Chapter 1632: Never Heard of Him!
"There must have been some unexpected changes!"
Yun Xiao’s face looked somewhat displeased as well. As the master of the Chongxiao Stairs Artifact Heart, he undoubtedly sensed more things. He looked past many human cultivators towards the distant sky.
"What’s going on with you?"
At this moment, Xue Changze had a solemn expression as he grabbed one of the Lingyun Peak cultivators and asked him, while that person still showed a trace of panic on his face.
"There’s a powerful expert over there, who killed several of us as soon as he appeared. We couldn’t fight him, so we could only retreat!"
A hint of peculiar color flashed in the person’s eyes, his words somewhat incomplete and untrue, but one thing was certain: in the Chongxiao Stairs Space, as Yun Xiao mentioned, some unexpected changes had occurred again.
In fact, these human cultivators rushed into the depths of the Chongxiao Stairs Space, seeing a figure coming towards them, they naturally assumed it was the test of the Chongxiao Stairs, and started the attack—it was them.
But who could have anticipated that person’s strength was exceptionally formidable? In just a few moves, several individuals lay lifeless on the ground. His ruthless methods even surpassed Yun Xiao’s previous actions.
Moreover, it seemed that the person had been provoked into anger by them, showing an intent to wipe them out. Realizing they could not win, the many cultivators could only retreat along the same path.
Perhaps in these cultivators’ minds, only that miraculous youth was their final lifeline; as for their initial attack, that part was naturally overlooked.
Whoosh!
Just after the many cultivators retreated here, a sound of rushing wind suddenly came from the sky, and then, the last Lingyun Realm Late Stage cultivator’s entire form was shattered by a powerful strike.
"This..."
Seeing this scene, Yun Xiao did not speak, but beside him, Xue Changze and Lu Yanji’s faces turned extremely unsightly because they sensed certain aura from that figure.
"A Half-step Holy Rank expert!"
Among them, Lu Yanji, with his Heavenly Rank Advanced soul, expressed shock in his voice. Xue Changze and others had no more doubts, even causing some of the retreating human cultivators to feel a bit more balanced.
After all, they were only cultivating at the Lingyun Realm or Heavenly Realm, being unable to match a Half-step Holy Rank expert was natural; regarding the dead cultivators, they felt no sympathy.
"Could it be..."
On Yun Xiao’s side, his face also became slightly grim. In a flash moment, he had thought of a possibility, wondering if he was truly this unlucky?
Earlier, when the Half-step Holy Spirit died, he had an unfinished sentence, which was that the force specifically overseeing Lower Plane transmissions, Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, had dispatched people to check the changes of the Chongxiao Stairs.
Previously, Yun Xiao believed such a coincidence wouldn’t happen. After a hundred years of not seeing Nine-layered Dragon Cloud experts appear, it seemed too coincidental for them to appear just as he entered the Chongxiao Stairs.
However, now that Yun Xiao also sensed a genuine human figure whose cultivation had reached the Half-step Holy Rank level, he had no doubts anymore—his luck was indeed that bad.
At this moment, the figure that had just killed a cultivator in the sky fully revealed itself to everyone’s sight, causing Xu Hongzhuang, Mo Qing, and others to glance at each other.
Because it was a slender young man appearing under thirty. Clad in a dark robe, his clothes fluttered in the wind, appearing graceful in the space above the sky.
Such a young Half-step Holy Rank expert, not to mention the younger generation on Tenglong Continent—even among the older generation, there could not be another.
Xu Hongzhuang, Mo Qing, and others were already the top geniuses of Tenglong Continent, and even after these years, only a few emerged. Other young talents were still struggling at the Earth Rank Third Realm.
So making this comparison, the origin of the dark-robed youth was already quite clear; at least such a formidable young person could not be trained in the Middle Three Realms like those on Tenglong Continent.
"You must be from the sect of Nine-layered Dragon Cloud connecting Lower Plane cultivators. Why did you kill without distinguishing right from wrong?"
At this moment, Yun Xiao became the spokesperson for the many cultivators, his gaze slightly gloomy as he stared at the dark-robed youth in the sky. His words were not particularly courteous, causing the youth’s gaze to instantly shift onto him.
"Humph, does Chongxiao Sect need to explain to you, boy, why we kill?"
The dark-robed youth dismissively glanced at Yun Xiao and let out a cold snort, allowing everyone present to understand his origin.
Combining the names of the Chongxiao River and the Chongxiao Ladder, people like Xue Changze could guess that the so-called Chongxiao Sect must be a sect specifically meant for receiving those from the Lower Plane Upper Realm.
This also suggests that the Chongxiao Ladder could very well be a space artifact belonging to the Chongxiao Sect. In other words, if someone truly came from the Chongxiao Sect, they would, in a sense, be the owner of this Chongxiao Ladder.
"It really is the Chongxiao Sect!"
As the reincarnation of the Long Xiao Battle God, Yun Xiao had certainly heard of this sect. Although it couldn’t compare to the Emperor Canglong Palace, which was immensely powerful back in the day, it had a bit of fame in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud.
However, Yun Xiao knew about this small sect not because of its primary function, but because of his former wife, Lu Qinwan. The so-called Chongxiao Sect was actually a subordinate sect of the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud Lu Family.
The Lu Family was a large family in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud. Although it had been in decline for some years, after producing Lu Qinwan, it gradually showed signs of revitalization.
A family sect as large as this surely had some subordinate forces, and the Chongxiao Sect was one such subordinate sect to the Lu Family.
Although it had its own system and its own sect master, it dared not disobey any order from the Lu Family.
Realizing that this mysterious youth in dark clothes was from the Chongxiao Sect, Yun Xiao instinctively felt a sense of dislike due to the connection with the Lu Family. Moreover, that guy’s superior attitude was also quite annoying.
"Since you are from the Chongxiao Sect, do you know that a hundred years have passed since the Chongxiao Ladder had an anomaly, yet now you sent someone to inspect? It’s a grave dereliction of duty!"
Because of the disdain within him, Yun Xiao’s words grew more and more impolite. As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was startled, thinking that this young man was truly audacious, fearing neither heaven nor earth. Could he not see that the man in dark clothes was from the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud?
These cultivators from the Tenglong Continent, though knowledgeable, might enjoy unfettered dominance on the Tenglong Continent, but in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, they probably couldn’t even carry shoes for some sects or families.
Take this youth in dark clothes in front of them. Around thirty years old, he was able to cultivate his Meridian Qi to the half-step Holy Rank, an unimaginable feat in the Tenglong Continent.
Yet, this boy called Yun Xiao seemed entirely oblivious to these realities, daring to speak disrespectfully to a nine-layered Dragon Cloud genius of half-step Holy Rank with only a mid-stage Heavenly Realm cultivation, seeming as if he was doing it on purpose.
"Boy, do you know who you’re talking to?"
The youth in dark clothes had a flash of killing intent in his eyes, but restraining himself due to his status, he spoke coldly with a hint of danger.
"Oh? Did I say something wrong? I refuse to believe that the Chongxiao Sect failed to notice the anomaly of the ladder over a hundred years."
Yun Xiao was not frightened; even though the other’s face was intimidating, he spoke more confidently, and even the dark-clothed youth couldn’t rebut for the moment in face of such facts.
"Good! Good! Good! I must say, you’re the most daring Tenglong Continent cultivator I’ve ever seen, Jiang Jingyu said!"
The dark-clothed youth, unable to refute, no longer squabbled with Yun Xiao over this fact, and after saying "good" three times in a row, finally revealed his name as Jiang Jingyu.
"Jiang Jingyu? Never heard of him!"
Right after Jiang Jingyu’s voice fell, Yun Xiao replied at once. That slight shake of the head nearly made Jiang Jingyu spew a mouthful of old blood; this was enough to anger someone to death.
Yet, Jiang Jingyu thought it through. Although he was somewhat famous in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, how would these natives from the Tenglong Continent have heard of his name? Getting angry over this was entirely not worth it.
In fact, Jiang Jingyu completely misunderstood the meaning behind Yun Xiao’s words. It wasn’t from Yun Xiao’s reincarnated knowledge on the Tenglong and Hidden Dragon Continents but included the understanding from his past life as the Long Xiao Battle God.
The characters known to the Long Xiao Battle God in his past life were ones notably famous in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, but a younger generation like Jiang Jingyu was truly not worth entering the War God’s eyes.
"The thing in your hand should be the Artifact Heart of the Chongxiao Ladder, right? Hand it over to me, and perhaps I will spare your life!"
Forcibly containing his anger, Jiang Jingyu did not immediately attack. Instead, his gaze fell on Yun Xiao’s right palm, his words imbued with a peculiar threat.
Jiang Jingyu, as a genius sent by the Chongxiao Sect, originally expected a great battle, yet upon entering the Chongxiao Ladder, he only encountered some ordinary human cultivators, who rashly dared to make a move against him.
After Jiang Jingyu killed a few human cultivators, he used some special techniques to sense the abnormality in the Chongxiao Ladder, or rather the disappeared anomaly, which saved him quite a bit of effort.
Although Jiang Jingyu was puzzled at how that poorly-dressed boy resolved those troubles, at this moment, what mattered most to him was undeniably the Artifact Heart of the Chongxiao Ladder under Yun Xiao’s control.