Chapter 236: Step 108

　　Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations

　　Tao Yuan was experienced in battle, hence he could feel that something was up after hearing the crackling noises, which was why he sent the long whip in his hands flying at Cen Shuyin even faster than before.

　　“Crack Crack Crack Crack!” Four continuous strokes of lightning bolts exploded around Tao Yuan, causing his elemental energy layer to disintegrate .

　　“Bang!” Cen Shuyin’s long sword blocked Tao Yuan’s whip, and the sword shot another few swords of light at him. This was the advantage of a sword cultivator, being able to shoot out radiant swords at the enemy at any moment.

　　Once his defensive skill was broken by Cen Shuyin, Tao Yuan wanted to retreat frantically. The radiant swords of Cen Shuyin were nothing to joke about, and as his figure backed away, the elemental energy on his whip dissipated.

　　Many radiant swords cut into Tao Yuan’s shoulders, and a moment later, a cold sword was already on his neck.

　　Tao Yuan’s face turned pale. He dared not make a single move in this situation. “Senior Cen, I admit defeat.”

　　With a flick of her hand, Cen Shuyin kept her sword, speaking coldly, “If it were not for your contributions in fighting the alien cultivators, my sword would have pierced your neck.”

　　“Thank you senior for being merciful,” Tao Yuan’s pale face immediately turned red, and he leapt off the stage after this sentence. He was of the same cultivation level as Cen Shuyin, so since he had lost to her, he naturally had to call her senior instead.

　　A thunderous round of applause erupted below the stage, and the Heaven Seeking Palace’s Sword Lake was even more excited than before. While Heaven Seeking Palace had been trumped by Great Evolution Sect in ranking, Cen Shuyin and Tao Yuan had similar cultivation levels, and they represented each of their sects. Now that Cen Shuyin defeated Tao Yuan, it naturally helped Heaven Seeking Palace stand up for its name.

　　Jiang Xiushan giggled, “This Sword Lake disciple actually knows a lightning attribute skill. This is likely from some opportunity she had. No wonder Tao Yuan was no match for her.”

　　How could Feng Zhengqiu not understand the meaning behind Jiang Xiushan’s words? She implied that even though Heaven Seeking Palace’s Cen Shuyin had triumphed over Great Evolution Sect’s Tao Yuan, it was not won by some sword art from Heaven Seeking Palace, instead it was through a lightning affinity skill learnt elsewhere.

　　Feng Zhengqiu also laughed, “Indeed, if Tao Yuan did not have that defensive skill, he would have likely been defeated by Shuyin’s sword waves. That defensive skill is not bad. I heard that Tao Yuan had gone to the Lost Sky Ruins, who knows if he obtained it there.”

　　Upon hearing that, Jiang Xiushan’s face went cold, but he could not muster the words to make a rebuttal, because the defensive skill of Tao Yuan indeed did not originate from Great Evolution Sect.

　　Xia Mu simply laughed at the scene before him, “Neither of you are wrong. That’s right, Elder Ceng, please bring Junior Cen over. I feel that her sword art and lightning strikes are extremely outstanding. A rarity in this competition.”

　　“Roger,” The red faced tall man standing behind him answered, and turned around to give a few instructions before a black robed youth flew off to the distance.

　　As Xia Mu did not lower his volume when speaking this time, the surrounding people had heard everything. Even the expressions of Feng Zhengqiu and Jiang Xiushan, who were originally arguing, had changed after hearing this. They were not exactly clear what kind of character Xia Mu had, but they knew that this was not a good cookie in front of them.

　　…

　　“Crack!” Wild pressure came rolling in, causing Mo Wuji’s leg to break again. At the same moment, he stepped onto the 108th step.

　　Suddenly, the terrifying pressure around him vanished, and was replaced by thick mist. Although Mo Wuji did not take any pills, he discovered that all the wounds on his body disappeared. Even the newly broken leg was healing rapidly.

　　This is such a wonderful place. How good would it be if I could cultivate here?

　　As the thought of cultivation came to mind, he recalled that he had opened his 102nd meridian on the 103rd step, but it did not propel him into Yuan Dan Stage. He still remained in Transcending Mortality Stage Level 12, and only advanced to the Great Circle of it. The only change that had happened was his 102nd meridian opening up.

　　It was three Gold Forming Pills, so how could he not have broken through to the Earth Realm?

　　A sense of disappointment arose in Mo Wuji’s heart, and he threw the idea of advancing to Yuan Dan Stage to one side. Now that he had opened the 102nd meridian, it would just take a period of closed door cultivation to break through to Yuan Dan Stage. There was no rush..

　　The 108th step of Heaven Seeking Staircase was a platform with a few meters in radius. A pure white stone slab was erected at the frontmost point of the platform. As soon as he carved his name on the stone slab, he would instantly become number 1 on the rankings.

　　At the back of the platform, there was a small table with a token about the size of a palm on it. The token was made from an unknown material that Mo Wuji spiritual will could not penetrate, and when he walked over to pick it up, he discovered that there were words written on it, “I risked my life to obtain the Immortal Seeking Token, and the Heaven Seeking Staircase was picked up from the street by me…If anyone manages of obtain the Immortal Seeking Token from here, please avenge me. The man I have a grudge with is named Pang Zui…Never mind, since you could obtain the Immortal Seeking Token, you must be extremely talented, so please do something for the cultivators of Zhen Xing…Ji Feiqian.”

　　This doesn’t make much sense, and Mo Wuji felt that it was rather nonsensical.

　　The Heaven Seeking Staircase was actually picked up from the streets by Ji Feiqian. This sort of treasure could be picked off the streets? Then why couldn’t Mo Wuji do the same? Could things get even more ridiculous?

　　If Ji Feiqian was really that strong, to be able to find the Heaven Seeking Staircase and leave these things on it, who would have the ability to become his enemy? That Pang Zui must have been a little too exceptional right? As for Zhen Xing, where was it? Could it be another name for the Lost Continent?

　　The last sentence asked him to do something for the Zhen Xing cultivators, but what thing was it referring to? There were many people in Zhen Xing that could eliminate him, so what could he do as a mere Transcending Mortality Stage cultivator?

　　Shaking his head, Mo Wuji casually threw the Immortal Seeking Token into his storage ring.

　　“Crack!” A crisp sound echoed out. To Mo Wuji’s surprise, the table that was fine a moment ago had suddenly turned into a pile of ashes.

　　So there was indeed something weird going on, and he looked up at his surroundings, puzzled as ever.

　　Since he had achieved his goal, it was time to quickly leave the sect, then find Sang Yiping and co to return to Tian Ji Sect. This was not a place he intended to stay for long at.

　　Mo Wuji turned around and sped down the Heaven Seeking Staircase. As for the white jade slab for carving one’s name on, it was completely ignored by him. His aim for coming here was not to become famous, but simply to challenge the Heaven Seeking Staircase. In fact, he had gained quite a lot from the experience. While he did not manage to advance to Yuan Dan Stage, he still opened his 102nd meridian.

　　Perhaps because he had reached the top of Heaven Seeking Staircase, all pressure from it disappeared as he descended. In a mere few breath’s time, Mo Wuji reached the bottom.

　　The sky was already starting to brighten up then, and he rushed straight to the Sect Hall of Affairs.

　　Other than a few disciples on duty in the Hall of Affairs, the place was quiet and serene, a great contrast from its previous noisy state.

　　Mo Wuji walked straight to the outer disciple’s administrative area, where only a single eyed old man sat at while reading a book. He walked over to knock on the window, took out his outer disciple identity token and said, “Apprentice brother, I would like to start the sect leaving process.”

　　“Ahh…” The one eyed man’s book nearly fell to the floor as his hands trembled. He judged Mo Wuji suspiciously, and asked, “You just said that you want to start the sect leaving process?” Mo Wuji replied with a smile, handing his identity token over, “That’s right, I really want to start the sect leaving process, do I need to produce anything else?”

　　Although the one eyed old man was shocked, he still shook his head, “There’s no need.”

　　It was difficult to enter Heaven Seeking Palace, but it was comparatively easy to leave. Only those legacy disciples who were extremely talented would require their summit lord to be informed when they were leaving the sect. Outer disciples only had to hand over their identity tokens.

　　“Hey, your identity token still has 1,000 contribution points in it…” The one eyed old man exclaimed.

　　Only then did Mo Wuji recall that these 1,000 contribution points belonged to Cen Shuyin. Now that he was leaving the sect, these 1,000 points were of no use to him.

　　“May I ask if these contribution points can be transferred to someone else?” Mo Wuji quickly inquired. This was still 1,000 contribution points, so it would be a waste to just discard them.

　　“Sure, you’ll have to tell me which disciple in the sect and I’ll transfer them.” The one eyed old man remained patient.

　　“Then help me to transfer them to Sword Lake’s legacy disciple, Cen Shuyin,” Since these 1,000 contribution points originally belonged to her, and he was only returning them to their owner.

　　The one eyed old man shook his head and thought to himself, even if you transfer 10,000 contribution points to Cen Shuyin, she still won’t know who you are.

　　A moment later, the old man lifted up his head and spoke to Mo Wuji, “You’ve left the sect already, so you need to get out of the sect immediately. If you are not out of the sect within six hours, you’ll be hunted down the the sect executioners.”

　　“Thank you.” Mo Wuji bowed respectfully, turned around, and left without a shred of hesitation. It would not even take six hours, he couldn’t wait to leave Heaven Seeking Palace.

　　…

　　“Special Envoy Xia? Why is he asking for me. I don’t even know him,” Cen Shuyin, who has just advanced to the next round, frowned at the black clothed youth before her. Out of all the people that came from Zhen Mo Continent, she could only remember the black haired, white bearded expert. As for Special Envoy Xia, she did recognise him as the purple robed youth that sat in the middle of the main altar, but what did that have to do with her?

　　The black robed youth simply grinned, “I’m not sure what business he has with you either, I’m just a messenger. Perhaps Special Envoy Xia felt that you had potential, so he could possibly make an exception to let you enter Star King Mountain.”

　　Hearing this made Cen Shuyin’s eyes light up. She was extremely focused on cultivation, and after she joined Heaven Seeking Palace’s Sword Lake, she devoted all of her energy into sword dao. In her eyes, there was nothing else but cultivation. For it, she didn’t mind doing things that were beneath her. Otherwise, with her status, how could she have begged an outer disciple like Mo Wuji multiple times?

　　The results proved that she was right. Lightning Flash not only allowed her to increase her number of contribution by a bunch, but also allowed her to defeat Tao Yuan.

　　“I heard that Zhen Mo Continent’s cultivation culture is much stronger than the Lost Continent’s, is that true?” Cen Shuyin could see that this black robed youth was also from Zhen Mo Continent.

　　The black robed youth replied with pride, “You’re right, for cultivators of a similar level, Zhen Mo Continent’s trumps all those from here. For example, if I’m in the Great Circle of Transcending Mortality Stage, I believe that there’s no other Transcending Mortality Stage cultivator that can last for more than half an incense’s time in battle with me.”