Terrified out of his mind, Prince Yuann fell to his knees and shouted, "I didn’t do it! Gai Fengyou is framing me!"
The other three hurriedly knelt as well.
"Hmph!"
Suddenly, a massive hand that seemed to blanket the sky descended. It was formed from the roiling waters of the Yellow Springs River and came crashing down.
SPLASH!
The great hand fell, dissolving into the water of the Yellow Springs River and drenching the five of them like drowned rats.
Then, the Yellow Springs Water flowed in reverse, back into the crack in the Wooden Token, and vanished.
The five knelt on the ground, heads bowed, not daring to move for a long time.
Gai Fengyou strained his ears to listen. After a good while, he cautiously raised his head and saw that Li Qingxian’s Wooden Token no longer had any Yellow Springs Water, leaving only a crack.
"This humble one respectfully sends off the Yellow Springs Emperor," Gai Fengyou announced loudly.
There was no response. Gai Fengyou sighed in relief and tried to get up, only to find his arms and legs were powerless.
"What are you gawking at? Help your master up!" Gai Fengyou turned his head and snapped.
His two young apprentices hurried over and helped Gai Fengyou to his feet.
Seeing Gai Fengyou rise, Prince Yuann also slowly got to his feet.
Gai Fengyou spun around, his face livid with rage, and cursed, "Prince Yuann! You’re insane! You actually dared to plot against the Yellow Springs Emperor! You’re completely mad! Do you have any idea who that is? That’s a great Deceit that not even a Super Grade can afford to provoke!"
Prince Yuann’s face was filled with terror. When it came to worldly matters, he feared no one but the Emperor himself. But the moment he heard the word ’Deceit’, he lost all composure.
"How could this happen? Could it be a problem with your Fate Skill?"
Gai Fengyou said, exasperated, "You provided the ancestral tablet and the blood; I was only responsible for casting the Skill. This old man has cultivated Fate Skills for seventy years! No matter how far off I was, I couldn’t possibly have targeted the great Deceit Realm Emperor! Wait..."
Gai Fengyou trailed off, his face suddenly turning deathly pale. He began frantically patting himself down.
"Where’s my Third-Grade Cultivation?" Gai Fengyou’s hands trembled, his lips trembled, and his voice trembled, a panicked croak caught in his throat as if a grasshopper were leaping about inside it.
Gai Fengyou sensed his Cultivation had dropped to Fourth Grade, and his world turned to ash.
"Prince Yuann, you... you have utterly ruined this old man..." Gai Fengyou let out a long sigh. He had spent a lifetime of savings to finally ascend to Third Grade. Now, because of Prince Yuann, the Yellow Springs Emperor had stolen his Cultivation and fate, rendering decades of hard work null and void.
"Master, my Cultivation also dropped by Two Grades," the male disciple said in a panic.
The female disciple gritted her teeth without a word, tears streaming down her cheeks.
The great steward of Prince Yuann’s Mansion sighed softly and said, "Your Highness, I have fallen from Third Grade to Fifth Grade."
Prince Yuann heaved a long sigh. He had originally relied on the Qi Fortune bestowed by Emperor Taining to advance to Third Grade, and now he had fallen all the way back to Fifth Grade, even worse off than Gai Fengyou.
"Master Gai, trading insults is useless now. The question is, why did this happen? And how can we fix it?"
"The Yellow Springs has seized our fortune. It’s as if we forced our way into the Yellow Springs Mysterious Land and had our fate and Cultivation taken by the Emperor! The loss of Cultivation is one thing, but without our fortune, our lives are over! You... you seem to have dropped to Fifth Grade?" Gai Fengyou suddenly looked at Prince Yuann with a flicker of doubt in his eyes.
Prince Yuann sensed something was off about his tone but had no choice but to admit, "I only have Fifth-Grade Cultivation left."
’I was the one hosting the ritual, yet I only lost one Grade of Cultivation, while the other four each lost two. The key is... I offered up that Destiny Star?’
A flash of inspiration struck Gai Fengyou. ’If I can obtain the Yellow Springs Emperor’s forgiveness, can my Cultivation and fortune be restored? What do I need to do?’
’Li Qingxian is the key!’
Gai Fengyou took a deep breath and gave a cold smile. "Prince Yuann, add another thirty percent. A total of sixty percent more for my Tributor fee! If you’re short even one cent, I’ll risk my life to petition the Emperor and ask for your punishment! Furthermore, our contract states that if an accident occurs due to your actions, you must provide compensation. I don’t want anything else—just that Old Country Jade Seal you have at home. You must compensate me with it."
Prince Yuann said frantically, "Gai Fengyou, don’t push it!"
"Do you think I want your Jade Seal for myself? I’m trying to resolve this great calamity for both of us! I thought you were a man of mettle, but I never expected you to be so foolish!"
"You mean..." Prince Yuann’s expression shifted.
"Did you think you could curse the great Yellow Springs Emperor and the matter would just be over? The truly frightening part is yet to come," Gai Fengyou said, his face dark.
Recalling the legends of Deceit, Prince Yuann said helplessly, "That Small Country Jade Seal is yours, Master."
"I wouldn’t dare accept it. I have to pass it on," said Gai Fengyou.
Prince Yuann’s mind was in turmoil. After a long silence, he said, "I’ll go get the Jade Seal."
「At the foot of Qingyun Mountain, in the third examination hall.」
Beneath Li Qingxian’s feet, flowing light shimmered and trigram shadows swirled.
The examiners’ eyes went wide. How could a mere Eighth Grade manifest the "Flowing Light Trigram Shadow"?
This was an extremely high level of Stepping on the Stars and Treading the Dipper, something that only a Fourth-Grade Daoist Cultivator, at the very least, should be able to manifest.
Li Qingxian felt Magical Power surging through his entire body. A hot rush of blood flowed through his legs as his Qi Meridians slowly began to merge with the blood vessels there, showing faint signs of an impending promotion to Seventh Grade.
Calm and unhurried, Li Qingxian planted his left foot, tapped the ground with his right, and formed a Pointing Sword with the index and middle fingers of his right hand, aiming it at the giant Tiger Demon.
The sky-filling Flowing Light Trigram Shadow soared up and wrapped around his arm, forming a massive, slowly rotating ring of trigrams.
"Duke Lei of All Heavens, your glory fills the cosmos! Divine Dragons guard you, mountains crumble before you! Should Evil Gods and fiendish wraiths dare reveal themselves, Duke Lei, strike them down and shatter their forms! Purge all monsters, grant peace to the Human Race! Swiftly, as the statutes command!"
The earth trembled lightly, and a clap of thunder echoed from beyond the heavens. Then, the Flowing Light Trigram Shadow rushed onto Li Qingxian’s hand.
An instant later, a ZZZZZT sound filled the examination hall.
Everyone whipped their heads around to look.
A spectral image of a Divine Spirit had appeared behind Li Qingxian. It held a pointed chisel in one hand and a square mallet in the other. It was clad in seven-colored Scale Armor, with ribbons fluttering behind it, red hair, crimson brows, and eyes wide with fury.
The Thunder God swung its right hand, striking the chisel with the mallet. A tremendous BANG shook the heavens and the earth.
The crowd felt as if they had gone deaf; their vision even blurred for a moment.
A tiny point of light erupted from the tip of Li Qingxian’s finger. At first, it was no thicker than a hair, but in the next instant, it swelled to the thickness of a person’s waist.
BOOM!
A bolt of lightning shot across the sky, stretching over a hundred feet. It pierced through the cage and the Demon Fiend within, flew straight out of the examination hall, and exploded a thousand feet away, sending a storm of shredded grass and leaves into the air.
The massive cage burst apart.
"Human Race... ambush... shameless..." A large, black-blooded hole had appeared in the Sixth-Grade giant Tiger Demon’s chest. It spoke in simple, strangely-accented human words before its eyes rolled back and it fell unconscious.
Li Qingxian had exhausted his Magical Power. His face was pale, and his body swayed. A nearby examiner quickly steadied him.
"One Skill, took down a Sixth Grade. Super Armor grade," the examiner said while holding up Li Qingxian, taking out a sheet of Developing Paper for his superior to inspect.
Li Qingxian sat cross-legged on the spot, closed his eyes, and began the Mind Guarding Spirit Platform meditation.
At the same time, the examination in the third hall came to a halt. Both examinees and examiners stared toward the fallen Demon Fiend.
Four figures in purple, all Upper Grade, flew down from the sky and landed gently beside the unconscious Demon Fiend.
The four of them took one look and nodded lightly.
"The Divine Sky Technique."
"The Thunder Skill Dao."
"No wonder he could stand against the Bone Filth Child."
"It seems to be the Yushu Cutting Inspection Method from the Divine Sky Technique. Jiang Youfei is truly generous. Even the Elders of the Celestial Cloud Sect have difficulty learning this Skill. We had only heard that their sect’s version of this Skill was incomplete; who would have thought it has been perfected."
"Jiang Youfei even dared to pass on the Emperor’s Finger God; this Opening Qian Technique is nothing in comparison."
"Jiang Youfei’s potential is limitless. The Celestial Cloud Sect is destined for greatness."
"Three Super Armors. It befits an Eighth-Grade Aoshou. If anyone is unconvinced, have them sign a Life and Death Contract for the fourth round."
The four nodded in unison.