Chapter 12 - The Mysterious Martial Skill in the Blood Vein Ring

Chapter 12 - The Mysterious Martial Skill in the Blood Vein Ring

After Shi Yan withdrew the Profound Qi that had flown out of his body, he set his eyes upon the crimson ring on his left ring finger. This mysterious ring, which he had named the ‘Blood Vein Ring’, came from the blood pool, and had some connection with it.

As he was thinking, he recalled the time when he wore the ring for the first time. Back then, the Profound Qi in his body was very weak, but the moment he wore the ring, it rushed toward the ring in a wild manner. But since it was too weak then, his Qi couldn’t flow into the ring across his skin.

Now he had already reached the Third Sky, meaning his Profound Qi had been strengthened and refined to the point that it could move out of his body.

What would happen if his Profound Qi went into the ring?

Shi Yan was curious and guessed that there was a secret inside this ancient ring. Maybe after studying this ring, he could find out the reason why his meridians changed.

Through the leaves, Shi Yan observed for a while. Three warriors from Mo family were moving away from him, and would not come back for a short time.

Shi Yan decided to give it a shot!

At first, the Profound Qi was flowing slowly in his dantian, then it suddenly accelerated and rushed into his left arm. His Qi moved rapidly and he felt a numb pain in the veins of his left arm. The Qi, rushed all the way into the ring finger on his left hand with a crushing force, and lashed against the skin under the ring.

Like smoke, the Profound Qi leaked out from between the ring and the skin, making the sound of steam coming out of a kettle, and the pure energy dived right inside the ring in an instant.

The Blood Vein Ring let out a crimson light, as if the protective layer of the ring had been ruptured. At this point, a strange energy jumped out of the Blood Vein Ring and flew back into Shi Yan’s arm. It went straight up his neck and finally arrived in his mind.

Martial Skill: [Rampage]!

The energy coming out of the Blood Vein Ring was a series of memory fragments. This [Rampage], was a strange Martial Skill. The training procedure became deeply engraved in his mind.

Martial Skills taught warriors how to operate their Profound Qi, and contained a skill for attacking with Profound Qi. Just like the ranking for Alchemists, it was divided into five grades: Mortal, Profound, Spirit, Sacred and God. [1]

But there were some differences between the ranking of Martial Skills and that of Alchemists. Every grade of Alchemists consisted of seven sub-levels, while Martial Skills contained no sub-levels.

High grade Martial Skills brought the best out of the Profound Qi inside a Warrior and provided them with an enormous ability to attack. The higher the grade of the Martial Skill, the better it tapped their Profound Qi. If a warrior was to train with a high grade Martial Skill, he had to reach a high level first. The stronger the Martial Skill, the stricter the conditions it required.

Generally speaking, warriors of the Elementary and Nascent Realm were suitable for training Mortal and Human level Martial Skills, Disaster Realm for Profound and Earth level skills, Nirvana Realm for Spirit and Sky level skills, Spirit Realm for Sacred level skills and True God and King God Realm for God level skills.

It was a waste of time if a warrior of a lower grade tried to train with high grade Martial Skills.

If one’s grade was too low and their Profound Qi was not intense enough, one would not succeed in learning a high grade Martial Skill. Even if they barely succeeded, he could not use the power of a high grade Martial Skill proficiently, as their Realm and power would not be enough to sustain them. It was best for a warrior to train with Martial Skills which matched their Warrior Realm.

For example, even if a warrior of the Nascent Realm possessed God level Martial Skill, it would be a total waste of time, because he would never be able to train it with his low Realm.

Conversely, if a warrior of a high Realm trained with a low level Martial Skill, he couldn’t put his power to good use either.

If a warrior of the True God Realm had only low grade Martial Skills of the Mortal and Profound grade, his ability would be restricted. For, if his Martial Skills were too low for his warrior Realm, he could only use 70%-80% of his ability.

On the Grace mainland, Martial Skills were more treasured than pills from alchemists; they were the most valuable treasure on this earth. Generally speaking, Martial Skills were controlled by those honorable families and all sorts of forces. It was one of the attractions for warriors, as such they often joined to those honorable families to have access to them.

The higher the grade, the more valuable the Martial Skill. Warriors of a high Realm would be severely restricted if they didn’t possess a high grade Martial Skill. They would be at a disadvantage, sometimes resulting in them being killed in fights.

Thus, in order to acquire a suitable high grade Martial Skill, those high-levelled warriors would sacrifice anything.

Sitting straight up in the foliage, Shi Yan sorted out the memories of [Rampage] in his mind little by little. After he put those memory fragments in order, he found that the [Rampage] Martial Skill consisted of three levels as well. What got imprinted in his mind now was only the first level of the training process. He had no idea what Martial Skill grade [Rampage] was, or whether [Rampage] suited him or not.

This Martial Skill leaked out from the Blood Vein Ring and rushed into his mind in a direct yet weird way. To train in this Martial Skill one needed to reverse the flow of their Profound Qi, which was of the opposite most Martial Skills. Shi Yan hesitated, could he train this incomplete Martial Skill, whose story was still unknown.

As one of the five biggest families in the Merchant Union, the Shi family had its own Martial Skills, the highest of which reached the Spirit level. It was regarded as a family heirloom by the family head of Shi family, Shi Jian. This old man was the only person who had reached the Realm required to train with it.

Nonetheless, apart from this Spirit level Martial Skill, the Shi family also possessed Mortal and Profound level Martial Skills.

Shi Yan had decided to return to Shi family and train with their Mortal and Profound level Martial Skills with his new identity. But now, the Blood Vein Ring had produced this mysterious and unknown Martial Skill. He was totally confused, should he train with it or not?

With a rigid face, Shi Yan tried to refine his Profound Qi and pushed it into the Blood Vein Ring, only to find his Profound Qi blocked by a protective screen within the Ring. No matter how hard he tried, his Profound Qi couldn’t break the screen. He came to the vague conclusion that there was something behind that protective screen, but he would never know until it was broken.

Behind that protective screen, there might be more information about [Rampage]. Most likely it would be the process of the other two levels of training. Sadly, his Profound Qi could not break that screen until it was strong enough.

Helplessly, Shi Yan withdrew his Profound Qi from the ring. He arranged the incomplete memory fragments of the Martial Skill again, but he was still hesitant.

To train with it or not?

Being wrapped in foliage with his eyes shining, Shi Yan’s facial expressions kept on changing. After a very long time, he decided to see what would happen to his body if he trained in the first level of [Rampage].

His Profound Qi moved towards the Jugu Meridian slowly. After it arrived, according to the spinning process of first level of [Rampage], Shi Yan slowly injected his Profound Qi into the Jugu Meridan. Instantly, it started to spin rapidly. Negative moods buried in that meridian, such as hatred, despair and insanity, were all triggered in a burst, which turned into a certain force and began to change the veins, bones, blood and flesh around the Jugu Meridian.

All of a sudden, he felt a severe pain.

The blood and flesh around the Jugu Meridian suddenly contracted and his muscles became tight instantly.

After a quick thought, Shi Yan began to reverse the flow of his Profound Qi in no time. An unbearable pain suddenly raced through his whole body and felt that his veins were very nearly torn apart. After it travelled several inches, Shi Yan made up his mind and forced his Profound Qi up. His Profound Qi jumped across the Jugu Meridian and rushed to the Jianzhen Meridian like an angry beast.

After it accumulated in his Jianzhen Meridian, his Profound Qi spun just like before, which again brought out those negative moods of hatred, despair and anger hidden in the meridian all at once. The blood and flesh in that area began to contract again. To Shi Yan’s surprise, there was even a vague grey fog rising up from each pore on his shoulder, which was mixed with despair and hatred. Haunting!

The Profound Qi reversed again. Shi Yan felt a splitting pain in his right arm and his forehead and back were both soaked in sweat.

Severe pain!

Biting his teeth, the insanity inside Shi Yan broke out abruptly. Despite the pain in his arm, Shi Yan continued to urge his Profound Qi in the direction of Wuli Meridian…

After an unknown passage of time, Shi Yan moved his Profound Qi all the way from his Jugu Meridian to his Yangchi Meridian near his wrist, all while suppressing the desire to vomit. All sorts of negative energy inside the meridians of his the right arm seemed to be brought out at once!

Examining carefully, Shi Yan found the muscles on his right arm had contracted, so much so that they were much thinner than before. The dim grey fog curled up his arm ceaselessly, conveying those negative moods.

Merely by looking at it, one would be easily affected by its power, feeling extremely terrified.

The Profound Qi was moving back and forth in his arm. A strong power which could burst a dam was surging in his arm, combined with all sorts of negative moods. Shi Yan felt enormous power in his right arm, as if it would burst out at any minute.

In the bottom of his heart, a series of whims containing killing and cruelty showed up.

Breathing heavily, Shi Yan’s eyes showed a murderous look. Among the trees, he started searching for targets, viciously like a wolf. How he wished he could grind every person he saw into powder with his right arm. It wouldn’t be content until he smashed those people into mud.

...

A short while later, two shadows, along with loud curses, were moving towards his direction slowly. They were both warriors of the Mo family. After searching other places but finding no trace of Shi Yan, they were sent by Mo Yanyu to search this area.

“Where is that bastard? I’m gonna cut off his head at sight of him! Crap! My mistress is still waiting for me in the Merchant Union. I have wasted too much of my time here because of that bastard! Damn!” A stout warrior was viciously cursing, whose face was buried under a heavy moustache.

“Zhen Tie, Be careful! That bastard killed four of us! He must be a tough one to deal with. He ate twice what we eat for one meal, so strange! Don’t underestimate him!” The other warrior looked cautious, and he kept looking around, being more careful apparently.

“Don’t worry. We are both at the Second Sky of the Nascent Realm. And we are two people. It’s asking for death if that bastard tries to attack us. Hmm! Let us kill him soon so that we can leave! I have enough with this crazy place. I want women! Women!” The warrior named Zhen Tie seemed too eager for a woman that he began to shout in the woods.

“Yeah well... Miss Mo is a woman too...”That cautious warrior mocked in a low voice.

“Well, Miss Mo is a woman. But she is out of our league. I noticed that Master Karu went to Miss Mo quite a lot these days. Maybe he has a good chance. Look at Miss Mo; that face, that ass, hmm, let’s see which lucky bastard could get her. Our level is too low. There is not even a slightest hope in this life!”

Zhen Tie lowered his voice, wearing sinister smile on his face. He seemed to be having some fantasy. When it came to a joyful part, he straightened his body and laughed loudly.

“Stop daydreaming! Miss Mo is already engaged. That Ling Shaofeng is a very tough guy. If he knew you are fantasizing about her, you would be dead!”

Upon hearing Ling Shaofeng’s name, Zhen Tie looked panicked. He whispered, “That kid is too strange! I have heard that he has almost reached the Human Realm. I have seen him kill! He is unimaginably cruel! Even Master Karu would not escape if he annoyed Ling Shaofeng. Seriously, we have to be careful. If he heard what we said...”

Zhen Tie shivered. Apparently he was too scared of Mo Yanyu’s fiancée.

With rigid faces, the two discussed Ling Shaofeng as they walked toward where Shi Yan was, not knowing that in the thick leaves above them, there was a bloody beast.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Mortal, Profound, Spirit, Sacred and God: five grades of Martial skills.