Yellow Light Ball

Zhuqi County, a dense forest spanning several acres to the southwest of town.

Ye Qin stood hidden behind a large tree, frowning as he watched the white-clad young man who had followed him ever since he left the inn. The young man had wandered aimlessly through the woods for ages, never finding him. At last, he slapped a large tree in frustration and left, heading back toward the distant county town.

Only then did Ye Qin slowly emerge from the woods.

To be honest, the white-clad young man's lightness skill was quite impressive.

But once they were inside the woods, nimble footwork alone wasn't enough. Ye Qin could easily hear the slightest tremor of dead branches and leaves on the ground within several yards. Even a faint breeze couldn't escape his senses, let alone someone's footsteps.

Not a single movement the white-clad young man made in the woods escaped him.

Though the woods weren't large, they still covered several acres, leaving the young man to wander around like a headless fly.

Ye Qin hadn't used any lightness technique. Before the young man could spot him, he had simply taken a few casual steps, drifting from behind one tree to another. The young man couldn't see him at all.

The white-clad young man sprinted blindly through the woods for a long while. When he realized Ye Qin seemed to have vanished completely, leaving no trace to follow, he could only leave in frustrated chagrin.

Ye Qin walked over to the large tree the young man had struck.

His brow furrowed deeply.

A half-inch-deep, charred handprint had been left on the trunk, and the air smelled foully of burnt bark. The man's fiery, masculine internal martial arts had clearly reached a profound level.

It seemed that whether in lightness skill or internal power, he was far inferior to the white-clad young man.

The only things he could rely on were his incredible speed and keen senses. Before the young man could strike, Ye Qin could judge his next move and act first. In those two areas, he held every advantage.

As for a real fight, it was hard to say who would win. They would have to fight to find out.

Ye Qin couldn't help reflecting that he lacked offensive techniques, and his cultivation was still too low. He didn't have enough strength to protect himself against top experts. He had to raise his cultivation in the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra as quickly as possible.

After completing the first layer of the Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness chapter of the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra and entering the second layer, he had already been able to look down on those so-called first-rate martial artists. Once he completed the second layer and entered the third, he would be confident that even the very best martial artists posed no threat. And if he completed the third layer, where in the tens of thousands of miles of Ping Province could he not go?

Remembering the white-clad young man wandering around the woods like a headless fly before leaving in utter frustration, Ye Qin couldn't help finding it amusing. His spirits immediately lifted. This was proof enough that the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra was an excellent cultivation technique.

Ye Qin pulled the Cyan Jade Pendant from the pouch at his waist, gave it an eager look, then turned and hurried northwest toward the barren hills. He deliberately chose the roughest paths through the wilderness. He needed to find a quiet, deserted place to cultivate in peace and make up for the days he had spent out of practice.

What Ye Qin didn't notice was that the Cyan Jade Pendant clenched in his hand had begun behaving strangely. Inside it, a faint wisp of smoke was repeatedly battering against its confines, trying to break free.

Ye Qin flew to a Stone Forest more than ten miles northwest of the county town, slipped into a hollow inside one of the boulders, and sat down cross-legged.

The boulder had a tiny opening. Even if someone passed through the Stone Forest, they would never notice that anyone was hiding there. He had carefully chosen it as a cultivation spot after spending most of a day searching a few days earlier.

Without giving it much thought, he silently focused his spiritual sense and sent the Cyan Jade Pendant in his hand into the Purple Mansion inside his Mud Pill. With a thought, the pendant vanished from his hand in an instant.

The boundless void, the Floating Island in the Purple Mansion.

A Cyan Jade Pendant appeared out of thin air on the island. The smoke inside it was battering wildly against its confines, trying to break out.

Then, with a bang, the Cyan Jade Pendant burst apart, scattering into countless fragments. A yellow light ball about the size of a thumb shot into the air. Along with it came an aura of profound resentment and savagery.

"Ahahaha! I, Nan Tianba, have finally escaped this damned pendant! Twenty years! I've waited a full twenty years, and at last I've found a low-level Qi cultivator with a spirit root. Heaven hasn't abandoned me!"

The yellow light ball shouted wildly, rapidly rattling off a long string of incantations. As it chanted, mysterious golden symbols appeared around it, as though it were casting some kind of spell.

It had been locked alive inside that damned Cyan Jade Pendant for a full two hundred years. Unable to cultivate, its vital energy had steadily dissipated, and it had long been desperate for a body. The moment it emerged from the pendant, it immediately began casting the Possession Technique to seize a soul.

But when it saw where it was, it suddenly froze in shock.

It was a bare island, more than a mile across, covered in gray rocks. It floated in the void, surrounded in every direction by lifeless gray mist that stretched beyond sight.

W-what kind of hell was this?

Where had that black-clad brat with the spirit root gone?

The yellow light ball hung in the air, stunned for a long while.

The boy was nowhere to be seen. Who was it supposed to use the Possession Technique on?

It spun around and saw a large stone stele at the center of the island. Beside it was a plot of land with dozens of little green plants. A few small pieces of cyan rock lay beside the plot, along with a small piece of deep-cyan Spirit Stone.

But the yellow light ball had no interest in the plot or the Cyan Rock. Its attention was fixed on the large stele, because a weak white light ball was floating above it.

The yellow light ball was overjoyed.

It was about the same size as the white light ball, but the latter was several times fainter. The yellow light ball was already quite bright, while the white one had only recently formed and was still exceedingly weak. Judging by its state, it had just entered the second layer of the Qi Refining Stage. Its Primordial Spirit was no match for the yellow ball's fourth-layer, earth-element Primordial Spirit.

The yellow light ball immediately charged toward the stele, intent on devouring the white light ball. Though it hadn't found the black-clad brat, a weak Primordial Spirit would do just as well. At least it could absorb some vital energy and replenish its own weakened spirit.

On the Life Primordial Spirit Stele, Ye Qin stared blankly at the bizarre scene of the Cyan Jade Pendant exploding. He had then seen a thumb-sized, fiendish yellow light ball burst out of the pendant, waving its claws in midair and shouting wildly about something called the Possession Technique.

A chill rose in Ye Qin's heart.

He suddenly realized he had made a terrible mistake—a mistake of the gravest kind. Perhaps he should never have sent the Cyan Jade Pendant into his Purple Mansion. A light ball just like him had been hidden inside it. It must have been one of his kind, but a ferocious one—and it seemed several times stronger than him. Faced with this powerful counterpart, he felt instinctive fear.

The Cyan Jade Pendant hadn't brought him any benefit. Instead, it had brought him enormous trouble.

The yellow light ball was charging toward him.

Ye Qin's pupils suddenly contracted. In alarm, he took a step back and hid behind the large stele. But he didn't dare leave the Life Primordial Spirit Stele. Based on his experience, everywhere else on the Floating Island was even less safe. At least the Purple Lightning threads had never entered the stele's protective light barrier.

The yellow light ball hadn't noticed the barrier. It charged to within several yards of the stele, almost reaching it and the terrified, trembling white light ball, when it suddenly struck a thin, soft light shield. With a "thump," it bounced back more than a yard.