Chapter 39 - Talent Test

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

When they were underground, Ximen Yanyan had said that she would no longer care about Yang Dingtian and would never see him again. However, after only an hour, she had appeared in front of him again.

“If it had been me before everything happened, I’m sure I would have stopped caring about you. I wouldn’t have wanted to see you. I wouldn’t have wanted to speak a single word to you.” Ximen Yanyan looked at the river below. “However, those mischievous days are like the water flowing below. It will never come back again. Yang Dingtian, we both no longer have the right to be willful. Yao Rao’s Yin Yang Xuan Devouring Arts is the one and only fast yet powerful method.”

“I know,” Yang Dingtian replied. Yes, he was even clearer on the subject than Ximen Yanyan.

“I have thought it through. First, we shall have sex, and I will pass you my Xuan energy. Once you’ve completely absorbed it, I’ll find you a second wife. Then, you’ll have sex with her and absorb her Xuan energy.” Ximen Yanyan was almost expressionless. “She is much stronger than I am. You can rest assured that she is very moving, much softer, and much gentler than I am.”

Yang Dingtian was so shocked that he was speechless. He never thought that Yanyan would not only sacrifice her virginity for him but also drag another woman into this mess and sacrifice her as well.

“I know that this is very unfair to her,” Ximen Yanyan said. “She was adopted by daddy and is called Ximen Ningning. She could be considered his other daughter. We are even closer than blood-related sisters. We even joked before about wanting to marry the same man.

Yang Ding took a deep breath. “Let’s set aside the part where doing this would completely destroy my pride. Even in our current situation, I will definitely not have intimate relations with you.”

Ximen Yanyan’s face turned red. “What you want to say is that you will never take my body before you get my heart?”

Yang Dingtian lowered his head to show that she was right on the mark.

“Don’t you know that, in fact, to gain a woman’s heart, the shortest path is through her ….vagina?” Ximen Yanyan forced herself to say this. She turned away immediately, her beautiful face completely red.

“So, don’t be rebellious and go back with me.” Ximen Yanyan stretched out her little hands, her eyes looking extremely gentle. “You can rest assured that I will learn to love you. Trust me. I will give you my heart in no time.”

Yang Dingtian’s chest began to get tight again. He slowly said, “Yanyan, don’t force me. I can’t do it.”

Yanyan’s beautiful face turned angry. She was about to explode, but she held it in. “Then, I should tell you that even if I don’t pass you my Xuan energy, it will eventually go to waste. In just two more years, all the Xuan energy in my body will vanish completely, leaving me extremely weak.”

“Why would this happen?” Yang Dingtian asked in shock.

“You don’t have to know. Just know that passing my Xuan energy to you is already the best outcome. Now, you just have to tell me whether you are willing or not?”

After a moment of silence, Yang Dingtian said word-by-word, “Sorry, I can’t do it.”

“Yang Dingtian, you are not a man!” Yanyan finally exploded. She pointed at Yang Dingtian and said coldly, “You are a hypocrite. I used both good words and bad words. I’ll ask you one last time. Will you have sex with me? If you say ‘no’ one more time, I will jump down and die. I’ll do it!”

Ximen Yanyan’s beautiful face was determined. She stared at Yang Dingtian. Her character was truly fiery. She would really do what she promised.

Yang Dingtian took a deep breath again. He did not agree or disagree, but instead said, “You jump, I jump! Let’s just share the same fate.”

Hearing this, Ximen Yanyan was so angry that her entire body shuddered. Her beautiful face was flushed red due to her anger. Her eyes were opened so wide and looked ready to spit fire.

“Yang Dingtian, you know what? I really want to cut you with a sword right now. I have never seen such a hateful man like you. I will not like you even after a hundred years.” Yanyan jumped back onto the bridge and walked ahead.

After walking over ten meters, Yanyan turned and asked angrily, “Why are you still standing there? Follow me to the Hidden Art Pavilion to practice. I want to see what you can really do. Otherwise, just obediently sleep with me and stop with all this nonsense.”

The two of them walked over a hundred meters and crossed the bridge. They reached a solitary mountain peak and stood at the bottom of the Hidden Art Pavilion.

…

The Hidden Art Pavilion was truly magnificent. Although this stone tower only consisted of nine floors, it was a full 200 meters tall. The bottom floor had an area of ​​nearly 10,000 square meters.

“The Hidden Art Pavilion is so important. Why aren’t there any guards?” asked Yang Dingtian.

Yanyan didn’t want to answer him, but after a while, she explained grudgingly, “Who said no one is guarding this place? Elder Mu Ye is the one assigned to guard this Hidden Art Pavilion. He is the one that wasn’t present at the Elder Society meeting. In Cloud Sky City, his cultivation is almost equal to my dad’s. It’s just that the formation that he made to protect this place does not allow him to leave this mountain.”

Before the body sacrificing incident, Yanyan rarely spoke to Yang Dingtian. Her attitude was cold but always courteous. Afterwards, however, her attitude towards Yang Dingtian was full of anger, which might have been the beginning of a significant shift.

Yang Dingtian now understood why one of the elders was missing when they voted on such an important topic.

“Which floor are we heading to?” he asked.

“The first floor, of course. You cannot even be considered a martial artist yet. Which other floor would you go?” Ximen Yanyan answered impolitely.

She walked straight through the gate and into the first floor of the Hidden Art Pavilion.

Yang Dingtian followed and walked through a screen of blue light. An energy blocked him gently before admitting him smoothly. As long as the person had passed the period of enlightenment, he would be able to enter the first floor.

The space on the first floor was huge. With an area measuring around ​​ten thousand square meters, the hall was circled by ten rooms. On the door of each of these rooms, there were words written: Rank One Art Room, Rank Two Art Room, Rank Three …… all the way up to Rank Nine Art Room. Only the last room had nothing written on the door.

In the center of the hall, there was an open space with an area of roughly 100 square meters. There was almost nothing there. Only a mass of crystal-clear water floated in midair. The water could be completely contained within a one-meter cube. It constantly transformed into different irregular shapes in the air. Inside the water, a blue flame burned quietly.

“This mass of water and fire is used to test one’s Xuan Vein talent,” Yanyan explained. “The rank of your Xuan Vein talent determines which rooms you may enter. The greater your talent, the higher the rank of the techniques you are able to learn.”

Yang Dingtian knew that he had Nine Yang God Veins, but his Master, Dongfang Niemie, had told him to never tell anyone.

“Xuan Vein talent is differentiated into how many ranks?” Yang Dingtian asked.

“I don’t know!” Ximen Yanyan replied. “However, the highest grade that has ever appeared in the past one thousand years was rank nine. There were nine people with that level of talent. These nine people eventually all reached the Martial Saints level. However, it has been over three hundred over years since the last Nine Yang Xuan Vein talent appeared. This is the reason why no God-like martial artist has appeared in the past four hundred plus years.”

Ximen Yanyan frowned. “Put your hand in, I want to see why Uncle Dongfang and my dad valued you so highly. In the end, what kind of genius are you?”

As she said this, Ximen Yanyan looked extremely dissatisfied.

“Oh right. What were my master and Uncle Ximen’s ranks?” Yang Dingtian asked.

“My daddy was rank eight middle class. Dongfang Sect Head was rank eight upper class. However, my dad’s rank eight middle class Xuan Vein’s cultivation was no lower than that of Dongfang Sect Head, so he was the world’s strongest person. Furthermore, your ex-fiancé is also rank eight upper class, but her talent is even higher than Dongfang Sect Head’s. She is viewed as the person closest to rank nine Xuan Veins.”

“What about you?” Yang Dingtian asked.

Ximen Yanyan clenched her teeth and fists. “Eighth rank close to upper class. My talent is just a little worse than your violent ex-wife’s.”

Yang Dingtian was a little surprised. He really did not expect Yanyan to have rank eight upper class Xuan Veins. Her talent was almost unparalleled in the world. Then, why is there such a large gap between her cultivation and Dongfang Bingling’s? She couldn’t even beat Ximen Yan. Why?

“You want to ask me why I’m so weak despite having such talent, right? Why I’m nowhere near comparable to Dongfang Bingling?” Ximen Yanyan stated loudly. “I can tell you that my current cultivation is the same as when I was nine years old. I had an accident at the age of fifteen. No matter how hard I tried after, my cultivation kept regressing. No matter much effort I put in, I will not have any cultivation left in two years.”

“Now you finally know why I’m willing to give you all the Xuan energy in my body. Because it will just go to waste in my body. You’re such a hypocrite. If I hadn’t been injured back then, I wouldn’t need to beg you to have sex with me. I wouldn’t need you to be the heir of Cloud Sky City. I was supposed to be the most outstanding genius in Cloud Sky City in the past 300 years.”

This fact should be Yanyan’s most tragic secret. It was a past that she normally wasn’t willing to mention. Having her tell him everything was equivalent to tearing open her wound. She stopped herself from crying, but she was actually crying in her heart.

He saw a trace of blood seeping at the corner of Yanyan’s mouth, caused by her clenching her teeth too hard. She also clenched her fists so hard that her nails pierced her palms, causing them to bleed.

“Yang Dingtian, you’re not the only one who has a miserable past. You’re not the only one to have been betrayed.” Yanyan stared at him. “So, can you put away your hypocrisy for the sake of Cloud Sky City and for the sake of my father’s mission? Have sex with me and accept my Xuan energy.”

Yang Dingtian slowly walked forward. He grabbed her pink fists and carefully opened them to reveal her stiff palms. He softly said, “I’m sorry Yanyan. I knew too little about you. But please give me a chance? Give me a chance to prove myself.”

“My husband, we don’t have time!” Yanyan urged. “We only have half a month.”

“Give me time. Give me time. Otherwise, I won’t be able to lift my head for the rest of my life.” Yang Dingtian was firm but gentle. He gently wiped the blood off of Yanyan’s mouth with his fingers. “I believe that you too have moments of pride, so you should also know the pain of having your pride crushed.”

The last thing Yang Dingtian’s said moved Yanyan. She was once as proud as Dongfang Bingling. But now, her martial arts cultivation was so weak and had been completely forgotten by the world, leaving her with only her incomparable beauty.

“Okay, I’ll give you time. I’ll give you ten days.” Yanyan stared at Yang Dingtian. “If you break through to become a Xuan martial artist in ten days, you will have proven that you can rely on your own strength to continue. If not, that means you are not capable. Then, we’ll use my method to absorb Xuan Energy from me and Sister Ningning using the Yin Yang Xuan Devouring Arts. Deal?”

“Deal.” Yang Dingtian slowly agreed. “Now, let’s have a look at my Xuan Vein talent. Let’s see what my Master and your dad valued. What should I do?”

“You just have to put your hands in the water.” Yanyan eyed the flame in the water. “This flame is the purest Xuan energy. When your hand touches it, the Xuan veins in your body will resonate. The higher the rank of your blood veins, the greater the resonance and the larger this blue flame will be.”

“If the flame only covers one-tenth of the water, that would mean that your blood veins are rank one. If the flame covers 80 percent of the water, that would mean that you are rank eight. When it exceeds 90 percent, that would signify rank nine. Dongfang Bingling’s flame covered 88 percent, just one step away from rank nine.”

Yang Dingtian immediately held his breath. Although he knew that he had Nine Yang God Veins, he was still a little nervous. Who knew if Nine Yang God Veins were the best? Would it be good enough to be rank nine?

Yanyan seemed to be even more nervous than Yang Dingtian because he carried all of her hopes.

Yang Dingtian slowly stuck his hand into the water.

That flicker of flame seemed to form a resonance and began to slowly approach Yang Dingtian’s palm. The flames grew larger and larger.

Yanyan stared at the flames and instantly couldn’t breathe.

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