Chapter 53 Visitors from the Zuo Family
ED Note: The notation for Martial Skills has been changed from single quotes ‘‘ to square brackets [ ]. The previous chapters will be updated to reflect this.
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In the Gravity Room.
Shi Yan leaned against the Gravity Pillar, standing upside down while balanced on the middle finger of his left hand, all of his veins popping out.
A quarter of an hour later, he switched to his ring finger. Every fifteen minutes, he would shift to the next finger and repeat the process all over again.
After one complete cycle, Shi Yan sat on the green stone ground covered in sweat. He stretched out his left hand and released some of the negative energy from the meridians in his arm.
Wisps of white smoke sprawled over his arm and stealthily flew in front of him according to his will.
Profound Qi was being operated in his fingers, then it quivered and was injected into the white smoke which was floating in front of Shi Yan.
The Profound Qi then wriggled like a snake in the white smoke...
The white smoke and the Profound Qi slowly combined, forming into one after some small swirls, in which, a magical attraction suddenly erupted.
As the attraction occurred, that space seemed to collapse and contract at once.
The nearby air was sucked in and the surrounding space seemed to decrease sharply, feeling rather heavy.
His eyes shining brightly, Shi Yan focused on the small Field and tried to feel the magical power, injecting more Profound Qi into it.
Strangely, the Field didn’t get any stronger. On the contrary, the magical power in it became weaker.
“Eh?”
Shi Yan was stunned and confused.
After pondering for a long time, he seemed to figure out the trick. He stopped injecting Profound Qi and pushed some of the negative white smoke surrounding his arm into the Field.
The Field which was previously getting weaker, suddenly began to strengthen as soon as the white smoke was added.
Gazing at the Field for ten seconds, Shi Yan was thinking on the details. Eventually he withdrew the two types of power out of the Field.
The Field disappeared at once.
Through this training, he drew the conclusion that in order to strengthen the Field, the two types of power should be balanced. Only by doing this could the Field remain powerful.
If one of the powers surpassed the other one, it wouldn’t strengthen the Field, but break the balance and decrease its power.
There needed to be an accurate balance between the two powers, or the power of the Field could not be released to the fullest extent.
During these days, Shi Yan devoted himself to his two Martial Skills: [Finger Gun] and [Gravitational Field]. Apart from having three meals a day, he spent almost all of his time on his training.
After a month’s torment, Shi Yan had made significant progress in the [Finger Gun].
Now he could stand on each of his fingers for fifteen minutes.
His ten fingers became harder and harder, and would even make the sound of metal when struck after Petrification.
Every time he finished training the [Finger Gun], he would delve into the Spirit Level Martial Skill book [Gravitational Field].
He didn’t exhaust his negative energy in his meridians every time he trained. Instead, he just released a little part of it from his arms and combined it with his Profound Qi to explore the effects of [Gravitational Field].
Though the Field he formed was small, it had the the same mechanism as the big ones.
After endless repeated use, he gained a deeper understanding about [Gravitational Field], and knew more about it after a period of time.
The deeper he probed the [Gravitational Field] skill, the more profound he found this Spirit Level Martial Skill to be. There were many more truths hidden in it.
While training in this Spirit Level Martial Skill, Shi Yan was also in the process of trying to understand the truth of this universe.
Sitting there upright covered in perspiration, Shi Yan sank deep into thought.
“Creaakkk”
The door of the Gravity Room opened, as Han Zhong walked in and yelled, “Brother Yan, the family head has asked for you to come to the living room.”
“Living room?” Shi Yan glanced at him and frowned, “Didn’t he forbid me from leaving the Gravity Room? Are there important visitors?”
“Zuo Xu came with that little girl Zuo Shi.” Han Zhong explained while standing at the door, “Zuo Xu just brought Zuo Shi back from her teacher, Chi Xiao, in the Cloud Mountain. So they came to visit us on the way and discuss the Martial Competition with the family head.”
The Zuo Family was one of the five big families in the Merchant Union, and was quite close to the Shi Family.
The Zuo Family possessed the Shadow Martial Spirit. During fights, there would be clones beside them. Many skilled Zuo family warriors could even create seven or eight clones during a fight. These clones could move and make different actions in order to confuse the enemy.
As the Zuo Family members possessed the Shadow Martial Spirit, they would be in a beneficial position from the very beginning
The opponents would mistakenly attack the clones, so the Zuo warriors could kill them easily.
The Shadow Martial Spirit was not only beneficial for fights, but also made a big difference when one needed to escape.
Once the Zuo warriors were threatened, they would create several clones of themselves and run in different directions. If they had only one enemy, that person could only choose one direction to chase them in.
After he caught up, he would find out that it was just a clone, and their real body had already ran off somewhere else.
If the real body was chased, they could create more clones and make the enemy guess again.
One would break down if he came across a Zuo Family warrior and had to find the real body to chase.
“Ok, got it.” Shi Yan nodded and casually picked up a green warrior uniform from the ground and put it on. He strode out of the Gravity Room, “Let’s go.”
“Err...Brother Yan, aren’t you going to take a shower first?” Han Zhong covered his nose with one hand and waved with the other, “You stink like sweat!”
“Nope. I will be back soon anyway.”
“You don’t want to leave a good impression on Zuo Shi?” Han Zhong looked weird, “Zuo Shi is well known for her talent in the Merchant Union. Tian Xiao, Tian Luo, and some other young masters are all around her these days. Aren’t you going to try and impress her?”
“Zuo Shi?” Shi Yan was stunned when a bright flash crossed his mind. Unexpectedly, he felt a slight sorrow in his heart, and he shook his head, “Well, there is something between this girl and me...”
“Exactly!”
Han Zhong smirked, “You were born on the same day! What a coincidence! So your grandpa and Zuo Xu nearly got you two engaged. But on the third day after her birth, she turned out to possess the Shadow Martial Spirit, while you didn’t. Hmm, then no one brought your engagement up, when the two sides both chose to be silent about it...”
Han Zhong paused and sighed, “It’s natural. Zuo Shi inherited a Martial Spirit, but you didn’t show yours at the beginning, which, to the Shi Family and the Zuo Family, meant that you wouldn’t be successful. The Zuo Family wouldn’t marry a real warrior like Zuo Shi to some commoner. And the Shi Family can’t take advantage of it. So that is it.”
Memories hidden deep within Shi Yan’s mind were awoken by Han Zhong’s speech. Standing there stunned, Shi Yan slowly sorted out these memory fragments and mumbled after a long time, “That guy was really sentimental...”
“Zuo Shi is incredibly talented and intelligent, but it is also said that she is rather lazy, and not into Martial Arts. Her accomplishment was the result of her family pushing her. Even so, she trains much faster than average warriors. Seventeen and the Second Sky of the Human Level! Another miracle in the Merchant Union.”
Han Zhong shook his head, and sighed, “That bastard Beiming Ce has also reached the Second Sky of Human Level at seventeen, but he kept training so hard. While Zuo Shi kept sleeping and fooling around… I guess Zuo Shi is more talented than Beiming Ce.”
Shi Yan didn’t reply but frowned.
He could feel that slight sorrow in his heart which was triggered by Zuo Shi...
As he focused on the memory, Shi Yan realized that the previous master of his body was deeply in love with Zuo Shi, while she never felt anything for him.
Zuo Shi was very lazy. She didn’t like hard training, but was into art, nature, tea ceremony, astrology and so on...
Her hobbies varied. Though she didn’t train hard, she could easily break the levels, and managed to reach the Second Sky of Human Level with the help of her incredible talent.
Apart from her incredible talent, she also had an extraordinarily delicate face.
The previous master of this body fell for Zuo Shi at the first sight. But he wasn’t good with words, and knew he was at a disadvantage, so he never expressed his admiration for her.
Typical unrequited love.
“Well...” after his mind wandered for a while, Shi Yan smiled, “So… that girl is a genius?”
“Absolutely!”
Han Zhong nodded and affirmed, “Otherwise, Chi Xiao in the Cloud Mountain wouldn’t have insisted on teaching Zuo Shi and taken her to the Cloud Mountain after seeing her for the first time three years ago. Chi Xiao is an expert of the Sky Level, which is very rare in the Merchant Union, Fire Empire and the God-blessed Empire. It is said that even Beiming Shang has been beaten by him.”
“Okay.” Shi Yan looked indifferent, “Shall we go now?”
“Errr… you are not moved by what I said? You are not going to clean yourself and suit up?” Han Zhong smiled bitterly.
“Now that this girl is so popular and she is protected by Chi Xiao and Zuo Xu, I don’t think I will have a chance with her. So why waste my time.”