Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The news about Shui Chun’s defeat spread like wildfire.
Only a tenth of the people at the Hero Palace had gone to watch the life-or-death fight, because most people had thought Shui Chun would definitely win.
When they heard the result, they all regretted that they hadn’t seen with their own eyes how Jiang Chen had achieved it.
In addition, Jiang Chen was put on the Fighting Power List, since he had defeated Shui Chun.
Ranked 42nd, it meant that only forty-one people in the Hero Palace were stronger than him.
He was only in Cloud One of the Reaching Heaven State. People were curious to know how many extraordinary meridians he had developed when he had broken through to the Reaching Heaven State that he could have defeated Shui Chun.
However, the fight contributed to nothing except proving Jiang Chen’s strength to others.
Neither Jiang Chen nor Ying Wushuang had been accepted by any of the groups of the Hero Palace.
They didn’t bother to mingle with others, either.
Ying Wushuang went to Jiang Chen’s place again to check the practice equipment he had mentioned.
“What’s that?”
She found something strange.
Three steel balls of different colors were spinning at a constant speed in Jiang Chen’s palm.
“Have a try.”
Jiang Chen stopped the steel balls and extended his hand.
Ying Wushuang held out her hand to catch the steel balls. They fell in her palm one by one, as light as she had imagined.
She didn’t see anything special about them. She said, “Are they used as a hidden weapon?”
If that was the case, they should have been heavier.
To hurt Reaching Heaven States, steel balls had to be made of hard darksteel. Otherwise, they would have been shattered to pieces before they could approach their target.
“Hold them in your palm like I did. Manipulate your halo of heaven and release your power,” Jiang Chen said.
“What’s so difficult about that?”
Ying Wushuang didn’t think it was a big deal. She thought even a Condensing Qi State would be able to follow those instructions, but then she was completely surprised.
She was controlling her force so that the steel balls wouldn’t fly out of her palm, but they didn’t move even a little bit.
She realized that the steel balls weren’t that simple, so she started to exert more force.
The steel balls didn’t float from her palm until she had exerted eighty percent of her power, and they would fall back into her palm again if she was careless.
“Huh.”
Ying Wushuang suddenly stopped exerting any force and caught the three steel balls. They were still very light in her palm.
“What are they?”
“So it’s true. You either haven’t gone into the Soothing Lake a lot or the effect of the lake is terribly weak,” Jiang Chen said.
Ying Wushuang was quick-minded. She understood what he was insinuating. She said, “I’ve never gone into the Soothing Lake. Do they have the same effect as the lake?”
“Yes. Manipulating the halo of heaven is the most important thing for Reaching Heaven States.
“The basics are to exert your force and stop exerting it as you wish. After that, you should try to achieve more, like how many turns the halo of heaven makes for the duration of one breath.”
Then Jiang Chen glanced at Ying Wushuang and said, “This is a Heaven Halo Bead. It’s specifically used for that purpose, and its effect is many times stronger than the Soothing Lake. You’ve never gone into the Soothing Lake, so what happened just now was absolutely normal.”
“Many times stronger?”
Jiang Chen had claimed he could build better practice equipment than what the Hero Palace possessed.
The grand elders didn’t believe him, and neither did she.
The effect of the Soothing Lake wasn’t as simple as allowing people to practice underwater. The water in the lake had been processed in a mysterious way so that Reaching Heaven States could stay calm in it and work on their halos of heaven.
These were just three steel balls, and he claimed their effect was many times stronger than the Soothing Lake?
“How do you do it? Like, what do you do to them? Manipulate them as you wish?”
“This is just the first step. After you achieve it, there are more ways to control the beads. Some of them are more difficult, while others are easier. Their effects vary, too.”
Ying Wushuang didn’t completely believe him. She took the beads and gave it a try, but before she was going to start, she wondered what Jiang Chen was going to do, as she saw him taking out three even bigger steel balls.
“The bigger ones are more difficult to use. Before the fight with Shui Chun, I practiced with these smaller ones. You can take them now,” explained Jiang Chen.
Ying Wushuang hesitated and nodded.
She started to focus on the steel balls in her palm. This time, she had prepared well, and it didn’t take the steel balls long to float.
One minute later, the steel balls were spinning at a slow speed, as if they were dragging their feet.
Ying Wushuang gnashed her teeth. Sweat was flowing down her cheeks.
Three minutes later, the steel balls started to spin more rapidly. Although they were still slow, she was doing better.
Five minutes later, Ying Wushuang had achieved what Jiang Chen had been doing when she had first come.
She exhaled and gripped the steel balls. She said, “These steel balls must be made of special materials. They’re light if I just hold them in my hand, but if I try to exert my force, they feel like they weigh thousands of pounds.”
“If they were made into spiritual weapons, I’m guessing even Reaching Heaven States wouldn’t be able to resist them.”
Jiang Chen smiled when he heard her. He said, “It’s not because of the material that they have such a great effect, but because of the method I’ve deployed on them.
“It would be impossible to make them into spiritual weapons, since there are only a few of them and they’re fragile. Although they’re steel beads, they’ll break if they fall on the ground.”
Ying Wushuang said, “So they can only be used for practice?”
“Yep.”
“Are they really that good? I tried just now and it seems like they did work, but—”
Jiang Chen interrupted her and said, “You’re in Cloud Two of the Reaching Heaven State. You have two halos of heaven in your Qihai. It’s nothing to be proud of that it didn’t take you long to manage to control them.”
“Give me the bigger ones, then.”
Ying Wushuang wasn’t satisfied with Jiang Chen’s comment. She thought it wouldn’t take long for her to gain control of the beads in Jiang Chen’s hand, either.
“It’s not enough to just spin them.”
Jiang Chen took the three smaller Heaven Halo Beads back. While showing her the trick, he said, “The Heaven Halo Beads have three colors: white, red, and blue.
“It’s easy to just spin them, but can you switch the positions of two Heaven Halo Beads of different colors and at the same time, spin two beads more rapidly than the third one, and ensure the three beads won’t knock against each other?”
Judging from the complicated description, Ying Wushuang knew it was difficult.
Then she saw the three beads in Jiang Chen’s hand moving.
The white one and the red one were very close to each other, spinning very fast. The blue one was spinning at a steadily slower speed. When the other two were about to knock against the blue one, it jumped away and went back to its orbit after dodging them.
The blue bead fell between the red and the white one. It started to spin as fast as the white one, while the red one slowed down.
Their speeds and positions kept changing. Ying Wushuang was amazed.
At the same time, she knew the change wasn’t arbitrary. It was following a rule, so it was even more difficult.
“Try it.”
Jiang Chen stopped and gave the small beads to her.
Ying Wushuang was intrigued. She asked Jiang Chen about the rule, then she sat down to start.
It took her the whole day.
When she left Jiang Chen’s place, night had fallen.
She hadn’t wanted to stop, but the halos of heaven in her Qihai were already exhausted, so she was forced to.
“Hopefully, it will work as you claimed,” Ying Wushuang said when she left.
She wasn’t expecting an effect many times better than that of the Soothing Lake. If it was the same as that of the Soothing Lake, she would be satisfied. Otherwise, she had wasted her whole day.
The next day, Ying Wushuang woke up and saw the sullenness that was usually visible on her face had disappeared. Her pretty face looked even prettier.
“Eh?”
It seemed she had realized something. She was covering the area where her Qihai was, pleasantly surprised.
.
