Di Xu reproves him loudly: “If we knew the 9th jade sword’s location, why would we have to go to such trouble?”
“Idiot.” Hou Fei says disdainfully.
Qin Yu’s eyes brighten and look at Hou Fei in disbelief: “Fei Fei, you’re really smart.”
Now Azure Dragon, Yi Da and some others have also figured out the solution almost simultaneously. Azure Dragon laughs out loud and says: “Hou Fei is really smart, ha-ha … that’s right, we only need to find out the 9th jade sword’s location. Reverend Yan Xu, last time you failed to find the 9th jade word with that secret method of yours, but let’s try it again this time.”
Qin Yu, Yi Da, Situ Xue and the others all look at Reverend Yan Xu.
Reverend Yan Xu is startled then bursts out laughing: “I’m really old already. This method is not bad. Last time the 8 jade swords unexpectedly split up for no reason after entering the Wilderness. Some problem must have occurred. This time I’ll try it again, maybe it’ll succeed.”
After saying so, he sits in midair with legs crossed.
The holders of the jade swords present throw their respective swords to him one after another. Now nobody hesitates because Reverend Yan Xu’s method is not only related to the 9th jade sword, it is even related to everyone’s life. Who would dare to fool around at this moment?
Reverend Yan Xu begins to execute that secret method again.
The 8 jade swords shoot out various beams of light, which connect them with his body. With a solemn expression, he makes many hand signs … Second after second, minute after minute. When a long time has passed, sweat even appears on his eyebrows.
“Everybody, it’s successful.” Reverend Yan Xu suddenly breathes out and says.
The 8 jade swords then fly side by side straight towards … the 1st passage!
“The 1st passage?” Qin Yu is shocked.
The 3 Di brothers are also shocked, as is everyone else at the scene. Some time ago the soul jade slip corresponding to the 1st passage shattered, causing everybody to lose hope. But now these jade swords are automatically flying in that passage’s direction.
“If the 1st passage is the way out, why did the man entering it die?” Di Long asks instantly.
“There’s only 1 passage of life among the 9 passages. If you don’t choose this one, which one will you choose?” Yi Da says with a cold laugh then takes the lead in flying into the 1st passage. At the same time, the flying jade swords are taken back by their owners.
Qin Yu, his 2 sworn brothers, Azure Dragon and Teng Shan quickly enter the 1st passage after Yi Da.
Reverend Yan Xu, Old Freak Three-Eyed and some others follow them closely. Di Long and his 2 brothers eventually also have no choice but to go into this passage.
Nobody dares to relax. Even though the 8 jade swords pointed to this passage, everybody is still very careful. After all, that Xiuzhenist who entered this passage before them died so it is still dangerous.
But nobody knows how dangerous it is.
“Be careful, big brother.” Hou Fei is looking around with his fiery eyes, appearing very vigilant. Qin Yu nods. He is very vigilant at the moment too. Xiao Hei is going alongside Qin Yu, his eagle eyes sweeping the surroundings.
Holy senses are useless in this passage. A place constructed by an immortal is not something they can check out at will.
Yi Da is in the front. Azure Dragon, Teng Shan, Qin Yu and his 2 brothers are just a little behind. Reverend Yan Xu, Di Long, Old Freak Three-Eyed and the others are at the rear. These top figures of the overseas Xiuzhen world now are all very careful.
After some time, it seems everyone guessed wrong because by now they have yet to see any traces.
“Why haven’t we seen the corpse of that Xiuzhenist?” Qin Yu frowns deeply. That man died, but there should be a corpse here. Why, after going forwards for such a long time, has nobody seen his corpse? This is really strange.
However, at this moment --
Hu hu ~~~
From the other end of the passage, a current of a dark red liquid rushes towards them extremely fast like tidewater, filling the entire passage. To be exact, it is a liquid akin to lava. There are even flames on the surface of this current of the liquid.
“Deep-ground lava, be careful!”
Old Freak Three-Eyed’s voice resounds through the passage. In an instant, the current enfolds everybody like tidewater. The few Jindan stage Xiuzhenists who were lucky not to be used as guinea pigs are burnt to ashes even before coming into contact with the lava.
Among the remaining experts, Xiao Hei has the easiest time.
In the lava, he does not even have to use his protective demonic elemental energy and only relies on his black feathers, which can rival high-grade holy weapons. Under the protection of the feathers, Xiao Hei is not harmed by the deep-ground lava at all. Among the others, Di Xu and the 4 human experts consisting of Situ Xue, Jiao Jiu, Reverend Huo Tian and Reverend Di Feng have a little difficulty dealing with the lava.
Qin Yu and the rest protect their bodies with their energies and withstand the lava easily. Qin Yu and the Xiuyaoists such as Azure Dragon, Teng Shan and Old Freak Three-Eyed have extremely strong bodies so even though their protective energies only neutralize more than half of the lava’s power, they do not mind its residual power.
The Xiuxianists and Xiumoists have weak bodies but in the end all of them survive.
“A bit faster, everybody.” Azure Dragon shouts then becomes the first to rush extremely fast towards the other end of the passage. Qin Yu, his brothers and everyone else quickly follow him. In just a while, they go through the other end of the passage.
There are unexpectedly no other attacks following the deep-ground lava.
After getting out of the passage, everybody sees a luxurious hall which is even much more luxurious and lager than the audience hall of an imperial palace. The shocking thing is that -- at the moment, there are 2 huge divine beasts on the lower part of this hall.
The one on the left has a dark red, 100 m long body. Its neck has 6 thick sharp spines and its head has a golden single horn. The surface of its entire body looks like various rocks and has a stronger defense than even a divine dragon’s. This is a Dragon Rocky lion.
The one on the right is a huge, several tens meter tall, two-winged bird. Flames are moving around every place on its body. It has a distinct air of grandeur. This is none other than a Hong Luan.
A black-robed man is sitting on the higher part of the hall. A snowy kitten is lying on his thighs. At the moment, this man is playing with a jade sword with his head lowered. Suddenly he raises his head and looks smilingly at everybody who has just rushed out from the passage to come into the hall.
Now the 10 something experts such as Azure Dragon, Qin Yu and Old Freak Three-Eyed are watching the scene before their eyes with shock -- 2 divine beasts, the snowy kitten, the black-robed man and that jade sword.
The black-robed man tells the shocked comers with a smile: “Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce myself a bit. I am the holder of the 9th jade sword and also the ruler of the outermost 3 million li of the Wilderness -- Yan Mo!”
Glossary
*** C ***
- Cun: 寸 -- unit of length in the story, ~ 3.33 cm.
*** D ***
- Da: 大 -- big -- friendly way to call someone older and close to you. For example: Da Shan
- Dacheng stage: 大成期 -- basically means the stage of completeness. The final stage, it’s after the Dujie stage.
- Dongxu stage: 洞虚期 -- basically means the stage of hollowness. It’s between the Yuanying stage and the Kongming stage.
- Dantian: 丹田 -- the energy center of a person.
- Dujie stage: 渡劫期 -- basically means the stage of overcoming tribulation. It’s between the Kongming stage and the Dacheng stage.
*** H ***
- Houtian: 后天 -- Post-Heaven, i.e. something that is Acquired.
*** J ***
- Jindan: 金丹 -- solidified internal energy in the form of a compact golden ball, representing a high level of martial arts, vital to the practitioner. This is a Taoist term, literally meaning Golden Ball.
- Jindan-stage: the stage at which a practitioner’s entire internal energy is condensed and solidified into a jindan.
*** K ***
- Kongming stage: 空冥期 -- basically means the stage of void and darkness. It’s between the Dongxu stage and the Dujie stage.
*** L ***
- Li: 里 -- unit of length in the story, ~ 0.6 km.
- Liang: 两 -- unit of mass in the story, perhaps ~ 50 g.
- Liu Xing -- 流星 -- Qin Yu's fake name, which literally means Meteor.
- Loose Immortal: 散仙 -- basically means a wandering, free immortal. In this story it means a person who keeps practicing using their yuanying without their physical body after the body has been destroyed by a tribulation.
*** N ***
- Neidan: 内丹 -- literally means an internal ball. This is a variant of the jindan, formed by animals which practice the Xiuyao way. The term 'jindan' is often used to refer to the 'neidan' in the story.
*** Q ***
- Qian Long continent: 潜龙大陆 -- literally means the Hidden Dragon continent.
- Qi Men Dun Jia: 奇门遁甲 -- roughly means The Mysterious Gates Escaping Technique -- an ancient Chinese metaphysical art. (You only need to know that much. But if someone feels interested in it then here's the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_Men_Dun_Jia)
- Qin Yu: 秦羽 -- Qin as in Qin Shi Huang; Yu as in Guan Yu -- main protagonist; also called endearingly Yu'er or Xiao Yu.
*** S ***
- Samadhi flame: 三昧真火 -- a term half borrowed from Buddhism; literally means the true flame of meditative concentration.
- Shangxian: 上仙 -- literally means a superior immortal being.
- Small Round: 小周天 -- xiaozhoutian -- an important path for energy circulation in Qigong.
*** T ***
- Tribulations: tests/punishments that a practitioner has to undergo upon reaching certain levels of power.
4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation: 4 thunderbolts, aka the Minor Heavenly Tribulation. (Xiantian --> Jindan)
6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation: 6 thunderbolts. (Yuanying --> Dongxu)
9-from-9th Heaven Tribulation: 9 thunderbolts, aka the Major Heavenly Tribulation. (Dujie)
*** X ***
- Xian: 仙 -- immortal beings, or related to them, or supposed to be related to them.
- Xiantian: 先天 -- Pre-Heaven, i.e. something that is Innate.
- Xiao Hei: 小黑 -- literally means Little Black, Qin Yu's black eagle and a secondary protagonist.
- Xiumo: 修魔 -- basically means practice to become a devil -- the supposedly evil way of Xiuzhen, kind of similar to the Dark Side of the Force.
- Xiuxianist: 修仙者 -- people who practice martial arts to become immortal beings. They are mostly based on Taoists. You can think that they are Taoists on steroids.
- Xiuyao: 修妖 -- basically means practice to become a demon -- the animal way of Xiuzhen, used exclusively by self-aware animals.
- Xiuzhen: 修真 -- roughly means pursuing universal truths through practicing martial arts.
- Xiuzhenist: 修真者 -- roughly means a person who pursues universal truths through practicing martial arts. It is a much broader term than Xiuxianist but oftentimes they are used interchangeably.
*** Y ***
- Yuanying: 元婴 -- literally means the child of essence; a vital, solid body of internal energy in the dantian which looks exactly like a miniature version of the practitioner; when a jindan’s energy reaches a certain level in both quality and quantity, it will transform into a yuanying.
- Yuanying-stage: the stage at which a practitioner’s entire internal energy forms a yuanying.
*** Z ***
- Zhang: 丈 -- unit of length in the story, ~ 3.33 m.
*** Stages in practice (in ascending order of power) ***
Xian (immortals) + Mo (devils) + Yao (demons):
Houtian --> Xiantian --> Jindan --> Yuanying --> Dongxu --> Kongming --> Dujie --> Dacheng --> ...
Stellar Transformations:
Houtian --> Xiantian --> Nebula --> Meteor --> Core --> Planet --> Dujie --> Star --> ...
*** Weapon levels (in ascending order of quality) ***
Mundane (incl. normal iron -> black iron -> black gold) --> Xian grade (incl. low -> middle -> high) --> holy class (incl. low -> middle -> high -> top) --> ...
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Stellar Transformations Book 8 Page 16