Assassin's Chronicle

Chapter 305: Dadao

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"Don’t think too much about it. I was just curious; didn’t mean to pry into your secrets. If you don’t want to talk about it, we can switch topics," Entos said.

"It’s not really a secret. Professor and Uncle Ernest know a little about it," Anfey said.

"Are you suggesting that they are not pressing you for your secrets like I am?" Entos said. He was quiet for a while, then said, "Anfey, you should know how important it is. Professor and Master Ernest did not ask you about it only because they respect you and did not want to make you feel offended. You cannot keep it secret forever though. No one knows how a brand new and unique practice method could benefit Pan Continent. Luckily, others do not yet know much about you. They only know that you have learned from a supreme power. Their curiosity stops there. However, if they found out that you know another way to train, you would have a lot more trouble."

"Well, I do not think my secret would get out, would it?" Anfey smiled.

"If I could tell you have a different training method, so can others." Entos shook his head. "There is never an absolute secret. Do you know why Evil Mist wanted you?"

"Sort of, but I’m not quite sure," Anfey said.

"You killed their people in Home of Roses Hotel in Tumen Commercial Union. King Yolanthe and Evil Mist investigated it at the time. They both targeted you at the end of the investigation," Entos said slowly. "King Yolanthe also talked to the professor about you. Master Ernest had already talked to Saul about the existence of supreme powers. He believed the mysterious old man who taught you sword skills in your hometown could very possibly be a supreme power. Ernest said your sword skills were very sharp and powerful. You had fighting ability even though you did not have any combat power. He believed that mysterious old man’s power would be unimaginable. Professor did not want anyone else to know about your secrets, but King Yolanthe pressed him very hard. He was very suspicious about your background and even wanted to catch you to interrogate you. Professor had to tell the king about Master Ernest’s speculation."

"I see," Anfey said,smiling bitterly. He finally realized why he had such doubts about the situation.

"It should be a secret, shouldn’t it? Only the king, professor, and Master Ernest knew about it, but in the end, Evil Mist got to know about Master Ernest’s speculation somehow," Entos said, smiling. "Don’t think that any of those three sold you out. You know, no matter how trivial it could be, everything had to be recorded in the palace and kept on file. The person who was in charge of those files was the commander of Storm mercenary group. I do not know him, never saw him either, but I know his loyalty cannot be questions, otherwise, the king would not be alive today. Later, they figured out what went wrong. When the king found out your secrets had leaked out, he was furious about it. He ordered the commander of Storm mercenary group to do a thorough investigation. They found out at the end that the person whose job was to put words in magic crystals leaked your secrets out. Unfortunately, when secret agents rushed to his home, he was already dead."

"What happened afterwards?" Anfey asked.

"The professor got really mad and even advocated with the king on your behalf. Anfey, the professor has been nice to you because of who you are. It doesn’t matter whether you are a fool or a smart guy with all the secrets. You are his student. He will do what is best for you." Entos sighed. "However, the king is different than our professor. If there were nothing of interest to him, would he protect you? In Violet City, you had a personal fight with someone in public and killed an heir of a marquis. If it were Philip, he would have thought about the consequences of doing that before he did anything. Just like right now, he did not dare trouble you. You had the excuse of managing the city. If you could find an excuse for your behavior, those government officials could have found hundreds ways to against you. Were you the city master of Violet City? Did you get your official appointment yet?"

"I know all of these things," Anfey said. "I killed Shamash for two reasons. One was to better control and manage Violet City; the other was to test the king."

"It’s good that you considered these things," Entos said, nodding. "In fact, I agree with you. If I were you, I would never let Marquis Djoser live. Since you already had a conflict with him, why would you let him live if you knew he hated you with a passion? I heard Marquis Djoser had brought people to the military camp in Violet city. You should have killed him back then when it was in chaos, in case later he would make more trouble for you."

"He is a marquis no matter what," Anfey said, smiling bitterly.

"You are still a little timid," Entos said.

Anfey opened his mouth, wanting to ask if he was too timid or Entos was not afraid of anything, but he decided against it.

"He will be your pain in the neck. Marquis Djoser will definitely make trouble for you. As long as he is in Violet City, there would be no peace," Entos said.

"Don’t you know?" Anfey was shocked for a second before he asked, "Didn’t Master Mioritch tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Entos asked.

"Marquis Djoser asked someone to help him. He asked Master Jacob to help him," Anfey said.

"He must be a nut!" Entos was startled to hear that. He said, "Did he really ask Master Jacob to fight against you? He’d better kill himself right now. It’s better than die from being too upset and angry later."

"I don’t think he knows about the relationship between Master Jacob and our professor," Anfey said.

"Probably not! Almost no one knows his plans. He likes to do things on his own. Some people even think he died a long time ago," Entos said.

"Hagan was startled when he saw Master Jacob," Anfey said.

"Hmmm…" Entos raised an eyebrow. "Master Jacob should come to Sacred City soon. I need to remind our professor not let anyone know about Master Jacob coming. Marquis Djoser has been close with Prince Wester. It seems that Philip is on Wester’s side now as well. If Master Jacob were seen by Philip, he would make trouble," Entos said.

"Brother Entos, that’s incredible. You have thought about everything," Anfey said.

"Stop it!" Entos stood up, smiling. He suddenly paused and went quiet for a second. He turned to give Anfey a weird look. "Almost, I almost fell for it."

"Brother Entos, what do you mean?" Anfey asked.

"Anfey, I think you are good at distracting people." Entos sat back down. "You have not answered my question yet. Do you know another way to train yourself? I need a definite answer."

"Yes." Anfey could not dodge this question anymore.

"What kind of practice is it? Can you tell me about it?" Entos asked.

"How to put it?" Anfey thought for moment about how to put it into words, then said, "It seems similar to the practice of combat power but quite the opposite. That old man called this practice "Dadao". I learned quite a lot about combat power from Suzanna. Combat power is to push the power out to protect the practitioner and attack the opponents, while Dadao is more introverted power, which keeps the power in the body. The person who practices Dadao is a weapon himself. Weapons, such as spears, swords and other metal weapons are not necessary for Dadao practitioners."

"Can you talk more about it in detail?" Entos asked.

"In our bodies, there are three main energy channels, the conception vessel, the governing vessel, and the middle vessel. There are over a dozen subordinate energy vessels besides those three main ones. Energies are always flowing in these vessels. There also three places on the body called ‘pubic regions,’ where the energies are stored." Anfey took a look at Entos and smiled. "Brother Entos, I do not think you would understand it if I just talked about these vessels and energy flows. Never mind."

"A storage room for energy? Like magic beasts’ magic crystals?" Entos asked in surprise.

"No, the energies stored in pubic area are not visible as magic crystals," Anfey said.

"Is your practice to control those energies? To control how they flow in the vessels?" Entos asked.

"Yes," Anfey answered.

"How do you control the energies?" Entos asked.

"It is too complicated. I could not explain very clearly. Once you reach a certain level, you need to switch your practice method. For instance, at the beginning, you could only store the energy in the lower elixir field, and then gradually control the energy flow towards the governing vessel. After practicing that for a long time, you could gradually induce the energy to the conception vessel," Anfey explained.

"What if my energy was in a different energy vessel instead of lower elixir at the beginning?" Entos asked.

"You would die from it," Anfey said.

"Die?" He had only heard that mages and swordsmen could die in battle, but never heard training could make people die, except for doing experiments in magic labs.

"I am not lying to you. It could cause people to die," Anfey said.

"As you said, this training method cannot be practiced by most people, can it?" Entos asked.

Anfey smiled. "If there were more and more people practicing Dadao, maybe in a hundred years, most people could practice it, but not now."

Entos watched Anfey’s face as he said slowly, "Could most people practice the very basics?"

"Very challenging for right now," Anfey said.

"Ok, we will talk about whether it could be practiced by most people later. Did that old man tell you this training method could definitely help you reach supreme power level?" Entos asked.

"I do not know. He never told me how the levels are divided on Pan Continent. He had a very special way to define different levels," Anfey said in a low voice.

"What did he say about the power levels?" Entos asked.

"He told me once the practitioner could reach to the highest level, that person does not have to be constrained by ‘Three Boundaries’ and ‘Five Elements.’ He could do anything and go anywhere without any constraints," Anfey said.

"What is ‘Three Boundaries’?" Entos asked.

Anfey shook his head.

"What is ‘Five Elements’?" Entos asked.

Anfey shook his head again.

Entos frowned as he was in thoughts. "Do anything, go anywhere, without any constraints. Does this mean he could ignore the rules of the nature?" Entos asked.

"You may be right about that," Anfey said.

Entos went quiet for a while, but could not figure it out. He had to find answers from someone else. He slowly stood up. "Ok, we will stop here. Thank you for your trust. I will pass what you told me on to our professor. Don’t worry. I will remind the professor to keep it secret for you and will not tell anyone else about it, not even King Yolanthe. There will be no more accidents."