AGM 396 – Beginning of Chaos in Grand Xia
The nine ultimate arts of Grand Xia are:
Great Solar Universe Art, Chaotic Art of the Heavenly Devil, Heavenly Swordplay, Golden Dragon Battle Art, Stellar Transposition, Formless Heart Sutra, Seal of Life and Death, Bloodcurse Imprint and Thunder God’s Slash.
Among these nine arts, Stellar Transposition and Formless Heart Sutra belonged to the category whereby it was possible for anyone to learn them.
As for the other seven remaining ultimate arts, the Great Solar Universe Art was most suitable for cultivation by those with an affinity to fire.
For the Chaotic Art of the Heavenly Devil, Bai Qing was already cultivating it. This cultivation art was an exceedingly tyrannical one, so dangerous that any misstep may lead to death. One must not cultivate this art lightly.
For the Heavenly Swordplay, anyone proficient with swords could cultivate in this.
The Golden Dragon Battle Art was suitable for people with an affinity for metal-type elements.
The Seal of Life and Death was yet another extremely tyrannical art that had incredibly high requirements before users could cultivate in it. This art required the user to have a basic understanding of the power of life and the power of death.
The Bloodcurse Imprint was similar to the Seal of Life and Death, both with extensive conditions to learn, as well as the style of attack being in the form of seals. Of those present, only Mu Feng met the criteria for cultivating this.
The Thunder God’s Slash contained the mightiest force when it came to single attack power, but one major drawback was the required consumption rate of astral energy. The art converts the user’s force into the might of thunderbolts, before further refining it into a sabre’s slash, shattering everything that dared stand before it.
“The Divine Stele is a miraculous object. Tell the others to walk up to it, and the respective ultimate art will light up in response to their presence,” Yun Mengyi explained.
“The Divine Stele is able to inspect one’s heart?” Qin Wentian mused.
Yun Mengyi’s understanding of the Divine Stele seemed to be extremely thorough. Qin Wentian glanced at her, before walking up as the first person to approach the completely reformed Divine Stele.
Astral light revolved around the Divine Stele before enveloping Qin Wentian within.
Qin Wentian felt himself appearing in the void. With a groan, he felt a massive pressure pressing against him, not only on his body, but on his spirit, will, consciousness and his heart as well. This felt like an attack, and also a test. Death was a probable outcome should he fail to pass it.
“Bzzz!” Abruptly, a terrifying heat descended on Qin Wentian’s body. In the endless void, his body was bathed in flames, somewhat resembling Chen Wang, with an appearance akin to a Flame Divinity War God. The terrible flames burned intensely, yet Qin Wentian was as calm as ever—he knew that these flames wouldn’t hurt him.
The next instant, tyrannical devil-might gushed right into his body. Thunder snaked down from the skies, as the devil-might suppressed everything. A devilish sabre coalesced from the devil-might and slashed horizontally to aim right at him. Qin Wentian felt as though his body was about to explode—this devil-might was extremely tyrannical, and he had no way to withstand it. His eyes flashed with devilish intent and he appeared close to descending into madness at any given moment, about to begin a slaughtering frenzy.
“Is this the Chaotic Art of the Heavenly Devil?” Qin Wentian involuntarily trembled when he thought of Bai Qing. This was the precise art cultivated by that lass—how much difficulty and how much torment had she undergone exactly to reach her current level?
Different kinds of energy devastated Qin Wentian’s body, who endured through it all and at long last, nine shimmering walls of text and images appeared before him. Each contained an overwhelming power, with all being imprinted into his mind.
Finally, he was ejected from the endless void. Qin Wentian drew in a deep breath, his entire body was already drenched in sweat. Yun Mengyi gazed at him as she asked, “How many ultimate arts did you witness when you were in the endless void?”
“Nine,” Qin Wentian replied.
Yun Mengyi’s countenance faltered as she spoke, “With your connection with the Divine Stele, you would naturally be able to sense all nine arts. I’m asking you, how many of the ultimate arts did you actually witness appearing before your own eyes when you were in the endless void?”
“Nine,” Qin Wentian replied. “Is there a problem?”
“Monster—” Yun Mengyi gasped out after being stunned for a moment. “Do you know what this means? It means that you are qualified to cultivate all nine of Grand Xia’s ultimate arts. But of course, this assessment is a result of your talent. Not all the nine arts might necessarily be suitable for you. For example, since you don’t cultivate the energy of life and death, the Seal of Life and Death wouldn’t be appropriate for you. The Divine Stele didn’t reject you because it judged you as a candidate worthy of cultivating the Seal of Life and Death, that is, once you managed to comprehend and gain energy from the concept of Life and Death.”
Qin Wentian contemplated for a moment before nodding. He understood what Yun Mengyi was trying to say. He then turned to the others. “All of you can go try this out, and see which of the nine arts are suitable for you.”
“Let me try first.” Fan Le waddled up, facing the Divine Stele. Similar to Qin Wentian, his consciousness was brought to the empty void by the Divine Stele.
A few moments later, Fan Le opened his eyes, which gleamed with excitement. “I will cultivate the Great Solar Universe Art and Stellar Transposition. These two are more suitable for me.”
“Your flames don’t appear to be any weaker compared to Chen Wang, and in addition to the power of your Empyrean Flames bloodline, your accomplishments in the future will surely surpass his own.” Qin Wentian nodded.
Chu Mang stepped forward. There were plenty of ultimate arts suitable for him, but he chose to start with cultivating the Golden Dragon Battle Art, Stellar Transposition and Thunder God’s Slash.
Stellar Transposition could be cultivated by everyone, and no one would mind spending a little time to learn it, as it may determine the difference between victory and defeat. The power of this art depended on one’s talent as well as one’s proficiency with it.
Ouyang Kuangsheng’s choice was similar to Chu Mang; Stellar Transposition and Thunder God’s Slash. He had an affinity with the lightning element, hence he was one of the most suitable to cultivate the Thunder God’s Slash.
Yun Mengyi did not make it known what her choices were.
As for Mu Feng, he chose Stellar Transposition and the Bloodcurse Imprint. Among everyone here, he was the only one truly qualified to cultivate this tyrannical Bloodcurse Imprint Art—he excelled in both the Mandate of Blood as well as the Mandate of Poison.
Everyone made their choices, even Mustang and Luo Huan. Qin Wentian had allowed them to try and see if there were any arts suitable for them. Although Mustang’s talent was limited, at the very least he could still be several degrees stronger compared to now.
After everything was concluded, Qin Wentian inclined his head and stared up at the skies. He then stepped forwards and walk to the side of the true spirit of the Vermilion Bird Formation, gently gazing at it.
“Will Purgatory be able to return?” Qin Wentian felt an extreme sadness in his heart. He truly missed the Vermilion Bird, the companion that chose to sacrifice itself for him. It had already become a real life form but in order to summon the Vermilion Bird Formation again, it sacrificed itself and fused together with the true spirit of the formation world.
“It won’t be able to. The Purgatory Vermilion Bird was originally born because of the true spirit of the Vermilion Bird Formation. Now that the entire ancient kingdom has turned into the new Vermilion Bird Formation, the Purgatory Vermilion Bird had to fuse its essence with the true spirit in order to enhance its powers. For your sake, it chose to protect this place and it is fortunate that the transcendent powers are no longer at the peak of their strength. They’re no longer able to compare to the ancient nine grand clans, so even if the current Chen Clan were to amass experts to storm this place, they wouldn’t be able to break the formation apart.”
Yun Mengyi explained as pain flashed past Qin Wentian’s eyes. Could the Purgatory Vermilion Bird that transformed into this new true spirit, forever be unable to come back?
It would stay here acting as the guardian forever, protecting the ancient kingdom, protecting Qin Wentian.
At this moment the true spirit issued a terrifying screech as purgatory flames rained down on the other unfortunate members of the transcendent powers with greater intensity. Emotion flashed past its eyes—despite being part of the true spirit, the Purgatory Vermilion Bird could control the formation to some extent, and it could also sense Qin Wentian’s deep emotions for it.
This made Qin Wentian feel even more guilt, as though it had let down his companion.
“Currently, we should all be trapped here, right?” Qin Wentian asked Yun Mengyi.
“I guess so. Look at how many transcendent powers you managed to offend.” Yun Mengyi nodded.
“Even if I hadn’t offended them, they wouldn’t let me go anyway. If I want to live, they must die,” Qin Wentian calmly spoke.
Several interspatial rings were left behind when the experts from the various powers were burned to death by the Purgatory flames.
Now that Qin Wentian and the rest had learned the ultimate arts, even if the interspatial rings of the experts had nothing good inside them, there would definitely be Yuan Meteor Stones packed within.
Not to mention that now, most of them were preparing their breakthroughs to the Heavenly Dipper Realm.
Qin Wentian’s mentality was now even more ruthless and decisive compared to before. Right now, he had only one thought in his mind—to break through to Heavenly Dipper.
Only with sufficient power, would one have the capital.
And as expected there were large quantities of Yuan Meteor Stones stashed within the interspatial rings of these experts. Qin Wentian immediately distributed the stones to his companions as they started cultivating within the protection offered by the Vermilion Bird Formation.
The transcendent powers continued sending more backup, and now outside the formation, numerous people could be seen circling around with indescribable emotion roiling in their hearts.
Qin Wentian obtained the position of the first ranker in the Heavenly Fate Rankings, yet the majority of the transcendent powers wanted to kill him. Not only that, his Vermilion Bird actually summoned the terrifying true spirit and fused with it, destroying countless members that belonged to them.
Only now did they understand why the Purgatory Vermilion Bird kept feasting on the ancient luck of others even after the legacy had been found—to gather enough soul power to summon the true spirit of the formation. They couldn’t believe it, had this all been pre-planned by Qin Wentian?
Old Man Tianji hovered in the skies outside the formation, inwardly sighing as he watched on impassively. Because he chose not to make a move against Qin Wentian earlier, the formation didn’t target him and allowed him to leave without issues.
The Divine Stele reappears in Grand Xia, and the ancient Vermilion Bird Formation protects the ancient kingdom. Those rankers that still remained within the formation would be the harbingers of change to Grand Xia.
“I truly hope for such a day.” Old Man Tianji sighed in his heart, before turning and slowly departing the area.
The number of experts steadily increased, sent by the various powers that formed a grudge with Qin Wentian. They encircled the formation, leaving no gaps between them as they waited for Qin Wentian to exit.
Of all the clans, the Chen Clan suffered the heaviest losses. A total of seven to eight Heavenly Dipper Sovereigns were slain when they protected Chen Wang, escorting him out of the formation. Now, the other experts of the Chen Clan were eyeing the formation with intense killing intent flickering in their eyes.
Initially they thought that with so many experts around from so many powers, squashing Qin Wentian to death would be as easy as squashing an ant to death. Regardless of how much potential he had, a genius that died before maturity, wasn’t a genius.
Yet no one would have predicted the course of events that had taken place.
Those from the Ouyang Aristocrat Clan and Mystic Moon Sect gazed at Ouyang Kuangsheng and Bai Qing in the formation world, together with Qin Wentian. They didn’t know whether this was a blessing or a curse.
Those from the Nine Mystical Palace were also depressed. They mobilized several Heavenly Dipper Sovereigns this time around for the sake of capturing Qin Wentian. They initially thought that once Qin Wentian appeared, there was no way he would be able to escape. But they clearly underestimated Qin Wentian’s knack for stirring up trouble. Even if they wanted their turn at Qin Wentian, they would still have to queue behind the other transcendent powers.
And right now, because of Qin Wentian, the situation in the entire Grand Xia had become chaotic, very chaotic.
The awkward peace that lasted for several thousands of years, was broken today!
In the blink of an eye, three months passed. In these three months, news of what happened, circulated around the entirety of Grand Xia. Qin Wentian’s name resounded throughout the world, instantly becoming so famous to the extent that there was no one in this world that didn’t know of him.
But now, his current state of safety was unclear. He was trapped within the formation and would be killed the moment he stepped out of it. During these three months, the experts sent by the transcendent powers spent their time in utter boredom—not a single person was seen to have exited the formation world, and it was obvious to all that Qin Wentian and his friends were only biding their time. But how much longer could they keep turtling within? And if they did come out, would they even be strong enough to prevail against the combined might hammered down by this many transcendent powers?!
