Chương 344: First death

About a dozen youths floated around three round pills, staring at each other with wariness and greed. They had all come to a temporary halt after regaining their senses. None of them was a fool, and neither did any of them desire to become a stepping stone for others. The three pills would never go round, no matter what they all did. It was likely that the majority of them would end up with nothing. Slight hesitation began to appear in some of their eyes.

After they controlled their greed, they immediately realized this. They would end up half dead and have nothing to do with the true essence pills. Weighing the situation now, it just wasn't worth it. The first person to give up was a rather young man, probably between seventeen and eighteen years of age. His young age coupled with his peak Imperial realm cultivation showed that he was a talent himself. And true to that, his talent was tested to be a peak mortal grade talent.

That talent was already among the highest in the outer peak. Even some of the top ten outer peak disciples only had such level of talent. It was practically assured that he would become a deity, unless he ran into some misfortune. All he needed was time to accumulate enough foundation. Considering that, there was really nothing bad in sitting this fight out. Instead of risking his life and acquiring nothing, he would rather give up the true essence pill and go for something more… practical.

He slowly moved back, leaving the encirclement and making his intent to withdraw clear to all. When he saw that there was no reaction, his heart burst with excitement. His gaze gingerly paused on the floating dagger, the mortal grade armament. That was much more practical for someone like him in all honesty. He would become a deity sooner or later even without the help of a true essence pill. But right now, getting this mortal grade armament would make him invisible among peak Imperials.

Who knows, he might even change his mind and seize one of the true essence pills by then. Nurturing this thought in his heart, he calmly retreated till he was some distance away from the group of youths, then he smiled gleefully and rushed towards the gleaming dagger. All the youths had paid attention to him from the moment he gave up on the true essence pills. Their perceptions were practically glued to him even though no one looked at him.

The instant he rushed towards the dagger, they all immediately guessed what must be on his mind. He wasn't the only person who birthed such thoughts in his mind after considering the current situation. The true essence pills would be incomparably hard for many of the disciples to get. In comparison, the mortal grade dagger appeared to be a much more likely target, especially now that everyone was focused on the pills. Unfortunately, the youth acted first.

As he sped towards the floating dagger with a gleeful smile, the expressions of some disciples changed. Several of them barely hesitated before they have up on the true essence pills and rushed after the youth, aiming to fight for the dagger. In an instant, about half of the youths surrounding the true essence pills left, drastically reducing the competition. But even though the disciples had reacted only a few seconds later and rushed after the youth to stop him, they were still too late.

Considering that their speeds were all roughly the same, catching up to him and stopping him before he grabbed the dagger would be an impossible feat. The youth could sense the auras pressing towards him from behind, and his smile widened as he felt excited. With the distance between them, he was confident that no one could stop him. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

When he grabbed the dagger, then at least one of the three true essence pills would belong to him. With the power of the mortal grade armament, that wouldn't be hard. His heart shone with excitement as he approached the dagger and extended his arm. While he looked careless, he was actually fully on guard. His perception was extended to the limit and he carefully sensed the flow of energy around him. If anything seemed off, he would immediately fall back and retreat.

He sensed no danger even when his hand was merely inches away from the dagger's handle. His pupils reflected the subtle luster surrounding the dagger and everything else vanished from his sights. Everyone became tense as the youth was about to grab the dagger. They were all just realizing that the dagger was the most practical treasure here from the very beginning. Having it would grant a person the power to grab any other treasure here that they desired. Of course, the backlash would be severe as well.

Long Feng's brows were furrowed as his hand silently reached out and grabbed his sword sheath by his waist. To him, the pills were far less interesting than the dagger. If he wasn't a full sword user, he would've also tried to get the dagger. The pills were just not as tempting. As stated earlier, even without the pills, ninety percent of the outer peak disciples could all become deities, but many of them would require years to achieve it.

Right as the youth's fingers lightly touched the dagger, a change suddenly happened. The dark runes on the dagger's blade all lit up and a vast cloud of pure essence energy burst out of the dagger, emanating a shocking piercing aura. The dagger then vanished briefly and reappeared tens of meters away. The runes had lost their glow and the powerful burst of essence energy was gone. The dagger looked extremely ordinary as before, but if one paid close attention, one would notice something.

A thin tinge of red spread along the blade. It was very faint and no one even noticed it. Everywhere was calm again. Everyone had been shaken by the burst of essence energy for a moment and they all began to exchange caution glances. As for the youth who was previously about to grab the dagger, he froze in the air with his facial muscles twisting. His pupils shrank to needlepoint and his lips quivered as he stared ahead blankly.

He slowly brought his arm up to his neck and gently touched his skin, only to feel a bit of liquid flowing. He tried to speak, but his throat instantly burst out with blood, dyeing his skin and robes crimson. With despair and regret filling his heart, his eyes slowly lost all light and his body plummeted from the sky. As dozens of shocked eyes watched, his body finally crashed into the ground and formed a small crater.

When the dust cleared, all that was left of him in the crater was pieces of bones, flesh and spattered blood everywhere. Forget a peak Imperial, even a deity would die if they fell from that height without any protection around their body. His death was felt like a bucket of icy cold water poured on the heads of all the youths present. Other than shock, they also felt slight fear. That fear was magnified in the hearts of the disciples who were also chasing for the dagger.

Their hearts were literally in their mouths. If it was any of them who happened to move first instead of that youth, then they would most likely die even if they had three lives. This was also the first confirmed death in the serene heaven mystic realm, and it is was a rather brutal death. Gazes that alternated between the floating dagger and the gore filled crater on the ground were filled with extreme caution and fear.

Long Feng's furrowed brows relaxed and he released his grip around his sword sheath with a sigh.

"I got worked up for nothing. How can a mortal grade armament be so easy to subdue?" A mortal grade armament has surpassed normal classifications of weapons. Even the best Imperial armament would be nothing but a piece of rock to a mortal grade armament. And judging from the earlier burst of essence energy, this dagger was at least a mid mortal grade armament. That was usually wielded by late stage deities and even peak deities.

As for why mortal grade armaments were so powerful, it was because the method of crafting them was extremely special. The rocks or metals used to craft a mortal grade armament must meet certain requirements, though the requirements may vary based on the type of weapon and it's grade. The flame used to smelt and forge the weapon also had a bare minimum. Even flames had different rankings, and the normal flames used in forging imperial armaments were nothing compared to a master blacksmith's flames.

Those alone still wouldn't be enough. There were several more strict requirements to be met before even the lowest grade mortal armament would be forged. But without exception, all mortal grade armaments were extremely powerful, mostly because they contained essence of their own. While that essence was weaker than a deity's true essence, it was still far above imperial spirit energy.

That meant even without someone controlling it, a mortal grade armament could still kill several peak Imperials on it's own before it exhausted it's reserve of essence. If a peak Imperial realm warrior happened to control a mortal grade armament and fought with it, they would essentially be utilizing the essence stored within the weapon to fight, not their own imperial spirit energy. One could imagine what would happen if such a person was fighting peak Imperials. It would be a bloodbath.

Several minutes of silence followed after the death of the youth and many greedy eyes subtly began to turn to the single treasure that was almost assured to have no risk or danger at all. The jade that contained an unknown technique, either a Dao skill or a manual. If it was powerful enough, then it's value could easily surpass both the true essence pills and the dagger combined. Take for example, if it was a mid mortal grade Dao skill or cultivation manual.

It's value would generally be slightly higher than the dagger even though they were the same rank, because a weapon would be considered as external strengths sometimes, but a manual or skill was always part of a person's strength after it was comprehended. And if it was a high mortal grade Dao skill, then it's power would be roughly equal to the heaven firmament skill, which was extremely powerful. It was also the safest choice right now.

Many disciples were beginning to consider taking the jade and escaping, completely giving up the pills and the dagger. Long Feng calmly assessed the situation and took a deep breath.

"I can make a move right now…" His eyes were locked onto the three true essence pills. All the disciples were currently hesitating, trying to make the best choice. This made their focus to slacken slightly. Long Feng roughly calculated that if he was to use the second firmament step to grab one of the true essence pills and run, he would have about thirty percent chance of success. That was already extremely high. But he wasn't very satisfied with just thirty percent.

Failure was the most likely scenario if he took the risk.

"And if whoever is hiding in the shadows decide to interfere, then my chances will drop to zero instantly. I should wait for now." He decided. He was probably the only one here who could sense the presence of a powerful person observing them all from the shadows. He didn't know who it was or what their purpose was, but if Long Feng had to make a guess, then it was probably one of the top ten disciples.

It couldn't be Bai Zijun because Long Feng couldn't sense that person paying attention to him even once, not to mention focussing on him. If it was Bai Zijun, then Long Feng would sense even the slightest killing intent directed towards himself. Besides, with Bai Zijun's temper, it was not possible that he would wait so patiently after spotting Long Feng. It was more likely that he would attack instantly and try to kill him.

Since it couldn't be Bai Zijun, then Long Feng wasn't in danger as long as he didn't make any foolish moves. And untill he could confirm what that person hidden wanted, he wouldn't try to take any of the treasures here.