Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 144: Chapter 117: Spiritual Form! Unveiling a Corner of the World

Wan Ze knew Zhai Jia wasn’t prying, just concerned.

But thinking of that woman and the bald man’s dying words, he knew the risks involved were huge. He was the only one who could reap such great rewards, and only because of his Illustrated Guide.

If he told him, Zhai Jia would be completely dragged into it.

He planned to wait and see about the woman’s situation, to see if she could truly become a Qi Refiner.

At this, he shook his head. ”Brother Jia, you know I’m not one to brag. I can’t tell you about this matter right now.”

Zhai Jia was stunned. ”You can’t even tell me?”

”Sorry.”

”Sounds dangerous...” Zhai Jia hesitated.

Wan Ze was silent for a second. ”When you reach Refining Force, I’ll definitely tell you.”

Zhai Jia agreed at first, but then he suddenly froze.

He blinked, running the sentence through his mind. He quickly came to his senses and stared at Wan Ze.

”...Wait, when *I* reach Refining Force?”

If he remembered correctly, Wan Ze was only at Blood Tempering right now. There was a whole major realm between that and Refining Force.

Wan Ze looked back at him and said with a smile, ”Once you become a Refining Grandmaster, I won’t have to worry about other Grandmasters causing trouble for me. You can stick up for me then, Brother Jia, and beat them to a pulp.”

Zhai Jia’s face darkened. He said sullenly, ”...Why don’t you just ask Master instead?”

Wan Ze shook his head. ”Master... better not. The fewer people who know about this, the better. But when the time is right, I promise I’ll tell you first.”

Zhai Jia stared at him for a few seconds.

Then he deflated and leaned back. ”Fine. I’ll just treat this as a little vacation.”

The two chatted for a while before Zhai Jia left.

His room was right next door.

He pushed the door open, and just as he hung up his jacket, his communicator vibrated.

The caller ID read: ”Heavy Rain, My Son.”

It was his older brother, Zhai Yu.

Zhai Jia knew what Brother Yu’s call meant this late at night, but he sighed and answered anyway.

The moment the call connected.

A torrent of words blasted from the other end: ”Where the hell did you run off to this time, you brat? Shit, if I hadn’t asked around, I wouldn’t have even known you were gone! You bastard! You actually ran off without telling me!!!”

Zhai Jia held the communicator a little farther away, waiting until the shouting was over before bringing it back to his ear.

”Brother, I’m just... drowning my sorrows.”

”Drowning your sorrows?”

”Yeah. I just can’t figure out why a peerless genius like me doesn’t have a sister-in-law for you yet.”

The other end of the communicator went silent for two seconds.

Zhai Yu was clearly suppressing his anger. ”...Cut the crap and get your ass back here. There’s a pile of work waiting.”

”I know, I know. I’ll be back soon.”

Zhai Jia answered quickly.

The other end hung up with a CLICK.

Zhai Jia tossed the communicator on the bed, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and stuck it between his lips.

Outside the window, the night was heavy, and the river’s surface was pitch-black.

He lit it and took a deep drag.

’Days without work are the best.’

...

Wan Ze turned off the lights.

The room was plunged into darkness.

The ship sailed steadily on the heart of the river.

Moonlight spilled through the porthole, pooling on the floor like water made of silver, clear and cold.

Staring at the moonlight, Wan Ze suddenly raised an eyebrow and stopped his stance training.

He had just thought of the Taiyin Breathing Technique he’d obtained tonight.

This technique was completely different from the one taught at the Dragon Eagle Martial Arts Hall.

Or rather, its very nature was different.

The most obvious difference was the hurdle to get to the Beginner Level... the level of the task was clearly not the same.

’Swallow and absorb a wisp of moonlight?’

Wan Ze repeated it silently in his mind and looked up at the pool of moonlight.

This trip to Hua City was, to put it bluntly, a gamble.

In the end, he’d only believed about fifty percent of what that woman said. But the things left behind by the Great Qi Refiner Tao she mentioned had indeed allowed him to use Stealing Celestial Secret twice.

The gains from those two times were anything but illusory.

One was Magic Sense, the other was Spiritual Form.

It’s just...

To be honest, he still hadn’t fully grasped what these two terms meant.

’What is Magic Sense?’

’And what is Spiritual Form?’

It was like looking at flowers in a fog; he could touch the edges but couldn’t grasp the whole.

As for the Tail Society the bald man had mentioned, he had reviewed the incident.

Other than the battle at Lingyun Manor, he hadn’t had any other encounters with them.

And that painting had long since been disposed of by Miss Ling using some method.

As long as he was careful from now on, he shouldn’t expose himself.

’But there’s no use overthinking it.’

The furrow in Wan Ze’s brow smoothed out.

No matter how strong the Tail Society was, they were still people of the Martial Dao.

For some unknown reason, Qi Refiners couldn’t make a move. So on this path, who had he, Wan Ze, ever been afraid of?

The one thing he feared the least was a life-or-death battle between Martial Artists.

His thoughts settled.

He glanced at the data panel.

[Stealing Celestial Secret: Spiritual Form (999%)]

(Effect: Ignore rules, form your own Spiritual Form)

He hesitated no longer.

On a whim, he activated his Spiritual Form.

VMMMM!

It was very strange.

That wasn’t a sound.

It was... a feeling.

The air suddenly grew heavy, as if something invisible was pressing down—on Wan Ze’s shoulders, then on his eyelids, and then into his very breath.

Then...

He saw it.

The moonlight on the floor... was moving!

It wasn’t being moved by the wind.

Because there was no wind in the room. It was floating up on its own.

Like a living thing, the moonlight transformed into countless, extremely fine threads, rising from the floor and probing in his direction.

Wan Ze didn’t move.

Because he couldn’t.

He watched helplessly as these tentacle-like wisps of moonlight swirled and then shot toward him, only to stop three inches from the spot between his eyebrows, hovering there.

Wan Ze’s eyes trembled.

He could see it clearly.

These thread-like wisps of light seemed to be hesitating.

Or perhaps... they were afraid.

A moment later, they descended, avoiding the spot between his eyebrows and wrapping around his wrist instead.

’Thank goodness.’

Wan Ze breathed a sigh of relief.

He felt a strange sensation on his wrist.

It was cold.

But it wasn’t the coldness of skin touching something cool. It was a cold that seeped out from his very bones, as if something was gripping him.

His whole body shuddered violently.

A force was pulling at him.

’Moonlight... actually has power?’

The thought had just crossed Wan Ze’s mind.

When the ground beneath his feet suddenly vanished.

In an instant.

He opened his eyes.

He was still in the same room.

But he knew something was different.

Because...

The moonlight was red.

Not a gentle red, but a flowing red, as if the entire sky were bleeding.

Wan Ze was stunned.

He looked down at the moonlight on the floor... It was moving.

It was incredibly bizarre.

Like living blood vessels.

The sight was enough to make an ordinary person’s skin crawl.

Wan Ze decided to get up, but his body felt heavy.

’Gravity...’

’It seems to have changed, too.’

Wan Ze frowned and forced himself to stand, suddenly feeling the weight of the air pressing down on him. It had at least doubled.

”Damn!”

’I don’t believe this!’

He grunted, forcing his body to stabilize. Each step felt like he was carrying a giant boulder on his back.

’Just treat it as training.’

He pushed the door open.

And then...

He stopped.

And froze on the spot!

A blood moon hung between the river and the sky.

This blood moon was too large, unrealistically so. It felt like it took up half the sky, so close it seemed he could reach out and touch it.

The texture of the moon’s surface was clear, and it was slowly squirming, like some living creature.

The river’s surface was also red under its light.

But...

Wan Ze followed the light with his eyes.

It wasn’t stained by the moonlight. There was something in the river water.

He gripped the railing and peered into the depths.

A corpse.

No, many of them.

They were floating, half-submerged, bobbing slowly with the river’s current.

Every single one was enormous.

But these corpses were strange, each with a different shape.

They looked like fish, but he couldn’t name any of them. Their bodies were covered in strange patterns, like carved text or totems.

The wind blew over.

It carried a thick, foul stench.

Wan Ze held his breath, completely shocked by the scene. He was certain that the corpses on the river were definitely not any fish he knew of!

He took a step back.

His expression grew increasingly cautious.

A thought occurred to him, and he couldn’t help but turn his head.

Zhai Jia’s room was right next door, its door closed.

”Brother Jia!” Wan Ze walked over, resisting the pressure, and knocked on the door.

But there was no answer.

Fearing he might disturb some unknown presence, Wan Ze applied a bit of force and broke the door down. The room inside was pitch-black, but there was no sign of Zhai Jia.

Wan Ze froze for a moment.

He steadied his mind.

Then he turned and went to Miss Ling’s room.

No one was there either.

And then... he discovered he was the only person left on the entire ship.

’In the blink of an eye, everyone’s gone?’

’How is this possible?’

’Is this... an illusion?’

The sound of the waves came, powerful and distinct. This was definitely not an illusion.

...

Wan Ze stood in the corridor, unmoving.

The blood moon illuminated the deck, the river wind swirled with the foul stench, and the giant corpses drifted slowly past the ship.

He took a deep breath.

And with extreme decisiveness, he cut off this state.

SHHIIINK!

The world before him was like a piece of cloth, violently ripped down the middle and then rapidly stitched back together.

Wan Ze had no time to see this scene clearly, because a sudden wave of dizziness crashed down on him.

He grabbed the doorframe, his vision blackening and his temples throbbing violently.

’This is absolutely ridiculous!’

Given his mental fortitude, anything that could make him dizzy was no small matter.

Wan Ze gritted his teeth and endured it.

He stimulated his qi and blood to steady his mind.

He let out a long breath.

He wasted no time.

Wan Ze quickly walked down the corridor.

He arrived at Zhai Jia’s door and knocked.

”Brother Jia?”

There was soon a stir from inside.

Then footsteps.

Followed by...

The light turned on.

The door opened.

Zhai Jia was rubbing his eyes, sleepy. ”What’s up, Ah Ze?”

Wan Ze stared at him.

’A living person?’

He reached out and pinched Zhai Jia’s cheek.

’He’s really alive.’

Zhai Jia: ”???? You’re not sleeping in the middle of the night, and you came over just to grope me?”

”I...” Wan Ze trailed off.

His gaze shifted.

Moonlight shone on the corridor.

It was a clean, pure glow.

The blood moon was gone from the sky.

And there were no more corpses floating on the river.

The wind blew over, carrying only the clean, faint scent of the river’s moisture.

”...It’s nothing,” Wan Ze said, opening his mouth and coming back to his senses.

Zhai Jia was stunned. ”Huh?”

”Just checking if you were asleep,” Wan Ze said, seemingly with something on his mind.

”I was about to. Did you... need something?” Zhai Jia’s expression grew suspicious as he looked him up and down.

”Nothing important. Go to sleep. Good night.” Wan Ze turned and left.

Zhai Jia stood in the doorway, watching his retreating back with a baffled expression.

After a moment, he muttered something and closed the door.

Wan Ze didn’t go straight back to his room.

Instead, he took a few quick steps to the railing and placed his hand on it. This cold was different from the cold of the moonlight that had gripped his wrist.

Wan Ze held his breath, staring at the river’s surface.

The moonlight was bright and clear, the river water calm.

The night wind rustled the corners of his clothes.

He watched for a long time.

But... there was nothing.

Nothing at all!

”Damn, was it really an illusion?” he said in a low voice.

But...

’No.’

’That was definitely not an illusion!’

Wan Ze knitted his brows, lost in thought.

He recalled that the essence of a Spiritual Form was the ”form” itself.

If that world was the ”Form,” then...

’This place is reality... so was the world I just went to a higher dimension?’

Wan Ze muttered to himself.

If, in that instant, he had been pulled into a higher dimension, then everything would indeed make sense.

The blood moon... the giant corpses... the ghost ship... and that pressure so intense it was almost visible.

’Why would a higher dimension look like this?’

Wan Ze frowned.

He slowly straightened up.

He glanced back at Zhai Jia’s closed door.

Then he looked up again at the moon in the sky.

The moonlight was still bright and clear.

But this time, as he looked at it, there was a different light in his eyes.