Stellar Transformations

by I Eat Tomatoes

  Qin Yu nods his head.

  “Brother Ziyou.” Tang Yuan has finally run to the scene from the distance.

  Just now, Qin Yu, Tang Yuan and the others were 1 km away from Xun Feng. However, to Qin Yu, this distance can be covered in one step and in an instant, so naturally he was able to save Xun Feng’s life in the nick of time.

  “Qinglan, they, they and Wang Shan have all been reduced to pieces.” At the moment, Xun Feng’s heart is still pounding.

  Seeing this scene and noticing the acquaintanceship between Qin Yu and that purple-clad beautiful woman, Tang Yuan concludes that she is probably also a Xiuzhenist. He immediately tells Xun Feng: “Brother Ziyou, you must have a death wish. Why did you provoke her?”

  Xun Feng takes a deep breath then looks at Situ Xue and says in a low voice: “Qinglan, I think … I’m in love with her.” He thinks that nobody can hear him when he talks in such a low voice, but right after he said so --

  Qin Yu suddenly turns around and looks at Xun Feng with amazement. Situ Xue also looks at Xun Feng. At the same time, her expression becomes very strange.

  “This brat …” Qin Yu does not know what to say for the moment.

  Situ Xue is the no. 1 she-devil in the Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon and an early Kongming-stage Xiumoist, no less! Even Qin Yu is only about as powerful as she is, yet now an ordinary brat has fallen for such a top expert of the Xiumo path …

  “What a madcap.” A faint smile appears on the corners of Qin Yu’s mouth.

  Seeing Qin Yu and Situ Xue looking at him in such a manner, Xun Feng thinks about their magic powers just now and figures out that his words have most likely been heard by them. His thinking is already known to them, but he unexpectedly raises his head and looks straight at Situ Xue.

  “Are you Miss Situ?” Xun Feng says smilingly. He still remembers what Qin Yu and Situ Xue just said to each other.

  Situ Xue, however, says nothing, her eyes still ice-cold.

  “I am Xun Feng, Xun Ziyou. Miss Situ, I sincerely like you. But … love must come from both sides. I definitely will not bother you. As long as you remember that Su Yan City has a man called Xun Ziyou who likes you, it is enough for me.”

  There is a calm, amiable smile on Xun Feng’s face.

  “Ha-ha … Situ Xue, someone even likes you? Good Heavens! Did the sun rise in the west today?” A muscular man comes rushing then looks at Xun Feng and says: “Brat, do you want me to tell you how old this Miss Situ is? Ha-ha …”

  “Jiao Jiu.” Situ Xue makes a wave of her hand. A purple electric spark shoots out.

  Jiao Jiu makes a wave of his hand. A crescent-moon-shaped light shoots out and collides with that purple electric spark. They then both dissipate.

  “Situ, we’ve been friends for so many years, today someone openly said he loved you so I’m also happy for you.” Jiao Jiu then says laughingly to Xun Feng: “Brat, let me tell you something. This year, your Miss Situ is already -- ah, Situ Xue, can you let me finish what I’m saying?”

  Jiao Jiu and Situ Xue exchange a blow.

  Situ Xue looks at Jiao Jiu with grim eyes: “Shut your mouth a bit, or … today I’ll fight you to the death.”

  Jiao Jiu is startled. He immediately stops talking.

  “Situ, you and Jiao Jiu have fought each other for so many years, but you’ve never said you would fight him to the death before. Now … you say so because of a mortal. Could it be …” A purple-haired man appears with a hint of mockery.

  He looks handsomely evil and strange!

  Situ Xue frowns but says nothing. After all, this man is Dungeon King Yi Da, a late Kongming stage expert for whom she is definitely no match.

  “Tower master Qin Yu.” Yi Da looks at Qin Yu and slightly nods.

  “Brother Yi Da.” Qin Yu also nods. At this moment, various groups of city guards rush to the scene. Qin Yu immediately tells Tie Shan on one side: “Da Shan, casually handle these dead people a bit. You don’t have to care much about this matter.”

  Tie Shan also knows that the people in front of him are no ordinary. He nods without delay then orders the guards to deal with the shattered corpses in the surroundings.

  “Brother Yi Da, let’s go to that restaurant for a nice chat.” Qin Yu says enthusiastically.

  “After you.” Yi Da nods.

  Immediately, Qin Yu, Yi Da, Situ Xue, Jiao Jiu and Li’er all head for that restaurant.

  “Get a grip, Ziyou. That Situ Xue is no ordinary person. Quit dreaming, will you?” Tang Yuan says solemnly at once. Because of her relationship with Qin Yu, Xiao Lu knows about Xiuzhenist-related matters, and naturally Tang Yuan has learned about some of them from her. As a result, he can guess Situ Xue’s identity.

  Xun Feng, however, says resolutely with a shake of his head: “No, Qinglan, at that time Xiao Lu was a Xiantian expert, but you chased her in the same way, didn’t you?”

  “I was different, definitely different.” When Tang Yuan has just said these words, suddenly --

  A fierce wind appears on the calm street. This strange fierce wind stops in an instant. In the end, Xun Feng, Tang Yuan and the others see a scene that stupefies them. Not far ahead of them, more than 10 have appeared out of thin air during the short period between the appearance and disappearance of the wind.

  “All of you stay here. I’ll go meet with Dungeon King.” One of these people tells the others.

  Chapter 12: 10 Years

  On the 2nd floor of the restaurant, there are only the people like Qin Yu and Yi Da because the other customers here have been driven away.

  “Brother Yi Da, your method was a little too fierce. Could it be you don’t know how to use money?” Qin Yu looks at what previously was a huge colorful painted rock used as a decoration for the restaurant. The huge rock has been transformed into a mass of frozen liquid. Just now Yi Da put his hand on the rock. It melted instantly, but in just a while, that liquefied rock unexpectedly solidified completely.

  Afterwards, Yi Da cast a glance at everybody in the surroundings, and all of those customers went downstairs very quickly.

  “Money?” Yi Da gives an indifferent smile then chooses a seat directly and sits down. He points at the opposite seat and says to Qin Yu: “Take a seat.” Qin Yu sits down in front of Yi Da as he was told while Li’er sits down at another table on one side.

  “Brother Yi Da, you’ve been staying on the Qian Long continent for some time, have you achieved any results?” Qin Yu holds a goblet up, pours wine and drinks by himself. He simply does not care about Yi Da.

  Yi Da makes a wave of his hand. A flagon flies over from one side. He also pours wine and drinks by himself, saying: “Results? The forces your Stellar Tower sent over here are second only to the Penglai Immortal Region’s men in number. If you haven’t got any results, how could I have?”

  “Who says I haven’t got any results?” Qin Yu says smilingly.

  “Oh?” Yi Da looks at Qin Yu. “You’ve found the 9th jade sword?”

  Qin Yu says with a shake of his head: “I haven’t. It was just a black jade case.” Yi Da immediately focuses his attention. Qin Yu however says with a sigh: “Too bad, that black jade case wasn’t the one containing the 9th jade sword.”

  “There are very many black jade cases in the Wilderness?” Yi Da slightly frowns.

  In his opinion, the immense Wilderness possibly has quite a few natural forging materials, but black jade cases are not something that can be created by nature. The only explanation for these kinds of things appearing in the Wilderness is that someone made them out of boredom and then put them in the Wilderness.

  Yi Da does not know who could have done such a nonsensical thing.

  “Of course not many.” Qin Yu says with certainty. But he thinks in his mind: “There are only 7 or 8 of them.”

  Yi Da gives a rare faint smile: “You were just unlucky. If my men find a black jade case, it’ll definitely have the 9th jade sword. Do you believe me or not?”

  “I don’t.” Qin Yu looks
him in the eye.

  “Just wait for a while, my men are coming here.” Yi Da says smilingly. He has already received a message from his subordinates that says they have obtained a black jade case with even a restrictive spell on it, so naturally he is delighted inwardly. He is not afraid of Qin Yu snatching it either because Qin Yu is less powerful than he is.

  “Oh, you’re so confident, brother Yi Da.” Qin Yu slowly drinks wine while waiting.

  “Dungeon King.”

  A silhouette rushes up the 2nd floor then immediately gets down on one knee. But he slightly hesitates when he sees Qin Yu.

  “Tower master Qin Yu is no outsider. Just tell me everything.” Yi Da says indifferently. That subordinate reaches out a hand without delay and a black jade case flies straight out from his storage bracelet. With a sweep of his holy sense, Qin Yu knows that this is none other than … one of his fake black jade cases.

  As for the restrictive spell on the black jade case, he himself told Yan Rui to cast it.

  Yi Da shoots a beam of light from his hand straight at that black jade case. However, that restrictive spell is broken surprisingly easily. Yi Da’s face changes color at once. He has obtained black jade cases before so naturally he knows how difficult it is to get rid of a case’s Dust Removing Spell.

  “Brother Yi Da, didn’t you say if your men got a black jade case, it’d definitely contain the 9th jade sword? Let’s open it to take a look.” Qin Yu says smilingly on one side.

  With a cold humph, Yi Da immediately throws that black jade case on the floor. A bang is heard and the black jade case is broken into a good number of pieces.

  Inky jade is an ordinary kind of jade and Yan Rui’s restrictive spell has been removed by Yi Da so the black jade case is shattered instantly when Yi Da throws it on the floor in anger. A piece of paper then floats out from inside the shattered black jade case. It says ‘Inky jade case, made of high-grade inky jade, worth 100 silver sycees’.

  “Brother Yi Da, this is …” Qin Yu fakes a very shocked expression.

  Yi Da says with several cold laughs: “I wonder who the fella that played this stupid trick on us is. Judging from everybody’s character, perhaps it’s that damned Azure Dragon. He likes to fool around the most.”

  “Overlord Azure Dragon? This is impossible, right?” Qin Yu says in justification of Azure Dragon.

  “Impossible?” In his mind, Yi Da is furious with the individual who fooled him using that fake black jade case. “You’ve only known Azure Dragon for a short time. He likes to butt in other people’s business the most and also likes to make fools of people. He usually plays tricks on people and messes up their situations.” Yi Da has suffered at the hands of Azure Dragon not only once.

  Qin Yu recalls for a while and finds that Azure Dragon indeed likes to have fun and stir things up. Too bad for Azure Dragon, he has been made a scapegoat for Qin Yu.

  ……

  The Wilderness’s surface area is too massive while the target of the search is a small black jade case so naturally everybody has to search carefully and slowly. Therefore, even though holy senses are used, an extremely great amount of time will still be needed.

  However, Qin Yu is very satisfied with how he passes the days. When he does not meditate or practice, he often plays chess with Li’er, or to be exact, gets thrashed by Li’er in chess, or chats with his relatives. He spends even more time visiting various big cities and scenic places on the Qian Long continent with Li’er.

  Month after month, year after year …

  The relationship between Qin Yu and Li’er also becomes better and better, but they never talk about who they love and are somewhat ignorant of each other’s feelings. They also do not really care when their relatives joke about them. However … their juniors, that is, some princes, eventually begin to chase girls.

  ……

  It has been 10 years.

  10 whole years has passed. During this period of time, the 6 powers have mobilized over 10,000 troops each to search the Wilderness carefully and slowly. The progress has naturally been slow because they all want to carry out a thorough search. However, after 10 years of hard work, the search area has still expanded to the 1 million li mark in the Wilderness.

  Because of the order Qin Yu gave in the past, the Stellar Tower’s forces have never gone more than 100,000 li into the Wilderness to reach deeper places.

  The demonic beasts of the Wilderness are very formidable, exceptionally formidable.

  In the process of going deep into the Wilderness, the other 5 powers’ forces have all suffered some losses, but the Stellar Tower’s forces have never gone deep so nothing bad has happened to them. However, the strangest thing is that, 3 years ago, all of the demonic beasts with some achievements in practice suddenly disappeared. Every power’s forces have failed to find a single Jindan stage demonic beast in the Wilderness ever since.

  Strange.

  This is very strange. There are still quite a lot of demonic beasts in the Wilderness but why did so many Jindan stage ones all disappear? Where did they actually go?

  This has been a major headache to the other 5 powers, but Qin Yu simply has not cared. Instead, he has been learning to play the flute and has occasionally performed it together with Li’er playing the zither. Somehow, even though Qin Yu has been learning the flute for several years, his skill is still far inferior to Li’er’s zither skill.

  His chess skill is not as good as Li’er’s, as is his flute skill compared to her zither skill, but he does not mind at all. He keeps playing chess with her and playing the flute in concert with her zither.

  ……

  In Prince Yu’s Mansion, Qin Yu and a young man are sitting face-to-face.

  “Let me tell you something, 3rd Uncle. It’s been 10 years but you and Aunt Li’er are still the same whereas this nephew of yours will marry the crown princess soon.” The crown prince of the Qin dynasty Qin Guan says.

  Qin Yu is astounded.

  Then he immediately says with a smile: “You little brat, you’re not big enough. Your 3rd Uncle’s business is none of your concern.” In fact Qin Guan is not little as he is already 18 years old. On the Qian Long continent, where one can undergo the ceremony of adulthood at age 16, an 18-year-old getting married is nothing special.

  “3rd Uncle, it’s not that I’m little, but that you’re too big. You’re so big but you’re still single.” Qin Guan says discontentedly.

  All of a sudden, Li’er comes over from the distance, holding a small salver with some bunches of grapes on it. She puts the salver down on the table: “Eat the grapes, Qin Yu. It took me some time to choose them. I already washed them carefully.”

  Qin Yu begins to eat the grapes very happily without delay.

  “Big brother.” Hei Yu also flies over.

  “What’s the matter, Xiao Hei? Don’t steal. These are the grapes Li’er gave me.” Hei Yu opens his mouth and swallows 7 or 8 grapes at a gulp, which makes Qin Yu very worried.

  Hei Yu gives a smile: “Big brother, I’m going to tell you a delightful thing.”

  “Oh, a delightful thing? What is it?” Qin Yu looks at Hei Yu very curiously. The latter says proudly: “I’m … going to face the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation a half year later!”

  “Really?” Qin Yu is astonished.

  “Of course it is. But, big brother, Hou Fei already went through the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation several years ago, and my power is even weaker than yours, why do I now have to undergo the tribulation earlier than you?” Hei Yu says doubtfully.

  In the Stellar Tower, Hou Fei is now the most powerful. By contrast, Qin Yu has yet to sense when his 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation comes.

  Qin Yu says with an indifferent smile: “Who knows? In theory I should have already reached the peak of the late Meteor stage 10 years ago, but I’ve always been unable to sense the arrival of my 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation ever since. However … this is not something that can be forced.”

  During the past 10 years of Qin Y
u’s stay on the Qian Long continent, Uncle Lan once came to his place. Qin Yu asked why he had been unable to feel the arrival of the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation, because, after all, even Hou Fei had passed this tribulation. However, Uncle Lan only told him not to worry and not to care about it either.

  Although Qin Yu has not gone through the tribulation, his soul level has been improving rapidly.

  Thanks to staying together with Li’er for 10 years, his soul has now almost reached the early Kongming stage. It should be known that as the soul improves, the difficulty of improving it also increases a lot. Qin Yu has been able to reach his current soul level not only because of the Meteoric Tear, but also because of Li’er’s zither music.