Chapter 15: Split the Heavens
The seventh prince's miserable howl echoed throughout the literature hall.
Everyone's hearts were jumping wildly. Was Long Chen really planning on rebelling? But what caused everyone to be dumbstruck was that Long Chen's hand had stopped before the seventh prince's face.
The seventh prince had already shut his eyes in fear, but after waiting a while without feeling any pain, he eventually opened them.
He saw that Long Chen was holding a jade tablet and was faintly smiling. Compared to the previous him who seemed like a death god, he was like a completely different person.
"Seventh prince, look closely. This is an alchemist's identification plate. So tell me, would I still need to kneel to you?"
The seventh prince had already been frightened to death, so how could he possibly bother with checking to see if the tablet was counterfeit or not?
"No… there's no need at all for that…" The seventh prince looked at Long Chen in fright.
When he had felt Long Chen's unrestrained killing intent, he had sensed the fear of death. For a spoiled prince like him, the fact that he hadn't wet himself was already a brave point for him.
"Many thanks for understanding, seventh prince."
Long Chen smiled. All you had to do to handle some entitled brats was to scare them a bit. Even with an alchemist tablet, there was no way someone would dare to act like this to an imperial prince. After all, this was the Phoenix Cry imperial capital.
"Let me help you up." Long Chen slowly reached out a hand. The seventh prince had been frightened to the point that he was now sitting on the ground.
Having been frightened like this, he momentarily didn't react before nervously grabbing the extended hand.
After all, he was a royal prince. If Long Chen really did cause the seventh prince to feel angry about him, then that would just be playing into Zhou Yaoyang's hands.
Although Long Chen didn't care about that really, being manipulated by people certainly wasn't a good feeling. Him acting like this now was giving the seventh prince a way out.
The seventh prince was only fifteen, and although he was arrogant, he hadn't experienced much. Now under Long Chen's bad cop good cop actions, he was completely at a loss. After he got up, he didn't know what to say.
"Seventh prince, do you want to sit down with us?" asked Long Chen.
"Ahh, no, that's… no, I have some stuff to do, so I'll go." After saying this, the seventh prince hastily turned and left. But once he walked out of the literature hall, the seventh prince felt that his legs had turned soft.
Now there was a great fear of Long Chen in his heart. That calm death god smile of his had made him sense that his life or death was entirely in Long Chen's hands.
Seeing the seventh prince leave, Long Chen also turned to look back at the group of noble heirs that had previously participated in attacking him.
After seeing him beat Zhou Yaoyang to such a miserable state, they were all terrified and unmoving. Seeing Long Chen turn his gaze to them, their expressions all changed and they retreated.
Long Chen couldn't be bothered to deal with such a group of people. Although they had previously bullied Long Chen, the current him was no longer on the same level as them. And so the bitterness and anger that he felt were also no longer as strong.
He slowly walked up to Zhou Yaoyang whose breath was becoming increasingly shallow. The light in his eyes was fading as if he might die at any moment.
"Long Chen, you shouldn't kill him. Let's send him to the alchemist guild. They should be able to heal him," advised Shi Feng. After all, this place wasn't the martial arena. This was a private fight, and if someone died, Long Chen would be unable to escape punishment.
"Don't worry. Look, his eyebrows are like messy grass, his forehead is practically caved in. A small person like him won't die so easily. His complexion is still rosy, see?" said Long Chen.
Fatty Yu and the others were speechless. Zhou Yaoyang was actually quite a handsome young man, so Long Chen's descriptions were clearly off. Those changes were caused by how heavily Long Chen had thrown him onto the ground.
As for his expression still being rosy? That was due to being choked with his own blood. Yes, it was rosy, but it was actually almost purple. It was completely different from the rosy complexion of someone healthy.
Reaching into his robes, he took out a medicinal pill and placed it into Zhou Yaoyang's mouth.
Slap.
Long Chen slapped Zhou Yaoyang's face twice, forcing the medicinal pill down his throat.
Although Long Chen hated Zhou Yaoyang to the extreme, he still remembered to act properly. It was true that he had heavily injured Zhou Yaoyang, but he definitely wouldn't let him die.
With his personally refined healing medicine, his internal organs would all be protected. As for his outer wounds, well those were the problem of the Zhou family. All Long Chen needed was for him to not die.
"You guys, if you don't want Zhou Yaoyang to die, hurry up and bring him away," coldly said Long Chen to the noble heirs who were just standing there in shock.
Only then did they recover and carefully lift Zhou Yaoyang onto a table and bring him away.
They also conveniently brought along Wang Mang who was unconscious against the wall.
"You, you, and you. Come and clean up the blood on the floor."
Long Chen pointed to several other noble heirs. These people had often mocked Long Chen before, and although Long Chen wasn't planning on attacking them, making them do some work for him also relieved some of his anger.
Those people who were pointed out by Long Chen all shivered uncontrollably. Not daring to make a single sound, they all quickly cleaned up everything diligently. In just a short time, the floor was completely clean and even Wang Mang's teeth were all found.
What was outside Long Chen's expectations was that the old lecturer only came an hour after the cleaning was done.
That lecturer looked at Long Chen in confusion for a moment before starting his lecture.
Long Chen couldn't help but curse. That old bastard was definitely paid off by Zhou Yaoyang! Otherwise, there was no way he'd be so late!
He had originally thought that all scholars were good people inside, but this thinking of his was shattered today. Feeling cheated, the good impression Long Chen had had of the old man was completely lost.
After enduring the boring lecture and eating lunch, they all hurried to the Battle Skill Pavilion.
Fatty Yu and the others didn't go; they were heading home to take the medicine instead. Seeing Long Chen's actions today had shocked them, yet at the same time, it had given them hope for their own futures, so they couldn't wait any longer.
Long Chen perused several Battle Skills but felt they were all inadequate. Ordinary Battle Skills were no longer worthy of Long Chen's attention.
He read through the Battle Skills very quickly, and in just two hours, nine hundred Battle Skills were all browsed through by him without a single one satisfying him.
No wonder they were free to them; they were all trash Battle Skills. Some were fragmentary or overly complicated while also not being very strong. But the second floor of the Battle Skill Pavilion could only be accessed by Blood Condensation experts.
Additional Battle Skills of such low level weren't of much use to Long Chen. For movement, he had the Windchasing Steps, and for battle, he had the Spirit of the Bull. Even the best Battle Skills on this floor weren't much better than them, so learning them would be of minimal use.
Long Chen couldn't help but sigh. He was about to just give up on wasting time here when his gaze suddenly fell on the bottom corner of a bookshelf.
Other bookshelves were all properly aligned so each book had its own space, but here there was a random pile of tomes.
They were also Battle Skills, but some were already torn up and the others were all incomplete. In short, they were trash, but throwing them out would be too much of a waste. Thus, they had just left them in this corner.
A certain page had drawn Long Chen's eye when he had looked at that corner.
That animal hide page was very worn, but with Long Chen's powerful Spiritual Strength, he sensed an extremely ancient aura coming from the page.
He reached out and took the page from the pile of trash. But when he did, his heart trembled. Maybe others didn't know what was so different about this animal hide…
But with his powerful Spiritual Strength, he could clearly sense a terrifying power coming from it!
The marks on the page were already ruined and faded. It had clearly been eroded by countless years of time.
Long Chen guessed that the owner of this animal hide was an extremely terrifying existence. Otherwise, there wouldn't be such a terrifying will left behind after all these years.
It was completely ridiculous that such a terrifying thing had now been thrown with the trash. Long Chen hurriedly started to study it.
All that was on there was a diagram, with the words on the diagram being extremely ancient and blurry. There were three words:
"Split the Heavens."
What an absolutely domineering title for a Battle Skill! That was simply too arrogant, wasn't it?
Long Chen frowned when he looked at the diagram. All he could see was that there were nine dots on it.
Between the nine dots were some indistinct threads, but it was too ancient and he couldn't tell whether it was originally like that or due to the cracks from age.
"Time's up. All nobles heirs must put back their manuals."
A cold voice rang out just at this moment. Everyone couldn't help but sigh; the time had passed too quickly. They were only allowed to come here once a month!
Looking at the ruined page in his hands, Long Chen couldn't bear to part with it. His time was just too precious, and he couldn't wait another month.
Seeing everyone leave, Long Chen slowly started walking with them, but he kept the ruined animal hide in his hands. The Blood Condensation expert's expression turned colder, but Long Chen spoke up before him.
"Senior, I want to bring this destroyed animal hide page back home to study. Also, please accept this."
Not letting him refuse immediately, Long Chen first took out a medicinal pill for him. The Blood Condensation expert was just about to scold him when he realized what the medicinal pill was.
Reaching out to take it, he was astonished to find that it was a Blood Condensing Pill. It was precisely the thing that a Blood Condensation cultivator like him required.
And most importantly, this was a middle grade Blood Condensing Pill! It was tens of times more valuable than ordinary Blood Condensing Pills.
Blood Condensation cultivators needed to borrow the spiritual qi of heaven and earth to improve their blood vessels, allowing their blood and qi to become more domineering and strengthening their physical body.
As for the Blood Condensing Pill, it could increase the efficiency of condensing one's blood several times. Such a pill could save at least half a year's worth of work.
The expert's expression changed in the face of it, and in the end, he was unable to resist the allure of this medicinal pill.
"Remember, I didn't see anything."
How could Long Chen not understand what he was saying? If he was found out, he wouldn't admit to any fault and Long Chen would be accused of stealing.
Long Chen simply accepted this. Only after Long Chen left with the animal hide did the expert carefully examine the Blood Condensing Pill in his hand.
"I really never would have imagined that he had such a treasure. I have to find out more about him." After saying this, the Blood Condensation expert disappeared deeper into the Battle Skill Pavilion.
Long Chen went straight home. Since he dared to take out the Blood Condensing Pill, he was naturally unafraid of any investigation.
The current him needed others to know that he was an alchemist, one close to grandmaster Yun Qi. That would hopefully prevent more troubles.
Using this method, he was telling his unknown enemy that he, Long Chen, was no longer the same person. If they wanted to bring out small fries to deal with him, they'd have to think about the consequences.
As he walked back, Long Chen was continuously contemplating just who was behind the curtains. At some point, he ended up walking into a small alley.
Suddenly, a huge net descended from the sky. Before Long Chen could even react, he was completely enveloped and whisked away.