Against the Gods

Chapter 228 – Celestial Yang Sword

Today, was the tenth day of the ranking tournament.

It was early morning and the sky had not yet completely brightened. The fifth to eighth place ranking matches were already underway on the Sword Discourse Arena. Although the ones participating in those matches were the losers of yesterday’s Quarterfinals: Ling Feiyu, Shui Wushuang, Xiao Kuanglei, and Fen Juebi, entering the Quarterfinals had already made them completely worthy of being the younger generation’s peak talents.

Even though Xiao Kuanglei had been cut thirty three times by Xia Qingyue, they were all shallow injuries. At that time, his meridians had merely been frozen over, so he was completely fine today. As for Fen Juebi, because of his self-destruction blood essence and the heavy injuries he suffered after mounting a sneak attack on Yun Che, he did not participate in today’s fight over fifth to eighth place. Also, even if he were to be unscathed, he was basically not the other three’s match. Whether or not he participated did not have the slightest influence towards the end result but it did at least, preserve the last traces of face he possessed.

Due to Fen Juebi’s absence, the original four matches became three. In the first match, Shui Wushuang defeated Xiao Kuanglei. In the second match, Shui Wushuang defeated Ling Feiyu with difficulty. In the third match, Ling Feiyu defeated Xiao Kuanglei.

And thus, Shui Wushuang’s individual ranking was fifth place, Ling Feiyu’s individual ranking was sixth, Xiao Kuanglei’s individual ranking was seventh and Fen Juebi’s individual ranking was eighth. It was the first time that Xiao Sect and the Burning Heaven Clan’s power rankings had been decided this early… Xiao Sect placed fourth and Burning Heaven Clan placed fifth, making it the first time they fell out of the top four in several hundred years.

The primary cause was Yun Che, the ultimate dark horse’s birth into the world.

The white clouds in the sky lightly floated. The matches deciding fifth to eighth place had finally come to a close, and it was only nine in the morning. The morning sunlight was somewhat lacking in power but the mood of the audience around the Sword Discourse Arena was at an even greater high because the ranking tournament’s Semifinals, was finally getting closer.

Before the ranking tournament had gone underway, there were already many who had long predicted the final placings. The name Ling Yun had long since shook the country and it was universally accepted that first place was his. There were numerous different versions of guesses taking place, but they all still simply fastened around a few individuals… Frozen Cloud Asgard’s Shui Wushuang and Wu Xuexin, Heavenly Sword Villa’s Ling Feiyu, Burning Heaven Clan’s Fen Jin, Xiao Sect’s Xiao Kuanglei…

But out of the four who had entered the top four, aside from Ling Yun, the other three had not been anticipated nor were any of them core disciples of sects that they had heard of, so much that there weren’t even a few who knew their names. Even Ling Jie, only had the title of Heavenly Sword Villa Master’s son. No one expected that he possessed enough strength to make Ling Feiyu surrender and not fight… After all, he was way too young. Everyone thought that the reason why he came to participate was merely to gain experience.

What was even more shocking was that, excluding Ling Yun, the oldest of the other three was only seventeen years old.

In all of ranking tournament history, this was the unprecedented of firsts!

In the second match of the Semifinals, the conclusion of the match between Ling Yun and Xia Qingyue had already been decided in everyone’s eyes. Even if Xia Qingyue was even more talented of a genius, it was still impossible for her to bring about a second conclusion. As a result, what the crowd paid close attention to was the first match of exchanges between Yun Che and Ling Jie.

One had shot into the top four with profound strength at the True Profound Realm and the other was a sixteen year old who had shot into the top four. No matter which one became the victory, any one of them would bring about an incomparably shocking precedent. It was not exaggerated in the least if one were to say that the two, were super geniuses that were rarely seen even once in several hundred years.

After seeing Yun Che’s battle with Fen Juebi yesterday, no one dared to easily decide that he would lose to Ling Jie. In his match with Fen Juebi, even though it was the first time he had revealed his terrifying true strength, it appeared as if it was still not his full strength. As for Ling Jie, to have made Ling Feiyu immediately surrender, was proof that he had never even exhibited his true strength at all.

This historical showdown was undoubtedly going to be a match brimming with suspense —— a duel between the lowest profound strength in all of ranking tournament history and the youngest participant of all time!

Yun Che had long since stood on top of the Sword Discourse Arena. Soon after, Ling Jie slowly made his way up as well. Standing sixty meters away from Yun Che, he greeted him with a cheeky smile: “Hehe. Boss, good morning.”

Ling Jie’s voice was not at all loud, but it was loud enough to be heard by Ling Wugou. Just as he was about to announce the names of the two parties and their affiliation, he suddenly heard the way Ling Jie addressed Yun Che. Both his legs went limp and he nearly kneeled on the floor.

“Oh! You actually knew that you ought to call me boss. I thought that you wouldn’t acknowledge your debt.” Yun Che put both his hands on his chest as he smiled with glee.

Ling Jie stuck his nose up and said with great enthusiasm: “I, Ling Jie, am a true man. Every word I say carries an enormous amount of weight so there’s no way I would go back on a deal. Only cowards would go back on their word.”

“Really?” Yun Che looked at him with great contempt: “I’ve lived in the Villa for more than ten days but you, the little brother, actually had never come to visit me once. You’re not really good at being a little brother, are you?”

“Err…” Ling Jie opened his eyes wide as his voice also became lower. He whispered in a low voice: “I… I actually wanted to go, but Big Bro said that it wouldn’t look good. It’s really not my fault.”

Knowing that he was in the wrong, he quickly changed topics as he lifted his head: “But Boss, you indeed did not disappoint me. When those people were all jeering at you before, I knew that you would definitely make them regret it. Hehe, as expected, it was not outside of my expectations. How could someone who would make me have no choice but to surrender and become a little brother be any ordinary person? But I never expected that Boss would actually storm into the Semifinals and even be up against me… Hohohoho, this is a super great opportunity!

“Eh? Opportunity?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Ling Jie drew back the corners of his mouth as he laughed: “Even though I wouldn’t renege on a debt and call you Boss, I am still a little unsatisfied. After all, you only received three of my strikes that time and didn’t even defeat me. To be boss, you ought to be stronger than the little brother, right?”

“And so?” Yun Che fingered his chin and began to faintly smile.

Ling Jie held out his hand and swiped his spatial ring, bringing out a sword case sculpted entirely in white jade… That’s right, it was a white jade sword case, and was the Earth Profound Weapon he had always been using in every one of his previous matches. As his hand stroked the bright and clean sword case, Ling Jie’s smiling expression began to have a difficult to look at sharp edge: “Even if I enter tomorrow’s match, there’s absolutely no way that I would beat big bro, so I’ll use all my power this match! And let everyone in the world remember my, Ling Jie’s charm! To make me, Ling Jie, perfectly willing to be your little brother, you must completely defeat me while I’m using my full strength on this Sword Discourse Arena! If you defeat me, you’ll be my boss. If you lose… Mn, I’ll consider letting you be my little brother!”

“Okay!” Yun Che immediately nodded. His expression also became focused and serious: “If I can’t even defeat you, I obviously do not have the qualifications to be your boss. Since that is the case, bring out your sword. I’ll let you see true strength!”

Ling Jie’s hands softly stroked once and the white jade sword case opened. Along with a flickering orange colored radiance, an entirely golden orange thin sword that was approximately five foot and five inches flew into Ling Jie’s hands.

Dooongh…

Once the orange sword met the ground, it suddenly released a lingering sword cry and its sword force also quietly filled the air. The sword force was not fierce, nor was it aggressive, but it brought along an incomparably piercing strength. It completely covered the entire Sword Discourse Arena with in two breaths of time. Even those who sat on the very edges of the Sword Discourse Arena all sensed a calm sword force quietly envelop them. It mysteriously drew the attentions of their hearts and gazes and they could not help but centralize their focus onto the body of the orange colored sword. If one were to carefully examine the sword, they would discover that a small width of space around the orange sword was slowly distorting.

“What kind of sword force is this! I’ve never heard of this before… Wait! Orange colored sword, could it be…”

“Celestial Yang Sword!!”

“Right! It really is indeed the Celestial Yang Sword, one of Heavenly Sword Villa’s Sky Profound Divine Swords! It’s been said that Ling Yun subdued the Celestial Yuan Sword at the age of seventeen. He is only sixteen, yet had actually subdued the Celestial Yang Sword!”

“Heavenly Sword Villa does indeed produce geniuses after geniuses. Ling Yun is already an absolutely stunning genius but I didn’t expect that Ling Jie was an even better one! For Ling Yuefeng to have two sons like that, is enough for him to live a comfortable life.”

“In this battle, it looks like it is simply impossible for Yun Che to be victorious against Ling Jie, who has mastered the Celestial Yang Sword.”

Yun Che had never heard of the Celestial Yang Sword. However, once the Celestial Yang Sword was revealed, Yun Che sensed its abnormal shocking sword force. The surroundings that filled with the sounds of numerous discussions which contained deep surprise also allowed him to clearly understand that this sword was by no means ordinary. This sword was undoubtedly a world shaking Sky Profound Sword!

For the first time in this year’s ranking tournament, a Sky Profound Weapon had finally appeared!

With the Celestial Yang Sword in hand, the atmosphere around Ling Jie’s entire person had suddenly changed. His entire person had become a sword as a dignified sword aura moved along his entire body. His eyes were no longer filled with any speck of laughter and carelessness. Instead, it emitted a sharp sword’s piercing cold light.

Yun Che took half a step back. As he waved his hand, a thick Overlord’s Colossal Sword without a sharp tip suddenly fell from the sky. It landed in front of him with a boom as half of its body deeply submerged into the ground. Yun Che grabbed the sword hilt with both hands. With a slight force, the Overlord’s Colossal Sword whistled amidst the crushed stone that swirled in the air as its sword force directly lunged at Ling Jie with a mountain’s massively overbearing momentum.

However, the Overlord’s Colossal Sword was still merely an Earth Profound Weapon and was an entire realm’s level inferior to that of the Celestial Yang Sword. Its absolutely overbearing aura did not really stifle much of the Celestial Yang Sword’s grandeur; instead, it was split apart by the Celestial Yang Sword’s calm sword energy.

The difference between a Sky Profound Weapon and an Earth Profound Weapon was like the difference between fine steel and straw. In terms of weapons, Yun Che was at an absolute disadvantage. However, his imposing manner did not weaken in the slightest. With a wave of his heavy sword, the wind screeched with a deafening howl: “Come.”

“First match of the Semifinals: Blue Wind Imperial Family’s Yun Che versus Heavenly Sword Villa’s Ling Jie… Match start!”

“Not only did Jie’er immediately reveal the Celestial Yang Sword, his aura also does not have the least bit of complacence. It looks like he really values this battle with Yun Che.” Ling Yuefeng slowly said as he looked at the two people on the Sword Discourse Arena.

“Mn,” Ling Yun nodded: “After all, Yun Che is the only person Little Jie truly submitted to in this world aside from me. Half a year ago, Yun Che had forcibly blocked three of Little Jie’s strikes with a profound strength at the third level of the True Profound Realm. He impressed him so much that he continuously talked about it for a long time. At that time, Yun Che’s overall strength was several miles away from Little Jie. In this half a year, Little Jie’s strength had increased by leaps and bounds so if he were to be defeated by Yun Che this time, he probably would sincerely and completely submit to him… Perhaps to an even greater extent than his submissiveness towards me.”

Ling Yun’s words caused Ling Yuefeng’s brows to twitch. After he pondered in silence for a while, he suddenly said: “If it’s like that, then we definitely cannot let Yun Che win. Yun’er, if Jie’er is by any chance at a disadvantage, help him with the Celestial Yuan Sword!”

Ling Yuefeng’s words startled Ling Yun for a bit. Then, as if he understood something, he nodded his head lightly: “I understand.”