The Avalon Of Five Elements

The darkness of night engulfed the earth. On this dark night, the moonlight was barely visible.

Hua Kui glanced at the tightly-shut door of the courtyard. This action was rather eye-catching.

A lofty-looking guy that wore a golden mask on his face sneered at Hua Kui. "It appears that our little friend has no intention of coming out. Hua Kui, I heard that you’re his guide? Your foresight doesn’t seem too good."

Before Hua Kui could reply, a guy who was seated beside him and drinking alcohol alone chuckled. "Prince has rather good foresight. I heard that the young fellow you brought in had attracted some enemies, causing you to flee for 4,000 miles? Both of you are evenly matched, so the two of you can have a good talk with each other."

Hua Kui fiddled with a piece of a leaf from the potted plant beside his feet and replied, "Cabinet, we are still better than you. Until now, you haven’t even brought in a single person. If you don’t bring in fresh blood within the next five years, you will be expelled from the Grass Hall."

The guy who was drinking was called Jiu Gui [1]. Those who were familiar with him called him Cabinet.

Prince felt a sense of schadenfreude and chirped in, "I didn’t expect the cabinet to still be empty. No wonder you’re jealous of us. You can’t even have a good conversation with us about this topic."

Jiu Gui downed his drink in one gulp and changed the topic. "What do you think the relationship is between Karakorum and the Grass Hall?"

A solemn look immediately appeared on Hua Kui’s face. "Cabinet, just keep on drinking your alcohol and don’t ask any questions that we are not supposed to ask."

"Hua Kui, you’re being too prudent. There’s no harm in talking about it. Even though the Grass Hall provides a lot of rewards, we are still doing a job. This time around, the situation is rather dire, and the enemies we are expecting will not be ordinary individuals."

The leaf that Hua Kui was fiddling with trembled. Annoyed, he replied, "Prince, you and your inauspicious mouth."

Jiu Gui chirped in as well, "Sigh, if you have told me earlier that Prince was coming, I definitely would not have come. You’re truly deserving of the name ‘Inauspicious Prince.’ Anyway, how’re the preparations going on Xiao Shuren’s side?"

"The preparations have been made." Hua Kui nodded his head.

Upon hearing these words, the other two immediately felt relieved. Hua Kui might look imposing, powerful, and reliable, but in reality, he could be rather careless at times.

"I can’t wait for our little friend to take action." Jiu Gui shook his head and shot a seemingly drunken look at a distant part of the sky.

Hua Kui and Prince stood up at the same time.

A few shadows flew across the sky above Little Night Town, overlooking the brightly-lit town beneath them.

"How is it possible that a mere Chu Zhaoyang can frighten them to such a state? A bunch of bums."

The person who had just spoken was standing atop a Fiery Floating Cloud. His face was of two completely contrasting complexion. The charred and dry left side of his face appeared to have previously been burned by fire. His blazing, flickering eyes looked exceptionally bright in the dark night. Beside him, there was a half-a-meter tall, three-legged cauldron with a crow design engraved on it. Dark-red lava slowly churned within the cauldron.

This person was called Fire Crow. No one knew what his real name was. He was infamous and guilty of monstrous crimes. His hands were covered in the blood of numerous lives. Even though he had countless enemies, he still led a carefree life.

Beside him, there was a person that was fully covered by a cloak. He remained silent and flew through the sky like a ghost.

Ye Shuang did not try to conceal his disdain and hatred toward Fire Crow at all. If they were in another place, he would have slaughtered this troublesome fellow. The moment he returned this favor, he would be a free man and owed nothing to nobody.

His weapons were very unique. In each of his hands, he held a golden wheel. In the center of each golden wheel, there was nothing but a handle. The edge of each golden wheel was filled with sharp densely-packed teeth. The dark-red color of the teeth made the golden wheels look as if they feasted on fresh blood.

Fire Crow knew Ye Shuang disliked him, but he did not care at all. He grinned at Ye Shuang. However, when a grin appeared upon that face of his, he looked exceptionally terrifying.

A delicate newbie like Ye Shuang would not survive very long on the battlefield.

There were three people in total, and they were not familiar with each other. They did not have the intention of coordinating with each other either. Fire Crow directly made his stance clear. "Each person takes on one opponent. We will fight them individually."

After finishing his sentence, Fire Crow flew directly downward without even waiting for the other two to reply.

The other two also had no intention of coordinating their offense. They flew toward the Karakorum Sword League separately.

A blazing streak shot down from the sky and flew toward the Karakorum Sword League like a burning meteor.

At that moment, the half-drunk Jiu Gui let out a hiccup and heaved a mouthful of white mist. Like an inflated balloon, the white mist expanded as the wind blew and transformed into a house-sized white cloud in the blink of an eye.

The fast flying blaze shot into the white cloud in a flash. Afterward, the white cloud burst into flames with a loud bang, disintegrating into ashes along with the blaze.

In the sky, Fire Crow’s eyes froze. From the attack of his opponent, Fire Crow could immediately tell whether he was an expert or not. The other party was no pushover.

Fire Crow licked his lips as a tinge of excitement appeared upon his face. He was never scared of his opponents being too powerful. He only feared that they were too weak and posed no challenge to him.

Smacking the cauldron beside him, raging flames surged out of it and shot skyward. The raging flames were dazzling and splendid, illuminating all of Little Night Town and making it look as if it was daytime. The flames also caused Fire Crow’s sinister-looking half-charred face to appear even more terrifying. A grin appeared upon his face.

Three fiery birds flew out of the raging flames in the cauldron. Apparently, they were three crows conjured from fire. Their bodies intertwined as they dived toward the ground.

Mournful screeches engulfed the sky above the Karakorum Sword League in an instant.

Jiu Gui broke into a hearty laugh. "A grape wine so fine that a cup gleams at night. To drink on I’d love, but for the summons to fight!"

Intoxicated, he picked up the wine cup from the table and spilled its contents into the air.

The sparkling and translucent beads of wine rolled in the air. Suddenly, concentrated water elemental energy erupted from Jiu Gui and vaporized the beads of wine into a cloud of mist. Crackling chords of a lute played from the mist. Subsequently, a neigh from a steed rang out, and a mist-formed rider abruptly surged out of the fog.

The horseman raised his sword and charged forward with lightning speed. Eventually, it transformed into a shadowy streak.

Meanwhile, the three screeching flaming crows in the sky suddenly exploded into countless flaming sparks.

A cold glint flashed across Fire Crow’s eyes. He spread open his right palm, and a flaming protective screen appeared before him.

A shadowy streak blurred through the air. The charging horseman hacked his longsword heavily against the blazing fire screen. The anticipated boom from the clash was not produced. The fire screen collapsed swiftly like a piece of soft paper and engulfed the misty horseman.

The horseman only managed to struggle briefly before vanishing into thin air with a pop.

Grave expressions appeared on the faces of Jiu Gui and Fire Crow.

On the other side.

The ghost-like cloaked man had encountered trouble as well.

He stopped in his tracks and looked at the potted plant not far away from him. It was a hibiscus. Even in the dark night, its beauty and brilliance could still involuntarily captivate his attention.

He shifted his gaze and looked around elsewhere.

Potted plants were well spaced out around the courtyard. All of them were placed in noticeable positions. Some were also placed at the corners of the perimeter walls. At a glance, this place looked like a normal courtyard with nothing out of ordinary. This was also why the cloaked man did not care too much about the potted plants.

He was slightly surprised that his opponent would deploy such ordinary-looking potted plants.

However, they were merely potted plants after all. Even if they contained powerful plants, he would not be afraid of them.

He walked directly to the pot of hibiscus and stomped it to smithereens.

He did not encounter any resistance, and the pot of hibiscus had no reaction either.

An ordinary potted plant? The cloaked man became vigilant all of a sudden. On a battlefield, the more harmless and ordinary a deployment looked, the more dangerous it was.

Eh?

Suddenly, his pupils contracted. He did not know when, but the crushed hibiscus had taken root on the ground. Right now, the hibiscus was glistening and alluring. There was not the slightest bit of dirt or mud on it. Its previously crushed stems and leaves had completely recovered.

Something strange was going on!

He felt that his control over the surrounding elemental energy was gradually declining.

Had he been isolated from the elemental energy in the environment?

Then, he saw a tall and sturdy man standing 30 meters away from him. Like an experienced gardener, the man was pruning the potted plants around him.

The cloaked man strode toward the burly man.

As long as he could kill this man, these potted plants would be ineffective against him.

The potted plants around Hua Kui were arranged in an irregular arrangement that had a charming effect. If Ai Hui was to witness this sight, he would be dumbstruck. He would not have expected Hua Kui to hide his killing intent within these pruned potted plants.

The battle between Ye Shuang and Prince was much more intense.

Both of them were metal elementalists.

Ye Shuang’s golden wheels were like two dazzling golden dragons, surging and whizzing through the air to display their impressive might. The dragon roar that the golden wheels produced contained a secret art. This roar was able to numb the blood in one’s body, causing his or her elemental energy lose control.

Prince wore a golden mask on his face. His hands wielded a great sword forged from pure gold, which had a length that was about equal to his height. He had no swordsmanship to speak of, as he was just purely hacking and slashing at his enemy.

With an incredibly fast speed, each hack was heavier than the previous one.

Every hack released a streak of brilliant golden light. Since his hacking speed was too fast, before the previous streak of golden light could disappear, the next streak of golden light had already formed. This caused streaks of golden light to accumulate. Eventually, his entire body was shrouded in surging golden light, resembling a gigantic golden-glowing hurricane.

This golden-glowing hurricane unreasonably blasted at Ye Shuang.

Ye Shuang’s golden dragons collided with the golden-glowing hurricane and let out waves of dragon roars, but the dragons could not stop the hurricane which was becoming increasingly thick.

Not a single tinge of panic could be found on Ye Shuang’s face. He did not look like a rookie at all.

At this point in time, all of the Karakorum Sword League teachers were startled by the ongoing battles. When everyone saw the intensity of the battles and how the battles were surging with violent elemental energy, their facial expressions changed drastically. The fighting capabilities of the teachers were not worth mentioning in such battles.

"Quickly run!"

It was not known who shouted these words. Everyone looked as if they had woken up from a dream and started to hastily run away from the ongoing battles.

In an exquisite courtyard.

A beautiful woman gazed at a streak of blazing flames that soared through the sky. The sound of intense battles fell incessantly on her ears. Surging elemental energy waves in the air sent a cold shiver down her spine.

"These people are here to abduct me?" Xiao Shuren asked softly.

The Karakorum Savant did not look at her. She sat cross-legged on the ground with her sword placed before her. She replied coldly, "That’s right. Dai Gang wants your ancient treasure, and a lot of people are willing to risk their lives for him."

"Treasuring a jade ring becomes a crime for even an innocent man. This saying is spot-on." Xiao Shuren laughed bitterly.

"What you want, what you get," Karakorum remained unmoved.

Xiao Shuren regained her composure and replied, "Pardon me, but haven’t you always wanted the ancient treasure?"

To Xiao Shuren’s surprise, the Karakorum Savant shook her head and replied, "I don’t want it anymore."

"Are you afraid of Dai Gang?" Xiao Shuren stared at the Karakorum Savant.

"Yes, I’m afraid," the Karakorum Savant replied.

Her face was still covered by a veil. Even though her features were masked, one could see the unwavering calmness within her eyes.

Xiao Shuren lowered her head and looked slightly downcast. After a while, she raised her head as she returned to her senses.

The Karakorum Savant nodded her head in silence. Xiao Shuren might appear weak and delicate, but her will and determination far surpassed those of many men. She was truly a woman that had managed an enterprise for many years.

Xiao Shuren suddenly asked, "Where’s Chu Zhaoyang? I heard he’s here. I am very happy that I can meet an old friend here. I’m the one who was in the wrong during our previous encounter, and I feel really guilty. If I get to meet Mr. Chu, I have to apologize and compensate him.

"You better know your place. Since I don’t want the ancient treasure, my sword will not hesitate to slay you," the Karakorum Savant said coldly.

Xiao Shuren was not afraid of this threat, smiling gracefully. "If I die, the ancient treasure will definitely be in the hands of the Savant. Clearly, the Savant can’t bear to kill me. Eh? Given such a huge ruckus, why hasn’t Mr. Chu appeared yet?"

The Karakorum Savant did not bother with Xiao Shuren. Instead, her gaze shifted to the courtyard where Chu Zhaoyang resided, feeling slightly puzzled.

Note:

[1] Jiu Gui is liquor cabinet in Chinese.