Chapter 397 – One Stalk of Grass Cutting the Stars

He was already made aware of the wasteland region’s impending chaos a few years ago. Was it finally going to start?

The Willow Tree was fresh and green. All of the charred black parts on its trunk have disappeared. Eighty-one lush and green willow branches descended. Primal chaos filled the air, creating a rather mysterious and great atmosphere.

“Willow Deity, when exactly will it begin?” Shi Hao asked.

“It can happen at any time, and it will take place before a year has passed.” The Willow Deity replied in a calm manner. The enormous tree was a lush green and full of life. Green multicolored lights flowing with vitality shone.

Shi Hao sucked in a cold breath of air. Before, he felt that it was still rather far away, but now, it was suddenly about to arrive. It caught him unprepared and left him quite shocked. This signified the deaths of many.

He remained silent for a while. Then, he earnestly asked the Willow Deity for guidance. The two talked for quite a long period of time.

From that day forward, Shi Hao began to cultivate even more fervently to increase his own strength. His few precious techniques were advanced to their peak, and he opened up many new paths for himself.

Shi Hao comprehended the dao while sitting under the willow tree, bathed within its hazy radiance. He studied that piece of beast skin with great effort, trying to understand it by every means possible. The sword intent directly entered his sea of consciousness.

“What a powerful sword intent!” Shi Hao was not able to open up the small world within the beast skin. After calming himself down, he began to study the saint’s sword intent step by step.

No wonder this sword intent could fight against him even while they were at the same cultivation realm. The one that created this sword intent was absolutely outstanding and definitely a great figure within the ancient era. His divine might was absolutely world-shaking. This sword intent contained too much; it was great and profound.

The more Shi Hao deduced, the more fearful he became. He could vaguely see the scene of the world being created. This kind of astonishing inheritance was truly rare.

“What kind of sword technique is this?!” He was greatly shaken. He had a feeling that the supreme expert that lost this beast skin must’ve felt incredibly regretful. This was an object that should have been passed on from ancient times.

After understanding this, he became even more engrossed. He immersed himself within the spiritual world and continued to understand more and more. Eventually, heaven and earth emerged, and a haze circulated between the two.

It was clearly a sword intent, yet it ultimately revealed a world. Heaven and earth seemed like they had just been divided, revealing this indistinct and hazy scene.

Following this, a streak of thick sword energy surged from the earth’s surface, entered the clouds, and pierced into the sky. This was a sky connecting sword energy that could throw the heavens and earth into chaos!

“So powerful! It could run through the heavens and down into the earth. Is this a glimpse of being at the peak? If this landed on a creature’s body, what would happen? This power is simply boundless!” Shi Hao said quietly.

Without mentioning anything else, just this beast skin obtained from the Void God Realm battle already made it worth it. It completely surpassed his expectations. This was a rarely seen killing technique inheritance.

Shi Hao carefully studied it and continuously polished his understanding. He wanted to thoroughly comprehend it, as he was absolutely fascinated. This was a precious technique derived from the offensive techniques of various families. These techniques were refined together to bring about the creator’s own technique.

“Sword formation!”

When he reached this stage of his comprehension, Shi Hao was shocked. This was definitely established by a great ancient figure. He saw traces of many different precious techniques, and the most terrifying symbols were gathered and combined together.

“I still ended up underestimating this sword intent. It is more powerful than I had imagined…”

In particular, since he was currently in the ‘Formation Arrangement’ Realm, if he carved this formation inside of him, it would be an excellent choice. Shi Hao thought so highly of it that he felt that he could use one of his ten great heavenly passages to nourish this sword intent.

Shi Hao completely immersed himself within it. Ten days later, his understanding advanced a step, and the sword intent changed again.

Brand new symbols and profound meanings emerged.

It was still a hazy world that seemed like it had just separated. Mist curled about, but in between, stars appeared one after another. In addition, there was also a sun suspended in the sky.

A stalk of grass sprouted from the earth within the haze and blossomed with symbols. A sky piercing sword energy was released, hacking towards the sun, moon, and stars.

“This is…” Shi Hao was astonished. His eyes narrowed, and then they erupted with light. He watched carefully in fear of missing something.

When the sword energy filled the skies, some of the great stars began to tremble. As the sword intent passed by, it was as if they were going to fall. How shocking of a scene was this?

Soon after, the sword intent evolved again. The stalk of grass left the earth, and with a single strike, it pierced through a great star and sliced it open. Mysterious symbols bloomed and filled the skies.

“Is this the peak of evolution, or is it a realm only achievable in theory?” Shi Hao asked himself in shock. His mind continuously jumped about eagerly and anxiously.

Finally, all of the sword energy disappeared. Heaven and earth separated, and the mist scattered. The beast skin grew dim. All of the symbols merged together, forming a stalk of grass.

Everything vanished, and only traces of the stalk of grass were left behind on the beast skin. The symbols flickered before gradually growing dim.

“Just a single stalk of grass? The sword intent was birthed from something like this?” Shi Hao was utterly bewildered.

Finally, he began to carefully research it again. He saw a line of text on top of that stalk of grass, and he was immediately greatly shaken. The master of the ancient sword intent was just a stalk of grass!

“Even a stalk of grass could cut apart the sun, moon, and stars…” At this moment, Shi Hao became completely silent. He sat unmoving, as if his mind had received a great blow.

The original form of this ancient might was unexpectedly just a stalk of grass, yet its dao was so profound, reaching an unfathomable level. Shi Hao received a moment of enlightenment and immediately went into a wondrous state of mind.

He sat there just like that, as if he was a clay doll. Everyone within Stone Village had long grown accustomed to seeing this, and no one came to the willow tree to disturb him. They knew that he was cultivating and comprehending the dao on his own.

Almost a month passed just like that. Shi Hao finally began to wake up slowly. His ten heavenly passages then emerged and flickered with multicolored light. They glowed with hazy and auspicious colors.

In particular, symbols densely covered one of his heavenly passages. They ultimately condensed into a stalk of grass that floated within. The heavenly passages were used to nourish spirits, and now, a stalk of grass was added.

In addition, he began to engrave formations within his body, and continuously evolve them. The symbols and sword intent that could hack apart the sun, moon, and stars were like grass leaves as they emerged within his flesh.

Finally, the sword formation began to shrink, turning into a speck of light. Multicolored light was released with Shi Hao’s breathing, and these lights flowed through his blood.

Shi Hao was rather satisfied. Cultivating within the realm of ‘Formation Arrangement’ required one to carve and create formations. Now that he directly grasped this kind of ancestral killing formation, his strength was able to shoot up greatly.

It was clear that this was also a type of cultivation. He continued to move forward along this path.

After Shi Hao grasped this sword intent, the more he experienced it, the more broad and profound he felt it was. Even though it was the primordial symbols of a stalk of grass, he felt that it was incredibly powerful.

“Not even the inheritances of pure-blooded creatures were able to reach this kind of level. It might even be able to kill them!”

Shi Hao then tried to open up the small world again. With a honglong sound, a small crack emerged. The inside was hazy, and he once again saw the two words ‘six dao’.

Unfortunately, he still wasn’t able to truly open it in the end.

“Willow Deity, what is this?” Shi Hao asked for guidance. While comprehending the dao under the tree, he could consult the Willow Deity at any time!

“This piece of beast skin can be used to store things. When your cultivation realm is high enough, it will open by itself.” The Willow Deity replied.

Shi Hao immediately thought of many things. The stalk of grass’ technique was recorded on top of the beast skin, so the small world within must be absolutely astonishing.

Shi Hao continued to cultivate. He used another month’s worth of time to consolidate everything he had, and finally, he stood up.

At this time, he remembered that the Willow Deity had once said that it wanted to pass down its technique to him, only that his cultivation at the time might not have been enough. The Willow Deity had never mentioned it, and he never asked either.

Time continued to pass. Shi Hao was already fifteen years old. He had cultivated for more than a year in the village and felt that it was time to walk around. It wasn’t too good to always be cultivating alone.

Cultivation required a peaceful heart. Excessive stubbornness and effort won’t lead to an increase in speed, for the dao is a natural phenomena. Many people understood this, but it would still be overlooked from time to time.

“Can I still roam about outside?” Shi Hao was a bit worried. This region was about to become chaotic. If he leaves now, many unexpected things could end up happening.

“Go. The creatures from outside this region have arrived, so take a good look around. Interacting with others still has its benefits,” said the Willow Deity. Moreover, it told him that should the chaos ever break out and place him in danger, he could bring out that sparkling willow branch to immediately return to Stone Village.

Back then, the Willow Deity gave him a branch before he left for the northern sea. The dark green jade-like branch was still at his side since he never used it in the Kun Peng nest.

Shi Hao left Stone Village. This time, he brought the big red bird along to bring it to see its master. He gave the scarlet feather that little red gifted to Stone Village to it as well.

“Are you serious, the Fire Clan’s guardian spirit? Being the size of a bean, can it really teach me anything?” Along the way, the big red bird continued to chatter noisily because it was actually really excited.

The descendant of a vermillion bird could very well be its master; just the thought alone made it grin incessantly.

“Youngster, what are you trying to do?” Halfway there, the big red bird cried out miserably. Shi Hao splashed a special type of black paint on its body, making it completely pitch black. The scarlet multicolored light around its body was completely drowned out.

It turned into a crow in the blink of an eye. As Shi Hao flew through the great wastelands, many creatures cried out, thinking that this was an ominous sign.

“So unlucky! I saw a black crow spirit!”

“What a bad omen… No matter how you look at it, it’s a messenger of death.”

The big red bird’s nose almost became crooked from its anger. It was unwilling to suffer this as it flew past this boundless mountain range with Shi Hao on its back. They entered a place with cities and towns.

A month later, the big red bird brought Shi Hao to Fire Nation Capital. They had flown this entire time, so it was clear just how great the distance was.

They descended quite a bit of distance away from the city. The big red bird shrunk down on its own accord and stood on Shi Hao’s shoulder.

With even the big red bird’s body becoming completely black, Shi Hao naturally changed his appearance as well. The battle of the Void God Realm shook the entire world, and his name was still circulating about.

In particular, he killed a few supreme experts. If he just strutted into the big city, once someone discovered him, it could easily end badly. At the very least, there would be quite a few people surrounding him.

“Hairy Ball’s precious technique isn’t bad!” SHi Hao entered the town without a hitch. The war general that guarded the city gates only swept a glance over him. Their eyes didn’t stop on him for long.

Seventy-two Transformations1, this kind of technique was simply amazing. Unfortunately, Shi Hao only obtained a portion of this inheritance.

An endless stream of horses and carriages ran through the main road, and there were people everywhere. Stores lined both sides of the street, and the shouts of auction houses continuously sounded. This place was bustling with activity.

The peaceful Stone Village and this great flourishing city were vastly different. It almost felt as if he had just been born into a new world.

Fire Nation Capital was extremely large, being one of the wasteland’s biggest cities. All types of creatures could be seen. Shi Hao was shocked to find a few powerful individuals as soon as he arrived. Moreover, they were all quite young, and they were of all different types of races.

“What kind of race is that? How come I’ve never seen it before?” The big red bird’s eyes narrowed as it stood on top of Shi Hao’s shoulder, staring at a few girls with pure white wings on their backs. His eyes revealed a rotten glint.

Shi Hao was also a bit puzzled. They were quite special and didn’t seem like normal feather race creatures, because there were also halos above their heads. They were all extremely beautiful.

Other than this group, they saw other races that they did not recognize. Only after asking around did they find out that these were all young experts from outside this region.

“The battle between the two Stone brothers shook the world. Even the cultivators outside of this region heard about it, and a few interested young experts came here as a result,” someone said.

The great sects outside this region were already making preparations to march into the wasteland region.

“During the battle that year, the little Stone looked down on the world. There were creatures from outside this region who weren’t convinced and came here as a result.”

Soon after, Shi Hao heard a few rumors. Quite a few people knew that he was on friendly terms with the Fire Clan princess, so there were many young experts who wanted to find him through this path.

The dual-pupils shook the ancient world, yet in this era, he was killed. The commotion that was created as a result reached outside this region.

“I refuse to believe that this Shi Hao is truly that powerful!” There were a some creatures from outside this region that walked together and discussed among themselves. Some of them were especially arrogant.

Shi Hao’s face remained calm when he heard this.

“Are the two Stone brothers truly that powerful? I want to see for myself just how dazzling they are.” An extremely beautiful young lady spoke softly. She was so dazzling that others found it hard to open their eyes. There were a few young experts at her side.

“Yi, that’s one of the mysterious region’s ten beauties.” From the distance, someone cried out in alarm while staring at her.

“Are the two Stone brothers that formidable? They don’t seem that great to me. I really want to meet him.” Another group of people walked over.

“The smaller Stone is too extraordinary. Who can compete against him? You wouldn’t talk like that if you truly saw him.” Someone said while sighing.

Quite a few cultivators from outside this region were in the city. They were all powerful.

“Unfortunately, after that battle, the smaller Stone brother never came out again. Some people said that he was suppressed by the Void God Realm’s domain lord, and there are others that said that he was already half dead after fighting against the older Stone brother and that it was too hard for him to make another appearance. No one knows whether any of these news are true or false.”

Shi Hao was shocked. More than a year had passed, yet so many people were still talking about him.

“I can wait! I want to see this smaller Stone for myself. If he truly dares to show himself, I want to give him a go and see what exactly he is!” Someone laughed coldly.

No one knew that this unreasonably young king was actually standing not too far from them, and that he had entered this great capital.

1. If you guys ever watched journey to the west, the monkey king was known for seventy two transformations