AGM 132 – Damn Old Fogey?
After returning to his residence, Qin Wentian began cultivating. However at this moment, his condition wasn’t too good.
In his dream, Qin Wentian sat underneath a starlit sky, and above him, numerous revolutions of runic lines frenziedly interweaved intricately as they transformed into countless fist shadows that filled the skies. As the fist shadows blasted downwards, Qin Wentian calmly sat there. He knew that they were incapable of injuring him because this was inside his dreamscape.
Currently, Qin Wentian was trying to recreate and emulate the scenario from the 1st level of the Astral River Hall to the 5th level. On the 5th level, he sensed the beautiful runic lines metamorphosing into a spiral black hole before they transformed into terrifying fist lights, pounding downwards. However, when he stepped onto the 6th level, the fist lights he felt were no longer fist lights, but were instead heavenly fist shadows powered by the might of the constellations wanting to decimate both the Heavens and Earth,
Each fist shadow was like a constellation, the magnificent view of tens of millions of constellations smashing downwards, causing fear even in the hearts of intrepid heroes. Especially in that instant when the pressure blasted against his consciousness; the tens of millions of constellations amalgamated together, becoming a single entity, transforming into a stream of light as his body violently shuddered from the impact.
“How gorgeous.” Qin Wentian inclined his head as he gazed at the starlit skies in his dreams, immersing himself within.
After several moments, the Astral Energy in Qin Wentian’s body started surging, as a Heavenly Hammer coalesced from Astral Light appeared in his hands. Abruptly, Qin Wentian swung the hammer downwards, slamming it onto the ground, creating a Divine Imprint that resembled the starlit skies from before. Within the imprint, countless miniature superimposed constellations could be seen revolving about slowly in circular motion.
“If I inscribe this Divine Imprint onto a weapon, the augmentation effects would be so great that it’s unimaginable. Maybe I can even create a top-tier, 3rd-grade Divine Weapon.” Qin Wentian drew in a deep breath and felt excitement in his heart. After which, he created a pencil and paper, and started to inscribe the imprint underneath the starry skies.
After a long period of time, he attempted the inscription process many times, and finally, Qin Wentian succeeded in inscribing the 2nd Divine Imprint of his very own creation.
Just as before, a silhouette wielded the ancient halberd with a single hand. This strike was as heavy as a mountain, and at the instant when the ancient halberd pierced out, a terrifying spiral appeared. At the tip of the halberd, numerous constellations could be seen revolving in beautiful arcs as they blasted forwards with the terrifying spiral, giving people a sensation that it was capable of devouring anything.
“This will be the second stance of my Great Dream Halberd Art, the Fallen Star Stance.” Qin Wentian murmured in a low voice.
Now, there were already two stances of the Great Dream Halbard art that he created. The first stance was Mountain Splitter, while the second was Fallen Star.
The requirement was that he had to gather and condense sufficient amounts of Astral Energy before it could be used. However, to Qin Wentian who was able to condense Divine Energy, this wasn’t a problem at all.
Standing up, Qin Wentian began to practice the second stance Fallen Star inside his dreamscape. It was one thing using his imagination to inscribe the Divine Imprint, but if he wanted to use it in real combat, the requirements would naturally be higher by several times and would certainly not be so easy.
The insight of Fallen Star’s creation was naturally comprehended from the Astral River Hall. However, it was impossible to emulate the power levels of the terrifying spiral black hole from the 5th and 6th level in the Astral River Hall. At most, the power of the attacks he executed would be on par with the astral pressure of the 3rd level. Despite this, it was already sufficient to elevate his attacking prowess by several times. This second created stance of his would be his strongest attack since the creation of Mountain Splitter. Its power was undoubtedly countless times mightier when compared to Mountain Splitter.
Qin Wentian frenziedly cultivated while lamenting that time was not enough. Even though Little Rascal’s speed was incredibly fast, it would still need some time to reach the Chu Emperor District. This was also the reason why there was almost no one left in the Emperor Star Academy, as the distance to there was too great. For those that has no demonic beasts as mounts, they would waste too much time travelling back and forth.
And in the end, Qin Wentian had not completely mastered Fallen Star. He hurriedly absorbed Astral Energy from his Yuan Meteor Stones to replenish the energy in his body, while silently lamenting that time passed too fast.
As the Astral Energy within his body recovered to the optimal level, Qin Wentian’s will drifted to within his sea of consciousness. Over there, he saw the tiny Astral Being once again.
This was the inheritance left to him by the damn old fogey his father, transformed from a stone that used to hang around his neck. Before, he had witnessed many incredible things from the memory fragments of the tiny Astral Being, even obtaining heaven-defying techniques such as the Spirit Refinement Method. Although it wasn’t some godly innate techniques, Qin Wentian didn’t dare to put a price on the worth of the Spirit Refinement Method. He knew that if, somehow, the Spirit Refinement Method was leaked, it would cause the entire Chu Country to be topsy-turvy.
“The 3rd round of the Jun Lin Banquet is imminent, I wonder which memory fragment would I obtain this time round. Let’s hope I’m lucky.” Qin Wentian murmured in his heart. After feeling the killing intent and power level of Sikong Mingyue, Qin Wentian felt tremendous pressure. His level of strength still wasn’t sufficient for him to obtain the championship, especially with the fact that his Fallen Star Stance has yet to be fully mastered. That was why he hoped to be lucky enough to obtain some memory fragments that may be of use to him.
As his will drifted into the Astral Being, Qin Wentian once again felt as though he just stepped inside a boundless Astral River with many pieces of astral memory fragments located within.
Qin Wentian’s will drifted about, and the Yuan Meteor Stones clutched in his hands transformed into a terrifying light stream, frenziedly gushing towards the tiny Astral Being as his will came into contact with the memory fragments. He didn’t hesitate to exhaust large amounts of Yuan Meteor Stones, as he wanted to try to see if he could find a method to heighten his combat prowess.
Fragment after fragment was absorbed into Qin Wentian’s consciousness, Qin Wentian lit up a total of 10 astral memory fragments before his consciousness was finally expelled from that of the tiny Astral Being. Opening his eyes, he felt his heart strings being slightly wrenched as he glanced at the empty husks of Yuan Meteor Stones littered on the ground.
Such an astronomical price. If it were not for the Divine Weapon Pavilion giving him an almost inexhaustible amount of Astral Stones to support him in his cultivation, it would be impossible for him to even light up one astral memory fragment.
Qin Wentian didn’t have time to continue feeling heartache over these expended husks of Yuan Meteor Stones. He directly shut his eyes as he digested the memories, hoping to find something of use to him.
In the first fragment, his heart involuntarily trembled as he observed the memory stored in it.
He saw numerous peerless experts engaging in an all-out war, standing in between Heaven and Earth. These peerless experts were all fearsome existences that he would never have the chance to interact with.
However, the reason for the trembling of his heart was because he saw… a certain someone.
Uncle Black!
In the scenes that flashed by, Uncle Black wasn’t crippled, his body was whole and healthy. As his black hair draped across his shoulders, he emitted a demonic charm so good-looking that Qin Wentian almost failed to recognised him.
And beside Uncle Black, there was a middle-aged figure. Qin Wentian had seen this person before, he was none other than the godly existence Qin Wentian witnessed in the Qin Heavenly Divine Sect. The middle-aged figure had his hands crossed behind his back, while Uncle Black stood beside him, as though he was his subordinate.
This scene was extremely short-lived. As Qin Wentian’s consciousness retreated out of the memory fragment, his eyes reddened and his fists were tightly clenched, as though he was in anguish.
Looking at the high-spiritedness of Uncle Black back then, it was extremely hard for him to match it with the ‘crippled’ old man who brought him up. Who was it that crippled Uncle Black? What sort of battle did he experience?
And who on earth was that middle-aged figure? Why did he appear every single time?
Drawing in a deep breath, Qin Wentian continued digesting the memories. Following which, he witnessed many scenes. However, he discovered a common point across all the memories – the middle-aged figure was in every one of them.
Qin Wentian made a bold hypothesis, could it be that the memory fragments of the tiny Astral Being originated from this middle-aged man?
If that was the case, wasn’t his memory all already shattered and transformed into the countless fragments?
And who exactly was he? Could he be the damn old fogey?
As he thought of this, a huge wave arose in Qin Wentian’s heart. According to Uncle Black, that mystical stone from before was the only thing the damn old fogey left behind for him. If what he guessed was right, if the astral memory fragments contained within the tiny Astral Being were the memories of the middle-aged man, there was a high probability that he was his birth father!
If that really was the case, it made sense why Uncle Black was always protecting him from the shadows. Uncle Black should either be the subordinate or an extremely close friend of the middle-aged man – as evident from the fact that even after Uncle Black was crippled, he still spared no efforts in taking care of Qin Wentian, nurturing him and watching him grow up.
At this moment, Qin Wentian had already forgotten his original intentions. Immersing himself in the memories, trying to find clues of his own background, he devoured the memory fragments rapidly one after another, with one last piece of memory fragment remaining.
His last memory was of a youth standing next to many towering structures. An expression of extreme stubborness could be seen on his face, not matching the majestic aura of his surroundings. As he sat down cross-leggedly, more stubborness flickered in the depths of his eyes, as astral light circulated around his index finger. All of a sudden, the youth stabbed his finger straight into his own body, while at the same time reciting an oracular chant. The sound of the chant, somehow, drifted into Qin Wentian’s mind.
Instantly, the entire body of the youth turned red. Within his body, inside his blood, the fetters of bloodline appeared as they flickered in and out of existence. As his finger pierced into his body, and after the oracular chant took effect, the layers of fetters unceasingly broke apart while the figure of the youth was covered in blood as he let out several blood-curdling screams, his body trembling as though he was in great agony.
Even after his consciousness exited the memory fragment, Qin Wentian’s heart shuddered intensely.
So, the 12 connecting styles of life needle technique originated from there.
And not only that, that needle technique seemed to have been specifically created for that very purpose.
In his memories, the finger technique of the youth were exactly the same as the needle technique Uncle Black taught him. However, the finger technique of that youth seemed to be able to permanently release the seal of the fetters that bound his bloodline limit, while the 12 connecting styles of life needle technique was only able to temporarily release the seal.
“Uncle Black must have feared that my body wouldn’t be able to take the backlash and thus created a weaker version of the finger technique.”
Qin Wentian sighed, even the bloodline limit of that middle-aged man was the same as him. It seemed like his conjecture was correct. That youth in the last memory should have been the middle-aged man when he was younger.
“There shouldn’t be any mistakes. That damn old fogey left all his memories to me. If that’s the case, could it be that he is already dead?” Qin Wentian sighed again as he stared at the starry skies.
The deeds that his old man dared to do in his youth, why would he not dare too?
He, Qin Wentian, wasn’t an abandoned orphan. Not only that, his father was someone incredibly remarkable.
Since that was the case, he shouldn’t let the damn old fogey be disappointed.
As he thought of this, Qin Wentian shut his eyes as his finger glowed with Astral Light. Abruptly, using the essence and methods of the 12 connecting styles of life needle technique, he too stabbed his finger into his body. An instant later, the unsealing technique circulated.
His blood started to seethe with ever increasing fury!