Chapter 206
Chapter 206
Wang Lin’s expression remained the same, but it caught his interest.
This so called Gui Xi was when a Nascent Soul cultivator got invaded by demons and became trapped inside their Nascent Soul.
The Nascent Soul couldn’t leave the body and the body entered a sleep-like state.
This state was named Gui Xi.
The only way to fix this problem was to place the cultivator in a safe place and allow them to drive the demons out of their body on their own.
If someone from the outside wanted to help, then they must be several times stronger than the cultivator trapped in the Gui Xi state, or even stronger by a whole realm, otherwise, the trapped cultivator would just have to tough it out alone.
If a cultivator was stuck in Gui Xi for a very long time, then the demon would completely take over.
Their soul would eventually disappear and their body would rot.
But, in general, most cultivators that enter Gui Xi will wake up, however, they lose some of their cultivation, which still beats losing their life.
This Gui Xi wasn’t a very common thing in the cultivation world.
At least Wang Lin had yet to hear of any cultivator stuck in Gui Xi.
After Qiu Siping finished speaking, he looked at Wang Lin, trying to find some clues, however, Wang Lin’s expression didn’t change at all the entire time.
It was still as calm as always.
Wang Lin pondered a little.
The red light in his eyes dulled and he asked, “How do you know where there are Gui Xi Cultivators?
A wave of relief washed over Qiu Siping.
As long as Wang Lin was asking questions, that meant that the earlier deal of only getting three sentences was null.
Qiu Siping didn’t doubt at all that if his three sentences earlier hadn’t impressed Wang Lin, Wang Lin would have killed him without any hesitation.
Both of them were at the late stage of Core Formation, yet there was such a big gap in power.
Qiu Siping bitterly smiled in his heart.
He felt that the only reason Wang Lin was stronger was because Wang Lin had some treasure that allowed him to increase his attack power.
How else would he be completely helpless in a fight against him?
When he heard Wang Lin’s question, he quickly said, “Fellow cultivator, this is a long story.
How about we sit down and you let me tell it to you?"
Wang Lin looked at him and slightly nodded.
Qiu Siping quickly flew toward the mountain.
Black fog appeared under his feet and quickly brought him to the pavilion at the top of the mountain.
After Qiu Siping left, Wang Lin gently moved his body and he arrived at the pavilion as well.
He waved his sleeve, which caused a gentle wind that blew away all the dirt on the stone chair, upon which he sat down.
Although he left after Qiu Siping, he arrived the same time.
Qiu Siping’s expression remained calm, but his heart was shocked and his pupils shrank, but they quickly returned to normal.
He knew that this must be a warning from Wang Lin, to warn him that even if he tries some trick to escape, he won’t get away.
In truth, this was Wang Lin’s intention as well.
Qiu Siping now had his full attention.
In fact, anything related to helping him form his Nascent Soul would interest him.
After all, Wang Lin was already at the late stage of Core Formation.
The Nascent Soul was an important matter and forming it should always be at the back of his mind.
Once he formed his Nascent Soul, then all that was left for him to do was go back to the country of Zhao and make it bleed.
To turn the country of Zhao’s sky blood-red and to cover the ground in blood.
He would make all of the cultivators of the country of Zhao never forget that bloody day and make all of his enemies pay their lives as sacrifices for his ancestors.
He wanted to kill everyone in the Teng family, from the elders to the children.
He wouldn’t leave even a single animal alive.
He wanted old man Jimo to die without a resting place and all of his disciples to die a miserable death.
He wanted all of those people that secretly helped the Teng family to be punished.
He wanted all of them to pay a price they couldn’t withstand.
More importantly, he wanted to rip the soul out of Teng Huayaun.
He wanted to skin him, cut him to pieces, and anything else he could think of to make him pay for the 400 years of suffering he made Wang Lin endure.
Qiu Siping waved his right hand and a bottle of wine and two cups appeared.
He personally poured both cups, then took one up and drank a sip.
He smiled and said, “Fellow cultivator, this is a high quality wine made from the Can Yun fruit from the northern part of the Sea of Devils.
With just one sip, one will savor it for a long time.
Why doesn’t fellow cultivator try it?”
Wang Lin didn’t urge the other to answer his question.
He took up the cup and carefully examined it, as if there was something very interesting about the wine.
The high quality wine in the cup was a crystal clear, jade green color.
Very beautiful.
Qiu Siping sipped his wine for a long time, and after seeing that Wang Lin seemed to have no interest in such things, he warily smiled and said, “Fellow cultivator, if it was someone else that asked me about this matter, I definitely wouldn’t tell them.
But you are different.
Both you and I are at the late stage of Core Formation and we both dream of reaching that high and far away Nascent Soul stage.”
“As for the matter about the Nascent Souls stuck in Gui Xi, one of them is my master!”
With that, Qiu Siping’s gaze fell on Wang Lin.
Wang Lin looked at the cup a little more before putting it down.
He blandly said, “Killing your master?
It’s not a big deal.
I have done it before too.”
Qiu Siping let out a laugh and said, “Not to keep this from fellow cultivator, but he didn’t have any good intentions when he accepted me as his disciple.
He and my senior martial brother are both Nascent Soul cultivators.
When they both were in closed door training, I secretly sabotaged them.
Thinking about it now, they have been in Gui Xi for 30 years.
Based on my calculations, those two should be almost completely taken over by the demons, which means this is the perfect time to take their Nascent Souls.
With one for each of us, the chances of us breaking through to Nascent Soul will be greatly increased.”
Wang Lin raised his eyebrows.
He pondered for a while, then slowly said, “I don’t see what this has to do with knowing ancient restrictions.”
Qiu Siping let out a wry smile.
He drank the rest of his wine, then said, “The place my master is cultivating is an ancient cultivation cave.
He accidently found it and made it his own.”
“I was able to sabotage them during this closed door cultivation because I have prepared for it for years.
I have spent many years studying the ancient restrictions in the cave.”
“But after the cave is closed, opening it up again is very troublesome.
I didn’t expect that a restriction triggered by the demon would cause other restrictions to trigger.
That’s what’s making it almost impossible to get into the cave right now.”
Wang Lin slightly frowned and began to ponder.
Qi Siping slapped his bag of holding with his right hand and took out a few pieces of jade and placed them on the table.
He said, “These are some of the restriction symbols I copied from the cave.
With your knowledge of ancient restrictions, you should be able to tell if they are fake or not.”
After hearing that, Wang Lin picked up a piece of jade and scanned it with his divine sense.
After a short while, he put it down and picked up another piece of jade.
Much later, all the pieces of jade were scanned by him.
The symbols inside the jades were for a protection restriction.
It should be a restriction used to guard a location.
Qiu Siping asked, “Fellow cultivator, what do you think?”
Wang Lin pondered for a long time and raised his head.
He looked at Qiu Siping and asked, “What cultivation level are those two Nascent Soul cultivators at?”
Qiu Siping immediately replied, “My master is at the early stage of Nascent Soul, while my senior martial brother only just formed his.
If fellow cultivator can open up the cave, then my master’s Nascent Soul belongs to you.”
Wang Lin pondered a while longer, then said, “I can’t decide on this matter immediately.
I’ll think about it for a few days, then make a decision.”
Qiu Siping didn’t mind.
He nodded his head and said, “That is understandable.
I also need a few days to prepare some magical treasures.
Since you and I have turned from enemies to friends, I want to apologize again for all of the misunderstandings that happened before.
“With that, he stood up, took a few steps back, and bowed toward Wang Lin.
Wang Lin’s expression remained the same, but he had already been on guard.
Qiu Siping’s actions, in his mind, showed that he could let bygones be bygones.
But with Wang Lin’s personality now, there was no way he would be fooled by such actions.
He stood up, clasped his hands, and said “Fellow cultivator, since this is the case, lets meet back here in seven days.
I’ll take my leave.”
Qiu Siping smiled.
He nodded and also clasped his hands.
Wang Lin’s body jumped, turned into a rainbow, and disappeared.
After Wang Lin left, the smile on Qiu Siping’s face disappeared.
A cold look flashed across his eyes.
He blinked a few times, then moved in the opposite direction of Wang Lin.
But what he didn’t notice was that there was a transparent creature that saw his expression clearly and quietly followed him after he left.
Not long after, Wang Lin returned to Qilin city.
Through the devil Xu Liguo, he could closely monitor Qiu Siping.
Wang Lin didn’t care if the Gui Xi Nascent Soul cultivator really was Qiu Siping’s master or not.
As long as he could confirm that there was a Nascent Soul cultivator stuck in Gui Xi within that ancient cultivation cave, it was more than enough.
As for 7 the day delay, Wang Lin wanted to use Xu Liguo to check if the whole thing about Nascent Soul cultivators stuck in Gui Xi was true
After returning to the cave in Qilin City, Wang Lin sat down cross legged.
He touched his bag of holding and two items appeared in his hand.
One of them was Yun Fei’s bag of holding and the other was the mysterious pill furnace.
Wang Lin scanned the bag of holding with his divine sense and found that it was filled with a lot of junk.
He ignored it after one scan and took out some jades.
He checked them one by one.
After checking them for a while, Wang Lin’s expression slightly changed.
These jades described a series of alchemy recipes and procedures.
Together, they formed the knowledge of a master alchemist.
When he took out a piece of white jade and tried to scan it with his divine sense, he was stunned.
There was a restriction placed on the jade that prevented people from checking what was inside it.
Wang Lin became a little interested.
He picked up the jade and looked at it with the divine soul eyes that could see through restrictions.
Immediately, his eyes started to glow and turned slightly oval shaped.
Many strange restriction symbols flew across his eyes.
After a long time, Wang Lin raised his right finger and pointed at the air.
He pointed at several other spots in the air as well.
Suddenly, a thin line appeared and connected the locations he had pointed to, forming a two overlapping triangles pattern.
The moment the pattern appeared, he reached out his hand and grabbed the pattern and placed it on the jade.
Immediately, the jade started to shine a bright light.
It shined brighter and brighter, until it reached its peak, then dimmed.
The jade now had changed from a white jade to a black jade.
Wang Lin scanned the jade again.
This time, he could easily see what was inside it.
After watching it for a while, he sneered in his heart.
It seemed that this Yun Fei really did deserve to die.
Before, when she first met Wang Lin, she tried to trade the containing folk remedies for her life.
After Wang Lin saw that piece of jade, he didn’t mind.
Although a few pills were tempting to him, it wasn’t a big deal.
If it was before he received the inheritance, then he might have tried to craft one, but after receiving the inheritance, with the herbs needed, he would achieve similar results by taking them directly.
But now, after he saw the real jade, he could tell that although the material for the recipes were the same, the ratios were slightly different.
These small changes could determine the life and death of the person that took the pill.
In addition, within the real jade, besides the pill recipes, there were descriptions of the pills, and with that, Wang Lin realized that there was a significant difference between making the pills and consuming the materials directly.
The thoughts he had before were completely wrong.
If he had the materials before him, there was a difference between refining them to a pill and taking them directly.
This alchemy was using the different effects of the materials and fused them to cause a different effect.
It was not strange that Wag Lin didn’t know any of this.
The ancient gods rarely ever made pills, and even if they did, all they would do was mash all the materials together to swallow.
And all of his previous experiences had almost nothing to do with alchemy.
Only with Li Muwan did he ever talk about alchemy, but the Wang Lin back then was focused on forming his core, so he didn’t ask much about it.
He put the jade away like a treasure.
He had decided that he had to master this alchemy.
He took a deep breath and looked at the pill furnace.
He took out his bag of holding and tried to put it in, but he found that, no matter what, he couldn’t place the pill furnace inside it.
This raised Wang Lin’s interest greatly.
After watching it for a bit, Wang Lin didn’t act rashly, but held the pill furnace in his arm.
He slammed his bag of holding and a small, white flag appeared.
He took out the flag and started to refine it while keeping an eye on Qiu Siping through Xu Liguo.
Xu Liguo was currently very excited.
He felt that his place in his master’s heart was far above number two.
This made him extremely proud.
It had to be said that the appearance of number two made him feel very worried.
Even he was a bit wary of how fierce number two was.
But because he was the first to follow master, he felt that he couldn’t be outdone by number two.
Otherwise, he would have to worry when, one day, number 3, number 4, number 5 …number 90 would appear and beat him.
That would make him feel worse than Wang Lin just killing him.
Xu Liguo secretly decided to himself that he would not allow that to happen.
He was still number 1.
He must keep his current position.
With that in mind, Xu Liguo had became much more obedient and worked hard to finish basically anything Wang Lin asked him to do.
Secretly, he had also gotten rid of his lazy ways and became more hard working.
He also wasn’t picky about his food anymore.
As long as it was a soul, he would rush up to steal it.
Meanwhile, after every catch, the part that had to be turned in to Wang Lin made him want to go crazy, as if each portion was digging part of his flesh away.
But overall, compared to before, he had became much more obedient.
He was now following closely behind Qiu Siping.
No matter how fast Qiu Siping flew, he could easily keep up.
While he was following Qiu Siping, he was still savoring the taste of that black clothed person.
That black clothed person was at the mid stage of Core Formation.
It took him a lot of effort to finally eat that person’s soul.
As for that person’s core, since master didn’t ask for it, he secretly ate it.
He stared at Qiu Siping before him.
A bit of a greedy thought started to form in his mind.
If only master would beat the crap out of this late stage Core Formation cultivator and reward it to him, that would be perfect.
In his opinion, this person was very cunning.
He almost never moved in a straight line, but made many twists and turns and constantly turned around to check behind him, so it wasn’t hard for Xu Liguo to follow.
Xu Liguo casually followed behind him and thought, “Didn’t know that flying could have so many methods and tricks.
In the future, when I compete with number 2, I’ll try using them.”
Just at that moment, Qiu Siping suddenly slowed and landed on the ground.
Qiu Siping looked around.
Besides the natural fog that existed in the Sea of Devils, there was nothing else around.
After Qiu Siping landed, he sneered, “Fellow cultivator, you’ve stayed hidden for so long already, might as well come out!”
Devil Xu Liguo was stunned.
He was currently standing behind Qiu Siping and was shocked by his shout.
He thought that it was bad that he had found out about him.
He was about to back away when he suddenly stopped, because Qiu Siping turned around and stared at his direction.
Xu Liguo’s face became fierce.
If he were to fight with Qiu Siping and consume Qiu Siping’s core, he will become stronger.
Even if master asked, he could say that it was Qiu Siping who attacked first.
He had to devour Qiu Siping first.
He was about to move when he suddenly stopped again because Qiu Siping turned around to another direction and shouted again, “Fellow cultivator, if you don’t show yourself now, I’ll have to make my move.”
Devil Xu Liguo was very confused and thought, “I’m right here, didn’t you just see me earlier?
How come you still say I didn’t show myself?”
He became angry and moved toward Qiu Siping.
When he was less than 10 feet away, he thought, “Act!
The moment you act, I’ll devour you.
Even if I can’t devour all of you, I’ll devour half of you, so act already!”
However, after Qiu Siping waited for a while, he turned again.
This time, the slow to react Xu Ligou found that something was wrong and once again moved in front of Qiu Siping.
After watching for a while, he shouted in his heart, “You bastard, you didn’t even find me at all and dared to pretend you did!”
Qiu Siping waited for a while.
He finally determined that there was no one around and that no one had followed him, but he was still worried, so he sat down cross legged to wait for time to pass.
Xu Liguo angrily floated on the side, wondering if he should disobey his master’s order and just fight this person.
This person was simply too daring.
He dared to mess with the great Xu Liguo!
But after mulling over it for a long time, he finally suppressed his anger.
Right now was a very important time.
If he were to make a mistake now, number two will surpass him.
He decided to wait for his position to solidify more, until something won’t even matter anymore.
Time passed by and two days passed.
In these two days, Wang Lin didn’t leave the cave at all, but focused on refining the flag.
He had laid countless restrictions on it.
The white flag floating before him now had countless black spots on it.
With a glance, one could see about 200 to 300 black spots.
On the flag were clusters of nine spots.
None of the clusters were repeats of another.
For this restriction flag, aside from some of the materials being really hard to gather, the refining process wasn’t too difficult.
Any cultivator that could use restrictions could refine one.
But the knowledge required was great.
If a normal cultivator created this flag, the restrictions placed on it would be so weak that even if the flag was successfully created, it wouldn’t be powerful.
In addition, this restriction flag was just like an restriction itself.
It all depended on the thought process of the person who laid it.
If the creator could place 999,999 consecutive attack restrictions with no similarity to each other, then the flag created would contain unimaginable attack power.
Conversely, if 999,999 consecutive defensive restrictions were placed, then it would also contain unimaginable defensive power.
Similarly, if the goal was to trap the enemy, then after reaching 999,999 restrictions, the trapping ability would be considered terrifying.
Basically, the power of the restriction flag depends on what the creator wants from it.
It sounds easy in theory, but to get to that state is very difficult.
For example: with 999 restrictions as the first level, every 9 restrictions formed a group, meaning you need 111 different restrictions.
If one wanted to go a single route, they would have to place 111 different attack restrictions on the flag, which could get very difficult.
Although, if they possessed a deep understanding of restrictions, it was possible.
But what about the second level, which required 9,999 restrictions?
That meant that there were 1,111 groups and the difficulty of making it for a single route became 10 times higher.
Not to even mention the third level, which required 99,999 restrictions.
It was 100 times more difficult than the first level because not many people possessed that many restrictions of purely one type.
As for the final level, it required 999,999 restrictions.
The difficulty was 1000 times higher.
A 999,999 restriction flag was already a mythical item, and within the memories Wang Lin obtained, they do exist, however, there had never been a 999,999 restriction flag made purely with attack or defense restrictions.
Purely offensive or defensive restriction flags at most reached the third level, but their power could almost rival a final level restriction flag with 999,999 restrictions, and, in certain aspects, even surpass it.
So to say, the process of creating a restriction flag was simple, but if one wanted to create a powerful restriction flag, it was very difficult.
The restriction flag Wang Lin was making was not a single route flag.
He was including attack, defense, guard, searching, trapping, and such restrictions.
This was the only way for him to quickly make a restriction flag.
Wang Lin knew that within this Sea of Devils, he might get into a life threatening crisis at any moment, so he must quickly make this restriction flag to test its power, then decide if he should spend the time to make a single route restriction flag.
After all, he had three ink stones, so he could make three restriction flags in total.
Wang Lin became focused.
His hand moved and formed another restriction.
At the same time, he used his connection with Xu Liguo and checked on what Qiu Siping was up to.
Qiu Siping sat at that place for two days, then suddenly disappeared from the spot.
Xu Liguo panicked and quickly dove underground.
After going very deep underground, he saw Qiu Siping’s figure.
There was a cave buried deep underground in that deserted place.
Although the cave wasn’t large, it was very well hidden.
Xu Liguo was able to easily enter the cave.
None of the restrictions were triggered by him at all.
After entering the cave, he saw Qiu Siping flipping through books.
The current room was like a sea of books, with books densely packed everywhere.
Most of them were very ancient and not in the form of a piece of jade, but carved into bamboo.
Qiu Siping carefully read each book and gently put them away.
Suddenly, his face lit up and he quickly took a scroll made of bamboo to the side and opened it on the table, then carefully examined it.
Xu Liguo was about to move forward when suddenly, a gentle light came out from the room.
It blocked outsiders from entering.
The moment the light flashed, Qiu Siping suddenly looked up.
He scanned the area with his divine sense, but found nothing.
However, he still kept constantly looking around, trying to find something.
After a long time, he lowered his head and examined the bamboo, but his right hand had formed a seal, ready to attack at any time.
With the soft light blocking Xu Ligou, he couldn’t get closer for a better look.
He tried very hard, but could only see the small words “Ancient Restriction” on the bamboo.
After three hours, Qiu Siping frowned.
He closed the bamboo with a questioning expression.
After he put the bamboo away, he searched for a while longer and took two gray pieces of jade, then made his way out of the room.
In the stone room next door, he sat cross legged and placed a piece of the grey jade on his forehead, then began to meditate.
Time passed by.
Of the 7 days until the meeting, 5 days had passed.
On noon of the 5th day, Qiu Siping suddenly opened his eyes and put the jade into his bag of holding.
His hand formed a seal and shot out a beam of light that landed on the wall.
Suddenly, the whole wall made cracking sounds as it opened, revealing a conclave table.
On the table were three figures.
The one in the middle had white hair and eyes filled with rage, revealing a sense of majesty.
At each side stood one male and one female.
The male’s face was sullen and his eyes were cold.
He looked to be around 20 years old.
The female had a very beautiful face and graceful figure.
Her eyes showed hints of sadness, making her appearance more vivid.
Qiu Siping silently looked at the three figures.
When his gaze fell on the female, his eyes were filled with tenderness, but when his gaze fell on the old man, his eyes were filled with hatred.
“Old commander, elder brother.
I have finally found someone who knows how to use ancient restrictions.
You guys never would have thought that I would be able to enter that place to meet you again.
This time, that treasure will be mine!"
Qiu Siping suddenly let out a laugh.
His laughter contained a hint of madness.
He reached out his hand and carefully stroked the female figure’s face and muttered, “I’ll will bring you back to life, even if the price is the entire Sea of Devils!”
He took a deep breath and withdrew his right hand.
He sent out another beam of light and the wall closed again.
Wang Lin sat crossed legged in the cave.
He saw all of this through Xu Liguo.
He pondered for a while and made a decision.
On the night two days later, Wang Lin laid the last restriction on the flag.
Suddenly, the little flag moved and the black dots that covered it started to expand.
The flag turned from white to completely black.
Slivers of ancient atmosphere were released from the flag.
The restrictions flashed one by one on the flag, forming mysterious golden symbols.
The symbols rotated around the pole of the flag and slowly climbed upward.
Soon, the entire flag was covered in golden symbols.
At this point, there were still numerous symbols still appearing from the flag.
They formed a line that wrapped around it.
Meanwhile, in the star field tens of thousands of kilometers above the thick clouds above Qilin city.
Among the stars, a red cloud started to gather.
The red cloud started to swell.
It became larger and larger, until it reached hundreds of kilometers in diameter.
Within the red cloud, slivers of gas started to rain down.
The moment the gas touched the thick cloud above the Sea of Devils, it started to sizzle and melt, as if hot iron was touching snow.
In the moment, in the eastern part of the inner part of the Sea of Devils, a person walked out of a mountain made of skulls.
The person was covered with the smell of death and his figure couldn’t clearly be seen.
He raised his head and looked at the thick cloud, as if he could see through it, and saw the red cloud above it.
He muttered, “Divine retribution?
Not possible.
Since the ancient cultivation world was destroyed by a disaster, there shouldn’t be anymore divine retribution.
All of the cultivators now fool the heavens to cultivate.
How could it lead to divine retribution?
Could it be that there are ancient cultivators that didn’t die?
If that is true, then they are a very high quality supplement!
” After he finished speaking, his body suddenly moved toward where the red cloud was formed.
In the eastern part of the Sea of Devils was a basin.
Within this basin was sea water.
It had to be said that it was not the season for the cloud to turn into sea water yet, so it was a very incredible sight.
The sea water suddenly started to move violently.
Suddenly, a man wearing a blue robe appeared from within the water, causing many waves to stir.
Stepping on the waves, he slowly floated upward.
He stared at the sky, revealing a shocked expression.
“Divine retribution?
Since when did such exciting things happen in the Sea of Devils?
This divine retribution should lure out all those old monsters that have been in hiding.
” He revealed a faint smile.
His body floated above the water and he waved his hand, causing the water in the basin to float up into the air.
This scene would shock anyone.
The man melted back into the water.
He moved his hand and the water moved toward the red cloud like a string of galloping horses.
Comparing its speed to a Nascent Soul cultivator using instant teleportation, it was several times faster, and the water was getting faster and faster, until it suddenly disappeared.
In the southern point of the Sea of Devils, within a common city’s Treasure Refining Pavilion’s third floor, a white haired old man full of wrinkles was holding the bone of a beast, boasting to a Foundation Building cultivator.
“Brother, this thing really is a treasure.
I’ll tell you its 74th use, so listen carefully…”
That Foundation Building cultivator was livid.
If it wasn’t against the rules of the Treasure Refining Pavilion, then he would have spat on this old man, who had bothered him from the first floor all the way to the third floor.
From his point of view, this old man was only at the 8th layer of Qi Condensation.
What he particularly couldn’t stand was that when the old man talked, his spit would fly out at his face, making him want take out his magical treasure to attack the old man.
Finally, he couldn’t contain his anger any longer.
He waved his sleeves and quickly left the Treasure Refining Pavilion, but that old man was still bothering him.
With so many people watching, the Foundation Building cultivator threw a low quality spirit stone onto the ground, like he was giving food to animals, and took the beast bone with a cold smile on his face and left.
He had already made up his mind that he was going to teach this old man a lesson tonight.
The white haired man picked up the low quality spirit stone with a smile on his face.
He blew the dirt off it and placed it in his pocket.
Just at that moment, his expression suddenly changed as he turned to look at the clouds.