Plundering the Heavens Chapter 153

Xiao Mahn came and delivered a bottle of successfully-crafted seventh-tier Poji Pellets a month later. After wasting four cauldrons of attempted pellets, she’d finally succeeded with the final cauldron and so immediately brought these over to receive Fang Xing’s praise. Fang Xing was also at the stage where he needed these pellets, so he was delighted to see this; he gave Xiao Mahn a big kiss on the cheek before handing over a few more sets of ingredients for her to practice with.

Xiao Mahn had also brought some bad news: Elder Qin’nyao had given her more "spy missions". She was now supposed to find out exactly what Fang Xing had learned, and was supposed to see if she could secretly learn it on Elder Qin’nyao’s behalf.

When it came to Elder Qin’nyao’s plans, Fang Xing had anticipated them well in advance. He’d already specially prepared a set of techniques for Elder Qin’nyao, but there was no rush in revealing them to her just yet. This old bag had not only aimed her schemes in his direction, but had also used a method Fang Xing despised; he would just play along with it for a bit longer. Besides, he was not someone who would feel rushed, and the longer he delayed, the more rewards Xiao Mahn would receive.

It wasn’t until two months later that Fang Xing felt it was about time for him to whisper something into Xiao Mahn’s ear for her to deliver back, and it didn’t take more than an hour after Xiao Mahn’s departure before Elder Qin’nyao arrived.

Elder Qin’nyao wore her usual expressionless face, but in the depths of her eyes was a hint of excitement. She dispersed the cloud beneath her feet as she arrived in front of Fang Xing. "I heard from Xiao Mahn that you have indeed been worried about Linyun not being Xiao Jianming’s opponent and would offer a technique for her?"

Fang Xing pretended to be troubled before releasing a sigh. "Yes, a technique Shishu Bai taught me. Although he advised me not to easily pass it on to anyone else, Shijie Linyun has been great to me, so I really don’t want to see her beaten up by that turtle-egg bastard of a Xiao Jianming or have her chance of breaking into the Foundation Stage be stolen by him, either. So I’ve decided I will offer this for her, hoping it will be useful…."

Elder Qin’nyao’s eyes instantly lit up as her lips curled upwards. "Since you’re willing to offer such a technique, her chances of winning are even higher!"

Fang Xing lowered his head and began kicking the pebbles on the ground with the tip of his toe, not saying a word.

Growing impatient, Elder Qin’nyao suddenly understood and displayed a cold smile even though her tone was warm and gentle. "By the way, I made a cauldron of pellets just recently. I’d originally intended to give them to Linyun to increase her cultivation levels, but I’m sure they would be useful to you as well. There are a few leftovers, so why don’t you have them? If you have any other needs in the future, just let me know!" As she spoke, she flicked a small vase over to him.

Fang Xing immediately accepted the vase, although when he opened the lid to look inside, he found only three eighth-tier Beast Pellets. He placed the vase inside his storage sack while inwardly cursing in his heart at how stingy this old bag was.

"Elder Qin’nyao, you treat Shijie Linyun so well. You are such a great teacher…." Fang Xing didn’t forget to suck up to her even as he carefully took out a jade scroll and handed it up to her using both of his hands. "I recorded the entirety of the technique onto this jade scroll during the past few days."

Elder Qin’nyao had already taken the scroll before Fang Xing had finished speaking before—rudely, right in front of Fang Xing—she quickly opened it up to look inside. She was overjoyed when she sensed it was indeed a technique related to Qi purification and cleansing the physique, but she held onto her mood and spoke only a few more sentences before eagerly flying back.

It was all too obvious to Fang Xing that Elder Qin’nyao was going back to her valley to study the jade scroll he’d given. The way she had so intently looked over the scroll caused Fang Xing to silently curse her, as he had now lost all respect for this Foundation Stage cultivator. ‘Heh, aren’t you just abusing Shijie Linyun’s kindness as a pretense to force me to hand the technique over to you? Take your time and read it slowly; this technique that old bird took three days and three nights to come up with is the one most suitable for you….’

Fang Xing quietly smirked to himself and spat in the direction Elder Qin’nyao had left in before he returned back to the pavilion. He believed after this event, Elder Qin’nyao would not bother him any longer. He also believed that once she read through this technique he’d given, it would be as though she had just slapped herself, satisfying some of his anger.

Things went just as Fang Xing had expected, and Elder Qin’nyao immediately announced her seclusion once she’d returned to her valley. She took out the jade scroll and carefully studied its contents and—thinking there may be traps contained within—she spent quite some time trying to determine its authenticity. It didn’t take long before it was confirmed to be genuine, and she was pleasantly surprised to find out it was far more powerful than even a Principle-grade technique— its grade was unmistakably Ancient.

However, she understood the usage of this Ancient technique within just three days of seclusion, leaving her completely dissatisfied. All of the excitement and hope she’d felt at first was replaced with only disappointment. This was because she realized this technique belonged to a subtype known as "wedding dress techniques".

As the name implied, a "wedding dress technique" involved the user sacrificing all of their Qi to pass it down onto another person, just like one might a treasured wedding dress. Simply put, this technique was not suitable for her to improve her own cultivation, but was a technique used to cleanse the Qi of Spirit Stage cultivators at her expense. Such techniques were typically used by cultivators with much higher cultivation levels nearing the end of their lifespan, who’d cleanse the physique and Qi of their chosen pupil by using up their own cultivation level.

"No wonder Shishu Bai went into seclusion so quickly…. It was because he used this wedding dress technique on the boy…." Elder Qin’nyao’s expression became gloomy as she lost all of her hope and even began to feel a little angry. She’d spent an entire three months scheming to get her hands on this Ancient technique, yet it was something so useless. This made her feel more than just simply "annoyed".

This Ancient technique was indeed useful to Xu Linyun—as long as Elder Qin’nyao was willing to sacrifice her own cultivation. If she were to use this technique to cleanse Xu Linyun’s Qi, then it was indeed possible Xu Linyun would reach the same foundation as Fang Xing and have a winning chance against Xiao Jianming. However… Elder Qin’nyao was no fool; no matter how fond she was of Xu Linyun, was it really to the degree she was willing to sacrifice herself for her?

Let alone Elder Qin’nyao, not even Xiao Shanhe would be willing to do the same for Xiao Jianming, his own nephew. Both she and Xiao Shanhe had a chance of breaking into the Golden Core Stage, after all; if they were to perform this technique, they would be cutting off any hope of forming a golden core themselves.

Although she was disappointed, Elder Qin’nyao was also in a rather awkward position. She’d promised the boy this Ancient technique was all for the sake of Xu Linyun. Now that he’d actually given her the technique manual, if she weren’t to perform it, wouldn’t that mean she hadn’t kept her promise?

When she thought about this, Elder Qin’nyao suddenly felt she no longer wished to see Fang Xing ever again.

"I’m gonna push now…."

"Go ahead…."

Next to the thousand-foot waterfall, the golden crow had his wings spread open as he flew through the sky. No fewer than thirty giant stones weighing from a thousand pounds to seven thousand pounds laid around the area. After carefully calling out to Fang Xing who was inside the waterfall below, the golden crow suddenly flourished one of his wings.

The wing’s movement formed two twirling tornadoes that crashed against the stones with a terribly powerful impact. A thunderous sound rang out, and a dozen or so of these giant stones were pushed by the force of the wind to fall into the waterfall together.

"Hundred and Eight Thousand Swords…."

The pair of solid gold wings appeared behind Fang Xing, dazzling beneath the sunlight. Fang Xing was already leaping against the stream when the wings spread open, and he cut the waterdrops into dazzling blossoms of flowers. He ascended quickly, and—within a few blinks—he’d already gone more than three hundred feet. It was at this moment that the giant stones began to fall alongside the stream of water.

Swish swish swish….

Fang Xing suddenly started to rotate while the golden wings curled in over his head, forming a golden shield made of sword light. Numerous sword lights formed atop the shield and burst out into the air above, every single one of them hitting a giant stone on its way. It was as though the sword lights were impossible to stop, and the giant stones in their path were cut into halves before shattering and falling down as a rain of gravel. Fang Xing’s wings then twisted even more thoroughly on each other, and the gravel was broken into even smaller pieces as he sent them flickering away.

Woosh….

Once the giant stones had been shattered into pieces, Fang Xing suddenly left the waterfall, spreading out his wings as he floated in midair.

The golden crow slowly flew over, a look of surprise in his eyes. "Not bad…." Even though he’d been beside Fang Xing and helping him in this training for the past three months, he was still surprised by how fast Fang Xing had progressed.

"Hehe, I took the seventh-tier Poji Pellet from Xiao Mahn a couple days ago and have broken through into tier seven. Practicing this Hundred and Eight Thousand Swords has become much easier now that I have three times more Qi, but I’m still not at the basic mastery. Based on the records within this technique, basic mastery requires the user to be able to control ninety-nine sword lights at once, and advanced mastery requires a hundred thousand…." As he spoke to himself, Fang Xing flapped his wings, pushing his body slightly backwards so he could land atop the golden crow’s back.

The Ancient beast tribe technique he’d been practicing could not only defend while attacking, but also allow him to temporarily fly. The only problem was the fact it was an extreme waste of Qi; at his current level, if he were to rely solely on this technique to fly, he would be able to do so for only a burn of an incense.

"A hundred thousand sword lights? That is probably the level reached by someone in the Golden Core Stage, right?" The golden crow smacked his beak, feeling that Fang Xing was expecting a little too much from himself.

"One can never have too much battle prowess. I want to achieve ninety-nine sword lights by the end of this six month period!" Fang Xing proudly said as he opened his wine gourd and took a large gulp.

"Ninety-nine? That’s still not easy…. Hey, you’re drinking wine? Give me a sip!" The golden crow turned his neck around and opened his beak so Fang Xing could give him a sip, leaving the boy speechless.

Ever since the golden crow had found out his gourd contained spirit wine, he’d become addicted and would ask to drink from it every time Fang Xing did. It was impossible to tell how he digested it… though, considering the fact this crow had once swallowed two and a half leaves of Purple Mist Orchid, he certainly had to have some secrets of his own. It was highly likely this had something to do with that Beast King Cauldron, as well.

With practice complete, Fang Xing felt that his Qi was quite low and his hunger was quite high. The golden crow dove into the forest and caught a wild gazelle, and so Fang Xing squatted beside the waterfall while cleaning and cutting it, separating it into pieces before placing them onto the bonfire to be grilled.

The pair would often have a meal like this after training, and it had already become a habit. The golden crow’s eyes were shining as he squatted to the side, already drooling; Fang Xing’s cooking skills were not just for show.

The fatty oils quickly began to sizzle as it cooked, and the smell of the meat spread out in all directions. Fang Xing cut off a few pieces and began to share the meat with the crow. After such rigorous trainings, a few mouthfuls of grilled meat coupled with some spirit wine was extremely satisfying.

"Not praying to Buddha nor revering the gods; of three thousand paths, I love only the mortal road. When the shore shows ahead, the boat is turned around; a kindred spirit is worth little compared to silver or gold…."

Just as the pair had been enjoying their meal, a lean monk-looking person had emerged from within the depths of the forest while chanting.

Chapter end