Translator: Zen Translations Editor: Zen Translations
In that moment, Zhou Weiqing suddenly entered an unknown, rather miraculous or fantastic state. He did not know what had happened, as all his senses seemed to magnify several times over, everything surrounding him becoming exceedingly clear. The six Elemental Attributes and their energy fields were all fully presented in his subconscious, every ebb and flow, reverberation, energy movement displayed before his eyes.
Abruptly, delight sparked in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes as comprehension dawned upon him. He realised that if he did not fully grasp and master all those energy reverberations, even if he tried another hundred thousand more times, million times, he would never succeed.
Even within the same group, the three Elemental Jewels had extremely different energy signatures and reverberations, almost drastically different.
As he slowly began to understand the sheer magnitude of the task before him, Zhou Weiqing did not immediately try to gain control. Instead, he did not move at all, allowing himself to stay in that strange, miraculous state, observing every single change in all the six Elemental Jewels. Every tiny miniscule change, any ebb or flow, slightest movement or change… all of it imprinted into his mind.
At the side, Long Shiya was a little surprised to see Zhou Weiqing freeze like that. Naturally, he knew it was a very troublesome process while merging the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formations. However, sensing the energy fields and signatures of the various Elemental Jewels was not something that could be simply taught or spoken about.
This was something that had to be discovered by oneself, to stumble in the dark and grasp it. If he told Zhou Weiqing about it beforehand, he would definitely intentionally be seeking it, and the likely result would be that he would never be able to find it. He could only hope that with Zhou Weiqing’s intelligence and power of understanding, he would be able to understand it eventually.
Currently, when he clearly saw Zhou Weiqing’s originally urgent and impatient eyes calmed down abruptly, and the six Elemental Jewels floating in front of him settled down in stillness. Not only then, within those deep purple eyes of Zhou Weiqing’s, a brilliant light shone, and Long Shiya could sense a powerful spiritual energy reverberation from his body… despite the fact that Zhou Weiqing did not have the Spirit Attribute. Such a powerful spiritual energy reverberation was far beyond any Upper Level Zun Stage Heavenly Jewel Master.
“This is… power from the Solidified Dragon Spirit?! Or… perhaps that strange tiger bloodline he has…?” Even Long Shiya was left puzzled. In truth, one could say that no matter a Dragon or the Dark Demon God Tiger, both had extremely powerful spiritual energy. When both their bloodlines were fused together, there was a qualitative change, causing their spiritual energy to become even stronger. As Zhou Weiqing focused his full attention, it also slowly brought up this powerful spiritual energy for his use, otherwise his senses could not have boosted to such a degree in an instant.
A faint smile. A faint smile revealed upon Zhou Weiqing’s face, as the two triangles in front of him slowly started to show change.
Lightning, Darkness, Demonic. The three Elemental Jewels shone with a gentle light. Slowly, the triangle started spinning, the individual light which each gave forth growing stronger as time passed.
What followed next was the triangle with the Wind, Spatial and Time Attributes, also starting to spin, but in a different direction.
From just the outlook alone, with the two triangles both spinning, it would be even more difficult to merge together. However, Long Shiya watching calmly at the side knew fully that Zhou Weiqing was allowing the two triangles to maintain a temporary balance before bringing them to the actual fusion. In this way, as long as the two moving energy frequencies reached a compatible state, they could be fused together, and not like previously attempting to match six energy signatures.
As the two triangles moved closer to one another, six different colours started flashing in the center, in erratic fluctuations. At this moment, Zhou Weiqing once again stopped the two triangles. This was not a time to advance too quickly and impulsively, otherwise he would fail on the last moment again.
The reason he stopped the two triangles was simple – to wait for resonance between the two. Perhaps, it would be a long wait, but this was after all a resonance between two. It was a simple matter of probability, waiting for it to happen between two energy signatures was definitely a greater chance than between six energy signatures!
Time passed, seconds… then minutes… Zhou Weiqing’s forehead was now beaded with fine drops of sweat. To maintain the six Elemental Jewels in such a manner was a huge toll on his Heavenly Energy and Spiritual Energy. Even though the wings behind his back was drawing in Heavenly Energy from the atmosphere, it was still far from being sufficient to replenish the massive drain.
15 minutes… half hour… one hour…
Zhou Weiqing still maintained in the exact same position, not having even moved a muscle as he maintained full control on the two triangles, keeping them both in the same position as they spun away. The only visible change was the gathering sweat on his forehead was clearly much more than before.
Zhou Weiqing’s vision was starting to blur, the two spinning triangles seeming to turn almost illusory, unreal. Maintaining full concentration and focus for such a long period of time, no matter how strong his spiritual energy was, there was still a limit.
This is it, I’m at my limit… I can’t hold on any longer. No matter Heavenly Energy or Spiritual Energy, Zhou Weiqing was already nearing the limit. However, he was at the awkward position that he could not allow himself to breakdown now, as his six Elemental Jewels were separated from his body. If he did not withdraw them back before breaking down, then he was in danger of losing his Power Jewels permanently. If that really happened; even the best case scenario would be him being crippled for life.
I guess this is it. I’ll rest a while and try again. Zhou Weiqing sighed deeply inwardly. Just as he was prepared to withdraw his six Elemental Jewels with a fluctuation of his will, all of a sudden the two triangles shuddered momentarily. In that moment, Zhou Weiqing sensed that the two triangles had suddenly miraculously entered a state of perfect resonance.
Not a hint of warning, happiness just came too quickly. Of course, Zhou Weiqing had prepared for this for so long; how could he possibly give up this long-awaited chance.
His spiritual energy exerting at maximum in that instant, and the two triangles came together at once, accompanied by a loud explosion, all six Elemental Jewels glowing brightly as they burst forth with energy. The original two triangles suddenly became a full star-shaped hexagon as they merged together, and the six different coloured lights rose forth, a powerful Heavenly Energy reverberation resonating through the entire air.
Instantly, Zhou Weiqing could clearly sense that the last bits of remaining Heavenly Energy in his body being drained at a crazy rate by the six glowing lights, his entire body felt like it was being sucked dry. At this critical moment, an unbelievably pure Heavenly Energy surged into his body through his back, replenishing his almost fully-drained reserves at the last second. At the same time, the six lights in front of him shone brilliantly, and they clearly changed.
Success! At that point, Zhou Weiqing could clearly sense the harmony between all six Attributes. No matter how exhausted he was physically, mentally and spiritually; he would not give up such a perfect opportunity. Hiw own personal Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation had finally been formed, and this was his chance to fully explore its entire structure, energy signature and multitude of changes within. He did not dare to waste anytime celebrating; once again putting his full focus in controlling his spiritual energy. The six lights slowly lowered down to his feet, and Zhou Weiqing sat down right at the side of the newly raised formation, closing his eyes as he extended all his senses to their maximum to explore the formation and the energy reverberations around.
Although Zhou Weiqing’s Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation did not have the same bright brilliance that Long Shiya’s one did; and it was also currently unable to unleash the same insane power that Long Shiya could, able to mimic Heavenly God Tier Skills. However, he had finally taken his first step in this major breakthrough. It could be said that he had finally entered the realm of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts and achieved some small measure of success.
A faint smile crossed his lips, his face glowing as he placed his hands on his knees, still fully concentrating on the six Attribute Heavenly Energy reverberations in front of him.
At present, Long Shiya was standing right behind Zhou Weiqing. Indeed, at that previous moment of near-failure, that infusion of pure Heavenly Energy had been from this Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor. Currently, he was standing there, a clear look of delight on his face. It had only been a few days, and his disciple had already succeeded! More so, that Little Fatty’s Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation was totally different from his own, and Long Shiya was truly excited to see what sort of differences would occur from that.
After all, Long Shiya had been researching these arts for so many years, and he could clearly sense that this newly created Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation by Zhou Weiqing was truly a miraculous feat in its own right, and would have its own unique capabilities compared to his own. As for what those changes were, he would have to wait for Zhou Weiqing to awaken from his own explorations to find out.
Slowly pulling back his hands from Zhou Weiqing’s back, Long Shiya stopped the infusion of Heavenly Energy to Zhou Weiqing. At this moment, he no longer needed the extra infusion; the fusion had been complete and the wings behind his back from the Dragon-Tiger Transformation was sufficient to sustain his energy expenditure.
There was still some time before their deadline of the Winter Solstice [1. I previously translated this literally as ‘coldest day of winter’, after some reading I think this should be referring to the Winter Solstice, though technically that is the ‘shortest day’ or ‘longest night’ of winter. In any case I’ll use it from now on when that term is used. Haven’t been reading comments in the past few chapters so I’m not sure if anyone already mentioned this previously], and Zhou Weiqing’s training speed and achievements had already far surpassed Long Shiya’s previous expectations. From the looks of things, they would be able to prepare more before they ascended the Heavenly Snow Mountain.
Thinking about it with much satisfaction, Long Shiya’s gaze subconsciously turned towards the direction of the Heavenly Snow Mountain.
…
Heavenly Snow Mountain.
The normally cold and cheerless, almost desolate Heavenly Snow Mountain, had suddenly turned lively, bustling with noise and excitement. The reason was simple, the ‘True God’ of the entire northern ice plains, the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord, had announced that his daughter was about to be married. Furthermore, the person she was about to be married to was the heir of the throne of the Royal Family of the WanShou Empire, the Heavenly Divine Earth Spirit Lions, and he could possibly even be the heir to the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord position as well… the Lion Prince Gu Yingbing. Not long ago, Gu Yingbing had actually officially announced that he would be stepping down from the position of heir to the Royal Family, to focus on cultivation and training in the Heavenly Snow Mountains.
Of course, this news did not cause Gu Yingbing’s status in the WanShou Empire to drop by any means, instead rising in stock drastically. The entire WanShou Empire knew of Gu Yingbing, and how talented and outstanding he was. Although he did not succeed in breaking through the Heavenly King Stage before the age of thirty, he was still one of the top in the entire younger generation, a leader in his own right amongst his peers. Just not long ago, he had broken through to the nine-Jeweled stage at the extremely young age of thirty two, becoming a Upper Stage Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Master, just a step away from reaching the Heavenly King Stage.
As the saying went, breaking through to the Heavenly King Stage before the age of thirty would give one the chance to actually reach the Heavenly God Stage, but that was not an absolute thing. The main thing was that the early one broke through to the Heavenly King Stage, the greater the chance one would actually have to actually reach the Heavenly God Stage, however low that was still.
Furthermore, Gu YingBing was the main disciple of the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord, with all the resources of the entire north at his disposal. Who could say that Gu Yingbing would not reach the same height as the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord, to ascend to the Heavenly God Stage in the future?