Transcending the Nine Heavens

This fellow clearly hadn’t thought of what he had knocked against yet when he was speaking earlier but managed to react appropriately right after. He was truly quick in his ability to improvise.

Waving his hand, Chu Yang said, "As consolation for knocking against your silver ingots, we won’t ask for any compensation for these ten horses. You can have them all!" He gestured to Ao Xieyun to send the horses over.

Ao Xieyun was stupefied at once.

What’s the matter with Boss? How can he make such a terrible deal…

Mo Tianji urged him solemnly. "What are you dawdling for?"

A dazed Ao Xieyun made a sound of agreement and led the horses over in total perplexion. The horses followed after him obediently.

The short fatty was clearly astounded too.

He had been doing business here for ages but he had really never encountered something like this before.

He didn’t even need to bargain… The other party straight up gave them to him for free!

Practically unbelievable.

He laughed sheepishly and said, "Oh dear hero… This… Oh, how can I accept it?"

Smiling, Chu Yang replied, "It’s fine, it’s just a few horses. Making a friend in return is worth their price."

The short fatty was full of smiles right away. "Oh, this hero is really such a kind person…"

With a laugh, Chu Yang took a couple of steps back and said, "I wish you good fortune. We’ll take our leave."

The short fatty replied, "Then… I won’t see you off!"

Turning around, Chu Yang held Mo Qingwu’s hand in his and walked towards the path leading up the mountain. The confused brothers followed after him.

The short fatty breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Chu Yang was really leaving. Just as he was about to turn around…

Chu Yang suddenly turned around and asked anxiously, "How many days has it been since the Divine King went back?"

"Over two m-…" replied the short fatty reflexively. He had only uttered two words when he suddenly found himself flabbergasted and gaping in speechlessness!

Who was this young man? How did he know the Three Stars Divine Clan’s biggest secret?

"Oh, it has been over two months." Chu Yang nodded in understanding, breathing a sigh of relief inwardly.

Judging from the timeline, it looked like Tan Tan didn’t linger even a moment after concluding the matters of the Lan Clan and had hurried back to the headquarters of the Three Stars Divine Clan immediately without pause.

"At least that bastard still knows what’s good for him," muttered Chu Yang under his breath, his heart set at ease now.

The short fatty suddenly became tense. A murderous look slowly began to show in his eyes as he stared at Chu Yang. He asked fiercely, "Who are you?"

This man actually knew the biggest secret of the Three Stars Divine Clan. If he allowed him to live, it would put the Divine King in an immensely unfavorable position! Intentions of killing and silencing them had already formed in the short fatty’s mind.

Chu Yang looked at him with interest. "Who are you?"

Ferocious murderous intent shot out of the short fatty’s eyes. The comical look from earlier was long gone. In its place was a majestic and noble sense of calm steadiness and solemnity.

Him standing there like that gave Chu Yang and the others a certain feeling — He was extremely calm and steady! His body had merged as one with the boundless sky and vast earth, as well as the wide expanse of snow mountains here! Nobody could tell them apart and neither could anyone defeat him!

Yet at the same time, they could sense that he was extremely agile, as if as impossible to catch as the snowflakes swirling in the sky.

An expert!

And a Supreme Martial Artist expert at that! A highly-skilled one!

A wave of suffocating aura, as though it had manifested physically, suddenly blasted into the surroundings! As if shaking the heavens and shattering the earth, it came crashing towards Chu Yang and the others!

Shock flashed in the eyes of all eleven of them at once. All of them invoked their cultivation at its limit pretty much at the same time!

Xie Danqiong’s eyes turned deep and unreadable. His hands reached discreetly into his sleeves. Any moment he wished, viburnum flowers would bloom in this world of swirling snow.

The first moment he sensed the change in the short fatty, Xie Danqiong had immediately decided to go for the viburnum flowers. And if he decided to strike, the attack would definitely be at full force!

This was a formidable enemy!

Mo Lei’er slowly shifted nearer to Mo Qingwu, standing on each side of Mo Qingwu with Mo Tianji. Her form also slowly turned indistinct as she moved…

Ji Mo and Luo Kedi’s right hands pressed against the hilts of their swords.

Ao Xieyun’s form quickly leaned slightly backwards. The distance he leaned backwards was no more than a finger’s width, yet it caused the wind to let out

A wave of redness came over Rui Butong’s face before it then subsided. Flames burned faintly in his eyes. His right leg went forward slightly and his left leg perched lightly, a sign that he was ready to charge forward at high speed.

The moment they attacked, Rui Butong would charge forward at his fastest speed and use his life to create opportunities for the brothers!

Gu Duxing and Dong Wushang stood still and unmoving, though their eyes gleamed. The glint of their blades circled vaguely, their blade aura surging indistinctly. Both of them were ready to strike!

In this instant, their stances were as though they were facing a fearsome and formidable enemy!

One couldn’t tell just how powerful this short fatty’s cultivation level was but for some reason, the aura he gave off was actually giving them even more pressure than what Xiao Chenlei, a ninth-grade Supreme Martial Artist, did the other day!

Moreover, when they had exchanged blows with Xiao Chenlei that time, their cultivation levels weren’t even this high!

In that case, wouldn’t that mean that this short fatty had already reached Moon Breeze’s level? Or perhaps even…

This cognition made the palms of every single one of the Nine Tribulations brothers break out in cold sweat!

This freak who looked unbelievably comical and incredibly dull and insipid, and was old and ugly and a money-grubber was actually such a formidable and highly-skilled expert?

Looking at how all of them looked as though they were up against an incredibly formidable enemy, a hint of derision flashed across the corners of the short fatty’s lips. He stared only at Chu Yang, asking solemnly, "Who are you?"

Chu Yang also got a shock deep down!

Even he himself hadn’t expected this person to actually be such a fearsome character!

In this instant, Chu Yang suddenly recalled Zi Xieqing’s evaluation of Moon Breeze —"Among those whom I’ve exchanged blows with in this Nine Heavens Continent, the two of you rank among the top ten!"

After that, Chu Yang had once specially asked Zi Xieqing about this matter — Who were the other eight?

Because Chu Yang was aware that before that time, Zi Xieqing had never exchanged blows with Ning Tianya or Bu Liuqing before. Neither had she exchanged blows with the Dharma Supreme nor Wu Juecheng before!

In other words, Zi Xieqing had never come into contact with the few people who were known to rank at the top in the Nine Heavens Continent!

And yet Moon Breeze could only rank within the top ten nonetheless!

This meant that there were at least nine other experts hiding in this Nine Heavens Continent!

Zi Xieqing naturally held nothing back and told Chu Yang everything she knew.

One of the people whom Zi Xieqing had spoken of sounded very much like the short fatty in front of them now.

"20,000 years ago, someone needed the Black Blood Rose from the Black Blood Forest and he broke into the Black Blood Forest all by himself! Close to 10,000 experts in the Black Blood Forest couldn’t hold him back! Out of a moment of curiosity, I taught him a lesson."

"This person was pretty tall and had a star symbol on his forehead. It didn’t occur to me at that time but thinking back now, he was likely someone from the Three Stars Divine Clan. I exchanged fifteen moves with him and smacked him on the head with my palm, forcefully turning his eight feet tall figure into four feet. I even tapped the star symbol on his forehead with my finger… And left him a souvenir which he’ll never be able to remove or recover from for the rest of his life. As long as I do not personally take action, his height and his forehead will never return to what it was!"

"I originally didn’t intend to do that but his name gave me the urge to maim him… His surname was Gu and his first name Yigu. Gu Yigu… Since his name was Expand A Little [1. His name sounds exactly like ‘expand a little’ in Chinese, just in different characters], then I shall let him really expand a little… He was so skinny, so how can he be called Expand A Little?"

"But this person’s cultivation is very strong… Even if Moon Breeze joined hands to attack, they probably won’t be his match!"

This was the information on one of the people that Zi Xieqing had told Chu Yang back then, and was also her exact words.

At that time, it had made Chu Yang laugh so hard that his stomach hurt.

Why was there such a strange name and such a strange person in this world? Furthermore, in the end, Zi Xieqing even gave him a strange wound…

At that time, Zi Xieqing even said, "I took pity on the fact that it wasn’t easy for him to reach his level of cultivation, so I didn’t take his life. After gravely injuring him, I ordered him to give me three Heavenly Treasures and then I gave him the Black Blood Rose after that… Three months later, before he even recovered from his injuries, he had already sent me those three Heavenly Treasures… Mm, they are right there among the things that I gave you…"

"Even though I changed his figure, I didn’t impair his cultivation. Should you ever run into him in the future, you must be careful. But I should think that after suffering such huge trauma, he probably wouldn’t roam the martial world in such a high-profile manner anymore. The chances of you running into him aren’t very high, so it would do for you to just take note of this…"

As Chu Yang recalled all these, the short fatty opposite him had already gotten rather impatient. In a sharp voice, he said, "Young man, don’t blame me for being cruel and vicious. You can only blame yourself for being unlucky! When you go to the underworld, remember that careless talk is the origin of misfortunes. Do not speak so carelessly anymore in your next life!"

With a flash, he was about to strike.

Right at this moment, Chu Yang suddenly smiled strangely. "You are Gu Yigu?"

The short fatty’s wooden block-like figure had only just sprung off the ground when all of a sudden, he crashed back where he originally stood. His round eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as he stared at Chu Yang.

His current appearance was even befitting of his ‘Expand A Little’ name.

"Who are you?!" This short fatty was clearly exactly that Gu Yigu. He had already asked the question ‘Who are you?’ thrice today! And his tone each time was even more grave than the last.

This final time was further accompanied by acute astonishment.

He had stayed in this Nine Heavens Continent for several thousand years but this was the very first time someone had called out his name just like that!

And this person was even someone so appallingly young!

Chu Yang broke into a smile. "Do you still remember the person in the Black Blood Forest?"

Gu Yigu yelped as if he had just seen a ghost. Retreating five to six steps like a whirlwind, his eyes bulged out even further as he stammered, "You, you, you… He, he, he… You, who are you to him?"

As he spoke, he actually looked left and right around him, as if worried that that mysterious person from back then would appear and beat him up…

He still remembered that incident vividly. 20,000 years had already gone by but he could still see every single detail clearly in his dreams. That was seriously a nightmare…

He shivered even at the mere thought of it.

"I’m your Divine King’s senior brother disciple. I wonder if he has mentioned this to you before?" Chu Yang said with a smile.

All the brothers were very nervous but there wasn’t even a single moment where Chu Yang was nervous at all.

Because he had absolute confidence that this man wouldn’t attack him.

Even without his link to Zi Xieqing, he wouldn’t.

If Tan Tan didn’t leave clear instructions about this, then he wouldn’t be the Tan Tan that Chu Yang knew.

"You’re Chu Yang? Divine King Chu?" Opposite, Gu Yigu’s expression relaxed right away.

As expected, Tan Tan had left behind instructions.