Chapter 663 — Contesting Wits Across the Void

The Divine Son Chiming sighed again. "How can there be such a troublesome figure? Could he be Emperor Yanfeng in the guise of an envoy... no, that cannot be. He has no emperor's qi, and his realm is not high..."

Chixi said hurriedly, "Emperor Yanfeng is already a god. This servant has seen him; he cannot be Emperor Yanfeng. Divine Son, this man is called Shen Mu. Is he truly so hard to deal with? He has never learned the divine arts of my Chiming era. Even if he cultivates the three heads and six arms, he cannot bring forth the matching divine arts."

The Divine Son Chiming nodded slightly and smiled. "I understand that well enough. It is only that his aptitude and comprehension set my heart pounding. Someone there — keep watching the envoys of Jingping. Report their every movement to me, leaving out nothing!"

Several deities bowed at once and vanished.

Bangong Cuo, exhausted until he coughed blood, collapsed to the ground once more, wretched beyond words.

The voice of the Divine Son Chiming came down to him: "Chixi, take your disciple away and let him recover properly. Come again in ten days."

Bangong Cuo twitched twice on the ground.

Before long the Divine Son Chiming received word: "The envoys of Jingping have gone to a private school and are studying alongside a pack of unruly children. The teacher does not know what to do, and asks the Divine Son whether they should be driven out?"

The Divine Son Chiming was taken aback. He shook his head. "Emperor Yanfeng granted us territory, and granted us the right to open academies and halls of learning. I cannot be stingier than Emperor Yanfeng. Let him be."

Four more days passed, and a deity came to report: "The envoys of Jingping studied for four days and then stopped going to school."

The Divine Son Chiming said, "Keep watching. See what he is actually after."

Two days later the deity reported: "The envoys of Jingping visited the palace of the execution supervisor and called on Bangong Cuo, bringing wound medicine. Bangong Cuo did not dare take it; after he left, Bangong Cuo poured it into the ditch."

The Divine Son Chiming frowned. "What is the sense of that? Keep watching!"

"Divine Son, the envoys of Jingping molested a common woman, and were soundly beaten by the Princess of Jingping. It has caused an uproar — the people are brawling in the streets!"

The Divine Son Chiming's expression shifted slightly. He barked, "Go at once and see how the fighting goes! Remember, keep your eyes fixed on the envoys of Jingping and watch what they do!"

A moment later the deity reported: "Several hundred practitioners of the divine arts are trading blows in the streets, in utter chaos. The envoys of Jingping and the Princess of Jingping are standing to one side, watching."

The Divine Son Chiming's face changed greatly. "It is done. He has done it..."

The deity was baffled.

The Divine Son Chiming paced back and forth. "His going to the private school was in fact to learn the basic combat arts of my Chiming. Sword moves — fourteen basic sword forms; saber moves — seventeen basic saber forms; fist arts, body arts, eye arts, finger arts — all the same! In four days he learned the basic stances and art-moves in that school! Once the basics are grasped, all transformations are derived from them. But he still needed to see how far my Chiming's divine arts have come. And to see my Chiming's divine arts, there is no better way than to provoke a brawl. Several hundred practitioners fighting in the streets, every kind of art on display, and he watches from the side. Heh heh..."

He laughed aloud, but there was no mirth on his face.

The Divine Son Chiming paused, then said, "Wait a few more days. When Bangong Cuo next fights my Chiming practitioners, summon him. I want to see for myself just what this envoy of Jingping is capable of!"

Four days later Bangong Cuo was again invited into the imperial city, and the Divine Son Chiming said, "This time, little friend Bangong Cuo, please seal your divine treasury and fight a practitioner of the Seven Stars Realm and the Heaven-and-Man Realm."

Bangong Cuo understood him at once and said, ashamed, "Divine Son, I think there is no need to compete at all. At the same realm, even if the Divine Son's disciples surpass me by far, they cannot beat that man."

The Divine Son Chiming was taken aback. He smiled. "Little friend, why such words of gloom?"

Bangong Cuo shook his head. "The Divine Son's disciples are every one of them brave and skilled in battle, no weaker than I, and with the Divine Son's guidance they have advanced with fierce vigor these thirty days; many of them can already defeat me. But set against that fellow surnamed Shen, they are still far, far behind."

The Divine Son Chiming listened quietly. Bangong Cuo said from the heart, "I have fought him for more than a day or two. Ever since I came out of the mountains I have fought him. At first we were well matched; later, when my realm stood higher than his, I could not take a single move of his. And now I can stand against any practitioner of the divine arts in Chiming, even disciples taught by the Divine Son himself. Yet if I were made to face him, I would not dare. If the Divine Son wishes his disciples to surpass him, it will be a thousand times, ten thousand times difficult."

The Divine Son Chiming looked around. Several thousand practitioners of the Xuankong Realm were all watching Bangong Cuo. Clearly, a few words from Bangong Cuo had conjured in these practitioners the illusion that Shen Mu was invincible.

That was very bad.

Bangong Cuo said gravely, "If anyone here can defeat me while a realm below me, then he may have a chance of standing against that man."

The Divine Son Chiming frowned. Bangong Cuo opened his mouth but could make no sound; he was startled, knowing that the Divine Son Chiming had silenced him, and he thought, "I have said as much as I can. Whether you believe it is your affair. You think you are kicking a hard stone, never guessing that you are kicking Mount Sumeru!"

A certain schadenfreude rose in him: "Seeking confidence from me — you fools, you have no idea what kind of monster you are about to face!"

The Divine Son Chiming's face broke into a smile. "Since that is so, then let the envoy of Jingping come up."

"Summon the envoy of Jingping to an audience—"