Volume Three: The Ten Directions of Dao Intent, Chapter 92: Fierce Fame and Notoriety

On the barren mountain, the two of them walked side by side. A trace of worry shadowed Cold Abyss’s face.

“I’m afraid this matter won’t be settled so easily.”

“Oh? I really didn’t expect that. I thought you were only well-endowed in one regard—”

He stopped himself when he met her gaze, silently cursing himself as hopelessly stupid.

Looking into the distance, a fighting spirit surged in his eyes. He still had a trump card he had not used in the battle just now. If it truly came to a fight to the death, with the trump cards exhausted, who would live and who would die would be hard to say.

“That old man, Ying Xiong, must have taken a liking to the technique I use to improve my strength. The final look in his eyes was full of greed. Seems we won’t be leaving here anytime soon.”

Cold Abyss asked anxiously, “Then what do we do?”

“We take it easy. Since we’re already here, why not? Besides, these desolate mountains are the perfect place for falling in love.”

“Ha. I’d dare to fall in love. Would you?”

Cold Abyss understood him well enough. Whether it was Demoness Wu, Su Ying, Zhang Mengqi, Ye Meier, or the enchantress, from the outside they all seemed close to him, yet between them there was as if a sheet of paper that could never quite be pierced.

The reason still lay with him. When Su Ying had once intended to leave, if he had said even one word to keep her, she would certainly have stayed. Sometimes she could not make out what exactly he meant.

Could this guy possibly like men?

Then she shook her head. He did not seem especially close to men either.

Halfway through, Enchantress called to ask after him with great concern, and also told him about the Dragon Squad. From what he learned, Ying Xiong was the sort who repaid every slight a hundredfold.

“Come on, let’s head to the finish and wait for those youngsters.”

The two of them concealed themselves in the shadows and leaped forward. Those people were like eagles escaping their cages, spreading their wings to soar.

No one held anything back. They ran madly, unwilling to be left behind by anyone.

Their pace was not slow to begin with, but after sprinting wildly at the front and burning through so much stamina, everyone’s speed began to drop in the latter half.

Standing atop the peak, after instructing Cold Abyss, he began to take the Enlightenment Pill. In this clash with the Ying father and son, he had indeed gained something.

The intent of metal and the intent of wood were like seeds taking root and sprouting in his heart.

Watching Qin Yang in seclusion, Cold Abyss was utterly speechless. She had never imagined that he would choose this moment to go into closed-door cultivation.

Sigh.

She shook her head and sat idly on a rock, keeping watch over the surroundings for him.

He sank into his own world of intent, where everything around him was sharply divided and clear.

Thunder, slaughter, gale, fire, water—even the pulse of the earth, the edge of metal, and the surging vitality of trees.

His eyes suddenly brightened. He sank back down, only to feel that the flash of inspiration was growing faint at that very moment. Another Enlightenment Pill went into his mouth.

Time flowed by little by little. Cold Abyss’s eyes were wide as bells. One Enlightenment Pill was enough for a person to comprehend a single intent, yet now Qin Yang had already swallowed four of them.

Damn it, the more she watched, the more wasteful it seemed. With so many pills, just how many experts at the Dao Entry Realm could she have created for the Demon Gate if he had given them to her?

Five, six... he finally stopped after swallowing a total of seven.

His mind fell into utter clarity. All the intents in his sea of consciousness revolved freely. Intent was like an ocean; he was like a sponge, endlessly absorbing it and growing stronger.

Metal generates water, water generates wood, wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal.

He had now comprehended the intent of water, and used it to contemplate the intent of wood. Then he used the intent of fire to ponder the intent of earth.

He had already gained some understanding of the intent of earth before. By the time he swallowed the fourth Enlightenment Pill, he had already grasped it. The remaining time was all spent deducing the intent of metal and the intent of wood.

At the same time, dividing his attention into multiple threads, he deepened his comprehension of the intents of thunder, slaughter, and gale.

At first he had intended to finish once he had comprehended the five elements, but according to the prompt within the Starfall Blade, he began to fuse the five elemental intents and started to comprehend the intent of yin and yang.

Intents too were ranked by grade. Just like the Great Dao, among the three thousand Great Daos there were naturally the supreme Great Daos as well as countless lesser paths.

And the intent of yin and yang was, of course, immeasurably stronger than any single one of the five elements.

This was not a matter of one plus one equaling two. It was one plus one multiplied by tenfold, or even several dozenfold.

When that flash of inspiration faded, he began swallowing Enlightenment Pills again.

He swallowed a total of seven, and only then did he finally touch the edge of yin and yang intent, feeling that he was only a hair away from breaking through—yet no matter what he tried, he could not find the right method.

The issue now was not that his comprehension was insufficient, but that he could not grasp it through his own insight. He decided to transform all five elemental intents into yin-yang intent first, and then break through.

Cold Abyss had been watching Qin Yang’s changes all along. Seeing the cycle of the five elemental intents flowing behind him, her eyes widened.

Damn it, comparing people really does make you want to die. He had even comprehended all five elemental intents. At this point, the intents he had grasped numbered as many as eight.

Truly terrifying.

At this stage, to be honest, she even felt a little sorry for the Ying father and son. To have such an enemy—she could not even imagine how miserable that must be.

A day and a night had already passed. Qin Yang woke from cultivation feeling refreshed all over, but when he looked down and saw the people lying scattered in all directions, his temper flared at once.

Seventy people, and to this day, more than twenty still had not made it here.

Was this some kind of joke?

They should have crawled here if they had to.

“All right, those who have not arrived need not participate.”

After speaking, Qin Yang walked downward. “Honestly, there are still too many of you. I can’t possibly teach you all properly. How about we raise the difficulty a little?”

“No way!”

“You’re a devil, absolutely a devil. I finally understand why you’re called Mister Devil.”

When they returned to the base, the forty-five men felt the gazes of the others and one by one grew a little uneasy.

What the hell kind of look was that?

In their hearts they grumbled silently. Why did their comrades’ eyes seem so strange?

Was that envy?

Or contempt?

When Qin Yang said to dismiss them for meal time, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

While they were eating, someone was found to inquire, and everyone was left stunned.

Was it true? Even Ying Zhentian could not defeat Mister Devil, and he had fought Elder Ying for half an hour?

What the hell, was this some kind of joke?

In their hearts, Elder Ying was practically a godlike existence. For Mister Devil to be able to battle him for so long—truly formidable.

In the end, they asked for Mister Devil’s name.

North Sea Qin Yang.

Among them were many with ties to the martial world. What had happened in Harbor City back then had been too major, and they had heard some rumors about it.

But they had never imagined that their idol would actually be right beside them.

At once, everyone felt as if they had been injected with blood, their vitality surging to the brim.

In the training that followed, no one dared be negligent. Being able to receive guidance from North Sea Qin Yang and become his students was a supreme honor.

A name that shook the world and stood unrivaled under the heavens was not something just anyone could earn.

Watching the crowd, now all fired up, Qin Yang was helpless. After much effort, he finally eliminated another twenty-five people, leaving only twenty on the field.

Among those twenty, some possessed considerable martial skill, while others had remained purely by virtue of their extraordinary physical constitutions.

Looking at Qin Yang, their eyes were full of ardor. He took a manual from his storage ring and tossed it out, then let these people cultivate on their own while he went into the base to try practicing alchemy.

Now that he had medicinal ingredients, there was no reason not to use them. In any case, he had already put in the labor; the precious herbs could be counted as payment for his work.

Thinking of this, he felt no guilt at all.

Inside the secret chamber, Qin Yang once again entered a state of secluded cultivation.

And the name of the devil spread through the Dragon Squad in an instant.

A full hundred elite experts had been ruthlessly cut down to one-fifth of their number. Complaints came flying in from every military district, and Battle Dragon wore a bitter smile. After all, he had made an agreement with Qin Yang back then and could not easily change it. He could only forcibly suppress the matter.

In his heart, he could only pray that this North Sea Qin Yang would spare him some trouble.