Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

A laughing Chu Yang asked imposingly, “What if I were to really betray all of you someday? And kill all of you?”

“Boss, you’ve miscalculated your move.” Gu Duxing sighed. “You shouldn’t have told us. Now that you have, how are you going to betray us in the future… At best, when you betray us, we’ll pretend that we don’t know.”

“Hahaha… Alright, when Boss wants to betray us, you can let us know in advance and we’ll stir up our emotions and pretend not to know.” Everyone burst into laughter. A warm feeling of everyone having found their bosom buddies permeated the atmosphere.

Even Mo Tianji was laughing.

He knew that Chu Yang’s words right now sounded like superfluous rubbish to the brothers! But these superfluous rubbish had to be said.

After entering the Upper Three Heavens in the future, as the level of difficulty increased, the number of secrets they would come into contact with would also increase. When that happened, the story of what had happened between the Nine Tribulations Sword Master and the Nine Tribulations in the past would inevitably be revealed.

Chu Yang’s words were nothing but superfluous rubbish now; but when the brothers themselves found out, at that point, it wouldn’t be something as simple as just superfluous rubbish.

At the very least, they would definitely feel complex in their hearts!

Even though Chu Yang’s honesty seemed very silly and naive and unnecessary now, it completely eradicated the biggest possible cause of disagreement among the brothers in the future!

Seems like Chu Yang is thinking even further ahead than me…

“Boss, now that you’ve told us the good stuff as well as the bad stuff, surely you should go on to business?” asked Mo Tianji.

“Of course.” Chu Yang laughed aloud.

Then, he asked, “Have you all seen enough yet? If so, I’m going to put the Nine Tribulations Sword away.”

“No!” All six of them replied in unison, “Even looking at it for another ten thousand years wouldn’t be enough!”

“I’m going to put it away even if you haven’t seen enough.” Chu Yang snorted. With a wave, the Nine Tribulations Sword automatically flew into the air. Shining in the light, it seemed to be bidding farewell to everyone. Then, it slowly shrank in the air before turning into a stream of light and entering Chu Yang’s chest.

Everyone expressed their wonder yet again.

Luo Kedi came up to him and started to touch Chu Yang’s left side of the chest, giving sounds of wonder incessantly. “It really went in… My god!” Suddenly, he let out a cry of surprise!

Everyone got a shock. “What’s wrong?”

Narrowing his eyes, Luo Kedi lightly rubbed his palm against Chu Yang’s chest. “Boss’ chest is really well-built…”

“Pffft…” Just as Mo Tianji had finally calmed down enough to take a sip of tea, this line of Luo Kedi’s made him spit out the tea at once. He coughed non-stop as he choked on the tea.

Peals of laughter shook the heavens!

“Little Wolf, is the reason why you haven’t taken a wife all this time because you’re interested in men?” asked Ji Mo in a strange tone of voice.

Chu Yang smacked Luo Kedi’s hand away loudly and said furiously, “I’ve only seen you being a punk with women, but now you’re actually eyeing men as well? This is seriously intolerable!”

Luo Kedi’s jaw dropped. “I’m innocent… I just touched you a little…”

“Hahaha…”

The laughter continued for a while and the atmosphere became relaxed. Chu Yang then smiled and said, “Right now, even the weakest among us is already a ninth-grade Martial Saint. Duxing is even a first-grade Sword Supremacy now! It can be said that given our age and cultivation, we would no doubt be considered amazing talents even among the Nine Super Clans in the Upper Three Heavens!”

“We certainly have the right to be proud!”

“With this level of skill and us brothers united as one, we can rule the world in the Upper Three Heavens.”

“The moment Boss gives the order, we can charge up and rip the Nine Super Clans apart!”

Smiling lightly, Chu Yang then asked, “Is that what all of you are thinking?”

Everyone was rather embarrassed.

Coughing, Ji Mo and Luo Kedi turned away, their faces red. Ao Xieyun and Xie Danqiong let out a few awkward coughs; there was a tinge of redness even on Gu Duxing’s face.

Everyone had initially thought that Chu Yang’s speech earlier was a kind of acknowledgment, so they listened to him in high spirits. Only when he reached the end did they realize that they were mistaken.

They all became rather embarrassed.

But Chu Yang had indeed accurately revealed everyone’s mindset — An exponential increase in cultivation, young and talented, Supreme Martial Artist martial domain level… How many people were like that in this world? Their self-confidence naturally shot through the roof.

His eyebrows raised, Mo Tianji watched the pathetic reactions of these few fellows with great interest.

“I’m not saying that all of you are wrong in thinking so. Of course, if someone over a hundred years-old were to think like that, that would make him senile. But all of you are young, so all of you deserve to be proud of yourselves.” Chu Yang continued passively, “But what I want to say is that your level of skill is really far, far from enough!”

This time around, other than Mo Tianji, even Gu Duxing had an expression of indignation.

“There’s no need to be indignant.” Chu Yang went on, “I’ve just killed the Eldest Young Master of the Lan Clan in the Lower Three Heavens. At twenty-eight years old, he was an eighth-grade apex-level Martial Saint! Perhaps all of you would think that there’s nothing impressive about a twenty-eight years old eighth-grade Martial Saint. All of you are younger and stronger than him! But do not forget that he’s from the youngest generation in the Lan Clan! Above him are people who have lived for hundreds of years, thousands of years, or even… close to ten thousand years!”

“And what do you think their cultivation levels are like?” asked Chu Yang to the faces of everyone.

“For serious?” exclaimed a shocked Ao Xieyun.

Chu Yang nodded. “All of you are first-grade Supreme Martial Artists; you are already considered the most powerful amongst your respective clans. However, the Lan Clan’s Eldest Young Master, Lan Ruo, is far from being ranked near the top amongst the Lan Clan experts!”

“From what I know, on the surface among the Nine Super Clans, every clan has one ninth-grade apex-level Supreme Martial Artist. As for ninth-grade elementary-level or mid-level Supreme Martial Artists… they have two to three. Eighth-grade Supreme Martial Artists, five to six; seventh-grade Supreme Martial Artists, more than ten; sixth-grade Supreme Martial Artists, tens of them; and below sixth-grade, there are at least 300!”

“And this is just the strength they have on the surface!” said Chu Yang solemnly.

Everyone was pale from shock.

Ji Mo was dumbstruck. “So… So many?”

“As for what they have in the dark, 5,000 years and 10,000 years ago respectively, the Dharma Supreme has instructed the Nine Super Clans to prepare covert troops to stand against the Nine Tribulations Sword Master! Therefore, every clan secretly has at least a similar number of experts.”

“Just the Nine Super Clans alone and we’ll already have to face at least 5,000-odd Supreme Martial Artists!”

“There are only seven to eight of us here.”

Chu Yang smiled dispassionately.

The atmosphere turned silent and heavy at once.

Even Mo Tianji did not expect such overwhelming power and such a great disparity in numbers. Before Chu Yang had said all these, he had already done his best to overestimate the Nine Super Clans. Yet the actual numbers were at least fifty times more than what he had estimated!

“Oh, by the way, the second grandmasters of the Nine Super Clans are all dead but the founders of the Nine Super Clans, meaning the first-generation ancestors and sons of the previous generation of the Nine Tribulations, are still alive! Every one of them basically has over 9,000 years’ worth of cultivation.”

Chu Yang supplemented.

Everyone’s expressions contorted in response.

“Oh, and I still haven’t mentioned our biggest enemy.” Chu Yang said leisurely, “Also known as the ones who are truly in control of the Nine Heavens right now and the strongest and biggest force throughout the Upper Three Heavens — The law-enforcement officers!”

Mo Tianji’s countenance turned especially somber!

“The number of experts amongst the law-enforcement officers is definitely not comparable to the combined total of the Nine Super Clans. However, they are absolutely comparable to the equivalent of two or three clans joining hands. The quality of their experts is even higher than the Nine Super Clans… The Nine Super Clans only have ten thousand years of foundation but the law-enforcement officers have been around for tens of thousands of years!”

Chu Yang suddenly paused when he said that.

Because he had just thought of something incredibly frightening — If even the Nine Super Clans could possess ninth-grade apex-level experts after ten thousand years, then just how many such experts did the law-enforcement officers have after the last tens of thousands of years? Were these experts still in the Nine Heavens continent? Were they still alive? If so, just how high were their levels of cultivation?

He thought of what Zi Xieqing had said —’I have exchanged moves with more than ten experts of the Nine Heavens during all these years. Moon Breeze ranks among the top ten.’

But before Zi Xieqing had said that, she had neither fought Ning Tianya and Bu Liuqing before, nor faced the Dharma Supreme nor Wu Juecheng… In that case, out of the top ten super experts in Zi Xieqing’s evaluation… Who were the other eight? Even if two of them were Chen Feng and Liu Yun… There were still six others?

Where were they?

And these were just the ones whom Zi Xieqing had exchanged moves with before. How many others were there whom she had not exchanged moves with before? She had only said ‘top ten’ but how many others were there outside of the top ten?

And within them, how many were law-enforcement officers?

Mo Tianji’s expression had become incredibly somber.

He was wondering to what extent would his schemes and intelligence be of use against such experts?

At the end of the speech, the hearts of all seven brothers were heavy.

Ji Mo and the rest who were originally brimming with confidence and elated with their success were like bubbles that had been burst by a needle. They instantly let out all the air within and deflated.

They had thought that they could also count as impressive figures now but it seemed like they were still nothing but nobodies…

“Therefore, if we want to overturn the Nine Heavens, we will have to experience an endless slew of bloody battles and go through a tremendous amount of training at the edge of life and death!” said Mo Tianji, his voice relaxed and high-spirited. “However, although Boss describes our enemies to be strong and powerful, I feel nothing but excitement.”

Smiling, Mo Tianji continued, “If just blowing some air is enough to unite the Nine Heavens, how meaningless would that be? The harder it is, the more interesting it is! Only when our enemies are experts can we improve ourselves step by step and go higher and faster under their training!”

There was a somewhat cocky smile on Mo Tianji’s face. “These enemies are nothing but our pieces of whetstone! For us to stand at the absolute pinnacle, we must first step on stepping stones and then make use of whetstones to advance step by step!”

Ji Mo chuckled. “I’m just afraid that the whetstones would be too hard and end up breaking the blades.”

Mo Tianji gave him an unrestrained smile. “If the blade breaks, then it only goes to show that it is not strong enough. If it breaks, so be it. Since it is not strong enough, it is only a matter of time before it breaks. But as long as it doesn’t break, it’ll be able to render these Nine Heavens into two with just one strike!”

With a light-hearted smile on his face, a shiny glow appeared in Mo Tianji’s eyes. Word by word, he said, “The whetstones in the heavens await my blade; the sharpened blade shines and enters the skies with high spirits!”

Mo Tianji had never spoken this cockily before!

In this instant, not only was he cocky, but he was also domineering, unbridled and full of arrogance!

But it was precisely this air of cockiness and arrogance and that tone and expression that dismissed everyone in the world which made everyone’s eyes slowly brighten.

The heavens await my blade!