HSSB361: As incalculable as the innumerable stars in the sky
Hearing Yan Zhaoge’s question, Ouyang Qi let out a long breath, “When Master brought her back, her name was Chang Ning.”
Nothing else had to be said. Yan Zhaoge actually already knew that to outsiders, to others, Chang Ning had become Ouyang Qi’s long-lost twin sister.
“Did the both of you grow up in the outer sea?” Yan Zhaoge asked.
Ouyang Qi answered this question rather readily, “From as far back as I can remember, I grew up in the Outer East Sea on Cloud Region Island about three hundred kilometres away from Verdant Pill Island. Chang Ning was also inadvertently discovered in her youth by my Master when he was adventuring in the Inner South Sea.”
Even when they had been young, the two’s appearance had been exactly the same. Seeing this, their Master would definitely take note of it.
Yan Zhaoge looked at Ouyang Qi, “The next question is; other than each other and my junior apprentice-sister, have you ever seen similar kinds of people?”
Ouyang Qi was silent for a while before he said, “There was one more, a man who was the same as me. His talent should also not have been low, but it was a matter of fate that he did not become a martial practitioner, rather having stayed a normal person, a normal fisherman.”
“When I first discovered him, I was greatly amazed and shocked. But when I wanted to take him back to see Master afterwards, he had already died out in a storm at sea.”
Looking at Ouyang Qi, Sikong Qing could understand Ouyang Qi’s mental condition at that time.
When she had first encountered Chang Ning, she had also been shocked to the point of not being able to speak, her situation not much better than Ouyang Qi’s had been.
Even with Sikong Qing’s usual coldness and aloofness, even despite her firm will, she had inevitably received a great shock.
In the battle afterwards, that the proceedings had finally transpired to the point of a battle of life and death had had a very great relation with her mental state being unstable.
Yan Zhaoge enquired further, “When was this?”
Ouyang Qi answered, “A year ago.”
Yan Zhaoge raised his head slightly, considering for a moment before asking, “Did you and your Master discover something on that dead person? Therefore, when seeing my junior apprentice-sister, even at risk of offending my Broad Creed Mountain, you wanted to capture her?”
Ouyang Qi fell silent.
Glancing at the corpse of Chang Ning by the side, he then sighed, “Master checked that person’s corpse. While he had never cultivated in martial arts before, some strange, wondrous information seemed to have been contained in his dead body.”
“Oh?” Yan Zhaoge raised his brows slightly, his gaze also falling on Chang Ning’s body as it seemed to condense to take tangible form.
Instantly, a foreign, fragmented rune appeared within Yan Zhaoge’s mind.
The rune was fragmented and dispersed, not forming a system, causing one to be hard pressed to comprehend the meaning within.
However, Yan Zhaoge could vaguely detect an extremely profound and wondrous concept within. While it was from observation alone, the principles contained within were also rather deep.
It was just that after carefully analysing and experiencing it, Yan Zhaoge was left stunned.
With his vision far surpassing the normal person, he could tell that these scattered runes, as compared to their original whole, could not even be considered the tip of the iceberg.
In their overall complete form, the number of runes could be considered to be as incalculable as the innumerable stars in the sky.
If every single ‘Sikong Qing’ possessed one of these runes, in order to bring them together as a whole, that would imply the existence of innumerable ‘Sikong Qings’.
Just thinking about it alone caused one’s skin to grow numb.
With a single rune already so profound and wondrous, if all of them were gathered together, how much of a supreme, powerful existence did that entail?
After projecting this, even the greatly learned Yan Zhaoge had to click his tongue in praise at just how remarkable it was.
Sikong Qing came by Chang Ning’s side, reaching out and touching her body, yet just felt rather uncomprehending as it was blurry and indistinct, unable to be seen clearly.
Ouyang Qi said quietly, “One at least needs to be in the Martial Grandmaster realm to see it. If their cultivation base is insufficient, they will require the assistance of a Martial Grandmaster.”
Hearing his words, Yan Zhaoge shrugged, coming behind Sikong Qing once more whereupon he pressed his palm on her back.
Assisted by Yan Zhaoge’s aura-qi that was filled with spirituality and had returned to simplicity, Sikong Qing could also feel the extraordinariness exuded by Chang Ning this time.
Seeing that rune, she instead felt another feeling, as though she could not help but want to immerse herself within.
Yan Zhaoge snapped his fingers, snapping her out of it.
“Many days lie ahead,” Yan Zhaoge swivelled his head to look at Ouyang Qi, asking him smilingly, “I wonder if living people can also sense it between themselves?”
While a smile had blossomed on his face, as Ouyang Qi saw it, he felt a chill run through his entire body.
He smiled bitterly, “Others cannot see it, but we ourselves can. With Master’s assistance, Chang Ning and I could also sense it between ourselves.”
Yan Zhaoge nodded satisfiedly, Sikong Qing going forward and placing her finger upon Ouyang Qi’s brow.
His movements sealed by Ah Hu, Ouyang Qi could not resist, and also had no wish to resist as he just stood quietly there.
Yan Zhaoge came forward, pressing his palm on Sikong Qing’s back once more.
Gradually, Sikong Qing’s expression grew solemn, while Yan Zhaoge, who was assisting her, also benefited from this.
Ouyang Qi was rather more pitiful. Without the assistance of a Martial Grandmaster, he was unable to feel it on Sikong Qing’s side.
The image of rune fragments appeared within Yan Zhaoge’s mind once more.
This time, there were two runes, one originating from Sikong Qing and the other from Ouyang Qi.
They were obviously different from Chang Ning’s rune, but the concept within stemmed from the same source, all being related somewhat.
A connection existed between the three, but they were all individually independent.
It resembled an infinitely long iron chain, one iron link after another connected to each other.
And with the iron chain having broken apart now, these three iron links that had fallen from it were now laid out solitarily before Yan Zhaoge.
After a while, Yan Zhaoge retracted his palm, looking at Ouyang Qi, “Isn’t it just great this way; all of us sure can cooperate well, don’t you think?”
Ouyang Qi gave a bitter smile once more.
Unlike him, unlike Sikong Qing, while Chang Ning had been female, she had been impetuous and easily enraged, arrogant and reckless, feeling herself to be all important whilst also being hungry for short-term gains.
If it was him, Ouyang Qi, he definitely wouldn’t have fought and come to be on bad terms with Sikong Qing.
It was just that this time, he had been dragged down along with her actions.
Ouyang Qi looked helplessly at Yan Zhaoge, who smiled, “Don’t look at me like this. You’re very cooperative; I won’t harm you. Still, in the following days, I will have to invite you to be a guest at my Broad Creed Mountain for a time. As for your Master, let him just take it as though you met with danger at sea as well.”
Ouyang Qi let out a long sigh skyward, not speaking.
While Yan Zhaoge’s face contained a smile, the three fragmented runes were constantly rotating within his mind, not vanishing.
His gazed moved between the trio of lookalikes.
“The scene that appeared before the eyes of junior apprentice-sister Sikong when she slew Chang Ning as well as the complete sigil as projected by basis of these three runes, in corroboration with each other, both point to the same thing,” Yan Zhaoge pondered, “People like them, including the one who died a year ago, far surpasses the number four.”
“Those whom we know of all are similarly aged, very possibly having been born into this world at the same time.”
Yan Zhaoge’s gaze flickered slightly, “While the population of the Eight Extremities World is great, if it were boys and girls of exactly the same, outstanding appearances as well as age, if there were too many of them, it is impossible that the attention of others would not be drawn.”