dmims Page 272
Page 272
Less than half a day after registering, Yi Shuihan met Feng Ming.
Feng Ming looked at Yi Shuihan with amazement in his eyes. He himself was a genius who broke through to the Heavenly Realm at the age of 52. Now he was 79 years old, but he looked only about 30 years old. Yi Shuihan, on the other hand, looked even younger.
"When did such a young celestial powerhouse appear?"
In the entire martial arts world, the number of people in the Upper Heaven Realm is only a little over 200, with the Zhou Tian Sect accounting for the majority, and the rest scattered among various sects.
Every time a Celestial Realm expert appears, it immediately causes a sensation throughout the martial arts world. It is rare for a Celestial Realm expert to suddenly appear, especially since Yi Shuihan is so young, which naturally makes Feng Ming very curious.
Feng Ming was unaware that Yi Shuihan was actually older than him, and that his strength was far beyond that of a so-called Heavenly Realm martial artist.
"This lord is Feng Ming, the 45th Star General of my Zhou Tian Sect."
It was the same squad leader as before, who was now introducing Yi Shuihan with unusual excitement.
Accompanying Feng Ming were two young people, a man and a woman. The man was Feng Ming's disciple, Zhao Yu, who had broken through to the Middle Heaven Realm at the age of 30 and was a genius who was very likely to break through to the Upper Heaven Realm in the future. The woman was Feng Ming's daughter, Feng Ling'er, who had just broken through to the Initial Heaven Realm at the age of 25 and was also a little genius.
Yi Shuihan nodded slightly to Feng Ming. He could tell that Feng Ming was indeed very powerful, equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator who was extremely close to the Void Returning stage.
"What are you pulling?"
Feng Ling'er pouted and said, having seen others treat her father with such respect, even fellow Star Generals, she was naturally very satisfied with Yi Shuihan's attitude and couldn't help but speak out.
"Ling'er! Don't be silly." Feng Ming scolded his daughter, then said to Yi Shuihan with a wry smile, "Please don't take offense, young friend Yi, my daughter is spoiled by me."
"It's alright, I won't stoop to the level of a brat."
These words from Yi Shuihan sounded rather strange, because he looked even smaller than Feng Ling'er.
"You're the young one."
Feng Ling'er exploded again, glaring at Yi Shuihan with displeasure.
"Yu'er, take your junior sister out."
"Yes, Master, Junior Sister, come with me!"
"Hmph, fine, I'll leave then."
After Feng Ling'er left, the squad leader also took his leave. He knew that he couldn't listen to the conversation that was about to begin, even though he really wanted to know what Yi Shuihan and Feng Ming were going to talk about.
On Yi Shuihan's side, there was only Yi Shuihan. As for Li Xia and the others, they were self-aware enough to know that Yi Shuihan had something to do, so they went to find out about Zhou Tiancheng. Yang Xuan was pulled away to be their guide.
Chapter 689, Zhan Fengming
"I wonder what important business brings you to Zhou Tian, young friend Yi?"
Feng Ming asked directly. It's no wonder he was so direct, because there are very few outsiders at the Heavenly Realm in the Zhou Tian Secret Realm. After all, Heavenly Realm experts are local overlords and emperors in other places. If they come to the Zhou Tian Secret Realm, the Zhou Tian Star Generals can easily kill them. They are afraid!
It can be said that the Zhou Tian Secret Realm is the place that other non-Zhou Tian sects are least willing to stay in, even though the cultivation environment in the Zhou Tian Secret Realm is better than that in other secret realms.
"I want to meet your star lord."
The core strength of the Zhou Tian Sect is the 108 Star Generals, and the most powerful First Star General is the Star Lord, also known as Zhou Shu, the leader of the Zhou Tian Sect, as Li Xia mentioned.
As the undisputed strongest person in the martial arts world, Zhou Shu's status is self-evident. Even if Yi Shuihan is a martial artist at the Heavenly Realm, Feng Ming believes that he is not qualified to meet Zhou Shu at all.
To be honest, even Feng Ming himself can't just meet the Star Lord whenever he wants. He only has the chance to meet the Star Lord and exchange a few words at the annual summary meeting every 10 years.
"impossible!"
Feng Ming rejected Yi Shuihan, and his gaze towards Yi Shuihan carried a hint of murderous intent.
Such a big reaction? Yi Shuihan was still somewhat surprised by Feng Ming's change. He was not unaware of Zhou Shu's status in the Zhou Tian Sect, but he had underestimated his influence.
How can I meet the Star Lord?
"Is your goal really to see the Star Lord?"
Feng Ming looked at Yi Shuihan with suspicion and confusion, unable to understand why Yi Shuihan insisted on seeing the Star Lord.
"If I weren't here to see the Star Lord, I wouldn't have come. There's still a ton of stuff to do outside!"
The "outside" naturally refers to the ordinary world, not this martial arts world.
"Fight me, beat me, and I'll tell you how."
Seeing Feng Ming's serious expression after he suddenly made this request, Yi Shuihan thought about it and finally decided to play along.
With such a huge gap in skill, Yi Shuihan could even defeat Feng Ming with her aura, so naturally she could only treat this battle as a game.
Following Feng Ming as he soared into the sky, the two quickly arrived at a rather desolate sandy area outside the city.
The destructive power of powerful beings from the heavens is still considerable, and fighting within the city will inevitably cause some unnecessary losses.
"Go ahead!"
Yi Shuihan stood with his hands behind his back and spoke softly.
A glint flashed in Feng Ming's eyes. Once he was in battle mode, he didn't care whether Yi Shuihan was careless or not. Since Yi Shuihan had asked him to take action, he wouldn't be polite. If he ended up hurting Yi Shuihan, then Yi Shuihan could only blame himself.
He spread out his palm, and a small whirlwind formed in it, spinning continuously and emitting a piercing roar.
"Wind!"
With just a gentle push, the whirlwind broke free from Feng Ming and rapidly changed in the air, instantly transforming into a massive storm tens of meters high, whipping up a cloud of yellow sand around it.
"This is a martial artist, but why does he look like a mage?"
When Yi Shuihan saw a martial artist at the Heavenly Realm make a move for the first time, he was slightly surprised.
Feng Ming's movements did not stop. His hands continuously created whirlwinds, which then turned into storms. In a short time, more than a dozen whirlwinds appeared.
These individual tornadoes are only powerful enough to destroy an area within a hundred meters, but so many of them can completely turn a small town into ruins.
Faced with these storms, the correct approach would naturally be to use flight to evade them, but doing so would fall into Feng Ming's trap. If they did that, Feng Ming would use his wind attribute power to hide among the storms and then launch an attack when Yi Shuihan was exhausted.
Without dodging or avoiding, Yi Shuihan charged directly towards the storm, or more accurately, towards Feng Ming, who was behind the storm.
"Could he be an earth elementalist?"
Seeing Yi Shuihan's fearlessness, Feng Ming couldn't help but guess that only earth-attribute martial artists were best at defense, and it wasn't impossible for them to withstand the storm.
"what?"
Feng Ming stopped creating the whirlwind. What he saw was that Yi Shuihan had passed through the storm so easily, as if it were not a storm at all, but just a piece of paper, without any pressure whatsoever.
Feng Ming had fought against earth-attribute martial artists before. Zhang Shan, ranked 23rd in the Zhou Tianxing rankings, was an earth-attribute Upper Heaven Realm martial artist. At that time, Zhang Shan withstood Feng Ming's whirlwind attack by using an earth-attribute armor move. None of Feng Ming's attacks could break through the opponent's armor.
But now it's clearly not the case; he didn't see any protection on Yi Shuihan, which is obviously illogical.
"No, he has merged with the storm; he is also a wind elemental."
Feng Ming noticed a detail that immediately felt familiar. Wasn't this the move he usually used? It was just that Yi Shuihan seemed to be using it more easily than he had.
"We can only use that move, the Wind God Blade."
As Yi Shuihan drew closer, Feng Ming decisively abandoned the useless whirlwind attack and used his signature move.
Similar to the Holy Sword in Saint Seiya, Feng Ming raised his right hand in a chop motion, and instantly his right hand was enveloped in a cyan true qi blade.
This true qi blade was tens of meters in size. When he raised his hand, a powerful aura emanated from it, making him look incredibly sacred.
The moment Yi Shuihan entered the attack range, the blade slashed down fiercely, unleashing a brilliant blue light.
A tremendous roar resounded, and Yi Shuihan's figure disappeared from Feng Ming's sight.
"Did you win?"
Feng Ming held back some strength in his final move, but it still managed to slash a thousand-meter-long gash, as if it had cleaved the earth in two.
This is only the residual power of the Wind God Blade. Its greatest strength is not its attack range, but its speed and force. Even the hardest diamond can be easily cut in half by it.
"Are you looking for me?"
The sound from behind made Feng Ming shudder. When he came to his senses, he looked at Yi Shuihan, who was completely unharmed, in disbelief.
When? He actually appeared behind me! If he attacks now, I'm sure to die.
I almost broke out in a cold sweat.
"Do you want to continue?"
"No...no need. I acknowledge your strength. Let's go. When we get back, I'll tell you how to meet the Star Lord."
Chapter 690, Breaking Through the Star Barrier
Feng Ling'er didn't know what had happened, but when she saw Yi Shuihan and her father again, she keenly sensed that something was wrong.
Her father, Zhou Tianxing, a powerful martial artist ranked 45th, actually showed a hint of awe towards Yi Shuihan.
That must be fake; how could my father possibly have any respect for that guy?
"Young friend Yi, I'll be taking my leave now. I'll be waiting for you at the mountain gate tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll definitely be there on time tomorrow. I'll leave that matter to you!"
"No problem, I will definitely get things done."
After seeing Feng Ming and the others off, Yi Shuihan fell into deep thought.
"I never expected meeting Zhou Shu would be so troublesome. Does he think he's Zhou Shuren? Actually, I shouldn't have given them face. I should have just gone to the Zhou Tian Sect to find him. With my strength, no one can stop me."
After the battle with Feng Ming ended, Feng Ming told Yi Shuihan how to meet the Star Lord.
The solution is to pass the Star Barrier. Passing the Star Barrier means defeating more than half of the Star Generals under the witness of the Zhou Tian Sect. If you can do this, you can make a request to the Zhou Tian Sect. If Yi Shuihan can pass the Star Barrier, he can naturally request to see the Star Lord.
The Star Pass is actually a ceremony used by the Zhou Tian Sect to select a Star Lord. Any member of the Zhou Tian Sect, regardless of who they are, can become the First Star General, or Star Lord, as long as they can pass the Star Pass. The current Star Lord, Zhou Shu, once passed the Star Pass.
Among all the Star Generals, the succession of the First Star General is the most special, requiring the passing of Star Barriers. Other Star Generals, on the other hand, can inherit the title of Star General as long as they gain the recognition of the previous generation. Of course, because of this, apart from the First Star General, the strength of the Star Generals after him cannot be the same as their ranking. Therefore, every 5 years, a Star General will have the opportunity to challenge the Star General in front of him and replace his ranking. Of course, if he is challenged and loses, he will automatically be demoted one rank, and the people after him will also be demoted one rank in turn.
Such rules have instilled a strong sense of competition within the Zhou Tian Sect, ensuring that its fighting strength has never waned.
Not being a member of the Zhou Tian Sect, Yi Shuihan, as an outsider, could not possibly become a Star Lord after passing the Star Gate. Therefore, he would be given a requirement, and the difficulty would be reduced by half, requiring him to defeat only half of the Star Generals.
Even though the difficulty was reduced by half, no one has ever actually been able to pass through the Star Pass. In fact, it's basically just a formality for outsiders to try to pass through the Star Pass; nobody takes it seriously.
According to Fengling, this rule was set by the founder of the Zhou Tian School, which is why it has been preserved.
"I don't know if their people can be ready in just one day."
Star generals don't stay in the mountain gate permanently. In fact, there are only about 20 star generals who are truly stationed in the Zhou Tian Mountain Gate for a long time. After all, there is a star lord, and all the other star generals combined are no match for him. They are not afraid of enemy invasion.
Furthermore, in the Zhou Tian Secret Realm, if a Star General really wants to return to the sect, it will only take half a day at most, since they can fly in the Middle Heaven Realm and have extremely strong mobility in the Upper Heaven Realm.
Leaving aside Yi Shuihan's efforts to pass the time, Feng Ling immediately took action upon returning to the mountain gate.
With Feng Ling's abilities ranking 45th among the Star Generals, it would be very easy for her to notify the other Star Generals that someone wanted to break through the Star Gate.
Before long, half of the star generals had gathered. Except for a few who couldn't get away, the other star generals said they would return immediately.
It has been many years since anyone attempted to break through the Star Pass. Although not many people were optimistic about Yi Shuihan's attempt, they still planned to watch him closely.
Even though Fengling told everyone that he had been defeated by Yi Shuihan, no one was optimistic about Yi Shuihan, because there were 43 people in the sect who were stronger than Fengling, and the gap between them would widen as they progressed.
Star generals are also divided into several strength levels. The first level is a single level, and all the others combined are no match for them. The second level is from the second to the tenth star general. The third level is from the eleventh to the fiftieth star general. The fourth level is from the fifty-first to the eightieth star general. The fifth level is star generals ranked eighty and below.
The fifth level of Star General is the strength of a normal Heavenly Realm cultivator. The fourth level is the strength of a veteran Heavenly Realm cultivator. The third level is the level where Feng Ling is located. There are fewer than two hands' worth of Heavenly Realm cultivators from other major sects in the martial arts world with this strength. The second level is even fewer than two hands' worth, let alone the first level.
It can be said that even without a Star Lord, the other Star Generals combined are more than enough to face the entire martial arts world.
"Father, is that guy really going to break through the Star Pass?"
Feng Ling'er said incredulously, she really didn't expect to receive such explosive news.
That's a star gate! It's a legendary term in the Zhou Tian School.
At this moment, in Feng Ling'er's eyes, Yi Shuihan had already been sentenced to death. She would never believe that Yi Shuihan had the strength to pass through the Star Gate.
Those who attempt to break through the Star Gate will face only one fate: death! The Star Generals will show no mercy, and even those from the Zhou Tian Gate will be no exception, let alone an outsider like Yi Shuihan.
If it were possible to just randomly try, wouldn't people be coming every day hoping to get through?
There's something else Yi Shuihan doesn't know: to pass the Star Gate, you need a Star General's recommendation, and each Star General only has three recommendation opportunities in their lifetime.
You can still try without a Star General's recommendation, but if you fail, Zhou Tianmen will send forces to wipe out the challenger's faction, and even their relatives and friends will not be spared.
"I've already recommended it, so there's no doubt about it!"
"Father, you don't dislike him, so you want to kill him, do you? He's not really that bad. Although he's annoying, he doesn't deserve to die."
Feng Ling'er looked at her father strangely.
"..."
Feng Ming looked at his daughter and his lips twitched. He felt an urge to hit her.
Seemingly noticing something was wrong with her father, Feng Ling'er quickly ran away. She wanted to find her senior brother to share this astonishing discovery. Her father loved her too much; he had directly caused the death of a powerful expert at the Heavenly Realm for her sake.