Chapter 47

Zhou Yan was suddenly extremely delighted and was tempted to understand what the comments meant for other people, just like that, he realized the terrifying nature of his double-helical Qi Column from the conversations of others.

Thus, feeling curious, the young lad immediately sensed the current state of his Qi Column. He was not bothered by Zhou Xian who had gone up the podium to present his newfound enlightened knowledge.

Upon closer inspection, Zhou Yan finally found something odd.

On his Qi Columns, the first three segments of the Qi Column on the left were just like any regular folks. They were as smooth as polished jade, and there was nothing odd about it. However, the bottom segment of the left Qi Column had shreds of thin purple lightning coiling around it!

Meanwhile, the first four segments of the right Qi Column were completely covered with the same lightning!

As Zhou Yan’s soul approached the lightning to sense its nature, he was met with a tender and numb feeling—it was as if this lightning was someone extremely close to his soul.

Thus, with a single thought, the entirety of the Qi Columns were filled with the tiny shreds of purple lightning coiling around it.

Then, the young lad proceeded to examine his Qi Columns from an outsider’s perspective. All he did was a simple scan and something odd had happened—his Qi Columns had vanished.

From an outsider’s perspective, there was nothing that could be detected from him!

Thus, the young lad proceeded to only cover one Qi Column with the lightning coil, and as he expected only one Qi Column could be detected.

The young lad proceeded to try several more times and concluded that his Qi Column was able to stay undetected due to the lightning coils around it.

He was unsure if his Qi Column was in such a state during the test, but he felt such a possibility to be extremely likely.

Since he was given such an encounter, Zhou Yan felt the need to at least try!

The best-case scenario for the young lad was without a doubt to use the exposure of both his Qi Columns to place himself in a better position, but he was unwilling to show off more than two segments for each Qi Columns. He figured that two segments for two Qi Columns would yield the best result.

Thus, Zhou Yan had decided on that, and hence he waited patiently waited for the Assessment of Qi Columns.

…

“Zhou Shuangshuang.”

“What I’ve learned was the sword art of fall’s season. I’ve been enlightened by three forms, hence I’ve learned three moves!”

Zhou Shuangshuang initially heard a rumor that even Zhou Yan would find it difficult to grasp the enlightened knowledge of three forms. She was delighted and her ego had been inflated since she had achieved such a feat!

However, Zhou Lingyi and Zhou Lingyao’s performance far exceeded her progress which made her slightly uncomfortable and displeased.

“Come on up Zhou Yan!”

Zhou Yan was the final person to present.

The Hand of The Grand Elder in the Zhou family did it intentionally; the reason was not that he had gracefully given more time to Zhou Yan to enlighten himself. Instead, it was done in hopes of having Zhou Lingyi and the others before him to destroy any form of confidence the young lad had in his heart.

Hence, he paid close attention to Zhou Yan’s expression, but unfortunately for him, Zhou Yan’s expression was as calm as a puddle of still water. Nothing much had changed from his expressions, and this sparked his hidden resentment toward the young lad. He thought to himself that the young lad was merely putting on a facade and was merely pretending to stand his ground.

As he pondered, he noticed Zhou Yan staring at him with a resentful glare. His gaze was filled to the brim with mockery and challenge along with pure and heavy feelings of dissatisfaction.

He was drastically affected by such a stare as he was unable to contain his bloodlust.

At the same moment, the elder from the main branch of the Zhou family suddenly glanced at him.

Thus, with a fearful expression, he instantly withdrew his bloodlust as he waited patiently and honestly at the same spot he stood.

“What I’ve learned was the deeper meaning of autumn. The Sword Art of Pure Autumn, nine principles, nine forms of movesets, and all nine principles had fully been mastered by me!”

Zhou Yan spoke with pride.

As he stood, he paid no mind to the baffling, skeptical, and surprised looks on those who had been spectating the event. Instead, he took out Sorrow Breaker from his Infinite Spatial Ring and pointed directly at the Hand of the Grand Elder with his finger. Suddenly, an immense and violent wave of Blade’s Essence proceeded to spiral on the podium.

Countless leaves from every single tree began to fall as a layer of frost formed on the branches.

The Principles of Autumn’s Secret, a reflection of wilting leaves, followed by the parallel of frost and more; in an instant, all nine forms of changes had occurred!

This had directly destroyed the impossible ‘mastery’ over these hidden and deeper principles, and thus, destroyed the impossible ‘law’ of stacking all nine principles into a single move.

This scene alone made every single person who was spectating unimaginably surprised—everyone was staring at the display wide-eyed.

Zhou Yan’s display had completely ignored the rules of this assessment; not only did the young lad exclaim his mastery, he had also demonstrated the ferocity of stacking and form changes of all nine principles into a single move!

After a wave of silence, countless elders from countless families including the Ling family, the Huang family, Zhu family, and that Lord of the Region of A Thousand Despair gave him a standing ovation!

However, it was unclear who had started to applaud in order to show the respect they felt after such a shocking display!

The first round of applause came, then immediately after that, the second wave, the third…

After that, a thundering roar of applause instantly filled the entire area—it was unending.

“Nine principles, nine forms… All perfectly mastered!”

“All nine forms. With an enlightened ability like this, his future would be unstoppable!”

“The lowest realm for him would be the realm of the Blade’s Heart! This young lad’s natural gifts would be able to spread across the entirety of Canglan City and Xiaoyao Capital City. His reputation would ring for generations!”

“Nine forms… Unexpectedly, he had actually mastered all nine forms and principles!”

“Zhou Yan is truly her son!”

“If she had known, she would be extremely proud of him.”

“Zhou Wangchen truly has an heir now!”

…

Countless voices of discussions echoed through the entire area after five minutes of endless applause.

At that very moment, the extremely handsome young lad had an inhumanly bitter look on his face. His gaze was filled with extreme sinister and malicious intent. It was almost as if Zhou Yan’s display of power had completely derailed his plans.

At the same time, that young lass clad in a green dress twitched her eyebrows. Her expression was inhumanly cold as she stared at Zhou Yan—her gaze seemed extremely complicated.

The only person without a reaction was the elder from the main branch of the Zhou family. He did not seem bothered by any of the discussions from the crowd of spectators.

It was only after these people had been silenced that he began to speak.

“Zhou Yan, have you any idea what rules are?”

The elder spoke in a cold tone and every sound from the waves of discussion was instantly and completely silenced.

Everyone’s focus was on Zhou Yan.

“As your pupil, I understand, but I do think that natural gifts trump any rules!”

Zhou Yan felt a slight twitch in his heart as he knew this elder from the main branch of his family was challenging him once more.

He was also hit by a sudden wave of realization that to enter the main branch of his family would be an extremely difficult thing to do!

Zhou Yan was uncertain of what the exact reasons were for these people to relentlessly stand in his way. He was puzzled.

However, since the young lad had come this far, he had no fear left in him even though the path ahead of him was an endless deep abyss. He would still take a leap of faith since his father was there, and his father’s ‘final wishes’ had also instructed him to go there!

Zhou Yan knew nothing about a sword named ‘Heaven-Fiend Blade’, but his father had stressed its importance to retrieve this sword from the main branch of his family. Hence, the young lad would do everything in his power to enter the main branch!

“Such an immature train of thought! You’ve already committed an act of insolence toward your elders. This time, the rules were clear. All you had to do was present what you’ve learned and demonstrate it in a hidden swordplay alchemy that I’ve set. Only the final presentation would you show your skills on the podium for all to witness!

“This test is done within my Blade’s Realm, and everyone can witness it. Cheating would be impossible!

“You’ve demonstrated your sword skill, but this would allow some people to seize the opportunity to gain some guidance from your display. Even if they initially grasped four principles, perhaps in a brief moment, they would’ve been enlightened to six different principles. Hence, even after they’ve demonstrated their sword skills, they would’ve mastered six forms under my swordplay alchemy’s records.

“Without taking the sword skill into account, this would greatly benefit their enlightenment ability!

“Your single action has ruined the fairness of this test. It isn’t fair for the other minor branches of our family.

“Hence, the results from your test of enlightenment would be disqualified! Are you willing to accept this verdict?!”

The elder had spoken with majesty, and the displeased and bitter expressions from the faces of the couple who were standing by his side had morphed into a completely delightful and satisfied one.

Zhou Yan knew in that instant thay this was deliberately done to target him once more!

The only thing was, both Zhou Lingyi and Zhou Lingyao were made a complete fool to pretend to be his father’s children.

Zhou Yan had a slight frown, but it was also in that instant he came to realize perhaps this elder was aware of this debacle and had pretended to remain oblivious. If Zhou Lingyi and Zhou Lingyao entered the main branch of his family, and since they were not the legitimate children of Zhou Wangchen, they would not cause any problems with Zhou Yuntian. Were all of these concerns deliberately taken into account for Zhou Yuntian’s sake? Thus, preventing Zhou Yuntian from being shamed?

It was the only logical reason the young lad knew. Other than that, Zhou Yan was unable to think of any other reasons for such an action.

However, although things had progressed to such an extent, Zhou Yan was not even the slightest bit bothered by it.

The heavens and the earth would be the greatest witness to his unprecedented ability to gain enlightenment. Even though the score for this test was a huge zero, it meant nothing. Could this possibly hide his impressive ability of enlightenment?

It would be impossible!

“I, as your pupil, humbly accept your verdict for you as the elder is just and fair.”

Although the young lad scoffed in his heart, Zhou Yan was able to reply in pure humility.

“Alright then.”

Since Zhou Yan had not reacted with hostility and calmly accepted his verdict, plenty of spectators in the crowd nodded since they respected Zhou Yan for being able to remain calm and not react rashly. Hence, they took another glance at Zhou Yan.

“For your tests—based on the rules previously stated—if any of you presented more than what you’ve initially learned, all of your scores will be given a zero!”

“Yes, great elder!”

The pupils of the Zhou family bowed in unison.

Zhou Lingyi, Zhou Lingyao, and the others amongst them were calm.

Zhou Xian, on the other hand, was taking joy in Zhou Yan’s situation as there were obvious hints of glee and delight in his eyes as he stared at Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan patiently took a deep breath as he forced his rage through the twelve divergent meridians in his body.

At that moment, the fuming boiling rage within him caused all his meridian to heat up.

Based on the prideful nature of that ancient sage, this was a major insult to him.

Even so, the young lad had to hide his anger—at least temporarily!

Zhou Yan was also aware that if he had not demonstrated his skills at this moment and only showed his skills within the swordplay alchemy, there was a possibility of an unforeseen ‘accident’ that might result in his fall!

Hence, his punishment was given in a lackluster half-baked reason. It was obvious that this elder sided heavily toward Zhou Ting and that lad, Zhou Yuntian. Therefore, he repeatedly brought troubles his way.

However, the more trouble the elder gave him, the more determined Zhou Yan was to enter the main branch of his family. He felt that after entering into the main branch of his family, he would be in a position to thoroughly crush these scums as he would have grown older and stronger!

Hence, today’s humiliation would be repaid in a hundred folds in the near future!