Chapter 2202 - Seven

 Chapter 2202, Seven

The ship descended to Azure Sun Temple’s Main Peak, Myriad Saints Peak, causing a tremendous gust as it approached.

Below were Temple Master Wen Zi Shan, Vice Temple Master Qiu Ran, Elder Chen Qian, and the other senior leaders who were waiting with serious expressions.

Before the ship landed, several Emperor Realm Divine Senses scanned the ship, and the Masters present instantly gained a precise understanding of how many disciples had been lost on this trip.

Although a few elite disciples had been lost, luckily, the ones they placed the greatest expectations upon had all safely returned, so everyone couldn’t help heaving sighs of relief as their serious expressions became slightly less tense.

The ship landed moments later.

All the disciples leapt down while Gao Xue Ting waved her hand and stowed away the ship.

“Hahaha, Little Xue Ting, I really missed you after not seeing you for so many days! Here, give Uncle a hug!” Wen Zi Shan laughed loudly while opening up his arms as he took large steps towards Gao Xue Ting.

*Shing…*

Sword Qi flashed as killing intent erupted.

Wen Zi Shan broke out into a cold sweat as he stopped a meter in front of Gao Xue Ting, a cherry blossom longsword pressed against his neck while Gao Xue Ting wore an icy expression. Gripping her sword tightly, she coldly snapped, “I’ll kill you if you dare to take one more step forward!”

Wen Zi Shan didn’t dare to move…

“Sigh.” Qiu Ran held his forehead and sighed with a helpless expression. “Temple Master, please behave with some dignity!”

“It was just a joke…” Wen Zi Shan chuckled before jumping back and landing at his original position. The next moment, his expression turned serious as he stated, “In any case… this Temple Master congratulates everyone for returning safely, all of you are future pillars of our noble temple. All of you have worked hard to pass this trial.”

The disciples didn’t say anything as they simply watched him in silence. Gao Xue Ting also slowly put away her sword.

“This Temple Master shall remember all of your accomplishments and your fellow Brothers and Sisters deaths shall also not be in vain. Now… those among you who received extra Star Seals, come with this Temple Master. The others are dismissed.”

“Yes!” At his command, everyone responded in a loud voice.

There were almost twenty disciples gathered, but most dispersed at this point, leaving only four behind.

Yang Kai turned around and saw that apart from himself, only Xiao Bai Yi, Murong Xiao Xiao, and another Second-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator youth, whose name he didn’t know, remained.

Although this cultivator was also a disciple of Azure Sun Temple, and had entered the Four Seasons Realm, Yang Kai had barely interacted with this youth, so he knew nothing about him.

Still, when judging the youth’s aura and disposition, he didn’t seem like someone that was difficult to get along with.

“Where’s that little brat Xia Sheng?” Moments later, Wen Zi Shan turned to Gao Xue Ting and asked curiously as he was surprised to not see Xia Sheng here. With a slightly dark expression, Wen Zi Shan began to worry if something had happened to Xia Sheng in the Four Seasons Realm.

Even Qiu Ran thought the same thing and his face couldn’t help going white as he exclaimed, “Elder Gao, could it be that Xia Sheng…”

Gao Xue Ting replied calmly, “No, he’ll be here soon!”

As she spoke, a figure flew over from the horizon, shouting all the way, “Wait for me!”

Moments later, Xia Sheng landed in front of everyone as he looked towards Gao Xue Ting with a face full of complaints, shouting out pitifully, “Elder Gao, next time you should notify this disciple before you make a move… this disciple wasn’t mentally prepared!”

“Little brat, just what did you do!?” Wen Zi Shan reached out and knocked Xia Sheng’s head, causing Xia Sheng’s neck to shrink.

“Temple Master, what are you doing!?” Xia Sheng felt really aggrieved as he held his head.

Wen Zi Shan coldly snorted, “It’s obvious to see that you made Elder Gao angry, is this Temple Master not allowed to teach you a lesson?”

Xia Sheng blinked as his expression became speechless…

“Alright, since you’re here, then all of you should follow this Temple Master.” Wen Zi Shan also glanced at Yang Kai as he spoke. “You come as well!”

A short time later, all the higher-ups of Azure Sun Temple arrived at the large main hall on Myriad Saints Peak, with the disciples and Yang Kai standing in the centre of the floor.

Wen Zi Shan sat on his seat above and glanced down as he spoke, “Elder Gao, you were the leader of the team that went to the Four Seasons Realm this time, so you should understand the situation in detail. Please tell us how many Star Seals each of these people obtained.”

Upon hearing this, Gao Xue Ting answered calmly, “Although I didn’t compare with the other Sects, judging from the number of Star Seals that these disciples obtained, their harvest should have been pretty good.”

After saying this, she turned her pretty face and added, “Xia Sheng obtained four Star Seals, Xiao Bai Yi obtained two, Murong Xiao Xiao two, and Chen Mu Ji got two…”

After hearing this, Yang Kai finally learned that the Second-Order Dao Source Realm youth’s name was Chen Mu Ji.

Gao Xue Ting paused for a moment here before continuing, “There were three other disciples who obtained one each, but they are not here right now.”

Wen Zi Shan nodded lightly in understanding.

Before heading out on this journey, Azure Sun Temple had announced that any disciple who obtained a Star Seal in the Four Seasons Realm would obtain the right to enter the Shattered Star Sea. Thus, the three disciples who obtained one Star Seal apiece had all kept their Star Seals without needing to hand them over.

Those who had come here were the ones who had obtained extra Star Seals.

“What about this little brat?” Wen Zi Shan glanced at Yang Kai.

“He…” Gao Xue Ting’s expression became slightly complex, remaining silent for a time before she finally muttered, “He obtained seven!”

“What?”

“Did I hear incorrectly?”

“That many?”

The higher-ups were all Emperor Realm Masters with extraordinary mental discipline; however, they still couldn’t hide their astonishment when they heard that Yang Kai actually obtained seven Star Seals all by himself. They all glanced at him inquisitively with looks of astonishment, as if they were reassessing him.

The temple’s top disciple, Xia Sheng, had only obtained four, even with his powerful Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation. On the other hand, Yang Kai only had First-Order cultivation, so how had he obtained seven?

[Isn’t this brat’s luck a little too outrageous?] Everyone was thinking this as they secretly felt that Yang Kai must possess Heaven defying luck. If that wasn’t the case, how else could he have obtained so many Star Seals?

Yang Kai remained calm in front of everyone’s eyes.

Seven was indeed the total number of Star Seals that he obtained in the Four Seasons Realm.

The first one was the diamond-shaped Star Seal that he obtained in the Two Seasons Mountain Range. At the time, Wu Chang and the others had been chasing a Monster Beast which had unfortunately run into Yang Kai as it was fleeing and wound up dying at the latter’s hands.

Yang Kai didn’t get any opportunities to receive a Star Seal after that.

Only when he was guarding the Extraordinary Treasure Lotus and killed two cultivators had he obtained two more.

In the end, he made a trade with Wu Chang and obtained four more.

Although luck certainly played a part in being able to obtain so many, strength was also a necessary requirement.

Star Seals weren’t actually that easy to obtain, because there weren’t very many of them, and if it wasn’t for Yang Kai killing two cultivators and making a trade with Wu Chang, perhaps when the Four Seasons Realm closed, he would have only obtained the first one he got by luck.

“There were some reasons involved that I will explain to you afterwards; however, he indeed obtained seven Star Seals by himself!” Gao Xue Ting spoke up. The reason she spoke of was naturally about the Extraordinary Treasure Pill.

Wen Zi Shan nodded lightly and made a sound of affirmation before a smile covered his face as he stated, “Very good, in that case, nineteen people from the temple can enter the Shattered Star Sea when it opens. That’s wonderful news.”

If the trial in the Four Seasons Realm was considered a small event at the level of simple life experience, then the Shattered Star Sea was a place where one could seek enlightenment of their own Martial Dao. Such a place wasn’t one where anyone could just enter.

First, a Star Seal was required as an entry ticket. Second, one would have to possess the strength necessary to pass through the entrance of the Shattered Star Sea. Both were necessary in order to go through.

In other words, even if someone possessed a Star Seal, they would still be unable to enter the Shattered Star Sea unless they were strong enough.

Azure Sun Temple had nineteen quotas for entering, but it was unknown how many could actually enter in the end.

Still, this amount was much larger than that of most other Sects and great forces.

Wen Zi Shan was naturally overjoyed.

“This is a sign of great fortune for our temple!” Qiu Ran uttered happily, stroking his snow-white beard in happiness and satisfaction.

“Let’s not waste time. Little Qian, gather their extra Star Seals.” Wen Zi Shan gestured with his eyes towards Chen Qian.

Chen Qian nodded and got up. With a wave of her hand, an artifact that resembled an incense burner appeared in her grip. It was unknown what this artifact was ordinarily used for, but it seemed to be of decent grade. Various runes appeared on the incense burner artifact’s surface, making it seem rather mysterious.

Slowly, she walked over to the waiting disciples, then starting with Chen Mu Ji, she said in a gentle tone, “Just relax!”

“Yes!” Chen Mu Ji answered and took a deep breath, causing his expression to immediately become calm.

Seeing that he was prepared, Chen Qian held the incense burner with one hand and made a seal with her other hand before poking several points on Chen Mu Ji’s arm.

Chen Mu Ji suddenly retreated a few steps with a muffled cough, his expression turning a little pale, as if his foundation had suffered some damage.

At the same time, a beam of light suddenly shot out from his body.

Chen Qian was quite swift and accurate in her movements as she waved towards the beam of light. An invisible force immediately bound the beam of light and dragged it into the incense burner.

Yang Kai was quite astonished as he watched.

Back in the Four Seasons Realm, when he was trading with Wu Chang, the latter had used a Secret Technique to force out the extra Star Seals from himself so that Yang Kai could obtain them. But now, it seemed that apart from that method, it was also possible to retrieve Star Seals from another as well.

After realizing this, Yang Kai felt that he needed to be more careful when travelling the Star Boundary in the future; otherwise, someone with ulterior motives might target his Star Seals and bring more trouble upon him.

After that, Chen Qian did the same to extract the extra star seals from Xia Sheng, Murong Xiao Xiao, and Xiao Bai Yi.

Yang Kai witnessed quite clearly that no matter the cultivation or strength of the person, they all seemed to take some damage after having the Star Seal stripped from their body. Even Xia Sheng couldn’t help shaking a bit as his face went slightly pale.

It seemed that this forceful extraction method had its disadvantages.

It didn’t take long for Chen Qian to move in front of Yang Kai.

This Elder Chen was rather petite, and when she stood in front of Yang Kai, she was actually shorter than him by a head.

She raised her head to glance at Yang Kai as she said in a light tone, “If you’re prepared, I’ll begin.”