Jiu Shen

Translators: GX, Ash

TLC : Ash, ( WYN — a friend of mine who doesn’t want to be credited)

Editors: vanagandr, (more names to come)

Ji Dong didn’t know that only those with a pure elemental body were able to cause changes of the elements inside one’s body with each breath; if it was only a single element body, then it would cause the color of the element to brighten up and darken. Since Ji Dong possessed a double elemental body, it caused the weird phenomena of the colors of both the ultimate fires to alternate. This elemental body is the greatest benefit due to that time when the two ultimate fires forged mutually.

The black golden spiral in his chest didn’t disappear and was still surrounding that weird Crown; it went without question that this crown which was incessantly alternating between two colors was the origin Ying-Yang crown of Ji Dong. It was neither merely a Yin-Crown nor a Yang-Crown, but a Yin-Yang Crown.

Gold and black, the two colors appeared on the outside of Ji Dong’s body, spiraling upwards, and condensed on the top of his head, forming a bizarre Yin-Yang Crown. The whole crown was half black and half white  with the middle crown peak at the front serving as a boundary. On top of this middle most crown peak a flame, with the colors black and gold interwoven, was burning, representing the first corona. But at the middle of the crown ring, half of a crown star(TL: 1 full crown star = 2 levels, so half implies one level) appeared at the right side which was white. And this halved crown star had a black and gold color with a black outline underneath it that made it seem as if two half-stars were superimposed. Compared to the time prior to condensing the Yin-Yang Crown, a lot of changes appeared after .

With this Yin-Yang Crown as starting point, a layer of golden light enveloped the continuously changing flame outside Ji Dong’s body. For every Yin-Yang Wizard, this was the most important moment of the condensing of the Yin-Yang Crown. Finally, it was all done.

From now on Ji Dong was not an Apprentice anymore, but officially entered the second stage of the ten stages of the Yin-Yang Wizard — the Scholar stage. A one corona Bing-Ding double-fire-element level 1 Scholar.

All the lights were slowly vanishing, the Yin-Yang Crown which appeared on the head of Ji Dong also slowly merged into his body. When he opened his eyes, the aura around him had changed due to the Yin-Yang Crown, especially those two black eyes, they seemed as if they had been rid of every impurity and were shining like black gems.

“Thank you, Lie Yan” , said Ji Dong wholeheartedly. Earlier when he just started condensing the Yin-Yang Crown, he knew that if it was only him, then he couldn’t become a Yin-Yang Wizard even if he put in 32 times the effort. This was because the two elements in his body mutually repelled, and thus he couldn’t fuse them with his strength alone. Lie Yan had helped him to do all this.

Lie Yan smiled; her smile always made Ji Dong’s gaze turn sluggish, “No need to thank me. Little Ji Dong, according to the customs of your humankind, you should call me Teacher, right?”

When Ji Dong focused again, he answered immediately, against Lie Yan’s expectations, “No, I can’t call you teacher.” he said without hesitating; he did not even pause to ponder on this topic.

Lie Yan, asked surprised, “Do you think I am not good enough to be your teacher?”

“No, of course you are.” Ji Dong explained eagerly, “Sorry Lie Yan, I can’t call you Teacher, you are so beautiful, and so young, calling you teacher would make you seem old, right?”

Lie Yan started giggling and because of this all the flame in the geocentric lake lost their splendour. “You are really good at talking. If you don’t want to address me as your Teacher, then let it be, we don’t really care about all that here in the underground world.”

Ji Dong was actually reluctant to call her so, but how could he speak out what was on his mind? He had only one thought going around in his head: if he addressed her as Teacher now, then, later on when he himself possessed powerful strength he would still not have the qualifications to declare his true feelings. Although that target was nearly unattainable, if there was just a little bit of hope left Ji Dong did not want to give up.

With his head down, Ji Dong did not want to meet Lie Yan’s gaze; he was afraid he would be unable to hold back from expressing his love for her. In his previous life, he was the G.o.d of Liquor, but in this life, in front of this perfect woman, he actually felt inferior. He felt that if he spoke his feelings, Lie Yan would never speak to him again. He did not dare to take risks; he absolutely did not have the guts to do so. He knew that in Lie Yan’s eyes, the current him was nothing but a small child.

“What happened? Are you still not happy after having formally become a Yin-Yang Wizard?” Seeing that Ji Dong did not say anything, Lie Yan smilingly asked.

Ji Dong shook his head; his thoughts had become stabilized and he could lift his head. “I am just a level 1 Scholar. My future path is still very long, thus I am not very satisfied.”

Lie Yan laughed and said, “Always giving yourself pressure, that is really a good att.i.tude. However, if you are under too much pressure, you will break easily. Having a yin-and-yang-balanced dual fire elemental body, you must remember these words: couple strength with gentleness. Alright, now listen to me carefully. I will tell you about your current situation and also the method to utilize the abilities of your dual fire element.”

“After condensing a Yin-Yang Crown, as far as any Yin-Yang Wizard is concerned, they will not use their mind to sense the element’s power and gather it as they did before condensing a crown. Your Ying-Yang Crown in itself possesses a huge attractive force and it will cause the speed of your future cultivation to increase by several fold. Naturally, the higher your level is, the more the requirement of elemental power is. This is a benefit as far as average Yin-Yang Wizards are concerned. As for you, your Yin-Yang Crown’s appearance has many more benefits. The yin-yang balance that had impeded your cultivation before will now, after the Yin-Yang Crown’s appearance, no longer hinder your progress.”

Still speaking, Lie Yan pointed her finger at Ji Dong’s cardiac region and said, “You can feel that in the area surrounding your origin Yin-Yang Crown, the mixture of the Bing-Wu-Yuan-Yang-Sacred-Fire and the Ding-Si-Ming-Yin-Spirit-Fire have formed a spiral. Not only can this spiral help you digest and absorb fire elements, it can also help you adjust your body’s yin-yang balance. In other words, now even if you absorb only one fire element’s power, after entering your body, the yin-yang spiral will help you a.s.similate it with your body and you will also no longer have any problems with the time of cultivation in your human world. You can make progress in your cultivation by cultivating at any time.”

As far as Ji Dong was concerned, the fact that he won’t be restricted by the yin-yang balance any longer and that he could cultivate at any time and not just at dawn and dusk even without coming to the geocentric lake so he could make substantial progress in his cultivation, was good news.

Lie Yan continued, “Now you must put in a lot of effort. Controlling the yin-yang spiral within the body is the same as controlling the magic power of both the fire elements. After possessing the yin-yang spiral, at any time you can change its magic power into that of the two fire elements — you can transform it into Ding-Fire element and thus become a single element Wizard or you can use it with the two elements. But all of this fluent usage is only possible if you have a great controlling power. If your control is not good, it will only impede you when you exhibit the power. Thus, when you next cultivate, you must not only increase your magic power, but you must also begin to cultivate control over your yin-yang spiral.”

Ji Dong asked, “How can I control the yin-yang spiral?”

Lie Yan, with a faint smile, said, “That is actually not very difficult. Controlling the yin-yang spiral is controlling the output of the yin-yang dual fire elements. This can be done by practising magic skills. You have already become a formal Yin-Yang Wizard, it is also now that you can train in magic skills. Little Ji Dong, hold out both your hands, I will give you two presents.”

Ji Dong held out both his hands, with his palms facing upwards and said, “Lie Yan, you have already helped me so much, there is no need to give me any presents.”

Lie Yan shook her head, and said, “These two things are of no use to me. By giving them to you, I can also rid myself of all my worries.”

While speaking, Lie Yan had already approached Ji Dong and clasped his hands tightly.

When Lie Yan grabbed onto Ji Dong’s hands, he couldn’t help but feel his heart tremble. Lie Yan’s hands were soft and tender; they were so soft it felt as if she was boneless. Ji Dong subconsciously held on to Lie Yan and his gaze had become very steamy. He had only one thought running through his mind: if he could always hold on to these two hands, he wouldn’t regret it even if he were to die.

However, before Ji Dong could enjoy too much of this pleasant feeling, suddenly two portions of acute pain could be felt from the hollow of his palm. Even though Ji Dong had borne the previous purification process during the condensing of the Yin-Yang Crown without any murmur, at this moment he couldn’t help squealing miserably. And even in such a situation, he still couldn’t bear to let go of Lie Yan’s hands.

At first, Lie Yan was prepared to tightly grasp Ji Dong’s hands lest he withdrew them while in pain, but she found that not only did Ji Dong have no intention of withdrawing his hands, he also tried his utmost to control the force of his grip on her. He was not holding her hands tightly; it looked as if he did not want to hurt her. Originally, Lie Yan only wanted to gift him two important items, but now, a peculiar emotion was born in her heart. Even when he had suffered such a painful moment, he never doubted me and did not scratch me. He is not going all-out to resist the pain but he is trying to control the force of his grasping.

Nibbling her own lower lip, a trace of shock followed by a hint of tenderness flashed through Lie Yan’s eyes. She thought to herself that by giving Ji Dong these two items she really did not trust the wrong person. Ji Dong, you have never disappointed me, how do you do it?

Ji Dong did not pay any attention to the changes in Lie Yan’s expression; to say it simply, he was not able to look at Lie Yan’s expressions. From within the palms of both hands, a pain — so acute that it could pierce the bone marrow — was transmitted through. The yin-yang spiral in his chest began to rapidly rotate at an incomparable speed and the Yin-Yang Crown released an even brighter radiance. He found that it seemed as some things had drilled into his body from within the palms of his hands and that these things were not something that he could resist with his own power. These things very quickly merged with his yin-yang spiral and into his origin Yin-Yang Crown and they had even blended in with his thoughts.

Ji Dong could only see the two colors of black and gold in front of his eyes. Amidst that pain, his whole self was violently shuddering; it was a kind of pain that made him feel as if his soul had been peeled away from him. Then that ultimate dual-fire one corona Yin-Yang Crown appeared above his head. The half a crown star that it had was constantly flickering, and while flickering it gradually began to become a whole crown star. Ji Dong’s level, at this moment, was upgraded. From a one corona level 1 Scholar, he now became a one corona level 2 Scholar.

Ji Dong, upon seeing his body shaking from head to toe, didn’t make even a little bit of noise and meanwhile strove to keep the gripping force of his hands under control. Lie Yan wore a trace of sympathy in her eyes but, unlike before, she remained motionless and did not even utilize a bit of her power to help in lessening Ji Dong’s pain. Only suffering such a bitter pain would help a person. If she were to provide even a small amount of a.s.sistance, then the two things she had given Ji Dong would be incapable of integrating with his body and thus would waste all of his previous efforts.

Since Ji Dong had started to cultivate here, 4 years had pa.s.sed and Lie Yan had actually not helped him a lot. She had merely helped him to transform his flame before condensing his Yin-Yang Crown, the rest had all been the result of Ji Dong’s own effort. Due to Lie Yan having paid attention to him all along, and also because to help Ji Dong lay a solid foundation, just Lie Yan had used all of Ji Dong’s efforts during his first year of cultivating as fuel for the two fires, similarly she had deliberately slowed down the time for Ji Dong to condense the Yin-Yang Crown, and thus this dual elemental body was the best possible return on investment for Ji Dong.

Finally, after a long time, when that almost intolerable pain had gradually faded, Ji Dong slowly collapsed onto the ground.

First enduring the pain of condensing a Yin-Yang Crown, and then to bear with an even more bitter torment, although his willpower was very high and firm, but his body had already crossed its limits. With great difficulty he had persevered, but now that his spirit had relaxed, he immediately went into a stupor.

Lie Yan slightly pulled him and held Ji Dong’s body, but unfortunately, at this moment Ji Dong was not aware of this; otherwise, he would once again display a violent nosebleed.

Lie Yan tousled Ji Dong’s hair and sighed, “Little Ji Dong, ah, Little Ji Dong, how come you are different from the other humans that I have seen in your world? You made have no other option but to think of different means to trade with you for all the liquor you gave me these four years; I did not even dare to fall short in my compensation. This was to keep my spirit clean. Now, it can be considered that I have paid back all that I owe you. I wish for you to fully utilize this opportunity.

While saying this, the light in Lie Yan’s beautiful eyes flickered and calmly placed Ji Dong upon the platform formed by the lava column of fire. In the air, just like all the waters of a river pouring into the ocean, the black and gold halo was engulfed by and slowly blended with Ji Dong’s body, thus easing his jerking-due-to-the-earlier-acute-pain body.

When Ji Dong regained consciousness, his body did not even experience any painful feelings and instead it was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with abundant magic power. He subconsciously lifted his palms and examined them, when he found out to his astonishment that there was something in each palm.