Heavenly Venerable of Universal Transformation of the Thunderous Voice of the Nine Heavens Response to Origin
The wind and snow had briefly subsided. The Earth Dragon Sect was especially quiet at night, with only the occasional bark of a dog breaking the silence.
Yu Tianqing stood in his room. Today was his eighteenth birthday.
Yet, aside from a slightly more lavish dinner, it had been no different from any other day. Like the wind and snow that swept through Dragon City all year round, it was something Yu Tianqing had long since grown accustomed to.
No lamps were lit in the room; only the crescent moon in the night sky cast its light inside.
Three candles stood before Yu Tianqing, with a wooden peace pendant placed beyond them.
He lit the candles one by one, then knelt on the cushion before him. After bowing three times, he solemnly pressed his palms together, his expression grave and reverent, and recited in a low voice:
"Thunder Ancestor who does not belong to this era,
"you are the master of the Nine Heavens Response to Origin Bureau,
"you are the incarnation of the True King of Jade Purity who governs thunder and lightning,
"I beseech your help, I beseech your favor."
Outside the window, the wind swept across the ground, stirring up a thin layer of snow. Several barks followed, and the candlelight flickered before growing steady again.
The sizzling of the burning candle wax was especially clear.
Yu Tianqing remained respectfully kneeling for several minutes, but what he had hoped for did not happen.
He shook his head, rose to his feet, and gave a helpless smile.
"Looks like the Lord of the Washroom approach is a dead end. I turned eighteen, and I still didn't get a cheat or anything."
He erased the hope that should never have arisen in his heart, and Yu Tianqing's mind grew peaceful once more.
He extinguished the candles and put them in his Storage Soul Tool, then picked up the wooden pendant. It was a square peace pendant.
On its front was a figure with a majestic expression and loose hair. A vertical eye sat between his brows, though it was closed.
Clad in imposing armor, he held a Nine Heavens Qi high above his head in his right hand and rode barefoot on a qilin, with auspicious clouds rising beneath its feet.
Thunder patterns were carved into the four corners, lending the whole pendant a fearsome, murderous air.
On the back of the wooden pendant, the ten characters of the Heavenly Scripture were neatly carved in seal script: "Heavenly Venerable of Universal Transformation of the Thunderous Voice of the Nine Heavens Response to Origin."
It was the object that had accompanied him when he transmigrated.
It was said that he had been born with the wooden pendant in his mouth.
An auspicious sign from heaven! Fortunately, this world had no such tradition as the one in Dream of the Red Chamber, or he would have been named Yu Baomu. Still, he had worn the pendant ever since he was a child.
In his previous life, after graduating and starting work, he had visited a Daoist temple called the Temple of Mystery and Marvel out of boredom. An old Daoist priest there had sold him the wooden pendant.
The sun had been bright that day, and the spring breeze gentle.
The priest had said that their temple belonged to the Divine Firmament school and worshipped the Heavenly Venerable of Universal Transformation of the Thunderous Voice of the Nine Heavens Response to Origin, an incarnation of the Great Emperor of Longevity of the South Pole, one of the Four Sovereigns. As the supreme deity of the Thunder Ministry, he governed life and death, withering and flourishing, and the reward of good and punishment of evil...
Seeing that Yu Tianqing had a connection with the Thunder Ancestor, he had sold him the consecrated peace pendant, made from lightning-struck jujube wood, for next to nothing.
When Yu Tianqing thought about it, there did seem to be a connection. He had majored in electrical engineering and gone straight to work at an electronics factory after graduation.
As the saying went, thunder and lightning were inseparable.
Wasn't that proof he had a connection with the Thunder Ancestor?
The title sounded far grander than "Thunder and Lightning Dharma King Tesla."
"How much?"
The old priest smiled and raised one finger, displaying all the unfathomable air of an expert.
Without another word, Yu Tianqing pulled out ten yuan, stuffed it into the old priest's hand, and turned to leave.
He went to a nearby curio shop, spent two yuan on a cord, threaded it through the pendant, and hung it around his neck.
The next day, while he was working at the factory, the pendant slipped out of his collar and landed squarely on the equipment's three-phase electrical supply.
How can lightning-struck wood conduct electricity? That old priest led me astray!
That was his last thought.
Then he transmigrated to Dragon City in Peerless Tang Sect.
He had been here for exactly eighteen years. Gazing out the window at the snowless night, Yu Tianqing could not help feeling lost.
He was no stranger to Peerless Tang Sect.
Though remote, Dragon City was hardly cut off from the flow of information. Because it was close to the Far North, quite a few Soul Masters gathered here, making their living from the Far North's Soul Beast resources. Ice-attribute Soul Masters also came and went from time to time.
The previous Continental Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament had been held three years ago in the Heaven Dou Empire.
In another six months, Huo Yuhao, the child of destiny, would leave the White Tiger Duke's Mansion and begin his life with a cheat.
According to the original story, war would break out across the continent in eight years. The Heaven Dou Empire would soon fall, and Dragon City would be occupied by the Sun Moon Empire's army.
That was because there happened to be a metal ore vein near Dragon City.
Before the vast tide of events, individual strength seemed insignificant, all the more so in a war between two great empires, a stage for Super Douluo and Level 9 Soul Engineers.
On the Douluo Continent, the power of Soul Masters was the foundation upon which imperial authority rested.
The Sun Moon Empire had the Holy Spirit Cult and a group of Level 9 Soul Engineers holding down the fort. The Star Luo Empire's imperial family itself came from the Star Crown Sect, and the Heaven Dou Empire had probably already made contact with the Body Sect by now. As for the Dou Ling Empire, it was truly too pitiful to look at.
The weak Earth Dragon Sect had no voice at the negotiating table whatsoever.
And the Heavenly Dragon Sect?
Though it had sprung from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, one of the Upper Three Sects ten thousand years ago, its ancestors' glory was long gone. It had only one ordinary Titled Douluo, Old Heavenly Dragon.
In Yu Tianqing's view, the Upper Three Sects of ten thousand years ago could have held a contest to see which of them had fallen the furthest.
The Clear Sky Sect was controlled by two beasts, the Heavenly Dragon Sect could only cling to its remote corner in Dragon City in the Far North, and the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect had nothing but the name "Nine Treasures."
God King Tang had said that the Upper Three Sects should unite.
What a case of each generation faring worse than the last.
Over these ten thousand years, only Shrek Academy, founded on faith in the Sea God, had flourished, enjoying the glory of those ten thousand years alone and absorbing the faith of the entire continent.
Counting the options carefully, if he wanted to protect Dragon City, joining Shrek Academy really was the only way to bring enough power to bear.
Nan Shuishui in the original story had also been farsighted.
Perhaps she had sensed long ago that something was wrong with the situation on the continent. Using the treasures in the Earth Dragon Sect's secret realm as bargaining chips, she joined the Tang Sect and indirectly gained Shrek's protection.
Nan Shuishui did not know what those treasures were, but Yu Tianqing knew perfectly well.
Setting aside the value of the Ice-Grade Divine Crystal that had given birth to life, there were no fewer than forty-five pieces of Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow!
A single piece of Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow was a supreme treasure that ice-attribute Soul Masters and Soul Beasts dreamed of obtaining.
Huo Yuhao was just like Tang San ten thousand years ago: neither felt the slightest pang about emptying someone else's treasury.
In this life, he could forget about freeloading off Yu Tianqing.
Though the Earth Dragon Sect could obtain protection, living under someone else's roof was, after all, no match for controlling its own destiny.
Fortunately, Yu Tianqing knew what his advantages were: his talent and the opportunities afforded by his foreknowledge.
He had cultivated diligently all these years. At eighteen, his Soul Power had already reached level sixty-six.
Once his Soul Power cultivation was a little higher, he could begin cultivating his Yin Thunder Dragon Martial Soul. Then his Soul Power would shoot up.
Shrek Academy was at a point when the old generation was passing and the new had yet to rise. This was his opportunity too, all the more so since he was half a Shrek Celestial Dragon himself.
I have to seize a firm grip on Shrek Academy!
As for becoming a god in this era?
Yu Tianqing shook his head. Great God King Tang held the path to godhood in an iron grip.
"They say you must climb the steps,
"but the price is bowing your head."
As a young man of the new era who had grown up singing "The Lonely Warrior," how could he possibly become Great God King Tang's loyal hound?
Yu Tianqing gazed at the peace pendant in his hand, lost in thought for a long time, then smiled self-mockingly.
Since he had long been mentally prepared to enter the game himself, why did he always place his hopes in a god?
"Tomorrow I still have to help Ling Luochеn with Soul Hunting. I'd better turn in early."
Yu Tianqing lay down on his bed, glanced at the wind and snow that had begun swirling outside the window again, and closed his eyes. As usual, he silently recited in his heart:
Heavenly Venerable of Universal Transformation of the Thunderous Voice of the Nine Heavens Response to Origin.
Soon afterward, he gradually drifted off to sleep.
Outside the room, the wind from the Far North blew, and snow fell with a soft rustle.
Inside the room, the soul tool heater hummed as it ran.
Above Yu Tianqing's rising and falling chest, the vertical eye on the image of the Thunder Ancestor glimmered with an almost imperceptible golden light and slowly opened.