Stellar Transformations

by I Eat Tomatoes

  The surface of the square jade block has the words -- First Trans-Heaven Diagram --, which are even written in the common language of the Qian Long continent.

  There are various small pictures on the square jade block below those words, 36 unusually small pictures altogether. Each picture is a man performing a movement. All of the movements are very strange. At least Qin Yu thinks so.

  Except for these 36 pictures, there is nothing else.

  “What is this Trans-Heaven diagram actually? The 1st Trans-Heaven diagram has only 36 pictures. The man in these 36 pictures doesn’t even have any paths for internal energy circulation. There are only 36 strange movements. Could it be I only need to learn these movements?” says Qin Yu doubtfully.

  He knows that for so many years the 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams have come into the possession of countless people but no one has ever found out their secret. If the secret was merely to learn the movements in the pictures, perhaps it would have been mastered in less than a year.

  Qin Yu racks his brains and tries every means to research the diagram but by the time the Moon rises above the trees he still has not come up with any solution after wasting half an entire night.

  “Forget it. Let’s try learning these movements first to see if they have any benefits.” Qin Yu suddenly stands up.

  Thanks to his formidable holy sense he remembers every single movement of the 36 pictures completely. He starts to learn those movements in proper order at once. His body’s flexibility and toughness are absolutely very good.

  But even so, he still feels very strange as he learns these strange movements.

  However, he controls his temper and learns one movement after another. Because his body’s flexibility and toughness are extremely good, even though these movements are strange, he learns them very fast. One after another, the movements are executed …

  “What’s going on? What’s happened to the world’s holy energy?” Qin Yu is shocked to discover that, as he performs the movements with his body, various streams of holy energy enter his body from all directions then permeate through his flesh and bone directly.

  The absorbtion speed is extremely fast, much faster than the speed of absorbing internal energy.

  When his internal energy disperses from the dantian, his flesh can only absorb some of it. By contrast, the world’s holy energy is permeating through his body directly and basically does not disperse.

  What is actually happening? Is the secret of the Trans-Heaven diagram so simple?

  Qin Yu does not know the answers to those questions. But he knows one thing -- at least, he likes these movements.

  Chapter 3: A bolt from the blue (1)

  The human body is a treasury. Many people have failed to completely unravel its mysteries in their lifetimes.

  In the depths of Qin Yu’s body, his most basic cells are already different from those of ordinary people. He has been doing limit training for so many years, added to that his body has been absorbing internal energy and those fantastic clear streams from the Meteoric Tear, therefore his body’s cells have undergone some miraculous transformations.

  However, as Qin Yu continuously performs those movements, his cells unexpectedly absorb the world’s holy energy nonstop and start to transform again.

  Every single cell is like a bottomless pit because the holy energy streams which swarm into his body are swallowed up instantly. Even though holy energy is engulfing Qin Yu and has even turned into mist around him, so much holy energy is still very far from enough for his body to absorb.

  There are so many cells in Qin Yu’s body and each of them has been absorbing so much. This goes to show that a human has limitless potential.

  “These 36 mysterious pictures of this Trans-Heaven diagram are really miraculous.” Qin Yu restrains the excitement in his heart and concentrates his entire mind and energy on learning the 36 movements. He tries to perform every single movement to perfection, including the subtle movements of his fingers. He wants his movements and the pictures to be exactly alike.

  Qin Yu discovers that, the more precise his movements are, the greater his holy energy absorption speed is.

  He felt very awkward when he started to learn these 36 movements. However, as he continuously performs these movements, they become more and more perfect and eventually he finds doing these 36 movements so much comfortable, even to the point where all of the muscles and bones in his body feel comfortable inside out.

  The Moon slowly goes down from above the trees and it gradually gets light but Qin Yu is still immersing himself in this set of movements. His movements are also becoming increasingly natural. Even though the movements are strange, Qin Yu no longer feels awkward or strange performing them.

  Flowing and natural,

  Qin Yu finally has this wonderful feeling. He has reached the most basic level in performing the 36 movements, where everything is flowing and natural. At this moment, the thing which shocks Qin Yu the most is that the holy energy engulfing him has transformed.

  It is no longer a mist as in the past. Rather, it has formed 36 streams which are as thick as a human arm and are permeating into his body at a speed much faster than before. However, by the time he reaches the level where the holy energy around him turns into 36 arm-sized streams, it has been …

  3 nights and 3 days!

  3 whole nights and days, Qin Yu has not eaten for such a long time, totally immersing himself in this set of movements. Moreover, only when he stops now can he feel clearly his body’s changes.

  “I’m fresh and cool and not hungry at all. This kind of feeling is pretty good.” Qin Yu’s eyes glitter. At this moment his heart is extremely excited. “It doesn’t matter what the secret of this Trans-Heaven diagram is, those pictures on its surface alone have already made me undergo such a great transformation. I’m already very satisfied.”

  Now, even without the 1st Trans-Heaven diagram, Qin Yu will not care about it, because he has already learned by heart those 36 pictures.

  Of course, Qin Yu does not believe that the secret of the Trans-Heaven diagram is those 36 simple pictures. If simply learning the pictures could lead to success, someone would definitely have found out the secret early. Moreover, Qin Yu does not believe that training his body alone will help him reach the level of that legendary man in the past.

  “Xiao Hei!” Qin Yu looks at the black eagle, which is dozing in the courtyard, and calls laughingly.

  Xiao Hei suddenly opens its eyes. Seeing that Qin Yu has finally stopped training, it flaps its wings in excitement. For the last 3 days it has been bored to death because of Qin Yu’s nonstop training.

  “It’s been such a long time. I should go finalize the mission. If I keep delaying, perhaps the Heavenly Net will think that I’ve failed the mission,” thinks Qin Yu to himself. He immediately gets the iron case containing Zhen Xu’s head then sits on the black eagle’s back and leaves this small town.

  The black eagle is flying at an extremely fast speed, like lightning.

  ……

  “Now I’m also a gold card assassin.” Qin Yu, disguised thanks to the Appearance and Bone Changing art and wearing a golden mask, puts a large bunch of bank notes into his bosom and leaves a Heavenly Net branch. “Ha-ha, when that Heavenly Net executive knew that I was assassin Liu Xing, he unexpectedly got so enthusiastic. This has never happened before.”

  Qin Yu thinks emotionally.

  Just now when he submitted the mission, that executive treated him with real ardor. But after Qin Yu finalized the mission, the executive’s face turned ice-cold and served monotonously as usual. No wonder Qin Yu is so emotional.

  Qin Yu, however, does not know that a gold card assassin has an extremely high status. Moreover, even gold card assassins are divided into high-class, middle-class and low-class.

  An assassin who has killed an early phase Xiantian expert, an assassin who has killed a middle phase Xiantian expert, and an assassin who has killed a late phase Xiantian expert are all gold card assas
sins. However, these 3 gold card assassin, of course, cannot be valued the same.

  By killing Zhen Xu, a late phase Xiantian expert, Qin Yu has become a first-class figure even among gold card assassins. And a lowly branch executive naturally wanted to serve one of the best assassins like him with extreme exuberance.

  When Qin Yu has just left the Heavenly Net branch, the branch executive says coldly at once: “Assassin Liu Xing has just left. Quickly investigate his identity.”

  Even though it is a rule of the Heavenly Net that it shall not investigate the identities of any Outer Net members, a gold card assassin is a Xiantian expert and, moreover, the Heavenly Net leader has personally given an order to find out assassin Liu Xing’s identity, therefore the Heavenly Net naturally has to investigate. However, when they just want to follow him, they discover that …

  “Sir, assassin Liu Xing isn’t in East Street.”

  “Sir, assassin Liu Xing isn’t in West Street.”

  ……

  That executive immediately becomes doubtful: “That’s strange. That Liu Xing can’t fly into the sky or go underground. How can’t we find him?”

  Indeed, Qin Yu can fly into the sky. At the moment he is sitting on the back of the black eagle, flying on the 9th level of the sky, and people on the ground simply cannot even see his silhouette. The black eagle is flying extremely high and extremely fast so investigating his identity is as hard as climbing the sky.

  Qin Yu is enjoying the strong winds on the 9th level of the sky.

  “Father has always been refusing to let me take part in his plan. Now I’m already a Xiantian expert …” Qin Yu’s heart is endlessly excited at the moment. As soon as he thinks about his father knowing he is a Xiantian expert, he becomes extremely excited. Moreover, Qin Yu is even the 1st, the unprecedented Xiantian external expert in the history of the Qian Long continent.

  When Qin Yu was little, still lacking good judgment, he thought his father did not love him and, as a result, he trained very hard. When he grew up, he knew the truth, that is, his father had devoted his entire mind and energy to the plan to destroy the Xiang clan. His big brother and 2nd brother were also taking part in the plan. Qin Yu extremely wanted to help his father but was turned down for the reason that he had not reached the Xiantian level.

  Finally … Qin Yu became a Xiantian expert.

  “Xiao Hei, fly directly to Yan City.” Qin Yu pinches the golden mask to pieces, drops all of the objects which can expose his assassin identity and starts using the Appearance and Bone Changing art. This time he switches back to his original appearance. His heart has already become a bit too impatient to wait.

  Xiao Hei seems to understand Qin Yu’s feelings. With a sharp cry and a shake of the wings, it accelerates again and flies toward Yan City like a black beam of light.

  Chapter 4: A bolt from the blue (2)

  It is deep in the autumn at the moment. Autumn winds are blowing and dried leaves are falling. Today the tranquil town Baisha welcomes several special guests.

  In an ancient house, subordiates of the Qian Long continent’s no. 1 magnate Zhu San and the group of experts sent by the Chu Emperor Xiang Guang are gathering. Both sides are very cautious. But they are basically on different levels in power. For some unknown reason, Zhu San sent a group including only one Xiantian expert and, moreover, this is only an early phase Xiantian expert.

  By contrast, all of the people Xiang Guang sent are experts, quite a few of whom are Xiantian experts.

  “I’m Yi Feng. We’ve brought our thing, how about you?” says directly a handsome man with an evil, strange smiling expression. This Yi Feng is none other than the younger brother of Yi Yan’s, the leader of the secret force the Dominant Dragon Corps. He is also the vice leader of the Dominant Dragon Corps.

  Zhu San’s side is led by a fat old man, who says smilingly: “You don’t have to be worried, gentlemen. We only have so few people but we don’t dare to deceive you. The corpse of the demonic beast saber-toothed tiger is intact. Bring it out!”

  This fat old man shouts loudly. 4 large men immediately carry out from a room the corpse of a dark red tiger which is 5 meters long. Those 16 sharp spikes identify this tiger as -- a demonic beast, a saber-toothed tiger.

  “A demonic beast is really a demonic beast. Who would’ve thought its corpse wouldn’t stink after such a long time?” says Yi Feng with a smile.

  The fat old man says with a shake of his head: “Mr. Yi, the body of a demonic beast is of course exceptional. It’ll only stink after a very long time. But only because we sprinkled this saber-toothed tiger’s corpse with some Billow Drying Powder hasn’t it rotted in the slightest.”

  “Tut-tut, Billow Drying Powder, the no. 1 magnate is really worthy of his reputation.” Yi Feng clicks his tongue while praising highly. “Alright, we’ve seen your product. You can also see ours.” Yi Feng makes a wave of his hand and a person behind him immediately holds out a jade case with both hands.

  After the case is opened, there is a square jade block which radiates a multicolored light inside.

  The fat old man slightly narrows his eyes and takes a look at the square jade block and its multicolored light. In a moment he raises his head and says smilingly: “There’s no need to examine carefully. We believe in the royal clan’s reputation. Good, if everyone is happy to cooperate, in the future our boss will also work together with the Xiang royal clan in many business activities.”

  Yi Feng nods with satisfaction.

  “Go get that saber-toothed tiger’s corpse.” Yi Feng gives an order. 4 people come out from behind him at once and lift the huge corpse up with a grab. The fat old man has also received the Trans-Heaven diagram. Both sides are cooperating sincerely and very happily.

  However, at this moment, various wisps of a light-colored, near invisible smoke drift by. Many of the people present fall down immediately. The 4 large men who are carrying the saber-toothed tiger’s coprse also fall down in an instant then blood flows out from their ears, eyes, mouths and nostrils. They die on the spot.

  “No good. The smoke is poisoned.” The fat old man’s voice rises loudly at the same time.

  In just a while, the people on the fat old man’s side have all died of poison except for the fat old man himself. As for Yi Feng’s side, despite most of its men have fallen down, 8 people are still standing. These 8 people are none other than the Xiantian experts of the group that came here this time.

  These Xiantian experts can hold their breaths and execute the Xiantian Fetal Respiration technique therefore the poisonous mist naturally cannot affect them. Moreover, even if they inhale some poison, they can channel their Xiantian energy to quickly expel the poison from their bodies.

  “It’s Qin De’s men.” Yi Feng says in an ice-cold voice. “Qin De, you even dare to meddle in His Majesty’s business. Could it be you want to rebel?!” says Yi Feng very loudly, sending his voice to the outside of the courtyard directly.

  This place is on the 3 Eastern region counties’ soil, except for East Vanquishing Prince Qin De, nobody should know about this matter. Even if someone else knew, they would not have the nerve to meddle in this business.

  “Rebel? That lowlife Xiang Guang was helped by Zhen Xu, he must know about His Highness’s affairs. Even though things have reached this level, we still have to maintain a façade of unity so we won’t destroy the Xiang clan for a while. However … as long as all of you are eliminated, Xiang Guang won’t have enough evidence.” An aged voice rises.

  With Lian Yan being the leader, 3 people then enter the courtyard. As they seem unafraid of the poison mist, they are obviously Xiantian experts. However, they only have 3 people whereas Yi Feng’s side has 8 people and that fat old man is also a Xiantian expert.

  But even Yi Feng’s expression is very ugly at the moment.

  “East Vanquishing Prince, our boss is …” The fat old man wants to say something, but …

  Whizz!

  A cold shaft of light flashes by and the fat ol
d man dies instantly with eyes wide opened. A black-clad old man behind Lian Yan gives a grim laugh. He just killed a Xiantian expert directly with one strike, and that fat old man simply could not resist in the slightest.

  East Vanquishing Prince’s side has 3 people altogether.

  2 of them are late phase Xiantian experts and Lian Yan is even a super expert who has completed the Xiantian level. At the peak of its late phase, the Xiantian level is completed. Once an expert achieves the completion of the Xiantian level, he will undergo the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation soon.

  “East Vanquishing Prince is really powerful. But by robbing us with only 3 people, he has looked down on us a bit too much,” says Yi Feng coldly.

  There are 7 people at Yi Feng’s back, one of whom is a late phase Xiantian expert while the others are middle phase Xiantian experts and early phase Xiantian experts. Yi Feng himself is just a middle phase Xiantian expert as well. Therefore, in terms of overall power, the 3 people sent by Qin De, especially peak Xiantian-level Lian Yan, are much superior to them.