Stellar Transformations (星辰变) by I Eat Tomatoes (我吃西红柿) UNABRIDGED

[wandering]

B3C11: Explode (2)

The Secret Treasury is secret room which is not very large. On each side of the room there is a counter made of old agarwood. Various treasures have been put carefully on the surfaces of the counters. In the center of the secret room there are a bamboo chair and a natural tea table.

At the front of the room where the floor meets the wall, there is a lighted antique incense burner. A dull-colored smoke is spreading out from the incense burner, giving the whole secret room an atmosphere of Zen.

“Let’s conceal the 1st Trans-Heaven diagram in the crack between the left counter and the wall.” Qin Yu goes to a corner of the room then takes out the precious 1st Trans-Heaven diagram from his bosom and tucks it directly into the crack at this corner.

Qin Yu stands up and nods in satisfaction: “Well, so many years will have already passed until father discovers this Trans-Heaven diagram. He won’t suspect me.” He definitely does not want to let his father know the identity of assassin Liu Xing because in his view it is absolutely not something worth showing off.

After concealing the 1st Trans-Heaven diagram, Qin Yu takes a glance at the treasures on the old-wood counter. He immediately discovers a jade case among them.

“I feel that it’s what I want to find!” Qin Yu opens the lid of the jade case box with a smile. There is only a square jade block appearing before him. The square jade block is engulfed in a soft multicolored light. Judging by appearance alone, there seems to be no difference between it and the 1st block.

Qin Yu takes hold of this Trans-Heaven diagram. There are several words on its surface -- Second Trans-Heaven Diagram.

“It’s the 2nd diagram!” Qin Yu is elated. According to his understanding, the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams are definitely related to each other. Because he has practiced the 1st diagram’s technique, it is best for him to obtain the 2nd diagram next. If this was the 3rd diagram, perhaps Qin Yu would not be able to practice its technique.

As he looks at the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram, his eyes suddenly brighten. He focuses his entire attention on the diagram.

There are 36 pictures.

“Indeed, almost as I expected, there are 36 pictures, only that these pictures are different from those of the 1st diagram.” Thanks to undergoing previous transformations, Qin Yu’s soul has been enhanced a lot and he has even acquired the holy sense.

As soon as his holy sense sweeps across the diagram, he sees everything and easily memorizes everything.

Qin Yu desires these 36 pictures the most. As for the other secrets, he has never thought much about them. Moreover, even if he thought more about them, he would not necessarily obtain them. So far, Qin Yu has always thought that the mysterious technique of the legendary super expert in the War of Immortals is definitely not the pictures on the diagrams’ surfaces.

Anyone with some brains will think so too. If the secret was so simple, in so many years, perhaps it would have already been figured out by someone.

The most important thing is … can body training alone make him as formidable as the legendary mysterious man?

Using his holy sense, Qin Yu examines the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram carefully but finds no other secrets as before. He can only put it back with a smile: “Qin Yu, you’re a big fool. In the past so many Xiuzhenists were able to collect the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams but they couldn’t find out any secrets. What can your puny holy sense possibly discover?”

Having obtained the 36 pictures of the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram Qin Yu is already completely satisfied.

“Ha-ha, I haven’t checked out the other treasures in the Secret Treasury yet.” Qin Yu gives a smile then activates his holy sense and covers the entire Secret Treasury with it. The range of his holy sense is several hundred meters so covering this small secret room is no problem to him.

“Such a big cat’s-eye gem is really attractive. That horsetail whisk seems ordinary …” Qin Yu playfully evaluates. All of a sudden, Qin Yu’s smiling expression freezes.

“Impossible, impossible …” Qin Yu’s holy sense has just discovered a secret and he cannot help getting dumbstruck by it.

He stretches out his hands mechanically and gets the jade case of the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram again. Then … he slightly presses a small device on the side of the jade case. After a series of clack noises, Qin Yu unexpectedly opens another layer of the jade case with ease.

This jade case unexpectedly has 2 layers. Originally Qin Yu only thought that its bottom was rather thick, but it actually has 2 layers. Moreover, incredibily … there is a square jade block in the 2nd layer. That soft multicolored light and that clear writing tell Qin Yu that this square jade block is …

The 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram!!!

“Goodness, how can I possibly be so lucky? This …” At this moment Qin Yu becomes totally excited because he has unexpectedly obtained all the 3 legendary Trans-Heaven diagrams. Of course, he still has no way to solve their mystery. He gets excited only because of those 36 mysterious pictures.

Qin Yu heaves a sigh then thinks emotionally: “What good luck! If I hadn’t used my holy sense to check, I still wouldn’t know there is even a Trans-Heaven diagram in the bottom of this jade case.” The 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram is very similar to the 2 previous diagrams and also has 36 pictures.

Qin Yu immediately starts to learn these pictures by heart.

He does not know at all that, after Qin Shi Huang obtained the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams in the past, even though he could not figure out their secret, he also learned the movements of the pictures like Qin Yu. However, Qin Shi Huang then only found these movements totally useless and naturally abandoned them.

After the destruction of the Qin dynasty, the 1st and 2nd diagrams got lost in the turmoil of war. The only Trans-Heaven diagram left was the 3rd one, which has always been concealed by the Qin clan for the last 1000 years. When Qin De obtained the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram, he naturally put it in the same place as the 3rd diagram.

……

3 days later,

In his own courtyard house, Qin Yu is carefully experiencing the movements of the 36 pictures on the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram. Sometimes his movements are fast and sometimes they are slow. When he is fast, he is much faster than even the fastest movement of the 1st diagram. And when he is slow, he is slower than the 1st diagram’s slowest movement.

However, even when Qin Yu moves slowly, his entire body still creates several illusions, which is very strange.

Other people do not know, but Qin Yu himself knows the cause of this. When practicing this mysterious body-training technique, which for the moment Qin Yu calls the Trans-Heaven Mysterious Art, everything within a 2 to 3 m radius of him will be affected, including the air. Only because the air around his body is distorted can the illusions appear.

Qin Yu’s entire body is being encircled by 36 energy streams as before, only that the color of these energy streams has changed from silver to a mixture of silver and gold. Qin Yu has a feeling that when he completely masters the 36 movements of the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram, the color of the 36 energy streams will probably become pure golden.

“Third Prince, His Highness has finished training and is waiting for you at Mingshan Pavilion.” The voice of a servant comes from the outside of the courtyard house.

As soon as Qin Yu hears that, he stops practicing: “Father has finished training.” He cleans himself up a little with a washcloth then slightly stretches his sluggish waist, causing his entire body to emit a series of clack noises. His vigorous muscle power is moving through his body like mercury.

Thanks to practicing this technique, Qin Yu’s body has been improving rapidly. His strength and speed both have reached a whole new level. If the current Qin Yu had to deal with Zhen Xu, perhaps he would be able to kill the opponent with ease. He moves his facial muscles a bit, smiles, and leaves the courtyard house at once, hurrying to Mingshan Pavilion.

******

Qin De, Xu Yuan, Qin Feng, Qin Zheng, Qin Yu, Manager Ge Min of the princely mansion, the blue-clad old man, the gray-clad old man and Xiuzhenist Fengyuzi, 9 people altogether, are the 9 most superior people on Qin De’s side. Fengyuzi has completely covered Mingshan Pavilion in a mysterious restrictive spell so their voices will not transfer to the outside.

Qin De’s and Fengyuzi’s expressions are very solemn at the moment. Seeing such an atmosphere, Qin Yu has a feeling that the matter in hand seems very serious.

End of b3c11.

[wandering]

B3C12: Explode (3)

Qin De takes a glance at everyone then says: “I have called everybody up so urgently because of a very serious matter. Not even I can say for sure if this matter is good or bad.” Qin De has a hint of a forced smile on his face, as does Fengyuzi beside him.

“Father, what is this matter actually that makes you like this?” asks Qin Zheng immediately. Qin Yu, Qin Feng and the other people also look at Qin De.

Qin De shakes his head and says powerlessly: “I’ve reached the peak of the Xiantian level for just over a year but during the most recent closed-door training session I suddenly had a hunch that … my 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation will come in a half year.”

The 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation!

This is the 1st heavenly tribulation that anyone who wants to become a Xiuzhenist has to go through, which is commonly referred to as the Minor Heavenly Tribulation!

The other people are dumbfounded. Among the super experts who have reached the peak of the Xiantian level, some are afraid of the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, but some others want to undergo this heavenly tribulation to become Xiuzhenists instead. However, it is definitely not so easy to go through the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.

After achieving the completion of the Xiantian level some people waited for several decades to 100 years without seeing any signs of the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, but some others were able to sense when it would arrive upon reaching the peak of the Xiantian level. This is only contigent on a person’s intuitive enlightenment on the Natural Way of Heaven. Who could have thought that Qin De, who has been practicing for just several decades, was actually more formidable than Lian Yan in martial arts and would even be able to sense the arrival of the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation?

But is this a good thing?

The probability that a practitioner will overcome the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, especially when using a practice technique of the Qian Long continent and without the help of a Xiuzhen school, is basically less than 10%. The Qin clan is going to declare war soon, but if Qin De fails to withstand the tribulation and dies, that plan will go to waste.

However, if he can overcome the tribulation, the Qin clan will have one more Xiuzhenist and its power will increase greatly. Too bad, the chance of success is too slim.

“How is this possible? Senior Lian didn’t encounter this 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation for so many years. Your Highness …” Xu Yuan immediately loses his composure. He has been following Qin De for so many years. The 2 of them are a master and a subordinate but there is also the sentiment of brotherhood between them.

This is the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, no less! The chance of overcoming it is too small. Of a Xiuzhenist’s 3 heavenly tribulations, each is more abnormal than the previous.

“Father!” The 3 brothers Qin Yu, Qin Feng and Qin Zheng all look at Qin De anxiously. Because this is the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, there is a possibility that their father will die in a half year. Even though they love their father, they have to admit that this tribulation is too difficult to overcome.

“Yu’er, Feng’er, Zheng’er, each of you is already an adult, and Feng’er and Zheng’er are even 2 older brothers, why are you behaving like this? As a real man, if you can’t run away from the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, you’ll have to try to face it. If you succeed it will be a good thing. But even if you fail it will be no big deal.” Qin De’s mettlesome face looks very thrilled and unconcerned.

“Father, but this 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation …” Qin Yu feels a pain in his heart. Because his Grandpa Lian died not long ago, if his father dies when going through the heavenly tribulation then … Thinking about this, Qin Yu can even feel his heart trembling with fear.

“Yu’er, I know the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation is dangerous. Your grandpa also passed away while undergoing this tribulation. However, no one can run away from it. As a man, I must face it with courage. Even if I were to die, I would still have to try my best,” says Qin De resolutely.

Seeing the look in Qin De’s eyes, Qin Yu has no choice but to nod.

“Today I’ve called up everyone to make arrangements for the future. From now on, Zheng’er will be in charge of every single matter of the Qin clan, whether important or not. This also means that now I’m only responsible for giving directions at the back while Zheng’er is the decision-maker in any matter.” Qin De orders directly.

“Yes, father!” says Qin Zheng in an absolutely unemotional voice.

For the last several years, he has been supervising and deciding ordinary matters. What Qin De just said today has officially given him absolute authority.

Among Qin De’s 3 sons, his eldest Qin Feng is good at commanding soldiers and conducting military activities, his 2nd son Qin Zheng is adept at politics, but his 3rd son Qin Yu is very carefree. At least, Qin De has never restricted Qin Yu’s freedom. Qin Yu has always been able to do whatever he wants.

“Feng’er, you must try hard because, in our Qin clan’s army, your position will totally depend on your military merit.” Qin De says while staring at Qin Feng.

Qin Feng nods and says his agreement. He himself is a Xiantian expert, added to that he is good at commanding troops and conducting military operations so he is already in charge of a 100,000 strong army despite his young age. Even though this has something to do with his prince status, his personal capabilities are also a very important factor.

“Yu’er …” Qin De looks at Qin Yu.

Actually, in his mind, Qin De feels that he owes his 3rd son the most, but he does not want to say too many sentimental words in this situation. Therefore, after staring at Qin Yu for a long time, he slowly says: “Yu’er, if you want to do something then do it. I won’t restrict your freedom. But I have one thing to tell you -- Remember, just do whatever you think is right. The Qin clan’s sons flinch from nothing, not even death!”

When Qin Yu hears this, he feels a boiling stream of blood surging in his heart.

“Yes, father!” says Qin Yu resolutely.

Qin De gives a smile. Fengyuzi beside him starts to say: “His Highness and I have already discussed this matter. When the tribulation arrives in a half year, everybody is to carry on as usual. His Highness and I, along with some Xiantian experts, are going to leave for a secret place to deal with the heavenly tribulation. As for his 3 sons, all of them must not follow us.”

“Right, I’ve already decided who are going to go with me. They are Manager Ge, some Xiantian experts and some other experts. Zheng’er, the 3 of you cannot follow me,” says Qin De emphatically. He accepts absolutely no objection.

When Qin De leaves to undergo the heavenly tribulation, who can say that Xiang Guang will know nothing about this? If Xiang Guang receives information about this, he will definitely send experts to sabotage Qin De’s plan. Even the Xiantian experts who are going to go with Qin De will be in danger so Qin De cannot take any chances on his sons.

Qin Zheng is the future East Vanquishing Prince and is in a position of great authority so he must not be put at risk.

Qin Feng is a marshal in the army so he cannot be used like an ordinary bodyguard expert either. If something bad happened to him, it would be terrible.

As for Qin Yu,

“Father, I’ll go with you!” Qin Yu says in a loud and clear voice. “I know there will be dangers. Big brother and 2nd brother have to carry out important duties so nothing is allowed to happen to them, but I’m not very useful in military matters. I can’t handle politics or military affairs…”

“You can’t!” Qin De suddenly says, cutting off Qin Yu.

“Why?” Qin Yu immediately stands up and says. “Why can’t I? Father, do you remember what you just said? Just do whatever you think is right. The Qin clan’s sons flinch from nothing, not even death! Now I want to follow you and I think this is the right thing to do. Death, I’m not afraid of it in the least. I just want to go with you!”

Qin Yu stares at Qin De. He simply does not concede.

“Yu’er, do you know how dangerous this will be? I don’t know how many Xiantian experts Xiang Guang has. I don’t care about that either. But … they have 2 Shangxian, 2 of them, no less. Your Uncle Feng alone can only stop one of them so if they both come it will be extremely dangerous. Do you understand?” says Qin De continuously.

“Danger, how can I possibly fear danger?” Qin Yu gives an indifferent laugh. He simply does not accept Qin De’s rejection.

Qin De says with a shake of his head: “Yu’er, the people who are going to go this time are all experts, even Xiantian experts. You’re just an external practictioner, what’s the use of your going? You’ll be of no use to us. Worse still, when we are in danger, your presence would likely make it harder for us. So, you better forget that idea!”

“Xiantian?” Qin Yu laughs.

After becoming a Xiantian expert Qin Yu wanted to tell his father about this, but because of Lian Yan’s death, he was so grieved that he forgot to tell his father. Then he began to practice the technique of the Trans-Heaven diagrams and Qin De had a closed-door training session so naturally he has not had time to tell his father yet.

“Take this!” Qin Yu suddenly utters a loud shout. His body shoots at the blue-clad old man like a flash.

The blue-clad old man and the gray-clad old man are 2 super experts among Qin De’s subordinates and are on a par with Lian Yan. Ordinarily, they manage the matters concerning the Heavenly Net. The blue-clad old man is a peak Xiantian expert and has terrifyingly strong overall power. He is watching Qin Yu’s strike coming at him.

“Third Prince!” The blue-clad old man stretches out a hand smilingly.

“Humph!” Qin Yu utters a cold humph. The entire air in his vicinity starts to vibrate. He throws a punch with his right fist like rolling thunder. This is the first time Qin Yu has used his true power after practicing the 1st and 2nd Trans-Heaven diagrams. With his body undergoing transformations for such a long time, what power level has he actually reached?

The faces of all the people present change color.

The blue-clad old man knows that it is bad for him so he instantly channels his body’s Xiantian energy. The color of his right palm becomes golden.

The crash between a fist and a palm!

Bang!

A violent clash is heard. The blue-clad old man only feels that he is hit by a terrifyingly strong force. It is purely caused by physical power and has no Xiantian energy at all. That terrifying force of Qin Yu’s pure and fierce physical power goes through his palm into his arm.

The blue-clad old man cannot help retreating. Then, with a clack noise, the railings are smashed. The blue-clad old man can only stop when he finally bumps into Fengyuzi’s restrictive spell.

All the other people look at Qin Yu with only astonishment in their eyes.

Qin Yu stares at Qin De and says with an expressionless face: “Father, what do you think? Am I qualified to follow you? I’m a Xiantian expert. The 1st Xiantian external expert in the history of the Qian Long continent is also a Xiantian expert, right?” Qin Yu’s words shock the other people to the extent that they are dumbfounded.

Xiantian external expert!

Since antiquity, it has been a truism that external practice is difficult, painful, not worthwhile and hopeless and is capped by the peak of the Houtian level. However, from now on, the people present know that it is also possible to reach the Xiantian level through external practice!

“What power! If Third Prince uses a middle grade holy weapon, I’m not sure I’ll be a match for him!” At the moment, the bones of the blue-clad old man’s right arm are still in great pain. Qin Yu’s current power is far superior to his power level when he fought Zhen Xu that day.

Thanks to practicing the Trans-Heaven Mysterious Art and undergoing the changes caused by the mysterious silvery and golden lights, compared to the Qin Yu of the battle against Zhen Xu, the current Qin Yu has experienced many more world-shattering transformations.

Qin De is looking at Qin Yu. No one can know how greatly shocked he is in his mind at the moment. The 3rd son before him is one who he has never had high expectations for and one who does external practice, the most painful and hopeless path in martial arts. However, at the age of 18, this son has reached such a terrifying level in power without his knowledge. Moreover, this son has become the unprecedented Xiantian external expert.

“Father.” Qin Yu says again. He is waiting for Qin De’s answer.

Qin De remains silent for a long time then says with a slow shake of his head: “You can’t!”

End of b3c12.

[wandering]

B3C13: Feelings

Having told his father the fact that he is a Xiantian expert, Qin Yu is very excited in his heart. He has been longing for his father’s approval and praise. And today, he has finally been able to let his father know that he is not a good-for-nothing!

“You can’t!”

As Qin Yu hears Qin De’s words, his body shakes once. His face immediately goes pale. He stares at Qin De with his eyes full of disbelief and indignation: “Why? Why can’t I …” Qin Yu says continuously, as if he cannot accept Qin De’s answer.

He becomes misty-eyed. He has been trying hard to do limit training nonstop day and night since he was 8. He has never experienced the happiness of his contemporaries, has never been given parental loving care, and has even never had a friend of the same age.

Thanks to some luck and the fact that he has been working hard every day for 10 years, he has finally reached the current level in power.

Why has he been training hard without any complaint for the last 10 years?

Can the reason possibly be anything but to reach the Xiantian level so that he can help his father, make his father happy and do his father proud?

“Father, didn’t you just say reaching the Xiantian level is enough? Now I’ve surpassed ordinary Xiantian experts in power. I can even put up a real fight against any peak Xiantian expert. Why, why do you still refuse to let me go with you?” Qin Yu stares at his father. His eyes are filled with indignation and unwillingness.

Qin Yu’s indignant and unwilling look makes Qin De slightly tremble in his heart.

“Yu’er, calm down a bit.” Qin De coldly shouts.

Qin Yu takes a deep breath and says: “All right, I’ve calmed down. Tell me the reason, father. If you can’t convince me, I won’t give up no matter what.”

“All right.” Qin De says at once. “When I undergo the tribulation, I’ll have to choose a secret place. Your Uncle Feng is going to go with me as well. Of course the fact that I’m going to undergo the tribulation is top secret information, so there are only 2 possibilities. First, if Xiang Guang’s men can’t find out this information, no one will come to disturb me, which naturally will be a good thing. In this case, it’ll be pointless for you to go. Second, if Xiang Guang knows that I’m going to undergo the tribulation, his 2 Shangxian will come at me together. Yu’er, even though your power is not bad, you simply can’t imagine how powerful the Shangxian who have overcome the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation to become Xiuzhenists are!”

Qin De says with a sigh: “Even though it’s only the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, comparing ordinary peak Xiantian experts to Xiuzhenists is like comparing the ground to the sky. With merely a strike of their flying swords, Xiuzhenists can behead you easily. If you go, you’ll be of no use and only die for no reason!”

“Therefore … in both cases, it’ll be useless for you to go. Even worse, you’ll probably die if you go.” Qin De stares at Qin Yu. “Yu’er, this is the reason why I don’t let you go with me!”

Having listened, Qin Yu remains silent.

However, despite being silent, he is giving off a chaotic aura. The stronger a person’s soul is, the more powerful his aura becomes. Qin Yu is giving off his aura unintentionally but, at the moment, the other people can still feel it. No one knows what he is thinking.

“Xiao Yu,” Qin Zheng and Qin Feng both look at their little brother.

“Father, do you still remember?” Qin Yu simply does not pay attention to his big brother and 2nd brother. He talks to himself. “Before I turned 6, you cared so much about me and often spent time with me. During that time I was very happy and carefree. In my mind, you were the most brilliant and capable person. However, when I turned 6, I was sent to Misty Villa.” Qin Yu lowers his head and says in a low voice. It seems he is talking to himself and Qin De at the same time.

Everyone quietens down.

“At Misty Villa, except for the servants and guards, there was only me, a 6 year old kid. There wasn’t anyone to play with me. I was lonely so whenever I watched sunrise or sunset I contemplated expectantly when you would visit me. After so many disappointments, you finally arrived, but you left so fast. And I continued to expect you … but then I couldn’t wait anymore because you only visited Misty Villa once in 2 whole years.” Qin Yu continues to say slowly.

All of the people present picture the scene of a 6 or 7 year old kid watching sunrise or sunset waiting for his father’s arrival only to get disappointed time after time.

Qin De slightly moves his lips but says nothing. He cannot say anything! Among his 3 sons, he feels he owes his 3rd son the most. He has spent the least time with Qin Yu, has cared for Qin Yu the least and has even met Qin Yu the least number of times.

“I wondered why you didn’t visit me. Could I have been disobedient and annoyed you? Or was I too unpleasant? Even if I had done something wrong, couldn’t you just tell me about it since I could change? … But I wasn’t stupid. Big brother was practicing martial arts while 2nd brother was learning something about political affairs and you often instructed them and visited them. I finally understood … you thought I couldn’t become an able person so you didn’t care about me.” Qin Yu nips his lips, his eyes glittering.

“After thinking it over, I decided to train to become an expert. But my dantian couldn’t store internal energy so I could only do external practice. In the 1st year, it was Master Zhao Yunxing who taught me. Every day, I started to train when it was still dimly light. It was limit training. To be exact, it was physical-limit-surpassing training. I was in extreme pain and exhausted every day. I was so weary that I really shouldn’t have been able to carry on, but I thought about my being able to make you happy later so I clenched my teeth and persisted …” says Qin Yu slowly.

Qin De’s eyes have become moist.

“When I was 16, you told me some secrets and I finally understood it wasn’t that you didn’t love me, but that you had your own affairs so you couldn’t have time to pay attention to me. I saw you, big brother and 2nd brother working so hard for that important undertaking in the future, but I couldn’t help in anything despite being a son of the Qin clan as well. I could only be a bystander. That night you said unless I could reach the Xiantian level you wouldn’t let me lead troops to kill our enemies. At that time I decided that I would become a Xiantian expert no matter what!”

Qin Yu’s face suddenly has a faint smile: “10 years, after 10 whole years I finally succeeded. I was lucky and also hardworking, but it doesn’t matter what happened, the thing is, I’ve finally reached the current level!” Qin Yu suddenly raises his head. A swift and fierce aura comes forth from his body. “Since ancient times, they’ve been saying that external practice is hopeless and unable to reach the Xiantian level. But I never believed it. I always worked hard and I finally succeeded indeed!”

There is a hint of pride on Qin Yu’s face. Having reached a level where he can match a peak Xiantian internal expert, how can he not be proud? Moreover, Qin Yu even practices external techniques, which are universally acknowledged to be much harder than internal techniques.

“I’m a Xiantian external expert. Moreover, since I reached the Xiantian level, I’ve improved a lot and my power has been enhanced greatly. I wanted to tell you about this because I thought that, when you knew I had become a Xiantian expert, you would treat me as you treat big brother and 2nd brother and find a good use for me so that I could help you too.” Qin Yu stares at Qin De. All of a sudden, his expression looks sad. “Ha-ha … I was wrong. I was wrong, utterly wrong!”

Qin Yu suddenly becomes indignant. He says loudly to Qin De: “Father, when I was weak, you didn’t have a use for me and didn’t let me help you. I didn’t blame you for that and clenched my teeth to work hard. But now that my power has already reached a level where I’m far superior to ordinary Xiantian experts, you still don’t let me help you, brushing me aside. How can I possibly rest easy when I see you going through dangers? Father, do you think this is the same as caring about me? No, it’s definitely not. It hurts my feelings instead!”

“Ha-ha, I trained hard every day and night, giving up the amusements that my contemporaries enjoyed, giving up everything. I immersed myself in training for 10 years. Ha-ha, 10 years, no less! What did I train for 10 years for? What’s the use of practicing to my current level?” Qin Yu simply cannot keep his tears from rolling down his face.

His goal, his 10-year goal, is the thing he has had the most resolute attachment to for the last 10 years. Today he has discovered that it has come to naught, how can he possibly not grieve?

“Father, I know the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation is extremely fearsome, if you fail to overcome it …” Qin Yu’s body starts to quiver. He cannot imagine how great a shock it would be to him if his father were to die. “If you passed away, wouldn’t my perseverance in the last 10 years become pointless? I’ve been training but I’m still of no use. Father, no matter what, can you at least find a use for me? In this way, even if I were to die, I’d have no regret.”

“But … you give me no chance, absolutely no chance. You only said it’s pointless for me to get involved in this. Father, you don’t even give me a chance. How can you be sure that I’m useless? How? How?!” Qin Yu stares at Qin De and growls loudly and hoarsely. His eyes have turned crimson.

All of a sudden, Qin Yu burst out laughing sadly and shrilly: “I knew it already. Father, in your mind, this 3rd son has always been useless, right? It doesn’t matter what happens, I’m always utterly useless. Even when I’ve reached the Xiantian level, I’m still useless. I was useless in the past, and now I’m useless too. Father, I think, even when we go to war later, perhaps you still won’t find any good use for a Xiantian expert like me, right?!”

Qin De can say nothing.

Indeed, in the future war the troops of a fighting corps will be counted even by the hundred thousand so a Xiantian expert will not be very useful. Qin De basically has never cared about Qin Yu’s role in the future war.

Seeing Qin De’s expression, Qin Yu laughs.

“Ha-ha … I’m just a useless, the most useless person. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much progress I make in practice, I’ll always be the most useless. This is laughable. What have I been training for? What have I been training for? What’s the use of my training?”

Qin Yu laughs out loud then weeps silently. His tears slowly roll down.

Qin De looks at Qin Yu in front of him, the 3rd son who he has never heartily cared about. Suddenly he feels extremely ashamed and sorrowful. He opens his mouth but simply cannot say a word because he does not know what he should say.

Indeed, in Qin De’s mind, Qin Yu is of no use. What Qin Yu just said is totally right.

“I’m a fool, a real fool.” Qin Yu shakes his head and gives a forced smile.

“Yu’er.” Qin Zheng and Qin Feng are about to say something, but Qin Yu reaches out his hand and stops them. He takes a deep breath, looks at Qin De and says calmly: “Father, I’m sorry. I was careless about what I said.” The 1st time, this is the 1st time he has given full vent to his repressed feelings of so many years.

“Yu’er, I …”

Seeing that Qin De is about to say something, Qin Yu says with a forced smile: “Father, now I’m very confused, I need to calm down. Don’t worry. I won’t bother you. At least in the half year before your tribulation arrives, I won’t come back to bother you.” Qin Yu turns to Fengyuzi and says: “Uncle Feng, could you please deactivate the encircling restrictive spell?” Fengyuzi immediately sends out various streams of elemental energy, deactivating the restrictive spell.

Qin Yu turns his face upward and gives a whistle. Something then dives down from the sky like a black bolt of lightning.

Like a flash Qin Yu’s body gets on the back of the black eagle, which is 10 meters high in the air, leaving behind several afterimages. After sitting down on the back of the black eagle, all of a sudden, he slightly bends and hugs the black eagle’s neck. Xiao Hei has always been his companion for so many years so when he snuggles against Xiao Hei’s warm feathers his mind calms down.

He gently pats Xiao Hei and says: “Xiao Hei, let’s go, let’s return to Misty Villa.” Xiao Hei also feels that Qin Yu is very sad at the moment. With a shake of its wings, the wind suddenly rises and the black eagle soars into the sky. In just a while, it disappears on the horizon.

Qin De’s face has turned very pale, looking like the face of a sickly person. Turning his face skyward, he knows Qin Yu has left and will not return for at least a half year. This half year will probably be Qin De’s last half year in the world.

Qin Yu’s words have pierced his heart continuously like sharp knives but he knows that his son is even in more agony than he himself is. Even though he is mournful, he feels ashamed and regretful more, incomparably ashamed and regretful. However, in Qin De’s life, will he ever be able to compensate for what Qin Yu has gone through?

End of b3c13.

[wandering]

B3C14: A glimpse of hope (1)

On the top of Mount Donglan, a golden silhouette is moving extremely fast. The silhouette is indistinct and ethereal like mist. On one side, a huge black male eagle is flapping its wings. Its sharp eyes are being fixed on the golden silhouette. This golden silhouette and this eagle are Qin Yu and Xiao Hei.

Qin Yu has been training like this for over 20 whole days. During this period of time, he has not taken a break, eaten and drunk but his mind has been getting better and better. Compared to when he just left the princely mansion, Qin Yu’s entire body is currently much swifter and fiercer.

Suddenly the golden silhouette stops. Those 36 golden energy streams then vanish away completely, revealing Qin Yu’s lonely figure.

“The 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram’s 36 pictures have been totally mastered.” Qin Yu looks at his entire body’s skin. As soon as he slightly exerts his strength, very incredibly, a vague golden light starts to move under his skin. Moreover, Qin Yu discovers that his body has reached a whole new level.

Strength? He can no longer use strength to accurately assess his current body.

“Xiao Hei, let’s go.” Qin Yu calls Xiao Hei, which instantly utters several cries of excitement. Then, after he sits on Xiao Hei’s back, with a shake of its wings, Xiao Hei leaves Mount Donglan at once and starts to go on another journey.

……

It is already deep in the winter at the moment and white snow is falling from all over the sky. In a Heavenly Net branch, the courtyard of this branch is covered with a thick blanket of snow. Qin Yu treads on the snow blanket directly and only leaves a line of faint footprints. As snow keeps falling down, those footprints also disappear in a short while.

“Please sit down, Mister Liu Xing.” A flirty woman puts a mission list before Qin Yu.

He turns directly to the Gold Card Missions section and skims through the resumes of these missions’ targets. When he chooses a mission, he does not care about the opponent’s overall power and only pays attention to what kind of person the opponent is. If it is an evildoer he will undertake the mission, but if it is a good person he will pass on the mission. Of course, he is not so bored that he would protect that good person yet.

“Gold card mission no. 6,” says Qin Yu coldly.

That flirty woman immediately assigns him the mission then gives him a subtle blink and says flirtatiously: “Mister Liu Xing, it’s snowing heavily outside. Please stay the night here. It won’t be late to wait until it stops snowing tomorrow before going.”

As she is saying, she reaches out her delicate right hand and holds Qin Yu’s hand.

“Let go.” Qin Yu says calmly.

The flirty woman covers her mouth and says with a smile: “Mister Liu Xing is really …” When she is about to say something, she feels a shock transferring to her from Qin Yu’s hand and cannot help loosening her hold with a tingling sensation. Qin Yu immediately turns around and steps into the boundless, heavy snow.

The flirty woman follows the silhouette in the heavy snow with her eyes. She suddenly sees that silhouette turn into several afterimages and disappear.

……

“Anyone who dares come to kill me simply has a death wish. Demonic Flaming Hand, kill him for me,” says a fat man loftily.

A faint cold smile appears on the corners of golden-masked Qin Yu’s mouth.

“Yes.” A one-armed bald man looks at Qin Yu and says coldly: “Gold card assassin, who would’ve thought that an assassin like you would openly block our way instead of using a sneak attack? You’re simply utterly stupid. Being able to die at my Demonic Flaming Hand, you can take pride in that.”

Qin Yu slightly shakes his head and thinks to himself: “Middle-phase Xiantian expert, too weak.”

Whizz!

Qin Yu flashes by the one-armed bald man like a beam of light, rendering him completely dumbfounded. Then 2 miserable cries rise successively. Qin Yu’s body has already disappeared. Having accomplished the mission, naturally he has left.

“My right hand, ah, my right hand is gone!” Looking at where his only hand used to be, Demonic Flaming Hand freezes with horror.

Just now, Qin Yu’s speed was so fast. Giving Demonic Flaming Hand absolutely no time to resist, he cut off the opponent’s only hand with a knife hand strike. Then, using the same shocking speed, he directly beheaded that fat man with another knife hand strike. Afterwards, he took the fat man’s head and left lightly.

From the beginning to the end, it took him only a moment.

“Indeed, after mastering the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram, my overall power has reached a whole new level. That, coupled with my stopping to use the black iron arm guards and leg guards and the black gold undershirt, has made me very fast. Perhaps a peak Xiantian expert can only be about as fast as me at best.” There is a confident smile on Qin Yu face at the moment.

After practicing the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram, Qin Yu’s power has increased greatly. His body has been transformed even more. In terms of bodily toughness alone, even black iron weapons can no longer hurt him. His body’s defense has already caught up with that of the black gold undershirt.

Therefore, Qin Yu has taken off the black gold undershirt and the black iron arm guards and leg guards. After all, weight carrying is basically not very useful at his current level anymore.

……

“Mister Liu Xing is really fast. In just a while you’ve already finished the mission.” The woman who welcomes Qin Yu flatters him smilingly.

After receiving the reward, Qin Yu opens the mission list and says at once: “Gold card mission no. 3!”

……

In 3 whole months Qin Yu undertakes 9 gold card missions, averaging 3 missions a month. All of the missions are gold card missions but he accomplishes them with ease. All of the targets are killed by him openly regardless of their power levels.

There are even 2 late phase Xiantian experts among them.

Even when facing a late phase Xiantian expert, Qin Yu does not use the Flaming Sword and the Flaming Gloves. He kills the opponent with his own hands. Even so, the opponent cannot put up any resistance at all. With Qin Yu’s current power, even when using bare hands, he can already put up a good fight against any peak Xiantian expert.

The silvery and golden lights of the 2 Trans-Heaven diagrams have really transformed his body a lot. This is also the cause of such an improvement in Qin Yu’s power.

……

“Mister Liu Xing, why do you suddenly stop taking missions?” The woman who welcomes Qin Yu asks doubtfully. Seeing in the record that Qin Yu has been undertaking 9 successive missions recently, she originally thought that he would continue to take one more.

“How can I continue to waste my time on these missions? Humph, their targets aren’t challenging at all.” Qin Yu takes the reward, says indifferently then leaves. Obviously his attitude has changed. It is no longer as apathetic as it was 3 months ago.

A person comes out from the back of the hall where missions are taken. Following Qin Yu’s leaving back with his eyes, he slightly frowns and says: “Not challenging? Even late phase Xiantian experts aren’t challenging at all?”

******

In a nameless mountain forest,

It has been 2 months. Qin Yu has been staying in this nameless mountain forest for over 2 months and practicing the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram here. Having previous experience with the other 2 diagrams, he has naturally been practicing this Trans-Heaven diagram with great ease.

However, what has surprised Qin Yu is that … the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram is different from the 2 previous diagrams.

The reason is … the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram has unexpectedly created a purple Xiantian energy. This Xiantian energy has permeated into his entire body in every place. It does not matter if it is the dantian, a muscle, a bone or a channel … as long as it is a place in his body, there will be Xiantian energy in it.

“Hah!”

With his entire body enfolded in 36 purple energy streams, Qin Yu dives down from the sky like a flash. He then ruthlessly smashes his right leg on the ground. The strange thing is that, it unexpectedly causes no damage to the ground. However, the entire area of the ground in his vicinity starts to vibrate. In a short while --

Boom!

With a loud sound, the soil within a several-tens-meter radius of Qin Yu explodes, creating a huge cloud of dust. When the dust has settled, a crater which is several tens meters in circumference and 10 meters deep appears.

“I only needed 1 month to master the 1st or 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram. This 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram unexpectedly took me over 2 months.” Qin Yu stops. The 36 purple energy streams around him also disappear. The pure purple glow on his body gradually withdraws as well.

From the outside to the inside,

Compared to the 2 previous Trans-Heaven diagrams, the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram is much more formidable. Not only does it enhance his body, it also creates the special purple Xiantian energy which solely belongs to this Trans-Heaven Mysterious Art.

“It’s been a half year. Father is going to undergo his tribulation soon.” Qin Yu secretly groans. He is not happy at the moment despite his great improvement in power.

End of b3c14.

[wandering]

B3C15: A glimpse of hope (2)

For the last half year, Qin Yu has been wondering about the purposes of his life. Can he possibly live out his life just like an ordinary man on the Qin Long continent, who will get married, have children then age? No, in his mind, going down this road is simply unacceptable. Since he was a little kid, Qin Yu has been aiming to become an expert so that he can help his father.

But now ……

“Perhaps I’ve been wrong since the beginning. A person can’t always live for other people. If I live like that, not only will I be tired, father will be put under great pressure as well.” Qin Yu slowly goes to the side of a tarn in the mountain forest. Despite looking at the jade waves before him, he continuously ponders in his mind. For the last half year, Qin Yu has been training and carrying out missions, but he has always been pondering.

“What should I live for?” This is what Qin Yu has been pondering over.

Qin Yu has a desire in the bottom of his heart, a secret desire. But he has never dared to let his desire burst forth completely. In his heart, he takes the greatest pleasure in fighting to the death and in breaking through his limits.

“Xiuzhenists, the Overseas Immortal Islands, and the Xiuzhen world!” -- These are the desire Qin Yu has been concealing in his heart. At that time, when he heard Fengyuzi’s description of the Xiuzhen world, he instantly became imbued with a desire for this Xiuzhen world. In the past his power was insufficient but the Trans-Heaven diagrams have given him an opportunity.

Qin Yu takes a deep breath.

He yearns for the life of a Xiuzhenist -- going up to the 9th level of the sky, going down to the depths of the ocean, battling demonic beasts, contending against Xiuzhenists for treasures, fighting Heaven and Hell, pursuing the limits of life! Qin Yu yearns for that blood-boiling, passion-packed kind of life. However, to live that kind of life, he must have, first, real power and, second, determination.

He must have the power of a Xiuzhenist and the determination of a loner.

Since his father and brothers cannot venture into the unknown and wander about with him, will Qin Yu be able to leave his father and brothers?

“Remember, just do whatever you think is right. The Qin clan’s sons flinch from nothing, not even death!”

Those words said by his father resound in Qin Yu’s ears again. He suddenly laughs: “Alright, living in the world, why do I have to be afraid of something? Moreover, I’ve been living the wrong way. I mustn’t live for other people. That kind of life has tired both me and father out. I must live for myself. Father, big brother, 2nd brother, I’ll pursue my own life!”

Qin Yu’s eyes glitter.

“Xiao Hei, after father has overcome his tribulation, I’m going to pursue my own life. Do you want to follow me?” says Qin Yu while stroking Xiao Hei’s head. Xiao Hei immediately spreads its wings and gently pats Qin Yu’s back with them while continuously nodding.

Qin Yu laughs as soon as he sees this.

It does not matter what is going to happen, at least Xiao Hei will always be his companion.

“Xiao Hei, let’s go. It’s a waste of time to live a boring life. Let’s go to see if the Heavenly Net has any challenging missions.” Qin Yu gets on Xiao Hei’s back at once with a jump. Xiao Hei immediately flaps its wings then disappears like a beam of light.

******

Qin De sits down. He is in the chair. 3 other people consisting of the blue-clad old man, Manager Ge Min and Fengyuzi also sit down one by one.

“The place has been selected. Everything is almost ready. We only need to wait 37 more days,” says Qin De indifferently. The closer it gets to the tribulation, the more clearly he feels its time of arrival. And he is going to undergo the tribulation in 37 days.

The blue-clad old man says with a nod: “There are a lot of demonic beasts in the Wilderness. Quite a few of them have even reached the Jindan stage. Even if Wu Xing and Wu De discover the appearance of the heavenly tribulation in the Wilderness, they will surely think that it is a demonic beast undergoing its tribulation. So, if Your Highness can overcome the tribulation, the Xiang clan instead won’t expect that we’ll even have such an expert as Your Highness on our side.”

“The location selected by Your Highness is really extremely ingenious,” says Manager Ge Min in agreement.

Qin De shakes his head and says with a laugh: “Let’s wait to see if I can go through the heavenly tribulation alive before saying something. All right, brother Feng and Manager Ge Min, the 2 of you please leave first. I and Blue-clad have to discuss some matters.”

“I take my leave, Your Highness.” Manager Ge Min bows and says. Fengyuzi, however, only folds his hands in salute. The 2 of them then leave.

The blue-clad old man and the gray-clad old man are the 2 general managers of the Heavenly Net. Generally, Qin De only calls these 2 old men by their code names Blue-clad and Gray-clad. In fact, he has never called them by their real names. This time, Qin De has decided that the blue-clad old man is going to follow him when he leaves for a location in the Wilderness to undergo the tribulation whereas the gray-clad old man is going to continue to manage the Heavenly Net’s operation.

“Blue-clad, this time pick out 5 late phase Xiantian experts from the Secret Arrow, which was originally managed by Uncle Lian, and let Manager Ge lead them. At your Heavenly Net, find some late phase Xiantian experts in the 2 Nets. At the same time … invite assassin Liu Xing to come as well.” There is a faint smile on the corners of Qin De’s mouth.

The blue-clad old man also gives a smile.

The Heavenly Net is divided into the Inner Net and the Outer Net. However, it cannot directly control the members of the Outer Net and can only invite them. As for this assassin Liu Xing, Qin De, being the leader of the Heavenly Net, has been paying close attention to him for some time.

“That assassin Liu Xing is extremely powerful. According to my subordinates’ reports, he has been undertaking 9 successive missions recently and accomplished them with ease. There were even late phase Xiantian experts among the targets but, when facing this assassin Liu Xing, they had no choice but to get killed. His power should have reached the peak of the Xiantian level.” The blue-clad old man states his opinion.

At the moment, Qin De is in need of experts, absolute experts.

That day he told Qin Yu that peak Xiantian experts cannot put up any resistance against Xiuzhenists. What he said can be considered correct, but not totally correct. In a one-on-one, it is certainly correct. However, if 5 or 6 peak Xiantian experts join forces and use middle-grade holy weapons at the same time, then whether it is true will be quite another matter.

Peak Xiantian experts are all extremely fast, like lightning. If 5 or 6 peak Xiantian experts attack together, a Jindan stage Xiuzhenist will find it difficult to cope with them. If his body gets destroyed, the Xiuzhenist will be done for. Even though a Jindan stage Xiuzhenist’s elemental energy is profound, his body’s structure is almost no different from that of ordinary people’s bodies. So, once his internal organs are shattered into pieces, he will also die.

Qin De currently needs peak Xiantian experts, or late phase Xiantian experts at the minimum.

However, peak Xiantian experts are too hard to come by. Currently, according to Qin De’s judgment, this assassin Liu Xing is a peak Xiantian expert. Moreover, judging from the missions that assassin Liu Xing has undertaken, he is also trustworthy.

“Blue-clad, you are to invite him personally. If necessary, you can threaten him a bit by force. Of course, he must not be told about the location of the tribulation, and my identity as well. When the time comes, letting him follow us will be enough!” says Qin De.

He is not worried about the identity of this mysterious assassin Liu Xing. Even if Liu Xing is an enemy, will it make any difference? After all, Qin De cannot let him know anything.

“Yes, I’m going to invite him personally.” Blue-clad bows and says.

……

Qin Yu has found it very strange that the last time he took a mission the executive of that Heavenly Net branch told him the supreme elder of the Heavenly Net requested a discussion with him. As a top-class assassin of the Heavenly Net, he also knows it has 2 grand elders. He wonders why this grand elder invites himself to meet him today.

Following their agreement, Qin Yu goes to a teahouse. At the moment, there are no guests in the teahouse. He slightly frowns.

“You’ve arrived, Mister Liu Xing. Why don’t you come up here?” A series of laughs of a man comes to him from the 2nd floor.

Qin Yu’s feet make a movement. His entire body disappears into thin air at once then appears on where the staircase and the 2nd floor meet. His speed was extremely fast and simply reached a shocking level.

“So fast yet caused no wind sounds!” The blue-clad elder is startled in his heart. He knows even he himself cannot reach that speed. He looks toward the top landing of the staircase and sees a man standing there, who is about 1.75 m tall and looks very cold from head to toe.

The blue-clad elder, however, has an indescribable feeling that the man in front of him seems very familiar.

As soon as Qin Yu sees the man before him, his eyes pop out of his head because he unexpectedly recognizes this so-called Heavenly Net grand elder as the mysterious blue-clad elder who occasionally appears beside his father. The usual movements of the blue-clad elder and the gray-clad elder are extremely secret, only that these 2 elders appear in the princely mansion sometimes. In the entire mansion, only a few people such as Qin Yu know about the existence of this blue-clad elder and the gray-clad elder.

“Heavenly Net grand elder?” says Qin Yu while looking at the blue-clad elder. An unfathomable faint smile appears on the corners of his mouth.

End of b3c15.

[wandering]

B3C16: The source of danger (1)

“So the Heavenly Net’s leader is …” An idea springs to Qin Yu’s mind and he gives a smile. He then comes up to the blue-clad elder’s face and sits down directly without ceremony.

The blue-clad elder laughs then slowly says: “Mister Liu Xing is so mysterious, just like a hidden dragon. In 3 consecutive months, you accomplished perfectly all of the 9 gold card missions you took. When I first knew about this, I was indescribably amazed. Only afterwards did I know that it turned out the Outer Net of my Heavenly Net still had such an expert as Mister Liu Xing.”

“Gold card missions? They weren’t challenging at all. I so wanted to find a match but couldn’t. This really …” says Qin Yu very haughtily.

He does so because he wants to keep his real identity from being discovered by other people and also to define assassin Liu Xing as a top-class expert who devotes himself to martial arts and cares about nothing but martial arts.

“Not challenging at all? Could it be Mister Liu Xing has already reached the peak of the Xiantian level?” asks the blue-clad elder. Qin Yu suddenly gives a ha-ha laugh and says: “Grand elder, you would know after testing a bit, right? It’s really hard to meet an expert of your caliber.”

As he finishes saying, he suddenly attacks with his right hand.

Since he was little, Qin Yu has trained his fingers’ strength and, at the same time, their flexibility repeatedly. After many breakthroughs, today the strength of his fingers has already reached an astonishing level. He extends his right hand’s forefinger, creating several tens illusions.

The blue-clad elder’s eyes brighten. He also extends his right hand’s forefinger, on which a dazzling light appears.

Bang!

Finger versus finger! The fingers crash head-on. They are unexpectedly equally matched.

Qin Yu slightly curves the corners of his mouth upward. A purple beam of light suddenly shoots out from his fingertip. The blue-clad elder only feels a sharp force penetrate into his body through his fingertip. He cannot help getting shocked. He immediately withdraws his finger and, at the same time, uses the liquified Xiantian energy in his dantian to eliminate this foreign stream of energy.

“Ha-ha, Mister Liu Xing is really formidable. This senile old man admires you. I really do!” The blue-clad elder laughs out loud and says at once. His eyes brighten.

Following Qin De’s order to invite Qin Yu this time, the 1st thing he must do is determine what level Qin Yu’s power has reached. Judging from the force of this one finger strike alone, the blue-clad elder can already confirm absolutely that assassin Liu Xing before him is not weaker than him.

“You didn’t use all your power, grand elder, so my win is worthless,” says Qin Yu indifferently.

He can see that this blue-clad elder did not use his entire power. However, Qin Yu did not use all his power either. He is certain that, if he had to deal with the blue-clad elder, using only the purple Xiantian energy he has thanks to practicing the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram he would surely be able to destroy the blue-clad elder.

“Mister Liu Xing is at such a high level in power. It looks like you’re already qualified to undertake a special mission,” says the blue-clad elder mysteriously.

Qin Yu slightly narrows his eyes. He knows he is posing as assassin Liu Xing, a pursuer of martial arts and the human limits, so he says at once: “Oh? You only say I’m qualified to take this mission after testing me just now. It seems this mission is very awesome? Tell me about it.”

The blue-clad elder says mysteriously: “Awesome? Mister Liu Xing, quite a few experts who take part in this mission are on a par with you. However, joining this mission, you must forget about life and death.”

“Oh?”

Qin Yu’s heart skips a beat.

He knows that, with his current power, he has made the blue-clad elder think that assassin Liu Xing is a peak Xiantian expert. However, the elder just said quite a few experts who participate in this mission are on the same level as him. Does this not clearly mean that they are also peak Xiantian experts?

“What is this mission? Could it be ...” Qin Yu secretly has a hunch.

“Ha-ha … using several experts like me, is there such a difficult mission? Could it be to assassinate a Shangxian?” says Qin Yu laughingly.

The blue-clad elder says with a shake of his head: “It’s not to assassinate a Shangxian, but to be a bodyguard for about a month. If you’re willing to join, during this month, you’ll have to protect the client well.” The blue-clad old man stares at Qin Yu and carefully observes his reaction.

“Bodyguard? Humph, you’re asking me to become a bodyguard?” says Qin Yu coldly.

The blue-clad elder says confidently: “Don’t worry, Mister Liu Xing. Don’t you always dislike easy missions? This mission is absolutely difficult and, moreover, the power of the prospective enemies will satisfy you. The important thing is … if this mission is successful, we will give you a high Xian-grade weapon!”

High Xian-grade weapons are the top weapons in the eyes of mortals on the Qian Long continent.

As for holy weapons, generally only Xiuzhenists can have them. Qin Yu found that chunk of In-rock Flaming iron, but if it had not been for Fengyuzi’s forging he would not have come into possession of his holy weapons. Therefore, how can mortals possibly obtain holy weapons? The mission’s reward of a high Xian-grade weapon as the blue-clad elder said is already extremely valuable.

Superb weapons hold an enormous attraction for martial artists so Qin Yu has to act as if his interest has been aroused.

“Oh…” A hint of excitement flashes in his eyes.

Seeing Qin Yu’s expression, the blue-clad elder knows he has a good chance of success. He says instantly: “Mister Liu Xing, it is extremely hard to come across a mission like this. If you want to join us, then wait for me in this teahouse 3 days later. When the time comes, I’m going to bring you along.”

“Who am I going to protect? And where are we going to go?” Qin Yu asks closely.

The blue-clad elder says with a shake of his head: “I can only tell you that the client is called Mister Ying. As for the other thing, there’s no need for you to ask. When the time comes, you’re going to follow us.” The blue-clad old man stares at Qin Yu, waiting for his answer.

“Mister Ying?” An idea springs to Qin Yu’s mind. His conjecture has been confirmed even more.

“All right, I’ll take this mission. See you 3 days later in this teahouse.” Qin Yu gives a ha-ha laugh. His body has already flown out of the 2nd floor directly through a window. He then disappears, leaving behind several afterimages. The blue-clad elder looks at the window and nods smilingly.

******

Late at night, in the imperial study,

“Your Majesty, this is Hidden Chessman’s secret letter.” A refined handsome middle-aged man hands over a letter. Xiang Guang, who is sitting, receives it and opens it to read the contents. He immediately frowns deeply: “What? Qin De is going to undergo the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation and even in less than a month’s time?”

Xiang Guang’s expression changes nonstop.

Qin De has always been his worry. If he cannot eliminate Qin De, he wil never have a peaceful day, as if there is something hard stuck in his throat forever. Moreover, today he has learned that Qin De is going to undergo the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation so he has become somewhat flustered. He hopes that Qin De will fail to overcome the tribulation but he also fears that Qin De will succeed and become a Jindan stage expert.

If the latter happens, the Qin clan will have 2 Shangxian and once it rebels it will be a much bigger threat.

Xiang Guang thinks for a long time then raises his head looking at the elegant middle-aged man before him and asks: “Mister Lan, in the beginning Wu Xing and Wu De made it clear that they only promised to protect us. It’s very difficult to make them get into action. Right, has Great Ancestor given any instructions yet, Mister Lan ……?”

With a smile, this Mister Lan takes out from his bosom a small jade bottle, puts it on the table before Xiang Guang and says: “Your Majesty, this is a Red Flourishing Pill. I believe Your Majesty also knows what Great Ancestor means.”

Hearing the 3 words Red Flourishing Pill, Xiang Guang is shocked. Then a hint of savageness appears on his face: “Red Flourishing Pill, the last Red Flourishing Pill, how could Great Ancestor give it up? Right, don’t worry, Mister Lan. Please inform Great Ancestor that I definitely won’t let Great Ancestor down. Humph, Wu Xing and Wu De are really too greedy. However … Qin De must be destroyed; it can’t be helped.”

“I mustn’t let Qin De overcome the tribulation no matter what. Otherwise they’ll have 2 Jindan stage Xiuzhenists on their side, plus the troops of the 3 Eastern region counties, so, when war breaks out, even if their rebellion fails, the Xiang clan’s vitality will suffer greatly.” Xiang Guang clenches the jade bottle in his hand.

Mister Lan slightly nods then walks out through the main entrance in a dignified manner.

By contrast, Xiang Guang spends an entire sleepless night in the imperial study. In the morning of the next day, he leaves the Imperial Palace directly with secret experts.

End of b3c16.

[wandering]

B3C17: The source of danger (2)

In a secluded manor,

“Shangxian, that Qin De wants to rebel and destroy my Xiang clan’s everlasting bases and accomplishments. Moreover, he is going to undergo the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation soon. The Qin clan already has a Shangxian, namely Fengyuzi. If Qin De can overcome the tribulation, they will have 2 Shangxian as well, which will be harmful to my Xiang clan, and also to the 2 of you,” says Xiang Guang to 2 green-clad men.

Wu De and Wu Xing are the 2 Xiuzhenists who have been protecting the Xiang clan for several hundred years. Their position is extremely lofty.

Wu De has a head full of loose long hair, looking very natural and self-willed. With his power having even reached the late phase of the Jindan stage, he is absolutely an expert. Even though Wu Xing also has long hair, he has tied it up with a hairband. Wu Xing’s eyes and white brows give his entire body an obvious air of swiftness and fierceness. He has reached the middle phase of the Jindan stage in practice, which is also Fengyuzi’s level.

“Martial brother, it seems at that time we only promised to protect the Xiang clan, didn’t we?” Wu Xing says to Wu De.

Among the emperors of the Chu dynasty, Xiang Yang was one who can rival Xiang Yu the Conqueror in wisdom. Even though Xiang Yu was the founding emperor, he was killed by revenge-seeking experts of the Qin dynasty. Xiang Yu conquered all the lands but he did not rule them. Following Xiang Yu’s death, his only son Xiang Yang became the Chu emperor. Xiang Yang was extremely outstanding in both literary and military arts. His talent for martial arts was not inferior to that of his father Xiang Yu and he was even better than Xiang Yu in government.

It was he who invited this Wu De and Wu Xing to help the Xiang clan at that time when he was still reigning.

“Martial younger brother,” Wu De casts a glance at Wu Xing, who stops saying instantly. Wu De looks toward Xiang Guang and says smilingly: “Xiang Guang, what’s the matter? Say it clearly and don’t beat around the bush. What do you want me and my martial younger brother to do?”

Xiang Guang rejoices. He says at once: “Shangxian, could you please … kill Qin De for me?!”

“Oh? Kill him?” Wu De then gives a smile, but says no more, neither refusing nor accepting. He only goes to one side, picks up a book and starts to read it casually.

Xiang Guang is ridiculous! As Xiuzhenists go against Heaven, they are no kind-hearted people or altruists. Most of them are very selfish. Except for their own good friends, who are the only people they will help, they do nobody a favour. Asking them to do something that does not benefit them for free is, therefore, no different from fantasizing.

“2 greedy arseholes,” Xiang Guang secretly curses. However, he has forgotten that, as 2 Xiuzhenists, there is no reason for them to help him for nothing. Xiang Guang forces a smile and says: “Of course, Shangxian, as long as you kill Qin De for me, my Xiang clan will definitely handsomely return the favor.”

Wu De and Wu Xing still show no reaction.

Wu Xing gives Xiang Guang a disdainful look which is packed with satire. It is simply impossible to ask Wu De and his martial younger brother to do something by promising to reward them after the affair has been dealt with.

Xiang Guang slightly narrows his eyes then clenches his teeth and takes out from his bosom a jade bottle. Wu Xing’s and Wu De’s eyes instantly brighten. Xiang Guang says at once: “Shangxian, there is a holy pill in this bottle, a precious Red Flourishing Pill. Now I give it to the 2 of you. My Xiang clan only asks you to kill that Qin De. Is this all right?”

Wu Xing raises his white eyebrows and exchanges a look with his martial brother Wu De. Then the 2 of them burst out laughing.

“Xiang Guang, just leave this matter to us. It’s only Qin De. Humph, both of us will attack together. They only have Fengyuzi on their side so they definitely won’t be able to resist us. You can rest easy.” Wu Xing receives the jade bottle while laughing out loud.

Xiang Guang feels a pain in his heart but he still tries to force a smile: “Then I’ll wait for your good news, Shangxian. Right, Shangxian, Qin De is going to undergo the tribulation in the Green Lotus mountain range on the border of the Wilderness, but I don’t know exactly where it is going to be. His tribulation should come within a month.”

“Oh, the Green Lotus mountain range?” Qin De slightly frowns.

……

Using the Appearance and Bone Changing art Qin Yu changes into assassin Liu Xing and goes directly to that agreed teahouse.

As for Xiao Hei, fearing that his real identity will be discovered, he has told Xiao Hei to fly to a height of 10,000 m in the sky. At such a distance above the ground, not even Qin Yu’s vision can see the eagle, not to mention his holy sense. Qin Yu’s holy sense has a range of no more than several hundred meters whereas Xiao Hei is 10,000 m away from him.

However, Xiao Hei has a very keen sight. Even when flying at a height of 10,000 m in the air, it can still see Qin Yu below clearly. Xiao Hei’s vision is obviously very extraordinary and far superior to that of ordinary male eagles.

As soon as Qin Yu enters the teahouse, he takes a glance around and notices an old man dressed in black in a corner. That black-dressed old man is none other than Elder Blue-clad. Elder Blue-clad stands up and passes by Qin Yu directly to walk out of the teahouse as if he does not recognize him.

“Mister Liu Xing, please follow me.” Elder Blue-clad transfers his voice confidentially to Qin Yu’s ears.

Qin Yu then goes after Elder Blue-clad. The 2 of them turn into an alley successively. Afterwards they enter a courtyard house. It is obvious that this courtyard house has been prepared carefully earlier by Elder Blue-clad. Moreover, there is a huge silvery-feathered golden-eyed condor in the courtyard house.

“Mister Liu Xing, this golden-eyed condor was raised by me. Come on, get on its back together with me,” says Elder Blue-clad smilingly.

The silvery-feathered golden-eyed condor utters a low howl then spreads its huge silvery wings. Condors naturally have much larger bodies than eagles. However, even though Xiao Hei belongs to a certain kind of eagle, it is about the same size as this silvery-feathered golden-eyed condor.

Spreading its wings, the silvery-feathered golden-eyed condor soars into the sky with Elder Blue-clad and Qin Yu sitting on its back then flies eastward.

“This golden-eyed condor is about the same size as Xiao Hei but it is much slower than Xiao Hei.” Qin Yu thinks to himself. The back of this golden-eyed condor is very broad and there is ample space for the 2 of them to sit down side by side.

As the condor flies in the sky, they sit very stably despite strong blasts of wind.

“Mister Liu Xing, please remember that when meeting the client you shouldn’t ask any unnecessary questions. You only need to know you’re going to have to protect Mister Ying.” Elder Blue-clad warns.

“Even if you let me ask, I wouldn’t ask,” says Qin Yu indifferently.

After flying for a half day, the golden-eyed condor dives down into a courtyard house directly. Elder Blue-clad jumps down first. He simply does not notice that at this moment Qin Yu’s eyes brighten. Qin Yu has this reaction because his holy sense has felt clearly the people in the courtyard house.

“Mister Ying, Mister Liu Xing has arrived,” says Elder Blue-clad respectfully. Afterwards, more than 10 people walk out from a room of the courtyard house. The leaders are none other than Qin De and Fengyuzi. The people such as Ge Min are behind Qin De.

This time, Manager Ge Min leads 5 late phase Xiantian experts from the Secret Arrow and Elder Blue-clad leads 5 late phase Xiantian experts from the Heavenly Net besides assassin Liu Xing.

“Mister Liu Xing,” Qin De comes forward smilingly.

Qin Yu looks at his father. He was already able to guess who the client is when Elder Blue-clad first told him about this mission. However, he has never known that the Qin clan is actually behind the Heavenly Net. When facing Qin De, Qin Yu slightly nods and says: “Mister Ying, so you’re the client. I’m going to ensure your safety.”

Qin De nods smilingly then says loudly and clearly: “Gentlemen, all preparations have been made. Let’s get going.” Qin De walks directly toward a silvery white tiger. That white tiger has 2 wings on its body. It is none other than a king among tigers -- a sky-flying white tiger.

“Mister Liu Xing, I have a good impression of you.” Qin De suddenly turns his head to Qin Yu and says smilingly. Qin Yu politely gives a smile. Qin De then sits on the sky-flying white tiger.

“Good impression?” smiles Qin Yu. His father still does not know that this assassin Liu Xing is just his 3rd son Qin Yu. As before, Qin Yu follows Elder Blue-clad to get on the silvery-feathered golden-eyed condor. The other Xiantian experts either share flying animals or use flying animals of their own. The 15 people including Qin De then soar into the sky and fly eastward quickly.

End of b3c17.

[wandering]

B3C18: The Green Lotus mountain range (1)

Riding their flying animals, the group of 15 people including Qin De flies extremely fast eastward.

“In the end I’m still following father. This turn of events is really wonderful. When I couldn’t succeed despite trying hard, who could’ve thought that I would get my wish as assassin Liu Xing? This is just like how watched flowers never bloom but an unattended willow grows.” Looking at his father on the sky-flying white tiger ahead of him, Qin Yu cannot help giving a faint smile.

Qin Yu basically does not know the location selected for the tribulation this time. His current role is merely a bodyguard.

After flying for nearly 3 days and nights, during which time they took a break once for a meal, they finally arrives in the first destination -- a small city on the border of the Wilderness called Qingshi City.

“Come down!”

After shouting his order, Qin De takes the lead in diving down. The small airborne group at his back also dives down closely after him. They land directly on a place on the eastern side of Qingshi City. Qin Yu, however, feels that at this moment Xiao Hei is flying at a height of several thousand meters above them.

At age 7, Qin Yu took Xiao Hei in when it was still a chick. He will turn 19 in the new year so it has been almost 12 years ever since. One person and an eagle seem not to have been separated from each other for the last 12 years. A basically indescribable mysterious telepathy has even developed between them.

“Mister Ying, we’re going to stay the night here, aren’t we?” Elder Blue-clad asks Qin De.

The 5 Heavenly Net experts that Elder Blue-clad brings along are only loyal to the Heavenly Net’s leader, but even they do not know that the leader is a person of the Qin clan. To prevent accidents this time, Qin De has told Elder Blue-clad and Ge Min to call him Mister Ying.

“We’re staying the night here. Tomorrow morning everybody is going into the Wilderness so let’s have a good rest tonight.” Qin De gives a smile then turns to Ge Min and says: “Old man Ge, quickly prepare board and lodging for everyone.”

Ge Min says respectfully at once: “Yes, Mister Ying.”

In the evening, everyone has a meal in this considerably large house then most of them start to rest or go to sleep because, after all, they are going into the Wilderness tomorrow. No one, whether from the Heavenly Net or the Secret Arrow, has any complaints about their entry into the Wilderness.

Even if they are asked to die they will not be afraid of that, because they were already brainwashed when they started to be trained. However, there is a stranger going with them this time, namely peak Xiantian assassin Liu Xing.

Tonight has a bright moon but only a few stars. The bright Moon is hanging in a corner of the sky. Qin Yu has not gone to bed yet and is watching the Moon above from the courtyard.

“The Wilderness, I never thought that father would choose a location in the Wilderness to undergo his tribulation.” Qin Yu secretly groans. “One will encounter stronger demonic beasts as he goes deeper into the Wilderness. But I believe father won’t choose a place deep in the Wilderness to go through his tribulation.”

Suddenly, Qin Yu frowns and stops thinking because someone is approaching.

“Mister Liu Xing, you’re staying up so late. Could you be worrying about something?” Qin De says with a warm smile as he walks up to Qin Yu.

Immediately afterwards, another voice rises: “Mister Ying, there are demonic beasts in the Wilderness after all. Even though we aren’t going deep into the Wilderness this time, if we encounter any demonic beasts, it will still be very dangerous. Perhaps Mister Liu Xing can also feel that this journey is risky.” Fengyuzi also walks up to him.

Qin De says in an unconcerned manner: “Mister Liu Xing, if you find this mission risky, you can also give it up. We definitely won’t blame or laugh at you. After all, the Wilderness is a dangerous place.”

Qin De does not tell Qin Yu anything about the location he has selected this time. The Green Lotus mountain range is merely on the border of the Wilderness. The deeper a place is in the Wilderness, the more dangerous it becomes. The Green Lotus mountain range is no more than a huge mountain range on the border of the Wilderness so, even if it has wild beasts, Qin De and his entourage will still be able to handle them easily.

“Give up? Of course I won’t. I’m just wondering if we’ll encounter demonic beasts after coming into the Wilderness this time. Some demonic beasts are on the same level as Xiantian experts while some others are on a par with Shangxian. Some are even more formidable than Shangxian. If we encounter a demonic beast which is near a Shangxian’s caliber, I’m wondering whether I or it will eventually survive the fight to the death between us!” says Qin Yu indifferently.

“Gentlemen, I’m going back to rest first.” Qin Yu folds his hands and says.

“You’re going back to rest? Then we won’t trouble you anymore, Mister Liu Xing.” Qin De and Fengyuzi motion to him to proceed. Qin Yu then returns to his room directly, leaving only 2 people, Qin De and Fengyuzi, in the courtyard.

Fengyuzi makes a wave of his hand. A simple restrictive spell is immediately set up, isolating their voices completely from the outside of the spell.

“Brother Feng, what do you think about this assassin Liu Xing? I can feel Yu’er’s aura on his body.” Qin De slightly frowns and says.

At Qin De’s current level in power, he has developed a sense which is rather similar to the holy sense. No one will be able to fool people like him using only the Appearance and Bone Changing art. After all, any Xiantian expert can use the Appearance and Bone Changing art to the fullest and, moreover, Fengyuzi beside Qin De is a Xiuzhenist with an even more powerful holy sense.

Fengyuzi says with a slight frown: “When I used my holy sense to examine this Mister Liu Xing, I noticed that his aura is very similar to Xiao Yu’s and even thought that he was Xiao Yu. But later I discovered an extraordinary Xiantian energy inside Mister Liu Xing’s body. That kind of Xiantian energy is extremely terrifyingly destructive. Xiao Yu is a Xiantian external expert so he doesn’t have any internal energy. Mister Liu Xing, however, has Xiantian energy so he can’t be Xiao Yu.”

Qin De also says with a nod: “I felt it carefully too. This Mister Liu Xing’s aura is very profound and there are some differences between it and Xiao Yu’s.”

A person’s aura is dependent on his soul. After the Meteoric Tear fused with Qin Yu’s body, without his knowledge, some faint amounts of a mysterious energy from the Meteoric Tear have fused with his soul, slowly enhancing it unnoticed. Therefore, Qin Yu has undergone huge transformations during such a short time as the last half year.

This is the reason why, since Qin Yu and Qin De met each other again after a half year of separation, Qin De and Fengyuzi has not dared to confirm that this Mister Liu Xing is Qin Yu. Moreover, in the past Qin Yu told them that a Xiantian external expert only used physical power whereas this Mister Liu Xing has Xiantian energy.

Qin De does not know that Qin Yu acquired this purple Xiantian energy thanks to practicing the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram.

“However … I have a feeling that this Mister Liu Xing is worth trusting.” Qin De gives a smile then looks up at the bright moon in the night sky. At this moment he is thinking of his 3rd son, who has not returned home for a long time. “Yu’er, I owe you too much, but will I still have a chance to meet you again?”

Even though Qin De is fully prepared, he is not certain that he will overcome the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.

In the early morning of the next day, the 15 people start off with light luggage. They only enter the Wilderness on foot. Even the weakest among them is a late phase Xiantian expert so they have no problem using their lightness skills to go along mountain tracks, which are rough and steep.

On the way, Qin De often chats to Qin Yu. It seems he has a very good opinion of this mysterious Mister Liu Xing. The journey is long and winding. After going for 3 days, they finally set foot in the Wilderness. However, the Wilderness is immense. Its surface area is even much larger than the total area of all the countries on the Qian Long continent.

After entering the Wilderness, Qin De and his entourage go extremely fast along some safe tracks according to a prearranged road map. Every demonic beast in the Wilderness has its own territory. Qin De’s road map shows the gaps between the territories of some demonic beasts.

Of course, with Qin De’s and his entourage’s power, they are unafraid of the demonic beasts on the edge of the Wilderness. However, they do not want to waste their power for no reason.

After going along winding tracks for 5 days, they finally reach their destination -- the Green Lotus mountain range. It is a huge mountain range which runs continuously for several hundred li. Of course, a several-hundred-li long mountain range is totally insignificant in the Wilderness.

End of b3c18.

[wandering]

B3C19: The Green Lotus mountain range (2)

“The Green Lotus mountain range runs continuously for several hundred li and occupies an extremely large area. I’m going to choose a suitable place here to undergo my tribulation.” Qin De looks at the Green Lotus mountain range and says with a loud laugh. After going for such a long time, everyone has finally arrived in the Green Lotus mountain range safely despite some alerts along the way.

Fengyuzi says smilingly: “Mister Ying, allow me to find that location for you.” Fengyuzi’s holy sense has a slightly longer range than Qin Yu’s, reaching 1000 m in radius. In an unfamiliar area like this Green Lotus mountain range, using the holy sense to explore is indeed the best way.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you, brother Feng,” says Qin De with a nod.

Fengyuzi then go first. The other people follow him toward the inside of the Green Lotus mountain range. This is after all a mountain range in the Wilderness so there are a lot of wild beasts here. The density of holy energy in the Wilderness is much higher than in the other areas of the Qian Long continent and therefore the demonic beasts in the Wilderness are very formidable.

Following Fengyuzi, Qin Yu continuously goes forward. At the same time, he looks around.

In the process of finding the place for the tribulation, Qin Yu sees a herd of monkeys, a Xiantian-level single-horned leopard and even a Xiantian level sky-flying white tiger. However, no one in his group fears these demonic beasts. Those demonic beasts also feel that Qin De, Fengyuzi and the other people are formidable so they do not attack them.

After going for nearly a half day, it starts to get dark slowly …

“Found it. I never thought there’d be such a place.” Fengyuzi’s face has a hint of a pleasant surprise. “Everybody follow me.” As he finishes saying, he rushes directly toward a very ordinary cave in the distance in the mountain range. Qin De, Ge Min, Elder Blue-clad and the other people also go after him.

Everyone then enters the dark cave. There is absolutely no light in the cave but, luckily, all the people present can see in the dark. As they continuously go deeper, the cave’s diameter continuously decreases. At its smallest area, the cave even has only enough space for 1 person to enter at a time while stooping down. After they zigzag forward while bending about several tens meters, the cave widens again. Eventually, it can even accommodate several people going abreast. At the same time, there is light ahead of them.

That cave is a tunnel. As everyone comes out of the cave, they see a huge meadow surrounded by stone precipices before them. The meadow is several li in circumference. At first sight, it seems the cave everyone just went through is the only passage to this meadow. Of course, Xiuzhenists can fly into this place from the sky as well.

“There are only clusters of weeds and wild flowers. This place is no good.” Manager Ge Min says with a smile.

Qin Yu takes a look around but he cannot see anything good about this place either. The scenery is ordinary. There is nothing here other than some clusters of weeds and wild flowers on the ground and some wild horses in the distance. But after examining for a while, he suddenly feels giddy.

“There’s something strange about this place.” Qin Yu immediately guesses. The 1st thing that springs to his mind is the art of formation in Qi Men Dun Jia. However, it is too broad and deep while he has spent too little time researching it, so he only has a simple, superficial understanding of it at best.

“A natural illusive formation which secretly contains the 8 Diagrams is really hard to come by. Wait for me to modify it a bit!”

Fengyuzi laughs out loud and says. Then a flaming-red flying sword flies out from his palm. At the same time, the flaming-red flying sword suddenly becomes larger until it is 10 m long. The huge sword then chops fiercely at the stone precipices. As if they are tofu being cut with a knife, the shapes of the stone precipices are immediately altered by the chops.

In a short while, Fengyuzi withdraws the flying sword with satisfaction. By now, the shape of the entire valley has been slightly modified.

“Mister Ying, with the help of this natural 8 Diagrams formation, added to that I’ll set up a Reverse 8 Diagrams formation around you so that the Orthodox and Reverse 8 Diagrams formations will be integrated with each other and absorb the forces of nature in your surroundings to protect you, this time you’ll have a much better chance of overcoming the tribulation,” says Fengyuzi with a ha-ha laugh.

As soon as Qin De hears that, his face has a happy expression at once. He instantly says: “I’ll have to trouble you, brother Feng.” Fengyuzi then starts to set up restrictive spells and the formation with great concentration. To increase Qin De’s chance of success as much as possible, everyone is also confined in the natural formation.

******

The 2 martial brothers Wu De and Wu Xing have already arrived in the Green Lotus mountain range. Using their art of flying sword, they have brought along 2 old men apiece. These 4 old men who have come here with them are no ordinary people. They are all peak Xiantian experts and are the hidden super experts of the Xiang clan.

For the moment, Wu De, Wu Xing and the other 4 people are staying on a mountain peak of the Green Lotus mountain range.

“Seniors, according to our intelligence, Qin De should have already arrived in the Green Lotus mountain range for several days. Shouldn’t we also investigate at once where they have chosen to undergo the tribulation?” The leader of the 4 old men, a white-haired old man, says to Wu De and Wu Xing.

Wu De, his long hair fluttering, gives a smile. White-browed Wu Xing then says indifferently: “There’s no hurry. The Green Lotus mountain range is only several hundred li long. With the speed of our flying swords, in addition to checking using our holy sense, a night will be enough to find out where they are.”

Wu De says: “Martial younger brother, tonight let’s investigate carefully once to see where Qin De is actually hiding.”

“Okay. You’re far more powerful than Fengyuzi so when you use your holy sense to investigate he won’t feel anything.” There is a hint of arrogance on Wu Xing’s face. He simply does not worry about this mission at all.

Wu De and his martial younger brother consider Fengyuzi the only opponent because a middle phase Jindan stage expert like him will be a bit of a trouble. As for the other people, they simply pay no attention to them. A Xiuzhenist’s body is always protected by elemental energy and therefore those so-called high Xian-grade weapons will not be able to harm them.

******

Late at night, the bright Moon is hanging in the sky. Qin De and Qin Yu are sitting side by side talking to each other.

“Mister Liu Xing, I’ve always been curious about why you practice so hard,” says Qin De with a smile. Even though they have arrived in the Green Lotus mountain range for several days, this is the 1st time Qin De and the mysterious Mister Liu Xing have talked about this matter.

Qin Yu says with a smile: “Practice hard?” The 1st thing he thinks about is his father, but in the blink of an eye he remembers his current identity, so he says at once: “I practice hard firstly for my relatives and secondly because I want to pursue the limits in practice.”

Qin De does not know his identity anyway so Qin Yu says what he thinks directly.

“Oh? Pursuing the limits in practice?” Qin De becomes curious.

Qin Yu nods: “Yes, I actually long for the Xiuzhen world, in which I’ll be able to fly 10,000 li to the horizon when I make a movement, and kill my enemy from 1000 li away by drawing my sword when I’m angry! Fighting Heaven and Hell; battling demonic beasts.” Qin Yu has become a bit excited. He then shakes his head and says with a sigh. “Too bad, my power is still far from enough.”

“I believe you’ll definitely achieve your goal,” says Qin De smilingly.

“Maybe,” Qin Yu looks at his father before him. His heart slightly warms up.

He moved into Misty Villa when he was 6. For so many years, the journey to this place with his father has unexpectedly been the longest period of time he and his father have spent together. They have been chatting with each other everyday for the last several days like good friends.

……

A huge 8 Diagrams symbol is naturally formed by the entire valley. Fengyuzi has set up the base of the formation and linked it up with the valley using his elemental energy. Only in this way can he totally activate the power of such a natural 8 Diagrams formation. The natural 8 Diagrams formation absorbs holy energy then channels the energy toward the center of the valley via 8 paths.

In the center of the valley, there is a small Reverse 8 Diagrams formation. Qin De is sitting with legs crossed in the center of this Reverse 8 Diagrams formation.

The huge natural 8 Diagrams continuously absorb holy energy and channel it into the Reverse 8 Diagrams through 8 paths. After absorbing for 3 days, the Reverse 8 Diagrams formation has been filled with energy. At the moment, a terrifying force is moving nonstop in the Reverse 8 Diagrams formation. Qin De now can start this force off to form a protective cover.

“The 13 of you listen.” Fengyuzi says while staring at Qin Yu and the others.

Ge Min and the 5 people from the Secret Arrow, Elder Blue-clad and the 5 people from the Heavenly Net, and Qin Yu, there are 13 people altogether. These 13 people are listening to Fengyuzi’s orders.

“The huge natural 8 Diagrams formation hasn’t been activated yet. Once it’s started off, natural illusions will be created and you all will also be affected. Therefore, first, I’ll set up a small 8 Diagrams formation on the body of each of you. In this way, you won’t be affected by the illusions.” Fengyuzi says to everybody.

Fengyuzi has linked both the huge natural 8 Diagrams and the Reverse 8 Diagrams surrounding Qin De up using his elemental energy so they are totally under his control. As long as Fengyuzi uses his elemental energy to set up an 8 Diagrams formation on everyone, the huge formation will not affect any of them.

“If the enemies come, I’ll activate the huge natural 8 Diagrams formation at once to obstruct them. Once they are affected by the illusions while you aren’t, you must grasp the opportunity to kill them.” Fengyuzi tells everybody clearly what to do while looking at them.

They all understand that, when the enemies are affected by the illusions while they are not, it will exactly be the best chance to kill the enemies.

“Of course, there won’t necessarily be any enemies. I’m just cautioning you. However … you must remember one thing, that is, you mustn’t let anyone approach Mister Ying no matter what,” says Fengyuzi solemnly. Everybody also nods.

Starting from this time, Qin De always practices in the Reverse 8 Diagrams, trying to reach the best condition before the arrival of the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation. Naturally, he no longer chats with Qin Yu.

“Father.” Qin Yu looks at Qin De, who is practicing in the Reverse 8 Diagrams. He is silently hoping in his heart, hoping that his father will succeed. This period of time, during which he has often chatted with Qin De, has been his happiest period of time for the last 10 years.

The days pass. After 3 days of practicing, Qin De finally stops.

“The heavenly tribulation will come tonight.” Qin De says to everyone.

End of b3c19.

[wandering]

B3C20: The battle of the tribulation (1)

It gradually gets dark. Qin De is sitting with legs crossed in the center of the Reverse 8 Diagrams formation. Fengyuzi, Qin Yu and the other people are sitting randomly around Qin De. As every minute or second goes by, the 15 people in the valley know the heavenly tribulation is coming closer and they all become increasingly tense.

“Father.” Qin Yu slightly turns his head and looks at Qin De, who is sitting quietly. At this moment Qin De has a calm expression on his face. Qin Yu’s heart suddenly trembles because he knows it is extremely difficult for mortals to resist the power of a heavenly tribulation, even when it is the weakest -- the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.

“I won’t let anyone disturb you no matter what.” The look in Qin Yu’s eyes becomes even swifter and fiercer.

“Everybody, the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation is a minor heavenly tribulation. There’ll be 4 bolts of lightning striking down in total. During this period of time, all of us must stop anyone from disturbing Mister Ying. Moreover … don’t even dream about helping Mister Ying resist the thunderbolts. A heavenly tribulation is meant only for the person who has to go through it. If any of you tries to help Mister Ying resist the tribulation, he won’t get any help and, even worse, the thunderbolts will punish him.” Fengyuzi orders everyone.

As Fengyuzi has previous experience with the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, the people present immediately memorize what he said.

“Brother Feng, all of you please don’t get too uptight. Only a few people know that I chose the Green Lotus mountain range for my tribulation. No one will necessarily disturb me.” Qin De opens his eyes and says smilingly. Even though the heavenly tribulation is coming, he is still talking cheerfully and humorously.

Suddenly --

Fierce winds blow, sweeping across the ground and the sky, scattering the clouds. Within several hundred li of the valley, all of the clouds in the air have been blown elsewhere in a short while. At the same time, the color of the sky above the valley gradually changes and turns into dark red.

“The heavenly tribulation is arriving!” shouts Fengyuzi immediately. Everyone becomes nervous at once. Qin Yu even feels as if his heart is about to jump out of his chest.

The dark red sky seems to be gathering over everyone’s head, which puts them under great pressure. It then starts to rotate, rotating nonstop like a maelstrom in the ocean. Various purple thunderbolts appear in the dark red sky, as if created out of thin air. They then get absorbed by that huge maelstrom.

The maelstrom spins faster and faster. The holy energy within several hundred li of it has become totally chaotic. Various huge serpentine electrical sparks are zigzagging in the maelstrom. After some time, the maelstrom gradually slows down. It eventually stops rotating and turns into a purple tribulation cloud.

The dark red sky, the purple tribulation cloud, and the serpentine electrical sparks in the cloud,

Everyone in the valley looks into the sky, including Qin Yu. Seeing the heavenly might making its appearance in such a terrifying manner, Qin Yu feels as if a rock has been put on his heart and finds it difficult to breathe. He clenches his teeth and glances at his father with fierce, glittering eyes.

“Father, you must succeed!”

Qin Yu is hoping in his heart.

Boom!

Suddenly there is a great crash of thunder. A purple thunderbolt which looks like a sinuous dragon strikes down at Qin De in the center of the valley. Everyone present knows that the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation has 4 thunderbolts in total and each is more formidable than the previous. When even the 1st thunderbolt is already so imposing, it can be imagined how terrifying the heavenly tribulation is.

“Up!”

Qin De stands up in the center of the Reverse 8 Diagrams formation and starts it off. Various beams of light begins to move around the edge of the Reverse 8 Diagrams formation nonstop then turn into a cover of energy on its edge, protecting Qin De’s entire body thoroughly.

Even though the energy cover uses the holy energy of the natural huge 8 Diagrams formation, only after the Reverse 8 Diagrams formation absorbed holy energy for 3 whole days and became filled could it be formed. The power of the energy cover, therefore, is indeed strong.

Boom!

The purple thunderbolt strikes upon that green energy cover. The green holy energy of the Reverse 8 Diagrams formation hurriedly circulates. The energy cover also trembles for a short time but it has just really withstood the 1st thunderbolt. Seeing this scene, Qin Yu secretly feels relieved.

“This natural 8 Diagrams formation is really strong enough. The 8 Diagrams restrictive energy cover it created was even able to withstand the 1st thunderbolt without breaking apart.” Fengyuzi has a faint happy expression on his face.

……

Not far from the valley at the moment, Wu De and Wu Xing are standing on their flying swords respectively, bringing along 2 old men each.

“Martial brother, that Qin De unexpectedly overcame the 1st thunderbolt. Also, we even let him find a natural 8 Diagrams formation. What rotten luck!” Wu Xing says with a cold laugh.

Wu De says in an unconcerned manner: “There’s no need to worry. Each of the 4 thunderbolts of the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation is more dangerous than the previous. The 1st thunderbolt was merely an appetizer. It’ll be hard for Qin De to overcome all of them. Moreover, even if he overcame the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, he would be seriously injured. At that time, with our power, it’d be easy to kill him.”

Generally, after overcoming a tribulation, the practitioner’s body will be badly damaged. How can a badly injured early-phase Jindan-stage novice possibly be a match for middle-phase Jindan-stage Wu Xing and late-phase Jindan-stage Wu De?

“Shangxian, could we spring into action right now?” The leader of the 4 old men asks respectfully at once. In the Xiang clan, these 4 old men are called Four Directions Death Gods. Their respective code names are East, South, West and North. And they have been granted the royal last name Xiang.

Hearing that, Wu De slightly nods: “Martial younger brother, the 2nd thunderbolt is charging now. Once it strikes down, their attention will surely be distracted by that scene. At that time, we’ll attack like lightning and destroy them at one stroke!”

“Yes, martial brother.” Wu Xing becomes excited as well.

……

The purple tribulation cloud continuously rolls. It sends out one strong force after another, frightening everyone in the valley. The 2nd thunderbolt will obviously be much more powerful.

“Hah!”

Qin De utters a series of low shouts. At the same time, a dragon-like body-protecting energy appears on the surface of his body. To be exact, this body-protecting energy, which seems almost materialized, is none other than the body-protecting technique of the Shi Huang Ancestral Dragon Art at the peak of the Xiantian level.

Concurrently with that, a dark red long sword appears in Qin De’s hand. It is exactly a middle-grade holy weapon and also Qin De’s trump card to overcome the tribulation.

Qin Yu is focusing most of his attention on his father. Fengyuzi, Elder Blue-clad and the others are also watching Qin De take on the tribulation attentively. No one even dares to breathe heavily so the atmosphere is very tense. Suddenly the air shudders.

Boom!

Another purple thunderbolt strikes down extremely fast from the sky. This thunderbolt is even thicker and radiates a more dazzling purple light than the the 1st one. It almost reaches Qin De in an instant. Qin Yu and the others become nervous. However, at this moment --

“Enemy’s raiding!”

Fengyuzi’s voice suddenly rises in the ears of the other 13 people. Qin Yu and the others are startled. Fengyuzi did not shout because he feared he would alarm Qin De, so he could only use controlled sound transference. At the same time, he makes signs with both hands. The entire natural 8 Diagrams formation in the valley is activated. Various streams of elemental energy start to run throughout the whole formation.

“Ha-ha, Fengyuzi, you think this kind of formation can block me and my martial brother? Are you dreaming?” White-browed Wu Xing says with a loud laugh as he comes down from the sky on his huge flying sword, bringing along 2 old men at his back. On his side, fluttering-long-haired Wu De also dives down standing on his flying sword with 2 old men behind him.

“2 Xiuzhenists.” Qin Yu is shocked. Then he clenches his teeth and stares at those 2 Shangxian with blazing eyes. “I’ll put my neck on the line. I won’t let them disturb father during his tribulation no matter what.”

End of b3c20.

[wandering]

B3C21: The battle of the tribulation (2)

At the same time --

Boom!

The 2nd thunderbolt strikes upon the 8 Diagrams protective cover with a terrifying force. Immediately, the protective cover starts to shake as if it is a water surface. The force of the thunderbolt and the energy of the protective cover continuously cancel out each other. Concurrently with that, various written talismans rise to the surface of the protective cover from within.

“No good.” At the moment, Qin Yu activates his holy sense, and he is also partly paying attention to his father, so he can feel clearly that the energy of the protective cover is weakening extremely fast.

The 8 Diagrams protective cover suddenly breaks apart. At the same time, those written talismans on its surface also disappear. However, even though the protective cover created by the 8 Diagrams formations have been shattered, luckily, the 2nd thunderbolt’s energy has also been drained away.

“Qin De, you’re very lucky to have found this natural 8 Diagrams formation and neutralized 2 thunderbolts with it. Too bad, each of the 4 thunderbolts of the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation is more dangerous than the previous. The last 2 thunderbolts will be very different from the first ones!” Wu Xing’s white brows are so long they touch his temples, but he looks swift and fierce.

“Martial younger brother, don’t waste time. Let’s roll!” Wu De gives an order.

“Yes, martial brother. The 4 of you kill all of those Xiantian experts. I myself can handle Fengyuzi.” Wu Xing’s eyes flash with savagery. The 4 old men look at each other then nod. They instantly jump down from the flying swords and charge toward the inside of the 8 Diagrams formation.

The 4 old men, who are all dressed in gray, are very powerful as well.

“Be careful, this formation contains illusions. Let’s kill them with eyes closed.” As soon as East Xiang enters the formation he knows there is something wrong, so he immediately shouts loudly.

“Yes, big brother!” The other 3 old men accept his order at once. At their current level, it will not matter even if they have to fight their enemies with eyes closed. Their holy senses have not been developed yet, but they are capable of vague extra-sensory perception. Moreover, they can also locate anyone in their vicinity through hearing.

The 4 people all close their eyes and stay motionless in the formation.

“4 peak Xiantian experts, this is pretty troublesome.” Fengyuzi thinks like a flash. In an instant, he orders: “Ge Min, you’ll lead the 5 Elements Commanders to deal with Wu Xing. I’ll handle Wu De. As for the other 4 old men, the rest will handle them!”

At this moment, the tribulation cloud starts to roll again. A rumble of thunder rises in the sky. The cloud is gathering electricity. As the thunderbolts become more powerful in order of appearance, it takes longer to charge them in order of appearance as well. Qin De’s entire energy and mind have been focused on dealing with the heavenly tribulation so he simply does not notice that a great battle is starting.

“Ha-ha …” Wu De laughs out loud then stares at Fengyuzi and says: “Humph, Fengyuzi, a middle-phase Jindan-stage weakling like you will attempt to fight me?” Having heard what Fengyuzi said just now, he has naturally become furious. He is a late Jindan-stage expert while Fengyuzi is only at the middle phase of the Jindan stage so there is a huge difference in power between them.

“Fengyuzi, you even sent some Xiantian experts to deal with me? Ha-ha …” Wu Xing is so infuriated that he bursts out laughing. In his eyes, Xiantian experts simply cannot even break his defense, so naturally he feels humiliated by Fengyuzi making such an arrangement.

Fengyuzi gives a cold laugh but says nothing. The fact that he possesses a middle-grade holy weapon is a secret. A middle-grade holy weapon is several times more powerful than a low-grade one. A spear-wielding kid can kill a knife-wielding adult -- this is the benefit of having a better weapon.

“Kill!” Wu De and Wu Xing suddenly shout.

Like a flash, Wu De charges directly at Fengyuzi on his flying sword. Wu Xing also comes into the large formation standing on his flying sword. Even though there are illusions in this formation, Wu De and Wu Xing directly use their holy senses to observe so they simply ignore the effects of an elementary formation like this one.

This natural 8-Diagrams formation merely makes use of the natural geography of the valley to create some simple illusions therefore nothing in it can escape the observation of the holy sense. Real top-class illusive formations can even affect the holy sense, but it is regrettable that Fengyuzi has not reached a level in power where he can use them yet.

“Ah!”

After a series of explosions, a miserable cry rises and blood splatters everywhere. A man falls on the ground with a loud sound and dies on the spot. All the other people are stupefied. Even Wu De and the other Xiuzhenists also pay some attention to that at once.

West Xiang, the 3rd old man of the Four Directions Death Gods sent by the Xiang clan, has unexpectedly been killed by someone right after he came forward.

“3rd younger brother!”

“3rd younger brother!”

……

East Xiang and the other 2 old men instantly become furious. The 4 of them have been with each other for over 100 years and had a deep affection for each other. Their brotherhood is even closer than that of blood brothers. A special telepathy has even developed between them. When the 3rd old men died just now, the other 3 could immediately sense that he was dead. Today the 3rd among them has died but, due to being affected by the illusions, they simply do not know who killed him.

“That was awesome, Mister Liu Xing!” Elder Blue-clad transfers his voice confidentially into Qin Yu’s ears.

Qin Yu smiles coldly.

Locating through hearing? What if they cannot hear any sounds?

Just now Qin Yu used his body-maneuvering skill and did not create any wind sounds. Even though the Xiang clan’s Four Directions Death Gods are peak Xiantian experts and somewhat capable of extra-sensory perception, but because Qin Yu has always been holding back his aura, West Xiang and his brothers have been unable to sense his aura.

If a person is to hold back his aura completely, he must not channel his internal energy. In this way, it will be impossible for other people to sense his aura.

However, during a battle, everyone uses Xiantian energy or elemental energy, so how can anyone possibly hold back their aura? But Qin Yu can, because just now he did not use his purple Xiantian energy at all and only relied on his physical power.

East Xiang and his 2 brothers are extremely shocked. At the moment they simply cannot see anyone because of the illusions whereas all of the people on Qin De’s side are not affected by the formation. The death of West Xiang just now has frightened them.

“Disturb father during his tribulation, die!” Qin Yu transfers his voice confidentially into South Xiang’s ears directly.

South Xiang is shocked at once: “Father?” Before this South Xiang can understand what it means, a punch suddenly smashes on the left side of his chest. His heart is immediately pulverized as if he has been hit by a huge sledgehammer in the chest. He falls on the ground and dies instantly with eyes popping.

“2nd younger brother!” cries East Xiang mournfully.

“2nd brother!” cries North Xiang hurriedly as well. “Who’s that? Come out and fight me openly!” He has become extremely furious because 2 of his brothers have been killed in only a short while.

“That brat is really troublesome. His movements don’t cause any wind sounds and he doesn’t give off any aura.” Wu Xing’s holy sense locks onto Qin Yu. He immediately shouts: “Brat, prepare to die.”

Qin Yu takes a look at Wu Xing. He is slightly startled in his heart.

“Should I use the Flaming Sword and Flaming Gloves?” He starts to consider.

A Xiuzhenist’s offense is too powerful so he must rely on his middle-grade holy weapons, the Flaming Sword and Flaming Gloves, at crucial moments. Without using the middle-grade holy weapons, he will simply have no chance of winning. But once he uses them, his identity will probably be revealed.

“5 Elements Commanders, get in formation!” Ge Min’s voice rises at the same time.

The 5 late-phase Xiantian experts of the Secret Arrow immediately stand in front of Qin Yu. If Wu Xing wants to kill Qin Yu, he will have to kill all the 5 of them first. Wu Xing sneers hideously: “Only some insects who want to die. Don’t blame me for having no mercy.” As he finishes saying, he points at his flying sword. The sword immediately shoots at one of them.

Concurrently with that, late-phase Jindan-stage Wu De and middle-phase Jindan-stage Fengyuzi also clash forcefully at last --

Boom!

A terrifying noise is heard. 2 swords, one being flaming red and the other being golden, clash head-on with full force. There is a smile on Wu De’s face. His power is far superior to Fengyuzi’s so he likes clashing head-on the most.

After the violent collision, Wu De’s face instantly goes pale. A little blood trickles out of the corners of his mouth. At the same time he looks at Fengyuzi in disbelief: “Your, your flying sword …”

Fengyuzi’s face is also pale, but his eyes are shining brightly. He says with a cold laugh: “Wu De, today I’ll let you know how great the difference between a low-grade holy weapon and a middle-grade one is!” At the moment, Fengyuzi is high-spirited and vigorous.

Xiuzhenists’ offense is dependent on their holy weapons. He and Wu De use flying swords so their offensive forces are determined by the flying swords.

Bang!

A dark red short knife appears in a hand of each of the Secret Arrow’s 5 Elements Commanders. They block the flying sword directly with the knives. At the same time, their bodies make a shake to neutralize the impact force. While Wu Xing is startled by this, the 5 Elements Commanders instantly surround him and attack him together using the short knives.

Seeing the 5 middle-grade holy weapons coming at him together, Wu Xing is shocked: “Middle-grade holy weapons! My goodness! There’re so many middle-grade holy weapons!” He simply does not dare to block them with his body-protecting elemental energy because the offensive force of middle-grade holy weapons is simply not something that body-protecting elemental energy can withstand. Moreover, he only has one flying sword so he can only kill 1 opponent in an instant at most whereas there are 5 of them.

Whizz!

Wu Xing steps on his flying sword then flies into the sky immediately. He can only exploit the 5 Elements Commanders’ incapability of flight.

Wu Xing’s and Wu De’s eyes are blazing. These are middle-grade holy weapons, no less! Even in the Overseas Immortal Islands, with their current power levels, they will not be able to obtain such priceless treasures. Now, seeing so many middle-grade holy weapons, they have become excited.

“Martial younger brother!”

“Martial brother!”

Wu Xing and Wu De seem to use controlled sound transference to talk to each other at the same time. They both understand what the other is thinking.

They must risk their lives!

Even if they are seriously injured, they must obtain these middle-grade holy weapons!

Wu Xing and Wu De have been fooling around since the beginning but now they have become ruthless. They even think it is worth getting badly injured to obtain the middle-grade holy weapons. Once these 2 Xiuzhenists are determined to risk their lives, their offense will not be the same as it was just now.

“Bang!” Wu De makes a pointing movement with a finger. His flying sword becomes a huge sword and cuts the base of the formation into pieces in an instant. At the same time, the flying sword sends out several huge streams of sword air, wrecking the walls of the valley with a loud noise. Now the entire natural 8 Diagrams formation has been destroyed so the illusions have disappeared completely as well.

“The illusions have been destroyed. Let’s avenge your brothers’ deaths. That black-clad brat is the killer.” Wu De shouts loudly.

East Xiang and North Xiang open their eyes wide at once and cast a look at Qin Yu.

Boom!

A dragon-like purple thunderbolt shoots down from the 9th level of the sky, sending a repressing force through the air to everyone. It strikes down directly at Qin De in the center of the valley. This is the 3rd thunderbolt and, even worse, now Qin De is not protected by the protective cover anymore and has to rely on himself.

“Father!” Qin Yu focuses part of his attention on Qin De.

“Die!” With completely red eyes, East Xiang and North Xiang unleash their entire internal energy and explosively attack Qin Yu with their most powerful strikes.

End of b3c21.

[wandering]

B3C22: The battle of the tribulation (3)

Seeing 2 enemies coming at him, Qin Yu slightly narrows his eyes, which then glitter with coldness. Suddenly, he slightly raises the corners of his mouth and, simultaneously, like the wind … he runs directly to another place extremely fast. Who would have thought that at this moment Qin Yu would flee from the battle and, moreover, he would run extremely fast toward the end of the valley? East Xiang and North Xiang become infuriated at once.

“Don’t run!”

2 brothers of theirs have been killed so East Xiang and North Xiang hate Qin Yu’s guts. Uttering 2 furious shouts, the 2 of them chase after Qin Yu.

“Father, you must succeed!” The reason Qin Yu is fleeing from the battle is that at the moment he simply cannot fight with his entire concentration. Because the 3rd thunderbolt has struck down, he is moving extremely fast while paying close attention to Qin De using his holy sense.

A dragon-shaped mass of energy is revolving around the outside of Qin De’s body. His hand is holding a middle-grade holy-class dark red long sword. A middle-grade holy weapon is extremely powerful. In the past Fengyuzi was able to overcome his 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation using just a low-grade holy weapon. Of course, at that time he achieved this with the help of his school of Xiuzhen.

Qin De raises his head and looks at the purple thunderbolt. The dark red long sword in his hand radiates various dazzling rays of light.

“Boom!” The thunderbolt strikes down at his head!

“Hah!” Qin De lifts the dark red long sword to resist it. At the same time, he channels one Xiantian energy stream after another into the dark red long sword.

The purple thunderbolt strikes upon the long sword. The dark red long sword trembles continuously but, because a middle-grade holy weapon is extremely hard, not even the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation’s 3rd thunderbolt can break it. In just a short while, the purple thunderbolt disappears, leaving only several serpentine electrical sparks running along the dark red long sword.

Qin De’s face has turned slightly pale.

“Ha-ha … with this middle-grade holy weapon, it’s really much easier to go through the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.” At this moment, Qin De starts to feel very confident. He is totally certain that he will also withstand the last thunderbolt. The energy inside Qin De’s body then surges forth and the energy on his sword unexpectedly becomes even more dazzlingly incandescent.

Qin Yu’s tense heart feels relieved.

His father has finally overcome the 3rd thunderbolt safely.

“Bastard, don’t run if you’ve got skills!” East Xiang and North Xiang feel as if their eyes’ corners are about to crack. They have been chasing after Qin Yu nonstop, but in terms of body-maneuvering skills, Qin Yu, who has taken off the weights on his body, has already outstripped peak Xiantian experts.

“Ha-ha … Taste my fists, 2 clowns!” Qin Yu, who has been running extremely fast, unexpectedly turns around all of a sudden and throws 2 punches at the 2 of them with both fists, which seem as if they are 2 swimming dragons coming out of water.

East Xiang’s and North Xiang’s internal energy has already surged to their utmost early on. Seeing Qin Yu unexpectedly stop running, they rejoice at once. Each of them concentrates his internal energy and throws a punch at Qin Yu. As they both have been practicing for over 100 years, how powerful will their offense be when they join forces?

Qin Yu’s 2 fists collide with East Xiang’s and North Xiang’s fists respectively.

Bang!

The violent collisions even create a faint, visible shock wave in the air.

Qin Yu’s body immediately flies up. At the same time, his whole body’s muscles vibrate for a short while. Thanks to his great control of the body alone, Qin Yu can already neutralize more than half of East Xiang and North Xiang’s fierce offensive force. Given Qin Yu’s body, the remainder of the force simply can do nothing to him.

East Xiang and North Xiang exchange a look. Their eyes are filled with a bloodthirsty excitement.

They can feel that the enemy before them is powerful. However, judging from the exchange of blows just now, they know the enemy can only deal with one of them at a time, and once they join forces, he will not be a match for them.

“Kill!”

East Xiang and North Xiang charge at Qin Yu like lightning with immense savagery.

Qin Yu, however, gives a cold laugh. Having practiced the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagram, not only does he possess the purple Xiantian energy now, the purple Xiantian energy has also transformed his body once again. His body’s defense has already reached a level where he is unafraid of black iron weapons in general. During the exchange of blows just now, he only used his physical power.

Qin Yu’s body makes a swaying movement and bypasses the 2 of them easily like a clear wind.

“Grand elder, all of you handle that Xiuzhenist. I can deal with these 2 geezers myself.” His voice resounds through the entire valley.

Hearing that, Elder Blue-clad immediately says with a ha-ha laugh: “Mister Liu Xing, those Four Directions Death Gods are very famous but you’ve killed 2 of them. If you’re interested in the remaining 2 then we’ll leave them to you. Boys, form the Double Illusive 5 Elements formation.”

After Elder Blue-clad shouts loudly, the 5 assassins of the Heavenly Net and the 5 experts of the Secret Arrow unexpectedly pair up with 2 people of a pair staying close to each other.

The 5 Secret Arrow experts have middle-grade holy weapons but the 5 Heavenly Net assassins do not. However, this so-called Double Illusive 5 Elements formation was created by improving the bases of the 5 Elements formation, and therefore, even though 10 people are surrounding Wu Xing, only 5 of them will exchange blows with him at a time.

The 5 Heavenly Net assassins and the 5 Secret Arrow experts attack in turn, alternating 3 Secret Arrow experts and 2 Heavenly Net assassins attacking at the same time with 2 Secret Arrow experts and 3 Heavenly Net assassins attacking at the same time.

In short, there are always 5 people attacking at any time.

“Ah ~~~ so many middle-grade holy weapons!” Wu Xing is extremely furious. He can only rely on his holy sense and his extremely fast body-maneuvering skill to flash around nonstop. What infuriates him the most is that these 10 people simply do not fear death. Even if they get killed, they will still try to stab him in vital points with their middle-grade holy weapons.

Now,

The battle in the valley has been divided into 3 fights. One is Qin Yu versus East Xiang and North Xiang.

Another is Xiuzhenist Wu Xing versus 5 Secret Arrow experts in addition to 5 Heavenly Net experts.

The last one is between middle-grade-holy-weapon-wielding Fengyuzi and low-grade-holy-weapon-wielding Wu De. This 3rd fight, however, is the most devastating one. As Fengyuzi and Wu De battles each other, they cause loud explosions continuously, smash rocks and break down the rocky cliffs.

At the moment, Elder Blue-clad and Ge Min are not far from Xiuzhenist Wu Xing and are ready for a sneak attack.

“2 old geezers, prepare … to die!” says Qin Yu with a cold laugh.

“Shameless blowhard!” East Xiang gives a cold laugh. He and North Xiang charge at Qin Yu side by side like 2 beams of light.

Suddenly someone shouts loudly --

“Mister Liu Xing, I’m helping you now!” Ge Min rushes directly towards North Xiang like lightning. To avoid getting attacked from behind, East Xiang and North Xiang instantly split up. Holding his weapon in his hand North Xiang faces Ge Min off directly while East Xiang continues to come at Qin Yu.

Qin Yu slightly frowns. Is Ge Min not being too meddlesome? However, he has come to help so Qin Yu cannot say anything.

Qin Yu reaches out his hand, forms a claw and channels his purple Xiantian energy. All of a sudden, Qin Yu’s right hand, which has become lustrous and transparent like jade, tears through the air, grabbing at East Xiang. Seeing Qin Yu’s jade-like right hand, East Xiang immediately knows that he is in trouble.

“This brat was hiding his power just now!” East Xiang’s eyes pop out of his head.

But it is already too late.

Like a flash, Qin Yu’s right hand comes close to East Xiang’s front in an instant. It follows a changing indeterminate path of movement but causes no wind sounds.

“Clack!” A series of noises of bones shattering is heard. Qin Yu’s right hand, whose path of movement is changing and indeterminate, has unexpectedly gone around East Xiang’s right hand and directly grabbed his right wrist to pieces. East Xiang only sees a purple illusion before he feels an acute pain in his wrist. At the same time ---

His consciousness gradually vanishes away.

Just now, in only a moment, not only did Qin Yu continuously break East Xiang’s right wrist to pieces, he also pierced a hole in East Xiang’s throat directly using a finger strike. His speed was extremely fast so even East Xiang could only see a purple illusion.

“Indeed, this purple Xiantian energy is very profound. Not only can it leave my body to attack like the ordinary Xiantian energy, it can also fuse with my muscles and body parts, increasing my speed once again.” At this moment, there is a hint of excitement on Qin Yu’s face.

“Ah!”

There are a miserable cry and a strangled groan.

North Xiang has fallen on the ground with a miserable cry whereas Ge Min has been seriously injured and sent flying powerlessly. Ge Min’s body shoots up in the air uncontrollably then falls down. Very coincidentally, he falls precisely towards Qin De’s location. However, at this moment Qin De is preparing to take on the last thunderbolt.

The tribulation cloud is rolling violently, looking shockingly powerful and causing an area of astonishingly high pressure under it. Obviously the 4th thunderbolt will strike down soon.

“Manager Ge!” Seeing that Ge Min has been seriously injured, Qin De cannot help getting concerned. He reaches out his hands to pull Ge Min’s fallen body up.

“Your Highness, I’m … alright.” Ge Min says to Qin De with a shake of the head. At the moment, his face is very pale and his breathing is weak.

Suddenly --

Bang!

Qin De’s face suddenly turns very pale. He spits out a mouthful of blood as if it is worthless water. The other people are all shocked by this scene.

It turns out Ge Min has hit Qin De in the stomach with a heavy palm strike.

“Ha-ha … Qin De, how are you going to escape death this time?!” Ge Min’s body gets away like a flash. His face is full of excitement. At the same moment, North Xiang, who fell on the ground with a miserable cry earlier, also stands up. Now he is extremely excited as well.

“Ha-ha, after 100 years of infiltration, today you’ve really done a great work.” North Xiang says with a loud ha-ha laugh.

Seeing this scene, Qin Yu becomes utterly nervous: “Father!” He wants to shout out but cannot so he has no choice but to worry about his father in his heart. At the same time he looks at Ge Min and North Xiang. His eyes are filled with killing intent.

“Ge Min, you dirty dog!” Elder Blue-clad also yells furiously.

Qin De looks at Ge Min but he only gives a disappointed smile: “Ge Min, only a few people know that I chose the Green Lotus mountain range to undergo my tribulation this time but Xiang Guang still got wind of this and even sent 2 Shangxian to this place. At that time I already suspected treachery.”

“However, the people who know about this -- you, Blue-clad, Xu Yuan and the other -- were the people I trust the most. I couldn’t believe any of you was a traitor. But …” Qin De heaves a sigh.

Suddenly, there are various series of explosions in the tribulation cloud in the dark red sky. The atmospheric pressure in the valley instantly increases to a whole new level as if the air is being pressed on by something. Everyone present knows that the 4th thunderbolt is about to strike down.

However, now … Qin De has already been badly injured.

End of b3c22.

[wandering]

B3C23: Death (1)

Even though the 4th thunderbolt is about to strike down, Qin Yu can see that Qin De has not even wiped the blood off his mouth yet. Seeing his father’s pale face, the blood in his entire body starts to boil and his eyes gradually redden.

A violent killing intent continuously whirls about in the bottom of his heart.

After accepting this mission, when he discovered that the object of the mission was to protect his father just as he had guessed, he was so delighted and made a resolution to protect his father from any troubles no matter what from the bottom of his heart.

However, at the moment …

“Father is seriously injured but the most formidable, the 4th thunderbolt is about to strike down. What should I do? What should I do?!!!” Qin Yu is extremely anxious in his heart. He is racked with guilt. A person’s chance of overcoming the 4th thunderbolt right after getting badly injured is too low, but he cannot receive any help. “It’s my fault. If I had killed North Xiang a bit earlier, Ge Min would’ve had no chance to approach father with a fake serious injury!”

Even though it is not Qin Yu’s fault, he blames himself a lot in his heart. He made a resolution to defend his father from troubles but now his father has been badly wounded by an enemy.

“They must die, all of them!!!” Qin Yu’s eyes glance at North Xiang and Ge Min, flashing with killing intent.

He clenches his fists. The purple Xiantian energy in his body starts to surge and continuously fuse with his entire body. After absorbing this Xiantian energy, his vigorous body looks as if it is entirely made of purple jade. He then violently bursts forth the purple Xiantian energy to the utmost. His body is completely covered in a purple light at once.

Whizz!

An insanely sharp whistle rises. A purple silhouette charges directly at North Xiang. Even though North Xiang only sees a purple silhouette, upon feeling its aura, he finds out that this purple silhouette is none other than Qin Yu, the killer of his 3 brothers.

There is, however, madness in North Xiang’s eyes. He thinks the mission has been accomplished and does not believe a badly injured Qin De will be able to survive the 4th thunderbolt. His 3 brothers have died so even if he escapes alive he will have to live in agony.

“Let’s die together!”

Seeing Qin Yu coming at him, North Xiang utters a wild roar and utilizes the Xiantian energy in his body according to the last, suicide special skill of the Conqueror’s Heaven Opposing Art. In an instant, his raging Xiantian energy completely explodes. The entire energy inside peak Xiantian expert North Xiang explodes instantly like a bomb but Qin Yu still collides with North Xiang’s body fiercely like a meteor.

As easy as smashing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood!

“Die!”

Qin Yu clenches his teeth. He simply does not use a punch or kick. Rather, he unleashes his power to the utmost. The purple Xiantian energy fuses with his body then forms a body-protecting layer of energy around him. Right afterwards, he smashes himself into North Xiang at his fastest speed like a meteor.

He wants to smash into North Xiang to the death.

Boom!

The moment North Xiang collides with Qin Yu, his entire body explodes. His flesh and bone fragments scatter all over the place. His blood even splatters all over the sky. However, Qin Yu’s entire body instantly passes through North Xiang’s body like a purple meteor.

The other people freeze with stupefaction.

Killing can also be done via collision like this?

Everyone looks at the purple silhouette of Qin Yu. In their eyes, this mysterious assassin Liu Xing’s offense is a bit too terrifying. Moreover, he was able to kill a peak Xiantian expert with only a collision of their bodies.

“Self-explode, self-explode … too bad, my body’s strength is no longer something any of you can imagine.” A faint cold smile appears on the corners of his mouth. To be fair, North Xiang’s self-explosion in the end was really powerful. Any other Xiantian expert would definitely have been killed by it.

Unluckily for him, Qin Yu is the unprecedented Xiantian external expert, whose bodily toughness is far beyond other people’s imagination. Moreover, having continuously undergone the transformations caused by the technique of the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams, his body alone has come close to ordinary Xian-grade weapons in hardness. And when the miraculous purple Xiantian energy fuses with his body and forms a protective layer of energy around him, not even Xian-grade weapons will be able to break his defense.

“Ge Min, you are … unforgivable!” Qin Yu stares at Ge Min.

Being given a stare by Qin Yu, Ge Min gets goose bumps a little. He then says smilingly: “Mister Liu Xing, you’re just an assassin. Why are you risking your life for Qin De? Your mission’s reward is only a high Xian-grade weapon, isn’t it? If you help me deal with them, His Majesty will reward you with even more.”

Boom!

A terrifyingly thunderous noise is heard. The last, the 4th thunderbolt shoots out fiercely from the tribulation cloud like a huge purple dragon and strikes straight down. The other people including Qin Yu instantly stop fighting and look at Qin De.

Qin De utters a low shout. His face suddenly becomes very red.

All of a sudden, a resounding dragon cry rises from inside his body. A huge golden dragon which is made of energy and is almost materialized suddenly leaves Qin De’s body and fiercely soars into the sky on a collision course with the 4th thunderbolt.

Boom!

The huge dragon-like purple thunderbolt and the huge golden energy dragon crash together violently. A raging shock wave expands and wrecks havoc in the vicinity of the collision. In only a short while, the huge goden energy dragon disappears. However, the huge dragon-like purple thunderbolt has also been weakened by more than 50%. But the remainder of the purple thunderbolt keeps striking down.

Bang!

Qin De points the dark red long sword up into the sky and meets the purple thunderbolt with it. The thunderbolt strikes directly upon the dark red long sword, which then radiates a dazzling light. Qin De’s face suddenly goes pale. His body gets a violent shock. In just a short while, the energy of the thunderbolt unexpectedly dissipates.

Qin De then lies motionless on the ground because of weariness.

“Succeeded?” Qin Yu freezes with stupefaction. Seeing this scene, anyone can understand what it means.

Qin De has succeeded. Relying on the natural 8 Diagrams formation and his middle-grade holy long sword, Qin De has still overcome the tribulation despite his serious injury. However, because he is lying wearily on the ground at the moment, it is obvious that his injury is extremely serious.

In the sky, the tribulation cloud gradually dissipates. The dark red sky also changes back to the starry sky as before. A myriad of stars appear all over the sky before everyone’s eyes.

Qin Yu’s heart is filled with an extreme happiness. Even though his father is seriously injured, all that matters is that he has overcome the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation. With the help of the Qin clan’s treasures, this injury will recover very fast. And Qin De will form his Jindan very fast to become a Xiuzhenist as well.

“Ge Min!” Qin Yu looks at Ge Min. His eyes are full of killing intent.

Ge Min, however, slightly frowns and looks at Qin De: “I never thought, never thought that he’d practice the Ancestral Dragon Art to the highest level like Shi Huang before. Even if he didn’t have the middle-grade holy weapon, I think he would still have been able to overcome the heavenly tribulation.”

Suddenly, Ge Min trembles because he feels someone’s killing intent not far from him. He immediately takes a look. It is none other than Qin Yu.

Thinking about how Qin Yu killed the Four Directions Death Gods just now, Ge Min of course knows that he himself is not a match for him. He resents secretly: “If I had a middle-grade holy weapon, how could I possibly fear this assassin Liu Xing? When Qin De used In-rock Flaming iron to forge middle-grade holy weapons at that time, because the material was limited, he forged a battle knife for Lian Yan and a long sword for himself. The remainder was used to forge 5 short knives, which were given to 5 Secret Arrow subordinates to organize a battle formation. Not even I, Blue-clad and the others have middle-grade holy weapons.”

There was only that much In-rock Flaming iron originally. At first, Fengyuzi used one fifth to forge a short sword and a pair of gloves for Qin Yu and a flying sword for himself. Qin De’s own long sword and Lian Yan’s battle knife each used another fifth. The 5 short knives used the last 2 fifths.

Blue-clad, Ge Min and the other people were not allocated any middle-grade holy weapons. Even though Lian Yan later died, the middle-grade holy weapon he left behind was eventually given to Qin Feng by Qin De.

“Ha-ha … I’m such a fool, I’m such a fool … Qin De, prepare to die. But I have to thank you for giving me middle-grade holy weapons!” Wu Xing, who is being jointly attacked by 5 Secret Arrow experts and 5 Heavenly Net experts, suddenly turns his face skyward and laughs out loud like crazy. He seems to have come up with a way to deal with these 10 audacious experts.

End of b3c23.

[wandering]

B3C24: Death (2)

Wu Xing, who is under joint attack from 5 Heavenly Net experts and 5 Secret Arrow experts, suddenly becomes extremely arrogant and wild.

“10 insects, die!”

His eyes suddenly flash with coldness. Various streams of elemental energy as thick as an arm shoot out directly from his body and drift away in all directions like 10 wandering green dragons. Moreover, they simply do not attack the 10 people who are surrounding him, astounding them greatly.

The 10 streams of elemental energy spread out within 10 plus m of Wu Xing. The 10 experts are all in this area.

Suddenly Wu Xing’s expression becomes ferocious. He shouts madly: “Explode! Explode! Explode!!!”

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! ……

Along with Wu Xing’s loud shouts, a series of explosions resounds continuously. Those streams of elemental energy have completely exploded. Even though the 10 late phase Xiantian experts are powerful, they cannot withstand such intense explosions of those elemental energy streams.

Miserable cries rise, severed limbs scatter, and blood splatters into the air …

In an instant, the 10 experts who were troubling Wu Xing just now have been killed just like that. Detonation of elemental energy -- Wu Xing has never used this method of attack because even though the explosion of elemental energy is rather powerful, its level of damage is basically insufficient to break the elemental-energy-based defense of a Xiuzhenist.

Xiuzhenists do not use this weak kind of attack. They all use flying swords and will concentrate their elemental energy in the swords to send forth their most powerful attacks through the formations on the swords.

Just now, when Wu Xing saw North Xiang’s self-explosion he had a sudden flash of inspiration, and then he also caused explosions using the elemental energy in his body. Elemental energy is superior to Xiantian energy by a whole level so the explosions caused by Wu Xing are absolutely much more destructive than North Xiang’s self-explosion. Even though these explosions would not be a threat to Xiuzhenists, they were enough for him to handle Xiantian experts.

Indeed, the 10 experts have been blown up to pieces, leaving not even one unimpaired body. The 5 middle-grade holy weapons, however, appear on the ground. 3 beams of light suddenly shoot toward them.

One is Qin Yu, another is Elder Blue-clad and the other is Fengyuzi. They all want to snatch these 5 middle-grade holy short knives.

“Martial younger brother, quick!” Wu De transfers his voice confidentially into Wu Xing’s ears. A flying sword then shoots at Fengyuzi extremely fast. Fengyuzi blocks it with his flying sword. The 2 top experts tangle with each other again, causing series after series of violent collisions.

“Scram!”

Wu Xing shouts loudly and waves his sleeves nonstop. The 5 middle-grade holy weapons are sucked into his hands directly by his telekinesis then they are taken in by his storage bracelet. The 2 beams of light that are charging at the knives, however, are repulsed by his surging elemental energy.

Qin Yu’s body shakes continuously to neutralize that powerful force.

By contrast, Elder Blue-clad’s body flies backward. Blood trickles out of the corners of his mouth.

“Mortals like you also want to snatch middle-grade holy weapons? Only in your dreams!” Wu Xing looks at Qin Yu and Elder Blue-clad disdainfully. Xiuzhenists have surpassed ordinary mortals in many aspects so they generally view mortals with a sense of superiority and naturally look down on mortals.

“Good, martial younger brother, you did well. Ha-ha, middle-grade holy weapons!”

Wu De laughs out loud. At the same time, he fights Fengyuzi with even more excitement. “Fengyuzi, now only by relying on your middle-grade holy weapon to harass my low-grade one can you fight me evenly. Wait until I’ve familiarized myself with a middle-grade holy weapon, how are you going to fight me?!”

Boom! Boom! Boom! …… Rocks are shattered. Rocky cliffs collapse. Explosions are heard nonstop.

Wu De says to and fights Fengyuzi at the same time. By contrast, Fengyuzi has a cold expression and remains silent. The seizure of 5 middle-grade holy weapons by the enemies is really a huge loss for his side. The 2 are fighting so fiercely that even the sky and the ground are obscured.

“Senior, I’m a man of the Xiang clan. I hope you’ll kill 3 people Qin De, Liu Xing and Elder Blue-clad.” Ge Min bows and says.

Wu Xing says with a loud ha-ha laugh: “Alright, today I’m in a good mood. Initially, I only promised Xiang Guang that I’d kill Qin De, but now I’ll slaughter the other 2 insects as well!” At the moment Wu Xing is extremely relaxed and joyful because he has obtained middle-grade holy weapons and, moreover, the only tough adversary on Qin De’s side, Xiuzhenist Fengyuzi, has already been pinned down.

Wu Xing is not worried at all. Now he can kill whoever he wants.

“Let’s take out a short knife first. I’ll concentrate on familiarizing myself with it when I return.” Now Wu Xing is extremely relaxed. In his eyes, the lives of Qin De and the others are in the palm of his hand so killing them immediately is not the most urgent thing. Instead, the most important thing to him is the middle-grade holy weapons he just obtained.

Wu Xing takes out a middle-grade holy short knife and instantly personalizes it by blood. From now on the knife is his. Generally, if a Xiuzhenist is to have real control of a holy weapon, not only will he have to personalize it by blood, he will also have to use his internal flame to familiarize himself with it. Only when both of these steps are done can he totally control the holy weapon.

However, at the moment Wu Xing has no time to waste.

It is night-time now in the valley and cold gusts of wind are blowing.

“Die!” Ge Min suddenly hears a voice in his ears. He instantly becomes terrified. However, at that moment, his entire head feels a shock -- “Bang!” Ge Min’s head explodes like a watermelon. A silhouette then appears.

Qin Yu coldly looks at Ge Min’s body.

“You …” Just now, Wu Xing was personalizing a knife. Now, seeing this scene he cannot help getting furious. “Bastard brat, you even took advantage of the time when I was personalizing the weapon by blood to kill this geezer.” At the moment, Wu Xing is both ashamed and infuriated because, in any case, this Ge Min was a man on his side.

Qin Yu, however, talks to himself in his mind: “Be cool, be cool, Qin Yu, you must be cool!!!”

On the battlefield at the moment, Fengyuzi is being pinned down completely by Wu De. Therefore, it is really too hard for him and Elder Blue-clad to kill Wu Xing. Having obtained 5 middle-grade holy weapons, now Wu Xing has become even more powerful than he was just now.

As for Qin De, he just withstood 4 thunderbolts and is very seriously injured. He is sitting with legs crossed and eyes closed.

“There’s only 1 chance!” Qin Yu’s eyes flash with coldness.

His only choice is to use his middle-grade holy weapons -- the Flaming Sword and Flaming Gloves. The offensive forces of the middle-grade holy weapons will be enough to penetrate this Xiuzhenist’s defense, but he will have only one chance because once Wu Xing discovers that Qin Yu has middle-grade holy weapons, he will never let Qin Yu approach him.

This is also the reason why Qin Yu has not used the Flaming Sword and Flaming Gloves yet. Just now, without using any middle-grade holy weapons, his power was still sufficient to kill those several enemies.

His only trump card!

“Ha-ha ~~~ all of you die for me!” Wu Xing suddenly laughs out loud.

Qin Yu only sees a dark red beam of light shoot out. The radiance on Elder Blue-clad’s body then begins to dim. In an instant, Elder Blue-clad falls on the ground with a loud thud. He is already dead. When coming under attack from a Xiuzhenist, he, who did not have a holy weapon, was simply powerless to put up any resistance.

“I haven’t familiarized myself with this weapon but its speed alone is already a bit faster than my old flying sword. Once I’ve done familiarization, its power will …” Wu Xing wishes in his mind and the flying knife which was just shot out flies back into his hand again immediately.

Looking at the short knife in his hand, Wu Xing is extremely excited.

“This guy is too strong. One hit, I’ll have only one chance. I can only use the Flaming Sword and Flaming Gloves when I’m close to him.” Qin Yu clenches his teeth. Despite Elder Blue-clad’s death, he does not act on impulse. He must grab his only opportunity.

Once he fails, he will be done for and his father will die as well.

No failure is allowed!

“East Vanquishing Prince Qin De, your influence in the world is extremely great. Too bad, you’ll still die at my hands.” Wu Xing is very complacent at the moment. He gently waves his hand, wanting to shoot the short knife out to kill Qin De. However, at this moment --

There are no wind sounds.

But Wu Xing’s holy sense has noticed that Qin Yu’s body is moving extremely fast and is only several tens meters away from him. In just an instant, Qin Yu comes up to his face.

Bang!

Wu Xing makes a wave of a hand. A beam of elemental energy shoots out then explodes. However, the outside of Qin Yu’s body suddenly blazes with a purple light. His entire body’s skin now looks as if it is made of a lustrous purple kind of jade. And the explosion of elemental energy unexpectedly cannot harm him.

Qin Yu chokes back the excitement in his heart and throws a punch at Wu Xing.

As Wu Xing sees Qin Yu’s fist coming at him, an idea spring to his mind: “This guy is on Qin De’s side. Maybe he is a secret trump card and also has a middle-grade holy weapon. I mustn’t take a risk no matter what.” He thinks like lightning.

“Die!”

Qin Yu’s eyes flash with fierceness. The Flaming Sword suddenly appears in his hand --

However, before his Flaming Sword appears, Wu Xing has already started to move. And by the time the Flaming Sword appears in his hand, Wu Xing has already got away 10-odd meters. As Wu Xing looks at the Flaming Sword in Qin Yu’s hand, his eyes blaze with outrage.

“Brat, you even plotted against me!” He is extremely furious. Luckily for him, at the last moment he dodged away like a flash, otherwise … Thinking of that possibility, a retrospective fear rises in his heart. At the same time, he becomes even more furious. The elemental energy in his body suddenly streams into the middle-grade holy short knife.

A dark red beam of light then shoots at Qin Yu from Wu Xing.

Bang!

Qin Yu has no choice but to promptly block it with the Flaming Sword. The color of his face suddenly changes. He feels an extremely terrifying stream of energy transfer to him from the short knife. That energy stream, which is sharp and also forcefully destructive, attacks his body directly.

Bang!

Qin Yu is sent flying like a sandbag. Concurrently with that, blood spouts from his mouth. He then falls powerlessly on the ground with a bang.

Fengyuzi is fighting Wu De but his holy sense notices this scene. He is secretly shocked: “The Flaming Sword, it’s the Flaming Sword. This assassin Liu Xing … Could he be Xiao Yu? No, impossible. Doesn’t Xiao Yu practice external techniques? How can he possibly have internal energy? But this assassin Liu Xing’s aura is very similar to Xiao Yu’s. Could he really be …?”

At this moment, even though Fengyuzi is doubtful, he simply cannot get away because Wu De keeps tangling with him nonstop.

“I failed!” Qin Yu feels a pain in his heart.

He does not understand at all why at the last moment Wu Xing unexpectedly backed off just as he executed his killing blow. Could it be Wu Xing knew he was about to attack? Qin Yu simply does not understand why things turned out this way.

He feels something sweet in his throat. His blood seems to be about to gush out again. Just now, Wu Xing, who was extremely furious, obviously struck Qin Yu a fatal blow. He channeled his extremely powerful elemental energy into the short knife. Both the short knife and Qin Yu’s Flaming Sword are middle-grade holy weapons, but the short knife contained Wu Xing’s extremely powerful elemental energy. With so much elemental energy attacking via the middle-grade holy short knife, the power of the strike was, no doubt, exceedingly great. Even though they both used weapons of the same caliber, the difference in power between them was too big.

One clear stream after another comes out from the Meteoric Tear and starts to spread out through Qin Yu’s body. His injury is recovering at a terrifyingly fast speed. It is regrettable that Wu Xing already knew that he has a middle-grade holy weapon.

“Could it be Heaven wants to end my life and father’s?” Qin Yu, who is lying prone on the ground, takes a look at Qin De in the distance.

Qin De is still sitting calmly with legs crossed and eyes closed. He simply did not see what happened just now. In fact the current Qin De has no spare energy to pay attention to anything outside because a world-shaking transformation is taking place inside his body.

Having overcome the heavenly tribulation, even though he is extremely seriously injured, his entire body’s Xiantian energy has been undergoing a special transformation.

A grain of sand is a world and therefore when Qin De looks inside he finds his dantian similar to a boundless space. At the moment, various ‘water streams’ are flowing in the boundless space of the dantian. These water streams flow continuously for some time then start to merge into a sphere.

In the past, after Shi Huang overcame his heavenly tribulation, he succeeded in forming a jindan. And Qin De also knows his method of forming a jindan. Qin De immediately starts to execute that secret technique. The relatively large ‘water sphere’ formed by those ‘water streams’ suddenly decreases in volume by 50% then it becomes a bit larger again.

It shrinks then slightly enlarges.

Alternating between shrinking and enlarging like this, the water sphere continuously becomes smaller, and its color also continuously changes, slowly turning golden. After this transformation process has happened 81 times, a light golden sphere about the size of a pigeon egg appears. It is none other than a jindan.

There are also various streams of energy moving around the jindan.

“I’ve finally succeeded.” Qin De’s heart relaxes with relief. Various streams of elemental energy flow out from the energy surrounding the jindan at once and start to spread out through his entire body. Even though he has successfully formed the jindan, his internal organs were injured extremely badly just now. And it is very hard even for elemental energy to heal bodily injuries. Only now does Qin De slowly open his eyes.

As soon as his eyes are opened, he sees a shocking scene -- a dark red beam of light.

Bang!

In a merely conditional reaction, Qin De channels his elemental energy and directly controls his long sword to fiercely block this dark red beam of light. At the same time, he makes a movement with his body and gets away a long distance.

“You’ve even formed the jindan. That was very quick. Too bad, you just formed the jindan so your power is still very weak. Plus your body is seriously injured. Alas … perhaps you’ll be the most short-lived Xiuzhenist, who is killed right after becoming a Xiuzhenist.”

Wu Xing flies into the air. He is standing on his flying sword with a face full of arrogance.

“Phew.” Qin Yu heaves a sigh. Just now, seeing Wu Xing trying to kill his father, Qin Yu was very worried but unfortunately, firstly, he was seriously injured, and secondly, his speed was much slower than the flying speed of that short knife. Luckily for him, at the last moment Qin De succeeded in forming the jindan.

Qin De is now at the early phase of the Jindan stage but his body is seriously injured. He uses a middle-grade holy long sword.

Wu Xing is currently at the middle phase of the Jindan stage with a body undamaged in any way. He uses a middle-grade holy short knife in addition to a low-grade holy flying sword.

Wu Xing also has much better control of elemental energy than Qin De does. In this fight, the 2 of them are basically not on the same level. As soon as Qin Yu thinks about this, he becomes anxious. However, his power is even weaker than his father’s.

“Want to kill me?” Qin De gives a cold laugh. By now he has already seen the situation on the battlefield.

Fengyuzi is being pinned down by Wu De, that assassin Liu Xing is badly injured and his other subordinates have all died so he can only rely on himself.

“Humph, brat, you sure are smug for a newbie Xiuzhenist. I’ll do you a favor by seeing you off!” Wu Xing gives a cold laugh then, without blabbering anymore, attacks extremely fast nonstop with his middle-grade holy short knife, making it look like a beam of light.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! ……

In a moment, Qin Yu has only breathed twice but the 2 of them have already exchanged several tens blows. The intensity of their fight is even close to that of the fight between Fengyuzi and Wu De. However, Qin Yu’s face gradually changes color, since he sees clearly that blood is flowing out from the corners of his father’s mouth.

Every time they exchange a blow, Qin De’s internal injury becomes even more serious.

“Ha-ha ~~~”

Wu Xing laughs out loud savagely and attacks with even more fierceness. He can totally notice that the injury in Qin De’s body is very serious. It is very hard to recover from a serious bodily injury. As they keep fighting fiercely this way, blood flows out of Qin De’s mouth nonstop.

“Scram!” Fengyuzi has become very worried. He suddenly intensifies the strikes of his flying sword, wanting to get away to save Qin De.

“In your dreams!” Wu De laughs out loud. He channels the elemental energy in his body into his flying sword like crazy. He keeps pinning Fengyuzi down thanks to his profound elemental energy.

“Father!” Seeing that Qin De’s face has turned even paler and his injury has become even more serious, Qin Yu feels as if his heart is being bitten by 10,000 ants. He is so worried and distressed that he is short of breath. He is worried, so worried that his heart hurts and his head is even spinning.

Qin De suddenly utters a loud shout. His face becomes very red. His long sword and Wu Xing’s short knife crash into one another in the most violent collision since the beginning of the fight.

“Pu ~~”

Qin De’s blood spouts a long distance from his mouth. His body’s injury has worsened again and he falls on the ground directly. Wu Xing’s face, however, is only slightly pale. He withdraws the short knife. With his eyes full of disdain, he sneers: “Poor brat, it’s a pity you’ve just entered the Xiuzhen world!”

As he finishes saying, the short knife in his hand brightens again. Various streams of elemental energy are being channeled into it.

“Stop!” Fengyuzi also knows that the situation is not good. He shouts madly but Wu De has gone mad too and keeps holding him down.

Seeing his father fall on the ground due to his serious injury and seeing the light on the short knife becoming even more incandescent, Qin Yu’s heart gets a violent shock. It seems in that moment all the memories of the last 10 years flash through his mind like lightning. Why has he been training hard for 10 years?

To show his own value, to do his father pround and to let his father know that he is as useful as his big and 2nd brothers,

“Die!” Wu Xing says softly. His hand slightly makes a movement. The short knife in his hand, which has been charged with the maximum amount of energy he is capable of, shoots directly at badly injured Qin De like a dark red beam of light. Wu Xing’s eyelids slightly droop and a faint smile appears on the corners of his mouth. He is ready to watch Qin De die.

When Wu Xing reached out his hand, Qin Yu started to rush toward Qin De extremely fast. And when Wu Xing shot the short knife out, Qin Yu was already moving at his fastest speed.

The distance between Wu Xing and Wu De is over 100 m. By contrast, Qin Yu is on a side of Qin De and was only several tens meters away from him. Even though it was only several tens meters, because the short knife’s speed is too fast, Qin Yu simply cannot catch up with it.

Seeing the short knife that is moving extremely fast, Qin Yu has only one conviction -- he must grab the short knife.

“Grab it!” Qin Yu suddenly screams hoarsely in his heart. He has reached his fastest speed but it is still not fast enough. His heart hurts as if it is being bitten by countless ants. He is so worried that his head feels as if it is about to explode. By now, Qin Yu’s eyes have turned totally crimson.

Suddenly, an ice-cold clear stream flows into his brain. His mind becomes clear in an instant. At this moment, to him, the entire world seems to fall silent and time seems to stop completely. The 36 pictures of each of the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams suddenly appear in his mind.

There are 108 pictures altogether from the 1st one to the last one. Qin Yu instantly has a feeling of enlightenment.

Boom ~~~

36 silvery energy streams, 36 golden energy streams and 36 purple energy streams continuously appear around Qin Yu’s body. 108 energy streams in total intertwine with each other and form a perfectly and naturally shaped tricolor suit of armor.

At the same time, that feeling of time stopping just now disappears and he sees the short knife flying extremely fast as before.

“I just lack a little speed!” Based on his own speed, Qin Yu instantly figures out how much speed he lacks in his mind. However --

Whizz!

Qin Yu, encircled by 108 energy streams, suddenly moves twice as fast like an arrow leaving a bow and appears before Qin De in an instant. He fiercely reaches out his hands. The Flaming Gloves naturally appear on his hands. Like eagle claws, Qin Yu’s hands make a grab at the short knife, which is moving like a beam of light.

This time Wu Xing used a killing blow so the short knife is carrying a terrifying amount of energy.

“Bang!” Even though Qin Yu intercepts the short knife using the Flaming Gloves on his hands, various energy streams still shoot out from the knife and hit Qin Yu’s body. That tricolor suit of armor looks very mighty but in fact it is merely gaseous and basically has no defense.

Several tens energy streams from the knife continuously hit Qin Yu’s body. Even though his body is very strong, his stomach is still penetrated. A horrifying hole appears in his stomach, from which blood streams out with gurgling noises. The heavy bleeding causes him to sway once.

“Flaming Gloves!” At this moment, Qin De, who is trying hard to stand up, sees the gloves on Qin Yu’s hands. He is immediately stupefied. “How does this assassin Liu Xing have the Flaming Gloves? Isn’t it Yu’er who has them?” Qin De thinks about how he and Fengyuzi guessed at the identity of assassin Liu Xing that day.

“Could it be …?” Qin De’s heart gets a shock. “But Yu’er doesn’t have internal energy.”

“Ah ah ~~~” Wu Xing is furious. With a swaying movement of his body, he charges forward. At the same time, he points with a hand. His original flying sword immediately shoots at Qin Yu. Due to his stomach being penetrated by the energy of the knife, Qin Yu has been badly injured and he basically has no time to dodge the sword.

Pu ~~

In almost a while after Qin Yu grabbed the short knife, the flying sword pierces his chest and punctures his heart. At the same time the Meteoric Tear sends out various clear streams nonstop to mend the wounds. Unfortunately, the heart is a vital part of the human body.

“Father!” Qin Yu looks at Qin De and tries to force a faint smile. At this moment, his voice has changed back to his real voice.

“What?!” Qin De’s face finally changes color, because assassin Liu Xing is really his own son!

“Goodbye … Now it seems I’m still a bit useful …” With a lot of effort, Qin Yu forces a smile. However, the fatal injury in his chest causes his facial muscles to slightly twitch. Suddenly, a hint of ruthlessness and fierceness flashes through his eyes!

“You two will die together.” Wu Xing has already come close.

“Ah ~~~”

Qin Yu abruptly turns his face skyward and gives a long roar. His expression has become ferocious. His hands, which have been grabbing the short knife, reach their maximum speed, creating continuous indistinct silhouettes of dragon talons. The 108 energy streams around Qin Yu’s body all flow hurriedly with a sudden burst of speed.

Chi ~~

At a very fast speed, even faster than the extremely fast flying speed of the short knife just now, Qin Yu’s claws directly penetrate Wu Xing’s chest. He violently makes a grab with his right hand and immediately smashes Wu Xing’s heart with it.

“How is this possible …?” Wu Xing’s eyes pop out of his head. Looking at the hands that have just pierced his chest, his face is full of disbelief. Just now his flying sword already penetrated Qin Yu’s chest and directly punctured his heart. Even a low-level Xiuzhenist would have died in that situation, but how has Qin Yu been able to carry on for so long?

Wu Xing simply does not know that as soon as Qin Yu was injured, the Meteoric Tear began to hurriedly send out various clear streams, which have continuously fused with his heart. Only thanks to this has Qin Yu been able to persevere for a longer period than he would have without the Meteoric Tear and strike his final blow.

“Martial younger brother!” Wu De utters a wild yowl.

Suddenly --

A sad and shrill eagle cry resounds. A beam of light is shooting down from 10,000 m on the 9th level of the sky. It is none other than Xiao Hei. It was flying too high and therefore when it noticed that Qin Yu’s life was in danger, it could not dive down in time. Xiao Hei is diving down extremely fast while wailing like crazy.

Qin Yu’s heart has been punctured. Not even the Meteoric Tear can heal him back to normal in a short time. He can only feel his vision starts to blacken and cannot breathe. He knows that … he is dying. Qin Yu’s eyes gradually become dimmer and dimmer.

He is already near his end.

At the same time, Qin Yu’s body starts to change. It is switching back to his original appearance. At the moment, he can no longer maintain the appearance created by the Appearance and Bone Changing Art.

Seeing the change in Qin Yu’s appearance, Qin De only feels that his heart hurts so much as if he is having a cardiac seizure. His tears simply stream down uncontrollably. Qin Yu is looking at Qin De. There is unexpectedly a faint smile on his face at the moment. The look in his eyes then becomes totally lifeless.

“Yu’er is dead!”

Qin De’s entire body shakes once as if he has been struck by a bolt of lightning.

……

“But … you give me no chance, absolutely no chance. You only said it’s pointless for me to get involved in this. Father, you don’t even give me a chance. How can you be sure that I’m useless? How? How?!”

……

“Ha-ha … I’m just a useless, the most useless person. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much progress I make in practice, I’ll always be the most useless. This is laughable. What have I been training for? What have I been training for? What’s the use of my training?”

……

What Qin Yu said in the past seems to rise in Qin De’s ears again. His entire body starts to quiver. He remembers clearly the last words his son said to him: “Goodbye … Now it seems I’m still a bit useful …”

“Ah ~~~”

Qin De turns his face upwards and gives a long roar, sounding extremely sorrowful.

At this moment, a dark red sky suddenly appears, as if a heavenly tribulation is starting. However, this time the dark red sky covers an even greater area. At first sight, it seems the entire sky has become dark red. There are various flaming red clouds in the center of the dark red sky, which look like tribulation clouds.

“Pa!” Xiao Hei spreads its wings and, with a wave of the wings, pushes Qin De to one side. It is wailing nonstop and pearl-like tears are streaming down from its eyes, but Qin Yu has already become motionless.

After being pushed away by Xiao Hei, Qin De, however, sits stock-still on the ground.

Boom!

There is a sudden crash of thunder in the flaming red tribulation clouds in the sky. An extremely thick beam of light that, perhaps, can only be encircled by 3 or 4 adults comes down from the sky. That huge flaming red beam of light strikes down as if it is a thunderbolt.

Its target is -- Qin Yu.

At this moment Qin Yu’s hands are still stuck in the chest of a dead Wu Xing. And Xiao Hei is hugging Qin Yu tightly with its wings. Even though that terrifying beam of light is striking down from the sky, it still remains motionless.

Boom!

The beam of light hits Qin Yu’s body. Because that beam of light is so thick, naturally, apart from Qin Yu, it enfolds both Wu Xing and Xiao Hei as well.

“Yu’er!” Only now does Qin De wake up with a start. Even though his son is dead, his body must not be damaged no matter what! However, when the beam of light disappears, there is nothing left on the area hit by it, not even the weapons used by Qin Yu and Wu Xing in their fight.

There is absolutely nothing.

“Yu’er!” Qin De clenches his teeth. His whole body starts to tremble. All of the scenes of the past appear in his mind one by one. The scene in which his son called him to account is continuously replayed: “Ha-ha … I’m just a useless, the most useless person. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much progress I make in practice, I’ll always be the most useless. This is laughable. What have I been training for? What have I been training for? What’s the use of my training?”

Qin De’s heart is in endless pain. He simply cannot stop his tears from streaming down.

A man does not shed tears easily, only that the heartache Qin De is suffering is too great.

“Xiang Guang! Wu De!” Qin De suddenly looks at Wu De. At this moment his heart is full of hatred. If it had not been for Xiang Guang and those 2 Xiuzhenists, with his son’s power, how could he possibly have died?

Disregarding his body’s injuries, Qin De channels his elemental energy very quickly and charges at Wu De while grasping his long sword.

Seeing Qin De coming at him in such a crazy manner, Wu De, who has been fighting evenly with Fengyuzi, is greatly frightened at once because, at any rate, Qin De is an early phase Jindan stage Xiuzhenist and, moreover, he even has a middle-grade holy weapon. Also, by now Fengyuzi has gone mad too.

Wu De immediately disregards everything and soars into the sky directly on his flying sword at his fastest speed like a wisp of smoke. His offense is extremely powerful and his flying speed is also not something Qin De and Fengyuzi can keep up with.

Seeing Wu De fleeing, Qin De is so furious that he suddenly spits out a mouthful of blood. His internal organs have suffered excessively severe injuries.

“Calm down, Your Highness, please calm down a bit!” Fengyuzi hurriedly restrains Qin De. He knows how seriously Qin De is injured at the moment. However, Qin De’s eyes are filled with an extreme hatred: “Wu De, Xiang Guang, my wife died, and today my son died too! Ah ~~~ Xiang Guang, Wu De! I swear here if I don’t kill you I’ll die unburied!!!”

“Brother Feng, please take me back. Every plan must be shifted to an earlier date and accelerated. Everything must be ready in a half year. I want to lead 1,000,000 troops to trample the Xiang clan to pieces. I’ll exterminate the Xiang clan then destroy Wu De’s soul!”

Qin De clenches his teeth. His crimson crazed eyes look very frightening.

End of b3c24.

End of book 3.

[wandering]

Book 4: Stellar Transformations

B4C1: Stellar Transformations

In the evening, the setting Sun is going down westward. Its light, despite being not dazzling, is illuminating the entire vast ground.

However, in a courtyard of the East Vanquishing Prince mansion, the atmosphere is obviously gloomy and cold.

Qin Feng, Qin Zheng, Xu Yuan and Fengyuzi, 4 people altogether, are sitting at a stone table. Qin De, however, is standing with his hands behind his back in the courtyard and looking up at a willow. This courtyard is in the courtyard house belonging exclusively to Qin Yu and this willow was planted here by Qin De and Qin Yu together when Qin Yu was little.

No one, whether Qin Feng, Qin Zheng or Xu Yuan, has a bit of a smiling expression on his face.

“Xiao Yu is dead.”

When Qin Feng and Qin Zheng first knew about this just now, they were simply stupefied. They had never imagined that their 3rd brother would die like this and, even worse, die without an intact body, having been struck into nothingness by a wicked thunderbolt.

Qin Feng and Qin Zheng still remember their promise.

They wanted to protect their younger brother, but they will never be able to fulfill their promise.

“Every plan is to be sped up. In a half year, Zheng’er, can the logistics of materials such as army provisions, armor and weaponry be fully ready in a half year?” With his hands behind his back, Qin De suddenly breaks the silence in the forlorn courtyard.

Qin Zheng slightly frowns, thinks for a while then says with a nod: “A half year … father, a half year will be enough to fully prepare army provisions and the other materials. But to transport these materials to every army will need some time. If the deadline is loosened a bit, everything will be perfectly ready in 8 months. But if you want me to race against the clock, I can still manage it in a half year.”

“Um, Xu Yuan, can every step of Plan Flying Eagle be accomplished in a half year?” Qin De continues to ask.

Xu Yuan thinks for a while then says: “Your Highness, according to the original plan, we should still have 2 years to prepare. Now you want it to be accelerated and everything to be ready in a half year so time will be a bit tight. But because we’ve been carrying it out for the last 10-odd years, if it has to be sped up, a half year will still be enough for us to manage to start the entire plan.”

“Good!”

Qin De suddenly turns around and looks at the other people, saying: “All right, I’ll loosen the deadline a bit. In 7 months we’ll launch a full-scale attack. According to the plan, we’ll have to unify the entire Chu kingdom within a half year.” Qin De’s eyes glitter with a shockingly fierce coldness.

“Yes, father!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Qin Feng, Qin Zheng and Xu Yuan immediately stand up, bow and respond with obedience.

“Feng’er, you must hurry back to the army immediately. We’ll leave the preparation of armaments and materials entirely to Zheng’er. I’ll be in charge of the overall supervision of the armed forces.” Qin De says directly. “All right, everybody can set to work now.”

Qin Feng, Qin Zheng and Xu Yuan bow and leave at once.

“Your Highness, you should rest more and take better care of yourself. Your body is still injured.” Fengyuzi slightly shakes his head and says with a sigh.

Qin De turns around again and looks at the willow: “Rest? Am I still in a mood for resting? If I don’t trample the 4 Eastern region counties to pieces, exterminate the Xiang clan, kill Xiang Guang and Wu De and destroy their souls, how can I possibly ease my mind and recover?”


Fengyuzi cannot help giving a forced smile, but he is not too worried either because, with the effective medicines of the princely mansion in addition to Qin De’s having become an early phase Jindan-stage Xiuzhenist, Qin De’s internal injuries will take at most a month to recover completely.

“I’ll return first, Your Highness. If you have any problems, you can send for me.” Fengyuzi slightly folds his hands and says.

“Please return, brother Feng. I won’t see you off.” Qin De says calmly.

Fengyuzi nods then stands on his flying sword and shoots through the sky immediately to leave.

“We’re going to launch our attack in 7 months. Winthin a half year later, 1,000,000 troops will definitely trample the 4 Western region counties to pieces and exterminate the Xiang clan!” Qin De talks to himself in a low voice. His eyes, however, are filled with a chilling killing intent.

******

“Scram!”

A loud shout comes out from inside the room. Outside the room, Xiang Guang’s body cannot help shaking once.

Xiang Guang also feels greatly wronged. As soon as he heard that a Shangxian had returned, he immediately ran over here with enthusiasm, wanting to know if Qin De was dead or not. On the way from the Imperial Palace Xiang Guang’s heart was always excited.

However, just now, before he could say something, he was already scolded by Wu De.

“Screw this Wu De. I already gave them the Red Flourishing Pill. Could it be he returned without killing Qin De?” Indignation continuously surges in Xiang Guang’s heart, but he knows one thing -- whatever happens, he must not offend this Shangxian because, after all, this Shangxian is a guardian the Xiang clan relies on.

The Red Flourishing Pill was the reward for Wu De and Wu Xing killing Qin De. If they have not killed Qin De yet, Xiang Guang naturally cannot but resent them.

“Your Majesty!” A eunuch beside Xiang Guang immediately bows.

“Scram!” With a strong wave of a sleeve Xiang Guang pushes the eunuch to one side then tries to say with a forced smile: “Shangxian …”

“Xiang Guang sonny, today I’m in a bad mood. Don’t disturb me.” Wu De shouts coldly.

Xiang Guang swallows then forces a smile, saying: “Shangxian, last time, I gave you the Red Flourishing Pill and asked you to kill Qin De for me, didn’t I? I’m wondering if Qin De is dead or alive.” Whatever happens, he still has to ask about this matter.

Moreover, Xiang Guang does not believe that this Wu De will dare to kill him.

Bang!

The door is suddenly pushed open. The 2 panels of the door hit the walls beside them. Loose-long-haired Wu De walks out with a face full of anger. His eyes, glittering with indignation and enmity, are fixed completely on Xiang Guang. Seeing Wu De like this, Xiang Guang is so frightened that he continuously backs away.

“Don’t mention anything about Qin De to me. Because we agreed to handle this matter, even my martial younger brother died. Why did you still mention the Red Flourishing Pill and Qin De to me? Go the hell away for me! Don’t think that I won’t dare to touch you just because you’re a descendant of the Xiang clan.”

The air of anger from Wu De puts pressure on Xiang Guang as if it is real.

He and his martial younger brother were friends with each other for several hunded years. There was a deep affection between them. This time, Wu Xing’s death was really a crushing blow to Wu De. Even worse, the 5 middle-grade holy short knives Wu Xing took in at first were also struck into nothingness by a sudden beam of light in the end.

This time, Wu De gained nothing and his martial younger brother even died, how can he possibly not get angry?

“Calm your anger, Shangxian. I will leave right now and won’t disturb you anymore. Calm you anger, Shangxian …” Xiang Guang is frightened out of his wits as he is saying. He immediately runs very helter-skelter away from Wu De’s place with his entourage.

He turns his head around, looking at Wu De’s residence in the distance. Then, with a cold humph, he hurries back to the Imperial Palace at once.

******

The Immense Wilderness, no one has ever been able to measure its size. The deeper it is in the Wilderness, the higher the density of holy energy is, and the more formidable demonic beasts become. About 100,000 li away from the border of the Wilderness, there is a certain place.

Of course, compared to the size of the Wilderness, this 100,000 li distance is not a big amount of space. After all, the Wilderness is simply too large.

At this place, there is a huge lake. On the side of the lake, there is a huge mountain-shaped structure. That structure has only 2 stories and is only about 8 or 9 m high, but it occupies a shockingly large area, which is both longer and wider than 100 m. In this structure, every room is very luxurious. The rooms are even lit with various kinds of lamplight of different colors that have never been seen elsewhere on the Qian Long continent.

In the spacious entrance hall of this structure, the floor is pure silvery.

A young man with a wounded stomach, a middle-aged man with white brows that touch his temples and a black eagle are lying on this silvery floor. They are none other than Qin Yu, Wu Xing and the black eagle, who disappeared earlier.

______

Under Qin De’s gaze, the look in Qin Yu’s eyes becomes totally lifeless, his heart no longer beats and his breathing stops.

“Is this the feeling of death?”

Qin Yu vaguely remembers Xiao Hei’s wail but he simply cannot utter any sounds. He cannot even move his fingers a bit. However, his soul and consciousness still exist. After his bodily functions stop, his soul starts to shake.

A basically irresistible sucking force comes from the outside and affects Qin Yu’s soul directly, seemingly wanting to suck his soul away.

“I’m already dead. Is my soul entering the cycle of reincarnation now?” He simply cannot resist. His soul and consciousness can only feel that this sucking force is potent and overwhelming. His soul starts to float up. Apparently it is about to float out of his body.

Suddenly --

A warm stream flows out directly from the Meteoric Tear mark on his chest and enfolds Qin Yu’s soul and consciousness.

“So warm, just like soaking in the hot spring.” Qin Yu’s consciousness has this kind of feeling. At the same time, being directly insulated from that sucking force by the warm stream, Qin Yu’s soul still remains in his body and is not getting sucked away anymore.

Because his soul is engulfed in the warm stream, Qin Yu is simply unaware of what happens outside. Even when a flaming red beam of light shoots down from the sky and hits his body, he feels absolutely nothing.

At the same time, the Meteoric Tear is sending out various clear streams, which are rushing into his wounds nonstop. His body’s injuries are continuously recovering. The stab wound in his heart, however, is healing extremely slowly. But it is gradually recovering nonetheless.

As every minute or second goes by,

Qin Yu’s soul keeps enjoying that warmth. It is absorbing that warm stream of energy like a baby. His soul is gradually strengthening and becoming more materialized as well. It has become a seven-colored disc. The colors of the soul are extremely glorious and alluring. At the same time, energy is flashing around the soul nonstop like bolts of lightning. As the soul keeps absorbing that warm stream, those ‘bolts of lightning’ flash more and more powerfully.

In the blink of an eye, 7 days have passed.

The huge hole in Qin Yu’s stomach has healed without even a scar. It has taken him 7 days only because the heart is the most difficult body part to heal. His ordinary physical wounds needed just a half day to disappear scarlessly. His heart, however, has taken 7 days to recover.

Qin Yu’s soul is still enveloped in that warmth.

Suddenly, Qin Yu feels that warmth disappear. At the same time, a familiar feeling slowly returns. Qin Yu enjoys that feeling very much. It is the feeling of having control over the entire body, which only exists when the soul and the body are completely connected to each other.

He opens his eyes all of a sudden. At the moment his hands are still stuck in the chest of Wu Xing, who is undoubtedly as dead as a doornail. Qin Yu abruptly pulls his hands out and makes a shake with them at the same time. The muscles of the hands immediately vibrate extremely fast for a short time, forcing all the blood on the hands away.

“Phew!”

After a roll, Qin Yu pushes himself up from the floor and looks around. At a glance, he sees Xiao Hei not far from him on a side. Xiao Hei has been staring at Qin Yu in a daze. At this moment, it immediately cries out loud in excitement. The cries of the eagle resound continuously. At the same time, it runs up to Qin Yu very fast and hugs him tightly with its huge wings while chirping wildly.

“Ha-ha, Xiao Hei, alright, wow, you’re drooling on me.”

Qin Yu and Xiao Hei start to lark about with each other.

“Welcome, Master. I never thought that after your heart was penetrated your life could still be saved. Starlet is really too shocked by this.” A crystalline childlike voice rises through the entire spacious hall. Both Qin Yu and Xiao Hei are startled.

Qin Yu expands his holy sense and discovers that this is a very strange structure, basically unlike those on the Qian Long continent. However, he does not detect any person at all.

“Who are you?” He immediately says. “Could it be you saved me?”

“I’m Starlet, but I didn’t save you. It’s you who saved yourself.” That pleasant crystalline childlike voice rises again.

Qin Yu slightly frowns. He remembers how his heart was punctured by Wu Xing. At that time the Meteoric Tear seemed to send out various clear streams to continuously heal his heart. Even though the healing speed was extremely slow, his heart was still recovering. Also, when his bodily functions stopped completely and his soul was about to be sucked away, a warm stream enveloped his soul.

“Could it be the Meteoric Tear saved me?” Qin Yu thinks to himself.

This Meteoric Tear is really extremely miraculous. At least for the moment Qin Yu cannot understand how he is still all right after even his heart was penetrated. It should be known that, even Xiuzhenists who have not reached the Dongxu stage will only die if their hearts are penetrated.

If a Dongxu stage expert or above is punctured in the heart, his physical body will be destroyed and he will only be able to rely on his yuanying and soul to practice as a loose immortal. No one has ever heard about anyone who could survive a stab wound in the heart.

For the moment, Qin Yu does not consider this matter. He organizes his mind a bit and asks: “You’re Starlet? Who is Starlet? Why have you always called me master? Can you explain everything? Moreover, why is the lamplight of this place so strange?”

Qin Yu raises his head and looks upwards.

There is a huge square transparent product which is radiating a multi-colored light, looking very effulgent.

“Starlet is the manager of this building and is an artificially intelligent being. This separate villa was built by 1st Master, Master Lei Wei. I followed Master Lei Wei wandering the universe. During that time, Master Lei Wei continuously practiced and learned through experience. We originally came from a techno-science universe, where technology and science were extremely developed. Master made this separate villa then sucked it into his Storage Ring. One day, Master ventured into a black hole and was sucked into it. After getting out of the black hole alive, he found himself having arrived in another universe. Master then came to a planet in this universe, which is your planet.”

That crystalline childlike voice says with excitement.

Qin Yu, however, raises his eyebrows.

Artificially intelligent being? Separate villa? Techno-science? Planet?

Qin Yu does not understand what they mean at all. He does not understand how he came to this place either.

“This planet unexpectedly belonged only to Xiuzhenists. Our original universe also had Xiuzhenists but, because it was dominated by science and technology, there were very few of them, extremely few. However, this planet had an unusually high number of Xiuzhenists, thousands upon thousands. After staying on this planet for some time, Master had to undergo his heavenly tribulation. He had been worried that he would fail so he had left me in this wilderness earlier, telling me to wait for 2nd Master. Sure enough, after so many years, the teleportation formation finally started and brought you here, Master.”

Now Qin Yu has gained a little knowledge of what happened, but he still does not understand some words such as technology and science.

“Starlet, why haven’t you come out? Come out and talk with me,” says Qin Yu directly because he simply does not know what an artificially intelligent being is.

“Wait a moment. Starlet doesn’t have a real body. I can only use a simulated image!” An image then appears in front of Qin Yu. It is none other than that of a kitten. Qin Yu’s eyes pop out of his head. He cannot help reaching out a hand. However, his hand goes through the simulated body of the kitten.

At first sight, this simulated image seems to be real. Only when he touched it was he able to discover that it is merely simulated.

“He-he, Master, you’re an inhabitant of the Qian Long continent so you simply don’t know what science and technology mean. 1st Master Lei Wei already prepared a book for you early on. It is written in the language of your Qian Long continent so you can take your time reading it. After reading it, you’ll understand everything. When you want to turn a page, just give me an order.”

A simple-and-ancient-looking book suddenly floats before Qin Yu. Naturally, it is also simulated.

Qin Yu looks at it in stupefaction. After a long time, he swallows and disregards everything else to start reading it carefully. As he goes on, a whole new civilization that is completely different from the Xiuzhen civilization appears before him …

Lei Wei was an exceptionally wise person. The book he wrote contains only several hundred thousand words but it enables Qin Yu to understand the meaning of the techno-science civilization. At least he already knows how to use this separate villa.

“So … I was teleported into this separate villa this way.” A faint smile appears on his face.

He has understood everything.

If a person wants to practice that Art of Stellar Transformations, he must reach the peak of the Xiantian level first, which also means he must completely master the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams. The sign that he has practiced the technique of the diagrams to the highest level is the tricolor suit of armor formed by the 108 energy streams covering him.

As soon as Qin Yu formed a tricolor suit of armor, that miraculous huge transportation formation sensed it then directly transported him into this separate villa, which had been set up carefully beforehand. At the same time, Starlet automatically took his blood to register him as its master.

“Meow ~~ Master, 1st Master left you a series of images. He wanted to tell you about some matters with it. Do you want to watch it?” Starlet blinks its eyes and wags its little tail.

Qin Yu cannot help getting startled in his heart. He admires this Lei Wei very much.

Obviously, Lei Wei was the mysterious man who killed a Dacheng stage expert, a good several loose immortals, and several tens Dujie stage and Kongming stage experts. Moreover, this expert’s origin was even stranger -- he did not even come from this Xiuzhen world.

Is he going to see this senior?

“Starlet, give Xiao Hei the right to move in this separate villa. Also, wait for me to deal with the corpse of this geezer. Ah, this is …” As soon as Qin Yu looks at Wu Xing’s corpse, he notices one thing.

Wu Xing is dead, but the flying sword and short knife inside his body and also his storage bracelet have dropped to one side. Qin Yu does not value the flying sword and short knife very much but he has never seen that storage bracelet.

He picks up the storage bracelet in a movement of his hand. The original owner of this storage bracelet is already dead so it is now an owner-free object. Qin Yu immediately personalizes it by blood. A drop of blood falls on this storage bracelet then gets totally absorbed by it.

“So wonderful, it even has a space the size of a room.” As soon as he puts the storage bracelet on, he can totally feel the space inside it.

As he wears the storage bracelet, there is a surge of happiness in his heart. With a thought, everything in the bracelet can appear on his hand then get sucked inside in an instant, which is really extremely convenient and fantastic. In his heart, Qin Yu cannot help getting emotional over how marvelous the storage bracelet is.

“Xiao Hei, from now on you can move freely in this separate villa. Come, follow me to bury this geezer’s corpse.” Qin Yu lifts Wu Xing’s corpse up in a movement of a hand then walks out of the hall in strides.

“Master, follow me, this way. Just now it was the Training Hall. The surrounding silvery walls and floor of the Training Hall are made from an ore that 1st Master collected from a planet with especially strong gravity while travelling the universe. They have particularly great hardness. Even a so-called high-grade holy weapon in this Xiuzhen world can only leave a small mark on them,” says Starlet proudly.

Qin Yu, however, secretly clicks his tongue because he never expected those silvery walls and that silvery ground to be so hard. But he does not know that Lei Wei, while wandering and venturing in the universe, saw a lot of strange planets, some of which had gravitational pulls so great that even Lei Wei did not dare to come near.

Walking out of the entrance of the living room, he sees a relatively large indoor swimming pool. He goes around the swimming pool and come out of this separate villa.

“It’s very beautiful indeed.”

As soon as Qin Yu comes out, he sees a blue lake before him. The side of the lake is surrounded by a green meadow. This separate villa is located beside the lake. However, outside the green meadow, there is a huge mountain forest. In a glance, he can see various kinds of wild beasts.

Qin Yu turns around and looks at the separate villa. From the outside, it looks like a mountain. He says with a smile: “Separate villa, this noun sounds really awkward. This separate villa was built by Senior Lei Wei and looks like a mountain so from now on let’s call it Lei Mountain House.” He has come up with a Qian-Long-continent-style name for it.

After that, he buries Wu Xing’s body at a nearby place.

“Xiao Hei, you can play around here but don’t go too far. This place is in the Wilderness. Maybe there are some strong demonic beasts. If you encounter any dangers, you must return immediately.” Qin Yu says while gently patting Xiao Hei’s head. Xiao Hei flaps its wings and nods in excitement.

Qin Yu gives a smile then goes back into Lei Mountain House directly.

Lei Mountain House is very large. It is divided into 2 floors. The ground floor has the Training Hall, the living room, the Weapon Forging Chamber, the Pill Making Chamber, the storeroom, the swimming pool at the front and the garden at the back. In the back garden there are flowers and grasses taken from some unusual planets.

The 1st floor does not have any techno-science leisure facilities. Rather, it is a place for training, weapon forging and pill making. The 2nd floor, however, is the opposite. It has recreation facilities such as the bathroom, the kitchen, the entertainment hall, the bedroom and the study.

At this moment, Qin Yu is in the Training Hall.

“Starlet, didn’t you say Senior Lei Wei left me a series of images? Turn them on for me to have a look.” Qin Yu is standing in the Training Hall. His heart is beating somewhat fast. After all, he is about to see images of the mysterious Lei Wei.

“Meow ~~~ wait a second!”

Starlet sweeps its little tail then disappears. At the same time … the entire Training Hall’s walls are covered with images of the universe and stars. In an instant, it looks as if Qin Yu is in space. The floor on which he is standing has even become the image of an area of space and simply cannot be seen anymore.

“Cosmos, this is the cosmos?”

Qin Yu is somewhat curious in his heart. However, at this moment, a man appears in front of him out of thin air. That man is standing with his hands behind his back and his back facing Qin Yu. After a long time, he lets out a sigh then turns around.

Aloof and proud, swift and fierce,

This is Qin Yu’s first impression of Lei Wei. All of a sudden, Lei Wei smiles: “Hello, if you are seeing this image, that will mean I, Lei Wei, have already failed to overcome the tribulation.”

Qin Yu understands this. If Lei Wei had not failed to overcome the tribulation, he would definitely have returned to this Lei Mountain House and naturally there would not be this scene. At the moment, after Lei Wei has begun to smile, he looks very amiable so Qin Yu is no longer nervous.

Lei Wei’s eyes have grown a bit misty. It seems he is remembering what has happened throughout his life.

“I was a prince of an empire in the Milky Way Galaxy, but I didn’t like imperial power. Instead, I liked interstellar adventures and practicing. Where we came from, there were Xiuzhenists on only one planet, which was the Earth. Only when I had reached a certain level in practice did I know about that.”

“At that time, I practiced nonstop. Then I obtained a secret book -- the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams --, which had only 3 pages containing 36 pictures each. However, to practice the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams, I had to reach the Xiantian level in body training first. I went out of my way to train hard and after experiencing various difficulties I finally succeeded. Then I gave up the prince status and set off for interstellar adventures using my spaceship. While travelling, I continuously practiced the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams. Eventually, one day the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation came down. Luckily, I was able to overcome it. However … I didn’t have any techniques to continue my practice with.”

Lei Wei’s face has a hint of satisfaction and enjoyment. He seems to be remembering those daring years.

“While wandering in the cosmos looking for adventures, I heard about the theory of jindan and yuanying, but I still couldn’t obtain any Xiuzhen techniques. They were really too precious. At that time, I, who didn’t have a Xiuzhen technique, chose to create a path of my own. I knew Xiuzhen was to pursue the Way of Heaven … But what is the Way of Heaven? Could it be to form the jindan and train the yuanying?” A hint of haughtiness and confidence appears on Lei Wei’s face.

“No, I definitely don’t think so. In my view, the Way of Heaven is the most original and natural things and isn’t something forcibly prescribed by human attempts. Watching the natural transformations of the cosmos, I gradually gained an understanding of the Way of Heaven. Then I started to create a new practice technique based on my understanding. This technique is modeled upon the evolution of stars in the cosmos so it’s called the Stellar Transformations.”

An idea springs to Qin Yu’s mind. Could the Stellar Transformation be that mysterious technique?

Lei Wei continues: “After going through a series of battles and adventures, I finally knew about the existence of the planet Earth, the only citadel of Xiuzhenists in the entire cosmos. I spent over 100 years on Earth and also obtained several Xiuzhen techniques, but … I thought they were simply inferior to the Stellar Transformations I had created.”

Lei Wei involuntarily gives off an air of lordliness.

“I left Earth and started to venture nonstop in the cosmos. Eventually, one day I was sucked into a black hole. That black hole was really too strong. It was basically not something the human power could resist. Then I arrived in a new space. At the same time, I discovered the planet nearest me. This planet was very large, extraordinarily large. Compared to that planet Earth of the Milky Way, it had to be over 10,000 times bigger. When I landed on it, I found out that it had a shockingly high number of Xiuzhenists, who were counted by the 10,000.”

Lei Wei gives a disappointed smile: “Little boy, this study of mine has some practice techniques, which are all Xiuzhen techniques. I’ve collected quite a few of them, some from Earth and some others from this world. If you want to practice, you can use any of them.”

Qin Yu frowns. Could it be this Lei Wei does not want to teach him his own Stellar Transformations?

“Little boy, the Stellar Transformations is an incomplete technique and takes an unprecedented path. Even after wandering the cosmos for several thousand years, I’ve only been able to create the first 6 main stages -- Nebula, Meteor, Core, Planet, Dujie and Star. Moreover, the Star stage has merely been envisaged by me and I have no idea what will come afterwards. If you practice like me, even if you overcome the tribulations, reach the Star stage and ascend to the Realm of Immortals, you won’t have any techniques to continue your practice with.” Lei Wei says with an indifferent smile.

Qin Yu also understands the disadvantages of the Stellar Transformations.

To practice it to the Dujie stage is still not a bad thing because Lei Wei has already done this. However, that Star stage has only been envisaged by Lei Wei and there is no technique for dealing with what will happen after it. Once Qin Yu takes this path and practices to the Star stage, he will have to create a new technique on his own because the practice methods used by the other Xiuzhenists, who all cultivate their yuanyings, will be completely useless to him.

But will it be easy to create a new technique? If he overdoes it and loses his way, both his body and soul will be destroyed.

“Stellar Transformations, ha-ha … is practicing this Stellar Transformations a blessing or a disaster? It’s hard to tell. Alright, little boy, you can choose for yourself. If you don’t practice it, then when you have a chance later, help me to find an inheritor of it, okay? Too bad, to practice the Stellar Transformations one must reach the peak of the Xiantian level in external practice first and use the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams as the basis, so, I’m afraid it won’t be easy to find an inheritor, but … You’ll need to think about this matter later.”

Lei Wei gives a disappointed smile and heaves a low sigh: “Milky Way, planet Menghuan …”

The image of his body then disappears completely.

After Qin Yu ponders for a while, his eyes flash with fierceness. He immediately leaves the Training Hall very fast and rushes into the study on the 2nd floor. There are quite a few paper books in the study. Some of them are educational books and some others are practice books. He finds it strange that Lei Wei wrote down various practice techniques in paper books.

The one book that is put highest is the Stellar Transformations.

“Blessing or disaster? Once I reach the Star stage, I can already achieve ascension. Even though afterwards I won’t have a technique to practice, when Master Lei Wei was able to create his own technique, then why can’t I? If there weren’t any challenges at all, practice would be too boring. Only this kind of technique will be able to make my blood boil with excitement!”

Qin Yu sits down on a chair and opens the Stellar Transformations.

“Is forming the jindan and yuanying the correct path of practice? The so-called Way of Heaven that everyone pursues, what is it? After observing the cosmic evolution, I created this technique. It can also be considered a path of Xiuzhen. This technique is divided into 6 main stages, the first of which is discussed in Chapter 1 -- Nebula.”

“Generally, after a practitioner overcomes the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, his Xiantian energy will liquefy in his boundless dantian. He will then merge it into a sphere of liquid energy and refine this sphere until it becomes the jindan. However, must this course of action be taken? Must he merge his energy into a single mass? The 1st step of my Stellar Transformations is to disperse. It will evaporate the Xiantian energy again and spread this energy, not only throughout the dantian, but even beyond the surface of the body. It will use the dantian as the center and the body as the bridge to link the cosmos up with the center of the body, allowing the practitioner to evolve together with the natural Way of Heaven …”

As Qin Yu reads this technique, excitement surges in his heart uncontrollably.

Those Xiuzhenists who form the jindan or the yuanying all absorb holy energy nonstop then refine it in their dantians. Their way of practice is really very narrow-minded. If they want to become one with nature, perhaps they will have to wait until the Dongxu stage. Only from this stage, where their yuanyings can leave their bodies, can they get a taste of becoming one with nature.

However, in the beginning, what this Stellar Transformations does is disperse. It evaporates and disperses the Xiantian energy then uses the dantian as the center and the body as the bridge to connect the universe with the body’s center, absorbing the stellar energy in the universe …

“Alright, Master Lei Wei, I’m going to practice the Stellar Transformations. Even though upon reaching the last chapter, Star, I won’t have a technique to practice, I will continue to develop and complete this technique. Even if I fail, I will still pass it down to an inheritor to keep it in practice. Generation after generation, eventually there will be someone who can succeed completely.”

Qin Yu’s eyes glitter. He holds the book of the Stellar Transformations tighter.

Choosing to practice this Stellar Transformations, he certainly understands there is a possibility that he will fail in his attempt at creation and die due to taking the wrong way. But can Qin Yu possibly fear it? Is it still like him to be overly cautious and afraid of death? When approaching death, he even feels his blood boil with excitement. To him, only a life with a lot of that feeling will fill him with enthusiasm and be a perfect life with no regrets.

End of b4c1.

[wandering]

B4C2: Early heavenly tribulation?

“What a large storeroom.” Qin Yu opens the entrance of the storeroom on the 1st floor of Lei Mountain House. He is astonished to see that it is about the same size as the Training Hall. However, what shocks him the most is that it is unexpectedly filled with various ores.

They have different colors such as crimson, green, golden, silvery, black, and white …

The ores emit all kinds of glows, looking like a collection of attractive treasures. Qin Yu’s first impression is that all of the ores are extremely precious crystals and, moreover, none of them is inferior to In-rock Flaming iron.

“Master, when Master Lei Wei was wandering the universe at that time, he visited an unusual planet. That planet had extremely strong gravity and, moreover, it was covered with various precious crystals of different kinds. Master then dug up quite a few of the better crystals among them. From the viewpoint of the Xiuzhen world, these crystals are all top-class and can be used to forge top-class holy weapons.” A kitten appears out of thin air and floats on one side of Qin Yu.

Qin Yu cannot help becoming astonished.

They are ores that can be used to forge top-class holy weapons, no less! He remembers Fengyuzi once said that, even in the Overseas Immortal Islands a high-class holy weapon is extremely rare, not to mention these top-class crystals before him that fill more than half of the storeroom.

He cannot help reaching out his hand, wishing to get a chunk to examine. However --

Bang!

Before he can touch these crystals, a repulsive force comes through his hand. Qin Yu makes a shake with his body to neutralize the repulsive force. Starlet on one side hurriedly says: “Master, First Master Lei Wei once told Starlet that an innocent man can run into trouble because of his wealth. Until you have reached the Core stage in power, you definitely won’t be able to use these top-class ores.”

“Oh … Master was really thoughtful. Xiuzhenists can fight each other for a chunk of a pretty good ore, not to mention top-class ores.” Qin Yu gives a smile then says with an unhappy expression: “But it’s really unbearable to just look at a mountain of treasures that has just appeared out of the blue.”

Starlet wags its tail proudly and says: “Meow ~~~ Master Lei Wei already prepared everything for you. See, that counter on the edge of the room, there is a ring on it. That ring is none other than a spatial ring, which is much more advanced than your storage bracelet, Master. It also has a very large space inside.”

As Starlet finishes saying, Qin Yu immediately goes up to that ring and gets it.

He personalizes it by blood at once and puts it on. As soon as he wears this ring, he feels how wonderful it is. Inside it, there is a simply shockingly large space.

“How great is the space of this spatial ring actually?” In a glance, Qin Yu jumps out of his skin. His storage bracelet’s space is only about the size of a room, but this spatial ring’s space is both longer and wider than 10,000 m and is 10,000 m high. They are basically not on the same level.

Even a big mountain can be put into this ring easily.

Starlet continuously wags its tail and says proudly: “When it comes to forging, in the Xiuzhen world, if Master Lei Wei had said he was the number 2, there would’ve been absolutely no one who dared to say they were the number 1! This Menghuan ring is the best spatial ring. Master Lei Wei forged it to commemorate his home planet. He said its space is much larger than even that of the Mingxu ring, the so-called number 1 spatial ring in the Xiuzhen world.”

As soon as Qin Yu gives this Menghuan ring a thought, it disappears into concealment. He must not take it out carelessly because after all his power is still really too weak. Of course, other people are not necessarily shrewd enough to notice that this is a formidable ring.

“Later I better use a common storage bracelet as a disguise for this Menghuan ring. Otherwise I’ll get robbed because of it, which will be terrible.” Qin Yu understands that he should not show his wealth, especially when his power is still considered weak in the Xiuzhen world.

Even though the Menghuan ring has been hidden inside his body, this does not affect his use of it at all.

“Oh, there are even some things inside it.” With a thought, Qin Yu discovers that some things are stored in the Menghuan ring. Taking a careful look, he sees that they are none other than some crystals. However, it looks like these crystals are not nearly as precious as the top-class crystals he saw just now in the storeroom.

Starlet says proudly: “Master, those are middle-class crystals and some high-class crystals. Master Lei Wei left them for you so that you can forge weapons. There is even a bottle of holy pills -- Vermillion Jade Pills -- in it. You can use them to heal your injuries.”

As soon as Qin Yu hears this, he gives a smile. Injuries?

At least he feels that, even though these Vermillion Jade Pills can also be considered top-class holy pills, they are definitely inferior his Meteoric Tear in effectiveness. As for the life-saving Meteoric Tear, he has an indescribable feeling about it.

“It’s time I started training. Unless I reach the Nebula stage, which is equivalent to the Jindan stage, I simply won’t be able to come back through the Wilderness alive.” Qin Yu immediately leaves this room and starts to practice seriously.

He practices the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams. Even though he has already reached the level where the 108 energy streams surround him at the same time and form a tricolor suit of armor, he has not felt the arrival of his heavenly tribulation yet. He knows he must gain some intuitive understanding of the Way of Heaven. In the blink of an eye, 7 days have passed. In the last 7 days, Qin Yu has flicked through many Xiuzhen books, which have also explained to him how he should practice at the peak of the Xiantian level in order to feel the arrival of the heavenly tribulation.

He has been practicing according to some of their methods.

Outside Lei Mountain House, Qin Yu is standing quietly on the center of the blue lake. His feet unexpectedly are staying still on the surface of the water. At the same time, 108 energy streams are moving around his body.

In the past, only when he performed the movements of the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams could the silvery, golden and purple energy streams be formed. However, when Qin Yu eventually exploded during that great battle in the Green Lotus mountain range, he made a breakthrough. And now he can make the tricolor suit of armor appear even without moving.

Walking on water without sinking a bit is a skill that Qin Yu has acquired only recently.

With his mind entering a state of vagueness and haziness, he naturally merges into nature. Now he can feel clearly the energy and life force of any plant or animal within several li of him. The progress he has made in 7 days is really astonishing.

Boom!

Qin Yu’s mind suddenly gets a shock. His body can no longer maintain the state of a moment ago and falls directly ino the water. He wakes up at once. Throwing a palm strike at the water’s surface, he stands on it again. At this moment, his face is full of excitement.

“5 months, my 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation will come in 5 months. Good, this is really good.” Qin Yu’s eyes are filled with excitement. Just now an enormous stream of energy entered the depths of his mind and right afterwards he knew when he was going to undergo the tribulation. This kind of feeling was really very mysterious.

At this moment, a series of eagle cries rise on the horizon. The black eagle then dives down directly from the sky. This period of time, it has often preyed on the wild beasts in the surroundings. Ordinary Xiantian level wild beasts are basically no match for the black eagle.

******

Qin Yu is practicing quietly in the Wilderness without being disturbed by anyone. However, at the moment, undercurrents are surging in the Chu kingdom. The movements of the Qin clan’s forces and the mobilization of its several hundred thousand troops undoubtedly cannot escape the detection of the Xiang clan’s spies. The Qin clan is about to rebel!

The Xiang clan receives this information all of a sudden and cannot help being caught off guard by it.

“What’s going on? Argh, Shangguan Hong said there were still some years to go and Hidden Chessman’s secret letter also said the Qin clan would only rebel 2 years later. Now why is it moving its forces all of a sudden directly to the borderlines?” Xiang Guang is in a rage at the moment.

On one side, the hook-nosed man simply does not dare to make any noises because Xiang Guang is currently furious.

How can Xiang Guang possibly not get angry? At first he thought the Qin clan would rebel 2 years later so the Xiang clan has naturally worked out a series of steps to deal with that. However, now that the Qin clan has sped up its rebellion so much, Xiang Guang is certainly caught unprepared.

“Then have the bandits in the Black Water mountain range made up their minds? These bandits have been occupying the Black Water mountain range for several hundred years. They have become more and more powerful and now there’s no way to exterminate them. However … it’s a good thing for the moment. We’ll let them hinder the Qin clan’s hind legs.” Xiang Guang says with a cold smile.

The hook-nosed man hurriedly says: “Your Majesty, I was just about to report on this matter. Those Black Water mountain range’s bandits are particularly greedy. I don’t dare to make a decision without your permission …” The hook-nosed man takes out from his bosom a letter and hands it over to Xiang Guang.

“Don’t say that it’s too much. At this moment you still have misgivings about this much?” Xiang Guang reprimands him but still receives the letter.

As soon as he opens the letter and takes a look, even though he is prepared, his face still changes color: “Screw these bastards. They are merely a bunch of bandits but they’ve laid down to me so many conditions and asked for so much military materials. This really … this really …”

Xiang Guang is so angry that his hands tremble. Then he heaves a sigh and says with a cold smile: “Alright, accept their demands. They’ve dared to ask so I’ll give them what they want, but when the Qin clan has been destroyed, I’ll make these bandits cough everything up, and pay the interest as well!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” the hook-nosed man hurriedly bows and says.

“Go!” Xiang Guang says with a casual wave of a hand. The hook-nosed man immediately bows and leaves.

______

In Qin Yu’s former courtyard house in the East Vanquishing Prince mansion,

Qin De is standing motionlessly beside the willow and looks up at it. Since he returned, he has often come into Qin Yu’s former courtyard house. He has been standing like this for a whole day but no one dares to disturb him.

He closes his eyes. The scenes of the battle surrounding his tribulation appear in his mind.

……

“Ah ~~~”

Qin Yu abruptly turns his face skyward and gives a long roar. His expression has become ferocious. His hands suddenly form 2 dragon talons and pierce through the air with a sharp whistle. “Chi ~~” Concurrently with a noise of flesh being penetrated, Qin Yu’s claws are stuck into Wu Xing’s chest. His eyes flash with fierceness. He violently makes a grab with his right hand and immediately smashes Wu Xing’s heart with it.

……

In that battle, Qin Yu was fierce and unafraid of death. The Four Directions Death Gods, the traitor Ge Min and Wu Xing all died at his hands one after another. Even when facing Xiuzhenist Wu Xing, Qin Yu, who was at an absolute disadvantage, still put his neck on the line and disregarded everything to kill his opponent.

What did he do everything for?

All of those scenes emerge in Qin De’s mind continuously. He becomes even more mournful. Naturally he knows why Qin Yu went insane like that. He will always remember everything his son did for him, his son’s every strike and movement, his son’s fierce expression while fighting the enemies and his son’s ruthlessness when perishing together with Wu Xing.

These things, he will never forget any of them!

“Yu’er, I’m sorry. Now I can do nothing for you, nothing to compensate you. I can only trample the Xiang clan to pieces and kill Xiang Guang and Wu De to bury them with you. If you’re watching from the underworld, you’ll see that, soon, in only a half year, we’ll go to war with them.” Qin De’s eyes glitter with coldness.

However … he does not know at all that at the moment Qin Yu is practicing nonstop in the legendary Wilderness, where dangers lurk everywhere.

In the Wilderness,

In a mountain forest, a huge blue wolf the size of a tiger is slowly advancing. Its bloodthirsty eyes are looking around. Suddenly, the huge blue wolf’s entire hair stands up. At the same time, various flames rise from its body.

Bang!

The huge blue wolf utters a miserable wail and is sent flying like a sandbag by a kick at the same time. It then smashes into an old tree. With a clack noise the old tree is broken apart, and its pieces smash directly into other trees.

“Copper head, iron bone, tofu waist -- sure enough, it’s true.” Qin Yu’s body appears beside the huge blue wolf in an instant. At the moment he is wrapped in hide, completely revealing some near perfect muscles. There is an air of vigor around him.

That huge blue wolf’s waist is now totally distorted. Obviously Qin Yu’s kick has broken the bones of the waist. However, wolves are unusually ferocious wild beasts, especially Blue Flame wolves like this one.

“Roar ~~~” The Blue Flame wolf suddenly turns its face upwards and roars.

“Calling your comrades? Too bad, under my holy sense, you guys basically won’t be able to gang up on me.” By now Qin Yu’s holy sense has already reached nearly 1000 m in range. However, because this mountain forest is too large, it will take those Blue Flame wolves some time to rush to this place.

“Hiss ~~” This Blue Flame wolf slightly bends its forelegs. Its eyes glitter with ferocity. Flames rise from its whole body. However, this wolf is merely at the Xiantian level therefore these flames cannot harm Qin Yu’s body at all. The wolf suddenly takes a leap. As if tearing the air, its 2 claws slash at Qin Yu.

Qin Yu’s body creates several illusions then returns to his original place, looking as if he has never moved.

That Blue Flame wolf has been sent flying back. Now its claws have been broken off and its entire head has been deformed, looking bizarre. In an instant just now, using his fast body-maneuvering skill and 2 hands, Qin Yu severed its claws and broke its head.

“Blue Flame wolves are so fast!” Qin Yu’s holy sense has already discovered the appearance of 3 Blue Flame wolves within a 1000 m radius of him. These 3 Blue Flame wolves are rushing toward him at a speed of almost 100 m per second. Qin Yu stands still at where he is.

In a while, the 3 Blue Flame wolves appear in his line of sight. Seeing a dead wolf, the 3 wolves overflow with their instincts. After several howls, they unexpectedly charge forward with a roar and attack Qin Yu at the same time.

Qin Yu remains motionless. When the 3 Blue Flame wolves have already come near him,

“Hah!”

Qin Yu suddenly utters a low shout. His eyes glitter intensely. At the same time, 108 energy streams appear around his body. At this moment, Qin Yu seems to turn into 3 people, who uniformly smash a straight punch into the heads of the 3 wolves.

“Bang!” The 3 Blue Flame wolves fall powerlessly on the ground. Even though from the outside their heads are still unblemished, everything inside has been pulverized by the shocks generated by Qin Yu’s hidden force.

1 strike, 3 wolves died.

“When the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams is practiced to perfection, it should be considered the most powerful close-quarters combat technique.” Qin Yu’s eyes glitter with excitement. During the battle on the day his father underwent his tribulation, in order to save his father, Qin Yu was eventually able to grasp how to make the 108 energy streams surround him at the same time. In that state, his speed was increased by several times.

However, having fought in the Wilderness for the last 2 months, he has discovered many other advantages of being surrounded by the 108 energy streams at the same time.

“Phew, after I killed 1, 3 appeared. After I killed 3, several tens are coming. Ho-ho, I’m not going to play with you anymore ~~~” Qin Yu gives a loud laugh then with a movement of his body he turns into a flickering blur in the forest. After flickering several times, the blur disappears.

If Qin Yu went all out to fight those several tens Blue Flame wolves, he would be able to kill them all while only suffering injuries at worst. However, their deaths would be followed up by the coming of several hundred to 1,000 Blue Flame wolves. In this mountain forest, which is near Qin Yu’s Lei Mountain House, there are at least 1,000 Blue Flame wolves. Even Qin Yu does not dare to fight so many of them.

After coming out of this forest, Qin Yu goes into another forest on a mountain range near Lei Mountain House.

“Roar ~~” A black striped tiger stares at him while roaring nonstop. However, seeming to have a feeling that Qin Yu is formidable, for the present it does not dare to attack him.

Suddenly, a sharp eagle cry resounds. A silhouette shoots down from the sky extremely fast like a black thunderbolt. Its 2 sharp claws directly grab the spine of the black striped tiger and tear it apart with ease. Then, with a ‘phut’ noise, a hole is pecked in the head of the tiger.

“Xiao Hei, what’s happened to you recently? You’ve been killing so many wild beasts already and even been focusing on killing formidable ones. It was so hard for me to encounter a near peak Xiantian black striped tiger, but you killed it too.” Qin Yu says resentfully.

Xiao Hei spreads its huge wings and flaps them continuously while chirping. Seeing this scene, Qin Yu cannot help giving a smile.

Time flies. It has been 3 months since he came into the Wilderness.

Today Qin Yu is sitting quietly with legs crossed on the side of the lake. In practice, not only does he have to fight, he also has to do spiritual training. When facing an enemy, a person with weak spirit will become nervous and will not be able to use his power properly; a person with average spirit will be able to fight normally but sometimes he will go mad; and a person with really strong spirit, whose face will not change color even if a great mountain is collapsing before him, will analyze the enemy’s weaknesses with absolute calmness in his mind.

Suddenly –

Hu ~~~

Fierce winds suddenly blow. Those sky-high large trees in the nearby forests start to shake continuously. Every wild beast quiets down as if it has felt something terrifying. The clouds floating in the sky are swept away in an instant. Just now the sky was still white, but now it is turning dark red all of a sudden.

Qin Yu suddenly opens his eyes and stares up at the sky. This scene is so familiar to him. It is exactly like when his father underwent his tribulation.

“The 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation?” Qin Yu is astonished. “Could it be some formidable demonic beast is undergoing its tribulation around here? But I’ve been here for so long. There doesn’t seem to be such strong demonic beasts within several tens li of this place.”

The dark red sky then creates a huge maelstrom. Various serpentine electrical sparks also appear all over this sky out of thin air. Being sucked by the maelstrom, the electrical sparks come together in it. In only a short while, that maelstrom has become a purple tribulation cloud.

The strangest thing is … this purple tribulation cloud is right above Qin Yu’s head.

“What …? My, my heavenly tribulation?” Qin Yu is somewhat stupefied. He remembers clearly that his tribulation should come 2 months later, so, why has this heavenly tribulation suddenly appeared? Moreover, that purple tribulation cloud has been formed directly above his head.

Has his heavenly tribulation come early?

End of b4c2.

[wandering]

B4C3: The bloody battle of the tribulation

“Xiao Hei, guard me. Be careful -- some demonic beasts may come over here to cause trouble during my tribulation.” Qin Yu turns his head to Xiao Hei and shouts.

However, Xiao Hei flaps its huge wings and continuously cries. At the same time, it raises its head and stares at the purple tribulation cloud in the sky. Various faint flames unexpectedly emerge from the surface of its body. Xiao Hei is even giving off an unprecedented aura.

As Qin Yu hears Xiao Hei’s cries and sees the rolling purple tribulation cloud in the sky, his mind suddenly becomes clear. He stares at Xiao Hei and says in disbelief: “Could it be … you’re about to undergo the tribulation?”

Xiao Hei flaps its wings proudly while crying nonstop.

Qin Yu shouts angrily at once: “Xiao Hei, don’t stay here showing off. Quickly get ready to take on the heavenly tribulation. I’ll watch over you. I’m worried some demonic beasts will come to disturb you during your tribulation.” Qin Yu does not dare to be reckless. His internal energy starts to permeate through all of his body parts like bubbles. Qin Yu’s entire body’s skin now radiates an indistinct purple jade glow.

The heavenly tribulation is such a big event so the demonic beasts in their vicinity will surely notice it. If some formidable demonic beast comes here to attack when it is happening, this will be dangerous. Getting disturbed is the most undesirable thing during a tribulation.

Chi chi ~~~

The tribulation cloud keeps rolling nonstop. Serpentine electric sparks are barging about in the cloud. Suddenly, a huge pressure comes out from the cloud and affects the entire area of ground beneath it. In the blink of an eye, the atmospheric pressure below the cloud becomes so much higher that even Qin Yu finds it very hard to breathe.

“No good. This tribulation seems to be even more powerful than my father’s last time. Could it be different people or demonic beasts will experience 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulations that are different in power?” Qin Yu is frightened. He remembers clearly the pressure exerted by the tribulation cloud during his father’s tribulation last time. And compared to it, the pressure this time is much greater.

Anyone going against Heaven will naturally have to endure nature’s punishments, hence the existence of the heavenly tribulations. A person with more formidable power will be given mightier punishments by nature.

Boom!

A great crash of thunder resounds. A large purple thunderbolt shoots out through the cloud like a sinuate aquatic dragon then strikes headlong directly downwards in an unstoppable, imposing manner, as if it will destroy any gods or devils who attempt to block it. Obviously its power is fairly great.

Qin Yu expands his holy sense to the utmost, covering the area within 1000 m of him. At this moment, what he fears the most is that some demonic beast will come to disturb Xiao Hei during its tribulation.

Xiao Hei spreads its wings. An eagle cry then resounds through the air. At the same time, it opens its mouth and unexpectedly … swallows that purple thunderbolt at one stroke. In an instant, the aquatic-dragon-like purple thunderbolt has been swallowed entirely by Xiao Hei. Concurrently with that, various electric sparks start to flicker on the surface of Xiao Hei’s body.

“This, this …” Seeing this, Qin Yu is shocked.

The 1st thunderbolt has unexpectedly been … eaten up by Xiao Hei just like this. Undergoing a tribulation is to resist its thunderbolts. Qin Yu has never heard that a thunderbolt can also be swallowed at one stroke. Xiao Hei is crying proudly. Judging by its appearance, the thunderbolt seemed to be a very delicious meal to it.

Thunder rolls once more. The purple tribulation cloud starts to billow even more madly. Electric sparks flash on and off rapidly again. In only a short while, it looks like the power of the cloud has become even greater. Obviously the 2nd thunderbolt is about to come down. Suddenly, a dragon-like sinuate thunderbolt shoots down extremely fast from the sky and strikes directly at Xiao Hei’s head.

Boom!

Xiao Hei brings its wings together and forms an electric protective cover. Various electric sparks are flickering outside the wings.

The thunderbolt hits Xiao Hei’s wings with a boom. The electric sparks on that protective cover flicker extremely fast at once and unexpectedly nearly half of the thunderbolt’s energy is sent away along the protective cover. The remainder of the thunderbolt is blocked head-on boldly by Xiao Hei using its wings.

Even Qin Yu himself does not know how hard Xiao Hei’s wings actually are. At least they must be tougher than his physical body.

Qin Yu’s face suddenly changes color.

His holy sense has discovered that in a nearby mountain forest various Blue Flame wolves are running extremely fast to the location of the tribulation. When he takes a look, several tens leading Blue Flame wolves have already come out of the mountain forest and are charging directly at him and Xiao Hei.

Qin Yu and Xiao Hei naturally have killed quite a few Blue Flame wolves since they came to this place in the Wilderness. These Blue Flame wolves are also very cunning. Only now do they rise in revolt.

“Roar ~~~”

Great roars of wolves resound continuously. Various Blue Flame wolves rush out from the mountain forest unceasingly. In only a short while, Qin Yu already notices that over 100 of them are charging at him, but new Blue Flame wolves keep rushing out from the mountain forest.

“My goodness, it couldn’t be all the Blue Flame wolves are coming, right?” Staring at those Blue Flame wolves that are coming at him in the distance, Qin Yu feels very anxious in his heart.

That mountain forest has from several hundred to over 1000 Blue Flame wolves. Moreover, even the weakest among them is at the Xiantian level while the strongest Blue Flame wolves have all reached the peak of the Xiantian level. Once Blue Flame wolves of this pack attack together, even just nearly 100 of them will be enough to seriously injure Qin Yu. And if several hundred of them jointly attack, it will be a disaster for him.

“I won’t be able to stop so many Blue Flame wolves for a while. If Xiao Hei is disturbed during the tribulation then …” Qin Yu becomes worried.

Once several tens Blue Flame wolves charge, Qin Yu will only be able to hold back some of them simultaneously at best. But Xiao Hei has to undergo the tribulation. Just now, it was only the 1st and 2nd thunderbolts, which were not very powerful. The really formidable ones, the 3rd and the 4th, have not appeared yet. If Xiao Hei is attacked by Blue Flame wolves, that will be terrible.

“This disgusting bunch of wolves wants to kick someone when they are down!”

Qin Yu utters a loud shout. The 108 energy streams start to move around him at the same time, forming a tricolor suit of armor. With a movement of his body, he instantly uses the Seven North Stars Moonlight Dance. His entire body now looks indistinct and unreal as if it is moonlight. In just a moment, he has already come into the pack of wolves.

Qin Yu’s entire body is radiating a purple jade light. The Flaming Gloves have appeared completely. Now is simply not the time for him to hide his power.

Clack!

Qin Yu’s left hand directly grabs and smashes the throat of a Blue Flame wolf. Then, like an aquatic dragon coming out of its cave, his right hand executes a spear hand strike, which has the strongest penetrating force. The force of the strike goes through the Flaming Glove and penetrates into the head of a Blue Flame wolf immediately. With a ‘bang’ noise, a large hole appears in that Blue Flame wolf’s head. Everything inside the head has even been shattered by the shock of the strike.

The over 100 Blue Flame wolves that appeared first have surrounded Qin Yu completely and are attacking him like crazy.

“Roar ~~~”

The strongest, leading wolf of the over 100 wolves surrounding Qin Yu gives a roar. Immediately, the other wolves stop attacking. In just an instant, Qin Yu has already killed more than 10 Blue Flame wolves but there are also some small bloodstains on his body. Those Blue Flame wolves’ claw attacks are really too powerful.

“What is this bunch of wolves doing?” Qin Yu looks at the Blue Flame wolves around him. This group of over 100 Blue Flame wolves is surrounding him with 6 layers altogether but they are not attacking him.

However, other Blue Flame wolves still keep rushing out nonstop from the mountain forest. In just a while, including the ones surrounding Qin Yu, the total number of Blue Flame wolves has already reached 300. This time, it is clear that the Blue Flame wolves are prepared to destroy Qin Yu and the black eagle once and for all.

Over 100 Blue Flame wolves are surrounding Qin Yu. The other wolves, however, disregard him and charge directly at Xiao Hei.

“This is bad.” Qin Yu knows they have a problem. At the moment, he is totally surrounded by Blue Flame wolves and simply cannot protect Xiao Hei, but Xiao Hei is undergoing its tribulation. Under the attack of over 100 Blue Flame wolves, how can Xiao Hei possibly set its own mind at rest to take on the tribulation? Even in a normal situation, it will be very dangerous for Xiao Hei to face over 100 Blue Flame wolves simultaneously, not to mention in this situation.

“Go to hell!” Qin Yu clenches his teeth. The energy inside his body is totally unleashed. With a loud shout, he charges directly toward Xiao Hei like lightning.

At the same time –

“Roar ~~~” The leading wolf gives a roar. The over 100 Blue Flame wolves that have been surrounding Qin Yu without attacking immediately go on the offensive madly. More than 100 Blue Flame wolves recklessly attack Qin Yu from all directions.

Clawing, biting, tearing, they resort to every possible means. For a while, Qin Yu only feels that there are wolf silhouettes all around him. Countless wolf claws are slashing at his body.

______

The 108 tricolor energy streams are moving around his body. Within the boundary formed by the energy streams, Qin Yu’s entire body suddenly creates various illusions. His 2 hands now look like the hands of the 1000 Armed Kannon, some of them executing finger strikes, some performing spear hand strikes, some turning into sharp claws, some throwing punches, and some using knife hand strikes.

Boom!

The 10-odd Blue Flame wolves nearest Qin Yu are sent flying in all directions with a boom, obstructing the other wolves at the same time. With his eyes blazing with killing intent, Qin Yu is looking at the wolves surrounding him while observing everything around using his holy sense.

The surrounding Blue Flame wolves begin to attack Qin Yu even more madly. His close-quarters combat techniques are utilized to the utmost. The Flaming Gloves make their already powerful offensive forces even more powerful. With just a punch he can shatter a Blue Flame wolf’s head.

A sound of bones getting broken is heard. A Blue Flame wolf falls on the ground for good with a ruptured throat. It even wails for a while before dying.

Qin Yu slashes his legs like blades. With a slash of a leg, he directly breaks up the backbone of a wolf, which falls on the ground without being able to ever get up.

……

Within 3 steps of his body, Qin Yu creates various illusions using his movements. Even though this range is short, he can cause those Blue Flame wolves to often make mistakes. After Qin Yu kills a good several tens Blue Flame wolves continuously, his clothes have been clawed to pieces. There is even a long wound on his chest, from which blood is slowly flowing out.

The Blue Flame wolves are also divided into the strong ones and the weak ones. The strong wolves have reached the peak of the Xiantian level and not even Qin Yu dares to block a claw attack by any of them. The wound on his chest was inflicted by a Blue Flame wolf that was around the late phase of the Xiantian level. Of course, one needs hardly ask about the fate of this wolf. Its head was cut off directly by Qin Yu.

“Scram!”

Qin Yu unleashes the purple energy inside his body again. His speed increases instantly and at the same time he kills or cripples the several tens Blue Flame wolves which are nearest around him. For a while, those Blue Flame wolves slightly halt and unexpectedly stop their attack.

“Xiao Hei!” As soon as Qin Yu pays attention to Xiao Hei’s situation, he becomes anxious in his heart.

Over 100 Blue Flame wolves all are trying to pounce on Xiao Hei as if they do not care about their lives.

“Boom ~~~” The purple tribulation cloud are rolling hurriedly, exerting a pressure which seems to be a real substance downwards. Qin Yu knows the 3rd thunderbolt is about to strike down. However, at the moment, over 100 Blue Flame wolves unexpectedly are taking advantage of the situation to attack Xiao Hei recklessly.

Xiao Hei raises its head giving a cry and suddenly flaps its huge wings once. A strong whirlwind is unexpectedly created, sending those Blue Flame wolves, which have jumped up, flying backward. However, these Blue Flame wolves are no ordinary wolves. Any of them is a Xiantian level demonic beast in the Wilderness. After falling on the ground, they come at Xiao Hei again with a jump, trying to claw or bite it while growling.

With a wave of the wings, Xiao Hei shoots up in the air to a height of several tens meters. Those Blue Flame wolves also jump up but, despite their formidable capabilities, they can only leap 7 to 8 meters and are still very far from being able to reach Xiao Hei’s level.

Boom!

A huge purple thunderbolt shoots out from the tribulation cloud and strikes down directly at Xiao Hei.

“No good.” Qin Yu’s face changes color. He has read about some important points of tribulation taking in some Xiuzhen secret books collected by Lei Wei and, according to them, taking on a tribulation in mid-air is more dangerous than on the ground. However, the black eagle is a bird and not a human so maybe this is not too bad, but Qin Yu is unsure about that either.

Xiao Hei utters an unhappy and shrill cry. Various electric sparks start to flicker on its wings, looking extremely dazzling. It brings the wings together and forms a protective cover to resist the thunderbolt directly.

Boom!

Like the hammer of the thunder god, the purple thunderbolt strikes upon Xiao Hei’s wings. With a ‘bang’ noise, Xiao Hei is smashed directly down on the ground, causing a shock. The 3rd thunderbolt was much more powerful than the 2nd one so Xiao Hei was only able to neutralize a small part of it and still had to endure most of its energy.

“Xiao Hei!” Qin Yu jumps out of his skin.

“Roar ~~” Standing haughtily on a huge rock beside the lake, the leading wolf continuously roars.

Blue Flame wolves keep dashing out from the mountain forest unceasingly as if their number is unlimited. By now 600 to 700 Blue Flame wolves have come out. Following a roar of the leading wolf, nearly 400 of them surround Qin Yu while the other 200 to 300 attack Xiao Hei.

Several hundred Blue Flame wolves jump toward the black eagle, which has fallen on the ground, while growling. In an instant, several tens wolves have already pounced on the eagle. They bare their sharp teeth and start to bite and tear it.

A good several hundred Blue Flame wolves are surrounding Qin Yu completely and tightly with 6 layers and he simply has no way to get out of this blockade. The strangest thing is that these several hundred wolves are unexpectedly surrounding him without attacking.

“Xiao Hei!”

Seeing countless Blue Flame wolves jumping towards Xiao Hei, Qin Yu feels as if his heart is being cut with a blade. Xiao Hei has been his best friend since childhood and he has even spent the greater part of his time with it. He takes a glance at the several hundred wolves. At the same time, killing intent surges inside him.

Suddenly, a sharp eagle cry resounds through the air. Many purple electric sparks unexpectedly burst forth and run through the bodies of all the Blue Flame wolves on Xiao Hei. Those wolves start to convulse while wailing. Then, with a bang, Xiao Hei sends those several tens wolves flying with a wave of its huge wings.

Xiao Hei looks at Qin Yu. Its eyes are radiating human-like feelings.

Qin Yu obviously can understand Xiao Hei’s feelings.

“Ha-ha ~~~ Xiao Hei, don’t worry. These are merely several hundred doggies. You can take on the tribulation without worries. I’m going to kill them all.” Qin Yu’s heroism has risen to the skies. “For so long, I haven’t had this feeling of blood boiling for so long …” His energy starts to surge inside his whole body.

Seeming to feel that this is not a good thing, the leading wolf immediately roars. The several hundred Blue Flame wolves charge at Qin Yu desperately at once.

“Meteoric Tear, I’m counting on you!” says Qin Yu inwardly.

The wound Qin Yu suffered just now on his chest has unexpectedly fully recovered in only a short while, leaving just a faint scar. The Meteoric Tear’s powerful ability to heal injuries is Qin Yu’s strongest weapon. His entire body starts to move.

Afterimages and the blurs of his fists, legs and sword!

One Blue Flame wolf after another falls on the ground while wailing wherever the blurs go to. They then either die or writhe in agony. Encircled by the 108 energy streams, Qin Yu is combining his speed with his body-maneuvering skill. His offense has certainly reached a shocking level. He is executing killing blows with ease. With a gentle poke of a finger or a casual slash of the Flaming Sword, he can already kill a wolf.

“Roar roar roar ~~” The leading wolf roars even more urgently.

The several hundred Blue Flame wolves immediately accelerate. They come at Qin Yu in waves, trying to tear or bite him. The deaths and blood of their comrades only make them even madder. Disregarding their lives, these Blue Flame wolves have left many wounds on his body. Using the Flaming Gloves and the Flaming Sword to the full, Qin Yu has unleashed his strongest offensive power.

Pooch ~~

A Blue Flame wolf tears his stomach with a claw attack. His blood immediately streams down with gurgling noises from the wound.

Pu!

A blur of his sword flashes by and the head of that wolf falls on the ground.

“I didn’t expect it to be a peak Xiantian Blue Flame wolf. Its offense was almost equal to that leading wolf’s.” Qin Yu pokes at some acupoints continuously at once, trying to slow his bleeding down a bit. Even though the wound on his stomach is very large, because too many Blue Flame wolves are attacking him recklessly, he basically has no time to treat it properly.

Xiao Hei is crying unhappily and shrilly. It is also being surrounded by 200 to 300 Blue Flame wolves.

“Boom ~~~” With rolls of thunder, a pressure comes down from the sky again. Even the Blue Flame wolves are somewhat slowed down by it. Obviously the most formidable, the 4th thunderbolt is about to strike down. Unable to care about anything else, Xiao Hei can only fly into the sky to take on the 4th thunderbolt.

End of b4c3.

[wandering]

B4C4: Holy sense communication

A cool and refreshing feeling comes from the wound on his stomach. Various clear streams are flowing out from the Meteoric Tear then fusing with the wound. Qin Yu’s injury is recovering at a clearly fast speed. His bleeding has started to slow down as well.

“This bunch of doggies is really nasty!”

Qin Yu utters a curse and attacks more ruthlessly at the same time. He basically does not dare to stop fighting. He has reached his maximum speed and is moving while killing these Blue Flame wolves with the Flaming Gloves and Flaming Sword unceasingly. The power of these middle-class holy weapons is really astonishingly great.

Just now there were 400 to 500 Blue Flame wolves surrounding Qin Yu, but in only a short while over 100 of them have already been killed by him.

“Roar roar … roar roar roar …” The leading wolf roars loudly again. In an instant, all the other wolves surround Qin Yu and attack him. However, new Blue Flame wolves keep rushing out from the mountain forest. The number of wolves is growing larger and larger. Now it has reached 800. Add to that the over 100 wolves killed by Qin Yu, and it can be said that this time the Blue Flame wolf clan in this mountain forest has launched an all-out attack.

Pu pu …

Qin Yu feels a burning sensation on his back. His holy sense notices clearly that it has been lacerated. His body immediately makes a swaying movement. He makes a simple swing with his sword using his right hand and that Blue Flame wolf falls on the ground at once for good while uttering several cries. At the same time Qin Yu has already moved away several meters again.

Speed! Speed!!

Because he is being surrounded, he has to rely on his speed to move nonstop so that he will only face a small number of enemies at a time. If he stops, with so many Blue Flame wolves coming at him together, he simply will not be able to do anything.

Pu pu …

2 wounds appear on Qin Yu’s stomach continuously. A Blue Flame wolf is fiercely biting into his stomach. Qin Yu straightens his left hand, forming a knife hand. The purple energy is then shaped into a blade on the edge of his hand. Executing a downward knife hand strike, he directly chops that Blue Flame wolf’s head off.

However, that wolf’s teeth are still stuck in his stomach, making him feel an acute pain. His blood is flowing out unceasingly from the wounds. He basically has no time to remove the head of this Blue Flame wolf from his body because, after all, he is being attacked from all directions by Blue Flame wolves.

“Roar roar …” Seeming to foresee that their victory is drawing near, the leading Blue Flame wolf roars loudly at once.

In an instant, several tens Blue Flame wolves jump up and come at Qin Yu from the sky. Those sharp teeth and ice-cold sharp claws are aimed directly at his body. Moreover, at the same time, several tens wolves also attack him together on the ground.

He is beset on all sides, but he cannot go into the sky, nor can he enter the ground.

“Hah!” Qin Yu’s eyes flash with fierceness. The movements of his 2 Flaming-Glove-wearing fists have unknowingly completely surpassed the speed thought to be his fastest. In the blink of an eye, Qin Yu’s 2 hands seem to have turned into several tens hands, eagle claws, sword fingers …

With a ‘bang’ noise, a hole appears in the throat of a Blue Flame wolf that has jumped high in the air. It immediately spouts blood in all directions like a geyser. At the moment, the entire battlefield is filled with the smell of blood.

Qin Yu unexpectedly catches a leg of a Blue Flame wolf with a grab. He utters a low shout and, like brandishing a whip, waves the wolf violently several times while gripping the leg. Then the purple energy in his body flows into his hand entirely. The over-10,000-jin strength of a peak Xiantian external expert is now totally unleashed.

Using that half-dead Blue Flame wolf as a weapon, Qin Yu throws it away violently.

Boom!

The purple energy and the 10,000-jin strength explode. That Blue Flame wolf’s body is blown up. The fragments of its flesh and bones shoot out in all directions like hidden projectiles. A batch of Blue Flame wolves cries and is knocked down at the same time.

However, the Blue Flame wolves that replace them claw and bite at him even more madly, inflicting more injuries on Qin Yu’s body nonstop. Luckily he has the Meteoric Tear so the small wounds close very quickly, but the large wounds will take some time to heal.

Even though the Meteoric Tear is formidable, it cannot catch up with the continuous attack of so many Blue Flame wolves.

In mid-air, seeing that Qin Yu is being attacked by several hundred Blue Flame wolves together, that his body is covered in blood and that there are shocking wounds on his stomach, Xiao Hei cannot help crying sadly and shrilly. However, with the tribulation cloud rolling so madly and exerting such an astonishing pressure, it is obvious that the 4th thunderbolt is about to strike down.

Boom!

A purple thunderbolt shoots down from the tribulation cloud in the sky like a wandering sinuous dragon carrying a world-shattering force and violently strikes at Xiao Hei with a boom.

Suddenly –

An eagle cry resounds through the sky. It is extremely sharp but also has an air of absolute aloofness and lordliness, which, when expanding, unexpectedly stops the 600 to 700 Blue Flame wolves that are attacking for a while. Qin Yu has always been observing Xiao Hei with his holy sense.

Facing the 4th thunderbolt, Xiao Hei emits various flaming flashes from the steely feathers which cover its entire body. They are called flaming flashes not because they are separate flames and lightning flashes that are joined together, but rather because they are lightning flashes that flame on the outside.

Hu …

The dazzling flaming flashes come out from Xiao Hei’s entire body and merge into a long narrow mass of energy, which then soars into the sky on a collision course with the 4th thunderbolt like an aquatic dragon.

Boom!

The mass of flaming flashes falls apart but the 4th thunderbolt’s power is also reduced a lot. At this moment, Xiao Hei unexpectedly shakes its wings extremely fast. Qin Yu’s holy sense notices clearly that each of the wings instantly creates 9 afterimages.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! ……

9 continual crashes are heard. Xiao Hei has shaken its wings with such a high frequency that even Qin Yu is greatly shocked. After these 9 collisions, the electricity of the already fairly weakened 4th thunderbolt has almost been canceled out. The remainder of the thunderbolt is then swallowed directly by Xiao Hei at one stroke.

Xiao Hei has overcome the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.

“Since when did Xiao Hei become so strong?” Qin Yu is indescribably shocked.

Xiao Hei has always been following him so he knows very clearly that it did not have any special skills. But just now, Xiao Hei sent out flaming flashes and even used a very brilliant skill, shaking its wings 9 times in an instant, which, one should know, was an extremely short amount of time.

Pu pu …

Qin Yu feels an acute pain on his back again. Just now he lost his concentration a bit and therefore was unexpectedly hit by another attack.

“This bunch of doggies!” Qin Yu curses angrily inside. Xiao Hei has overcome the tribulation so he is no longer worried. Now he can focus his entire mind and energy on fighting. His speed even increases a little again thanks to that. Afterwards, blood continues to splatter everywhere and severed limbs keep flying all over the place among this group of several hundred Blue Flame wolves.

Suddenly –

An eagle cry rises through the sky. Xiao Hei, which has just gone through the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, spreads its wings and dives down extremely fast. When it is about to come near the group of Blue Flame wolves again, its wings make exceedingly subtle vibrations.

Zigzagging like a bolt of lightning!

Whizz …

Even Qin Yu only sees a black shaft of light flash on and off continuously. Following that, the bodies of several tens Blue Flame wolves split into 2 or 3 parts. These wolves seem to have been cut by a sharp blade. All of the wolves immediately stop.

“Xiao Hei!” Qin Yu is astonished.

Xiao Hei, which is flying high in the air, utters another cry and executes the special skill it used just now again. This time Qin Yu observes it very carefully using his holy sense. He sees clearly that Xiao Hei shakes its wings quickly according to a fantastic path of movement and flashes directly through the pack of Blue Flame wolves like a black flash of lightning.

Xiao Hei’s wings are extremely hard. Now they have even caught up with holy weapons in hardness and are sharp like knives. Every time Xiao Hei flashes through the wolves, it cuts many of them into several pieces.

“Roar roar …”

The leading wolf roars urgently at once. This wolf’s intelligence is not low therefore it can see that the black eagle, which originally was not a serious threat, has transformed after going through the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation. The eagle can fly whereas they, as Blue Flame wolves, cannot. The black eagle only needs to dive down 10-odd times to exterminate several hundred Blue Flame wolves.

Following the roar of the leading wolf, several hundred Blue Flame wolves immediately retreat at a very fast speed, running directly toward the mountain forest where they came from.

Hu!

Hu!

Like a glider, Xiao Hei flashes extremely fast through the Blue Flame wolves 2 more times in quick succession, killing nearly 100 of them again. Afterwards, all the other wolves run into the mountain forest, leaving behind 400 to 500 corpses of wolves on the former battlefield.

Xiao Hei lets out another cry, seemingly wanting to charge into the mountain forest.

“Xiao Hei, no need to chase.” Qin Yu’s facial muscles slightly twitch. At the moment, there are over 100 wounds on Qin Yu’s entire body. However, most of them are just skin-deep and only 4 or 5 of them are really severe. Luckily for him, the Meteoric Tear is healing the wounds nonstop by sending out many clear streams.

With a wave of the wings, Xiao Hei flies across the lake then lands beside Qin Yu. It stares at the wounds on his body. Apparently it is somewhat worried by them.

“Don't worry, they’re just skin-deep. I didn’t die even when my heart was penetrated. These small wounds don’t matter. Let’s go. We’ll return for a rest.” Qin Yu gives a ha-ha laugh, which has a distinctive heroic flavor. Then he and Xiao Hei go back to Lei Mountain House at once, leaving behind a field of Blue Flame wolves’ corpses.

In this battle, Qin Yu killed from 300 to 400 Blue Flame wolves.

He is a peak Xiantian external expert and has practiced the Trans-Heaven 3 Diagrams to perfection so his body is even comparable to diamond in hardness. Added to that the purple energy formed a protective energy cover around his body, and early-phase and middle-phase Xiantian Blue Flame wolves could only leave shallow wounds on his body and hold him down.

Only late-phase and peak Xiantian Blue Flame wolves could really cause him serious wounds. However, fighting multiple opponents is what Qin Yu is best at. In addition to that, he has 2 middle-class holy weapons and the Meteoric Tear continuously healed his injuries from inside his body, therefore this feat is nothing unusual for him.

……

In the Training Hall of Lei Mountain House, Qin Yu is sitting with legs crossed on the floor practicing meditation. Xiao Hei is also standing on one side of him. The black feathers on its body are radiating various rays of light. Obviously it is practicing.

After an hour, the various wounds which originally covered his body have all but disappeared. Even the several wounds on his stomach, which at the beginning were shockingly large ones, have become faint scars by now. The Meteoric Tear is indeed incomparably miraculous.

Whenever a clear stream flows to a wound, Qin Yu feels a continual numbing sensation in the wound. He enjoys that kind of sensation. After going through this crazy battle, Qin Yu feels that his own purple energy seems to have even become a bit more refined.

“He -- hello.” A slightly stuttering voice which is cold as ice suddenly rises in Qin Yu’s mind.

Qin Yu is startled: “There’s someone!” He immediately opens his eyes and looks around. Suddenly he notices that Xiao Hei is staring at him with its eyes full of excitement. An idea springs to his mind. He thinks of one possibility but finds it somewhat hard to believe.

“Xiao Hei, is it you?” Qin Yu stands up and looks at Xiao Hei in disbelief.

“Yes, it’s me. I’ve given myself a name, Hei Yu …” Xiao Hei is using holy sense communication for the 1st time therefore he was fairly nervous in the beginning but then calmed down. He has named himself Hei Yu because Yu is Qin Yu’s given name.

“Ha-ha, very good, very good!!!” Qin Yu’s eyes glitter with excitement. He then hugs Xiao Hei, saying: “From now on we can communicate at will. This is really very good. Ha-ha, Xiao Hei, I’m 7 years older so you call me big brother. Ha-ha, quickly say it.” Qin Yu says with excitement.

Xiao Hei has become slightly excited as well. After quite a while, he finally says via holy sense communication: “Big, big brother!”

Qin Yu and Xiao Hei are excited about each other for a long time. Then Qin Yu begins to ask some doubts he is having in his heart.

“Xiao Hei, how does your voice rise in my mind? Also, during the tribulation just now, how did you become formidable all of a sudden? I remember you weren’t so formidable in the past.” Qin Yu is very curious. “Right, I remember many demonic beasts can transform into a human after overcoming the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, why haven’t you done that?”

Xiao Hei is stupefied. Qin Yu knows he has asked too many questions so he immediately says: “Take your time, talk about them one by one.”

Xiao Hei thinks for a while then says: “When I just reached the Jindan stage, I automatically gained the ability to use holy sense communication. Too bad, to transform into a human I have to overcome the 9-from-9th Heaven Tribulation first. Also, during the tribulation, many demonic beast techniques suitable for me to practice suddenly appeared in my mind. There are some basic techniques so naturally I was able to use them.”

“You can only turn into a human after going through the 9-from-9th Heaven Tribulation?” Qin Yu is astonished. He has read some Xiuzhen books so he knows that it is harder for a more formidable beast to transform into a human. By contrast, some weak demonic beasts can turn into humans very easily.

It looks like Xiao Hei is a relatively formidable demonic beast.

It is regrettable that Qin Yu does not know the real significance of the sentence “many demonic beast techniques suitable for me to practice suddenly appeared in my mind” said by Xiao Hei. If he were a knowledgeable Xiuzhenist, he would probably know that it means Xiao Hei has ‘hereditary memories.’

“You are capable of holy sense communication but not speech?” Qin Yu asks.

Xiao Hei shakes his head powerlessly, saying: “No, my throat is different from a human’s so it’s very hard for me to speak human. I can only use holy sense communication. But isn’t holy sense communication very good? I can express what I want to say with just a thought. It’s much faster than speaking.”

Qin Yu can only nod.

“Alright, Xiao Hei, first you stay in this Lei Mountain House and practice more. There’re only 2 months before I undergo my tribulation. During this period I must practice seriously.” Qin Yu says to Xiao Hei, who nods repeatedly and says through his holy sense: “Big brother, you can practice without worries. I’ve just reached the Jindan stage so I have many things to do as well.”

Quite a few secret Xiuzhen techniques have appeared in Xiao Hei’s mind so naturally he wants to have a good try at learning them. Qin Yu will also stay in Lei Mountain House and train in peace while waiting for the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation 2 months later.

As the days go by, Xiao Hei and Qin Yu pay no attention to what happens outside and practice hard wholeheartedly. The surroundings of Lei Mountain House are also quiet because the Blue Flame wolves no longer dare to come to this place. By contrast, in the Chu kingdom on the Qian Long continent, undercurrents are surging at the moment.

End of b4c4.

[wandering]

B4C5: The power of lightning

“Ha-ha, even Heaven is helping me, even Heaven is helping me … This is really good, very good!!!” Holding a confidential letter in his hand, the Chu emperor Xiang Guang is so excited that he cannot restrain himself. Standing on one side, the hook-nosed man says respectfully: “This means Heaven wants the Qin clan to be destroyed. After all, Your Majesty is the real Son of Heaven.”

At the moment Xiang Guang is high-spirited and vigorous.

“Qin De, hey Qin De, you’ve been smart all your life but you’ve even attempted to take things from my hands several times. Eventually your Qin clan’s bases and accomplishments of several hundred years will also be ruined.” In a normal situation, given Xiang Guang’s courage, he would not dare to go to war because, after all, the Qin clan has quite a few troops and, moreover, they have been training on the border with the Wilderness for many years so they are superior to the troops of the other 3 big clans.

“Your Majesty, in the secret meeting this time between North Vanquishing Prince and Qin De, Qin De wanted to send 300,000 troops through North Vanquishing Prince’s territory to attack us, 300,000 troops, no less. Have you considered the possibility that, when North Vanquishing Prince switches sides, he will be defeated by Qin De’s army? After all, Qin De’s army is really very powerful.” The hook-nosed man says quietly.

That confidential letter was sent by Shangguan Hong, which talks about the most recent meeting between him and Qin De and its details.

Xiang Guang ponders for a while then says with a smile: “Don’t worry. There’s a very close relationship between the Shangguan clan and my Xiang clan. Moreover, when Qin De’s army goes into North Vanquishing Prince’s territory, he won’t be able to command it properly. When the time comes, I’ll send the army of the Xiang clan to cooperate with the Shangguan clan to attack them from both inside and outside. Humph, once those 300,000 troops are exterminated, the Qin clan will lose half of its army. Right, I sent you to tempt those Black Water mountain range bandits, how did it go?”

The hook-nosed man says hurriedly: “Your Majesty, after I told them that you had accepted their demands, those Black Water bandits and I took an oath of loyalty by drinking blood. Don’t worry, Your Majesty, these Jianghu fools value blood oaths greatly.”

Xiang Guang immediately laughs with satisfaction: “Very good. With the existence of those Black Water bandits in its territory, the Qin clan won’t mobilize that 200,000 strong army. Otherwise its den will be plunged into chaos. Even though it has raised 200,000 more troops, it will only be able to use 600,000. Humph, in addition, 300,000 of them will be annihilated in the Shangguan clan’s territory. Then, even the Fierce Tiger Corps will become useless. I want to see how the Qin clan is going to fight me at that time.”

“Your Majesty is brilliant.” The hook-nosed man bows and says.

Xiang Guang nods with satisfaction and says: “Very good. This time you carried out the job of tempting those Black Water bandits very well. You’ll be rewarded for this accomplishment. I’ve heard you like Yan Xizhi’s paintings so I give you this ‘Mother and Son’ painting.” As Xiang Guang is saying, he picks up a scroll from the table and hands it over to the hook-nosed man directly.

“I’m so grateful for your grace, Your Majesty.” The hook-nosed man immediately receives this painting.

“All right, you can go.” Xiang Guang says with a wave of his large sleeve. At the moment, it is clear that he is in an especially good mood. Seeing the hook-nosed man leaving, he says again: “Right, when you have free time, you must view this ‘Mother and Son’ picture carefully to grasp the essence of Grandmaster Yan Xizhi’s painting.”

“Yes!” The hook-nosed man says at once then walks out of the imperial study.

On the way home, he sneers inside: “The Mother and Son painting? This fellow Xiang Guang is a bit too cruel already.” The most important things to him are his wife and son so of course he understands what Xiang Guang implied by giving him this Mother and Son painting.

……

With a totally grim expression, Zhao Yunxing is looking at a military map.

“General.” A young man bows and says behind him.

“What’s the matter?” Zhao Yunxing says indifferently.

That young man says: “General, His Highness has ordered us and another army to enter the 2 Northern region counties together. I think it is somewhat inappropriate to do this.”

“What’s inappropriate about it?” A faint smile appears on the corners of Zhao Yunxing’s mouth but he still does not turn around.

The young man immediately straightens up, saying: “Through negotiation, His Highness has reached an agreement with the Shangguan clan that we’ll enter its territory and borrow ways to attack the Xiang clan. But is that Shangguan clan really on our side? If it is pretending to support us and in fact is supporting the Xiang clan, that will be a terrible thing to do. After all, the 2 Northern region counties are under the Shangguan clan’s complete control.”

“Don’t tell me you think His Highness hasn’t considered this point?” Zhao Yunxing asks in reply.

The young man immediately says: “His Highness of course must’ve thought about this. But the 3 Southern region counties are extremely loyal to the Xiang clan. When they join forces, they’ll have more than half of the Chu kingdom’s military power. So, His Highness had no choice but to get help from that North Vanquishing Prince. I think His Highness thought of this point, but, due to circumstances beyond his control, he had to cooperate with the Shangguan clan. However, if the Shangguan clan switches sides during the war, it will be terrible for us.”

“Yanyun, His Highness’s point of view is different from yours. He oversees the overall situation so he has everything in the palm of his hand. How can this small matter possibly halt His Highness’s undertaking? 2 months later, you’ll naturally understand everything.” Zhao Yunxing turns around and says with a smile.

A faint, relaxed smile appears on the young man’s face at once: “Since His Highness is so wise, now I can stop worrying.”

“Alright, Yanyun, you can leave first.” Zhao Yunxing says smilingly.

“Yes!” The young man turns around and leaves. Upon reaching the door, he stops, turns his head around and says quietly to Zhao Yunxing: “Father, it’s already midnight. You’d better have a rest soon. The war will break out shortly so your health is very important.”

As he finishes saying, he leaves.

Hearing that, Zhao Yunxing cannot help giving a faint smile.

Zhao Yunxing’s son Zhao Yanyun is also in the army but Zhao Yunxing has ordered that they only treat each other as a subordinate and a superior here. Therefore, Zhao Yanyun usually calls his father general.

The war will happen soon so both the Qin clan and the Xiang clan are bustling with secret activities. Their spies are also deployed completely.

In the dark, they bribe the enemy’s important employees or frame the enemy’s generals or assassinate the enemy’s personages. Counter-espionage, sex trapping and various other ruses are used totally fluently by them. Following the Qin clan’s mobilization of the army that has always been stationed on the border with the Wilderness, the whole Chu kingdom is covered in a shroud of pressure.

The Qin clan sends highly valuable gifts to the Black Water mountain range bandits to tempt them. The bandits unexpectedly accept the gifts. The Xiang clan, however, is not angry about this at all. Moreover, the number 1 assassination organization, the Heavenly Net, also announces publicly that it will stop undertaking any missions relating to the Chu kingdom.

In short, almost anyone feels the pressure of the fact that there is something in the wind. Perhaps, only Qin Yu, who is practicing in peace in the Wilderness, still cannot feel this atmosphere.

######

On the blue lake beside Lei Mountain House,

Qin Yu is sitting with legs crossed, sitting on the water without sinking. Many purple energy streams are moving around his body. These purple energy streams are formed by none other than the purple energy inside him. After practicing for several months, Qin Yu’s purple Xiantian energy has almost become a liquid similar to mercury.

Inside his body, this formidable energy is rolling. Qin Yu can totally feel a surge of muscle power in every muscle and even in the smallest cell of his entire body. The purple energy is flowing to every place of his body, refining his muscles and bones nonstop.

Suddenly the winds rise. Large waves immediately appear on the surface of the lake. The water in the lake starts to heave up and down. Sitting with legs crossed on the surface of the lake, Qin Yu moves up and down along with the water like a float.

Hu ~~~

Fierce winds blow. Great waves appear on the lake with a boom, any of which is 10-odd m high. It looks as if the entire surface of the lake is being lifted up by a giant. Qin Yu can no longer remain apathetic as he did just now. Immediately making a push against the water surface with his feet, he leaps towards the lakeside. At the same time, he stares powerlessly at the initiator, Xiao Hei.

“Xiao Hei, I know your wings can cause fierce winds, but don’t play pranks on me, okay?” Qin Yu says unhappily while looking at Xiao Hei, who is spreading his wings.

Xiao Hei pulls his wings back. The lake calms in an instant. Having formed the jindan and practiced various techniques in his hereditary memories, now Xiao Hei has an even swifter and fiercer air about him. Currently, even Qin Yu is far from being a match for Xiao Hei.

“Big brother, I was only training your vigilance a bit. I did it for your sake, why are you blaming me?” Xiao Hei’s voice rises in Qin Yu’s mind.

Qin Yu says jokingly: “Alright, you’ve overcome your heavenly tribulation so you’re stronger than me at the moment. I won’t fight you now. Tomorrow evening I’ll have to undergo my tribulation too. After overcoming it and practicing the Stellar Transformations I’ll let you know how formidable I am.”

“Stellar Transformations? Big brother, I have quite a few fantastic practice techniques. They’re not inferior to your Stellar Transformations.” Xiao Hei says proudly while spreading his wings. After forming the jindan he has been practicing some secret techniques for 2 months so his power has improved by leaps and bounds. At the moment he is very confident.

Qin Yu gives a smile: “Won’t we know who’s more formidable after sparring?”

This period of time, Qin Yu has read many books about practice carefully. The Stellar Transformations certainly has been read from beginning to end once. Not only has he memorized its practice method, he has also memorized some intuitive understanding Lei Wei gained during his practice or tribulations in the past.

Qin Yu has become even more confident that he will withstand the incoming 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.

The next day, Qin Yu sits calmly with legs crossed on the meadow beside the blue lake waiting for the heavenly tribulation. Today Xiao Hei also practices in peace on one side of him instead of interrupting him, which is a rare thing. Last time Qin Yu was his watchman so this time he is going to watch over Qin Yu.

The setting sun goes down westward, illuminating the whole Wilderness with its crimson light.

Fierce winds suddenly blow. The huge trees in the nearby mountain forests start to shake violently because of the winds. Their leaves begin to float in all directions. The ‘clack’ noises of huge trees getting broken are heard nonstop. In an instant, the sky darkens. The atmosphere has changed drastically, causing Qin Yu and Xiao Hei to stop practicing.

“Ha-ha, my heavenly tribulation is arriving. Xiao Hei, guard me carefully this time. If any demonic beasts come, kill them all for me.” Qin Yu shouts loudly.

Xiao Hei flaps his wings and says via his holy sense: “Don’t worry, big brother. Within several hundred li of this place is my territory. No demonic beasts will dare to disturb you. If any of them comes here, I’ll exterminate its clan.” This period of time, Xiao Hei has indeed turned the area within a several hundred li radius of Lei Mountain House into his own territory.

The sky has turned into dark red, looking very oppressive.

A huge maelstrom appears in the center of the dark red sky. Various serpentine electric sparks also appear in the sky. They then get absorbed in quick succession by the maelstrom. In just a short while, the maelstrom stops spinning and becomes a huge purple tribulation cloud that is flickering with flashes of lightning. Everything shows that the heavenly tribulation has come.

Qin Yu stands calmly without moving. By contrast, Xiao Hei spreads his holy sense out and pays attention to everything around. He definitely will not let any demonic beasts come near to cause trouble no matter what.

How powerful will the heavenly tribulation of a peak Xiantian external expert be? One should know that people of different power levels will experience different heavenly tribulations. Since Qin Yu is much more powerful than ordinary peak Xiantian experts, how damaging will his 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation be?

“The 1st thunderbolt is the weakest so it’s also the easiest to beat.” Qin Yu raises his head, looking at the tribulation cloud. There is unexpectedly a faint smile on his face at the moment.

He remembers clearly some descriptions of how Lei Wei overcame his tribulations written in the book of the Stellar Transformations and even some methods of overcoming the tribulations proposed by Lei Wei. Qin Yu has decided to use a very grandiose method among them to take on the 1st thunderbolt.

The tribulation cloud rolls, creating a continuous rumble of thunder. It exerts a pressure on everything in the area directly below it.

Boom!

A purple thunderbolt shoots straight down extremely fast from the sky. It strikes at Qin Yu’s head furiously, but he raises his head, looks at it and unexpectedly stays still. There is a hint of madness in his eyes. The purple thunderbolt strikes upon his body squarely with a boom.

Qin Yu’s body is totally covered in and run through by the purple thunderbolt.

“Ha-ha, it feels good, very enjoyable, very enjoyable!”

Qin Yu does not put up any resistance and uses only his body to take on the thunderbolt. At his current level in external practice, if he could not withstand even the 1st thunderbolt, it would mean his external training has come to nothing. The book of the Stellar Transformations says that using lightning to train the body is exceptionally useful for his power improvement. The lightning, of course, must not be too strong. Otherwise Qin Yu’s body will not be able to endure it.

The bones in his entire body emit a series of clack noises. As the thunderbolt runs through his muscles and cells, a fairly large portion of its energy is gobbled up. Some changes happen to the already extremely powerful muscles at once and they become even more powerful.

“It feels good, really good. Xiao Hei, did you see how I withstood the 1st thunderbolt?” Qin Yu even jokes leisurely with Xiao Hei on one side of him.

However, Xiao Hei remains silent and keeps observing the surroundings with his holy sense.

Qin Yu has overcome the 1st thunderbolt this way, but he has not used a single bit of his internal energy. Instead, once more, he has strengthened his muscles and increased his power. Most other people have had to spend their energy to overcome the 1st thunderbolt, but Qin Yu has become even more powerful thanks to it. One losing and one gaining, this is the difference between them.

“Big brother, be careful a bit. The 2nd thunderbolt is much stronger than the 1st. You can’t use that method again.” Xiao Hei warns him.

At this moment, the tribulation cloud is rolling nonstop in the sky. Obviously it is charging the 2nd thunderbolt. Qin Yu was able to absorb the 1st thunderbolt like that, but the 2nd one will be relatively more powerful so he does not dare to take it on aggressively as he did just now -- letting the thunderbolt hit him squarely -- either.

“Don’t worry. I know when I should stop.” He can feel Xiao Hei’s concern.

Thunder is rolling. The atmospheric pressure under the cloud increases again. Qin Yu immediately focuses his entire mind and energy to prepare to resist the 2nd thunderbolt. Following a sky-shaking crash of thunder, an aquatic-dragon-like purple thunderbolt shoots out from the tribulation cloud and comes down directly at Qin Yu.

“Bring it.”

His eyes flash with excitement. The energy in his body immediately surges forth. In an instant, his body radiates a purple light as if made of a purple jade. The purple energy covers his body at once, forming a protective energy cover. There are even random small electric sparks moving around it.

End of b4c5.

[wandering]

B4C6: The Stellar Flame

Like the hammer of the thunder god, the purple thunderbolt fiercely strikes upon Qin Yu’s body. In just a while, his purple protective energy cover is destroyed like paper. The lightning then hits his chest squarely.

Compared to when he was resisting the 1st thunderbolt, this time Qin Yu’s body has completely fused with the purple energy, looking like a chunk of a purple jade and having enhanced defense. The protective energy cover has neutralized some of the lightning’s energy, but the 2nd bolt is really a bit too powerful.

“I was careless ~~~” Qin Yu slightly frowns. A smell of burnt flesh comes into his nose. At the same time, he feels a continual burning sensation on his skin. That thunderbolt’s power has burnt Qin Yu’s skin and even his flesh has suffered some damage.

“Big brother.” Seeing Qin Yu’s chest burning, Xiao Hei cannot help getting anxious.

“Never mind, it’s just skin-deep.” Qin Yu says in an unconcerned manner.

Xiao Hei lets out a sigh of relief then advises Qin Yu carefully via his holy sense: “Big brother, undergoing the tribulation is not something to be taken lightly. You have middle-grade holy weapons, right? But you’re not even using them. If you take on the tribulation this way, you’d get injured even if your body was stronger.”

Qin Yu says with a smile: “Just now I was a bit careless. At first I thought with the fusion of my body and the purple energy in addition to the protective energy cover I could withstand the 2nd thunderbolt. I didn’t expect it to be slightly more powerful than in my estimation.”

As Qin Yu is saying, in his body the Meteoric Tear sends out many clear streams again, which flow to the damaged areas of his flesh. He immediately feels many bursts of a numbing sensation and those minor injuries on his body heal in an instant. Having the Meteoric Tear, Qin Yu’s daring action just now was nothing special.

“Big brother, your heavenly tribulation is even somewhat stronger than mine. Don’t be too careless.” Xiao Hei on one side warns.

Qin Yu gives a mile. He knows Xiao Hei cares about him.

As time passes, the purple tribulation cloud rolls even more urgently. Serpentine electric sparks flash out from it nonstop. They are so fierce that they actually wreak havoc within several tens li of the cloud. The 3rd thunderbolt is being charged continuously. The purple energy inside Qin Yu’s body is activated again.

Boom!

A purple thunderbolt shoots out directly from the tribulation cloud like a wandering dragon and strikes down at Qin Yu. The thunderbolt looks really frighteningly powerful and oppressive.

“Ha-ha~~~”

Qin Yu laughs out loud. With eyes suddenly blazing, he stares at the purple thunderbolt that is striking down. At the same time, loading a fist with his 10,000-jin-power, he throws an extremely fast punch directly at the thunderbolt like an aerolite --

Boom!

The violent collision totally distorts the air in its vicinity. Qin Yu’s entire feet sink into the ground all of a sudden but the 3rd thunderbolt has been shattered by Qin Yu with this one punch, turning into sinuous electric sparks that flicker on the surface of his body.

The Flaming Glove on his hand is not damaged in the slightest.

“The 3rd thunderbolt was just so-so.” He says with a smile.

He has the Flaming Gloves so a fist was enough for him to handle the 3rd thunderbolt with ease. One should know that in the past Fengyuzi relied on just a low-grade holy weapon to overcome the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation. With the help of the Flaming Gloves, it is nothing out of the ordinary that he was able to smash the 3rd thunderbolt with a punch.

“One more thunderbolt is left. Once I’ve overcome the tribulation, I’ll practice the Stellar Transformations and become a Xiuzhenist as well.” Qin Yu raises his head and looks at the tribulation cloud, but he is thinking about what will happen after the tribulation. As soon as he thinks about the Stellar Transformations, a trace of excitement appears in his heart.

The tribulation cloud rolls. Thunder crashes. Then a purple bolt of lightning begins to flicker continuously in the cloud. Suddenly, on the edge of the mountain forest, several Blue Flame wolves stick their heads out to take a look. Xiao Hei immediately casts a glance at them with his sharp eyes. Those Blue Flame wolves are so scared that they retreat into the forest at once.

“Those Blue Flame wolves really want to be exterminated.” Qin Yu takes an unconcerned glance at them then raises his head and looks at the tribulation cloud. In an instant, the purple thunderbolt shoots down from it.

Boom!

Fierce winds blow. The purple thunderbolt zigzags downwards like a wandering purple dragon and strikes directly at Qin Yu. This is the last thunderbolt. After overcoming it, Qin Yu will be a Xiuzhenist.

“Break for me!”

Qin Yu laughs out loud. His entire body’s muscles suddenly bulge out. Carrying mountain-shattering forces, his 2 fists are thrown fiercely at the thunderbolt like 2 meteorites. Those Flaming Gloves are also radiating a dark red light.

“Boom!” With a boom that shakes the sky, the thunderbolt strikes upon the Flaming Gloves, a middle-grade holy weapon. It instantly breaks into various flickering serpentine electric sparks.

A violent collision!

As if Qin Yu is smashed on with an iron sledgehammer, the lower half of his body instantly sinks into the ground. Qin Yu suddenly shakes his head hard. Due to that violent collision a moment ago, even he feels a tingling sensation in his fists and something sweet in his mouth. A mouthful of blood then rushes up his throat.

“Bang!” Throwing a palm strike at the ground, his entire body shoots up.

Xiao Hei’s happy laughter rises in his mind: “How was the impact force of the thunderbolt just now, big brother?”

“So-so.” Qin Yu forcibly swallows that mouthful of blood back, but he secretly curses: “I was mistaken. The 4th thunderbolt hit much harder than the 3rd one. That impact force not only numbed my arms, it even made my blood surge up.”

Xiao Hei flaps his wings and flies up to Qin Yu’s side in an instant while crying very happily. He even pats Qin Yu’s back gently with his wings to express his congratulations.

“Big brother, my compliments to you for overcoming the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.” Xiao Hei is extremely happy for Qin Yu.

“Well, Xiao Hei, you’ll have to practice alone for a while because I’ll undergo a closed-door training session. I’m going to concentrate on practicing the Stellar Transformations. This technique has 6 stages and the starting one, Nebula stage, is unexpectedly the hardest.” Qin Yu says to Xiao Hei.

Qin Yu has read the book of the Stellar Transformations. The book also contains Lei Wei’s descriptions so Qin Yu certainly knows how difficult it is to practice the Nebula stage.

Xiao Hei nods and says via his holy sense: “Big brother, you can focus on practicing without any worry. When you’ve learned it, we’ll have to spar to see which of us is stronger.” Qin Yu cannot help laughing out loud as soon as he hears that. “Alright, just wait. When I’ve succeeded, I’ll surely fight you.”

Afterwards, he goes into Lei Mountain House. This time he has obviously overcome the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation with great ease.

With a low-grade holy weapon, even an ordinary practitioner has a very good chance of successfully going through the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation. If he has a middle-grade holy weapon, there will be almost no danger to him. On the Qian Long continent, the number of people who have overcome 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation is less than 1 percent only because of the lack of middle-grade holy weapons.

Qin De, who had a middle-grade holy weapon, was badly injured at the worst moment by Ge Min but he still withstood the tribulation in the end. This goes to show how important a middle-grade holy weapon is.

In the center of the silvery floor of the Training Hall,

Qin Yu is sitting with legs crossed and studying the instructions of the Stellar Transformations one by one in his mind.

Having been training since he was a little kid, now it has finally become possible for him to enter the world of Xiuzhenists at one stroke through the Stellar Transformations. Becoming a Xiuzhenist will mean that he will reach a whole new level and step into a new world where afterwards he will interact and fight with Xiuzhenists, who possess fantastic abilities such as flight and travelling through the ground.

Suddenly –

“Master, 1st Master Lei Wei recommended that, if you really want to practice the Stellar Transformations, you should view some images first, afterwards it will become easier for you to practice.” Qin Yu opens his eyes, feeling doubtful inside. He accepted this Stellar Transformations technique so he has considered Lei Wei his master ever since. He says with a nod: “Let me have a look, Starlet.”

“Meow --“

Starlet immediately disappears with a sweep of its tail.

The entire Training Hall’s walls and floor both then become transparent. At the same time, images of the universe appear. The Training Hall seems to become a miniature universe. In the distance stars are burning while planets are floating in his vicinity. There are even gloomy empty spaces.

Suddenly --

The images surrounding the Training Hall change. That universe disappears and a huge nebula appears before Qin Yu’s eyes.

This nebula is drifting in the universe like a huge cloud while rotating slowly. It is absorbing the energy of the universe and forming various small round pieces of materials. After so many years, these grains gradually spin towards the center of the nebula.

After many transformations, a celestial body is formed.

……

The cosmic evolution is being shown in detail before Qin Yu’s eyes.

Little by little he immerses himself in these images. At the same time, he remembers the various secret practice methods of the Stellar Transformations and gains some understanding of them. After an indeterminately long time, the images finally show a huge star, which sends out scorching flames and possesses a shockingly great amount of energy.

Qin Yu suddenly remembers that, according to what Fengyuzi told him before, at the end of the War of Immortals, his 2nd master, Lei Wei, left a message after failing to overcome the 9 From 9th Heaven Tribulation.

“I’ve been roaming the boundless space and experiencing the cosmos’s evolution. I’ve been drifting around for some thousand years and visited countless celestial bodies. How come today my soul is falling apart? Heaven doesn’t help me. Stellar transformations! How can the Sun be the final destination? How?! How?! Everyone on this continent listen, today I’ll leave behind the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams. Anyone who can obtain them and figure out their secret will inherit my technique. Ha-ha …… O blessing, O disaster ……”

He immediately understands what Lei Wei was thinking.

Actually Lei Wei was capable of overcoming the 9 From 9th Heaven Tribulation, but before its arrival he was ganged up on by several loose immortals, a Dacheng-stage expert and many Dujie-stage and Kongming-stage experts. Lei Wei of course suffered severe injuries under the joint attack of so many people. In that state, how could he possibly have withstood the 9 From 9th Heaven Tribulation that came right afterwards?

Therefore, Lei Wei naturally felt aggrieved at not being helped by Heaven.

The Stellar Transformations is extremely powerful. Before undergoing the 9 From 9th Heaven Tribulation, Lei Wei was already able to kill a Dacheng-stage expert, several loose immortals and many Dujie and Kongming-stage experts. That killing spree left him seriously injured, but he still made it to the 8th thunderbolt of the tribulation, so, it is easy to imagine how great his power was.

Obviously the Stellar Transformations is very powerful, but it is different from the other Xiuzhen techniques in the Xiuzhen world. If Qin Yu practices it, he will have to create new stages for it later. If his attempt at creation fails, he will probably suffer energy deviation, which will destroy his soul.

Qin Yu suddenly stands up and bursts out laughing loudly: “Blessing? Disaster? Ha-ha … blessings and disasters depend on each other, what’s the use of being overcautious? If I lived my life as a chicken, only following the prescribed order and practicing the recognized techniques of previous generations, it’d be too boring. Master, you created the first 6 stages, I, Qin Yu, will create the succeeding stages. So what if my energy deviates and my soul gets destroyed? At least this will pave the way for the success of later disciples.”

At the moment, there is a surge of heroism in Qin Yu’s heart.

“Alright, let’s start practicing!”

After calming himself down, he sits down with legs crossed and begins to practice the Stellar Transformations carefully.

The 1st stage of the Stellar Transformations -- Nebula stage,

Following the secret method of the technique, Qin Yu starts to move the liquefied purple energy in his body. After he overcame the tribulation, the purple energy has totally turned into liquid. Under Qin Yu’s control, every bit of the purple liquid in his body starts to gather.

The 1st thing he does is gather his energy, concentrating it in the dantian.

Immersing his mind in the dantian, Qin Yu can feel that it seems boundless. He has never seen anyone else’s dantian and does not know if there are any differences between his dantian and those of other people either. Without thinking much, he controls those bits of liquid directly.

The dantian is seemingly boundless like the universe. “Hu hu …” The liquid energy flows into the dantian like various streams of water then start to merge into a sphere of liquid. If Qin Yu were a jindan practitioner, he could start refining it from this point.

However, he does not cultivate the jindan

“Gather first, disperse later!” Qin Yu remembers clearly the practice method, but when he is about to disperse his energy according to the paths described by the method, suddenly --

A very unusual force appears in the dantian out of thin air. It moves outwards in all directions like a centrifugal force. That liquid sphere naturally is affected. Under this strange centrifugal force, the whole liquid sphere shatters and spreads out in all directions.

Qin Yu’s body is immediately covered in cold sweat. His face turns very pale in an instant.

“No good!”

Qin Yu never thought that at this crucial moment his strange dantian would cause this accident. It should be noted that to enter the Nebula stage, the most important thing is disperse. Not only does the practitioner have to disperse his energy, it is very important that he disperses it completely, therefore he must not make any mistakes during the dispersing process.

The spin of a nebula is dictated by the Way of the Universe and Nature. Originally Lei Wei was only able to come up with the method for energy dispersing after learning through experience for a long time.

“When I practiced internal techniques as a kid, this dantian dispersed my internal energy until nothing was left. Now it’s still the same.” Qin Yu has become impatient, but he is not too worried that his purple liquid energy will disappear because even when it comes out of the dantian he can still control it and fuse it with every place of his body.

However ……

How can he possibly control and make the purple liquid energy imitate the rotation of a nebula when it is affected by his dantian’s centrifugal force?

“I failed in practicing internal techniques, now I’ve failed in practicing the Stellar Transformations too. This strange dantian is really ……” Qin Yu is angry and impatient. The purple liquid energy has dispersed. It has left his dantian in gaseous form and part of it has even flown out of his body.

End of b4c6.