Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 308 - 296: Sky Heart Stopping Clouds

Chapter 308: Chapter 296: Sky Heart Stopping Clouds

The next morning, before dawn, before the chickens were even awake, Wen Chudao, head of the Wen Family, personally led his eldest grandson, Wen Rulie, to the Eastern Palace to apologize to the Crown Prince.

Although the Crown Prince still did not know what had happened the previous night.

After awaking much later in the morning, Zhang San, in his dream, had once again dreamt of the old grandfather.

Zhang San was shocked at how frequently the old grandfather had started ’working overtime’ recently, and he had also learned a new secret technique—Sky Heart Stopping Clouds.

Sky Heart Stopping Clouds is a formation driven by runes.

The formation primarily targets the surrounding time.

The moment Sky Heart Stopping Clouds is deployed, the surrounding time will come to a halt.

Of course, with the surrounding time halted, all people, matters, and scenes remain stationary, but the user of the formation can move freely within this stilled time.

Such a powerful ability, of course, comes with side effects.

The side effect is that the user’s heart, acting as the formation’s array eye, will also stop as the surrounding time does.

The heart ceasing to beat does not mean you will die.

But if the time exceeds three or even five minutes, then the situation changes.

More importantly, while deploying Sky Heart Stopping Clouds, although your heart stops, because you still need to move and even strike, your body faces the difficulty of blood flow due to the sudden cessation of the heart; on the other hand, it must move, which means the whole process also requires overcoming great resistance.

What seems to be a strong ability, in reality, is not easy to use.

Zhang San can instantaneously deploy it directly on his heart, stopping the surrounding time.

By introspecting his own heart position in combination with deploying Sky Heart Stopping Clouds, it appears that the formation at his heart is actually one of the formations floating underneath six corpses in the air.

And what many Array Masters presently see on the ground is quite simply an incomplete projection of the energy loss during the process of Sky Heart Stopping Clouds.

As for the formation deeper underground, Zhang San still does not know what it is.

All he could do was take the formation diagrams he drew yesterday and draw them again according to them.

However, this time, Zhang San did not complete the entire formation but only drew about one-tenth of the broken area of the entire formation, intentionally drawing some of the runes incorrectly.

Zhang San is not unwilling to share clues with others, but with regard to the Magistrate of Metropolitan Prefecture’s Government Office, Zhang San could not fully trust them, so it’s better to keep something in reserve.

After finishing the drawing, Zhang San had Ximen Jinxing personally deliver the formation diagram to the Magistrate of Metropolitan Prefecture’s Government Office and then had them send over the information on the seven floating corpses found at the Ba River.

Meanwhile, he continued to study the formation under the pretext of staying here, having Wang Ziteng use money to exchange for cultivation resources, which he would bring back to accelerate the improvement of his own cultivation.

After achieving perfection in the Five Emperors’ Proper Position stage, the next stage is Qi Flow Transformation.

When Martial Artists cultivate to this stage, the True Core can no longer expand, and the surrounding Power of the Five Elements also reaches perfection.

It allows the Yin and Yang Generation within the True Core and the Five Elements Creation outside of it; thus, the Qi Formation is everlasting within the True Core.

In this process, the combination of Yin and Yang can nurture more Innate Qi, thereby making the interior of the True Core more solid; the everlasting generation of the Five Elements can make the exterior of the True Core more robust.

The aspect of Yin and Yang Generation, Zhang San had already achieved early on.

He could even stimulate more Innate Qi within his True Core through the Tyrant Body Three Pills Technique.

And in terms of the everlasting generation of the Five Elements, not only had Zhang San achieved it, but the Power of the Yang Five Elements also rotated clockwise, while the Power of the Yin Five Elements rotated counterclockwise.

Both the Yin and Yang Five Elements had long been within Zhang San’s body, rendering his True Core’s shell impregnable.

Hence, Zhang San knew that as long as he was willing to create enough Innate Qi through the Tyrant Body Three Pills Technique, he could enter the Qi Flow Transformation stage in an instant.

But Zhang San did not plan to enter this stage prematurely.

Now that he had two True Cores, he could completely enter the Qi Flow Transformation phase swiftly in dangerous situations and enhance his combat power further by leveraging the rules of heaven and earth during a breakthrough.

Even at the Qi Flow Transformation phase, he could directly reach its pinnacle and then break through to the final stage of True Core Realm, True Core Ocean Calming.

Then he could ride another wave of the rules of heaven and earth to upgrade his combat power.

The dangers of Chuan-Yu Road were clear at a glance; although worrisome, it was just that—worrisome.

Yet in the Capital, like the situation last night, it was fortunate that Zhang San took a nap in the early night and learned the Observation Skill, Baili Shenxuan, from the Baili Family in his dreams, otherwise, if the Wen Family had truly intended to make a move against him, it would have indeed been perilous.

After all, eliminating him would mean becoming the future Head of the Wen Family, a temptation too great to resist.

If he had the ability to revive from death, Zhang San himself would want to find the Head of the Wen Family, Wen Chudao, and perform a suicidal act in front of them.

Moreover, Body Refinement could greatly enhance one’s strength and defense, so Zhang San’s main focus in cultivation was to strengthen this aspect next.

While Zhang San was shut away in bitter cultivation, the Head of the Han family, Han Mingshi, along with his grandson Han Yanqiu, went to visit the current Head of Shen Family, Shen Wei.

Shen Wei respectfully invited Han Mingshi in and warmly hosted him.

However, after Han Mingshi brought up the incident of Han Yanqiu getting beaten up, Shen Wei was completely taken aback.

"Uncle Han, you’re my senior, and rightfully so, if you say that Han Yanqiu was beaten by someone from my Shen Family, whether it was or was not by someone from my family, I should accept the blame. But..."

Shen Wei had already guessed that the culprit must have been Shen Zhongdian, the only one capable of executing such a flawless act that left the Han Family without any evidence.

"Let’s not talk about whether there’s evidence for now. Don’t you know my relationship with Zhang San? When Zhang San first came to the Capital, he killed thirteen of my officials from the Ministry of Punishment! Though Han Yanqiu is your grandson, he is also one of my Ministry’s men! Moreover, in the presence of Emperor Kaihuang in the grand hall, I was left utterly humiliated by Zhang San..."

Just mentioning Zhang San made Shen Wei so angry that he almost smashed a kettle with his clenched fist.

"And there are those impersonating Zhang San—how much I wish I could catch someone and put a sack over Zhang San’s head! Could I really condone someone from our Shen Family impersonating him?"

Han Mingshi was unsure if Shen Wei was genuinely angry or just pretending in front of him.

Quickly changing the subject, he feigned concern about a floating case and then took his leave.

After leaving the Shen Family, in the carriage on the way back to the Han Family, Han Mingshi looked at his grandson Han Yanqiu.

"Did you see? The Shen Family is now in charge of the Ministry of Punishment. Although he repeatedly says I’m his senior, when it came to your beating, they didn’t want to intervene at all."

"Grandfather, Minister Shen doesn’t seem like the kind of person who indulges his juniors, especially the way he got angry just now, it really..."

"Really what? Who among the officials doesn’t have good acting skills?"

Han Yanqiu remained silent, because he too had often played his part.

"Among the four Major Families of Legalism, although Head of Shen Family, Shen Wei, is my junior, he is exceptionally competent; the Shen brothers may not compare to Shen Wei, but together they aren’t too far behind him; the Shang family has mediocre talents in the middle-aged generation but ironically, it’s the young generation that has Shang Bufa. I can no longer count on your father and his generation in the Han Family, all I can hope for is you!"

In that moment, Han Yanqiu, who had just lost his brother and had been beaten, suddenly felt the mountainous responsibility fall on his shoulders.

Indeed, many stories in operas are written just like this.

Family turmoil, separation from loved ones, a sudden blow, and next, his own overnight growth, followed by a splendid rise!

"Grandfather, rest assured, I will avenge my second brother and raise our Han Family to prominence!"

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[Note 90]Citation Explanation

The stage of Qi Flow Transformation is derived from Dai Zhen’s "Mencius Character Meaning Elucidation·Tao" during the Qing Dynasty, who cited, "In heaven and earth, Qi is transformed and flows endlessly, life begets life ceaselessly."

Qi, originally an ancient Chinese concept for interpreting the matter between heaven and earth, was further developed and advanced by Dai Zhen on the foundations laid by Zhang Zai, proposing: "Yin and Yang and the Five Elements never cease their operations, for they are the transformations of Qi." This means that the origin of the world’s Yin and Yang along with the Five Elements is Qi.

Extending this concept, during the Qi Flow Transformation stage, the True Core formed by the powers of Yin and Yang and complemented by the Power of the Five Elements embodies Innate Qi, completing a cycle from starting with Innate Qi to returning back to it.