I am the villain in the book

As the hour of Mao drew to a close, a ray of golden light pierced through the rolling dark clouds of the entire night, and the continuous muffled thunder finally took a momentary respite.

Regardless of how Wei Xianzhi, with the imperial guard token in hand and having been awake all night, was preparing to wipe out the Liu family in one fell swoop.

Wei Changtian, far away in Shu Prefecture, also hadn't slept a wink tonight.

Pushing open the door, he walked along the mountain path for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, encountering only a few early-rising disciples of the Heavenly Luo Sect along the way.

“Greetings, Senior Brother.”

“Greetings, Young Master Wei.”

“...”

Varied, yet uniformly respectful greetings echoed from the roadside from time to time, to which Wei Changtian responded with a smile and a nod each time.

He had participated in the “Grand Ceremony” almost two months ago and had officially become a Holy Son of the Heavenly Luo Sect.

The entire process went very smoothly, without any of those “someone looking for trouble, then oneself displaying divine power in front of everyone, shocking the entire audience” scenarios from web novels.

Everyone seemed to be quite convinced of his worthiness to become the new Holy Son.

Of course, some people might not have been genuinely convinced from the bottom of their hearts, but were simply pressured by Qin Zhengqiu and didn't voice their dissent.

But regardless, now that the Grand Ceremony had been successfully completed, the result was irreversible.

A gust of morning wind swept across the summit of Nine Pinnacle Mountain, causing his robes to flutter in the wind.

Stopping at the edge of a cliff, he raised his eyes to look ahead.

The surrounding peaks of the opposite mountain were half-covered by a layer of dark clouds, bisecting the mountain, leaving only half of the peak and the distant mountain tops floating in the sea of clouds, resembling several islands in the sea.

Intermittent mist allows the sun to pass, lingering clouds still rumble with thunder.

“Rumble”

The thunder, which had paused for only a short while, began to rumble again in the distance.

Wei Changtian stood there and watched for a good while, until the morning sun did its best to break through the haze and leaped completely into the sky, before turning around and walking back the way he came.

Behind him, a corner of Shu Prefecture City, obscured by the mountains, was revealed, and because the distance was too great, only a vague glimpse of the crisscrossing, gray, sprawling rooftops could be seen.

Just like a city built by players in a sandbox game from his previous life.

No matter how vast and magnificent, it was ultimately just a plaything of “God,” who resided on a higher plane.

Last night, the last question Wei Changtian wanted to ask Chu Xianping was –

“Brother Chu, if I told you that there are not only first-rank experts in this world, but also...”

“Real immortals?”

A quarter of an hour later, Wei Changtian had already returned to the Heavenly Luo Sect's mountain gate and found Qin Zhengqiu meditating and cultivating in a quiet room.

“Grandpa, are you practicing?”

“Hahaha, no more practice, no more practice.”

Qin Zhengqiu opened his eyes and laughed heartily, “Changtian, I heard that they've already started fighting in Yuan Prefecture?”

“Yes.”

Wei Changtian sat down cross-legged on a futon beside him, “The fighting started yesterday morning.”

“Well, I suppose this battle will last for at least a year or two...”

Qin Zhengqiu was clearly not very interested in the war in Yuan Prefecture, nodding his head before ceasing to mention it, instead asking with a smile, “By the way, have you started practicing that Crescent Moon Sword Technique?”

“Crescent Moon Sword?”

Wei Changtian was stunned, shaking his head.

“No.”

He was telling the truth.

Ever since returning to Shu Prefecture, he had thrown the Crescent Moon Sword Technique to the back of his mind, never even thinking about practicing it.

After all, this sword technique looked unreliable no matter how one looked at it.

Wei Changtian knew that he was not the kind of “protagonist” like Xiao Feng who was blessed with great luck, and had long since determined that the “Crescent Moon Sword” in his hand was not the same thing as the immortal-rank martial skill “Crescent Moon Sword” in the system.

However, now Qin Zhengqiu seemed to have a new perspective.

“Changtian, these past few days I've been idle and practiced that sword technique a bit, and yesterday I just reached the Entry Level.”

Martial skills can be divided into four realms according to the degree of mastery – Entry Level, Proficient, Minor Perfection, Major Perfection.

Under normal circumstances, a martial artist with ordinary comprehension would take about half a year to reach the Entry Level for an ordinary martial skill, three to five years to reach the Proficient level, and at least ten years to reach Minor Perfection.

As for Major Perfection, that could not be achieved by practice alone, but also required a certain opportunity.

Of course, this was just the general case.

For example, some people with extraordinary talent, and like Qin Zhengqiu, an expert of the top three ranks, would definitely practice faster.

But no matter how fast, it would be difficult to reach the “Entry Level” for a martial skill in just a few days.

So this could only mean one thing.

That was, the “Crescent Moon Sword” was indeed too simple.

“Grandpa, and then?”

Wei Changtian asked without much interest, “Is there anything special about it?”

“Yes!”

Unexpectedly, Qin Zhengqiu gave a very affirmative answer without hesitation.

“This sword technique is indeed a bit different!”

“Hmm?”

Hearing this, Wei Changtian immediately perked up, quickly asking, “What's different?”

“This...”

Qin Zhengqiu glanced around, finally picking up a half-burned thin incense stick from the incense burner next to him, and then gently waved it from top to bottom.

“Swish!”

The green smoke drew a semicircular trajectory in the air, with a flash of red light.

Wei Changtian knew that Qin Zhengqiu was demonstrating the extraordinary nature of the Crescent Moon Sword, but after observing for a long time, he didn't notice anything unusual.

Qin Zhengqiu seemed to see his doubts, so he got up and walked to the door of the quiet room, reaching out and pointing to a barely perceptible crack in the wooden door.

“Changtian, can you see anything?”

“Uh...”

Wei Changtian took two steps closer, although he saw the crack, he didn't think much of it.

With this little destructive power, it was probably less than one-tenth of the Returning Dust Blade.

“Grandpa, so?”

“Hahaha, come with me and take another look.”

Qin Zhengqiu laughed twice, mysteriously pushing the door open and walking out, walking all the way through the small courtyard outside the quiet room, taking Wei Changtian to stop in front of the courtyard wall made of bluestone.

And this time, without him pointing again, Wei Changtian saw the same very small, but very real crack.

“This...”

His eyes suddenly widened, Wei Changtian asked in disbelief, “This was also left by that move just now?”

“Naturally.”

Qin Zhengqiu nodded with a smile, and then surprisingly continued to step out of the courtyard gate, walking another dozen steps along the straight line of the crack, finally stopping in front of a white stone.

The same crack appeared, penetrating the stone by several inches.

“...”

From inside the quiet room to here was dozens of feet away, with a door and a wall in between.

So, Qin Zhengqiu's casual wave just now... actually continuously penetrated two obstacles, and then also cut a crack several inches deep in the boulder?!

Grandpa...

Wei Changtian took a deep breath: "How much strength did you use just now?"

“Less than 10%.”

Qin Zhengqiu shook his head and said with a somewhat complicated expression:

“But the power of this move has nothing to do with how much strength I use, but rather it carries a 'momentum'.”

Momentum?

Wei Changtian was stunned.

The biggest difference between the top three ranks and the middle three ranks is the mastery of "momentum".

If Qin Zhengqiu had used "momentum" to amplify the attack just now, then it would not be surprising that this move had such power.

But since the latter now has such an expression—

“Grandpa, do you mean you didn't use 'momentum' just now?”

“Yes.”

Qin Zhengqiu nodded solemnly, and after pondering for a moment, slowly said:

“This 'momentum' comes from this sword technique, not from me.”