"Thank you for protecting me, Senior!"
Hearing that clear, pleasant voice, the middle-aged man merely waved casually toward Shi Qingyun and said:
"It was only my duty. If there's nothing else, hurry home!"
"I've been here with you for a whole day and night. I need to go back and rest, too."
Shi Qingyun nodded respectfully.
"Then I'll take my leave, Senior."
The middle-aged man said, "Go on!"
Shi Qingyun grabbed his old clothes and dashed away. This baptism had truly lived up to his expectations. Not only had he broken through to the Blood Moving Realm, but his physique had also undergone a transformation.
He needed to hurry back, properly test his strength, and take stock of everything he had gained from this baptism.
The middle-aged man paid little mind to Shi Qingyun's eager departure.
He merely stared in the opposite direction with an impassive face and murmured to himself:
"Little fellow, all I can do is wish you luck on the road ahead!"
The man sighed. He had already reported the news about Shi Qingyun to his superiors, but the only response had been to stay out of it. The clan elders would make their own decision; he only needed to perform his duties.
He had sensed something unusual in those replies. He had intended to give Shi Qingyun a word of warning, but after some thought, he decided against it.
Perhaps Shi Qingyun had someone powerful backing him. This was a contest between those great figures, and a small fry like him could not get involved.
After all, who would leave such a genius unattended? If he rashly warned Shi Qingyun, the boy might come to no harm, while he himself would offend someone first!
He understood the situation in the Martial King Manor well enough. Ultimately, it was nothing more than a contest between those two factions.
After pondering where he stood for a moment, he left and put the matter out of his mind. With his abilities, he was not yet qualified to enter this invisible battlefield.
He clenched his fists and thought, I'm still not strong enough!
Meanwhile, Shi Qingyun reached home in no time and eagerly shut the courtyard gate tight.
Rubbing his hands together, he approached the large cauldrons standing in the courtyard. After a glance, he walked straight past those weighing a thousand jin.
He came to a stop before a cauldron darker than the others.
Planting his feet apart before it, Shi Qingyun placed his hands on the cauldron and took a deep breath. With a heave, he slowly lifted it off the ground.
The great cauldron hung in the air. Shi Qingyun beneath it was only about as tall as the vessel itself, making for quite a sight from afar.
Shi Qingyun tossed the cauldron into the air, then caught it with one hand.
The great cauldron passed back and forth between his hands like a toy.
Shi Qingyun caught it steadily. After gauging its weight, he felt that he could lift something heavier.
He quickly set the cauldron down. It landed with a thunderous crash, sending dust billowing from the ground.
He walked toward an even larger, darker cauldron. Just looking at it from a distance gave one a sense of its immense weight.
Standing before it, Shi Qingyun wanted to lift it using his physical strength alone.
Shi Qingyun steadied his breathing and firmly gripped the two protrusions extending from the cauldron. With a heave, it slowly rose from the ground.
It still felt fairly easy. He thrust upward with both hands, tossing it into the air, then caught it securely with his right hand.
After this round of flashy maneuvers, Shi Qingyun had a rough idea of how far his physical strength had progressed.
Following the baptism, he now possessed the strength to wield thirty thousand jin with a single arm, several times what he had managed before.
Such an increase in strength far surpassed that of many geniuses his age!
Moreover, Shi Qingyun could sense that a great deal of the potential hidden within his body remained untapped!
Although he was sincerely delighted by the tremendous improvement the baptism had brought, he did not dare relax because of it.
Neither his current unfavorable circumstances nor the goals he hoped to pursue allowed him to lose his bearings over such a small achievement.
Shi Qingyun stepped into the courtyard, assumed a stance, and began practicing his boxing.
Boxing would not only help him gain better control over his rapidly advancing physical strength, but also calm his mind and give him a better setting in which to think.
Shi Qingyun moved slowly and gently, as though he had become one with his surroundings. With each motion, the air around him seemed to follow his lead, forming invisible currents around his body.
Small whirlwinds sprang up with his punches. A vast Taiji Dao Diagram appeared behind him, and his hands resembled the black and white fish swimming within it.
They chased and played with each other. Wherever his hands passed, ripples spread through the air. These plain, unadorned punches and palm strikes seemed to resonate with the Great Dao, making even space tremble faintly.
However, these were merely distortions in the air caused by the force of Shi Qingyun's powerful blows. With his current strength, he could not shake space itself.
Even the relatively fragile space of the lower realm was beyond the current Shi Qingyun's reach.
As his hands roamed before the Taiji diagram, his right seemed to become a ball of blazing flame, dazzlingly bright, while his left seemed to become a mass of pitch-black yin water that could erode bone and eat away marrow.
Two different substances, things that even repelled one another, remained quietly in Shi Qingyun's hands, subject to his control.
Shi Qingyun shifted from side to side, following the trajectories of those two masses of light. His steps seemed casual and disorderly, yet also appeared to follow some underlying law.
When Shi Qingyun slowly came to a halt, the path of his footsteps joined from beginning to end, forming a Taiji Dao Diagram imprinted on the ground.
The true meanings on his left and right were utterly docile in his hands, showing faint signs of merging.
"The meaning of yin and yang!"
Thanks for pointing out the mistakes. I'm typing on my phone, so if there are any more typos, please point them out. Thank you, dear readers!
Chapter 12: Shi Yi
Shi Qingyun exuded a gentle aura of balanced yin and yang. It washed over the rare plants around him, and beneath its cleansing influence, they seemed to grow even more vibrant.
Shi Qingyun hurled the black mass in his left hand forward. It fell swiftly, and the moment it touched the ground, a sizzling sound rang out.
Within moments, the black mass had corroded a pit in the ground.
"Is this the yin-yang qi produced by the meaning of yin and yang? Truly terrifying! Even an attack this primitive caused so much damage!
If I imbue my attacks with the meaning of yin and yang, their power will surely soar!"
Shi Qingyun had already decided how to use the meaning of yin and yang. This was the best approach he could currently think of.
As for its other applications, he would have to develop them slowly in the future.
While Shi Qingyun continued tirelessly experimenting with his moves in his little courtyard-
Within a magnificent palace complex, inside the most lavish hall at its very center-
An incomparably divine-looking youth sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion.
The youth's eyes were closed. Ten Cave Heavens stood open behind him, rotating and pulsing rhythmically with his breathing. Those immense Cave Heavens encircled him like a heavenly god.
The ten Cave Heavens furiously drew in the surrounding vital essence, channeling it all into the youth's body and causing his precious physique to glow faintly.
Within those Cave Heavens, all manner of rare and powerful mutant beasts roared. They looked so lifelike that they seemed to possess intelligence.
Before long, the youth slowly opened his eyes, revealing their extraordinary pupils.
Each eye contained two pupils nested within one another, and the divine radiance bursting from them seemed capable of creating the world anew.
Order Divine Chains danced within those eyes, and all manner of runes flashed past. Yet a closer look would reveal nothing within them but darkness and chaos!
This divine figure with two pupils in each eye was none other than Shi Yi, the bearer of double pupils.
The instant Shi Yi opened his eyes, a ray of light seemed to shoot from them, powerful enough to cleave heaven and earth apart.
Dense Order Divine Chains intertwined within those eyes, their runes intricate and complex.
A single glance would leave someone dizzy and reeling, as though they had fallen into an abyss of boundless chaos!
"Still a little short? It won't be long. Once my understanding of the power of my double pupils advances further, the so-called geniuses of this world will be nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs!"
Shi Yi assessed his strength and spoke with cold, imperious confidence.
At the same time, a bone in his chest shone, its light penetrating his clothes.
"This bone has almost completely merged with me, too. Once my double pupils advance another step, I'll be able to glimpse the supreme precious technique within this Supreme Bone!"
As though something had occurred to him, a trace of complicated emotion surfaced in his eyes, but it quickly gave way to resolve.
"My dear little brother, I wonder where you are now?"
Suddenly, a faint ripple passed through space. The complicated expression on Shi Yi's face gradually vanished as he slowly reined in his emotions.
Rising from his meditation cushion, he appeared on a viewing terrace in a single instantaneous movement. One hand rested behind his back, while the other held a crystalline, translucent bone fragment before his chest.
Runic marks occasionally flashed within the fragment, and Shi Yi's double pupils carefully observed them.
After a short while, countless runes flowed from the bone fragment into Shi Yi's double pupils. Yet only moments later, that dense mass of runes condensed into a single rune resembling both gold and jade, floating alone within his eyes.
Standing on the terrace, Shi Yi looked out over the winding mountains and flowing waters below. From his vantage point, all the other peaks seemed small.
"Speak! What is it?"
Shi Yi spoke coldly without even turning his head.
The moment his words fell, a black-robed figure appeared behind him and stood there respectfully.
An odd voice, impossible to identify as male or female, came from beneath the voluminous robe that concealed the figure's face.
"Reporting to you: a genius appeared at the clan's baptism ceremony a day ago. He endured the baptism for a full day and night, completing his transformation! An ancestor also seems to think highly of him, so he may receive the Martial King Manor's full support!"
Not the slightest ripple disturbed Shi Yi's eyes, as though he had heard something entirely inconsequential.
His gaze never left the mountains, and he continued toying with the precious bone in his hand.
"I hope this is both the first and last time you report something so meaningless to me!"
Shi Yi's expression did not change, but his tone was deeply hostile, as though he would execute the black-robed figure for uttering another useless word.
Shi Yi's voice was cold, and the imposing aura pouring from him was even more terrifying. He radiated the lofty authority of someone who held the lives of others in his hands.
Although the black-robed figure behind him possessed a higher cultivation realm, the pressure emanating from Shi Yi was almost unbearable.
Beneath Shi Yi's imposing aura, the black-robed figure immediately began trembling, as though standing at the edge of an abyss. The figure truly feared that this young master would take offense and have them killed.
After all, for Shi Yi, that would require no more than a casual word.
At that thought, the black-robed figure hurriedly stated the other reason for this visit.
"The Qilin Cave in the Ten Thousand Mountains is about to open. This time, three factions-the Primordial Divine Mountain, Demon Spirit Lake, and the Martial King Manor-will enter it together to explore. The Martial King has ordered you to lead the Martial King Manor's younger generation inside."
Before you continue