Chapter 453

Chapter 453: Ai Hui’s Own Path

Translator: Irene Editor: TYZ, KLKL

Whether it was openly or discreetly, many were paying attention to Ai Hui’s recuperation . No one noticed, however, that the sand puppet beside him was gone .

Even Gong Peiyao, who adored Lou Lan, was focused on the news of Great Elder’s death and had no mood for playing with Lou Lan .

A rustling sound could be heard coming from the underbrush in an empty corner of Clearwater City .

Shortly after, a faint and cheerful voice sounded from the bushes .

“No one on the left . “

“No one on the right . “

A moment later, a finger-sized Lou Lan made his way out of the bushes .

“Keep watch from the rooftop, Lou Lan!”

“Keep watch from the alley mouth!”

“Watch the left side, Lou Lan . “

“Watch the right side, Lou Lan . “

A few mini Lou Lans called out to each other, one after another, before turning around and running off . One jumped to the rooftop and hid within a crack between the tiles . Two ran to the junction of two walls by the alley mouth and stood watch, one for the right and the other for the left side .

“Lou Lan’s here!”

“Lou Lan’s here!”

. . .

Cheerful shouts sounded incessantly as, one after another, Lou Lans started threading their way out from the bushes . They dashed toward one another joyfully and their mini bodies joined together and expanded to eventually become one big Lou Lan .

Having recovered his appearance, Lou Lan’s glowing red eyes flickered non-stop . He was processing every mini Lou Lan’s feedback . After a short while he muttered to himself, “There’s nothing in this region . To the next, Lou Lans, let’s go!”

Lou Lan did not use any clever method . What he used was actually silly .

He’d separated the whole city into different sections and upon reaching each region, he would scatter into many mini Lou Lans and scour the region like sand . Mini Lou Lans would remember the conversations they eavesdropped on and the people’s faces . Finally, the information the mini Lou Lans gathered would be summarized .

Such a huge amount of information would cause ordinary sand puppets to overheat . But Lou Lan’s sand core, Midnight, could sort out all this information effortlessly .

If there was any suspicious target, Lou Lan would arrange a mini Lou Lan to stand guard . No one would pay attention to a tiny pile of yellow sand hiding on the ceiling beams, under the bed, within the cracks between bricks or in a dark corner of their rooms .

There’d never been such a sand puppet .

What people generally knew about sand puppets was that they were all about the same size and had about the same abilities . The bigger the body the stronger in battle they usually were . An example would be a Sand Sentinel, because the bigger its size the more the sand core could do .

Sand puppets weren’t suitable spies since they weren’t quick or smart enough . They weren’t good at disguising themselves too . When sand puppets were first invented, people were easily deceived . Now, an extra pool of sand would alert everyone .

No one used sand puppets to spy nowadays, unless the earth elementalist really had no team-mates to rely on .

Lou Lan’s method depended solely on Midnight’s capability, so while it wasn’t clever it was extremely effective .

It worked also because Clearwater City did not cover a big area . If Lou Lan were to use this method on a big area like Silver City, he would need at least ten to fifteen days to investigate .

Lou Lan, who had arrived at the newest area, repeated the steps .

He found something this time .

… . .

The mayor had paid an enormous sum to build the underground meditation room . Not only was it soundproof, it had been reinforced by an earth elemental master . No matter how violent things went on inside, the meditation room was indestructible .

Only slamming sounds could be heard from the meditation room .

Ai Hui’s whole body was red as his blood surged and his head steamed . It was as if he’d just been taken out from the oven .

He held onto Wintry Jade Blade and walked around the room barefoot, waving his sword from time to time . Sword rays flew out from its tip and struck the fortified walls, causing impacted spots to light up .

The elemental energy within his body was like boiling lava . It was losing control .

To Ai Hui, using [Red Dust] had simply been too forced . Han Li’s judgment wasn’t wrong . No one under the level of Master would be able to break his [Yin Yang Fish Sword Formation] .

And [Red Dust] was actually a Master-level move . It was his first time using it since conceptualizing it .

Ai Hui’s judgment was very accurate as well . When he saw Han Li’s [Yin Yang Fish Sword Formation] he knew that ordinary moves weren’t going to be effective and the only usable move was [Red Dust] .

But how could there not be a price to pay for using a Master-level move when he wasn’t a Master yet?

The surging and disorderly elemental energy within his body was the consequence of forcefully using [Red Dust] . If he was unable to tame the elemental energy, his five residences and eight palaces would be damaged . If it was serious, his base level would drop .

But how was he going to calm the elemental energy down?

Ai Hui tried operating Circulatory Cycle Revolution but to no avail .

He then tried exhausting all his elemental energy but still to no avail . The newly born elemental energy continued to be in a chaotic state, unable to be suppressed .

What could he do?

Ai Hui panted heavily while his brain spun rapidly .

He suddenly recalled the contents from some notes he’d read . The notes were left by a senior from the Hall of Ancient Records . In his attempt to search for Senior Xiao’s notes, Ai Hui’d practically flipped through every single book in that hall . He’d been helpless at that time, but because of that he’d gained many strange insights and all sorts of preposterous sounding ideas . Also, he got to read more about rare treasures and all kinds of weird situations .

Ai Hui read them as he read storybooks, just like how he’d done for swordplay manuals left from the Cultivation Era .

He suddenly recalled a situation described by the senior . It was precisely what he was facing now .

How did that senior resolve the issue?

Ai Hui racked his brain and wanted so hard to open it up . He’d only read through them very briefly out of interest . Now, he was depending on that last straw of hope and was afraid of missing that moment of realization . He wrinkled his brows, pondering hard .

After a long time Ai Hui finally remembered the contents .

That senior did face the same situation as him . He remembered it so clearly because the writer described every detail very meticulously . However, the senior did not share the method to resolve it . Instead, he mentioned that this happened to him the night before he became a Master .

Wait, the night before a breakthrough?

Ai Hui received a jolt . Was it going to happen to him too?

This thought calmed his restless heart significantly and his almost burning body cooled off a little as well .

After calming down, Ai Hui’s mind spun quicker .

What should he do if this was indeed the sign of a breakthrough?

There were two conditions for an elementalist to become a Master . He must satisfy the elemental energy’s base level requirement and create his own absolute art . Ai Hui had already fulfilled the first condition . What about the second?

All of a sudden, Ai Hui’s understanding of a Master seemed to have skewed .

The keyword in the second condition wasn’t “absolute art” but one’s “own art” .

Ai Hui fell into a daze .

His own…

He realized that he’d never thought about this before . His mind went to Han Li . Han Li’s choice was clear at first glance . He’d chosen the “Yin Yang” path . Ai Hui felt it a decent choice . Yin Yang appeared simple but was profound, unpredictable and everchanging .

What was his own path?

Ai Hui sunk into a deep, reflective state and completely forgot about his discomfort .

He’d seen quite a number of absolute arts and swordplay techniques . He thought about Karakorum chief’s ambitious swordsmanship encyclopedia, all-inclusive and diverse . Ai Hui thought about them one by one and felt even more bewildered .

Any force would become shockingly mighty with consistent practice and reflection . Each type of force had its own allure .

He started to understand the idea that finding his own path was the key to becoming a Master . This world was too huge and there were too many types of forces . Yet, human energy was limited . In order to grasp the true essence of the force, he’d had to give things up along the way since only focus and devotion could take him further .

Which kind should he choose?

Ai Hui felt calm now . He knew that his choice was going to influence his future greatly .

It was an important decision .

Ai Hui starting thinking about why he wanted to become an elementalist . His idea was simple at that time . He just wanted to survive . Three years in the Wilderness showed him that elementalists had a much higher chance of survival as compared to the laborers .

He had been muddleheaded and merely wanted to live on . Being able to live was good enough .

It wasn’t until he met his master, mistress and senior that his dull life started to brighten up .

It wasn’t because of the cold sunlight that shone down through cracks on the houses as he walked soullessly on the streets after the closure of Swordsman Training Hall . It was the warm and bright sunlight, accompanying the cool breeze, that fell before the drowsy-eyed fellow who was sweeping the entranceway, the peaceful morning in Central Pine City where smoke rose up from kitchen chimneys in spirals .

Patter .

Amid the loneliness, sounds of water droplets falling filled the dark, meditation room .

Ai Hui’s eyes were shut tight . Tears willfully made their way to the corners of his eyes before flowing down his cheeks .

He’d found his answer .

A colorless image surfaced before his eyes .

In a street that wasn’t very wide, tide-like blood fiends were trampling about . It was a blood-colored flood . A youth grasping a sword stood motionless in the center of the street like a reef .

The sharp, cold sword cut everything before it . Fresh blood splattered and limbs of blood fiends flew in all directions .

The rich, choking, bloody smell seemed to have traversed through time and memory, hitting him .

The image blurred but the sword became heavier .

Only the blurry sky remained . Countless silver rays descended from the sky, illuminating the dark, cruel world .

The blood fiends lay limp and lost on the ground and the powerful red flood turned into soft red soil . Indistinct cheers sounded like a landslide or a tsunami . It was so vague, yet reassuring .

Darkness took over once again . It was so quiet that he could hear his own heart beating .

. . .

“Do you know what people call you?”

“What?”

“The Lightning Blade! Descending from the sky with so many lightning bolts . You frightened everybody . That big lightning storm made all blood fiends drop their resistance and the mayor took the chance to block off the city gates . “

“The Lightning Blade…”

. . .

“Ai Hui, blood fiends are afraid of the aura of lightning . “

. . .

“Yeah . ”