Chapter 42: Stirring Up Chaos to Kill, The Final Eruption Approaches
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
Liu Qinghe broke into a cold sweat, his hair standing on end.
The killing intent behind him offered no room for negotiation!
He had only two choices: dodge or die.
If he dodged, he would lose his chance to kill the man from the Puppet Spirit Sect.
But if he didn’t dodge…
Could he afford not to!?
With a fierce bite of his teeth, Liu Qinghe roared and his figure blurred.
With Windstride and Gale Arts buffing him, he moved with lightning speed and narrowly dodged Yu Xian’s clumsy sword strike.
Without pausing or saying a word, he shot off into the distance.
He was decisive to the extreme.
Yu Xian raised an eyebrow. Watching Liu Qinghe flee, a flash of killing intent passed through his eyes but quickly faded.
Let him go for now.
He turned his gaze to the wounded Puppet Spirit Sect cultivator.
“You want to kill me? Keep dreaming!”
Blood flowed from the man’s mouth, and the stain on his chest grew wider.
Liu Qinghe’s surprise attack had pierced his heart vessels. Even with immediate consumption of a healing pill, it would be too late, let alone trying to fight now?
With Yu Xian’s Fire Flood Dragon Spell and Water Dragon Tornado, both supercharged at his temporary Foundation Establishment stage, the spells reached entirely new heights!
Fire wrapped around him, water exploded outward.
Boom!
The man from the Puppet Spirit Sect had barely finished his roar, not even completing his hand seal, when the two spells enveloped him—fire and water surging—obliterating him into dust!
Having killed the man, Yu Xian scanned his surroundings. No one was left.
He raised his hand to collect the man’s storage pouch and then flew back to the giant boulder, sitting cross-legged once more.
Rumble!
Above him, the Ascension Token glowed again, changing to display the number 12.
The strength that fed back into him elevated his cultivation to the peak of early Foundation Establishment!
But Yu Xian didn’t use this newfound power to chase others down.
Sitting on the boulder, his expression was calm, but his eyes were thoughtful.
If this Ascension Token merely encouraged them to kill each other until ten—or maybe just one—remained, then what was the point?
Was it some kind of Gu ritual? Possibly.
But even if it was a Gu, what was the purpose of nurturing the last surviving Gu?
Let one person survive just to be released?
Yu Xian didn’t believe that anyone would go through all this trouble for such a trivial end.
So, he didn’t intend to kill everyone just to power up his token.
In fact, he hoped that ten people would survive—perhaps even someone who could match him in strength.
That way, whatever was waiting beyond, he wouldn’t be the only target. There’d be nine others to observe, or to use as meat shields.
With one month remaining, the sixteen remaining cultivators would certainly fight down to ten or fewer.
After this battle, Yu Xian figured no one would want to bother him anymore.
With no more impurities to expel from his body and his cultivation bottlenecked, he finally took a breath and began sorting through the loot he had accumulated over the past month and a half.
Fourteen storage pouches.
One from a Sword Cultivator of the Yuan Sword Sect, one from a female cultivator of the Medicine King Valley, three from Xuanyuan Sect disciples, one from Puppet Spirit Sect, and the rest looted from their victims.
All now belonged to Yu Xian—fourteen blind boxes of treasure.
“If only one of them is a mid-grade pouch…”
He had fourteen low-grade pouches, plus three of his own, totaling seventeen. They bulged in his robes, forming a long spread before him.
“Whatever, let’s see what they’ve got first. I’ll sort them later and keep what I need accessible. The rest I’ll sell at the sect—someday I’ll save enough for a mid-grade storage pouch!”
First up: Yuan Sword Sect cultivator.
With a sweep of spiritual energy, Yu Xian found ninety medium-grade spirit stones and a whole bunch of low-grade ones.
Sixteen talismans, ranging from early Foundation to early Core Formation stage.
Three manuals:
Yuan Sword Heart Method
Greatsword Art
Split Sword Technique
Over a dozen bottles of high-quality pills!
There were even specialty talismans: fog dispersal, illusion dispelling, poison removal…
Clearly, this cultivator had come well-prepared for the Ascension Trial—but was too arrogant, and ended up dying to Yu Xian’s counterattack.
Not to mention… the four-grade battle armor Yu Xian wore played a major role in his death.
This pouch was a jackpot.
Next up: Medicine King Valley female cultivator.
She had poor luck. The Ascension Island was kill-or-be-killed. As prey, her death was justified.
Her pouch had little space left—most was taken by a third-grade cauldron: “Lian Cao Furnace,” etched right on it.
She also had six medium-grade stones, more low-grade ones, eight talismans from Foundation to Core level, and a third-grade flying boot, inexplicably unworn.
Yu Xian didn’t hesitate. He swapped them for his second-grade boots on the spot—his speed instantly increased.
Six bottles of pills: five second-grade, one third-grade.
A small bundle of herbs—nearly all the ingredients needed for a Foundation Pill. All that was missing was a third-grade demon core.
Two manuals:
Essentials of Alchemy Heart
Ten Thousand Pills Chant
At first glance, Yu Xian wasn’t particularly excited.
But those two manuals?
He stopped going through the other pouches and immediately focused on them!
Fifteen days passed before he lifted his head again.
Essentials of Alchemy Heart was decent, a dual cultivation and alchemy method. But it required condensing a “Pill Heart” in the body to advance—a path Yu Xian wouldn’t follow, as he had the Longevity Tree Spring Vein already.
The true treasure was Ten Thousand Pills Chant!
This alchemy scripture provided chants, techniques, and spiritual energy flow methods that could boost pill success rates by 5–10%!
With mastery and resonance with nature, that increase could reach 15–20%!
Every type of pill had its own mantra, technique, and matching spiritual energy pattern. The book listed over ten thousand of them.
A treasure even disciples of the Medicine King Valley wouldn’t normally access.
And it now belonged to him.
After fifteen days, he’d reviewed a dozen of the chants and stopped himself.
Time was tight. The island’s barrier was visibly shrinking—now within 3,000 kilometers of his mountain.
Only ten days at most remained before the barrier reached him.
He scanned the surroundings: fifteen red markers remained.
Only four had died over the past two weeks. Three still needed to go or everyone would die.
Yu Xian stood slowly.
Just then, the “7”-ranked Ascension Token started moving… toward him!
He sat back down, calm again.
“Liu Qinghe wants to challenge me now? Perfect timing!”
Liu Qinghe, empowered by the seventh-ranked token, now matched Yu Xian’s cultivation at Foundation Early Peak. He approached within 300 meters but didn’t strike.
Yu Xian opened his eyes coldly: “Have you taken a liking to my Ascension Token, Liu-shixiong?”
“Hahaha, not at all! Please don’t misunderstand, Yu-shidi.” Liu Qinghe waved his hands, then turned serious. “I came to propose a partnership.”
“Partnership?”
Yu Xian’s tone was icy. “What’s there to discuss between us?”
Liu Qinghe didn’t falter. “Let’s team up! Those other guys are slippery. We can see them on this mountain, but chasing them is pointless. They always spot me first and vanish! Only if we split up can we trap and kill them!”
Ah, so that’s the plan.
Yu Xian smiled faintly. “I’m listening. But who gets the kills?”
“We’ll share. First one goes to you!” Liu Qinghe smiled.
“So generous.”
Yu Xian nodded.
“You agree, then?”
“I never said that,” Yu Xian replied coolly. “You scheme too much. I’m still young. I don’t dare play your game.”
Liu Qinghe’s smile froze.
I scheme too much? You’re the one scheming!
If I were scheming, I’d have taken this central mountain by now! Everyone knows it’s the safest spot!
Suppressing his rage, Liu Qinghe forced a laugh. “Alright, cautious it is. I’ll be going.”
He gave Yu Xian a sharp glance and flew away.
“Who knows what trap you’ve set? Another encirclement? I’ve no time for your games,” Yu Xian muttered.
He looked down from the mountain. Everything was clear.
The shrinking barrier meant the survivors would eventually be forced together—but what if the time was cut short?
He couldn’t risk it.
Better to finish it early than risk death.
From above, he saw Liu Qinghe go after a single-rank token. But even from afar, the target had already started fleeing.
Just as Liu said: his token was too bright. Everyone could see it coming.
As for Yu Xian’s token—it glowed like a sun.
The moment he moved, everyone would panic.
And panic was good.
Yu Xian grinned.
His goal wasn’t necessarily to kill, but to reduce the count to ten.
If chaos helped, so be it.
The giant “12”-ranked Ascension Token—lighting up a 200-kilometer radius—moved.
Toward the two “4”-ranked tokens.
All 13 remaining cultivators were shaken!
“Damn it! You didn’t want to work with me, now you want to hog the kills? Planning to kill me next, huh!?”
Liu Qinghe gritted his teeth and roared toward his target, “Stop running! I’ll make you suffer before you die!!”
The two “4”-ranked cultivators fled at Yu Xian’s approach, inadvertently leading him toward a “2” and several “1”-ranked tokens.
They panicked too.
The whole 3,000-kilometer region fell into chaos.
Yu Xian chased lazily, pausing on mountaintops to check positions, then resuming pursuit.
In the confusion, several “1”s bumped into each other, spawning fights—though none died.
However, the “2” rank, desperate to avoid Yu Xian, was tracked down by Liu Qinghe and killed after half a day’s pursuit.
Liu Qinghe’s token rose to rank 10, only two behind Yu Xian.
Only one more needed to die!
Just one!
Everyone began hoping for that final death—except they didn’t want to be the one to die.
The remaining seven “1”-ranks knew they were prey.
But they wouldn’t go down easily.
They would rather all die together!
Suddenly—
BOOM!
After three days of chaos, a cold, mechanical voice thundered from the sky:
“One day remains. Ascension Ceremony ending. Ascenders exceed ten. If, after one day, count exceeds ten… all will die!”
The barrier’s contraction paused, now visible at the edge of the 3,000-kilometer radius. Azure-purple lightning crackled within it.
Yu Xian stopped.
So did everyone else.
Only one day left…
No one wanted to die.
So either one more person must die.
Or they all would.
Everyone hesitated.
The seven “1”-ranks knew they were the targets—but they wouldn’t submit.
Yu Xian inhaled sharply.
“Good. We still have time.”
He raised a hand.
Clang!
The fourth-grade treasure sword, Bi Ling Sword, appeared.
One of his trump cards.
He hadn’t planned to use it, but now there was no time to waste.
“One more kill, and we’ll have ten.”
“I want to see what lies beyond this test.”
Yu Xian leaped onto the sword.
Slim figure, robes fluttering—he looked more like a sword cultivator than the actual ones.
With a flicker of thought, the Bi Ling Sword blazed forward—faster than ever.
Toward the two remaining “4” ranks—to end this trial!
