Empty is the mountain flocked by winds’ chilling bite, petals of snow land to make a bed of white.
The twelfth day of the New Year, five in the morning. It was still completely dark. Wun Fan brought a lantern and returned to the back mountain under the cover of darkness. It was winter in the Nap-Lan Empire now and the weather was capricious. There was light snow today. Wun Faan had just woken up. His body felt a little hollow and his muscles were weak. It was obvious from his gait that he had not fully recovered yet. He didn’t have much soul energy inside him and he actually felt cold. Martial artists were usually resistant to the cold, which was why Wun Fan didn’t keep a coat in his room at all. He had no choice but to put on a slightly thicker cape before leaving home.
He originally thought he would have to climb over the walls to sneak around the guards at the entrance and the enforcers at the mountain’s entrance. However, Old Lei’s existence was no longer a secret. The great elder, Wun Ching Yeung and the third elder all knew about him. A group of shadow guards had also seen Old Lei. Wun Ching Yeung and the elders had confidence in Old Lei’s power and his ability to keep Wun Fan safe. As such, they did away with the unnecessary security measures. Old Lei didn’t mind that his existence was now known. As long as the existence of the Spiritstartler Ring remained a secret, it didn’t matter if they knew of a spirit body like himself.
Of course, some minor inconveniences might still arise because of this. However, it was necessary for Old Lei to gradually reveal his existence to the outside world if he wanted to continue staying by Wun Fan’s side. Fortunately, Old Lei had somehow gained the trust of Wun Ching Yeung and the elders after crossing swords with them.
It is said that men can often sense the intentions of each other’s punches when they fight.
Wun Ching Yeung and the elders believed that Old Lei would never harm Wun Fan, just from observing his gaze and his actions. Even if Old Lei did want to hurt Wun Fan, he wouldn’t have waited so long to do so, nor did they have the ability to stop him…
Meanwhile, the enforcers had been recalled from their post at the back mountain because the Wun Clan was no longer in a state of high alert.
After all, Wun Ching Yeung now knew that the burst of aura that night had been energy released by Old Lei. He was no longer concerned. As such, Wun Fan no longer needed Old Lei’s help to sneak into the mountain. Old Lei’s situation wasn’t ideal either. It was best for him to conserve as much energy as he could.
Wun Fan entered the mountain once more, strolling slowly and casually. He noticed that a bunch of plum trees had mysteriously appeared. The wind blew. Drifting soft as feathers, falling white as snow. The flakes of snow were indistinguishable from the white plum blossoms; frost like petals, petals like frost.
It was a beautiful sight.
Wun Fan had seen snowfall before. However, in the years before, he was always brooding inside his room, or busy training on the mountain. He never had the time nor leisure to appreciate nature’s beauty.
Plum blossoms without snow have no spirit, snow without song has no grace.
Wun Fan took a deep breath and suddenly felt a strong surge of inspiration. He wanted to recite a poem, but he could not remember a poem that fit this scenery. Wun Fan could only sigh. It is only when you are at a loss for words that you regret not reading more.
Wun Fan didn’t know why he was so sentimental and contemplative today. Was it the influence of the inner demon tribulation?
He strolled over to the side of the small lake and sat down with his legs crossed. He cleared his mind and silenced his thoughts. There were plenty of trees to block the wind, but a cold breeze still made its way through. It was uncomfortable and difficult to breathe. Wun Fan shivered but endured the chill. He focused solely on absorbing the aether around him.
Just as he activated the Wun Clan’s cultivation technique to absorb the aether into his lungs, the black dragon in his martial heart let out a savage roar. The dragon started flailing about, roaring angrily and radiating so much malice that it unease Wun Fan. Li’l Black looked incredibly dissatisfied. There was murder in its eyes. Wun Fan focused his attention inward and felt Li’l Black’s malice even more clearly than before. The soul energy in his meridians also started to behave strangely. They were struggling to break free of Wun Fan’s control, like wild horses that would not be restrained.
Wun Fan shuddered and immediately stopped using the Wun Clan’s cultivation technique. It was only then that Li’l Black and his soul energy calmed down. The tiny dragon closed its eyes and went back to sleep.
The next moment, Wun Fan felt very uncomfortable, as if there were ants biting him all over his body. The whole thing terrified and confused him. Wun Fan wanted to ask Old Lei what was going on, but the old man beat him to it, “Kid, are you feeling an odd sensation in your heart, an uncomfortable feeling throughout your body, resistance from your martial heart and a loss of control of your soul energy?”
Wun Fan rolled his eyes. Wasn’t that obvious enough?
Old Lei could sense everything that was happening inside his body. Did he really have to state the obvious?
“That is because you chose a cultivation technique that is unsuitable for yourself. If you insist on using that technique, your own soul energy will rebel against you. If you’re lucky, you will injure your meridians and go back to being Mr. Useless for another year. If you’re unlucky, the flow of your meridians might reverse entirely and damage your martial heart. The martial heart might even betray you and thoroughly severe your meridians and destroy your pressure points.”
A martial artist’s soul energy will gain one of five attributes corresponding to their martial heart: wood, fire, wind, water and earth. For instance, the average mediocre martial soul is fire. Therefore, the soul energy of its owner will gain fire attributes and will be searing hot. When infused into a weapon, the weapon will burn the enemy. With sufficient power, it could even melt steel. There were also unusual martial souls whose elemental attributes were extensions of the basic elements. For instance, lightning and ice were transformations of fire and water.
Typically, a martial artist who wants to increase their reservoir of soul energy will have to use a suitable cultivation technique. By reciting the corresponding mantra, they can galvanize their soul energy and drive their mental energy to merge with aether, giving rise to more soul energy. This will increase their soul energy reserves, allowing them to excavate their meridians and advance to a higher realm. Every cultivation technique had its own unique mantra and method of absorbing aether. The lack of a cultivation technique or a lack of compatibility with the technique will greatly limit the speed at which mental energy and aether are mixed together to give rise to soul energy.
In fact, most martial artists would use pills or the inner cores of magical beasts to increase their soul energy. That was why high-Grade pills and inner cores were always so expensive and in demand. It was difficult to purchase quality samples of either of those things.
However, apart from the five elements and several special elements, there also existed a group of martial souls with strange attributes. The soul energy of the owners of these martial souls would also change to match their martial soul. These martial souls could never absorb pills or inner cores containing the five elements. Otherwise, the conflicting elements would clash in the body and cause devastating effects.
That was why martial souls with strange attributes had to absorb non-elemental pills and inner cores to increase their soul energy. Consequently, non-elemental pills and inner cores were slightly more expensive on the market.
“So, what attribute is my martial soul, Old Lei? And the Wun Clan’s martial souls? What attributes do they have?” Wun Fan asked curiously. He was waiting to satisfy his curiosity when he saw the living encyclopedia that was Old Lei appearing from his right thumb.
“Well, you’re definitely not any one of the five basic elements, that’s for sure. There are far too many attributes out there. Even as knowledgeable as I am, I don’t dare to say that I’ve seen it all.” Old Lei could see that Wun Fan was still not satisfied, so he continued, “As for the Wun Clan, their martial souls are swords. Typically, martial souls that take the form of swords in Heaven’s Martial World are of a special earth-related attribute. It is known as the steel attribute. When soul energy of this attribute is infused into a weapon, it can increase the sharpness and durability of the weapon.”
Old Lei hesitated for a moment after saying all this. He didn’t know what else to say. He was very concerned about Wun Fan’s martial heart…
“No wonder, so it’s the steel attribute,” Wun Fan said as he grabbed his chin. He thought deeply for a moment and muttered to himself, “Then what about me?”
Old Lei consoled him and said, “There’s no rush. Replenish your soul energy first.”
Wun Fan immediately sat straight and started absorbing aether upon hearing this. However, he could no longer use the Wun Clan’s cultivation technique and could no longer control his soul energy as well as he had before. His soul energy couldn’t turn into cloud-like shapes anymore. Wun Fan had no choice but to manually control his soul energy and concentrate it near his lungs.
Droplets of aether entered through his lungs and attached themselves to his soul energy. The energy was then slowly pushed toward the Spiritstartler Ring. However, the speed of accumulation was simply far too slow compared to before. It was barely one-tenth the previous speed.
Wun Fan was frustrated at the slow circulation speed of his soul energy, but there was nothing he could do. Just then, the mark of the Spiritstartler Ring in his mind glowed with a yellow light. His mental energy and his consciousness were forcefully dragged into the Spiritstartler Ring. Upon seeing this, Old Lei touched Wun Faan’s right thumb and disappeared into the ring as well.
The two of them appeared together in the same room inside the room. They realized that one of its walls had vanished, replaced by a small corridor that was only several steps long. Wun Fan took a better look and saw that there was a room there, glowing with light. Wun Fan looked confused, but Old Lei stroked his beard and laughed, “Hahaha! Finally, the first level has been unsealed!”
Old Lei laughed and shook his head. He walked toward the room with an expectant expression. Naturally, Wun Fan swiftly followed after him.
They stepped into the room and saw drawings painted on the walls all around them. Every mural had a theme of its own; murder, peace, war, cooperation, humans, beasts or even plants. The paintings were drawn in an ancient style, giving them a mysterious and mystifying feeling. Wun Fan looked around him. The floor was a picture of all the pressure points in the human body. He examined the picture for a while, but discovered nothing special about it. He raised his head and saw a map. He was stunned for a moment, shocked out of his mind.
This was a map of the world from his previous life!
Why would something from Earth appear in Heaven’s Martial World…no, in the Spiritstartler Ring? The mysteries were increasing. Wun Fan even started to doubt if Old Lei was telling the truth about his identity. Could it be that he was just like him, someone from Earth?
But if he was from Earth, he would not have the powers of Heaven’s Martial World. At the thought of this, Wun Fan’s mind started to hurt. He quickly dispelled any such thoughts and tried to return to a calm state of mind. It didn’t matter if Old Lei or the Ring had anything to do with his previous life. He was in no hurry to solve this mystery. It was best to understand the changes that had happened to the Spiritstartler Ring first.
Suddenly, golden light erupted in the air above them. Several words emerged from the golden light.287Please respect copyright.PENANA3T2DF8aJg1