Chapter 10 – Shocking his surroundings
Taking a gentle step forward, Jiang Han could immediately feel a heavy wave of pressure bearing down on him.
Some of the pressure came from the Martial Ancestor painting; however, most of the pressure actually originated from the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi that surrounded the entire sacrificial altar. Under the deliberate guidance of the Martial Ancestor painting, the voluminous Yuan Qi would form a rejection towards living beings in the vicinity.
Humm!
Slivers of Yuan Qi started to converge and drill into Jiang Han’s body.
Jiang Han could feel the pressure start to decrease significantly.
The so-called talent grades were just a measure of compatibility with the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi. The higher the grade, the higher the compatibility with the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi was. Correspondingly, the difficulty of absorbing Yuan Qi would be lower, thereby allowing one to walk further down the path of cultivation.
With each step he took, more and more Yuan Qi drilled into Jiang Han’s body, causing the forward resistance to continuously weaken.
Family Leader Jiang Yangshan started to frown. If Jiang Han really possessed a 6th Rank talent, he would receive extremely little resistance before stepping on the Altar. Could there really be no 6th Ranked talent Jiang Family member in today’s ceremony?
However, Jiang Han continued to step forward, before finally arriving at the sacrificial altar.
“All of my 7 brothers have all came to a stop before 5th step, indicative of their 7th Rank talent. Jiangshan Hailing is the only person to reach the 7th step, demonstrating a 6th Ranked talent.” Jiang Han pondered over the matter. “So five steps equate to one rank?”
Looking over, he noticed that there just so happened to be 15 steps on the staircase to the sacrificial altar. Above the 15 steps was the place his grandfather, Jiang Yangshan, was standing.
Raising his foot slowly into the air, Jiang Han started to climb up the first step.
3 steps!
5 steps!
6 steps!
Jiang Han would take a slight pause after taking every step, though he never truly came to a stop.
“This brat, Jiang Han.” Emotions surged in the hearts of quite a few people.
“8 steps! He has already surpassed that lass Haiying! And he’s still continuing!” Everyone proceeded to exclaim softly in shock. In the beginning, many people were just watching to soak in the liveliness. However, at this moment, they all started to get nervously excited, as Jiang Han had exceeded everyone’s expectations. This was a clear sign of his amazing potential.
A high talent would significantly increase the possibility of becoming an expert in the future. When that happened, the entire mountain villa would benefit greatly!
A great example would be Jiang Zheng. Due to him, the yearly taxes the Jiang Family paid were the lowest among the dozens of mountain villas within Flood City. In fact, if the Jiang Family Mountain Villa was slightly stronger as a whole, they would be able to expand their influence, and become the number one family within the entire Flood City!
“10 steps! He’s still not stopping!”
“He’s still continuing! Let’s see how much energy Jiang Han still has left.”
Quite a few Jiang Family members had their eyes open wide. In fact, even the usually calm and cool-headed villa lord, Jiang Yangshan had started to become nervous. As for Jiang Han’s mother, Qin Wei, her face was already flushed with emotions.
All of them were clear that climbing 10 steps was a totally different concept to climbing up 11 steps! Nevertheless, they were unable to confirm whether Jiang Han would be able to take the next step. After all, once a person reached the limits of their physical body, it was extremely difficult for them to proceed further.
“Our Jiang Family has been developing this mountain villa for over 60 years. Of all of the Blood Essence Baptisms, only Zheng’er has managed to climb 11 steps that year.” Jiang Yangshan recalled the past as he stared firmly at his grandson, who was now only a few steps below him. “Could it be that our family will have a truly peerless genius?”
An air of nervousness started to appear in the atmosphere within the main hall, and the martial arts training grounds.
“From the looks of it, climbing 11 steps equates to possessing a 5th Rank Talent.” Jiang Han was naturally able to notice the changes in his grandfather’s expression.
Only an event as significant as discovering a family member with a 5th Rank talent would be able to cause his grandfather to become that emotional. After all, his father was the only 5th Rank talent in the history of the Jiang Family. Naturally, his great-grandfather wasn’t counted, as no one knew how high his talent was.
“12 steps. This more or less should do it.” Jiang Han thought as he looked at the steps before him.
He could feel that it wouldn’t be of much pressure if he was to just take 2 to 3 strides and reach the top of the altar.
However, Jiang Han also knew that there was no longer any meaning for him to continue climbing up. A 5th Ranked talent coupled with his father’s status was more than sufficient to let the entire mountain villa treat him with importance and nurture him with the best they could provide.
“Hu!” Jiang Han faked a deep breath, before raising his leg fiercely and stepping up onto the 11th step. To everyone else, it looked as if he had used a lot of strength to do so, before he raised his other foot.
“Bang!”
Finally, Jiang Han stood on the 12th step.
The Jiang Family members, and all of the Martial Artists and Martial Masters in the mountain villa had their eyes opened wide.
The entire martial arts training grounds turned silent. Despite many people not knowing what climbing up to the 12th step meant, the hundreds of children that had climbed up the steps before Jiang Han could see the staggering disparity between them and him.
“Our clan is blessed!”
“5th Rank talent! 5th Rank talent! This is the real 5th Rank talent!”
Delightful expressions appeared on everyone’s faces, especially those from the Jiang Family, whose hearts were surging with excitement. Not only would this prevent the decline of the Jiang Family, they would also achieve an even greater splendour! 5th Rank talent! As long as he didn’t meet any accidents, he was basically guaranteed to step into the Martial Ancestor realm!
At this point in time, there were only a handful of Martial Ancestors present within the Jiang Family.
Standing on the 12th step, Jiang Han’s face appeared extremely relaxed; not a single tremor could be seen on his body.
After a moment of surging emotions, everyone quickly quietened down.
Sacrificial Altar, passing of inheritance and blood essence baptism. This was the entire process of the Blood Essence Baptism ceremony.
Jiang Han raised his head slightly, setting his gaze on the half-human half-snake figure of the Martial Forefather floating in the air.
“Bang!”
An explosion that seemed to reverberate across the heavens and earth shook through Jiang Han’s mind, before a golden ray of light shot out from the Martial Forefather’s figure, right into his sea of consciousness.
In an instant, he could feel a ferocious roar of desire howling out from the deepest parts of his body. This primal roar seemed to gush out from his throat, causing his entire being to surge through the clouds, just like some kind of barrier within him had been smashed through by a surge of invisible energy!
Losing control of his body, Jiang Han closed his eyes, raised his hands high into the air, and made the first form!
“What a precise from!” Watching from a distance, Jiang Zheng was astonished by Jiang Han’s movements.
The Passing of Inheritance was exceedingly mysterious. Just by mimicking the forms of the Martial Forefather, one would be able to increase the level of affinity with Yuan Qi from the Heavens and Earth. However, even though ordinary people were able to gain an inheritance, it was extremely difficult for them to demonstrate precise forms.
However, due to Jiang Han’s powerful soul, as well as his extremely tough and resilient body, it was a piece of cake for him to properly mimic these forms.
After 7 to 8 postures, Jiang Han finally extended his hands, and executed the final move.
A bout of silence appeared in the crowd, as Jiang Zheng and Qing Wei looked nervously at Jiang Han. Both of them were clear that this was the most critical moment during the Passing of Inheritance.
Although the testing of talent from the Blood Essence Baptism wasn’t accurate, the Passing of Inheritance generally didn’t have any problems.
Jiang Han felt himself appearing in a vast and majestic void, with endless mirages of stars all around him.
Within this void, 3 incomparably majestic figures stood before him. These figures were blurry and ethereal, with Jiang Han being unable to see their true appearances. Nevertheless, it gave him a feeling similar to when he had descended into hell.
“Is that the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?” Jiang Han wondered, with doubt appearing in his mind.
One of the figures appeared just like a buddha, sitting in the air. Its left hand held a golden banner, with a buddha’s calming hand gesture being shown on the right. Myriad worlds appeared indistinctly behind it, radiating with incomparable brilliance. At this moment, an endless stream of sanskrit chants rang out by Jiang Han’s ears.
“Martial Forefather?”
The last figure was half-human and half-snake, grasping an exceptional looking spear in its hand. As it waved the spear about, the endless stars around it seemed to be attracted to it, converging in the endless streams of stars behind its back.
“Is this the centre of my sea of consciousness?” Jiang Han questioned as he held his breath. “These are the inheritance visualisations formed by my sea of consciousness. However, I’ve only seen the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the Martial Forefather before. Who could that last figure be?”
He could feel that the inheritance visualisation of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva seem to show some dread for that last figure, while also faintly showing signs of submission. Compared to that, the Martial Forefather’s inheritance visualisation seemed to fare slightly better, though it still appears to be ranked beneath the final figure.
Jiang Han looked towards the last majestic figure in the middle of the 3. Staring firmly at it, he wanted to remember its face. However, he was unable to do so, also failing to obtain its inheritance visualisations. This left him feeling extremely unresigned.
“Bang!”
Looking through the mist, Jiang Han could see that the figure was holding onto a long blade that radiated with a divine splendour. Waving its hands gently, the heavens and earth changed as a blade arc was unleashed. Traveling outwards, this blade arc destroyed the rivers of stars, appearing as though a single blade could destroy the celestial bodies and cause the universe to spin around it!
An ear-shattering band rang out, while the figure slowly raised its head. Finally, its eyes swept out, suddenly crossing paths with Jiang Han’s gaze.
Chapter 10 – Shocking his surroundings
Taking a gentle step forward, Jiang Han could immediately feel a heavy wave of pressure bearing down on him.
Some of the pressure came from the Martial Ancestor painting; however, most of the pressure actually originated from the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi that surrounded the entire sacrificial altar. Under the deliberate guidance of the Martial Ancestor painting, the voluminous Yuan Qi would form a rejection towards living beings in the vicinity.
Humm!
Slivers of Yuan Qi started to converge and drill into Jiang Han’s body.
Jiang Han could feel the pressure start to decrease significantly.
The so-called talent grades were just a measure of compatibility with the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi. The higher the grade, the higher the compatibility with the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi was. Correspondingly, the difficulty of absorbing Yuan Qi would be lower, thereby allowing one to walk further down the path of cultivation.
With each step he took, more and more Yuan Qi drilled into Jiang Han’s body, causing the forward resistance to continuously weaken.
Family Leader Jiang Yangshan started to frown. If Jiang Han really possessed a 6th Rank talent, he would receive extremely little resistance before stepping on the Altar. Could there really be no 6th Ranked talent Jiang Family member in today’s ceremony?
However, Jiang Han continued to step forward, before finally arriving at the sacrificial altar.
“All of my 7 brothers have all came to a stop before 5th step, indicative of their 7th Rank talent. Jiangshan Hailing is the only person to reach the 7th step, demonstrating a 6th Ranked talent.” Jiang Han pondered over the matter. “So five steps equate to one rank?”
Looking over, he noticed that there just so happened to be 15 steps on the staircase to the sacrificial altar. Above the 15 steps was the place his grandfather, Jiang Yangshan, was standing.
Raising his foot slowly into the air, Jiang Han started to climb up the first step.
3 steps!
5 steps!
6 steps!
Jiang Han would take a slight pause after taking every step, though he never truly came to a stop.
“This brat, Jiang Han.” Emotions surged in the hearts of quite a few people.
“8 steps! He has already surpassed that lass Haiying! And he’s still continuing!” Everyone proceeded to exclaim softly in shock. In the beginning, many people were just watching to soak in the liveliness. However, at this moment, they all started to get nervously excited, as Jiang Han had exceeded everyone’s expectations. This was a clear sign of his amazing potential.
A high talent would significantly increase the possibility of becoming an expert in the future. When that happened, the entire mountain villa would benefit greatly!
A great example would be Jiang Zheng. Due to him, the yearly taxes the Jiang Family paid were the lowest among the dozens of mountain villas within Flood City. In fact, if the Jiang Family Mountain Villa was slightly stronger as a whole, they would be able to expand their influence, and become the number one family within the entire Flood City!
“10 steps! He’s still not stopping!”
“He’s still continuing! Let’s see how much energy Jiang Han still has left.”
Quite a few Jiang Family members had their eyes open wide. In fact, even the usually calm and cool-headed villa lord, Jiang Yangshan had started to become nervous. As for Jiang Han’s mother, Qin Wei, her face was already flushed with emotions.
All of them were clear that climbing 10 steps was a totally different concept to climbing up 11 steps! Nevertheless, they were unable to confirm whether Jiang Han would be able to take the next step. After all, once a person reached the limits of their physical body, it was extremely difficult for them to proceed further.
“Our Jiang Family has been developing this mountain villa for over 60 years. Of all of the Blood Essence Baptisms, only Zheng’er has managed to climb 11 steps that year.” Jiang Yangshan recalled the past as he stared firmly at his grandson, who was now only a few steps below him. “Could it be that our family will have a truly peerless genius?”
An air of nervousness started to appear in the atmosphere within the main hall, and the martial arts training grounds.
“From the looks of it, climbing 11 steps equates to possessing a 5th Rank Talent.” Jiang Han was naturally able to notice the changes in his grandfather’s expression.
Only an event as significant as discovering a family member with a 5th Rank talent would be able to cause his grandfather to become that emotional. After all, his father was the only 5th Rank talent in the history of the Jiang Family. Naturally, his great-grandfather wasn’t counted, as no one knew how high his talent was.
“12 steps. This more or less should do it.” Jiang Han thought as he looked at the steps before him.
He could feel that it wouldn’t be of much pressure if he was to just take 2 to 3 strides and reach the top of the altar.
However, Jiang Han also knew that there was no longer any meaning for him to continue climbing up. A 5th Ranked talent coupled with his father’s status was more than sufficient to let the entire mountain villa treat him with importance and nurture him with the best they could provide.
“Hu!” Jiang Han faked a deep breath, before raising his leg fiercely and stepping up onto the 11th step. To everyone else, it looked as if he had used a lot of strength to do so, before he raised his other foot.
“Bang!”
Finally, Jiang Han stood on the 12th step.
The Jiang Family members, and all of the Martial Artists and Martial Masters in the mountain villa had their eyes opened wide.
The entire martial arts training grounds turned silent. Despite many people not knowing what climbing up to the 12th step meant, the hundreds of children that had climbed up the steps before Jiang Han could see the staggering disparity between them and him.
“Our clan is blessed!”
“5th Rank talent! 5th Rank talent! This is the real 5th Rank talent!”
Delightful expressions appeared on everyone’s faces, especially those from the Jiang Family, whose hearts were surging with excitement. Not only would this prevent the decline of the Jiang Family, they would also achieve an even greater splendour! 5th Rank talent! As long as he didn’t meet any accidents, he was basically guaranteed to step into the Martial Ancestor realm!
At this point in time, there were only a handful of Martial Ancestors present within the Jiang Family.
Standing on the 12th step, Jiang Han’s face appeared extremely relaxed; not a single tremor could be seen on his body.
After a moment of surging emotions, everyone quickly quietened down.
Sacrificial Altar, passing of inheritance and blood essence baptism. This was the entire process of the Blood Essence Baptism ceremony.
Jiang Han raised his head slightly, setting his gaze on the half-human half-snake figure of the Martial Forefather floating in the air.
“Bang!”
An explosion that seemed to reverberate across the heavens and earth shook through Jiang Han’s mind, before a golden ray of light shot out from the Martial Forefather’s figure, right into his sea of consciousness.
In an instant, he could feel a ferocious roar of desire howling out from the deepest parts of his body. This primal roar seemed to gush out from his throat, causing his entire being to surge through the clouds, just like some kind of barrier within him had been smashed through by a surge of invisible energy!
Losing control of his body, Jiang Han closed his eyes, raised his hands high into the air, and made the first form!
“What a precise from!” Watching from a distance, Jiang Zheng was astonished by Jiang Han’s movements.
The Passing of Inheritance was exceedingly mysterious. Just by mimicking the forms of the Martial Forefather, one would be able to increase the level of affinity with Yuan Qi from the Heavens and Earth. However, even though ordinary people were able to gain an inheritance, it was extremely difficult for them to demonstrate precise forms.
However, due to Jiang Han’s powerful soul, as well as his extremely tough and resilient body, it was a piece of cake for him to properly mimic these forms.
After 7 to 8 postures, Jiang Han finally extended his hands, and executed the final move.
A bout of silence appeared in the crowd, as Jiang Zheng and Qing Wei looked nervously at Jiang Han. Both of them were clear that this was the most critical moment during the Passing of Inheritance.
Although the testing of talent from the Blood Essence Baptism wasn’t accurate, the Passing of Inheritance generally didn’t have any problems.
Jiang Han felt himself appearing in a vast and majestic void, with endless mirages of stars all around him.
Within this void, 3 incomparably majestic figures stood before him. These figures were blurry and ethereal, with Jiang Han being unable to see their true appearances. Nevertheless, it gave him a feeling similar to when he had descended into hell.
“Is that the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?” Jiang Han wondered, with doubt appearing in his mind.
One of the figures appeared just like a buddha, sitting in the air. Its left hand held a golden banner, with a buddha’s calming hand gesture being shown on the right. Myriad worlds appeared indistinctly behind it, radiating with incomparable brilliance. At this moment, an endless stream of sanskrit chants rang out by Jiang Han’s ears.
“Martial Forefather?”
The last figure was half-human and half-snake, grasping an exceptional looking spear in its hand. As it waved the spear about, the endless stars around it seemed to be attracted to it, converging in the endless streams of stars behind its back.
“Is this the centre of my sea of consciousness?” Jiang Han questioned as he held his breath. “These are the inheritance visualisations formed by my sea of consciousness. However, I’ve only seen the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the Martial Forefather before. Who could that last figure be?”
He could feel that the inheritance visualisation of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva seem to show some dread for that last figure, while also faintly showing signs of submission. Compared to that, the Martial Forefather’s inheritance visualisation seemed to fare slightly better, though it still appears to be ranked beneath the final figure.
Jiang Han looked towards the last majestic figure in the middle of the 3. Staring firmly at it, he wanted to remember its face. However, he was unable to do so, also failing to obtain its inheritance visualisations. This left him feeling extremely unresigned.
“Bang!”
Looking through the mist, Jiang Han could see that the figure was holding onto a long blade that radiated with a divine splendour. Waving its hands gently, the heavens and earth changed as a blade arc was unleashed. Traveling outwards, this blade arc destroyed the rivers of stars, appearing as though a single blade could destroy the celestial bodies and cause the universe to spin around it!
An ear-shattering band rang out, while the figure slowly raised its head. Finally, its eyes swept out, suddenly crossing paths with Jiang Han’s gaze.
