Chapter 384: ‘Sunflower Water’ Essence!
Shi Zhi Ming hadn’t inflicted a small suppression on Ye Xiwen. Presently, Ye Xiwen wasn’t capable of dealing with this semi-sage expert. And, he certainly couldn’t bring-out his blood slave under these circumstances. So, Ye Xiwen was wary of Shi Zhi Ming. But, he wasn’t afraid of him.
Shi Zhi Ming had abandoned Lei Yang Yun as if he were a worn-out shoe. Ye Xiwen secretly felt that Shi Zhi Ming was indeed a vicious and merciless man when he saw this. Ye Xiwen wouldn’t have acted like this if he were in Shi Zhi Ming’s place. On the contrary, if the people of Ye Xiwen’s ‘Qian Yu Faction’ were being bullied like this... he would’ve surely come to their rescue. However, it could be said that Shi Zhi Ming was an exception by the blunt and straightforward standards of the barbarians. Lei Yang Yun had been beaten-up quite miserably in front of his eyes, but Shi Zhi Ming had surprisingly showed a pleasant countenance towards Ye Xiwen. But, Ye Xiwen wasn’t moved by this unexpected turn of events. On the contrary, he had come to hold a negative conjecture about Shi Zhi Ming.
How could Ye Xiwen not have understood Shi Zhi Ming’s motive? It was obvious that Shi Zhi Ming wanted to win over Ye Xiwen; a barbarian expert who had a bright future ahead of him.
Ye Xiwen had condensed the phantom of the Barbarian God. So, he had definitely proven himself as an outstanding talent. Everyone also knew that Shi Zhi Ming had the ambitions to compete for the position of this region’s Elder in the future.
However, Ye Xiwen wasn’t interested since he had his own ulterior motives for arriving here. But, he wouldn’t have been moved by Shi Zhi Ming even if he were a real barbarian. Ye Xiwen was secretly wary of him. Shi Zhi Ming had abandoned his subordinate in order to rope in a stranger. Some people might think that he was being courteous. But, it also showed how unkind and cruel he inherently was.
Ye Xiwen sighed with emotion. Once stained with power and authority — even an ordinary barbarian could turn evil.
“We just obtained the news that Sunflower Water Essence has been found inside the ten-thousand-year-old ‘cold pond’ in the Iron Pond Mountain. We’ll go to find that Sunflower Water Essence. Everyone shall be rewarded once I get my hands on it!” Shi Zhi Ming glanced at everyone and spoke, “However, don’t blame me for being impolite if you aren’t able to find it for me!”
His fake polite behavior vanished as he said this, and his true colors surfaced.
An envious look flashed in everyone’s eyes. Sunflower Water Essence was a superb item. It was quite difficult for such a wonderful item to appear even in ten thousand years. If these experts of legendry’s complete realm could swallow even one... then it could initiate a complete qualitative change within them. That would help them in stepping into the semi-sage realm. The biggest problem in stepping into the semi-sage realm was sensing the world-principles, grabbing them, and then condensing them into ‘Dao principles’ within one’s body. Several experts had accumulated enough energy over the course of time. Some had even accumulated it to an unimaginable degree. The continual accumulation of energy for hundreds of years would bloat the accumulated-energy to a terrifying extent.
However, this was useless since the accumulation of energy wasn’t enough to have a breakthrough. They could only perceive the existence of world-principles to a preliminary stage. In their eyes, these principles looked messy - like a pile of multi-colored wool tangled together. They were color blind, and couldn’t differentiate between principles. More talented people could see it more clearly. However, no one could see them as clearly as Ye Xiwen. Each and every principle was indistinctly visible to him. In fact, he had already comprehended several of these principles to an enormous extent.
Visualizing the ‘real world’ and ‘the world with the principles’ was as easy as opening and closing one’s eyes in Ye Xiwen’s perspective.
However, other people didn’t have such luck. They must blindly explore the dark in the hope to find and perceive a principle. But, it was very difficult to find. However, a ten-thousand-year old Sunflower Water Essence was the combination of several principles. It could help them in moving a step forward towards comprehending the world-principles by guiding them in the right direction.
Perhaps they would step into the semi-sage realm in less than two years if they could obtain the Sunflower Water Essence. The Sunflower Water Essence was extremely precious. It could also be used to increase the number of principles within one’s body... apart from helping one in comprehending profound principles. It could increase the number of principles within one’s body by 100. And, this was a big opportunity to find a Sunflower Water Essence.
No wonder why Shi Zhi Ming had summoned them to go together in search of the Sunflower Water Essence. It made sense. Ye Xiwen speculated secretly. Who wouldn’t like to have a Sunflower Water Essence? He must look for an opportunity to seize it. He would gain a big advantage with its help when he’d condense principles in the future. But, he’d need to get his hands on it first.
“Yes!” everyone replied in unison.
Shi Zhi Ming was walking in the forefront, while Ye Xiwen was right behind him. The barbarian people didn’t dare to interrupt Ye Xiwen. They had seen his strength just a moment ago. He was weaker than Shi Zhi Ming, but he was undoubtedly more powerful than any of them.
It was impossible for them to defeat Shi Zhi Ming even if they joined forces. And, it was similarly impossible for them to defeat Ye Xiwen. Shi Zhi Ming and Ye Xiwen were similar in this regard; at least in their eyes. There was practically no difference.
On the way, Shi Zhi Ming thought of every possible method to win over Ye Xiwen. Ye Xiwen also didn’t wish to have a fall-out with him at this point. So, he feigned politeness as well.
They trod on the rainbow light, and arrived at the Iron Pond Mountain. Ye Xiwen listened to the comments of these barbarian people during the journey, and discovered how Iron Pond Mountain got its name. This mountain was home to a ten-thousand-year-old cold pond. Water inside this pond was cold and heavy beyond description. Even a drop weighed several kilograms; just like molten iron. Since then, the pond had been called as ‘Molten Iron Pond’. Then, people started to call this mountain ‘Iron Pond Mountain’ as time passed.
Everyone entered the Iron Pond Mountain atop their rainbow lights. That ten-thousand-year-old cold pond was as cold as ice. People could feel the chill in the air; even from a distance. However, strangely the trees on the mountain didn’t seem affected. The cold pond was surrounded by a dense forest, but the trees were as hard as gold and iron.
Soon, everyone arrived at the shore of the cold pond. They began to wait quietly. The Sunflower Water Essence was a ten thousand years old item formed by the integration of water essence with the world-principles. It could even be said to be a natural spirit as it had a certain amount of spiritual wisdom too. Therefore, they must wait patiently. Nobody dared to step into the cold pond. The reason was quite simple. The cold pond could freeze them to death. Even these experts of legendry’s great complete realm would be directly frozen to death. A semi-sage expert could probably resist the cold inside the pond with the help of the principles within his body, but at the cost of having their strength reduced greatly.
Soon, Shi Zhi Ming’s complexion turned ugly. That was because another team of experts had arrived after them. This team was headed by a woman. She was approximately 20 years old, and had a somewhat oval and chubby face. She had a divine look in her big-round eyes, and was somewhat dark in complexion. A valiant aura was overflowing from her body. She was surprisingly an expert of semi-sage realm.
The experts of the Fire Cloud Cave were suddenly in a state of tumult as they watched these people arrive.
Ye Xiwen also recognized her from the memories of the disciples he had killed. She was an expert of the Fire Cloud Cave’s arch rival — Hundred Barbarians Cave. However, he didn’t specifically know much about her.
“Who is she? Why is everyone so perturbed to see her?” Ye Xiwen asked Yang Hong, who stood beside him.
“She is the daughter of an Elder of Hundred Barbarians Cave. Her name is Pan Shui Rong. She enjoys good fame in the younger generation of Hundred Barbarians Cave!” Yang Hong lowered his voice and said, “This Pan Shui Rong and our Young Master Shi have harbored deep enmity from the beginning... apart from the rivalry between the Hundred Barbarians Cave and our Fire Cloud Cave. It seems like we may have to fight with them!”
Shi Zhi Ming’s complexion had turned exceptionally unsightly. The arrival of the Hundred Barbarians Cave’s experts was proof that this matter had been leaked-out. Moreover, it was such a big leak that it had attracted his arch rival Pan Shui Rong.
He had thought that he’d suppress her after he had obtained the Sunflower Water Essence. However, he didn’t expect that she’d receive the news as well.
“Ha-ha!” Shi Zhi Ming let-out a hollow laughter. Then, he looked at Pan Shui Rong and said, “You’ve sniffed the news quite quickly. It’s like you have the sharp nose of a dog; and a very sensitive one at that!”
The barbarian experts standing behind Pan Shui Rong became furious at this. Did Shi Zhi Ming just call them dogs? This was a serious insult.
Pan Shui Rong’s face also revealed a trace of anger as she spoke-back, “Do you think that only you’re allowed to have such fortuitous encounters? We’re determined to obtain this Sunflower Water Essence. It will be a waste if it lands in the hands of a useless person like you!”
Shi Zhi Ming’s face turned ashen. He didn’t have a big heart unlike he had always pretended to. Not to mention that the opponent was an old rival.
“We’ll come to know who the useless person is at the end of the fight!” Shi Zhi Ming revealed his true colors. He was determined to win Sunflower Water Essence at any cost. However, the opposite party was unlikely to give up either. Talking wasn’t the best option here. There was only one way, and that was to let the fists do the talking. This was the most common method used by barbarian people to settle any dispute.
The one with the heavier fist would get to have their say. Quite simple... but it was also very effective.
“Begin!” Shi Zhi Ming shouted loudly. The disciples of Fire Cloud Cave shot a variety of martial arts towards the experts of Hundred Barbarians Cave.
The experts of Hundred Barbarians Cave weren’t resigned to be outdone either. They launched their counterattacks without any delay. They had been on alert all along; just like the experts of the Fire Cloud Cave. So, they were able to react in time even though the fight had erupted all of a sudden.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
The fight between hundreds of experts shook the entire Iron Pond Mountain; especially because they were all experts of legendry’s great complete realm. On the other hand, Shi Zhi Ming and Pan Shui Rong rose high-up into the sky to fight. They weren’t suited to fight on the mountain since it would collapse.
“Puchi!” a sharp blade cut across the vast sky with a flash of black light. It then arrived in front of Ye Xiwen. It was aimed straight at him, and was clearly thrown with the intention to kill him.
How could Ye Xiwen fall for this sneak attack? He let-out a cold shout, and terrifying sound waves scattered in all directions. That black light was dispersed, and an iron dart was revealed. Ye Xiwen stretched-out his fingers and grabbed it.
“Bang!” the iron dart was broken into small pieces; inch-by-inch.