strictlysupreme Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 2)
Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 2)
Chapter 967: After Waking Up (part 2)
Huang Yan wiped the water from his face and looked at the trembling Joine. “Poor Joine. Ever since you caught her, you’ve spent months using her as bait. Every time her body grows back, she loses it again....”
Then he looked at Little Shadow as it made its crunching sounds. “And poor Little Shadow. It’s been c-c-crunch, c-c-crunching for months now too. Sadly, it’s just not working. The giant and the bronze chariot you’re looking for are nowhere to be found.
“But poorest of all is me!” Huang Yan glared at Xu Qing. “Your Master is having a great time in seclusion, and tasked me with following you around.... I miss Elder Sister. I haven’t left her like this in a long time. She definitely misses having me around.”[1]
Xu Qing was apparently used to Huang Yan complaining like this. Inspecting his fleshly body, he said, “I’m just following Master’s orders, Second Brother-in-Law.”
Huang Yan sighed and hung his head dejectedly. Taking out a jade slip that he had been using to record the conversation, he sent the recording to a certain someone. Then he just sat there looking gloomy. About a dozen breaths of time passed, whereupon Huang Yan blinked a few times and suddenly looked very enthusiastic. Chuckling, he said, “Alright, we’re good now. I sent the message. I really have no choice in this. Your Second Elder Sister is just too petty sometimes. After all, her status in the family isn’t very high, and she’s sort of insecure. That’s why I have to care for her in this way.”
“Ohhhhh,” said Xu Qing. Over the past few months, Huang Yan had ‘cared’ for her in this way every few days.
“As you’ve seen, Xu Qing,” Huang Yan said proudly, “my status in the family is the highest in all of South Phoenix! Believe me, I’m just too charming! Your Second Elder Sister is constantly being clingy. It’s like she’s scared I won’t pay enough attention to her. Whether she goes out on errands or to do missions for your Master, she’s always begging me to come with her.
“It’s really been getting on my nerves over the past few years. Luckily, Master Seventh realized what was happening. We’re all men, right? He understands me! And that’s why he gave me this little bit of freedom!”
Huang Yan looked very pleased with himself. However, though he made it seem like he had a very high position in the family, the reality was he seemed more like one of the prisoners Xu Qing had dealt with in the Seven Blood Eyes cell blocks years ago.
“So, where are we going next? If you don’t have somewhere specific in mind, I have a suggestion.... Believe me, the place I have in mind is incomparably spectacular. Just thinking about it makes my blood start pumping faster....”
Huang Yan looked furtively left and right to make sure they were alone.
Xu Qing shook his head. “I’m planning to go to the border of the outer sea region to take a look around.”
The Forbidden Sea was divided into the inner sea and the outer sea. The inner sea was huge, and was where most of the intelligent species lived. It could be dangerous, but as long as you were cautious, it was safe to explore. But the outer sea... was a desolate place full of mysteries. Legend had it that there were many gods sleeping out there.
“Oh, there? That’ll work.” Huang Yan seemed a bit disappointed, but then he thought of something and said, “Oh, right. When you were down there tempering your fleshly body, some news about humankind came in. You got promoted, ya little punk!”
Xu Qing looked at Huang Yan.
“The empress issued a decree naming Ningyan as the crown prince,” Huang Yan continued. “That lucky little bastard. He went to sleep, and when he woke up, the emperor had turned into an empress, and he became the crown prince. From what I heard, he’s still confused by it all!
“Anyway, you’re now the tutor of the crown prince! And you’re the region lord of the Holytide Region and the Nightspirit Region! If that brat Ningyan eventually ascends the throne, you’ll be the grand imperial preceptor!” [2]
Because the body’s personhood was so terrifyingly high, it was going to be difficult for Xu Qing’s soul to fuse perfectly with it. Master Seventh thus left two sealing marks in it. He also gave Xu Qing a special technique.
It was the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic.
By cultivating that magic, it was possible to produce streams of profound sun immortal light, which would be very helpful to the process of fusing his soul with the body.
According to Master Seventh, the technique had once belonged to one of the nine Summer Immortals who came from Deep Earth to Brilliant Heaven, and ended up dying when fighting the god emperor. Before perishing, he passed on that technique. Cultivating it to completion would lead to terrifying results.
Therefore, Xu Qing had two purposes for his sea journey.
The first was to hunt and kill godly entities as a way to become familiar with the defensive capabilities of his fleshly body, to get used to the combination of this body and his godly authority, and to improve his battle prowess by using the profound sun immortal light. Through all of that, he would become more familiar with the body.
His second purpose was to try to find the giant and the chariot from which he acquired his golden crow technique. His reason for looking for the chariot and the giant was that things weren’t going very well with the profound sun immortal light.
After a while, it caused Xu Qing to think about the golden crow. After all, the fundamental basis of the Profound Sun Immortal Light Magic was to steal the glory of the sun and turn it into immortal light. By doing so, he would convert his body into a profound sun, like a furnace that burned himself and burned heaven and earth. It was actually similar to the golden crow.
Therefore, Xu Qing wanted to find the chariot, sit in it, and command the giant. He wanted to follow the same journey as the golden crow when it became a sun and flew through the sky looking down on Revered Ancient. Hopefully that would provide some enlightenment about the ‘profound sun’ aspect.
Thus, he roved the Forbidden Sea. That was why Little Shadow was constantly making the crunching sounds. Xu Qing hadn’t forgotten that Little Shadow had once drawn out the giant and chariot with that same sound. Sadly, even after trying the same thing for months, he hadn’t experienced any success.
I suppose the giant is sleeping at the bottom of the Forbidden Sea. I need to check more locations....
After glancing at the shadow, Xu Qing took out a sea chart and made a notation.
That was when Huang Yan, who had been sitting there looking very relaxed, looked at his jade slip. It was vibrating. He took it out and checked it, then gasped.
“Xu Qing, something big happened! I have to leave for a bit. This is major! I’m talking heaven-shaking and earth-shattering!” Huang Yan suddenly looked very nervous. “I have to take the lead in this matter. If I don’t act quickly, a tempest is going to rock the continent of South Phoenix!”
1. Just a reminder that Huang Yan always called her ‘Elder Sister.’ I know I probably don’t need to explain this, and in fact, I think I said the same thing hundreds of chapters ago, but in Chinese ‘sister’ does not necessarily have the familial connotations that English does. For instance, as I mentioned in a footnote a long time ago, my brother-in-law has dated women who are older than him, and both he and Madam Deathblade and my mother-in-law will call those women “older sisters” or perhaps “big sisters.” So for Huang Yan to refer to her in this way isn’t unusual at all. ☜
2. The title here is slightly different from what I previously translated as imperial preceptor, but it means essentially the same thing. To make things simple, I’m simply going to use imperial preceptor plus the word ‘grand’ so that it sounds a bit more impressive. ☜
3. Xu Qing created the secret key and the special dimensional space in chapter 400. ☜