Shi Yi felt a surge of delight at the news, but his expression remained unchanged.
He tightened his grip on the precious bone, then tossed it to the man in black. In an unhurried voice, he said:
"Your reward."
The man in black dropped to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly to Shi Yi, saying, "Thank you for your generosity, master."
He showed none of the bearing of a powerful expert. Anyone could hear the joy in his voice.
It was hardly surprising. Though Shi Yi regarded the precious bone as something he could casually give away, to others, it was a rare treasure.
Despite his high cultivation realm, the man in black possessed no precious technique of such quality.
This alone showed how pleased Shi Yi was with the news.
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Chapter 13: The Qilin Cave Opens
Shi Yi waved a hand, and the man in black immediately understood. He put the precious bone into his storage artifact and swiftly withdrew.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Shi Yi gazed at the winding mountain ranges. In his eyes, the contours of those mountains and countless ravines slowly transformed into lines that intertwined and tangled together.
At last, they gradually formed runes, which he merged into his eyes. The light of Shi Yi's dual pupils grew brighter.
Shi Yi murmured, "The Qilin Cave? Interesting! It's time the world learned the name of the dual-pupiled one."
A fierce wind suddenly rose at the mountaintop, making Shi Yi's robes snap and flutter. An aura of unrivaled supremacy filled that stretch of heaven and earth.
Inside the small courtyard.
Shi Qingyun sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion in his room, carefully contemplating the essence of Yin-Yang. The deeper his understanding grew, the more he realized how vast that profound conception was.
Beneath him, a taiji seal slowly revolved with Shi Qingyun at its center. It was as though he were the balancing point of the taiji Dao diagram, with everything revolving around him.
Shi Qingyun's eyes were tightly shut. Within his mind, a little golden figure identical to him sat cross-legged inside a taiji Dao diagram formed from black and white.
Above Shi Qingyun lay a field of pure white, while below him lay a field of pitch-black darkness.
Shi Qingyun stood between that black and white, becoming the pillar where the two met.
Nourished by the black and white, the golden color of the little figure's body gradually grew more solid and pure. In places, it faintly revealed a jade-like texture.
Outside, wisps of Yin-Yang qi were drawn from heaven and earth into Shi Qingyun's body with every breath.
His precious body gave off a faint halo, lending him a gentle, pure appearance and an air of holiness.
Shi Qingyun slowly emerged from his cultivation, exhaled deeply, and rose from the cushion.
He walked leisurely to the window and looked at the various precious flowers and plants outside, flourishing as they freely stretched their stems and leaves. Though they served little practical purpose, they were quite pleasant to look at.
Standing by the window, Shi Qingyun sank into thought. He had more or less finished everything he needed to do at the Martial King Manor. It was time to consider his next step.
Both my constitution and my physical strength have reached a fairly high level now, but I've always relied on brute physical strength in combat.
And I don't have enough actual combat experience. All told, I've only fought Shi Long once. That's far too little.
Previously, he had been too weak to dare consider venturing out to train and gain combat experience.
He had no desire to be killed while he was still young and weak. Now that the baptism had greatly increased his strength, though he was still relatively weak, he could be considered reasonably capable out in the wider world.
He could begin considering a training journey. Aside from that, he still had many weaknesses.
I still have far too few tricks up my sleeve.
I haven't even touched precious techniques yet. It's time to choose one to learn!
With that thought, Shi Qingyun left his room. Fortunately, children of the Martial King Manor who had just entered the Blood Moving Realm were allowed to choose a precious technique from the Merit-Storage Pavilion.
Otherwise, Shi Qingyun would not have known where to find a precious technique to learn on such short notice. He could have asked Shi Feier for one, but after considering it, he decided against it.
That would not have felt quite right.
Besides, Shi Qingyun could not bring himself to swallow his pride and ask a little girl for a precious technique. Fortunately, this rule of the Martial King Manor solved his immediate problem.
After his transformation, both Shi Qingyun's speed and constitution had improved dramatically. Only a short while passed.
Then Shi Qingyun appeared a short distance from a five-story pavilion. This was with him deliberately slowing down, too. He had no desire to become famous in the Martial King Manor all over again.
Shi Qingyun stood at a distance, gazing at the towering structure that seemed to pierce the sky. Though he had known the Merit-Storage Pavilion was tall, seeing it in person still left him somewhat awed.
He usually holed up in his courtyard to cultivate. When he had first arrived in this world, he had been full of curiosity about everything outside.
But after he was caught in the fallout of a battle on his first outing and nearly died just after arriving in this world, he had lost all desire to wander outside.
Seeing the magnificent Merit-Storage Pavilion today filled him with some regret. Though he lived in the Martial King Manor, his knowledge of it was limited to a handful of places, and he had missed out on some of its sights.
Shi Qingyun gained a little more insight into the path of cultivation. Along that long road, one would miss many beautiful sights-and many people!
But that was the price of cultivation. Great strength brought a long lifespan, yet much was lost along the way.
Perhaps, in the end, beloved beauties would grow old and friends would be gone, leaving only the Great Dao by one's side-just like Huang!
Shi Qingyun let those tangled thoughts run through his mind only once before immediately reining them in. He felt he was being a little sentimental. With his current meager strength, it was not yet time to think about such things.
He slowly approached the colossal structure. Standing at the foot of the pavilion, Shi Qingyun looked like a tiny ant before it.
After greeting the elder guarding the pavilion and explaining why he had come, he went to the entrance.
The guarding elder told him that those who had just entered the Blood Moving Realm could only look for precious techniques on this floor. Shi Qingyun had no objection to the rule.
He had come hoping to find a precious technique suited to his current abilities. As for higher-level techniques, his attitude was simple: he would take one if available, and go without if not.
After all, he might not even be able to use a high-level precious technique!
As soon as he entered the pavilion, he found himself in an incredibly spacious interior, with rows of shelves arranged in neat order.
All sorts of objects rested on those shelves: bone fragments of unknown origin, ancient sheets of unfamiliar materials, and animal hides.
Runic formations protected these objects.
The formations created barriers of light that enclosed each object, their runes glowing faintly.
Every row of shelves was like this, illuminating everything in the space with perfect clarity.
Shi Qingyun walked straight up and began moving among the glowing clusters.
He carefully examined the introductions to the precious techniques recorded on the bone fragments and animal hides.
Shi Qingyun looked here and felt around there, but even after searching through more than half of them, he still had not found the precious technique he wanted.
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Chapter 14: The Precious Bone
Just as Shi Qingyun was considering settling for any passable precious technique, his gaze swept over a rather dim bone fragment, and he sensed something familiar within it.
When he took a closer look, he vaguely seemed to see the silhouette of an exotic beast roaring on the precious bone. Yet the might it radiated seemed somewhat weak, and its light was dim, as though about to fade away.
Shi Qingyun ignored the glowing clusters in front of him and quickened his steps, arriving before the one that had stirred that sense of familiarity.
He extended his spiritual sense to examine it closely, carefully reading about the precious bone's origins and provenance.
After studying the information, Shi Qingyun learned that this was a Heavenly Roc Talisman Bone containing a trace of Kunpeng's bloodline. A clan elder of the Martial King Manor had found it by chance while outside.
Only then did Shi Qingyun understand why he had been drawn to it. It contained Kunpeng's bloodline!
Kunpeng was renowned for possessing the greatest speed in the world, an unparalleled swiftness. That speed arose from the transformations of Yin-Yang.
Those transformations of Yin-Yang helped the user break through the limits of their own speed.
He too had comprehended a trace of the essence of Yin-Yang, which was why he had resonated with this rune and felt it tug at his mind.
He took out an ancient, dark token with a metallic luster and placed it against the barrier of light.
The elder had given Shi Qingyun this token as proof of his permission to choose a precious technique. Without it, any attempt to forcibly take a technique would trigger the formation.
Then Shi Qingyun would face the lethal bombardment of one formation after another.
The instant the token touched the barrier, the runes swimming within it seemed to receive an order, slowly flowing into the formation nodes on the shelf.
The barrier covering the bone fragment immediately contracted. This also meant that Shi Qingyun had chosen this precious technique to study and comprehend.
A somewhat damaged bone fragment appeared before Shi Qingyun, its surface giving off a faint golden sheen.
Shi Qingyun took it in his hand and examined it carefully. The bone seemed quite old, ancient enough to carry an aura of the primordial wilderness. It was already cracked, but that would not interfere with his study, as the symbols remained clear.
Rubbing the slightly yellowed bone fragment in his hand and studying its dim, nearly faded runes, Shi Qingyun thought that many people must have borrowed it. Otherwise, it would not have become so worn.
The bone's smoothness was clearly the result of handling. It seemed many people before Shi Qingyun had chosen this precious technique; he simply did not know how many had managed to comprehend it.
Even as Shi Qingyun pondered this, his steps did not slow. He quickly returned to the guarding elder to register the precious technique he wanted to borrow.
The guarding elder, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them and saw the yellowed bone fragment with its faint golden sheen in Shi Qingyun's hand.
The corner of his mouth twitched. He glanced at the childishness still lingering on Shi Qingyun's face, then at the bone fragment in his hand, before his expression became calm once more.
The guarding elder thought, A newborn calf truly has no fear of the tiger! This precious bone may hold a powerful precious technique, but over all these years, hardly anyone has learned it!
And judging by its condition, this precious bone will only hold up through one more attempt at comprehension. I wonder whether this boy is lucky or unlucky!
Naturally, Shi Qingyun noticed the white-haired elder's odd expression. He was just about to ask what was wrong.
Then the elder said, "This precious bone is somewhat special. Just take it with you. There's no need to register it."
Having said that, the elder closed his eyes again, returning to his previous posture.
Seeing this, Shi Qingyun could only leave with the bone fragment and his unanswered questions.
By the time he returned to his courtyard, Shi Qingyun had already put those questions out of his mind.
He rushed straight into his cultivation room, already impatient to comprehend the precious bone.
After all, he had too few means at his disposal. Aside from punches and kicks, he had nothing. How could he fail to seize such an opportunity to increase his strength?
Just as Shi Qingyun was about to close the door and begin cultivating, a dark figure appeared silently behind him.
Shi Qingyun immediately detected the abnormal fluctuation in space. At the same time, his senses told him that every part of his body was sending him a warning of danger.
Shi Qingyun stiffened, every hair on his body standing on end as beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
Shi Qingyun's hand froze in midair, as though he had suddenly turned into a statue.
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