, and then broke into laughter.
"Hahahaha, five gates into one, it’s actually five gates into one! You finally exposed your flaw! I have been worried for so long, mulling over the matter over and over, cautious and solemn, for fear that you have some kind of against the heaven ability. But, in the end, your move is just this five into one gate! You look smart, but by doing this, I finally got you!"
…
For a time, everyone was puzzled. What the hell was Wang Lu doing? Was he insane?
Could it be that the mental quality of this legendary professional adventurer was quite poor, thus he could not accept a defeat? No, it shouldn’t be that simple, but why?
After this brief excitement, Wang Lu soon calmed down again.
Now that his guess has been determined, there were things that he didn’t need to hide so tightly. And if he didn’t say them, the situation would inevitably get out of control.
Wang Lu coldly swept everyone around him with his gaze and saw that everyone was excited for this ‘five gates into one’ turn of event. Even Zhou Mumu who previously has given up, has her hope rekindled, wanting to fight this out...
This time, if he still kept it to himself, obviously, the trial would never end.
Therefore, after a moment of thinking, Wang Lu opened his mouth and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, please listen to what I have to say."
At this time, he had the capital to attract everyone’s attention. Even cultivators from Shengjing Sect turned their heads to listen to what he had to say.
"I hope that for this trial, everyone would give up voluntarily."
"Pfft!"
A lot of people suddenly couldn’t hold back their laughter.
Initially, they thought he had something important to say, but it turned out, it was just a pipe dream! Sure enough, this five gates into one has hit him hard?
At this time, only a handful of people have the confidence in Wang Lu’s rationality.
While healing his injured arm, Jianglu coldly asked, "Why?"
Wang Lu said, "Because this eight virtues trial is definitely a trap."
Jianglu was silent for a moment, not showing a look of surprise. "Is there evidence?"
"Evidence?" Wang Lu sighed. "Actually, there is an eyeful of evidence, unfortunately, you guys couldn’t see it. That being the case… let me ask you a question first."
Jianglu sneered, "You want to ask if I also feel that there is no relation whatsoever between the eight virtues and the trials? I’ve long since known it, but so what? As long as one passes the trial, he would receive a reward, is that false? Regardless…"
Before he finished his words, Wang Lu had coldly interrupted him, "Because the reward is real, so everything else is real? What’s the difference between you and children who play bird catching? A grain of millet can put you into a basket."
Then, as Jianglu’s face turned darker and darker, Wang Lu asked him a question.
"I ask you, have you ever thought about the cold-voice that always appear on all the four gates? Who the f*ck does that voice belong to?"
…
[1] (The Ming Cult’s Sect Leader’s ultimate skill in Wuxia novel Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre)
[2] Bai in Bai Shixuan means white