Liu Xing and Bai Lin emerged from the small hut and stepped into the open air. As they walked outside, the old man let out a contented sigh, as if the night wind healed his soul. "Truly, thank you for enacting revenge for my grandson."

"Honestly, while the Heaven Grade Technique you promised me was a primary motivation, Wei Yi and the abominations he created were genuinely dangerous. I imagine even if we hadn't met, I wouldn't have let this matter slide."

The old man smiled, and Liu Xing somehow knew that even unspoken, he expressed gratitude in his heart.

As they passed the small herb garden, Liu Xing's heart began to hammer in his chest. The old man decided that the little hut was unsuitable as a location to teach this technique, which made Liu Xing hope it was a dangerous technique capable of destroying the hut.

They walked for several more minutes until they arrived at the edge of a small forest. There was a small clearing there, with several logs erected in the middle of the space. The logs bore numerous marks, as if they served as punching targets. Behind them, a rock the size of his torso rested. The rock had a smooth surface, and Liu Xing suspected it was not native to this place.

"This is a training place my grandson made himself," the old man said. As he spoke, sorrow flashed in his eyes, but the expression flickered and vanished in a moment. They moved deeper into the clearing, and when they reached the center, Bai Lin instructed Liu Xing to face him. "The technique I will teach you is a complex one."

Liu Xing nodded. That much was obvious. A Heaven Grade Technique was unlikely to be simple. "What kind of technique is it?"

"Let me show you."

Liu Xing could feel the wind around him move in a circular pattern. Was it merely a side effect of the technique, or was the technique actually wind-based? As a cultivator who leaned heavily into lightning, wind techniques would be harder to use and would consume more qi to activate. Yet, since it was a Heaven Grade Technique, he remained eager to learn it.

The wind around the old man grew faster and faster. His beard and white hair began to wave. Liu Xing could feel that the old man was cycling his qi in a specific way, and since the process had already taken more than sixty seconds, the technique likely required hundreds of cycling patterns to activate. This was promising.

"I acquired this technique when I was a child. I was born to mortal parents and stumbled upon a kind old master who asked me to fetch him some food. He was so grateful that he decided to give me a gift, and this gift is called Demon Wasp's Spectral Eye."

"What a cool name," Liu Xing muttered, his heart thumping with excitement. While it differed from his initial imagination, a technique potentially in the form of a wasp could be dangerous. After all, even if small, wasps were troublesome and dangerous if one was careless.

Bai Lin extended his hand toward him with palm up. A swirling blue qi emerged from his palm and coalesced into a blob of blue energy. This blob then gradually formed the silhouette of a small wasp.

Liu Xing glanced at Bai Lin, whose brows were furrowed and sweat began to bead on his forehead. It seemed he needed intense focus to complete the technique. Liu Xing realized it was challenging for Bai Lin because despite being at the Lock Opening realm, he was projecting his qi externally and controlling it manually—quite a feat for a Lock Opening cultivator. Still, while the technique looked complex, he needed to see the finished product to form a judgment.

After almost another minute, the blue qi that formed the silhouette of a wasp suddenly pulsed. This reminded Liu Xing of the organ of the giant he had killed. The qi wasn't merely forming a silhouette, but transforming into something greater. But before his mind could conjure any concrete ideas, the pulses intensified, and a light blue explosion erupted from Bai Lin's hand, creating a ripple of wind, qi, and light that traveled outward, making the leaves on the bushes and trees dance with a blue luminescence.

"This is…"

Liu Xing observed the small brown wasp hovering above Bai Lin's palm. It hovered gently like a hummingbird, and the flapping of its wings was remarkably soft, unlike a normal wasp at all. The wasp then flew from Bai Lin's palm and circled him like an excited child.

"Do you feel underwhelmed? It is supposed to be Heaven Grade, yet I only created a little wasp."

Liu Xing scrutinized the wasp. At first glance, it resembled a normal wasp. The wings, the body, the head, the torso and everything of it looked like a normal wasp. Even when he sensed the wasp, it truly felt like a natural wasp. Still, something felt off about this creation, a weird feeling as if something that should be present but wasn't. It was like seeing a living, breathing chicken but somehow realizing it was a dog wearing a perfect chicken costume. Then, moments later, as Liu Xing probed the little wasp further with his qi, he finally realized what felt weird, and his eyes opened so wide he felt they might pop from their sockets.

"This wasp… it's a normal wasp," Liu Xing said, his voice laced with disbelief.

Bai Lin nodded knowingly. He caught the wasp using his thumb and index finger and then crushed it. The little wasp, once flapping its wings happily, was now dead. Its torso was crushed, and the head and lower body separated. Bai Lin placed the dead wasp on his palm and showed it to Liu Xing. Things made from qi usually dispersed back into qi if destroyed. For example, if he created a lightning blade and it was crushed, while it would initially break into fragments of lightning, it would soon revert to qi. This didn't mean constructs made from qi were brittle. Treasures made from qi had existed for thousands of years, and they wouldn't revert to qi once broken. But those were made by cultivators in higher realms. There was no way a construct made by a Lock Opening realm cultivator would last long.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Yet, as Liu Xing pinched the bottom of the wasp and intentionally pricked his palm with its stinger, he realized that this remnant of a wasp would not disperse into qi at all. If dropped to the ground, ants would probably claim it as a reward and use it as food, or, even untouched, nature would claim it in a few days and turn it into soil.

"It's crazy," Liu Xing muttered. Bai Lin had just created a normal wasp, one that, if released, could perhaps settle into a colony. "You can control it?"

"Yes, and I can see from its point of view too."

"How?" Liu Xing asked. "The wasp doesn't have any trace of qi. It's a normal bug."

"Don't let this technique fool you," Bai Lin stroked his beard. "The wasp is made of qi. The technique is so sophisticated that it feels like it isn't made of qi, but the reality is otherwise. I can use it to attack as well, and if I were at a higher realm, I could do many things with it. But with my current realm, the most I can do is create three wasps and have them become my eyes. Their range is quite great, and it's fitting for a cultivator with a careful temperament."

Liu Xing nodded. It was useful. The fact that the wasp emitted no qi at all would surely make them useful tools to infiltrate and spy on cultivators. Truthfully, right now, he found this technique rather underwhelming, but since it was a Heaven Grade Technique, it had the potential to grow with the user, and perhaps he could modify it to suit him better. The first thought that came to mind after hearing about a scouting wasp was to add an explosion effect. Imagine if Liu Xing wanted to assassinate someone. He could use a wasp to infiltrate their home, make it land on their forehead, and then detonate it. His mind told him something like that wouldn't be simple, yet, he had his gun, and he didn't know what his gun might do to this technique.

"Do you still want to learn it?"

Liu Xing nodded. "Very much so."

"Then I will teach you."

He thought Bai Lin would produce some kind of scroll or jade slip, but, to his surprise, he recited a poem about how to cycle qi inside his body. Liu Xing asked Bai Lin to cycle his qi at the same time, and so, the process of learning the new technique began.

After Bai Lin recited the entire poem, Liu Xing realized that the technique was actually quite complex, but there were areas that seemed adjustable. For example, a swirling wind always accompanied the activation, but he realized that while this part had some effect on the technique, the effect was minimal. Bai Lin activated the technique while reciting the poem and created another wasp, and this time, Liu Xing tried to follow along. He had no intention of actually using it, but simply to memorize it better. After the second wasp flew around, he asked Bai Lin once more to demonstrate, and he agreed. Thus, two wasps circled the small clearing as if hunting for prey.

"Do you understand it?" Bai Lin asked.

"Yes," Liu Xing nodded. Truthfully, using a poem made it harder to comprehend, but he recognized that it made it easier to memorize. Although some cycling patterns were foreign to him—likely patterns related to other elements—he felt confident he could use the technique. But, whether he would succeed on his first attempt was another matter entirely.

"I'll try it," he inhaled deeply and began to cycle the qi around his body. If he wasn't mistaken, there were exactly three hundred patterns he needed to perform. There were several instances where he needed to perform several cycling patterns simultaneously, and he deduced that this was likely a hint to improve the activation speed of the technique. To master it, he suspected he needed to cycle through all three hundred patterns at the same time.

Liu Xing closed his eyes and felt qi course through his body in this new and different pattern. Some parts of his body actually felt surprised, as if he were injecting cold water into veins that had never felt cold. In about a minute, he cycled through the patterns, focused his intent—an important part—and willed the technique to materialize. Bai Lin had said that the clearer he could imagine a wasp, the better the result would be, but he honestly didn't have a clear image of a wasp in his mind.

When the last pattern was completed, Liu Xing extended his right hand with the palm facing up, then opened his eyes and activated the technique. Instantly, qi rushed from his palm into a ball of blue energy atop his palm. Bai Lin had needed time to form the wasp at this stage, but Liu Xing had no trouble. The moment a ball of blue qi materialized on his palm, it quickly transformed into the finished product. He anticipated a wasp to fly from his palm, but what he created was a dead brown wasp that looked horrible. It had eight legs, a small horn, and its body was twisted like a tornado.

"A good result," Bai Lin said. "The first time I used this technique, I materialized nothing. It's just a matter of practice."

Liu Xing pinched his chin while observing the mutated brown wasp on his right hand. He remembered that when he tried to imagine a wasp, for a moment, an image of a spider had flashed in his mind, and since the wasp had eight legs perhaps that image was responsible for the mutation. A question suddenly arose in his mind. "Old man, did you name this technique yourself?"

Bai Lin's eyes widened. "How do you know?"

"And the part about a demonic wasp in the poem, did you add that yourself?"

"No, the cultivator who gave me this technique recited the full poem to me. I wouldn't dare to tamper with it."

Liu Xing nodded. His face was calm, but inside, his heart beat rapidly against his ribs with excitement. This technique might be far more powerful than he initially thought. A Base Grade technique was simple. As long as one cycled the qi perfectly, even without strong imagination or intent, the technique would still activate. A Heaven Grade Technique required perfect cycle patterns, perfect intentions, and perfect visualization. If those three aspects aligned, the technique could materialize. At first, he thought the intent and visualization of this technique needed to be that of a wasp, but perhaps, just perhaps, he could materialize anything he wanted as long as he had perfect intention and visualization.

It was worth a try. "Alright, old man, let me try it again."

This time, he would try to imagine something else. Wasps were cool, but he didn't think they quite suited him.

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