Chapter 1217 – Profound Azure Prefecture
Right at this moment, a petite figure dove into Lin Yun’s embrace and began to bawl. “S-Senior Brother Yun, where have you been the past few days? Yuruo really missed you. T-T-They said that you were going to the Luo Clan as a son-in-law and that you didn’t want us anymore!”
From how Wang Yuruo was crying, Lin Yun could tell how sad she must’ve been when he left the other day. She still hadn’t experienced many things in life.
Looking at her, Lin Yun’s gaze became gentle, “Alright, stop crying. You’re already so big, so you shouldn’t be crying.”
“No, Senior Brother Yun has to promise that he won’t leave!” Wang Yuruo still didn’t give up as she hugged Lin Yun.
“Yeah, I’m not going anywhere.” Only after Lin Yun gave his promise did Wang Yuruo smile.
“Where have you been the last few days? Whoa, that’s some dense killing intent you have.” Ye Ziling came forward with Feng Zhang, Liu Qingyan, and the others along with the elder of the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect. When they got close, Ye Ziling immediately locked her brows as she examined Lin Yun.
“I’ll tell you all about that later. But I’m curious who said I was going to be the son-in-law of the Luo Clan?” Lin Yun squinted his eyes and looked at the few people standing behind Ye Ziling.
“Not me.” Feng Zhang shook his head while Liu Qingyan also smiled, “Not me.”
Jiang Lichen wore an awkward expression and didn’t dare to look Lin Yun in the eyes.
“Senior Brother said that! He said he saw Luo Hua entering your residence and even said that someone like you wouldn’t place your attention on the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect. Moreover, he even said that you didn’t think we were friends this whole time.” Jiang Lichen wanted to hide, but Wang Yuruo directly exposed him.
Hearing that made Jiang Lichen’s face red because he also didn’t expect that Lin Yun would show up. It caught him by surprise.
“I-I didn’t. I was just joking,” whispered Jiang Lichen softly.
“You’re really childish.” Lin Yun glared at him.
When Jiang Lichen saw that Lin Yun didn’t cause a scene, he felt relieved.
As the group continued towards the Profound Azure City, Lin Yun’s arrival made the surrounding atmosphere move lively and everyone wore a faint smile on their faces. But Lin Yun still sensed that the likes of Ye Ziling and a few others weren’t feeling optimistic. After all, concern was written all over their faces.
“Did anything happen along the way? Why are you guys late?” Lin Yun asked because he didn’t think that he would really be able to wait for them. He was still planning to enter the city and group up with them.
“We ran into some troubles along the way and met the Suspend King Palace’s men. Chu Tianhao’s Suspend King Art has reached the highest level,” said Ye Ziling. The Suspend King Art was strong and Lin Yun had also fought with people from the Suspend King Palace with his identity as Flower Burial.
If one managed to reach the highest level in the Suspend King Art, they could reach the top 8,000 of the empyrean ranking.
“But he’s not the biggest obstacle. Our strongest opponent is Xiahou Jue. I’ve heard about him and he’s ranked in the top 3,000 on the empyrean ranking. But I never expected that he was from the Crimson Moon Elysium!” Ye Ziling sighed as the news weighed heavily on her.
“So it doesn’t really matter if you came because it won’t change the results of the ranking battle. We’ll be lucky if we can get into the top three,” said Jiang Lichen. He paused briefly and continued, “Not to mention that you’re only in the Galaxy Stage. Your cultivation is too low and you’ll suffer a huge loss even if you’ve reached the limit of the Heavenly Soul Realm.”
“Who knows if we don’t give it a try?” Lin Yun smiled.
“Those in the top 3,000 on the empyrean ranking are in the quasi-Elysium Core Realm. They can easily kill lesser Elysium Core Realm experts. You’ve never experienced it, so you have no idea what the ranking means…” Jiang Lichen sneered.
Everyone else also maintained their silence and didn’t refute Jiang Lichen’s words. But Ye Ziling glared at him and said coldly, “Let’s just do our best so we don’t have any regrets.”
There was a huge plaza located at the center of the Profound Azure City that was filled with people. When Lin Yun’s group arrived, they saw many cultivators from the Profound Azure Prefecture. After all, the ranking battle was considered a huge event. But Lin Yun had just participated in the Sword Assembly, so he wasn’t affected by the number of people in the plaza.
“All the forces in the Profound Azure Prefecture will participate in the ranking battle. After all, if they could perform well in the ranking battle, they would be able to attract the attention of the six forces in the Profound Azure Prefecture. Aside from the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect, Suspend King Palace, Azure Thunder Monastery, and the Thousand Pavilion Crane, the Heavenly Astral Pavilion and Crimson Moon Elysium have also come… they’re all here for the Sword Saint Mountain.”
The group walked towards the seats meant for the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect while Ye Ziling explained the rules of the ranking battle. Truth be told, the effects weren’t huge even if they managed to obtain the rights to the Sword Saint Mountain through the battle.
When one year was up, Lin Yun would leave the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sutra and Fleeting Cloud 13 Swords in the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect. So even without the Sword Saint Mountain, it was just a matter of time for them to rise again.
Right at this moment, the other groups also arrived with Chu Tianhao taking the lead. He led his group, the Azure Thunder Monastery, and the Thousand Crane Pavilion.
Lin Yun had seen Chu Tianhao before, but Chu Tianhao didn’t leave much of an impression on him. Now that he looked at Chu Tianhao again, he saw an ethereal temperament that was a lot stronger than when they met in the Heavenly Astra Pavilion. Is it because of the Suspend King Art?
“That’s Chu Tianhao, ranked first in the Profound Azure Prefecture among the younger generation. The other two are the Azure Thunder Monastery’s Xuan Feng and Thousand Crane Pavilion’s Shen Dongliu. None of them are pushovers, and they’ve prepared for this ranking battle for a long time,” whispered Ye Ziling.
Although Lin Yun was calm, he didn’t look down on them even if he had defeated geniuses like Gongsun Yan back in the Sword Assembly. After all, they had restricted their cultivation in the Heavenly Soul Realm. If they didn’t have any restrictions on their cultivation, he wouldn’t even be able to take an attack from Gongsun Yan.
But now that he had reached the Galaxy Stage, he had a better chance.
Lin Yun quickly retracted his gaze because Chu Tianhao was a formidable opponent. Perhaps this ranking battle might be able to bring him some surprises.
Chu Tianhao also swept his gaze at Lin Yun and frowned, “Who is he?”
“Lin Yun, the newly emerged genius of the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect.” Xuan Feng instantly recognized Lin Yun.
“So it’s him. No wonder he looks so extraordinary.” Chu Tianhao squinted his eyes with a smile. After all, he has been hearing a lot about Lin Yun recently and there were rumors that Lin Yun had reached the limit of the Heavenly Soul Realm. But regardless if it was true or not, it wouldn’t matter to him.
After all, Lin Yun’s foundation was too shallow. No matter how heaven-defying the limit of the Heavenly Soul Realm was, it wouldn’t be able to make up for the difference in their cultivation, not to mention that he also had trump cards.
“His potential is scary, but we don’t have to worry about him during the ranking battle. Our opponent is that person,” said Shen Dongliu. Chu Tianhao wore a grave expression looking at the participant from the Crimson Moon Elysium.
There were rumors in the past that the Crimson Moon Elysium was hiding a genius. But that person was shrouded in mystery and no one had personally seen him before.
So even someone like Chu Tianhao didn’t act brazenly. It wasn’t easy to meet such a formidable opponent when he was about to leave the Profound Azure Prefecture.
“Who’s that?” Lin Yun saw a familiar person, the plump middle-aged man from the Heavenly Astral Pavilion, and a youth sitting beside him. The youth looked ordinary, but Lin Yun could sense that this person was even stronger than Chu Tianhao.
“That’s someone the Heavenly Astral Pavilion invited. His name is Zhang He. I heard that he’s here for Flower Burial, and he’s certain that Flower Burial is with us.” Ye Ziling said before she wore a mocking smile, “If Fower Burial was really with us, we wouldn’t even have to worry about this ranking battle.”
Lin Yun looked at Ye Ziling and could sense the desolation in her eyes when she mentioned Flower Burial. Ever since they returned from the Profound Wither Sea, Flower Burial had never shown up. It made her feel terrible. She even began to wonder if Flower Burial was avoiding her on purpose.
“Speaking of which, do you still have the jade flute with you?” Ye Ziling suddenly asked.
Looking at the expectation in her eyes, Lin Yun hesitated briefly before he replied, “I’ve already returned it to him.”
He wasn’t exactly lying to her because the jade flute was, indeed, in the hands of Flower Burial.
“I see…” The light in Ye Ziling’s eyes dimmed down.
Looking at her, Lin Yun had no idea what he said wrong. But as the two of them chatted, they didn’t realize that the youth beside the plump middle-aged man’s gaze was on Lin Yun.