Chapter 0001: Jiang Chen

Viewing from afar, a mountain range reaches a thousand zhang into the sky. Dozens of majestic mountains appear in sight. A mountain peak seems to have been slashed by a knife as the top of this mountain is flat. From the foot to the summit numerous buildings are situated on it, so the whole mountain seems to be covered by a gorgeous coat.

The Three Stars Sect was located in the southern part of the East Mysterious country. Reputed to have a thousand outer sect disciples and three hundred inner sect disciples.

At the foot of a mediocre mountain in a small courtyard, Jiang Chen continued to practice the sword. His sword seemed simple and lacking magnificence, yet every thrust concealed a killing technique. However, in the eyes of outsiders, it seemed too plain.

Not too long ago, Jiang Chen’s sword was famed in the outer sect as acutely sharp by all.

After practicing his sword, Jiang Chen sheathed it into its scabbard, closed the door of his courtyard, and advanced halfway up the mountain road. On the mountain road, Jiang Chen walked by himself in silence. Beside him, falling maple leaves flew in the wind.A group of disciples walked down the mountain road and brushed past Jiang Chen.

“See, this Jiang Chen is the outer sect’s most shameless, despicable disciple. For some herbs, he actually sneak attacked his best friend to eliminate witnesses.”

“I heard that senior Jiang Chen was the outer sect’s most frightening disciple in the last decade, possessing stunning ability. He and Gu Qingyuan were two brothers. The outer sect’s impressive heavenly disciples.” said a new outer sect disciple, who was puzzled.

“You have only joined the outer sect for several days and have not understood his ugliness. In one year, you will…”

As the voices trailed away, Jiang Chen’s face showed a hint of a self-depreciating smile.

‘Gu Qingyuan, you are really good. Able to turn right and wrong upside-down, remembering everything between you and me…’

‘Never mind. My eyes should not have these tears, my reason ought to…’

Three years ago, he and Gu Qingyuan both entered the sect. At that time, they both were unremarkable at the 3rd stage of the Qi Sea realm. As they both were swordsmen, over time they became good friends and frequently compared notes in swordplay.

Jiang Chen’s sword was sharp and acute, every blow had swiftness and fierceness as the final objective.

Gu Qingyuan’s sword was filled with gorgeous beauty, not allowing people to breathe.

Always shining like gold, not only in swordsmanship, their cultivation speed was also incredible. At 13 years of age, the two together stepped into the 4th stage of the Qi Sea realm. At 14 years of age, they both entered the 7th stage of the Qi Sea realm, shocking the entire outer sect. Even when they were not one of the outer sect’s top ten disciples, they were called as the outer sect’s impressive heavenly disciples with unlimited potential.

But all this was the public judgement of the two men. In Jiang Chen’s eyes, Gu Qingyuan’s sword was certainly strong, yet he failed to be Jiang Chen’s opponent. If he went all-out, Jiang Chen would defeat him in 10 blows, but taking Gu Qingyuan’s face into account, he had never defeated him in public.

Also, Gu Qingyuan had never conceded to him in public.

But Jiang Chen never expected Gu Qingyuan to attack him! His deadly sword pierced his 7thstage Qi Sea, reducing his cultivation to the peak of 6th stage Qi Sea and seriously injuring him, but still leaving him the energy to fight back. His sword pierced Gu Qingyuan’s body, unfortunately failing to penetrate his Qi Sea.

If it were only so, Jiang Chen would have paid back Gu Qingyuan because he was unlikely to bear this injustice.

Gu Qingyuan’s attack on Jiang Chen was not noticed, but Jiang Chen’s sword piercing Gu Qingyuan was seen by coincidentally passing outer sect disciples.

With his 7th Qi Sea punctured, Jiang Chen’s qi began rebelling, causing him to fall unconscious on the spot. In front of several outer sect disciples, Gu Qingyuan had to save his face, he could not kill Jiang Chen.

After this, ‘Jiang Chen attacked best friend, intending to kill the witnesses to monopolize Seven Heart Grass herb’ rumours spread like wildfire.

Right and wrong was completely inverted.

Next year, the injured Jiang Chen laid in bed for months, his 7th Qi Sea being punctured was not a trivial matter. If no fortuitous event occurred then it was no longer possible for Jiang Chen to enter the peak 7th Qi Sea realm, even surpassing the 7th Qi realm was impossible.

And this year, Gu Qingyuan moved forward to step into the 9th Qi Sea realm, becoming the first of the 10 outer disciples, if no accident occurred then next year, at the age of 16, he will inevitably break through to the Soaring Sky realm and become an inner sect disciple.

From now on, these two individual were as different as black and white in this world.

…

Clearing the vague memories from his head, Jiang Chen had already arrived at the gate of the sect’s contribution hall.

The Contribution hall is the place where contribution points can be exchanged.

Looking at his record crystal, the contribution points given by the sect had finally reached 1000 points, Jiang Chen’s heart tightened.

Sect contribution was important, as it can be used to exchange for martial arts manuals. It can also be used to exchange for low-grade spirit stones for cultivation and can be used to exchange for medicinal pills or possibly even treasure weapons! From the inner sect’s elders, nobody could possibly dislike sect contribution points for oneself. Just wait to accumulate more.  

1000 sect contribution points are not that much.

In the sect, the worst Yellow level low-grade sword technique requires 200 sect contribution points, the worst Yellow level mid-grade sword technique requires 500 sect contribution points and the worst Yellow level high-grade sword technique requires 1500 sect contribution points.  

Of course, Yellow level low-grade and mid-grade sword techniques are not lacked by Jiang Chen. Prior to breaking through to the 7th Qi Lake he had learned 10 Yellow level low-level sword techniques and four mid-level sword techniques. He and Gu Qingyuan were different.  He paid more attention to basic, lower level sword techniques, admittedly, the killing power of the techniques was lower. However, it does allow him to clearly comprehend the sword Dao, arriving at the inner essence. After all, no matter how powerful a sword technique was, it was developed through rudimentary sword techniques. 
 

“According to Gu Yingyuan’s temper, he should have exchanged for two or more Yellow-level high-grade sword techniques, right?”

Martial arts sword techniques were divided into three levels of Heaven and Earth, Black and Yellow. The power possessed by every layer was a far cry from the other. Yellow level high-grade sword techniques are the most powerful among Yellow level sword techniques. The profound mysteries of the Yellow level middle-grade sword techniques were not comparable. In a period of time, famous sects divided sword techniques to produce together a complete sword technique. At a crucial moment, it can exceed the depth of the founding techniques, exceed the predecessors by a slight amount. In the past, Jiang Chen had once seen an outer sect elder fully use an excessive sword technique. One sword blow truly produced two spatial cracks! A sword technique was equivalent to two people simultaneously killing; needless to think of resisting and blocking continuously, there would be no time to react.

But for now, Jiang Chen did not intend to exchange for Yellow level-high grade sword technique, too many sect contribution points were required. He currently needed a Fantasy Crystal Grass.

“Bi Qing, look, your formerly most admired person, Jiang Chen, hey!”

The Contribution Hall was filled with many outer sect disciples who wished to exchange Contribution Points, several outer sect female disciple’s eyes fell on Jiang Chen, arousing whispers.

“Liu Ling, do not speak, I admired him once, but the current him is unworthy of my admiration. His 7th Qi Sea was broken and in this life he cannot break through peak 6th Qi Sea. I,  in the near future, will be able to break through to the Soaring Sky realm. We are two people belonging to two different worlds. Presently ,among the outer sect, the person who deserves my admiration is only Gu Qingyuan. His sword technique is gorgeous and overbearing, he is almost on the level of inner sect disciples.” 

“Indeed, according to Gu Qingyuan’s followers, he said that in terms of sword technique, he was stronger than Jiang Chen, but wanting to save his face, never defeated him in public.”

“Gu Qingyuan was so kind, but how could he expect Jiang Chen to be such a thankless ingrate.” 

The whispers of several people was not hidden from Jiang Chen, but Jiang Chen had become long-accustomed to this slander.  After all, even if he refused to accept things, he would ultimately lose out anyway. For a lie said a thousand times becomes a truth, without possessing sufficient strength, desiring to smash apart this one truth will only bring the result of having his head broken and blood flowing.

“Fantasy Crystal Grass for three hundred sect contribution points, how many strains do you need?” Contribution Hall’s Elder asked Jiang Chen.

“3”

Jiang Chen said.

“Three strains, 900 sect contribution points, take this.”

Deducting 900 contribution sect points from Jiang Chen, the Sect Contribution Hall elder handed three strains of Fantasy Crystal Grass to Jiang Chen. 

Exiting the Contribution Hall, Jiang Chen took a deep breath and walked towards the foot of the mountain.

……

In a small room, was sitting on a praying mat. Jiang Chen’s face was wet with perspiration and looking ferocious.  Every time he took a Fantasy Crystal Grass he would mentally torture himself.

Magic Crystal Grass is a 2-star low-grade medicinal herb possessing strong hallucinatory effects, the smoke of this Fantasy Crystal Grass’s hallucinatory effect is famous in the country. Any normal person would be unlikely to take this herb, but this was already Jiang Chen’s fourth time taking this herb.

Jiang Chen was naturally not diseased, he chose to take Fantasy Crystal Grass to practice a secret technique called Void Sword Body.

Void Sword Body… In his childhood, Jiang Chen found this secret technique. He had been practicing this technique for a whole seven years, but in these seven years, he had failed to practice to the First Layer of the Void Sword Body technique. Despite this, it’s benefits had been unthinkable. If not for the Void Sword Body, he would not have been able to keep up with Gu Qingyuan’s cultivation. If he broke through the First Layer of the Void Sword Body, he would be able to defeat Gu Qingyuan in 10 sword blows.

Void Sword Body was not a simple martial art, but rather a type of spiritual realm, or a spiritual sword technique. It can imbue Jiang Chen’s ordinary sword techniques with incredible killing power.

Realizing the use of hallucinogenic herbs to cultivate the Void Sword Body in the previous year, within a Magical Forest there are many hallucinogenic plants, because of a mistake Jiang Chen inhaled hallucinogenic powder. His slow-progressing Void Sword Body unexpectedly began to rapidly work, like a fish in water. After this, Jiang Chen began to try hallucinogenic herbs to cultivate the Void Sword body. At first he was only willing to take 1-star hallucinogenic plants, gradually their effects started reducing. So he changed to 2-star Fantasy Crystal Grass hallucinogenic herbs.

Fantasy Crystal Grass’s hallucinogenic properties were many times more terrible compared to 1-star hallucinogenic herbs. If given to any other Qi Sea martial artist, maybe he will be tortured to death by hallucinations.

Bean-sized drops of sweat fell down, Jiang Chen was extremely pale. His facial expression began to change irregularly; sometimes angry, sometimes happy, sometimes confused, sometimes furious, and sometimes in despair,  yet occasionally his face was tranquil. This scene was extremely strange.

Outside, the night gradually receded and dawn arrived.

The hallucinogenic effects of the Fantasy Crystal Grass were extremely powerful, a full five hours passed by. Jiang Chen only came out of the hallucination and opened his eyes at that moment. He saw two illusionary streaks of sword light flash past, ice-cold to the bone.

“Now my Void Sword Body has become stronger than before, and although my cultivation hasn’t inched forward, yet my strength compared to before has multiplied.”

Void Sword Body was Jiang Chen’s hidden trump card. In any case he cannot reveal its existence.

The world was too big. It’s vastness was beyond Jiang Chen’s imagination. Currently, he only knew that the land where they lived was called Dong Huan continent. Dong Huan continent was unknown. How many hundreds of thousands of miles long. It was unknown how many hundreds of thousands of miles wide. Such a big continent was naturally filled with powers, more than even the stars in the sky. There were too many to count! In comparison, the sects were truly nothing. Merely the Three Star Sect’s power in the continent cannot be considered to be at the bottom, it’s background wasn’t bad.

In addition to human forces, the continent had all kinds of terrible beasts. A few beasts were powerful enough to cause matchless terror. Relying on themselves they can cause endless destruction, such as the Death Plain’s grim reaper, Titan Wolf, the Dark Mist Marsh’s Nine Headed Serpent, the Ten Thousand Poison Mountain Range’s Spider Emperor, the Snow Domain’s Frost Dragon! These areas were restricted to humanity. If you go in, you cannot hope to come out! Even humanity’s strongest are reluctant to provoke them.

Jiang Chen’s target was magnificent and distant. This sect was merely an insignificant starting point for him. He was unlikely to stay here for a lifetime. As for Gu Qingyuan? He was only a small setback in his initial stage of life.