4 The Jade Slab’s Secret
*Creak*
The door opened.
She wore a long, qing colored dress, her appearance was delicate, with a lovely, and charming figure. She entered the room. (TL: Qing is the same qing in her name. It's usually a blue green color but with like most colors, a wide variety of different looking things can be called qing)
She came from a family of high status, and since childhood, was well versed in the famous songs, history, etiquette and ceremony, as well as subtle political strategy.
Even among the fellow high status families, she possessed something different.
"Greetings, Xing He"
As soon as Qing Hua saw Li Xing He, she gave a sententious wink, overflowing with bashful, yet alluring feelings.
But this overt behavior was nothing out of the ordinary.
"He already died."
"Right now I am the Li family leader."
Li Wu You laughed:
"Stop putting on an act."
"Ah?"
Qing Hua was evidently puzzled.
Then, immediately dashed to the bed.
She saw Li Wu You lying down on the bed, his head completely white, only skin and bones.
It was already cold.
"Truly dead?"
Qing Hua was a little bit hesitant, to a certain degree, she didn't dare to believe it.
"Truly dead."
Qing Hua looked at Li Wu You in front of her, holding the 'family lord' title..
"Facing death, he gave the 'family lord' title to me, and let me become the Li Family's new master."
"Perfect."
Qing Hua's gleamed, suddenly she turned her body and bent down over Li Wu You's body, her ear against his chest. Excitedly, she said:
"We finally don't have to sneak around, we can be official now!"
"Our future…."
She was truly moved.
Her beautiful eyes sparkled, letting out some glistening droplets.
"Don't worry, I will definitely treat you well."
Li Wu You narrowed his eyes, and gently patted Qing Hua's back, his voice gentle and warm."
"Mhm."
Qing Hua's face was brimming with pure happiness and excited expectations. She went in between Li Wu You's two, continuously increasing her force.
It was as if she wanted to crash her whole body against his.
It was her life's blessing.
She had hope.
…
Li Wu You's body was dead.
Li Xing He took over as the family patriarch.
Intrinsically, it was something that everyone expected.
In fact, because this was Li Wu You's plan all along, Li Xing He actually already held most of the Li family's authority.
Therefore, in this instance of switching family masters, it went quite smoothly.
There wasn't any turbulence.
In this way, Li Wu You was able to use Li Xing He's identity, and easily break in the new body using the secret room.
Just like that, over a month had passed.
Inside the secret room.
*Hah!*
A tall and sturdy figure appeared, like a descendant of tigers and dragons. In his hand was a curved, crescent moon blade, its shimmers illuminating the room.
*Xiuuu*
Suddenly, the curved blade appeared like light, slicing through a wooden target dummy.
There was a thumping sound.
The wooden dummy split in half, debris flying everywhere.
Li Wu You put away his blade.
Then, he bent over and inspected the fragmented splinters of the dummy.
They were as smooth as a mirror.
They were so thin that the individual splinter could barely be seen.
"Pretty good."
His face had a perfectly contented smile.
After more than a month of harsh training, his spirit and physical body had already perfectly integrated.
This level of the silver moon blade should be at about 50 to 60% power.
By his will, he put away the curved blade to his side.
Li Wu You left the secret room and went straight to his living area.
Using Li Xing He's identity after inheriting the family patriarch title, he still chose to live in the same house as he did before.
It was convenient like this.
"Later, I'll need to find a way to get into a suitable cultivation sect"
Li Wu You leaned against his bed, blowing against his teacup that had some brimming tea leaves amongst the dark green tea.
His sight flickered.
Li Xing He's body has the bone and bloodline power, it's most suitable for external cultivation.
It would be a pity not to take advantage of this.
But, sourcing high level techniques is truly hard to find.
In terms of cultivation, fundamentally, internal cultivation compliments external cultivation, this is the correct approach.
External cultivation trains the body, it doesn't train inner power.
It could only be considered incomplete.
Therefore, there aren't many of this kind of martial arts sect.
Iron shirt, golden jacket, metal pellet hand etc etc, these techniques are easy to find, but are all third rate.
Li Wu You was not interested.
For these garbage techniques, even if he trained them to a superior level, he wouldn't get very far.
If I wanted to get into the realm of innate power?
(TL: In previous chapters, I translated his current cultivation level as "following heaven." Turns out this novel is not about crazy powerful cultivation, so I have changed it to "acquired power. Power acquired through practice and experience. He wants to break through into the "innately powerful" realm.")
Fundamentally it would be impossible.
I've already spent enough to get here, it would be unacceptable.
"But, for first rate techniques, there aren't many, the Shao Lin have their Vajra method, the Daoists have the innate power method, and there's also the unlimited suffering of heavenly people in Luogong and so on and so forth…
"In some sense this place is the holy land of martial arts, but with my current situation, none of them work out."
Li Wu You drank his tea to the last drop and let out a deep sigh.
This situation was a bit troublesome.
"Perhaps, I can only first cultivate third rate techniques, get a little bit of success, then later find a way to get into the "holy land" of martial arts sects. Plan it out slowly."
"It's only that this time frame is too long."
Li Wu You stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and paced around the room.
His concern was, at those holy lands of martial arts he'd waste however many decades of time, and like his current state now, there was no way to guarantee their approval.
No certain way to obtain first rate techniques.
After all, these holy lands of martial arts see passing on their knowledge to future generations as something that is very serious.
Their requirements are appropriately strict.
"What to do, ah?"
Li Wu You's brows wrinkled.
Not long after, He went back to his desk, his teapot already cold again.
The leaves in the teapot had returned to sinking to the bottom.
Li Wu You absentmindedly grabbed the carved stealing soul method's jade slab, feeling its texture while continuing to think.
But, even though he thought for a long time, after a while he still didn't have a good method.
The sun was setting in the west.
Fiery clouds illuminated by the sun flowed across the horizon, it was like a river of blood.
Li Wu You's thoughts were jittery.
*Bang*
He absentmindedly threw the jade slab on the desk.
*Kapow*
The jade slab formed various fractures and cracks.
Most strangely, within those cracks appeared dim rays of black light.
"What's this?"
Li Wu You's expression changed.
He turned to face the slab and paid attention.
After all, the soul stealing instructions were on there, but in actuality, what was on there was what allowed him to change his fate.
Seeing this occur, his heart slowly grew anticipation.
Perhaps within there is another secret?
*Hu*
Li Wu You cautiously and solemnly grabbed the jade tablet, and pulled back the cracked layer.
Inside, was what looked to be the same kind of jade slab.
Except, it was black!
The surface also had a layer of dense, black fog.
Its intensity was unmatched.
It was as if, as the light encompasses the surroundings, it was continuously sucking him in.
The room itself was being distorted in certain areas.
And within the area of the black smoke, there were some densely packed together writings.
"This is…"
Li Wu You could not help but to move in closer.
"Extreme…. Dao… Eternal Life…. Method."
Slowly, he began to clearly understand the writing.
*Hong!*
As he was spellbound by the text, the jade slab suddenly underwent a transformation.
It started violently shaking.
Then, in a split second, on the surface of the black fog, it started accumulating the black text inside, from the center of the jade slab flew out what appeared to be a black technique.
It went straight into Li Wu You's brow.
"Hisssss"
In a split second, Li Wu You's head felt an incomparable sensation of bursting, it was like his head was about to split open right then and there.
He couldn't help but suck in the cold air.
Additionally, because he knew the soul stealing method, he was scared that that exact method was being used on his body.
His heart was in a state of panic!
But, after that split second, his eyes abruptly shone!
Because within his mind, he discovered the black fog and text, and there was absolutely no sense of malice.
Rather, it was just passing on to him the Extreme Dao for Eternal Life Method's true meaning.
"Ji Dao Chang Sheng Fa" (Lit: Extreme Dao Eternal Life Method)
"Upper section: Extreme Dao."
"Lower section: Eternal Life."
"Extreme Dao refines the body, first stage: iron bone, second stage: copper body, third stage: diamond, …. ninth stage: inextinguishable."
"Eternal Life refines the soul, first stage: enlightenment, second stage: prying, third stage: control of things, … ninth stage: immortal ascension."
(TL Note: for the eternal life stages, "enlightenment" is more like "begin enlightenment" "prying" is like "secrets prying" third stage… I can't be sure but I'm guessing the "thing" is referring to some sort of domain. Like control over an entire subset of things. Ninth stage "immortal" is like other cultivation novels where they become "an immortal" or "a celestial" distinctly different from the aforementioned eternal life.")
*Hong*
After the initial blink of seeing the complex set of information, his conceptual understanding of those concepts surged and crashed like a heavenly river.
It completely filled his head.
(Translator's comments:
Hi Everyone, Content Savant here. First off, if you don't know me, I have a Youtube channel that got popular for discussing the peerless novel "Reverend Insanity." We have a discord, if you want: https://discord.gg/4pGCqrArtk
This chapter contextualized a lot of things that were ambiguous before. One was the actual level of magic. As novel readers know, sometimes cultivation novels have reality warping levels of power, some peak at laser attacks and qi blasts, where with some, the ultimate level of power is the ability to fly. As I've come to understand that this novel is sort of in the middle, I've had to adjust some of the ways I phrase the cultivation levels. Also, the Jade slab, I originally called it a stone. Turns out it's a slab with writing on it. Anyway, this is the first novel I'm translating and I'm trying my best to do a good job, so please be patient as I iron out some of the kinks. That's it. Cheers!)
