Chapter 59: Who Made the Seal?

Seeing Jiang Yi in such a state, worry and heartache showed on Jiang Yunhai’s face. He did not offer Jiang Yi any words of comfort, for he did not know how. It was only a matter of time before Jiang Yi came to know the truth. Considering anyone would be devastated to know that their father was unknown and their mother dead—Jiang Yi’s reaction was still relatively calm.

Jiang Yi had to force himself not to think, and yet so many questions remained circulating in his mind. After a moment of silence, he asked calmly, “Grandfather, was she the one who made the seal in my dantian?”

“Perhaps. It was possible that Madam sealed your dantian because she wanted you to have a normal life. I was the one who was too adamant when it came to your seal, and that caused the rest of what had happened. None of this would have happened if I did not leave home in the first place…”

Jiang Yunhai gave a sorrowful sigh. A thought stroke him the next second, causing a feverous light to shine within the murky depths of his eyes. He gazed at Jiang Yi’s dantian and asked, “Young Master, how did you manage to undo your seal? Was it really because of the fire dragon that came out to protect you when Jiang Yunshe was about to kill you?”

“Not entirely!”

Jiang Yi shook his head. A moment of silence passed before he began telling Jiang Yunhai everything that had transpired since half a year ago, going as far as disclosing the mysterious and nameless cultivation technique—as well as the black essence force. To him, Jiang Yunhai was someone he could trust implicitly. In addition, he wanted to let Jiang Yunhai take a look at the black essence force and help him resolve his doubts as to why this black essence force could be so obscenely powerful.

“This…”

Jiang Yunhai looked shaken to his core at what Jiang Yi had shared. He placed his hand against Jiang Yi’s back and circulated a wisp of essence force into Jiang Yi to investigate, only to withdraw a moment later with a bewildered expression, “Young Master, there isn’t any black essence force in your dantian.”

“I’ve used it all up. Let me cultivate a wisp right now!”

Jiang Yi sat up hurriedly to begin cultivating. He got a shock as soon as he began: when it would have taken him about an hour in the past to cultivate a wisp of black essence force, he only needed a few moments for a wisp to appear in his dantian now—the cultivation speed had gone up at least ten times!

That’s right, the seal—my seal was broken completely so it makes sense for my cultivation speed to increase! Alright… let’s see how fast I can cultivate the blue essence force!

With his heart beating loudly in his chest, Jiang Yi pushed away all thoughts from his mind and wasted no time in cultivating the essence force with the Jiang Water Art. At once, his body gave an involuntary shudder, and his eyes snapped wide open incredulously.

“What is it, Young Lord?” Jiang Yunhai asked in concern.

“My cultivation speed…” Jiang Yi’s jaw dropped. It took him several minutes to cry out disbelievingly: “It is now at least a hundred times faster than before!”

“What?”

The news sent tremors down Jiang Yunhai’s body. He asked in a low voice, “Young Lord, are you certain?”

As Jiang Yi nodded in affirmation, Jiang Yunhai’s mind stirred with excitement. Jiang Yi’s original cultivation speed was sluggish and about thirty to forty times slower than that of Jiang Henshui. With his cultivation speed a hundred times faster than before, that means… his cultivation speed was twice or even thrice as fast as that of Jiang Henshui now?

Jiang Yunhai was well aware of just how talented Jiang Henshui was. To be able to achieve the ninth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm at such a young age, Jiang Henshui was the cream of the crop in Skyplume City and could be considered as impressive even across the nation! If Jiang Yi could cultivate two to three times faster than Jiang Henshui, that would mean his talents were comparable to that of the best elite in the Divine Martial Kingdom. After all, even the top five geniuses on the Clear Sky Ranking were unable to surpass such a cultivation speed!

The Divine Martial Kingdom’s Clear Sky Ranking was for the young geniuses aged below 20 and ranked according to their talent and strength. The top ten martial artists on that rank were considered to be peerless. Provided that they did not die young, their future potential would be simply immeasurable.

“Oh… I’m such a silly old buffer. With Madam and ‘that person’ being so powerful, how average could Young Lord be? Surely, Madam knew about the unnaturally powerful potential Young Lord holds, and so she decided to seal his dantian to keep him away from learning the martial arts?”

Jiang Yunhai murmured as the thought dawned on him. He turned to Jiang Yi, “Have you cultivated the black essence force? Merge it with the blue essence force and show me. Don’t worry… I will use my divine senses this time so your essence forces will not go haywire.”

Jiang Yi nodded and merged the black essence force before directing it to his eyes. As his vision became obscenely powerful, he turned to Jiang Yunhai and asked, “Grandfather, what do you make out of it?”

Jiang Yunhai’s eyes were closed, but the shock that appeared on his weathered face deepened with each passing moment. At long last, he opened his eyes and lamented. “How strange is the existence of this black essence force in the world? And how ridiculously powerful it is—to be able to merge with other essence forces? Not to mention, the power of the forces would double after merging, and even one’s five senses could be enhanced. This is definitely not an essence force; just what is this thing?”

“Huh…”

Jiang Yi was left unperturbed. Not even Jiang Yunhai knew what the black essence force was.

Jiang Yunhai mumbled quietly to himself before once again asking Jiang Yi to merge a wisp of black essence force. After a moment of close observation with his divine senses, Jiang Yunhai said with certainty, “Young Lord, this is indeed no essence force! As you are aware, cultivation in our world requires absorbing the spiritual aura of the five basic elements within heaven and earth and then turning them into essence forces of different attributes. Hence, most martial artists on Stellarsky Continent command essence forces of the five basic elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. There are, of course, the selected few in this world who possess special kinds of essence force—yours truly, for example!

“What I can cultivate is the essence force belonging to the element of thunder which makes the essence force purple. There are 13 known kinds of special essence forces, but I have never heard of an essence force such as yours—one that can merge with other essence forces and has such ridiculously strong enhancement powers to boot! The fact that you can only cultivate ten wisps of this black force at a time makes me even more certain: this is not an essence force; rather, it is some kind of mystical energy; and the nameless cultivation technique is probably from the one who sealed your dantian…”

“Something isn’t right though!”

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Jiang Yi’s brows furrowed, “Grandfather, didn’t you say that my mother was the one who sealed my dantian? Why would she leave behind such a powerful cultivation technique for me if she did not wish for me to learn martial arts and wanted me to live an average life like some common folk instead—completely unaware of my identity?”

Jiang Yunhai nodded in agreement. “This is why I’m no longer certain if it truly is Madam who sealed your dantian! If she was the one, she could not have left such a powerful cultivation technique; and yet, if it wasn’t her, then who could it be?”

“Oh, that’s right!”

After several moments of contemplation, Jiang Yunhai solemnly implored, “Young Lord, you must remember one thing: you must not let anyone else—not a single soul—know about this nameless cultivation technique and the black energy force of yours! It would sow endless trouble otherwise…”

Upon Jiang Yi’s reluctant acceptance without protest, Jiang Yunhai made a wave of his hand as he headed outside. “Young Lord, please get some rest. I shall go and make the necessary arrangements. We should suppress any news about you from the public. It would be very troublesome if word got out…”

…

“Hall Master, we have received word from the headquarters. It is confirmed that Jiang Yiliu is the one and only son of the Western Garrison Liege Lord. The Lord is someone who is old-fashioned and sees the law and rules above everything. He is also very disciplined. There has never been any hearsay about him having an affair with other women besides his wife. It is impossible for Jiang Yi to be his bastard son.”

In the Martial Arts Hall, Elder Fei was seen reporting to the Hall Master with utmost humble respect. Fondling his silver earrings, the Hall Master nodded, “I have met Jiang Bieli, the Western Garrison Liege Lord, once. He is indeed a conservative man; you can tell from the way jurisprudence takes off in the Divine Martial Kingdom. This is someone who advocates the law and wants to abolish the ‘rule of man’ system in the Divine Martial Kingdom while promoting the ‘rule of law!’ With the law governing everything, he must practice what he preaches. By this reasoning, Jiang Yi should not be his bastard son…”

Elder Fei continued with his report: “There are also rumors coming from the Ji Clan. Jiang Yi’s dantian was sealed; the reason he made such quick progress in the last half a year was because of our elixirs and the increase of his cultivation speed. Allegedly, it now rivals that of Jiang Henshui and Ji Tingyu.

“As to how he became so powerful, rumors say he has cultivated a Heaven-tier martial skill left behind for him by his mother. On a different note… we have news about the fire dragon that killed Jiang Yunshe. It is a powerful artifact from his mother and contains formidable energy that could save Jiang Yi’s life in a time of crisis. Although, it is said that the artifact could only be used once.”

“Heaven-tier martial skill? Artifact?”

The Hall Master shook his head and smirked coldly. “Any chance the news was leaked by Jiang Yunhai? Jiang Yi’s mother? What nonsense! Just how powerful could she be to have refined such an artifact? She has to be at the peak of the Soul Travel Realm at the very least. There are no more than five people across the entire continent with such power! In any case… it is without questions that Jiang Yi’s parents are powerful; at least one of them has peaked at the Soul Travel Realm and has begun comprehending the dao patterns. If not, they would not be able to leave behind such a formidable artifact for Jiang Yi.”

“What do we do about the contract between Jiang Yi and the Martial Arts Hall?” Elder Fei asked. Having such powerful parents, could Jiang Yi still be bound to the Martial Arts Hall and slaved away for the rest of his life?

“Void it then!”

The Hall Master waved a hand. “Of course, we won’t be the ones to bring up this matter. Wait for Jiang Yunhai to come to us. It’s not a bad thing to have him owe us one.”

…

Word on the street picked up by Elder Fei was indeed spread on purpose by Jiang Yunhai. The image of the fire dragon rising from Jiang Yi’s dantian was simply too frightening, not to mention the fact that it could wipe out a martial artist at the seventh stage of the Purple Mansion Realm in a blink of an eye. Attributing them to Jiang Yi’s powerful mother might be an easier way to explain everything.

Even though many family clans were still skeptical, this explanation did put an end to a lot of speculation. Moreover, as the word got spread, none now dared to openly talk about it. Jiang Yunhai had made it perfectly clear by offering an explanation—that he did not wish for any more speculation, or he would be severely displeased.

The Jiang and the Ma residences were still surrounded by the West Garrison Army. No one was allowed entry or exit. Yet, Jiang Yunhai paid little attention to the situation. At the moment, he was at the city lord’s manor, having a meeting with the three mentors from Mt. Spirit Beast College.

“You wish for Jiang Yi to continue taking part in the tournament?”

Upon learning the reason behind Jiang Yunhai’s visit, Elder Fu’s brows knitted in silence. The other mentors had similarly uneasy expressions on their faces. It was no surprise as the three of them were still disgruntled over the words of Jiang Yunhai that day—when he proclaimed that everyone would be buried alongside Jiang Yi if he were to die that day.

“That’s right!”

Jiang Yunhai nodded gravely, “Jiang Yi had to give up the tournament that day because someone kidnapped his maidservant as I’m sure you are already aware. He should not be faulted by this. You have seen the strength he yields. I reckon he would not disappoint if he enrolled in your college. I would even go as far as to say… having him could help your college in surpassing the other two major colleges!”

If Jiang Yi’s seal had remained unbroken, perhaps Jiang Yunhai would have taken him elsewhere—to some faraway village or town—and live the rest of their lives in peace and quiet. However, upon personally witnessing Jiang Yi’s incredible cultivation speed and black essence force, Jiang Yunhai was very much tempted. Even though Jiang Yi’s mother was against him learning the martial arts, Jiang Yunhai was unable to stand aside and do nothing while watching an extraordinary genius such as Jiang Yi waste away.

“No!”

A cold shout interrupted Jiang Yunhai’s musing. The young man who was one of the mentors said in a definitive tone, “Rules are rules. 536 had already withdrawn his participation from the tournament; it is impossible for him to make his way back in. We would not be able to appease the other participants otherwise. And what’s more, how else would we explain to the College Master afterward?”

Elder Fu nodded in agreement. “Indeed, we must decline. These are the rules of the college! A withdrawal means a withdrawal from the tournament—no matter the reason!”

Mentor Su, whose icy beauty exceeded even that of Ji Tingyu, gave a faint shake of her head. Clearly, she too was not in favor of having Jiang Yi back.

“Then please excuse me for taking up your time. Mentors, yours truly had uttered some inappropriate things out of anger the other day. I ask for your forgiveness!”

Jiang Yunhai sighed lightly. He cupped his hands and limped away with his dragon-headed crutches. Once he was out of earshot, the young male mentor smirked coldly. “What a joke! Only at the fourth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm at age 16; so what if he has the Heaven-tier martial skill to enhance his powers? He would help our college to surpass the other two major colleges? In his dreams!”