Archfiend

Chapter 115: First Meeting (1)

A high-level formation required at the minimum an hour to test its stability. Of course, Xu Yangyi couldn’t possibly take out the demon core in front of so many people. The matter of his possession of the demon core was perhaps known to no more than an excess of ten people in the world.

But so what if they knew? He smiled as he used his finger to gently stroke his ring. If they didn’t fear death… they could go ahead and come try. His hands inside the pockets of his suit pants, he took a step forward into the array’s core without the slightest care. 

In an flash, the world appeared with countless motes of light! The vastness of scope could even be compared to the moment he had broke through to the middle stage! The light motes spun like an immense maelstrom. At the same time, Xu Yangyi suddenly felt himself to be positioned within a tremendous ocean tide! A white qi tide!

“It’s a completely different sensation…” Each cell of his entire body began to clamor in joy for this. If said, the low-grade Spirit Focusing Formation of the Unrivaled Beneath the Heavens that year was a stream. This was a great river! A lagoon!

Even if it was the End of Days, the qi density degree was so dreadful that it could be felt. Not only was it in revolving an arcane effort, it was in breathing. Both were a kind of comforting qi, akin to a human soul obtaining purification. The qi here simply needed not to be assimilated. Even if he slept here for thirty-four years, he would be able to automatically break through to the next boundary. 

Stifling the excitement in his heart, he opened his eyes. He stroked the formation below, stirred with emotion: “I really envy ancient cultivators… No wonder they dared to say Core Formation could be fully traveled at that time, and Nascent Soul was plentiful like dogs… If the worldly qi was this dense, I would be able to advance even if I was asleep, and that’s not even to speak of talented, intelligent, and diligent people…”

“But I believe if ancient cultivators were here now, they would be even more envious of us.” An Ning smiled and said softly: “The communication equipment of ancient times was only flying swords and paper cranes. They would take at least half an hour. However, nowadays, an internet line can deliver and send things at light speed. Also, that’s not mentioning if an ancient cultivator was a rogue cultivator or perhaps a minor clan without a Foundation Establishment senior. Taking a trip to far away places was an extreme pain, but now?”

She softly laughed: “You can go anywhere you want with a ten-buck taxi. Even Foundation Establishment seniors don’t have the teensiest advantage in a flying-specialized magik artifact. Only using ordinary flying swords, these common artifacts, or one’s own body to fly is far inferior in speed to an airplane.” 

“And that’s moreover not to speak of arranging for clansmen. Now? Cultivator clans can engage in business and speculate in stocks. In the old era, clans that couldn’t cultivate only had a dead end.”

“That’s true.” Xu Yangyi nodded: “I’m satisfied. Later on, find Peony to give you your final balance.” Turning around, he brought Li Zongyuan outside, and said apathetically: “Tell Peony I’m going to meet the branch master.”

“Master!” Li Zongyuan broke into a cold sweat in fear, his voice rising a few good times in intensity. He immediately lowered his voice: “Y-you’re throwing yourself into a trap! He’s the Foundation Establishment cultivator that took on the Black Kill Order!”

“Like he dares.” Xu Yangyi said serenely: “Firstly, does he dare to cause my death inside his room? Secondly…” He looked at his ring: “If he’s not scared of death, he can give it go.”

“But, master, you’re a demon! You…”

Woosh! Before Li Zongyuan had even finished speaking, he had already been raised up by his neck and pulled before Xu Yangyi, right across from a pair of ice-cold eyes.

“Li Zongyuan.” Just as Li Zongyuan was so terrified he became wet with cold sweat, he heard a voice like an icy blade: “Don’t challenge my patience.” 

“I am myself and nothing else. Remember it clearly.”

Li Zongyuan trembled as he nodded. Clenching his teeth, he also said lowly: “But, but… my evolution…”

“It was a coincidence.” Xu Yangyi tossed the other away: “I don’t want to hear of this a second time.”

“Yes…”

Beep beep beep… The sound of a ringing telephone rang out in a room, and a lanky hand picked up the phone: “Hello?”

“Your Excellency Branch Master.” A lucid and graceful woman’s voice echoed out from the receiver: “Mr. Xu, the commander of the newly promoted A-rank legion, is requesting a meeting. May I?”

His hand gripping the telephone tightened, and Thousandedge raised an aged brow. Silent for a long period of time, his hand gently combed through his full head of gray of hair. After a brief moment, he said dully: “Send him in.”

“Hehe…” Inside the room, a man’s voice gently rang out at the side of his ear: “He’s right below your eyelids… You’re not planning on tidying the door?”

There wasn’t a sliver of an expression on Thousandedge’s face, and he looked at a giant computer divided into three screens. His forefinger gently tapping the table surface, he then laughed coldly after three minutes passed: “You want me to take on a Core Formation explosion for you?”

No one responded. A few minutes passed, and a male voice gently sighed, ringing out once again: “If Fellow Daoist cannot do so, then it would be no good matter.” 

The door opened by itself, free of the wind, and Thousandedge suddenly opened his mouth: “Slow.”

The door persisted in its strange arc and stopped. Thousandedge laughed grimly, his gaze seamlessly shifting over to the computer. A wisp of a taunting smile hung at the corners of his mouth: “Ridiculous… Of humanity’s seven at the great Core Formation realm, besides Daomaster Skybearer and Daomaster Earthcleaver, there are also five other great Core Formation masters, yet none of the Dao Masters are able to band together. On the contrary, they are suppressed by the two Dao Masters of the Cultivation Court, brothers of a kind. It really is… an extreme irony.”

Silent, after several seconds, the voice sighed: “The Vermilion Snow Incident has become popular again because of this person’s reappearance. If Daomaster Floatingcloud personally takes to the task, once it’s discovered, it’ll be a great matter of tearing into action the cultivation world’s two major powers into mutually denouncing each other… Everyone has their own interests, and everyone their own Dao heritage. Everyone is pillaging resources in the struggle of fate with the heavens. The friction between Core Formation masters, the contest, how would all the old ancestors imagine that it was two ordinary seniors… Mhm… Brothers of the same air and joined branches are of one heart for the nation.” [1]

“Hehe…” Thousandedge jeered: “You say these words with such difficulty.” Silent once more, after two seconds passed, Thousandedge unhurriedly said: “Then, just ask Daomaster Floatingcloud to quietly await the good news…”

“Didn’t you just say…” The man’s voice rang out.

“And what did I say?” Thousandedge held a cup of tea in both of his hands, looking at the tea water somewhat spellbound: “I never said I wouldn’t be able to catch him.” He swept an eye at the door, not paying attention: “It’s just… I’m going to need some time.”

Thunk thunk… At this moment, the sound of the door knocking rang out. Thousandedge waved his hand: “Please come in.”

Xu Yangyi walked in, cupping his hands: “Greetings, branch master.”

“Commander Xu, you needn't be polite.” Thousandedge smiled, hooking his finger. A small cup of tea slowly flew over in the air: “Please sit. Try the tea.”

“My thanks, branch master.”

“Commander Xu, are you still getting into the swing of things?” Thousandedge laughed as he waited on Xu Yangyi to sip at his tea. He then smiled: “If you’re not… it’s still better to propose getting out early for your own good. The Featherwood Guard’s missions are a burden. You don’t know whether or not you’ll have the opportunity to do so in the future.”

Xu Yangyi smiled faintly: “I believe I’ll have the chance.”

“Not necessarily.” Thousandedge leaned on the sofa: “The things of the world shift and change. Fortune makes fools out of men. Who was it that said that… What do you say? Young friend?” His voice was warm like the spring sun, yet his voice was emotionless like the cold winter. Anyone could hear the eerie killing intent hidden within.

Xu Yangyi laughed, but didn’t speak again.

“I will make an introduction for you.” Thousandedge faced towards the air and slightly raised his chin: “He has no name. He is at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, the exact same boundary as myself…” His half-narrowed eyes were lit with a cold light: “This is Daomaster Floatingcloud’s personal disciple. He was once my junior.”

Xu Yangyi’s gaze faintly sparked because he hadn’t felt half a shred of the other’s spiritual pressure. There wasn’t even an existence of his aura.

“Hehe…” A coarse hollow laughter echoed out in the air. It was like an owl. After two hoots, there wasn’t a whisper once more.

Xu Yangyi glanced deeply at Thousandedge. He cupped his hands and said respectfully: “Greetings, senior.”

That voice… had come from the place Thousandedge was sitting. Thousandedge didn’t say a word, only looking at him indifferently. However, the voice seemed to be same as the words Thousandedge had spoken before. This was too irrational… Although Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense presently possessed no clear-cut indication, it was much more powerful in comparison to cultivators of the same stage. Foundation Establishment cultivators were very strong, but if one wanted to say something, perfectly conceal themself at the same time, and not use spiritual sense to communicate, it was a tad nonsensical. 

“Senior, I’ve come report the Xingtian Legion’s plans for the following three years.” Xu Yangyi cupped his hands and said: “If there are no mishaps, the Xingtian Legion isn’t intending on taking any missions in these few years.”

“Oh?” Thousandedge placed his teacup down, unmoved in demeanor. 

“In addition, I’ve already informed the Featherwood Guard central headquarters. In the next few years, I’ll be in a cultivation room in the Mingshui Province branch. As for below…” Xu Yangyi looked into Thousandedge’s eyes, his gaze absent of a sliver of cowering, and he gently pressed his feet into the floor: “There is a twenty-meter stretch to cultivate. Besides the branch master, I won’t be meeting anyone…”

Thousandedge’s gaze suddenly twinkled, and Xu Yangyi’s eyes collided together with it in midair. Followingly, their gazes shifted away from amidst sparking flint, mild like clouds and soft like wind. 

“It wasn’t necessary of you to personally let me know of this business. Are you planning something devious here right now?” The expression on Thousandedge’s face appeared glacial, and he coldly laughed as he stood up: “Commander Xu, did Commander Chu teach you this move? How pretty… Cultivating in a cultivation room twenty meters down below the branch… A cultivation room empty for several decades. Such a lousy place that no commander would choose, yet you dare to select it… ‘Besides the branch master, I will not meet with anyone’, Commander Xu…”

“Who are you on guard against? Me?”

“Junior does not dare.” Such words were spoken from Xu Yangyi’s mouth, yet he didn’t make a move. This time’s cupped hands was to save on time.

“You have already dared!”

Boom! Thousandedge suddenly stood up. The spiritual pressure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator erupted with a rumble. It engulfed the entire room like a tide, and Xu Yangyi who was at the nexus of it seemed as if his chest had been battered by a sledgehammer. His throat sweet, he forcibly swallowed this mouthful of blood back down.

Swoosh… The waves came quickly, but receded even faster. In the next second, Thousandedge was nearly bereft of any thought, swiftly restraining his spiritual sense.

Xu Yangyi fixed him with a deathly glare, his hand already placed atop the storage ring on his other hand.

Thousandedge’s teeth fiercely grinded. He understood what was inside.

A Core Formation demon core… A nuclear warhead that could be primed at any time!

[1] “Of the same air and same branches” More vivid imagery. Used to describe extremely close people like brothers. Not necessarily brothers/siblings themselves, but people who are very close.