Chapter 55: Bitter Training
After Ning'Er left the room, the three men looked at each other with bewildered expressions that they had been struggling to contain because they did not want to lose their dignity in front of a young girl.
Looking at his two friends, Ye Shuo leaned back in his chair and chortled gleefully, "This girl is full of miracles, isn't she? I've mentioned this to you many times, City Lord!"
Ye Xiu looked pensive because this was the first time he had met her or even heard of her since he had been travelling outside Glory City in recent times. He lifted his hand to twirl his thick grey moustache, "Hmmm...but can we trust her? An unbelievable gifted genius who does not possess a good heart will inevitably cause more damage in the long-term."
Ye Zong's eyes brightened as he thought about Ning'Er, "Ye Xiu, you haven't been around so you don't know how much she has contributed to Glory City the past year! And she has done so without asking for anything in return for herself."
He held up his fingers in front of him as he started counting off her incredible achievements, "She's uncovered inscriptions of immense power and value to raise the capabilities of the Guild of Inscriptions. She's shared long-lost high tier recipes for the Alchemist Association, enabling our city's experts to grow at many times the speed and to greater heights than ever before. She's helped to unify many of Glory City's families without any discrimination on whether you're commoner or noble."
Ye Xiu's eyes almost popped out as Ye Zong continued, "And somehow, the group of friends that are with her have grown stronger at an unprecedented rate and will be the future backbone of our city's strength! None of those in her group have shown any arrogance, struggle for power or malicious intent at all. I've asked Ye Shuo to keep a close eye on them. Which young person doesn't have a tendency to slip into selfish pride when they are so much more powerful than their peers? They all have their feet planted solidly on the ground!"
Ye Xiu thought for awhile, then sighed deeply. "It looks like Lord Ye Mo and I have a lot of catching up to do on the happenings of Glory City. Maybe we've been away too long...so much has changed!"
Ye Zong smiled as though anticipating their response, "In fact, I am very close to placing her as my official successor for the City Lord's position!!"
In response, Ye Shuo leaned forward in agitation, placing his hands on the table. "City Lord! What about Ye Han and Ziyun?"
Ye Zong shook his head in subtle frustration, "My Ziyun...is too gentle-hearted. She would be eaten alive by the wolves out there. And Ye Han...his ambition has always been far greater than his compassion. I had been counting on him because I wanted to take the load off my precious daughter. But now if you look at Ning'Er's undeniable contributions...if I did not make her my successor, those who know what she has contributed in the background will question my integrity. I've decided, if she is truly able to contruct the Ten Millennium Spatial Array and it's as effective as she says, I'll officially name her as my first successor!"
Ye Xiu continued to look thoughtful as it was his nature to be cautious when it came to such significant decisions. "Will your announcement put her at risk? Maybe it's a little premature..."
"Senior Ye Xiu, were you able to sense her aura just now?" Ye Shuo suddenly whispered in response.
Come to think about it, all three men had been unable to sense what level her cultivation had reached. This was usually only possible in two types of circumstances, firstly if she had an artifact or incredible technique to mask her aura, or secondly if she were at the same Black Gold Ranking as them.
"Do you think she found a precious treasure that hides her cultivation aura?" Ye Xiu asked. "This would be truly a miraculous item of which our City Lord's Mansion's vaults only has one such type of treasure!"
Ye Shuo looked at the two other men straight in their eyes with grave seriousness in turn. "No," he murmured. "I believe she has broken through...to Black Gold Rank!"
Ye Zong and Ye Xiu both abruptly stood up with horror in their faces. What kind of monster was this girl? She was only Ziyun's age and they knew that Ye Shuo as the trusted leader of the Snow Wind Family's shadow organisation in charge of intelligence was undoubtedly accurate in his information gathering all these years.
"Ye Shuo!" Ye Zong exclaimed with his mouth wide open. "How sure are you?"
Ye Shuo looked at them with his deep, silent eyes. "She has already reached the peak of Gold Rank awhile back. Of this I'm sure. When she came out of the Sacred Heavenly Border, her cultivation aura had reached a profound level that I find unfathomable. I'm eighty percent sure she's reached Black Gold!"
The men all sat down again and spent the rest of the day discussing the implications of this next generation of geniuses for Glory City. The world as they understood it was changing too quickly and they needed to try to understand how to position the key pieces for the city's best long-term benefit.
Already, Ye Zong himself had changed his cultivation technique to the one Ziyun used and had experienced the effects of a method that far surpassed any method currently available in Glory City. With the incredible elixirs that the Alchemist Association could now produce, he could feel himself steadily progressing to Legend Rank. As long as he had enough time and the right opportunity, he could feel himself reaching the final barrier of his peak Black Gold Rank! He would have to ask Ning'Er's permission soon to impart the technique to Ye Xiu and Ye Shuo as well.
The world was beginning to truly belong to the younger generation!
.....
In a secret hideout, Gui Sha and Long Sha, the law enforcers of the Dark Guild sat together in heated discussion.
"There are too many things happening in Glory City. We can't leave things as there are anymore if not it will be completely out of control soon!" Gui Sha lamented.
Long Sha sighed in slight impatience. "I've said before, we're not to make any major moves while our Demon Lord is still in secluded training to breakthrough. His last instructions were to continue reconnaissance over Glory City and find opportunities to kidnap key members for ransom. Other than that, we're to help the Sacred Family grow stronger."
"Sacred Family!" Gui Sha spat out this name with disgust. "Completely useless! We provided so much hidden strength and funds to them and they are fast becoming an insect with little influence. What Major Family? More like Failure Family!"
Long Sha responded, "Many of the circumstances were out of their realm of control. Whilst it's true they should not have pursued some personal agendas and draw so much retaliatory suppression, they had had their uses as well. Through the Sacred Sect, we now have closer ties to the Chu Family and using their network, we've secured some batches of the precious high tier elixirs that the Alchemist Association are now producing."
"Why are we going about such a roundabout way? With yours and my strength, we could go seize the recipes from the Alchemist sect for ourselves. By the time we wait for the Demon Lord to be ready to move, Glory City will be stronger already! How about the precious resources that our sources tell us are being mined in the Hell Mountains or the spirit herbs discovered at the Devil's Drop? We're missing out on too many opportunities!!!" Gui Sha's voice continued rising in line with his more emotionally volatile nature.
Long Sha looked at his comrade as he considered the options. "The mine itself and the spirit herb discovery will both be heavily guarded. Without our strength we could seize it but we will have to pay price as well! At the same time, you're right that those recipes have become too important to ignore and we need to secure it so we don't have to be reliant on batches of elixirs smuggled out."
His calculating eyes looked at Gui Sha as he clasped his hands in front of him. "We will go with a strategy which puts us at least risk but has the highest chance to secure the key things we need to. One main mission broken down into three parts and we only get one chance. If we fail, we wait for the Demon Lord to exit seclusion before we try again."
Gui Sha's face gleamed with anticipation as he heard these words. With Long Sha's direct help, the chances of success would go up many times as he knew his comrade was the best strategist the Dark Guild possesses, on top of his incredible strength!
.....
In the meantime, Ning'Er began work on the Ten Millennium Spatial Array. She requested permission from the City Lord for her entire group of friends to move into the guest wing of the City Lord's Mansion. This way, she could supervise the building the array while giving specific attention to accelerating the strength of her friends. As their cultivation levels soared, she was able to impart incredible martial techniques that were more powerful than anything Glory City, or even most of what the Draconic Ruins had experienced before.
To Nie Li, Wei Nan and Ziyun she taught and guided them on a divine movement technique named the Nine Thousand Water Steps, which would allow them to move at an unpredictable, shifting speed as if they were lightly running across a pond like a water treader insect. This would allow them to fearlessly fight against large groups of opponents because they could flicker in and out of engagements, and escape whenever they needed to.
The main drawback was that it required them to strengthen their physical constitutions greatly, which would be accomplished through the Scarlet Body Enhancing elixirs combined with a torturously challenging physical routine to toughen their joints, muscles, bones and meridians to handle the sharp changes in direction. Speed was extremely important to Ziyun who specialises in ranged support, Wei Nan who was focusing on assassination and Nie Li whose adaptability and options would be multiplied greatly.
To Linjian, Du Ze and Xiangjun, she had asked the Alchemist Association to prepare a unique paste combining properties from powerful beast essences and spirit herbs. Although the paste contained a berserk energy, they wouldn't be consuming it but covering their skin everyday with it. They were not required to directly train, but were required to ingest Scarlet Body Enhancement elixirs and sit down, circulating their cultivation techniques while resisting the agonising pain of the paste pouring berserk energy into their skin. This would greatly boost their defensive capabilities which was necessary for those who specialises in strength and tanking damage. After this, it would be difficult for a sword to scratch through their skin unless it were a direct piercing attack!
Finally to Lu Piao and Zhang Ming, she imparted a mysterious technique she had learn in the Heavenly Note Sect while she had been Draconic Ruins Realm in her previous life. It allowed someone to add an additionally method into their cultivation technique which would slightly change the nature of their soul force aura to be purer and more intense over time. Because it was time consuming and didn't directly increase strength, it was not recommended for many experts to use this technique.
However, for Lu Piao and Zhang Ming, it would significantly boost their demon spirit abilities once they merged! Lu Piao's banshee soul attack screams would insidiously pierce through his opponent's soul with greater penetrative force, and Zhang Ming's stingray healing prowess would improve as well increasing his team's survival capabilities. This meant that everyday they would need to split their time between normal cultivation and this specialised refining cultivation technique.
As they trained, they could sense the wondrous abilities of each of these techniques Ning'Er had imparted, as well as how it synergised with their capabilities. In between their bitter training, they would walk around to observe the profound pillars of the array Ning'Er was building taking shape in front of them.
A month later, disaster struck.
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AerynSun
AerynSun Back from a week holiday on the beach! Sunburnt but happy. :)
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