Chapter 72: Swords Facing Each Other

Translator: Simple MTL Editor: Simple MTL

“There’s only one reward?” Lin An asked with a puzzled expression. “Then how do we split it?”

Even though Lin An had killed most of the bat monsters, if it hadn’t been for Saint Zi Yan’s help at the beginning of the battle, and the secret skills that he had used, then he wouldn’t have been able to clear the round.

Therefore, Saint Zi Yan and Lin An had the same merit, but there was only one reward.

“This treasure belongs to you, the next one belongs to me!” Saint Zi Yan said straightforwardly.

When he thought about it, Lin An felt that Saint Zi Yan really had a big heart. Even though they were skilled cultivators, there was no guarantee that they would successfully complete the next challenge.

However, since she had already laid out the terms of their cooperation, Lin An gladly agreed. He had been practicing his alchemy skills, so the Dragon God Cauldron would be a great help to him.

After storing the reward in the system’s space, Lin An secretly looked forward to the next trial.

Instantly, the passages leading to the next stage appeared in front of the two cultivators.

This time, there were only two passages.

Before Lin An could pull out the success rate system’s virtual screen, he realized that there were several words inscribed at the top of the passageways.

When he read the words, he learned that one passage led to the next stage, while the other was the exit to leave the Sacred Dragon Mystic Realm. Additionally, only one cultivator could pass through each passageway.

Clang!

Lin An suddenly heard a sword being drawn, and he hurriedly dodged to the side, just in time to avoid Saint Zi Yan’s blade.

When he turned around, he saw that the necklace hanging around Saint Zi Yan’s neck was emitting a blinding light, and the light was pointing towards one of the two passages.

Saint Zi Yan was holding a sky-blue sword with a jade hilt in her hand, and it was emitting a mysterious ripple.

She had not taken out the sword during her time in the Dragon God Illusionary Realm, and Lin An was instantly dismayed.

The sword looked beautiful and majestic, just like its owner.

However, just like its owner, the sword could not be underestimated. There had to be some kind of mysterious and terrifying power hidden in the small sword that was enough to make Saint Zi Yan feel she could use it to choose the path with the greatest reward.

“What do you mean by this?” Lin An asked coldly.

Saint Zi Yan’s expression was dark, and her mood had changed drastically.

“I lowered my cultivation level to enter the Sacred Dragon Mystic Realm for the hell king’s purgatory body behind that path. It is related to my future life plans, and I cannot give it to you.”

‘But I never thought of competing with you…’ The sentence was stifled in Lin An’s heart, and he couldn’t say it out loud.

Clang!

Lin An pulled out the Nine Nether Weeping Blood Sword and activated the Hurricane Sword technique to stab Saint Zi Yan.

To his surprise, she raised her sword and lightly swung it, easily neutralizing the Nine Nether Weeping Blood Sword’s aura even though it was ten times more powerful.

It seemed that Saint Zi Yan wasn’t using her own power. Lin An could clearly feel that the defensive force had been directly emitted from the jade hilt on her sword.

Lin An suspected that even if he used the black and white ashen flames, profound flame transformation technique, he could not withstand the power within Saint Zi Yan’s sword.

It turned out that she had actually concealed her actual strength.

Suddenly, Lin An had a new understanding of the thirty percent success rate that the virtual screen had showed during the previous level.

Perhaps, the thirty percent success rate had not referred to his chances of using his treasures to clear the level.

Instead, the probability rate had been based on Saint Zi Yan’s brute strength alone, and she would have had a thirty percent chance of directly breaking through the attacks of the hundreds of nascent soul stage monsters on her own.

“Thousand-faced extreme fire!”

Lin An immediately took out the thousand-faced extreme fire treasure from the system space and used it on Saint Zi Yan.

Several flames surged out from the flag and rushed towards her noisily.

“Pure origin heaven sword lashes!”

Lin An realized that it was the first time that Saint Zi Yan had used a martial technique in his presence.

When she had fought the bat monsters, she had only used energy flow during her attacks. It seemed that she had been deliberately hiding her moves from the very beginning.

Once the thousand-faced extreme fire’s flames collided with the sword aura from the jade hilt sword, Lin An felt as if he was in the middle of a storm.

However, he knew it was definitely not an illusion. The jade hilt sword in Saint Zi Yan’s hand had to be a celestial treasure!

After the attack ended, the energy in the thousand-faced extreme fire had been used up and even a portion of the flag had been burned.

Fortunately, the thousand-faced extreme fire treasure could automatically repair itself.

When he looked at Saint Zi Yan, Lin An noticed that the sword in her hand had also cracked a few times. It must have been greatly damaged, and he concluded that she could only use the sword for a short period.

“Profound flame transformation!”

Lin An rushed towards Saint Zi Yan and threw a punch at her face with his right fist.

However, he immediately saw that she had not blocked or dodged the punch. Instead, she had closed her eyes!

If the punch had hit her, then her beautiful face would have been damaged forever.

Lin An quickly withdrew his fist and turned his body to the side.

He brushed past Saint Zi Yan and quickly set his feet to regain his balance.

“What are you doing?”

Lin An couldn’t help but complain.

“If you’re angry, I’ll let you punch me to vent your anger. Now that you’ve damaged my protective magic treasure, you can punch me again to vent your frustration and then allow me to enter the next level. Is that okay?”

Lin An nodded his head in disbelief.

He then walked towards the passageway that led out of the Sacred Dragon Mystic Realm. “Didn’t we already agree that the Dragon God Cauldron would be mine, and the next reward would be yours? Now that I don’t have to do anything, I’m more than happy to leave.”

Lin An walked in front of the passageway, but he abruptly stopped and said, “I thought that we were already friends, but I didn’t think that you wouldn’t trust me. Forget it! Let’s just pretend that we never met and that we never helped each other! The next time we see each other, we’ll just be strangers!”

After he spoke, Lin An leaped into the exit tunnel, and his figure quickly disappeared into the passageway.

Saint Zi Yan hurriedly took a few steps forward and stretched out her hand as if she wanted to say something, but Lin An had already disappeared.

She didn’t know why, but her heart was faintly aching. Lin An’s words run through her mind. ‘The next time we see each other, we’ll just be strangers.’

Saint Zi Yan felt as if a piece of red-hot carbon had pierced her heart. The feeling was so painful that she almost couldn’t breathe.

Salty tears flowed out from the corners of her eyes, and they stained her cheeks with the color of sadness and dripped onto the ground.

Suddenly, she fell to the ground in a daze, and there was only one voice echoing in her head:

‘I thought we were already friends.’

…

Lin An immediately suspected that there was something wrong with the exit passage. He felt as if he was riding a roller coaster with his eyes closed, and the world around him was spinning wildly.

Dong!

Lin An fell into a fast-flowing river.

He sank down to the riverbed and immediately observed his surroundings. After confirming his location, Lin An planned to summon his treasure ship in order to fly out of the river.

However, for some reason, it seemed that the ship had been damaged in the exit passage. After he took out the treasure ship, Lin An discovered that it had lost its ability to fly.