Let Me Game in Peace #Chapter 363 - 363 Goldfish - Read Let Me Game in Peace Chapter 363 - 363 Goldfish Online - All Page - Novel Next
363 Goldfish
Zhou Wen chased after the goldfish as he slashed, but the goldfish was very agile. It scurried in the magma repeatedly. Zhou Wen lost sight of it several times, but it jumped out of the magma itself, as though it was provoking him.
Zhou Wen found it odd. The goldfish was undoubtedly a top-notch Epic creature, but it never counterattacked. It only swam through the magma without spewing flames like the Magma Worm or Fire-Armored Crocodiles.
Zhou Wen didn't believe the notion that it couldn't breathe fire. This was because the fellow's body was burning with terrifying golden flames. Molten rock that touched its body would directly melt. How could it not possess fire attacks?
Back when Gu Dian was fishing for it, the goldfish hadn't counterattacked. That had already puzzled Zhou Wen, so he was even more puzzled now.
Could it be that this is a dimensional creature that can't attack? Zhou Wen felt that something was amiss when he thought about it. This fellow wasn't a vegetarian, having swallowed the Magma Worm as food. It also ate something known as Ice Silkworm.
When he thought of Ice Silkworm, Zhou Wen's eyes lit up. Could it be that the goldfish lost its ability to spew fire because it ate Gu Dian's Ice Silkworm?
The more Zhou Wen thought about it, the more he was convinced of his conjecture. Although Gu Dian was powerful, he had yet to advance to the Epic stage. He would definitely have made some special preparations to fish an Epic goldfish. Perhaps the Ice Silkworm was its nemesis, making the goldfish temporarily lose the ability to control fire.
From the looks of it, this goldfish is very likely the one Gu Dian caught. Zhou Wen once again lost sight of the goldfish, but shortly after, the fish jumped out of the nearby magma provocatively. When it jumped into the magma, it deliberately shook its chiffon-like tail and sent magma splattering in all directions.
I originally wanted to use you to gain insights into the profundity of fire-elemental powers. Since you are courting death, don't blame me. With a thought, Zhou Wen switched his Primordial Energy Art to Godfiend Era. A Godfiend Life Providence appeared and he summoned the Lost Country Life Soul. A strange ring appeared on Zhou Wen's finger.
Zhou Wen stared at the magma surface and, indeed, it didn't take long before the goldfish jumped out again.
A strange glint flashed in the eyes of the half-ghostly, half-beauty Lost Country ring as Zhou Wen's figure suddenly vanished. Almost immediately, he appeared beside the goldfish. The sword beam from Overlord Sword penetrated the goldfish's body at almost the same time.
Looking at the goldfish stuck to the Overlord Sword like a grilled fish and completely dead with no chance of being mischievous, Zhou Wen dragged it to the bank.
After ordinary dimensional creatures were killed, their corpses decayed faster than ordinary creatures. Zhou Wen didn't want corpses either. However, after hearing that Gu Dian wanted to feed it to the cats, he decided to summon the Mutated Stone Chi and transport the goldfish's corpse back.
On his way back, he didn't see Li Weiyang and company. He presumed that they had left.
After leaving the dimensional zone, Zhou Wen contacted Gu Dian and asked if he wanted the goldfish's corpse.
"Yes." Gu Dian was always so succinct.
Before sending the goldfish's corpse to him, Zhou Wen split open the fish's belly and found a Companion Egg inside. This left Zhou Wen extremely surprised.
However, other than being fast and able to travel through magma, this goldfish didn't seem to have any special abilities.
After transporting the corpse to Gu Dian, Zhou Wen asked him for more details.
Indeed, Gu Dian told him that the Goldfish was unable to use its fire powers for a limited period after it devoured an Ice Silkworm.
Gu Dian hadn't lied to him. He really fed the goldfish's corpse to the cats. Furthermore, it was the same litter that Zhou Wen had seen previously. However, the kittens had grown quite large over the past few months and they were almost the size of an adult cat. The adult cat ate with the kittens the pieces of fish that Gu Dian sliced off for them. They looked rather blissful.
Gu Dian now seemed to have transformed into a three-star chef. He was meticulous while having extraordinary patience. Even his ferocious appearance did not seem that frightening. Instead, he looked gentler.
Zhou Wen turned around and prepared to leave when Gu Dian suddenly said, "I owe you one for the goldfish. Call me if you need anything from me."
"Alright." Zhou Wen nodded and left the abandoned old campus.
After returning to his dorm, Zhou Wen couldn't wait to incubate the goldfish Companion Egg. The fellow needed plenty of Primordial Energy. Zhou Wen originally imagined that it wouldn't be difficult incubating it, so he only used his body's Primordial Energy to supply it to the Companion Egg. However, it only took an instant for nearly 30 Primordial Energy points to be drained from him. It gave him a fright. He hurriedly summoned the Slaughterer Life Soul that gave him unlimited Primordial Energy to stabilize the situation.
The Companion Egg transformed into a golden stream of light that landed on Zhou Wen's arm, forming a goldfish tattoo that seemed to be swaying its tail.
Zhou Wen summoned it out and it looked like the goldfish from before. Its body burned with golden flames, but the moment it landed, it immediately melted the ground, so Zhou Wen hurriedly summoned it back.
This goldfish doesn't know how to fly. It can only survive in magma. It probably won't be easy to use it in combat, Zhou Wen thought to himself as he looked at the stats of the goldfish in-game. He was immediately overjoyed.
Fortune Goldfish: Epic
Life Providence: Luck (Luck 6)
Life Soul: Soul of Magma
Strength: 34
Speed: 39
Constitution: 28
Primordial Energy: 40
Talent Skill: Magma Bubbles
Companion Form: None
After seeing the stats of the Fortune Goldfish, Zhou Wen only wanted to laugh out loud. This day has finally come! So you want me to fail with the baby tiger? Ha! Now I have an even better Fortune Goldfish! It's better than the baby tiger. The baby tiger only adds 5 to Luck, while this is 6! It's better than Wang Lu's!
Zhou Wen felt great. He had been a little depressed having not obtained the baby tiger after all his grinding. Now, he was in an extremely good mood.
He had originally planned on gaining insights from the goldfish's flames, but now he put it aside. He logged into the game before heading to the bat cave. He wanted to give it a try and see how much better the drop rate would be after obtaining Luck 6.
After summoning the Fortune Goldfish, it instantly appeared with its golden flames and plopped to the ground. In a short time, the ground was melted into a pool of magma that was about a meter in diameter. The goldfish swam inside and the Soul of Magma on it would melt the rocks into magma, in whichever direction it swam. However, no matter how fast it was, there was still a process. Thus, Fortune Goldfish's speed was extremely slow.
Unless there was a place like Magma River, this fellow could only engage in trench warfare with no way to pursue an enemy.
It's time to show my true skills. Companion Eggs, Primordial Energy Skill Crystals, Poison Crystals, and high-level stat crystals. All of them are to come to me. Zhou Wen summoned his sword and stormed towards the horde of poison bats.
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364 Luck
Grand explosions of drops, stat crystals littering the ground, making him pick up Companion Eggs until his hands went soft, and so many Primordial Energy Skill Crystals that he couldn't be bothered to pick up.
These scenes Zhou Wen imagined didn't happen. Not only didn't they happen, Zhou Wen even felt as if his drop rate had lowered.
Usually, when he grinded at the bat cave, he would get a dozen stat crystals to drop. Occasionally, a Companion Egg or rare Poison Crystal would drop.
However, after he cleared the bat cave today, only three stat crystals dropped. Furthermore, none of them exceeded a value of 25.
What crappy luck is this? It's a lie, right? Is the Luck stat so useless? Zhou Wen couldn't accept this outcome. He felt that his intelligence and character had been insulted and had even begun to doubt life.
Ignoring the fact that Luck 6 is useless, my luck has even become worse. From the looks of it, the Luck stat has been exaggerated by others. If I had known earlier, I shouldn't have wasted my time grinding that baby tiger. All that time spent was such a waste. Zhou Wen felt depressed as he glanced at the Fortune Goldfish's stats.
What he saw left him dumbfounded. After he snapped to his senses, he nearly spewed out a mouthful of blood.
The other attributes of the Fortune Goldfish didn't change, but in postfix behind the Life Providence, the annotation was different from the one he had seen previously.
Zhou Wen had previously seen Luck 6, but now it was Bad Luck 8 as the annotation.
No way. I must be seeing things. I clearly saw Luck 6; it's impossible for me to be mistaken. Zhou Wen rubbed his eyes again, but he still saw Bad Luck 8.
What the f*k. Could it be that I've been dreaming of a lucky pet for too long that I mistook bad luck for luck? That's not right. How can I be mistaken? Previously, it was clearly Luck 6. No matter how wrong I am, it's impossible that I missed out the additional "bad." Zhou Wen thought for a moment and left the game dungeon before looking at it in his dorm.
When he did this, Zhou Wen's expression turned odd. The Fortune Goldfish's Life Providence had a postfix of Luck 6.
Zhou Wen seemed to figure something out as he entered the bat cave and summoned the Fortune Goldfish again. However, this time, it was Bad Luck 7. Compared to before, his bad luck wasn't any worse, but he was still very unlucky and had no luck.
After taking two steps with the Fortune Goldfish, Zhou Wen realized that his bad luck had changed from 7 to 8.
Holy sh*t, this fellow doesn't just add Luck. It adds Bad Luck in different places! Zhou Wen walked around the bat cave with the goldfish and realized that the Bad Luck value constantly changed between 3 to 9. Only in a special place would Bad Luck disappear, turning into Luck 1.
Zhou Wen stood on the stone that only allowed his feet to step on. He was momentarily rendered speechless. In such a crappy tiny area, all he got was one additional point in Luck. Furthermore, he couldn't move. Just moving a tiny bit caused his Luck to immediately turn into Bad Luck.
Zhou Wen left the bat cave and went to the other instant dungeons with the goldfish to test them out. Soon, he realized that the goldfish was stranger than he had imagined.
In Dragon Gate Grotto, the goldfish added Monetary Luck most of the time. Although it wasn't high and it fluctuated between 1 and 3, the stat alone surprised Zhou Wen.
And when he arrived at Tiger Cage Pass, he gained Bad Luck as well. It typically jumped between 1 to 7. Zhou Wen didn't walk through the entire Tiger Cage Pass, so he was unsure if there was a spot that gave him Luck.
Zhou Wen tried a few dungeons and discovered that most of the dungeons gave Bad Luck. Only in the Ancient Sovereign City dungeon would the goldfish's Life Providence increase Luck. Furthermore, it gave plenty of Luck, basically fluctuating between 4 to 10.
Zhou Wen tried grinding monsters with the help of higher luck and it was truly satisfying. Just killing a few monsters was enough to have stats crystals rain. With a little bit of effort, Companion Eggs and Primordial Energy Skill Crystals weren't difficult either.
Ancient Sovereign City was famous for its low drop rate. However, with the augmentation of high Luck, Zhou Wen had Companion Eggs and crystals drop.
However, this godforsaken place didn't have any dimensional creatures worth killing. Even if more Companion Eggs and stats crystals dropped, it was useless. There were no Epic dimensional creatures here. The strongest was at the Legendary stage.
"Goldfish Bro, are you messing with me? Even if the bat cave is too close to the underground sea, and it's understandable that you don't like water so you don't add Luck. But why did you give me Monetary Luck at Dragon Gate Grotto? Can't you give me Luck?" Zhou Wen's words clearly had no effect on the goldfish.
When he arrived at Dragon Gate Grotto, the goldfish still added Monetary Luck. Zhou Wen didn't know what it was for. Instead, he spent some time grinding Overlord Snakes in Dragon Gate Grotto and didn't see any increase in his drop rates. It was about the same as usual.
Where can I find a place to use the goldfish? Zhou Wen had a headache. He felt that the Fortune Goldfish was a scam. The baby tiger was more reliable.
For the moment, he couldn't find a dungeon that could allow the goldfish to be of use. All he could do was temporarily give up on the goldfish's functions. He found a spot in-game and got the goldfish to constantly release its fire-elemental powers. Zhou Wen tried to gain insights into the profundity of the Ancient Sovereign Sutra.
The golden flames on the goldfish's body belonged to its Life Soul, Soul of Magma. It was a kind of fire of a piece of golden rock that could easily melt rocks or metal.
Its Primordial Energy Skill, Magma Bubbles, was also a similar type of fire. It spat out a magma fireball, possessing a powerful explosive power, similar to a powerful missile.
However, Zhou Wen didn't gain any insights from it.
Strange, could it be that I'm wrong? Although the Ancient Sovereign Sutra has fire attributes, the true profoundness behind it isn't fire, Zhou Wen thought to himself.
"Zhou Wen, quickly come to our activity room. Something serious has happened." Li Xuan called, sounding alarmed.
"What happened?" Zhou Wen hurriedly asked.
"It's difficult to say over the phone. Come to the forest on the old campus. There's too many of them... I can't handle them... Come quickly..." With that said, Li Xuan hung up.
Is Li Mobai here to stir trouble again? But what can he do on campus? Is someone willing to help him kill in school? I heard from Li Xuan that there are quite a number of people. Zhou Wen felt that the situation was a little serious as he rushed over.
Li Mobai had recently looked for him. Now that something had happened, there was a high chance that these two matters were related.
Zhou Wen anxiously rushed over to Li Xuan, but the sight before him nearly angered him to death. He saw Li Xuan and the few members of the Xuanwen Club eating barbecue with a group of girls. Li Xuan was surrounded by many girls, and it did seem as though he couldn't handle them.
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365 Joint Activity
"Zhou Wen, what took you so long? The meat is almost done. Come over quickly." Li Xuan waved at Zhou Wen.
"What the hell are you doing? Didn't you say something serious happened? Is this what you call serious?" Zhou Wen walked to Li Xuan's side and looked at the roasted meat in his hand.
"Would you have come if I didn't say so? Today is a joint activity between our Xuanwen Club and the Weiyang Club. All these things are provided by the Weiyang Club. Since they sincerely invited us, it wouldn't be nice for us to reject their kind intentions, right?" Li Xuan got up and pointed to the girls beside him. "My sister, Li Weiyang, you know her. She's a tigress, so ignore her."
"Do you have a death wish?" Li Weiyang glared at him.
"My sister is a little fierce, but she's pretty enough. Just based on her looks, I've tolerated her for more than ten years. If not, I would have fallen out with her." Li Xuan pointed at the girl beside and said, "This is Zhang Miaomiao. She's the vice president of the Weiyang Club. Just now, she told me that she wants you to give her some pointers in swordplay. Teach her when you have the time."
"Hello, I'm Zhang Miaomiao. I'm good at finance and management." The girl had quite a swell nature as she stood up and extended her hand.
"Zhou Wen." Zhou Wen reached out and shook her hand.
"Our Weiyang Club welcomes you at all times. I have to learn some sword techniques from you, but if you need any help in finance and investments, come look for me. I guarantee that I won't disappoint you," Zhang Miaomiao continued as she held Zhou Wen's hand without letting it go.
"I don't have much spare money to invest." Zhou Wen pulled his hand back.
Li Xuan shook his head, thinking, Zhou Wen is really a born virgin. I should let him cultivate my Invincible Connate Divine Art.
However, Zhang Miaomiao didn't seem to mind at all. She smiled and said, "It's alright. You can look for me whenever you have the money in the future."
Li Xuan was taken aback as he wondered what was happening. Since when did these women become so good-tempered?
Following that, he introduced the other Weiyang Club members to Zhou Wen. All of them were female students. Furthermore, they all expressed their goodwill towards him.
"Sis, what's the situation? Tell me honestly, did your Weiyang Club take the initiative to hold a joint activity with us because you have your sights on Zhou Wen? Are you thinking of poaching him from me?" Li Xuan couldn't help but secretly ask Li Weiyang when he saw the girls surrounding Zhou Wen and asking questions. Even Zhou Wen, who was so insensitive and impervious to the questions, didn't scare them away.
"It's none of my business. They were the ones who said that Zhou Wen is too pitiful. He must have suffered terribly at his stepmother's house and ended up having such a teacher. Therefore, they want to show Zhou Wen some love and concern and let him know that there's still human warmth present in the world," Li Weiyang said as she shrugged.
Pitiful? Suffered? Li Xuan found his brain lacking. He looked at Zhou Wen who was surrounded by all the ladies and thought, What do you mean pitiful? What suffering? You have no idea how nice Ouyang Lan is to him. Whatever dimensional crystals he needs can be given to him, but he doesn't want them. Also, Wang Mingyuan, although he really is a great devil, he was really nice to his students. I heard from Zhou Wen that he was able to advance to the Epic stage thanks to Wang Mingyuan's help.
Of course, Li Xuan didn't tell Li Weiyang that. Another thought ran through his mind and he said, "That's good. Otherwise, with Zhou Wen's character, which woman would be able to take it? He would probably spend his entire life alone. It's just nice now. If someone is willing to take the initiative to accommodate him, who knows, he might hook up with someone?"
However, Li Xuan clearly underestimated Zhou Wen's lethality. Zhou Wen sat there, barbecuing meat, while several girls sat beside him to chat with him. However, Zhou Wen only responded with a grunt and kept twirling the metal skewer in his hand as he focused on barbecuing the meat over the charcoal fire, as though his interest in barbecued meat was far greater than a conversation with the girls.
In the beginning, the girls didn't mind. They imagined that the topic might not have interested him, so they changed the topic to matters like games and Companion Beasts.
They had clearly come prepared. They mentioned some of the recently popular games, but it wasn't as though Zhou Wen really enjoyed gaming. He had never played those games before, nor had he heard of them. All he could do was directly tell them that he had never played those games before, causing the chatty girls to be at a loss. The scene turned awkward as the girls could only chat with each other.
"Your friend is truly one of a kind. If he can find a girlfriend, I'll take your surname," Li Weiyang said to Li Xuan with a smile when she saw the situation.
"Stop kidding. We have the same surname, to begin with, so what's the point in taking my surname?" Li Xuan shook his head and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Zhou Wen's personality is a little introverted. He's also quite insensitive. In a peaceful era, he would definitely be a homebody."
"I'm a little curious. How did you become friends with him? The two of you have such different personalities," Li Weiyang asked curiously.
Li Xuan smiled and said, "Actually, making friends has nothing to do with personalities. It's just like finding a girlfriend. As long as one catches the eye at a particular moment, it doesn't matter what flaws they have. One will just feel that they can be friends."
"So that's how you make friends? It's no wonder you got cheated." Li Weiyang rolled her eyes at him.
The girls on the other side no longer came up to Zhou Wen to chat. It wasn't because they didn't wish to talk, but because there was no way they could continue the conversation. Zhou Wen was a topic terminator. Any topic that was raised with him would come to an end, as though sucked into a black hole.
With no one speaking to him again, Zhou Wen was happy to be free. He continued roasting meat with the metal skewers while pondering over his next step into gaining insight into the Ancient Sovereign Sutra.
The Ancient Sovereign Sutra does have fire-elemental augmentation. Why can't I figure out anything related to the Ancient Sovereign Sutra from fire? Is my knowledge of fire not deep enough? Or is the true power of the Ancient Sovereign Sutra not fire-elemental? Zhou Wen roasted the meat as he pondered.
In fact, Zhou Wen was a little too anxious. How could it be easy to gain insight into the profundity of a Primordial Energy Art?
The average person began cultivating Primordial Energy Arts from the moment they started schooling until their college graduation. Then, they would enter society to learn. In their thirties, those with good talent would be able to comprehend the true meaning of their Primordial Energy Arts.
Children of large families, like Feng Qiuyan, began training their Primordial Energy Arts from a young age. Their families invested massive amounts of manpower and resources in them, and there were also seniors who had cultivated the same Primordial Energy Arts to pass on their insights. Typically, they would only comprehend the true meaning of the Primordial Energy Arts after they were twenty.
And someone like Feng Qiuyan who could comprehend it so quickly could be said to be a genius among geniuses. However, Feng Qiuyan had trained his saber techniques since he was young. This was the result of all his efforts culminating together.
Zhou Wen had previously cultivated Ascetic Meditation, but it was replaced by the Lost Immortal Sutra. He hadn't cultivated it for less than a year before he advanced to the Epic stage. It could be said to be a heaven-defying advancement speed.
As for the Primordial Energy Art like the Ancient Sovereign Sutra and the Godfiend Era, he had never cultivated it before. They were only simulated by the Lost Immortal Sutra. Under normal circumstances, it would take Zhou Wen at least a few years to slowly familiarize himself with them and ponder over them before he could understand their true meaning.
Figuring out the true meaning of the Godfiend Era in his battle with Feng Qiuyan was already considered lucky. It was part talent and part luck. So, how could it be so easy to figure out the Ancient Sovereign Sutra?
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"That's not how you roast meat. Look at you; you've burnt it." As Zhou Wen was in thought, he was jolted awake by a woman's voice.
Looking up, he saw that it was Li Weiyang sitting down on a chair beside him. The girls from before had already gone elsewhere to play with Li Xuan and company, leaving him and Li Weiyang behind.
"Give it to me." Li Weiyang extended her hand in front of Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen was engrossed in his thoughts and forgot that he was still holding a skewer. The meat had been roasted for too long and the outside was charred black.
Zhou Wen handed the skewers to Li Weiyang in embarrassment. Li Weiyang placed the charred meat to the side and took a few fresh skewers before placing them over the charcoal fire.
"One look and I know you're a scion who hasn't experienced much hardship. You don't even know how to roast meat. Although this isn't considered a skill, food is the foundation of human survival. Without food, even Epic experts would starve to death. Large swaths of land are now occupied by dimensional zones. The area where humans can harvest food has been greatly reduced. There's still a need to avoid unnecessary waste."
As Li Weiyang roasted the meat, she said, "Let me teach you how to roast meat. In the future, when you leave school and really enter the dimensional zones in the wilderness, the food you receive will probably mostly be raw meat. Roasting meat is also an essential skill, so at the very least, it can make you have a better time eating while outside. The most important thing about roasting meat is the control of the heat..."
Zhou Wen actually knew how to roast meat, but he had been preoccupied and had forgotten about the meat skewer in his hands. This resulted in the current situation.
He didn't refute Li Weiyang's words, but as he listened, an idea flashed in his mind as he stared intently at the meat she was roasting.
The muscles and fat were sizzling over the fire, giving off an aroma that whet his appetite.
I remember that when humans first used fire, they used fire to fend off wild beasts and cook food. One of the Three Sovereigns, Suiren-shi, had made great contributions to the human race because he had brought the fire. He was praised as the leader of the Three Sovereigns. Could it be that the fire-elemental power in the Ancient Sovereign Sutra is not the destructive power of fire but the vitality of fire?
The more Zhou Wen thought about it, the more he found it correct. He had been trying to find an inkling of the Ancient Sovereign Sutra through the power of fires, but its fire-elemental powers didn't lean towards lethal power.
Typical fire-elemental Primordial Energy Arts could achieve a projection effect of fire-elemental power when advancing to the Legendary stage.
However, the Ancient Sovereign Sutra didn't have such an effect. Its fire-elemental power was converged and restrained.
People say that water is the source of life, but they don't know that fire is the source of civilization. Without fire, perhaps the cold world wouldn't give birth to life... Without fire, humans wouldn't be able to eat cooked food or kill most of the parasites in it... Zhou Wen looked at the charcoal fire burning as more and more thoughts flashed through his mind. They were scattered, and he wasn't able to find the main point.
"Hey, I'm talking to you. Can you hear me? Don't burn the meat when you roast it in the future," Li Weiyang said as she roasted the meat.
"It's just too beautiful," Zhou Wen said as he looked at the flames. At that moment, he felt that the flames were somewhat different from usual as they emitted a moving radiance.
Usually, when Zhou Wen looked at flames, he would only sense their heat and lethality. But now, when he looked at the flames again, he felt that there was a rhythm to life in them.
Although Zhou Wen was still unable to grasp the essence of the flames' influence on life, the flames in his eyes were no longer as simple as lethal force.
"What did you say?" Li Weiyang was slightly taken aback as she turned to look at Zhou Wen.
"It's just too beautiful. I never noticed that something that usually looks so hot inside can have such a beautiful and touching side," Zhou Wen said as he stared at the roasted meat. He was naturally referring to the flames.
Li Weiyang wasn't an immortal, so she naturally couldn't read Zhou Wen's mind. She imagined that Zhou Wen was referring to her when she heard him say that. Her face blushed slightly as she said in embarrassment, "It's just roasting meat. It's nothing serious. It's not as grand as you put it."
"No, to me, this is the most important thing. It's just too beautiful," Zhou Wen said as he stared at the flames. His body and mind had already been attracted by the dancing flames.
"You... Stop talking nonsense... Eat your barbecue meat..." Li Weiyang handed the barbecue meat to Zhou Wen. She was a little shy after being praised like that, especially by a man. Even she felt embarrassed, despite her usually fiery-tempered self.
"I finally understand. So the true characteristic of fire isn't destruction. It's life. The fire of life is what makes it moving and beautiful. I finally get it." Zhou Wen stood up and walked back. He finally understood why he had never been able to figure out the true meaning of the Ancient Sovereign Sutra. He had been wrong from the beginning.
Now, all Zhou Wen wanted to do was return immediately and meditate on the Ancient Sovereign Sutra. He almost couldn't contain his excitement.
Li Weiyang held the barbecued meat as she stood there in a daze. As she watched Zhou Wen run off, her mind was filled with question marks. Fire? Beautiful? Moving? What the hell?
"What happened to Zhou Wen?" Li Xuan walked over and asked Li Weiyang.
"How would I know what's wrong with that lunatic? I'm not a lunatic." Li Weiyang angrily stuffed the meat into Li Xuan's mouth before leaving.
What happened? What's wrong with both of them? Li Xuan looked puzzled, unsure why Li Weiyang was so angry.
After Zhou Wen returned to his dorm, he began meditating over the Ancient Sovereign Sutra in the training room. He quickly realized why the fire-elemental powers that came with the Ancient Sovereign Sutra were so weak.
It wasn't that the Ancient Sovereign Sutra was not strong, but because excess was just as bad as a deficiency. The true essence of the Ancient Sovereign Sutra was life. If the power of fire was too strong, it would destroy everything, including life.
Therefore, the power of fire was necessary, but it couldn't cross a certain boundary.
It was akin to the sun's effect on humans. With the sun, there was the night and day, the four seasons. It was only with the sun that life was possible.
However, if the ground was too close to the sun, all the plants and animals on the ground would be burnt to death. No life could withstand it.
This is the same as barbecuing. It will be inedible if it's too raw but it can't be eaten if it's charred. The most touching thing about life is that tiny bit of spark. Zhou Wen vaguely felt as though he had grasped something, but he was momentarily unable to grasp it accurately.
Over the next few days, Zhou Wen spent all his time in the training room studying the Ancient Sovereign Sutra. He began to understand more and more of the Ancient Sovereign Sutra's true meaning.
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Chapter 367 Condensing a Life Soul Again
An Jing had been practicing the Sun Strafe Art recently. Although she had improved greatly, she still failed to grasp the true meaning of the Sun Strafe Art required to advance to the Epic stage.
With her talent, it shouldn't have been difficult for her to advance to the Epic stage. However, due to her body's chronic ailment, she was unable to sense the underlying sublimity of the Sun Strafe Art.
An Jing wasn't afraid of hardship. Every time she cultivated the Sun Strafe Art, she could endure the inhuman pain caused by the chronic ailment.
However, gaining insight into something like this couldn't be resolved just by suffering. The untalented might not even be able to match a day's enlightenment of someone even after ten years of training.
An Jing had talent, perceptivity, and diligence. She could be said to be a rare genius in the world, but her body wasn't suitable for practicing the Sun Strafe Art. It made her feel as though she was separated by something as she ultimately failed to grasp its true meaning.
After her second attempt at enlightenment, An Jing curled up in a corner of the room in pain. Every time she cultivated the Sun Strafe Art, she suffered such pain.
Her phone rang and An Jing struggled to stand up. She walked to the table and picked up the call.
"My Little Jing, it's been a while since I've met you. Mommy wants to have a meal with you. Are you free tonight?" Ouyang Lan's voice came through the phone.
"Tonight..." An Jing had just cultivated the Sun Strafe Art and the pain in her body hadn't subsided that quickly. Now, she really didn't want to move a step.
"Mommy only has you and Tianzuo as my two precious treasures. Tianzuo is busy with military matters and I haven't seen him for days. You have to stay on campus, leaving me all alone at home every day. I am so lonely..." As Ouyang Lan spoke, she gave off the feeling like she was on the brink of tears. It was sad and tear-inducing hearing her.
"Got it. I'll head back tonight," An Jing said helplessly.
Ouyang Lan immediately brightened up and said happily, "Then I'll wait for you at MG Restaurant. By the way, remember to bring Little Wen along and have him eat dinner with me. I haven't seen him in a long time. I'll get Ah Sheng to come to the school gates to pick you up."
"Can't you..." Before An Jing could finish her sentence, Ouyang Lan hung up.
An Jing frowned slightly. Although she had gotten Zhou Wen to take her place in the Holy Land and was over the nomination, she still wasn't willing to face him. She still had a knot in her heart when she saw him.
She had always felt that if her body wasn't problematic, she would be the most suitable candidate.
She thought about not calling Zhou Wen, but Ouyang Lan had already mentioned it. An Jing hesitated for a moment, washed up, changed her clothes, walked out of her building, and over to Zhou Wen's building.
She pressed the doorbell but didn't see Zhou Wen come out.
"It's not that I didn't get him; he's not around." An Jing pressed three times, but no one answered. Thus, she turned to leave.
Bang!
At that moment, An Jing suddenly heard something from Zhou Wen's building. It sounded odd as though something had been smashed.
Could something have happened? She glanced at Zhou Wen's building, but she had second thoughts. What has he got to do with me? He can die for all I care.
She turned around and walked a few steps. When she was about to return to her yard, An Jing turned her head and walked to Zhou Wen's door again. She pressed the doorbell again as she mumbled to herself, as though trying to convince herself, He lives next door. It's just a wall separating us. What if he implicates me because of something he does? I have to figure it out.
But after pressing the doorbell a few times, there was still no response. Instead, there was the sound of something shattering coming from inside the house.
An Jing looked up and saw that the balcony door on the second floor wasn't locked. She leaped up and landed on the balcony before pushing the door open and entering.
"Zhou Wen, what are you doing?" An Jing walked inside as she spoke.
No one answered her, but there was another loud bang. An Jing heard it clearly this time. The sound came from the training room.
There's soundproofing in the training room. Even boxing sandbags wouldn't leak any sound. What's he doing? Had something really happened? An Jing thought to herself as she looked around. Suddenly, she saw a spot in the ground that had signs of heat warping. It seemed to have solidified after melting. Immediately feeling something amiss, she was certain that something had happened.
An Jing naturally didn't know that the floor was damaged due to Zhou Wen's summoning of the goldfish. She had imagined that Zhou Wen had been attacked.
Don't tell me the League's Special Inspector Bureau attacked him? She quickly rushed to the training room and pushed the door. It was locked from the inside and didn't budge.
An Jing knocked on the door and called out Zhou Wen's name a few times, but no one answered. She was even more certain that something had happened to him.
Without any hesitation, she summoned a sword and sliced through the training room's steel door and rushed in.
The scene she saw when she entered left her slightly taken aback.
The scene in the training room wasn't as she had imagined. There were no men from the bureau, no signs of fighting, nor were there any signs of items shattering.
The only thing she could see was Zhou Wen floating in midair, his entire body emitting light and heat like a sun.
Although the light was a little blinding, it didn't cause any harm. The temperature made her feel hot, but it wasn't unbearable. Instead, it was comfortable, akin to sunbathing.
He's condensing a Life Soul... An Jing stared at Zhou Wen as her pupils constricted.
Back when she had defeated Zhou Wen with one strike, he was only at the Mortal stage—worthless. In less than a year, Zhou Wen was already condensing a Life Soul to advance to the Epic stage. Such a speed was too fast, so fast that it left An Jing jealous.
If it weren't for my chronic ailment, I would have advanced to the Epic stage a long time ago. If not for the fact that I can't go to the Holy Land, his Sun God bloodline would have belonged to me. An Jing looked at Zhou Wen and thought to herself.
But soon, An Jing realized that something was amiss with Zhou Wen's situation.
Zhou Wen's strength looked like it was a result of the Sun God bloodline being suitable with the Sun Strafe Art, but upon careful inspection, she realized that it wasn't the case. It looked a little different.
What's happening? Did he not cultivate the Sun Strafe Art? Then what did he cultivate in? How did he obtain the Sun God bloodline? An Jing was puzzled. She stared at Zhou Wen who was condensing his Life Soul and carefully observed him.
Bang! Bang!
An Jing heard the sound again, but she realized that the sound came from Zhou Wen's body—from his chest. The sound seemed to be his heartbeat.
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Chapter 368c
In prehistoric times when humans lived out in the open, with the land as their mat, the sky as their blankets. They fought against countless terrifying creatures, using their bodies to resist the assault of the elements.
There came a day when humanity would grasp the power of fire and draw the curtains of an era of blood and fire—the dawn of civilization.
Fire represented destruction and also hope.
Countless scenes flashed through Zhou Wen's mind. In that glacier world, groups of humans were huddled inside caves, bunched up with each other, but they were still trembling in the cold wind. Some of them closed their eyes, never to open them again.
A person walked over with a torch and lit a fire. It was so warm that it filled the entire cave, and countless humans worshiped it.
An Jing looked at Zhou Wen's body and saw the sun-like glow around him grow more intense. It wasn't only light and heat, but there was also an indescribable power that made one prostrate down in fear.
This kind of worship was not the fear of gods, nor was it faith, but pure adoration.
Bang! Bang!
Zhou Wen's heart beat more and more intensely. His chest was heaving visibly, as though the heart in it was about to tear out.
An infinite vitality erupted from Zhou Wen's body. Even An Jing, who was standing at the door, could sense the vigorous vitality.
This isn't the Sun Strafe Art. It's definitely not the Sun Strafe Art. Although it has the power of light and heat, and although it looks similar to the Sun Strafe Art, the Sun Strafe Art doesn't have such vitality. It doesn't have the aura of a sovereign who encompasses everything... An Jing stared intently at Zhou Wen as she was extremely alarmed.
She originally believed that Zhou Wen only had the chance of obtaining the Sun God Body in the Holy Land after cultivating the Sun Strafe Art.
However, Zhou Wen was now telling her that he could obtain the Sun God Body even if he didn't cultivate the Sun Strafe Art.
Zhou Wen's life force had almost materialized as it illuminated the entire room like sunlight. An Jing, who was standing at the door, was also illuminated by it.
She immediately felt a warm force enter her body, quickly warming her entire body. Her body, which was still in pain due to the relapse, felt much better. The pain was rapidly dissipating.
How is this happening? An Jing found it unbelievable. The similarly vigorous Sun Strafe Art inflicted extreme pain on her, only causing her chronic ailments to worsen. However, Zhou Wen's power could reduce her pain and even slow down her ailment.
An Jing could clearly feel the icy ailment in her body slowly melting under the illumination of Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen's heart beat more and more intensely as the light and heat on his body grew stronger. All the blood vessels in his body were throbbing and swelling up due to the intense beating of his heart. They surfaced on his skin like purplish-red wyrms. All his muscles tightened as though they were filled with infinite explosive power.
The potent power and vigorous vitality made Zhou Wen feel as though his body possessed an infinite amount of energy. Even if he clashed with the heavens, he could still bore a huge hole through the sky.
Zhou Wen felt that the current him could be described by an idiom, "bursting with energy." Ever since he had needed blood to game, his physique and strength had kept improving, but it had been a long while since he had experienced this kind of vigorous vitality.
Now, Zhou Wen wished he could deliver a punch that could flatten the entire dorm. Whatever house, whatever blanket, my body temperature can melt ice and snow and illuminate the entire world. Let the tempest come strike harder!
The gushing Primordial Energy, essence, vitality, and spirit constantly condensed over Zhou Wen's body before flowing towards his heart. It made his entire chest emit light and heat as though there was a sun in it.
An Jing stared blankly at the floating Zhou Wen. The intense light illuminated her body, rapidly melting the ice, as warmth spread across her body.
An Jing had an urge to cry. From the moment she came of age, she had never felt warmth. It was as if ice had frozen in her body. Even when it was summer, while everyone was drenched in sweat due to the heat, she would only feel the coldness lessen a little. She didn't feel warm at all.
But now, the ice in her body was melting. An unprecedented warmth spread throughout her body.
Boom! Boom... Boom! Boom... Zhou Wen felt as though a strange object had condensed in his heart. The item fused with his heart as it spread across his body, forming a strange physical system.
Zhou Wen felt as though the physical system with the heart as the center was an engine that gave him infinite motivation.
I... I have to leave immediately... Even if I suffer a lifetime of chronic ailments... I will not accept Zhou Wen's powers to heal my body... An Jing turned around and left.
Although she knew that staying behind would rid her of the ailment that had troubled her for years, An Jing's pride prevented her from accepting Zhou Wen's treatment.
It would be fine if it were anyone else. Just not Zhou Wen.
She was An Jing, the An family's An Jing. Even if Zhou Wen took away her nomination to enter the Holy Land, she could proudly tell everyone that she was better than Zhou Wen and could defeat him.
However, if she were to accept Zhou Wen's powers, how was she to deal with herself in the future even if her ailments were cured?
She would never be able to look up at Zhou Wen again, forever unable to confidently tell everyone that she was better than Zhou Wen—that as long as she wished, she could defeat him.
There was no way she could live such a proud life again. This was more intolerable than the chronic ailment.
Without any hesitation, An Jing turned around and left. Although her body yearned for sunlight, she would rather walk into the darkness to preserve her pride.
However, at the instant An Jing turned around, Zhou Wen's strength completely erupted. The light on his chest spewed out like a blazing sun. Instantly, the resplendent light seemed to melt the entire room as An Jing's body was devoured by the light.
An Jing felt a scorching force instantly fill her entire body. The coldness in her body was like a ball of snow that had been thrown into a furnace. It instantly melted, as though some chains had melted off her body. Her body turned limp and she collapsed to the ground.
Zhou Wen became completely conscious as he saw a humanoid glow floating in front of him like a sun. He knew that it was the Life Soul that he condensed from the Ancient Sovereign Sutra.
But other than the condensed Life Soul, there was also a woman sitting paralyzed by the door. She was struggling to stand up with her hands against the door frame.
An Jing! Zhou Wen immediately recognized the person when their eyes met.
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Chapter 369 Ancient Sovereign
"An Jing, why are you here?" Zhou Wen felt puzzled when he looked at An Jing. He didn't know what was happening. While condensing the Ancient Sovereign Sutra's Life Soul, he had been immersed in it completely, without knowing what was happening around him.
An Jing's body felt warm and weak. She had never experienced such a feeling before. She could no longer feel the cold energy in her body.
An Jing's pride had never been dealt such a blow before, so she felt extremely embarrassed and furious. She forced herself to stand up with the help of the door frame, trying to make herself look as cold as she usually was. Gritting her teeth, she said, "I'm here to foil your Life Soul condensation; otherwise, why do you think I'd be here?"
With that said, she ignored Zhou Wen's reaction and turned to leave.
Zhou Wen watched An Jing leave in a daze. He didn't quite believe her, but he couldn't figure out what she was here for.
His phone suddenly rang. Zhou Wen picked up his phone and glanced at it. It was An Sheng, so he chose to answer.
"Young Master Wen, are you ready? I'm waiting outside the school's main gate." Having waited for some time without Zhou Wen or An Jing appearing, An Sheng called Zhou Wen.
"What are you waiting for?" Zhou Wen asked in puzzlement.
"Madam invited you and Miss Jing to dinner. Didn't Miss Jing inform you?" An Sheng asked.
"Oh, yes. I was informed. Wait for me, I'll be right there." Zhou Wen was in a good mood right now. The Ancient Sovereign Sutra had finally condensed a Life Soul which was a great thing for him. Therefore, he didn't reject Ouyang Lan's invitation. He could have a good meal to reward himself.
Zhou Wen first dripped his blood to revive and read the game's information. Indeed, when he used the Ancient Sovereign Sutra, his Life Soul became a new one.
Ancient Sovereign (Primordial Body): Ancient life born from blood and fire, the sovereign who fights against the heavens.
Roughly knowing the Ancient Sovereign's abilities, Zhou Wen didn't immediately study it. He quickly took a shower and changed his clothes before heading for the school's entrance.
When Zhou Wen arrived at the school's entrance, he saw An Sheng's car parked not far away.
He walked over to the car and saw An Jing sitting in the back with a deadpan expression. He pulled open the front door and sat in the front passenger seat.
An Sheng sized up Zhou Wen and revealed a look of surprise. "Zhou Wen, you condensed a Life Soul?"
"How do you know?" Zhou Wen asked in puzzlement.
Typically, as long as someone didn't summon a Life Soul, no one would be able to tell who was at the Epic stage and who was at the Legendary stage. It was rather odd that An Sheng could tell at a glance that he had a Life Soul.
An Sheng smiled and explained, "Didn't I tell you before that I'm especially sensitive to things like souls? However, if it's some time after a person condenses a Life Soul, their Life Soul would be more restrained, so I wouldn't be able to sense it. The Life Soul aura on you is still very strong, so it shouldn't have been long since you condensed it, right?"
"I see. I just succeeded before coming here," Zhou Wen said.
"That's really great news. Madam sure chose a good time to invite you to a meal. She can celebrate for you." An Sheng paused before continuing, "For you to be able to condense a Life Soul so quickly, it's obvious that your talent is just like Old Mister Ouyang said. You are extremely outstanding."
"To condense a Life Soul after so many years of cultivation is already considered very slow," Zhou Wen said.
"Pretentious," An Jing said from the back without looking at Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen was already used to An Jing's snide remarks, so he simply ignored her. An Sheng didn't respond and continued asking, "Tell me what Life Soul you condensed if you don't mind. I can report this good news to Madam later."
"It's nothing special. Previously, our Xuanwen Club was organizing a joint activity with the Weiyang Club. Li Xuan got me to join in the barbecue. While observing the charcoal fire, something struck me. When I returned and thought it through, I finally understood the true meaning to fire due to my good luck. I broke through my bottleneck and condensed a Life Soul," Zhou Wen explained simply.
He definitely couldn't hide his advancement to the Epic stage, so he might as well just tell them straight away. Furthermore, he could make the Ancient Sovereign Sutra's Life Soul public while concealing the other Life Souls, especially Slaughterer. Zhou Wen didn't want anyone to know of the existence of this Life Soul. He had a nagging feeling that it was too bizarre.
Figuring out a Life Soul from eating barbecue? An Jing didn't say a word, but the corners of her eyes twitched as she felt a huge blow to her heart.
"Principal Ouyang was right. You are indeed an extremely focused person. Such a person will succeed easily. No matter what you do, you can gain inspiration from it," An Sheng said.
"You are referring to Feng Qiuyan. He's that kind of person." However Zhou Wen looked at it, he felt that An Sheng's words described Feng Qiuyan.
"Feng Qiuyan from the Feng family? I really don't know about that. However, I'll pay attention to him in the future." An Sheng paused before saying to Zhou Wen, "Young Master Wen, what plans do you have after graduation? With your talent, you will succeed no matter what you do. However, in this era, nothing you do will be stable. Do you want to consider joining the military?"
"We'll talk again in the future." Zhou Wen didn't wish to continue the topic.
An Sheng didn't mention it again. He drove the duo to MG Restaurant. Ouyang Lan was already waiting for them in a private room.
The present Ouyang Lan looked a lot thinner than when Zhou Wen first visited the An family. However, she still wore a warm smile as she pulled An Jing and Zhou Wen to sit beside her.
"Ah Sheng, sit down too. We are all family and there are no outsiders," Ouyang Lan said when she saw An Sheng standing by the side.
An Sheng didn't stand on ceremony either. He pulled a chair and sat beside Zhou Wen. He said to Ouyang Lan, "Madam, Young Master Wen condensed his Life Soul today and advanced to the Epic stage."
"Is that so? Little Wen, you're really a genius." Ouyang Lan was delighted as she pinched Zhou Wen's cheeks with both hands. She tugged a few times with all her might, causing his face to distort.
Zhou Wen looked at Ouyang Lan in a daze, momentarily at a loss for a response.
Ouyang Lan seemed to realize that she had been too excited. She released her hands and said, "Sorry, it's a habit of mine pinching Little Jing. I couldn't help it."
Zhou Wen was immediately rendered speechless. At the same time, he imagined what An Jing would look like if she was pinched like that.
However, he found it quite unimaginable. An Jing's cold expression made it difficult for him to imagine how she would look after being pinched.
Apart from An Jing, everyone enjoyed the meal. Only An Jing felt extremely conflicted. She didn't know how she finished the meal because she had no idea how she could face Zhou Wen in the future.
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Chapter 370 Inside the Temple
After returning to his dorm, Zhou Wen carefully studied the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul and discovered that the "Sun" postfix of the Strength stat also vanished like before.
The Ancient Sovereign Life Soul could fuse with Zhou Wen's body and give him a powerful driving force. This was somewhat different from a traditional Strength-type Life Soul.
When possessed by a traditional Strength-type Life Soul, Strength was directly multiplied.
For example, if the Strength of an Epic expert was at 40. If his Life Soul was to multiply his Strength, it was possible that his Strength would be raised to 60, 70, or even 80.
However, it didn't mean that one could unleash 80 Strength when one's Strength reached 80. In reality, the power that a person could produce was largely related to their skills, stamina, and other factors. Without any training, even if they possessed 80 Strength, the power that they could truly wield from throwing a punch was less than 60 or even less than half.
Even a well-trained fighter couldn't unleash their peak combat power for prolonged periods. Usually, he would be able to maintain his peak strength output for two to three minutes. Those that didn't drop below 90% of their Strength would be considered an extremely powerful individual. If this continued, their bodily functions would weaken and they would need some buffer time to continue such explosive strength.
However, that wasn't the case with the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul. The Ancient Sovereign Life Soul provided a powerful driving force system. Now, Zhou Wen's Strength was 32. When he had the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul possess him, he could maintain his Strength at peak condition constantly. He wouldn't suffer a decline in stamina or a decrease in strength. He was practically a combat machine.
And now, the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul was still at its lowest Primordial stage. If he could continue growing, he didn't know what powers he would have in the future. Perhaps it would allow him to break through the limits of his strength and produce extraordinary powers.
Furthermore, the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul also had combat powers. His combat strength was equivalent to Zhou Wen's attributes and could be considered Zhou Wen's avatar. This was somewhat similar to Doctor Darkness's Dr. Soul. Zhou Wen was very satisfied.
Looking at the glow that resembled a sun god, Zhou Wen felt a little depressed. The glow from the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul was too intense and it was like a humanoid creature condensed from light. He couldn't see what he looked like at all.
Now, there's the Wordless Monument's Dao Sutra and Small Buddha Temple's Small Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. Which one do I start with? Zhou Wen was momentarily at a loss.
The Ancient Sovereign Sutra could still be connected to fire, but Zhou Wen didn't know where to begin with these two Primordial Energy Arts. All he could do was find information related to Buddhism and Daoism in the school's database.
However, the knowledge of these two categories was just too broad and profound. Even if one spent the rest of their lives studying them, they might not be able to cover everything. Having no clue at all, Zhou Wen didn't know where to begin.
The flower bud on the Dead Man Tree had already withered over the past few days and had grown a purple fruit. It looked like it was cast from purple-copper, and its shape resembled an egg.
In the past, Doctor Darkness's fruit ripened after seven days. Zhou Wen estimated that this would take at least seven days, so all he could do was patiently wait. He looked forward to seeing the type of Companion Beast that would appear from the fruit.
He started up the game and tried to enter the temple under the ruins to use the Lost Country's teleportation ability to enter the temple.
Passing the Aoyin stone statue with the sacrificial offerings, he arrived at the door to the left side of the palace. The moment the blood-colored avatar opened the door to the palace, he saw a creature resembling a wolf and tiger. It was entirely black in color and had two tails. With wings on its back, it lunged over at an incredulous speed. Even Ghost Steps' speed couldn't match it.
Zhou Wen pressed down on the ring transformed by Lost Country. The ghostly face's eyes flashed as the blood-colored avatar's body instantly vanished. When it appeared again, it was behind the monster.
Zhou Wen hurriedly sized up the environment in front of him. He was likely inside the temple, but he saw that it was ancient and spartan. It didn't have exquisite decorations or any kinds of calligraphy works. In the hall, there was only a stone altar and a stone offering table. There weren't any statues on the altar other than a rock.
Zhou Wen only had the chance to glance at the stone before the game screen went black. The blood-colored avatar had clearly been killed by the terrifying dimensional creature.
Even if the temple doesn't consecrate gods, they should consecrate some demons. Why would they consecrate a stone? Zhou Wen was puzzled.
He had only taken one look at the rock and felt that it looked like a boulder. It was about three meters tall and it was shaped like a mountain. It didn't look anything special.
After waiting for twenty-four hours, Zhou Wen went to the temple on the right. The temple on the right was somewhat special. Zhou Wen used teleportation, but he also only managed one glance.
The palace's interior was filled with metal. Even the walls and pillars were made of metal. It also had altars and offerings, but they were made of metal as well.
On the metal altar, the thing that was consecrated was a huge metal ax. The ax was double-edged, and it looked dark and sinister. It was even bigger than a door. The handle of the ax was like a metal pillar, and it looked heavy. There was probably no human who could use such a heavy weapon.
Although he could enter the temple, he died upon entry. Apart from teleporting, even Ghost Steps couldn't dodge the attacks of the two Mythical creatures. Zhou Wen couldn't think of a way to fend them off.
However, there were no hiding spots within the temple. If the former principal and the others had really entered the temple, they were likely doomed.
Zhou Wen grinded the dungeons daily and read some relevant articles to study how to condense a Life Soul and level up one's Life Soul. A few days had unknowingly passed.
One day, Zhou Wen was grinding the tiger dungeon when his phone suddenly rang. He answered the call while grinding.
"Zhou Wen, are you alright?" A familiar voice sounded. It was Zhong Ziya.
Zhou Wen couldn't be bothered with grinding. He threw down the game and gripped his phone tightly. "I'm fine. I've returned to school. How are you?"
After a moment of silence, Zhong Ziya said, "I won't be able to return to school. If there's a chance, we'll meet again in the future."
"What plans do you have?" Zhou Wen asked again.
Although they hadn't spent much time with each other, he felt that Wang Mingyuan's students matched his personality. He had unknowingly become closer to them.
"With the world so huge, it naturally has a place for me. For Teacher to do something so earth-shattering, I can't embarrass him as his student. Naturally, I have to do something big as well," Zhong Ziya said.
"What are you going to do?" Zhou Wen was a little worried. Zhong Ziya had a strange temper, but he possessed an extraordinary talent. He was probably going to cause havoc if he really turned evil.
"Let's talk about it when we meet in the future. I have something on campus. I won't be going back in the future. There's no point in keeping those things there. I'll give them to you. That item is at..." Zhong Ziya told Zhou Wen a place.
"I'll get it and send it to you," Zhou Wen said.
"There's no need. Just treat it as a memento." Zhong Ziya hung up after saying that.
When Zhou Wen called again, he heard the notification that the person he had just called had switched off their phone.
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Chapter 371 Spirit Casting
Zhou Wen helplessly put away his phone and thought for a moment. He planned on heading to the location Zhong Ziya mentioned to take a look.
However, Zhou Wen wasn't sure if the item was still there because Zhong Ziya's belongings were hidden in Dragon's Well. Back then, the Special Inspector Bureau's Director-General had personally led a search and investigation, so it was very likely that they had already found the item.
As for what it was, Zhong Ziya didn't say, and Zhou Wen didn't have the time to ask.
When he came to Old Dragon Cave again, Zhou Wen felt mixed feelings. He still remembered Wang Mingyuan cooking for the four of them while wearing an apron. But now, it was a mess.
He wanted to clean up the lab and make it return to its original appearance, but he felt uncomfortable. He picked up a few pieces of broken apparatus and put them down again.
They're gone. So what if I tidy the place? Zhou Wen sighed inwardly. After putting down the item, he headed straight for Dragon's Well.
The platform made of stone beside Dragon's Well had been dismantled, and the chain had long disappeared. This served to make Zhou Wen feel even more uncomfortable.
Back then, he had pulled the chain quite a few times. The few of them had joked that they were fishing for dragons, but they had never really caught anything. They didn't even catch a single snake, much less a dragon. It was all a form of self-consolation.
He switched to the Godfiend Life Providence and flew down the shaft, stopping about twenty meters from the mouth of the well.
The cold fog here was already thick and it was so dark that he couldn't see his fingers. Zhou Wen approached the wall and reached his hand out to feel his way. It was biting cold to the touch as though it was ice.
Zhou Wen wasn't worried about encountering danger. He had entered Dragon's Well several times in-game, so he knew that this place was still far from the White Dragon's location so he wouldn't alarm it.
After some searching, he only found cold rocks. Suddenly, Zhou Wen felt a soft spot as though he had touched a sponge. He couldn't help but feel delighted.
After carefully feeling around the area, he discovered the wooden plank that Zhong Ziya had mentioned. He opened it and revealed a hole that allowed an arm to extend in. Zhou Wen extended his hand and groped for a while before taking out a bamboo tube.
The hole wasn't deep. After some groping around and realizing that there was nothing else, Zhou Wen took the bamboo tube and flew out of Dragon's Well.
After leaving Dragon's Well, he carefully examined the bamboo tube, only to discover that it was emerald-green in color, like fresh bamboo that had just been chopped off. The opening was stuffed with cloth.
Zhou Wen removed the seal and looked into the bamboo tube. He saw that there was something rolled up. It looked like paper.
After pouring the thing out, Zhou Wen realized that it wasn't paper, but an animal hide of unknown species. After some processing, it turned into a leather scroll.
The workmanship of the scroll wasn't bad. It was just that it had been through a lot, so it was a little worn out.
What did Zhong Ziya leave here? Zhou Wen was puzzled as he unfolded the leather scroll. He saw that there were many words written on it. Although the words looked a little faded, time had failed to completely erase them.
Zhong Ziya doesn't usually like to study. Why would he have such a thing hidden here? It's relatively easy to believe that this item was hidden by Jiang Yan. Zhou Wen was somewhat curious as he carefully read the contents on the scroll.
This left Zhou Wen alarmed.
The leather scroll recorded witchcraft called Spirit Casting. It was said that humans were unable to fuse with other living beings, but the method described was too alarming. It didn't adhere to human common sense. If Zhou Wen had seen it in the past, he would only treat it as something fabricated by a delusional person. It was impossible for it to be realized.
However, Zhou Wen's expression turned odd when he thought of Wang Mingyuan, who had transformed into a dimensional creature.
Don't tell me Teacher used this Spirit Casting technique to fuse with the creature inside the white cocoon? Zhou Wen thought to himself. But why does Zhong Ziya have this? Where did he get it from? Did Teacher give it to him?
Zhou Wen couldn't figure it out. After hesitating for a moment, he placed the leather scroll back into the bamboo tube before storing it in the Chaos Bead's chaos space.
This item was definitely taboo for humans. Zhou Wen didn't want others to see it, nor did he have plans to learn it.
If Zhong Ziya didn't come to retrieve it in the future, he planned on permanently sealing it within the chaos bead, preventing it from ever seeing the light of day again.
After doing all this, Zhou Wen walked out of Old Dragon Cave.
The bustle outside Dragon Gate Grotto had returned to normal. There were even more people. Many people had set up stalls outside selling their loot. The most popular ones were all kinds of stat crystals. Although everyone wanted Companion Eggs, the prices were too high so transactions were relatively few.
"Zhou Wen, what are you doing here?" someone stopped him.
Zhou Wen turned around and saw that the person who called out to him was Huang Ji. This fellow had actually set up a stall here.
"Senior, why are you running a stall when you should be developing the game?" Zhou Wen was somewhat depressed. To not work on the game and run a stall here only seemed to imply that his investment was for nothing.
Huang Ji mysteriously pulled Zhou Wen to the side and whispered, "I'm working on the game. Some unimportant parts have already been outsourced. In two months, we should have the results. That's not urgent. Something big will happen today, and benefits might be in store. Why don't you wait with me?"
"What can happen here?" Zhou Wen looked around him. Although Dragon Gate Grotto had many dimensional zones, they were all inside the grottos. What could happen outside?
"Junior, you have no idea. All the dimensional zones in Dragon Gate Grotto are different, but in fact, Dragon Gate Grotto is an entire dimensional zone, including the spot where we are now," Huang Ji said as he pointed at the stone steps beneath him.
"Of course I know that." Zhou Wen didn't know what Huang Ji was getting at.
"Then aren't you curious why there are dimensional creatures in those grottos with magical things happening inside but there aren't any outside?" asked Huang Ji.
"Is a reason needed?" Zhou Wen asked.
Huang Ji covered his forehead and pursed his lips. "There is definitely a reason for everything. If there is no reason, then it just means that we haven't figured it out. There is actually something mysterious outside Dragon Gate Grotto. It's just that it won't appear normally, but tonight is when that magical moment happens. Otherwise, why do you think there are so many people here? There will be more people coming later. Many people who know of this will probably come tonight."
"What magical thing is it?" Zhou Wen was somewhat intrigued. He believed there definitely would be something good. Otherwise, why would people choose to come here instead of other places where there were so many magical things happening in other dimensional zones?
"This magical thing in Dragon Gate Grotto is called Buddha Eye Opening..." Huang Ji said excitedly.
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Chapter 372 Buddha Eye-Opening
Legend had it that in ancient times, Dragon Gate Grotto often suffered floods, wiping out cities and fields.
One year, due to a prolonged rain upstream, the water level kept rising. The experienced elders knew that there was going to be a flood and began moving higher up the mountain. In the story, a child was playing on the shore when he heard a strange sound coming from the water. It sounded like someone was saying, "Open or not... Open or not..."
The child thought nothing of it. Two days later, a major flood really began upstream. The commoners watched their fields and city flooding and felt extremely miserable.
Although they had brought everything that they could bring with them, once the disaster was over, the fields would be ruined. There would be nothing to eat in the coming year, resulting in a definite famine. Moreover, after the flood, there would definitely be plagues. At that time, medical technology was not good enough to control plagues. They could only survive it with numbers, which meant that in larger areas not everyone would die from the contagion.
While everyone was filled with grief, the child heard that strange voice coming from the water again. It sounded like it was asking, "Open or not... Open or not..."
The child was very curious and explained the matter to his parents. When his parents heard that, they were overjoyed and told the child that if he heard the voice again, he should answer "open".
Not long after, the child heard that voice again. This time, he followed his parents' instructions and said, "open."
Then, the churning river split apart. The floodwater that flowed down from upstream actually split into two paths. One circled around the fields and city from the left, and the other circled around it from the right. A serious flood didn't happen.
And in the area where the river split apart, the mountain walls that were beneath the river surfaced. Numerous Buddha statues and grottos of different sizes appeared. One of them was a Buddha statue with eyes staring straight at the sky. The river split into two with his eyes being the central axis.
After the flood passed, the commoners realized that the Buddha statue's eyes had closed. Only then did they realize that the Buddha statue had saved their entire city.
Ever since then, the Buddha statues and grottos appeared out of the water—the present Dragon Gate Grotto.
Of course, this was just a legend that couldn't be taken seriously. However, the story of Buddha opening his eyes had spread around the area.
Huang Ji told Zhou Wen that he didn't know if Buddha had really opened his eyes to save all those lives, but he was certain that after the dimensional storms, every time the river beside Dragon Gate Grotto exceeded a certain range, a Buddha statue would open its eyes. If one were to be looked at by the Buddha statue, there might be a huge fortuitous opportunity befalling them.
"What huge fortuitous opportunity?" Zhou Wen asked curiously.
Huang Ji shook his head and said, "I don't know. I heard that there were several instances in Dragon Gate Grotto that had the Buddha open his eyes. Every time someone was glanced at by the Buddha statue, it was as though a Buddha's light had descended upon them. However, I don't know what benefits those people gained later on. It's just that I heard about a student with an average aptitude, who had the lowest grades in school and always ranked in the bottom three in the comprehensive test. He was lucky enough to be looked at when the Buddha opened his eyes. From then on, it was as though he had cheated as his results shot up rapidly. He advanced to the Legendary stage in just a few months. I heard that he advanced to the Epic stage shortly after graduation." "That godly?" Zhou Wen was somewhat in disbelief.
"I don't believe it either. But that's the legend that's spreading. I've only heard people mention it. Recently, there's been a lot of rain, and the water level has already exceeded the legendary mark. Perhaps today will be the day the Buddha opens his eyes. If there's nothing else you need to do, just wait here. Who knows, if Buddha takes a look at you, you'll be in for a swell time," Huang Ji said. Upon hearing Huang Ji, Zhou Wen felt that he should stay behind to take a look. Even if the Buddha statue didn't fancy him, it was better to broaden his knowledge. Zhou Wen sat down beside Huang Ji, waiting for the so-called Buddha Eye-Opening to happen. "Which is the Buddha statue with the closed eyes as mentioned in the legend?" Zhou Wen looked around him but didn't see any Buddha statue with closed eyes.
"That one." Huang Ji pointed up. Thankfully, Zhou Wen's eyes were especially good; otherwise, he really wouldn't be able to see that Buddha statue. It was because the Buddha statue that Huang Ji pointed to was so inconspicuous.
The more important Buddha statues were all full-body sculptures, but the Buddha statue in question was just a carving. Furthermore, it was only one-foot-tall and was carved on a stone wall. The Buddha statues around it were several meters tall or even more than ten meters tall. This made it extremely inconspicuous. If one didn't pay attention, they would miss it.
Zhou Wen scrutinized it and realized that the Buddha statue did have its eyes closed, but after sizing it up for a while, he failed to discover anything magical about the stone statue.
Li Xuan and Li Weiyang walked over with a group of people. From afar, he saw Zhou Wen, ran over, and grumbled, "Old Zhou, so you're here. That makes it easy for me. Why didn't you answer all my calls?" Only then did Zhou Wen recall that he hadn't brought his ordinary phone when he came out.
"Why are you all here?" Zhou Wen looked and realized that almost everyone from the Xuanwen Club and the Weiyang Club was here. Even Gu Dian.
"Why else would we be here? Aren't you here for that Buddha Eye-Opening as well?" Li Xuan curled his lips as though he was very displeased with Zhou Wen for coming alone without informing him.
"I only learned about the Buddha Eye-Opening from Senior Huang Ji a moment ago. I went to Old Dragon Cave to pack some things," Zhou Wen explained.
"Then you came at the right time. If the Buddha statue really opens its eyes later, it might be able to take a fancy to us. That will be sweet," Li Xuan said.
As the two spoke, more and more people came. Zhou Wen saw that Wei Ge had brought quite a number of the student council's leaders, including Zheng Tianlun.
Zheng Tianlun wasn't very fond of Zhou Wen and only gave him a glance. Wei Ge nodded at him with a smile, appearing to be somewhat friendly.
Zhou Wen nodded slightly in response, but he had a nagging feeling that Wei Ge was a little different from before, but he couldn't put a finger on the difference.
The sky grew darker and, when the sun was setting, more and more people came. Not only were there people from the college, but there were also some from outside the college. After all, not all of Dragon Gate Grotto belonged to Sunset College. As more and more people appeared, the Buddha statue remained motionless. Ignoring the hope of having its eyes opened. It was so dark that it was almost out of sight.
Suddenly, Zhou Wen heard splashing sounds as though something was churning in the river, causing it to constantly bubble.
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Chapter 373 Enjoying the Flowers
Everyone's eyes were attracted by the churning water, including Zhou Wen.
With a loud splash, green lotus leaves emerged from the water. After extending out from the water surface, many water droplets swirled on the lotus leaves, making them wobble. The splashing sounds continued to echo. More and more lotus leaves appeared on the surface of the river like bamboo shoots after the rain. They kept appearing, and not long after, the river was almost completely covered by the lotus leaves. At a glance, it was as if it had turned into a green river of jadeite. In the darkness, the lotus leaves even emitted a faint light.
"Did such a phenomenon happen in the past Buddha Eye-Opening?" Zhou Wen asked Li Xuan.
Li Xuan shook his head and said, "I'm not very sure about that. However, I heard that there was indeed a phenomenon before the Buddha Eye-Opening. However, I've only heard of birds flying over from all directions, nothing about the river giving rise to lotus leaves.
As the two conversed, there was another change on the river surface. Lotus flowers extended out from the water and slowly bloomed between the lotus leaves, making the scenery on the river even more pleasant.
Those lotus flowers seemed to be lamps that illuminated the surface of the river. It was truly a magical sight.
Zhou Wen was watching the scene of the lotus flower blooming when he suddenly heard someone shout, "The Buddha has opened his eyes... The Buddha has opened his eyes..."
Zhou Wen and company turned their heads and looked at the statue on the stone wall. Its closed eyes seemed to have a golden line drawn. Light shimmered from within as though it was about to open its eyes.
Zhou Wen's heart stirred as he switched his Primordial Energy Art to the Small Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. He thought, The Small Perfection of Wisdom Sutra is also a Buddhist Primordial Energy Art. It might be of some use. Since it shares the same religion, the Buddha statue might even glance at me.
Many students and cultivators moved in front of the Buddha statue, hoping to obtain the Buddha statue's favor.
Feng Qiuyan, Ming Xiu, and Tian Zhenzhen also came to Zhou Wen's side. Tian Zhenzhen looked at the Buddha statue curiously and asked, "Could it be that only those with Buddhist physiques or people with Buddha-related Life Providences can obtain the fortuitous opportunity during the Buddha Eye-Opening?" "Who knows? The last people who got chosen by the Buddha statues apparently didn't have any Buddhist physiques," Li Xuan said after some thought.
"Could there be no standard?" Tian Zhenzhen asked again.
"Even if there are standards, no one knows what it is," Li Weiyang said. As they spoke, the Buddha statue's eyes had already completely opened, its eyes sparkling with a Buddhistic glow. However, the direction it was looking at was not the humans on the shore, but the lotus leaves and lotus flowers over the river.
"Is he enjoying the flowers?" Ming Xiu looked at the Buddha statue in deep thought.
"From the looks of it, enjoying the flowers is his main goal. Choosing someone might just be done in passing," Li Xuan said with a twitch of his lips.
Dragon Gate Grotto had thousands of people along the riverbank as they helplessly watched the Buddha statue enjoy the flowers. The Buddha statue did nothing but admire the flowers, with zero intention of looking at the humans by the shore.
Seeing that the Buddha statue wasn't looking at him, Zhou Wen couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed. It looks like the Small Perfection of Wisdom Sutra isn't of much use.
Suddenly, not far away, a figure ran to the river bank and jumped into the river. After that, the figure separated the lotus leaves and swam towards a spot where the Buddha statue was looking at.
"Holy f*ck! This bro sure has ideas!"
"You want to get a Buddhist affinity this way? Is that person's brain damaged?"
"I guess that person must have gone crazy thinking of getting a Buddhist affinity? If you can obtain a Buddhist affinity using such a trick, what kind of affinity is that?" "The person destroyed so many lotus leaves and flowers and disrupted the Buddha statue's enjoyment of the flowers, spoiling its mood. I won't be surprised if there's a punishment, so to get a Buddhist affinity? Stop dreaming."
Everyone reacted and immediately understood what that person was trying to do. There were people who were amazed, but most people were mocking the person.
"That person is rather interesting! Is it a student from our school?" Zhou Wen looked at the person who was swimming with piqued interest. Earlier, they had all had their eyes on the Buddha statue and hadn't seen who had jumped into the river.
Although this method seemed unreliable, this person dared to act on their ideas. It wasn't comparable to the people on the shore who could only mock.
"Probably." Li Xuan was somewhat unsure. The person was swimming amongst lotus leaves so they were blocked from view. Furthermore, the river's water had drenched the person's clothes, so it was impossible to tell if they were wearing the school uniform.
Boom!
The person was trying their best to swim when a bolt of lightning suddenly shot down from the sky. It hit the person who was swimming in the water. The surrounding river water rose a foot high because of the impact, and the lotus flowers nearby also suffered damage. An area was charred black after the lightning strike.
"I knew it. How dare you use such a trick before Buddha? You deserve to be struck by lightning."
"Some people only want to take shortcuts. Have you learned your lesson?"
"You even dare to fool Buddha? Who else should be struck by lightning if not you?"
Many people who were watching were gloating. Even though there were people who were concerned about whether that person had died from the lightning strike, no one dared to save the person. They were afraid that they would also be struck by lightning once they entered the river. Zhou Wen felt that the person was rather interesting. He had seen the might of the lightning, and it wasn't enough to hurt him. He said to Li Xuan, "Wait here for me. I'll see if he's dead."
Zhou Wen didn't summon his arm wing, but he used Dragon Gate's Flying Immortal Skill. He stepped on the lotus leaves and headed for the lightning-strike victim.
As he stepped on the lotus leaves and landed on the spot where the person had been struck, he reached out to grab the person who was floating faced down. Upon closer inspection, he was surprised. This person's hair and clothes had been charred black, but the person wasn't dead. The person had only fainted.
That wasn't the main point. The main point was that Zhou Wen actually knew this person. She was none other than Fang Ruoxi, who had graduated from Guide High School with him.
It's no wonder you jumped down from our side. It's her! Zhou Wen was looking at the Buddha statue just now, just like the others. He really didn't notice that Fang Ruoxi had disappeared.
Just as he was about to bring Fang Ruoxi back to the shore, he suddenly saw a bolt of lightning appear out of nowhere. It descended from the void and struck Zhou Wen and Fang Ruoxi.
"Zhou Wen, be careful!" Li Xuan and company shouted.
And among the other spectators, many gloated over Zhou Wen's predicament. They felt that he deserved being hit for his rash act.
Zhou Wen naturally saw the lightning smite down as well. The lightning came quickly, preventing him from having any time to think. Zhou Wen summoned his Overlord Sword and slashed out the Demonic Astral Wheel at the lightning
The blood-colored light wheel tore out and collided with the lightning. Immediately, a streak of blood-red light exploded.
As the Demonic Astral Wheel shattered, the lightning also shattered. It transformed into electric wisps that scattered across the river surface, charring the lotus leaves and lotus flowers.
Boom!
Before Zhou Wen could retract the sword in his hand, another bolt of lightning came smiting down, preventing him from having a chance to return to the bank.
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Chapter 374 Who Ended Up With It?
Zhou Wen held Fang Ruoxi in one hand and raised his Overlord Sword in the other as he prepared to slash out a sword beam to shatter the incoming lightning.
However, he had only raised his sword halfway when he suddenly felt his ears heat up. A golden earring appeared on his ear, producing a strange power.
Truth Listener! Zhou Wen was delighted. He knew that Truth Listener had finished its incubation and had automatically returned to his ears. At the same time, it unleashed a strange power.
This power extended all over Zhou Wen's body. Even the Overlord Sword in his hand was enveloped by Truth Listener's power. The lightning struck the Overlord Sword, but it didn't produce any terrifying power. Instead, it transformed into a strange energy that was transmitted into Zhou Wen's body, giving him an indescribable sense of comfort. Not only did the lightning not harm him, it even seemed to replenish his energy. Boom! Boom! Boom!
Lightning Bolts fell from the sky one after another as they struck the Overlord Sword that Zhou Wen raised.
"It's over. Old Zhou is about to be charred to a crisp!" Li Xuan felt his heart chill when he saw the blinding lightning blast on Zhou Wen's body.
Anyone would imagine that Zhou Wen would be electrocuted to death with such a terrifying electric blast.
However, Zhou Wen didn't feel the pain of being struck by lightning. Instead, he felt his Primordial Energy fill. Every bolt of lightning that struck him added a little to his Primordial Energy. The excess Primordial Energy that his body couldn't contain seeped out from his pores.
Almost instantly, nine bolts of lightning fell. When the light from the lightning dimmed, the spectating students and crowd realized that Zhou Wen was still standing there with his sword raised. He hadn't been reduced to ashes as they had expected. Even his clothes weren't damaged at all.
Zhou Wen, who was standing on a lotus leaf, held Fang Ruoxi in one hand and raised the Overlord Sword in the other. He even emitted a faint golden luster. The visual effect was perfect, alarming and puzzling many students.
"The nine golden lightning bolts were so terrifying. Why isn't Zhou Wen injured at all?" Zheng Tianlun widened his eyes in disbelief. Wei Ge said indifferently, "You underestimate Zhou Wen. How can such lightning hurt him?"
Zhou Wen walked towards the bank with Fang Ruoxi, but the lightning didn't descend from the void again.
Zhou Wen landed on the shore and just as he put Fang Ruoxi down, two golden beams shot out of the Buddha statue's eyes and headed straight for him.
Is it finally coming? Zhou Wen felt a little excited. He didn't know what the Buddha Eye-Opening's power would bring him.
However, in the next second, Zhou Wen was stunned. The golden beam from the Buddha's eyes didn't shine on him but on Fang Ruoxi who was on the ground.
Fang Ruoxi's hair and skin that had been charred from the lightning strike rapidly healed under the golden light. Not only did she recover from her own injuries, but she also became even more crystalline. Amidst her black hair was a faint golden luster.
From the looks of it, the Buddha statue chose Fang Ruoxi from the beginning. After all, she was the first person to enter the river. Zhou Wen guessed the reason why the Buddha statue had chosen Fang Ruoxi. He wasn't envious at all. Fang Ruoxi had such an opportunity because she had pursued it with all her might.
Fang Ruoxi opened her eyes. Even her pupils seemed to glow with a faint golden luster. It made her seem a little different from before.
"Why am I here? Didn't I get struck by lightning?" Fang Ruoxi sat up and looked around in a daze.
"It was Old Zhou who saved you. Furthermore, you were lucky to have received the Buddha statue's gaze. However, you need to thank Old Zhou. If he hadn't helped you block eight bolts of lightning, you would probably have lost your life instead of enjoying the Buddha affinity," Li Xuan said jealously.
"Thank you, Zhou Wen," Fang Ruoxi stood up and stood in front of him.
"It's nothing. It's nothing." Zhou Wen shook his head slightly and turned to look at the Buddha statue on the stone wall. However, the Buddha statue had already closed its eyes and returned to its normal appearance. The lotus flowers and leaves in the river also withered in an instant. In the end, they all melted into the river, leaving nothing behind.
When the crowd of onlookers saw that the Buddha statue had lost its divine glow and the surface of the river had returned to normal, they knew that they had missed the Buddha Eye-Opening this time and could not help but feel regret. Previously, they had not jumped into the river like Fang Ruoxi's search for a Buddhist affinity. Otherwise, they might have gotten it instead.
A number of people left in disappointment, but there were also quite a number of people who looked over. Apart from asking about who had obtained the Buddhist affinity, they were mostly asking about Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen had managed to withstand eight golden lightning bolts with a single sword without being injured at all. It was as though he was a God of Combat embodied. It left people somewhat shocked.
Zhou Wen wasn't in the mood to stay any longer. He informed Li Xuan, Huang Ji, and company that he had something on, before returning to his dorm.
After returning to his dorm, Zhou Wen eagerly took out the mysterious phone and checked Truth Listener's information.
A small golden monkey appeared on the screen. Its transformation wasn't too great, and its body was still rather miniature. However, the golden fur on its body had turned into a dark golden color, much more restrained than before. Furthermore, it had four ears when it advanced to the Legendary stage. Now, it had six ears, three on each side. They were distributed in a triangular shape like flower petals.
With Truth Listener looking almost the same, Zhou Wen directly looked at its stats, eager to know what power it had used.
Truth Listener: Epic (Evolvable)
Life Providence: Heaven's Senses
Life Soul: Evil Nullification
Strength: 41
Speed: 41
Constitution: 41
Primordial Energy: 41 Talent Skill: Truth Listener, Indestructible Golden Body, Evil Warding, Nine Extremes
Companion Form: Earring
Zhou Wen saw that Truth Listener's attribute growth was within his expectations. There weren't any changes in skills. However, there was an additional Life Soul-Evil Nullification. It was likely the Evil Nullification Life Soul that nullified the lightning and turned it into Primordial Energy.
However, Zhou Wen was only able to sense a thing or two when it came to a Companion Beast's Life Soul. He had no way of completely figuring out what Evil Nullification's exact effects were.
When he summoned Truth Listener, he saw a tiny six-eared, golden-haired monkey appear in his palm. It looked at him with eyes that suffused a golden glow.
"Summon your Life Soul for me to see," Zhou Wen said to Truth Listener.
Truth Listener received Zhou Wen's order, but it didn't summon the Life Soul. It appeared to be scratching its ears and cheeks as though it didn't know what to do. At the same time, Truth Listener had a thought transmitted into Zhou Wen's mind.
"I can't... I can't..." Zhou Wen sensed that Truth Listener's will was seemingly repeating this.
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375 Useless Evil Nullification
Zhou Wen found it odd. Could it be that Truth Listener's Life Soul is a passive Life Soul that can't be summoned just like my Slaughterer?
Truth Listener couldn't speak and Zhou Wen had no way of asking it. All he could do was take it in-game to fight monsters, hoping to see how much it had improved.
When he reached the poison bat cave, he summoned Truth Listener and let it kill the poison bats itself.
Truth Listener was indeed a Mythical pet. Although it was still developing, it possessed a strange strength that was astonishing. Its movement speed was as fast as lightning, and it was as fast as Zhou Wen's Ghost Steps. Its two claws were indomitable, easily tearing apart a poison bat that was similarly at the Epic stage.
Even the poison bat Boss, White Shadow of Poison, was easily caught up by Truth Listener before tearing its body apart. What surprised Zhou Wen was that when the White Shadow of Poison entered its shadow state, it failed to dodge Truth Listener's claws and was directly torn into two.
That petite body jumped between the horde of poisonous bats. Even though it could only kill one poisonous bat every time, the speed at which it killed them was very fast. Each swipe of the claw killed one, almost as though it was not afraid of a group brawl.
Although Truth Listener performed very well, these seemed to be skills it originally had. The reason why it had powerful Speed and Strength was that it was augmented by the Nine Extremes Primordial Energy Skill. This Primordial Energy Skill allowed Truth Listener's Speed and Strength to exceed its limits, allowing it to produce strength that exceeded its own.
The Indestructible Golden Body made Truth Listener hardly need to dodge attacks of the same level. It wouldn't even be easy for dimensional creatures of a higher level to kill it.
Truth Listener could really be used as a tanking pet despite it's extremely small body.
Zhou Wen had seen these powers before, but he didn't see the effects of its Evil Nullification Life Soul.
Seeing that the experiment was useless, Zhou Wen turned Truth Listener into an earring and went to the underground sea.
Before Zhou Wen descended to the sea, he summoned the goldfish to give it a try. The moment it landed in the seawater, it immediately vaporized immense amounts of water, producing white steam. It was like placing red-hot metal pieces into water.
Then, Zhou Wen hurriedly checked the goldfish's stats and saw his Bad Luck instantly soar to 100. It frightened him so much that he hurriedly unsummoned it.
You're clearly a fish, alright? How can you not like water? This is your fault, Zhou Wen lampooned inwardly before he rushed into the sea.
After switching back to the Slaughterer Life Soul, Zhou Wen used his movement technique to circle around the nine black dragons. He was ultimately no match for it and was swallowed by a black dragon.
Apart from the enhancement in my hearing range and the details I can make out, it doesn't seem to be of any special use. Back in Dragon Gate Grotto, it was able to turn the lightning into Primordial Energy. Why isn't it capable of doing so now? The black dragon spewed out a few rounds of dragon breath at me, but it failed to absorb the dragon breath and convert it to Primordial Energy when it landed on me. Could it be because the black dragon is too powerful that it isn't able to convert it in time? Zhou Wen thought to himself as he headed to Ancient Sovereign City. He wanted to see if it could absorb the flames at the Fire God Platform.
However, when the firebirds hit the blood-colored avatar, Truth Listener didn't react at all and didn't absorb the flames.
Could it be that it can only absorb the power of lightning? However, dimensional creatures with lightning-elemental attributes seem a little difficult to find, Zhou Wen thought for a moment and immediately thought of Li Xuan.
Li Xuan had the Thundergod Sword. He just needed to try it out with him.
He gave Li Xuan a call and asked if he was free. Since Li Xuan was free, the two of them decided to meet at the training grounds.
"Zhou Wen, look who this is?" When Li Xuan came, he had actually brought someone over.
"Ah Lai, why are you here?" Zhou Wen was somewhat surprised. This was because Ah Lai wasn't a student at the college. Logically speaking, he shouldn't have been able to enter the school.
Li Xuan said smugly, "I got him an identification card and got him to be admitted into an ordinary university. Then, I used some connections to get him to come to our Sunset College as an exchange student."
"Awesome!" Zhou Wen gave him a thumbs up. This wasn't something an ordinary person could do.
Ah Lai was still very quiet. He didn't speak much. Back when Zhou Wen and Li Xuan had taken him out of the Holy Land, his memory had been damaged greatly, so his memories were limited.
Later, Ah Lai was taken back by Li Xuan and was arranged that he would stay in Li Xuan's villa. This was the first time Zhou Wen had seen him since their farewell.
"Ah Lai is really strong. I got him to cultivate in a Primordial Energy Art and gave him some crystals. It didn't take long for him to advance to the Legendary stage. He's an absolute genius. Who knows, he might be able to advance to the Epic stage in a short while," Li Xuan said excitedly.
In a certain sense, Ah Lai's Primordial Energy Art and Primordial Energy Skills were taught by Li Xuan. It was enough to view Ah Lai as his student, so Li Xuan was very happy with Ah Lai's achievements.
"If you need money, go to Li Xuan. If you want to beat up monsters or something, you can look for me," Zhou Wen said to Ah Lai with a smile.
Li Xuan rolled his eyes at Zhou Wen speechlessly. "By the way, why were you looking for me?"
"I want you to help me with a test. Use your Thundergod Sword to smite me with lightning," Zhou Wen said.
"What's the point of me smiting you? Even the void lightning in Dragon Gate Grotto wasn't able to harm you at all. I doubt my lightning will do anything." Li Xuan curled his lips and said, "Don't tell me you are deliberately showing off?"
"Just smite me. Why all the chatter?" Zhou Wen said.
"On your guard." Li Xuan suddenly unsheathed his sword and cleaved using the Thundergod Sword, slashing out a powerful lightning beam at Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen had no intention of being hit. All he did was hold his Overlord Sword horizontally and block the lightning sword beam.
Bam!
The lightning exploded on his sword, spreading lightning across Zhou Wen that his hair stood on end. Thanks to the electric current, his body convulsed for quite some time before he stopped.
Holy sh*t, it's useless! Zhou Wen was depressed. Why did it work previously, but not now?
"Old Zhou, what's wrong with you? Why didn't you use the method you used at Dragon Gate Grotto to block my lightning?" Li Xuan felt puzzled as he looked at Zhou Wen, unsure of what he was up to.
"Again," Zhou Wen said through gritted teeth.
"Old Zhou, when did you gain the hobby of being tortured?" Li Xuan said with a smile. However, he didn't idle as he struck out with another lightning sword beam.
Zhou Wen raised his sword to block the lightning sword beam, but it was the same as the previous strike. His entire body turned numb from the lightning, and his hair resembled afro curls.
"Haha, Zhou Wen, do you really have sadomasochistic tendencies? Do you want me to strike you a few more times?" Li Xuan was in a good mood. He was eager to continue, as though he wanted to cleave out a few more times.
"Smite your a*s." Zhou Wen was now officially certain that Truth Listener's Evil Nullification Life Soul didn't have the ability to convert lightning.
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376 White Immortal
"Old Zhou, what were you trying to do?" Li Xuan asked with a smile.
"Nothing. I'm testing my Companion Beast abilities, but it's just a disappointment," Zhou Wen answered truthfully.
"What Companion Beast is it? Can it only show its strength after suffering abuse?" Li Xuan was even more curious.
However, Zhou Wen wore a depressed look as he waved his hand. "Forget it. I was wrong. Let's just leave it be. I'll head back now."
"Don't, I made an appointment with Feng Qiuyan and Gu Dian. I'll be taking all of you to somewhere nice later," Li Xuan said.
"Where to?" Zhou Wen asked.
Li Xuan took out a black entry pass and said, "Do you see this? This is the entry pass to White Immortal Temple. It's very difficult to obtain it. Only five people can enter. You, Ah Lai, Feng Qiuyan, Gu Dian, and I will go together."
White Immortal Temple? Is there such a dimensional zone on campus? Zhou Wen thought carefully but couldn't think of any dimensional zone of that name on campus.
"It's not in our college, but it's in Luoyang City. It's a great place. You will see later," Li Xuan said mysteriously.
"The White Immortal Temple doesn't consecrate Madame White Snake, right?" Zhou Wen had heard his grandfather tell him the story of Madame White Snake when he was young, so the name "White Immortal" reminded him of the story.
"What is on that head of yours? Madame White Snake is suppressed in a place called Leifeng Pagoda. It's far away in West Lake," Li Xuan explained even though Feng Qiuyan and Gu Dian haven't arrived yet. "The so-called White Immortal is one of the five immortals in folklore—Fox, Yellow, White, Willow, and Gray. Fox refers to Fox Immortal. You should know that foxes can cultivate to become an immortal. It's a very common story. Yellow Immortal refers to a weasel. It's an extremely evil thing. Willow Immortal refers to a Snake Immortal. Gray Immortal is a mouse. As for White Immortal, it is actually a Porcupine Immortal. These five immortals are more well known in the north. We have fewer than Five Immortal Temples in our area, but in Luoyang, there's a White Immortal Temple. It has turned into a dimensional zone and has been under military control. The entry pass is hard to come by. I was lucky to get one by chance and can bring all of you to take a look."
"By chance?" Zhou Wen stared at Li Xuan with an odd expression.
Li Xuan knew what Zhou Wen was thinking and shook his head. "Don't worry. This has nothing to do with my brother. Besides, death is virtually impossible in White Immortal Temple. You'll just suffer a little."
"What do you mean?" Zhou Wen had zero ideas about White Immortal Temple; he had no idea what it looked like.
"There is a special power inside White Immortal Temple. Once you enter, every step you take will be like a needle prick. The further you go, the more intense the needle-pricking pain is. Normal people won't go too deep, and at most, they will have many bloody holes in their soles. But if one barges in forcefully, that would be fun. I heard that an Epic expert with great movement techniques flew into the White Immortal Temple's main hall by relying on his flying ability. However, as soon as he entered the hall, he let out a tragic cry and fell to the ground. His entire body was covered in needle holes and he was severely mangled. His blood flooded the ground and he died immediately."
"From the sound of it, this White Immortal Temple seems very dangerous?" Zhou Wen didn't like to go to dangerous places.
"It's actually not a big problem as long as we don't force our way in. Just walk as far as you can go. If you can't withstand the pain, just turn around and come out. As long as you turn around and walk straight, you won't be injured. If you have a high tolerance threshold, you can walk to the incense burner in front of the hall and light a stick there. You might obtain a Companion Egg from the White Immortal," Li Xuan said.
"What's the level of the White Immortal Companion Egg?" Zhou Wen asked.
"The level doesn't matter. In fact, the White Immortal Companion Egg is only at the Legendary stage. However, it has an extraordinary Life Providence. If you have a White Immortal Companion Beast, it might one day save your life. You can tell how good it is just by how much the military locks down the place." Having said that, Li Xuan deliberately stopped. Clearly, he was waiting for Zhou Wen to ask him questions.
Zhou Wen had no choice but to entertain him. "What is the White Immortal's Life Providence?"
"The White Immortal's Life Providence is impressive. It's known as Immunity to All Illnesses. With a White Immortal Companion Beast, you can basically guarantee that you won't fall sick. You should know how terrifying illnesses are. Although cultivators have strong bodies and typically don't fall sick, their bodies are unable to withstand the harsh environments in dimensional zones. If they fall ill, the illness can be even more fatal than the average person. When that happens, White Immortal's value will show itself.
Li Xuan continued, "Besides, the White Immortal Companion Beast has the ability to seek out herbs. Although it doesn't know how to fight, it can distinguish between the strange plants in a dimensional zone. It knows which ones are poisonous and which ones are medicinal herbs. If there's nothing to eat, one can also rely on White Immortal's help to eat some herbs for survival. It's better than starving to death, and there's no need to worry about accidentally consuming poisonous plants."
"Now that you put it this way, this White Immortal sure is a good pet." Zhou Wen felt that Li Xuan was right. Immunity to All Illnesses was indeed a good Life Providence, especially when this Life Providence could aid its master.
Even a cultivator couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't fall sick. In all kinds of harsh environments, if they fell sick, it would be very troublesome. With White Immortal, there was no need to worry about it.
After a while, Feng Qiuyan and Gu Dian came one after another. The five of them successfully left the school together as Li Xuan had already prepared a permit for them to leave. Ah Lai drove the four of them to the White Immortal Temple.
The White Immortal Temple was much smaller than Zhou Wen had imagined. It was like a small courtyard house of an ordinary family. However, its design was slightly different. There was an old wooden plaque hanging on the dilapidated wooden door. The words "White Immortal Temple" were indeed written on it, but the paint on it was almost gone.
After Li Xuan handed over the pass, the five of them walked to the door of White Immortal Temple. The door was already open, and they could see the tiny courtyard inside with a single glance. There were all kinds of small houses, but they looked like they were only used to store miscellaneous things, and not meant to consecrate other immortals.
A slightly bigger building that directly faced the door was the hall that worshiped White Immortal.
In front of the big building was a stone incense burner. The incense inside was almost completely filled.
Li Xuan gave each of them three sticks of incense before taking three sticks of incense himself. After taking off his shoes at the door, he walked in.
"Why are you taking off your shoes?" Feng Qiuyan asked in puzzlement.
Li Xuan said, "Later, my feet will be pricked with bloody holes. I'm not afraid of the blood, but dirtying my shoes and socks won't be nice."
Zhou Wen and company found this reasonable, and they mimicked Li Xuan by taking off their shoes and socks before walking barefooted into the yard.
Li Xuan took point. The moment he stepped in, his expression changed immediately, but he gritted his teeth and walked in. However, when he raised his leg, he could clearly see a bloody mark beneath his feet which formed footprints.
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377 Bloody Footprints
Zhou Wen hesitated when he saw Li Xuan losing so much blood. One step took enough blood for plenty of games.
However, this yard was relatively small and it wouldn't take too many steps to cover the entire distance. At most, it was about ten steps. For the sake of the White Immortal Companion Egg, Zhou Wen decided to give it a try.
Gu Dian, Feng Qiuyan, and Ah Lai followed Li Xuan inside. The expressions on everyone's faces changed the moment they walked in. It was easy to imagine how it felt to be stabbed in the soles by needles. Feng Qiuyan and company were considered people who had a high tolerance level, but they couldn't help but grimace.
Gu Dian had a small disadvantage. His feet were big and the blood footprints he left behind were much larger.
Zhou Wen was the last to step in. He was already mentally prepared to suffer the pain of the needles pricks, but when he stepped down on the ground, he didn't feel any pain at all. Instead, a warm current rose from the soles of his feet and directly entered his body. It was actually Primordial Energy that surged into his body.
Truth Listener! Zhou Wen felt the power coming from the earring. It was the feeling he had when resisting the lightning in Dragon Gate Grotto. He felt pleasantly surprised.
He attempted a few more steps and indeed, he didn't have his sole pierced like Li Xuan and company. Nor did he feel any pain. Instead, plenty of Primordial Energy seeped into his body from the soles of his feet.
Truth Listener's Evil Nullification Life Soul is really strange. Under what kind of situations can it be used? It was lightning previously, but now it's the power of the White Immortal Temple. The two don't seem to match at all. What similarities do they have? Zhou Wen thought to himself.
The yard was tiny, so Li Xuan and company only took about ten steps before arriving in front of the incense burner.
However, those ten steps weren't a breeze. Every step they took meant one bloody footprint. The further they walked in, the more bloody footprints. The pain of 10,000 needles piercing through the bottom of their feet was something that could be endured once or twice. But to take about ten steps wasn't something ordinary people could endure.
Li Xuan was the first to walk to the incense burner. Then, he respectfully lit the three sticks of incense. After bowing three times, he inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner.
After doing all of this, Li Xuan looked in anticipation.
Zhou Wen looked in from behind and saw that there wasn't a statue inside. On the single offering table was a wooden plaque with the words "Old Madam White" written on it.
Crack!
The three incense sticks that Li Xuan inserted in the incense burner suddenly tilted, snapping from the middle.
"This trip was for nothing. You guys give it a try." Li Xuan gloomily retreated to the side.
Being able to walk in to offer incense was one thing, but to be able to obtain the White Immortal Companion Egg was another matter. The immediate snapping of the three incense sticks indicated that the Old Madam White hadn't accepted Li Xuan's incense offerings, so she naturally wouldn't give a White Immortal Companion Egg to him.
Ah Lai walked forward and mimicked Li Xuan by bowing three times before inserting the incense sticks.
All five of them were focused on the three incense sticks, wondering if they would snap like Li Xuan's incense.
The three incense sticks didn't break, but they burned very quickly. What should have taken almost an hour to finish burning took only minutes.
The smoke from the three incense sticks didn't dissipate. Instead, it gathered above them. After the three incense sticks were completely burned, the smoke turned into a white egg and landed in the incense burner.
"Ah Lai, your luck is in. Quick, take the Companion Egg," Li Xuan said.
Ah Lai picked up the Companion Egg from the ash. It was the size of a fist, crystalline-white like porcelain.
Following that, Feng Qiuyan went to offer incense as well, but his results were the same as Li Xuan's. The incense stick snapped just as it was inserted. Clearly, he wasn't able to obtain Old Madam White's favor.
Gu Dian walked over to light the incense, but this fellow didn't bow. Instead, he lit the incense sticks and inserted them into the incense burner. This sight left Li Xuan and company shaking their heads, believing that it would be odd if such an attitude gave him a Companion Egg.
However, what astonished them was that the three crooked incense sticks that Gu Dian had placed in the incense burner, didn't snap. They burned as quickly as before and before long, they were done burning. The smoke also turned into a Companion Egg.
"I wouldn't have bowed if I had known." Li Xuan felt even more depressed when he saw that.
"Old Zhou, it's your turn," Li Xuan said as he looked at Zhou Wen, who was in the rear. However, he immediately felt that something was amiss.
Behind the three of them were two rows of bloody footprints. However, where Zhou Wen was standing, there was nothing. Li Xuan took a careful look and realized that from the entrance to the incense burner, there were only six rows of footprints. Indeed, there were no signs of Zhou Wen's.
Zhou Wen was just about to offer some incense when he heard Li Xuan say, "Old Zhou, what's wrong with you?"
"Coach hasn't offered the incense yet. What do you mean what's wrong?" Feng Qiuyan asked.
Li Xuan pointed at the bloody footprints on the ground and said, "I'm not talking about the incense. I'm referring to the bloody footprints. All of us left bloody footprints. Why doesn't Zhou Wen have any?"
Feng Qiuyan and company hadn't noticed Zhou Wen who was in the rear. Now that Li Xuan had said so, they looked back, and indeed, they didn't see Zhou Wen's bloody footprints.
Zhou Wen said, "I happen to have a Companion Beast that can restrain the power here, so I didn't suffer the needle-pricking."
"Seriously? Where did you get your Companion Beast from? I'll go get one too." Li Xuan widened his eyes. He had never heard of any Companion Beast being able to ward off the needle-pricking in White Immortal Temple.
"Small Buddha Temple, you can try it if you want," Zhou Wen said.
Li Xuan's eyes widened. "You actually went to Small Buddha Temple. I heard that many people died there. They died for no reason after entering. You didn't die and even got a Companion Egg from there?"
"I read a strategy on the Internet before. The strategy guide said that as long as you cultivate in the Heart Meditation Primordial Energy Skill, you can safely enter Small Buddha Temple. However, in the main hall, you have to first learn a Primordial Energy Art on a stone monument in the monastery. Otherwise, entering means death. I tried it, and the strategy was right." Zhou Wen made it clear. If Li Xuan and company had a chance to enter, it would be best if they could obtain the Companion Egg inside. After all, Zhou Wen wasn't able to obtain it.
Be it in-game or in reality, he had already been there. After receiving Truth Listener, the three-faced Buddha had no reaction to him at all.
"You dare believe in a strategy on the Internet? Count yourself lucky that you aren't dead. I think I'll forget it." Li Xuan shook his head. If he were to train in other Primordial Energy Arts again, it was a question whether he could master it, but if it had a conflict with the Invincible Connate Divine Art, it wouldn't be worth the loss.
"Coach, you cultivate multiple Primordial Energy Arts on the side?" Feng Qiuyan asked in surprise.
"Just for fun. I still mainly cultivate my Primordial Energy Art," Zhou Wen said.
Feng Qiuyan praised, "It's said that a Primordial Energy Art in a dimensional zone needs special physiques to master them. Coach, you were able to gain entry on a minor cultivation even though you didn't cultivate it deeply. Your talent is too astonishing."
"Let's not talk about anything else. In terms of talent, no one is better than Old Zhou. He's still this strong despite gaming all day, if he focused on cultivation, I don't think anyone could even come close," Li Xuan said.
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378 Explosion
"Indeed. Coach is the rarest talent I've ever seen." Feng Qiuyan nodded in agreement as he looked at Zhou Wen with admiration.
Although Zhou Wen was a little thick-skinned, he couldn't stand it any longer. They just didn't know how hard he worked all day, playing games with everything he had. He bled and sweat in the true sense of the word; his efforts were no less than any other.
It was a pity that others only thought of him as gaming. It wasn't something he could explain either.
All he could do was pretend not to have heard them. When he turned around and walked to the incense burner, he lit the three incense sticks. Holding them in his hand, he bent down and prepared to bow like Li Xuan.
However, just as Zhou Wen bent down slightly, there was a loud thud. The wooden plaque on the offering table shook a little and fell to the ground.
Zhou Wen was taken aback as Li Xuan, Feng Qiuyan and company wore looks of astonishment, unsure what was going on.
They didn't sense any wind. Besides, this was a dimensional zone. Even if there was wind, it was impossible to blow off a wooden tablet. Why would the wooden tablet fall?
Zhou Wen already roughly knew what was going on and was certain that it had something to do with his Life Providence. Back in the Earth Temple, the statue of an orthodox deity like Earth Lord hadn't even dared receive his bow by automatically moving to the side. White Immortal, who wasn't a true deity, naturally couldn't have her tablet take his bow.
Earth Lord gave me a treasure map after all. You should give me something, right? Zhou Wen didn't bow and inserted the three incense sticks into the incense burner.
And once this happened, there was a boom as the fallen wooden tablet exploded into wooden splinters.
"What... What's happening..." Li Xuan and company looked at each other, unsure what was going on.
"Old Zhou, you are freaking awesome. You blew up Old Madam White's tablet!" Li Xuan patted Zhou Wen on the shoulder.
Zhou Wen was too deep for tears. All he wanted was a Companion Egg. But this f*king tablet even exploded. From the looks of it, he had zero chance of getting the Companion Egg. Zhou Wen saw that the three incense sticks were slowly burning. They didn't snap, but they didn't burn at an accelerated speed.
"Let's not talk so much. Let's quickly leave. Otherwise, it will be very troublesome when the guards outside realize that the tablet is gone. We might get into trouble," Feng Qiuyan said.
"Yes, let's go." Li Xuan firmly believed so.
Zhou Wen looked at the pile of wood splinters, feeling depressed. However, he had no choice. All he could do was follow Li Xuan and company out of the White Immortal Temple.
Zhou Wen wasn't injured, so he put his shoes on straight away.
Li Xuan and Gu Dian's recovery abilities were excellent. By the time they walked out, the injuries on their feet had healed. It was as though they had never been injured.
Feng Qiuyan and Ah Lai didn't have such powerful recovery abilities, so they could only use their socks to wipe off the blood on their soles.
The five of them hurried out of the White Immortal Temple. The soldiers guarding the temple did not see what had happened inside, nor did they stop them.
If I can't offer incense, wouldn't I be missing the benefits I can get from many dimensional zones? Zhou Wen felt somewhat depressed when he didn't see the tiny palm symbol and couldn't download the temple.
His Life Soul was good, but it didn't distinguish. It even exploded tablets, so how was he to obtain any benefits?
After returning to his dorm, Zhou Wen couldn't help but recall what had happened during the day. He couldn't help but think. During the Buddha Eye-Opening, Fang Ruoxi jumped into the river and triggered a lightning that resembled heavenly punishment. It was reduced to Primordial Energy by Truth Listener's power. After walking into the White Immortal Temple today, the needle-pricking power was resolved by Truth Listener's powers. It appears they aren't connected, but on second thought, they seem to be of the same origin. It's as though these two powers are punishment-types. Could it be that the effects of the Evil Nullification Life Soul resist punishment-type powers?
It doesn't seem right. Zhou Wen felt that something was amiss again, but an idea suddenly flashed in his mind as he thought of the tunnels protected by Aoyin.
There were two tunnels that appeared to be similar in situation to White Immortal Temple. Zhou Wen decided to try out to see if Truth Listener's Evil Nullification Life Soul was useful there.
He directly activated the Zhuolu instance dungeon, controlled the blood-colored avatar, and stormed all the way to the ruins' tunnels before arriving in front of the Aoyin stone statue.
This time, Zhou Wen didn't take any poison bats as sacrifice. He summoned Truth Listener to transform into an earring before Zhou Wen chose the right tunnel.
Without a sacrifice, strange text would appear in the tunnel. Those words would turn into living beings that attacked anyone inside the tunnel. Even the armor formed by the Mutated Stone Chi could not withstand their sharp teeth.
If he attacked those text monsters, he would be injured instead.
This time, Zhou Wen didn't see the text when he walked in. Instead, a strange strength surging around him, turned into Primordial Energy that surged into his body. It filled his Primordial Energy with the excess gushing out from all his pores.
It really works. Zhou Wen was delighted. Truth Listener's Life Soul seemed to be more useful than he had imagined. It even managed to convert the strange powers of the Aoyin tunnel into Primordial Energy.
What kind of power does Evil Nullification Life Soul possess? Zhou Wen felt that the power of the Evil Nullification Life Soul seemed to have something to do with some strange powers, but he was temporarily unable to precisely define it.
Without pushing open the door to enter the temple, Zhou Wen ran to the left passageway. Despite no sacrificial items, the left passageway never mutated. At the same time, large amounts of Primordial Energy were converted into Zhou Wen's body through the Truth Listener earring.
This delighted Zhou Wen. Although he could use sacrifices to pass through the passageway, the offerings had a time limit. In the future, if he really needed to enter the temple to look for the former principal, it would have been a huge problem when he came out if he had stayed inside for too long.
Now that he had Truth Listener's Evil Nullification Life Soul, he didn't need to worry about these problems. He could freely enter and exit the Aoyin tunnels and replenish his Primordial Energy. This ensured his safety, making Zhou Wen even more confident of entering the temple to seek out the former principal.
Since the power of the Aoyin tunnel is restrained by Truth Listener, will the Aoyin stone statue be restrained as well? Zhou Wen's mind became active.
In the past, he didn't have the ability to target the Aoyin stone statue, but things were different now.
With this in mind, Zhou Wen came in front of the Aoyin stone statue again and sized it up.
The Aoyin stone statue was like a traveler in a cloak. It had no eyes, or ears, and a slightly open mouth as if it could devour anyone at any moment.
In the past, Zhou Wen had tried attacking the Aoyin stone statue but ended up being swallowed by it. No attack worked.
Gritting his teeth, Zhou Wen controlled the blood-colored avatar to summon his Overlord Sword. After gesturing at the Aoyin stone statue a few times, he slashed out with the Demonic Astral Wheel.
The blood-colored wheel of light slashed at the head of the sculpture.
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379 Slaying Aoyin
The Aoyin stone statue's mouth suddenly split open like a devil's mouth, reaching almost to its earlobes. It was pitch-black inside and, like a black hole, it swallowed the Demonic Astral Wheel.
The Demonic Astral Wheel with the Ever-Victorious trait seemed to be sucked into a bottomless abyss. Not a single ripple stirred.
Zhou Wen constantly produced sword beams one after another with Overlord Sword, using all his strength with every strike. With the augmentation of Slaughterer, he slashed out Demonic Astral Wheel at the stone statue like it cost nothing.
The Aoyin stone statue remained standing there without any signs of its body changing or moving. However, it strangely entered some form of translation motion. It kept opening its mouth and swallowing the sword beams.
In the next second, the Aoyin stone statue arrived in front of the blood-colored avatar. The stone statue looked as though it had never moved. However, its large mouth was on the brink of devouring the blood-colored avatar.
Zhou Wen was delighted by this. This was because he had previously seen the stone statue's mouth occupy the entire phone screen and devour the blood-colored avatar, but he had no means of dodging or counterattacking.
However, this time, he actually saw the Aoyin stone statue move, and there was no sign of the sculpture occupying the entire screen of the phone. In other words, he could now fight the Aoyin stone statue. Just this point alone deserved his joy.
Truth Listener's earring emitted heat the entire time, transforming a mysterious force into Primordial Energy that injected into Zhou Wen's body.
Zhou Wen knew that this was because Truth Listener had blocked a certain power from the Aoyin stone statue. Otherwise, the blood-colored avatar would have been swallowed by the stone statue like before.
He instantly activated Ghost Steps, dodging the mouth of the Aoyin stone statue. At the same time, his Overlord Sword brought with it an intense sword flash that cleaved at the waist of the Aoyin stone statue.
However, the Aoyin stone statue's speed was even faster than Zhou Wen when he used Ghost Steps. The stone statue moved with every move the Overlord Sword made. The sword beams produced were always three inches from the stone statue, unable to catch up to it at all.
Aoyin moved to Zhou Wen's side and bit down again, attempting to swallow him whole.
Zhou Wen constantly made use of Ghost Steps to move while slashing out sword beams. However, the Aoyin stone statue kept moving. Zhou Wen just couldn't hit it; instead, the blood-colored avatar nearly got bitten by the Aoyin stone sculpture several times.
However, without the mysterious force plaguing him, Zhou Wen had the ability to fight. He didn't find the Aoyin stone statue that terrifying.
Having fast speeds and powerful strength, as well as the ability to devour anything meant that Zhou Wen just needed time to figure out a solution to the problem. He was afraid of powers that he could succumb to without seeing or figuring out what they were.
Although he was at a disadvantage, Zhou Wen gradually figured out the combat style of the Aoyin stone statue.
It once again bit at Zhou Wen, but this time, Zhou Wen didn't dodge with Ghost Steps. A strange ring suddenly appeared on his finger. The eyes of the ghostly face on the ring flashed as Zhou Wen's body vanished. When he appeared again, he was by the side of the Aoyin stone statue.
"Die!" Overlord Sword slashed at the neck of the Aoyin stone sculpture that had lowered its head for the bite.
Crack!
The Overlord Sword with Ever-Victorious sliced through the stone statue with an intense Fangwheel Sword Flash, causing the stone powder and sparks to fly. The stone statue's head was chopped off.
Once he had beheaded the stone statue, its body shattered. At the same time, a notification popped up on the phone: 'Killed Epic creature, Aoyin Stone Statue. Discovered Dimensional Crystal.'
The Aoyin Stone Statue is only at the Epic stage? That's right. After all, it's only a stone statue. It isn't Aoyin itself. Zhou Wen controlled the blood-colored avatar to walk over and pick up a dimensional crystal from the rubble.
It was a gray crystal with an image of Aoyin inside. It was actually a Primordial Energy Skill Crystal.
Zhou Wen didn't know what skills Aoyin had, and he couldn't be bothered to think further. He directly allowed the blood-colored avatar to absorb the Primordial Energy Skill Crystal.
Soon, a strange energy emitted from the phone and flowed into Zhou Wen's body like a bolt of lightning. It surged through his meridians and formed a new Primordial Energy circulation in his body. At the same time, some vague information entered his brain.
A notification popped up on his phone: 'Absorbed Aoyin Stone Statue Crystal. Attained Primordial Energy Skill: Tongue Blade (Rank 9).'
Zhou Wen's expression turned odd. He had heard of Primordial Energy Skills like hand blades or arm blades, but this was the first time he had heard of tongue blades.
Using one's tongue as a weapon... That's really... Zhou Wen was somewhat speechless. However, he was overjoyed when he carefully studied what it did.
Tongue Blades were essentially the same as Primordial Energy Skills such as hand blades and arm blades. They used part of his body as a weapon, but the tongue was just too weak. Without bones in them, using tongues as weapons was even harder.
Aoyin Tongue Blade wasn't really about using a tongue to lick the enemy. Instead, one released Primordial Energy from their tongue to attack the enemy. It was similar to using a finger to shoot out a sword beam. However, using a tongue to emit a sword beam was clearly more unexpected.
I never expected the Aoyin Stone Statue to have this ability. Why didn't I see it being used just now? Zhou Wen imagined fighting an enemy in the future in an intense battle when he would open his mouth and spit at the other party. However, it wasn't saliva, but a sword beam. What would the other party's expression be?
Tongue Blade is good. This skill is great. Zhou Wen couldn't help but be happy when he thought of it.
After killing the Aoyin Stone Statue gatekeeper, and obtaining a rather practical Primordial Energy Skill. Zhou Wen wished to grind it a few more times, but even if he was willing to bleed, he was unable to kill the Aoyin Stone Statue without Lost Country's ability to teleport.
Even if the blood-colored avatar were to die and be reborn, the power of the Life Soul wouldn't refresh. It was still in sync with Zhou Wen's true body.
It's a pity that the three Life Souls have to match the corresponding Primordial Energy Art and Life Providence. I'm unable to use them together. If only I could use them together, my combat strength would rise to a whole new level, Zhou Wen thought with no regrets.
After leaving the Zhuolu battlefield, Zhou Wen didn't grind the Bat Cave again. The poisonous bats mainly produced Speed Crystals. Zhou Wen's current Speed Crystal was now at 40 points while the other three stats were slightly above 30. Therefore, he planned on changing his grinding spot.
He didn't have any hopes of reaching 41. Before heading to Zhuolu, he had to at least raise his four basic stats to 40.
Apart from the Zhuolu battlefield, Dragon Gate Grotto and Pool City were the only dungeons that had relatively more Epic creatures. Dragon Gate Grotto's Epic creatures were quite scattered, so it wasn't convenient grinding the map. Therefore, Zhou Wen planned on heading to the underground Pool City.
Zhou Wen had been grinding the Poison Wyrm Pool for a very long time, but he was still lacking one of the Poison Dragon Fingers to gather all five. He didn't know what effects there would be if he gathered them all. Therefore, he could use this opportunity to grind them again.
Other than the Poison Wyrm Pool, there were also many Epic creatures like the Sword Fang Fish and Electric Eel in Pool City. There was also the most common Jade Toad.
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380 A Way to Advance the Life Soul
Although there were quite a number of Epic creatures like Jade Toad, and it could drop many good items, there were not many tutors in the college who were willing to kill one.
The Jade Toad was poisonous. The blood and bodily fluids that spewed out were deadly poisonous if one managed to lacerate it. Just touching a little bit of it was enough to kill someone.
Before its death, the Jade Toad would even self-destruct. Within a radius of tens of meters, the poison would spray everywhere. Touching any bit of it could result in death.
If there wasn't a special need, who would risk their lives to kill such a dimensional creature? Humans were still humans after all. Even if they had the ability to kill Jade Toads, who could guarantee that they wouldn't be distracted for a moment? If they were stained with the poison, their outcome would be dire.
Naturally, Zhou Wen didn't have any qualms about that. His Poison stat was close to 20, so he didn't take to heart the typical poison. Furthermore, he wasn't afraid of death in-game.
Jade Toads and Poison Bats were poisonous creatures, but the crystals they dropped were mainly Strength-type. Occasionally, some high-level Primordial Energy Crystals would drop, making them rather good options.
Zhou Wen came to the underground Pool City and arrived at a region with shallow water. Indeed, there was a huge green toad sprawled on the roof.
Although this fellow could stay in water, it didn't usually do so.
Without a word, Zhou Wen controlled the blood-colored avatar to pull out the Overlord Sword and slashed out with a sword beam from afar.
The sword beam was as fast as lightning. The Jade Toad's speed was too slow and it was unable to dodge in time. All it could do was spit out venom to block the sword beam, but the sword beam sliced through the venom, slicing through its body.
Bam!
The Jade Toad exploded, and its poisonous green blood splattered everywhere, dyeing the nearby waters a dark green color.
Zhou Wen was overjoyed when he saw a dimensional crystal drop—Strength 36. He hurriedly sent the blood-colored avatar flying over to pick it up.
There was also poisoned blood on the dimensional crystal. When the blood-colored avatar picked it up, it had dyed its hands with a little green poison. However, the poison didn't spread. After Zhou Wen washed away the poison on the dimensional crystal, the poison on the blood-colored avatar's finger also slowly subsided.
The poison of this Jade Toad is even more powerful than the poison from the Poison Bat. It should also drop Poison Crystals, right? Zhou Wen was filled with anticipation when he saw this. Perhaps, he could obtain higher-valued Poison Crystals here.
Zhou Wen spent most of his time grinding Jade Toads. Before he dripped his blood to respawn the underground Pool City, he would kill the baby tiger and grind Tiger Cage Pass.
The Tiger Cage Demonized General was awesome. Furthermore, Zhou Wen also wanted to use the warlock at Tiger Cage Pass to hone his combat skills. The warlock was indeed powerful, making it difficult to kill him. However, using him to train his combat skills was better than using anyone else.
Typical dimensional creatures didn't have high intelligence, making them mostly rely on their natural talents when it came to combat technique. It was very rare to have enemies like the Tiger Cage Pass warlock.
He had no clue about the Small Perfection of Wisdom Sutra or the Dao Sutra Life Soul, nor did he find a way to advance the Slaughterer Life Soul. Instead, he attempted raising the Ancient Sovereign Sutra Life Soul.
The way to level up the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul was through combat. As long as he kept fighting, the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul would gradually grow. However, ordinary battles wouldn't have much effect on it; it had to be a high-intensity battle before it could evolve.
Zhou Wen realized that the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul underwent some strange changes while in battle with the Tiger Cage Pass warlock. Although he hadn't advanced it to an Evolved Body, it was indeed growing.
In battles between dimensional creatures, most of them rely on their talent and instincts. There aren't many truly skilled dimensional creatures. Speaking of techniques, humans are better at it... Zhou Wen thought for a moment. If he wanted the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul to evolve, he would have to fight other humans.
In school, the only opponent Zhou Wen could think of was Feng Qiuyan. Although there were other schoolmates who had talent on a par with Feng Qiuyan, they hadn't advanced to the Epic stage yet and were unable to reach the level the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul required in battle.
Although Feng Qiuyan is powerful, his saber techniques are too singular. His battle style is just speed. This doesn't seem to match the Ancient Sovereign Sutra's intent. After some thought, Zhou Wen realized that he probably wouldn't be able to spar with his schoolmates. However, other than students, there were many tutors in school who were genuine Epic experts.
However, tutors usually wouldn't spar with students. Even his own class's tutor might not spar with him, let alone those tutors who were only in charge of teaching.
After Zhou Wen studied all the tutors in the college, he felt that one tutor would probably be willing to be his opponent.
This tutor was Wei Feng, a tutor who was responsible for imparting boxing techniques in the college. He was adept at all kinds of powerful boxing techniques. Skills such as Golden Palm and Fiend Suppression Fist were a piece of cake for Wei Feng. It was said that the fist-type Primordial Energy Skill he was most skilled at was called "Explosive Fist." The strength of a single punch was like a bomb that could blast a house into ruins. It was truly the best choice for house demolitions.
Zhou Wen heard that Wei Feng was an old military officer who could have enjoyed life after retirement. However, he wanted to relieve his excess zeal, so he accepted the college's offer to teach at Sunset College.
Although Wei Feng was a tutor now, his temper didn't change much when compared to his time in the military. He wore his heart on his sleeve and had a fiery temper. He would take action as a demonstration if there was any disagreement.
Of course, it was only limited to a demonstration. He wouldn't really attack students, nor would he let students be injured.
Zhou Wen had also heard that Wei Feng was used to fighting in the military. After coming to school, with no one to fight him, he wasn't used to it and often got other tutors to spar with him. Many tutors were already scared of him.
Some of them really weren't his match, while others were irritated by his pestering. As long as he couldn't beat them, Wei Feng would continue to pester them until he defeated them. If he was in a good mood, he would want several more rounds of battles.
Most people wouldn't be able to tolerate this. Therefore, most of the tutors in the college changed expressions and hid far away when they saw him.
Others couldn't stand him, but Zhou Wen happened to be looking for such a trait. Therefore, after asking around about Wei Feng, he found some time to attend his class.
Zhou Wen was already a famous person in school. Although he kept a low profile as he entered the lecture hall and chose an inconspicuous spot to sit down, he was still recognized by other students.
"Why is Zhou Wen attending Tutor Wei's class?" Many students whispered to each other when they saw him.
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381 Untitled
Zhou Wen had recently become more accustomed to being gossiped about or discussed in private, especially after Wang Mingyuan's incident. This situation was already very common. As long as he was recognized while he was on campus, people would point fingers at him.
Of course, not all of them were malicious. Most of them were just discussing him.
After Wei Feng arrived, the lively lecture hall became quiet. It seemed that the students were still rather afraid of Wei Feng.
Zhou Wen secretly sized him up. Although he wasn't too tall, he was very imposing. He had quite a burly build and he carried a sense of valor, one that Zhou Wen had only seen from soldiers before. Although the typical tutor was strong, they didn't have such traits.
"Today, let's talk about how to use the Yin force in a fist technique." Wei Feng really liked to demonstrate in person while lecturing.
Zhou Wen saw Wei Feng take out a transparent scarf and hang it on a rope. Then, he punched at the silk cloth and produced a hole.
"Who wants to give it a try?" Wei Feng glanced at the students.
Zhou Wen originally imagined the typical student wouldn't be willing to step forward when a tutor asked for volunteers. He had attended classes from other tutors in the past, and only a few students who were more eager to learn were willing to cooperate.
However, the students who were listening in class all eagerly raised their hands to sign up. Every one of them raised their hands high as though afraid that Wei Feng wouldn't choose them.
What's going on? Is Wei Feng that popular? Zhou Wen was alarmed.
"That student who didn't raise his hand, come up." Wei Feng swept his gaze and finally looked over at Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen looked left and right and realized that he was the only one in the entire lecture hall who hadn't raised his hand. As for the other students, they looked at him with a faint smile.
Zhou Wen immediately understood why the other students eagerly raised their hands. It was obvious that they already knew Wei Feng's character. They knew that the more they didn't wish to volunteer, the easier it would be for Wei Feng to select them. This was why they were all so enthusiastic.
"Stop looking around. You are the one I'm talking about," Wei Feng said to Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen had no choice but to stand up and walk up the podium.
He had also attended a few lectures by other tutors. It was truly his first time seeing a temper like Wei Feng's.
To have so many students attend his class despite his way of selecting volunteers, this also meant that Wei Feng's lectures weren't too bad. Otherwise, no student would have attended his class. After all, Wei Feng was not the only tutor in the college who taught boxing.
"I haven't seen you before. Is it your first time attending my class? What's your name?" Wei Feng asked Zhou Wen as he tied a new scarf on the rope.
"Zhou Wen," Zhou Wen answered.
Wei Feng didn't seem acquainted with Zhou Wen's name. He only nodded slightly and said to Zhou Wen, "Alright, you can throw out the punch. With the strength of a fist, I can consider giving you ten credits if you can penetrate the silk cloth."
Most credits were distributed by a student's tutor. A pure lecturer like Wei Feng didn't have many credits to give, but it wasn't that he didn't have any. He could occasionally use them to reward students.
"Thank you then, Tutor." Zhou Wen's mood immediately lightened up when he heard that there were credits to be earned.
"It's good to be confident," said Wei Feng with a smile. Clearly, he had no idea about Zhou Wen; otherwise, he wouldn't have suggested giving him credits.
Apart from cultivation, Wei Feng usually read about the League news and the battle reports at the front lines. He wasn't interested in the gossip about students and teachers, so he didn't know anything about Zhou Wen. He did know about Wang Mingyuan's matter, but he didn't delve deep into it.
In Wei Feng's opinion, even for top Legendary students who hadn't practiced Yin force, it was impossible for them to penetrate a scarf with their bare hands.
The silk scarf was tough and light, and the force from a strike on it didn't seem to hold. Without a good Yin force cultivation, no matter how strong one was, they wouldn't be able to penetrate it. It would only cause the silk scarf to flutter.
Zhou Wen walked to the scarf and raised his right hand, flexing his wrist and doing some wrist movements.
In the past, when he practiced Inch Punch, he had also done similar training. However, he had used paper at that time which was easier to penetrate. It was more difficult when faced with a thin, light, and tough scarf like this.
Of course, the present Zhou Wen wasn't the same as before. After moving his wrists, he raised his fist to smash at the scarf tied to a rope from above.
"Student, your posture isn't right. Please turn your body slightly to the side and don't deliver a straight punch when you are throwing it out. You have to move your sides..." Wei Feng corrected Zhou Wen's actions.
Seeing how serious Wei Feng was, Zhou Wen naturally couldn't reject him. Working with him, he posed a standard stance.
This stance did help with the delivery of strength, but Zhou Wen had already exceeded that realm. Even if he were to lie on the ground, he could still deliver a Yin force that was powerful enough.
"Alright, you can try throwing a punch now. Remember to use the strength of your wrist and arm. Relax your arms. Don't cramp up your muscles when you are throwing punches..." Wei Feng instructed from the side.
Zhou Wen followed his instructions and threw a punch out. The punch hit the light, thin silk scarf that didn't seem capable of holding out against any force. However, the scarf tore and a hole appeared.
Wei Feng was stunned. He wondered inwardly, Could it be that I taught too well today that this kid can learn it in one try? That's not right. Even if I taught him well and he completely comprehends it, he shouldn't be able to penetrate the silk scarf without a year's worth of practice.
"Student, have you practiced Yin force in the past?" Wei Feng asked as he sized up Zhou Wen.
"I practiced Inch force when I was in high school," Zhou Wen answered truthfully.
"No wonder." Wei Feng was enlightened. He smiled and said, "Not bad. Give me your student number. I won't give you a single point less than the ten academic credits I promised you."
"Tutor, can I request for these ten credits to be changed for something else?" Zhou Wen took the opportunity to ask.
Wei Feng looked at Zhou Wen with interest and said, "Tell me, what request do you have?"
"I would like you to be my sparring partner and engage in actual combat when you are free. Is that okay?" Zhou Wen asked.
"Sure, of course. I love students like you who are self-motivated the most. When I finish my lesson, you can train for as long as you want." Wei Feng narrowed his eyes, and the wrinkles on his face began to show.
He was really very happy that a student wanted to spar with him in real combat. This was Wei Feng's favorite pastime.
I hope you can hold on for a little longer. Don't try to run too soon, Wei Feng thought to himself. He wasn't afraid of Zhou Wen's enthusiasm for learning would rise but he was afraid that Zhou Wen would cower back quickly.
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382 Fist of Steel
After Wei Feng finished his lesson, he led Zhou Wen to the training grounds. However, he took him to one meant especially for tutors, not students.
Students couldn't usually come here. Only tutors could train here.
Wei Feng used a single training room, changed into combat attire before asking Zhou Wen, "How do you want to train?"
"Sparring with just boxing," Zhou Wen said.
"It's possible to spar, but you're only at the Legendary stage. All I can do is suppress my strength..." Before Wei Feng could finish his sentence, he saw a humanoid figure appear on Zhou Wen's body. Then, the humanoid figure fused into Zhou Wen's body, causing his entire body to emit a glow.
"You have advanced to the Epic stage by condensing a Life Soul?" Wei Feng looked at Zhou Wen in surprise. Back when he was Zhou Wen's age, he was only at the Mortal stage, yet Zhou Wen had already condensed a Life Soul. That was just too fast.
Although Wei Feng had seen quite a number of geniuses in his career as a tutor in the past few years, this was the first time he had seen someone who had advanced to the Epic stage at Zhou Wen's age.
"Yes, so Tutor, you have to use all your strength. There's no need to show any mercy," Zhou Wen said.
"Don't worry, I won't show any mercy." Wei Feng laughed as he thought to himself. To be able to advance to the Epic stage at such a young age, you can be said to be an unparalleled genius. However, you are still too young, so your level doesn't represent your true combat power. Let me teach you a good lesson and let you know how important combat experience is in battle.
Wei Feng looked at Zhou Wen's clothes and asked, "Do you have an armor-type Companion Beast?"
"Yes."
"Put it on. It's inevitable that I won't be able to hold back during actual combat. It won't be nice if you get hurt," said Wei Feng.
"Alright." Zhou Wen felt that there was nothing wrong with that. He summoned the Mutated Stone Chi armor and put it on to ensure his safety.
"Then, let's begin now." Wei Feng wasn't like the other tutors. Without waiting for Zhou Wen to strike first, he directly threw a punch, but he didn't use his Life Soul.
Wei Feng's punches were fast and powerful, but it was just boxing without the use of any Primordial Energy Skills. With the augmentation of the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul, Zhou Wen used his Seven Distribution Palm.
This seven-palm technique was distilled by Wang Mingyuan from seven different palm techniques. Each move had his own unique feature. With seven different concepts, Zhou Wen had already become very adept at it and could well deliver the seven moves' traits. However, when it came to understanding the concept, he still fell a little short.
It wasn't that Zhou Wen wasn't perceptive enough and wasn't able to grasp the concept of the Seven Distribution Palm. It was just that he usually didn't have the chance to use palm techniques.
With Overlord Sword and Bamboo Blade as weapons, he naturally wouldn't go empty-handed to kill monsters with palm skills. He rarely had the chance to use palm skills against dimensional creatures.
Wei Feng wanted to use his experience and boxing techniques to teach Zhou Wen in the beginning, but after fighting for a while, he realized that his boxing techniques didn't have the upper hand against Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen's palm techniques seemed to undergo a wide variety of changes, allowing him to deal with all kinds of situations. What was even more frightening was that this fellow didn't look like a student at all. He resembled a wily old fox who had fought and survived countless battles on the battlefield. He had rich combat experience and was in no way inferior to him at all.
Wei Feng fought Zhou Wen for more than ten minutes without finding any flaws. Not only was Zhou Wen very experienced in combat, but he was also extremely stable. There weren't any signs of impetuousness in his palm skills. Wei Feng had attempted to set up a trap several times to lure Zhou Wen into taking the risk to attack him, but Zhou Wen was completely unfazed.
Is this fellow really sixteen? Wei Feng found it unbelievable. Firstly, Zhou Wen had rich combat experience, and secondly, with such a calm personality, it was not something a sixteen-year-old youth should have.
He had once "educated" other talented youths. Even though those talented youths who appeared calm and dignified on the surface would become hot-blooded in actual combat. This allowed him to seize the opportunity to teach them a good lesson.
However, Zhou Wen was completely different. He was calm like a mountain that was extremely stable. No matter how much Wei Feng tried to entice him, he remained unmoved.
Unbeknown to Wei Feng was that although Zhou Wen was young, he had rich combat experience in-game. One reason why he was so calm and composed was partly that his character was straightforward. However, the main reason was that he had experienced too many deaths in-game and had experienced all sorts of trials of death. It made him think more than the typical youth and gradually developed the habit of being cautious.
Seeing Zhou Wen's appearance, Wei Feng knew that if he continued fighting him like this, there would probably be no outcome even if the apocalypse dawned.
I really can't underestimate these young adults. Since he has already used his Life Soul, there's no need for me to be too polite. After some thought, Wei Feng summoned his Life Soul.
His Life Soul was a boxing glove that appeared on his right hand. It looked like it was made of steel, one that wrapped his entire right fist and the forearm. It looked like a mechanical arm.
"You have to be careful. My Life Soul is called the Fist of Steel. Although it's not very eye-catching, it has potent powers," Wei Feng said as he threw his right hand which was wrapped in the Fist of Steel at Zhou Wen.
Wei Feng's boxing style seemed to be open, but hidden in it were fine details. In addition to Wei Feng's rich combat experience, Zhou Wen had to go out of his way to barely fend off his attack. He was temporarily unable to find a chance to counterattack.
Now that Wei Feng had used a Life Soul, Zhou Wen wasn't astonished. Instead, he was delighted. This was because the pressure Wei Feng had given him wasn't enough. Now that he had used the Life Soul, it meant that he was going all out.
Zhou Wen originally wondered what abilities Wei Feng's Fist of Steel Life Soul had, but with Wei Feng's punch coming at him, he saw a hole spewing out steam around the Fist of Steel. This boosted Wei Feng's punch to produce unparalleled speed that instantly doubled.
As he was sparring, Zhou Wen didn't use his movement technique to dodge and forcefully received Wei Feng's punch with his palm.
Bam!
As the fist and palm clashed, Zhou Wen felt a tremendous force that numbed his arm. His body involuntarily rose up and flew backward.
Zhou Wen spun in midair for a few moments before he wore out the immense force. When he landed on the ground, his arm was still numb as his palm trembled slightly.
"I told you to be careful. The Fist of Still greatly boosts my Speed and Strength. I only used 30% of my strength just now," Wei Feng said smugly.
"Again." Zhou Wen took a step forward and attacked again. He could sense the stirring of the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul, and his heart was beating rapidly.
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383 Eruption
Wei Feng's boxing technique was stronger than Zhou Wen's to begin with. Together with the augmentation of the Fist of Steel, Zhou Wen was instantly placed at an absolute disadvantage.
Wei Feng didn't keep using Fist of Steel; instead, he used it once in a while, accelerating the speed of his punches suddenly. This added some level of unexpected elements in the battle. It made his boxing techniques more varied and harder to deal with.
Zhou Wen had already been forced to block Wei Feng's fist many times. Each time, he felt like he was struck by a sledgehammer. His arms felt numb from the impact.
Thankfully, he was wearing the Mutated Stone Chi armor. Otherwise, the bones in his arm might have fractured from the impact.
Although he had armor protecting him, Zhou Wen still felt his arms burn painfully amidst the numbness.
When Wei Feng discovered that Zhou Wen's armor was extremely tough, to the point of being able to withstand his punches, he no longer had any qualms and freely released his might.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Zhou Wen immediately lost all his ability to counterattack. He was like a sandbag and was completely suppressed by Wei Feng's punches. All he could do was raise his arm to block Wei Feng's barrage of attacks.
It had been a long time since Wei Feng had felt this satisfaction. Back when he was on the battlefield, he could battle without any worries, fully unleashing his strength on the dimensional creatures.
However, after joining the school, although he could kill dimensional creatures, it still felt somewhat different.
The biggest difference was that he had detailed information about the dimensional creatures on campus. He only needed to attack the dimensional creatures' weaknesses to easily clinch victory.
However, when he was in the military, they were mostly fighting unknown dimensional creatures. The thrill of life and death and the horror and excitement when challenging the unknown was something that the college couldn't compare with.
In a battle with tutors, he was restrained in every way. He was unable to go all out.
Wei Feng's battle with Zhou Wen made it seem as though he had returned to his time in the military. Zhou Wen was like an unknown dimensional creature. Wei Feng wanted to find his weakness and completely crush him. At that moment, Wei Feng was like a ferocious beast that kept unleashing terrifying attacks.
From the beginning until now, although Zhou Wen had been completely suppressed, he wasn't in a fluster at all with his palm skills. He remained shockingly stable. Despite being suppressed, he blocked all of Wei Feng's attacks, making Wei Feng even more eager to break through Zhou Wen's defense.
Wei Feng became more and more serious. He almost forgot that this was just a sparring match. It was as if he had completely immersed himself in it, pushing his ability to the limit.
Bang! Bang!
Zhou Wen's arms and palms suffered countless punches. Wei Feng's fists rained down like a storm, constantly bombarding him. Especially the right hand that was wearing a Fist of Steel—every time it struck Zhou Wen's arm, an explosive force could be felt through the stone armor. It nearly fractured his arm.
Even the stone armor formed by the Mutated Stone Chi began to crack under the continuous attacks. If this continued, it would probably be smashed to pieces.
Under such pressure, Zhou Wen still didn't use his movement techniques. He was still using his palm skills to fend against Wei Feng. He could vaguely sense that the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul was stirring. His heart was attached to the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul and was beating rapidly. It was becoming more and more erratic, and its speed became faster and faster like a race car engine that was starting.
Zhou Wen was filled with energy as his desire for battle intensified. Under Wei Feng's powerful suppression, he didn't feel fear. Instead, he became more and more excited. The excitement was mostly from the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul.
Under the intense beating of his heart, Zhou Wen felt as though all his blood vessels had turned into a highway. His blood was flowing at an extremely fast speed as it rubbed against the blood walls, causing the temperature to rise higher and higher, as though it was about to ignite.
Badump! Badump! Badump!
Under the effects of the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul, his heart beat more and more violently. It made Zhou Wen feel as though his body had become a volcano with a force about to erupt at any time.
Wei Feng became more and more excited. Zhou Wen's stability and the sturdiness of the Mutated Stone Chi armor made him completely let loose himself. Apart from not using any Primordial Energy Skills, he had pushed his abilities to the limit.
I refuse to believe that I can't crack your defense. It was as though Wei Feng had returned to his time in a dimensional zone. His punches were becoming more and more precise, ferocious, and lethal just like when he fought powerful dimensional creatures.
At that moment, Zhou Wen remained calm, but there seemed to be a ball of flames burning in his eyes. He constantly flailed his arms as he kept retreating. Under Wei Feng's crazy attack, cracks had appeared on the arm of the Mutated Stone Chi armor.
If Zhou Wen hadn't deliberately used different spots to block Wei Feng's Fist of Steel, allowing him to repeatedly strike, the same spot would have long shattered the Mutated Stone Chi's bracer.
Although Zhou Wen had already controlled the location of the blocks, there were already cracks everywhere on his bracer. If he continued suffering the attacks, the bracers on both arms would probably be shattered completely.
However, Zhou Wen didn't dispel the Mutated Stone Chi armor and chose to continue fighting. He could sense that the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul was reaching a critical point. If he retreated, all his previous efforts would have been for naught.
Crack! Crack!
Under Wei Feng's attacks, a fine cracking sound appeared on his bracer. More and more of such cracking sounds were heard. There were visible cracks on his bracer, and small fragments began to be released from the cracks which spread like spider webs.
Zhou Wen's eyes were like fire as he quickly brandished his arms to block Wei Feng's crazy attacks.
Just a bit more... Just a bit more... Zhou Wen felt that the force in his body was like a volcano about to erupt, but it just didn't erupt. It was as though a boulder was blocking the volcano's mouth, preventing it from spewing out hot lava.
Crack!
Zhou Wen's arm blocked Wei Feng's right fist again. A piece of armor the size of an egg crumbled from his right bracer, turning into fragments that scattered everywhere. It was like a butterfly effect. The bracer completely shattered, revealing Zhou Wen's arm.
Without the protection of the armor, the powerful punch landed on Zhou Wen's arm. Immediately, Zhou Wen's arm trembled like a bowstring, as though it was about to be snapped.
At this moment, Zhou Wen's eyes seemed to spew out lava, turning his pupils into scorching red lava. His entire body began to emit a terrifying hot aura as scorching heat spewed out from him, distorting the surrounding air. From afar, it was as though there was an invisible fire burning outside his body
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Chapter 384 My Life, My Blood, My Soul
Zhou Wen's bracer shattered. Wei Feng was alarmed as he hurriedly stopped his attack. He couldn't help but regret it greatly. He had been too serious while sparring with a student. If Zhou Wen's Companion Beast died because of that, Wei Feng wouldn't know what to do.
If news of a tutor killing his student's Companion Beast got out, he would probably be treated as a representative of violent educators.
Wei Feng looked at Zhou Wen and wanted to ask if he was alright. Companion Beasts were secondary. The fact that Zhou Wen wasn't injured was of greatest importance.
However, when Wei Feng's gaze landed on Zhou Wen, he was alarmed. He saw that Zhou Wen's body was emitting a scorching hot aura. The heat seemed to distort the air around his body. It was as though his body was burning with transparent flames.
Alarm bells began to sound in Wei Feng's heart. This was Wei Feng's intuition gained from years on the battlefield. Only when he encountered extremely dangerous creatures would he have such a feeling. And now, Zhou Wen had made Wei Feng smell a sense of danger.
"Tutor, please continue." Zhou Wen's body trembled slightly, not because of his pain or fear, but because of the immense power brought about by the rapid flow of blood from his powerful heartbeats. This influenced his body in a way that he couldn't control, and with every beat of his heart, his entire body trembled. And now, the frequency of his heart beating was as fast as a piston. That's why it made Zhou Wen's body appear to be trembling.
This didn't affect Zhou Wen's control of himself. To be precise, he had never felt this good. His entire body was filled with explosive strength. It was as though he was revving at the starting point, his engine roaring non-stop. He was like a powerful racing car that had the slight inclination to charge forward.
Without waiting for Wei Feng to deliver the punch, Zhou Wen clenched his fists and threw a punch at Wei Feng. This was a subconscious act. Although he knew the Seven Distribution Palm, he subconsciously felt that clenching his palm into a fist would make his blood-filled hand, at the point of explosion, feel better.
When he threw a punch, the surrounding air seemed to be distorted by the heat, leaving a blurry and distorted afterimage—Zhou Wen and fist had already arrived in front of Wei Feng.
Wei Feng's expression turned solemn as steam spewed out from his Fist of Steel vent. It caused his fist to quickly strike out and meet Zhou Wen's fist.
Bam!
When the fists collided, Zhou Wen's figure took four to five steps back before he stopped. As for Wei Feng, he only staggered for a moment without taking half a step back.
However, Wei Feng wore a look of surprise as he sized up Zhou Wen in disbelief.
After fighting Zhou Wen for so long, he had a general understanding of him. He knew that Zhou Wen's Strength wasn't weak, with its number ranging in the thirties. This Strength was already very close to his, but with the augmentation of the Steel of Fist, his fist's Strength increased significantly, something that Zhou Wen's Strength was unable to withstand.
Back when Zhou Wen was able to fight him, he had mainly relied on the defense of the Mutated Stone Chi armor. However, the fist Zhou Wen had used was from the one beneath the shattered bracer. Without the protection of his armor, Zhou Wen had only retreated four to five steps. His Strength had clearly been boosted significantly in such a short time.
However, without using stat crystals, his Strength stat couldn't increase unless he used a Strength-enhancing Primordial Energy Skill. However, Zhou Wen didn't use one. It was still the same as before. All he did was use a fist technique to fight him.
Could it be... the Life Soul... Wei Feng looked at Zhou Wen who seemed to be burning with an invisible flame and felt that his entire body was emitting light and heat. The warning bells in him became more obvious.
Without giving Wei Feng time to think, Zhou Wen threw another punch. This was followed by a barrage of punches as if he had gone mad.
Wei Feng's fighting spirit was triggered as he clenched his fists and clashed with Zhou Wen. The Fist of Steel unleashed all its might, producing unparalleled speed and strength. It was like steel meteors that sent Zhou Wen retreating again and again.
However, Wei Feng could sense that Zhou Wen's strength was getting stronger and his speed was also increasing. His actions seemed more and more fluid.
Fire!
Wei Feng felt as though there was a flame burning in Zhou Wen's body. It wasn't a real flame, but Wei Feng had this feeling that as the flame burned, Zhou Wen's body—no, it should be said that his entire life—was combusting to produce light and heat. It would become more and more blinding and it made his heart tremble.
"My life... My blood... My soul... Live for life... Born for the living... Even if I spill my blood... Bury all my bones... I will fight for a chance for life to survive in this dark and cold land..." The Ancient Sovereign Life Soul seemed to be emitting an ancient will that bordered on a roar.
His blood was boiling!
This wasn't an adjective. Zhou Wen really felt as though all his blood was igniting. It was as though he had infinite power. It increased his strength and his speed. Every inch of his cells seemed to emit light and heat.
Bang! Bang!
Zhou Wen's fists constantly clashed with Wei Feng. From being at a disadvantage in the beginning, to slowly parrying Wei Feng, he was no longer sent into a retreat. It eventually ended up with Wei Feng's fist without the Steel of Fist being suppressed as Zhou Wen's might grew stronger.
Bam!
When the fists collided again, Zhou Wen's bare fists seemed to emit sun-like heat and light. When he collided with the Fist of Steel, he wasn't sent retreating. Instead, Wei Feng's body involuntarily trembled as he took half a step back.
This fellow... This fellow... Wei Feng's eyes flickered as he looked at Zhou Wen in disbelief.
He had been in the military for thirty years, and had been a tutor for six years. He had seen countless experts and geniuses, but to have such strength at Zhou Wen's age, he had only met one before. Zhou Wen was second.
In the crazy battle, Wei Feng constantly retreated. Every step he took made him feel like Zhou Wen was growing taller. The body that emitted light and heat grew bigger and bigger in his eyes, becoming increasingly unstoppable.
At that moment, the invisible flames on Zhou Wen's body actually condensed into corporeal light. His entire being seemed to emit a glorious sun. The Ancient Sovereign Life Soul also propelled his body, making him break the shackles to certain limits and causing terrifying power to erupt.
Boom!
Zhou Wen's fist broke the speed of sound and rubbed against the air, producing light and heat. Like a blinding sun, it struck Wei Feng.
The alarms in Wei Feng's heart rang out as he saw the fist that appeared like the sun intermittently increase in size. Without any hesitation, he immediately used his best Primordial Energy Skill, Explosive Fist. Using the explosive power brought about by the Fist of Steel, he struck Zhou Wen's fist.
Boom!
The terrifying power that centered around Zhou Wen and Wei Feng's fists produced a tremendous explosion and shock wave. The custom forty-centimeter rubber buffer on the ground was torn apart by the explosive burst. Even the cement concrete layer beneath cratered.
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Chapter 385 Inverse Ancient Sovereign
Wei Feng only felt his Steel of Fist arm tremble and his legs turn weak. He looked at Zhou Wen, feeling an inexplicable shock.
Despite using his Primordial Energy Skill, he had only come to a draw with Zhou Wen without gaining the upper hand. The power that exploded from Zhou Wen's body was shocking.
Looking at Zhou Wen who was emitting light and heat like a sun, Wei Feng suddenly felt that he had truly aged. This world was truly a world of young people. Their youth and vitality were something that he lacked now.
Zhou Wen felt his heart boom as all his strength surged with his blood flow, pushing him to deliver another strike.
Wei Feng could only raise his fist to meet his attack. He released his Primordial Energy Skill and clashed with Zhou Wen's repeated punches.
This was going to cost him his life. Zhou Wen purely relied on the power of his erupting Life Soul and didn't need to use his Primordial Energy. However, Wei Feng had to rely on his Primordial Energy Skills to fend off Zhou Wen.
Primordial Energy Skills were unleashed with the use of Primordial Energy. Wei Feng didn't have a Slaughterer Life Soul that provided him infinite Primordial Energy; therefore, it was impossible for him to constantly release Primordial Energy Skills. After striking more than ten Explosive Fists, he felt that his Primordial Energy was almost depleted.
Wei Feng originally believed that Zhou Wen's explosive strength couldn't be too stable or his body wouldn't have been able to withstand it. But to his surprise, Zhou Wen remained brimming with energy despite unleashing dozens of punches. It was as though he had an endless amount of energy.
Most terrifying of all was that the explosive strength of an ordinary person fluctuated. It was impossible for one to maintain peak strength. However, Zhou Wen's release in strength maintained a straight line at peak strength.
Wei Feng felt his arm go numb and he almost couldn't lift it up. If this continued, his arm would probably fracture.
Zhou Wen was completely immersed in the eruption of the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul as he delivered punch after punch. He could sense that the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul had advanced to an Evolved Body.
Zhou Wen threw another punch at Wei Feng excitedly when he suddenly saw Wei Feng stop. Wei Feng looked in the direction of the training room door and said in surprise, "We are using the training room. Come back later."
Zhou Wen couldn't help but stop his punch and turn to look at the door. However, he saw that the door to the training room was still closed and there was no one there.
Bam!
In the next second, Zhou Wen felt a heavy blow to his face which was covered by a helm. His head warped to the side as his body flew out and he slammed into the rubber buffers on the training room's wall.
The punch wasn't very heavy as Wei Feng didn't use all his strength. Zhou Wen quickly stood up and looked at Wei Feng with a puzzled look.
Wei Feng said in all seriousness, "Zhou Wen, it looks like you lack actual combat experience. You can't even defend against such a simple scheme. If you were on the real battlefield, you would already be dead. I've given you an important lesson today. Remember, you can't make the same mistake again. Alright, let's end the training today."
"Tutor, I'll remember. Let's continue sparring a little longer?" Zhou Wen went forward and said.
"Let's end it here for today. You've trained for so long, and I think you're tired. Let's continue another day," said Wei Feng as he walked.
"Tutor, I'm not tired. Let's continue a little while," Zhou Wen said.
"Another day... Another day..." Wei Feng took out his phone and placed it to his ear as he walked. "Hello... Ah, my dear daughter... Why are you looking for me... What... Something happened at home... Okay, okay, okay... I'll rush back now..."
"I'm sorry. Although I really want to continue sparring with you, something urgent has cropped up at home. Let's spar again another day." As Wei Feng spoke, he quickly left the training room and disappeared without a trace.
Zhou Wen was somewhat regretful. He hadn't completely vented all his excessive strength, so he felt somewhat uncomfortable.
However, since he no longer had an opponent, Zhou Wen could only get the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul to leave his body and float in front of him.
The Ancient Sovereign Life Soul was still in the form of light, but the figure became clearer, as though it was about to condense into something corporeal.
The Ancient Sovereign Life Soul was like a humanoid sun floating there. Zhou Wen no longer needed to fear the darkness no matter where he went in the future. As long as he had the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul, there was light no matter how dark it was.
He took out his mysterious phone and looked at the information after the Ancient Sovereign Life Soul evolved.
Inverse Ancient Sovereign (Evolved Body): Ancient life born from blood and fire, the sovereign who fights against the heavens.
The Ancient Sovereign had evolved into an Inverse Ancient Sovereign. Although the note didn't change, Zhou Wen knew that the Ancient Sovereign's ability had undergone a substantial change.
The evolution of a Life Soul was extremely odd. Even a person who cultivated the same Primordial Energy Art would condense a different Life Soul because of their different physiques and insights.
And the evolution of a Life Soul would result in further differences due to one's personal insights and growth.
Zhou Wen could sense that not only did the Inverse Ancient Sovereign enhance his Strength and Speed, but it could provide him with an endless stream of energy. He probably needed to test the numbers on the apparatus for the specifics.
The game only showed basic values, but not the values after a Life Soul augmentation. Therefore, Zhou Wen didn't know what his various attributes were like under the augmentation of the Inverse Ancient Sovereign.
Indeed, it's more interesting to spar with humans. I'll find Tutor Wei next time for more sparring. Zhou Wen unsummoned the Mutated Stone Chi and discovered that one of its legs had snapped.
Thankfully, the Mutated Stone Chi hadn't been obliterated. The Companion Egg was a pure energy body, so as long as it had Primordial Energy Crystals to replenish its Primordial Energy, it could slowly recover in the future.
The immense power brought about by the Inverse Ancient Sovereign Evolved Body made Zhou Wen want to advance Slaughterer even more. If Slaughterer could advance to an Evolved Body or even a Perfect Body, who knew what kind of power it would bring him.
Unfortunately, Zhou Wen still didn't have any clue of how to advance Slaughterer. He had no choice but to first evolve the Inverse Ancient Sovereign, hoping to advance it to a Perfect Body.
However, after Zhou Wen visited Wei Feng a few times, the latter would hurriedly leave using excuses such as family matters. He didn't give Zhou Wen any chance to spar with him.
Apart from Wei Feng, Zhou Wen didn't have any other opponents that he could spar with. He could only temporarily put this matter aside and spend time grinding while reading classics regarding Buddhism and Daoism. He hoped to condense a Life Soul for the other two Primordial Energy Arts.
When Zhou Wen came to the Poison Wyrm Pool again and killed the Poison Wyrm, another Primordial Energy Skill Crystal dropped. However, Zhou Wen was already numb to this.
The chances of a Primordial Energy Skill dropping by the Poison Wyrm was quite high, but it was almost always Poison Dragon Finger's 1, 2, or 4. The lacking Poison Dragon Finger 3 never dropped.
However, when Zhou Wen allowed the blood-colored avatar to absorb the Primordial Energy Skill Crystal, he was surprised to discover that the system notified him that he had comprehended Poison Dragon Finger 3. It jolted him awake.
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Chapter 386 Poison Dragon Palm
I actually got Poison Dragon Finger 3 to drop! Zhou Wen was immediately overjoyed. He had been grinding Poison Wyrms for so long to the point of vomiting. This was the first time he had Poison Dragon Finger 3 drop.
With all five Poison Dragon Fingers gathered, there weren't any special changes to the Primordial Energy Skill column. The five Poison Dragon Fingers were listed separately, proving that they weren't the same Primordial Energy Skill.
Zhou Wen attempted using five Poison Dragon Fingers together and immediately saw the blood-colored avatar's fingers turn a pitch-black color. This was no different from before. However, what happened next delighted Zhou Wen.
The blackness on the blood-colored avatar's fingers extended towards his palm, and moments later, the blood-colored avatar's palm turned black.
At the same time, a notification popped up in-game: 'Acquired Poison Dragon Palm.'
Zhou Wen looked at his skill column and realized that the five Poison Dragon Fingers had vanished, having been replaced by an additional Poison Dragon Palm skill.
Poison Dragon Palm (Rank 10): Epic
Zhou Wen was truly taken aback. This was the first time he had seen a Primordial Energy Skill that naturally came as a Rank 10. According to what Zhou Wen knew, Primordial Energy Skill Crystals only appeared at Rank 9. To reach Rank 10, one had to further comprehend it themselves.
However, the Poison Dragon Palm was at Rank 10 without any need for him to comprehend it himself. It was truly powerful.
Zhou Wen thought of where he could test out the Poison Dragon Palm that he had painstakingly obtained. Immediately, he searched the underground Pool City for a while, hoping to find a Sword Fang Fish or a Jade Toad to test out the palm's strength.
However, to his surprise, he encountered a rather rare Electric Eel. Although it couldn't compare to Wang Fei's Mutated Electric Eel, it was enough for his test.
As an Epic Primordial Energy Skill, when Zhou Wen condensed the Poison Dragon Palm, he didn't sense any powerful force. It was about the same as when he used the Poison Dragon Finger. There wasn't any special reaction, nor were there any wind forces coming from it, much less any burst of divine light. There weren't even any poisonous gases. Apart from his palm turning black, there was nothing special about it. His strength wasn't able to be released either.
Don't tell me it's still as useless as the Poison Dragon Finger? Zhou Wen thought to himself as he used Ghost Steps to appear above the Electric Eel and struck it on the back.
After water splashed, Zhou Wen's palm struck the Electric Eel's back, sinking it into the water. Zhou Wen could see that the palm didn't even manage to damage a single scale. Instead, he was zapped by the Electric Eel, turning his body numb and almost falling into the water.
What the heck? This is a Primordial Energy Skill that I acquired after so much grinding? Zhou Wen immediately felt depressed. The water surface surged as the Electric Eel rapidly swam into the distance.
Zhou Wen didn't even feel like chasing after it. After grinding it for so long, he still had some expectations. He never expected the Poison Dragon Palm to be so useless. It was basically the upgraded version of the useless Poison Dragon Finger.
However, the escaping Electric Eel had swum for almost two hundred meters when it suddenly stopped moving underwater. Moments later, Zhou Wen saw the Electric Eel float up with its belly facing up. At the same time, a notification popped up in-game.
'Killed Epic creature, Electric Eel. Discovered Dimensional Crystal.'
Zhou Wen immediately widened his mouth into an "O"-shape When he saw a dimensional crystal drop from the Electric Eel's corpse, he hurriedly rushed over to pick it up before it sank to the bottom.
This Poison Dragon Palm is rather interesting... Zhou Wen was somewhat surprised. He had actually killed the Electric Eel with just a single palm strike. Such power was indeed interesting. Furthermore, the Poison Dragon Palm's power was clearly related to the poison. It wasn't a traditional palm strike.
The crystal Zhou Wen obtained only had 3 in value, but upon careful inspection, the dimensional crystal dropped by the Electric Eel was a dimensional crystal that added 3 to his Electric stat and not basic stats.
After making the blood-colored avatar absorb the Electric Stat crystal, electricity flowed through his body, making him involuntarily tremble.
He saw an additional Electric attribute in his stats. Although it was only 3 points, it was enough to satisfy him. After all, the drop rate of special stat crystals was very low. His luck was pretty good for him to obtain it by simply killing a single Electric Eel.
From the looks of it, my luck has recently risen. It's time to farm the baby tiger again. Zhou Wen controlled the blood-colored avatar to head to Binyang Cave, but he returned without any success.
Thankfully, Zhou Wen wasn't discouraged. After switching dungeons, he went to the Zhuolu ruins.
Zhou Wen's target was the nine chained black dragons. He wanted to test out how powerful the Poison Dragon Palm was and how high its limits were.
Being able to poison an Electric Eel to death was useless to Zhou Wen. Coupling Overlord Sword with Transcendent Flying Immortal, he could kill Electric Eels without any trouble. He didn't need to go close, nor did he need to use his palm to directly touch the Electric Eel.
The reason he wanted to test the palm on the nine black dragons was that he couldn't even touch the other Mythical creatures. Only when the nine black dragons were chained up and physically restrained could he have a chance of hitting them.
Zhou Wen had already tried using Overlord Sword and Lost Country's teleportation to stab a black dragon, but only a tiny bit of the Overlord Sword's tip penetrated. It couldn't even penetrate the dragon scales, much less kill the black dragon.
Unless Zhou Wen could continuously stab the black dragon with a thousand strikes at the same spot, there was no way he could kill it.
However, under the combined attack of the nine black dragons, even though their actions were restrained, they were ultimately Mythical creatures; therefore, it was impossible for Zhou Wen to last too long under their siege. Delivering a few hundred swords was wishful thinking. He would be considered lucky to be able to stab several times without dying.
However, if the Poison Dragon Palm could really poison the black dragon to death, Zhou Wen had an idea. Perhaps, this gave him a chance of killing the black dragon.
Of course, this way, he wouldn't be able to rely on Lost Country's teleportation to approach the black dragons. He had to use Lost Country's teleport after striking a black dragon with Poison Dragon Palm to flee. If the blood-colored avatar were to die, then it would be useless even if the Poison Dragon Palm could really poison the black dragon to death.
Once the blood-colored avatar died, he would have to respawn. What was the point in killing the black dragon?
Therefore, after Zhou Wen thought about it, all he could do was rely on his movement technique to approach the black dragon and deliver a Poison Dragon Palm. Then, he could use his Lost Country's teleportation ability to escape. Then, he just needed to wait for the black dragon to be poisoned to death. This was the only way he could kill a Mythical creature.
When he arrived at the underground sea again, Zhou Wen took a deep breath and switched his Life Soul to Slaughterer before jumping down and diving into the sea.
After swimming for a short while, he saw nine black dragons pulling the war wagon from the bottom of the sea. The black dragons emitted a strange dragon's roar, causing the seawater to quake uneasily.
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387 Dragon Gate Stone Beas
Although the Inverse Ancient Sovereign Life Soul could provide Zhou Wen with strength that exceeded Slaughterer, the Inverse Ancient Sovereign's strength was too potent. It was suited for frontal combat. Zhou Wen wasn't qualified to fight the black dragons head-on and could only use tricks. Therefore, Zhou Wen chose to use the Slaughterer Life Soul.
The strength increase provided by Slaughterer was inferior to the Inverse Ancient Sovereign, but its characteristic of infinite Primordial Energy was what Zhou Wen needed the most.
When the nine black dragons approached, Zhou Wen chose a location at the bottom of the sea that had a complicated terrain. Relying on the cover of the sea mountain, the black dragons didn't attack him immediately.
When the nine black dragons pulled the war wagon around the undersea mountain peak, Zhou Wen used the Nine Dragons Art he had cultivated with Ghost Steps. He swam rapidly like a dragon beast in the sea, dodging the devouring of the black dragons in front of him. Before the nine black dragons surrounded him, he rushed to the bottom of the war wagon.
Zhou Wen lacked the ability to directly approach the black dragons' bodies unless he used teleportation. However, it would be different if he relied on the war wagon's protection.
The nine black dragons were chained and they couldn't reach beneath the war wagon. With their mobility further weakened, Zhou Wen hid under the war wagon. When he saw a black dragon's head extend down to him, he struck out with Poison Dragon Palm.
The black dragon reacted very quickly. Zhou Wen was already close enough, but it still reacted in time. It let out a roar as a terrifying sound wave blasted Zhou Wen's body and swam away. He had failed to touch it with Poison Dragon Palm.
The blood-colored avatar's body flew out uncontrollably along with the flow of water. Before Zhou Wen could stabilize the blood-colored avatar, a few black dragons pounced on him and surrounded him. A black dragon swallowed the blood-colored avatar amidst the scramble. The game screen went black.
The Poison Dragon Palm requires the palm to touch the body to work. This isn't good. If it can injure someone across a distance, things will be much easier. Zhou Wen had no choice but to drip his blood to revive.
This time, Zhou Wen learned from his previous experience. He didn't choose to touch the black dragons' heads. Instead, he used the war wagon's concealment to fend off the black dragon's attack. He then flipped to the back of the war wagon. When a black dragon circled around to him, he turned around and charged at the black dragon's body, striking the dragon's scales with his Poison Dragon Palm.
With the successful palm strike, Zhou Wen was completely exposed. The nine black dragons formed a circle, making it impossible for Zhou Wen to flee.
Zhou Wen immediately switched to the Godfiend Era's Primordial Energy Art and the Lost Country appeared on his finger. A black dragon had already sucked the blood-colored avatar to its mouth. When half the blood-colored avatar entered the dragon's mouth, its body suddenly vanished, leaving the nine dragons stunned.
However, the teleportation distance available to Lost Country was too low. The nine black dragons quickly noticed Zhou Wen who hadn't gone far and roared as they pursued him.
Zhou Wen swam towards the surface, but when he was in the water, Ghost Steps' efficiency decreased significantly. Infinite Ghost Steps wasn't able to increase his speed significantly, so before he could swim out of the sea, he was devoured by the nine black dragons.
However, with his experience hitting the black dragon once, Zhou Wen was even more certain that he could succeed. The only thing lacking was to escape alive.
As long as I can rush out of the water surface, I can use my flying abilities and Infinite Ghost Steps to escape. Even with Nine Dragons Art in the water, I can't match a real dragon's speed. Therefore, I have to think of a way to get my Poison Dragon Palm to strike the black dragon when I'm as close as possible to the water surface, Zhou Wen thought to himself.
He wanted to redo it, but Lost Country's teleportation ability had a 24-hour cooldown.
This won't do, Lost Country's cooldown is too long. The teleportation distance is too short as well. How can I think of a way to raise Lost Country to an Evolved Body so as to enhance the teleportation ability? Zhou Wen began considering how to advance Lost Country.
The Godfiend Era has a myriad of changes. After condensing the Godfiend Life Providence, I gained the ability to stay in space. After condensing Lost Country, I possess the ability to teleport. Both of them are related to space. To improve Lost Country, I'm afraid I'll have to put in effort towards spatial matters. After some thought, Zhou Wen failed to think of a way to enhance Lost Country.
Space was a rather special attribute regardless of the League's four districts. Dimensional creatures with spatial powers were rare as well. Typically, there weren't any low-grade creatures with them being at least at the Epic stage.
Zhou Wen checked the school's database. Although there were many dimensional zones on campus, there were no dimensional creatures with spatial abilities.
However, Zhou Wen surprisingly discovered some useful information. The information had nothing to do with Sunset College, but about certain strange matters in Guide Ancient City.
This included records of Fire God Platform and the stone furnace in front of the stone monument. This information was identical to what Zhou Wen had seen in-game. There was only one difference.
The stone furnace in-game produced firebirds. It was the same in reality. There was a stone saber stuck in the stone furnace in-game and there was a stone saber in reality.
Zhou Wen had attempted to pull out the saber in-game, but he just couldn't touch it. He believed it to be an illusion, but in reality, someone had attempted to pull it out. Although it wasn't pulled out, the person touched the stone saber.
According to the records in the document, a tutor who possessed a fire-elemental Life Providence and flame-type Life Soul went to Guide Ancient City. He found Fire God Platform and scaled it. He discovered the stone saber in the furnace, but when he pulled it out, it seemed rooted. He was unable to shift the stone saber even with his Epic strength.
This is strange. I can see it in-game, but I can't touch it. In reality, it can be touched. What's the reason? Zhou Wen had the urge to immediately return to Guide Ancient City to take a look and figure out the problem of the stone saber.
However, firstly, school wasn't on break. Secondly, entering Guide Ancient City required entry passes. Without a pass, it was useless even if he returned.
"Zhou Wen, the new homework mission has been released. Shall we go together?" Li Xuan sent a message.
"Alright, let's meet outside Dragon Gate Grotto." Zhou Wen still needed to finish homework missions, so he scheduled a meeting with Li Xuan.
The mission given by the new tutor wasn't as strange as Wang Fei's. They only needed to kill ten Mortal Dragon Gate Stone Beasts. This was a common Mortal stage dimensional creature in Dragon Gate Grotto. It wasn't difficult for ordinary students, so it was pretty much a walk in the park for people like Zhou Wen and Li Xuan.
The two came to Dragon Gate Grotto and randomly chose a relatively nearby grotto. Soon, they saw several Dragon Gate Stone Beasts. Li Xuan rushed forward and finished them off in no time.
"I haven't even started filming yet!" Zhou Wen said with a smile.
"It's fine. There are plenty of stone beasts anyway. We can just kill a few more later." Li Xuan didn't mind.
The two of them continued walking in. Before long, they saw a few students attacking a stone beast. However, the stone beast looked a little special and was slightly different from the other stone beasts.
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388 Snatching a Companion Egg
Ordinary stone beasts were only half the height of a human. They looked like Pekingese, and their bodies were grayish-white rocks.
However, the stone beast that the students were attacking was different. The stone beast's body was as crystalline as white jade, and it was also much taller—about the size of a racehorse.
When the Mortal students attacked the stone beast, they unleashed Primordial Energy Skills with their fists and palms, but the strikes were almost useless against it.
As the chances of dropping a Companion Egg at the Mortal stage were very low, these students didn't have any Companion Beasts and could only rely on their strength to fight head-on. However, the effects were clearly not the best. A student was even injured by the stone beast.
Seeing that they were his schoolmates, Li Xuan went over with the Thundergod Sword and cleaved the stone beast to death with one strike to prevent them from being injured by the stone beast again.
The stone beast was cleaved into two by Li Xuan. A crystalline jade egg fell out of its body—a Companion Egg.
"Holy sh*t, I'm that lucky?" Li Xuan looked at the Companion Egg in surprise.
Although it was a Mutated Dragon Gate Stone Beast and it was only at the Mortal stage, the chances of a Companion Egg dropping at the Mortal stage were almost identical to winning the lottery. He really had good luck to have it drop.
The students also stared at the Companion Egg. Mortal Companion Eggs were rare to begin with. Furthermore, it was a mutated species, so its stats were definitely good. Who wouldn't want one?
However, the Mutated Stone Beast was killed by Li Xuan. They didn't dare to snatch it, but they were also unwilling to give it up. After all, they had discovered the Mutated Stone Beast first.
"Distribute the Companion Egg among yourselves." Li Xuan wasn't too interested in the Mutated Stone Beast Companion Egg. He had only been helping out and had no intention of splitting it.
The few students were overjoyed when they heard that. Two students were still hesitating, but the other three students scrambled for the Companion Egg.
The three of them didn't give in to the others, and soon it became a snatching fest. The other two students also joined the snatching competition when they snapped out of their daze.
Who didn't want to have a Companion Beast? Ordinary students might not be able to advance to the Legendary stage in their four years in college. Firstly, the Primordial Energy Arts they cultivated were lacking, and secondly, there was a lack of resources and thirdly, their perceptivity.
Typical Primordial Energy Arts required one to gain insights before advancing to the next level. The Lost Immortal Sutra was quite an outlier to allow advancement simply by having the stats reaching a certain value.
Li Xuan glanced at the students who were vying for the Companion Egg and curled his lips. He said to Zhou Wen, " Reality is just that cruel. No matter how good their relationships are usually, once it involves personal interests, schoolmates and friends are nothing. Both of us should be happy that we didn't end up having to vie with them."
Zhou Wen shook his head and said, "That's not necessarily the case. We also need to vie for things. It's just that the things we are fighting for are a little more advanced. There's no difference in essence. The degree of sorrow doesn't lessen just because of its higher level."
"That's true. In this world, it's hard to tell the difference between humans and fiends," Li Xuan said with a sigh.
Clearly, he had been reminded of his family matters. Even if they were biological brothers, he couldn't rely on him.
"Let's head elsewhere to take a look." Zhou Wen didn't wish to continue the topic. Once the dimensional zones' restrictions failed, similar things would happen. Many people would do anything to survive.
Just as the duo was about to leave, they suddenly heard a bird's cry coming from above. The pale golden feathers on the chick standing on Zhou Wen's shoulder stood on end, as though it had encountered an enemy as it looked into the sky.
Zhou Wen was alarmed as he looked up and saw a golden bird swooping down from the sky like a golden cloud. Its target was them.
"Duck!" Zhou Wen felt a sense of danger as he roared at the students. At the same time, he pulled Li Xuan back quickly.
The few students were still vying for the Companion Egg, but no one paid attention to Zhou Wen. The golden bird descended like a golden cloud and before it arrived, a terrifying hurricane rolled down from high above, sweeping the five students flying hundreds of feet away. Some struck into stone statues while others fell to the ground. Immediately, they vomited blood and couldn't even get up.
The giant bird swallowed the Companion Egg in one mouthful, but its claw didn't land. With a flap of its wings, another hurricane suddenly appeared. It instantly flew into the sky and soon vanished.
Zhou Wen and Li Xuan leaned against the wall as they held onto a Buddha statue with both hands to avoid being swept away by the hurricane. The few students weren't that lucky as they tumbled and crashed in the hurricane, leaving their bodies bloody. It was unknown if any of them were killed by the impact.
"That bird just now... It can't be a Golden-Winged Roc, right?" Li Xuan said in surprise as he looked up into the sky.
"It shouldn't be. If it's a Golden-Winged Roc, I'm afraid it will be even more terrifying." Zhou Wen shook his head. Seeing the students screaming incessantly, and although they weren't dead, who knew how many bones had been fractured. He didn't dare touch them and since he didn't have any healing skills, all he could do was head out to call the college's medical department and get the doctor to rush over to treat them.
"Old Zhou, I think that the golden bird is on the peak of Dragon Gate Grotto. Shall we go and take a look?" Li Xuan suggested.
Zhou Wen looked at the chick that had regained its composure and pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "I think it's best if we don't go. That giant bird is probably extraordinary. We aren't its match."
As the two spoke, a doctor and tutor came over. The first tutor to arrive was Zhou Wen's new tutor. Upon seeing the tragic state of the five students, the new tutor couldn't help but frown.
"What happened?" the new tutor, Wu Yusheng, asked Zhou Wen and Li Xuan.
Li Xuan recounted what had happened in detail. Wu Yusheng was doubtful of what he had heard. When he looked above Dragon Gate Grotto, he frowned and said, "I never heard that there are birds and dimensional creatures lurking outside Dragon Gate Grotto. Don't run around. Leave immediately and I'll head up to take a look."
Wu Yusheng summoned a sword and flew on it, heading towards the top of the mountain.
"Wow, it's a flying sword Companion Beast. It's just too cool. I've wanted it for a long time, but only a few dimensional zones drop flying sword Companion Beasts. Their numbers are very rare and they don't drop anywhere near us," Li Xuan said in envy as he looked at the flying sword beneath Wu Yusheng's feet.
Speaking of the flying sword, Zhou Wen recalled the little girl and the purple-copper flying sword. He glanced at the Dead Man Tree in-game and saw that the purple-copper fruit on the Dead Man Tree had grown to the size of a soccer ball. However, it didn't seem ripe yet.
Suddenly, a bird cry shook the area. At the top of Dragon Gate Grotto, a golden beam of light shot into the sky.
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389 The Demonic Organ Throne
Zhou Wen looked up and saw that the golden beam was none other than the golden bird that had previously vanished into the horizon. At that moment, the giant bird spread its wings and charged towards Wu Yusheng, who was standing in the sky on his flying sword.
Wu Yusheng wasn't indecisive. He extended his hand and summoned another flying sword Companion Beast. His ancient sword slashed at the golden bird with sharp sword beams that resembled dawn.
The golden bird dodged as well. With a flap of its wings, it tore through the sky of sword flashes and clashed with the flying sword. The flying sword split into two behind the golden bird.
Wu Yusheng's expression changed drastically as he turned to flee on his flying sword.
That Heavenglow Sword was a top Epic Companion Beast he had spent a lot of effort in the Mt. Shu dimensional zone before having it drop. The Heavenglow Sword's beam could rip apart a mountain, and its Life Soul, Skyglow Sword Soul, augmented the Heavenglow Sword's beam. It allowed it to turn into a rain of swords with each sword beam dealing an area-of-effect attack.
After he obtained the Heavenglow Sword, he had experienced countless battles without having the sword damaged. Now, it snapped with just a touch of the giant golden bird's wings. He immediately knew that the golden bird was terrifying beyond imagination.
Although the flying sword beneath Wu Yusheng's feet was fast, it was not as fast as the giant golden bird. Without flying far, the giant golden bird had already rushed behind him like a bolt of golden lightning.
Wu Yusheng's face paled in fright as he hurriedly used the flying sword beneath his feet to meet the giant golden bird. He landed on a mountain wall and ran down the mountain in a sorry state.
"Stop watching. We need to leave quickly." Zhou Wen pulled Li Xuan and ran. Even Epic tutors couldn't defeat the golden bird, so if the golden bird were to flare up, it might end up turning Dragon Gate Grotto into a bloodbath. It would be too late to escape when that happened.
Crack!
The two of them had barely taken two steps before they heard a crisp sound. The sword beam that was like a rainbow was snapped by the giant bird's wings. The snapping of the flying sword was a testament to the wings' unimaginably sharpness.
Wu Yusheng was still escaping, but how could he be faster than the giant golden bird? Before he could run far, he was caught up. He was just moments from being slain by the giant golden bird's wings.
Suddenly, a figure tore through the air. The person wore a school tutor uniform and he immediately appeared at the top of Dragon Gate Grotto as though he had teleported. With a flick of his finger, a yellow glow in the form of a talisman flew towards the golden bird.
The giant golden bird had remained unperturbed in the face of the sharp flying sword, but when it saw the talisman glow, it became somewhat apprehensive. It flapped its wings, released Wu Yusheng, and dodged the talisman glow.
The tutor who had appeared, flicked his fingers, sending out talisman glows that rained on the giant golden bird.
The golden bird flapped its wings and golden rays in the shape of feathers shot out from its wings, clashing with the talisman glows. Light exploded everywhere in the sky.
The people who had set up stalls outside Dragon Gate Grotto were already running for their lives. Zhou Wen and Li Xuan were also running, but after reaching the entrance to Dragon Gate Grotto, they didn't directly leave. They watched from afar as the tutor fought the golden bird.
The giant golden bird was abnormally fierce and charged at his tutor with its golden feather storm. The talisman glows released by the tutor were also destroyed by the feather storm. They didn't inflict any damage to the giant golden bird.
Zhou Wen was worried that the tutor might also be defeated by the giant bird like Wu Yusheng, when he suddenly saw a black light gush out from his white uniform.
The black light condensed in front of him, actually transforming into a huge black-colored organ. The organ looked like a piano, with black-and-white keys, but they were even larger. Furthermore, behind the organ were black metal pipes that were lined up like a small mountain. Furthermore, the piano keys were like stairs. There were many layers, unlike ordinary pianos with only a row of keys.
The tutor ignored the giant golden bird that rushed over and calmly sat in front of the organ, his slender fingers pressing on the keys.
Zhou Wen and Li Xuan immediately heard ancient, soothing music. It was somewhat different from the sounds produced by an ordinary piano that Zhou Wen had heard before. The sounds of a piano clearly lacked the heavy and distant vibes of the organ.
"He appeared... That's Chancellor Leng's Demonic Organ Throne... He's a man who has once fought with gods..." Li Xuan looked up at the tutor in the sky with a pleasant surprise.
"Chancellor Leng? The chancellor of our school?" Zhou Wen was slightly surprised. He had been in Sunset College for so long, but he had never seen the chancellor before. Usually, work was done by the managing vice-chancellor who oversaw the daily operations.
"Probably. Although I've never met him, his Demonic Organ Throne is too famous. It can't be wrong. Back when Old Master An passed away, the An family was without a leader. The Senate wanted to place Sunset College under the League's management and sent someone from Member of Parliament Dugu's family with a Mythical Companion Beast over, but they were barred from entering by Chancellor Leng's Demonic Organ Throne. They weren't even able to enter the school's main gate before they returned with their faces ashen. Even a Mythical Companion Beast wasn't able to break through the Demonic Organ Throne. That made the Demonic Organ Throne famous across the League. Everyone knew about it," Li Xuan said in excitement.
As Li Xuan spoke, Chancellor Leng's slender fingers were already dancing across the organ keys. Bleak and open music sounded from the organ. The sound waves inside the metal pipe resonated and spread out like ripples.
The giant golden bird had been charging fiercely at Chancellor Leng with its golden-feather storm. However, after hearing the music, its actions slowed down.
By the time it flew to the organ's side, it had already held back the golden-feather storm. The ferocity it wore on its face had disappeared, and it did not continue attacking. Instead, it retracted its wings and stood beside the organ as though it was listening to Chancellor Leng's music.
Zhou Wen also listened to the music and, without realizing it, tears streamed down his cheeks. By the side, Li Xuan was already awash with tears.
The students who had yet to escape Dragon Gate Grotto also cried bitterly.
Zhou Wen wiped his tears and focused his gaze at the giant golden bird in the sky. He saw a crystalline tear seep out from the corner of the golden bird's eye as though it could fall at any moment.
Chancellor Leng's Life Soul is actually an organ. That's really rare, but my emotions aren't really affected by organ music, so why am I crying? Zhou Wen looked at the Demonic Organ Throne in the sky in shock and puzzlement.
At that moment, a tear finally fell from the corner of the golden bird's eye, like a golden gem falling from the sky.
The chick that had been standing on Zhou Wen's shoulder suddenly flew up and headed straight for Dragon Gate Grotto before swallowing the golden bird's tear. It then flew back to Zhou Wen's shoulder.
The music in the sky stopped. Chancellor Leng looked at the chick on Zhou Wen's shoulder and his calm gaze, which seemed to have a strength that could penetrate one's heart, left Zhou Wen slightly alarmed.
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390 Puzzlemen
However, Chancellor Leng's gaze did not linger on them for too long. He retracted his gaze after taking one look and looked at the giant golden bird beside him.
"Go back. From now on, no one will bother you again." Chancellor Leng seemed to be speaking to the golden bird.
The giant golden bird actually lowered its head, as though expressing its understanding before it spread its wings and flew back to Dragon Gate Grotto's peak.
"From today onwards, no one is to ascend to the peak of Dragon Gate Grotto." Chancellor Leng stood up and the Demonic Organ Throne vanished. With that, he soared into the sky and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"When can I be as powerful as Chancellor Leng? To make such a terrifying dimensional creature obey my orders with a snap of my fingers," Li Xuan said enviously.
"Is Chancellor Leng at the Mythical stage?" Zhou Wen asked with a frown.
"I don't think so. I heard that he's at the peak of the Epic stage. The Demonic Organ Throne is a Perfect Life Soul. Furthermore, people say that Chancellor Leng is likely the human that's closest to the Mythical stage. He's just half a step away from stepping into the Mythical stage." Li Xuan's words were filled with admiration for Chancellor Leng.
"I never knew there was such a strong person in Luoyang!" Zhou Wen exclaimed.
"Definitely. Chancellor Leng is Overseer An's tutor. How can he not be strong considering how he taught such a strong student like Overseer An?" Li Xuan said.
"An Tianzuo's tutor?" Zhou Wen didn't think that it was impressive for someone to produce An Tianzuo with their teachings. However, Chancellor Leng was really strong. The music-type Demonic Organ Throne Life Soul gave Zhou Wen an eye-opener. He had never heard of making such terrifying dimensional creatures retreat without any bloodshed.
Recalling the music from the Demonic Organ Throne, Zhou Wen felt that something was amiss.
Zhou Wen wasn't an emotional person. Normally, when he was listening to music, he didn't experience many emotional upheavals. Yet, he had actually cried. This didn't seem right.
Is it really due to the music from the Demonic Organ Throne affecting my emotions? Zhou Wen felt that it wasn't the case.
"Why are you in a daze? Let's go. We still have to complete our homework mission." Seeing Zhou Wen standing there in a daze without saying anything, Li Xuan nudged him.
Zhou Wen followed Li Xuan back to Dragon Gate Grotto, but he kept thinking about the music that Chancellor Leng had played using the Demonic Organ Throne.
It's not the music that affected my emotions—definitely not. Others might not mind the minute changes, but Zhou Wen wanted to understand the differences as he constantly mulled over the reason.
"What are you waiting for? My homework mission is done. It's your turn," Li Xuan said as he recorded a video of Zhou Wen on his phone.
Zhou Wen wasn't in the mood to do the homework mission right now. He immediately drew his Bamboo Blade and charged at the Stone Beast herd. With one blade per strike, he nimbly killed ten Stone Beasts before turning around to head back.
He planned on checking the information regarding sound-type powers, and then figure out the real reason for having the music from the Demonic Organ Throne affect his mood, or if it was some other power.
Li Xuan was already used to Zhou Wen's various strange actions, so he let him be and didn't ask further.
After leaving Dragon Gate Grotto, Zhou Wen headed to the school library. The information there was more comprehensive than the Intranet, and he soon found the section where music-related matters resided. There were bookshelves spanning dozens of meters, a total of four rows. They contained books covering music.
Zhou Wen took a look and realized that most of them were books related to music theory and knowledge, or they taught one how to sing. He rarely saw information on music-type Primordial Energy Arts.
It's no wonder there are so few people cultivating music-type Primordial Energy Arts. With so much information just teaching people music theory, there's nothing to do with cultivation. Zhou Wen read through the books on the bookshelves. After searching for a long time, he only found a few books related to the music-type Primordial Energy Arts.
From the information he had, Zhou Wen realized that music-type Primordial Energy Arts were indeed very interesting, or perhaps—special.
The cultivation method of music-type Primordial Energy Arts was about the same as the typical Primordial Energy Art. Interestingly, the music-type Primordial Energy Arts had relatively special Primordial Energy seas.
Typically, a Primordial Energy Art's Primordial Energy sea was in one of the three dantians, but a music-type Primordial Energy Art used the lungs as a Primordial Energy sea. It was very rare.
Furthermore, it was different from what the average person would imagine. There was no mention of music affecting one emotionally in the music-type information. It only mentioned music frequency and oscillation theory.
And the destructive power of music-type powers mainly came from the pressure of sound.
Zhou Wen read a lot, but he didn't understand why the Demonic Organ Throne could affect the emotions of humans and even dimensional creatures. Although there were some extraordinary theories, they hadn't been verified. Furthermore, Zhou Wen felt that the theories didn't match the Demonic Organ Throne's powers.
Without finding the answer he wanted, Zhou Wen had the urge to directly ask Chancellor Leng, but even tutors and the other vice-chancellors had trouble meeting him. As a student, how could he meet Chancellor Leng?
The library reached its closing hours when the sky darkened. Zhou Wen had no choice but to return to his dorm and search for information on the music-type powers online, but he failed to find the answer he wanted.
However, while browsing the school forum, Zhou Wen saw a thread regarding music-type Primordial Energy Arts.
The thread name and content intrigued Zhou Wen. The thread was named "Space Dimensionality of Sound," and the person who posted it was a student's ID. Few people paid attention to it, and there were only a few dozen clicks. There were also very few replies.
There were very few people in Sunset College who cultivated music-type Primordial Energy Arts, so very few people were interested in this thread. However, Zhou Wen's eyes lit up when he saw it.
Although the content was a little strange and seemed unrealistic, it was very interesting.
After Zhou Wen read the thread, he seemed to understand why the Demonic Organ Throne could affect his emotions. However, there were many things he couldn't understand. The thread didn't have the answers to his questions.
Zhou Wen saw that the thread was posted two years ago. The author's ID wasn't online either. When he checked the author's post history, he was somewhat disappointed that this was the only thread. From the looks of it, he wasn't a person who often logged on to the forum.
He attempted to send a private message to the other party only with the hope of giving it a try and raising a few questions that troubled him.
Zhou Wen originally didn't have much hope, but to his surprise, the other party replied with a message shortly after and answered his questions in detail. Zhou Wen had never heard of any of those strange explanations which were unheard of, but they answered his questions.
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Chapter 391 Leng Zongzheng
Leng Zongzheng was fiddling with trinkets while looking at his cell phone. It had been two years since he posted an article on the forum. It received very few replies, but someone had sent him a private message on the forum today.
Leng Zongzheng was just casually surfing the net when he realized that the private message the other party had sent was actually some questions regarding music and space. He originally wrote this message off, thinking that it was the same as the students from before. They would just hound him with questions about methods to master a music-type Primordial Energy Art, as well as how to use music-type skills or reform all beings with the use of music.
If those were the questions, Leng Zongzheng couldn't be bothered to answer. He didn't believe that music had any ability to infect the emotions of all beings.
Everyone thought that his Demonic Organ Throne could reform all beings, believing that he used the magical powers of music to touch those creatures. However, Leng Zongzheng scoffed in derision to such suggestions.
He was never someone who could infect others—no matter whether it was music or anything. He didn't believe that he had any special influence on others.
When he was young, Leng Zongzheng was called "Expressionless" by his classmates and friends, as well as given nicknames such as "Masked Man" or "Wooden Block" because he didn't express any emotions. Even smiles were very difficult for him.
Those people who asked him how to use his charm and music to infect all beings were laughable in Leng Zongzheng's eyes.
These few questions are rather interesting. Leng Zongzheng finished reading Zhou Wen's questions and wrote down his reply by answering the questions.
Soon, the other party sent another private message over and asked a few more questions.
This time, Leng Zongzheng was a little surprised. This was because after receiving his answer, the other party had a new slew of questions.
To be able to understand his answer so quickly and to draw inferences and come up with more questions indicated that the other party was good at active thinking.
This piqued Leng Zongzheng's interest. He replied to the other party's question and even secretly included some matters at a deeper level in his answer. He wanted to see if the other party could see through the problem.
After sending the message, he waited for a while, but there was no reply. Leng Zongzheng couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. If the mind of the person's activity was only at this level, it wasn't enough to satisfy Leng Zongzheng despite it being pretty good.
Ever since he taught An Tianzuo, Leng Zongzheng had no longer taught new students. It wasn't that he couldn't teach, but he felt uninterested.
Once one taught a student who was able to understand anything in one setting and learn anything related, teaching students who were unable to understand anything quickly was exasperating. However, Leng Zongzheng had never given his patience to others because his patience was fully focused on research. If not, he wouldn't have achieved what he had today.
Even the six families of the League feared his Demonic Organ Throne. Everyone thought that he was talented, but little did they know about the effort he had put in.
In this era, everyone believed that science was useless. Only dimensional crystals and Companion Beasts were the future. All of them were trying their best to hunt for dimensional items.
However, Leng Zongzheng was different. Although he cultivated, he had never stopped scientific research. From his point of view, those god-like dimensional creatures were nothing of that sort. They were just creatures from other worlds, probably not much different from aliens.
The mystical powers they possessed were similar to that of technology. However, the laws of those mystical powers were the laws of other worlds, completely different from those of the League.
Therefore, he had always been studying their power systems. The one he had studied the most was space. Others might imagine that the Demonic Organ Throne had music attributes or was a music-type Life Soul, but they were terribly wrong. This was because the Demonic Organ Throne was never a music-type, but a spatial-time Life Soul.
The music was only a form of spatial manipulation used by the Demonic Organ Throne. Neither did it have the infectious ability of music. The music he played was mainly used to change the frequency of sound and affect the brain frequency of living creatures. This was a very brilliant technique, not his talent.
Leng Zongzheng had initially thought that the matter would end here, but to his surprise, he received another private message? It was from the same ID. There were a few more questions.
After looking at these few questions, Leng Zongzheng was truly intrigued by this person. From these few questions, he could already confirm that the other party had already guessed that the Demonic Organ Throne was not a music-type but a spatial-type.
To be able to think of this set of problems, this person must be one of the people who saw my battle with the Golden-Winged Roc at Dragon Gate Grotto today. Who could it be? A young man with a golden chick on his shoulder flashed across Leng Zongzheng's mind.
It should be him, right? Although Leng Zongzheng felt that it was likely the youth, he didn't have the intention to verify it. Even though he could easily find out who the other party was, he didn't do so.
Although the other party was an excellent young man, he wasn't at a level that made him interested in finding out who he was.
However, it was rare for someone to be willing to learn and think. Leng Zongzheng answered Zhou Wen's question and even gave him some tips before suggesting that he take a look at some famous works that involved spatial dimensions.
Leng Zongzheng was aware that this knowledge was insipid. Ignoring this world filled with magical powers, very few people could sit down and learn such knowledge even before the dimensional storms appeared.
There were a lot of things that needed to be memorized and the required knowledge was broad. If one wasn't an expert in such matters, they probably wouldn't be able to understand it. They would need to read up and reference a lot of information.
However, Leng Zongzheng believed that if the other party did not even have the patience and ability to learn, there was no need to waste his time.
Humans had thousands of ways of living, but to have outstanding achievements in certain aspects, one had to be able to treat boredom as enjoyment. One had to endure loneliness.
There were no friends on the path to studies, only hard work and pursuits.
After Zhou Wen read the message from Leng Zongzheng, he found the idea interesting. He sent another private message, but this time, he didn't reply to his questions and only replied with a line of text:
"The answers you want are all in those books."
Zhou Wen originally only wanted to figure out the strength of the Demonic Organ Throne, but after delving deeper, he realized that the Demonic Organ Throne was actually the power of space. This discovery surprised him and piqued his interest.
This was because his Lost Country was also a space-type power. He felt that he could indeed study knowledge about space.
The next morning, Zhou Wen went to the library to borrow some books regarding this, but he really didn't understand many of them. He had never heard of the terms, formulas, and laws, so all he could do was seek out references as he read.
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Chapter 392 Success
Zhou Wen realized that he had been very busy recently. There were too many books to read, and even the amount of time he spent gaming was reduced.
When he could use Lost Country again, Zhou Wen went to the underground sea. This time, he didn't head directly into the sea but controlled the blood-colored avatar parallel to the water surface.
Not long after, a huge shadow appeared beneath the sea. Nine black dragons roared as they emerged from the sea.
After sacrificing the White Shadow of Poison, Zhou Wen dived into the sea and rapidly approached a black dragon. However, the black dragon's tail swept up a shocking wave that sent the seawater hitting Zhou Wen's body.
Zhou Wen could only use the impact of the waves to distance himself from the black dragon before tearing out of the sea. However, he didn't dare fly too high because the sapphire-like sky above was similarly fraught with danger. He could die faster if he approached it.
One black dragon after another rushed over, their mouths spewing water like a volcanic eruption.
Zhou Wen used Ghost Steps to charge into the sea again. This time, he identified the position of the war wagon and swam towards it. With the aid of the wagon, he blocked the black dragons' devouring and attacks.
Zhou Wen kept every action of the nine black dragons in his calculations. The blood-colored avatar kept circling around the black dragons while fleeing to the back of the war wagon, keeping close to it.
A black dragon rushed over from one side as Zhou Wen charged over without any hesitation. He struck it with his palm, but when the Poison Dragon Palm touched the black dragon's scales, Zhou Wen didn't even look at the outcome. He switched to the Lost Country Life Soul and used teleportation to escape.
This time, he was very close to the surface. After teleporting, he used Ghost Steps to rush straight out of the sea. The black dragons angrily charged out of the water and chased after him.
Zhou Wen spread his arm wing behind him as he used infinite Ghost Steps to dodge the attacks of the nine black dragons, rushing towards a cave on a nearby mountain cliff.
Thankfully, the nine black dragons weren't able to leave the sea, allowing Zhou Wen to barely escape into the cave. From afar, the nine black dragons roared in the sea, stirring up waves. It was frightening.
Zhou Wen stood in the cave looking for the black dragon that the Poison Dragon Palm had hit. Others couldn't tell apart the nine black dragons as they looked identical, but after studying them for so long, Zhou Wen was extremely familiar with them. He immediately found the black dragon that had been struck by the Poison Dragon Palm.
Around its abdomen, Zhou Wen saw a black palm print. As the dragon was black, Zhou Wen almost failed to notice the palm print. After careful inspection, he found the palm print that was only slightly different in color from the black dragon.
I hope it works. Zhou Wen knew that it was impossible for him to kill Mythical creatures at the moment. Now, he was still unable to fight real Mythical creatures. He could only attempt to kill the black dragons chained up.
After waiting for quite a while, Zhou Wen didn't see the black dragon die from the poison even after the nine black dragons lost their patience and dived back to the bottom of the water.
After all, it's a Mythical creature. Its poison resistance will definitely be higher. I'll wait a little longer. Zhou Wen left the dungeon and planned on heading down to see if the black dragon had been poisoned to death when Lost Country's cooldown was up tomorrow.
Now, the blood-colored avatar couldn't die. Once it died, it had to respawn, and all of his previous efforts would go to waste.
Without doing anything too dangerous, Zhou Wen switched to Pool City to grind for Epic creatures to raise his stats to 40.
He was quite lucky today. After killing a few Jade Toads, a 20-valued Poison Crystal dropped. He even had a Jade Toad Companion Egg drop. Unfortunately, it had average stats.
Zhou Wen had actually obtained quite a number of Companion Eggs, but he mostly fed them to his Mythical pets as food. Their interest in high-level Companion Beasts was higher than ordinary food.
Unless it was a Companion Egg with excellent stats, Zhou Wen wouldn't keep them.
Why isn't this phone game equipped with autoplay? If only I had it. Zhou Wen spent quite a while grinding and inevitably felt bored. After all, repeatedly killing the same monster wasn't challenging at all. It was just a time-grinder.
"Zhou Wen, are you home?" Someone knocked on the door outside and Zhou Wen could tell that it was Wang Lu. When he opened the door, he found Wang Lu standing at the yard's entrance.
"What's the matter?" Zhou Wen walked to the yard and opened the yard door.
Wang Lu curled her lips and said, "Can't I look for you if there's nothing wrong?"
"You can, but I'm very busy at the moment. If there's nothing special, I'll get back to my reading." Zhou Wen walked back as he spoke.
"A gaming addict like you actually reads? Let me see what books you read." Wang Lu seemed to have something to say, but when she heard that Zhou Wen was reading, she became intrigued. She followed Zhou Wen into his dorm.
Wang Lu casually flipped through the few books on Zhou Wen's couch and said with a smile, "String Theory, Quantum Teleportation, Diamond Perfection Sutra, and Superior and Wondrous Numinous Treasure Scripture of Limitless Salvation and Most High. Your hobby sure is widespread. You go from front-line scientific theories to idealism. Are you a materialist or idealist?"
"I am whatever that brings me benefits." As Zhou Wen flipped through the books in his hand, he used his phone to check on the references.
"You're quite pragmatic." Wang Lu placed the books back to their original spot before sitting beside Zhou Wen. She looked at the book in Zhou Wen's hand and saw that it was explaining something about branes.
"What's the matter?" Zhou Wen asked again.
"I took care of those two pets for you previously. You said you would repay me the favor. Are you free? Do you want to repay me now?" Wang Lu said as she narrowed her eyes.
"What do you want me to do?" Every time Zhou Wen went out, he would leave the antelope and chick to Wang Lu to take care of them. Back then, he had indeed said that he owed her a favor and would slowly repay her in the future.
"Eat with me and meet someone," said Wang Lu.
"Who?" Zhou Wen frowned slightly.
"Someone I don't wish to see, but he's someone I have to. Why are you asking so many questions? Are you trying to renege on your promise?" Wang Lu stared at Zhou Wen.
"No, I was just asking. When is it?" Zhou Wen thought that it made sense. It was pointless asking since he had to return the favor.
"Now, go and change your clothes. We'll leave now and rush back before the school gates are closed," said Wang Lu.
Zhou Wen didn't ask any further questions as he returned to his bedroom to change out of his uniform and changed into his casual clothes before leaving the school with Wang Lu.
He was very puzzled as to why Wang Lu would bring him along for dinner with someone else. However, he didn't pursue the matter since Wang Lu didn't elaborate.
After arriving at the restaurant, Wang Lu headed straight for a private room with great familiarity. Zhou Wen saw that there was already someone sitting in the private room—a middle-aged man, but he didn't recognize him.
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Chapter 393 Tes
"Uncle, this is my classmate, Zhou Wen." Wang Lu pointed at Zhou Wen and introduced him before pointing at the middle-aged man. "This is my uncle. You can call him Uncle too."
"Uncle," Zhou Wen greeted, but he felt somewhat puzzled. He didn't know why Wang Lu had brought him along to meet her family member.
"Sit down," Wang Lu's uncle said indifferently without any intention of communicating with Zhou Wen.
Wang Lu sat opposite him and tugged at Zhou Wen, gesturing to him to sit beside her. The two of them looked at the middle-aged man across the table.
"Little Lu, you should have had enough fun, right? It's time to go back and cultivate seriously. Don't keep your parents worried," said Wang Guotao as he stared at Wang Lu.
"Uncle, things are progressing well with my cultivation at Sunset College. Sunset College is one of the top ten colleges in the League. The tutors and teaching resources here are all very good..." Before Wang Lu could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Wang Guotao.
"I'm more familiar with Sunset College's standards than you are. The teaching standards there are indeed excellent compared to ordinary schools, but it's still a school that's targeted at the masses at the end of the day. It's impossible for it to teach according to your characteristics and abilities, much less teach you the secret techniques of our Wang family," said Wang Guotao.
"I don't necessarily have to learn the family's secret techniques. I think the status quo is pretty good," Wang Lu said as she bit her lip.
"Do you really think that learning from things catered to the masses is good? If that's the case, the disappointment won't be limited to your parents, Even I'm disappointed," said Wang Guotao.
"Uncle, I wish to continue studying in school. You dote on me the most, help me," pleaded Wang Lu.
"I can let it pass on any other matter, but not this. You've already wasted half a year. If you don't return and focus on your cultivation, how can you keep up with the progress of your siblings? You'll have to take charge of the Wang family in the future. If your strength can't suppress those of the same generation, how will the masses submit to you in the future?" Wang Guotao said.
"It's not like I'm planning on taking charge of the Wang family." Wang Lu muttered softly.
"What did you say?" Although her voice was soft, Wang Guotao still heard her. His expression turned cold.
"Nothing. I'm saying that cultivation is the same in college. One's cultivation progress will not be slower than at home," Wang Lu said as she pointed at Zhou Wen and said, "Zhou Wen is my schoolmate. He's also studying in school. He's much stronger than my siblings."
"He's a member of the An family, so the college naturally takes great care of him." Wang Guotao clearly knew about Zhou Wen and continued, "Besides, saying that he's stronger than your siblings? I don't think so."
When Wang Lu heard this, she immediately felt delighted. She knew that Wang Guotao was acting as she had imagined. He couldn't bear humiliation, especially when the Wang family was insulted.
"If you don't believe me, you can test him. If he is indeed stronger than my siblings who cultivate at home, how about letting me remain on campus and cultivate?" Wang Lu took the opportunity to say.
"Since you brought him here, I'm afraid you won't give up if I say no." As Wang Guotao spoke, he looked at Zhou Wen. "What are you best at?"
"I'm not particularly good at anything," Zhou Wen answered.
Wang Lu hurriedly added, "Uncle, Zhou Wen means that he is proficient in everything. You can test him as you please."
Is that what I mean? Zhou Wen didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he couldn't say it out loud in front of Wang Guotao.
"Your grandfather has been cultivating an entire lifetime, and even he doesn't dare say that he's proficient in everything. Do you think those words are suitable for a student?" said Wang Guotao sternly.
With that said, he ignored Wang Lu's reaction and looked at Zhou Wen. "Since you aren't good at anything, I'll test you on the Wang family's usual cultivation problem."
Zhou Wen looked at Wang Lu who gave him a pleading look. Her hands were clasped under the table, moving it like she was praying to a god.
"Uncle, please speak." Zhou Wen thought for a moment. He had no choice but to help her since he owed her a favor.
Wang Guotao poured a cup of tea and pushed it in front of Zhou Wen. He said indifferently, "The most important thing about cultivation is the foundation. It's like building. If the foundation hasn't been built, there's no way you can build a skyscraper. Even if it's built forcefully, it will quickly collapse. Now, I'll test your foundation."
Zhou Wen looked at Wang Guotao in puzzlement, unsure how he could test him with a cup of tea.
Wang Guotao remained unperturbed. He poured himself a cup of tea and placed it on the table in front of him.
The table was made of rosewood. It was about ten centimeters thick and was rather sturdy. With a casual press, Wang Guotao made the teacup sink into the table. The cup's mouth became parallel to the table, as if it was embedded in it. The cup wasn't damaged, and not a single drop of tea inside spilled.
"Uncle, aren't you making things difficult for him? Zhou Wen has never cultivated our family's Heart Destroying Palm. Besides, which of my siblings can even achieve a level like yours?" Wang Lu immediately objected.
"If you can't do it, it means that the teachers of the academy are lacking. So, it's best you go back home and cultivate," said Wang Guotao calmly.
Wang Lu opened her mouth to protest, but she didn't know how to rebut Wang Guotao.
"I'll give it a try," Zhou Wen said as he looked at the teacup in front of him.
"It's a good thing that young people are willing to try. I won't make things difficult for you either. As long as you can sink a third of the teacup into the table without shattering the teacup, I'll count it as a pass," Wang Guotao said.
Zhou Wen nodded and reached out to smack the teacup.
"Wait," Wang Lu called out to Zhou Wen nervously and looked at him pleadingly. "Be careful. Don't shatter the teacup. Just get it in if you can."
Wang Lu thought that if the teacup were to shatter, there was no way to protest. As long as the teacup didn't shatter, or even if a third of the cup didn't sink in, she could still bargain with Wang Guotao.
Zhou Wen actually didn't quite understand why Wang Lu insisted on studying on campus when her family had such good conditions. Wasn't she rejecting what was near at hand and seeking what was far away?
However, it wasn't his place to interfere with Wang Lu's matters. He just needed to return the favor.
"Don't worry," Zhou Wen said to Wang Lu before reaching out to smack the teacup in front of him.
Wang Lu fell into despair when she heard a cracking sound.
The table was completely fine as the teacup was smashed to pieces by Zhou Wen. Wang Lu felt the room spinning, wishing she could plant her head to the ground. She thought, Did I have a screw loose in my head? Why did I think of bringing Zhou Wen here?
"Young man, there are many things in this world that can't be resolved simply with great strength," Wang Guotao said before ignoring Zhou Wen. He looked at Wang Lu and said, "Little Lu, return to campus and pack up. I'll send someone to fetch you home tomorrow."
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Chapter 394 Tea Pattern
Wang Lu sadly hung her head low, unable to bring herself to retort. She could only blame herself for bringing a fool like Zhou Wen here. She had already told him not to shatter the cup, but great, he ended up smashing it to pieces. The water had spilled onto the table and it was an appalling sight.
"Uncle, I'll head back first," Wang Lu said as she stood up.
"Hold on." Zhou Wen sat there motionless as he called out to Wang Lu.
Wang Guotao could not help but frown slightly as he looked at Zhou Wen. "Young man, although your surname isn't An, you are still a part of the An family. You should know your limits when doing things."
Zhou Wen didn't explain himself because it wasn't worth wasting his time explaining things to irrelevant people.
Pointing at the table, Zhou Wen said, "Uncle, it's best if you give an evaluation. Tell me what standard this strike is for members of your Wang family's younger generation."
"The results are already very obvious. Do I still need to comment on it?" Wang Guotao asked.
"In that case, Uncle, are you allowing Wang Lu to stay on campus for cultivation?" Zhou Wen asked Wang Guotao.
Wang Guotao was amused by Zhou Wen. He looked at him and said, "It's rare to have young people like you who can disregard their pride. However, if you are really doing this for the sake of Little Lu, you should let her return home for cultivation. Alright, both of you can leave."
Wang Guotao's words were clearly saying that Zhou Wen was shameless, but Zhou Wen remained unmoved. "I don't know if going back to cultivate is a good choice for Wang Lu, but since we had an agreement, and I've done it already, shouldn't you allow Wang Lu to make her choice on returning?"
A cultured person like Wang Guotao couldn't help but have his expression turn cold when he heard Zhou Wen's words. He said, "I originally wanted to leave you some dignity, but since you don't want it, don't blame me for being blunt. A standard like yours is only about the same level as a child who has just gained some initial mastery in the Wang family. At most, it can be considered brute force, so there's nothing to be evaluated."
Wang Guotao also felt somewhat vexed. He was wondering why Zhou Wen was so clueless. He got up and prepared to leave, having no wish to speak to the unreasonable Zhou Wen.
"Zhou Wen, let's head back," Wang Lu said as she walked to Zhou Wen. She was well aware of Wang Guotao's temper, so it was impossible for them to fool him.
Zhou Wen didn't move and continued sitting in front of the table. Then, he reached out his hand and pushed the teacup fragments on the table to one side. He looked at Wang Guotao and said, "Uncle, please hold your step. Are you sure that the beginners of your family can do this? Then, please demonstrate for me so that I'll admit defeat wholeheartedly."
Wang Lu had wanted to stop Zhou Wen from speaking, but when her eyes met the table, she immediately let out a cry as she looked at the table in surprise.
Wang Guotao originally didn't want to bother with Zhou Wen. It was unbecoming for him to keep arguing with Zhou Wen, but when he heard Wang Lu's exclamation, he couldn't help but turn around and see her staring intently at the table. Even Wang Guotao followed her gaze.
With a single glance, Wang Guotao's pupils contracted, but his eyes widened as they formed a strong contrast.
On the surface of the yellowish-brown wood grain on the table, were veins of tea leaves. On a closer look, one could see that there weren't patterns. They were obviously the tea leaves that had been forcibly pressed into the table. The tea leaves were not damaged at all, and the leaf parts were clearly visible. They looked like the original patterns of the wooden table.
Impossible! Wang Guotao walked to the front of the table again. He stretched out his hand to pry open the fragments of the teacups. Soon, he discovered that there were no tea leaves in the teacup fragments. There were no tea leaves in the spilled tea.
Wang Guotao almost couldn't believe his eyes. It was true that he was able to slam the teacup into the table using Yin forces, but the hardness of porcelain was not bad after all. However, tea leaves were brittle, and once they were soaked in water, just a slight nudge would rip them apart. How could they possibly be slammed into the wood?
The strength of Zhou Wen's palm shattered the cup. Yet, pieces of tea leaves were slammed into the table without any damage. Regardless, Wang Guotao found it impossible.
Wang Guotao stretched out his hand to touch the tea leaves, and with a slight tug, the tea leaves immediately tore. He could clearly see the leaf marks on the table.
They're not fake? Wang Guotao was dumbfounded again as he stared blankly at the table. He really couldn't figure out how Zhou Wen had managed to do it.
Beside her, Wang Lu was surprised and delighted as she said, "You actually pushed the soaked tea leaves into the wooden table. Furthermore, the tea leaves aren't damaged at all. How did you do it?"
"It's not difficult. I just learned a little trick from school. I wonder what standard this trick is in the Wang family?" Zhou Wen spoke to Wang Lu, but his eyes were on Wang Guotao.
Wang Guotao looked at Zhou Wen with a complicated expression. He wasn't able to accomplish this. He had never seen such usage of a Yin force before.
"Is this a technique you learned in school?" Wang Guotao took a deep breath before asking Zhou Wen.
"Yes, I just learned it from reading a thread on the school forum a few days ago." Zhou Wen knew that even if he could do as Wang Guotao did—pushing the teacup into the table—Wang Guotao probably wouldn't let Wang Lu stay.
He had to prove that the things he learned in school were better than what the Wang family had to offer. Only then would Wang Guotao consider letting Wang Lu stay.
"Uncle, I doubt any of my siblings can do something like what Zhou Wen did, right? You aren't allowed to go back on your word," Wang Lu said happily.
Wang Guotao looked at the tea leaves that had sunk into the table with a complicated expression. After a while, he said to Wang Lu, "You can stay, but I will send someone to test you every month from now on. If you can't reach the assessment standards, you need to return immediately."
"Uncle, thank you. You're great." Wang Lu was overjoyed as she pulled Zhou Wen to his feet and said, "Zhou Wen, let's go."
"Wait, Little Lu, go get the bill first. I have something to say to Zhou Wen," Wang Guotao stopped Wang Lu.
Seeing Wang Lu look at him suspiciously, Wang Guotao said with a smile, "Don't worry. I'm not that unreasonable. I just want to ask a few questions about you. I'm afraid Zhou Wen wouldn't dare tell the truth in front of you."
"Uncle, just ask me if you have anything to ask," said Wang Lu.
"Go settle the bill." Wang Guotao spoke again.
Wang Lu could only obediently settle the bill, but before she left, she kept winking at Zhou Wen, as though warning him to be careful with his words.
After Wang Lu left, Wang Guotao asked, "Zhou Wen, how's your relationship with Little Lu?"
"Not bad," Zhou Wen answered truthfully.
Wang Guotao nodded slightly before saying to Zhou Wen, "If you really have Little Lu's interests at heart, I hope that you can maintain a certain distance from her in the future."
"Why?" Zhou Wen frowned.
"Because you are Wang Mingyuan's student," said Wang Guotao simply.
"I understand. Uncle, don't worry. Wang Lu and I are just ordinary friends." Zhou Wen replied calmly.
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