AGM 499 – Smile
On top of a desolate mountain, the white robes of the young man were stained with blood. The depth of his eyes shone with a coldness that made the temperature around the surroundings drastically plunge.
The chosen of the Xuan King City, they can just wait for him to return.
His silhouette flickered as he hugged Little Rascal, departing from this area.
Evidently, this area wasn’t suitable for them to stay in any longer. And now that Purgatory has entered his bloodstream, it could rest and cultivate in there.
Qin Wentian also didn’t understand why his primordial demon blood abruptly manifested a new ability. Maybe, this ability had awakened after he absorbed the blood of an immortal from the blood pool in the hidden realm. The Immortal Vanquishing Swordplay and consumed the majority of the blood there while the remaining excess was absorbed by him. This was also the reason why his Mandate of Demons could reach the Transformation Boundary of the second level insight that quickly.
Lowering his head, staring at the injured Little Rascal in his arms, he only saw the snowy puppy looking up at him and speaking in a baby-voice, “Lit…tle… Ras..cal…!”
“Yup, Little Rascal.” Upon hearing this voice, the dark clouds in Qin Wentian’s heart all seemed to disperse. A gentle smile appeared on his face as he rubbed Little Rascal’s head.
“Don’t…like..!’ Little Rascal shook its head in an adorable manner, using human speech to express its discontent for the name Qin Wentian had chosen for it.
“Hahaha, I’ve already called you that for so long that I’ve gotten used to it.” Qin Wentian gently tapped Little Rascal on its head causing the little puppy to frown. Its bright eyes flashed with a touch of grievance. After being able to speak, Little Rascal was adopting more and more human characteristics.
The two of them flew through the air, leaving this area of desolation, venturing even deeper into the depths of the mountain range of the Heavenly Mountain.
And in the Xuan King City, several rumors were circulated around. During the Treasure Seizing Assembly, there was a young man by the surname of Qin. This young man seized Shang Yue’s spatial brush, even going so far as to humiliate Yin Cheng and Jin Zhang. That young man was the epitome of arrogance. And after he did so, he even bested Grandmaster Qiu, killing him via divine inscriptions.
Not only that, there were rumors that a hidden realm appeared. It was said that the major powers all sent their geniuses over there and discovered that it was a burial place of a legendary character. A Celestial Constellation Tree was discovered which resulted in a fierce battle among the geniuses. After that, the young man surnamed Qin fought against all the experts, killing more than half of them. After snatching over half of the constellation fruits, he faced the combined attacks from the demon-level geniuses, before safely escaping.
And what’s even more shocking was that this young man was said to only have a cultivation base at the third level of Heavenly Dipper.
Because of him the Wind Roc Aristocrat Clan brought out their ten-thousand miles tracking mirror, the Yin Clan brought out their sealing treasure. They managed to track the young man in white. But in the end, they were forced to retreat with heavy injuries. Even two experts who were at the seventh to ninth level of Heavenly Dipper had fallen. Nobody knew exactly what happened in the battle, but that young man in white became something like a legend, as though he was an invisible being with three-heads and six-arms.
Right now, the young man in white was in fact, still cultivating in the mountain range of the Heavenly Mountain.
In the depths of the mountain range, a strange scene was currently playing out. Qin Wentian sat atop a mountain peak staring straight ahead. Over there, snow could be seen drifting all about, covering the mountain range ahead, exuding an extremely chilling intent.
The location he was in seemed to be separated into two parts. Firstly, ahead of him was a world of ice and snow, and secondly, the place he was in with no hints of snowing at all.
Qin Wentian sat there cross-legged, both his hands holding on to constellation fruits. One of the fruits were the heart-thumping dark-red fruit while the other was the Earth Mandate Fruit.
He didn’t consume them directly. These Mandate Fruits exuded fluctuations respective to their wills of Mandate and was good materials for one to gain comprehension into the insights by mediating over these aura fluctuations. Although if a cultivator consumed them directly, they would be able to enjoy a one-time miraculous effect to aid them to improve their Mandates, there would be nothing left after that. These constellation fruits would be most effective if one consumed them at appropriate moments.
Qin Wentian just sat there silently with the fruits in his hands. His heartbeat increased to a frantic speed, yet there was a strong sense of rhythm. Each beat of his heart caused him to feel that the entire cells in his body were moving together in tandem.
As for the Earth Mandate Fruits, it could enable him to more clearly sense the pulsing of the Great Earth. In fact, he felt as though his heartbeat was akin to the earth’s pulse, thumping with power.
Qin Wentian soon entered into a state of self-immersion as he focused fully on the pulsing energy. Following the pulsation of the great earth, his perception continued stretching forth unceasingly.
Gradually, his heartbeat slowed down. Slowing down to the point as though it wanted to thump together with the rhythm of the throbbing pulsation of the great earth.
Such a feeling was as if he were a part of the earth himself. His mind and heart fused together with the earth as one.
As Qin Wentian’s cultivation grew stronger, he could comprehend the insights from the Mandate of Great Earth. But because he didn’t have an earth-type astral soul, it was impossible for him to condense an astral nova of this attribute. And even if he comprehended it, the strength he gained would also be many times weaker compared to his own Mandates, despite needing a longer period of time to comprehend it.
After all right now, he was using the Mandate Fruits to enable him to enter into such a wondrous state, allowing him to comprehend insights into Mandates that were different from his Astral Souls.
As a period of time passed, Qin Wentian’s heartbeat was so slow that it almost stopped.
“Hu…” Exhaling, his eyes opened. Qin Wentian felt totally refreshed after the session, this sensation was too marvelous, being in a state of self-immersion, comprehending insights of the Mandate of Great Earth, feeling as though he was one with the earth itself.
“It’s about time my Mandate of Force has a breakthrough.” Qin Wentian stood up and walked ahead to the front of a mountain wall in the snowy region. The will from his Mandate of Force coated his fist as he slowly sank his fist into the mountain wall. A terrifying undulation gushed into the wall from his fist, causing the entire wall to tremble. After which, cracking sounds echoed as line after line akin to a spider-web, dented the surface of the wall.
“Shatter.” Qin Wentian retracted his fist as a rumbling sound thundered in the air. The mountain wall in front of him had instantly shattered into dust.
Qin Wentian had the shadow of a smile on his face, “The Mandate of Force truly shares some similarity with the Mandate of Great Earth. The second level insight which I have comprehended for my Mandate of Force, Void Vibration, isn’t that also a kind of pulsation energy which emits vibrational shockwaves? Right now, my Mandate of Force finally broke through to the Transformation Boundary of the second level insight.”
Right now, of his four Mandates; the Mandate of Force, Mandate of Demons and the Mandate of Swords had already reached the Transformation Boundary of the second level insights. As for his Mandate of Dreams, he had the Great Dream Immortal Art to study and reference from, he could feel that soon enough, his Mandate of Dreams would also be able to break through soon. It wouldn’t be long before all four of his Mandates would be at the Transformation Boundary of the second level insights.
The snow continuously cascaded down, each and every of Qin Wentian’s halberd strike was filled with the entirety of strength he could summon.
When Qin Wentian started cultivation, he learnt the principles behind the Tempered Thousand-Hammer Refinement Technique. Any innate techniques, as long as one practiced them countless times, they would surely be able to comprehend the essence of that technique.
Right now, he knew many innate techniques, yet it was immensely difficult for him to fuse their essences all into one perfectly. For example, for his halberd arts; previously he created some moves regarding halberd attacks that was extremely well suited for himself. But in his current circumstances, the power of those techniques was far from sufficient to deal with experts at the Heavenly Dipper Realm. But what if… he managed to infuse his will of Mandates completely into it? Wouldn’t the power of his attacks be augmented by over tens or even hundreds of times?
However, how could a complete infusion of power from his Mandates be so easy to achieve? He had to create new moves of greater attack power. And considering the fact that this was creation, it meant that he had to continuously test out attacks to see if there would be any chance of success.
The falling snow brought along with it a bone-piercing coldness, yet that young man continued on as though he was incapable of feeling fatigue. With a thin white robe, he struck out strike after strike, seeking nothing but perfection.
One day passed.
Seven days passed.
In the twinkling of an eye, nine days already passed. The young man in white was still deep in a world of his own. He had already forgotten how many halberd strikes did he had struck out. However right now, he could already attack using his halberd while emitting no traces of his presence. His attacks were totally in silence, completely devoid of sound. This was because his attack speed had already reached a state where it broke past the limits of sound – when the sound of the halberd strike echoed out, his attack would have already landed.
The silhouette of the white-robed young man flickered, his eyes staring at the snow mountain ahead. Stepping out, he lashed out with his halberd, the force of his strike was akin to a tyrannical dragon as his halberd might engulfed the entire mountain.
The halberd landed, yet no sound could be heard. After which, the snow mountain before him collapsed inch by inch as his force permeated into the interior of the mountain. Terrifying rumbling sounds rang out and after some time did the entire mountain collapsed totally, transformed into dust.
“Not strong enough yet, the strongest state of my void vibrational shockwaves should be able to fuse with the pulsation of great earth, instantly destroying this mountain in a single strike.” Qin Wentian frowned, appearing still unsatisfied. After which, he brandished his scarlet demon halberd again and again once more.
Time flowed by, another seven days passed.
On the snowy ground, Little Rascal lazily laid on it, its white fur melding perfectly with the snow.
Behind them, on a snowy peak, a maiden untainted by mortal dust appeared there silently, gazing at the young man in white who was practicing his halberd arts.
A few hours later, the white robed young man stopped once again, but this time, the glimmer of a smile could be seen in his eyes.
“My Mandate of Dreams has finally reached the Transformation Boundary of the second level insight.” Qin Wentian laughed. Right now, all four of my Mandates have reached the Transformation Boundary, if he met with the six chosen once more, Qin Wentian was extremely confident that he could kill them all despite their advantage in numbers.
One must know that a few days ago when he fought against the six chosen, his strongest insurance was his sword as well as the Seven Annihilations Swordplay. Back then, only his Mandate of Sword had reached the Transformation Boundary in his second level insight.
And now, as though he suddenly felt something, Qin Wentian turned and gazed at the silhouette atop that snowy peak. His eyes involuntarily brightened when he saw who was it.
“Qing`er!”
Qin Wentian’s silhouette flickered, appearing at the mountain peak where Qing`er stood. That pair of eyes belonging to that ice-cold silhouette was filled with intelligence as she stared at him. She wasn’t somebody with a lot of words.
“These two constellation fruits are Space Mandate Fruits, they should be of use to you.” Qin Wentian passed the fruits over to her, yet Qing`er merely cast a glance at him but didn’t show any interest in taking the fruits.
“Qing`er, take them.” Qin Wentian spoke.
“Okay.” Qing`er finally replied, stretching her hands out and accepting the Space Mandate Fruits. Her countenance still remained unchanged, it was unknown what she was thinking about.
“I’m leaving first.” Qin Wentian turned as he appeared below the mountain, walking across the land of ice and snow.
Looking at his back view, Qing`er’s countenance finally changed. Her lips were gently curled up in a sweet smile. This smile was filled with such emotions that it was as though it was fully capable of melting all the ice and snow in this world!
Translator Note:
Tempered Thousand-Hammer Refinement Technique → Appears in AGM Chapter 4