CSMCDB - Chapter 94
Chapter 94
The referee immediately intervened to protect Yan Fengxi, helping him regulate the rampaging Star Power in his body and nurture his spiritual energy. Only then did he announce, "Wen Yuncheng is the victor!"
The champion of the Youth Tournament had been decided.
[Task Complete: Youth Tournament (V)]
[Task Reward: 10,000 EXP, 500 Points]
With immediate medical attention, Yan Fengxi didn't suffer any major problems, but he would still need several days of rest to recover from Wen Yuncheng's spiritual attack.
Next came the awarding of the championship prizes and honors. The Empire praised her, and the academy held a special ceremony to celebrate Wen Yuncheng's victory.
The specific rewards from the Empire were not presented during the ceremony. The event concluded with an encouraging speech from Protector Chu Han. After everything was over, Wen Yuncheng went to select her prize: three Profound-rank Spirit Treasures.
All three Profound-rank Spirit Treasures were defensive. One was a small shield, normally the size of a thumb, which could be worn on the chest like a brooch. At critical moments, it could be activated with Star Power to expand to the size of a person. In the equipment template, this shield was called the Blue Flower Shield.
There was also a round piece of jade called the Defensive Jade. It could withstand a full-power blow from a Star King. It was a consumable item; its previous owner had used it a few times, so by the time Wen Yuncheng received it, it only had three uses left.
For the last item, Wen Yuncheng hesitated over whether to choose a suit of close-fitting armor but ultimately decided against it. Now that she had Star Stones, she could find the time to upgrade her mechanical battle armor with Azure Sea Crystal. Although the defensive boost wouldn't be massive, it was better than nothing. Thus, for her final choice, Wen Yuncheng selected a hair ribbon. The ribbon looked ordinary, but the effect displayed in her equipment template was extraordinary.
Spiritual Headband: Reduces spiritual damage by 10%.
As long as an opponent used a spiritual attack on her, no matter how strong, it would be reduced by 10%. After one-shotting Yan Fengxi with the Flying Sky Shuttle, Wen Yuncheng felt that these consciousness-based spiritual attacks were too overpowered, so adding a "magic resistance" headband was a good idea.
The headband was a simple black with a red pattern at the ends. It was minimalist yet beautiful, and Wen Yuncheng was quite satisfied with it.
She spent one hundred points to expand her equipment slots to five. Wen Yuncheng wanted to expand it further and found that the next step was to expand to eight slots, costing three hundred points.
Three more slots for three hundred points? Forget the bundle deal, why did the price increase?! Wen Yuncheng was exasperated, but she didn't want to part with any of her current equipment, so she gritted her teeth and paid.
Host: Wen Yuncheng
Race: Human
Age: 18
Class: Mechanical Overlord
Level: 41
Experience: 155/29,000
Points: 2552
For winning the championship, the First Princess personally sponsored her with another five million Star Stones, making Wen Yuncheng a multimillionaire overnight. With so many Star Stones, she got a little carried away and immediately spent five million on Azure Sea Crystal, since the materials of her equipment were due for an upgrade.
Lin Jinyu had already entered a trial at the Flowing Cloud Sect, so Wen Yuncheng couldn't contact her. Wen Yuncheng didn't know how long her Little Ice Mountain's trial would last and could only pray that Lin Jinyu would be out before the Beast Tide.
…For Wen Yuncheng, the annual autumn Beast Tide had become a fixed, two-person autumn excursion with Lin Jinyu.
While Wen Yuncheng continued her daily practice at the Dueling Arena, occasionally assembling Star Cannons with Number One and Number Two, Yan Ling gave her a sudden warning: "Do not leave the Imperial Capital."
Wen Yuncheng didn't understand what she meant at the time. It wasn't until the beginning of June that she found out what had happened: a small sect had been annihilated.
It was another blood sacrifice. By the time the Dragon Tiger Guard arrived, there were no survivors. The well in the sect's backyard was even filled with dismembered limbs, and the Dragon Tiger Guard found fragments of an infant's corpse there.
All three Protectors were dispatched. Upon learning that Fu might be hiding out on Lingfeng Mountain, the three of them acted in unison, directly leveling the entire mountain! The members inside who couldn't escape in time were all executed, and the Dragon Tiger Guard swarmed in, capturing many members alive. Just as the Empire was feeling satisfied with this haul, a dragon's roar echoed from the Tianling Sea region!
Aside from the Empire's high command and the three Protectors, almost no one knew where the dragon from the Demonic Beast Great Forest had gone. But at the very moment the three Protectors leveled Lingfeng Mountain, nearly the entire continent learned where that dragon was being held captive.
It was a feint. Using their lair on Lingfeng Mountain as bait, Fu sacrificed a portion—perhaps a very large portion—of their ordinary members, using those low-level members as cannon fodder to hand over to the Empire. With the time they bought, they forced their way into a laboratory at the bottom of the Tianling Sea and released the dragon-
It couldn't be called a release; "seizure" would be more accurate. After all, the dragon did not gain its freedom. It merely moved from one cage to another.
The continent was shocked. The Empire was enraged.
Many small sects in remote areas tried to seek refuge with larger sects or applied to the Empire for relocation. In the towns surrounding the annihilated sect, almost everyone who could flee had done so within a month.
This series of events was like grinding the Empire's face into the dirt. Originally, the Empire had dispatched the three Protectors to level Lingfeng Mountain with lightning speed and eradicate Fu's hidden lair. After the incident, a little publicity would have been enough to pacify the public, who were terrified by the village massacre during the Youth Tournament. It would have also boosted morale and restored the Empire's authority. And the result? The moment they made their move, the dragon was stolen by Fu.
What was supposed to be a "meritorious deed" instantly soured, turning into a trap deliberately set by Fu, and the Empire had walked right into it.
"Fu is being too arrogant…" Wen Yuncheng was astonished as she read the news. She had never heard of this power before. Ever since the incident at the Xuanhuang Tomb, this organization seemed to have fully reawakened, constantly stirring up trouble within the Empire's borders. "Could the other plane have contacted them?"
[Not that fast. Otherwise, Fu wouldn't still be performing blood sacrifices,] 1947 said. [Perhaps the successful transmission of information has made them overconfident.]
…That was also a possibility.
[You should be careful lately,] 1947 said seriously. [First place in the Youth Tournament, plus your Star Power Mutation… The Fu organization has a lot of lunatics. They might be very interested in you—just as they were interested in the dragon.]
"I'm staying in the academy all the time, so I should be fine. They can't possibly storm an academy in the Imperial Capital and abduct me, right?" Wen Yuncheng comforted herself, though she was certainly aware that she might have drawn too much attention. "Do you think my three Star Cannons can blast a Star Spirit to death?"
[Get real. People won't just stand there and let you shoot them.]
Wen Yuncheng sighed and turned to tell Number One and Number Two to assemble faster.
Another week passed. Di Feng returned from Luoxing Mountain with the skeleton of a dragon—the very one Fu had stolen. During this time, the three Protectors had been on high alert throughout the Empire. Di Feng had sensed a fluctuation of Star Power near Luoxing Mountain. He had struck from a distance with a palm attack. The person took the blow head-on, was severely injured, and fled. Di Feng failed to capture them. By the time he reached the cave, all he found was a deliberately destroyed formation and the dragon's skeleton, which had been left behind in the center of the formation, not yet collected.
As if out of unwillingness to accept defeat, or perhaps as a simple provocation, the day after Di Feng returned to the Imperial Capital, a small town to the southeast was attacked by Fu again. This time, however, Chu Han and Mo Dingtian rushed over quickly. They executed three Star King-level miscreants and annihilated more than ten Fu members below the Star King rank.
Unfortunately, before the two Protectors arrived, the small town had already suffered over a hundred casualties. Of the twenty-eight guards defending the town that day, none survived.
After a period of being on the defensive, the Empire quickly established a special communication network with the sects. The Dragon Tiger Guard and elite imperial soldiers were dispatched to garrison various towns. As soon as Fu or any other nefarious organization was spotted anywhere, a notification would be sent out through the network, and the nearest sects and soldiers were required to rush to the scene immediately.
Several major sects joined forces to establish the Fu-Punishing Association and acted in concert with the three Protectors.
It was only when Wen Yuncheng heard news of another small town being attacked that she thought of Holy Star City. That town was adjacent to Holy Star City. Although Wen Yuncheng didn't care about the Wen Family, she was still stunned for a moment upon hearing the news and couldn't help but pay attention.
The Wen Family hadn't contacted her for a long time, not even after she won first place in the Youth Tournament, which was highly unusual. Normally, setting aside the Wen family head, her worthless parents would have definitely come to her for Star Stones, but there had been no word from them. Wen Yuncheng guessed that her teacher might have done something to help. This time, however, the Wen Family's request was very different. Yan Ling had also learned that the small town might be attacked, and given the cultivation levels of the entire Wen Family, they likely wouldn't be able to withstand an assault from Fu.
"They want to relocate? To live in the inner city? They want me to ask for royal permission?" Wen Yuncheng was a bit speechless. It wasn't that easy to establish a household in the inner city. While the Wen Family wasn't a major clan, it was quite populous and occupied a lot of land in Holy Star City, with over ten courtyards alone. "Teacher, how many Star Stones have you given them over the years?"
"Not much. I gave them two hundred thousand Star Stones the first year. The second year, I broke the legs of a few people who came over, and they've been quiet ever since."
Wen Yuncheng fell silent for a moment. She took out her Star Stone card, touched a blank one to it, and mentally transferred one million two hundred thousand Star Stones before handing it to Yan Ling. "Give them one million Star Stones. After this, the Wen Family and I have nothing to do with each other."
"As for relocating the clan, let them figure it out themselves," Wen Yuncheng said. "I don't owe them anything. If they come looking for you again, you can tell me directly. I'll beat them all back."
With that matter settled, Wen Yuncheng buried herself in assembling Star Cannons. She wasn't particularly invested in the Dueling Arena anymore, mainly because the returns were too low. Although she still showed up every day, she spent most of her time assembling Star Cannons.
The power of a Star Cannon was more than double that of a regular turret, and each one was equipped with an energy core. Wen Yuncheng had specially given them all a coat of gold spray paint, making them look extremely opulent. To store the Star Cannons, she bought two storage rings, each with a hundred cubic meters of space. This recent shopping spree had caused Wen Yuncheng's funds to shrink drastically. Not only had she spent all the Star Stones sponsored by the First Princess from the Youth Tournament, but she had also had to chip in a considerable amount of her own.
Wen Yuncheng sighed, "Alas, Star Stones really don't last at all."
Comments
Post a Comment