Chapter 07: An Odd Valley
Back in his small courtyard from the Eastern Courtyard, Huang Xiaolong sat on the wooden bed thinking back to the scene in the Northern Courtyard-- both Huang Wei and his father’s arrogant, cold, and hypocritical performance caused a trace of malice to emerge in his heart.
Initially, he had some scruples when he planned to beat up Huang Wei miserably during the end of the year’s Clan Assembly, but now it had completely evaporated.
“Presumably, Huang Ming thinks the position of the Main Manor Lord will not slip from his fingers!” Huang Xiaolong snickered.
Ever since the awakening of Huang Wei’s martial spirit, the majority of elders were trying to get closer to Huang Ming, thus the incident with Battle Qi Dan and the Northern Courtyard scene today.
A little while later, repressing his hostility, Huang Xiaolong started running XuanQin cultivation technique to practice his battle qi.
The double-headed serpent martial spirit floated behind Huang Xiaolong, devouring the surrounding world’s spiritual energy; Huang Xiaolong noticed after his advancement to Second Order warrior, his martial spirit’s speed of absorbing spiritual energy had increased substantially.
Aside from that, both of the previously palm-sized double-headed serpent martial spirits had grown double in size, its radiant black light and blue light becoming thicker and brighter-- as the double-headed serpent martial spirit devoured spiritual energy from the surroundings, its black and blue lights shimmered constantly.
Multiple strands of spiritual energy are being absorbed into Huang Xiaolong’s meridians, converting into battle qi continuously, flowing in the second layer meridians over and over again.
Quickly, few days passed just like that.
These past few days, Huang Xiaolong once again practiced like crazy regardless of the time.
The result from these days of practice was that Huang Xiaolong managed to reach the peak of Second Order.
During this period, Huang Peng and Su Yan came over on a daily basis to Huang Xiaolong’s small courtyard; seeing their son’s practice in such a crazed manner, both Huang Peng and Su Yan are distressed. Su Yan had even started secretly crying because even though Huang Peng and Huang Xiaolong never mentioned in detail about what happened in the Northern Courtyard, she still managed to find out from the manor servants’ gossip what took place a few days ago.
Half a month passed.
In this half a month, Huang Xiaolong is either practicing battle qi in his small courtyard or training in his Body Metamorphose Scripture in the back mountain. As the Body Metamorphose Scripture is a secret, he could only sneak out to practice at the back mountain at night.
In the dark of night within the thick forest, stood a small figure in a strange position.
The dark night, the dense forest trees, and a small figure standing there in a strange position; this scene was complete with the moonlight shining through the gaps of foliage, marking the ground with soft silvery spots.
With hands above his head, Huang Xiaolong ran through the Body Metamorphose Scripture law and the world’s spiritual energy gathered, making it visible to the naked eye can be seen gushing into Huang Xiaolong body’s meridians, converting into internal force before converging in his dantian under his navel.
The night gradually faded as light overtook the darkness, when dew drops on the grass reflects the sunlight, and Huang Xiaolong stops running the Body Metamorphose law before opening his eyes.
Suddenly, Huang Xiaolong gave a low shout waving both of his palms, his silhouette leaps high up from the ground as shadows of the palm strike fall heavily on the grass patch.
Energy swirled rapidly in the surrounding space, whistling through the wind.
This superior martial skill was something inherited from Huang Xiaolong's family from his previous life, the Ethereal Palm.
As Huang Xiaolong’s palms moves, his arms seemingly impalpable and intangible, a palm print condensed of vapor will be imprinted mid-air not dissipating even after a long time every time his palm strikes.
Ethereal Palm’s highest level of mastery, condense without dissipating, endless internal power.
In his previous life, Huang Xiaolong was known as martial arts prodigy is not only because of his physique but also due to his amazing comprehension ability.
Half an hour later, Huang Xiaolong gradually stopped.
After a few breaths time, trees in the surrounding area tumbled down, a palm print visible on each tree trunk.
Looking at the palm prints on the tree trunks, Huang Xiaolong brows wrinkled; if this is his previous life, his Ethereal Palm would not be leaving any visible mark. In the end, it was all because his internal force is still too weak.
“I wonder, what is the power of this Martial Spirit World’s fighting skills?” Huang Xiaolong thought to himself.
Common clans’ regulations only allowed children who have achieved at least mid-Fourth Order warrior to practice in the clan’s battle skill because only by achieving this level of foundation will they be able to display the power of the battle skill; in the initial warrior stages, they are of little use.
At this time, Huang Xiaolong suddenly heard a strange noise behind him-- turning around to look, he saw hanging on a big tree not far away, a half meter in size creature violet in color with light blue eyes.
“Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey!” Huang Xiaolong was astonished.
Huang Xiaolong had seen a drawing of it before, from his previous life family’s old books-- the Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey is a rare spirit beast.
Seeing Huang Xiaolong looking at itself, the little violet spirit monkey grinned and squeaked “Zhi zhi”, his hands gesturing towards Huang Xiaolong, then it turned around and ran in the direction of the deeper parts of the mountains.
Huang Xiaolong hesitated for a second before following the little violet monkey from behind into the depths of the mountains.
What surprised Huang Xiaolong was the speed of the Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey as it weaves through the trees; if not for Huang Xiaolong training in the Body Metamorphose Scripture and using Sky Gyration Step, it would really be hard keeping up with the little violet monkey’s speed.
Half an hour later, after crossing many a small stream and forest area, Huang Xiaolong finally reached an odd valley, following the little violet monkey. It was quiet inside the valley with heavy yin qi that was spreading out from the inner valley, making Huang Xiaolong furrow his brows.
“Zhi zhi zhi!” When Huang Xiaolong was uncertain if he wanted to enter the valley, the little violet monkey ran back out from within, squeaking at Huang Xiaolong; apparently, it wants Huang Xiaolong to follow it into the valley.
After a brief moment of consideration, Huang Xiaolong lifted his foot and stepped into the valley following behind the little guy. Entering the valley, a wave of yin qi hit Huang Xiaolong in the face, carrying an unpleasant odor. Not far into the valley, there are piles and mountains of dead bones scattered everywhere, belonging to an era long gone.
As they moved deeper into the valley, more and more mountain of bones decorates the scene; even with Huang Xiaolong’s experience of two lifetimes which makes his mind stronger than most children his age, he’s unable to keep calm in this situation.
However, when Huang Xiaolong was about to turn around and leave, he suddenly came to a large turf of green grass with exotic flowers’ fragrances permeating the air, a picture of Eden. In the center of the turf, there is a turquoise lake. Huang Xiaolong was dumbstruck looking at the valley; never would he have imagined the front half of the valley was littered with dead bones just like a scene from hell and the other half a utopia.
At this moment, the little violet monkey came before a mountain cliff, squeaking and gesturing towards Huang Xiaolong pointing to the top of the cliff. Huang Xiaolong walked over and looked towards the direction pointed by those tiny fingers-- growing almost at the top of the cliff on a short, thick, green vine was a few red colored fruit.
These red colored fruits make the one looking at it disoriented, fragrance from the fruits wafts through the air, mesmerizing their audience.
“This… could this be Yang fruit?” Huang Xiaolong was stunned, truly surprised.
Yang fruit grows on lands of extreme yin, absorbing nine types of yang qi between heaven and earth; if taken by people who cultivates in battle qi, not only can it enhance battle qi cultivation, it also purifies the marrow and tendon strengthening effect, which will bring unimaginable benefits to one’s future cultivation.
Notes:
Ethereal Palm - skill base on the ability to manipulate the ‘soft/hidden’ internal force instead of the more direct destructive power.
Initial stages warrior; First to Third Order Warrior (Chapter 3)
FYI: Huang Xiaolong’s name literal translation is Little Dragon.