Without any major incidents, anyway. There wasn"t much to say unless you want to read about my training, which, I a.s.sure you, would bore the h.e.l.l out of you. who would want to read about me reaching whatever stage or whatever level, or reaching some trance or sub-completion or whatever stage of techniques that I would learn for just this arc, only for them to become obsolete and never mentioned fifty chapters later?

I wasn"t Li Fu Chen, after all.

Furthermore, ever since the demise of Qi Fu Ren, I didn"t have any enemies. Well, Liang Shao Yang was probably the only one other than Qi Fu Ren who was antagonistic toward me, but ever since he became an inner sect disciple learning directly under the sect leader and elders, he no longer had any reason to provoke me. Additionally, when I entered the Blood Blades, we never encountered each other again. He was too busily learning Spirit Engraving and smithing techniques to leave his little pavilion in the Flame Volcano, while I was occupied with Elder Zhao"s Spartan training regimen. Our paths had little reason to cross.

Even as a Blood Blade, I continued to learn Spirit Engraving methods and other techniques from one of the elders. It would be great if I could learn directly from Elder Hai Mo, but unlike Qing Lie, I didn"t have much experience or talent in Spirit Engraving and smithing, so why would the venerable First Elder take me under his wing? Even if Tang Qi Hong tried to help me, he was a fair and impartial person who wouldn"t just go along with her whims for no good reason.

And by now, everyone in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect knew that I was more of a combat specialist than a blacksmith anyway.

Even so, I endeavored to learn smithing techniques from Elder Tie Jiang. I was trying to build a spirit weapon with the Ice Soul Python scales and Void Whale stuff that I had collected about a year ago, to no avail. Despite learning advanced techniques of Spirit Engraving and remembering their patterns fairly well (it helped that I had reference books to refer to, so I didn"t need an excellent memory), I found myself a very average blacksmith.

Hey, at least I could forge the bare minimum of a sword without s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up or blowing up my forge, so it was not a total disaster!

"Hmm, that"s an interesting project you"re working on."

"Elder Tie Jiang!"

It was one such morning, right after my brutal training under Elder Zhao"s hands when Elder Tie walked into my room and saw the weapon I was attempting to forge. He frowned when he saw what I was hammering.

"That doesn"t look like a sword…I thought you were a swordsman."

"Well, ha ha…it can be used as a sword if I forge it right…"

"It doesn"t look like a spear either." Elder Tie tilted his head. "What exactly are you using the Ice Soul Python scale for?"

For my spirit weapon, obviously, but I couldn"t say that out loud. Instead, I merely smiled and gestured toward my half-forged armament.

"I wanted to maximize its defense."

"Ah…so it"s a defensive armament." Elder Tie nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. You seem to be forging a shield?"

"Yeah," I admitted as I stared at the flat, broad shape that I had hammered out. The once-azure material glowed red-hot as the fires of the Flame Volcano continued to stoke it, allowing its shape to be more malleable. Wiping the perspiration from my forehead, I turned off the furnace and allowed it to cool. It was unfortunate, but there was no point in continuing. "I kind of hit a problem while trying to craft it. It"s not turning out the way I wanted."

"Hmm? That"s strange. Is it not durable enough?" Elder Tie sounded skeptical. "That can"t be right. The Ice Soul Python scale is one of the toughest materials out there."

"No, the durability is fine. The problem is the integration of the different materials. I"m trying to merge the Ice Soul Python scale with the Void Whale"s lining, but it seems that they are rejecting each other. They don"t seem to be compatible, despite me following the book and doing what you told me regarding combining materials from different magical beasts."

"Ah, I see."

Elder Tie nodded briefly for a moment, and then his eyes widened.

"Void Whale lining? Why are you trying to combine Void Whale lining with an Ice Soul Python scale? I thought you were trying to forge a shield?"

"Yeah, but I"m planning on making a special shield. One that can double as a storage device." I grinned. "You said earlier that I"m a swordsman, right? I plan to stuff my shield full of swords so that I can draw one every time I break one."

Honestly, it seemed that my current strength had outgrown that of the free low-quality swords that the sect had provided. Since I was still saving up for a high-quality sword (which cost thousands of gold coins – meaning that the five hundred gold coins I earned as runner-up in last year"s tournament wasn"t enough), I refused to spend any on a mediocre or even a medium-quality sword in the meantime. Even a decent, medium-quality sword cost several hundred gold coins, and would set me back heavily in my saving plans.

"You might as well buy a sword or forge a sword instead." Elder Tie naturally did not approve of my foolishness.

"Yeah, but it would be a waste of an Ice Soul Python if I used it to forge a sword," I pointed out. Elder Tie snorted.

"No, it wouldn"t. What"s wrong with a sword that has high defensive qualities? I"m sure I"ve taught you the appropriate Spirit Engraving to improve its defense higher. You can use that sword to project a qi barrier around yourself and those you want to protect."

"That defensive quality would be higher if I forge it as a shield," I pointed out.

"That"s true," Elder Tie conceded reluctantly. "But you"re not a shield hero, are you? Are you going to save demi-humans and incur the wrath of the Church of the Three Heroes?"

"No, I"m going to rise, buy a demi-human slave, have her grow into a beautiful woman to be my future wife, and then turn into a G.o.d eventually after defeating the numerous waves," I replied with a straight face.

Elder Tie sighed. "Can"t you take this matter seriously?"

"Hey, you"re the one who started it!"

"Fine, fine." Elder Tie waved his hand impatiently and stepped forward. I made way for him as he approached my unfinished product. "Let me take a look."

"All yours."

"Hmm…" Elder Tie observed my attempt at forging a shield closely, his eyes gleaming behind those thick lenses of his gla.s.ses. Like me, he had modified his gla.s.ses and I could see countless lights illuminate the lenses, throwing up diagrams, a.n.a.lyses, numbers and charts. The Armament…I mean the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect had gone a long way in advancing their technology. Many of the Elders could program what pa.s.sed off as sophisticated Artificial Intelligences in my original timeline with Spirit Engravings (they seemed to work by imbuing the device with spiritual intelligence and redesigning the partial soul housed within the materials), and apparently they had been doing for a long time. That was how we had Battle Puppets and Test Dummies to begin with.

I read somewhere that we had a Dark Age of Technology a few thousand years ago, but that was top secret, highly cla.s.sified material, not meant for us students to read. As I didn"t want to draw the intention of the Holy Inquisition, I tended not to pursue these fascinating histories that I would otherwise devour if I was in my original timeline.

"Ah…I see what the problem is now."

"Huh?" I gaped at Elder Tie, who was raising his head and grinning knowingly in that annoying manner at me. I waited for him to elaborate, but that old b.a.s.t.a.r.d was fond of his melodramatic behavior and stayed quiet. He obviously wanted me to ask him. Clamping down on my irritation because I really needed to know, I gave in. "What"s the problem?"

"You"re missing one ingredient. A special type of material that can help these two originally incompatible materials bond together. A…glue, so to speak, an intermediary that can integrate all of them into one armament."

"Heh…what sort of material is that?" I briefly wondered if I had to hunt a specific magical beast for that.

Speaking of which, even though this was like almost 80 chapters ago, I felt like I needed to clarify something. Apparently, around Chapter 42 or so, when I learned that I couldn"t absorb artificial qi, everyone thought the solution was for me to go into the forest and start eating magical beasts and demonic creatures.

They couldn"t be more mistaken.

It was unfortunate, but eating magical beasts only worked the first time. Subsequently, devouring more magical beasts wouldn"t have any effect, other than satiating my hunger. I had found that out when eating the Silverback Wolves. Even though I somewhat gained the ability to use ice after eating them, my ice powers, physical strength and amount of qi did not increase when I ate more of them. My current physical const.i.tution was closer to that of a magical beast than a human, after having already undergone an agonizing transformation after eating their meat. Once you had eaten one of them, subsequent meals of magical beasts wouldn"t increase your qi or strength. It wasn"t as if my body was going to transform again, not when it already was closer to a magical beast than a human"s const.i.tution.

Only if I ate something much more powerful would I be able to somewhat increase my amount of qi, but it was an extremely painful process, and I no longer had the Green Dragon Spring water in case I needed it to heal myself. having learned from devouring the Ghost Bear about four years ago, I knew I needed that sort of contingency before risking the chance to eat a much more powerful magical beast, or I might end up killing myself in my greed to grow stronger.

Another misconception was that of "demonic" qi. Even though I naively believed what I read or what the Martial Arts Alliance told me when I first started out in this timeline, over time and countless experiences, I realized there was absolutely no difference between "orthodox" and "demonic" qi. Having exchanged blows with exponents from both sides, I couldn"t tell any difference between their qi. This lack of difference was especially p.r.o.nounced after I attained my Heaven and Earth Sense and learned how to read the flow of qi around people and in the environment.

Most likely the Martial Arts Alliance arbitrarily distinguished "demonic" qi from "orthodox" qi so as to justify their attacks on sects they deemed a danger to their authority. It also helped that most of those so-called demonic sects practiced techniques that relied on a lot of yin qi, and the orthodox sects tended to use martial arts that were largely yang-based. While there were many exceptions, and no martial art could ever be purely one type of qi, it made it easy for the Martial Arts Alliance to draw a line and forced people to be with them or against them.

Unfortunately, at that time I was still unaware of the politics surrounding the different types of qi, but I did realize that something was amiss.

"What kind of material do I need?" I asked again, mentally doing the preparations for yet another expedition. As a Blood Blade, it was easy for me to take missions and I could conveniently swing by to hunt whatever I needed.

"Oh, no, it"s not from a magical beast. You can"t get it by going into the forest and looking for it."

As if he had read my mind, Elder Tie shook his head and flatly smashed my plans to bits. He pondered for a moment, and sighed.

"I was thinking more of a specific item…an artifact said to be from the Dark Age of Technology. Whoops, forget what I told you." Elder Tie cleared his throat. "An object from the ancient past. It is yin in nature, so you should be able to identify it at a glance."

"Can"t I just hunt a magical beast that is yin in nature and use its material?" I asked, finding this whole thing weird.

"No, like I said, it"s not something you can just get from the wild. It"s a human-created artifact…to be honest, any yin-based artificial artifact is fine. Of course, the higher quality it is, then the more powerful your shield will be. And since you"re using the Ice Soul Python, it would be best if you can find an ice-type artifact."

Elder Tie was nodding, getting carried away. I groaned, realizing that if I wanted to find one, I would have to pay for it.

"That"s going to cost me a lot of money…"

"Indeed." Elder Tie looked at me sympathetically, and then he suddenly beamed as if he had just remembered something. "That"s it!"

"Huh? I stared at him, bewildered. Elder Tie seemed like he was practically prancing up and down from his recollection.

"Disciple Fei Wu, haven"t you heard about the major event that had recently occurred in the Tian Du region?"

"No?"

I was so busy with training, both in terms of martial arts and smithing, that I had no time to pay any attention to the news. In the first place, what the h.e.l.l was the Tian Du region? Heavenly Poison region or something?

Then I suddenly recalled that Tushan City was suddenly receiving more visitors from other provinces over the last month, and my mind made the link.

Does it have something to do with the influx of outsiders?

For the life of me, I couldn"t imagine what it might be, so in the end I opened my mouth and asked sourly.

"What happened?"

Elder Tie grinned mischievously, as if he had just lured me into a trap from which I couldn"t escape. Despite my annoyance, I couldn"t risk offending him, so I gritted my teeth and tried to be patient. It wasn"t easy, especially when I had to watch his gloating face.

"You do know the mountain range just west of Tushan City, right?"

"Uh…if I remember correctly…the mountain range to the west of here is…the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range? Why? What happened there?"

I tried to suppress my surprise, so as not to give Elder Tie the satisfaction. He observed my reaction for a bit, and then grinned conspiratorially.

"Someone has found a tomb in the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range."

"Tomb? Whose tomb?" I repeated blankly. In this timeline, the discovery of a tomb was pretty common, particularly the ident.i.ty of the person who the tomb belonged to. Depending on the status of the poor dude lying within the tomb, it could contain countless treasures (and traps), or it could contain just a little bit of wealth.

Not to mention, the more ancient the tomb was, the more valuable the artifacts and weapons found inside the tomb. Not for the first time I wondered if it had something to do with the Dark Age of Technology, but most information regarding that missing era had been redacted by the Holy Inquisition of the Emperor.

"That tomb came from a very ancient period…"

I rolled my eyes at the answer. "That"s pretty vague. Which ancient period? The Shang Dynasty? The Shi Dynasty?"

"About four thousand years ago, so before even the Shi Dynasty." Elder Tie held up a finger. "But that"s not important here."

Like h.e.l.l it wasn"t! As a historian (at least during my previous timeline), I wasn"t going to let that slide!

But before I could teach Elder Tie the importance of history, he continued.

"The person who the tomb belonged to…is a pract.i.tioner who had reached the Nascent Soul Stage."

Elder Tie"s wrinkled eyes swept around the room dramatically as he spoke softly. Dude, it"s a little too late to be worrying about eavesdroppers now, don"t you think?

Unfortunately, Elder Tie was right about one thing. If the owner of the tomb was indeed a Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner, then it didn"t matter which time period he came from. For it meant that his tomb was definitely stocked full of highly valuable treasures, advanced artifacts and extremely powerful weapons.

Without a doubt, everyone would want to go there and raid the tomb for those things.

"No wonder so many people have been showing up in Tushan City recently," I muttered as I recalled the increasing presence of outsiders.

"That"s right. As you observed, almost every young pract.i.tioner from all over the Middle Continent have come here because of the tomb. Not to mention the disciples of the other seven major sects." Elder Tie nodded gravely.

"The other seven major sects, huh?" I muttered. Well, that made sense. Of course the strongest sects would be first to all dibs on the tomb and pillage all the precious artifiacts, weapons and treasures housed within its vaults. But even they wouldn"t be able to prevent pract.i.tioners from all the other sects from flooding its interiors.

"You should check it out too, as a disciple of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. naturally Sect Leader has already a.s.signed the inner sect disciples to take part in the expedition. The Blood Blades are of course more than welcome to join, given the danger present."

Tombs were always full of traps, with the dead wanting to protect all his treasures and h.o.a.rd them for himself even after his death. Consequently, exploring a tomb was a risky venture, and one could lose his life if he was not careful.

"Disciple Fei Wu…who knows, if you"re lucky, you might find the Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner"s martial arts and inherit his legacy. If you do, you"ll definitely find yourself promoted into the Blood Blades" inner circle, second only to Elder Zhao and Sect Lady Da Ji."

"Um, as much as I would love to, it sounds too compet.i.tive for me. A Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner"s tomb? Yeah…that"s gong to be very difficult."

While I probably could hold my own in a fight, tomb exploration was a different beast altogether. Without a good sense of direction like Ciaphas Cain"s hiver instincts, I would only get lost in the endless maze and labyrinthine corridors that made up its interior, and if I wasn"t careful, I might spend an eternity trapped within, never to escape. Even if I do, all the elite pract.i.tioners across the Great Zhou Empire and even the Middle Continent would have s.n.a.t.c.hed the treasures before I could reach them, rendering the trip a complete waste of time.

"Are you sure you don"t want to partic.i.p.ate? You do want that yin-based ice artifact, don"t you? There"s definitely one in the tomb."

Elder Tie was grinning now, as if he had hooked me by the nose or something.

"Please don"t tell me it"s Extreme Yin Dragon Saliva or I"m going to kick you out of my room," I muttered. Elder Tie blinked, baffled.

"Extreme Yin Dragon…what?"

"Never mind," I quickly said. If he didn"t know what that meant, he definitely wouldn"t pull a Wu Dong Qian Kun on me.

"Then what are you referring to?"

"How would I know? Do I look like I"ve been to the tomb? Isn"t it the job of you younglings to explore the tomb and report its contents back to us? I"m only mentioning the possibility. h.e.l.l, since it"s a tomb from before the Shi Dynasty, there definitely is an item…no, several items of such nature. You can have your pick…"

"…if the other elite pract.i.tioners haven"t taken them away by then…"

Elder Tie chuckled. "What? You have no confidence? You"re one of the fearsome Blood Blades. There aren"t many people in your generation who can beat you in a fight."

"It"s not combat I"m worried about," I told him. "I can probably defeat them in a fight if everything goes south, but my combat capability isn"t going to help me if I get lost in the tomb and become unable to find whatever I want. Given my terrible luck, I can see that just happening."

"You won"t know if you don"t try. If you don"t go, nothing is going to change, and you"ll have to fork out a fortune to buy the artifact you need. If you go, even if the possibility is low, it"s not going to be zero like now."

"You"re right," I conceded. Bowing, I sent the laughing Elder Tie off. "Thank you very much, Elder Tie."

"No, no. I"m only too happy that another rone of our disciples will be partic.i.p.ating in the mission." Elder Tie clenched his fists. "We can"t let the other seven major sects hog the glory! We need to beat them as well!"

"I"ll remember to do that while looking for treasures," I replied dryly. Of course, I had no intention of getting into a fight if I could help it. My objective was finding the treasure I needed and then beating the h.e.l.l out of there. There was no point getting into meaningless conflicts with prodigies and geniuses from the other sects.

After that exchange, I headed toward the courtyard where I expected to train under Elder Zhao. As usual, he was waiting for me, but there was something different about his posture today.

"Elder Zhao?"

I approached him uncertainly. He caught sight of me and waved me over.

"Oh, Fei Wu. Training is canceled today."

I did a double take. Elder Zhao rarely cancelled training, unless he had an urgent mission, or it was the holidays like the New Year holidays. This time, Tang Qi Hong hadn"t joined me to visit my relatives because her adopted parents were back, and she could spend time with them and her adopted sister, Zi Xiao Ji.

"Eh? What? Huh?"

"Don"t "huh" me. Cancelled means cancelled." Elder Zhao smiled cynically. "I didn"t know you were looking forward to my training, though. Seems like I wasn"t tough enough."

"No, it"s tough enough! I"m happy that you cancelled it! Thank you!"

"Heh…" Elder Zhao"s expression darkened. "As punishment for revealing your honest feelings, I"m going to double the intensity."

"WHAT!?"

Which is it, you f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d?!

"For now, though…" Elder Zhao. I grew pale when I realized that he wasn"t joking. "A tomb has just been discovered in the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range. I am a.s.signing you to an exploration mission within that tomb."

"…"

Just after Elder Tie told me about this, Elder Zhao now directly ordered me to explore the tomb. If this wasn"t fate f.u.c.king around with me, I didn"t know what was.

"You don"t seem surprised?" Elder Zhao looked at me suspiciously. I was too tired to respond to all these nonsense.

"Elder Tie already told me about it," I explained wearily. "And he also suggested that I go."

"I"m making it an official mission. Anything you find there, you get to keep. So off you go!"

I sighed and scratched my head. Despite Elder Tie"s encouragement and Elder Zhao"s order, I still didn"t feel comfortable with this. It was my first time exploring a tomb and I wasn"t prepared. It would be a whole different experience from surviving Sen Lin Forest and an abyss, where my only goal was to stay alive and not to look for treasures.

Especially given the countless pract.i.tioners who were sure to be flocking to the tomb and emptying its vaults of treasures, weapons and artifacts before I could even reach it…the possibility of me getting anything of value seemed bleak indeed.

"Why are you looking so down for?" Elder Zhao smacked me across the head. Fortunately, I read the spike in his qi and pulled my head back before he could hit me, and his fingers only grazed several strands of my hair. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! Don"t give up so easily!"

"I don"t intend to give up," I a.s.sured him. Imagining myself inside a s.p.a.ce Construction Vehicle and being given an order to move, I began walking briskly as if Elder Zhao had just run out of Marines. "I"m going!"

"Wait, wait!"

I stopped and glanced back at Elder Zhao quizzically. He looked at me seriously.

"Look here, Fei Wu. Even Tong Xue had more enthusiasm than you, and you"re supposed to be the hardworking one."

"Oh, I work hard, but I know when something"s going to be a waste of time."

Elder Zhao sighed and shook his head. He gestured for me to approach.

"When a Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner dies, all the spiritual qi inside his body will not dissipate that easily. Instead, as time goes on, it will gradually coalesce once again and condense into a dense cloud of qi. This will result in the formation of the essence of the Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner"s lifetime of cultivation, and is known as the Nascent Heart."

"The what heart now?" I repeated, stupefied.

"If an ordinary person can get hold of a Nascent Heart, as long as he"s somewhat capable, he will have the potential to reach the Pure Spirit Stage. However, for a talented person, as long as he can withstand that fiery essence, he will have a chance to jump all the way to the Nascent Soul Stage."

I just nodded, while thinking to myself, whatever. All these bulls.h.i.t stages and realms were meaningless to me. Furthermore, with the advent of artificial qi, the realms and stages had all become obsolete. How did you gauge someone"s realm? By the amount of qi they had? If that was the case, then all those students at Wu Ling Academy with several s.e.xagenaries of qi were easily at the Qi Fusion or Pure Spirit Stage, were they not?

So what was the whole point of having all these stages? How were the Wu Ling Academy students different from traditional Pure Spirit Stage pract.i.tioners? Their years of cultivation? Experience? Age? Some obscure determinant we weren"t aware of?

Elder Zhao wasn"t paying any attention to my rambling thoughts. He was nodding with what he hoped was a persuasive smile.

"If you"re able to obtain such a treasure, you"ll definitely encounter a miracle!"

"Hah!" I snorted. "As if such things would conveniently happen! I"m not some protagonist from a cliché wuxia/xianxia novel. It"s not as if I"ll just happen to run into the place where the Nascent Heart is stored!"

"Well…it"s true that I can"t guarantee that there will definitely be a Nascent Heart inside the old tomb, it is still worth a try. You might find other valuable treasures in there. Aren"t you learning Spirit Engraving and smithing too?" Elder Zhao coughed, as if to say "unlike that lazy Tong Xue." He turned to look at me seriously. "You"ll find great materials for your smithing and Spirit Engraving. As you already know, tombs are full of amazing wonders."

Well, the rewards commensurated with the risks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Of course, with such great danger and extreme compet.i.tion from all the elite pract.i.tioners, there had to be treasure and artifacts worth all that trouble.

"Yeah, I"ll definitely give it a shot."

I took a deep breath. Even though I didn"t feel very confident, I had nothing to lose (other than my time). If anything, I could take this as a learning experience, and improve my skills while contesting other elite pract.i.tioners. Even if I came out of it empty-handed, I was confident that I would be inevitably drawn into a conflict sooner or later.

Might as well challenge several of these so-called elite pract.i.tioners from the major sects and see how I measured up to them. I might be second-placed in Wu Ling Academy, but I could just be a frog in the well or a big fish in a small pond. If I wanted to improve myself, I had to take risks and look for other big fishes to challenge.

And perhaps, just like a poor carp, I might eventually evolve into a dragon like everyone else. Yeah, apparently there were legends about carps evolving into dragons. Where did you think they got the idea for Magikarp and Gyarados, Feebas and Milotic from? Chinese and j.a.panese mythologies, of course.

"First, I"ll have to look for Tong Xue and the rest…"

Obviously, there were safety in numbers, and if I could join a group, I would be safer. We could work together and watch each other"s backs. I would also feel a lot more comfortable with Tong Xue around. Knowing the sneaky scoundrel, he most likely had already gathered at least some form of intelligence regarding the tomb.

"Ah, don"t bother." Elder Zhao waved his hand dismissively. "You"re too late for that. Qi Hong, Lian Rou and Tong Xue have already departed long ago, as did Liang Shao Yang and Hu Mei Er."