The Romantic Cultivator

Zhi Jiugong’s heavenly voice was announcing to the arena contestants, “The third and final trial will last for 40 hours. If you had already copulated with a cultivator, remember that you will have to copulate with a new cultivator for the renewal of your profound strength. In this trial however, you have to obtain 9 Points instead of the usual 6 Points. Killing one cultivator will get you 3 Points each while copulating with a new cultivator will also get you 3 Points. This time round, there will be no group points. As it is before, profound pills will still be limited in its uses.”

She paused briefly before saying, “However, you will be allowed to give or trade to the other cultivator up to a limit of 1 Points. If you do so, 1 Points will be deducted from you. You can’t trade your Points if you have less than 0.”

Ji Yuan saw that he had been taken to a dark spatial space while he was listening to Zhi Jiugong. He began to wonder what the third and final trial will be?

“This one actually requires 40 hours? The Points require is now 9? No group points now? And a new rule for trading or giving away 1 Points?”

All of a sudden Ji Yuan was taken to a new place and he found himself looking at hundreds or even thousands of green swords that towered over 400m and thunderous lightning could be heard in the dark heavens above.

He quickly looked around him and saw that he was alone.

Where are the rest of the 358 cultivators?

Ji Yuan began to calculate in his mind; If every cultivator required 9 Points to clear this trial, then in the best situation, only 95 cultivators would eventually be able to survive. They could of course choose to copulate with the others for more points but if they were killed halfway then all the points would be wasted.  Therefore only roughly 40 cultivators would eventually survive this trial…

Zhi Jiugong continued to say, “This trial is divided into two parts. The lesser and the greater area. As you can see now, you are in the lesser area. In this lesser area, there will be 12 black portals at any given time. The first pair to enter the black portal will be grouped together for the greater area later. The same will goes for all the subsequent pairs. You can however choose to go alone for the greater area. This grouping is to ensure fairness and at the same time, ally or foe is for you to decide…”

The first pair would naturally be the Smiling Divine Empress and the Lovely Empress. It was because this trial was also rigged in their favor and they had already known where the black portals would spawn and therefore, they could make a beeline for it.

“Please note that as long as you are in the lesser area, there will be divine lightning that will strike randomly where you will be spawning. Every 12 portals that is triggered, the divine lightning will strike with greater frequency and with more profound power. So be warned to enter the black portal as soon as possible.”𝑛𝑜𝓋𝓔𝐋𝞰𝗲xt.𝑐𝗈𝓜

Zhi Jiugong secretly thought of the fate that would await Ji Yuan. Without a doubt, he would be spawning in an area with the most divine lightning and he would also be furthest away from the black portals.

She pronounced slowly, “Once you are in the greater area, your goal is to reach the middle where the safe area is. This safe area is marked by a yellow portal so you won’t miss it. If you fail to reach this safe area before the 40 hours are up then your trial will also be considered as a failure even if you managed to have 9 Points.”

Zhi Jiugong sighed softly before she said in a heavenly voice to the contestants, “I wish all of you good luck with this trial…”

Was she actually wishing Ji Yuan good luck as part of his unfulfilled wish?

She was heaving a soft sign of melancholy now. Somehow she was glad that Ji Yuan did not get himself killed in the second arena trial. But the third and final arena trial would be the most difficult for him even without the involvement of the Divine Smiling Maiden and the Lovely Empress.

–

–

–

Smiling Divine Maiden Chu Lixue was sighing softly as she looked at her surroundings; she was surrounded by gigantic green swords that were sticking halfway from the ground and there were white terrifying lightning that was flashing from the dark heavens onto the ground.

Getting hit by one of the white terrifying lightning was definitely not a joke and it would burn up the cultivator’s profound animus and even killed them.

These gigantic green swords were about 400m tall and were so towering that it virtually blocked out the other cultivators to give the impression that she was just a lone cultivator.

However this was just a deep deception and she knew that there were a total of 358 surviving cultivators.

She was not sighing because of the difficulty of this trial but because of what the Lovely Empress had said to her when they had left together in a group, just before the end of the second arena trial.

The Lovely Empress had said melancholically to her, “I don’t have the heart to tell Ji Yuan of the difficulty in the next trial. Even if that old freak is here, he may not even survive the third trial. And we are cheating?”

The Smiling Divine Maiden had kept a quiet countenance before saying quietly, “Sister Lu Jiangsu, you seem to have forgotten that we are here to kill him in the first place. Have you really forgotten? And yet you are worrying for our enemy? So what if he has made an oath not to be an enemy of our master? You are too young and too simple. These golden celestials are more treacherous than you think they are. If they can’t be an open enemy, they can still be a covert enemy. Once Ji Yuan is dead, your heart will eventually be settled. Look at you, you have even wasted a precious fifth rank profound pill on him…”

“Ji Yuan didn’t waste it. He killed Lin Antian with it.” Although the Lovely Empress’ golden eyes looked melancholy but she had interrupted firmly as she looked at the Smiling Divine Maiden.

The Smiling Divine Maiden was startled for this was the very first time that the Lovely Empress had interrupted her with such rudeness.

The lovely Empress continued with a bleary look, “He has no profound pills now and he didn’t choose the copulation path. Will he be able to survive the third arena trial?”

“I say,” The Smiling Divine Maiden hummed coldly, “That he probably didn’t have the chance to do so. If he is alone with your avatar Maiden Ye Jing long enough, I don’t believe that he won’t take the bait. Or he will eventually choose to copulate with a maiden in the third trial because he did not want to die. Or maybe he is just trying to fish you…”

“Enough sister. You have too much darkness in your heart.” The Lovely Empress had stormed off.

Before the Lovely Empress Lu Jiangsu had met Ji Yuan, she had a poor opinion of the male cultivators and had only held her master in high regards. It was because her master was not only a beautiful master but he had never given any hint of touching her.

Instead her master had left her for 500 years to be trained by the Smiling Divine Maiden and Zhi Jiugong. But when she had met Ji Yuan, something in her was awakened and it was her suppressed emotions. She had actually found Ji Yuan to be irritating but she could not resist the urge to quarrel with him and she liked to see his beautiful face turned ugly in front of her.

By now, she had already known that she had loved Ji Yuan more than her own master. The affections that she had for Ji Yuan was love while the feeling for her own master was just simply respect. Ji Yuan was the man that she could see having a future with.

Moreover Ji Yuan was able to understand that she had not lost her good heart and through Ye Jing, she was actually giving away hints to warn the cultivators away from Bliss City.

And she was not stupid to know that Ji Yuan was constantly looking at her with interest as well…

The Smiling Divine Maiden began to mutter softly behind the Lovely Empress, “You have really changed and it is not a good change…”

But she quickly interrupted herself as she caught up with her to say, “You had only seen that old freak from the memory scans that we had given you. So if you were to see him, pretend that you do not know him. This is for your own good.”

The Lovely Empress hummed softly, “I will.”

Then she began to soften her tone, “Sister, you must survive this trial. Alright?”

The Smiling Divine Maiden smiled quietly, “I have the Spirit Divination Compass. Naturally completing this trial isn’t any issue for me.”

With a sentimental look, the Lovely Empress said distressly, “Sister, you are lying to me. What if you see that old freak again? What will you do? He’s the final boss in this trial for you.”

The Smiling Divine Maiden had halted her steps before saying with a quiet countenance, “I can only say that I deserve to die in his hands.”