CH 109

Chapter 109 – Lightning Cloud Stone Island

The Clam Sea Realm!

The light from the transfer array faded, and Xu Disheng opened his eyes, finding that he was standing upon some shoal rock of some sort.

Before him was the vast, limitless ocean. Waves crashed periodically, releasing an ocean spray that lapped at his feet.

Xu Disheng’s brows furrowed slightly as he reached out a hand and felt around in the air. Sure enough, an almost undetectable ripple appeared before him, making him unable to proceed any further towards the ocean.

Behind the shoal rock he was standing on was a lonely, uninhabited small island. It was only several dozen meters wide, meaning he could easily walk to the other side of the shore if he so wished.

Xu Disheng turned around and stepped down from the shoal rock, both of his feet coming into contact with the sandy beach of the small island. Xu Disheng only walked a few steps before suddenly hearing a voice behind him.

“Brother, brother.”

When he turned around, he saw a delicate, cute girl standing there as elegant as jade, on the shoal rock where he was just standing moments ago. Her features were refined, and her big eyes were misty, as if she was about to cry.

Xu Yan, his little sister…?

What was strange was that no matter how he probed the area with profound qi or Soul Force, he couldn’t actually perceive the existence of this ‘Xu Yan’ that stood before him. It was as if there was absolutely nothing on top of the shoal rock.

Then what could explain this phenomenon happening before his eyes?

“I’ve already left the Chu Territory for several years now. Wouldn’t my little sister have grown up a bit? Clam demon, you’re being a bit too obvious here,” Xu Disheng said casually.

As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately conjured an orb of water in his palm, which he unleashed directly at the lifelike girl before him.

The girl’s expression remained the same as before. As the orb of water exploded on her body, it suddenly warped and dissipated.

“Low-rank Clam Demon slain. +10 points.”

From one of the two tokens that had appeared at his waist before he knew it, a cold, mechanical voice sounded out, presumably originating from the point token.

The view before him warped and distorted, and in the next moment he found himself not on that small island, but in an extravagant palace hall.

“Sheng’er, we’re going to the Central Imperial Province tomorrow. Have you finished making preparations?” Daoist Lord Qingxin’s characteristically flat voice reached his ears, sounding exactly as it did in his memories.

In the seats of honor, the two Daoist Lords were sitting cross-legged, conversing lightheartedly over some tea as they looked over at Xu Disheng.

This place was none other than Daoist Lord Shangyuan’s Dao Palace.

As Xu Disheng examined the lack of expression on Daoist Lord Qingxin’s face, he suddenly felt a sense of familiarity appear in his heart. The sensation was extremely strange, as if he felt like he was about to fall into an all-encompassing immersion with the scene before him.

But once he examined closely, he found that the cups in the Daoist Lords’ hands were completely empty. The smiles on their faces seemed to be frozen, and their movements were stuck somewhere in the middle of raising their teacups to take a sip of tea.

The outside of the hall was an expanse of white, where there was clearly nothing there.

""

Although it looked like the palace hall from his memories, the details had many flaws. Even the intricate carvings on the pillars just looked like an approximate, rough outline.

Xu Disheng’s eyes lingered on Daoist Lord Qingxin for a moment before tossing out several orbs of water, scattering the Clam Demons.

“Low-rank Clam Demon slain. +10 points.”

“Low-rank Clam Demon slain. +10 points.”

“Low-rank Clam Demon slain. +10 points.”

After the three notifications rang out, the scene before his eyes changed once more, seeming somewhat more realistic than before. There was a gigantic circular wrestling ring, and he seemed to be standing in the middle of it. The spectator stands were vague and blurred out, but there were easily several hundred thousand people in the audience, all cheering wildly.

Those first two illusions were most likely just to allow the disciples to gain a preliminary understanding of the clam demons. The contents of the illusions seemed to have been taken from his memories, and there were intentionally a large number of flaws to make it easy for disciples to pass.

The space several dozen meters in front of him suddenly warped, and three white monsters made of mist appeared. As soon as they finished materializing, they launched themselves at Xu Disheng.

At that moment, a voice came from the survival token. “Defeat these three middle-rank Clam Demons to enter the third round of the tournament and be brought to the main setting.”

These three clam demons were at the equivalent of the Sea of Qi stage!

Xu Disheng simply narrowed his eyes and cast a spell.

A rope formed of black Soul Force shot out from the void, binding the three clam demons together and rendering them unable to move another step.

Xu Disheng was simply trying out the effects of the God-Binding Spell, but he ended up being quite satisfied with its might. He casually summoned a few water arrows and made short work of these clam demons.

“Mid-rank Clam Demon slain. +20 points.”

“Mid-rank Clam Demon slain. +20 points.”

“Mid-rank Clam Demon slain. +20 points.”

“You are now entering the main setting of the tournament.”

In the vast distance between the sky and the earth, tempestuous gales howled, and thick, black clouds covered the sky. Lightning occasionally flashed, originating from a point high up in the sky, seeming to tear the heavens asunder.

The soil beneath his feet was an earthy brown. In front of his eyes, there was a seemingly endless complex of stone rooms filling up that expanse of blackish-brown earth as far as his eyes could see.

“Lightning Cloud Stone Island, 9,000 meters in diameter. There are 20,000 stone rooms here, and 20,000 high-rank Clam Demons, each valued unequally somewhere between 10 and several hundred points.”

As all of the disciples began entering the Lightning Cloud Stone Island one after the other, the cold, mechanical voice continued to ring out from the tokens at their waist.

The tournament commenced.

The scenario for the Clam Sea Realm was different each time the tournament was held. Clearly, the randomly generated setting this time was Lightning Cloud Stone Island.

The rules were extremely simple. Kill clam demons or steal points.

But at that moment, Xu Disheng saw several disciples’ figures warp in as they appeared in the setting.

There were two disciples who warped in earlier not far away from them, and immediately began to attack as soon as they appeared.

After a mere two moves, one of the disciples gritted his teeth and crushed his survival token, turning into a beam of light and disappearing.

However, this disciple who was eliminated just now wasn’t able to earn many points at all. By killing those several small-fry clam demons at the beginning which simply served as a tutorial, he managed to net himself a few points, but it was still better than nothing.

“Early Sea of Qi stage? Your luck isn’t bad,” a tender and beautiful woman commented as she appeared several meters away from Xu Disheng. She was giving him an appraising glance, and was about to attack.

“Hmm?” Xu Disheng’s brows creased in displeasure. The Yin Yang Diagram appeared from the void, and he unleashed a brushstroke with it.

The barrier of light from the defensive-type Spirit Tool flashed around the beautiful woman, but broke almost instantly with a shattering sound. It was clearly only a common defensive-type Spirit Tool, as it utterly shattered with a casual move from Xu Disheng.

The expression on the charming face of the woman changed greatly as a realization dawned upon her. She stared at the Yin Yang Diagram floating in the air and exclaimed, “That’s the Yin Yang Diagram! You must be Xu Disheng…! Junior Martial Brother Xu, I’ll give you my point token, and you just let your martial sister go, okay?”

She clearly didn’t want to be sent out immediately after entering the setting.

Xu Disheng suddenly had an amusing thought and smiled. “Actually, when I was looking at the rules for the Clam Sea Realm the other day, I had a certain question regarding them,” he said.

The woman’s expression eased up a bit. The fact that Xu Disheng was willing to speak was a good sign for her. She said in a soft tone, “Junior Martial Brother… No, Senior Martial Brother Xu, what question do you have about the rules regarding this realm? Your Junior Martial Sister here will definitely help you clear things up.”

With these words, she seemed to recover some of her usual charms. Her fair complexion flushed slightly in a tasteful manner.

Eyes gleaming brightly, the youth said, “My question is… Say that some disciples encounter fatal danger and aren’t able to crush their survival tokens in time. What would happen to them then?”

“Huh?” The woman suddenly had a hint of a bad premonition. She reached a slender hand to her waist in an attempt to crush her survival token.

However, her reaction was a bit late. A pure black droplet of water appeared above her head and fell down.

A few moments later, the appealing woman was nothing more than ashes, floating on the wind. Even her storage pouch and survival token were completely annihilated.

Although Xu Disheng’s Summon Rain form only possessed a slight hint of the aura of Pure Oblivion Water, it already had the ability to completely annihilate its target!

The point token, unable to be destroyed, lay there on the ground. It automatically flew towards the point token at Xu Disheng’s waist, melding into it.

“100 points obtained.”

At the same time, in the Green Lotus Domain, a name on the huge screen in the sky darkened, then disappeared altogether shortly after.

But if one looked closely at the huge screen, they would find that there were already quite a few names that had disappeared altogether.

Clearly, there were actually quite a few people who hadn’t managed to crush their survival tokens before dying.

The answer to Xu Disheng’s question was exceedingly simple.

If someone encountered fatal danger and wasn’t able to crush their survival token in time, they would simply meet death.

The sect wouldn’t try to investigate nor pin responsibility on the killer, as the cause for their death was quite obvious. Crushing your survival token only took two breaths of time. Why would the Sacred Sect want a disciple who couldn’t even manage to make two breaths of time to crush their token upon encountering danger?

They would be better off just heading onto the next life, and be reincarnated anew.