Foot-long flames streamed out, illuminating face after face filled with shock in the training hall.
The silence lasted for dozens of breaths before a violent roar of voices suddenly tore it apart, seeming to shake the entire training hall.
"Foot-long flames?! Am I seeing things?!"
"The flames are a foot long, and they already have an edge. That's the Minor Accomplishment stage of Flame Blade!"
"He reached Minor Accomplishment in Flame Blade in just one hour?!"
"How is that possible?! Even Zhang Yue took several days to produce foot-long flames..."
"..."
Cries of astonishment rose and fell, their voices full of disbelief.
Fang Lang stood rooted to the spot as well, staring blankly at the foot-long flames extending from Lu Ming's right palm. The flames were crimson and condensed, with a sharp edge flowing along them. Compared to them, his own half-inch flames from earlier, slightly dispersed as they were, looked truly laughable.
But...
How was this possible?
After all, even with Zhang Yue's high-grade Divine Ability Bone, his first attempt at cultivating Flame Blade had produced only four inches of flame, less than half of what Lu Ming had now...
This made no sense at all!
Unless this wasn't Lu Ming's first time cultivating Flame Blade, and he had already spent a long time practicing it!
Perhaps he had awakened his Divine Ability Bone some days ago, and Hall Master Lu Jin had personally taught and guided him!
Fang Lang's stunned expression eased slightly. The guess was reasonable: Thunderfire Hall was facing considerable turmoil at the moment and urgently needed something shocking to suppress it.
And Fang Lang was clearly not the only one to make that guess. As the other disciples exchanged glances, they came to the same conclusion.
Whispers arose.
Lu Qingyan withdrew his slightly dazed gaze from the foot-long blaze in Lu Ming's palm. Although he had known from the start that, given Lu Ming's aptitude, it shouldn't be difficult for him to reach the entry stage of a lower divine ability, the speed at which he had gone straight to Minor Accomplishment in one hour had still given him a shock.
That was a little too fierce.
Lu Qingyan marveled inwardly, then looked up at the many Thunderfire Hall disciples, who were caught between shock and doubt. With a faint smile, he said, "There's no need to find it so incredible. It's perfectly normal for A-Ming to be this fast."
Normal, my ass!
Many of the Thunderfire Hall disciples wore peculiar expressions. Even the honest and dependable Yuan Da couldn't help scratching his head.
"Second Hall Master, this isn't normal. Even with my middle-grade Divine Ability Bone, I only managed half an inch of flame," Fang Lang couldn't help saying.
"You have a middle-grade Divine Ability Bone, so of course you only produced half an inch of flame."
"Then why did he-" Fang Lang immediately retorted.
"Because A-Ming has a high-grade Divine Ability Bone." Lu Qingyan spoke unhurriedly, a hint of laughter in his voice.
If the shock Lu Ming's foot-long flames had given everyone was a pebble tossed into a tranquil lake, then Lu Qingyan's simple, casual words were undoubtedly a thousand-pound boulder rolling down from a mountaintop.
It smashed the lake's surface to pieces and raised towering waves.
The impact of those words was so great that the crowd couldn't even recover from it. For a moment, everyone stood there dumbfounded and speechless.
Fang Lang felt as though his head were roaring. The words "high-grade Divine Ability Bone" instantly left his mouth dry and his whole body burning.
High-grade Divine Ability Bone?!
This has to be a joke, right?
Fang Lang had made all sorts of guesses about how Lu Ming had produced a foot of flame in an hour, but the one possibility he had never considered was that Lu Ming possessed a high-grade Divine Ability Bone...
Because the possibility was simply too remote.
A high-grade Divine Ability Bone was the bone of a heavenly pride. Since Thunderfire Hall's founding, it had produced only one such person: Zhang Yue.
So how could Fang Lang possibly have guessed that Lu Ming had awakened a high-grade Divine Ability Bone?
The many Thunderfire Hall disciples remained dazed for quite a while before gradually coming to their senses. Once the shock passed, they couldn't help feeling pleasantly surprised.
Zhang Yue's departure had dealt Thunderfire Hall a severe blow. As members of the hall, they naturally shared in its glory and its losses.
With the hall buffeted by such turmoil, the young hall master Lu Ming's awakening of a high-grade Divine Ability Bone would undoubtedly improve Thunderfire Hall's situation considerably.
No one questioned whether Lu Qingyan was telling the truth. After all, a high-grade Divine Ability Bone couldn't be faked, and the speed at which Lu Ming had cultivated Flame Blade this time was indeed convincing.
"Congratulations, Young Hall Master!"
"Our Thunderfire Hall truly is blessed with great fortune. Although we lost Zhang Yue, the young hall master has awakened a high-grade Divine Ability Bone too, and his comprehension of divine ability techniques is even better than Zhang Yue's."
"It looks like it won't be long before the young hall master enters the Dharma Rune Realm and becomes a Great Divine Ability Practitioner."
"Why stop at Great Divine Ability Practitioner? With a high-grade Divine Ability Bone, becoming a Divine Ability Master is a certainty. In the future, he might even become a Divine Ability Grandmaster!"
"If that day really comes, even the chickens and dogs will ascend to heaven with him, hahaha!"
"..."
The many Thunderfire Hall disciples were all smiles now as they congratulated Lu Ming.
This time, when they called him "young hall master," there was less joking than before and a good deal more respect.
The atmosphere throughout the divine ability training hall grew cheerful as a result, and the faint sense of oppression from before was thoroughly dispelled.
When a heavenly pride with a high-grade Divine Ability Bone appeared in a Third-Tier Divine Ability Hall, it would undoubtedly give people an inexplicable sense of security and anticipation.
In the past, Zhang Yue had given them that sense of security and anticipation. Now that he had left, Lu Ming had filled the gap.
Although Lu Ming was only just getting started, his future held promise.
Lu Ming didn't put on airs either. He dispersed the crimson flames on his right palm and smiled as he returned everyone's greetings.
Seeing the spirited atmosphere in the training hall, Lu Qingyan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. A high-grade Divine Ability Bone truly had a powerful effect. Even though Lu Ming had only just awakened his, it did more to steady people's hearts than he, a veteran Great Divine Ability Practitioner, could.
Lu Qingyan turned to look at Fang Lang, whose expression had grown slightly stiff. A gentle smile appeared on his face as he asked with concern, "By the way, Fang Lang, did you say you had something to discuss?"
A disgruntled look flashed through Fang Lang's eyes, and he shook his head awkwardly. "No, nothing. I only wanted to ask if the Second Hall Master could give me some more guidance when you have time."
Fang Lang's mouth was full of bitterness. He had originally intended to use Zhang Yue's departure to put some pressure on Lu Qingyan and see if he could obtain the status of a personal disciple, so he could freeload off Thunderfire Hall's resources.
But for all his calculations, he had never expected things to turn out this way.
This Lu Ming... actually awakened a high-grade Divine Ability Bone!
At that moment, most of the pride Fang Lang had felt because of his middle-grade Divine Ability Bone vanished.
He could forget about the free resources of a personal disciple. Lu Ming was the hall master's own grandson, and now he had awakened a high-grade Divine Ability Bone. No one in the hall was qualified to compete with him for its resources.
So Fang Lang wisely and quietly crushed his original ambitions.
Seeing Fang Lang's disgruntled expression, Lu Qingyan didn't pursue the matter. "You've awakened a middle-grade Divine Ability Bone, which counts as very good aptitude. If you have any difficulties cultivating divine abilities in the future, you can come to me at any time. Also, your hall fees will be halved from now on."
To a Third-Tier Divine Ability Hall, someone with a middle-grade Divine Ability Bone was a rare talent as well. With proper nurturing, he would become a Great Divine Ability Practitioner in the future.
So although Lu Qingyan couldn't take him in as a personal disciple of Thunderfire Hall, he still offered him some benefits to put his mind at ease.
"Many thanks, Second Hall Master!"
Fang Lang was delighted to hear this. His family was of modest means, and the annual hall fees were a considerable burden. Now Lu Qingyan had halved them and agreed to give him more guidance. It was already an unexpected windfall.
"All right, everyone, back to cultivating."
Lu Qingyan clapped his hands and sent the other disciples who had been watching back to their cultivation.
Looking at the training hall, which had regained some of its vitality, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The negative effects of Zhang Yue's departure had finally been greatly diminished by Lu Ming's newly awakened high-grade Divine Ability Bone.
But immediately afterward, Lu Qingyan grew somewhat worried again.
Although the unrest within the hall had been suppressed, the turmoil and its effects outside would not be so easily calmed.
After all, over the past two years, Zhang Yue had indeed been something of a showpiece for Thunderfire Hall: a young heavenly pride with a high-grade Divine Ability Bone and limitless potential.
Among the hundred disciples in the training hall before him, quite a few had been drawn here by Zhang Yue's reputation.
"The annual divine ability hall gathering in Qingyuan Market is only a month away. Without Zhang Yue as our signboard, how many new disciples will Thunderfire Hall be able to recruit this time?"
The divine ability hall gathering was a major occasion for every divine ability hall in Qingyuan Market, because a great many prospective disciples would arrive that day. The various divine ability halls naturally used every means at their disposal to compete for them. After all, the hall fees collected from disciples recruited each year made up the bulk of their income.
At this time in previous years, Thunderfire Hall only had to bring out Zhang Yue, a heavenly pride with the potential to become a Divine Ability Master, to have a living signboard capable of attracting quite a few newcomers hoping to embark on the path of divine abilities.
But now that Zhang Yue had left, who else could serve as Thunderfire Hall's signboard?
Although Lu Ming possessed a high-grade Divine Ability Bone, he had only just completed his first bone refinement and wasn't strong enough.
They couldn't very well have the old master, the hall master himself, personally come forward to recruit newcomers. The other divine ability halls would laugh at Thunderfire Hall for having no one else, needlessly damaging its reputation.
But if their recruitment efforts went poorly, Thunderfire Hall's income would also plummet this year, leaving it unable to purchase many cultivation resources.
And as it happened, Lu Ming was at a critical point where he needed those very resources.
A sub-heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone did indeed grant extraordinary talent, but without sufficient cultivation resources to support it, even that would lose much of its luster.
Lu Qingyan sighed inwardly and turned to look at the young man, who was still immersed in cultivating Flame Blade. Even he, usually so steady in his emotions, couldn't help cursing inwardly.
That fucking Zhang Yue.
He ate too damn much.