Chapter 45

“So be it. If not a single soul is remotely close to being better than me in the contest of enlightenment then I’ll keep the double-helical Qi Column hidden.

“It seems I can use the immense spiritual energy from the enormous blade to mask or hide my Qi column—I’m certain no one would be able to detect it with that! If they can do so then it would be my fate to bear!”

Thus, Zhou Yan pondered for a moment as his heart became relieved.

If the apparatus that was used to determine one’s Qi Columns was unable to truly detect the growth of his Qi Column, he would not be weaker than anyone else in any other field.

If that apparatus was truly spectacular and was able to accurately detect it, and if the young lad was unable to keep it hidden then it would undoubtedly cast a storm greater than anyone had ever seen!

Zhou Yan and the other pupils of the Zhou family stood at the very center of the academy.

Standing on both his sides were Zhou Shuangshuang and Zhou Xian whose combat prowess had ascended to the first rank within the realm of the Blade’s Menace!

Zhou Xian’s expression dimmed as Zhou Yan approached them. It was obvious that he was completely unhappy about the whole ordeal since he had never favored Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan was better than him in every way—even the maidens in his family favored and absolutely adored Zhou Yan instead of him! Even when Zhou Yan was known to be useless trash, the situation remained the same!

This made him feel as if Zhou Yan had robbed him from all the glory that was rightfully his!

If Zhou Yan had never existed then all the maidens in the family would naturally favor him instead, and he would be able to enjoy the perks that all women would provide him with!

Just with that thought alone made him exceedingly envious and at the same time fear Zhou Yan since he improved and progressed at such a terrifyingly fast pace.

The young lad’s internal feelings were extremely conflicted.

Although Zhou Yan was in a turmoiled state, Zhou Shuangshuang felt something else entirely! She had always had romantic feelings toward Zhou Yan, but he never once bothered to even acknowledge her. When she had made the first move back then, Zhou Yan had the audacity to give her a stern and heartless reply. He told her to know her place and behave accordingly and even said the only maiden he loved was Zhou Lingyi, and thus, embarrassing her completely.

Hence due to a series of unfortunate events, the love she felt for him had slowly morphed into feelings of hate, and she made it her life’s goal to make Zhou Yan’s life as miserable as possible!

However, when Zhou Yan left for an entire cycle of a moon’s time, her heart had suddenly grown empty and she started treating every other lad as a replacement to Zhou Yan just to entertain herself.

She saw Zhou Yan again after a cycle of the moon’s time, and it was when Zhou Yan was especially high-spirited and elegant. Thus, it sparked up feelings of admiration, joy, and excitement once again. However, she was also reluctant and unwilling! A man such as him would only belong to her alone—not a single maiden would be allowed to snatch him away from her! Even Zhou Lingyi would be no exception!

Hence, as Zhou Yan stood silently, the young lass felt a burning flame in her heart! She felt as if her entire body was melting!

If it was not due to the situation and the place they were in, she would instinctively jump into his arms!

…

Although not a single soul was able to tell how both of them truly felt at that moment, Zhou Yan was able to very clearly detect and sense everything from a distance.

Thus, because of that, Zhou Yan grew even more resentful towards Zhou Shuangshuang, this b*tch.

Even though she had stunning looks, Zhou Shuangshuang was not the type of maiden that would spark feelings of admiration in Zhou Yan’s heart—even if she was completely obsessed with him and had an insatiable lust for him.

As lustful as Zhou Yan’s own nature was toward a maiden like that, Zhou Yan was not that desperate to satiate his feelings of lust with a maiden who had slept with countless other men.

Hence, Zhou Yan made no attempts to hide away his resentful gaze after sensing the lass’ true feelings.

If this young maiden had behaved appropriately during the time of her crush on him, perhaps Zhou Yan would not have reacted this way. However, the young lad had a special detection ability and he was able to very clearly see such a nauseating scene flash before his eyes!

This young lass, Zhou Shuangshuang had actually been in very inappropriate contact with her brother, Zhou Cheng. Although such actions of incest were already unacceptable, this young lass had fantasized about Zhou Yan’s appearance whilst she had been committing acts of incest with her brother!

As Zhou Yan was faced with such an image, the young lad almost puked his guts out from the feeling of sheer disgust. There were plenty of scums who existed in this world, but never had the young lad expected for Zhou Shuangshuang to sink so low with such an innocent appearance.

It seemed Zhou Shuangshuang felt the disgust and hatred filled stares coming from Zhou Yan’s gaze, which almost caused her to furiously curse at him but the young lass held her emotions back!

“Hmph, you dare look down on me. All that you have is your natural gifts. You’re nothing compared to Zhou Lingyi and Zhou Lingyao. I’ll show you in a brief moment how well my innate ability of enlightenment is!

“And there will come a day, you shall kneel in front of me to lick the bottoms of my boots and beg me!

“Any man I, Zhou Shuangshuang, desires will be mine. None will slip away!”

Zhou Shuangshuang swore in her heart maliciously.

“Such scum!”

Zhou Yan was foaming in his mouth as he proceeded to withdraw his over-sensitive detection ability.

This was the first time he felt that having an over-sensitive detection ability was also a form of torture.

The young lad exclaimed loudly, even Zhou Lingyi who was standing nearby heard him.

Zhou Lingyi was still adamantly prideful. She glared with an extremely cold gaze toward Zhou Yan, and after a mere moment she withdrew her glare.

“Useless trash!”

That young lass loudly exclaimed as well. It seems she had no restraints over her morals.

Zhou Yan chuckled but his eyes flashed a sinister gaze.

However, the young lad remained silent. Although that comment was entirely intended for Zhou Shuangshuang alone, Zhou Lingyi assumed Zhou Yan had directed the insult at her, hence her outburst.

However, Zhou Yan made no effort to explain himself since in his heart that young lass Zhou Lingyi was scum too!

Since that was the case and the young lad had already made an outburst, then nothing could be done.

“Hopefully after the assessment of the Qi Column, we would be given the opportunity to face off against each other in the test of combat!”

Those sharp blade-like stares from Zhou Lingyao’s eyes glared in the direction of the young lad in that instant—it was filled to the brim with malice filled essence!

“It shall be as you wish!”

Zhou Yan cackled loudly.

The final test of combat?

If the young lad attacked him, would he still allow those people to live?!

A concentrated wave of bloodlust gathered at the deepest depths in Zhou Yan’s eyes. Since he had completely disregarded his honor, then there were no restraints left on him!

Then, a battle he shall have!

At that very moment, Zhou Yan decided not to hide anything during the assessment of the Qi Column! He refused to believe that his natural gifts alone would not be enough to kill these people in an instant!

The young lad intended to use the test to make a name for himself in the pages of history!

He refused to believe that the main branch of his family would not acknowledge such pure talent!

As long as the young lad’s natural talent was enough to shake the heavens, then these people would submit completely and would not hesitate to bend their knees and lick his boots!

An unspeakable wave of rage boiled within Zhou Yan’s heart! He had always remained silent after he had been challenged time and time again! Now that he was back there—without even needing to experience it—the young lad was able to very clearly tell just what kind of people his family members were!

Even though most of the people in his family were still nice, there were those who had schemed against him to make him live under the guilt of the false love and care these people had shown him. Even after all of their intentions had been exposed, these people had the audacity to respond with such malice and hate…

The more the young lad reflected, the more violent the flames of rage burned.

However, the young lad was aware that this very moment was a time for enlightenment. He assumed that Zhou Lingyi was merely trying to make Zhou Yan lose control of his emotions and distract him from entering a state of enlightenment.

Zhou Yan proceeded to take a deep breath, thus channeling his rage into his twelve divergent meridians and diverting his rage away from any essential meridians for his sword’s way. As a result, the young lad would no longer be affected in the process of gaining enlightenment.

Zhou Yan’s gaze gradually grew deeper and focused.

The young lad stood in a completely frozen state. It was as if the young lad had never existed, and within an instant, the young lad had entered a complete state of ‘enlightenment’!

When the young lad was in the hidden chambers back then, he constantly stimulated his soul with the help of the Burning Blade’s Heart Ale. As a result of that, he solidified his soul and was no longer in an astral form, and by doing so had greatly benefited the young lad!

One of the many benefits was entering a state of complete ‘enlightenment’ by unifying ‘both the mind and body’ became extremely easy for the young lad!

This feat was unimaginably difficult for anyone to accomplish, but he was able to silence and calm his heart in an instant, entering a state of pure enlightenment!

There was an ocean of people spectating in the field—including those who were spectating from the outside—in addition to the guests who were staying at the tavern nearby. At that very moment, it seemed that the entire city had been silenced.

A dim, pale light was flowing through Zhou Yan’s body. Though it was dim, it had a strong affinity to the nature around him, and this unique essence had also affected the people around him. It mattered not if it was Zhou Xian, Zhou Shuangshuang, Zhou Lingyi, or Zhou Lingyao; it was all due to them being affected by it that had helped them enter into a state of enlightenment faster than usual!

This meant Zhou Yan’s state had indirectly increased the remaining seven people’s innate ability to gain enlightenment!

…

“Hidden within that jade is a unique sword’s way. It most probably reflects the deeper meaning of the many fallen leaves in fall; it is a type of Blade’s Menace which reflects ‘autumn’.”

Zhou Yan was instantly enlightened and had grasped the deeper meaning of that object.

“Autumn is a melancholic season. It sheds away the heat of summer as it hints at the chilling breeze of winter.

“This is a season to settle. It is the season to consolidate our individual skills which seemingly condense and retain better.

“This is also a season of harvest. In such a season, under the laws of the heavens, five different types of grains would be harvested.”

…

Thus, Zhou Yan patiently grasped all of the knowledge that he had been enlightened with. In less than half of a joss stick’s length of time, Zhou Yan had fully understood seven out of the nine major intricate and deeper meanings in that object.

In addition to that, from the flaws in the jaded rock, visions of various moves that incorporated the deeper and intricate meaning of autumn had manifested itself in Zhou Yan’s mind.

Following the cracks in that jaded rock represented a method of passing knowledge. This was a unique artifact for passing down any knowledge.

Based on the essence sealed within it, Zhou Yan was able to determine that this artifact had only taken a few days to be made.

Thus, based on all those facts alone, Zhou Yan had fully grasped seven principles out of nine from the deep secrets of autumn.

The final two seemed to be harder to understand.

Since he was trying to prove his potential, and after noticing there was still time left, the young lad clenched his teeth as his gaze had once again morphed into a deep concentrated focus.

Zhou Yan stopped staring at the rock and suddenly proceeded to shut both of his eyes. He had actually diverted all his focus into gaining any form of enlightenment from the Blade Menace of the Dragon!

This attempt was difficult, and it seemed the young lad had made no progress. However, sudden sparks of enlightenment had seemingly sparked in the young lad’s mind—this was a direction of gaining enlightenment of the sword’s way.

There was a slight twitch in the young lad’s heart, and before he was able to open his eyes, the detection ability of his soul had heard some whispers about him from some people.

“Bold of him to close his eyes in a state of enlightenment. From the looks of it, it seems he had strayed from gaining any enlightened knowledge from this jaded rock! He didn’t even bother to look at the rock!”

“Yes indeed. What a shame. I thought he would be able to at least grasp three or four principles from it under these circumstances, but it seems hopeless now!”

“Three to four principles? Are you joking? You think a sword art from the main branch of the Zhou family would be that easy to master?”

“That’s right. Judging from his natural gifts, if he was in a constant state of enlightenment then there is hope for three principles! But now even two principles would be enough to praise the heavens!”

“Your words speak the truth!”

…

Waves of discussions echoed toward him.

The volume of the sound was not loud but in Zhou Yan’s current state everything around him was extremely clear.

Hence, the young lad was able to hear everything that was being spoken.

The young lad snickered coldly in his heart and he was now determined to grasp the eighth and ninth principles!

Since he was already doing it, he would make sure the things he had done would have a drastically insane impact on everyone, or else, he might not even be bothered to do anything in the first place!