Chapter 7: Nine Heavens Thunder Fire

Dragon Fist crashed head-on with the Thunder Eight Styles' lightning whip. To Elara and the others, the exchange looked downright terrifying. The Thunder Eight Styles was the Lawne family's inherited secret art. Dragon Fist, on the other hand, traced back to the Azure Dragon Elder. Duke Jaynes had never expected that once it was woven into his force, it could unleash power beyond his own limits. By the end, a thin veil of lightning glimmered over Duke Jaynes's skin, as if silver thunderfire had caught and started to burn. The heat it gave off was hard to describe, sharp enough to prickle the senses. Bang! Patrick Lawne bared his teeth in pain. His skin felt scalding, like it had been set alight, and the impact sent him flying sideways. Seth Lawne's pupils tightened. He replayed the two shifts in Duke Jaynes's Divine Radiance in his mind. Two kinds? A naturally dual-aspected Divine Radiance? He had seen that before. Vermilion Bird flicked her sleeve lightly. The lightning within Duke Jaynes drew inward, hiding itself. She was surprised, but not shaken. The Old Clan Chief had suppressed Duke Jaynes for five years. He must have had his reasons. As for that lightning just then, if she had not misread it, it should have been the Nine Heavens Thunder Fire Duke Jaynes had awakened long ago. That Supreme Divine Radiance, in the hands of a true powerhouse, could burn through the nine heavens with thunder and fire. It would be enough to roam unchallenged across Celestial Remnant. Patrick Lawne clutched his charred thigh, his chest heaving. He sat there in a daze, unable to process what had happened. How had he suddenly been blasted out of the fighting ring? A little pain meant nothing. The problem was that he had flown out. He had lost. Seth Lawne fell into thought. Had Patrick Lawne's Divine Radiance met its natural bane? Had instinctive fear in the Divine Radiance itself dragged him into defeat? Seth Lawne could not help sighing. The thunder behemoth had never grown, never evolved. In the end, it did not belong among the top-tier experts. That was the Lawne family's weakness. The Lawne family's pain. In the competition for Immortal Fate, where everyone fought starting from the Embryo Stage, Patrick Lawne would suffer badly. Patrick Lawne lowered his head, humiliated. He had not expected to lose. "That was close. I was a hair away." Duke Jaynes was surprised as well that he had beaten someone at the organ-tempering threshold. He broke the awkward silence. "I got lucky. One of my items struck on its own. Otherwise, I'd be the one out of bounds. And of course, our wager doesn't count." "What? You cheated?" Patrick Lawne's fellow disciples immediately protested. Duke Jaynes offered an apologetic smile. They had come from far away as guests. It would be wrong to send them off in a foul mood over a few sharp words. Besides, that clash had shown him his shortcomings, and it had also handed him a shortcut to awakening Divine Radiance. "A loss is a loss," Patrick Lawne said. "That's not cheating." He was not petty. He sprang up quickly, fully aware his defeat had not come from being threatened by some item. It had just felt abrupt, like something had cut his legs out from under him. Then curiosity took over. "Duke Jaynes, that fist art you used just now. It looked vicious and unpredictable. What is it?" Duke Jaynes glanced at Vermilion Bird before answering, "Dragon Fist. From our village." Patrick Lawne had never heard of Dragon Fist, but in the land of Immortal Fate, there were countless top inheritances. Black Turtle Village possessing some unknown supreme secret art was not that shocking. "I'm telling you, your physique is absurd," Patrick Lawne said, his fighting spirit rekindling. "In a couple days, can we spar again?" Ever since he had entered Seth Lawne's tutelage, he had trained day and night, eager to make a name for himself in the Eldermyst Realm. "Well, Fairy…" Seth Lawne asked, hope shining in his eyes. He clearly wanted to stay in Black Turtle Village a while longer. Vermilion Bird replied, "You've stayed long enough. It's time to leave." Patrick Lawne froze. Was she kicking them out? Seth Lawne drooped, muttering under his breath, "That's true. We should go…" Seth Lawne's only female disciple wore a strange expression. Why did she feel like Seth Lawne resembled her pack of hopeless admirers? "No way…" A chill ran through her, gooseflesh rising. She crushed the thought instantly. If her master ever found out, she would have no 'way to live' under heaven or earth. After Seth Lawne's group left the village, Patrick Lawne started grumbling. "Master, who is that woman called Vermilion Bird? She didn't treat us with any respect at all." "What are you, some speck of dust?" Seth Lawne roared. He snapped a knuckle against Patrick Lawne's forehead so hard Patrick Lawne nearly blacked out. "She sent us away because she was worried I'd run into danger," Seth Lawne insisted, filling in the story for himself. "That's all." "Master, stop fooling us," the female disciple said, barely holding it in. Gossip burned in her chest. Seth Lawne was famous across Celestia Continent, yet he had never kept a female friend at his side. There had even been rumors within the clan that Seth Lawne preferred men. She had thought those rumors could finally die, but after watching how he acted around Vermilion Bird, the more she thought about it, the more it hurt her eyes. "You frogs at the bottom of a well," Seth Lawne snapped. "Do you have any idea how high the sky is?" He turned back to look toward Black Turtle Village. He knew Vermilion Bird's roots well. She did not belong to Black Turtle Village, and she certainly did not belong to Skyspine Ridge. If the force behind her ever learned she had submitted to Black Turtle Village, it could invite a calamity of unimaginable scale. It was not because Black Turtle Village was special. It was because that force would never allow its people to leave. "Didn't Black Turtle Village's Grandmaster of the Great Way die in battle a thousand years ago?" he murmured. "How much foundation does this village even have left, for Vermilion Bird Fairy to stay here?" Seth Lawne's expression shifted between light and shadow. He had arrived at Skyspine Ridge from the outside world yesterday. Passing through Southeast Demon Ridge, he had sensed a faint ripple left behind by Vermilion Bird and followed it all the way to Black Turtle Village. A thousand years had passed, and Vermilion Bird was still alive. The shock of that alone was enormous. Yet she had willingly stayed in a tiny village like this. What difference was there between that and lying in a graveyard? "And you lot," Seth Lawne said coldly, "you'd better cultivate hard in the coming days. Otherwise, your lives will be at risk." His gaze sharpened. "Especially you, Patrick Lawne. You've cultivated for less than three years. Your Embryo Stage potential hasn't fully taken root. You need to work twice as hard." Under Seth Lawne's harsh warning, Patrick Lawne nodded heavily. His fellow disciples all knew Patrick Lawne's potential still had room to rise. If he seized an opportunity in the Eldermyst Realm, he might undergo a complete transformation and contend with true top-tier experts. Their eyes held the same hunger. The Eldermyst Realm really could change a person's fate. Some rare treasures, the kind the world might never see again, could evolve a physique and rewrite the path of destiny. Seth Lawne's talk with Vermilion Bird had naturally brought him gains. The origin of that war back then had not been Skyspine Ridge at all. The real target had been the Eldermyst Realm. The unresolved historical issues left by that battle would have to be settled with this opening of the Eldermyst Realm. By that logic, this struggle for the Eldermyst Realm would be the most brutal in history, because it involved the highest level of players. … Duke Jaynes chatted with Vermilion Bird for a while, still curious about Seth Lawne's background. Vermilion Bird only shook her head. "Jaynes, you've just started cultivating. You're still weak. At the beginning, don't let stray thoughts take root. Don't get involved too much. Focus on cultivation." "Black Turtle Village did have a glorious past, and the Dragon Fist you cultivate is remarkable." "But remember this. The Old Clan Chief values you greatly, and your Divine Radiance is full of variables. We won't interfere with your cultivation. Set your own pace." Vermilion Bird looked beyond the village. Black Turtle Village felt like a super shelter, but the vast Skyspine Ridge beyond it was a completely different world. If you never stepped out, you would never know what kind of world you lived in. You would never truly see what Skyspine Ridge was. Duke Jaynes scratched his head. So he was being left to fend for himself? "The road's mine, then. Looks like I can do whatever I want." He did not stay with Vermilion Bird long. He carried more than a hundred top-grade ingredients home. "Purple Mist Primal Divine Radiance. I can control two Divine Radiance types already." Nine Heavens Thunder Fire had been activated. Duke Jaynes could trigger it with force alone. Inside his room, he sat in meditation. Purple mist coiled around his body. Before long, the mist shifted, and faint threads of lightning flickered within it. Duke Jaynes frowned. The lightning was weak, nowhere near intense. He watched carefully. The foundation of the Nine Heavens Thunder Fire was frail. "It must be because Grandpa Old Clan Chief crippled them back then." At the time, Black Turtle Divine Radiance had not faced a destructive blow. He had been able to use it normally. "Looks like I still need lightning-related energy to bring this Divine Radiance back to life." "And there are three other Divine Radiance types." Duke Jaynes was not in a rush. With his current cultivation, having more Divine Radiance would not mean much. He sat cross-legged and breathed in rhythm, his mind empty and clear as he replayed Dragon Fist again and again. It was a trump card. At a critical moment, it could flip defeat into victory. It was worth digging into its deeper might. Since childhood, he had trained in basic fists, kicks, and swordwork under four clan elders. Studying it as a cultivator, he realized the moves he once thought ordinary held indescribable power. Secret arts gave cultivators the ability to fight and survive. More often than not, they could draw out strength beyond one's limits. They were worth mastering. By evening, he ate until he was full. Heat spread through his body, and his physique continued to strengthen. It was slow, but it thrilled him anyway. "I wonder how many times my force will multiply once I reach the body-tempering threshold?" The Embryo Stage focused on tempering the flesh. Divine Radiance was like an infant, while the embryo was like a placental disc. They nourished each other. Night deepened. Skyspine Ridge rippled with an ancient, desolate aura. The Blood Moon stood in the heavens. Within it, an eerie doorway faintly appeared. That change made some of the outsiders visibly relax. What they feared most was that the thousand-year war had damaged the "scene" inside the Blood Moon's inner world, preventing it from opening properly. … In his room, Duke Jaynes suddenly grew drowsy. He yawned, thinking his study of Dragon Fist had drained too much spirit and stamina. He lay down on the bed, and his awareness sank into darkness. Outside the window, Elara's figure flashed past. She clenched a jade bottle in her hand, sealing its mouth with her fingertip. She slipped into the side room and sat in stillness for the time it took an incense stick to burn, sensing no danger approaching. Only then did she ease her guard and take out the Bronze Mirror. Her face was solemn. Blood welled from her fingertip as she wrote and drew across the mirror's surface. "Target confirmed: Duke Jaynes. Controlled." As the dripping-red words vanished into the Bronze Mirror, Elara's nerves tightened with excitement. It had gone too smoothly. She had never imagined the "turtle impotent man" was the very person the County Lord wanted. It was like meat pies falling from the sky. "That silver lightning has to be Innate Divine Radiance!" "Is Black Turtle Village really that confident? A talent this special, and they don't have a single expert guarding him nearby?" She kept thinking that, even as she waited tensely. Every breath felt unbearably long… In the latter half of the night, the Bronze Mirror gave off a faint glow. A line of small characters surfaced. "Put the target to sleep. With the body of a Bodhisattva, I will stroll through his dream and put a period to his life."