by Tinalynge
Usually, Shiu Ye would not bother with something as simple as a spiritual arts skill. He was a King ranked expert; an expert who was capable of using Wu Wei. Spiritual arts were something below his rank. Something he did not need to train but his eyes widened as he looked at this spiritual arts attack. It was a high ranked Emperor skill suitable for his Wood affinity
It was known by the name Thousand Golden Roots, and it created roots from spiritual energy which entangled themselves around the legs and feet of an opponent. This ability was without a doubt useful even for the prince.
“Why would he gift me this…” He mumbled as he fiddled with the stone in his palm. “He clearly does not trust me, nor does he value our friendship.” He continued to muse as his eyes sharply looked at the memory stone trying to discern the answer from the stone. “Could this be an attempt to bribe me?” He thought but then shook his head. Hui Yue was not someone who would do useless things. He would definitely have a reason for what he does, and this reason was what made the third prince apprehensive.
“Is he simply just trying to curry favor with me?” He questioned himself as he looked at the memory stone. “Is it so that I owe him in case it is needed later on?”
Pouting Shiu Ye was completely stunned and uncertain about what to do. Finally, he heaved a sigh. “Even if I owe him a favor, or if he is trying to butter me up, this skill is simply too amazing to not use. How has he obtained such a high ranked skill? Even our kingdom does not process many skills of this level, and all of them have far too many requirements. They are either the wrong element or they require a certain amount of merging with the elements, not to mention a specific grade of high quality Qi. It’s simply too troublesome yet this one seem perfect for me. How can he just happen to have something perfect for me?”
The third prince was all alone within his room where he was busy thinking to himself. It was rare for him to be this uncertain about something, but the gift he had been given truly shocked him.
As Shiu Ye finally decided to accept the gift and worry later about what Hui Yue would ask for in return, the young man in question had returned to his mansion. He was currently at a peaceful place in the garden training his martial and spiritual arts.
‘Why did you give him that attack?’ Lan Feng suddenly asked as Hui Yue was clearing his mind getting ready for his training. ‘It was our intention to trade it for information, but you already got the information from the king for free.’ Lan Feng continued as a smile played on Hui Yue’s lips.
‘Shiu Yue trusts us about as much as we trust him,’ Hui Yue stated. ‘We want to get rid of him but to do so, we need him to be less alert around us. I am not dumb enough to think that he will suddenly like us because of this, but it should lower his guard just a little. Since he will be unable to turn it down, he will owe me a favor. There is no way he will not use the skill. It is simply way too tempting. Even the royal family can’t have as many amazing abilities as you do. Even if they are a family that has lasted for a long time, you have lived for thousands of years while gathering one skill after another.’
Hearing the flattering words Lan Feng could not help but smile satisfied. ‘You are right,’ He said with bell-like laughter. ‘What does one Emperor ranked skill matter to me?’ He said with undisguised delight. ‘When you manage to perfect the Sacred Solarflare completely, I will personally teach you a high ranked Saint skill which I gained from a good friend of mine.’ He said smugly as Hui Yue’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Why did you never teach me something that great before?’ Hui Yue asked curiously taken aback by the fact that the bird had been holding back on him. Although he knew that the phoenix had various strong martial and spiritual arts, but a Saint ranked skill was something so insane that Hui Yue was completely stunned.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Lan Feng said smiling widely. ‘Your body was not capable of withstanding the might of a Saint ranked skill before. I have both martial and spiritual arts but will teach you the spiritual art first. It should be the hardest to perfect and thus take quite some time.’ Being quiet for a while, Hui Yue finally saw the energy and excitement within Lan Feng that he had seen when he was a child. These recent years Lan Feng had been focused solely on cultivating his own stockpile of Wu Wei. He knew that Hui Yue would definitely need his help later on in their travels. Using his Wu Wei even if they ran into someone very dangerous, they should be able to manage fine.
‘Before I teach you this new ability, I need you to prove to me that you have perfected the Sacred Solarflare. Also for the next half of the year, the six months before they enter the Grave of the Unknown, you and I will be focused on increasing your combat ability. We will increase your survivability and give you some strong skills.’ Lan Feng grinned as he looked at the young man in front of him. ‘We, after all, have a matter to settle with this third prince.’
Hui Yue could not help but grin in return as he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Opening his eyes he pushed his spiritual energy through a specific pattern in his meridians, and moments later, a massive Solarflare fireball which exploded forth. It destroyed everything around him for ten meters forming a crater.
Unlike the first time Hui Yue caused a massive boom to sound out, the servants, this time, did not appear; instead, they all smiled to one another. they shook their heads and grinned because they all knew it was due to their master who was training. After he had finished, a group of gardeners would head over to where the explosion occurred, and they would fill in and flatten the earth. They had long since stopped planting new plants in the surrounding area. They just left it bare making it the perfect place for the young man to train.
‘Another four Solarflares, and if you perfect them, then I will teach you the new skill.’ He said and soon after four more booms sounded out. The ground trembled once more, yet no one seemed bothered. Everyone had long since managed to go about their daily business in a landscape where tremors regularly ran through the ground. At first, they had feared that the mansion was going to collapse, but as the days flew by and turned into weeks their fear swiftly disappeared, and the tremors now caused smiles to appear on their lips.
‘You really did perfect it,’ Lan Feng grinned, and with a finger to his forehead, he extracted a silvery mist which he then let go. Moments after the information was stored within Hui Yue’s mind.
Earthly Tremor was the name, and it was Hui Yue’s first strong spiritual art for his Earth elemental affinity. Although he could merge with Earth and use it according to his wishes, it was not a spiritual art and therefore lacked the extra power of spiritual energy.
Earthly Tremor had four different levels of mastery. The first was called Earthly Tremor, Shaking the Earth. Shaking the Earth allowed for the cultivator to infuse their spiritual energy into the ground below and cause earthquakes to appear.
The second level of mastery was known as Earthly Tremor, Sharpen the Earth. This ability of his was very similar to the ability known as Earth Spike, yet it created an entire forest of three-meter tall syringe sharp spikes. When using this attack, many would undoubtedly be injured.
The third mastery was known as Earthly Tremor, Hand of the Earth. This ability allowed for the cultivator to create a hand composed of the ground itself, and this hand would move at one’s wishes. The hand could be as small as the size of the cultivator’s own hand or as large as a tree. The size of the hand depended on the mastery of the skill and the how much one could merge with their element. Of course one could always create a smaller hand after learning the skills even if they were not as in sync with their element.
The fourth and final ability of Earth Tremor was Earth Grasping the Heavens. This was an ability which truly lived up to the Saint rank. It was an ability which caused the world to twist and turn, creating a boxlike prison around the person it touched, sealing them inside causing them to be unable to move and incapable of resisting. This ability would, when trained to the peak of the Saint rank, be impossible for anyone to ignore. It wou
ld definitely stop anyone up for a period of time. Even if the person were stronger than Hui Yue, he would struggle to get released. This was the real danger of something as rare as a high Saint ranked spiritual art skill.
Unfortunately, it did not take long before Hui Yue realized that training to such a high ranked skill was far more difficult than anything he had ever done before. ‘I will let you do this for a couple of hours every day. The rest of the time you need to train your sword skills and your physical body. Although you have the ability to easily devour energy from other cultivators, the energy absorbed needed to be refined thoroughly, or it would greatly weaken his own cultivation base. This made it impossible for him to absorb energy just like that.
His other option was to take wolf form. He was incredibly strong whenever he was a wolf, but he wished to keep this his most hidden secret; something he would not use unless he was about to die. Just like Lan Feng, the beast shape was a secret he wished no one to know about.
The following days went by in a blur for Hui Yue. In the morning he would teach Lao how to cultivate alongside watching him practice his first few martial art skills. All of the skills were of lower quality, the highest skill was at the Grandmaster rank, something which was fairly simple to learn.
After teaching Lao, Hui Yue would then train Earth Tremor, and then he would train with the sword for a couple of hours. Lastly, he trained his physical body. As he finished his daily training, Hui Yue would eat with his friends before he went to the room and started absorbing the Yin energy through the moonlight.
Sitting on the floor, he felt content with his current life. Although his days were filled with extra work, he could feel how he was getting stronger and stronger. Although his cultivation base was not soaring to the sky as it had done before at times, he could feel strength inside him; a different kind of strength than the type one gains from increasing their cultivation base. This strength was a strength that had increased his combat ability, making him less likely to die.
A smile appeared on his face as he closed his eyes. He relaxed his body and felt how the energy entered him. His steady life within Muchuan City was calm, but underneath the calm surface, the city was boiling with excitement. One major family after another had received an invitation to join the royal family to explore an unknown grave which was assumed to be filled with treasures. This had turned from a concealed secret to something everyone knew, and mercenaries from all over the city started to appear eager to take part. They were waiting for the royal family to make their move.
Chapter 339 - City in Turmoil
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Chapter 339: City in Turmoil
A tremor ran through the earth as Hui Yue internally called out ‘Earth Tremor, Shaking the Earth!’ It had been three months since he had first been given the high ranked Saint skill. He knew all the practical aspects of the skill, but despite this it had still taken him three months of painstaking training before he finally reached the perfection in Shaking the Earth.
In these three months, Hui Yue had more or less followed a very simple schedule. First, he would rise as soon as the moon disappeared into the horizon and then he would spend two to three hours training and guiding Lao.
While Hui Yue felt as though his own training had come to a standstill, he was shocked to see that Lao had jumped from the Student rank to the Disciple rank in a mere three months. Even though his speed was swift, his Qi was still of superb quality. It was pearl white with a luster that would make anyone jealous.
In the time Hui Yue had taught him the young boy had already perfected a wide array of martial arts skills, and while all of them were ranked rather low, they should have posed some difficulty for the young boy. But that was not the case; it seemed his talent was indeed monstrous, and he managed to perfect one skill after another with ease.
After two hours in the morning teaching, Lao Hui Yue would go to the gardens where he would wholeheartedly focus on his Earth Tremor skill. Every single day he would spend five hours honing this ability. Although Hui Yue felt as though his speed learning the skill was incredibly slow, Lan Feng was actually astonished by the speed with which he was comprehending the intricacies of the skill. Earth Tremor was without a doubt one of the hardest skills he knew.
After training Earth Tremor for five hours, Hui Yue would then spend hours focusing on his physical training and sharpening his sword skills. At first, he was useless with a sword. He would use it the way one used a dagger; therefore, he was required to start from scratch. He stood still in one position and would spend every single moment for the following six hours repeating one strike. He would repeat it so many times that it became as natural to him as breathing. By now, after three months of training, Hui Yue had learned all the basics, and his sword had become quite lethal.
After six hours of sword practice was two hours of physical training. All the things he used to do while in wolf form he now used in his human form. He ran for an hour while wearing metal weights in his clothes to weight him down.
The rest of the time was spent using various training techniques to enhance his strength. Everything he did was in human form, and although the training was worse than he expected, Hui Yue did not give up. He stubbornly continued the training he had planned, and one day after another the exercises became easier and easier. So much so that he had to increase it twice in the last three months.
During the day when his body was pushed to its limits, it absorbed an astonishing amount of Yang energy through the essence of the heavens and the earth. This energy directly entered into the upper dantian, and although he absorbed Yin energy during the night, it was far from enough to balance the energies inside of him.
Contemplating the options he had, Hui Yue continued working his hardest and after three months a great change occurred.
Although he had only perfected the Earth Tremor, Shaking the Earth, he was perfectly well aware of just how astonishing this one attack was. He hoped that in the remaining three months he would be able to perfect Sharpen the Earth as well. If he could manage that, then he would have perfected half of the skill, and this would give him a very a strong attack to use in the Grave of the Unknown. He was ready to sneak some treasures into his storage stones and hopefully also get rid of the third prince. Although he had given the prince a high ranked skill, he had already ensured that it was a skill which did not do much against Hui Yue. With his wings, it would be impossible to root him to the ground.
While Hui Yue was focused on training, the third prince had been there to visit him once. This visit was only a few weeks after his visit to the castle, and their meeting was brief. It was clear that Shiu Ye was uncomfortable with the fact that Hui Yue did not have any demands after giving him such an amazing skill, and when they met, Hui Yue had made it clear that it was a gift in return for telling him about the grave. Even more so now that he was invited to join them.
The prince had asked why he gained the reward when it was his father who had both informed him about the grave and also invited him, yet Hui Yue snorted and asked the prince how much of a backing the King had within the court. Everyone knew that the princes were the ones in control. Therefore the gift was destined to go to a prince, and if he had to chose between the princes, he only had a relationship with the third prince.
This had caused a great smile to emerge on the third prince’s face. He gladly stayed for a bit to talk. However, when he heard that Hui Yue was training to improve his combat skills for the raid on the tomb, he quickly excused himself after making the young man promise to join Shiu Ye’s personal squad.
It was not only Shiu Ye who was satisfied with this, but Hui Yue was beaming with excitement as well. He quickly agreed to follow close by the third prince. Even if he did not gain any treasures at least he should be able to find an opportunity to lure him away from his guards, and at that point get revenge for his two friends.
The only person who came to visit on a regular basis was Cou Ling. She often came to hear how Hui Yue was
doing. When she came she would usually bring gossip, and often information about how she had convinced some of her friends to visit the Ma family and join Hui Yue faction. Every time she spoke, she was filled with excitement and her pretty face would flush red. When Cou Ling came around, Hui Yue always had time to speak with her as he too enjoyed their conversation. It was a brief, relaxing escape from his training.
Although Cou Ling often came by, most of the information the woman brought with her was things Hui Yue already knew because every night when he dined with his friends, Gao Yan would give him an overview of was happening in the city, as well as in the entire Taiyang Kingdom. Hui Yue valued this information, but his main focus was always training.
While Hui Yue was busy training, the city of Muchuan grew increasingly busy. Mercenaries from all over the kingdom came to the city and stayed around the area. This ensured that they knew when the raid on the grave had started. Experts from various families in the Taiyang Kingdom and Yueliang Province came to town. Not just the ones invited but also many who were not invited. The information about the Grave of the Unknown appearing turned into the worst kept secret. Even some magical beasts heard about and were tempted by the treasures causing them to also appeared in town in their human forms. Even if they got treated as mixed blooded creatures, it was worth on the chance they could grasp at least a bit of treasure.
