Chapter 360 - 356: The Worst One
Behind Hong Yu, the Martial Fortune Tower, which was already twenty zhang tall, suddenly trembled.
At the same time...
The Profound Celestial Tower within Hong Yu’s body also responded with a strange throb.
Amidst the throbbing, a mysterious connection intertwined between the Martial Fortune Tower and the Profound Celestial Tower, linking them together.
"What’s going on?"
Hong Yu was stunned.
Ever since he’d claimed ownership of it, the Profound Celestial Tower had always been as immovable as Mount Tai. Even when he faced life-or-death crises, it had never shown the slightest reaction.
’But now, it’s actively linking with the Martial Fortune Tower?’
’Is this a good thing or a bad thing?’
Just as Hong Yu was feeling bewildered, the connection between the Profound Celestial Tower and the Martial Fortune Tower finally stabilized.
Almost simultaneously, an extremely bizarre wave of energy pulsed from the Profound Celestial Tower.
When this energy wave permeated the Martial Fortune Tower, the tower, originally twenty zhang tall, shuddered. Then, as if shrinking, it began to continuously get smaller.
From twenty zhang, it gradually shrank.
Nineteen zhang...
Eighteen zhang...
Seventeen zhang...
Hong Yu blankly felt his Martial Fortune Tower shrinking, his expression shifting continuously.
"Stop! Stop, damn it...!"
Hong Yu roared in fury.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop the Martial Fortune Tower from shrinking.
He couldn’t even slow it down.
This made Hong Yu feel despair. He roared furiously, "Little One, get your ass out here!"
"What, what? What’s going on now?" Little One said lazily.
The Big Smoking Pipe in his hand puffed away, constantly emitting wisps of white smoke.
After joining forces with Hong Yu to plunder the wealth of several major powers and experts, Little One’s own pockets had gotten much fatter. In the past, he had to be cautious with even a single Tier One Spirit Medicine. Now, he could light up that Big Smoking Pipe without a care in the world!
Hong Yu raged, "You’re asking me what’s wrong? Hurry up and make the Profound Celestial Tower stop! Goddammit, it’s devouring the True Dragon Martial Fortune I worked my ass off to absorb!"
"Oh, and here I thought it was something serious. So that’s what this is about!"
Little One stuffed another Tier Two Spirit Medicine, a Red Flame Ginseng, into his Smoking Pipe. He took a deep drag, exhaling a puff of white smoke that gathered in the air and formed a strange Exotic Beast.
The Exotic Beast roared before drilling into Little One’s body through his nose.
He said lazily, "Don’t worry, the Profound Celestial Tower wouldn’t screw you over. It’s not stealing your True Dragon Martial Fortune. Sense it carefully. Hasn’t your Martial Fortune Tower changed in some way?"
"Hmm?"
Hong Yu paused.
Although Little One was often unreliable and always seemed to drop the ball at critical moments...
However...
He rarely spoke without a purpose.
’In that case, could it be that the Profound Celestial Tower devouring the True Dragon Martial Fortune I’d worked so hard to absorb is actually... helping me?’
At this thought, Hong Yu calmed his agitated heart and began to carefully sense the changes in his Martial Fortune Tower.
Once, twice, three times...
After a full four or five inspections, Hong Yu still hadn’t found any change in the Martial Fortune Tower.
He took a deep breath and checked again.
Finally...
On his ninth inspection, Hong Yu discovered a subtle change within the Martial Fortune Tower.
"Wh-what’s going on?" Hong Yu’s eyes flew wide open.
He discovered that although his Martial Fortune Tower was shrinking, having gone from twenty zhang to a mere thirteen, the True Dragon Martial Fortune within it was becoming increasingly pure.
For example!
The amount of True Dragon Martial Fortune he had absorbed was still one hundred units, but before, that one hundred units filled a twenty-zhang tower.
Now, the same one hundred units of True Dragon Martial Fortune only filled thirteen zhang!
"The Profound Celestial Tower is... compressing the True Dragon Martial Fortune?" Hong Yu asked in surprise.
Little One nodded. "True Dragon Martial Fortune is, in essence, a type of energy. The Profound Celestial Tower’s most basic ability is to convert and purify energy. You should have noticed this long ago..."
Hong Yu nodded in agreement.
Back when he was still in the Essence Realm, he had relied on the Profound Celestial Tower to absorb the energy from Spirit Medicines, converting it to open the Shadow Martial Space and allowing him to comprehend more Martial Skills and Cultivation Techniques.
At the same time...
The Profound Celestial Tower also had the ability to purify energy and nourish his Primordial Veins.
It was just that as his strength increased, he began to rely more on Pills and no longer used the Profound Celestial Tower to directly absorb energy.
Over time, he had completely forgotten about this special ability of the Profound Celestial Tower!
"So you’re saying that although my Martial Fortune Tower has shrunk, its boost to my strength is actually greater now?" Hong Yu muttered, rubbing his nose.
"Correct!"
Little One said indistinctly, "The boost your Martial Fortune Tower gives your strength is probably about double the normal amount!"
Hong Yu sucked in a sharp breath.
Just a moment ago, Xiahuang Shang had explained that a Martial Fortune Tower of one to ten zhang represented a genius of the First Transformation Heaven Realm, meaning they could easily cross a minor realm to kill a powerful foe.
For example, Yao Yueye was at the Mid-stage Primordial Core Realm, but as a True Dragon Demon Fiend approaching the Second Heaven Transformation Realm, he could easily slay a powerhouse at the Peak of Primordial Core Realm.
As for Hong Yu himself, he had an Early-Stage Primordial Core Realm cultivation. A moment ago, his Martial Fortune Tower was twenty zhang, representing the Second Heaven Realm.
Logically, he should also have been able to easily fight above his rank and slay a Late-stage Primordial Core Realm Powerhouse.
Although his Martial Fortune Tower had now shrunk to ten zhang, only qualifying him as a genius of the First Transformation of Heaven Realm, his power to fight across realms wouldn’t be weakened in the slightest.
More importantly, the Martial Fortune Tower had its limits!
The highest it could be was seventy zhang!
That represented a genius of the legendary Seventh Transformation Realm.
But Hong Yu was different!
His Martial Fortune Tower was twice as condensed as anyone else’s. This meant that if Hong Yu could raise his tower to thirty-five zhang, he would already possess the realm-crossing combat power comparable to a Seven-Transformation Heavenly True Dragon Demon Fiend.
If he reached a seventy-zhang Martial Fortune Tower, he would be able to cross a total of fourteen minor realms!
What did that mean?
It meant that with his Early-Stage Primordial Core Realm cultivation, Hong Yu could cross the Primordial Core Realm, the Half-step Primordial Embryo Realm, the Primordial Embryo Realm, and the Half-step Primordial Spirit Realm to directly fight a Late-stage Primordial Spirit Realm Powerhouse.
Of course...
In the tens of thousands of years of the vast Southern Border Profound Domain’s history, not a single True Dragon Demon Fiend had ever appeared with a seventy-zhang Martial Fortune.
’A ten-zhang True Dragon Martial Fortune means I can already easily slay a Late-stage Primordial Core Realm Powerhouse. If I can raise it back to fifteen zhang, does that mean I can cross ranks to kill someone at the Peak of Primordial Core Realm, or even fight a Half-step Primordial Embryo Realm Powerhouse?’
At this thought, Hong Yu began to devour with even greater frenzy!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A powerful Devouring Power erupted from all around Hong Yu.
Within the ocean of True Dragon Martial Fortune, the surging fortune coalesced into a vortex. With every rotation, streams of True Dragon Martial Fortune were continuously devoured by the Martial Fortune Tower behind Hong Yu.
This devouring was frantic to the extreme!
His devouring stirred the entire ocean of Martial Fortune.
This process of devouring lasted for three whole days and nights...
The fourth day was about to arrive.
Outside the Nine Dragon Platform, the various powerhouses were waiting with eager anticipation.
Hai Cangtian looked at Xiahuang Shang with amusement. "Xiahuang Shang, who do you think will have the highest True Dragon Martial Fortune?"
"If we go by previous performance, Hong Yu’s should be the highest. His True Dragon Martial Fortune should settle around twenty to twenty-five zhang," Xiahuang Shang said faintly. "Yao Yueye might be a sliver weaker than him."
Hai Cangtian chuckled. "This king doesn’t think so. This king feels that Hong Yu will probably end up at the bottom!"
"Oh? And why do you say that?"
Xiahuang Shang looked at him, puzzled.
Hai Cangtian gave a sinister laugh. "No reason. This king has always felt he’s a good-for-nothing, that’s all!"
Xiahuang Shang frowned but said no more.
Right at this moment...
The entire Nine Dragon Platform began to rumble. The nine Azure Dragon Stone Pillars separated once again, returning to their positions at the nine corners to stand guard over the platform.
At the same time, the figures of Hong Yu and the other three appeared one by one on the Nine Dragon Platform.
"Hong Yu, Yao Yueye, Feng Xue Xin, Jian Chen! The four of you, manifest your Martial Fortune Towers!" Xiahuang Shang’s majestic voice rang out calmly.
In that instant, all the powerhouses held their breath.
They too were eager to see what caliber of geniuses the Southern Ten Nations could produce.
The four of them exchanged glances, then summoned their Martial Fortune Towers.
HUMMM!
Four pillars of golden light shot into the sky.
Behind each of them, a tower materialized!
The tallest one was, shockingly, the Martial Fortune Tower behind Yao Yueye—a full twenty-six zhang!
Following him was not Hong Yu, but Feng Xue Xin, whose Martial Fortune Tower was nineteen zhang tall. Even Jian Chen’s tower reached a height of eighteen zhang.
Yet Hong Yu, the one everyone had the highest hopes for, had the shortest tower of them all—a mere fifteen zhang!
"Pfft!"
The Zhui Yang Ancestor burst out laughing, pointing at Hong Yu and sneering, "Fifteen zhang? Hahaha, that useless brat only managed a fifteen-zhang Martial Fortune Tower?"
"And here I thought he was some world-shocking genius. Turns out he’s the worst of the Four True Dragons?"
"With a fifteen-zhang Martial Fortune Tower, his potential for future growth is definitely limited."
"Feng Xue Xin, on the other hand, is a real surprise! He nearly reached twenty zhang!"
There were cries of schadenfreude, sighs of pity, and everything in between.
After a moment of shock, Hai Cangtian breathed a sigh of relief. ’Only fifteen zhang of True Dragon Martial Fortune. Even with his talent for Pupil and Illusion Techniques, Xiahuang Shang probably won’t pay him much mind now. This will make it much more convenient for this king to deal with him!’
In the eyes of a true powerhouse, the Primordial Embryo Realm was merely the first step across the threshold of strength.
But history was filled with countless geniuses who dazzled for a time, yet could never cross the final barrier, forever stuck in the Primordial Core Realm.
After all, no matter how strong one was in the Primordial Core Realm, could they be stronger than someone in the Primordial Spirit Realm? Stronger than the Yin Yang Realm?
Obviously not!
Because of this, upon discovering that Hong Yu’s Martial Fortune Tower was only fifteen zhang tall, Xiahuang Shang, who had previously held high hopes for him, showed a trace of disappointment.
Amidst the sighs of regret, pity, and sneers of schadenfreude from the assembled powerhouses, Hong Yu stood quietly as if nothing was wrong, a faint smile on his lips. He thought to himself, ’The worst of the bunch? Is that really the case?’
Of course, Hong Yu had no intention of letting anyone know the secret of his Martial Fortune Tower.
Xiahuang Shang glanced at Hong Yu with disappointment and shook his head. "You may put away your Martial Fortune Towers."
After a pause, Xiahuang Shang continued, "Since the Four True Dragons have all condensed their Martial Fortune Towers, this Southern Ten Nations Martial Competition is now concluded. I will return to the Xiahuang Ancient Kingdom today to report the results to my Father Emperor. The rewards from the Ancient Kingdom for the four of you will be brought back by me in half a month."
"During this half-month, you may all rest and recuperate!"
With a wave of his hand, a shimmering Space Teleportation Gate slowly materialized. He looked at Hai Cangtian. "Hai Cangtian, will you be leaving with me?"
Hai Cangtian shook his head. "No, this king still has matters to attend to!"
"Very well!"
Xiahuang Shang nodded and turned to enter the Space Teleportation Gate.
With Xiahuang Shang’s departure, the middle-aged man in black armor and the woman in white armor also teleported everyone out of the Land of Trial.
The Four True Dragons, along with the many other powerhouses, left one after another through the Teleportation Gate.
Hong Yu stepped into the Teleportation Gate. Just as he was leaving, he saw a flash of light fly toward him. He paused for a moment and caught it.
It was a wad of paper. As he slowly unfolded it, Hong Yu’s expression changed dramatically...
"This is..."
[I’ve had a fever these past two days. Yesterday I got an IV and took medicine, so I really wasn’t in a state to write. Sorry! There will be another update tonight!]