Chapter 51: Up the Hill
Chapter 51: Up the Hill
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
"The elimination tournament shall officially begin!"
Ji Tian and the three mentors just took a seat, but the veteran had seen the situation at Jiang Yi’s side and couldn’t help but quickly declare the start of the tournament.
"Jiang Hong? Why is he on the stage?"
Jiang Yunshan knew who Jiang Hong was while Jiang Yunshe—who was the Chief Supervisor of Jiang Clan’s Internal Affairs Court—naturally knew clearly who Jiang Hong was. Jiang Yunshe frowned with suspicion and exchanged eye contact with Jiang Yunshan. The two of them felt that something huge was about to happen.
"Swish!"
Jiang Yi’s body reacted when Jiang Hong finished his statement. Jiang Yi’s hand reached out like a lightning-fast snake, but instead of grabbing Jiang Hong’s hand, his hand dodged Jiang Hong’s hands and clenched onto his neck. He then forcefully lifted Jiang Hong’s body and suspended him in the air. Jiang Yi then glared at Jiang Hong with extremely cold eyes. A killing aura burst forth from his body that made everyone around the stage felt suffocating. He did his best to restrain his voice and demanded, "What did you say? Repeat yourself!"
"Cough, cough!"
Jiang Hong’s clenched neck couldn’t even breathe properly; how could he speak? He continuously coughed and pointed at Jiang Yi’s hand, indicating for Jiang Yi to loosen his grip.
Jiang Yi didn’t release his grip but ruthlessly slammed Jiang Hong’s body on the stage instead, causing a huge impact that shook the firm stage. Jiang Yi then punched ruthlessly at Jiang Hong’s face until his nose bled violently. He then shouted in a deep voice again, "What happened to Xiaonu? Say it! Or else I will beat you to death!"
Seeing Jiang Yi’s fist coming down hard again, Jiang Hong fearfully replied, "Jiang Xiaonu is fine now. You better hurry to the Western Hills; if not, something would definitely happen to her. Stop hitting me… I am just a messenger."
"Boom!"
Jiang Yi’s fist came down hard, and it was packed with power this time. So much that Jiang Hong’s head went straight into the wooden flooring of the firm stage.
"Swish!"
Jiang Yi’s figure flew straight down the stage but very quickly rose again. He stepped on countless heads and rushed straight towards the Jiang’s residence.
"Huh?"
Everyone got a shock. What did Jiang Yi mean? His opponent didn’t surrender; neither was his opponent off the stage, but he jumped off the stage first? Who won? What’s more, this tournament just started, and he left without leaving any words. Was he prepared to withdraw from the tournament?
The gray brows of the veteran in splendid robes frowned. As he saw Jiang Yi sprinting about dozens of feet away, he shouted, "536! What are you doing? Come back this instant, or I will disqualify you!"
Jiang Yi didn’t stop; neither did he turned his head back. He used his entire strength to dash towards the Jiang’s residence. The veteran was infuriated now; he shouted again, "I will repeat myself! Come back this instant, or you shall be considered as forfeiting and dismissing your tournament qualifications!"
Jiang Yi, who was already all the way at the edge of the plaza, finally stopped and looked back; he shouted in return, "There is no need to judge! I am not participating in this tournament anymore!"
"Wow! "
While they saw Jiang Yi’s figure vanished into the distance, a huge commotion erupted on the entire city plaza. Even the influential figures on the spectator’s stand got stunned.
Jiang Yi had passed the most difficult phase yesterday. He risked his life to crush the obstruction from Ma Clan. He even defeated one of the top ten prodigies—Ma Heiqi—and obtained his 20 consecutive victories.
Jiang Yi got it right. None of the clans had prepared to obstruct him … not until he achieved 90 consecutive victories. It was on the final day that all the various clans would ally with each other and send out their strongest wave of obstructions. In other words, if Jiang Yi was able to continue winning and made it through the last day, he might probably achieve the 100 consecutive victories and obtain the enrollment spot for the Mt. Spirit Beast College.
But now, he actually said that he wasn’t going to participate in the tournament anymore? Yesterday, he used his life to barely achieve his 20 consecutive victories, and now he simply didn’t want it.
Something important must have happened!
That was the thought that appeared in countless minds. But what could be more important than the recruitment ceremony of the Mt. Spirit Beast College? Wasn’t he favored by the Martial Arts Hall? Wasn’t he a clansman of the Jiang Clan? Why didn’t he ask someone to help him? Why was he so rash to rather give up the tournament qualifications?
No one could understand what was going on. Ji Tingyu had this expression of pity while Jiang Henshui let out a sneer, and Leng Qianqian could help but scratch her head. The three mentors and Ji Tian had a doubtful face. Even Jiang Yunshan couldn’t understand, but he exchanged eye contact with Jiang Yunshe and let out a smile that had hidden intentions.
"Yunshe, ask someone to go find out what
This guard was obviously on the same side of Jiang Yunshe. He was about 30 years old, but his strength was only at the first level of the Purple Mansion Realm and wasn’t considered strong. If it was to deal with Jiang Yi, it was more than enough.
"Ma Yin, you go take a look, too. Ma Fei went looking for Heiqi yesterday, and I don’t know what he is up to. Don’t let things go astray!" On the other side, Ma Fei’s father, Ma Yongji, subtly gave his orders to a guard of the Ma Clan. That guard walked backward and vanished into an alley.
"Hall Master! Something went wrong!"
In the Martial Arts Hall, Manager Yang sought an emergency meeting with the Martial Arts Hall Master and explained the odd situation that happened with Jiang Yi. The Martial Arts Hall Master muttered to himself and sighed with disappointment. "This kid doesn’t know how to prioritize things. How could he give up on such a good opportunity and waste so many of my precious elixirs? Sigh… send someone to look over him. He has now lost the bet and is going to be a slave of the Martial Arts Hall for life. If he died, it would be the loss of the Martial Arts Hall."
As Jiang Yi left, it shocked the three different forces. As the situation of the entire Skyplume City was in chaos, no one dared to make any prominent moves and could only send people to covertly follow Jiang Yi, acting according to the situation.
The city plaza regained its composure very quickly. There were a lot of people who felt it was a pity, but there were even more individuals who got excited. With Jiang Yi out of the elimination tournament, they now had a chance to succeed.
After witnessing the intensity of yesterday’s match, there was a moment when no one dared to challenge the elimination tournament. In fact, He Clan’s young master He Dao had some regrets as this elimination tournament was way too difficult.
Without Jiang Yi on the stages, the elimination tournament became somewhat plain and wasn’t as intense as yesterday. The elimination tournament was now just a display of skills and caused countless people to doze off. It was now that the majority of the people missed Jiang Yi and left thinking what exactly happened to him? Where could he have gone?
"Swish!"
Jiang Yi traversed swiftly as the wind and in a straight line towards Jiang’s residence. He didn’t go in but headed towards the summit of the Western Hills instead.
In the eyes of everyone, the enrollment spot for the Mt. Spirit Beast College was much more precious than anything, but Jiang Yi didn’t bother. If it wasn’t the thought of escaping Skyplume City with Jiang Xiaonu, he wouldn’t even bother to participate in this tournament. Now that Jiang Xiaonu was in trouble—and if she was to die—what meaning was there for him to obtain that enrollment spot?
He went on the Western Hills plenty of times and was familiar with its paths. He didn’t follow the main path of the hills but took the faster side paths to quickly ascend the hills.
He knew clearly that on this Western Hills, there would definitely be many martial artists lying in ambush, waiting for Jiang Yi to come and claim his death. He didn’t fear death but would obviously prefer life over death. He was here to save somebody and not to send himself to death.
There is an ambush ahead!
Halfway up the hills, he paused and channeled a trace of black essence force into his ear, which enhanced his hearing ability to horrifying levels. The reason why he stopped was that he could hear subtle breathing from a shrub on his left side about ten feet ahead.
His eyes revealed a trace of killing intent as he circulated his essence force and sneaked to the side of the shrub. With the Green Destiny Sword appearing in his hand, he jumped and thrust towards the insides of the shrub.
"Ah!"
The person hiding in the shrub felt a cold killing intent; he instantly lifted his head and saw a green short word thrust at him with a chilling flash. He panicked and screamed.
"Tsk!"
Before his scream could even be heard, Jiang Yi’s short sword had already ruthlessly stabbed into his throat. He looked at Jiang Yi with fear and reached out his hand to point at Jiang Yi. His eyes were filled with disbelief. He couldn’t believe Jiang Yi actually dared to kill him and without any hesitation!
"Bang!"
After Jiang Yi killed his enemy, his expression didn’t change one bit. He lifted his leg and pushed his enemy while pulling out his short sword with a sneer. "Jiang Bao, you may go ahead first; your parents will be taken care of by the Jiang Clan on your behalf."
Jiang Yi let out a deep breath. He originally didn’t intend to kill anyone, but when he saw that it was Jiang Bao squatting within the shrubs, his Green Destiny Sword didn’t have any hesitation in stabbing Jiang Bao’s throat. It was obvious that Jiang Bao was involved in the kidnapping of Jiang Xiaonu, or else why would he be here?
Whoever dared to harm Jiang Xiaonu, Jiang Yi would kill that person—no matter who it was!
"Urghh…"
Suddenly, Jiang Yi bent his body over and violently vomited. He wasn’t a natural born killer. He might not have felt anything when he killed just now, but it was different when he looked at Jiang Yi’s corpse. When Jiang Yi saw Jiang Bao’s dead eyes with remaining grief and his throat that was gushing with blood, Jiang Yi felt the basic instinct to regurgitate. His body also trembled with fear.
After a short moment, he stopped vomiting. He wiped his mouth and set off towards the peak of the hills. He had a pale face, but his eyes turned ice cold again. While his ears were listening to everything in the nearby surroundings, his steps became much defter.
There is someone here!
Soon enough, he noticed another ambushing scout. He easily went round and could clearly see a Jiang clansman hiding in the bushes. He didn’t kill this time but knocked this person out in a single punch instead. He then thrust and punctured his dantian.
Jiang Yi’s thought that not everyone that was involved today must die, but they had to pay the price for their mistake.
As he climbed up the hills, he cleared up all the ambushing enemies. Without any exceptions, every one of them was knocked out and then had their dantian ruined.
"Why isn’t there any signal flare? Would Jiang Yi really not come?"
"Brother Long, Brother Hu, shall we send someone to look?"
"That’s right. This lass is just a servant girl. Would Jiang Yi give up his future for her?"
"There is no need to hurry and wait for a moment. Jiang Yi has always doted on this lass. He will surely be here!"
Before he approached the peak of the hills, Jiang Yi could hear many familiar voices, which made his eyes even colder. He looked up from a shrub and saw Jiang Rulong, Jiang Ruhu, and twenty over men. The killing intent in his eyes couldn’t be concealed any longer.
Xiaonu!
His heart let out a roar when he saw Jiang Xiaonu’s frail body suspended upside down on a huge tree. Her eyes were tightly shut when her entire body was covered in blood, unknown whether she was dead or just passed out. His heart blazed like an intense flame, and his whole body was shaking. He didn’t just simply made his move because his ears could hear numerous people hiding in the woods.
Why is there so many of them?
Jiang Yi turned around while restraining his urge to rush out and tear Jiang Rulong and his gang into pieces. He took steps back and rounded to the other side of the forest for some scouting.
It didn’t matter whether Jiang Xiaonu was dead or not, everyone that was involved in this Western Hills incident was undoubtedly dead people to Jiang Yi’s heart.