Ninth In the World

A youthful man clad fully in gray stepped in from outside. The moment he entered the surgery room, Di Jiu could sense his ruthlessness.

“I do not know you.” Di Jiu calmed himself down. He could feel that this man was about to kill him.

Although he had not been able to cultivate before coming to Earth, he did not lack experience. Ever since he had mastered the first saber move and become a warrior, his blood had started surging with a different kind of confidence. Even though that man wanted to kill him, he was not afraid. He only wondered why.

Di Jiu suddenly thought of the woman who had sought him out. Could this guy have been sent by Di Ziheng to dispose of him before he could cause him any trouble?

“Let me enlighten you, so that you will remember the person who killed you. I go by the name He Shan. The reason you’re getting killed is because you saved someone you shouldn’t have. Don’t be as nosy next time you are reincarnated. You saved someone I had to kill and got yourself killed in the process…” When he finished speaking, tha man took a step forward and raised his arm to punch Di Jiu.

Although his fist was very far from him, Di Jiu could still feel the man’s killing intent move toward his head.

As his fist approached, Di Jiu could sense the trajectory of the wind it produced so clearly, that he could even sense any changes in his killing intent.

This was a killer that had killed more than once before. Di Jiu unconsciously made a decision in his mind and immediately moved sideways, as if this was second nature to him. Then, he struck with his surgical knife and executed the first saber move.

Although the surgical knife was no more than a few inches long, Di Jiu felt as if he were wielding a meter-long saber. He could sense clearly the Saber Qi that he cleaved out.

The Saber Qi of his strike was almost corporeal. One could have actually touched it. Di Jiu knew that this feeling was fake, as the surgical knife was only a few inches long, but when he brandished the knife, it felt completely real. He had never felt this sensation while cultivating the first saber move.

“How could that be?” The man in gray stopped mid-punch. His eyes widened in fear, as if a white flash of Saber Qi had struck him between the brows. He wanted to avoid it, but the Saber Qi held him in place.

Di Jiu should not have been able to avoid that punch. Considering the man’s abundant years of assassinating experience, his punch should have killed a rookie like Di Jiu easily. Di Jiu should have been so frightened by his killing intent, that he wouldn’t even be able to cry for help.

However, Di Jiu had dodged his deadly punch easily and wielded his knife at him. This could not be right. The knife in his hand was clearly only a few inches long.

A faint sound was heard amid the sanguine light as a bloody gash appeared between the man’s brows. The man fell to the ground.

Di Jiu closed his eyes, holding the knife in his hand up in the air.

Something erupted in his senses, as if it wanted him to grasp it.

Di Jiu had lost track of time. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and realized with a start that the man in gray was lying motionless on the floor.

The knife was still in his hand, and the place where the man lay was stained with blood. Apparently, it was not the short knife he wielded that had done the damage, but the Saber Qi.

Thanks to that strike, Di Jiu realized that, once he mastered the Di Clan’s fourth saber move, he would have to go to the Fairy Planet to experience actual combat.

As he peered down at the knife, Di Jiu was sure that the first saber move was not supposed to be that fantastic. He might not have been able to cultivate in the past, but he had not been blind. He had seen many people execute the first saber move, but none of them had been this powerful. What would happen if he were to use a real saber instead of a surgical knife?

He had followed the Di Clan’s Seven Sabers and mastered the first saber move, but the strike he had just performed had clearly surpassed the Di Clan’s first saber move.

He immediately thought back to the crisis he had experienced a few moments ago and remembered the moment of enlightenment that had come after the strike. He had heard from others before that only warriors with top-notch aptitude experienced such a moment, and he was aware that the entire Ji Nation only occasionally produced one.

He might have experienced a moment of enlightenment during his very first combat, but what would have happened if the gray-clothed man had not been killed in the process?

Di Jiu turned the man over and sure enough, he saw a bloody gash between his brows. Fresh blood was still flowing profusely from the wound.

He knew that the man’s death had been caused by the Saber Qi. A gash like this could not have been the cause of his death. Even though he could not cultivate, Di Jiu knew all about the veins and arteries of the human body. He was a medical master, so he was sure that the man had died because most of his veins and arteries had been ground by the Saber Qi.

Di Jiu stood up with a sigh. He realized that he was in trouble. The assassin had not been sent by his brother. Di Jiu had ended up involved in this mess because he had saved someone he did not know without getting paid a single cent.

He liked the Apricot Lake Hall very much and it had taken him a lot of effort to get there. He was not ready to practise all seven moves of the Di Clan’s Seven Sabers, fix his aircraft and take it to the Fairy Planet for a spin yet.

This was a done deal though, so he would just have to face it. Di Jiu wrapped up the man’s corpse, lifted it and left the Apricot Lake Hall swiftly.

Half an hour later, he had buried the body in a secluded area full of trash.

By the time he returned to the Apricot Lake Hall to get rid of all the stains, it was almost 9 p.m. Suddenly, someone came knocking on the door again.

Di Jiu opened the door and saw that it was You Huli, who had gone to register at North Luo University.

“What are you doing here, Fox?” Di Jiu asked You Huli in confusion. He immediately sensed a change in him.

You Huli had only been gone for a few days, yet there was something different about him. Di Jiu came from the Yalun Continent, where martial arts prevailed, so he could tell that You Huli had started taking up martial arts.

“Oh, Jiu. Thank you! I have started to learn martial arts at the institute. I took the time to visit you because when I return to North Luo University, I will not be able to go out for a long time.” You Huli seemed both excited and guilty about this.

The spot he occupied at North Luo University had originally been Di Jiu’s, which meant that Di Jiu could no longer study there. Even though Di Jiu had said that he did not wish to study martial arts at North Luo University, You Huli still felt that he had let him down.

Di Jiu, who could read You Huli’s thoughts, patted his friend on the shoulder. “When you make a name for yourself on the Fairy Planet, you can take me there for a visit. You better go back and see your girlfriend now. I am doing fine here, don’t worry about me.”

“I know, I just needed to share some top secret information with you. The Union allowed North Luo University to set up an Institute of Martial Arts because one of its professors found a book about martial art techniques. Rumor has it that a student from the Swallow Capital University is already has a peak Earth Tier cultivation level. Maybe he’s even had a chance to step into the Connate…”

“Wait a minute…” Di Jiu interrupted him. “What do you mean by ‘the peak Earth Tier cultivation level’? And what’s Connate?” he asked in confusion.

Back in the Yalun Continent, Martial Artists like him had gained a rudimentary grasp of martial arts. Then, Martial Artists became Martial Knights, Martial Masters, Martial Grandmasters…

Every martial artist in the Ji Nation dreamed of becoming a Martial King, but only a handful were able to.

You Huli lowered his voice to a whisper. “This is what I came here to tell you. The techniques in the book that Professor Zhan Zhechen found were split into four tiers—Yellow, Black, Earth, and Heaven. It is rumored that anyone beyond the Heaven Tier has a chance of reaching the Connate Realm. We have to cultivate up to the Yellow Tier before going to the Fairy Planet.”

Di Jiu frowned a little. This was slightly different from the way the cultivation system worked in the Yalun Continent. He did not ask You Huli why it was different, because he probably would not have known either.