Stellar Transformations Book 2: Meteoric Tear
By I Eat Tomatoes
Translation by He-Man
http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php/37833-Stellar-Transformations#.Uld8E1BONqY
Chapter 1 Qin Yu after 8 years (1)
Time goes by. It has been 3 years since that great battle between only one person and more than 100 mounted bandits at the hamlet. Qin Yu has also changed from an 8 year old kid who clenched his teeth to train very hard into a real 16-year-old external expert. 16 years old is the standard age at which a person is considered an adult on the Qian Long continent.
Xiao Lu was seriously injured and Qin Yu took her to Misty Villa to recuperate. Tie Shan was also taken to Misty Villa to start to train in martial arts under the guidance of the experts at Misty Villa. The father and mother of the two had both passed away so they moved into Misty Villa free of burdens, only that they often return to the village to take a look.
Breezes are blowing and sweeping fallen leaves up in the air. Outside the main entrance of Misty Villa, 2 guards are chatting to each other in a relatively relaxed manner.
‘’Xiao Tian, this time Third Prince seems to have been out for a half month without returning, right?’’ A guard with a relatively advanced age looks at the 20-something year old guard on the other side of the entrance and says laughingly.
The young guard nods and says with a smile: ‘’Since Third Prince returned 3 years ago, he has often gone out. It’s usual for him to go out for 10 days or a half month. But Third Prince has been trying real hard in practice. Every time he returns from the outside world, he stays at Misty Villa for a few days, but he even spends every single one of those days to train desperately until it is late.’’ Saying up to here, the young guard sighs emotionally.
The elderly guard shakes his head and says: ‘’Xiao Tian, you don’t know about this. You’ve been here for only a few years so you still don’t know how hard-working Third Prince actually is in training. At that time Third Prince was just 8 year old but his training then was so terrifying that us crack soldiers couldn’t even bear to see it. 8 year old, you couldn’t have imagined. At age 8, the kids of the other families are all playing but Third Prince trained from dawn till dusk. That kind of training must’ve been much more painful than the training of the Fierce Tiger Corps!’’
The young guard nods.
All of the crack soldiers and servants at Misty Villa have liked and felt sorry for Qin Yu since the beginning. After seeing his limit training, these crack soldiers and servants even started to admire him in their minds. But for the last 3 years, East Vanquishing Prince Qin De has only visited Misty Villa once.
‘’Xiao Tian, see, Third Prince has returned!’’ The elderly guard’s eyes suddenly brighten as he points high toward the sky and says. The young guard also looks up promptly.
High in the sky, a huge black eagle is soaring with wings spread. This black eagle is even over one size bigger than a normal eagle. The golden feathers on its head look like a crown. The eagle glances over various places down below with its lightning-like sharp eyes, radiating an extremely startling haughtiness. Its sharp claws shine with ice-cold rays of light. No one can have any doubts about their sharpness.
Such a huge eagle perhaps will be taller than even humans when it stands upright on the ground.
A black-clad young man is sitting with legs crossed on this black eagle, only that the eagle is flying too high so for the moment no one on the ground can see clearly how this young man looks.
Suddenly the huge black eagle dives down. The young man on back of the eagle also stands up. At this moment, the guards below can totally see the appearance of the young man. He is about 1.8 m tall and has well-defined facial features. There is always an amicable smiling expression on his face. However he is only wearing a black undershirt made from special materials and a pair of black pants. That black undershirt makes the young man’s muscles completely stand out.
‘’Xiao Hei, you can go find food yourself,’’ says the young man as he pats the black eagle’s back in a friendly manner. From approximately 100 m high in the air, he unexpectedly jumps off the back of the eagle directly and dives down at an extremely fast speed. His body is like a bolt of lightning and he lands on the ground in just a moment. He dived down at such an extreme speed yet he did not cause any sounds of wind.
“Third Prince!” The two guards kneel down and say respectfully at once.
‘’Uncle Lan, A’Tian, you are on duty today? All right, I’ll come in first. Let’s talk later.’’ Qin Yu says to the 2 guards with laughter. He does not insist that these guards, who he knows well, should not kneel down because he also understands that this is a rule of the princely mansion.
Qin Yu heads directly for the west garden. The servants he meets on the way are all pleasantly surprised.
‘’Hah, training hard outside is still not as comfortable as staying at the villa.’’ Qin Yu takes off the black undershirt on his body and throws it onto the ground, creating a bang. The noise of the undershirt smashing on the ground is unusually loud, as if a mass of iron has been smashed down.
This undershirt is made of black gold threads and is strangely heavy. Black gold is extremely valuable, 100 times as valuable as gold. Forging experts were asked to pull black gold into threads then make an undershirt with them. This 100 jin black gold undershirt therefore is a priceless item. The last time Qin De visited Misty Villa, he gave it to Qin Yu. Even if the black gold undershirt could not protect the body, it is still an exceptionally useful piece of equipment for weight-carrying training. Qin Yu naturally was very delighted to receive it.
Having taken off the guards on his arms and legs, Qin Yu relaxes his entire body.
A pair of black iron arm guards and a pair of black iron leg guards, added to that a black gold undershirt, and the total weight reaches 300 jin. Qin Yu never took them off even when he was out training hard or went to sleep. But at this moment he is going into the hot spring to take a bath. Without the 300 jin of weights on his body, Qin Yu feels very comfortable.
‘’Ha-ha, hot spring, I’ve missed you to death!’’ Qin Yu laughs out loud and says. Wearing only a pair of shorts and with nothing on the top half of his robust body, he jumps into the hot spring.
“Phew, it feels good, really good.” Qin Yu lets out a deep sigh comfortably. Even though Misty Villa’s hot spring can transform a body fantastically Qin Yu has often soaked in it since he was little and therefore it can no longer improve his body. However its fatigue-relieving effect is still as good as before.
When he has been soaking in the hot spring for a half hour, Lian Yan comes to the west garden.
‘’Xiao Yu, I knew you would come here once you returned. Almost your entire body has become relaxed, right? It’s time to get out.’’ However Lian Yan has been specifically waiting for a half hour. Only after estimating that Qin Yu’s whole body has become all but relaxed does he come here.
‘‘Wait a minute, Grandpa Lian.’’ Qin Yu washes the black gold undershirt, leg guards and arm guards on the shore of the hot spring then rushes directly into a room beside the hot spring. It is a locker room. In a short while, Qin Yu, having changed completely into clean clothes, comes out.
As Lian Yan looks at Qin Yu, his eyes are filled with kindness. Seeing that Qin Yu has become an adult from a kid, Lian Yan’s heart is full of satisfaction.
‘’Xiao Yu, it is your sixteenth birthday in 3 months. At that time your father will invite a lot of guests to the princely mansion and carry out a ceremony of adulthood for you. You must remember this. Don’t stroll about outside so far that you won’t be back in time for the cerem
ony of adulthood,’ says Lian Yan with a smile.
‘’Don’t worry. How can I forget my own birthday? Ceremony of adulthood, there’ll surely be a shocking number of people in the princely mansion at that time.’’ Qin Yu says with emotion. He remembers his second brother’s ceremony of adulthood 4 years ago. At that time there were also so many people that he was shocked.
‘’There’s no need to mention it. This is the ceremony of adulthood for a son of East Vanquishing Prince’s. Even the emperor will send people to attend it. Most of the rich and powerful people in the whole Chu kingdom will also come,’ says Lian Yan with a laugh, but also with a hint of haughtiness. After all East Vanquishing Prince has a high status in the Chu kingdom. It can be said that he is second only to the Chu emperor. ‘’Alright, Xiao Yu, I won’t trouble you anymore. Ah, Xiao Shan and Xiao Lu both have returned to the village for a visit. You’re really unlucky with your return this time.’’
‘’Well, I even found it strange just now. Every time I returned before, Xiao Lu immediately came to find me. But today she hasn’t come yet. So that’s the reason.’’ Qin Yu nods and says laughingly. Then Lian Yan leaves. Qin Yu immediately goes to his familiar training ground.
On one side of the training ground, there are various blue rocks. The smallest of them weighs only 100 jin, but the heaviest is over 1000 jin.
“Hah!”
Qin Yu’s eyes suddenly brighten. Uttering a low shout and using a kick with his tiptoes, he unexpectedly sends a 300 jin blue rock flying 7 or 8 meters up in the air. Qin Yu extends his right hand and with only this hand he grabs and stops this 300 jin blue rock completely. After holding the rock in the air for about 10 seconds, he makes a shaking movement with his right hand and conveniently throws it to one side.
‘’Supporting 300 jin with one arm while carrying weights is almost my current limit.’’ Qin Yu secretly makes a judgment.
Because his arm can lift 300 jin, when he throws a punch, the offensive force of the punch will be really terrifying. It can even be heavier than 1000 jin. After all, what weight an arm can lift and the offensive force of a punch are totally different things. Today, if Qin Yu encountered Wu Tuan again, he would definitely be able to kill Wu Tuan without resorting to the Yuchang sword.
Still wearing weights on his body, Qin Yu goes into the middle of the sandbag formation. Sandbags are hung all around him. If a sandbag moves, the other sandbags will move as well. Therefore the sensitivity requirement of training with them is very high.
Bang!
Qin Yu suddenly throws a punch. The sandbag he hit immediately moves. The other sandbags also move. The sandbags around Qin Yu ram into each other. Qin Yu, however, closes his eyes with a smile. His fists easily punch any sandbag which approaches him.
If the truth be told, Qin Yu’s speed at the moment is not fast at all, but he is still warding off the attack of all the sandbags.
He can do this thanks to his profound body-maneuvering skill. Whenever a sandbag comes at him, it causes changes in the wind. Depending on the changes of the wind, Qin Yu can easily ward off every single strike of the sandbags. In fact, at the moment Qin Yu would not be able to move faster even if he wanted to because he is carrying 300 jin of weights. If he could still move like lightning under these conditions, he would be too terrifying.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! ……
Following a series of explosive noises, every sandbag has been burst by Qin Yu with a single punch. At this moment, Qin Yu finally opens his eyes. There is a hint of a satisfied smile on his face. “The body-maneuvering skill I created myself -- the Seven North Stars Moonlight Dance -- is really not bad after its completion.’’
At this moment Qin Yu remembers the battle that night -- how he himself killed the opponent with the Yuchang sword in the moonlight. Because this body-maneuvering skill uses the Seven North Stars principle of Qi Men Dun Jia as its foundation, and it was completed in the moonlight, it has been named the Seven North Stars Moonlight Dance. After this body-maneuvering skill was completed, not only can Qin Yu confuse the enemy with the effects of Qi Men Dun Jia, he also does not experience any wind resistance and does not cause any wind noises when moving.
Chapter 2 Qin Yu after 8 years (2)
A month later, on a street of a city, it is already late at night so there is not a soul to be seen. The cold winds, which are sharp like knives, cause sumptuously-dressed Hao Tan, who is standing in the middle of the street, to narrow his eyes uncontrollably. His entire attention is being focused on a silvery-masked man before him.
This silvery-masked man is about 1.75 m tall and is standing with his arms crossed on the street. The silvery mask only reveals his mouth, nose and eyes.
‘’Hao Tan, quickly prepare well, I’ll get started soon,’’ says the silvery-masked man with an ice-cold voice.
‘’Oh, since when have the Heavenly Net’s silver card assassins been so righteous?” Hao Tan says with a cold laugh. ‘’Silver card assassins, only the assassins who have killed peak-Houtian experts can have the qualifications to get a silvery mask. Too bad … assassins all hide in the dark and use sneak attacks. If you had sneaked up on me, you might’ve been successful, but you intercepted me on the street…’’
Hao Tan is confident. His power has reached the peak of the Houtian level. A silver card assassin is also a peak-Houtian expert so the two of them are on a par. This assassin before him must be out of his head to have intercepted him openly. Hao Tan thus feels confident.
‘’This is bad. Who holds such a grudge against me that he issued a mission to kill me at the Heavenly Net? If it’s true then this is terrible.’’ Hao Tan’s head cannot help breaking a cold sweat.
The Heavenly Net is undoubtedly the number one assassination organization. Its history is longer than 1000 years and its influence has spread throughout the whole Qian Long continent. Its foundation is even more profound than that of the 3 big dynasties. The 3 big dynasties also have no way to find out who the leader of this Heavenly Net organization is. The Heavenly Net is powerful, and no one has ever had any doubts about this.
The Heavenly Net is divided into Inner Net and Outer Net.
The Inner Net is made up of the assassins whom the Heavenly Net trains by itself and who are absolutely loyal to the Heavenly Net. The Outer Net consists of some mercenary experts. These experts do not want to pledge allegiance to and join the Heavenly Net therefore they have become members of the Outer Net.
The membership of the Outer Net is very complicated. Even a great master might be one of its members. But it does not matter who a member is, they do not know the identities of the other Outer Net members. Even the Heavenly Net itself has never investigated the real identities of the Outer Net members.
The assassins are divided into gold card, silver card and copper card. Copper card assassins are the ones who can kill middle-phase Houtian experts. Silver card assassins are the ones who can kill peak Houtian experts. And gold card assassins are the ones who can kill Xiantian experts.
The 2 great systems Inner Net and Outer Net of the Heavenly Net have enabled the organization to become an extremely terrifying entity. The Chu kingdom, the biggest kingdom on the Qian Long continent, has no more than approximately 100 Xiantian experts altogether but the Heavenly Net’s Outer Net already has over 20 gold card assassins. As for the Inner Net, no one knows how many gold card assassins there are in it. But no one doubts that the Inner Net’s experts are very fearsome.
This is the Heavenly Net, an assassin organization with more than 1000 years of uninterrupted history and more influence on the Qian Long continent than any of the 3 big dynasties has.
Because his own name has appeared on the mission board of the Heavenly Net, Hao Tan is worried.
‘‘Are you ready?’’ says the silvery-masked man indifferently. Hao Tan immediately focuses his entire attention on the silver card assassin before him. His internal energy starts to circulate at a very fast speed. In an ins
tant he is ready to deliver the most powerful strike.
The corners of the silvery-mask man’s mouth slightly curve up all of a sudden. He is smiling.
Afterimages!
2 afterimages of the silvery-masked man’s entire body unexpectedly appear all of a sudden. One afterimage is ahead of the other. One is on the right hand side and the other is on the left. In a moment, a strong gust of air has reached Hao Tan’s face, causing his hair to flutter up. Hao Tan cannot help narrowing his eyes.
“What a frightening speed!” Hao Tan is startled. Only by concentrating energy in his eyes can he barely see the man’s shape. Unable to see anything else, Hao Tan starts to attack the shape in front of him madly. The various silhouettes of his legs spread all over the air and attack the whole body of the silvery-masked man.
“Ah!’’ Hao Tan suddenly feels an acute pain in his right foot. He cannot help uttering a miserable shout with his eyes protruding. At the same time he hears a clack sound of bones being broken while his whole body is sent flying. It subsequently smashes fiercely onto a wall on one side of the street.
Stellar Transformations Book 2 Page 1