Lord Xue Ying
chapter-337

Xue Ying raised his head and looked around, taking in deep breaths all the while. The baleful aura and resentment prevalent in this blood-colored battle platform could not hinder his incomparably joyful mood.

After the battle, his spirit relaxed, and an endless wave of exhaustion rushed into his mind.

This relaxed and tired feeling drew an unpreventable grin from Xue Ying. He knelt down, stroking the ice-cold arena, and, feeling the icy chill, muttered, "I’ve won. What about the blood battle platform? I still won, and I’ve already broken through the fourth vine leaf world. Right now, only the fifth vine leaf world is left. Jing Qiu, wait for me; I will return!"

He then abruptly rose and caressed the Stellar Fire Cloud Spear in his hands. It was this spear in his palm that had accompanied him the entire way, always charging through up till now.

"We will continue to break through—breaking through to the very end." Xue Ying smiled and out of the blood-colored battle platform’s arena. The protective shroud around the arena had already faded away. Entering the entrance passage, he quickly walked out of the blood battle platform structure.

Sou.

After exiting the majestic Blood Battle Platform structure, Xue Ying immediately soared into the sky.

Around him was an endlessly dark, starry sky. Further away, there were innumerable stars.

A vision of silence.

Xue Ying looked at this lonesome scene and flew away, smiling. As the hex poison’s torment strengthened, Xue Ying withdrew the black gourd and drank a mouthful of antidote.

...

He flew the entire journey of eight seemingly endless days.

Xue Ying flew almost to the space’s apex. He raised his head and looked upward. Catching sight of an incorporeal space membrane, he realized that above him...was another space. The Sky-Reaching Vine’s trunk continued to extend, squeezing past the space’s membrane.

"As long as I pass through this fifth vine leaf world, I can enter a higher level of space along the Sky-Reaching Vine, thus becoming the Crimson Rock Mountain’s honorary disciple. I would obtain many things that I have wanted, including treasures that even the high-tiered, aloof, powerful World Deities would covet." Xue Ying extremely anticipated that day. "Of course, there’s still this last obstruction."

Xue Ying’s gaze landed on the huge leaf beside him.

This was the fifth vine leaf.

The vine leaf was absolutely empty; there was nothing but the leaf itself. Other than that, there existed nothing else.

"Xia Clan Transcendent." Emerging from the Sky-Reaching Vine to appear by Xue Ying’s side, the green-haired Xi Wei looked at Xue Ying, a trace of expectation in her eyes. "Congratulations on arriving at the fifth vine leaf. This world may seem the simplest of all the vine leafs, but it is also the most difficult. The trial varies from person to person."

Xue Ying nodded.

"As long as you land on the fifth vine leaf, as long as your body touches the fifth vine leaf, you won’t be able to hear, won’t be able to see, and won’t even be able to feel anything outside of the vine leaf world… What you have to do is live on the fifth vine leaf world for three years.

"If you live, you will have succeeded. You will be able to become an honorary disciple of my Crimson Rock Mountain.

"If you don’t, your soul’s consciousness will collapse; as a result, the body dies."

Xi Wei looked at him. "Do you understand?"

"I understand." Xue Ying nodded. He had the Xia Clan’s intelligence as well as the evidence given by Chen Jiu. Naturally, he clearly knew about the fifth vine leaf world’s trial. This was the only vine leaf world that didn’t require battle. It seemed the simplest, but it was actually determined to be extremely, extremely difficult according to the intelligence. At that time, in the Deity world, many Transcendents overflowing with talent were halted at the fifth vine leaf world. Here, their soul’s consciousness collapsed and died.

"Go." Xi Wei’s eyes held expectation. It had been too long. Since the owner died, there had not been an honorary disciple in a very long time.

Xue Ying withdrew the black gourd and drunk a mouthful of the Hundred Bitter Restoration antidote. Immediately afterward, without the slightest hesitation, he dived down, charging into the fifth vine leaf world.

Xi Wei looked down at him, softly muttering, "Of those few, according to talent and potential, this Xue Ying has the highest. Compared to the other three, however, Xue Ying is still too young. The tribulations he had experienced must be relatively fewer. I don’t know if he can break through this fifth vine leaf world. I hope this genius Transcendent doesn’t fall here."

She thought of helping him, but she didn’t have the authority to.

Everything was set down by the sacred master! One must follow his rules.

The fifth vine leaf world’s trial… At that time, the sacred master had determined that the Transcendents rushing over would have all reached the limit of the Demigod realm in all likelihood. Their cultivation would generally be at least two thousand years of experience, as they usually came only to test themselves upon reaching a nigh impossible to surpass bottleneck. Therefore, the test was naturally very difficult.

"The previous four trials were not that bad, but this fifth trial tests the inner heart." Xi Wei felt anxious. "Dong Bo Xue Ying’s temperament is very high, but that’s simply in regard to the absolute majority of Transcendents being mediocre. If compared to the Meishan Clan Master, Jian Huang, and Chen Jiu, I fear that he is nothing special."

The inner heart’s cultivation required time.

For example, those deities who had lived for millions of years… Each and every one of their inner hearts were incomparably strong. This was because those with weak inner hearts fundamentally couldn’t live that long. Under the endlessly long passage of time, they would feel increasingly old, increasingly tired, and increasingly dull, so much so that they would doubt their cultivation path. In the end, their deity heart collapsed, resulting in death.

Therefore, to be able to live that long, it did not matter if their inner hearts were righteous or wicked, as long as they kept persevering with it.

Yet, Xue Ying had only lived for two hundred years.

...

Hu.

Xue Ying dived down and only slowed down when approaching the huge leaf vine. He slowly descended onto the ground.

The instant his two feet touched the vine leaf...

An expanse of pitch-blackness! An expanse of silence!

"Eyes unable to see. Ears unable to hear. All Laws and Profound Mysteries incapable of being felt." Xue Ying felt incomparable loneliness. Nothing outside this vine leaf world could be felt; all he could sense was his own heartbeat and internal blood flow. Of course, he also felt the gradually increasing pain of the hex poison within. It felt like only he was left in the heavens and earth; everything else had ceased to exist.

"His eyes cannot see, ears cannot hear, and all laws and profound mysteries are incapable of being felt." Xue Ying felt incomparable loneliness, everything external could not be felt, he could only sense his own heartbeat and his internal blood’s flow. Of course, there was still that little by little, gradually increasing witch poisons’ pain. It was like, There was only himself left over within the heavens and earth, everything else doesn’t exist.

Xue Ying sat down cross-legged, surrounded in silence.

He was used to this type of absolute loneliness.

Gradually...

Time seemed as if it had become very, very slow. Fortunately, through his heartbeat and the intensification of the hex poison’s torment, he could judge time. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to judge the passage of time.

Xue Ying’s inner heart was indeed very formidable. Since he was eight years of age, he had practiced the spear alone like a crazy devil. He had been accustomed to this loneliness back in his childhood. When he had turned twenty-two, he had also lived alone in the Black-Wind Abyss’ Black Wind Deity Palace for a full six years. Furthermore, the Six Ghosts Resentment hex poison had tormented him for a century. Up until that point, Xue Ying would only take the antidote at the very last moment for nearly every single day.

Every day, he had to fight with himself! Every time, he had to endure until he could no longer hold on. Under this type of torment, Xue Ying’s inner heart and will was frighteningly valiant.

Nonetheless, everything external could not be felt… Ordinary mortals would probably collapsed and go mad in a cup of tea. Even ordinary Transcendents would hardly endure a month. This was more trying than a mere punishment’s torment. In the midst of absolute loneliness, even thought would become very slow. It was as if the entire world was a speck of nothingness, a speck of emptiness.

...

Xue Ying sat cross-legged in the fifth vine leaf world. Based on the hex poison’s pain, every time it reached the limit, he would again drink the antidote.

A year of time passed, and he remained very serene!

This type of sereneness made Xi Wei, who was watching in secret, very surprised. "This young Transcendent has only cultivated for two hundred years, yet his inner heart is so stable? Even if the Six Ghosts Resentment’s torment could also toughen his inner heart’s willpower, under a year of absolute loneliness, he just endured like this?"

Hu. From the base of the Sky-Reaching Vine’s trunk, a figure flew up. It was the Meishan Clan Master.

The Meishan Clan Master flew up high and saw Xue Ying sitting cross-legged in the fifth vine leaf world. He couldn’t help but show a look of surprise. "Xue Ying came up before me by a year. Suppressed by the fifth vine leaf world’s ‘passage of death,’ he is still extremely serene, according to his facial expression, despite a year passing. It’s truly extraordinary."

Usually, due to the undulations of the heart, one’s expression would also change.

Xue Ying’s face was serene. Evidently, a year of the ‘passage of death’ did not affect him much.

"Congratulations to you." The green-haired Xi Wei serenely looked at the Meishan Clan Master. "This is the end—the fifth vine leaf world."