The Prodigies War

The crowd was indignant, thinking that the mysterious woman was demanding an exorbitant price.

Does she think our clan is easy to bully?!

There was nothing praiseworthy about the wimpy black dog except for its shiny and silky fur. Ever since it appeared, it had done nothing but prostrate as if wanting to tuck its head into the ground.

How is this kind of coward worth ten Ancestral Divine Bamboo sections?

If Saint Xuetu could read their minds, he might just vomit blood in rage. It would be intolerable for someone like him to be regarded as a coward!

“My fellow cultivator, our Black Nightmare Sky Dog Clan has tens of thousands of descendants. You can’t just casually grab one and demand ten Ancestral Divine Bamboos for him. Isn’t that just…a bit too much?” said Saint Xuexing slowly. Although the old man looked to be in the waning years of his life, he possessed an air of majesty.

“So you’re saying that this dog is not worth the price?” asked the mysterious woman.

“He’s not worth it at all,” replied Saint Xuexing. “At most…three sections of Ancestral Divine Bamboo, and this price is already out of respect for you. Otherwise, heh…”

He did not need to finish to convey what he meant.

Even so, the expressions of the other Black Nightmare Sky Dog Clan experts still turned ugly. Their entrance had been trampled through and numerous clansmen had been injured, only for them to be extorted by the very culprit in the end. This was simply suffocating!

Meanwhile, Lin Xun almost couldn’t hold back a laugh and ended up revealing an odd expression. If this old guy knew the identity of this dog, he would definitely smack himself in the mouth.

“If that’s the case, I won’t sell this dog,” said the mysterious woman.

“Woof! Woof!”

Saint Xuetu in his original form was anxious. He raised his head and barked at Saint Xuexing with an infuriated look.

“Outrageous thing! How dare you be rude to the Ancestor!” Gou Yanghai, who had long been holding his anger, kicked out without hesitation.

Bam!

The black dog was sent flying over ten feet and smashed into a rock in a sorry state, raising a cloud of dust.

Stunned, Lin Xun almost gave Gou Yanghai a thumbs up. That’s the leader of the Black Dog Clan for you, kicking a saint!

“Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!” The black dog rushed over, barking louder and louder like it had contracted mad dog disease.

Seeing the stupid dog fail to read the situation, Gou Yanghai was so angry that his face turned blue. Just as he was about to teach it a hard lesson, Saint Xuexing seemed to notice something and shouted in a cracked voice, “Stop!”

The shout was like a muffled thunder that shook the entire area. Gou Yanghai stumbled and almost fell on his buttocks.

The rest of the clansmen were also trembling with fearful expressions, not understanding what was going on.

“You…you are Xuetu?” Saint Xuexing’s eyes flashed with a horrifying gleam as he stared intently at the barking black dog.

At that moment, Lin Xun saw the black dog’s eyes become watery. He didn’t know if it was tears of joy or what.

Lord Xuetu?

How can this black dog be Lord Xuetu?

The whole area was silent as everyone was dumbfounded. They stared blankly at the black dog, wondering if they had misheard, especially Gou Yanghai. He had just kicked this dog without holding back and wanted to further beat it up, but who could have expected such a crazy turn of events?!

Gou Yanghai’s expression instantly turned as dark as night.

Lin Xun could not hold back his laughter after all. This scene was simply too funny and could be reminisced many times if he needed some joyous memory in the future.

Eventually, Saint Xuexing confirmed the black dog’s identity. His face was gloomy and ice-cold as his eyes locked onto the mysterious woman. ‘‘Fellow cultivator! Are you here to humiliate my Black Nightmare Sky Dog Clan?”

The other clansmen were also furious and mortified. Who could bear watching their saint being sold like a dog?

The mysterious woman was unperturbed. “Humiliate? Not at all. It’s just his punishment. If you are not happy about this, then we can settle with a fight.”

Her nonchalant words exuded an indescribably domineering aura, making heavens and earth tremble as if submitting to their god.

Those below the Saint stage felt a buzz in their heads. Their vision became blurry, and they felt a sense of suffocating oppression!

It was as if the mysterious woman had turned into a lord governing this land. Her supreme aura caused even Saint Xuexing to lose composure.

“Woof! Woof!” the black dog barked anxiously.

Saint Xuexing communicated with it through spirit senses. It was unknown what they talked about, but it made his face constantly flicker.

When he turned to look at the mysterious woman again, his eyes had taken on a glint of utter disbelief.

Lin Xun had a rough guess that Saint Xuexing had found out about what had happened on the shore of the Star Chess Sea.

In the end, Saint Xuexing took a deep breath and made his decision. “Fine, fellow cultivator, we will do as you’ve said!”

He then ordered someone to fetch a wooden box, inside which ten bamboo sections were neatly placed.

The bamboo was as glossy and white as snow, and the surface of each section was branded with strange innate runes. Fine silks of lightning swam within the runes as they exuded rich vitality.

This was the bamboo that had been nurtured in the Black Nightmare Sky Dog Clan’s ancestral land. A section took three thousand years to produce, making it a divine material that one could only come across serendipitously.

The mysterious woman glanced at the box of bamboo before gesturing to Lin Xun to take it.

The sight was painful for Saint Xuexing. Losing ten sections of Ancestral Divine Bamboo was equal to losing the clan’s 30,000 years of savings!

“Are you satisfied now, fellow cultivator?” he asked in a heavy tone.

“More or less.” The mysterious woman nodded, then swept her eyes over everyone present and said, “This is but a brief visit. If the bullying happens again, it won’t be just a simple visit next time.”

This was clearly a threat!

Forcing himself to hold back the killing intent in his heart, Saint Xuexing asked, “Since that’s the case, can you let him go now?”

That concluded the visit as the mysterious woman let go of Saint Xuetu and drove a herd of goats to leave with Lin Xun.

When they had come, they had broken the entrance and went up the mountain like no one was there, forcing even Saint Xuexing to bow his head.

When they left, no one dared to block their way!

This kind of elegant style was an eye-opener for even Lin Xun. If he had such power, no one would dare to bully him even if he was alone and unsupported!

……

After a long silence, Gou Yanghai asked through gritted teeth, “Milord, why did you agree to their demand?! Please don’t tell me our entire clan combined can’t keep a saint?”

Today’s matter had been a heavy blow, a humiliation to their entire clan!

“Did you notice that herd of goats?” asked Saint Xuexing expressionlessly.

Gou Yanghai was startled, and a bad premonition surged in his heart. “Could it be…?”

“That’s right, those are the saints of the other five dao lineages. She can turn Saints into animals and shepherd them. If that woman had wanted to kill us, how many clansmen do you think would be able to survive?” Saint Xuexing’s voice was icy.

Gou Yanghai’s blood ran cold. The more he thought about it, the more his heart palpitated.

“Yanghai, you are the head of the clan, yet you lack the necessary observation qualities. It’s no wonder your cultivation has been stagnating at the ninth longevity tribulation King stage and cannot break through to the Saint stage!” reprimanded Saint Xuetu coldly who had returned to his human form.

Gou Yanghai’s scalp turned numb. He did not dare to look Saint Xuetu in the eyes. Just now, he had kicked the latter flying…

It was true that he hadn’t known better, but if Saint Xuetu decided to pursue this matter, his consequences would be unsightly!

“But…do we just leave this at that?” Gou Yanghai was unwilling to take it lying down.

“Of course not!” replied Saint Xuexing in a heartbeat. His wrinkled face was morose, and his scarlet eyes erupted with a horrifying murderous intent, “Whoever dares to humiliate my clan like this shall pay a hundredfold!”

Then, he took a deep breath before giving an order, “Investigate her! Find out every single thing about her no matter what the cost is! Even if we can’t have our revenge now, we will in the future!”

Although these words were ruthless, everyone understood that their revenge would be prolonged until they figured out the details of the mysterious woman.

This made them feel all the more disheartened.

……

“This treasure should be called the Ten Thousand Tribulations Divine Bamboo. It grows in destruction and undergoes a heavenly tribulation once every three thousand years. Every time that happens, it harvests a stream of Lightning Yuan Aeth Liquid from the thunder tribulation. Not only can this liquid raise the dead back to life, but it also has immeasurable benefits to cultivation. A true divine elixir.”

An ethereal golden rainbow crossed through the boundless void as it carried the mysterious woman, who was teaching Lin Xun about the Ancestral Divine Bamboo.

Only then did Lin Xun realize the value of the ten bamboo sections in his hand!

No matter how heavy the injury was, one could instantly recover to their peak state by just drinking the Lightning Yuan Aeth Liquid inside the bamboo tube.

Moreover, in cultivation, it could help temper one’s dao foundation, nurture their soul, cleanse their mind and so on!

It was definitely not an exaggeration to say this was a rare treasure that one could only come across serendipitously.

“I didn’t know the Black Nightmare Sky Dog Clan had a miraculous bamboo tree…” Lin Xun pondered.

“You want the whole tree?” the mysterious woman asked out of the blue.

Lin Xun was stunned. He shook his head. “I don’t have that desire for now.”

“That means you plan to do so in the future,” said the mysterious woman. “However, I advise you to put it at the back of your mind until you become a Big Saint.”

“Big Saint?” Lin Xun’s heart jumped.

The mysterious woman nodded and started teaching Lin Xun, “Yes. There are True Saints and False Saints, and the path of true sainthood has different levels.”

The False Saint stage was divided into two types.

The first one was when a cultivator reached the King stage and failed to create their own dao seed, and therefore had to borrow a dao seed to build their King foundation.

Since this cultivator also possessed a dao seed, they could study the dao of immortality and go through the Immortality Tribulation to become Saint. However, the Saint stage was already the end of their path because the dao seed did not belong to them.

The simplest way to recognize this kind of False Saint was to see if they could condense Saint Dao Laws.

If they couldn’t, then they were a False Saint, which was the most unimpressive existence in the Saint stage.

Of course, it was only unimpressive for the Saint stage. For those of the stages below, this kind of False Saint was already someone that they could only look up to.

‘The power of the Saint stage is as mighty as the sky’ was by no means an exaggerated metaphor!