Chapter 1070: Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm
Translator: StarveCleric Editor: StarveCleric
"Accept Ancient Sage Qiu Wu as your disciple?"
The lips of Wu shi and the others twitched for a moment first before they quickly shook their heads.
They didn’t think that Zhang Xuan was being serious. They felt that it was inconceivable that anyone would dare speak words like that.
After all, Ancient Sage Qiu Wu was an expert that stood beside Kong shi in that chaotic era. Even the current head of the Master Teacher Pavilion, a true 9-star master teacher, would have to respectfully address him as ’elder’, not daring to show the slightest discourtesy towards him.
Yet, Zhang Xuan actually said that he attempted to accept the other party as his student?
If he were to really dare to utter such words, Ancient Sage Qiu Wu would probably have him killed in a single slap.
Through everyone’s expression, Zhang Xuan could tell that they didn’t believe him. He knew that this would happen.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t be bothered to explain either. It was his intention to keep a low profile anyway, so this was for the best.
"Let’s continue examining the stone tablets. Since this is part of a trial, there’s bound to be a solution to it." Not wanting to dwell on that topic, Zhang Xuan waved his hand as he turned his attention back to the stone tablets before him.
Through his Eye of Insight, he could tell that there was nothing special about the material of the stone tablets before him. They were just ordinary boulders, and the only exceptional quality about them was just their durability.
In other words, the crux to the stone tablet had to be the inscriptions on it.
Just that... there were simply too many languages on the stone tablets! Furthermore, even if they managed to translate it, they didn’t form proper sentences, making it impossible to figure what they meant.
Perplexed, Zhang Xuan stepped forward and placed his hand on the stone tablet.
Hu!
A book materialized in the Library of Heaven’s Path.
Zhang Xuan swiftly flipped it open.
"Ashened Stone Tablet, inscribed by Ancient Sage Qiu Wu. It contains the complete formula to cultivating the [Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm]. There are 27 flaws regarding the inscribed battle technique: No.1, the effectiveness of the battle technique is highly dependent on the state of mind the cultivator is in. As such, the cultivator will have to ready his emotional state before the battle, or else he will be unable to display the full prowess of the technique. This makes it highly ineffective in abrupt situations. No.2, it has a high requirement of one’s zhenqi..."
Detailed on the book were the many flaws of the battle technique.
"As expected, it is a battle technique!" Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up in excitement.
It seemed like Ancient Sage Qiu Wu wasn’t lying to them. The stone tablets were indeed a kind of trial.
Soon, after he was done reading the book, Zhang Xuan scratched his head.
He did get the name of the battle technique, and he had a thorough understanding of its flaws as well, but... he still couldn’t understand the battle technique manual!
Knowing the flaws but not the technique itself was like having a remedy in hand but not knowing what illness it applied to... It did nothing to help the situation that they were in!
He had to think of a way to understand the words on the stone tablet so that he could obtain the battle technique.
Thus, retracting his consciousness from the Library of Heaven’s Path, he continued examining the stone tablets before him intently.
The same seemingly meaningless combination of characters came into sight, leaving his eyes hurting a little. Those words just simply didn’t form something coherent together!
"Wait... Even though I am unable to understand the words on the stone tablet, perhaps I might be able to translate it through compiling it together with other books..." Suddenly, Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up as a thought came into his mind.
If he were to go about it the normal method, it was likely that he would first have to translate the many different languages on the stone tablets into a single language first. However, just that step in itself would likely take up a significant period of time.
Furthermore, given that it was a trial of wisdom, it definitely wouldn’t be as simple as simply translating the words. There were bound to be many stumbling blocks waiting ahead of him.
Instead of going through the trouble, wouldn’t it be much simpler if he could just compile the other palm art manuals with it?
With this thought in mind, Zhang Xuan turned to the crowd and asked, "Do you have any palm art manuals in your possession? Can you allow me to take a look at them?"
"Palm art manuals?"
The crowd was perplexed by Zhang Xuan’s sudden request, unsure of what he was up to.
The urgent matter at hand was to figure out what the trial was through deciphering the stone tablets which Ancient Sage Qiu Wu left behind. Why was the other party asking for palm art manuals all of the sudden?
"I have quite a few here with me. I copied them from the Palm Hall of our Combat Master Hall branch just a while ago!" Jiang Yuan said as he flicked his wrist, and a stack of over several hundred books appeared before his eyes.
While the was perplexed by what Zhang Xuan was up to, he knew that the latter wasn’t one to make a request for no reason.
As the warriors of the Master Teacher Pavilion, combat masters devoted much of their time to studying all kinds of battle techniques. As such, every single one of them had a huge collection of battle techniques in their storage rings.
"I have some over here too!" Feng Xun flicked his wrist and took out a bunch too.
Before long, the combat masters had already whipped out more than three thousand palm art manuals.
"I don’t have as many palm art manuals as they do, but mine are of relatively higher tier..."
With a smile, Wu shi and Guild Leader Han took out roughly a dozen books combined.
Most of the palm arts detailed in the dozen books had already reached Saint low-tier, making them exceptionally valuable. Nevertheless, since Zhang Xuan said that he needed it, they took it out without any hesitation.
"Thank you..." Zhang Xuan nodded as he quickly collected those books into the Library of Heaven’s Path.
"Compile!" Zhang Xuan muttered softly.
Hu!
Countless books flew together and merged together with the Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm’s manual.
Huala!
A brand new book appeared before Zhang Xuan’s eyes.
He reached forward to grab it before swiftly flipping it open.
"As expected, quite a few flaws of the Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm have been resolved..." Sweeping through the contents, Zhang Xuan clenched his fists tightly in agitation.
Just like what he had guessed earlier, the compilation of the Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm manual with the other several ten thousand palm art manuals he had in the Library of Heaven’s Path had the number of flaws successfully reduced from the initial 27 to just 9.
Considering that the Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm was an extremely advanced palm art, it was inevitable that the books he had collected thus far wouldn’t be sufficient to perfect it. In truth, it was already a huge blessing that they were able to resolve 18 of the flaws.
"Let me see if I can cultivate it..."
Zhang Xuan took a quick look through the newly compiled manual, and eventually, he shook his head in disappointment.
Even though it was very close to being a Heaven’s Path battle technique with only nine flaws remaining, some parts of it were still gibberish.
To be more exact, the portions which had been corrected by the compilation of the other books were readable, there was no problem interpreting them, but the flawed portions still remained the jumbled mess of languages they were.
"Let me compare the readable portions with the stone tablet and see if I can decipher it..."
Memorizing the parts which had been translated perfectly, Zhang Xuan began examining the corresponding portions of the text on the stone tablets, only to realize that he was as confused as before. It was as if the two were completely unrelated to one another!
Somehow, he felt like a student who had the model answer in hand but was still unable to comprehend the question.
After studying the stone tablets for a while longer, Zhang Xuan mumbled with a conflicted expression, "These words don’t seem to have anything to do with battle techniques..."
All along, he had been able to find the flaws of any battle technique easily through the Library of Heaven’s Path and shock others. Yet, despite having the model answer in hand, he still couldn’t understand what was on the stone tablet at all... it was extremely frustrating.
"It has already been four hours now... Should I just use the eighteen resolved flaws to see if I can clear the trial with just that?" Zhang Xuan rubbed his glabella as he thought.
Typically speaking, the requirement for clearing the trial was for him to learn the Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm, but there was nothing he could do if the stone tablets made perfectly no sense to him... Perhaps, if he were to submit the eighteen resolved flaws, Ancient Sage Qiu Wu might not think too much into the matter and clear him for the trial?
With this thought in mind, Zhang Xuan stood up to call for Ancient Sage Qiu Wu, but in that moment, he caught sight of a certain inscription by the corner of a stone tablet in his peripheral vision.
These inscriptions were made up of the language of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe. They made no sense when read as a whole, but in the moment which Zhang Xuan stood up, the inscriptions seemed to have danced slightly.
It was a similar feeling to what he felt from the inscriptions carved by the Greenleaf King’s subordinates back in the Subterranean Gallery.
"Could it be that... we aren’t supposed to regard these inscriptions as words but figures instead?"
Suddenly, such a thought came into Zhang Xuan’s mind.
If the inscriptions were truly just words, he should have been able to decipher them by matching the translated content in his Library of Heaven’s Path with the stone tablets, but that didn’t work out. However, if they were figures, it would all make sense!
With a sharp glint in his eyes, Zhang Xuan began examining the stone tablets before him closely once more.
This time, with his focus on the form of each inscribed word, they suddenly seemed to float out of the stone tablet before his eyes and string together as one.
Taking a closer look, he realized in astonishment that it was drawing out a zhenqi circulation pathway.
"Let me try cultivating it..."
After gaining a thorough understanding of the various zhenqi circulation pathways of the battle technique, Zhang Xuan began driving his zhenqi through his body in the same manner reflected on the stone tablets.
Geji! Geji!
With the overwhelming might of the Heaven’s Path zhenqi, the acupoints along the zhenqi circulation pathway were opened instantaneously. Whenever Zhang Xuan encountered flawed sections of the technique, he would utilize the correct version which he had compiled in the Library of Heaven’s Path previously instead.
Cracking sounds echoed relentlessly from Zhang Xuan’s body.
"So this is how the Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm should be cultivated..."
Soon, after driving his zhenqi a circulation through his body, he had finally managed to master the palm art.
As there were too many flaws in the palm art, Zhang Xuan ended up being unable to compile it into a Heaven’s Path battle technique, leaving it only at Saint intermediate-tier.
Nevertheless, it was still an advanced battle technique that was far beyond the means of ordinary Nascent Saints to cultivate. In fact, it would be difficult for even Saint 4-dan experts to grasp the technique.
However, Zhang Xuan was an exception as he had cultivated the Saint Ascension Decipher previously. The zhenqi which he harnessed within his body was boundless like the vast ocean, granting his sufficient energy to execute the technique. At the same time, the exceptionally pure Heaven’s Path zhenqi was able to reach and open up even the smallest meridians within his body. As such, he actually succeeded in cultivating the Heavenly Demon Great Sorrow Palm to Minor Accomplishment!
The cultivation of battle techniques could be divided into Novice, Initiate, Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishment, and Consummation.
"With so many flaws remaining in the palm art, it’ll suffice for me to cultivate it to Minor Accomplishment. I should find an opportunity to head to the Palm Hall of the Combat Master Hall to find more books to perfect the technique into a Heaven’s Path Palm Art before cultivating it further..."
Stretching his back lazily, Zhang Xuan stood up.
There were simply far too many flaws in the palm art. It was fortunate that the flaws had only weakened the might of the palm art and increased the depletion of zhenqi required in its execution instead of inflicting permanent harm on his body like the Unbounded Voyager. Otherwise, he would have never cultivated it.
"It’s really too crude..." Zhang Xuan sighed deeply.
This must have been the most flawed battle technique that he had practiced ever since he started cultivating. He couldn’t help but shake his head at this great embarrassment.
"Principal Zhang, how is it?"
Noting that Zhang Xuan seemed to have dawned on something, Wu shi and the others hurriedly turned their gazes towards him.
After studying the stone tablets for some time, they had succeeded in translating quite a few portions of the stone tablets and gathered some insights of their own. However, the stone tablets still remained as much of an enigma to them as before.
"The battle technique contained within the stone tablet is a palm art. I have managed to decipher and grasp it..." Zhang Xuan replied with a nod.
"A palm art?"
"You managed to grasp it?"
Everyone was stunned.
While all they could see were a bunch of jumbled up words, the young man before them had already managed to decipher the text and even successfully grasp it... Wasn’t his wisdom a little too earth-shattering!
"A palm art? You have managed to decipher and grasp it?"
Hong long!
Zhang Xuan was just about to speak when the ground suddenly rumbled deafeningly. Taking a look, he saw that Ancient Sage Qiu Wu’s sculpture had leaped into the courtyard and was currently staring at him with a perplexed look in his eyes.
Ancient Sage Qiu Wu knew how difficult the trial he had left behind was. Even the most talented of his students required at least several months in order to decipher the secret behind the stone tablets. Yet, the young man actually managed to grasp the palm art he had left behind in less than six hours?
Was it really possible for a human to have such high wisdom?