prynovel Chapter 75 : Chapter 75
Chapter 75 : Chapter 75
Chapter 75: Mu Xiying Is Killed! Battle Against Ouyang Xun! (6,000-Word Extra-Long Chapter)
A long while later, everyone gradually woke up.
Mu Xiying, who was inhabiting Luo Ya’s body, was the same.
It was just that all of them had lost the memory of what had happened a moment ago.
None of them knew that Luo Ya had been injured, nor did they know what had just taken place.
“You were attacked by an Other Race skilled in illusion arts and fell unconscious. I already killed them. It is safe here now, so we should head back first.”
Mu Xiying offered that explanation casually.
The students did not doubt her in the slightest. Under Luo Ya’s lead, they all hurried back to their base.
Their base was a Sixth-Rank Subterranean Cavern.
Inside it stood a human city.
The strongest person there was a Sixth-Rank Martial Artist.
Luo Ya herself was a Fifth-Rank Great Grandmaster, which already made her a fairly powerful figure.
These students were all from the most advanced university in that city.
After returning, Mu Xiying wasted no time. She immediately began searching for all kinds of alchemical materials and rapidly improving her own strength.
With her powerful alchemy, even though Luo Ya’s talent was only Purple, that was still enough.
In just three short years, Luo Ya, who had originally only been at the Great Grandmaster level, was raised all the way to the Martial Emperor Realm!
Of course, to Mu Xiying, that speed was simply glacial. Back when she had used her own former body, it had only taken her a few days to reach that level.
There was no helping it. Back then, she had been able to purchase medicinal materials freely, and on top of that, she had possessed a Dark Gold talent.
But here, she had only a Purple talent, and she even had to go out and search for the materials herself.
Under those conditions, reaching the Martial Emperor Realm was already astonishing.
With the powerful combat strength granted by her thirteenth-tier cultivation arts and martial techniques, although she was still far weaker than when using her own body, she was already comparable to an ordinary silver-talent wielder.
She then left that city and continued searching for other human cities.
The potential of this body was not high enough. She would have to change again.
Once she had enough strength to hunt Ferocious Beasts above the Tenth Rank, she could begin refining a body that truly belonged to her.
Time flew by.
As she continued her search, thirty years passed in the blink of an eye.
Over those thirty years, she changed bodies again and again. Each time she completely developed one body’s potential, she went looking for the next.
At the same time, she discovered that the human race truly was nearly dead.
But even so, quite a number of survivors still remained.
All of them were hiding in one Subterranean Cavern after another, barely clinging to life.
...
On this particular day, after wandering far and wide, Mu Xiying returned to the site of what had once been Blackwater City.
As she looked at the ruins below, her heart was filled with mixed emotions. Blackwater City had become much larger than it had been five thousand years earlier, but from the look of it, it had only reached the scale of one billion inhabitants before being destroyed.
“Hm? Where did the cavern here go?”
As she flew over the sky above Blackwater City, she suddenly noticed that the cavern passage where that Fifth-Rank Ferocious Beast had once appeared had somehow turned into a small hill.
As the city expanded, that cavern had apparently been incorporated into it.
But the entrance had actually been filled in.
Filled in? Who would be so bored as to bury a little hill for no reason?
Besides, a cavern entrance was usually converted into an underground space for storing supplies and the like. Doing so effectively reduced the city’s surface area, making it easier to defend in a concentrated way.
After all, the smaller the area, the shorter the travel times and the easier it was to organize reinforcements. It also saved a great deal of construction resources.
For it to have been filled in for no reason at all, something was definitely wrong.
Mu Xiying wasted no time and dove straight toward that small hill.
Wherever her violent golden flames passed, the ground melted through.
At last, she found the cavern tunnel beneath the earth and rushed inside.
Yet the moment she entered, she saw an enormous and extremely prosperous city situated at the center of the cavern.
As time passed, this cavern seemed to have grown into a Seventh-Rank one, over a thousand kilometers in diameter. That city occupied more than a hundred kilometers at its center.
Around the city were all kinds of plants and crops.
The entire place looked orderly and well run.
Mu Xiying quickly blended in. After performing Soul Search on two ordinary civilians, she learned the name of this city: Lingwu City!!
A Martial Thearch-level powerhouse was stationed there.
And according to rumor, that Martial Thearch was even a woman!
Mu Xiying did not waste any time. She flew directly toward the City Lord’s residence. If the truth turned out to be what she suspected, that would be ideal. If not, then she could simply Possess Another’s Body.
Of course, whenever she did that, she first sealed the other person’s soul and used the body temporarily. Once she was finished, she would release the person again.
But by then, that person’s strength would already have undergone a qualitative leap.
...
Tap. Tap.
Mu Xiying landed on a Martial Arena within the City Lord’s residence.
The body she was using at the moment belonged to a female martial artist with a Mid Silver Talent.
She had already raised that body’s realm to the Peak of the Martial Thearch Realm!
An ordinary Martial Saint would be no match for her at all.
Opposite her stood a figure completely wrapped in Nanotech Battle Armor. Even through the armor, the graceful curves of her figure could not be concealed.
The City Lord had been practicing martial arts frantically. The moment she heard the disturbance, she turned and threw a punch straight at Mu Xiying.
Endless lightning and flames poured into that punch.
The sight made Mu Xiying’s pupils contract sharply!
“The First Heaven of the Martial Saint Realm!”
She did not dare take it lightly. She immediately drew upon soul power and attached it to her hand.
BOOM!!
With a deafening blast, Mu Xiying casually caught the incoming fist.
Fortunately, she had coated her hand in soul power. Otherwise, with the other woman’s strength, that one punch would have been enough to blow apart this borrowed body.
The force that was shed from the impact instantly shattered the Martial Arena beneath their feet.
Terrifying power spread outward. The earth split apart in crazed fissures, cracks spread throughout the entire city, and countless residents were thrown into chaos!
“Such overwhelming strength. Could she be someone with a High Gold Talent or above?”
Even Mu Xiying was shocked by the force behind that punch.
“Who are you?”
The City Lord immediately withdrew her fist and retreated at explosive speed, opening some distance between herself and Mu Xiying.
Her tone was full of wariness, and there was the same shock in it as well.
The other side had actually caught her punch.
Yet the moment Mu Xiying heard her voice, one brow lifted.
“So it really is you, Su Qingwu.”
Only then did Mu Xiying finally smile.
“You know me?”
Hearing the other woman call out her name, Su Qingwu was not too surprised, but she still did not lift her Nanotech visor. After all, who knew whether the other woman might launch a sneak attack?
And there were far too many people who knew her name.
“I’m Mu Xiying!!”
Mu Xiying did not waste words and stated her identity directly.
“Bullshit. How could Senior Mu possibly be that ugly? Besides, she died five thousand years ago. Who exactly are you!?”
The moment she heard that, Su Qingwu let out a sharp cry and instantly charged at Mu Xiying, launching a furious barrage of attacks.
“It looks like I will have to subdue you first.”
Mu Xiying sounded helpless.
In the next moment, golden light bloomed from her fingertips.
This body could no longer withstand her full power. She could only use soul power now.
“Break!!”
In an instant, Mu Xiying thrust out a finger and tapped the center of Su Qingwu’s browplate.
BOOM!!!
Her Nanotech Battle Armor exploded apart on the spot.
A breathtakingly beautiful woman appeared before Mu Xiying.
It truly was Su Qingwu.
She had simply become far more mature than before.
Before Su Qingwu could even react, Mu Xiying’s right hand had already formed dozens of hand seals and struck her between the brows again!
In an instant, a powerful sealing formation directly sealed Su Qingwu.
Yet what stunned Mu Xiying was that although Su Qingwu’s Nanotech Battle Armor had burst apart, it instantly transformed into a torrent of nanotech material and enveloped Su Qingwu once more.
“This Nanotech Battle Armor! It is actually Peak Tenth Rank? And such a terrifying recovery speed is unheard of. Could it be a battle armor with a legendary silver recovery-type trait?”
Mu Xiying was shocked once more.
“What did you do to me?”
Su Qingwu’s anxious voice rang out.
Although the armor had once again protected Su Qingwu, the woman inside had already been sealed.
She could no longer resist.
BZZZ!!!
Mu Xiying did not waste any words. Soul power surged.
Her soul flew straight out of the female martial artist whose body she had been borrowing.
In that instant, Su Qingwu saw Mu Xiying’s true appearance.
The moment she did, her eyes widened in utter disbelief.
“Senior Mu, it really is you?”
“So... he really succeeded?”
Su Qingwu muttered in disbelief.
“It really is me. For certain reasons, I lost my memories, and I only just awakened again.”
“You said earlier that I died five thousand years ago. What exactly happened?”
“And where is Xiao Xuan?”
“Did he die too?”
“And the ‘he’ you mentioned just now... was that Xiao Xuan?”
Mu Xiying questioned Su Qingwu.
At the same time, her soul merged once more into that AI Core Smartwatch.
Su Qingwu fell silent after hearing her words.
Click. Click.
In the next instant, the Nanotech Battle Armor covering Su Qingwu slowly receded and finally turned into a smartwatch.
The seal on her body vanished at once, and she regained the ability to move.
She slowly removed the smartwatch from her wrist, stroked it with lingering reluctance, and then slowly handed it over to Mu Xiying.
“All the answers are in here, Senior. You will understand once you look. Everything that happened back then is recorded inside.”
Su Qingwu said softly.
“This... this is Xiao Xuan’s Nanotech Battle Armor?”
The moment she saw the smartwatch, Mu Xiying recognized it at once.
She then placed it on her own wrist.
【Permission Level Detected: Sequence One! Battle Armor Binding Successful!】
To her surprise, the AI smartwatch instantly acknowledged her as its master.
And the instant the binding succeeded, the armor’s attributes appeared before her eyes.
As Mu Xiying looked at the densely packed list of high-grade silver traits, even she was astonished.
Across the entire history of the human race, items that possessed silver traits were vanishingly rare.
And this one did not merely have silver traits. It had many of them, and all of them were high-grade!
At the same time, she realized something else. Su Qingwu’s talent had not improved at all. She was still the same woman with a High Purple Talent.
The reason Su Qingwu had been able to raise her realm to its current level was primarily because of the armor.
The armor’s two elemental absorption traits could also help the user convert lightning-attributed and fire-attributed power into Spiritual Energy and absorb it.
Of course, compared to possessing those two traits herself, the effect was weaker by more than a factor of a million!
After all, if Su Qingwu had truly possessed those two traits in her own body, then forget the First Heaven of the Martial Saint Realm. She would have reached even the Martial God Realm long ago.
Even so, it still raised the ceiling of her talent to a whole new level. On top of that, the armor’s silver combat-type traits were stacked upon a Peak Tenth Rank foundation and the Peak of the Martial Saint Realm as a base.
As a result, Su Qingwu’s overall combat power was far greater than that of an ordinary First Heaven Martial Saint who possessed Mid Gold or High Gold traits.
To put it bluntly, though, that strength belonged to the armor itself. Even if it were removed and allowed to fight independently, it would not be much weaker.
Though shocked by how powerful the armor was, Mu Xiying still opened its Knowledge Transfer Function.
BZZZ!!!
In an instant, a vast flood of memories poured into Mu Xiying’s mind. At that moment, it felt as though she had lived through five thousand years herself.
It was as though she had returned to that time.
...
Within those memories, any records involving the Time Rift between Mu Xiying and Xiao Xuan seemed to have been completely blocked out.
And the earliest memory began from Xiao Xuan’s perspective, starting with the opening of Imperial Capital University.
After entering Imperial Capital University, Xiao Xuan became the most closely watched person in the entire school. After all, the terrifying record of him killing Ouyang Zhantian was enough to leave countless people stunned.
For a time, no one dared challenge him.
Throughout his university years, Xiao Xuan also scarcely fought anyone. He spent nearly all his time cultivating like mad.
At the same time, the relationship between him and Mu Xiying also began to change in this timeline.
In truth, when they were children, Mu Xiying and Xiao Xuan had been very close. Mu Long and Xiao Xuan’s father had been comrades who had gone through life and death together.
And Xiao Xuan had grown up alongside Mu Xiying.
They had been almost like real siblings.
That only changed when Xiao Xuan’s parents died saving Mu Xiying.
In the grip of extreme terror and guilt, Mu Xiying lost all the memories she had from before that moment.
She forgot all the feelings she had once shared with Xiao Xuan.
And Mu Long and his wife could not bear to tell her the truth. They did not want a little girl to grow up carrying that burden of guilt.
As a result, Xiao Xuan, who had already lost his parents, was forced to endure the cold indifference of the very sister who had once been closest to him.
Mu Long and his wife could only compensate by treating Xiao Xuan even better.
And because of that, the once lively little girl became colder and colder.
She was like that with everyone.
And in her eyes, Xiao Xuan was the one who had stolen her parents’ love.
It was only much later, after Mu Long and his wife died, that her lost memories finally returned through the final words they left behind.
Unfortunately, by then, everything was already too late.
That was why, after she returned, no matter what seemed strange about Xiao Xuan, the first thing she thought about was always his safety.
Even when Xiao Xuan killed Ouyang Zhantian and plunged the entire family into mortal danger, she never blamed Xiao Xuan in the slightest. She only believed that her own strength was not enough.
But before returning to the future this time, Mu Xiying had left everything that happened back then in the battle armor’s AI Core for her original self.
Those revelations caused Mu Xiying from five thousand years earlier to remember the truth of what had happened back then.
And because Xiao Xuan had never once held any resentment toward Mu Xiying, their relationship quickly eased as well.
Unfortunately, an accident occurred in the sixth year after the two of them entered Imperial Capital University!
That year, Mu Xiying had reached the point of graduation.
Theoretically speaking, her strength had long since surpassed the graduation standard by several major realms.
And in the previous cycle, Mu Xiying had already graduated in her fourth year.
So by all rights, she should have graduated long ago. But this time was different. Because of Ouyang Xun, she, Xiao Xuan, and even the whole family had never once left Imperial Capital University.
Her strength had risen directly from the Martial Emperor Realm to the First Heaven of the Martial Thearch Realm!
Such a terrifying realm had never appeared before in the entire history of the human race!
One had to know that even a graduate at the Martial Venerable Realm only appeared once every ten-odd years.
A Martial Thearch graduate was something no one had even dared dream of!
And yet, beside Xiao Xuan, her talent and strength no longer seemed quite so dazzling.
Because she no longer had her future soul, although her talent awakened earlier than it once had, it had only barely reached Mid Gold!
At the same realm, talent at that level still left her combat power somewhat weaker than Xiao Xuan’s. And Xiao Xuan, who possessed absorption-type traits, was practically blessed by the heavens!
He had long since reached the terrifying Peak of the Martial Thearch Realm.
And he had already completed every stage of the Martial Thearch Realm and was on the verge of breaking through to Martial Saint.
If Mu Xiying had chosen to delay her graduation and wait a few more years, until Xiao Xuan broke through to Martial Saint, then Xiao Xuan was confident he could assassinate Ouyang Xun. Whether Ouyang Xun truly intended to kill them or not would no longer matter.
But Mu Xiying, who had already been forced to remain suppressed for seven years, did not choose to delay graduation. Instead, she resolutely took the Graduation Trial.
And she graduated with a result so terrifying that no one could believe it.
The First Heaven of the Martial Thearch Realm was an unprecedented realm in the entire history of the human race.
As for the even more terrifying Xiao Xuan, because he had never fought anyone, his old fame gradually faded away.
No one knew what realm he had reached. Some even challenged him on the Heaven Ranking, yet he ignored them completely.
He had long since fallen from the Heaven Ranking.
Because of that, quite a few people began to suspect that in his battle with Ouyang Zhantian back then, he had used some forbidden method and had long since become a cripple.
Then, as Mu Xiying’s powerful talent exploded into view, everyone abruptly realized that the stronger of the two had never been Xiao Xuan at all, but Mu Xiying.
Only then did they remember that during the Hundred-Province Genius Tournament, Xiao Xuan had directly conceded.
Once Mu Xiying graduated, she naturally ceased to be a student of Imperial Capital University.
And she was no longer protected by Imperial Capital University either.
People had assumed that after seven years, Ouyang Xun had completely given up on pursuing Mu Xiying.
After all, over those seven years, neither Ouyang Xun nor the Ouyang family had made things difficult for Xiao Xuan in any way.
They had even once sent word through a Martial Thearch of Imperial Capital University.
As long as Xiao Xuan, after graduation, chose to head to the frontline Subterranean Caverns and stand guard there for the rest of his life, the grudge between him and the Ouyang family would be written off.
News of that spread quickly, and many people praised Martial Saint Ouyang for his magnanimity.
Yet Xiao Xuan gave no response whatsoever.
He had never believed a single word they said.
Because of that, over those seven years, he kept no contact with anyone. He had even completely severed ties with his former friends.
Still, at his urging, Gu Xuan and Su Qingwu had both moved their families into Imperial Capital University, and over those seven years, they had barely left the place at all.
After all, Imperial Capital University was much larger than an ordinary city. One could live there for a lifetime without ever feeling bored.
Sure enough, everything Ouyang Xun had done had merely been an act meant to lure Xiao Xuan out.
Only a few days after Mu Xiying graduated, the pair of Communication Talismans between Xiao Xuan and Mu Xiying lit up.
Those talismans had been made by Mu Xiying at Xiao Xuan’s request.
If Mu Xiying ever encountered danger, she could crush one of them directly.
Then Xiao Xuan would instantly learn the exact coordinates through the other talisman and be able to teleport there to save her.
Yet when Xiao Xuan rushed over, all he found was Mu Xiying, already slain.
And the one who had struck her down was Ouyang Xun, seated on a reef not far away, holding an urn of ashes in his arms and calmly caressing it.
On his aged face lay boundless melancholy.
“I had no wish to kill her. Sadly, she refused to trick you into coming, so I had no choice but to let you taste the pain of losing someone dear as well.”
Ouyang Xun slowly lifted his aged eyes toward Xiao Xuan. Within them were hatred, rage, and venomous resentment.
And something else as well, something beyond words.
...
“Xiao Xuan, Xiao Xuan. You truly are good at hiding. Seven years—do you know how I have lived through these past seven years?”
“Again and again, I imagined how wonderful it would have been if Zhantian were still alive.”
“What happened on the arena back then was indeed his fault. By emotion and by reason alike, he deserved to die.”
“But I am his grandfather. I cannot ignore his death, and I cannot forgive the man who killed him.”
Ouyang Xun spoke quietly as he watched Xiao Xuan slowly lift Mu Xiying’s corpse into his arms.
“I know this much: anyone capable of killing Zhantian could never be the ruined genius those people say you are!”
“Come. Let this old man see what level you have reached now!”
“Win or lose, I will not kill you. After today, the grudge between us will be settled!!”
“Of course, if you have the power to kill me, then I have nothing to say!”
After speaking, Ouyang Xun casually flung the urn from his hand.
The urn shot outward and burst open above the sea, scattering ashes across the water.
Then Ouyang Xun drew his weapon and looked at Xiao Xuan across from him.
BOOM!!!
Suddenly, a heaven-surging demonic aura erupted from Xiao Xuan’s body.
At that moment, the bottleneck that had trapped him for an entire year finally shattered.
His realm advanced into the Martial Saint Realm, and his strength underwent an enormous leap.
Yet as endless demonic aura poured into him, and as the rage and killing intent in his heart surged without restraint,
his consciousness was engulfed by the murderous will of the blade demon!
Boundless demonic power wrapped around Xiao Xuan. His body swelled madly, and in an instant he transformed into the same kind of blade demon Ouyang Zhantian had once become.
At the same time, Gigantification erupted. The blade demon that had originally been just over ten meters tall instantly became a terrifying demonic god thousands of meters in height!
That sight made Ouyang Xun’s face change instantly.
“Zhantian’s talent! Why do you have Zhantian’s talent? You... how did you do this!?”
Ouyang Xun was utterly horrified.
But Xiao Xuan paid him no heed. He simply stored Mu Xiying’s corpse away at once.
Then the Nanotech Battle Armor surged rapidly and covered Xiao Xuan’s entire body.
At that moment, the battle armor’s grade had already reached the highest level possible: Peak Tenth Rank.
BOOM!!!
In the very next instant, Xiao Xuan transformed into a streak of black-and-white demonic light and shot straight toward Ouyang Xun.
The great battle had finally begun!!
Although there was an entire major realm between them, the layering of one powerful constitution and bloodline after another, together with the strength boost from the Peak Tenth-Rank Nanotech Battle Armor, raised Xiao Xuan’s combat power to an unprecedented height.