Chapter 631: Astral Ancestor
Translator: Yukidaruma Translations Editor: Yukidaruma Translations
On their way, the Lonestar Knight and his martial juniors kept on communicating by sending information currents through their martial will.
Starbeast Hunter: "Eldest Martial Brother, are we going to bring him to see Master just like that? Are we really going to give him the Universal Astral Realm Book?"
Stardust Fairy: "What else can we do? This Fang Xingjian is ten or 100 times more terrifying than what the rumors say him to be. Which of us can win against him?" Thinking back to the scene of Fang Xingjian moving the mountains earlier, she still felt an instinctive fear running through her.
"But..." The Starbeast Hunter still could not accept this. "This is too cowardly. If we hand the Universal Astral Realm Book to him today, I'd be too ashamed to leave the mountain in the future."
The Lonestar Knight sighed, "Enough. He might not necessarily be able to get it anyway." Thinking of the current situation on the mountain, a hint of unfathomable glow flashed in the Lonestar Knight's eyes. "If he can still get it in such a situation, then so be it."
They then went on the way without another word. The trio walked up to a cliff where there was an old man seated with his legs crossed, less than half a meter away from the edge of the lofty precipice. The place was covered in a dense fog, seeming as if it contained a sense of endless profoundness.
The old man's hair was white, and his eyes were turbid. His skin saggy with quite a number of age spots on his face, and he looked like an ordinary old man in his sixties. The only exception was his pair of eyes which were staring into the endless fog as if all the secrets in the world were contained in them.
Looking at the old man's condition, Fang Xingjian's eyes narrowed, and a hint of puzzlement flashed in his eyes.
"This is... the Astral Ancestor?"
However, even after Fang Xingjian and the others arrived, they did not manage to catch the old man's attention at all. Not even the slightest change occurred with the old man, and his eyelids did not even twitch. He just continued to look at the transforming clouds.
"That's right. It's our Master," the Lonestar Knight said, smiling bitterly. "It's true that the increment to the density of ether particles has increased the speed of cultivation. But there is too much personal information contained in the ether particles, thus it also increases the rate at which someone loses their mind while cultivating.
"When Master was striving for the third tier of the Divine level, he wasn't been able to resist the invasion of the personal information, and his memories became chaotic. Right now, he only knows to cultivate instinctively."
Lan Yue was slightly stunned. At the next moment, as she looked at that old man who was seated cross-legged and in a daze, a hint of astonishment flashed in her eyes.
The world had undergone a metamorphosis, and the ether particle density had increased tremendously. Many Conferred Knights had improved in leaps and bounds. However, simultaneously, there were even more people who lost their minds from cultivating and turned into lunatics or entered vegetative states.
It was not as if she had not encountered such cases back at the Full Moon Shrine. However, this was the first time she had seen a Divine level expert lose his mind to such a degree from cultivating and then becoming like this.
Thinking of how the other party had attempted to strive for the third tier of the Divine level, it was suddenly clear to Lan Yue.
Both the Astral Ancestor and the Blue Sacred Moonlight belonged to the same generation, having risen up from their respective factions at about the same time. They dominated over the Xingwu Region and had also fought many times, experiencing many battles both in the dark and in the open. However, most of the time, they were on equal grounds. If it was not because they had been fighting all this time, it would not have been possible for the Xingwu Region to become independent from the Empire more than ten years ago.
After the many battles, both of them were well aware that their talent, intelligence, abilities, and luck were basically on par, so it was very hard for them to wipe out each other.
Therefore, after attaining the Divine level, the two of them no longer fought and did not even meet each other again.
After the world's metamorphosis, the Blue Sacred Moonlight reached the second tier of the Divine level. Therefore, Lan Yue had guessed all this time that the Astral Ancestor should also be at the second tier of the Divine level.
However, the Astral Ancestor had clearly been in too much of a rush to attain achievement. Within a short amount of time, he had attempted to strive for the third tier of the Divine level. It had been more than he could handle, and thus, he entered a state of chaos. His memories were all messed up, and he landed in his current state.
There were too many troubles on the path of cultivation. Even if there were no external foes, there were still all sorts of difficulties.
Thinking of this, Lan Yue shook her head, sighed, and said, "Then has he been sitting here all this while?"
"Yes," the Lonestar Knight smiled bitterly and said, "Ever since Master's memories got messed up, he has been sitting here everyday, watching the changes in the clouds. It's fine for us to get close, but once we try to talk to him or be within a one-meter range from him, we will be sent flying away or even be attacked."
Fang Xingjian looked with some curiosity at the Astral Ancestor. This was his first time meeting a Divine level who had entered a state of chaos and had his memories messed up.
Based on ordinary circumstances, once a Divine level expert's will had been condensed into something material, it was basically impossible for the personal information from external sources to have the upper hand or mess up the memories of the expert.
A situation like this must definitely be related to his attempt to strive for the third tier of the Divine level.
Fang Xingjian felt very curious and also very interested about such a situation.
The Lonestar Knight said, "If you wish to have the Universal Astral Realm Book, we can't give it to you even if we wish to do so. It's because the Universal Astral Realm Book has always been kept on the Sect Master of each generation. It's now on Master.
"Therefore, if you wish to obtain the Universal Astral Realm Book, you'll have to get it from Master yourself."
Fang Xingjian looked at the Lonestar Knight's gaze, as if he could see through what the other party was thinking.
He knew that the Lonestar Knight was already very fearful of his abilities. However, they were still unwilling to handover the contents of the Universal Astral Realm Book. Moreover, the Universal Astral Realm Book was currently with the Astral Ancestor.
Right now, the Lonestar Knight was probably still unable to accept this situation and wanted to test if the current Astral Ancestor could restrain Fang Xingjian.
After all, the Astral Ancestor was striving for the third tier of the Divine level, and his cultivation was not to be underestimated.
'During this period of time, we have thought of all means and tried all methods, yet it's still impossible for us to even get close to Master,' the Lonestar Knight thought. 'Right now, Master's cultivation might already be extremely close to the third tier of the Divine level. He might even have attained it, but his memories are just in a state of chaos.
'Although Fang Xingjian is very amazing, Master might still be able to restrain him.'
Thinking of this, when the Lonestar Knight looked at Fang Xingjian, his gaze was filled with some anticipation. It was the same for the Stardust Fairy and the Starbeast Hunter.
Their thoughts and plans were not shown, but there was no need for them to conceal them either. Fang Xingjian could see through their thoughts and plans very clearly.
Smiling slightly, Fang Xingjian walked over to the Astral Ancestor who was sitting cross-legged. Looking at this scene, Lan Yue also wore a grim countenance. No matter what condition the person was in, for him to be able to strive for the third tier of the Divine level, no one would underestimate him.
"Then let me have a chat with him."
As Fang Xingjian walked slowly toward the Astral Ancestor, the latter showed no reaction at the beginning. However, just as Fang Xingjian took the first step to enter within the one-meter range of the Astral Ancestor...
The Astral Ancestor shot out a myriad of starlights from his body and turned his head over toward Fang Xingjian. There seemed to be endless rivers of stars flowing in his eyes. As he threw his palm out, waves of power that distorted space were sent out, and he grabbed out for Fang Xingjian's head.