At any time, there was no lack of people who would envy or be jealous of other people’s success, it was the same in the cultivation world. This JieDan expert of the Greatest Sky Sect raised this opinion after he showed up in response to the questions by the crowd. Who would want a second rate sect’s second qi layer disciple to obtain the honor of setting foot on the peak of the Heavenly Stairs? Furthermore, among the ten JieDan experts managing the spell formation, apart from Xu Cheng Xin of the Pure Yang Palace the other nine were all seriously injured and had fallen a level, it would be a miracle if this did not make people suspicious.
“Who practiced fraud? Cheng Wen Cai, you dare accuse me of practicing fraud!?”
Xu Cheng Xin was the Hall Master of the Foreign Affairs Hall. Although he was smooth and evasive in dealing with affairs, he was neither timid nor a coward and once he heard that surprisingly there was still someone who did not want to admit that Yang Chen was the first one to set foot on the peak of the Heavenly Stairs and wanted to put him to ground, how could he be polite.
“Go! You yourself can go find ten JieDan experts and ask your Greatest Sky Sect’s disciple to reach the top and let me have a look whether they cheated or not!”
Although the Heavenly Stairs ceremony was not a significant affair, Xu Cheng Xin had managed it for many years, so he immediately got angry. Seizing this opportunity, the JieDan stage expert immediately denounced Cheng Wen Cai’s argument.
“Have you all gone mute? My Pure Yang Palace’s disciples haven’t cheated, are you all still unclear about it? Do you dare to swear on your Heart’s Devil that my Pure Yang Palace’s disciple has cheated?”
After ordering the clamor, Xu Cheng Xin at once directed his fury towards the other JieDan experts who were responsible for maintaining the spell formation together with him.
These JieDan experts were very ashamed within their hearts, so naturally they did not dare to face Xu Cheng Xin’s rage and, even more, could not dare to swear a big oath on their Heart’s Devil. Facing Xu Cheng Xin’s angry gaze, the nine JieDan experts were so embarrassed that they were unable to say anything.
“Fellow Daoist Xu and other fellow daoists, if they would know of it, then what kind of fraud is it?”
Cheng Wen Cai faintly smiled, immediately resolving the awkwardness of the other people, helping these guys who had already fallen a level and also providing them an escape from swearing a big oath on their Heart’s Devil. According to Cheng Wan Cai’s words, they could not know if Pure Yang Palace had committed fraud, therefore, in the end, they were unclear about whether Yang Chen had cheated or not.
“You!”
Xu Cheng Xin hadn’t foreseen that Cheng Wan Cai would speak in this way and as soon as he opened his mouth, people began to suspect that Xu Cheng Xin had joined with Yang Chen to cheat. One cannot argue with a hundred mouths. Even if they didn’t have any evidence nor could they find the method, but if asked, they could directly deny, by saying that they wouldn’t know what kind of method he would have used.
Indeed this time, Pure Yang Palace was really very strange with their choice of disciples. Gongsun Ling could still be considered as a normal sixth qi layer talent. But Yang Chen was a trifling second qi layer cultivator, who had just barely grasped the principle of making talisman papers, but he could still use a talisman tool to kill the sixth qi layer Han Jiande of Tian Quan Sect, this itself was absolutely unimaginable. Moreover, to allow a second qi layer disciple to participate in the Heavenly Stairs Assembly was very abnormal.
“Humph! Yang Chen of my Pure Yang Palace, before entering the sect had killed many, even his baleful aura is very heavy, he was naturally not afraid of any illusionary space. To climb to the peak of the Heavenly Stairs was not any alarming thing.”
Seeing how things went so far, Xu Cheng Xin had no choice but putting forward his own reasons.
“If this is regarded as cheating, I have nothing to say!”
Everyone looked at each other in dismay, who could have thought it was unexpectedly because of this reason. Most of those nine JieDan experts almost spat out blood after hearing this. They had their long and exhausting conspiracy to aim towards his weak point to torture him, using his identity as an executioner, but the target just did not care about it. No wonder they were injured in the end. There was a thing about the illusionary spell, in case the spell was broken, then those responsible for managing the spell formation would surely be devoured in return. They used so much spirit power to plot against Yang Chen, so naturally the backlash would be difficult to deal with, falling down one level, after all, was said and done, they had indeed attacked themselves.
After seeing how everything had developed, these nine JieDan experts were extremely regretful, especially those eight JieDan experts who had followed after the Tian Quan Sect’s expert, they were so regretful that their intestines turned green. Towards a person on whom illusionary spells had no effect, they had smugly tried to attack him for a long time but had instead ended up attacking themselves. Their insides were heavily injured and they had regressed one level, for what reason did they decide to do this?
“This is just your argument, Fellow Daoist Xu, that’s all, your whole Pure Yang Palace cannot be trusted!”
Cheng Wen Cai again faintly smiled.
“I will oversee it, if Pure Yang Palace was aware of any way to cheat the Heavenly Stairs, it would only be proper if everyone jointly attended to this, so that after the fraud is exposed they can not ridicule it as a baseless lie.”
“Cheng Wen Cai, aren’t you determined to prove that my sect’s disciple is a fraud?”
Xu Cheng Xin spoke this slowly and unhurriedly while looking at Cheng Wen Cai with hatred, not even not using the title of Fellow Daoist to address him and directly addressing him with his name.
“Pure Yang Palace is considered to be an upright sect, even if you have produced this kind of degenerate disciple, Fellow Daoist Xu should not shield him.”
Cheng Wen Cai still had a smile on his face but his words were fixated on killing Yang Chen, using them to force Xu Cheng Xin.
“These words, Cheng Wan Cai you still suspect that I was also involved in fraud, yes or no?”
Xu Cheng Xin asked Cheng Wan Cai, throwing an angry look at him while stubbornly trying to press down his anger.
“Whether you have cheated or not, Fellow Daoist Xu you yourself should be clear about this within your heart!”
Cheng Wen Cai gave an ambiguous answer with a smile.
“You!”
Xu Cheng Xin was extremely angry, yet he smiled, speechlessly pointing at Cheng Wen Cai for a good moment, finally forcing his complexion to become normal, he said:
“Fine, I, Xu Cheng Xin, pledge on my Heart’s Devil, if I had practiced fraud in the affair of Yang Chen reaching the peak of the Heavenly Stairs, then my soul shall be shattered by thunder and I shall die without a proper burial site.”
After swearing the big oath on his Heart’s Devil Xu Cheng Xin looked at Cheng Wan Cai and asked:
“Cheng Wen Cai, what do you say now?”
“What can I say now!”
Cheng Wan Cai innocently said:
“Dare not, dare not, why bother swearing the big oath on your Heart’s Devil? I have complete trust that Fellow Daoist Xu hasn’t practiced fraud. But that, Yang Chen………”
“How about making him also swear the oath on his Heart’s Devil?”
Cheng Wan Cai asked while sneering.
“He is a second qi layer disciple, who knows whether he will be able to build his foundation or not, to swear the big oath on his Heart’s Devil, for him this is still distant.”
Cheng Wan Cai, however, did not want to let Yang Chen slip by:
“Maybe he has found some way to cheat, I have never before seen a person who doesn’t fear illusionary spells.”
After all was said and done, he just wanted to prove that Yang Chen was a fraud.
“Fellow Daoist Xu, you should not be crazy about it, if Fellow Daoist Xu does not make up his mind to clean the sect, I will have to do it in his place.”
“This matter of cleaning up the sect, bring that up after a disciple of the Greatest Sky Sect climbs up over the fiftieth step of the Heavenly Stairs, Ok!”
Xu Cheng Xin answered sneeringly. Everyone who heard this clearly understood that so long as next time there was a disciple of Greatest Sky Sect who would ascend past the fiftieth step of the Heavenly Stair, Xu Cheng Xin would immediately jump out to blame him of fraud.
“As for your claim, Fellow Daoist Cheng, that my Pure Yang Palace’s disciple Yang Chen cheated, then how about Fellow Daoist Cheng gathers ten JieDan stage experts and make Yang Chen climb up the Heavenly Stairs again?”
Xu Cheng Xin had confidence in Yang Chen, so he immediately raised the challenge and provokingly said:
“At that time, Fellow Daoist Cheng would surely be sincerely convinced, right?”
To this condition, Cheng Wen Cai neither agreed nor disagreed, however. The former only wanted to uncover Yang Chen’s fraud and afterward compel the Pure Yang Palace to clean their sect. But at that time, Xu Cheng Xin had sworn an oath on his Heart’s Devil, that this was certainly not his own doing.
Although the Pure Yang Palace was a second rate sect, it would still not tolerate someone spouting nonsense to tarnish its reputation. If someone would question their people, they had to take out the evidence, if they had no evidence, then even if it was the sect leader of Greatest Sky Sect, he still could not tarnish Pure Yang Palace as he wished. Perhaps if Greatest Sky Sect’s sect master himself had personally appeared, then he would be able to ask for Yang Chen’s life, but unfortunately, a minor Heavenly Stairs Assembly and a second qi layer disciple were not worthy for the Greatest Sky Sect’s Sect Leader to appear personally and Cheng Wan Cai wouldn’t dare dream of such a situation.
Just a mere Cheng Wen Cai’s position was not enough to make Pure Yang Palace, who also had several Yuan Ying experts to keep watch, yield. At present, he had only one option and that was to uncover Yang Chen’s fraud, otherwise, he would have to carry the label of a person who speaks without thinking. Apart from having to give an apology to the Pure Yang Palace, perhaps in the future his words, as a JieDan Stage expert, would be considered as a joke by other people. If a JieDan expert could be bothered by a qi layer outer disciple, who would still show respect to him?
Cheng Wen Cai somewhat repented when believing Li Qing Chen’s words, as he could not raise any evidence to determine that Yang Chen was a fraud. In addition, he also detested those Nine JieDan experts, whether he had cheated or not, they had to be well aware, yet they had taken a dubious stance and were making him decide whether he had done that or not. In this kind of situation, he could not stop halfway and could only force himself to go and gather the other nine JieDan stage experts, and once again start the Heavenly Stairs spell formation.
Nevertheless, Xu Cheng Xin immediately found Yang Chen who had just barely come down from the peak of the Heavenly Stairs and had directly gone to meet with Gongsun Ling to discuss what she had run across within the illusionary space. Hearing Xu Cheng Xin’s words, he immediately smiled.
“Isn’t this is a fine thing indeed?”
Yang Chen asked, feeling pleasantly surprised. He had not only climbed to the peak, but had also made his will firm and persistent, and in addition to that he had also directly broken through to the third qi layer. Ascending the Heavenly Stairs once more, wouldn’t this mean that his spirit power would rise immensely again? Maybe the will of the XianTai Stage would also fuse even more. If it were not for the supervision of numerous sects that one disciple of one sect could only climb once, Yang Chen would already have taken a few more rounds to the peak. At the moment, such a great opportunity had directly fallen into Yang Chen’s lap, so Yang Chen was naturally exceptionally pleased.
This time, Xu Cheng Xin seemingly discovered something on Yang Chen’s body and feeling alarmed he asked:
“You surprisingly made a breakthrough?”
Immediately his complexion changed.
“On your body, there is the spirit power of all of the five phases? This way is not pure, isn’t it to invert the roots and branches?”
Gongsun Ling had asked a similar question before. Merely, seeing that Yang Chen had made a breakthrough at that time, she didn’t ask anymore about this. But now seeing that Xu Cheng Xin had asked the same question, Gongsun Ling also said:
“Yang Younger Disciple, you should not take any wrong path!”
Regardless of how their expressions were, both of them were concerned for Yang Chen, he was naturally aware of that and didn’t hide anything and answered to Xu Cheng Xin:
“Elder, this disciple merely wanted to know, how the spirit power of other five phases is, that’s all.”
“Concentrate on cultivating your own fire attributed spirit power. How could you even cultivate other spirit power?”
Xu Cheng Xin appeared resentful towards Yang Chen for failing to meet his expectations. He was able to step onto the peak of the Heavenly Stairs with great difficulty, if such gifted person bit off more than he could chew and destroyed himself, it would really be unfortunate.
Yang Chen did not use words to reply. He stretched both of his hands, one hand high and the other hand low, stretching in front of his body. Soon after, from the hand he had stretched upwards a red colored liquid bubbled out and started falling like a waterfall onto the hand stretched out below.
This waterfall had the form of a real waterfall but compacted by a hundred times. Muddy waves raged, rising upwards and then falling down, even many drops of liquid splashed, like a genuine waterfall.
However when Xu Cheng Xin and Gongsun Ling looked at it, it made them stand there, rooted to the ground, dumbstruck and flabbergasted. Within Yang Chen’s hand was definitely water, but its color and temperature clearly showed that the waterfall they were looking at was completely made up of flame. Control fire as if it was water, this kind of trick with fire, made even Xu Cheng Xin unable to believe it, let alone Gongsun Ling.
Both of their expressions were nearly identical with no difference, they weren’t even able to speak half a word, their gaze attentively fixed on that waterfall in Yang Chen’s hands, which was rolling over and over. Afterward, under their gaze the waterfall turned into an orange colored desert with huge sand dunes, all of the small granules were moving because of the wind, empty and desolate, even the temperature gave them the feeling that it was a genuine desert.
Soon after that, Yang Chen flipped over his hands and the scenery disappeared without a trace and in the ears of these two people Yang Chen’s voice echoed:
“Sorry, at the moment I am only able to achieve this, and for the time being couldn’t imitate the metal and wood attributes.”
Since his spiritual awareness had greatly increased, Yang Chen was already able to imitate both the metal and wood attributes, but he concealed them under the guise of clumsiness. It was not that he believed that these two people would harm him, but rather because he did not want them to unexpectedly make people aware of his greatest secret.
Looking at this scenery, controlling fire as water, controlling fire as earth, Xu Cheng Xin, who was a knowledgeable person, naturally determined the level of Yang Chen’s control over fire. Finally he gasped in admiration and began to praise him:
“No wonder, Zhu Chen Tao boasted to me about you, your fire arts are unprecedented. I used to think he wanted to train the younger generation, unexpectedly, that guy was still being modest.”
As for Gongsun Ling, she was looking at him with her beautiful eyes overflowing with praise, the expression of pleasant surprise on her face couldn’t be concealed. When she looked at Yang Chen, it was as if another layer of depth had been added to his character.
Now Yang Chen didn’t need to say anything, both of them were aware of what Yang Chen wanted to achieve by cultivating the spirit power of attributes. Xu Cheng Xin patted Yang Chen’s shoulder and then encouraged him:
“Apparently you really will surpass us in future! Only bear in mind, only use the differently attributed spirit power for reference, don’t throw yourself too deeply into it so as to not neglect the root and pursue the tip. Based on your fire controlling ability, as soon as you are able to build your foundation, below YuanYing you will be the number one person in controlling fire. Do your best!”
“Many thanks Elder, for your encouragement!”
Yang Chen slightly bowed and thanked him. These were priceless advices, even if they were of no use to him, but these intentions demand appreciation.
“Yang Chen, do you have certainty that you can climb the Heavenly Stairs again?”
Xu Cheng Xin wanted to confirm this again. If Yang Chen did not have confidence, it would certainly be difficult for him.
“No problem.”
Yang Chen nodded assuringly, this kind of charity, he was ready to accept it many times, however Yang Chen could not know the impossible, so he somewhat hesitatingly asked:
“However……..”
“However what?”
Xu Cheng Xin rushed the words and asked.
“Elder, Heavenly Stairs are in the end an illusionary spell and if the illusionary spell is broken, the people responsible will certainly suffer from backlash.”
Yang Chen somewhat worriedly asked.
“If at that time the JieDan experts have some kind of issue again, this disciple is afraid he will have to bear the responsibility.”
The backslash of an illusionary spell is determined by its power, the more formidable the illusionary spell is, the more difficult its backlash would be to deal with, Yang Chen had to discuss this before he would start to climb the stairs. If he did not do it then, at that time he would be investigated again, which would make Yang Chen feel vexed.
“Hahahaha!”
Xu Cheng Xin was delighted at Yang Chen’s words.
“Good, I will go and immediately ask them. If they get injured it is their own fault and they must not come and blame us!”