AGM 152 – Warbeast Index
A day had passed since the event of Qin Wentian’s assasination. Although the Emperor Star Academy was still on their guard, the earlier restrictions and lockdown had been removed as people were once again able to enter and depart freely.
Janus walked out of the academy as he strolled slowly on the streets outside. That reserved and calm gaze of his betrayed none of his emotions, no one knew what he was thinking.
The investigations conducted by the Emperor Star Academy were too terrifying with regards to Qin Wentian’s assassination. All Yuanfu Cultivators had to make known their movements on that day of assassination and had to have at least three other witnesses that could verify their statement.
With such a stringent method, those with no grounds for suspicion would be struck off the checklist. It was only a matter of time before the truth would be out.
However at this moment, Janus seemed as though he was worried about something. His brows were tightly knotted as he muttered to himself.
Suddenly, his footsteps halted and his aura instantly blasted out along with the release of his Astral Souls.
Pstt. At the side of him, a spear akin to a sinister, venomous snake erupted forth with a speed as quick as lightning.
Janus roared in rage as a terrifying hurricane enveloped his body. He continually blasted out with his palms, blocking the tyrannical attack of the spear user.
After which, several Yuanfu Cultivators appeared around him. All of them were cloaked in black and had their features obscured by masks. The killing intent they emitted was readily apparent as they strode towards Janus.
Not a single word was spoken. It was as if they had come for the death of Janus.
These happenings caused the countenance of Janus to turn extremely ugly as he shouted in anger, “What? Do you all intend to silence me by killing?”
As the sound of his voice faded, Janus discovered that the black robed Yuanfu Cultivators had stopped their movements. This scenario caused Janus to tremble in fear, as his countenance turned pale white.
He realised that he had just said the wrong thing.
Indeed, the Yuanfu Cultivators all removed their masks and revealed their true faces. Upon seeing them, the face of Janus, instantly turned black.
“Wh…what are all of you doing?”
Those that appeared were actually Yuanfu experts from the Emperor Star Academy.
Very obviously, Janus had fallen into the trap.
“Elder Janus, there’s no need for you to continue acting any longer.” In front of Janus, Elder Thousand-Hand appeared. His gaze were as cold as ice as he continued, “The investigations showed that you were one of the most suspicious among all the Yuanfu Cultivators. And indeed as expected, you fell into the trap. Janus, who was the one that directed you?”
Since Janus had said out the words ‘What? Do you all intend to silence me by killing,’ it was already sufficient to prove that there was someone behind him that also wanted to kill Qin Wentian.
Although Janus hated Qin Wentian, the grudge between them wasn’t sufficient for Janus to take such a huge risk. Before he undertook the assassination attempt he already knew that if he was successful, everything would be worth it. By then, he would leave the Emperor Star Academy and depart from Chu.
What a pity, he had failed.
“Who do you think had the capability to make me work for him?” Janus coldly smiled.
Thousand-Hand frowned. Janus’ words seemed like they were hinting that Chu Tianjiao may be the one behind this whole thing.
But Thousand-Hand still had some suspicions regarding the truth of his words.
A cold light glinted in his eyes as he stared at Janus. He knew that it would be extremely hard to pry any information from Janus.
“Killing a genius of the academy despite your status as a elder, your crime is worthy of death.” Thousand-Hand coldly announced. “Execute him now.”
As the sound of his voice rang out, intense killing intent gushed out from the surrounding Yuanfu experts.
“Thousand-Hand, you actually didn’t even pause to consider my contributions to the academy. At the very least, I’m still an elder and have toiled for many years. How can you announce my death just like this?” Janus shouted, full of unwillingness, as the expression on his face turned extremely ugly. He had never expected Thousand-Hand to be so ruthless.
However, how could Thousand-Hand still be bothered about him? Turning, with his back facing Janus, he walked in the direction of the Emperor Star Academy while sounds of battle could be heard behind him.
And after a few short moments, a corpse laid quietly on the pathways of the Royal Capital. A person standing beside the corpse commanded, “Give him a decent burial. No matter what, he’s still an elder of our academy.”
The death of Janus was just an extremely minor matter in the whole scheme of things. It was only capable of causing a small wave to ripple through the Emperor Star Academy.
But in reality, his death set many things into motion. The Emperor Star Academy had made their stance clear by their actions. Not only that, they were still relentlessly exhausting their resources in a bid to find out who the mastermind behind this was.
Qin Wentian was thunderstruck when news of Janus’ death reached him. That elder who always made things difficult for him had actually died so silently. Not only that, the assassin was him.
Qin Wentian naturally wouldn’t feel pity for Janus. In that assassination attempt, Janus had almost killed him and severely injured Mo Qingcheng.
That droplet of blood followed by the radiant smile on that countenance of peerless beauty was something Qin Wentian would never be able to forget.
At this moment, within the Emperor Star Academy.
In front of the Heavenly Star Pavilion, Qin Wentian inclined his head as he studied the majestic building before him.
The Heavenly Star Pavilion was separated into nine levels. The higher the level, the more narrow the space was, and for the number of people that had stepped onto the 7th level of the Heavenly Star Pavilion, they could be counted on a single hand.
Even elders of the academy dif not have the authority. And if one wanted to use Yuan Meteor Stones to raise the level of their Jade Medallion, the amount of stones needed was so astronomical that it was an impossibility.
And thus, it was as if the entrance to the 7th level of the Heavenly Star Pavilion was solely prepared for the champion of the Jun Lin Banquet.
At this moment, Qin Wentian took a step forwards and entered the pavilion.
After he obtained the number one position in the banquet, the level of his Emperor Jade Medallion was upgraded to the 7th grade.
Before he stepped onto the 7th level, Qin Wentian chose to stop on the 6th level first. Over on the 6th level were the best Yuanfu-level cultivation arts and supreme top-level earth-graded innate techniques.
Qin Wentian was here only for one purpose: he wanted the Yuanfu-level Index of the Garuda Movement Technique. After he found it, he borrowed it and placed it inside his interspatial ring. As for the other innate techniques, Qin Wentian didn’t bother to even look at them. Because for his other innate techniques, he hadn’t even mastered them to their peak of perfection yet. It was meaningless for him to spend time to gain more insights into other types of innate techniques.
Although the grade of an innate technique correlated with the level of power it possessed, the higher the grade, the stronger the innate technique, it was still meaningless if one didn’t have the ability to control the power. On the contrary, it might even backfire.
One example was his Great Dream Halberd Art. Although the grade of it wasn’t that high, but because he was the one who created it, the level of power it contained and the might displayed when Qin Wentian unleashed it were exceedingly high.
As he walked up the stairs situated on the 6th level, at the top of the stairs, Qin Wentian saw an old man who was quietly sitting there. The body of the old man was covered in dust, and even his hair had become a silvery-grey colour. It was unknown how many years he had already been sitting there.
“Senior.” Qin Wentian called out.
“You may proceed.” It was as if the old man recognised Qin Wentian, as he spoke in a low voice.
Qin Wentian didn’t say anything else and bowed to the old man. The 7th level was forbidden, and there would surely be those of the younger generations who coveted access to it. Thus, the protector here would undoubtedly be one of the supreme experts of the academy.
And after Qin Wentian arrived on the 7th level of the Heavenly Star Pavilion, he saw a bookshelf that was filled with many Indexes of cultivation arts and innate techniques.
Other than the bookshelf, in the other direction there were three other entrances. And above these three entrances, from left to right the words 7th, 8th and 9th were engraved atop the entrances respectively.
It was as though these three entrances on this level represented the 7th, 8th and 9th levels of the Heavenly Star Pavilion.
It was as though this level was the limit, there wasn’t any other way to proceed upwards.
As for this mysterious 7th level, Qin Wentian had speculated and had many conjectures regarding it, but who would have thought that it would be so simple.
Three entrances and a single bookshelf.
Qin Wentian firstly went to the bookshelf for a look. After a short moment, his heart trembled with indescribable emotions. These were all Heavenly Dipper level Cultivation Arts, and any single one of them appearing was sufficient to shake the entire Chu Country.
And other than this cultivation arts, Qin Wentian noticed a volume slot beside them. On the surface of the volume, a few large font words were inscribed.
“Warbeast Index.”
Qin Wentian flipped it open, and very quickly, he was engrossed by the contents written inside.
“In the Nine Heavenly Layers, there were countless Martial Constellations. Each of these constellations had its own merits. Powerhouses would use stronger constellations while weaker powers would use more inferior constellations. However, there was clearly a line of division between the different types of Martial Constellations. The Venerate Heaven Sect once gathered countless peerless existences of the Grand Xia Empire that had condensed Beast-types Astral Souls before. Out of those, they selected the most powerful 360 types of Beast-types Astral Souls to be recorded into the Warbeast Index, ranking the Astral Souls respectively.”
This paragraph was the primer, and was also the reason why the Warbeast Index was created.
“Venerate Heaven Sect, Grand Xia Empire.”
Qin Wentian murmured. The Venerate Heaven Sect should be an exceptionally powerful sect while the Grand Xia Empire should similarly be a place of unimaginable might.
Not only that, ever since he was young, Qin Wentian had been under the tutelage of Uncle Black. He was exceedingly familiar with and had even analysed the constellations of the 5th Heavenly Layer and below. Naturally he knew that the power of the Stellar Martial Cultivators directly depended on the type and might of their condensed Astral Souls which hailed from the Martial Constellations.
But Uncle Black had never once grouped the Astral Souls together in their respective types and had not specially told him to study beast-type Astral Souls, and their individual rankings.
Qin Wentian flipped the Warbeast Index open. The pages were filled with pictures as well as text.
“Double Winged Horned Python, ranked number 360. Martial Constellation located in the 4th Heavenly Layer. Those that condensed an Astral soul from it would gain tremendous boost in their agility, as well as a tyrannical increase in both defense and attack. The increment in stats from the Astral Soul could said to be extremely balanced, with no apparent weakness.
“Skyember Demonic Lion Astral Soul, also at the 360th rank. This constellation resides in the 4th Heavenly Layer, and Stellar Martial Cultivators that condensed an Astral Soul from it would have a reduction in speed. However, their attacks would be strengthened to an inconceivable degree while their defense would be upgraded too.”
The Skyember Demonic Astral Soul was slightly stronger compared to the Double Winged Horned Python, the advantages it had in attack power, mitigated the slight deficiency in speed.
“To think that the descriptions were all detailed to this extent.”
Qin Wentian slowly flipped the pages. He already had a great deal of knowledge regarding Astral Souls, but if one wanted to write a Index like this, knowledge alone was insufficient. One still needed to update the index periodically as there were new and stronger constellations being discovered every now and then.
Qin Wentian was somewhat bewildered. Why would an index like this appear on the 7th level of the Heavenly Star Pavilion?