Enemies Chapter 67: No one can take you away from me, not even yourself

Translated by J. of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

“Whether QingQing knows who I am isn’t important right now, what’s important is he trusts me. When the Hidden Realm legacy is over and QingQing comes to the ShangYuan Sect to break off his engagement, as his host, I will show him the proper hospitality he deserves.” Xiao Yan felt quite pleased with himself as he said these words… He could not help but imagine the scene of QingQing arriving in the Qingbo Higher Realm. He must be the first one to greet him on arrival so QingQing would not have to suffer the negligence of others.

Jianghe Pavilion, or the Pavilion of Descending Cranes, is the top-rated restaurant in the Qingbo Realm. Not only was the food delicious beyond compare, they also had the added benefits of increasing a cultivator’s power and enhancing the flow of qi around the body.

The penthouse suite only accommodated powerhouses above the Nascent Soul stage. Xiao Yan reminded himself that he must steal his grandfather’s token so he could treat QingQing to some mouth-watering food.

He must also take QingQing on a tour of all the beautiful sights around the Qingbo Realm… O-Of course, the most important place to bring QingQing would be the ShangYuan Sect. He must make everyone learn who QingQing is, so those social climbers wouldn’t disrespect QingQing because of DanTai ZiYan.

After all these… QingQing would definitely notice his worth.

Xiao Yan became enamoured with his imagined scenes, the more he thought about it, the happier he became, until a faint crimson had coloured his cheeks. He wondered when QingQing learnt of his status as the son of the ShangYuan Sect Leader, would QingQing despise him as DanTai  ZiYan’s shixiong? Despite the fact that he was DanTai ZiYan’s shixiong in name only? Would QingQing refuse to call him Xiao-gege because of this?

As his mind wandered down this path, Xiao Yan’s hostility for DanTai ZiYan only grew. DanTai ZiYan was already rather annoying as QingQing’s former fiancé, now that Xiao Yan had entered the race, DanTai ZiYan still found a way to drag him down…

For the first time, Xiao Yan’s bright rippling eyes revealed an unconcealed killing intent.

“When I witnessed QingQing establish his foundation three years ago, my spiritual resolve was finally complete. Sensing the Laws of Heaven and Earth, I finally formed my Greater Path.” Xiao Yan’s eyes sparkled as he spoke, “After suppressing myself for three years to refine my spiritual path, it was only when the abode appeared did I form the Supreme Golden Core and created the Sword Path of Life, Death and Reincarnation. I did all of this only to protect QingQing.”

With a cruel expression, Xiao Yan softly uttered, “Reincarnation.”

At that, the flying sword in Xiao Yan’s hand instantly became formless while sword intent exploded into the surrounding area like raging waves.

Wherever the sword intent touched, the lifeforce of nearby creatures instantly vanished.

Their lifeforce wasn’t distinguished per se, it was as if they had been wiped away in the flowing river of time by Divine Law, as if the living creatures on top of Ancestral Peak had never existed at all. It was terrifying to the extreme!

Was it really a power that could be wielded by a Golden Core cultivator? Such things had never been seen or heard of before.

One must understand that the cultivation world had over 800 High Realms, over 3000 Middle Realms and countless Small Realms.

The number of Golden Core cultivators were measured in the hundreds of billions. Only the top 10,000 Golden Core cultivators on the WenXian Rankings List could be called prodigies amongst prodigies.

The existence of every single one of the top ten WenXian ranked cultivators was a terrifying reality, not even Soul Transformation cultivators would dare to offend them.

Feng JingYi, number three on the WenXian Rankings list, was the young master of the Beast Pavilion. Peak Golden Core Stage. At age seventeen, he was the youngest Golden Core cultivator in the history of the cultivation world.

Legend has it that he was born with a naturally formed Dao body that had already reached Foundation Establishment at birth.

When he was ten, he had formed a Greater Path Golden Core without having to cultivate his qi at all. Tens of thousands of birds bowed to him as an auspicious omen on the day he formed his core. The event even attracted the mighty Phoenix, who agreed to enter into a Lifebound Contract with him on the basis of an equal relationship.

Xu WanYue, number two on the WenXian Rankings list, was a wandering cultivator with no known sect or associations. No one really knew where she came from, only that when she formed her Golden Core, a mysterious dark moon rose in the sky, and she took the light from that dark moon and crafted a life-bound magical artifact from it.

A hundred years ago, Xu WanYue wiped out a hundred Nascent Soul cultivators in the HongTong Hidden Realm. When she emerged from the Hidden Realm, she was forced to battle a Soul Transformation elder from one of the top sects and managed to hold her own. Then she was hunted down by ten Soul Transformation cultivators and somehow escaped with her life.

When the top ten sects placed a bounty on her head with top-grade spiritual artifacts as the reward, she hid and had not been heard from again. If it wasn’t for the fact that her name was still firmly displayed on the WenXian Rankings, everyone would have believed her to be dead.

Luo YangChu, top of the WenXian list, was the Sect Leader of the number one sect in the ZhengXia Higher Realm. He had already lived nine lives and achieved Peak Great Ascension each time. But he refused to ascend to the Divine Realm and instead, chose to reincarnate after each life to repeat his cultivation.

It was rumoured that he had been cultivating the Convergence of Nine Paths. If he could combine all the Greater Paths he had achieved during his nine lives into a single path, when he finally ascended, he could skip over the Divine Realm altogether and become a Celestial Lord of the Gods.

His current life would be his final life.

However, no one on the Rankings list had ever created their own type of power, especially one that could impact space and time to such a degree. The ones who did manage to achieve such a feat were, at a minimum, Greater Path Void Comprehension cultivators.

Such a terrifying, all-encompassing sword qi created a sense of mortal danger in DanTai ZiYan for the first time in his life, instantly forcing him three steps back.

As he quickly thrummed the strings of the qin in his hand, countless sophisticated runes appeared in the sky. While they shimmered, one of the strings suddenly snapped and the music came to an abrupt end.

At that, a command token appeared before DanTai ZiYan.

The token was plain and unadorned with any motifs. Not a hint of spiritual energy could be felt from it, as if it was merely an ordinary object. Only the word ‘immortal’ was written in its centre.

As soon as the command token appeared, the roiling, murderous sword qi surrounding them vanished without a trace.

When DanTai ZiYan was taught the Path of Artificing in the Higher Realm, not only was he given numerous treasures, he was also gifted with this command token.

Forcing Xiao Yan to take three steps back, his face instantly turned ashen while an almost imperceptible air of dejectedness appeared within him.

The Sword Qi of Reincarnation was the concentrated hit formed by his Path. The dissipation of his Sword Qi had injured his very essence, leaving a fracture in his Golden Core.

He was bested by DanTai ZiYan? How could he be bested by DanTai ZiYan, a mere artificer?

Xiao Yan licked away the blood on the corner of his lips. Abruptly pointing forward, he uttered with a viciousness burning fiercely in his eyes, “Life.”

At that, his vanished sword had reformed from the void and his dissipated sword qi regathered out of nothingness.

The dazzling light from countless sword reflections filled the entire sky. It radiated a lifeforce seeped in rich spiritual energy, as if it could reawaken every living thing from hibernation, even sprouting new buds from withered logs.

With a quick movement, Xiao Yan had stepped inside the centre of his sword energy. As his perfect, slender fingers grasped the hilt of his sword, his thin lips gently uttered a word as if delivering judgment, “Death!”

At that, the lifeforce vanished and the dazzling sword light became extinguished. The deafening roar of innumerable ghosts struck down from the sky with a sense of finality. Then between shadows and illusions, a sword qi pierced the commanding token. The token trembled as if its soul resisted the invasion. But after only a second, it had broken into five pieces. Falling to the ground, the token had well and truly become an ordinary object.

“Using one force to destroy ten thousand, it was merely a parlour trick.” Despite Xiao Yan’s spiritual energy being almost depleted and the drops of blood on his lips had turned into a small flowing stream, he derided with undisguised disdain in his rippling eyes, “Just like you, it’s not worth even a glance from QingQing.”

However, despite his words, Xiao Yan began to make other plans.

Although he had destroyed the command token, he had also exhausted all of his energy and still couldn’t kill off DanTai ZiYan. Perhaps it would be better if… he took a different route.

Since Xiao Yan had already reached the Golden Core stage, he could no longer enter the abode to inherit the legacy. But that little imp Gu Yan had followed QingQing inside.

A mere lowly commoner of a Small World and far from innocent at such a young age, nothing good will come out of him when he grows up. But QingQing trusts that little vixen more than anyone else, hmph!

He also recalled QingQing mentioning that Lin Yi, the little sword cultivator he saved earlier, would join the fight for resources in the abode.

That little rascal was born with a Sword body, his talents are more terrifying than a natural-born Dao body.

Despite cultivating the Greater Path of Life, Death and Reincarnation, Xiao Yan’s magical artefact, the QingYu Sword, was merely intermediate-grade, and he was not a true Sword Path cultivator.

True Sword Path cultivators possessed hearts of innocence and righteousness, free from impure thoughts… but despite that Lin Yi having a natural-born Sword body, he’s a shameless, disgusting cad. QingQing clearly despises him, but still refuses to kill him. Moreover, QingQing even presented him with the divine opportunity.

Xiao Yan subconsciously felt that Lin Yi posed more of a threat than Gu Yu. How could he let the two wildly ambitious opportunists stay at QingQing’s side?

In contrast, DanTai ZiYan, the former fiancé, was not even worth a mention. Despite his extreme loathing for DanTai ZiYan, he had found the perfect solution, which was to join forces with DanTai ZiYan for now and help him enter the legacy’s abode.

DanTai ZiYan could put a check on those two harlots without threatening Xiao Yan’s interests. Seeing DanTai ZiYan, QingQing would loathe him even more, and by the time QingQing came to the ShangYuan Sect to break off his engagement in a deathmatch, it would only accentuate Xiao Yan’s advantages.

“DanTai ZiYan, although I loathe you to the extreme,” With a slight wrinkle to his brow, Xiao Yan declared while acknowledging his priorities, “I cannot enter the abode with a Golden Core. So I’m forced to suppress my disgust for you and let you protect QingQing in my place.”

Despite spending the past twenty years at the ShangYuan Sect, and Xiao Yan supposedly being the closest person to him there, DanTai ZiYan knew next to nothing about Xiao Yan, as they were each the leading disciples of different lines.

Even his memory of what Xiao Yan looked like was fuzzy. He only ever had two things on his mind, Chu WuQing and artificing.

As for other people, sorry… he had no further attention to spare. However, given DanTai ZiYan’s intellect, of course he knew Xiao Yan had ulterior motives.

But despite being able to predict that QingQing was somewhere under the Ancestral Peak, he could not find the entrance, so he was forced to cooperate with Xiao Yan.

“QingQing is my wife, of course it would be my duty to protect him.” DanTai ZiYan replied with a slightly arched brow. He did not want to waste further breath on Xiao Yan, only growing more anxious as he pondered Xiao Yan’s sudden change of tact despite wanting to kill him earlier.

This was not due to Xiao Yan being defeated in battle. It must be because there were other threats in the abode.

Why did his A’Qing have to be so enchanting?

He had been that way since he was a child. Growing up, children would follow A’Qing wherever he went, wanting to offer all sorts of goodies to A’Qing just so he would speak to them or smile at them.

Hence DanTai ZiYan had always known that he had to be stronger than everyone else. That was the only way for A’Qing to notice him amongst the crowd. Having the right family background was not enough, he had to be so outstanding that he would scare off all rivals.

A’Qing’s beauty was the cause of his own trouble. His father-in-law could protect A’Qing in the Middle Realm, but if A’Qing came to the Higher Realm, who could protect him if the Great Ascension cultivators wanted A’Qing for themselves?

A’Qing had always possessed talent and aspirations, he would never have stayed put in the Middle Realm. Proud as he was, how could he let himself be trapped in such a small space solely because villains from other worlds coveted him?

That was the reason why, despite knowing others would try to exploit his absence, DanTai ZiYan left for the ShangYuan Sect twenty years ago without looking back. Although he missed his fiancé constantly, he kept up his cultivation without rest… All because he wanted to stand upon the peak and look down at his rivals.

“A’Qing is mine, he can only be mine.”

“No one can take you away from me, not even yourself.”

DanTai ZiYan’s bright, clear eyes darkened, and for the first time in his life, he politely replied to the shidi he had never paid any particular attention before, “Xiao-shidi, please help me enter the legacy’s abode.”