Heaven’s Shadow

Lu Chen is astonished. Taking a closer look, he sees a coalescence of water of water that is denser than the ones of its surroundings in the depths of the water. It has formed into a circular ball of water that floats in its stationary position. In the center of the transparent water, a small bundle of black flames is burning silently.

Lu Chen stares solemnly at the bundle of black flames. Suddenly, he chuckles bitterly. For some reason, he feels a bizarre illusionist, but familiar, sensation from it. At this moment, his body is devoid of strength and incomparably fragile. He slowly takes a few step backs and stumbles into a seating position.

After panting for a brief moment, he crosses his legs and looks inwardly through his shennian. Under the nourishment of that miraculous water of vitality, the gruesome wounds in his qihai dantian has regenerated. At this moment, it looks completely empty, as though nothing has happened at all.

Shennian -> Mental/divine consciousness|Qihai -> spirit sea|Dantian -> Acupoint in the lower abdomen

Everything, seems to be a fresh start.

Lu Chen sits quietly. After a moment, an aura emanates from his qihai dantian. After which, as though a miracle had occurred, a shadow flashes across his dantian and a brand new, undamaged and complete Five Element Divine Compass gradually floats upwards.

A hint of frenzied joy flashes across Lu Chen’s face. However, the next moment, he is taken aback. On the Five Element Divine Compass, everything seems like a newborn infant, nothing is present on it. It is far from the outstanding aptitude he possessed back then.

At this very moment, the surroundings on the Five Element Divine Compass is completely bare, except for a divine pillar rising up on the center of the earth bearing in the palest yellow color. Barely an inch tall, it stands alone in the center of the divine compass.

This is the worst aptitude and roots for cultivation one could possess out of all of the cultivators in the world.

Lu Chen went silent. After which, he shakes his head and smiles bitterly, but he doesn’t seem to be overly disappointed over it. Just when he is about to leave, the Five Element Divine Compass shakes and turns over completely.

In that moment, Lu Chen’s face freezes.

On the other side of the Five Element Divine Compass, on the unheard of other side of the divine compass, lies a barren land. Other than the ground which takes on a deep shade of black and is devoid of any greenery, it is entirely barren. At the center of the bizarre black divine compass, a faint black flame burns silently.

Just like the sneer of the demon, as it slowly bares its vile fangs towards Lu Chen.

“This is really a damned weather!”

Curses could be heard from the tavern. Dressed in a giant pair of pants, Old Ma’s upper body is bare, revealing his white lumps of fats. Sitting in his tavern, he grabs onto a towel in his hand and wipes away the beads of perspiration that appear relentlessly on his face as he complains non-stop beneath his breath.

Lu Chen, who is sitting on his opposite, looks spiritless. He lazily glances at the fatty and frowns. With a look of contempt, he scorns, “Does anyone conduct business the way you do? Dressed in such a way when the sun is still hanging in the sky, who would dare to come knocking for a drink?”

Old Ma harrumphs and replies, “In such a damned scorching weather where even cicadas would be cooked, whose head would be so dysfunctional to come for a drink?”

Lu Chen doesn’t refute his words and simply looks at the glass of alcohol on the table before him.

Ever since the onset of summer, the weather has been bizarre. It has been significantly warmer than the previous years. According to the elders of the village, it has been at least thirty years since the appearance of such a scorching summer. ‘A change in the heavens and earth, perhaps something is about to happen.’ These are the words of those talkative elderly who like to mystify events. However, it seems that no one believes in such words that hold little credibility. Furthermore, even though the weather has been hot, nothing peculiar has happened.

Lu Chen widens his mouth into a yawn and his eyelids droop as he leans by the wall, seemingly on the verge of sleep.

Old Ma wipes off the perspiration from his head yet again while staring enviously at Lu Chen, who didn’t have a single drop of sweat on him despite the scorching weather. A moment later, he suddenly frowns and walks towards him.

Lu Chen immediately opens his eyes and asks, “What are you doing?”

Old Ma assesses him and mutters, “Little fellow, your body seems to be very weak. Have you been overdoing homely activities? Listen to me, you should protect your body from young, do not wait…”

Before he could finish his words, Old Ma leaps backwards with agility unfitting for his size to dodge a kick that came from beneath the table. He chuckles, “Panicking, you are panicking! You are obviously hiding something!”

“Hiding something your head!” Lu Chen rolls his eyes in annoyance.

Old Ma chuckles as he uses the towel in his hands to wipe his face again. Then, he sits back down and casually mentions, “Speaking about that, why does it seem that you haven’t been looking for Ding Dang these few days?”

Lu Chen laughs coldly and says, “I’ve had enough playing with her, alright?”

“Sure, sure!” Old Ma grins crookedly. Then, he raises his head to look at the gigantic sun outside and falls into depression again, muttering, “Why is the weather so hot?”

Gulping down a mouthful of alcohol, Lu Chen is silent for a moment before suddenly speaking up, “Right, how has the one who has been accepted by the Thousand Autumn Doors a few days ago, Li Ji, been doing recently?”

Old Ma harrumphs and says, “It’s not like I have ears everywhere. What does the things he do in the cultivator sect have to do with the events occurring in the village?”

Lu Chen smiles as he continues to stare at Old Ma. Old Ma curls his lips and replies impassively, “That fellow possesses outstanding talent. I heard that soon after he had been accepted into the sect, he got into the good graces with one of the elders of the Thousand Autumn Doors and is about to become one of his disciples. He will probably have a bright future ahead.”

Lu Chen nods his head, “Sounds not bad.”

Old Ma says, “It seems like the sparrow has evolved into a phoenix after finding a new nest.”

Lu Chen continues to ask, “Has he returned to the Clear Stream Village ever since then?”

Old Ma bursts into laughter, “Of course not. Considering his current identity, why would he be bothered about this dilapidated village!”

Lu Chen contemplates and replies, “You’re right.”

※※※

“Boom!”

Suddenly, a loud explosion echoes a bolt from the blue from beyond the doors of the tavern. Furthermore, the sound seems to originate from the sky above the village. Lu Chen and Old Ma is taken aback. Exchanging gazes, the both of them stands up and dashes out.

At the same moment, many of the other villagers also dash out from their dwellings, surprised by the deafening blast.

The next moment, innumerable people from the Clear Stream Village raise their heads to look at the sky simultaneously.

The sky is clear and the sun hangs high above. Clouds couldn’t be seen even in the distance and it seems like an ordinary sweltering day. Not mentioning the dark clouds that usually accompanies thunder, even white clouds couldn’t be seen above.

What is going on?

…