861 - Reach Out and Touch the Stars
Chapter 861 - Reach Out and Touch the Stars
Ye Qingyu was not greedy.
He knew that he could not try to force his way after his opportunity had passed, otherwise he would encounter another disastrous incident of energy deviation again.
That said, just at this moment, Ye Qingyu suddenly realized something that he had previously overlooked.
"That material is... um, strange. I have a feeling that I know it from somewhere."
He seemed to have seen the material of the [Infinite Arsenal's] huge gates before somewhere, but could not recollect where at the moment.
At this moment, Xiao Lin, the commander of the white-robed divine guards, spoke up. He could finally heave a sigh of relief upon seeing that Ye Qingyu was perfectly fine.
"Lord Ye Qingyu, it's about time today. According to the decisions of the Alliance of Domains, you can remain in the [Infinite Arsenal] for ten days. After that, you have to remember to exit from the arsenal no matter what happens. If you forcibly remain behind on purpose, you'll be repulsed by the restrictive energy of the arsenal and experience feedback. Resistance by force will trigger the death trap, and you'll lose your life. I'll be waiting here at the gates to bring you back after ten days."
As he gave detailed instructions to Ye Qingyu, he passed the token in his hand to the expert.
Time was money, but time within the [Infinte Arsenal] was worth billions more than time anywhere else.
Ye Qingyu had already wasted nearly an hour's time at the gates just now, and Xiao Lin was reminding him out of good will to quickly enter the arsenal, as that time he had spent in a daze was also part of the ten day's time allocated to him.
"Many thanks, Divine Guard Xiao Lin."
Ye Qingyu understood Xiao Lin's intent upon hearing his words and nodded in thanks as he received the token.
After which, he did not hesitate. He turned and walked forward a few steps, arriving beside the huge black gate. Ye Qingyu then lifted his hand slightly and placed the token close to the huge gate.
A black, vapor-like splendor began to stir.
The token in Ye Qingyu's hand instantly melded into the stone gate. It was as if he had stuck his hand into a pool of black water.
The next instant—
His entire body seemed to be drawn by a strange power and directly passed through the gates, vanishing from sight.
While in a daze, Ye Qingyu could feel that he was surrounded by a dark tunnel, and that he had seemingly lost control over his own body. He could only allow the mysterious force to pull him across.
It felt like a long while, yet it also seemed as though everything had happened in an instant.
The force that had been pulling him suddenly disappeared.
Ye Qingyu could sense that he had already successfully made it into the [Infinite Arsenal].
Huh?
Ye Qingyu's expression changed slightly.
What he saw was different from what he had imagined the arsenal to look like.
There were no huge book racks that spanned the entire wall or even the entire arsenal, and there were also no precious manuals of bamboo scrolls that recorded the techniques of many different clans. It was entirely different from any normal arsenal; there were no piles of books, valuable weapons, or treasures. In fact, it was empty.
Yes, empty.
The place Ye Qingyu was in now was serene and tranquil. It was a vast stretch of dark Void, and there was no life or aura within it.
It was a strange and perhaps even mysterious space, exactly like a corner of the nothingness in the boundless galaxy.
As he raised his head to gaze upward, he could see countless stars continually blinking far away in space. Their brilliance came and went, as if they were extremely precious gems that had been scattered over a black screen.
At this moment, there was a huge round stone platform about thirty meters wide at Ye Qingyu's feet, and it was made of the same exact material as the huge black gate. It looked like a huge round sampan floating quietly in the middle of the Void in this spot of the galaxy, somehow giving one the sense that it had been left behind by the world and isolated.
What's going on? he thought.
Could it be that I've yet to enter the arsenal, and that everything I see before me is all an illusion?
With doubt in his heart, Ye Qingyu examined his surroundings closely again, but still he could not find the semblance of any book or document.
Since this arsenal was built by a Martial Emperor, there must be something profound about it. Perhaps I haven't noticed some particular spot, he thought.
He stopped looking blindly and calmed himself down. He then closed his eyes slowly, focused his energy, and regulated his breathing. Instantly, his divine sense gushed toward the void and its surroundings like a tide.
After a few breaths—
As his divine sense drew near the blinking stars in the vast galaxy, he noticed that there was something strange about the assortment of colors and bright stars in the surrounding.
So, it's like this... Ye Qingyu thought.
Having understood something suddenly, a smile formed at the corner of his lips.
He reached his hand out and grabbed at one of the blinking stars in the black void.
He really managed to grab the star, which seemed to be so far away. It was an extremely strange scene, yet it happened. If someone else were to witness it, he or she would be dumbstruck. Ye Qingyu would have seemed to be like an Immortal.
He could reach out and grab the stars.
He was exactly like an legendary, unique Immortal who had been banished.
It seemed as though Ye Qingyu had already expected such a result, as he was not surprised in the least.
He had grabbed hold of a star, and it was only as big as a child's palm; it looked exactly the same as it had from a distance. Ye Qingyu slowly released his consciousness power to remove the glow of the star. After it had stopped glowing, he used his fingertip to rub against it lightly, and a bamboo scroll, which gave off a faint red halo, slowly metamorphosed.
It looked like a star, but in reality it was a bamboo scroll hidden within the [Infinite Arsenal] that contained martial arts techniques by an exceptionally brilliant divine formation illusion.
Which meant to say that the countless blinking stars that filled the sky were in reality bamboo scrolls that contained various techniques. They had been suspended in the space of the [Infinite Arsenal] by peerless, wonderful means by the creator of the [Infinite Arsenal].
Even though it was huge, the interior of the [Infinite Arsenal] could not be compared to the vastness of the Void of a real galaxy.
Therefore, the creator of the [Infinite Arsenal] could really be considered amazing. In this way, the storage space of the arsenal became so large that it was unbelievable; this was definitely the method of a Martial Emperor.
After concentrating briefly, Ye Qingyu immersed his divine sense into the bamboo scrolls.
The thing that slightly amazed him was that there were no restrictions on the bamboo scroll, and he viewed all of its contents very quickly. The message contained within it appeared in his mind.
"The extremely powerful mark of divine fire... Whoever learns this technique, his fists will act as the medium, and the divine fire of the Ninth Heaven as the source of his power. It will meld into his body and become the mark of fire... When cultivated to the maximum level, the user can invoke the fire of the heavens and withstand natural disasters. At the maximum level, the user will be able to enter the Great Saint realm."
Ye Qingyu looked at the scroll gradually unfurl, and there was an excited gleam in his eyes as he read the opening summary of the technique.
This was a fire-style martial arts technique that could be cultivated to the Great Saint level.
Heavens.
If he were to show the manual around, he was sure that countless people would try to snatch it from him, even on the Road of Chaos. If it were to be placed in those top-level domains, he was afraid that it would lead to bloodshed and unrest.
This time, my luck is not too bad.
Ye Qingyu possessed the ability of photographic memory, and he could immediately commit the message in the scroll to memory. He matched it against the actual text, and lifted his arm after confirming that there were no errors with what he remembered. The scroll seemed to understand what he wanted and it transformed into a ray of flowing light, flying directly into the storage area of the arsenal. It then re-formed itself into a blinking star, which seemed so far away.
After it had transformed into a bright, blinking star, even Ye Qingyu could not identify where the scroll was. It had melded back into the background of many stars.
It was also at this time that Ye Qingyu finally understood.
So, each star in the Void of this arsenal is actually a scroll that records a different technique from the other. And this sea of stars is what Mr. Ren Puyang and Divine Guard Xiao Lin meant when they talked about the manuals of tens of thousands of martial arts techniques from various tribes!
After quickly browsing through, he placed the star back in its original spot and raised his head to look at the infinite Void again.
At that instant, Ye Qingyu suddenly understood the deeper meaning in Divine Guard Xiao Lin's words just now.
The vast sea of stars was simply too plentiful. Some were very near to him, while others seemed to be incredibly far away.
The level of consciousness power cultivation between those that had the right to enter the arsenal were different, and one's luck and strength played a very big part in determining how many techniques of foreign races one could browse through and master within a limited time.
One's consciousness power could only reach farther and wider areas under constant depletion when it had reached a certain level of strength. It was only by this way that one could gather more stars and reach farther to get them.
If not, one could only reach a limited amount of stars that were nearby.
Especially those scrolls that were scattered across the Void of the galaxy, they were not arranged in order and there was no archiving system to speak of. Within a short span, the techniques that one managed to get in contact with could be of one's own race or that of a foreign race. Likewise, some of them could be of use, while the others, not much.
Time was slowly ticking away.
Ye Qingyu kept gathering those stars that were close to him. As his consciousness power was very strong, the range of his contact became farther and wider.
"The illusory voice of confusion... disrupts your opponent's concentration and focuses one's mind and spirit into infusing one's will into the opponent, thereby controlling him or her..."
Ye Qingyu glanced through the scroll briefly before quickly exchanging it for another star scroll that glowed with a green halo.
"The Shadow Wind Skill... Those practitioners of this skill that reach the eighth level can travel with the flow of the wind and alter his shadow wind as he wishes. Those that reach the ninth level can get the wind to move with their shadow, and control reality and illusions as they see fit..."
The Shadow Wind Skill was something.
After quickly browsing it, Ye Qingyu's divine sense traveled even further.
"The Ghost Valley Divination Skill... Practitioners of this skill have to align their souls with the ghosts and use their lifespan as fuel. They will be able to divine things pertaining to the holy and infernal, and can determine the fate and things to avoid for people..."
"Seems to me that this is an unique skill like fortune telling..."
As he thought about it, Ye Qingyu's hand had already extended out toward another gold star at his side.
"No matter which race these techniques belong to, or whether they are useful, I'll look through the scrolls first!"
At this point in time, Ye Qingyu had long discarded any plan to choose between the scrolls and did not hesitate. He kept gathering scrolls, as if by instinct, and his eyes scanned the contents with incredible speed.
Luckily, he had the talent of photographic memory. As such, he had already committed all of the technique manuals he had browsed through to memory securely, so that he could “retrieve” them one by one for individual study after he left the arsenal.
The chance to view the techniques from thousands of different races was one in a million. As such, even if he had only the short time span of ten days, and the number of stars were so many that one could get dizzy just by looking at them, Ye Qingyu still chose to recklessly channel his consciousness power in an insane fashion, as he continuously read through the various martial arts techniques.