Chapter 160 The Realm of Trials (Part 11)
Jiang Gu had just returned to Yin Yang City when he was pulled into a spatial magic artifact.
Just as he was about to resist, he saw Jiang Xiangyun and Yao Li behind him with a sour face.
"Seventh Brother..." Jiang Xiangyun stared at him intently, "How did you do that?"
"He started causing trouble for me first." Jiang Gu calmly said, seeing the pained expression on his face, "I just killed him without thinking."
"Do you think this is something that can be done casually? Do you even know who Yan Huairan is? He's the younger brother of Yan Huai'an, the master of the Life and Death Tower. Okay, even putting that aside, you went from 1,700th to 47th place, which means you won the first six challenge matches. Six matches in three days plus this seventh one, so you haven't been challenged at all." Jiang Xiangyun frowned and said, "Nine chances to be challenged, Wang Yue and the others can kill you however they want."
Jiang Gu met his gaze, "Why are you so concerned about my life or death?"
"..." Jiang Xiangyun was taken aback by his words. "You're my seventh brother. Do you think I'd care about a dog instead of you?"
Jiang Gu said expressionlessly, "There is no blood relation."
Jiang Xiangyun was silent for a moment, then said, "You are also a member of the Jiang family. Since I brought you out, I have to take you back properly."
Jiang Gu's eyebrows twitched slightly.
“The challenge is ordered by the time the cultivators challenge. Before we came, Yao Li and I had already submitted our challenge to you. We also contacted Lin Feibai and three other cultivators from Pingze who had available opportunities. Fortunately, we arrived in time. This way, you've used six of your nine opportunities, leaving three.” Jiang Xiangyun calculated quickly. “As long as those three opponents aren't too strong, there's still room for maneuver.”
Jiang Gu looked up at him, "This opportunity to take on the challenge is so important, can you convince them?"
"Ha." Jiang Xiangyun finally revealed his arrogant expression in front of him. He patted Jiang Gu's shoulder with a smile, "Seventh Brother, you don't understand, do you? I know all the cultivators from Pingze like the back of my hand. Let me give you an example—"
"Lin Feibai has already climbed to over 900th place, with four more challenge opportunities remaining. However, he wants to save Zhou Tingran. So, I'll have Yao Li lose to a cultivator ranked over 1000th, and then have Zhou Tingran challenge Yao Li. If Yao Li loses, their rankings will switch. Yao Li will still have eight challenge opportunities left. With his cultivation level, returning to 1000th place will be a piece of cake... If handled properly, I can at least protect some of the cultivators in Pingze." Jiang Xiangyun said with a smile, "Not everyone is as indifferent as you. When faced with vested interests, everyone is willing to compromise within a certain range."
“We cultivators of Pingze must help each other, only then can we—sigh!” Jiang Xiangyun looked at Jiang Gu who was about to turn and leave, and suddenly stepped in front of him to block him.
"Thank you," Jiang Gu said.
"That's all?" Jiang Xiangyun looked at him with the expression of someone looking at a heartless man.
Jiang Gu nodded, dodged him, and exited the spatial artifact.
"At least call me 'Big Brother' and let me hear it—" Jiang Xiangyun's voice came from behind.
Jiang Gu smiled smugly, ignored him, and disappeared from his sight.
——
Thanks to Jiang Xiangyun's manipulation, the subsequent challenge matches went exceptionally smoothly for Jiang Gu. Moreover, he chose relatively strong cultivators from Pingze, such as Yao Lilin and Fei Bai, whose rankings were already relatively high, thus dispelling the thoughts of many cultivators who wanted to take advantage of the situation but lacked the courage.
Yan Huairan's primordial spirit was powerful. Jiang Gu refined it day and night for a long time, and with the help of the Netherworld Bone, he eliminated the impurities in the primordial spirit. Originally, his cultivation level of the mid-stage True Immortal Realm after the tribulation had already faintly touched the edge of the late stage.
However, Jiang Gu was not in a hurry to break through. He suppressed the surging spiritual power in his sea of consciousness again and again, and had no intention of revealing the strange tribulation lightning to others.
The next three challenge matches were not as difficult as expected. After Lin Feibai, there was a demonic cultivator named Wangyue, who was quickly defeated by Jiang Gu's suicidal fighting style and had no intention of fighting to the death.
Qi Yi stared at Jiang Gu's figure on the stage and clenched her fists tightly.
"Don't be impulsive." Luo Fan pressed her shoulder and advised in a low voice, "Since he was able to kill Brother Yan, his strength must be no less than yours or mine. One-on-one on the arena is too risky. Once we reach the second level, there are plenty of ways to kill him."
“That’s right.” Song Chongshi said from behind them, “Now that he has made a name for himself among the cultivators in Pingze, the Eight Pavilions must have noticed him. They won’t let such a promising talent slip by easily.”
Qi Yi's face darkened. "I know that the Eight Pavilions have always treated these Pingze cultivators well. This assessment method is clearly giving them an opportunity."
"What's the point if everyone's dead?" Song Chongshi chuckled.
Jiang Gu played the last two challenge matches with exceptional ease, as the challengers were all cultivators who hadn't even made it into the top 1,000. He vaguely sensed something was amiss.
“They’ve definitely been targeted by the Eight Pavilions.” Jiang Xiangyun frowned. “Outside, these Moon Gazing cultivators won’t make a move because of their superiors’ orders, but that might not be the case once they enter the Trial Realm.”
“Jade steps,” Jiang Gu said.
Jiang Xiangyun nodded. "The second level of the Heart Refining Realm is probably even more dangerous. Once they confirm that you are at the Jade Rank, they may take you away directly."
“You know what jade steps are,” Jiang Gu said confidently.
Jiang Xiangyun stared at him for a long time before laughing, "I just found out too."
Yao Li, holding his sword, stood guard at the entrance to the magical artifact space. Upon hearing this, he slightly turned his head to look at them.
“Everyone knows that after reaching the Great Perfection of the Ancestral Realm, one can ascend to the Upper Realm and become an immortal. However, the immortals of the Upper Realm also have to come down to the mortal world to undergo tribulations. Most of them are reincarnated as humans, and their tribulations are not all the same.” Jiang Xiangyun lowered his voice: “These people usually have excellent aptitude and extremely pure primordial spirits, so Wangyue and others gave them a name called Jade Steps.”
"Jade steps that can help ordinary cultivators ascend to the heavens in one step."
Jiang Gu raised his hand and touched the scar on the side of his neck. When he met Wei Feng in the Chaolong Secret Realm, all he could remember was that he had to overcome the tribulation of love in order to ascend. At that time, he doubted whether it was true or not—how unlucky one must be to be born with a five-elemental root that had no hope of ascension.
If that's true, he's probably just an unknown, poorly conceived immortal from the upper realm.
“And the one most deeply connected to the Jade Rank is the one whose fate is intertwined with their own. They are usually the key to the Jade Rank’s tribulation. I guess Wangyue must have the means to find the Jade Rank and then find the Jade Rank.” Jiang Xiangyun stroked his chin. “The so-called Jade Rank marrow is also closely related to their primordial spirit… Legend has it that after the great war between the three races 70,000 years ago, the gods stopped descending to earth. Do you think it was because they were tired of fighting, or because they could no longer appear in the world?”
Jiang Gu's heart sank slightly.
"If the ordinary cultivators of Pingze saw Wangyue's resources and temples with their own eyes, do you think they would still be willing to stay in Pingze?" Jiang Xiangyun looked up at him.
Jiang Gu met his gaze calmly. "It's none of my business."
"How can this be none of your business?" Jiang Xiangyun said with a smile. "Seventh brother, I've known for a long time that you can't stand the Jiang family's ways. As for Wang Yue and the others, they're even more of a problem. What they're doing is against the natural order, and someone should deal with them."
This seemingly lazy and harmless young master finally revealed his ambition and extended an invitation to Jiang Gu.
"An ant trying to shake a tree." Jiang Gu was extremely calm, clearly understanding the stakes. "So you cultivate the Path of the Common People."
Even if he succeeds by chance, no one will appreciate his efforts.
"Ugh, stop cursing me." Jiang Xiangyun curled her lip in disgust, then sighed and said, "It's not entirely for Pingze. Do you know how my mother died?"
Jiang Gu didn't want to know, but he couldn't stop Jiang Xiangyun from speaking.
“She was an unparalleled genius in Pingze. The Yao family kept her talents hidden and protected her very well until she married my father and her true potential was revealed when she gave birth to me.” Jiang Xiangyun said calmly, “Then Wangyue sealed her fate, and the Jiang family sent her here. When she was sent back, she only had half a finger bone left.”
Yao Li, who was leaning against the entrance with his back to them, suddenly gripped the long sword in his hand tightly.
“Although I was young when your father died, I vaguely knew some of the inside story. At that time, Wangyue also wanted to select him.” Jiang Xiangyun said in a low voice, “Wangyue has never lacked geniuses. You should also understand what kind of person was selected.”
He stared intently at Jiang Gu, "We are all so-called candidates for the Jade Steps."
From the moment they boarded the flying boat to gaze at the moon, their lives were no longer in their own hands. The cultivators who died along the way were simply the result of a tacit process of elimination by the Misty Rain Terrace and the Burning Terrace Hall.
The entire Trial Realm is a massive magical artifact used to select Jade Rank members and cultivate assassins.
"To find the Jade Steps, this magical artifact requires the so-called Tribulation Jade to investigate. Why did Lu Liyu insist on coming to the Jiang family to get Song Sui Tower? Why did Wang Yue suddenly start to recruit people from Pingze in a big way five years after your little disciple was taken away with Song Sui?" Jiang Xiangyun stopped there and returned to his usual carefree smile. "It's still hard to say who the Tribulation Jade in this Trial Realm is."
Jiang Gu's gaze turned cold and indifferent as he looked at him.
"I don't care about jade ranks or tribulation jades. While the cultivation world inevitably involves fighting, it shouldn't be this disgusting. There's no excitement to be had, not even much fun," Jiang Xiangyun muttered. "It would be so much better if everyone lived more freely and happily. I've had enough of these lousy trials. Cultivation shouldn't be about carefree enjoyment—"
"good."
Jiang Xiangyun looked up in surprise, then slowly revealed a meaningful and extremely gossipy expression on her face. She leaned closer to him with a smile and said, "I knew you would agree. From the moment you borrowed my spirit stones in Daohai City to go to the auction, it was destined that you would not be able to win me over, hahahaha!"
Jiang Gu only left him with a cold, distant back view.
After laughing enough, Jiang Xiangyun straightened up and walked to Yao Li's side, calmly saying, "Well, Uncle, I told you Jiang Gu would eventually be of use to me, didn't I?"
"Young master is intelligent," Yao Li said in a deep voice.
Jiang Xiangyun gave him a deep look and stuffed a small box into his arms.
Yao Li looked up at him in confusion, only to see his expression suddenly soften. "This is the only half of my mother's finger bone. I brought it out of the ancestral hall when I left the Jiang family, but I haven't had a chance to give it to you."
"She would probably prefer to stay by your side rather than me, a member of the Jiang family."
Yao Li's hand holding the box suddenly trembled.
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