Jiu Shen Vol 2 Chapter 8.1

Translators:  Ash

TLC : ( WYN — the credit dislike-er )

Editors: Jennifer Liu, Blade Worker, Vanagandr

After regaining consciousness — which he had lost due to the stinging pain from both his hands — Ji Dong immediately glanced at his palms. He found that each of them had an addition, that is to say, each palm had been branded.

His right palm had a golden-colored sun —- there was no doubt about it, it was really a sun, with a golden colored circular disk with many golden colored lines that were blossoming like petals with radiance! When Ji Dong looked at it, it brightened up and its splendour increased, seemingly as if the sun had really been grabbed and held in the palm of his right hand.

His left hand was also similarly branded, but the brand was a black-colored moon. It was also a circular brand and when Ji Dong looked at it, he found that instead of a brilliant radiance, it seemed to be a blackness that could swallow everything. It was very profound and also full of oppressive power.

Ji Dong stared in amazement at the two brands in his palms. They were not designs drawn on his hands but rather, they were completely fused with his skin. He also felt that these two patterns had seemingly blended within his thoughts — there were many things going on in his mind. His temperament also showed signs of having become domineering.

Looking at his surroundings, Ji Dong found that the geocentric magma lake of which he was initially afraid of, now seemed to be just like any other normal lake on earth and that the dual Bing-Ding fire elements’ aura in the air also seemed to be attracted towards him and he felt that he could dare to seize all the opportunities here.

“Do you like them? These are my presents to you.” A faint red hue arose in front of Ji Dong and as if appearing out of nowhere, Lie Yan was in front of him.

Ji Dong stood up from the platform of the lava column of fire and asked with some surprise, “Lie Yan, what are these?”

Lie Yan said while smiling, “This is your future.”

“My future?” Ji Dong did not understand any of this. After he came out of his stupor he discovered that there was something additional in his body.

Lie Yan said, “Let me tell you a story to help you understand. Actually, I was not the original ruler of this region, it was actually someone else. Moreover, these 18 geocentric layers were not under the control of one geocentric lifeform, instead there were two. These two were a pair of twins. One was the Bing-Wu-Yuan-Yang-Sacred-Fire flame spirit who had condensed to become a fierce-flame sovereign king, and the other was the Ding-Si-Ming-Yin-Spirit-Fire flame spirit that had condensed to become a gloomy-flame devil king. These two great Monarchs ruled the entire geocentric world and the 18 geocentric layers. Although they were a pair of twins who were born at the same time, cultivated simultaneously, and had peerless strength, they battled each other every day in these 18 layers because of their mutually opposing elements. The battle skills that they had were powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth. All of the geocentric lifeforms supported one of the kings based on their elements. Under the rule of these Monarchs, the war in the geocentric world never ceased. Every time, the war resulted in a large amount of casualties and caused a grave decrease in the strength of the underworld. One day, the geocentric red lotus emerged as pre-destined and condensed to form a red lotus raging flame (TL: this is the exact translation of the name Lie Yan) and she successively defeated both the fierce-flame sovereign king and the gloomy-flame devil king and they were completely erased from this geocentric world and the 18 layers of the underworld once again submerged into tranquility. There were no more wars, only peace, and this allowed all the underworld lifeforms to live quite happily and they did not need to be worried that another war that could take their life can occur at any time.”

“Are you that red lotus raging flame?” Questioned Ji Dong, after Lie Yan, wearing a smile on her face, calmly narrated the story. Listening to this story, a deeply disturbing emotion welled up within Ji Dong’s heart. Lie Yan spoke casually about defeating the two great Monarchs of the geocentric world, but one could well imagine how difficult this had been. Inwardly Ji Dong, for the first time, was completely certain of how powerful Lie Yan was. With her being the ruler of the underworld, when would he be able to catch up to her? His feelings of inferiority couldn’t help but make Ji Dong feel inwardly grim.

Lie Yan gently nodded, as if recalling all the happenings of that time, and said, “Maybe it’s because the two Monarchs’ battle affected the whole underworld’s balance and that is why I was born within the earth’s core. They were really very powerful, in fact, the two fires inside your body are not something I created but they came from the two Monarchs. Those are their origin life flames. These two Monarchs had already reached the pinnacle of the power of their flames. If I were to handle those two at the same time, there is no doubt that I would die. But because of the hatred between them they ruined themselves and thus I was able to defeat them one by one. I used my own origin red lotus fire to separately refine their souls but my flame was also a.s.similated by them, thus changing the origin of my fire. The patterns in the hollows of both your palms are the magic souls of those Monarchs that was left over after I had refined them. Or, it could also be said that these are their most basic origins. These don’t have any thoughts of their own but they have the memories of all their power. To be precise these magic souls are not energies but records of memories, the memory records of two great Monarchs. These are my gifts to you. These two magic souls each have the record of all the skills of the two Monarchs. By the standards of your human race’s Yin-Yang Wizards, those skills include standard skills, direct hit skills, critical strike skills, sure-kill skills and after that there are even the ultimate skills. Moreover, all these are peak level skills.”

In Li Huo Academy, Ji Dong had learnt that when a Yin-Yang Wizard had his own Yin-Yang crown, they had cultivated the foundation of magic skills. And, as far as any Yin-Yang Wizard was concerned, a magic skill was only secondary to the yin-yang magic power. Even if your magic power was very strong, if you didn’t have a suitable magic skill, you would not be able to become a powerful expert. And, what Lie Yan said about the cla.s.sification of magic skills was totally different from what he had heard. Li Huo Academy only explained about three kinds of magic skills which were standard skills, direct hit skills and critical strike skills.

Standard skills were the most basic magic skills. Every Yin-Yang Wizard who had entered a higher education establishment could learn some standard skills and then choose one that suited their cultivation. But the direct hit skills were not as easy to learn. Even a higher education establishment may not necessarily be able to teach these and also it may not be suitable to them. Even for a Yin-Yang Wizard of the same element, as far as direct hit skills are concerned, their understanding of it would be different. Only by finding a skill that was most suitable to themselves could one display their maximum strength. And direct hit skills were also known by another name — slaughter skills. They were very powerful skills.

Any standard skill or direct hit skill were again divided into three grades: high, mid and low. A one corona Yin-Yang Wizard can only learn standard skills and a two coronas Yin-Yang Wizard would have the chance to learn direct hit skills.

Generally speaking, higher-level magic skills were considered as family heirlooms by all the influential families and wanting to learn them was as difficult as treading the heavens. For a Yin-Yang Wizard to want to be powerful, luck was a major ingredient needed to learn magic skills. Because of this some merchants made their living by selling magic spells.