The Romantic Cultivator

Chapter 203 Prelude To The Trials Of The Labyrinth (2)

This was the third day ever since the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth had stopped moving and it was hanging over hundreds of mountains like a dark shadow.

Today the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth was being surrounded by a golden animus, an indication that the trials within were finally opened!

From the dozen of settlements below, thousands of cultivators were now gathering to send off their champions as they levitated toward the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth.

The imposing Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth was now hovering high above the tallest mountain peak and the only way to approach the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth was by levitating toward it.

The cultivators could not fly nor could they take their flying mounts to approach the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth because no beasts would be able to approach near without their profound strength being drained off by the massive formations that were presented around the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth.

However now that the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth was being enveloped by a golden animus, the golden celestials would be able to levitate to it just by displaying their profound animus. Even a weak sword cultivator would not find it taxing to display his profound aura as it was a mysterious powerful immortal formation that was actually pulling the cultivators toward the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth and it actually required very little profound strength to maintain the minimum profound aura needed for levitation.

There is another restriction that was the law of the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth; only a golden celestial may enter the trial. Therefore the cultivators have to first attain to the fifth realm level before they could enter inside.

Thousands of golden celestials from the thousands of celestial clans were now slowly levitating toward the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth. Many of them were looking excitingly and for many, this was the first time that they were experiencing 'flight'.

But there were also hundreds of golden celestials that were looking grim; it was because all of them had received a secret mission and that was to kill Ji Yuan inside the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth!

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In the camp of the Spirit Blue Moon Sect, Ji Yuan was now saying farewell to many of his friends and beloveds.

He was now readied to leave for the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth.

However there was a grumble look on his countenance. It was because for the past three days, he did not have the chance to bang his love ones because he had endless visitors from the various celestial clans and these celestials never seem to sleep because they were all golden celestials.

Many of them were doing last minute visits to affirm their alliances with the Spirit Blue Moon Sect and with Ji Yuan.

And one of the visitors was none other than Great Saint Jian Kang, the father of Saintess Jian Yuluo. Naturally, he would not turn him and the others away.

Therefore there was actually three days of feasting as the visitors ballooned to several hundreds. This was the very first time that the orthodox and unorthodox cultivators were able to sit down together as they feasted together.

Ji Yuan was quite startled to see that Great Saint Jian Kang, Saint Jian Lindong, Shen Qin and many others were all beardless all of a sudden.

He was quite speechless. As a matter of fact, even Guo Taiming and Li Ye were all beardless now…

Even Han Yuchi and Zhao Songjin had paid him a visit too. It was because Xue Qianxue had finally decided to accept the Sacred Maiden position.

But Xue Qianxue had a condition first as she said to Han Yuchi and Zhao Songjin. "I want Songjin to be my Right Protector. I wonder if that is beneath you?"

Zhao Songjin was finally smiling again. It was because the Right and Left Protectors of the Sacred Maiden was actually the Sacred Maiden's inner circle and they were there to help her to run the sect. This means that Xue Qianxue was now willing to trust her again.

She wept joyfully. "How will this position be beneath me? I am only too glad to accept it…"

The best news that Ji Yuan had during the feast was the Great Saint Jian Kang proclaiming to everyone. "I am proclaiming that my daughter Yuluo will be betrothed to Ji Yuan today!"

When Ji Yuan had heard the announcement, he was overwhelmed by the news. "Haha! It is my honor..."

Ji Yuan was now looking at Saintess Yuluo, Ling Feiyue, Xue Qianxue, Little Princess, Shangguan Yan, Fairy Ye Chengxi, Ling Tianshui and Bai Qianfeng with a reluctant look.

Ling Tianshui smiled as she announced. "We have fifty golden celestials that will be entering the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth with you. Some of them had already taken flight to the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth. Five of them are replacements as we had lost five golden celestials during the metamorph monster attack."

Then she sighed softly as she looked at Ji Yuan. "The rest of us will be defending this camp and our profound ship as we await your return. Please take good care of yourself while inside."

Ji Yuan inhaled softly as he nodded. "Everyone…please take care and be careful. We will surely return."

All the maidens were looking at him with a reluctant look.

Then he took a look at Little Princess and Bai Qianfeng who would be entering the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth with him. "Hopefully we have a chance to meet inside."

Little Princess and Bai Qianfeng nodded as they said together. "We will."

He turned to look at Xue Qianxue. "Qianxue, when I have returned, I hope to see our child."

Xue Qianxue chuckled, "I hope so too!"

He returned a smile as he sighed. He had never thought that one day he would end up with Xue Qianxue, a most lovely and adorable maiden. She was his fan girl and she had always wanted to meet him. A series of blunders had caused him to run away from her and in the end, he had realized that there was a plot against her and he had decided to look for her to find out more.

Of course, finding her to unravel the plot was secondary. The primary was to look for a beard growing remedy of course. He had never expected that he would end up with Xue Qianxue in the weirdest situation, in a prison with her.

He could not even remember how he could be so bold at that time and he had dared to kiss her. Seeing that she did not protest, he had become bolder and they ended up together...

"My lord!" Ling Feiyue had suddenly flown into his embrace as she kissed him, startling Ji Yuan.

He was even more startled when he noticed that there was a profound pill inside Ling Feiyue's mouth and he was being forced to swallow this profound pill!

He coughed weakly as he stared at Ling Feiyue. "What is that? Is it poison?"

Ling Feiyue giggled softly. "Will you be affected by mere poisons? This is actually the Ambrosia Divine Profound Pill."

All of a sudden Ji Yuan had turned ashen!

It was because he had just swallowed a priceless sixth rank divine pill that could strengthen the cultivator's spiritual sea!

This was actually a gift from Shui Xisi to Ji Yuan when she was pretending to be Envoy Shui Sisi but it was quickly taken away by Ling Feiyue.

Now Ling Feiyue had forced him to swallow it!

This shocked Ji Yuan as he had assumed that Ling Feiyue must have swallowed the Ambrosia Divine Profound Pill already.

He coughed weakly. "This is far too precious! You shouldn't have given it to me. Do you know how priceless this divine pill is?"

But Ling Feiyue chuckled. "But you are my lord. So what is wrong with that?"

One by one, Saintess Yuluo, Fairy Ye Chengxi, Shangguan Yan and Xue Qianxue were slowly giving him recovery profound pills, high grade spirit stones that they had plundered not long ago from the gifts that were presented by Zhao Songjin.

"My lord, these are for you…"

Ji Yuan was really very touched and he did not know what to say. "Everyone…thank you…I love you all..."

Xiang Li muttered in Ji Yuan's soul sea. "I love all of you more..."

Ji Yuan held onto Saintess Yuluo's hands. "Yuxian, please get well soon. I really happy to see you again. I've thought we would never be able to see each other again. I'm really happy, you know? Finally your father has given consent to us and you will finally be my consort now."

Saintess Yuluo nodded and her eyes were brimming with tears, "Ji Yuan, I'm also so glad. Do you know that I have always been waiting for the day that we can finally be together..."

Finally Ling Feiyue sighed softly. "My lord, it is time for you to leave now."

Xue Qianxue nodded. "We will all miss you."

Fairy Ye Chengxi was trembling as she lifted her head to look at Ji Yuan, "My lord. I would like to go with you…"

When Ji Yuan heard her, he interrupted her with his roaring laughter.

Fairy Ye Chengxi said firmly. "I'm a Sword Saintess…"

"You just have your breakthrough and is only a half-step golden supremacy. Without profound energies, you have no profound strength. How do you fight? Stay here and consolidate your vital profound strength first." Ji Yuan said firmly.

In plain language, Fairy Ye Chengxi just had her breakthrough and her spiritual sea had not replenished yet and hence, she would not able to generate her profound strength to her full potential.

With only a limited profound strength, she would be exhausting herself very fast if she were to use her lightless profound skill, profound sword arts and profound defenses at the same time.

No half-step golden celestials would go to the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth because it was plain suicide.

In the past, Ji Yuan was able to kill Elder Hai Sheng, a sixth realm cultivator while he was only a half-step initial saint with the cultivation strength level of a fourth realm cultivator. But that was only because he was precise in his attack but even then he had to increase his cultivation level to the golden celestial level in order to really hurt him.

But then if he focused on the defensive to conserve his profound strength, it was difficult for Elder Hai Sheng to kill him as well; he was after all a saint cultivator with superb recovery rates. Running away was definitely not an issue for him.

"Chengxi…" Ji Yuan sighed softly. "Right now, you are so weak. I doubt that you can even defeat a fourth realm cultivator…"

That was a little too exaggerating. A fourth realm cultivator would not be able to defeat easily a half-step fifth realm golden celestial because a fifth realm golden celestial had superb regeneration, recovery, natural profound defenses and could take alot of punishments. The disparity between a golden celestial and a non-golden celestial is simply too great to overcome.

Fairy Ye Chengxi shook her head. "I have already recovered my vital profound strength to the fifth realm level. Therefore you can say that I am a fifth realm golden celestial with the recovery speed of a sixth realm initial golden supremacy."

Ji Yuan blinked his eyes. Dang! In four months' time, she had regained her vital strength to this level? Is she rich or something?

Fairy Ye Chengxi giggled. "It is all thanks to Jiajia's aid. She is really generous to me with her cultivation resources."

"But anyway, you should stay here. Fifth realm cultivation strength or not, you are not going anywhere. You are going to quietly cultivate your vital profound strength here and no arguing." Ji Yuan insisted firmly.

No matter what, Fairy Ye Chengxi's spiritual sea had not completely replenished yet and it would be too dangerous for her.

He was looking all kinds of excuses to prevent her from entering the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth.

Fairy Ye Chengxi: …

Shangguan Yan sighed. "Although I am a golden celestial now but I am only a useless half-step golden celestial and I can't even go to the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth even if I want to…"

Ji Yuan pulled Shangguan Yan and Fairy Ye Chengxi to him as he sighed softly. "You're my best core protégés. But I can't allow the two of you to risk your lives inside. I really can't bear to. A hundred years ago, I couldn't protect the two of you. Now that the two of you have managed to have a better life now, I hope that the two of you will be able to enjoy it a little longer."

Shangguan Yan and Fairy Ye Chengxi were looking at Ji Yuan with trembling lips. "My lord…please keep your promise to us and return…"

"Yan'Er, Chengxi...I will." Ji Yuan smiled.

Little Princess giggled. "Ji Yuan, you're not leaving yet?"

Ji Yuan had a sheepish look…

"Or are you waiting for someone?" Little Princess said teasingly.

Just as Ji Yuan was about to give an awkward answer back, there was a soft chuckle. "Ji Yuan, you are still around? I've thought that you might be one of the first to enter the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth by now."

It was Jiajia and she had come with Hua Wuwu and Hua Baiyue.

When Ji Yuan saw that it was Jiajia, he was smiling all of a sudden. "Haha. If you are a little slow then I may have already left…"

All the other maidens were rolling their eyes; it was obvious to them that Ji Yuan was hoping that Jiajia would be here to send him off.

Just as Jiajia had walked up to him to greet him, Ji Yuan had suddenly seized her by her waist and he was kissing her lips.

Jiajia quickly pushed him away with a flustered look. "Don't…there are others here."

Ji Yuan laughed and at the same time, he was looking at Hua Wuwu and Hua Baiyue. Unknown to the other maidens, he had actually banged them as well while the others were not looking a couple of days ago.

He was not afraid that he may be found out because this was already an 'open' secret.

Jiajia had actually known about it but she closed her eyes to it and pretended she did not know of Ji Yuan's flirt with her two confidants.

"Jiajia. If I can come back from the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth, will you be my consort?" Ji Yuan chuckled. He was thinking; surely you are not so heartless as to reject my request? I will be very demoralized and this will affect my performances in the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth.

Jiajia rolled her eyes as she thought; when did he become so smart?

She returned a soft chuckle. "Alright then…"

Ji Yuan was really delighted as he swung her around with his strong arms. "Jiajia, I love you! Haha!"

Jiajia panicky said. "Put me down! This is too improper…"

But Ji Yuan did not care as he continued to swing her around for a while before putting her down.

Jiajia sighed as she looked at him. "Hurry and go. It is getting late now."

"Alright." He turned to look at Little Princess and Bai Qianfeng. "Let's go now."

With reluctant look at the rest of the maidens, Ji Yuan sighed heavily as he released his profound aura. Slowly but surely, he was lifted by the profound aura of the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth as he floated into the air.

He was accompanied by Little Princess and Bai Qianfeng.

As he levitated away, his eyes were searching for Sisi. Where is she? I thought that she is entering the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth too? She is so heartless...

Sisi was not heartless. She could not bear to say sad farewells and had already entered the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth by herself.

Jiajia looked up at him as she waved him goodbye; you must return alive. As for me, I don't know if I can see you again. Hopefully I can. My foes are strong and I may not be able to handle them…"

Some days ago, her Sister Sisi had already told her about her encounter with Yin Wei. She could only sigh heavily because even with the involvement of her Sister Sisi, she was still unable to kill Yin Wei, Yin Xiong or the Sagess Mei. The strength of the Evil Cultivation Palace really could not be underestimated.

Her Sister Sisi is also a super exponent in her own right and she is not weaker than herself.

Her only consolation was that Yin Wei was now out of the picture and would not be a threat to her.

Jiajia said silently. "Ji Yuan, I really hope that you are the one that is prophesized by Diviner Mo Ming..."