Chapter 66

Chapter 66 — Spirit City (1)

It is very late at the night.

The clock ticking ever so slowly, echoing repeatedly throughout the entirety of the hallway.

"How is it? Did it caught your interest?"

The long hallway stretched afar into the darkness, some parts of it even covered with the veils of moonlight.

Ning Chen stood leisurely before Xie Lingling, his eyes glowing captivatingly.

He was shining brightly like a star, but compared to him, Xie Lingling was still cold to the point she was like an endless chilling winter.

She was emotionless as usual, her eyes showing she was currently in deep thoughts.

After pondering deeply for a moment, Xie Lingling finally nodded her head and thought there was no problem to it.

"I agree to the scheme you're plotting, but I must first gain my clan's permission before fully committing to it."

Ning Chen's thin red lips curled upward, his happiness showing evidently within his eyes.

"I'm not in a rush, so I'll wait for the final decision over this matter. However, if your sides agree, I will be expecting a lot from our cooperations."

Xie Lingling nodded with her expression still not changing.

"Is there still anything else you need to say?"

"Uhh, No, nothing else. That's all I needed to say."

"I see... then I'll now excuse myself if there's nothing else left for us to discuss..." Xie Lingling's eyes showed some slight disappointment.

"Okay, goodnight."

Ning Chen didn't noticed her disappointment and just waved his hand slowly. He was now completely used to her icy personality, so he didn't find her bluntness to be so unpleasant.

Contrary to that, he found her to be quite unique and cute in her own ways.

"Now then, I should also return to my room and go to sleep."

He mumbled softly and stared at the clear blue moon hovering above the sky.

What was the scheme he proposed to Xie Lingling earlier you ask?

It wasn't that grand or simple.

It wasn't even complete, but time and connections would eventually complete it to it's very final phase in the future.

He was certain about it.

The very first step involved Xie Lingling. To be more precise, it was her clan, herself and it also involved his own clan.

The keywords for this step were 'Research', 'Guild-Like', 'Pills', and 'Treatment'.

This was a cruel and vicious world. With enough preparations and support, 'it' would surely become something valuable for all spirit masters and ordinary people living in this world.

It would surely become important their life.

Ning Chen wondered if this was gonna turn as a success or as a failure...

However, it was something that would be answered in the future and not at the present... Ning Chen decided to sleep now and prepare for tomorrow.

He didn't wanted to miss tomorrow's tournament gathering.

...

It has been many weeks since the incident and the tournament progressed smoothly with Shi Nian no longer existing in this world anymore.

Ning Chen didn't watched every preselection matches, but he knew that the Shrek Academy had won all of their matches without losing any battles, causing them to easily enter the ranking tournament.

They were now considered as the darkhorse for this year's tournament.

It was the same case at the ranking event of the tournament, The Shrek Academy winning every matches and finally gaining the spot to participate at the final event of the tournament in the end.

The Blazing Academy and Skywater Academy also won their spots to participate in the finals.

The Godwing Academy was supposed to gain a spot, but they were simply unlucky by meeting Shrek Academy and other strong academies constantly.

The Skywater Academy was simply lucky compared to them. The heavens must have smiled upon them because they were all beautiful women.

The finals was nearing soon and Ning Chen just trained as usual.

He didn't trained fabulously nor amazingly. He just continuously swung his sword, honing his basic swordmanship to become sharper and stronger.

He was the unbreakable and sharpest steel — a man of steel. That was Ning Chen's mindset as he trained with his sword.

Ning Chen's swordmanship revolved around protection, fighting, and killing. Those were it's essence that continued to grow stronger within his heart.

It uses the most simple and basic sword moves, fast and powerful. Flowing endlessly like a stream of raging rivers, each strikes connecting smoothly that will cause the momentum to slowly grow stronger.

Ning Chen was truly like a steel, him and his techniques being repeatedly tempered to grow stronger and refined.

He had also trained on controlling his domain to use it more easier and lessen the energy consumption.

In terms of cultivation, Ning Chen had already reached rank 48 and his body growing more powerful with natural energy and his own vigor slowly transforming every drops of his blood into pure power.

In truth, it wasn't only his blood which was transforming. It also applied to his various organs, muscles, bones and his entire cells, but it wasn't clear as his own blood.

Over the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, the teams that gained their spots for the finals were all gathered inside it.

The seeded team — Emperor Team was also attending with Ning Chen leading them.

At the tall and raised platform, the Emperor and Crown Prince stood gracefully there.

"Congratulations! I have witnessed the strength that you all displayed and it was truly an excellent sight! I'm very proud of you all, the blessed children of my empire!"

The Emperor exclaimed with a dignified tone, wearing an elegant smile.

"I also sincerely hope that someone among all of you can win at the finals and bring glory to our empire!"

The Emperor received many applauses as soon as he finished the speech.

Xue Qinghe stepped forward, this time will be the one speaking toward them. He said about empire not holding back on granting excellent rewards to the team who will win tournament.

Ning Chen looked blankly toward Xue Qinghe, feeling his chest hurting a lot. It felt like an invisible sword was piercing through it.

He clutched his chest tightly, feeling it tightening painfully.

"Now that the ranking tournament is now concluded, let us shall head toward the Spirit City now! The empire have already prepared various excellent carriage and imperial guards. I, Xue Qinghe, the crown prince, will also accompany all of you during the travel!"

Xue Qinghe announced with a large, dignified smile.

A wonderful fireworks exploded at the sky ans drums reverberated along with the many cheers that echoed loudly throughout the lands.

All of the qualified teams soon went to their own respective private carriage, departing toward the Spirit City.

Ning Chen had of course travelled with the Emperor Team. They had more imperial guards around them compared to the others.

Their carriage was also much more larger and comfortable to travel with, not even allowing them to experience any bump and discomfort.

Ning Chen looked outside the window and stared at the golden imperial carriage located at the very front of them.

He smiled faintly and thought this was all the work of Xue Qinghe. His friend was truly thoughtful, enough to even make him feel slightly guilty about thinking things about betrayal.

While they were on their way toward the Spirit City, the Emperor Team and Ning Chen started discussing things with each other.

Their topic was mainly about their opponents and the tournament finals.

After exchanging their thoughts, they were able to conclude that the teams they should be careful were the Shrek Academy, Spirit Hall Academy and Star Lou Empire's Academy.

It was very natural.

The Emperor Team had suffered defeats and understand the disparity between themselves and Spirit Hall Academy and also the Star Lou Academy.

As for why Shrek Academy was included, it was because Bai Chenxiang was with them. The Emperor Team knew just how strong she was.

In the past, she was known as the second rank of the entire Imperial academy. Ning Chen being the first rank.

The rest of the Shrek were also formidable, even managing to defeat them once in the past.

Ning Chen was much more optimistic than them and quickly reassured that the results of their training wouldn't betray them.

The Emperor Team felt slightly more confident, but there were still some doubts about their own capabilities.

In the end, they decided to focus on cultivating to calm their restless heart before reaching the Spirit City.

Ning Chen also decided to only cultivate since it was the only thing they could do. He would feel his body becoming restless, wanting to swing the sword around, but he definitely couldn't do It inside the carriage. Moreover, they were only able to have some short time outside and were mostly inside the carriage.

He could only bitterly endure it and just considered this as way of training his mind that can clear away all kinds of temptations.

Several days later, Ning Chen was meditating while sitting cross-legged with Kel'al placed silently above his legs.

Since he wasn't able to physically train using the sword, he had the brilliant idea of training mentally.

It was the so-called image training where he could die as many as he wants.

Ning Chen was currently fighting against a shadow of himself inside his mind space, the place where his spiritual strength originated.

He didn't use any spirit abilities, only pure swordmanship that compromised of various basic moves.

Furthermore, because of his Thoughts Separation Technique, his other thought possessed the shadow he was fighting, making it a real individual by temporarily cutting it's link with the main thought.

This way it would seem like Ning Chen was fighting against a real opponent that had it's own unique independent thoughts about combat and something not just made up by his own mind.

This would make his training with the sword and gaining combat experiences more easier and efficient. He could also learn more about his deficiencies and mistakes clearly through the other thoughts of the shadow.

Ning Chen was sweating lightly in the real world, his muscles continuously twitching unpleasantly.

His brows were furrowed tightly, but it soon loosen afterward. He opened his eyes, hearing from someone that Xue Qinghe wanted to see him.

Ning Chen stood up and wiped the light sweats trickling down his forehead, walking to Xue Qinghe's carriage.

He entered Xue Qinghe's private carriage and quickly saw him.

It has been some quite of time since the two of them had last met. Probably because of Xue Qinghe being busy with the tournament.

Ning Chen then remembered what happened between them inside the nightmare, causing him to feel slightly awkward around Xue Qinghe.

Xue Qinghe quickly greeted him and Ning Chen also did the same thing, but he wasn't able to hide his troubled expression.

"Why did you wanted to meet me?"

"Before I answer that, why are you looking like that? Did something bad happened? You can tell me about it, I'll help you." Xue Qinghe asked worriedly.

Ning Chen shook his head, waving his hand slowly.

"No, its fine. I prefer to keep it myself for now."

"Hmm, I understand... But if you can't handle it all alone, you can share it with others. It might lessen it somehow."

"Umu."

Ning Chen nodded slowly, but then remembered someone also saying those kind of words to him before, causing him to laugh aloud lightly.

Xue Qinghe looked at him weirdly.

"What's so funny? Have you perhaps lose some screws on your head?"

"Haha, not at all. I just remembered something back in the past."

Ning Chen chuckled, but then felt he was somewhat correct about something...

"It must be something unforgettable for you to still remember and also laugh at it."

Xue Qinghe said with his lips curling upward. It must be something embarassing, but he soon shook his head and returned to the main topic.

"Ning Chen, you must definitely not lower your guard during this travel and even at the spirit city. I suspect something bad will happen..."

Ning Chen turned serious in an instant, nodding at these words.

"Why do you think so?"

"My intuition. I know it might not sound so reliable, but sometimes it's very reliable."

Ning Chen was about to reply with mixed-feelings, but then abruptly heard a loud explosion outside and also the shouts of many people.

"An enemy attack!"

"Protect Everyone!"

Ning Chen looked toward Xue Qinghe with disbelief. He didn't expected his words to be true.

"You! Are you a prophet or something!?"

Xue Qinghe also appeared to be somewhat perplexed, not expecting It to truly happened.

It seems like he somehow planted their (death) flags by saying those words.

....

Errr, sorry for not updating for a long time. I definitely didn't said — cough* cough* that I would just take me two days break... Cough* I think you have mistaken.

It was also mainly because I have been too busy with school works and some of my projects even needed me to throw away all my dignity and shame ;-;

Anyway, the attackers are from Spirit hall, just like the original.