Chapter Twenty-Seven: First Transformation, Crimson Blood Black Tortoise

After returning to his estate, Zhang Xiao immediately went into seclusion and left every affair of the household to Zi Yan. Though Zi Yan possessed little real strength, even a novice of thirty levels could easily take her down. Yet Zhang Xiao had set up several formations around his retreat, and with Zi Yan’s level of skill in such arts, even a master at the Golden Core stage could be held there for several hours.

Once everything had been arranged, Zhang Xiao entered the secluded chamber and sat cross-legged. He did not rush to cultivate at once, but first adjusted his condition to its peak. Then, with a sweep of his sleeve, a crystal box appeared before him.

It was the water-aspected exotic flame Zhang Xiao had won at the Longxing Auction House. He struck the crystal box with his palm; with a crisp crack, it shattered into fine powder. The moment the flame broke free, firelight burst forth. A swath of blue flame flared within the stone chamber, and the temperature in the room plunged. Frost even began to form upon the stone walls.

At the sight, a gleam flashed in Zhang Xiao’s eyes. His hands flew through a series of strange seals as he guided the pure yang power within him toward the flame. The watery blue fire trembled at once, its ferocity instantly suppressed, and drifted toward him. It hovered only three inches before his brow before stopping.

Though the process seemed slow, it was fraught with danger. One misstep would render the flame uncontrollable, and the first to suffer would be Zhang Xiao himself. Only after seeing the pale blue fire hover steadily before his forehead did Zhang Xiao finally breathe easier. He swiftly drove all manner of strange talismans into it.

The water-blue flame suddenly shook. Threads of blue light, finer than a strand of hair, surged from the flame and shot into Zhang Xiao’s body. Once the flame entered him, Zhang Xiao felt his entire body turn cold and rigid. As it coursed through his meridians, the pain nearly made him cry out. It was as though worms of itch and agony had burrowed into his flesh and marrow.

Yet despite the torment, Zhang Xiao did not dare move. He forcefully steadied body and mind and began cultivating the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art. To say nothing of the fact that every circuit of spiritual energy through his body made the pain heavier, his cultivation speed was now more than ten times faster than before, a difference as vast as heaven and earth. Thus Zhang Xiao endured the pain with grim joy and buried himself in arduous cultivation.

While his true body trained, using the flame to cultivate the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art, his avatar within his sea of consciousness was also in bitter retreat. Countless scriptures drifted through that inner world, and the Heavenly Sound Bell had long since hung above the avatar’s head. At intervals, the avatar would swiftly tap the bell with a finger.

A bell tone rang out and transformed into countless musical notes. Each note seemed itself to be an entire Buddhist hymn. In an instant, the notes intertwined and fused into three thousand six hundred of them, forming a sacred melody that echoed throughout Zhang Xiao’s sea of consciousness.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye. Zhang Xiao sat motionless, and the exotic flame before his brow had grown smaller and smaller. From its original size of a fist, it had dwindled to a point no larger than a fingernail.

By now Zhang Xiao’s entire body had become like a block of ice, his skin shining with a cold gleam. Only between his brows did tiny flecks of golden light continue to flicker.

Unseen to the eye, within his sea of consciousness, small particles had somehow condensed. They were slowly gathering toward the mass of golden radiance before the avatar. It was also a stroke of fate: by tempering his body through the exotic flame, the avatar had brought the fifth level of the Brahma Meditation Scripture to full perfection, just one step away from breaking through to the sixth. As for the golden light cluster in Zhang Xiao’s sea of consciousness, it was formed from the purest portion of his spiritual sense.

After a long while, the ice shards on Zhang Xiao’s body suddenly began to melt. Pure yang energy rose from him, surging like boiling water until it filled the entire stone chamber.

Zhang Xiao opened his eyes. In his pupils, a silver flame seemed to dance. He looked at the tiny flame remaining before his brow and smiled.

This progress had gone even more smoothly than he had imagined. Under the stimulus of the exotic flame, the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art and the Brahma Meditation Scripture had actually resonated with one another. Cultivating both together had allowed Zhang Xiao’s power to increase at a terrifying speed, and in only three months he had brought the seventh level of the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art to completion. Now only the final step remained before he could achieve the First Transformation.

From his bone ring, Zhang Xiao took out two items. One was the Crimson Blood Black Tortoise Armor he had redeemed from the Martial Merit Pavilion. The other was a fragment of Black Tortoise shell he had obtained from the old monster Han Meng after killing him. Zhang Xiao set the shell fragment aside first, then breathed a thread of pure yang essence onto the Crimson Blood Black Tortoise Armor. It seemed that pure yang essence suited the Refining Treasure Art exceedingly well; this time Zhang Xiao needed only the time of a meal to refine the armor into his body without issue.

Though it was not yet completely refined, that was exactly what Zhang Xiao required. Taking up the shell fragment beside him, he removed his upper garment, placed the fragment before himself, and began cultivating the First Transformation of the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art.

Speaking of it, the Daoist Master Xuan Cang had been a genius of heaven-shaking caliber. After obtaining the Primordial Secret Tome, he discovered its cultivation methods were incomplete and fragmented, yet still comprehended from it the marvelous art known as the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art.

The art comprised forty-nine levels in all, with a transformation at every seven levels, hence the name Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art. Each transformation could allow one to assume the body of some divine beast, using that beast’s might to slay enemies. At the same time, one would also gain a sliver of the divine beast’s bloodline to strengthen oneself.

There was, however, one condition: a part of that divine beast’s body was required. The more important the organ, the more formidable the resulting transformation would be. Of course, it did not have to be a divine beast; certain powerful demon beasts would do as well. When Zhang Xiao first came into contact with the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art, he had thought the same thing.

Later, though, after discovering this Black Tortoise shell fragment in Han Meng’s storage ring, Zhang Xiao abandoned the idea of using a demon beast for the First Transformation. Then, at the Martial Merit Pavilion, he found the treasure known as the Crimson Blood Black Tortoise Armor. With this treasure, it was as though he possessed two Black Tortoise shell fragments. Once the First Transformation was complete, its power would surely be immense.

Streams of pure yang spiritual energy erupted forth, enveloping the Crimson Blood Black Tortoise Armor within his body and the Black Tortoise fragment in his hands.

A roar suddenly rang out from within Zhang Xiao’s secluded chamber.

Zi Yan’s expression changed. Overjoyed, she said, “Young Master has succeeded!”

The stone door opened, and a scarlet rainbow shot from the cave dwelling and straight into the sky.

“Roar!”

A second thunderous roar exploded like a bolt of lightning, sending visible waves rippling across the heavens. Within that roar there was also a note of utter destruction and annihilation. Within a hundred miles, every bird and beast, every monster and human alike, trembled in fear and collapsed to the ground, their souls shaken by terror.

Then a towering figure appeared in the air.

A red Black Tortoise with dragon horns and fierce fangs appeared in the sky. It was none other than Zhang Xiao transformed. The giant Black Tortoise opened its mouth, and the surrounding spiritual energy surged madly toward him, flowing in like a river into his maw. Only after draining all the spiritual energy within a hundred miles did Zhang Xiao finally stop.

By then, the experts in Luoyang City had already sensed the disturbance.

Two streaks of rainbow light shot up from the city and arrived before Zhang Xiao in an instant. Looking at the Black Tortoise Zhang Xiao had become, the two rays of light revealed Bai Qi and Wang Jian, the latter a great general who commanded a hundred thousand elite troops just as Bai Qi did.

The two stared at the Black Tortoise before them, their eyes filled with disbelief. Though it differed from the descriptions in the classics, it should indeed have been a Black Tortoise. But how could such a heaven-born divine beast appear here?

Just as their hearts were shaken, Zhang Xiao suddenly laughed.

“Hahaha, I have startled the Marquis of Wu’an and the Marquis of Wucheng. Since you have come, why not visit my estate and share some tea?”

Hearing the Black Tortoise speak in human language, and even recognize them, Bai Qi and Wang Jian were both stunned.

At that moment, the scarlet Black Tortoise before them trembled, then in the span of a breath transformed into a man clad in crimson battle armor. Bai Qi and Wang Jian gasped in unison.

“Why is it you, Marquis Protector of the Nation!”

Zhang Xiao smiled without explanation and led Bai Qi and Wang Jian into his estate, into a spacious pavilion. Only then did he say, “My apologies. It was simply the result of a secret art I was cultivating and disturbed the two of you. Please do not take offense.”

Though Bai Qi and Wang Jian had already vaguely guessed as much, hearing it confirmed still caused them to suck in a sharp breath.

“What a fearsome secret art. One roar and one breath, and you turn Luoyang into a scene of chaos. The city must already be buzzing with talk,” Bai Qi said, giving Zhang Xiao a glare.

There was no helping it; Zhang Xiao’s roar and inhale had been immense in scale, their power comparable to that of a master at the Nascent Soul stage. How could it not leave people shaken?

Compared with Bai Qi, Wang Jian remained extraordinarily composed. Sipping the fragrant tea in his hand, he smiled and said, “Since the Marquis Protector has achieved great success in his divine art, this is truly a blessing for the Emperor. I hear the borders have become somewhat unstable of late. If the Marquis Protector is willing, might you go to the frontier and lend your威慑, to overawe them for a time?”

Well played. Although Bai Qi and Wang Jian were both first-rate generals, if one spoke in all honesty, then should the two of them truly face each other, perhaps Wang Jian would not be Bai Qi’s match on the battlefield. But off the battlefield, Bai Qi would be far behind Wang Jian in cunning.

Zhang Xiao had just finished cultivating the First Transformation and still had many things to do, yet this old fellow was already trying to get him to the frontier to help his son, Wang Ben, guard the border.

Still, since the old man had asked, Zhang Xiao did not wish to refuse. After completing the First Transformation of the Seven Transformations of the Heavenly Supreme Art, his strength had already broken through to the late Golden Core stage, while his avatar’s cultivation of the Brahma Meditation Scripture remained stuck at the perfected fifth level, unable to take that final step.

He really did need to travel and broaden his horizons, to seek insight into the next realm and see whether he might encounter some opportunity for another breakthrough. On the way back, he could also go directly to Kunlun to see Xiao Fang. He wondered how Xiao Fang was faring there. If necessary, he would bring her out and have her live with him.

After all, he was now wealthy beyond measure, with no shortage of rare treasures. With a few pills to increase cultivation, he could let Xiao Fang eat them like meals.

Thinking thus, Zhang Xiao agreed to Wang Jian. Seeing this, Wang Jian’s face lit up at once.

“Good. In that case, tomorrow when I attend court, I will report your meaning to the Emperor and assign you the post of Military Supervisor.”