A cold breeze blew through the Tai Ah Divine City deep into the night, covering the city in snow once again.
It had snowed twice during the past few days of the rookie ranking competition.
In a city like the Tai Ah Divine City, it had layers upon layers of arrays. Once the arrays were initiated, they would allow the whole city to experience the warmth of spring throughout the entire year. However, this was a great waste of energy and there was no reason to do so. The Yuan Qi gathered within the Tai Ah Divine City arrays were instead supplied to the warriors for cultivation.
Yi Yun walked along the streets. Every time he stepped onto the snow, the compacted snow would tremble and make a crunching sound.
There were rows of houses with unsophisticated ambiances on both sides of the street.
Yi Yun kept on recalling the battles that happened in the day.
There was no doubt that both Chu Xiaoran and Qiuniu possessed outstanding capabilities. Most importantly, each of them had their own characteristics and strengths.
Chu Xiaoran had gained insight into a law, while Qiuniu had his strong body…
Between the two of them, in their own respective aspects, they were so strong that they made others feel helpless to the point of losing confidence!
Of course, Yi Yun was not lacking in confidence. Chu Xiaoran and Qiuniu may be strong, but Yi Yun still had the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'.
But the problem was…
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could not be considered a strength of Yi Yun.
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' was strong and the warriors who mastered the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could easily beat warriors with average cultivation techniques. They could even battle people who were a few levels above them and it would still be as easy as eating and drinking.
But… the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could not be considered to be a 'specialty'!
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could suppress others through its absolute power. But if they were to face someone who also cultivated the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', or someone whose 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' level was higher than their own, such as Qin Haotian, then they would lose all the advantages that the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' gave them. What mattered then would be a competition amongst their other aspects.
The other aspects included competing in terms of strength, laws, speed or battle experience…
What was his competitive advantage? What did he have that allowed him to beat Qin Haotian?
He would most likely lose even at the same level!
Yi Yun suddenly realized that his battle power was far too weak. Besides the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' and the large success stage of Minute Subtlety, he had no other competitive advantages.
Yi Yun had great ambition. If a typical warrior were to master the legendary 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' in a short period of time, they would be so excited that they would lose themselves, but Yi Yun felt that it was still insufficient. He needed to strengthen every aspect of himself. He wanted to be an all-rounded person without any weaknesses!
Such as… saber techniques!
Yi Yun's saber techniques had always been weak. In fact, he had no saber techniques at all.
The saber moves that were derived from the 'Nine Mysterious Swords of Heaven' technique were nothing in front of an expert.
With this thought in mind, Yi Yun started walking towards a new direction. He stopped in front of a palace after walking down the street for fifteen minutes.
He looked up and saw the three-meter-wide plaque that was hanging on top of the palace entrance and on that plaque were three large words—Sword Scar Palace!
These three words were sharply written and they contained an aura. With just a glance, it was obvious that it was written by a master.
Yi Yun had long since heard about the Sword Scar Palace. He always wanted to pay a visit to it. This was the best place for the cultivators of the Tai Ah Divine City to increase their compatibility with their weapons.
It cost 1000 dragon scale runes, just like the Wilderness Divine hall, to enter the Sword Scar Palace for two hours.
To the present Yi Yun, a thousand dragon scale runes were nothing. After paying, Yi Yun entered the palace.
The palace was not large. There were large rectangular stones in it. These large stones were Immutable Ancient Rocks and they were produced in the Divine Wilderness. Whatever was carved on such rocks could not be erased, even if they were to be exposed to the elements of nature for millions of years.
On the walls around the Immutable Ancient Rocks, there was all sort of scar marks. These scars were left behind by the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom’s Sages. There were sword scars, saber scars, claw marks and even fist prints!
No matter what the weapon was, you could find the corresponding mark within the Sword Scar Palace. The assault abstraction* of the attackers were left behind within these scars.
One came to the Sword Scar Palace to gain insight into these concepts.
As Yi Yun was beginning to gain some insights, he caught sight of someone through the corner of his eye.
It was a thin, little old man. His hair and beard were messy, but the most amazing thing about him was the blood-red gem embedded in between his eyebrows. It sparkled under the everlasting lamps in the hall.
The old man was wearing a large gray robe. He was comfortably reclining on a lounge chair and his eyes were half-squinted as if he was almost falling asleep due to the comfort.
There was a plate containing crystal-like grapes on a table beside him.
The little old man would occasionally reach out to pick up a grape lazily and put it in his mouth. He looked like he was enjoying himself a lot.
"Senior, you are here too?" Yi Yun was surprised. He had seen this old man before. The blood-red gem in the middle of the old man's eyebrows had left a deep impression on Yi Yun.
Back when Yi Yun went to the Wilderness Divine Hall to absorb the primordial strain's energy, he had met this old man when he came out of the divine hall. He had attacked Yi Yun without any warning and he had defeated him with one move. He had even reprimanded Yi Yun, telling him how terrible his saber skills were.
Back then, this little old man had recommended Yi Yun to visit the Sword Scar Palace but Yi Yun had never expected that he would run into him when he really made the trip.
The old man opened his eyes and glanced at Yi Yun. He laughed and said, "Kid, you finally thought of my place?"
"Greetings, Senior." Yi Yun cupped his hands and bowed. "I'm here to gain insights from the Sage saber scars."
"Saber scars? Hehe!" The old man plucked another grape and threw it into his mouth. He shook his head and said, "Gaining insight from saber scars… Do you know where the deepest saber scar abstractions are in the Sword Scar Palace?"
Yi Yun shook his head after being questioned by the old man and said, "I do not."
The old man chuckled as if he had predicted Yi Yun's answer. He said, "Let me take you to a good place. I guarantee you that it will be extremely beneficial to you!"
Hearing the old man's words, Yi Yun was overjoyed. It could not get any better with someone giving him pointers.
"Thank you, Senior."
"Heh, it's no big deal!" The old man waved his hand, before suddenly remembering something, "Right…"
The old man stretched his right hand before Yi Yun and pinched his thumb and index finger. He gave a wretched-looking smile, "Did you bring enough dragon scale runes? The place I am taking you to will charge an additional fee."
Yi Yun hesitated for a while before smiling, "I have brought enough."
Charging more dragon scale runes? That was nothing!
Yi Yun had over a 100,000 dragon scale runes. There were not many places that he could not enter in the Tai Ah Divine City.
All Yi Yun cared about was the best cultivation resources. He paid no heed to the price.
"Oh… That's good!" The old man looked relieved and said, "The place I'm taking you to will need an additional 10,000 dragon scale runes, and at the same time… you will need to pay a glory point. You should still have a glory point left, right? By handing over the primordial herb, you must have received plenty of rewards?"
The old man grinned as he asked Yi Yun. When Yi Yun heard this, he froze up.
What!?
10,000 dragon scale runes… and an additional glory point!?
He could not have heard wrongly!
Although he paid no heed to price and only wanted the best, this fee was unreasonable.
This was robbery!
Looking at the old man with his wretched smile, Yi Yun felt a chill. This old bastard looked like an old swindler. Was he cheating him!?
"Senior, did you make a mistake?” Yi Yun asked tactfully, “This junior only needed two glory points to buy the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'…"
The old man shook his head like a rattle, "How could I make a mistake? This price is because a kid like you knows me and it is charged this price on account of our friendship. If it were anyone else, they might not even enter with that price! That place is not an ordinary place. After entering it, you will definitely have great gains. As for buying the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' with two glory points, that was just the first three volumes. The fourth and fifth volume combined will need five glory points. The prices of the last few volumes even increase at an astonishing rate. Do you think that the entire 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' is cheap? So what about it? Are you going in? You can enter that place and stay there for a whole day. You will regret it if you don't go!"
The little old man began to tempt Yi Yun.
Yi Yun was in a dilemma. The old man looked like an old swindler. But as an administrator of the Tai Ah Divine City, even if he did not have any moral integrity, he still wouldn't cheat a rookie, right?
Was it really worth the price?
10,000 dragon scale runes were not much, but a glory point… That was a precious resource that the top-ranked experts in the Tai Ah Divine City particularly cherished!
By needing to pay a glory point to enter, that meant that 99% of the cultivators in the Tai Ah Divine City had absolutely no chance of entering it once in their six years here!
Even the cultivators who earned a glory point might not be willing to part with the glory point to gain entrance!
Yi Yun only had three glory points left. After breaking the herb-picking record, he had received two glory points and one glory point left from the primordial herb.
"To be able to enter this training ground for a day, that's considered quite long. As for the rookie ranking competition, there is still slightly more than seven days left. In the next two days, no one would challenge me. I won't miss much if I don't watch those matches…"
Yi Yun was tempted. He really wanted to take a look at such a place.
Even if he could not grasp anything, it was not like he could not afford the loss of this glory point.
So, Yi Yun nodded saying, "Senior, please lead the way!"
"Hehe, swift and decisive!" The old man laughed as he patted Yi Yun's shoulders and gave a thumbs up. "Young man, you are really promising!"
Seeing the old man look as if he had fallen into money, Yi Yun became increasingly skeptical. Did the old man get a cut from promoting this mysterious training ground?
There was no way the Tai Ah Divine City would have such immoral rules, right?
As the old man was about to leave, with a thought, he took the bunch of grapes from the plate and put it in his pocket. As he plucked it to eat, he said to Yi Yun, "Follow me and I guarantee you that you will not regret it!"
*Assault abstraction refers to the concepts behind the original creator’s attack and how he moved when performing it. This is learned by watching and contemplating on the marks left behind
It had snowed twice during the past few days of the rookie ranking competition.
In a city like the Tai Ah Divine City, it had layers upon layers of arrays. Once the arrays were initiated, they would allow the whole city to experience the warmth of spring throughout the entire year. However, this was a great waste of energy and there was no reason to do so. The Yuan Qi gathered within the Tai Ah Divine City arrays were instead supplied to the warriors for cultivation.
Yi Yun walked along the streets. Every time he stepped onto the snow, the compacted snow would tremble and make a crunching sound.
There were rows of houses with unsophisticated ambiances on both sides of the street.
Yi Yun kept on recalling the battles that happened in the day.
There was no doubt that both Chu Xiaoran and Qiuniu possessed outstanding capabilities. Most importantly, each of them had their own characteristics and strengths.
Chu Xiaoran had gained insight into a law, while Qiuniu had his strong body…
Between the two of them, in their own respective aspects, they were so strong that they made others feel helpless to the point of losing confidence!
Of course, Yi Yun was not lacking in confidence. Chu Xiaoran and Qiuniu may be strong, but Yi Yun still had the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'.
But the problem was…
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could not be considered a strength of Yi Yun.
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' was strong and the warriors who mastered the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could easily beat warriors with average cultivation techniques. They could even battle people who were a few levels above them and it would still be as easy as eating and drinking.
But… the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could not be considered to be a 'specialty'!
The 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' could suppress others through its absolute power. But if they were to face someone who also cultivated the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique', or someone whose 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' level was higher than their own, such as Qin Haotian, then they would lose all the advantages that the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' gave them. What mattered then would be a competition amongst their other aspects.
The other aspects included competing in terms of strength, laws, speed or battle experience…
What was his competitive advantage? What did he have that allowed him to beat Qin Haotian?
He would most likely lose even at the same level!
Yi Yun suddenly realized that his battle power was far too weak. Besides the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' and the large success stage of Minute Subtlety, he had no other competitive advantages.
Yi Yun had great ambition. If a typical warrior were to master the legendary 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' in a short period of time, they would be so excited that they would lose themselves, but Yi Yun felt that it was still insufficient. He needed to strengthen every aspect of himself. He wanted to be an all-rounded person without any weaknesses!
Such as… saber techniques!
Yi Yun's saber techniques had always been weak. In fact, he had no saber techniques at all.
The saber moves that were derived from the 'Nine Mysterious Swords of Heaven' technique were nothing in front of an expert.
With this thought in mind, Yi Yun started walking towards a new direction. He stopped in front of a palace after walking down the street for fifteen minutes.
He looked up and saw the three-meter-wide plaque that was hanging on top of the palace entrance and on that plaque were three large words—Sword Scar Palace!
These three words were sharply written and they contained an aura. With just a glance, it was obvious that it was written by a master.
Yi Yun had long since heard about the Sword Scar Palace. He always wanted to pay a visit to it. This was the best place for the cultivators of the Tai Ah Divine City to increase their compatibility with their weapons.
It cost 1000 dragon scale runes, just like the Wilderness Divine hall, to enter the Sword Scar Palace for two hours.
To the present Yi Yun, a thousand dragon scale runes were nothing. After paying, Yi Yun entered the palace.
The palace was not large. There were large rectangular stones in it. These large stones were Immutable Ancient Rocks and they were produced in the Divine Wilderness. Whatever was carved on such rocks could not be erased, even if they were to be exposed to the elements of nature for millions of years.
On the walls around the Immutable Ancient Rocks, there was all sort of scar marks. These scars were left behind by the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom’s Sages. There were sword scars, saber scars, claw marks and even fist prints!
No matter what the weapon was, you could find the corresponding mark within the Sword Scar Palace. The assault abstraction* of the attackers were left behind within these scars.
One came to the Sword Scar Palace to gain insight into these concepts.
As Yi Yun was beginning to gain some insights, he caught sight of someone through the corner of his eye.
It was a thin, little old man. His hair and beard were messy, but the most amazing thing about him was the blood-red gem embedded in between his eyebrows. It sparkled under the everlasting lamps in the hall.
The old man was wearing a large gray robe. He was comfortably reclining on a lounge chair and his eyes were half-squinted as if he was almost falling asleep due to the comfort.
There was a plate containing crystal-like grapes on a table beside him.
The little old man would occasionally reach out to pick up a grape lazily and put it in his mouth. He looked like he was enjoying himself a lot.
"Senior, you are here too?" Yi Yun was surprised. He had seen this old man before. The blood-red gem in the middle of the old man's eyebrows had left a deep impression on Yi Yun.
Back when Yi Yun went to the Wilderness Divine Hall to absorb the primordial strain's energy, he had met this old man when he came out of the divine hall. He had attacked Yi Yun without any warning and he had defeated him with one move. He had even reprimanded Yi Yun, telling him how terrible his saber skills were.
Back then, this little old man had recommended Yi Yun to visit the Sword Scar Palace but Yi Yun had never expected that he would run into him when he really made the trip.
The old man opened his eyes and glanced at Yi Yun. He laughed and said, "Kid, you finally thought of my place?"
"Greetings, Senior." Yi Yun cupped his hands and bowed. "I'm here to gain insights from the Sage saber scars."
"Saber scars? Hehe!" The old man plucked another grape and threw it into his mouth. He shook his head and said, "Gaining insight from saber scars… Do you know where the deepest saber scar abstractions are in the Sword Scar Palace?"
Yi Yun shook his head after being questioned by the old man and said, "I do not."
The old man chuckled as if he had predicted Yi Yun's answer. He said, "Let me take you to a good place. I guarantee you that it will be extremely beneficial to you!"
Hearing the old man's words, Yi Yun was overjoyed. It could not get any better with someone giving him pointers.
"Thank you, Senior."
"Heh, it's no big deal!" The old man waved his hand, before suddenly remembering something, "Right…"
The old man stretched his right hand before Yi Yun and pinched his thumb and index finger. He gave a wretched-looking smile, "Did you bring enough dragon scale runes? The place I am taking you to will charge an additional fee."
Yi Yun hesitated for a while before smiling, "I have brought enough."
Charging more dragon scale runes? That was nothing!
Yi Yun had over a 100,000 dragon scale runes. There were not many places that he could not enter in the Tai Ah Divine City.
All Yi Yun cared about was the best cultivation resources. He paid no heed to the price.
"Oh… That's good!" The old man looked relieved and said, "The place I'm taking you to will need an additional 10,000 dragon scale runes, and at the same time… you will need to pay a glory point. You should still have a glory point left, right? By handing over the primordial herb, you must have received plenty of rewards?"
The old man grinned as he asked Yi Yun. When Yi Yun heard this, he froze up.
What!?
10,000 dragon scale runes… and an additional glory point!?
He could not have heard wrongly!
Although he paid no heed to price and only wanted the best, this fee was unreasonable.
This was robbery!
Looking at the old man with his wretched smile, Yi Yun felt a chill. This old bastard looked like an old swindler. Was he cheating him!?
"Senior, did you make a mistake?” Yi Yun asked tactfully, “This junior only needed two glory points to buy the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique'…"
The old man shook his head like a rattle, "How could I make a mistake? This price is because a kid like you knows me and it is charged this price on account of our friendship. If it were anyone else, they might not even enter with that price! That place is not an ordinary place. After entering it, you will definitely have great gains. As for buying the 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' with two glory points, that was just the first three volumes. The fourth and fifth volume combined will need five glory points. The prices of the last few volumes even increase at an astonishing rate. Do you think that the entire 'Tai Ah Sacred Technique' is cheap? So what about it? Are you going in? You can enter that place and stay there for a whole day. You will regret it if you don't go!"
The little old man began to tempt Yi Yun.
Yi Yun was in a dilemma. The old man looked like an old swindler. But as an administrator of the Tai Ah Divine City, even if he did not have any moral integrity, he still wouldn't cheat a rookie, right?
Was it really worth the price?
10,000 dragon scale runes were not much, but a glory point… That was a precious resource that the top-ranked experts in the Tai Ah Divine City particularly cherished!
By needing to pay a glory point to enter, that meant that 99% of the cultivators in the Tai Ah Divine City had absolutely no chance of entering it once in their six years here!
Even the cultivators who earned a glory point might not be willing to part with the glory point to gain entrance!
Yi Yun only had three glory points left. After breaking the herb-picking record, he had received two glory points and one glory point left from the primordial herb.
"To be able to enter this training ground for a day, that's considered quite long. As for the rookie ranking competition, there is still slightly more than seven days left. In the next two days, no one would challenge me. I won't miss much if I don't watch those matches…"
Yi Yun was tempted. He really wanted to take a look at such a place.
Even if he could not grasp anything, it was not like he could not afford the loss of this glory point.
So, Yi Yun nodded saying, "Senior, please lead the way!"
"Hehe, swift and decisive!" The old man laughed as he patted Yi Yun's shoulders and gave a thumbs up. "Young man, you are really promising!"
Seeing the old man look as if he had fallen into money, Yi Yun became increasingly skeptical. Did the old man get a cut from promoting this mysterious training ground?
There was no way the Tai Ah Divine City would have such immoral rules, right?
As the old man was about to leave, with a thought, he took the bunch of grapes from the plate and put it in his pocket. As he plucked it to eat, he said to Yi Yun, "Follow me and I guarantee you that you will not regret it!"
*Assault abstraction refers to the concepts behind the original creator’s attack and how he moved when performing it. This is learned by watching and contemplating on the marks left behind
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