Chapter Forty-Six: What the Hell Is This?

“Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for instilling fear in a cultivator. You have gained one hundred reputation points.”
“Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for instilling fear in a cultivator. You have gained one hundred and twenty reputation points.”
“Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for instilling fear in a cultivator. You have gained eighty reputation points.”
“Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for instilling fear in a cultivator. You have gained one hundred reputation points.”
“Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for instilling fear in a cultivator. You have gained one hundred and forty reputation points.”
...
Chen Xiang watched the cultivators scatter in all directions, a faint smile playing about his lips. Run? From the moment you followed me here, your fate was sealed!
“No need to rush off. At the very least, let my Slayer Sword reach its maximum stack!” Chen Xiang laughed, his feet bursting forth with the power of Three Thousand Thunderclaps, darting instantaneously among the cultivators.
At his words, terror spread across their faces and panic escalated into chaos.
“Run!”
“He’s a demon! We have no hope!”
“He actually has an ability similar to the Blood Serpent Sword!”
Someone had noticed something strange. At first, Chen Xiang hadn’t seemed that powerful, but with every life he took, his strength surged noticeably. So it was inevitable that someone would catch on.
But once those words were out, any last vestige of hope was snuffed out. Some went pale as death, stopped in their tracks, closed their eyes, and stood motionless, as though resigned to their fate.
Even though his secret was out, Chen Xiang remained unfazed. He gripped the Slayer Sword horizontally and, moving with lightning speed, sliced across the throats of several cultivators. Their faces wore only fear, not pain, and they departed this world in peace.
“Ding. Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for killing a Core Formation Perfection cultivator. You have gained fifty thousand experience and a Golden Core.”
“Ding. Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for killing a Nascent Soul Fourth Layer cultivator. You have gained two hundred thousand experience and a low-grade Nascent Soul.”
“Ding. Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for killing a Nascent Soul Third Layer cultivator. You have gained two hundred thousand experience and a low-grade Nascent Soul.”
“Ding. Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for killing a Nascent Soul Fifth Layer cultivator. You have gained two hundred thousand experience and a low-grade Nascent Soul.”
“Ding. Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for killing a Nascent Soul Second Layer cultivator. You have gained two hundred thousand experience and a low-grade Nascent Soul.”
...
“Ding. The ‘Mystic Sword’ has successfully stacked its special effect to seven layers. Current special effect: twenty stacks!”
“Ding. Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang, for fully stacking the ‘Mystic Sword’ effect. Host automatically gains twenty percent attack speed.”

“Ding. Congratulations to the host, Chen Xiang. Cultivation has reached the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. To break through, you must endure the Triple Nine Heavenly Tribulation. Excess experience will be stored in the experience pool!”
...
Chen Xiang was momentarily stunned. He actually had to face tribulation to break through the Nascent Soul stage? Was he really about to experience something so epic? He wasn’t ready!
But his hands didn’t stop; he immediately charged at the remaining cultivators.
At that moment, however, the energies of heaven and earth surged violently. The sky changed color, darkening rapidly, and even the ground trembled, as if shivering in fear.
A roar, somewhere between a dragon’s cry and a wild beast’s howl, reverberated through the world!
Cracks split the glacial ground, spreading rapidly.
“Damn it! My Ice Crystal Grass!” Chen Xiang exclaimed in alarm as he saw the fissures radiate from the very patch of ice crystal where the grass grew.
He hadn’t yet had a chance to harvest the Ice Crystal Grass—it was still clustered around the ice crystal. That was worth thousands of reputation points!
Abandoning the remaining cultivators, Chen Xiang flashed to the ice crystal with Three Thousand Thunderclaps.
“System, harvest the Ice Crystal Grass! Now!” he barked.
“Ding. Five stalks of Ice Crystal Grass detected. Spend two hundred and fifty reputation points to harvest?”
If the system had a physical form, Chen Xiang would have dragged it out and beaten it senseless. Why did it charge reputation points for everything?
He felt an overwhelming aura of poverty envelop him.
“Hell, after this is over, I’ve got to earn more reputation points. I’ll set a small goal first—make a few billion!” he muttered to himself.
“Fine! Take your two hundred and fifty!” Chen Xiang said quickly.
“Ding. Harvest successful. Due to the host’s frequent, excessive spending in this system, you receive a 0.996 discount. Two hundred and forty-nine reputation points deducted!”
“Damn it!” Chen Xiang cursed, convinced the system was just messing with him.
At that moment, the ice crystal exploded. He reacted swiftly, dodging away just in time.
After the explosion, a surge of energy comparable to when he merged with the Crystal Flame poured into the world, and a blinding light radiated from the shattered ice crystal, forcing everyone to avert their eyes.
A roar, clearer and more piercing than before, echoed through the air.

Soon, the light began to fade. A crisp, commanding voice rang out:
“You lowly humans! How dare you disturb my rest! Even if that man returns, I will not spare you lightly!”
The voice carried such oppressive power that even Chen Xiang felt uncomfortable and had to summon his own aura to withstand it.
The other cultivators stood rooted in despair, unable to move.
“It’s over. One demon wasn’t enough, and now we’ve provoked some unknown being. Today is the day I die.”
“Fellow Daoist, shall we die together?”
“Together!”
...
Li Qin’er was also shaken. The pressure nearly overwhelmed her, and after hearing the two roars, her expression changed as if she had suddenly remembered something, but she was powerless to act.
“Hmph, what kind of hero hides behind light, playing tricks and putting on airs? Come out and face me if you dare!” Chen Xiang sneered.
He deliberately taunted the being with the most provocative line from martial arts dramas, wanting to see what it really was.
The system couldn’t detect it, and it had nearly destroyed his Ice Crystal Grass. He was more than a little annoyed.
The mysterious creature bristled at Chen Xiang’s words, its clear voice roaring, “How dare you, lowly human! Even if that man returns, he cannot save you now!”
Instantly, the radiance around the being vanished, revealing its true form.
Chen Xiang, upon seeing it, recoiled in horror, his finger trembling as he pointed and stammered incredulously,
“It’s a... a Seven-Colored Pipishan!”
The creature was about two meters long, slender and serpentine, with a long, rounded head and a narrow, pointed tail. Its upper jaw was slightly protruding, the lips thick and prominent. It was completely scaleless, its body shining with all the colors of the rainbow. Most striking of all, its brow bore a bold golden ‘King’ character, as if painted with a heavy brush.
It wasn’t just Chen Xiang who was shocked—Li Qin’er and the surviving cultivators were equally dumbfounded.
One thought echoed through all their minds: What the hell is this thing?
The Divine Beast Seven-Colored Pipishan was bewildered to hear Chen Xiang’s words, but quickly masked its confusion with anger and bellowed, “What did you just call me, boy? I am the offspring of the White Tiger and the Sea-Departing Flood Dragon, not some Seven-Colored Pipishan!”
“To be continued...”