Chapter 108

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Chapter 108: She Never Loses

Heavenly thunder struck continuously, initially just frightening, but eventually becoming as terrifying as tearing apart the heavens and earth.

The curious monks watching couldn’t help but dodge again. The white jade-like floor of Cloud Sea City was already cracked like a spider web from the lightning strikes. Ye Shubai flew into the air with his sword to intercept the lightning, protecting the innocent monks from Cloud Sea World. Despite his pale face, Ye Shubai stood firm like a sturdy tree in the rain.

Every time the lightning struck, he faced it head-on, taking all the impact to prevent any lightning from hitting below. He couldn’t move an inch.

Shang Wuyang’s sword was heading towards him, but he couldn’t break through.

Wen Yun stood in front of Ye Shubai, guarding him closely as he protected the people of Cloud Sea World, while she protected him.

Even Wen Yun didn’t expect that the treasures and talismans she had planned to use to defend against the lightning would now become tools to block Shang Wuyang.

After dodging Shang Wuyang’s sword, she didn’t dare to relax for a moment, staying alert to the extreme, capturing all his movements with her strong mental focus.

Compared to sparring with the others in Cloud Sea Tower, fighting Shang Wuyang made her feel unprecedented pressure. Wen Yun knew this wasn’t just a practice bout – one mistake could be fatal.

Shang Wuyang was not playing by the rules of Cloud Sea City, he was acting irrationally.

In the blink of an eye, he attacked with a ghostly sword thrust!

Wen Yun pushed hard with her feet and leaped high into the air, twisting in an incredible arc to deflect the deadly blow, but Shang Wuyang seemed to anticipate it, swiftly changing his sword move to strike at another vulnerable spot on Wen Yun.

However, Wen Yun was also prepared with a quick counter move, casting a magical barrier that slowed down Shang Wuyang’s sword strike, allowing her to swiftly dodge past it.

Shang Wuyang’s eyes were cold and silent, with his killing intent unleashed, aggressively targeting every weak spot on Wen Yun’s body.

In truth, he considered killing Wen Yun to be a very simple task.

Shang Wuyang had been practicing for over two thousand years, on the verge of achieving a breakthrough to become a powerful immortal. He had been constantly in battles and killings, making fighting a routine for him. On the other hand, Wen Yun had only recently ascended for less than a hundred years, coupled with her previous five hundred years, she was still considered a young girl in the higher realm.

Her only advantage perhaps was her extensive experience in escaping dangerous situations. She might not match Shang Wuyang in killing skills, but she excelled in surviving.

Shang Wuyang was unaware of this, convinced that he had found Wen Yun’s weakness, yet she narrowly evaded his attacks repeatedly, as if protected by some higher force.

Just as he was preparing to strike again, several powerful auras rushed towards them from different directions outside Cloud Sea City. The setting sun cast a golden light on them, revealing figures in silver armor, either Orcs or humans, their faces stern and chilling.

Cloud Sea City was built by cultivators from various realms, without a powerful immortal presence but possessing a formidable Ascension Realm power unmatched by any other realm. Those who wished to protect the city could join the Silver Armor Guards after passing a test. The taxes paid by merchants here and the fees from ordinary people entering the city mostly went to them.

In other words, this great power does not belong to one side, it belongs to all the people of Cloud Sea World, which is why Cloud Sea World is not taken over by many other upper realms.

The less powerful silver-armored guards just now did not dare to stop Shang Wuyang, but this group that has just arrived are clearly the elite among the silver-armored guards, almost all in the peak realm of ascension. The elite forces of the silver-armored guards gathered together, showing no fear of Shang Wuyang.

They held their weapons against Shang Wuyang and coldly reminded him.

"Fellow merchant, since you have come to Cloud Sea City, you must follow the rules of our Cloud Sea City, otherwise do not blame us for expelling you from Cloud Sea World."

Three consecutive swords missed, Shang Wuyang did not feel angry or embarrassed. Being blocked, he did not react much, just holding the sword without stepping back.

Shang Wuyang didn’t know how serious the situation was, but Elder Zhang was very aware and was immediately startled.

If Dongxuan World angers Cloud Sea World, Dongxuan World will have a powerful enemy to deal with!

Enduring the fear in his heart, he quickly walked behind Shang Wuyang and whispered, "Junior Brother Shang, if you offend Cloud Sea World, the sect leader may punish you when we return."

Seeing that Shang Wuyang did not respond to the sect leader, he quickly changed his tone, "Even Supreme Immortal Shangxuan surely does not want to see this happen."

"I understand now," Shang Wuyang’s face showed a different expression, he put away his sword and said calmly, "I can’t let such a small matter disturb Master’s practice."

The silver-armored guards also relaxed their expressions.

However, in the next moment, Shang Wuyang spoke again, saying something that puzzled everyone, "But she is also my destiny."

Elder Zhang glanced at Wen Yun and, after seeing her appearance, couldn’t help but mutter, "Has Junior Brother Shang, who has been single for thousands of years, apart from practicing, started to have feelings and wants to find a partner?"

He whispered, "Junior Brother Shang, even though this female cultivator is beautiful and talented, disciples of our Dongxuan Sect only form partnerships within the sect, especially you. It’s better to inform our Sect Leader and Supreme Immortal Shangxuan."

Shang Wuyang was too lazy to explain, he simply stated a fact, "I haven’t encountered such a strong opponent in a long time. Killing her will surely benefit my cultivation."

He had sparred with countless cultivators at the Ascension Stage, and the experts at the Cloud Sea Tower were from various backgrounds. However, under the dominance of the Law of Kill, the vulnerabilities of others were laid bare before him, with no escape. In comparison, Wen Yun made him feel the excitement of past battles.

Wow! I thought you had a crush on the girl, turns out you want to kill her!

Elder Zhang took a sharp breath, even as someone close to Shang Wuyang, he couldn’t understand Shang Wuyang’s thought process at all.

But Elder Zhang was too scared to go against this younger disciple, as just one glance from him could kill him a thousand times.

He was afraid that this guy might attack again and cause trouble for Dongxuan Sect, so he quietly reminded, "If you want to kill her, you can do it in Cloud Sea Tower, or wait for her to leave Cloud Sea City before doing it."

In any case, don’t do it in Cloud Sea City, as this is a safe zone, and if you fight unfairly, you will be banned.

Shang Wuyang lazily raised his eyelids, said nothing, and headed straight towards Cloud Sea Tower.

As he passed by Wen Yun, his gaze swept across the Cloud Brand around her waist, confirming the number inscribed on it.

"Ninety-nine."

Wen Yun furrowed her brows, feeling the cold sensation of being stared at by a venomous snake.

Before half an incense stick’s time had passed, a body was carried out from inside.

The crowd exclaimed, "Someone else has died by Shang Wuyang’s hands again!"

Elder Zhang also recognized the dead Winged Person, remembering it was him who took them to look for the Cloud Beast a few days ago. He furrowed his brow and let out a sigh of resignation.

Wen Yun suddenly turned around, but saw no one, only two beautiful purple feathers lightly falling from the corpse being carried by the silver-armored guard. The feathers were stained with fresh blood, a deep crimson that soaked most of the feathers, making the purple-red color especially glaring.

She knew those feathers very well, she still had some in her space bag, all picked up after fighting with Yi Yu before. At that time, the Winged Person thought she was going to kill him, but little did he know the real killer was behind him.

Wen Yun felt like her head was hit hard and was left confused.

She had no close relationship with Yi Yu, they even argued and exchanged words because of the Winged Person’s sharp tongue, but she had never thought of harming him. Yet now, a once living being had perished before her eyes, which was more shocking than hearing someone say "Shang Wuyang killed again".

The silver-armored guard frowned but said nothing, simply retreating in silence. As long as they followed the rules of Cloud Sea City, even if Shang Wuyang were to slaughter everyone in Cloud Sea Tower, they could do nothing about it.

He aimed to be the first under the heavens, no one could stop him.

Mournful cries erupted from the Wing Clan crowd, resembling the wails of thousands of birds in Cloud Sea City. Such cries had occurred many times in the past month, accompanied by deafening thunder, making the usually peaceful and lively atmosphere of Cloud Sea City incredibly heavy.

The girl from the gambling house was terrified, but she was quick-witted. She rushed to Wen Yun and urgently warned, "Miss, are you Number 99? Shang Wuyang wants to kill you, challenge Number 98 quickly to avoid him!"

She was so upset that she sounded like she was crying. Even though she was just a lowly figure in the gambling house, treated like a servant girl that nobody respected, Wen Yun was kind to her. She didn’t want to see this female cultivator end up as a dead body.

In the next moment, a soft white light shone from Cloud Brand at Wen Yun’s waist.

Shang Wuyang was indeed coming to kill her.

The young girl’s face changed drastically, urging Wen Yun to fight and escape.

However, Wen Yun just smiled, she reached out, touched the young girl’s head, took out the Camera Stone Shang Wuyang had given her earlier with her soul imprint on it, and linked it with the young girl’s light mirror she was carrying to bind the two together.

"You’ve been guarding me for a month, you better bring my image back, take the light mirror to your boss, and remember to bet on me to win."

She couldn’t back down.

Clutching the light mirror, the young girl gritted her teeth, "Miss, then you… just remember to quickly escape from the arena once inside!"

She couldn’t escape either.

"I’m going to stop Shang Wuyang."

Trap him forever at the one hundredth arena, never to kill another person.

*

On Cloud Island.

When the first thunder struck, Immortal Su Yuan sensed something was wrong and quickly received news from business partners in Cloud Sea World about what was happening in the city.

Hearing that Shang Wuyang was stopping people, Immortal Su Yuan’s face changed drastically, throwing down the hammer in his hand, he said, "Little Bai is in Transmigration, I must go protect him!"

Zhu Erchong and Shen Xinghai, who were still barefoot and moving bricks, were stunned. "But elder, what if you are captured by the people from Dongxuan Sect?"

"I can’t worry about that now!" Immortal Su Yuan frowned, casually touched his face, "Ascending only happens once, if I fail, it will cost my life. Even if I get caught today, I still have to go stop Shang Wuyang!"

With that, he painfully took out a talisman from his pocket and slapped it on himself. It was a teleportation talisman he had bought at a high price years ago for escapes, almost capable of instantaneous short-distance teleportation. However, because Wen Yun had given him many more effective escape scrolls later, he kept this talisman hidden away.

I didn’t expect to be useful at this moment.

"You two stay on the island…"

Before finishing the last sentence of instruction, Shen Xinghai and Zhu Erchong each grabbed his arms tightly, refusing to let go.

Zhu Erchong, "Ancestral Master Ye is in trouble. How can we just sit idly by! Even if I have to scold them today, I will scold them to death!"

Shen Xinghai, "A true man is willing to risk everything. Even if thousands stand in my way, I will go forward!"

Immortal Su Yuan wanted to throw these two grandsons down, but they held on too tightly. He could only endure the anger in his belly and scolded them, "If you keep talking weird and eerie like this, don’t blame me for not being polite!"

The talisman for teleportation was indeed effective. Instead of taking half a day as before, this time it only took the time for half a pot of tea to arrive.

As soon as they landed, they saw Ye Shubai floating in mid-air enduring the heavenly thunder, with several members of Dongxuan Sect standing below the thunder circle, too afraid to approach. Clearly, they didn’t have as much courage as Shang Wuyang to experience the thunder summoned by Ye Shubai.

Seeing that Ye Shubai was unharmed, Immortal Su Yuan heaved a sigh of relief.

However, Shen Xinghai looked around but couldn’t see the familiar figure. He furrowed his brows and asked, "Where is Martial Sister Wen?"

This question was not even necessary because currently, many cultivators in Cloud Sea City had stopped doing business. Even the most stingy vendors had given up on trading and openly took out the Origin Crystal hidden in their boots because they couldn’t bear to buy a space bag.

Now all the cultivators in Cloud Sea City were involved in two gambling games, with gambling houses setting up tables right outside Cloud Sea Tower.

The first bet was on how many heavenly thunders the young man flying in the sky could withstand. Judging from Shang Wuyang’s actions, this young man was extraordinary, so the lowest bet started at fifty, then sixty, seventy… up to a hundred. Of course, very few could withstand a hundred heavenly thunders, so nobody dared to bet on that outcome.

And now he had already endured forty heavenly thunders. He showed no signs of giving up, making the cultivators who bet fifty Origin Crystals start to tear up as they pitied the crystals they had wagered.

The second bet was on the huge mirror standing on the open space.

It was a grey platform, with dim light casting long shadows from above, stretching out two figures to the ground, while the strange long staff’s shadow tilted on the edge of the platform.

Shen Xinghai’s face changed drastically after seeing the shadow of that long staff. He exclaimed, "It’s Martial Sister Wen in there!"

"Martial Sister Wen? Why did she enter Cloud Sea Tower at this time?"

The people from Qingliu Sword Sect were confused at first, but when they heard the discussions around them, they suddenly understood what was going on and their faces changed drastically.

"No grudge, no reason, why did Shang Wuyang want to kill Martial Sister Wen!" Zhu Erchong said angrily. "He already killed so many people in the tower before, took over Cloud Island, why did he have to kill someone? Are the people from Dongxuan Sect all crazy?"

"Perhaps Shang Wuyang thought that killing Little Yun girl would improve his Law of Kill," Immortal Su Yuan revealed the truth. His gaze was extremely cold as he said angrily, "People from Dongxuan Sect are always like this, they don’t care about reason, they only believe in ‘survival of the fittest’."

"Do you know where Dongxuan Sect’s terrifying reputation comes from? Why are their disciples so powerful? From the top to the bottom, Dongxuan Sect is ruthless and lacks humanity! To enter Dongxuan Sect, besides exceptional talent, one must also maintain high combat abilities. Every year, they have a disciple competition, and those who rank last, regardless of their status, will be stripped of their disciple title and become servants!"

Immortal Su Yuan looked at Shen Xinghai with compassion and said, "Since you were injured before, you can stay in our Qingliu Sword Sect, where your senior brothers will take care of you, find you a prosthetic limb, and give up the opportunity to go to the upper realm for you."

"But if you were a disciple of Dongxuan Sect, after becoming disabled, you wouldn’t even have the qualification to leave the sect and seek new opportunities. You would only become a servant mining Origin Crystal or cultivating spiritual herbs."

"That’s why they want to become stronger more than anyone else, and they are more ruthless than cultivators from any other realm. The higher the realm, the more you realize how ruthless cultivators can be. The path of cultivation is not peaceful, it’s not about self-improvement, but a cruel path of constantly competing and seizing resources and opportunities!"

Shen Xinghai and Zhu Erchong were stunned to hear this, struggling to accept the explanation. They murmured, "Senior, is what he’s saying right?"

"Foolish children, can’t you see that in battles of life and death, there is no right or wrong, only victory or defeat," Immortal Su Yuan awakened the young sword cultivators who were unaware of the cruelty of the world. "If Wen Yun wins today, then Shang Wuyang’s path is wrong, if she loses, then his path is right!"

But can Wen Yun win?

They wanted to stop Shang Wuyang from entering, but they couldn’t go inside, so they had to watch the constantly changing images on the light mirror.

"Although the girl just blocked a few swords from Shang Wuyang, when it comes down to it, it seems like a dead end, alas, what a pity, what a pity!"

"Even such a beautiful girl, Shang Wuyang doesn’t hesitate to kill, the reputation of the Dongxuan sword cultivator for being ruthless is well-deserved."

"It’s obvious that Shang Wuyang will win this round, tsk, it’s a shame the odds are so low, won’t be able to earn much Origin Crystal."

…

Shen Xinghai stared blankly at the light mirror, with countless voices echoing in his ears, all discussing who to bet on, among those voices, most of the spectators were worried for Wen Yun, but there were still some laughing wildly, dreaming of getting rich, who had early on decided that Shang Wuyang would kill Wen Yun.

In a daze, he felt like he was back at the Swordsmanship Contest from years ago, on that morning covered in cherry blossom snow.

That day, a group of senior brothers and sisters, in order to earn spiritual jade to forge swords, scraped together their spiritual jade to bet on Wen Yun winning, but unexpectedly she disappeared midway, they lost all the spiritual jade they had saved up, later, to gather the fare back to Qingliu Sword Sect, Martial Sister Mengran even sold two jars of wine on Blizzard Island.

Wen Yun didn’t know that everyone cried that time.

They cried not because they lost spiritual jade, but because they thought she had died, so they cried sorrowfully. Master Bao even went to buy paper money and burnt it for Wen Yun in the middle of the night.

Shen Xinghai and Zhu Erchong looked at each other, and they both remembered the past.

Zhu Erchong’s voice was hoarse, he couldn’t look in the mirror, and asked softly, "Can she win?"

"Of course she can win! She only disappointed us once, when did she ever lose? And she still owes me two thousand spiritual jade, she should pay it back this time."