“Right, I’ll pick one up after I give them a try.” The young prince nodded and said, “The qualities of the willow-leaf saber varies. Bring ten willow-leaf sabers and let us give them a try.”
The young military officer saw that it was the young prince, and he went and quickly brought more than ten willow-leaf sabers for them to try. All the willow-leaf sabers looked the same. Even the decorative patterns looked the same. But the knowledgeable ones would be able to tell that some were forged by masters and some were forged by apprentices. There were great differences in the way they were made.
The young prince waved his hand in a gesture. “Genius Ding, after you.”
Actually, the young prince had his strategies to pick the best weapon. He was not in a rush. He allowed Ding Hao to go first. Then he would reveal his strategy to humiliate Ding Hao.
“Thank you, young prince.” Ding Hao picked up every willow-leaf saber and examined them, before finally selecting one.
“Gentleman Ding, is this the one you choose? It can’t be exchanged later alright…right. Here’s an ordinary level pouch for your weapons and other necessities.”
The pouch looked like a fanny pack. It was to be hung around the waist. It was the lowest level pouch. There was no lock, and you couldn’t communicate with it using your mind. The space inside was about one cubic meter big.
Ding Hao put on the pouch and was about to put the willow-leaf saber inside. The young prince said, “Wait!”
“What?”
The young prince said, “Juncai was about to pick a willow-leaf saber too. Why don’t you wait for him, and we see who managed to pick the better saber.”
Ding Hao wondered what the young prince was trying to do. He sneered and said, “Sure.”
The young prince raised his hand and took a white-colored bangle and passed it to Ding Juncai, “Juncai, here’s a treasure probing bangle. You’ll be able to pick a better weapon when you wear this on your wrist.”
Ding Juncai wore the bangle. As he extended his handover a saber, the bangle changed color. Ding Juncai was elated. He picked the one that showed the brightest color and returned the bangle to the young prince.
The young prince said, “Juncai, you must learn to be grateful. Help Ding Hao appraise his weapon.”
“Yes.” Ding Juncai scoffed in his heart. He thought it was awesome that the prince had thought up this plan to defeat Ding Hao. Ding Hao did not possess such equipment. He would have simply picked a saber, and it would have been impossible for him to have picked a good one.
Unexpectedly, Ding Hao voluntarily gave him the saber. He smirked and said, “I’m interested to know too, please.”
Ding Juncai extended his hand. Unexpectedly, it glowed so much brighter than his! Ding Hao had picked the best amongst all the sabers presented there.
The young military officer said, “Ding Hao has such great eyes. This was the only ordinary level moderate stage saber.”
“I’m… impossible.” Ding Juncai was stunned, and the young prince’s jaw dropped. They couldn’t understand how Ding Hao was able to pick the best saber.
Ding Hao smiled. “Nothing is impossible. Good-heartedness is often met with recompense. Do more good in the future.”
He then kept his willow-leaf saber and walked toward the library.
Ding Hao certainly knew the energy in each saber because he has the power absorption stone! It was laughable that the young prince gave Ding Hao the opportunity to pick the saber first.
The young prince watched as he left. He sneered, “This little piece of trash has some dumb luck! It was just an ordinary level moderate stage willow-leaf saber. I’ll give you a better weapon later!”
Ding Juncai was exhilarated. He cupped his fist in the other hand and said, “Thank you, young prince.” Then he asked, “Young prince, do you have any advice for the selection of power manuals later?”
The young prince said, “There are two kinds of manuals: one is a celestial power manual, and the other is a martial art manual. The celestial power manual helps you achieve a higher stage, while the innate stage martial art manual increases your battle strength. I have manuals that suit your Sunken Ice Celestial Power, which is a mental strength power. All you need now is an ice series of martial arts. The metropolitan examination is six months away. If you put more effort into your martial art skills, you should see some improvements by then. Strive for a chance to enter Jiuzhou Academy with me.”
Ding Juncai was happy to receive the young prince’s advice. “Thank you, young prince!” Then he asked, “Young prince, you know so much about these. Do you have a superior level one celestial gene?”
The young prince’s face went sour, “Just a level one celestial gene.”
Ding Juncai realized that he said something that he shouldn’t have and quickly salvaged by saying, “That’s much higher than I am, amazing!”
“Unfortunately, it is one stage lower than Ding Hao!” The young prince sighed. Then his facial expression changed and his eyes sparkled, “Ding Juncai, don’t ever think that just because he has a superior level one celestial gene you won’t be able to outperform him! I tell you, we mustn’t give up! This is because the growth-type celestial gene isn’t as great as it seems!”
Ding Juncai and the attendants at the back pricked up their ears and listened to what the young prince had to say.
The young prince sneered and said, “The growth-type celestial gene is a superior level one celestial gene, but the certainty of the growth-type celestial gene is too low! You know, according to the regulations or the Jiuzhou Academy, people with a superior level one celestial gene could enter the academy without taking the exam. But why didn’t Dean Min bring him along?”
“Why?” the people asked.
“That is because the growth-type celestial gene is an exception!” The young prince sneered, “They say that nine out of ten growth-type celestial genes are useless. The growth-type celestial gene needs to be awakened many times, the more the better. But some only managed to awaken once and stop. That is a dead-end celestial gene. It is as good as a level eight or level nine rubbish! Some deviate in the growth process and become a level three to level five moderate celestial gene! There are only one or two in tens of thousands that managed to maintain a superior level one celestial gene!”
“Darn, only one or two in tens of thousands!”
When the people heard this, their admiration of Ding Hao turned into contempt.
Ding Juncai became excited after listening to this. His gaze turned cold and said, “After all that hoo-ha he is still a piece of trash!”
The young prince then said, “Don’t get too excited just yet. The momentum of the growth-type celestial gene is still quite strong.”
Ding Juncai nodded, “Young prince, I will give it my all and beat him in the metropolitan examination. I won’t let him go to Jiuzhou academy. This will be the first step of my revenge!”
The young prince waved his hand with confidence. “It’s good that you understand. Go and pick the manuals then.”
The library was a small building.
Before Ding Hao entered the building a young military officer advised him, “Gentleman Ding, the Lord wanted me to remind you that the key to the growth-type celestial gene is growth. You must select celestial power manuals, cultivate yuandan, and increase your cultivation level. You’ll be unstoppable!”
Lord Ling Yunxiao did care about him, he was afraid that Ding Hao was too young and too competitive, and mistakenly picked the wrong power manuals. Thus, he sent someone to remind him once again.
“Thank the lord for me.” Ding Hao bowed and went into the building.
“Five-Colored Transformation Mental Arts, The Scripture of Yuandan, The Secret of Abstracting Neidan…”
Ding Hao was walking back and forth on level one of the building. He had a token of permission in his hand, and he could only use it once. After using it he would be able to get the manual he needed.
There was a number in front of every manual, and it changes constantly. When a person used the token of permission, the number in front of the book changed.
“Many cultivators study these manuals. The numbers are in tens of thousands, some even hundreds of thousands!”
Ding Hao didn’t pick any manuals from the first floor after walking one round around the permise. He went straight to the second floor.”
“I know that Lord Ling was being thoughtful, but I’m different from the others.”
“I have my own opinions, I have my own ways, and I know how to proceed!”
‘The reason that the others cultivate mental art was to transform yuandan and gain higher state. But I don’t need that, I have the power absorption skill. It is a type of internal mental art. With the power absorption skill, I could absorb energy and digest yuandan. What celestial power do I need?
‘Thus, I need martial art manuals!
‘If I gain martial art skills, I’ll gain battle strength which is useful to me!’
As Ding Hao thought about this, he went to the second floor.
“Tiger Fist: the power of the punch is as great as a fierce tiger coming down from a mountain; Bursting Fist: the extremely powerful punch; Slithering Snake: slithers at lightning speed…”
Ding Hao’s eyes sparkled when he saw these martial arts!
Once he learned martial arts, his battle strength would increase!
Before his awakening, he was a weak mortal. Now that his celestial powers had been awakened he could acquire battle strength through learning martial arts!
“This seems great, the number in front of the Tiger Fist’s manual is tens of millions! Thousands of people learned this fighting technique showed that it must be very popular. But it is not what I want.”
Ding Hao loved to win by using surprising moves. Everybody learned this tiger fist. It would be overused during battle.
“Only by learning techniques that are rare and crafty would I be able to win by using surprising moves!”
With this thought in mind, he looked for martial art techniques with smaller numbers.
“Turtle Shell Technique. The number in front is only in the hundreds. Why are there so few people learning this?”
Ding Hao read the brief introduction. He understood why not many people attempted this technique. “Turtle Shell Technique: although providing great defense, it has a grueling training period. Upon mastering this technique, one’s back will be as tough as the shell of a turtle…Although it is a great technique, not many people had the fortitude to endure the grueling training. No young person would be willing to carry the shell of a turtle through their life.”
Ding Hao didn’t want that either. Thus, he continued his search.
“Dragon claw sword! It’s only 30!”
Ding Hao was intrigued, but in order to learn this technique, one must obtain a dragon’s nail! ‘But how many people who have just been awakened possessed a dragon’s nail?’
“It looks like these 30 people must be children of the rich.” Ding Hao is not rich, and he did not possess a dragon’s nail. He had to give this up.
“This is zero!” Ding Hao’s eyes sparkled.
He finally found a technique that no one had ever learned. He would use his token of permission here.
Ding Hao had gone through all the manuals on the second floor of the library. This was the only one with a zero!
“Nine Layers Blazing Palm! This is suitable for those with blaze element celestial powers. One can transform one’s energy into a blaze. The power of the blaze gathers in the palm. Every palm is powerful. One palm is more superior than the level before. Once achieved nine palms level, one can release blazing fireballs like the celestial teachers!”