Chapter Ninety-Five: Arrival at Everjoy City

The days of cultivation slipped by silently.

A full day had passed since Ye Cheng entered the state of compressing his vital blood, yet he still showed no sign of awakening. His eyes remained tightly shut, and he sat there as still as a dying tree. Only the increasingly condensed pulse of blood energy around him revealed that he was deep in cultivation.

On the second day, the invisible blood energy radiating from Ye Cheng’s body seemed on the verge of coalescing into a blood mist. The terrifying aura continued to rise, leaving Nan Gongxue, Elder Wu, and the third commander, Wang Yang, deeply shaken.

“Commander Wang, didn’t you say that this state of compressing vital blood and condensing starlight blood crystal would last at most a day or so? It’s already been two days. Why is he still like this?” Nan Gongxue asked in confusion.

“Young Brother Ye’s condition is beyond all reason,” Third Commander Wang Yang said with a strange expression, gazing at Ye Cheng with a wry smile. The youth before him had overturned everything he thought he knew about compressing vital blood. “I have never seen anyone able to sustain this for so long. But there is only one explanation for Young Brother Ye’s present state.”

“What explanation?” Nan Gongxue asked.

“The vital blood within him is simply too terrifying. It takes far more time than it would for anyone else,” Wang Yang said solemnly.

It was not until the third day that the blood energy surrounding Ye Cheng had condensed to the point where it seemed almost tangible. With every breath, the blood energy trembled, and even the air itself was affected. Throughout the entire flying vessel, an increasingly dreadful aura lingered.

...

After traveling in this manner, the flying vessel carrying Ye Cheng and the others gradually drew near the borders of Forever Glory City. It was believed that in another hour, they would arrive.

Forever Glory City lay in the southeast of the region, and the broad roads leading in and out had made it a renowned great city in the southeast. Here, countless powerhouses gathered. Experts of the Ancient Core Realm, so rare in Luo Yang Town that one might search long without finding even one, were by no means uncommon in Forever Glory City.

Within the city, the Nan Gong clan had been designated by the former lord of South Sun Prefecture to inherit control over this city. Within the Nan Gong clan itself, several Ancient Core Realm experts were even stationed in residence.

But aside from the Nan Gong clan, there were also other powerful factions in this vast place, though naturally they were somewhat inferior to the Nan Gong clan. Among them, the Blood Slaughter Gang was one of the stronger powers, also possessing Ancient Core Realm experts of its own.

They had long coveted the authority held by the Nan Gong clan over this land. However, with the former lord of South Sun Prefecture backing the Nan Gong clan, they had not dared act rashly.

Recently, though, the Blood Slaughter Gang had changed from its former obedient behavior. In Forever Glory City, they had brazenly allied with several other not-weak factions, openly opposing the Nan Gong clan and even forcing them to agree to relinquish the chosen prodigy quota.

The reason they dared do so was only one: the former prefectural lord had mysteriously vanished, and the current head of the Nan Gong clan, Nan Gong Xiong, was gravely injured and unconscious.

Of course, the Nan Gong clan would never agree to such a demand. The Chosen is a stage leading to strength, one that allows gifted younger disciples to gain better development, and it has a direct impact on an entire clan or faction.

Because Nan Gong Xiong, the clan’s strongest expert, was seriously injured and unconscious, the overall strength of the Nan Gong clan had fallen considerably. Compared with the Blood Slaughter Gang, which had gathered many allied factions, they were now somewhat weaker. In the end, the two sides reached an agreement: the quota for the Chosen would be decided by a contest among the younger generation.

There was only one requirement for participation: anyone under seventeen could enter. Victory would be determined by best two out of three.

After so many days of nonstop travel, the outline of a massive city finally appeared at the far end of Elder Wu’s sight as he controlled the flying vessel. Under the sunlight in the sky, that distant giant city resembled an ancient beast coiled upon the land.

“Miss, we’re nearing the city. Shall we go in?” Elder Wu’s voice came from outside.

At the sound, Nan Gongxue also woke from cultivation and glanced at Ye Cheng, who was still immersed in the silent compression of his blood energy, her delicate brows furrowing.

“Miss Xue, flying spiritual artifacts are forbidden inside the city. Since Brother Ye has not awakened yet, and there are still several days before the contest begins, we may as well wait a little longer. Once he wakes, we can enter the city. Besides, from the looks of it, Young Brother Ye should complete this compression of vital blood before long,” Third Commander Wang Yang said, looking at Ye Cheng.

He could sense that the blood energy within the latter had become extremely refined, and that the blood energy throughout his body was beginning to withdraw inward.

Nan Gongxue nodded, then said to Elder Wu outside, “Set down two li outside the city gates.”

Elder Wu obeyed Nan Gongxue’s instructions and brought the flying vessel down in a small hillside area two li beyond the gates of Forever Glory City. The three of them watched Ye Cheng quietly, waiting for him to awaken.

At that moment, although Ye Cheng remained in a state of cultivation, he could naturally sense what was happening outside. From the conversation between Nan Gongxue and the others, he had also come to understand that, without realizing it, he had already begun stepping onto the path toward the great perfection of the Vital Blood Realm. But at present, he had only just begun.

Although his six senses were not completely sealed, and the three outside were watching him from nearby, he could not awaken. Right now he was at the most crucial point in condensing the starlight blood crystal. Behind his dantian had appeared a blood vortex compressed from vital blood.

Yet though blood energy was continuously being compressed into it, a considerable amount was still leaking out. Clearly, this blood vortex was unstable.

Ye Cheng understood that if he loosened his control over the remaining blood energy, the blood energy he had painstakingly compressed over the past three days, and the vortex formed from it, would once again run out of control and revert to a state of diffuse blood energy. All his previous efforts would be lost.

So he could only continue, focusing his mind to the utmost and guiding every last trace of remaining blood energy within his body into that vortex.

By the time half a day had passed, the sun that had risen in the east had already begun to sink toward the western horizon. Nan Gongxue, Elder Wu, and Third Commander Wang Yang did not use cultivation to pass the time, for they could all feel the changes taking place in Ye Cheng’s body.

A moment ago, his blood energy had still been surging, but now it had completely dissipated. They could sense not a trace of it at all, and precisely because of that, they understood even more clearly that the youth before them had likely taken a great step forward in martial dao.

“It’s time.”

Ye Cheng’s hands suddenly moved under the watchful eyes of Nan Gongxue and the others, forming a strange seal before his chest. Spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered...

“So he actually drew in primal energy. Truly remarkable!” Elder Wu exclaimed in surprise.

“Congeal!” A sharp cry rang out in Ye Cheng’s mind. The blood vortex inside him, which had drawn in all the blood energy throughout his body, suddenly trembled. Blood energy interwove, and the outline of a crystal began to take shape.