Volume One: The Emperor's Sword Chapter 156: Who Doesn't Have a Few Good Relatives

Facing Chu Chen's overbearing actions, everyone from the Northern Courtyard was too angry to speak out.

Xue Ziyi sighed inwardly.

Who could blame them when their Northern Courtyard had no elder presiding over it? If her master were present, Chu Chen would never dare to casually bully the disciples of the Northern Courtyard.

Ma Yong and Niu Bucai kept making frantic eyes at Yun Que, terrified that Yun Que might act rashly.

The brothers Chu Long and Chu Hu were already not to be trifled with, and their grandfather Chu Chen was an even more vengeful character. To offend the Chu family was to make it virtually impossible to move an inch within the Sword Palace.

Yun Que naturally knew that these two senior brothers and the senior sister were looking out for him, intending for him to endure the moment for the sake of peace.

However, having just experienced the slaughter of the Netherworld, his killing intent had not yet subsided, and the sword meridians throughout his body were still in a peak state.

In particular, the use of the power of the Death Tribulation had pushed Yun Que almost to the brink of a berserk state.

He could even feel his life slipping away.

The carnage of the final mile in the Netherworld had consumed at least a year of Yun Que's lifespan.

Trading vitality for power—this was the price of forcibly employing the power of the Death Tribulation.

At this moment, Yun Que's heart was filled with extreme killing intent.

If the Sword Chief had not intervened just now, Yun Que wouldn't have minded treating his fellow disciples to a grand show of a sword servant fighting a Core Formation cultivator.

Even if he were no match for a Core Formation elder, his hidden cards were definitely something a Core Formation cultivator could not withstand.

At worst, he would release the blind snake and play a game of high-low, leaving it to bite whoever it pleased.

Having already formed a blood feud with Chu Hu, provoking Chu Chen was only a matter of time. Yun Que had no intention of keeping such a root of disaster as Chu Hu around; given the opportunity, he would definitely eliminate him.

As for Chu Hu having a grandfather at the Core Formation realm as a backing, Yun Que cared even less.

You have a Core Formation grandfather? Well, I have my departed uncle! Who doesn't have a few good relatives in the family?

Yun Que simply didn't believe that Chu Chen would dare to single his departed uncle.

The commotion subsided here.

Qin Shangzhang made personal inquiries.

The answers obtained were unanimous: the few survivors had escaped the trial realm through a spatial rift. As for the bloody battles and the otherwordly events that occurred along the escape route, no one said another half word.

Yun Que had long since warned them not to reveal his true combat strength.

At that time, the group had sworn poisonous oaths that news of those ten miles of bloody road in the other world would be buried deep in their hearts and never leaked.

Zhou Yuanliang and Han Jiao went without saying; they were Yun Que's close friends. Han Ning was not an ungrateful person either, and she was filled with gratitude toward Yun Que, deeply aware that without him, she would never have survived.

Yi Hongwen was even planning to change his surname upon return, so how could he dare disobey Yun Que's instructions?

As for the remaining person, Lan Duo, she had already returned to the barbarian tribes and had not accompanied them to the Sword Palace.

They were able to return so early because, upon leaving the trial realm, their arrival point happened to be the desolate mountains near the imperial capital.

It was merely half a mile from the city walls and not far from the Sword Palace.

By Yun Que's estimation, if he had walked even one mile less in the Netherworld, he might truly still have been stuck inside the trial realm upon exiting.

While feeling a sense of fortune, Yun Que was deeply worried about the injuries of his companions.

"Sword Chief, are Mu Qingyao and Wu Dachuan still savable?" Yun Que offered a disciple's salute toward the Sword Chief and asked.

Qin Shangzhang first looked toward Mu Qingyao.

"Their lives are not in danger, but the injuries to her dantian are extremely severe. The best possible outcome is probably just preserving her cultivation base, with advancement being utterly hopeless, unless a master of the Dao of Alchemy is willing to spare no cost to recuperate her condition—perhaps then there might be a glimmer of a chance."

Qin Shangzhang then looked toward Wu Dachuan.

"Every bone in his body is shattered, and his vitality is practically extinct. He was eroded by the sword rain for too long, and the organs within his body are already riddled with holes. His internal injuries are too severe; he can live for three days at most."

A simple sentence pronounced the death sentence of Wu Dachuan.

Mu Qingyao was better off, as she would at least survive, but Wu Dachuan was fundamentally beyond saving.

Quan Yu wore a gloomy expression and said, "In the Sword Chief's view, what percentage of a chance does Qingyao have to recover her dantian?"

Qin Shangzhang fell silent for a moment before saying,

"Staying in the Sword Palace, she has less than a one-tenth chance. If she returns to the sect and asks that senior sister of yours to act, perhaps there might be a two-tenths chance."

Quan Yu seemed to face a difficult decision; after hesitating for a long time, she gritted her teeth and said,

"Tomorrow, I shall return to the sect!"

A two-tenths chance was enough for her to cast aside her old face and beg her senior sister to intervene.

After examining the injuries of the two, Qin Shangzhang instructed her disciples to fetch two parting pills and leave them for Wu Dachuan.

This Sword Chief was not like other elders who looked down upon sword servants with disdain; even for the humblest Wu Dachuan, she still left behind medicinal pills.

Even though it was merely the parting pill that no one else wanted.

Ma Yong hurriedly thanked the Sword Chief on behalf of Wu Dachuan, and after accepting the parting pill, he shook his head and sighed lightly.

Even the Sword Chief had judged that Wu Dachuan was beyond saving; this most lively sword servant in the Northern Courtyard would presumably find it hard to escape death.

Ma Yong could already imagine that the Northern Courtyard in the days to come would undoubtedly grow increasingly desolate.

Gu Shaoyang waited for a long time, and seeing no one else return, he asked,

"Aside from you seven, no one else has come back?"

Zhou Yuanliang respectfully replied, "At the time, only the few of us were nearby. When we discovered the spatial rift, we joined forces to give it a try, never expecting we would actually be able to return."

Gu Shaoyang nodded, wearing a thoughtful expression.

On the plaza, the disciples of the various courtyards had almost finished exchanging their rewards, and everyone cast their gazes upon the returning Yun Que and his group.

Chu Hu crossed his arms, stared at Yun Que, and said,

"Surviving a disaster must mean your luck is pretty good. It's your turn to exchange for sword tassels; let's see if you can contend for the title of Sword Seed."

He was speaking in reverse.

Asking whether a sword servant could contend for a Sword Seed was clearly intended to make a laughingstock of Yun Que!

In past battles for the Sword Seed, quite a few sword servants participated, but their yields were pitifully small. Being able to exchange for a single sword tassel was already considered decent, while the vast majority of sword servants made a wasted trip and came out empty-handed.

Worse still, some lost arms and legs in the trial realm.

Not only did they fail to reap any benefits, but they even threw in some of their own belongings.

Qian Yuxiu mockingly sneered,

"Not bad, Xue Ziyi. Your Northern Courtyard actually managed to bring two people back, except one is a cripple and the other is good for nothing. Whether they come back or not doesn't seem to make much difference."

The cripple referred to the heavily injured and dying Wu Dachuan, while the good-for-nothing referred to Yun Que.

Qian Yuxiu did not believe that Yun Que could have gained anything in the trial realm. Even if he had returned alive, she was certain to win this year's gambling duel.

The few individuals successively produced their harvests.

Among them, Han Ning and Zhou Yuanliang had fairly bountiful yields, each exchanging for more than thirty sword tassels.

Given the pitiful plight of the Yan State Sword Palace this year, thirty-odd sword tassels were definitely quite a lot, enough to rank among the top three of all the courtyards.

Han Jiao and Yi Hongwen fared much worse; their combined yields didn't even amount to ten sword tassels.

Mu Qingyao had the greatest harvest, boasting over a dozen sword leaves alone, which easily traded for nearly a hundred sword tassels.

Despite being heavily injured and unconscious, she was still undoubtedly the undisputed Chief Sword Seed of the Southern Courtyard this year!

Finally, everyone cast their gazes upon the storage pouch that Yun Que had produced.

Everyone was extremely curious about how much of a harvest a minor sword servant targeted simultaneously by the elders of the Western and Southern Courtyards could possibly have.

Half a sword leaf?

Half a cyan silk silkworm?

Or a pile of dead ironwood ants?

"Heh," Qian Yuxiu curled her lips and said, "A storage pouch? Your harvest couldn't possibly be too small for even two hands to hold, could it? Storing it in a pouch—could it be you filled a bag with rocks? Little fellow, rocks in the trial realm aren't worth a coin, hehe."

Swish!

Amidst Qian Yuxiu's mocking laughter, Yun Que flipped his storage pouch, dumping out a pile of items onto the ground.

Over a hundred cyan silk silkworms!

Over a hundred sword leaves!

More than a dozen thunder stones!

Various spiritual herbs and materials numbering no less than twenty kinds, dazzling to the eye, each forming a small pile!

Before the Myriad Fathom Tower, the plaza gathering hundreds of people fell into absolute silence.

A deathly stillness.

After a long while, an uproar erupted!

"Over a hundred sword leaves! How is that possible? I searched for a whole day and worked myself to the bone to find just one!"

"Did he dig up the silkworm king's nest?! How did he manage to get so many cyan silk silkworms?!"

"There are even thunder stones! Oh my god! I've been to the trial realm dozens of times and haven't even seen a single thunder stone!"

"Added together, that's got to be over a thousand sword tassels! This is definitely the most overpowered single-person harvest in the history of the Sword Palace! It's enough to be recorded in the history books!"

"A thousand? A single thunder stone can be exchanged for fifty sword tassels; his thunder stones alone are close to a thousand sword tassels. Adding the sword leaves and cyan silk silkworms, that's at least upwards of two thousand sword tassels!"

"Was the trial realm opened by his family? While the rest of us go to the trial realm to hunt for treasures, why does it look like he went there to stock up on inventory?"

All the disciples could not believe their eyes, shocked beyond measure.

Quan Yu stared with wide eyes, completely speechless.

Gu Shaoyang hung his jaw, dumbfounded and stunned.

Chu Chen's expression turned incomparably dark and ugly.

Even the most composed Sword Chief, Qin Shangzhang, currently had her beautiful eyes sparkling, her delicate mouth slightly agape in shock.

Huan Zhi froze directly in place, his mind blank.

Qian Yuxiu acted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, startled into jumping straight up.

She rushed to the front, picked up a handful of sword leaves, and upon confirming they were real, her entire body went limp, nearly collapsing to the ground.

She knew she had lost this year's battle for the Sword Seed.

And she had lost in a manner humiliating to the extreme!

Qian Yuxiu had previously sworn with absolute confidence that her side was bound to win, never expecting that the meager things Huan Zhi produced would look like mere dirt compared to the other person, utterly worthless!

Foundation Establishment Pills were certainly not cheap items.

Losing two of them at once meant Qian Yuxiu had practically lost the vast majority of her personal net worth.

"Step aside, there's more."

Just as Qian Yuxiu felt dizzy and lightheaded, hearing Yun Que speak abruptly made her fly into a rage from embarrassment.

"What else could you possibly have?! Take it all out and open my eyes!"

Boom!

A behemoth dropped out, nearly crashing directly onto Qian Yuxiu.

When she clearly saw what this object was, Qian Yuxiu was so terrified she leaped high into the air and turned to flee.