Battle Through the Heavens

When Xiao Yan regained consciousness, he felt a faint pain all over his body, much like being pricked all over by needles. He stroked the storage ring on his finger and withdrew a small jade bottle. Tilting the bottle, he dripped a few drops of pink liquid into his mouth.

After consuming the pink liquid with numbing properties, Xiao Yan felt the prickling pain all over his body slowly disappear. He sat up and picked up the black scroll, only to realize that all the words and the drawing of the eagle wings had disappeared.

Xiao Yan stared at the empty scroll and blinked his eyes in confusion. Suddenly, he stripped and took out a piece of crystal mirror from the storage ring and, with the help of the reflected light, he noticed that a pair of palm-sized black eagle wing tattoos had unknowingly appeared on his back.

“Are these the Purple Cloud Eagle Wings’?” Xiao Yan mumbled to himself in a somewhat uncertain voice. The Dou Qi in his body flowed towards the two Qi Paths that had been forcefully created and into the tattoo on his back.

Upon receiving the transmitted Dou Qi, the pitch-black tattoo immediately emitted a faint purple light. Finally, it transformed into a solid pair of wings. The size of the black eagle wings also expanded from palm-sized to about half a foot in length.

Xiao Yan curiously looked at the pair of eagle wings with purple lines as he thought of moving them. A small lifting force was created under his body but it was far too small to lift him off the ground.

“In order to fly using the Purple Clouds Wings’, it will require a large amount of Dou Qi. With your current strength and your lack of practice controlling the wings, I’m afraid that you can only glide over a short distance.” Seeing the somewhat comical actions of Xiao Yan, Yao Lao could not help but laugh.

Xiao Yan grinned and nodded his head. From the beginning, he did not expect to be able to fly immediately. The slight result he currently had was already very satisfactory. After all, everything had to be done slowly.

When Xiao Yan stopped transferring the Dou Qi, the eagle wings on his back once again nestled up on his back and transformed back into the pitch-black tattoo of a pair of eagle wings.

Xiao Yan gradually and lazily stretched his back before keeping the blank black scroll in front of him. A brief silence followed. Then he once again took out another extremely old scroll from the storage ring.

After sizing up the ancient looking yellowish scroll, Xiao Yan rubbed his hands together. For the ancient elder to hide this in a secretive place like between the gap of a bone, it was very likely that this was no ordinary item.

Xiao Yan untied the scroll before slowly spreading it. When he saw the interior, however, he froze slightly. “What’s this?”

Before his eyes was a parchment made of an unknown material which was slightly yellowed. On it, there was many lines that appeared to be drawn without any form or order. Xiao Yan slowly traced one of the lines with his finger but found nothing as it finally reached the edge of the parchment.

“What kind of nonsense is this?” Xiao Yan said with a frown as he stared at this secretive item that held a talisman-like appearance.

TL: The talisman refers to a taoist talisman

The black ring on his finger trembled slightly and Yao Lao appeared. The latter swept his gaze over the ancient looking parchment, pressed his eyebrows together and said in a deep voice, “It seems…like a fragment of a map.”

“Map? And a fragmented one?” Hearing Yao Lao words, Xiao Yan rolled his eyes. His interest immediately died.

Ignoring Xiao Yan’s disinterest, Yao Lao slowly spread out the entire parchment and studied it carefully. When his gaze landed on the bottom corner of the parchment where the blurry image of something that appeared like a Lotus, his face suddenly changed. Once again, he bent down and carefully studied the Lotus shaped mysterious drawing.

The Lotus shaped object appeared faintly yellow and blurry, possibly a result of its age. However, its general appearance was still visible.

The entire Lotus was black, with a thin black flame appearing to coagulate on the surface. When looked upon seriously, the entire Lotus gave one a demon-like feeling.

“Teacher, have you found something?” Xiao Yan was slightly shocked after witnessing Yao Lao’s manner. After being with him for so long, this was the first time that he had seen Yao Lao revealing such a demeanor.

“This…don’t tell me that this is the ‘Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’?” After staring intently at the strange black Lotus and studying it carefully, Yao Lao suddenly mumbled in astonishment.

“Purifying Lotus Demon Flame?” Xiao Yan blinked his eyes uncertainly before an idea finally struck him. He probed, “Is this a Heavenly Flame?”

“Yes. This is one of the Heavenly Flames and it is the most mysterious one amongst the Heavenly Flames Ranking.” Yao Lao nodded his head in a serious manner as he spoke in a deep voice.

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“The ‘Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’ is ranked third on the Heavenly Flames Ranking. It has the special ability to cleanse everything. Any object that is slightly exposed to it would be cleansed into nothingness, an extremely frightening strength. This kind of Heavenly Flame is extremely rare with only around two or three flowers of it existing, but no one has an idea about where they are. I don’t know who actually recorded their existence but nobody has ever seen this flame. The only reason that I could recognize it was because I had luckily found some rough clues about it when I was looking for Heavenly Flames. Tsk tsk. don’t tell me that this map would lead the way to a ‘Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’?” Yao Lao exclaimed as he stared at the ancient looking parchment with shock.

“It’s too bad that this is only a map fragment. With such vague information, we have no hopes of finding it.” Xiao Yan’s interest had spiked but when he recalled that it was only a fragment of a map, he felt regretful.

“It is already quite lucky to find this little piece of information about the ‘Clean Lotus Demon Flame’. Even if you managed to find the flame now, you do not have the ability to do anything about it. Let’s take things slow. You may find the other map fragments in the future.” Yao Lao smiled and said, “If you can successfully swallow the ‘Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’, it is difficult to predict just what level your ‘Flame Mantra’ would evolve to.”

“Isn’t the highest the High Tian Level?” Xiao Yan spread his hands and muttered.

“That may not be true.” Yao Lao laughed softly before suddenly becoming silent. He waved his hand and said in a bland voice, “The Dou Qi continent is very huge. Once you have reached a certain level, you would naturally realize just how big it is. For the current you, it is better to honestly climb from the bottom. Don’t forget that just a small Wolf Head Mercenary Troop was enough to cause you to be badly battered.”

Xiao Yan eyed the mysterious Yao Lao and helplessly nodded his head. He rubbed his lips together and said, “Who doesn’t climb from the bottom?”

Yao Lao smiled and with a slight quiver, turned into a stream of light which returned into the ring. As he did so, he laughed one last time, “Rest for today. From tomorrow onwards, we will begin the training!”

Hearing this, Xiao Yan touched his face and grinned, “I’m looking forward to it.”

……

The warm sunlight shined upon the land. Under it, the huge waterfall surged forward with all its might, finally turning into a silvery line as it rushed down from the cliff like a furious dragon. Instantly, a roar reverberated throughout the small valley.

Standing under the waterfall, Xiao Yan took in a deep breath of the moist air. He raised his head and watched the towering huge waterfall. Within his chest, his heart could not help but tremble.

In the empty land behind Xiao Yan, dozens of wooden poles were affixed into the ground. About two meters above them, there were another ten plus wooden logs that hung from the tall branches, swaying in all directions when the fierce wind blew.

The black ring trembled slightly and Yao Lao unsteadily came out of it. He smiled and nodded when he noticed the dozens of wooden logs. With a slightly apologetic gaze, he looked at Xiao Yan, pointed to the wooden logs and smiled, “Every morning from now on, you will be training on these logs. I will manipulate these hanging logs to attack you. You must dodge them and you are not allowed to remove the heavy sword. Oh, I almost forgot.. you have already started calling it ‘Heavy Xuan Ruler’… When you dodge, you are not allowed to remove the ‘Heavy Xuan Ruler’. On top of this, you are not allowed to use ‘Vacuum Hand’ or ‘Fire Palm’.

Hearing this, Xiao Yan inclined his head slightly, his face filled with eagerness. He was fairly confident about his dodging speed.

“Do you want to try?” Seeing Xiao Yan’s expression, Yao Lao suddenly smiled and said. The smile was somewhat crafty.

“If you are willing to.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Xiao Yan’s feet stepped off the ground, propelling his body elegantly onto one of the wooden logs. His tall frame gave him a slight superior disposition as he waved his hands at Yao Lao and said, “Come. Let me see just how tough this thing that Teacher designed really is.”

“You have a good attitude. Let me see how many logs you can withstand.” Nodding with a smile, Yao Lao waved his sleeve. An strong gale rushed forth from the sleeve. Immediately, one of the ten plus wooden logs swaying randomly in midair hurtled towards Xiao Yan.

The faint pressure emitted from the hurling wooden log caused Xiao Yan’s face to become serious. His eyes locked onto the approaching wooden log before he suddenly bent over. The wooden log was close to his back as it dangerously flew past him.

Before he had time to recover from bending down, another wooden log shot towards him. Xiao Yan stepped onto the wooden pole beneath his feet and tried to jump up to dodge the wooden log. His face suddenly changed when he realized that the foot he had used to step on the wooden pole appeared to be stuck to it.

The unexpected change shook Xiao Yan up. However, his mental strength was quite good. He freely manipulated the Dou Qi in his body and quickly transferred it to his foot. Once again, he stepped heavily and his leg was finally freed. At the same time, he dodged two other wooden logs that were headed for him.

Although Xiao Yan managed to dodge the attack, his legs were stuck to a wooden pole when the fifth wooden log came hurtling towards him. Finally, it ruthlessly knocked him off the wooden pole.

Watching the moaning Xiao Yan on the ground, Yao Lao asked with a smile, “How was it?”

“What did you do to the wooden poles?” Xiao Yan rubbed his swelling chest as he groaned.

“The wooden poles are covered with black glue. Each time you move, you need to use Dou Qi to overcome the stickiness. Otherwise, you won’t dodge in time and be knocked out. Therefore, you will need to continuously maintain the flow of Dou Qi in your body while dodging. After maintaining this state for a long time, you will gain a lot.” Yao Lao faintly smiled.

“This thing here is meant to train your agility and your control of Dou Qi…” Yao Lao turned around, pointed to the wooden poles and smiled.