Chapter 10: Advent of the Blood Sun (1)

Enjoy the chapter! – Sam

Warm energy flowed from Owen’s palm into Ah Dai’s body. Owen knew that Ah Dai was a bit dumb, so he slowly circulated his true qi, allowing Ah Dai to remember it better. While he circulated the qi, he was also constantly reciting the mnemonic. It actually took a whole night to successfully circulate the qi through the correct paths for 7 times.

Under Owen’s help, Ah Dai managed to enter the ideal state for cultivation. The qi that Owen transferred into his body gradually merged with the life force within his meridians, continuously circulating at a slow pace. He felt as though there was a large furnace inside him, radiating a warmth that left him incomparably comfortable. Without Owen’s steady control, Ah Dai started to circulate the qi faster, waking up only after 7 cycles.

“How is it? How do you feel?” In the morning, after he had finished helping Ah Dai, Owen cultivated for a short while, before locking the front gate and going to Schiel’s house. When Schiel asked about  Ah Dai, Owen made up an excuse to cover up. He knew that the first time cultivating the Boundless Life Art was extremely important, and Ah Dai must not be disturbed.

Ah Dai jumped down from the bed, looked at the sky outside the house, and was shocked to find out that the sky was already dark. Although he was in the cultivation state for a whole day, he still felt surprisingly refreshed, “Uncle, my whole body feels so light, and there seems to be a thread of something constantly moving, making me feel so comfortable.”

Owen nodded in satisfaction, “To accomplish this in just one day is not bad, I remember when I first started cultivating, it took me a full seven days before I could reach the standard you are at now. The Fruit of Rebirth is indeed very beneficial for cultivating the Boundless Life Art. Okay, go take a rest and have your meal, I’ve prepared some food for you. After you’ve finished eating, I’ll give you two hours of free time to do what you want. You can practise your magic, but to prevent others from finding out, you can only practise it in your room, but don’t set the house on fire.” The main reason why Owen allowed Ah Dai to continue practising magic was because he simply had too many enemies. Even though the martial arts that he practised were the top-tiered in the continent, the enemies that he made after countless years of killing were simply too many. If Ah Dai could have another identity as a sorcerer, he would face less trouble when he helped Owen to complete his revenge.

After cultivating for one whole day, Ah Dai’s mood had improved. He blushed as he said, “Uncle, don’t worry, I definitely will not set the house on fire. I will go and eat first.” As he spoke, he hurriedly ran out. Suddenly, he realised that, the uncle who abducted him, did not seem so hateful anymore.

Immediately after he finished eating, Ah Dai did not waste anytime and started practising magic without taking any breaks. As the amount of time he could practise was short, and he was restricted to the confinements of him room, he could only meditate to increase his spiritual power.The meditation when practising magic and the state of cultivation when cultivating true qi were totally different. Meditation agglomerates the spiritual power within the body, and one need not be afraid of disturbances, as he can immediately awake from it. However, the state of cultivation was different, cultivating dou qi is equivalent to increasing one’s potential power, and seven cycles of circulation must be completed in order for it to be effective. Therefore, it was crucial for there to be no disturbances, if not, there was a high chance of the cultivator to become deranged. After Ah Dai meditated for two hours, Owen woke him up.

[TN: In english, both are translated as meditation, but meditation to increase magic force and meditation to cultivate true qi are different. x.x]
“Ah Dai, if you are only meditating to increase your spiritual power, it does not actually affect your cultivation of the Boundless Life Art. Instead, it may actually have a catalytic effect, as your spiritual power increases, you can control the true qi easier. This is a pretty good plan. The basis for magic is magic force, which is also spiritual power. How about this, I will give you three hours of meditation time every day. As for cultivation of true qi, completely seven cycles of circulation is enough. For the remaining time, I will teach you some knowledge.”

Hesitantly, Ah Dai asked, “If I only meditate to increase my magic force, but not practise it, will it affect the use of my fire magic?”

Owen laughed and replied, “Little brat, when did you become so clever? Meditating will certainly affect your control of magic. But magic force is the basis for magic, the higher your magic force, the stronger the magic spells that you can unleash. Actually, after you have cultivated the Boundless Life Art to a certain standard, the uses of magic is not very important. To me, unless the person is of the grand sorcerer level and above, it will be very difficult for him to cause any damage to me. The speciality of the Boundless Life Art is that it can retrain all types of evil energy, and it can cultivate the most authentic holy type dou qi. As the dou qi becomes stronger than the magic attacks, magic simply cannot deal any damage. Perhaps you are still confused now, but you will understand this in the future.”

Ah Dai scratched his head, saying, “Then I will meditate first. Uncle, do I start now?”

Owen nodded, “The foundation at the start is extremely important. There are nine parts to the Boundless Life Art, after you reach the third part, I will teach you others. You can start meditating first, I won’t help you today. Just follow the circulation paths that I taught you yesterday and cultivate, you can stop after you manage to circulate that weak stream of qi through seven cycles.”

With Owen’s help, Ah Dai sat on the bed, in a lotus position. Just as Owen was about to start his own cultivation, Ah Dai suddenly opened his eyes.

[TN: The position looks like this, I don’t know how to describe it.]

[EN: It is called the lotus position/stance and it looks like that ^]

“What’s wrong Ah Dai? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” Owen asked in concern. Although the Boundless Life Art is an authentic cultivation method, there might still be dangers during cultivation.

Blushing, Ah Dai lowered his head and muttered, “Uncle, I have forgotten the mnemonic you taught me yesterday. Also, I can’t find the circulation pathway anymore.”

Hearing Ah Dai’s words, Owen almost fainted. He had spent the whole of yesterday night reciting the mnemonic, and even slowly circulated his qi through Ah Dai’s body, but Ah Dai still could not remember it.

With his head lowered, Ah Dai spoke softly, “Uncle, is Ah Dai very stupid?”

Owen secretly thought, ”Not just stupid, but extremely stupid!” He went beside Ah Dai and said, “I’ll guide you to circulate your qi for one cycle, but this time I will increase my speed. You must remember it carefully.” As he finished speaking, he started to recite the mnemonic as he guided Ah Dai to circulate the true qi within his body. With his help, Ah Dai easily entered the state of cultivation and started cultivating by himself. By the dawn of the next day, he had already successfully completed seven cycles.

From then on, Ah Dai fell into this regular routine. In the morning, he would wake up from meditation, and Owen would teach him the dialect of the Sipho Tribe. Ah Dai was a slow learner, but he had great perseverance. Normally, he could remember the stuff that he learned in three times the amount of time that other people would usually take. In the afternoon, Owen would allow him to have a few hours of free time, and Ah Dai would generally spend the time playing with Schiel’s three grandchildren. It was due to their constant interaction that made Ah Dai become lively once more. At night, Ah Dai would start meditating after dinner. When all of the townspeople were sleeping, Owen would wake Ah Dai up and make him cultivate the Boundless Life Art. In the beginning, Ah Dai could not remember the mnemonic, as well as the complicated circulation pathway. It was only until after Owen had guided him for a month, that Ah Dai could barely remember. Owen told Schiel that he had accumulated some savings and returned to Sweetrock Town for retirement, thus he did not work at all. Of course, not all of the money that he earned from assassination was with him, but it was enough for Ah Dai and him to live on. Since he became an adult, Owen had never felt this leisurely before, in just a month’s time, he seemed to have forgotten his past identity, and had completely assimilated into the lifestyle of Sweetrock Town.

This day, it was the 14th Day of the 4th Month, Year 989 of the Holy Calendar.

Early in the morning, Ah Dai and Owen had sensed that the atmosphere felt strange. Owen stood in the courtyard, looking towards the sky. Normally, by this time the sun would have long risen. However, the sky remained dark that day, large dark clouds were blocking the sunlight making the Earth seem abnormally gloomy. Gusts of cold wind blew, making Ah Dai shiver uncontrollably, who was standing beside Owen. Ah Dai suddenly had an ominous feeling, but he did not know how to express that feeling.

Owen frowned and said, “What is going on today, why is the sky so dark?”

Ah Dai replied, “Yeah! There is a heavy feeling in my heart, and my body feels uncomfortable. Uncle, is anything bad going to happen? Ah! Uncle, quickly look at the sky, why did the dark clouds in the sky suddenly turn red?”

Owen had a shock as he looked at the sky. Indeed, the original gray colored clouds were gradually turning red. This strange phenomenon seemed to make him recall something. Suddenly, the blood-red clouds slowly faded, and the sun appeared in the middle of the sky. Its original dazzling gold radiance had become a demonic blood-red glow, dying the Earth in a bloody color. Owen involuntarily cried out, “The blood sun has arrived.”

Ah Dai asked in confusion, “Uncle, what is the blood sun?”

Owen merely shook his head, and did not reply, but there was an indescribable strange feeling in his heart. He had only heard of the blood sun, it was a phenomenon that only appeared once in a thousand years, and the day that it arrived, would be a day when the evil qi was the strongest. The domineering evil energy flooded his body, and Owen immediately touched his chest, circulating his true qi  to suppress the evil energy. He said, “Ah Dai, Uncle needs to meditate for a while. It is best that you don’t go out, just stay at home and practise your magic. From tonight onwards, the number of cycles that you need to circulate is increased to nine.” After he finished instructing Ah Dai, Owen returned to his room. He needed to cultivate the Boundless Life Art immediately, in order to suppress the rampant evil qi.

Holy Church, Cathedral.

Four red-cloaked people were standing on the four platforms in the middle of the hall. They were the four crimson-robed bishops who were in charge of handling the affairs of the Holy Church. In the middle of the four platforms, there was a skinny, white-haired old man, one of his hands was placed over his left chest, while the other hand was pressed against his forehead. He was wearing a golden robe and a gold crown was placed on his head, seeming very regal. Surrounding the platforms, were twelve ivory-robed bishops who were currently sitting cross-legged on the ground. Constant incantations sounded from the hall, and holy energy continuously dispersed out from the cathedral.

Outside of the cathedral, there was a total of one thousand and eight hundred intermediate priests and high priests who were chanting the same incantations. The prayers resounded through the sky, creating a sacred atmosphere around the cathedral. The waves of holy energy shot towards the sky, a stark contrast to the evil energy emanating from the blood sun. Under the constant chants, faint red colored drops of rain fell down from the sky. It was just a drizzle, but it dyed the white colored robes of the priests red.

Inside the cathedral, the chants stopped, and the old man in the middle of the platform sighed, “Blood sun looming, evil rampaging, blood rain falling, calamity descends. It looks like, the will of the Heavens cannot be defied!”

One of the crimson-robed bishops said, “Your Eminence, we have tried our best. Ten years later, when the calamity descends, as long as we can get through it successfully, the thousand year great tribulation will be over.”

The golden-robed old man nodded, “From now on, command all of the priests to enter the preparation period. At the same time, the four of you need to start preparing, and start the plan. The Thousand Year Great Tribulation concerns the whole of the continent. According to the records of the Holy Church, the previous Thousand Year Great Tribulation had already caused immense destruction. Hopefully, we can survive this calamity. As long as we manage to find the savior, we can have a better chance of surviving this, therefore the four of you need to find the savior’s whereabouts as soon as possible.” He sighed secretly in his heart, It was because of the previous Thousand Year Great Tribulation, that the Holy Church was established. The calamity that befell the continent caused numerous casualties. It was at the last moment, that a deity was born into the world to be the savior of the continent. He finally succeeded in purging the evil forces, and the day that the evil was banished, was the first day of the Holy Calendar. The savior became the first Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Church. However, before he passed away, he had predicted that the Thousand Year Great Tribulation would come again, and the blood sun signified that it was starting. Eleven years later, Year 1000 of the Holy Calendar, the calamity would once again arrive. As the current Supreme Pontiff, he was unsure if he could successfully survive the calamity. It seemed that, he could only place his hopes on finding the new savior.

The four crimson-robed bishops bowed respectfully and said, “Yes, Your Eminence.”

The Supreme Pontiff glanced around, sighing, “May the Heavens bless you.” A light flashed as he disappeared from the middle of the platform. The four crimson-robed bishops executed their magic, and floated down. Suddenly, a girl wearing in a white dress and clad in jewels, who seemed to be around ten years old, ran into the hall and hugged a tall crimson-robed bishop, calling out, “Dad, Dad, what were you doing!”

That crimson-robed bishop was stunned for a moment, before hurriedly carrying the girl and speaking in a low voice, “Yue Yue, who let you in, didn’t we tell you to stay at home?”

Yue Yue pouted, “But you and Mom both went out, Yue Yue is bored by herself!”

The other three crimson-robed bishops had already left, and the twelve ivory-robed bishops also stood up. One of the ivory-robed bishops walked up, and carried Yue Yue over from the crimson-robed bishop’s hands, quietly saying, “Yue Yue, be a good girl, Mom will bring you home now.”

The crimson-robed bishop shook his head, he really had no idea how to handle his daughter.