Chereads / Heaven's Tribulation / Chapter 7 - A Greater Monster

Chapter 7 - A Greater Monster

The next few days passed by without anything notable happening.

Sheng Tian would go out to train his fighting skills with the experts of the village, eat large amounts of food made with ingredients containing qi, and sometimes spar with Ming Long and the others.

Of course, Sheng Tian was not able to defeat any of them, and he speculated that he might not even land a scratch even if he exposed his full strength. Most of the spars simply consisted of him blocking or dodging attacks.

This morning he was up earlier than usual, so much so that the other villagers had not awoken from their slumber yet.

Sheng Tian sat on his bed and waited a few minutes. About half an hour later, an ethereal figure manifested in front of Sheng Tian.

Before Wu Di could speak, his eyes fell onto the little boy and immediately saw through his progress.

Eyes wide and mouth hanging loose, Wu Di was unable to form words for a good minute.

"If I could die, then I might have suffered a heart attack right here"

Sheng Tian tilted his head to the side in confusion, "Why is that master?"

Pah!

"Ouch!"

Wu Di smacked the boy on the head lightly, before realizing the boy before him knew nothing of what was fast growth.

"Anyone else would have beaten you to death if they heard that," Wu Di berated Sheng Tian, "Few people have your level of comprehension and would take years to grow stronger even slightly"

He sighed, covering half of his face with one hand, "Sigh, I picked up a monster greater than myself, and I didn't even think that was possible!"

Wu Di suddenly grinned, making Sheng Tian shiver.

"I'll take great pride in molding you into shape"

"Ahem!"

Sheng Tian's master cleared his throat before adopting a more serious look on his face.

"You can't cultivate any of the 3 paths of cultivation until you get older, so what do you want to do?"

Sheng Tian put down his hands which were rubbing his head, "An elder of the Sky Sword Sect is coming over soon, in 3 months actually. I'll join the sect beforehand and train until I can become an official disciple"

Wu Di raised his ethereal eyebrows, "The Sky Sword Sect?"

He nodded his head after a moment, "They were once the top sect of this mortal realm, but after their top talents passed away, they were suppressed by the other sects"

"Their power is undeniable as is their tenaciousness, so it isn't a bad idea to join them as they have quite the history"

Sheng Tian raised an eyebrow, "Wait, they were once the top sect? How strong are they now and who ranks above them?"

"They now rank third in the entire realm, which isn't too bad," Wu Di said casually, "As for the powers that suppressed them, they are the Sacred Blood Sect and the Everlasting Temple"

Sheng Tian noticed that his master's tone changed into one of distaste when he said the names of the 2 powers ranked in first and second. However, he didn't pry and instead asked for a sword technique he could use.

"Master, I noticed that there was not a single combat technique that mortals can use in my memory, why is that? I wanted to look at a few sword techniques I can use"

Wu Di sighed again, "The reason I locked away any offensive techniques is because I didn't think you would progress so fast. Since you've made good progress with those movement techniques and practiced the basics a little, I will unseal them now"

Stretching out a finger, Wu Di poked Sheng Tian's forehead. A faint crack was heard and various techniques suddenly appeared in Sheng Tian's head.

Before Sheng Tian could thank his master, the old man disappeared again, "You're doing well on your own, so I'll go rest and only show up if anything exciting happens"

"Wait! I also wanted some pointers on alchemy and body inscriptions!"

Inside Sheng Tian's sea of consciousness, Wu Di narrowed his eyes and looked through Sheng Tian's memory. He quickly found that the boy had somehow managed to concoct a few pills, as well as make a degraded version of a useful inscription.

"...You'll figure things out through trial and error"

After receiving silence for a few minutes, Sheng Tian sighed at his irresponsible master and looked over the techniques he just got access to.

In an instant, all the sword techniques appeared before Sheng Tian in his sea of consciousness and he slowly sifted through them.

The martial techniques were crude and unappealing, but there were 2 secret techniques that quickly caught Sheng Tian's eye.

Secret techniques were gradeless techniques that even cultivators sought after.

This was because as a cultivator increases in cultivation level, many old techniques are unable to keep up and need to be replaced. Secret techniques on the other hand grew as long as the cultivator practiced it repeatedly.

The first one was called Severing Sword Strike which once mastered, it would create a strike that can destroy an opponent's technique.

The second was called Life Rend, a technique that can cut someone even without being near them. The requirement is that the user must be able to see karmic threads, specifically the life thread, and be able to control the sword enough to cut it.

Though he couldn't see karmic threads, Sheng Tian remembered there was a technique that could change that.

Another book materialized in front of him that read All Seeing Eyes on the cover. This was the technique that Feng Wu Di used to see his talent and also granted the ability to see karma and secrets others might not see.

There was only one problem however, and that was that the book was completely empty.

"Master, how can I learn this technique?"

A moment later, Wu Di's voice resounded in his head, "I recommend you first go to a secluded place where no one can hear you even if you scream at the top of your lungs"

Curious, Sheng Tian sneaked out of the house and left deep into the forest until he was quite far away from the village.

"Now what?"

Wu Di's response came almost instantly, as if he was anticipating what was to come.

"Now you try not to faint"

In an instant, the world turned black for Sheng Tian and then a blinding white.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"

His scream echoed and scared away all the small magical beasts in the area, but one thing was for sure. No human can hear his cries.

Sheng Tian felt as if his eyes were being gouged out and molten lava was poured in. After what seemed like an eternity, Sheng Tian's voice eventually turned hoarse and he was barely holding onto consciousness.

"Stay awake," Wu Di reminded, "If you faint now, you could lose your vision and everything will go to waste"

Hearing this, Sheng Tian bit his tongue, fighting the soul piercing pain with pain.

10 minutes passed, and the screams died down into whimpers. 

An hour later, Sheng Tian woke up from what felt like the deepest pits of hell to a brighter and clearer world. Sheng Tian knew immediately that whatever his master had done, it had allowed him to obtain the All Seeing Eyes.

The benefits can be seen immediately, as Sheng Tian's eyesight greatly improved. He can now even see the flow of qi which was previously inaccessible to him.

Sheng Tian poured some qi into his eyes and activated the All Seeing Eyes. A golden gleam was present in his black eyes and countless threads and lights appeared in Sheng Tian's vision.

This visual chaos quickly gave Sheng Tian a headache, but he smiled nonetheless.

"Thank you, Master"

The boy looked up in the sky to check the time and immediately jumped up.

"Shoot! Uncle is about to wake up!"

Sheng Tian immediately ran back to the village, before stealthily sneaking back into his room.

Right as he made it onto his bed, Sheng Tian heard his uncle's voice behind the closed door.

"Tian'er? Are you awake yet?"

Sheng Tian ruffled his hair to make it seem like he was in bed before walking over to the door and opening it. Thankfully, he had calmed down now, or else Ming Long would have seen him breathing heavily.

He began speaking in a low voice, "Did something happen, uncle?"

Ming Long sighed in relief when he saw Sheng Tian, "Nothing happened. I was just worried because you are usually awake by now. It seems that it was unnecessary as you were just sleeping. Anyways, come eat breakfast"

The man turned around and walked to the table. Following behind his uncle, Sheng Tian secretly breathed a sigh of relief and sat down.

As they ate, Sheng Tian snuck a glance at his uncle before going into deep thought.

Ming Long naturally noticed this and lowered his chopsticks, "What happened?"

Sheng Tian began to formulate a response, as he didn't want to hide everything from his uncle, who was like a father to him.

"Uncle... I found this large rock with weird runes on it a few days ago"

Ming Long raised an eyebrow, "A rock with runes? What of it?"

Sheng Tian scratched his cheek, "When I touched it, it felt as if knowledge was flowing into my head. So... for the past few days, I was using what I got from that rock"

Ming Long's eyes widened, "An inheritance? Was it an inheritance that you found?!"

"You believe me?" asked Sheng Tian.

Ming Long replied, "Of course! This kind of thing can't be faked! While we old ones haven't found anything in the forest, perhaps it is simply not our destiny. Anyways, what type of inheritance was it?"

Hesitating for a moment, Sheng Tian stood up, "I think it would be better to just show you uncle"

The duo stood up and walked out of the cabin, with Sheng Tian leading the way to the warehouse.

They arrived at a sturdy looking wooden building, to which Sheng Tian opened the door to. Ming Long watched in confusion until he saw the boy pull out a cauldron and light a 3 colored flame in his hand.

Ming Long trembled as his pupils dilated, "An Alchemist's inheritance!"