There was a trace of doubt in Qian Jin's gaze as he looked at the old man. He had read the historical notes of the Qian family's successive generations of Bloodline Warriors; they were records written in a guerrilla style, lacking any meticulous insights on combat training. Qian Kuangge's script possessed a wild, unrestrained elegance; anyone who had seen his writings would never forget those accounts.

Qian Jin searched his memory. The notes indeed recorded several brutal and perilous battles, but those were all against the Demon Race Emperor and the ultimate Bloodline Warriors possessing the Fallen Angel bloodline. The name Bu Jueshi had never appeared in those notes.

Qian Jin had perused Qian Kuangge's notes several times, hoping to find any unintentional mention of warrior training methods, but he had found nothing. However, through reading them, he knew this man was certainly not someone who couldn't handle a loss; any warrior memorable enough to be recorded would surely have been written down. It seemed that if a battle as heroic as the old man described truly occurred, it should have been documented, and Bu Jueshi’s name should not have been absent.

“Later, several hundred years passed.” The old man’s face shone with pride once more: “Another powerful warrior practicing the Fengyun Dou Qi appeared! Just like the creator of Fengyun Dou Qi, he began secretly challenging the greatest warriors across the lands and defeated them one by one. It’s a pity…”

“The Three-Headed Golden Dragon ultimate Bloodline Warrior made their debut.” Qian Jin scratched his head, a wry smile touching his lips. The three ultimate Bloodline Warriors of the Zhence Dynasty had never appeared at the same time; each family had a specific interval before an ultimate Bloodline Warrior emerged.

Several hundred years after the ultimate awakening of the Elf King Bloodline Warrior, it was naturally time for the ultimate awakening of the Three-Headed Golden Dragon Bloodline Warrior. This was completely consistent with the Demon Race; it seemed heaven enjoyed watching the spectacle of this conflict, preventing either side from wiping out the other.

“Alas.” The old man sighed repeatedly, just as before, “The Three-Headed Golden Dragon ultimate Bloodline Warrior was so powerful… What a pity, what a pity. A narrow defeat!” After this narrow defeat, the successor of Fengyun Dou Qi also went into seclusion, just like Bu Jueshi. Another few hundred years slipped by.”

“This time, it must be the one among the War God Bloodline Warriors who achieved ultimate awakening,” Qian Jin thought, feeling helpless, making a preliminary judgment in his mind.

After recounting the narrow defeat against the War God ultimate Bloodline Warrior, the old man didn't stop his narrative; instead, he changed tack: “Another few hundred years passed, and this time it was the turn of the Qian family’s Elf King Bloodline ultimate warrior…”

Elf King ultimate Bloodline Warrior, Three-Headed Golden Dragon ultimate Bloodline Warrior, War God ultimate Bloodline Warrior… then the Elf King Bloodline ultimate warrior again, followed by the Three-Headed Golden Dragon Bloodline ultimate warrior… one cycle after another.

Qian Jin’s eyelids grew heavy listening to this. He dared not interrupt the old man’s enjoyment of a conversation he hadn't had in ages, forced instead to listen to what sounded like repetitive ramblings.

The old man spoke for a full half hour. Finally, whether he was dry-mouthed or had truly exhausted his supply of anecdotes, he stopped his relentless, circular narrative.

“Now you know what a glorious history Fengyun Dou Qi possesses, don’t you?” The old man looked at Qian Jin with evident encouragement: “This is the Fengyun Dou Qi that gives you the chance to become the continent’s second—no! perhaps the third—strongest warrior.”

Qian Jin’s initial interest in Fengyun Dou Qi had significantly waned after listening to the old man drone on for so long about things never recorded in the annals of the family’s ultimate warriors.

While the old man before him undoubtedly possessed formidable martial strength, his capacity for exaggeration was a million times greater than his fighting prowess! Fortunately, the gods on this continent were merely the stuff of legend, never truly seen by anyone. Otherwise, Qian Jin suspected that some powerful cultivator of Fengyun Dou Qi might seek out a god for a secret spar, only to suffer a narrow defeat to a god!

“Wait,” Qian Jin mused, “it shouldn’t be the third… Let me calculate.” The old man traced numbers on the ground repeatedly, his brow furrowed with increasing disappointment. Finally, he slowly looked up, his expression filled with profound sorrow, and gazed at Qian Jin: “Boy, you are truly out of luck. Even if you were fortunate enough to master Fengyun Dou Qi completely, you would probably only be the seventh strongest warrior on the continent!” He sighed again, “Ah well, even one thousand and one hundred is a great warrior, and seventh is still a great warrior.”

“Seventh?” Qian Jin looked at the old man, confused. “How can it be seventh? According to what you said, if I were lucky, I should be third.”

“Alas,” the old man’s expression showed a hint of pain. He placed a comforting hand on Qian Jin’s shoulder: “Boy, you were just born at the wrong time. Do you know which family’s Bloodline Warrior will undergo an ultimate awakening this time?”

Qian Jin smiled; this much he knew.

“The Qian family!”

“Huh? I didn’t think you knew anything,” more surprise flickered in the old man’s eyes.

Qian Jin’s smile turned wry. As someone who had failed even the initial stage of the bloodline awakening test, his only specialty was reading. According to Qian family records and calculations, one of his 'brothers'—either a year or two younger or older than him—should experience multiple awakenings until achieving the ultimate awakening, becoming the pillar of strength for the Zhence Dynasty’s current generation of warriors.

“Unfortunately, what you know is incomplete,” the old man pointed at the numbers on the ground. “Since the Zhence Dynasty possessed the three ultimate Bloodline Warriors, the question of which family’s ultimate warrior was the strongest has never been settled.”

Qian Jin nodded in agreement with the old man’s words. In truth, this debate wasn't confined to the three ultimate Bloodline families engaging in verbal sparring; ordinary people in the populace never stopped arguing about it either. Nearly every few years, a book debating who was the strongest ultimate Bloodline Warrior would be published in bookstores, invariably achieving excellent sales.

It was just that the three ultimate Bloodline Warriors had never encountered each other, leaving everyone free to champion their preferred ultimate warrior, resulting in endless, unresolved arguments. “This argument,” the old man pointed at the numbers on the ground, “will likely cease within ten or twenty years. These are the time intervals between the appearances of the three ultimate Bloodline Warriors; I have calculated them. Take a look.”

Qian Jin lowered his head to examine the figures closely. The more he looked, the more astonished he became. His eyes widened further, and finally, he looked up at the old man with unconcealed disbelief: “Are you saying… the three ultimate Bloodline Warriors—no! the six ultimate Bloodline Warriors—after appearing staggered over the years, will all manifest on the continent this time?”

“Yes! Exactly!” The old man proudly lifted his head, which was nearly as large as a bear’s skull. “The authors who have profited for countless years by speculating on this issue that plagued both humans and demons will likely never have a chance to earn gold coins with their conjectures again! Who the strongest ultimate Bloodline Warrior truly is will be revealed by actual facts, soon, or perhaps not too long from now.”

An immense wave crashed through Qian Jin’s heart. He had never considered the possibility of the three ultimate Bloodline Warriors appearing in the same era. Only now, seeing the old man’s calculated numbers, did he realize that based on the timing of the three ultimate Bloodline Warriors, this current period was indeed when they would first truly gather to determine who was the strongest of them all.

“No wonder,” a thought surfaced in Qian Jin's mind. The Qian family’s treatment of awakened Bloodline Warriors in recent years had been far more intense than recorded in books. It seemed the Qian family had long known that the three ultimate Bloodline Warriors would converge in this era to settle the matter of who was the true ultimate Bloodline Warrior.

“That’s why,” the old man looked at Qian Jin with sympathy, “even if you were lucky, you could only be the seventh strongest warrior in the world.”

“Seventh?” Qian Jin’s mind flashed back to the dismissive attitude of the Qian family after his bloodline awakening failed, and then to the slightly stooped, aged back of his father. A surge of resentment and anger instantly ignited within him. He stood up abruptly, facing the old man: “What world’s seventh! What, are ultimate Bloodline Warriors incapable of being surpassed? If I’m going to do it, I’ll be the world’s number one!”

“World’s number one?” The old man’s smile instantly froze into astonishment. He didn't know whether to judge Qian Jin as arrogant or as having extraordinarily lofty goals. Ultimate awakened Bloodline Warriors were hailed as living gods in the world; only another ultimate awakened Bloodline Warrior could contend with them.

“World’s number one,” Qian Jin decided. He stopped caring how much of the old man’s earlier boasting about Fengyun Dou Qi was true—there were probably similar self-aggrandizing claims in the records of many Dou Qi arts.

Setting aside the boasting, the old man practicing Fengyun Dou Qi right in front of him clearly possessed terrifying strength. This might explain why not a single fierce beast had been sighted between the entrance of Four Seasons Valley and this area. Likely, the old man had consumed quite a few, and the rest of the beasts had wisely retreated deeper into the valley.

Four Seasons Valley? Qian Jin suddenly remembered a critical detail: “Old man, how long has winter been going on here?”

The old man pondered briefly: “It’s been almost a month.”

Qian Jin’s vision suddenly went black. The old man's answer echoed in his mind: Almost a month… Didn’t that mean there were nearly two full years remaining until winter ended? Did he have to stay in this Four Seasons Valley for two years to leave?

Connecting a few pieces, this book is called Dominating the Winds and Clouds for two reasons. First, when I started writing, I hoped everyone could dominate the winds and clouds together with this book.

Second, Fengyun Dou Qi is more than just a simple name; Gaolou loves to dig pits. I have had the terrible habit of digging pits and not filling them in the past, but this pit, this foreshadowing, will definitely be filled, as it concerns the entire direction of the book.

Only through utter annihilation can one become a prodigy, and only a prodigy can dominate the winds and clouds. Can everyone lend me their monthly tickets so I can dominate the winds and clouds for once?

For more novels, visit storyread.net.