Chapter Twenty-Nine: How Should One View That Youth?

The meeting concluded, and the clan leaders departed, each harboring their own hidden agendas. Whether any of them intended to recruit the boy into their own ranks remained unknown.

Yang Xiao did not rush to leave. Once everyone else had cleared out, he looked toward the King of Men, who sat upon the high throne, his expression complex. The King had ascended the throne eighty years ago. After the previous monarch had fought his way through the Demon Lands only to disappear mysteriously, the current King had taken up the banner of the human race. He had remained a steadfast presence in the royal court, though perhaps, at times, he was disconnected from the lives and sentiments of the common folk.

"Yang Xiao, do you have something else to discuss?"

"My King, is this approach not a bit too aggressive?" Yang Xiao lowered his head, sincerely expressing the confusion in his heart. "To destroy what one cannot possess—I feel that is too heavy-handed."

"Yang Xiao, what do you think the status of the Royal Court is in the hearts of the people?" The King did not answer directly, instead pivoting to an unexpected topic.

"A holy land for humanity, a place where the strong gather, a destination all martial artists yearn for, and a place where every commoner finds solace," Yang Xiao replied according to his own understanding.

The King chuckled softly. "And what of Jixia Academy?"

"Jixia is, without question, the strongest institution of learning for humanity. Every student dreams of its favor; entering Jixia is equivalent to stepping onto a new rung on the ladder of life. But Jixia is too remote and elite; admission is so difficult that people no longer dare to hope for it. Being accepted into a royal-level academy is already the highest expectation many commoners have for their children."

"If that is the case, according to you, people dream of joining Jixia and the Royal Court. What then, in your opinion, is the nature of a child with a Tier 9 martial arts talent who does not wish to join them?"

Yang Xiao’s pupils constricted, and he froze.

"Do you think such a person has the human race at heart?"

The King stood up, his dark-yellow armor, weathered by decades of hardship, clinking with every movement. He gazed into the distance outside the window and murmured, "That is why there are only two possibilities for that child. Either he is a man of great integrity who joins Jixia and then the Royal Court to realize his ambitions and revitalize humanity, or he is a man with sinister motives, avoiding Jixia because it is too rigorous, with every one of his actions under the scrutiny of countless eyes."

At these words, Yang Xiao was left completely speechless, and he lowered his head in silence. Only two paths lay before the boy: either join Jixia and the Royal Court to accept the King’s direct leadership, or remain outside, proving his hidden malice and meeting an early grave in the cradle.

"Then I shall take my leave."

"Very well, go."

***

"Where is he! Where is he!"

The crowd from the Qingtian Academy of the Great Qi Empire was incensed, surrounding the chief examiner. The representatives of other royal-level academies and human nations had also arrived one after another.

But there was no sign of Lin Yin.

"I have traveled all the way from Dali, where is he!" The ruler of Dali, in particular, was the most agitated.

The ruler of Xia smiled apologetically, trying to appease the group. The people before him were all figures who could make their respective nations tremble with a single stomp of their feet. There were three reigning monarchs present! The kings of Dali, Han, and Qin. Added to the King of Xia himself, that made four monarchs—half of the kings of the eight human nations were gathered here!

As for the other four nations: the entire faculty of renowned professors from the Qingtian Academy of Great Qi had arrived, a gathering of white-bearded elders. The highest secretary of the Fengtian Academy of Great Yan had arrived with three masters of the General-Ranking realm. The old dean of the Zhougong Academy of Great Zhou, known as the teacher of all teachers, had come in person at nearly seventy years of age. From Great Wu, the Northern-Defending King, Xiao Chen, stood in for the Martial King.

These individuals were essentially peers of the King of Xia. This situation was no longer something the chief examiner or the imperial examination officials could handle.

"Xia Changsheng, could it be that you are hiding the boy because he is a citizen of Great Xia, fearing that we might snatch him away?" the King of Han, Liu Ji, asked directly.

The kings of Qin and Dali soon joined in, demanding that the King of Xia produce the boy. Facing this group of ravenous old men, the King of Xia gave a helpless smile and explained, "I wish he were here myself, but the boy said that since he is participating in the examination, he must finish the journey. He has already gone to the second stage: the Blood Sea combat trials."

"Go, go, let's go at once!"

"What are you standing around for? Where is he? Lead the way, King of Xia!"

The group swarmed around the King of Xia as they rushed toward the Blood Sea combat arena.

In the Blood Sea combat zone of Tianhe City, several experts of the General-Ranking realm, who had been urgently summoned, were guarding the corners of the arena to prevent powerful demons from breaking through. This was the frontier of Tianhe City, the point closest to the Great Wall of Jiayuguan, extending twenty kilometers outward and ten kilometers wide.

By now, Lin Yin had already drawn his blade and was moving through the deepest part of the arena, having surpassed all other candidates.

The arena was divided into three levels: Ordinary, Dangerous, and Extremely Dangerous, arranged from the inside out. The Ordinary zone was filled mostly with common demons, some of which did not even reach the first stage of Blood Energy. The Dangerous zone, however, was entirely different, teeming with demons of the third and fourth stages of Blood Energy, with seventh or eighth-stage Great Demons appearing from time to time.

"Phew! I must have reached the Extremely Dangerous zone." Lin Yin checked his map, observing the lush, ancient mountain forest before him.

Unlike the first two zones, the Extremely Dangerous zone was not laid out in a neat grid. It was defined by the locations of demon nests. For instance, if there was a nest of ninth-stage Blood Energy demons here, this area was classified as Extremely Dangerous.

Lin Yin drew his Mo blade, its edge already crusted with thick, dried blood. Throughout his journey, he had already slaughtered many demons from the lower and middle tiers of the Blood Energy realm, accumulating over fifty points for his demon-slaying tally.

Moving quietly into the deep forest, he sniffed the air and caught a familiar, fishy stench. He tracked it stealthily until he found his target: a python coiled in the swamp, as thick as a carriage wheel, layered four or five times and standing over half a meter high. If fully uncoiled, it would surely be over twenty meters long.

It was a mottled giant python of the ninth stage of Blood Energy!

The python’s thermal detection system sensed Lin Yin’s presence. It snapped its eyes open, only to see a flash of cold light striking toward it. In the next second, cold blood gushed out like a spring!

The ninth-stage python didn't even have the chance to resist. Lin Yin had leapt like a thunderbolt from a branch in the swamp, raising his blade to sever its head in one stroke!

"Phew! Not bad." Lin Yin stood on the wriggling carcass of the giant python and made a brief assessment of his kill. "A ninth-stage demon like this is worth one hundred points, double what I've earned the entire way here."

Suddenly, he felt something under his feet. His expression shifted, and he reached into the swamp, pulling out a bone. He reached in again, pulling out more—all of them human bones. It appeared these were the remains of humans the python had swallowed whole and subsequently digested.

Lin Yin’s face darkened as he looked at the leg bone in his hand. He knew with high probability that this had been a martial artist from Tianhe City. After all, opening up the Blood Sea combat grounds required martial artists to fight with blood and fire, and the places where warriors sacrificed their lives were often demon nests—the very places classified as Extremely Dangerous.

This could have been someone's husband, someone's father, or someone's son...

With bitter hatred, Lin Yin raised his blade and hacked deep into the python's body, finally quieting the wriggling corpse.

"One day, I will drive all of you demons back to the Demon Lands. No—I will level the Demon Lands to the ground!"

Calming his emotions, Lin Yin opened his map. Since he was already here, he would purge every last corner of the Extremely Dangerous zone!