Chapter 45 – Repayment of the Ancient Book

Ye Qingyu was taken aback, about to ask the voice why. At this time, he had already floated thirty feet high. Accompanied by the sounds of objects shooting through the air, shackles upon shackles of black chains appeared from the air and the wall, firmly latching onto Ye Qingyu’s body…

“Ouch, it hurts…”

Ye Qingyu let of a sharp breath, feeling pain pervading throughout his soul. Every bone in his body was as if it was broken into pieces, and causing the inability to gather yuan qi. He fell headlong towards the ground, smashing into the hard surface, and did not recover until a long while.

If he was not at the peak of body refinement, with tough muscles and durable bones, this would definitely have turned him into meat paste.

“Hahahahaha ……” From the next courtyard came a cackle like thunder, not disguising at all his amusement from Ye Qingyu’s misfortune.

Ye Qingyu sat up, rubbing his back. Apart from being shocked and offended, he could not help but feel amazed. The courtyard wall was filled with formations that prevented noise from passing through, so for this person’s laughter to be able to be heard so clearly, the person who was laughing must have terrifying strength.

Above his head, shackles were still quivering, slowly fading away.

Ye Qingyu carefully examined these objects and discovered these were not ‘shackles’ at all. These were black runes tightly grouped together, forming a dense beam. It seems that he had previously floated too high and activated some sort of formation. That was why he had been thrashed so harshly and suffered such a painful experience.

“Motherfucker, wait till your father I is strong enough, I will definitely dismantle this formation… Ow, ow, it’s so painful.”

Ye Qingyu bitterly cursed.

The voice from over the wall sounded again, “Good little kid, you have the same temperament as me. You have ambition, I like you.”

Ye Qingyu continued breathing roughly and after recovering from the pain all over his body, his curiosity was aroused. He loudly shouted, “Who’s the person behind the wall? Why did you laugh so loudly at my suffering?”

This time, there was no reply.

Ye Qingyu was slightly taken aback, shouting loudly again.

There was still not a reply.

“Damn him, is he a mute?” Ye Qingyu silently seethed, and seeing the discussion would not continue, did not ask any further. He began sitting in a meditative stance, recovering the yuan qi that he had expended on trying to control objects and floating.

The previous experiments, had expended over a quarter of the yuan qi within the Spirit spring. The consumption was definitely not negligible.

Only after an hour, was the amount of yuan qi in his body recovered to his previous state.

Ye Qingyu nodded his head with satisfaction. At this time, something unexpected occurred.

When the yuan qi recovered to its optimal state, Ye Qingyu could suddenly feel a heat activating within his mind. Before he could react, his sea of consciousness suddenly glowed with a golden splendour. The mysterious Bronze book [Fiendgod* Titled Chart] [JR1] activated, vibrating with humming sounds, as if it had come alive.

“What’s happening?”

Ye Qingyu was shocked by the events.

At this time, he could clearly feel within the desert world in his dantian, the yuan qi within the Spirit spring was as if it had lost control. It wildly dispersed throughout his entire body, finally turning into a stream of heat that entered into his sea of consciousness and was absorbed by the Bronze book.

The speed at which this occurred was extreme.

There was no way that Ye Qingyu could control this process.

In the blink of the eye, half the energy in the Spirit spring was forcefully absorbed by the Bronze book, [Fiendgod Titled Chart].

And this process, continued to become fiercer and fiercer.

Under Ye Qingyu’s panic, he quickly tried to halt the yuan qi, wanting the yuan qi within the Spirit spring to stop flowing outside.

From the perspective of an expert in the Spirit spring stage, the yuan qi within the Spirit spring was the foundation of everything. Once it was all gone, not only did the martial artist need to repeat the process of [Forming Yuan] to excavate a new Spirit spring, it would also hurt the foundations of the martial artist.

But the suction power of the Bronze book was incomparably great. No matter how Ye Qingyu struggled, even using the nameless breathing technique to prevent the absorption, the effect was not particularly useful.

Within the world of his dantian, the Spirit spring was as if it had turned into a fountain. It crazily spurted out spirit qi, heading to the Bronze book within his sea of consciousness.

The body of Ye Qingyu, was as if he had lost all control, finding it hard to even move.

Time passed second by second.

This process, continued for approximately an hour of time.

One hour later, Ye Qingyu’s face was deathly pale, breathing raggedly.

The Spirit spring that he had managed to excavate after so much effort had been sucked completely dry, turning into a desert again. There was only a deep and dry cracked hole left, where the eye of the Spring used to be located…

An unprecedented feeling of weakness and inability, enveloped Ye Qingyu’s entire body.

He was like an old man who had lived out his life, reaching the end of his road. The flames of his life was like a candle in the wind, possibly extinguishing at any moment.

“I’m finished, I’m finished, this time I’m really finished… This Bronze book is too evil, it has really absorbed all by inner yuan. The inner yuan that I have worked so hard to cultivate has become the possession of this Bronze book…”

Beads of sweat that were as large as beans, began dripping down from Ye Qingyu’s forehead.

His brain worked furiously, thinking of all the possibilities, trying his best to come up with a solution.

At this time, within his sea of consciousness, the vibrating Bronze book [Fiendgod Titled Chart] finally stopped moving. It radiated with a pale golden light, incomparably bright and radiant.

Characters and characters of strange writing appeared on the smooth cover of the Bronze book. One could vaguely see a faint red in these characters, as if they were written using blood.

This scene was incomparably peculiar.

The next instant, something abnormal happened again. The pale golden light, as if it was sucked in by a giant whale, went inside the interior of the Bronze book. The originally seamless ancient book was as if it was blown open by the spring wind, crashing unexpectedly and automatically opening…

Ye Qingyu’s eyesight was not poor, but even he could only vaguely discern the scene within the book, not being able to clearly see what was written.

And then the Bronze book closed seamlessly again.

Then, it started buzzing and vibrating again.

And after that, the pale golden light that had entered into the Bronze book, returned again.

Before Ye Qingyu could react, the pale golden light spurted out again, transforming into a long streak of yuan qi. It passed through the endless sea of consciousness, as if it was travelling through space, and again entered into the four limbs and bones of Ye Qingyu. The energy contained within was even purer and warmer, finally turning into a stream of inner yuan, returning to the dried up Spring…

This type of change was entirely out of Ye Qingyu’s calculation.

And what it brought was an inexhaustible energy.

Ye Qingyu could clearly sense that his body, which had become malnourished and famished, once again began to fill with life. The feeling of weakness was completely swept away, and what replaced it was a strength that was even greater than his previous condition.

In his inner vision, the dehydrated eye of the Spring had already became filled with signs of life again.

The diameter of this spring was at least ten times greater than it was before, at least fifteen or sixteen meters in diameter. The yuan qi water within was clear and bubbling as if it was boiling water, filled with vitality. It was purer by who knows how many times, and one was not able to observe any hint of impurities within.

The yuan qi spring erupted in the air as if it was a geyser, shooting over several hundred meters. The surging roar of this was like that of a dragon’s growl.

“My inner yuan is so much purer compared to before, with faster flow rates and greater potential! The rate at which it nourishes the desert has a direct impact on your cultivation speed, this means the time till excavating the new Spirit spring has shortened too!

Ye Qingyu was both astonished and exultant.

He had never imagined that such a thing would happen.

After the Bronze book had completely absorbed all his inner yuan, Ye Qingyu thought he was completely done for. He had already decided that this Bronze book was a malicious object of some sort, and had never thought that the Bronze book would absorb the inner yuan and purify it, returning it to him once again.

This process, was like repayment.

The newly obtained inner yuan, was purer, more condensed and more formidable. It was simply a completely new change.

“This Bronze book is definitely a treasure!”

Ye Qingyu had already judged without any uncertainties.

If according to the normal cultivation speed, by Ye Qingyu’s estimates, he would need at least a month’s time before the purity and size of the Spirit spring would reach such a state and have such vitality and flow rates!

But through the Bronze book, [Fiendgod Titled Chart], absorbing and returning the inner yuan, in less than an hour this was done.

Ye Qingyu realised he had found a treasure.

A treasure that was priceless.

Just through the fact that it can aid in cultivation, this type of treasure was enough to enter the top ranks of Spirit instruments!

His mood suddenly changed for the better.

“Hahahaha… when luck comes, no one can block it.”

The Bronze book he had only found by coincidence, who would have thought that it was such a miraculous item.

In a state of excitement, Ye Qingyu observed his sea of consciousness.

He could only see that within the sea of consciousness, the Bronze book again returned to its previous calm and peaceful state. It did not vibrate or buzz anymore nor was there any light emitted from it. It was as if it had once again returned to an endless sleep.

Ye Qingyu attempted to communicate with it using his will, but there was no reaction at all.

Too mysterious.

It seems like this Bronze book, [Fiendgod Titled Chart], really contained endless mysteries.

Ye Qingyu guessed that through the absorption and return of the inner yuan process, the Bronze book had also received some kind of energy replenishment, so some change had occurred with it. But most likely, his inner yuan stage was too far away and could not meet its needs at all.

In other words, to awaken the Bronze book, an enormous amount of inner yuan was needed?

Of course, this was only Ye Qingyu’s guess.

But no matter what, the existence of this Bronze book must not be made known to others.

Ye Qingyu’s mind was sharp and cunning. He was able to guess at some of the secrets and mysteries behind this Bronze book and came to a decision.

As his emotions calmed down, Ye Qingyu thought of something again. With a will of his heart, the Bronze book came out from his sea of consciousness. Accompanied by a radiant light, the palm-sized book again appeared in his right hand.

It remained as heavy as it ever was.

Ye Qingyu attempted to open the book.

The first page was able to be opened.

This page Ye Qingyu had already opened before, and what he had seen was strange characters organized in some sort of an index.

It was still the characters from the Fiendgod Age, complicated and intricate. For a normal person, one look at it would cause them to feel dizzy.

But not for Ye Qingyu.

Through these days of studies, Ye Qingyu had already grasped all the books regarding forgotten characters and languages. He was able to recognize the characters from the Fiendgod Age, although his comprehension was still basic, but he was able to understand the general meaning.

Ye Qingyu could clearly remember during the first time he had attempted to open this Bronze book, he was able to open the first page and saw something akin to an index. But as for the pages after, he was not able to open it in the slightest, no matter what method he attempted.

But this time, it was different.

The first row of characters on the index was not grey but had turned into a pale golden colour.

“This means…”

Ye Qingyu suddenly moved, his finger placed on the silent characters. A sensation as if touching a lover’s smooth skin, and the previously closed pages automatically opened, turning to the directed section of the book.

On the palm-sized page, a virtual projection like an illusion was produced.

*So I’ve previously translated 神魔 as God and Devil. But having recently reading Desolate Era, I’ve also come across similar terms. Looking at the other translations, they seem to have translated it as Fiendgod, which seems more easier to fit in within the English translation so I’ve decided to adopt this phrase and it also makes it easier to remember.