Chapter 198: Chapter 56: Imparting the Heavenly Destiny Martial Technique
“Your Highness’s point is well-taken. Scholar Yu’s Scholarly Wanderer Steps, Cripple Zhang’s Drunken Eight Immortals, and True Person Miaolian’s Jade Needle Sword Technique are all renowned, not just among wandering cultivators but across the entire Han Yuan Dynasty. Alone, I fear none of them, but facing two at once would stretch me to my limits, let alone assure victory… And to face all seven simultaneously! Even Master Han Xiao himself would have to flee in disarray.”
Han Qianye nodded in agreement.
No wonder they dared to attack as soon as they left the black market, they indeed had the ability to do so.
Sun Lianxiang’s eyes lit up, “Elder Ling was already hurt from sparring with you, Your Highness. Protecting that fat man won’t be so easy now…”
Having confirmed it with a sound, Han Qianye was about to continue when a horse hurriedly approached. A guard wearing golden armor knelt in submission.
He knew this was a Golden Armor Guard dedicated to serving the Qingtian Emperor, each possessing cultivation in the Jade Bone Realm and part of the Direct Lineage. Such a hurried approach must mean that something significant had occurred.
“Brother Emperor, then we shall take our leave first…”
“There’s no need! This is the man I sent to follow Ling Buyang.”
Han Qianchou waved his hand and looked toward the Golden Armor Guard, his gaze filled with confusion, “Didn’t I order you to follow him all the time? Why have you returned so quickly?”
The Golden Armor Guard bowed deeply, his face filled with fear, “Your Majesty, I am incompetent…I lost him!”
Han Qianchou frowned, “Explain yourself clearly!”
The Golden Armor Guard hastily spoke, “Elder Ling deceived the steward of the black market, but not me. I held my breath and stealthily followed him underwater, pursuing him until he went ashore from the boat. After they hadn’t gotten far, Elder Ling suddenly sped up, and I lost him…”
Han Qianchou expressed his displeasure, “He must have headed toward the city. If you had continued to track him, you would have found some clues. Why come back so quickly?”
The guard continued, “Your Majesty, as I went after him into the city, I hadn’t gone far when I saw bloodshed everywhere. Scholar Yu, Cripple Zhang, True Person Miaolian, and seven others were all dead… Knowing that the matter was of great urgency, I hurried to report back!”
“Dead, all dead?”
Han Qianchou was stunned, “Do you mean to say that these seven assailants, instead of getting what they wanted, ended up dead themselves?”
“Yes!”
The Golden Armor Guard elaborated, “From the time Elder Ling left my sight to when I found these people dead, it was no more than a hundred breaths… I examined them closely, and these seven masters were all slain at the same time. The interval between the first and last deaths didn’t exceed ten breaths!”
“…”
Han Qianchou was dumbfounded, frozen in place.
On the side, Han Qianye was also too shocked to speak.
They had just concluded that even if these seven couldn’t rob their quarry, they could escape unscathed; yet now, such an incident occurred… These were seven 9-dan experts of the Ninefold Source Pool Realm, capable of storming the royal palace such that it would take at least two hours of fierce fighting and many casualties for the imperial guard to hold them off. But in the hands of their opponent, they didn’t even last ten breaths before all were dead…
“Lead the way; I want to see this with my own eyes!”
Han Qianchou could hardly believe it and gestured forward.
Han Qianye quickly followed, and soon the group arrived at the alley where the battle had taken place.
The fresh blood on the ground had not yet coagulated. The bodies of the seven great masters were strewn haphazardly, their eyes filled with disbelief, as if they couldn’t fathom how they could have possibly been killed up until their dying moment.
“These two were killed by a direct shoulder charge, these two by sword qi… True Person Miaolian, after deploying his Yuzhen Sword Technique, was slain by a single sweeping saber qi, severing his spirit…”
He slowly proceeded along the bodies for a while and determined the cause of each death.
“Not to mention ten breaths, possibly not even five… All seven masters were dead.”
Han Qianye trembled.
Before, he thought he wasn’t too far behind his opponent and that with a little effort, he could catch up. Now, that delusion was shattered.
Not just slightly behind – he couldn’t even close a gap of tenfold!
“We must establish good relations with this Elder Ling… We cannot afford to offend him!”
Han Qianchou also felt a surge of fear.
Fortunately, there had been no dispute with him before, otherwise it would have been impossible to reconcile.
“Wandering cultivators really are destitute…”
Zhang Xuan shook his head as he rode along.
After killing Scholar Yu and the others and searching the corpses, the group of losers hadn’t even amassed a million Origin Currency in total. Too poor!
No wonder they resorted to highway robbery.
Upon returning to his dwelling and distributing the medicinal herbs obtained from Unnecessary Hall to Luo Ruoxin and the others, Zhang Xuan called Zheng Yang over.
At this point, although Zheng Yang had only practiced for a few days, thanks to the abundance of resources, he had already reached the Fourfold Physique Realm of the Source Pool Realm. Seeing his teacher summon him alone, a hint of perplexity flickered in his eyes.
“I’ve just learned a set of spearmanship called Flowing Light, which I will now pass on to you…”
Zhang Xuan gripped the air, and the spear in Zheng Yang’s hand landed in his palm. He pointed forward, and the spear shot through the void like a shooting star, arriving in front of the lamp on the table.
Such speed, and yet the oil lamp didn’t go out, nor did it even flicker.
Zheng Yang’s eyes widened.
To extinguish a lamp with a spear, to pierce a hole as small as a needle’s eye, he could do it, but at such a high speed, for the lamp not to go out, not even to flicker, that was difficult to achieve.
If it were in the Empyrean, by using the laws of space, distorting space, one could achieve the same effect, but just now when the teacher made his move, there wasn’t the slightest change in space, leaving ones baffled.
Zhang Xuan retracted his spear, “This is the Heavenly Destiny Martial Technique!”
Zheng Yang looked over, puzzled.
Zhang Xuan explained, “Whether it’s humans or animals, once they are born, destiny follows them. Just like you, if back in Tianxuan City, you hadn’t by chance walked into the classroom and taken me as your master, not to mention coming to the Source World, you might have already turned into a handful of dirt.”
Zheng Yang nodded.
Time in the Empyrean flows a thousand times slower than in the Master Teacher Continent. Although only five years had passed in the Empyrean, thousands of years had passed on the Master Teacher Continent. With such a long passage of time, given his talent, he would surely have been buried beneath the soil long ago.
His good friend Mo Xiao, who had more talent in spear arts than him, met a different fate because he took Wang Chao as his master. His cultivation barely broke through to the Half-Zhizun level before he perished.
Zhang Xuan continued, “Fate overshadows everything, no one can escape or break free from it, that’s why it’s called destiny. Just like the move just now, before I thrust the spear, I had already decreed the candle’s destiny, that it wouldn’t go out, wouldn’t even move. So no matter how powerful the thrust, it wouldn’t damage it in the slightest…”
Zheng Yang had a sudden realization.
Cultivation, invisible and intangible, yet it truly exists.
Some people can fall hundreds of meters off a cliff and only scrape their skin, yet others can trip while walking and lose their lives.
Seeing that he understood, Zhang Xuan taught him the Flowing Light Spear Technique.
Zheng Yang’s cultivation in the Source World was not too strong, but he was after all a figure of the Nine God Monarchs level. In just under a short hour, he had completely mastered the technique. At first, the light still went out. As he continued to practise, the flickering grew less and less until eventually it did not flicker at all.
Whoosh!
Once Zheng Yang achieved this, Zhang Xuan immediately felt in the void a surging river flowing towards him. Countless Heavenly Mandate Vitality rolled in, filling the spear’s water flow; in just a single breath, it had doubled its size, becoming almost as big as the Mo Blade Water Flow that had fused with a hundred thousand Heavenly Mandate Vitality.
“Is this… the second realm of the Heavenly Destiny?”
Zhang Xuan’s eyes widened.
He hadn’t expected Zheng Yang to comprehend the Flowing Light Heavenly Destiny, and as the one who passed on the knowledge, his own cultivation had increased too!
This Heavenly Destiny just took form, consuming a hundred thousand Heavenly Mandate Vitality. A breakthrough to the second realm in one go, wouldn’t that need two hundred thousand? And now, simply by teaching a disciple to comprehend, he could easily accomplish this…
No wonder cultivators who practise the Heavenly Destiny must establish their own sects, all kinds of mentorship…turns out, the benefit lies here!
He speculated in his heart. He tried to absorb the Heavenly Mandate Vitality that surged into his body using the books, but found he couldn’t use them at all.
It seems that the power gained from teaching Heavenly Destiny can only advance the corresponding heavenly water flow and cannot be used for anything else. However, even so, it’s already enough.
From now on, he would need to study more Heavenly Destiny and pass it on to his disciples.
In this way, having a sufficient number of water flows, his strength would also improve rapidly. Not to mention other things, if both the Mo Blade and Flowing Light Heavenly Destinies were to ascend to the second realm, he felt his soul becoming more saturated, as if it could leave the body at any moment and travel afar.
With a thought, his spirit indeed leapt out from his glabella and went against the wind.
Although still somewhat weak, feeling the harsh winds that could scatter him at any moment, he could truly traverse in all directions, even kill from across the distance.
“In that case, without collecting books, I can still break through my cultivation…”
His soul returned, and Zhang Xuan nodded to himself in secret.
Previously, only by collecting enough cultivation methods and forming the Heaven’s Path Divine Art could he slowly cultivate and advance. But now, by practising and teaching Heavenly Destiny, he could improve his strength just the same…
Currently, Zheng Yang had just begun to comprehend Flowing Light Heavenly Destiny. As his comprehension grows more and more, and as he progresses faster and faster, my own rush towards the pinnacle of Travel Realm, even the Dharma Form Realm, will become very simple.
To let him continue practising, Zhang Xuan gathered the rest of the people.
“I have a set of Mo Dao Destiny that I want to pass on to you all. Try it out and see who can practice it…”
Now that Mo Dao had reached the second realm, passing it on to see if anyone could succeed would definitely be of help to his own cultivation.
Taking out a Mo Dao saber, he slowly demonstrated; Heavenly Mandate Vitality surged upon the blade. Luo Ruoxin, Zhao Ya, and the others watched carefully.
Soon, he finished performing the technique.
Just as Zhang Xuan was about to ask everyone if they had any comprehension, he saw Sun Qiang hurrying over.
“Young Master, Master Han from the Heaven Mandate Hall is looking for you; he’s waiting in the living room…”
With sufficient strength, Zhang Xuan didn’t hide his arrival back home this time. Furthermore, Sun Qiang’s condition meant that it couldn’t be concealed. Han Xiao found him after asking a few people nonchalantly.
“Alright!”
Zhang Xuan nodded, instructed everyone to continue their cultivation, and followed Sun Qiang to the living room.