Book 14: Chapter 102

Lord San Shen’s Hammer

Light flickered sporadically, while thunder roiled intermittently as if it was the chorus to the harsh winds, yet it felt as if the desert was still. No other sounds from the real world reached this world. Practitioners of internal disciplines called the maddening experience “signs of qi deviation”. Howbeit, the catalyst behind Tang Ye experiencing it wasn’t qi deviation.

The complicated origins of Tang Ye’s energy was the reason for him struggling to control it. Although the heat energy belonged to him, he could only wield a portion of it. The synthesised heat energy forged from the gu’s refinement, Yang Blood True Qi and Scorching Sun Spirit burnt far hotter than that which he developed. It was the reason he was able to manifest flames with his bare hands in Huzhou; it wasn’t hard to imagine how much more potent it was now six months later.

The celestial spider silk’s venom was also extreme. Its characteristics were comparable to Nanjiang’s Poison King’s gu poison, except it was a “yin” energy, while the latter was a “yang” energy. Nanjiang’s Poison King wouldn’t have been able to find the main body Ming Feizhen retrieved it from even if he had another century to live, let alone subdue it. Even in a box, its venom could still freeze anything within a thirty-metre radius, so its toxicity was dozens of times that if it was placed directly on living organisms. Accordingly, it couldn’t used as armour despite how tough it was. It was harmful to everyone besides Ming Feizhen and Tang Ye.

The harmful cold poison was the perfect brake for Poison King’s heat energy. It hadn’t occurred to Tang Ye that the sash had stopped bothering him. The cold energy had seeped into his meridians – any corner the heat energy had passed through before – searching for heat energy to fuse with. He had no idea he had created an incredibly potent internal energy that any martial artist would kill to have. The only problem at the moment was his inability to rein it in, which was an inevitable consequence of gaining energy that he didn’t work for. To add to the problem, the internal energy combined two sources. One could say he was a rich second generation kid who didn’t know how to spend money wisely. Notwithstanding being synthesised, fire was still fire, and ice was still ice, both of which were potent.

The mental cultivation of Binary Poison was the most advanced mental cultivation from Repository Sword Theory, so it wasn’t passed on to Tang Ye. Luo Ming could find a way to rein in the energies, but demanding the same of Tang Ye was just being ridiculous. How was he supposed to create his own mental cultivation at his age and level?

The two perpetually active energies didn’t clash, but they didn’t take orders from Tang Ye. The pain of them living in his meridians one side each was painful enough. Once it leaked out, his meridians expanded until they were on the verge of exploding due to the potency.

The painting of a qilin, a chimerical creature, snapped Tang Ye out of it. There was nothing special about the quality of the painting itself, but it took his father and mother. Tang Ye had it tattooed on his arm so that he’d never forget the fact.

What is someone like me still afraid of? Death? I’m afraid… of death?

Tang Ye vigorously opened his red eyes. He was still immobilised, and the energies still ravaged him. He vividly remembered trying all the mental cultivations he knew before he was trapped in the illusion, but it was futile. How was he supposed to control the icy energy, too, when he couldn’t control the foreign heat from Yang Blood True Qi? The anger that snapped him out of his stupor didn’t help, but neither did the despair of hopelessness. He had learnt plenty of disciplines, but it didn’t take long for him to go through them as the first one that came to mind was the set Ming Feizhen taught him.

The result of trying to control his true qi using Hazy Steps and the other profound survey method, only to have his soul jumbled around, nearly sent him back into an illusion. As both of them were highly-advanced mental cultivation disciplines, they expended an immense volume of internal energy. Trying to eke out more true qi when he had exhausted his own stores almost killed him, but he was fixated on the five techniques because recalling Ming Feizhen’s teaching process eased the discomfort somewhat.

Tang Ye recalled taking a beating from Ming Feizhen and the feeling of subconsciously uniting all his martial arts knowledge into one system. He believed that the five techniques served another purpose. As he reflected and contemplated, he could vividly feel the two internal energies in him suddenly budge. The more he focused on thinking about the five blade techniques, the less pain he felt.

Hazy Steps might’ve been profound, but it wasn’t an authentic mental cultivation discipline. The five blade techniques were actually a mental cultivation for amalgamating all of the disciplines one excelled at into a single system. Ming Feizhen didn’t impart the five blade techniques in hopes Tang Ye would imitate and learn techniques; the point of learning them was for Tang Ye to recognise what exactly he could do.

What I can do is take all my knowledge and combine it into a single system.

Ming Feizhen created Ancient King String with the intention of blending all of the internal disciplines he learnt into a single system. The defences, counters and so forth were a by-product of the plethora of internal disciplines in his database. Although Tang Ye similarly knew a diverse range of disciplines, he learnt via imitation, leaving room for flaws that he couldn’t address. Coincidentally, now was the best time for Tang Ye to grasp the fusion method, however.

Tang Ye gradually recalled all of his knowledge and, following the five blade techniques’ method, blended them into a single system for himself. The two energies still flowed their own ways; however, they were no longer unrestrained.

Subsequent to Hazy Steps draining his energy, the two energies ruined Tang Ye’s Yang Blood True Qi, so the potency would’ve been compromised even if he could’ve used it again. He was in dire need of a new mental cultivation that empowered him to control the monster of internal energy. Ancient King String was the basis for that to occur.

It took a while, but the process of moulding true qi started to pick up pace. Though the flow was as slow as trudging through a desert, it obeyed and moved unlike previously. After completing one cycle, the two energies flowed faster upon convening. The energy went from a swamp to sand, from sand to grass on flat land, mounted a horse and then rode the wind. The agony gradually eased off. Despite the new system that Tang Ye formed still being blurred and prone to error, he had undeniably recreated himself.

“Stop!” Tang Ye charged into the tornado, where Bai Yumo was bleeding from her mouth and nose as she resisted the black sword’s downward force. His voice reduced stones to dust and big slabs of concrete to tiny stones.

Once the dust settled and the catastrophe-like phenomena had ceased, the audience looked back to the ring, and the three same people were there. Bai Ju had retracted his whip. The unconscious maiden was in Tang Ye’s arms. None of them were outside of the ring’s boundary. Tang Ye had successfully stopped the mighty whip with his palm strike.

“See?” He Kanyu cracked a smile. “They did it.”

Si Fu certainly did see, but she nearly fell out of her chair in the process similarly to the rest of Quanmu.

Only one person still had their arms folded, a long face and the expression of someone who foresaw the result. Su Xiao inwardly remarked, there’s no mistake!

Translator note: is it just me, or did this chapter literally fluff around the same thing with different wording multiple times? This is the exact sort of chapter I dislike in the xuanhuan and new-school of xianxia genres. I’m glad it’s finally over.