Chapter 337

Chapter 337: It’s Hereditary!

Kowtow?

　　As soon as those words were spoken, the outer disciples eating in the hall were instantly startled, and they all grabbed their bowls and ran, afraid of getting splattered when Ye Tianming’s blood hit the floor.

　　But one person ran to Ye Tianming’s side — it was Qingyuan, who had been watching nearby the whole time.

　　You could tell he was scared, but he still stood beside Ye Tianming, and his hand had moved to rest on the axe at his back that he used for missions.

　　Brothers have to stick together!

　　Yet contrary to everyone’s expectations, Zhou Bai didn’t make a move. Instead he asked, “Fool? What do you mean?”

　　Ye Tianming was completely speechless.

　　Zhou Bai stared hard at Ye Tianming, and just when everyone thought he was about to explode, he suddenly laughed. “A hot-blooded young man. Very good, very good.”

　　Ye Tianming could tell the smile hid a blade, and he smiled back. “Dongqian and I really are just friends. If you want to be jealous, you should at least get your facts straight before you are. And even if we weren’t just friends, as a man you should maintain your dignity — after all, from what I can see, you and Dongqian aren’t in a relationship, and you probably can’t even be called friends…….”

　　He paused there, then continued, “Of course, I know none of this means anything to you, because you’re so used to looking down on everyone that you won’t tolerate anything that doesn’t go your way. Right now you’re probably thinking about how to kill me, aren’t you?”

　　Zhou Bai stared at Ye Tianming and said nothing.

　　Ye Tianming didn’t bother with him anymore and instead looked across at Dongqian. At that moment, Dongqian was looking back at him.

　　Ye Tianming’s behavior had only confirmed her suspicions further.

　　His talent wasn’t the lowest — the testing pillar simply couldn’t measure it at all.

　　Because a normal person, when facing a student from the Divine Academy, could never carry themselves with such calm composure.

　　There had to be something backing him up.

　　And the one with the worst expression right now was undoubtedly Zhou Bai.

　　He hadn’t expected an outer disciple to dare talk back to him like this — it had never happened before.

　　Around them, the outer disciples who hadn’t yet fled were all stunned to see Ye Tianming show Zhou Bai such disrespect, and many of them were already looking at Ye Tianming the way you’d look at a dead man.

　　Zhou Bai was far more than just a Divine Academy student!

　　Once again defying everyone’s expectations, Zhou Bai didn’t get angry. He gave Ye Tianming a long, deep look, then turned to Dongqian and smiled. “Dongqian, don’t forget our mission. I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow morning.”

　　With that, he turned and left.

　　After Zhou Bai was gone, Dongqian looked at Ye Tianming. “Walk with me?”

　　Ye Tianming nodded. “Sure.”

　　He turned to Qingyuan beside him and smiled. “Thank you.”

　　Qingyuan quickly said, “I didn’t… I didn’t help at all.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled. “Just by coming to stand here, you helped more than anyone.”

　　Qingyuan gave a simple, honest smile, not knowing what to say.

　　Ye Tianming patted him on the shoulder, then pulled out a scroll and tucked it into his arms. “Got it from a mission — nothing precious, but when you have free time you can try cultivating using the method inside.”

　　That scroll was the very one Lu Ren had given him back then.

　　After saying that, Ye Tianming walked toward the exit.

　　The two of them stepped outside. It was deep into the night, and as they walked along the path, they looked up to a vast river of stars stretching overhead.

　　Dongqian said, “You did that on purpose.”

　　Ye Tianming nodded.

　　Dongqian asked, “Why?”

　　Ye Tianming thought for a moment, then said, “I needed him to think I have something to back me up — to make him feel I’m not someone simple. The more arrogant I act, the more fearless I seem, the more wary he’ll be. On the other hand, the more I cower and beg, the faster I die.”

　　Dongqian said, “Do you think he’ll let you go?”

　　Ye Tianming turned to look at Dongqian. “I’ve already given him a chance to keep his life. Whether he takes it is up to him.”

　　Dongqian stopped walking. She turned to face Ye Tianming, and after a long moment she said, “I believe you.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled.

　　Dongqian said, “Tomorrow we’re heading to a ruin. Come with us.”

　　Ye Tianming was curious. “A ruin?”

　　Dongqian nodded. “During the great war of the gods, quite a few true gods went missing.”

　　Ye Tianming’s expression shifted. He understood immediately what Dongqian meant — the ruin they had found was very likely the remains of a true god.

　　A ruin left behind by a true god would be of immeasurable value.

　　Ye Tianming asked, “I can go?”

　　Dongqian nodded. “You can.”

　　Ye Tianming said, “Thank you.”

　　Dongqian glanced at him. “Tomorrow, at the academy gate — I’ll come get you.”

　　With that, she turned and vanished.

　　After Dongqian left, Ye Tianming turned and headed back.

　　Somewhere in the river of stars, a young man was looking down at him.

　　It was Zhou Bai.

　　Beside Zhou Bai stood a young boy who was glaring at Ye Tianming. “Brother Bai, is this the guy who disrespected you? I’ll go kill him!”

　　He was about to charge down, but Zhou Bai stopped him.

　　The boy looked puzzled.

　　Zhou Bai said calmly, “Someone who dares to disrespect me like that can’t possibly be ordinary.”

　　The boy said angrily, “So what if he’s not ordinary? He dared to insult you, big brother — he has to die.”

　　Zhou Bai’s brow furrowed. “Diao Hao, can you stop being so reckless? Use your head. Your head — do you understand?”

　　The boy called Diao Hao grinned sheepishly. “Big brother, you’ve got enough brains for both of us. I don’t need any.”

　　Zhou Bai shook his head. “This person is definitely not simple.”

　　Diao Hao asked curiously, “What makes him not simple?”

　　Zhou Bai thought for a moment, then said, “Just a feeling.”

　　Diao Hao: ……

　　Zhou Bai said in a low voice, “Don’t act impulsively for now. Understood?”

　　Diao Hao nodded. “Alright, alright, whatever you say, big brother.”

　　Zhou Bai looked down at Ye Tianming below. “I’m going to use my head to kill him!”

　　Ye Tianming arrived at a cultivation chamber. Now that he had study credits, he was able to rent one.

　　After paying two hundred credits, he entered a cultivation chamber. The space wasn’t very large — he had chosen the smallest one, he had no other option — but he discovered that the incense spiritual energy here was remarkably dense.

　　Perfect for cultivation!

　　Ye Tianming wasted no time. He sat cross-legged and began running the cultivation method Lu Ren had given him.

　　Soon, his body became like a vortex, and the incense spiritual energy around him surged rapidly toward him.

　　It was clear that Lu Ren’s cultivation method was of no low rank.

　　However, there was a drawback — he couldn’t rely on this world’s cultivation methods indefinitely, because he had no divine faith. And any cultivation method, at its highest levels, required faith in a deity in order to draw in greater amounts of incense spiritual energy.

　　Simply put, having faith in a deity raised the ceiling of your cultivation.

　　Ye Tianming suddenly thought of his own “Tianming Jue” — a technique he had created himself, capable of devouring any form of energy.

　　He decided to try it.

　　He began running his own technique, and soon he smiled bitterly.

　　It didn’t work.

　　His technique couldn’t absorb the incense spiritual energy here.

　　But Ye Tianming quickly calmed himself. Could he perhaps fuse his Tianming Jue with this world’s cultivation method?

　　Worth a try!

　　Of course, he didn’t try it right now — he couldn’t afford to waste time. After all, he only had two hours here.

　　Under his absorption, the incense spiritual energy around him poured into his body in a continuous stream.

　　Once that incense spiritual energy entered him, his body began rapidly devouring it, and as it was consumed, his aura slowly began to change.

　　Ye Tianming carefully sensed the incense spiritual energy as it flowed in. The energy it contained truly far surpassed the spiritual energy cultivated in the worlds below.

　　And this incense spiritual energy bore some resemblance to the power of faith.

　　Over this period of time, he had come to understand this world’s cultivation system. The great temples of this world each governed a series of domains, and the living beings within the cosmic worlds inside those domains were essentially creatures they raised. These beings continuously provided them with incense spiritual energy — the vast majority of which was claimed by the true gods, while the remaining smaller portion went to the great temples and the families affiliated with their deities.

　　The tiny fraction that remained was available to those below, though even to obtain that, one needed a cultivation method and had to have faith in a deity.

　　And when you placed your faith in a deity, the deity in turn received incense spiritual energy.

　　Of course, there were distinctions.

　　Among the five great temples, the strongest was the Ancient Temple. From what he could tell, their power was the greatest, their benefits were the best, and their most distinctive feature was that they allowed freedom of faith — you could believe in whoever you wished.

　　What was rather strange, however, was that the more freely the deities there behaved, the more the beings there seemed to worship them.

　　The other temples were not so free. Once you pledged faith to a deity, if you tried to change your faith, you would be hunted down by your own temple.

　　However, the Ancient Temple was very, very far away, and for the beings of other temples to make contact with it was extremely, extremely difficult — unless they had the strength to do so.

　　He had actually wanted to learn more about the various true gods, but unfortunately the library contained no such ancient texts. To learn about the true gods, one had to become at least an inner court student.

　　The true god worshipped in this world was the God of the Divine Way. However, all anyone knew was that this deity was called the God of the Divine Way — beyond that, ordinary people below knew nothing else.

　　He also wanted to understand the era of the gods, especially the great war among the gods in those ancient times, but unfortunately that was beyond his reach for now.

　　Time passed quickly. Two hours were gone in the blink of an eye, and Ye Tianming left the cultivation chamber.

　　Outside, he glanced at his own body. After two hours of absorbing incense spiritual energy, there was indeed a difference. He felt that with just a little more time, he should be able to reach the Earth Prayer Realm.

　　He was about to go rent a room to rest, but after a few steps his brow suddenly furrowed. He slowly turned around — not far to his right, a figure in black was standing there.

　　The next moment, the figure in black suddenly charged straight at him.

　　Killing intent materialized!

　　Ye Tianming watched the black-clad figure rushing toward him, his gaze perfectly calm.

　　Just as the figure was about to reach him, a voice suddenly rang out from the distance. “Outrageous! Who dares to attack someone within the academy grounds…….”

　　As the voice fell, an academy guard came rushing over.

　　Seeing this, the figure in black immediately turned, leapt into the air, and vanished into the river of stars.

　　At that moment, a guard came running up and looked at Ye Tianming. “Are you alright?”

　　Ye Tianming smiled. “I’m fine.”

　　The guard said, “Be careful.”

　　With that, he gave chase.

　　Ye Tianming glanced up at the river of stars and smiled. “Like children playing house — pathetic!”

　　With that, he turned and left.

　　The next day.

　　Ye Tianming arrived at the academy gate. Before long, a group of people descended from the sky and landed in front of him.

　　Leading them was Dongqian, and Zhou Bai was there too.

　　Six people in total.

　　Beside Dongqian, a young woman suddenly smiled. “Senior Sister, are you sure he’s coming with us?”

　　Dongqian nodded.

　　The young woman smiled and said nothing more.

　　Dongqian looked at Ye Tianming. “Let’s go!”

　　Ye Tianming nodded. “Let’s go!”

　　Along the way.

　　Dongqian suddenly turned to look at Ye Tianming. “You knew my identity all along.”

　　Ye Tianming nodded.

　　Dongqian looked at him. “How did you know?”

　　Ye Tianming said, “I guessed.”

　　Dongqian was quiet for a moment, then said, “Being too clever isn’t always a good thing.”

　　Ye Tianming smiled and said, “Can’t help it — it’s inherited.”

　　Somewhere deep in a distant river of stars, a woman in a plain white dress turned her head and glanced over. The corner of her lips curved up ever so slightly.