Vol 1 Chapter 16 (1/2)
Volume 1, Chapter 16 – Heavenly Sect’s Contention at the Clear Sky Peak (Part 7)
Hearing Zhang Yan’s words, leaving no s.p.a.ce to negotiate further, Shen Jingyue was not angry. Instead, he only lightly smiled, “Brother Zhang, let’s put our best efforts into this fight!”
He turned and stepped down the platform. Not long after, the fat and round-faced Zhang Zhen slowly stepped onto the platform, but since he was not good at words, he only sent a courteous greeting to Zhang Yan. Afterward, they immediately took their own seats respectively.
Zhang Zhen quickly looked at the first Star Stele. The first one was divided into three chapters, containing more than 10,000 characters. He had secretly read those laws inscribed on this first stele in the previous Daoist convention.
However, as he looked at those mnemonics again, he felt as if there were ants and insects crawling in his eyes. The sensation quickly made his heart and state of mind greatly disturbed. He anxiously took a few deep breaths and tried to calm his mind. He then took bamboo tokens out of his sleeves and prepared to deduce the text. Meanwhile, his eyes accidentally glanced over Zhang Yan. However, Zhang Yan’s actions made him greatly startled.
He could see that Zhang Yan had unceasingly written several lines on the paper with an ease expression. The doubts couldn’t help but fill his heart. What kind of play did this Zhang Yan currently make?
Not only did he become puzzled, all the onlookers from the various sects, including Shen Jingyue, were also puzzled. They didn’t know why Zhang Yan would act so mysterious like this.
It must be known that most people didn’t believe that Zhang Yan had already started to decipher the text and wrote his interpretation. Not only did he not use a bamboo token, his writing speed was also very fast. It was as if he didn’t deduce the profound Eclipse text, but was simply copying the article onto a new transcript.
In fact, Zhang Yan’s writing pace when deducing this Star Stele’s inscriptions was no different than the pace of what it would take to copy a ma.n.u.script onto another piece of paper.
However, n.o.body knew that at this time when he was facing the Vast Origin Sect, he looked calm and relaxed on the surface as if everything was in his control. But in fact, how could he have a trace of relaxation? Almost all of his efforts were solely focused as his consciousness sank into the broken jade’s s.p.a.ce and crazily deduced the text’s meaning at an unbelievable speed.
As he read the texts, the content would be directly sent to his jade’s s.p.a.ce and the text’s interpretation would unceasingly flow out through his pen brush. So an outsider could only see that Zhang Yan’s act was simply inconceivable.
Looking at Zhang Yan’s act, Zhang Zhen quickly s.h.i.+fted his sight, as he didn’t dare to look at him anymore. He thought that it was Zhang Yan’s strategy to confuse his mind. He quickly decided to no longer pay any attention to him. After calming his mind and controlling his breath, he used the Vast Origin Sect’s particular method to decipher the text.
At this moment, Zhang Yan also had no time to divide his attention to other things. However, after writing the first sentence, his inner force moved inexplicably and then randomly seeped into all of his limbs’ bones. This wonderful sensation was very marvelous, it was as if his consciousness was currently blended into one ent.i.ty with the heavens. The star axle started to revolve, s.h.i.+ning within his body as with thousands of Dao laws were condensing. He ignored all the subtle changes within as he then continued with double the caution.
Before long, the awe-inspiring feeling he got from the Star Steles’ aura was greatly reduced. His previously shaken mental state gradually turned into a normal feeling that the Star Steles were only a ‘mediocre’ thing.
It was not because Zhang Yan was arrogant or conceited, but the more he deduced the Star Stele’s inscriptions, the more he could glimpse into certain mysterious laws.
Deducing the Star Stele opened the opportunity for a cultivator to subconsciously revolve their Qi along with all the characters and phrases they were currently reading and writing, it would be very difficult for one to carefully think and a.n.a.lyze it. However, once one was facing difficulties and stopped deducing; of he couldn’t find out the solution for the next step and meanings from the text in a certain time, their Qi flow would be in disorder and fall into chaos.
This was like a horse which was anxiously galloping forward at high speed. The rider must keep removing obstacles for it as it cannot be stopped at the rider’s will.
Such an Eclipse text interpretation, if not conducted by highly skilled people was extremely dangerous. However, even Zhang Yan’s speed in deducing the texts was far beyond many people.
This was Zhang Yan’s forte. Added with his broken jade’s functions, he almost had never made any mistake and misinterpreted anything. His deduction time was also one tenth of anyone’s due to the jade’s function. Even if he was facing any difficulties, he was only slightly troubled by it, but it didn’t change his pace at all.
Under this situation, he could completely open up his mind and savor the wonderful sensation of the Qi revolution within his body, as he slowly and gradually became more familiar and understood the Qi flow’s natural laws.
It was said that the Star Steles’ inscriptions corresponded to the subtle moves of the stars in the sky. However, Zhang Yan felt that this was not really the case.
In his interpretation, there were several Eclipse texts that had been repeated on the Stele, and each time the texts were repeated, his Qi flowed correspondingly.
According to this point of view, it seemed that if the interpreter silently read this specific text, his Qi would be voluntarily and silently revolved.
Just when he was thinking about this conclusion, several lines amongst these dense Eclipse texts gradually shone in his eyes! Zhang Yan suddenly became aware, as he was enlightened that this was caused by the star revolving on its...o...b..t. The wise Daoist from ancient times had written several scriptures a.s.sociated with this natural law phenomenon!
Could this fact prove that the saying in the legend was really true? That as long as a person could perceive the true meaning behind the profound Eclipse text, they would be able to reach the sky through the Great Dao?
As Zhang Yan’s thought was immersed in this new enlightenment, he became more focused. He wholeheartedly recited the Eclipse texts that corresponded with his Qi and prepared to conduct deep research along with his interpretation.
About an hour later, Zhang Yan had completed reading more than 3,000 characters of the Eclipse text. The Qi inside his body suddenly condensed into one and automatically flowed back to his Dantian. It seemed that his Qi’s circulation was finally completed and it would start again – A new cycle. Reaching this state, Zhang Yan stopped and started to observe his surroundings.
At this time, he thought about his showdown with Zhang Zhen. He raised his head and looked up, finding that Zhang Zhen’s complexion had turned pale. His breath was short and his fat body was trembling. His hands holding the bamboo tokens were unsteady and trembled as if they were about to fall at any time. It was very obvious that he had fallen into the inescapable state.