Chapter 230 - Is It Easy?

"Bang!"

When Xue Er's figure appeared again, her puffy palm had already connected to Ye Wei's chest.

'Damn! What happened?'

Ye Wei did not expect such speed nor had he faced an opponent armed with this level of quickness. Before he could process Xue Er's strike, he was already sent flying, falling backwards.

"Haha! Loser!" Xue Er clapped her tiny hands hysterically, overwhelmed by the excitement of victory.

"How was that possible?" Ye Wei stood himself up and widened his eyes in shock, struggling to believe the innocent looking girl, who now had a childish smile on her face, just knocked him down with one strike. 'I might have a shot if I used the third Supernova Evolution alongside the Eternal Star stance. But even so I won't be quick enough to react to that kind of speed and strength in a long fight!"

"You have been tricked! There is no way you could beat her. Xue Er has been keeping her real strength a secret for a while now. She became a six-star returned prime Warrior since more than half a year ago. Our plan is to keep her strength a secret before she is strong enough to contest with the higher ranked talents." Qing Yao's eyes narrowed and curled as she laughed.

"It is impressive that your have a body of a three-star returned prime Warrior. I'm guessing your cultivation level is lower than that, but you can't defeat Xue Er with gimmicks." Qing Yao smiled and shook her head.

"Six-star returned prime level?" Ye Wei gulped and looked at Xue Er's childish face again.

'I'm glad that I've made her a friend of mine rather than a foe.' The initiate thought to himself, 'This is a great reminder… I should never judge people by first impressions, cultivators are eccentric, especially the stronger ones.' 

"Don't take it too personal. Both me and Xue Er have been training in secret realms, it's okay that you are not as strong as we are." Qing Yao gently smiled at Ye Wei and said.

"I surrender!" Without any hesitation, Ye Wei lifted his arms and shouted. 'Even if I managed to finish learning the second pattern I will not be able to fight her for longer than twenty minutes. I am also certain that she has some more tricks up her sleeves.'

'There is more competition in this palace than I expected, there will be more like Xue Er who keep a low profile before they are ready to challenge the higher ranks.' He thought. 'Like Qing Yao said, I should take advantage of the secret realms controlled by the Helians, I can't waste more time.'

Time passed quickly like a white pony's shadow across a crevice. Over two weeks' time, Ye Wei had spent hours of daylight with Qing Yao studying Light Slash Finger stance and experimenting with runes.

While sharing their experiences, Qing Yao had mentioned the Runemaster that she idolized and how she was inspired and motivated by the mysterious figure.

And when Ye Wei figured out that she was talking about none but himself, he felt increasingly uncomfortable as Qing Yao expressed her admiration again and again.

He also found out that Qing Yao assumed the mysterious Runemaster to be a respected, knowledgeable Grand-Runemaster who is trying to keep a low-profile.

There were a few moments when Ye Wei was dying to give up information that might help Qing Yao figure out he was the one she admired but he managed to hold his tongue.

A couple more days past quickly, although the duo did not manage to refine the stance, but they did improve Ye Wei's runic knowledge and he was getting more comfortable with manipulating more complicated runes.

During this period, he was also training on his own when he was not with Qing Yao. As the result, on top of mastering the Light Slash Finger stance, he also improved his own Sword Qi by a great deal. Furthermore, he was able to push his body strength and his light clone to four-star returned prime level by infusing the runic patterns of the Eternal Star Stance into his own bloodstream.

As the date of the first ranking fight approached, a lot of cultivators that had been training in remote secret realms had returned to the palace. Although more crowded, the Black Dragon Valley was even quieter than usual, the atmosphere in the palace was becoming heavier.

***

Ye Wei exhaled deeply as the first drop of sun landed on his face, the energy of the stars surrounding his body then fading. After a whole night working on the Eternal Star stance, his body was sore as his mind was restless.

"I have been training for twenty-two days straight now, eight more days and I will be facing the high ranked cultivators." The stone doors of his training chamber opened when he stood up, he mumbled to himself while he headed to his courtyard.

Standing in the courtyard, Ye Wei helplessly shook his head, breathing in cool morning air. Although in the past twenty-two days his strength improved considerately, his cultivation was not much closer to reaching the next rank.

"Cultivation should be my fundamental focus! Although I can train my body regardless of it, there is a roof to how strong my body can get with limited amount of Qi flowing through my meridians. It's not efficient to keep training my body before I breakthrough to become a returned prime Warrior."

 "My body's strength is almost at its limit" Ye Wei muttered to himself as he looked at the distant white hazy mist gathering on the horizon.

 "I must try again!" He positioned himself in the courtyard, crossed his legs to continue cultivating. He began to alter his Qi flow to the center meridians that led to the silver ball in his dantian, the ten golden fissures lit up as the ball of energy started spinning. His meridians then began to contract, pressuring his Qi. Suddenly the normal Qi flow became a great force that rushed through his entire body.

"Zoom!"

Empowered by the vast energy, the golden fissures on the silver ball of Qi began to thicken and rattle.

"Open up!" The veins on his forehead expanded and became visible, his face became pale now that he was losing control over his Qi.

"Drip… Drip…" 

Covered in sweat, with his clothes soaked through, Ye Wei was directing all of his energy to his dantian. All of a sudden a small fraction of the silver ball turned golden, but within the same second when the transformation took place, Ye Wei had lost focus. The powerful golden energy dissipated as quickly as it appeared, vanishing into nothing.

"Crack!"

With a few clicking sounds, his meridians relaxed and the golden fissures in his dantian returned to their normal state.

"I am still very far from figuring it out!"

Ye Wei wiped his face with his sleeve, disappointment overtook him as he shook his head and slightly sighed. 'The concentrated energy only overtook a tiny part of the energy ball, I would need at least ten times more Qi to actually breakthrough.'

"Qing Yao and Xue Er had to go through the same struggle in the past. I need to ask them for some advice, otherwise I'd never reach my goal before the start of the ranking tournament!" Ye Wei got up and strode towards Qing Yao's villa.

***

At the villa, Qing Yao, Xue Er and Ye Wei were sitting by the bluestone table in the courtyard, and both of the girls were shocked when Ye Wei ask about them for tips regarding breaking through to the returned prime level.

"Did I hear it right? You still haven't been able to breakthrough?"

Xue Er gave an incredulous look at Ye Wei, as subtleness was never her strong feature. 'Was it a joke? Your body strength has already reached four-star returned prime level!'

"However strong a body stance is, it's only a stance and therefore it will be limited by Qi and cultivation. I would say it is a miracle that your body could take it when your strength exceeded returned prime level. I have never heard any condensed prime managed to push their body strength past three-star returned prime level with any technique! Are you related to demons?"

She exclaimed with an air of surprise. 'This is truly unexplainable!'

"I wasn't joking. I still wasn't able to breakthrough." Used to having his cultivation as a secret as he was able to store his Qi on the Supernova runes on his bones, Ye Wei felt slightly uncomfortable talking about his relatively low cultivation level.

He took a deep breath and released a runic seal close to his palm, his Qi was then released from his bones to his meridians, giving him Qi presence like an ordinary cultivator.

"Seriously? Only a ten-star condensed prime warrior?!" Qing Yao looked suspiciously at Ye Wei, trying to see through him.

'He possessed runic knowledge that allowed him to spot a mid-level Earth stance's flaws and was even able to improve it, his body is as strong as a four-star returned prime warrior, but he is still a condensed prime?'

'To what extent can he enhance his body strength? And what will happen when he finally makes it through?' Qing Yao was more emotionally involved in developing Ye Wei to become a cultivation companion than she realized, with shining eyes she said. "It's easy if you know a couple of tricks."

As a martial art genius herself, Qing Yao saw some very impressive and talented people during her short life, however there were none who could compare to her unspoken abilities, maybe except Ye Wei.

Apart from Chi Wuxiu's dominance, Qing Yao was not sure who else could be in the way of Ye Wei's rise to the top in the future. And even Chi Wuxiu was the stronger cultivator at the time, Qing Yao was more interested in the initiate than the veteran.

'Chi Wuxiu is a truly gifted cultivator, but Ye Wei is a both a fighter and a Runemaster with brimming talent and potential.'

"It's easy if I know a couple of tricks?" mumbled Ye Wei stricken by their words. With a puzzled look he turned his face to Qing Yao, "there is a huge gap between condensed prime and returned prime warriors. How can it not be difficult?"

 "Ye Wei, for the outside world the passage from condensed prime to returned prime is demanding and very challenging. But for us in the Million Stars Palace, it's actually not that difficult. Anyone who has been training in the palace for more than a year had managed to become a returned prime Warrior!" Xue Er winked with her cute watery eyes.

Chapter 231 - Ancient Cloud Realm

"So that's why..." Ye Wei nodded after a brief moment of thinking, 'Everyone apart from the initiates I've met here are all returned prime Warriors."

"Out of all the secret realms the Helian has control over, there is a special one called Ancient Cloud, it's is guarded by golden runic puppets, which are less powerful than returned prime level. It is relatively safe comparing to other realms."

"It's not a dangerous realm and you can't find anything too valuable there. However, it is one of the only known locations where you can find Return Prime Stone." Xue Er looked at Ye Wei and spoke quietly as if she was telling someone a secret. "The stones are actually pretty common and invaluable so to speak."

"Return Prime Stones are natural storages of compact energy, any ten-star condensed prime Warrior who isn't completely stupid usually get inspired and figure out what they have to do to breakthrough when they lays hands on these stones."

"Everyone who lives here have clearance to train in the Ancient Cloud realm, that's why I said it's not difficult."

"A stone that can help condensed prime Warriors reaching returned prime stage? Common?" Ye Wei's mouth was open, clearly shocked to hear the information.

"There is only one returned prime Warrior in the outskirt region where I came from! If artefact like that is common than what do you consider rare?"

"There is a total of twelve secret realms in the Zhou dynasty, the stones are not the most powerful material within these realms." Qing Yao found Ye Wei's surprise expression cute, answering with a smile.

'What other realms?!!' Ye Wei thought to himself.

"Wei, don't listen to Qing Yao. She is from a big family and didn't go through the struggle like us! There is a phenomenon, visitors of the realm are able to acquire only one stone and the stones only releasing their energy when held by their finders. Of course she is not going find it valuable when it can't be turned into a business." Xue Er giggled and imitated Qing Yao's graceful postures. "By the way, a lot of this year's initiates have already went and got their stones actually."

"What!? Why haven't I been told about it?" Ye Wei exclaimed.

"You have beaten quite a few returned prime Warriors if you don't remember." Xue Er shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"These stones are only valuable to cultivators with a certain level of talent at a specific point of their lives. I still think Pale Moon Essence is more valuable." Qing Yao said calmly. "You should go get yours, you still have time to breakthrough before the ranking tournaments."

'I am sure all the struggling cultivators who died as ten-star condensed prime Warrior would agree with you too…' Ye Wei sighed and thought to himself.

"Qing Yao, if you don't mind, I would like to focus on breaking through instead of refining the stance for now." He spoke with honesty, "I will be in a better place to work on refining the stance once I've gotten a better ranking. I promise I will come back to refinement as soon as I can."

Feeling the responsibilities he signed himself up for, Ye Wei felt obligated to refine the Light Slash Finger stance, therefore wanted to be transparent to Qing Yao.

"Yea, I understand!" Qing Yao nodded, aware that refining an earth stance requires time, a clear mind and complete focus.

"I will be on my way!" After bidding farewell, Ye Wei directly went back to the guard post closest to his own villa, and requested access to the Ancient Cloud Realm.

A few moments later, a black runicle arrived in front of Ye Wei's villa. A middle-aged Helian agent stepped out and spoke with great authority. "Am I speaking to rank nine hundred and thirty-five, Ye Wei?"

The young initiate nodded.

"Are you packed and ready? We will be heading to the Ancient Cloud Realm right away."

Ye Wei nodded again.

"Get in the runicle." The agent ordered after checking Ye Wei's name tag.

"Zoom!"

With lightning speed, the runicle rushed towards the transportation arrays at the northern edge of the palace.

"He is heading to a secret realm?"

"Looks like it, I think I heard the guard saying Ancient Cloud realm, but why does this kid need to go there?"

"We don't need to know why, we just need to report to the Spiritualist as ordered."

"Yea, that's right."

Soon after the runicle's departure, the cultivators that had been hiding nearby all came out from the shadows at once, flew towards Qing Mu's villa as if their lives were depending on it.

Ever since Qing Yao showed interest in Ye Wei, Qing Mu the Spiritualist had ordered some of his followers to watch the initiate's movements. After learning that Ye Wei was frequently visiting Qing Yao, the Spiritualist's envy and frustration grew, he required his surveillance team to report everything they saw and heard.

"Spiritualist, Ye Wei is heading the the Ancient Cloud Realm!" the first of Qing Mu's followers to arrive kneeled down as soon as he entered his leader's living room, reporting respectfully.

"Pfft, that means he's still a condensed prime Warrior. He must not be a good one either, who needs to use a stone to breakthrough these days!" Qing Mu adjusted his jade hairpin and chuckled disdainfully, trying to cover his fear of the initiate catching up with him. 'I never thought it's possible but he could defeat returned prime Warriors while still being at condensed prime level…'

"We cannot let him." Said Qing Mu with an evil grin on his face. His cold glance fell onto his followers. "Shi Kun, Qian Dao, Zhou Huan, you three are going on a mission. Go to the Ancient Cloud Realm, stop that kid from getting his hands on a stone."

"Yes, sir!"

"Don't worry about it Spiritualist, he will not get hold of one under our watch!" Shi Kun stepped forward and declared.

"Get a move on!" Qing Mu waved and sent them away.

'Ye Wei beat Jin Kui but his victory was marginal, I don't think this damn newbie will be able to handle three returned prime Warrior at once…' The Spiritualist thought to himself as he watched his followers flew away, tried to relax and trust his men.

Within a minute after the brief meeting, a runicle came and picked up the trio from Qing Mu's doorsteps.

"He's already gone in." The trio arrived on a flat peak sat on the edge of the palace, all they could see was a runic array and nine tall crystal pillars. With no sign of Ye Wei on the flat mountaintop, they flew through the glinting monuments towards the array's center.

"Are you guys ready?" Shi Kun asked the other two and rushed towards the warp gate as soon as his colleagues nodded. 

"What are you three doing here? You are already three-star returned prime Warriors." One of the array operators knitted his brows, asking with confusion.

"Just do your job, you are here to assist us with the teleportation array, not to ask useless questions. You should keep your nose out of Qing Mu the spiritualist's business." Shi Kun grunted and said with great pride.

"Qing Mu the spiritualist?" The official's face changed, nodded to the trio and activated the teleportation array.

Since the low clearance operators were aware of Qing Mu's influence in the palace and in the Helian family, they knew better than to cross the talented youngster. Not quite sure what they just witnessed, they frowned, looked at each other then started chatting once the trio left.

"They have no reason to go to the Ancient Cloud Realm, something's not right."

"That's what I thought as well, let's report it to the elders just in case."

The gate guards quickly wrote a small note and sent it to the Helian elders with a teleportation rune sequence.

***

Ye Wei could not see or hear anything, since the moment he entered the teleportation array he could not feel his own weight and simultaneously became disorientated.

However, having used a similar teleportation array once before, he was aware that the strange, pulsing sensation he felt came from the friction between him and the dimensional barriers which separated a physical realms from one another.

He could not quite quantify the amount of time he spent travelling uncomfortably through the warp, he was relieved when he felt a drop of warm sun on his skin. When Ye Wei could see again, he found himself on a desert island.

'I am in the middle on the ocean?' A sobering salty smell and the sound of waves breaking awakened Ye Wei's senses.

With every wave of sea breeze slapping his face, Ye Wei regained a bit of consciousness. He gazed to all direction and the only thing he could on the edge of the horizon was water and clouds.

The clouds were suspending just meters off the ground and sea level, making it hard for Ye Wei to visually navigate the area.

"I guess I should go there…" After a few minutes of looking around, Ye Wei spotted a palace floating on top the sea behind the cloud.

The structure was glittering like gold and transparent like jade. Ye Wei could not figure out what material it was made of, but he could vaguely feel a vortex of energy from the direction of the palace.

Outside the entrance stood hundreds of large golden golems, they were surrounding the tightly shut gate. Ye Wei tried to reach into the palace with his will-force but the energy he sent was quickly rejected by the runic shield around the structure.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to penetrate the palace's walls with his will-force, Ye Wei gave up trying altogether. 'There are some people over there, I should get my stone first and worry about the palace later!'

"So those are the golden puppets Qing Yao and Xue Er mentioned." Ye Wei smiled, mumbling to himself while looking afar at the palace. "They are indeed below returned prime level, nothing I can't handle."

More than twenty initiates were fighting the puppets, none of them were above condensed prime level.

"So one of these return prime stones shoots out from the palace once you have defeated the puppet. That's what she meant when she said everyone can only get the stone once..."

"That doesn't look too hard!"

"Zoom!"

Ye Wei's feet viciously propelled against the ground, riding a bow of starlike runic patterns as he sped towards the palace in the middle of the sea.

"It's Ye Wei!"

"He is my hero! But what is he doing here?"

"He just got himself onto the Black Dragon List! We should go ask him for some cultivation tips!" Everyone was excited to see the person that saved them from being humiliated by the veterans.

After ten breaths' time, Ye Wei landed in front of the palace, taking a closer look at the initiates. 'Jian Chen isn't here, but I recognize Hong Hai, I got him out of a beating from the veterans.'