Stellar Transformations

by I Eat Tomatoes

Qin De says with a sigh: “That’s right. Today my heart is beating very fast and can’t calm down. I’ve been worried by the matter Uncle Lian handles this time. In theory, with Uncle Lian’s current power in addition to 2 late-phase Xiantian experts, he should have no problem resolving this matter.”

  “Don’t worry, Your Highness. Senior Lian is extremely powerful. There’s no one on Xiang Guang’s side who can harm him,” says Xu Yuan with a smile.

  Suddenly, Qin De stands up and looks up into the sky.

  A black eagles dives down, heading for Qin De’s place extremely fast. Qin Yu is sitting with legs crossed on the back of the black eagle. Qin De immediately bursts out laughing. He has been waiting for Qin Yu’s return. Qin Yu left him so much In-rock Flaming iron, which is really a huge treasure to him, so he naturally wants to reward Qin Yu.

  However … Qin De’s smiling expression freezes because he sees the person Qin Yu is carrying in his bosom.

  “Thud!” Qin Yu jumps down on the ground directly from the back of the black eagle.

  Carrying Lian Yan, Qin Yu stands still and looks Qin De in the eye. As Qin De looks at Lian Yan in Qin Yu’s bosom, his face goes pale instantly. He tries to control himself to come to Lian Yan step by step. Lian Yan’s pale smiling face then comes into his sight.

  “Father, Grandpa Lian is already dead.” Qin Yu’s calm voice has a note of extreme sorrow.

  “How is this possible? Uncle Lian got a holy weapon, didn’t he?” Qin De’s eyes become moist in an instant. After a while, Qin De suddenly asks Qin Yu: “Yu’er, I ask you, there was a man called Yi Qing Yu on Xiang Guang’s side, right?”

  Qin Yu says with a shake of his head: “I don’t know. I don’t know those people’s identities.”

  Qin De looks at the holes on Lian Yan’s chest successively and says with a sigh: “These are embroidery needle wounds. The only person on Xiang Guang’s side who can use embroidery needles and injure Uncle Lian with them is Yi Qing Yu. Uncle Lian has finally been liberated.”

  Qin De has experienced a lot of things in his life so naturally he can understand Lian Yan’s feelings.

  “The murderer of Grandpa Lian was already killed by him with a knife slash,” says Qin Yu directly. When flying on the back of the black eagle he was attracted by the aura of the great fight between the 2 of them, and he came down just in time to see Lian Yan kill his opponent then turn his face skyward and give a long laugh.

  Qin De takes a deep breath and slightly nods: “Uncle Lian has been freed. Yu’er, you don’t have to be too grieved. Instead, you should feel happy for your Grandpa Lian.”

  Qin Yu, however, does not say anything and only looks at Lian Yan in his bosom. After a while, servants of the princely mansion come and take Lian Yan’s body. Qin Yu watches them carry Lian Yan’s body away but he remains silent for a long time. Afterwards he says indifferently: “Father, I’m not in a good mood. I’ll take a break first. Don’t let anyone disturb me.”

  As he finishes saying, he turns around and goes directly toward the courtyard house which belongs exclusively to him.

  In the courtyard house,

  Qin Yu sits quietly on a stone bench and looks at the willow in front of him. As the willow’s branches flutter, Qin Yu seems to see the scene of him larking about with Lian Yan here in his childhood.

  Whizz!

  With a movement of his body, Qin Yu unexpectedly starts to dance about in the courtyard. He is totally using the 36 movements of the pictures on the 1st Trans-Heaven diagram. He simply does not think about anything and just performs those movements extremely fast nonstop.

  The 36 arm-sized streams of holy energy twine around each other and form a circle around him, which looks like a suit of armor covering Qin Yu. Then these holy energy streams permeate into his body.

  Qin Yu is weeping silently.

  His speed becomes faster and faster. He is basically giving vent to his feelings rather than practicing so naturally his movements become faster with time. Qin Yu performs the 36 movements increasingly faster. Eventually his entire body seems to turn into a gust of wind flashing about in the courtyard house.

  The holy energy around Qin Yu becomes more and more vigorous. The faster he moves, the more vigorous the holy energy becomes. Finally, when Qin Yu starts to waft around like a clear wind, the 36 holy energy streams unexpectedly start to radiate a dull silvery light. When the energy streams which contain the silvery light fuses with Qin Yu’s body, the muscles of his entire body suddenly quiver.

  “Ah ~~~”

  Feeling a stabbing pain inside his body, Qin Yu stops abruptly. His facial muscles tremble and tears stream down from his eyes. Without any restraint, he turns his face skyward and gives a long roar. Nobody can know if he is roaring because of the tearing pain inside or because of his heartache. Qin Yu keeps roaring like this. Only when he has no breath left does he stop. Then he gasps for breath loudly.

  “Yu’er …” Qin De’s voice rises outside.

  Qin Yu takes a deep breath, tries to calm down and says: “Father, give me some time to calm down. During this time don’t let anyone disturb me. Just give me some time, all right?” The outside of the courtyard house falls silent for a long time then the footsteps of someone slowly leaving can be heard.

  Chapter 9: One man, alone (2)

  Qin Yu is sitting stock-still at the stone table in the courtyard house.

  He has been sitting like this for a whole day and night. During this time he has smiled and sorrowed alternately. However, at the moment, Qin Yu suddenly gives a faint smile which, like a breeze, blows away all his grief and sorrow. He slowly stands up and looks up at the sky.

  “He’s already dead. It’s pointless to keep grieving. Grandpa Lian, you must be watching from the sky, I definitely won’t disappoint you.” Qin Yu thinks to himself calmly. Then he smiles as he hears a ‘gu-gu’ rumbling. “I forgot I haven’t eaten for a day and night. My stomach is pretty hungry.”

  As he finishes saying, he immediately tells servants to bring him some food.

  ……

  Qin De is staring at the military map on the wall inside his room.

  “Your Highness, Xiao Yu just told servants to bring him some food. Judging by Third Prince’s tone and expression, he should have almost recovered.” Xu Yuan comes to Qin De’s side and says smilingly.

  “Oh?” Qin De relaxes his deeply furrowed brows. A smiling expression appears on his face. “Yu’er is tough-minded. He won’t immerse himself in grief like a worthless person.” Hearing this news, Qin De also feels like a rock has been taken off his mind.

  “All right, now we don’t have to be worried about Yu’er. Xu Yuan, you see, here, if we send 30,000 Fierce Tiger troops to here …” Qin De immediately starts to discuss with Xu Yuan.

  ……

  As Qin Yu eats his sumptuous precious meal, his mind thinks about other matters.

  “I’ll definitely take part in father’s great undertaking. In the past he turned me down for the reason that I wasn’t a Xiantian expert. Now I’ve become a Xiantian expert and, moreover, I’m even the unprecedented Xiantian external expert. If father knows about this …” Qin Yu’s eyes flash.

  He has been trying hard for so many years only to wait for his father’s approval.

  Being a Xiantian external expert should be enough for Qin Yu to astonish his father and be praised by him, should it not?

  “Right, when I just returned to the courtyard house that day, it seemed while executing the 1st Trans-Heaven diagram’s 36 movements, when I reached an extremely high speed the holy energy streams unexpectedly radiated a silvery light. That silvery light was even acutely painful.” Qin Yu remembers that scene.

  Even though Qin Yu noticed this occurrence at that time, he has been too immersed in his sorrow over Lian Yan’s death to consider it carefully.

  “Moreover, it seemed that during practice, the faster my speed was, the more vigorous the holy energy I absorbed was. Well, let’s try again and see!” Qin Yu immediat
ely makes a decision. He quickly finishes his meal and casts the chopsticks aside. Then his body starts to flash around in the courtyard house like a gust of clear wind.

  Speed!

  As Qin Yu executes those movements faster and faster, the 36 holy energy streams intertwine with each other and become a suit of armor engulfing Qin Yu. As his speed increases, those energy streams become more and more concentrated and materialized.

  Eventually, some points of a silvery light are produced. There are very few of them and they are scattered in the energy streams.

  “It’s this speed!”

  Qin Yu’s eyes brighten. He stops increasing his speed at once. He feels clearly that, when the holy energy which contains those silvery points of light fuses with his body, it causes his flesh and even his cells to transform hurriedly. His cells start to be torn apart, but they are then restored once again.

  A sharp pain coming from the depths of his cells makes Qin Yu’s face go pale uncontrollably.

  Luckily Qin Yu did not increase his speed again. The current level of the silvery light is very good because it causes such a pain in only a few places, which Qin Yu can still endure. If there were too much of the silvery light, his entire body would suffer from such a pain. Perhaps not even Qin Yu would be able to survive that kind of agony.

  Qin Yu’s whole body continuously absorbs one silvery light point after another. He discovers that those silvery light points seem to be a kind of energy which is much more refined than holy energy. As the training and transformation of his body progress at a noticeable rate, the energy streams replenish themselves with holy energy and fuse with Qin Yu’s body nonstop.

  “Very good, this Trans-Heaven diagram really isn’t simple. How can it possibly absorb just a little holy energy? But what secrets do the 2nd and the 3rd Trans-Heaven diagrams have, I wonder?” Qin Yu thinks to himself. However, the speed of his movements is slightly increased again.

  Instantly, the number of light points floating and twinkling in the energy streams goes up. The pain in Qin Yu’s body also intensifies. He slightly frowns, but there is a hint of a smile on his face.

  Time goes by. After 2 days, by now those silvery light points seem to have flowed through Qin Yu’s entire body. When the silvery light goes through the places it has gone through before, he only feels a slightly tingling sensation rather than pain. However, his muscles are also no longer improved as fast as in the beginning.

  After practicing for only 2 days, the power of Qin Yu’s muscles has definitely increased by over 100%.

  “Speed, let’s increase it again!” Qin Yu continues to exercise. He has been exercising nonstop for 2 whole days but he does not feel hungry at all because absorbing so much holy energy like this has been sufficiently making up for his bodily energy consumption. Following Qin Yu’s acceleration, the energy streams’ silvery light increases once again.

  Hu hu ~~

  After an energy stream which contains the silvery light goes through his skin, it will move quickly from one muscle to another until it is completely absorbed.

  However, is it true that the faster he moves, the more that special silvery light is generated?

  “What’s going on? My current speed is faster than before, why is there less of the silvery light instead?” Qin Yu has finally discovered this problem. His current speed is simply not his limit. One should know that at this moment he is still carrying weights.

  “All right, let’s keep this speed.” Qin Yu no longer accelerates. He continuously performs the movements at the optimum speed.

  Following Qin Yu’s movements, the 36 energy streams which contain the silvery light continuously permeate into his body, causing many bursts of a wonderfully numbing sensation. The muscle power of his entire body is also improved little by little. When Qin Yu is immersing himself in this kind of wonderful feeling --

  “Xiao Yu, it’s been 3 whole days. Why haven’t you eaten anything?” Xu Yuan’s voice rises outside the courtyard house.

  As soon as Qin Yu hears that, his attention cannot help getting distracted and his movements’ speed naturally decreases. However, the moment he slows down, the silvery light in the 36 energy streams engulfing him suddenly intensifies greatly. Its density even increases by 100%.

  “Uncle Xu …” When Qin Yu has just said this much, he discovers that the numbing sensation inside his body has heightened greatly and also discovers the shocking change just now.

  “What’s going on? Just now wasn’t I using the optimum speed? How did the silvery light increase so much the moment I slowed down?” Qin Yu’s eyes suddenly brighten like a torch in the night. His heart suddenly has a surge of excitement.

  Apparently the movements of those 36 pictures are not so simple at all.

  “Xiao Yu.” Xu Yuan’s voice rises again. Qin Yu hurriedly says: “Uncle Xu, I’m focusing on practice. Please don’t worry. I still have some food and water in here. Uncle Xu, I’m not leaving this courtyard house. Please don’t let anyone disturb me. I must focus on practice … I’m doing closed-door training now!”

  Regarding closed-door training, to avoid being disturbed, generally experts will prepare some food and water, but they will find a secluded place before starting to focus on training.

  “Closed-door training?” Xu Yuan is somewhat stupefied. However, he is not an ordinary man so he says smilingly: “All right, Xiao Yu. I’ll order the servants to prepare some food and water for you. Don’t worry about training here. No one will disturb you.”

  “Thank you, Uncle Xu.” After saying, Qin Yu waits for the servants to bring him food and water. Then he starts to undergo closed-door training alone to research carefully into the secret of the 1st Trans-Heaven diagram’s 36 pictures.

  Chapter 10: Explode (1)

  In Qin Yu’s courtyard house, there is absolutely no one around to disturb him. Qin Yu’s entire body has turned into several illusions which are moving nonstop in the courtyard house.

  “Strange, I have slowed down, why hasn’t the density increased? But just now …” Qin Yu frowns deeply. At the moment he is performing the movements of the 36 pictures at a slower speed than before but the 36 energy streams engulfing him do not even have any silvery light.

  However, it is very clear to him that just now when he heard Xu Yuan’s voice and started to slow down, the density of those holy energy streams suddenly increased and those silvery light points fused directly with his body like flowing sand in that moment.

  “Could it be?” Qin Yu suddenly thinks of one possibility.

  He increases the speed of his movements at once. Various silvery light points once again appear in the 36 intertwined energy streams and continuously fuse with Qin Yu’s body. This is the speed Qin Yu originally thought to be the optimum speed. Suddenly … he slows down.

  The wind rises and the holy energy in his vicinity vibrates for a short while. The density of the silvery light in the 36 energy streams surrounding Qin Yu suddenly increases.

  Qin Yu’s eyes pop out of his head. This concentrated silvery light is fusing with his body like concentrated silvery sand. One after another, these silvery light points are fusing with the flesh, bones and channels of his entire body. An extremely numbing sensation spreads throughout his body.

  “Amazing!” Qin Yu cannot help uttering a loud shout.

  This kind of sentation is really giving Qin Yu an unprecedented intense pleasure. It is 10,000 times more enjoyable than getting massaged. However, in just a while, the density of the silvery light points suddenly drops to the extent that it is even lower than when Qin Yu started to exercise at that normal speed.

  “What’s going on?” Qin Yu finally stops. His mind is completely puzzled.

  “Judging from what has happened today, it seems being fast all the time is useless, and being slow all the time is even worse. But when I moved fast from the beginning then suddenly slowed down at the 16th movement, the result was extremely good …” Qin Yu ponders.

  “Could it be …” Qin Yu
’s eyes brighten. “Could it be I must adjust my speed properly while executing these movements so that I’m fast when it should be fast and slow when it should be slow? Is combining swiftness with slowness the most suitable way?”

  As soon as Qin Yu comes up with this idea, he starts to try it at once.

  First, he performs the movements at a constant fast speed. Then upon reaching a certain movement he suddenly accelerates or decelerates. Using this method, he can determine whether a certain movement should be executed fast or slowly. However, as Qin Yu researches more into these movements, he starts to find this troublesome because …

  Take the 16th movement, for example. He should slow down at this movement, but to what extent must he slow down? How much must he slow down at this movement in the end? And it is the same with when he must speed up. Moreover, successive movements must harmozine with each other and the transition from one to another must be smooth.