Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty Three – The Prison-Breaking Six
“These are the problems I encountered.” Huai Boy’s mouth felt bitter. He had thought he would become a hero and had unexpectedly ended up with nothing. He had received the heavy blow in a field that he had never thought would cause him trouble. In the next few days, his mind would be quite scattered.
He had memorized the problems, including the unsolved sixth problem.
The other supervisors came over.
“Little yao arts?”
“It is actually little yao arts?”
They all wore shocked expressions. Some people felt it was nothing. How hard could a little yao art problem be? Huai Boy saw the dismissive expressions, but he did not argue.
The noise quickly faded. After a while, everyone started to sweat. No one had a dismissive expression anymore.
In a patch of silence, everyone’s sweat increased.
———
“This junior’s name is Yi Zheng, a disciple of the Great Buddha Temple,” Yi Zheng rearranged his clothing and respectfully said with a bow. The greeting he gave was one of a junior. The worldly apparition had stunned him. He could clearly feel the difference of the sword xiu’s before and after states.
Was that core formation?
He wasn’t sure, but any breakthrough that was accompanied by a worldly apparition was extraordinary. This was why he had given the bow of a junior even though the other did not look older compared to himself.
Wei Sheng opened his eyes. The ephemeral presence around him suddenly disappeared like it had been brushed away by wind. His eyes became peaceful again like a sharp sword being sheathed so its edges could not be seen.
But after experiencing that soul-shaking scene, Yi Zheng did not dare to slack off and offend. Even more, he glanced at the remnants of the fiend soul beast that had been cut up into multiple pieces, and his heart tightened.
“I am Wei Sheng, from Wu Kong Sword Sect.” Wei Sheng smiled, his attitude warm and peaceful.
“It’s an honor to meet you at last!” Yi Zheng hurriedly said.
Wei Sheng roared with laughter. “Mine is a small sect. You definitely have not heard of it.”
Yi Zheng instantly became a bit embarrassed. He did not know what it was. Even though this Wei Sheng’s attitude was friendly and warm, but he still felt an invisible pressure. It was this invisible pressure that caused him to do some actions that he usually would not.
“You can just call me Wei Sheng.” Wei Sheng waved his hand. “Not Elder, I don’t want to be old so quickly.”
Yi Zheng instantly felt a predicament, but he had a spark of inspiration. “Big Brother Wei!”
Wei Sheng smiled and did not argue. He asked, “How did you come to this place?”
Speaking of this, Yi Zheng’s face instantly became a bitter gourd. “I don’t know either. I took a mission from my sect and assumed that I could earn some contribution points. I didn’t expect to be this unlucky and get sent to this ghastly place. I probably can’t go back.”
Finishing, he sighed.
“You definitely can go back,” Wei Sheng said. His tone was not strong and it was a sentence that was very ordinary; but when Yi Zheng heard it, he actually believed it.
“We will continue walking forward. Before this, I felt a sword essence in this direction.” Wei Sheng did not waste words. Raising the horse-chopping sword, he walked forward. Seeing the situation, Yi Zheng hurriedly followed.
The two hadn’t walked for a long time when Wei Sheng suddenly stopped walking. An excited expression abruptly came onto his face.
“Big Brother Wei, what is it?” Yi Zheng carefully asked.
Wei Sheng did not answer him, his eyes tightly staring at the fiendish mist in front of him. The excitement on his face grew until even his lips started to tremble. “Li Water sword essence… … Li Water sword essence … … Shidi … …”
The familiar Li Water Sword essence was faintly discernable in the fiendish mist ahead of him.
Wei Sheng unhesitatingly threw out the flying sword. Grabbing Yi Zheng, he stepped onto the horse-chopping sword. He currently wanted to to grow wings. Taking a deep breath, he urged the sword with all his power and charge forward.
———
Qian Liu was staring at the six little yao art problems in front of him. A moment later, he raised his head. “The little guy is a bit interesting.”
The fire-faced person asked in wonder. “Little yao art problems? This guy is really creative! I wonder which great master taught this little yao monster.” He then snickered. “There is good drama to be seen now. Little yao arts, ha, this slap in the face is really hard!”
Qian Liu did not pay attention to the schadenfreude of the fire-faced person and turned his gaze back to the little yao art problems. He was very curious what the remaining six problems were like. If it was said that he had been slightly curious before, then the six little yao art problems had successfully raised his curiosity.
“Little yao arts … …” Qian Liu murmured lowly as he thought inside.
In his memory, there had not been any Sky Yao that had such a style in the past eight hundred years. If one went even further back, then it was the thousand year war. The records from then were very chaotic, and it was the era they had lost the most records on. There were too many yao arts, too many Sky Yao that could not be verified.
“What are you thinking so much for?” the fire-faced person said unconcernedly. “In any case, there is a spectacle to be seen. If you are lucky, maybe you will be able to see the next six problems. Haha, I hope the little brats work hard, so yeye won’t be disappointed!”
Qian Liu helplessly rubbed his forehead. With the fire-person’s rumble, his line of thinking had been interrupted.
However, he agreed with the fire-faced person’s words.
This matter had just started. The good drama hadn’t even come on stage yet.
———
It was unknown who leaked the information, but the six problems of the Wasteland Beast Chessboard’s prison-breaking battle quickly spread. All the major yao channels were studying these six little yao art problems. When many yao first received these six problems, they were very dismissive. Many yao were even suspicious that these Prison-Breaking Six Problems were fake.
Little yao art problems, what a joke!
But no matter if it was those that were dismissive or curious, what all the yao did when they first received the six problems was strangely similar; they tried to solve them.
They quickly discovered just how laughable and naïve their thinking had been.
At this moment, those spectators that had been so bored outside the prison battlefield finally understood how soul-shaking the seemingly boring prison-breaking battle had been.
Little yao arts were the fundamentals of all yao arts. No yao or school of thought would doubt this. The study of little yao arts had only been of interest in the yao art houses for a few years before their studied was considered complete. It was not that the yao of the time dismissed little yao arts. It was the exact opposite. They put great importance on little yao arts. Due to this, they had put in great amounts of yao-power and ran through all the permutations of little yao arts. From that onwards, there were almost no new developments in little yao arts. Those with knowledge at the time started to put more effort into intermediate yao arts and high yao arts.
The Prison-Breaking Six Problems seemed to be like throwing six heavy stones into a peaceful pond churning the shores with great waves.
The six little yao art problems, put in their order, went from easy to hard. The first three were extremely easy and did not leave the scope of the present little yao arts. But starting from the fourth question, it went beyond the scope of the general understanding of little yao arts.
Truthfully, Huai Boy was very skilled to have been able to reach the sixth problem. With the aid of his firm foundation, even though there were new transformations, he still used his outstanding intelligence and managed to solve the fifth problem.
But up to here, he could not go any further. His head was filled with the sixth problem. He did not eat or rest, and his mind was scattered.
Higher yao, like Qian Liu, could detect a completely new road from these six problems that increased in difficulty, a road that was completely different than what the general understanding of little yao art was now. This discovery made them happy and filled with curiosity. As yao that cultivated to their level, how could their eyes be shallow?
Presently the six little yao art problems were the most popular topic of study for the yao art houses. The teachers of many yao art houses acted, but they quickly all encountered a roadblock. Consequently, many “Little Yao Art Study Teams” came out of every yao art house like spring bamboo after the rain.
———
Cang Ze stayed in the corner and didn’t dare to breathe. The reason was very simple. The room was too silent! Staring at the tips of his feet, his heart was a storm. This was definitely the most silent meeting of the Council of Elders in the clan’s history.
The elders of great status and power had furrowed brows and did not make any sound.
“What does everyone think?” The one that spoke was the clan leader, Cang Ze’s father. However, even though Cang Ze’s father was the clan leader, but in this room, Cang Ze did not have a place to sit. In fact, if it wasn’t that he had successfully established a dialogue with the master of the Wasteland Beast Chessboard, he wouldn’t even have had the qualifications to enter this room.
“The Genius Alliance will not rest,” an elder said hesitantly. “If we worsen our relations with the Genius Alliance, it won’t be good for us.”
“Everyone knows that, do you need to waste your breath?” an elder that did not have a good temper snorted coldly. “But he knows [Grey Scar Art]”
“That’s what he says, it may not be true.”
The room descended into noise. Those that were shouting, those that had faces red, those that were winding up their sleeves to start fighting. Cang Ze released a breath, and felt much more at ease.
The clan leader really could not bear it anymore and said in a deep voice, “Stop!”
The voices finally calmed. The clan leader turned around his face. “Chief Elder, what do you think?”
“Has everyone seen the six problems?” The Chief Elder opened his eyes, his voice was hoarse.
The elders all nodded.
“What does everyone think of these six problems?” the Chief Elder asked directly.
“Pretty interesting.”
“Profound.”
“Unique.”
The elders chattered.
The Chief Elder shook his head. He waited for everyone to stop talking before he opened, “In my view, these six questions open a new school of thought within Yao arts.”
When these words came out, the others rumbled. No one had expected the Chief Elder to have such a high opinion of the six little yao art problems, but no one doubted the Chief Elder’s judgement. Because his judgement in countless matters had proved that Chief Elder’s eyes were terrifyingly accurate.
“Do we have any relationship with the Genius Alliance?” the Chief Elder suddenly asked.
“No.” The other elders shook their heads together. They might have some power locally, but for them, the Genius Alliance was high up and unreachable.
“Without a relationship, there is no saying that our relations will worsen,” the Chief Elder said faintly. But his authoritative gaze contained a thread of heat. “Everyone seated here today understands what [Grey Scar Art] means to us. There are no free benefits in this world, so everyone should understand there is no profit without risk.”
The Chief Elder suddenly stood. “Does everyone remember their oaths when they entered the council of elders?”
The other elders were excited and simultaneously stood. “Do not dare to forget!”
“We have waited for this chance,” the Chief Elder looked at the old visages of the other elders and sighed deeply, “waited for too long!”
Translator Ramblings: Wei Sheng is heading towards the sword essence he felt and Zuo Mo is trying to find him from the other end. I know everyone’s sword essence is slightly different in the story but it is supposed to keep developing so I wonder if Zuo Mo managed to recognize the sword essence as Wei Sheng because he hadn’t progressed greatly in his sword essence after the sword test conference.
I’m conflicted about the title. “The Prison-Breaking Six” sounds a lot like a group of prisoners trying to escape … …