CHAPTER 554: CHAPTER 437: GREAT FIVE ELEMENTS EXTINCTION DIVINE SABER

The Five Elements Sect’s grand tournament was scheduled at the base of Blazing Fire Peak.

Blazing Fire Peak is a natural volcano, the entire mountain a fiery red, resembling a massive glowing coal. Its surface is riddled with hundreds of giant holes, with a complex internal structure.

Ever since the Flame Sect took over this volcano, leveraging the power of the Earth Fire within, they have eradicated demons and ghouls over thousands of miles and established a firm foothold.

Over the centuries, the other divisions of the Five Elements Sect—Thick Earth, Celestial Water, Cyan Wood, and Sharp Metal—have all gradually declined, leaving only Flame in a dominant position.

Now, every thirty years, the grand tournament is hosted by the Flame Sect.

The other four sects have also tacitly accepted the Flame Sect’s position as Alliance Leader.

Zhou Huang stood atop Blazing Fire Peak; from there, he could also see the competition platform at the mountain’s base.

At this time, a crowd had already gathered around the platform. These people wore Daoist Robes of different colors—blue, black, white—each standing in separate groups, clearly distinct from one another.

The disciples of the Flame Sect, in red Daoist Robes, busily rushed back and forth around the platform, yet had little interaction with members of the other sects.

Zhou Huang’s face was expressionless, but in his heart, he felt a bit uneasy.

He was the Sect Leader of the Flame Sect and the only Golden Core in the Five Elements Sect. Originally ambitious with a desire to unify the five sects.

However, two hundred years had passed, and his plans were repeatedly thwarted.

Moreover, there was a lot of internal dissent. Within the Flame Sect, there was disdain for the other four sects. It was thought that unification would mean sharing resources with the other sects, which would inevitably dilute the Flame Sect’s resources.

Now, with the Five Elements Sect’s divisions growing alienated, they viewed each other as enemies. Even if forced to unite, it’d still be a messy pile of scattered sand at best.

Without external forces intervening, this pile of sand would first collapse into chaos on its own.

Zhou Huang was no longer interested in uniting the Five Elements Sect. Now, he just hoped the Flame Sect would quickly produce a genius, someone to succeed him.

Golden Cores generally live around six hundred years; he was already over four hundred. A little over a hundred years remained, which is but a blink for a Cultivator.

The Five Elements Sect’s tournament every thirty years is fiercely competitive, sometimes even deadly. It’s an excellent touchstone to test the quality of the talented disciples within the sects.

As Zhou Huang stood quietly with his hands behind his back atop Blazing Fire Peak, Zhou Ye approached him respectfully, saying, "Master, the time for the tournament is approaching."

Zhou Huang replied, "No rush."

His gaze swept below, and suddenly he noticed a young lad wearing a Profound Yellow Daoist Robe, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Though distant, Zhou Huang discerned that the youth radiated an inner brilliance, with Primordial Qi flowing like water and circulating like pearls. Remarkably, he was already at Foundation Establishment Cultivation.

The Profound Yellow Daoist Robe he wore was heavily restricted with profound spirituality, refined to an extremely deep level.

Outside the Profound Yellow Daoist Robe, the youth wore a layer of gauzy robe like mist or light, with flowing clear light adding agility to the original weighty robe.

Looking again at the youth, his sharp eyebrows raised, eyes like stars. Standing there, his demeanor was pure and bright, radiant like the moon, carefree like the breeze.

Such elegance and demeanor surpassed everyone present. Even the sects’ Foundation Establishment experts paled compared to him.

Zhou Huang, throughout his life, had encountered countless talents and outstanding figures, yet the youth before him effortlessly overshadowed them all.

As for the celestial white tiger beside the young man, the lively and spirited girl, and the Foundation Establishment level dog demon, they seemed insignificant.

Zhou Huang contemplated and asked, "This young man must be Gao Xuan, right?"

With his vision, recognizing the Nine Peaks Magic Robe was obvious, confirming Gao Xuan’s identity.

Zhou Ye took a few steps forward and glanced downward. From this position, he could only see faint clouds, spotting the platform through gaps in the clouds.

Beyond that, nothing else was visible.

Zhou Huang knew the abilities of his disciple, so he casually drew a Water Mirror, which displayed Gao Xuan’s figure.

"Indeed, it’s Gao Xuan. This person possesses high elegance and refined Daoist Skills, truly a genius. It’s just that sometimes his words can be a bit sharp..."

After being saved by Gao Xuan, Zhou Ye’s opinion of him greatly changed positively. In front of his master, Zhou Huang, Zhou Ye spoke favorably of Gao Xuan.

Zhou Huang nodded: "I hadn’t expected that despite Thick Earth’s decline, they would find such a remarkable disciple. If he can cultivate peacefully, he might eventually advance to Golden Core, allowing Thick Earth a chance to flourish."

As a Golden Core Powerhouse, Zhou Huang’s insight and perspective were naturally different.

Although he couldn’t unify the Five Elements Sect, he still hoped for its legacy to continue.

After all, the Secret Techniques of the sects within the Five Elements were complementary. If an unparalleled genius could cross-train all five, perhaps they’d forge the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Saber that once dominated Penglai Province.

Zhou Huang’s aspiration to unite the Five Elements Sect was driven by such a fantasy.

Gather all the sect’s Secret Techniques and compile the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Saber, positioned to own the entire Penglai Province.

Zhou Huang knew that no matter how good an idea was, it was just that—an idea. He had collected Secret Techniques from other sects and tried to cultivate them, with very poor results.

Not to mention cross-training in Five Elements, just the Celestial Water Sect’s Secret Techniques were difficult for him to grasp. Merging water and fire sounded easy, but proved immensely difficult.

Only combining water and fire was so challenging, let alone the mutual reinforcement and counteraction of the five elements, which was thousands of times more complex.

Certain of his incapacity after one attempt, Zhou Huang knew he could never reverse-engineer the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Saber with his talent.

Seeing the young extraordinary Gao Xuan, his extinguished ambition rekindled. Perhaps only Gao Xuan possessed this talent!

Yet, it remained just a fleeting thought.

Gao Xuan being the Sect Leader of Thick Earth, would never join the Flame Sect. Even if he wished to, the other members of the Flame Sect would not agree.

For an outsider to become the Sect Leader of the Flame Sect would cause turmoil throughout the sect.

If Gao Xuan was not of the Flame Sect and mastered the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Saber, it would bring no benefit to them!

Although Zhou Huang admired talent, he couldn’t allow such a situation to occur.

Of course, this was merely a casual thought, not taken seriously.

The so-called Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Saber likely was just an exaggerated legend from the ancestors.

If there really were such a heaven-defying divine technique, how could the Five Elements Sect have fallen to this point?

Zhou Huang flicked his sleeve, "Let’s go down."

A sudden burst of scarlet flame light emerged from Zhou Huang’s body, enveloping Zhou Ye as well.

The scarlet flame light looked fierce but was as gentle as water, and Zhou Ye felt a sudden brightness before his eyes. By the time he regained his senses, they were already on the platform at the foot of the mountain.

Instantly completing a space transformation, mastering the Flame Meteor Escape Technique to this level is truly extraordinary.

Zhou Ye once again marveled at his master’s powerful abilities and developed a genuine admiration for this strength.

The crowd around the platform saw the flame light flash, and with Zhou Huang’s arrival, many were witnessing such magic for the first time and were greatly astonished.

Experts from sects like Celestial Water Sect and Cyan Wood Sect all secretly curled their lips.

As the sole Golden Core True Master of the Five Elements Sect, everyone knew Zhou Huang was formidable. Was there really a need for such a display?

Though dissatisfied in their hearts, no one showed it on their faces. Not to mention, nobody could afford to offend a Golden Core True Master.

Zhou Huang didn’t care what these people thought. He laughed heartily, "Today marks another grand competition of the Five Elements Sect held every thirty years, with experts from various sects gathering. Such a lively scene truly fills me with emotion..."

As the host of the Five Elements Sect’s grand competition, Zhou Huang naturally had to say a few words.

Zhou Huang reflected on the past, looked forward to the future, and expressed expectations for the many younger generations.

Finally, Zhou Huang announced the rules of the competition: discussions on techniques and skills, and stopping once the point is made.

According to Gao Xuan’s understanding, friendship comes first, competition second.

Of course, that’s clearly impossible. This is not a friendly match where everyone can just play around. Even in friendly matches, people often end up fighting fiercely.

Let alone this is a grand sect competition, where the loser has to hand over magical artifacts, elixirs, and spirit stones.

Simply put, losing one match costs ten thousand spirit stones. Without spirit stones, one has to offer magical artifacts and elixirs as compensation.

If not for Gao Xuan’s arrival, just those Thick Earth Sect siblings would lose everything including their underwear.

As of now, Gao Xuan couldn’t claim total victory, but winning a few tens of thousands of spirit stones should be easy.

Zhou Huang’s speech was rather brief, and he finished quickly. He also appointed a water elder from Celestial Water Sect as the referee.

The referee was not allowed to interfere in the battles, as their role was only to announce the results of the matches.

The grand sect competition is no child’s play. Both sides naturally go all out. Either one is beaten into losing fighting capability, or voluntarily admits defeat. These are the only two ways to end a battle.

Once Zhou Huang stepped off the stage, Bai Songyun glanced at Gao Xuan from afar, his eyes revealing a chilling intent to kill.

However, as the respectable Sect Leader of Cyan Wood Sect and a renowned expert within the Five Elements Sect, he couldn’t just challenge Gao Xuan right away, for the sake of face.

According to the rules, Zhou Ye from Flame Sect took the stage first, and Celestial Water Sect also sent out a peer disciple.

This female disciple was dressed in a black Daoist robe, her appearance dignified and beautiful. Holding a duster in her hand, she exhibited a certain ethereal charm of a cultivator.

Yuanbao pointed thoughtfully from below, "She’s really pretty."

She emphasized again, "I think she’s prettier than Jiang Lan."

Gao Xuan patted Yuanbao’s head, "Stop pining over Jiang Lan all the time. Pay attention to others’ techniques. Learn from them..."

The female disciple named Shui Qingbo was filled with the essence of water through her name. She was also the most outstanding disciple of this generation from Celestial Water Sect.

Being the first match, Shui Qingbo aimed for a sure victory in her appearance.

Zhou Ye, being Zhou Huang’s youngest disciple and having reached Qi Cultivation Perfection, naturally possessed great skill. He displayed various fire element magics, igniting a sky full of flames on the platform.

Shui Qingbo then summoned clusters of water light, firmly protecting herself, aiming not for achievement but for stability.

The daoist skills of Celestial Water Sect were the most lingering and agile. Zhou Ye knew that at this rate of consumption, he would surely lose, so he sought to quickly break through the opponent’s defenses.

With fiery flames on one side and the soft jade water on the other, their mana mutually restrained each other, making the fight quite spectacular.

Both sides remained quite restrained, demonstrating their magic with elegance, appearing with the demeanor of accomplished cultivators.

Gao Xuan lost interest after just a couple of glances, as their cultivation levels were too low, and their understanding of daoist skills too shallow.

The most uninteresting part was that both of them were posturing, making it seem like a performance match.

Of course, this was just Gao Xuan’s take. Yuanbao was watching with bright eyes, extremely excited and tense, occasionally exclaiming...

Most of the other disciples of the Five Elements Sect felt the same way. To them, this was already a top-tier magical duel.

The two engaged in battle for nearly a stick of incense’s time, then Zhou Ye, due to a moment of distraction, was struck by the ice needle hidden within Shui Qingbo’s Jade Water Whip, and was immediately frozen into an ice sculpture. Although he quickly used a fire technique to release himself from the ice, the Jade Water Whip was already wrapped around his neck.

With a face flushed red, Zhou Ye had no choice but to concede defeat with cupped hands.

The first match concluded just like that. Everyone below applauded and cheered. In their eyes, both sides showed strong abilities, and the fight was thrilling.

Even some experts nodded frequently, acknowledging that the talents and abilities shown by Shui Qingbo and Zhou Ye were nothing to be underestimated.

Given time, both would surely achieve something.

Gao Xuan shook his head quietly, thinking that with the insight and wisdom of these people present, the decline of the Five Elements Sect was no wonder.

With Celestial Water Sect victorious, according to the rules, it was Thick Earth Sect’s turn. Of course, Celestial Water Sect could switch participants.

But Shui Qingbo publicly took an elixir and cupped her hands towards Gao Xuan and Yuanbao, "Please, fellow participants from Thick Earth Sect, share your guidance."

Everyone turned their eyes to Gao Xuan. This young man had an extraordinary presence, his White Tiger mount was impressive, but who knew what skills he had!

Bai Songyun looked on coldly, wanting to see this lad’s abilities. He couldn’t see through Gao Xuan’s actual state but could sense the refined primordial qi fluctuations of the Nine Peaks Magic Robe. Though he wanted to kill Gao Xuan, he wouldn’t be excessively careless.

Even Zhou Huang, watching with great interest, was curious about just how formidable this young Foundation Establishment cultivator could be?