Chapter 24: Heaven Fragrant Flower
Tang Zheng descended another ten or so meters. The fog in front of him was becoming increasingly dense and concentrated so he could only see three meters in any direction. When suddenly, his nose was assaulted by a wave of fishy stench. Tian Chanzi loudly called out to him to be careful, Tang Zheng hurriedly avoided to the side only to see something red brush by him.
He clearly saw that it was a half a meter-long snake. Its body was deep red, like the color of blood.
“Red Drill Snake.” Tian Chanzi said in shock, “Its spiritual knowledge is already developed so it is a monster. You must be careful, its poison is fatal and if you get bitten you will most definitely die. The Red Drill Snake can also use illusions, in a bit whatever weird images you see you must not treat it as the truth.”
“Illusions.” This was the first time Tang Zheng head of such a technique.
“Little brat, it seems like I was wrong, the Red Drill Snake usually accompanies the Heaven Fragrant Flower. Wherever there is a Red Drill Snake there will most likely be a Heaven Fragrant Flower nearby. This place with sparse spiritual energy actually gave birth to a Heaven Fragrant flower, this is too weird.”
Tang Zheng furrowed his eyebrows, “Are you certain?”
“Of course it’s true, but you must first pass the Red Drill Snake.”
Tang Zheng glared at the Red Drill Snake as if it was his prey, and it also fixed its eyes on Tang Zheng while it was hissing nonstop in its own language. When its body started to twist looking like a bow, shou, the Red Drill Snake launched itself towards Tang Zheng.
Tang Zheng gathered his energy then used the Heaven Gathering Hand. Suddenly, the Red Drill Snake disappeared from in front of him and in its place was a beautiful lady charging over. At first it looked like Ye Dingdang, then it changed to look like Fang Shihi before it finally changed to looking like Liu Qingmei.
“Little brat, this is the illusion technique, do not fall for it.” Tian Chanzi’s voice sounded out heavily like a clock, causing Tang Zheng to be pulled out of the illusion technique. He hurriedly revolved his true qi to maintain a clear head. This illusion technique disappeared and the Red Drill Snake’s true body was revealed and Tang Zheng waved his arms and grabbed onto the Red Drill Snake causing it to struggle nonstop. However, it had no way of escaping from Tang Zheng’s grasp.
The Red Drill Snake’s strongest move was the illusion technique but it was still caught by Tang Zheng. This was completely out of the Red Drill Snake’s expectation and it was caught in an instance.
“Hurry, break open the snake’s abdomen and take its Dan as it is beneficial for you.” Tian Chanzi said excitedly in a hurry.
His hand rose and brought down the dagger that he always carried with him, cutting apart the Red Drill Snake’s abdomen. From this, a fingernail sized Dan rolled out. He hurriedly picked the Dan up while casually throwing away the snake’s dead body.
The Inner Dan was sparkling and translucent as it was reflecting the light from within his palms.
“The Inner Dan is the most important part of a monster as it is where all their energy converges. Meaning that if you were to take this you will be able to increase your true qi, raising it to a higher level.”
Tang Zheng smiled in joy as he hurriedly swallowed it, the Inner Dan did not have a fishy smell but instead had a faint fragrance to it. Afterwards he then felt a wave of fiery hot energy burst out from his stomach and coarse into his eight main meridians. *TL: Raw says ‘eight main meridians’ but he has ‘nine main meridians’ so it may or may not be a typo on the author’s part.
He hurried up and suppressed the surprise within his heart as he continued to descend in search of the Heaven Fragrant Flower. Three meters later a bright-colored flower was fluttering in the wind, it was especially attractive to the eyes.
“Heaven Fragrant Flower.” Tang Zheng immediately recognized it at first glance.
“Little brat, your luck is not bad. This is indeed the Heaven Fragrant Flower, hurry and pick it and place it into the box.”
Tang Zheng opened the pre-prepared wooden box and carefully placed the Heaven Fragrant Flower inside. The preservation time for the Heaven Fragrant Flower was three months. So him plucking it right now would not affect the medicinal properties of the flower when he needed it to refine the pill.
He looked all around him to make sure there weren’t any more weird flowers or any more monsters. His heart was filled with satisfaction as he once again climbed up the cliff.
At the top his feet slipped as he nearly fell down the cliff, the true qi in his body was acting chaotic, giving him a sense of crisis.
“Little brat, the Inner Dan is at work. Hurry and refine it, otherwise your true qi will continue to act chaotically and your body will blow up, causing you to die.”
Tang Zheng did not dare to neglect this as he hurriedly closed his eyes and revolved the Ancient Clear Heaven Scroll as the medicinal effects of the Inner Dan was refined. Not long later, the violent medicinal effects were completely refined by him as his true qi returned back to its original calm.
The true qi within his nine main meridians had increased to be two inches and he abruptly broke through to the Second grade of Refining Qi. This caused the true qi motion within his body to also increase.
Just one Inner Dan can cause him to increase one inch of true qi, then wouldn’t he be able to break into the Third grade of Refining Qi if he were to eat two more Inner Dans?
“Little brat, stop day dreaming. How could there be so many demon Inner Dan’s and also this Red Drill Snake was very weak. If you were to have met a stronger demon, then you not being eaten would already be considered your luck.” Tian Chanzi immediately poured a bucket of cold water on him.
Tang Zheng let out a bit of a hopeless sigh, these opportunities could be wished for but not expected. The only correct way to advance was properly cultivating.
“For the past two days you have not been absorbing any pure Yin energy and your true qi has suddenly increased. Do you not feel anything odd?” Tian Chanzi asked.
Tang Zheng’s heat moved as he hurriedly revolved his true qi, increasing its speed when he felt a wave of heart burn him from the inside causing his face to change colors. He heard Tian Chanzi say: “Do you feel it? I told you the Nine Yang Saint Body was an extreme body constitution, but when things reach an extreme they may have negative effects. Now your energy is too strong and if you do not have enough pure Yin energy to balance it out then you will be in great danger.”
Tang Zheng felt a cold sweat on his back as he said: “I will go to school tomorrow and absorb pure Yin energy and true qi there.”
Tian Chanzi let out a weird smile and said: “Heihei, little brat, you should successfully pursue those few women and then you won’t have to worry about not having enough pure Yin energy for a while. Moreover, it’s better to do it in broad daylight than to secretly absorb pure Yin energy. Why don’t you just listen to my advice this once?”
Tang Zheng did not know whether to cry or to laugh. Ye Dingdang, Fang Shishi, and Liu Qingmei are not simply women, but proud daughters of the heaven. How could it be easy to successfully obtain them?
However, Tian Chanzi’s words woke him up. If he were to choose one of the girls and had a relationship with them, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea. For it would be beneficial in easing his Nine Pure Yang Saint body.
“I will first successfully refine the Life Continuing Pill and save my grandfather. Then I’ll worry about this.” He said shaking his head as he shook off this charming thought from his brain.
“Little brat, refining the pill will require a day, so you must get to the Third grade of Refining Qi in the next eleven days. Do you understand?” Tian Chanzi reminded him.
Tang Zheng worries deepened, eleven days to reach the Third grade of Refining Qi. With not having any Inner Dans or a sufficient amount of pure Yin energy, it made this task even harder than ascending the heavens. However, he did not give up and said: “I will continue to work hard in my cultivation.”
“Did you discover that your cultivation speed has started to slow these past few days?” Tian Chanzi asked.
Tang Zheng was silent, aside from the first few days where his speed was extremely fast, his cultivation speed has recently become more normal. However, his speed was still faster than ordinary people.
“Tian Chanzi, are you saying there really is no other method?”
Tian Chanzi turned silent, opening his mouth a long while later: “Cultivation is like rowing a boat upstream, if you stop you fall backwards. Moreover, you need to learn to use skills in such a way that they complement each other and can increase your strength. The best way to do this is through actual combat.”
Real combat will allow one to better understand one’s own body and increase your training speed. It’s just like in the sect where they would organize trips for their disciples to gown the mountain to experience actual combat.
“Actual combat.” Tang Zheng’s eyes flashed.
“Yes, this is indeed a shortcut but you do not have all the requirements.”
“I can train with Ye Dingdang, she is stronger than me in strength and should be beneficial in helping me breakthrough.”
“This is indeed a good idea. The disciples in our sect would often have competitions, mutually testing what the other learned, or at least this is under the normal circumstances. Since you are currently in an extreme situation and need to breakthrough in a short period of time you must undergo life and death battles in order to stimulate your bodies potential.”
“Death matches? Are you saying I need to find someone to fight to the death with? Even if I have those kinds of thoughts, I would still not be able to find such a person.” Tang Zheng said discouragingly.
Tian Chanzi also had no idea and could only advise: “Don’t despair, heaven never bars one’s way. We will look to see if there are any other methods.”
Tang Zheng returned back to the hospital when he was stopped at the elevator by a nurse who called for him to halt. Saying that the hospital fees he paid is running out and that he needed to hurry and pay more. Otherwise they will stop providing treatment.
“Spending money is like water slipping out of one’s hands.” Tang Zheng said scrunching his eyebrows and revealing a bitter face. Their families of savings of twenty thousand dollars was completely spent in a few days and if they had no more money than his grandfather would have to leave the hospital. “This won’t work, besides cultivating I have to make money.”
When thinking about making money his two eyes became dull, he has previously gone to the dumpster with his grandfather saved up penny by penny. It was impossible to make enough money in a short amount of time since he neither had the time nor the energy.
This night as he cultivated he also pondered over how to make money all the way till morning. However, he still had not come up with any ideas. Could it be that his only option was to borrow the money? He had no relatives in Chang Heng City and borrowing money from Liu Qingmei, Feng Yong, or others was only a last resort. Otherwise he would never stretch out his hands for money from others.
After two days he finally came back to school, as he stepped through the school entrance he attracted countless gazes. Some people were pointing and several looked at him with despise. A few acted as if there were no one and said that he was a rapist and that he should have just found a prostitute. While others said that he was so poor that he couldn’t pay for a prostitute and hence would resort to raping, saying he was so shameful.
Tang Zheng pretended as if he didn’t hear them, not willing to hop around with the clowns. He quickly walked to his classroom sitting at the very back, closed his eyes and then rested.
“Tang Zheng, how come you are here? Ye Dingdang said looking at him in shock.
“I took care of my business so I came back to class.”
“Is your grandfather better?”
“He’s a bit better.” Tang Zheng gratefully nodded his head.
“That’s good. Heaven helps the worthy.”
Feng Yong energetically came over and greeted him, saying: “Boss, you finally came back. These past few days there were some people who were exceedingly arrogant loudly saying big words. Let’s see what they do now.”
“Fatty Feng, are you itching for a beating, why are you talking so loudly.” Gao Dazhi arrogantly while walking over. Suddenly, seeing Tang Zheng his voice lost all sound, as if someone was choking him, his face turning extremely ugly.
Tang Zheng slowly stood up and stared straight at Gao Dazhi and said: “Gao Dazhi, I heard that you have been really arrogant recently.”
Gao Dazhi’s face turned red as he said: “Tang Zheng, you’re a liar.”
“Heng, is it me that’s lying or you, everyone already knows. Wasn’t Feng Yong’s forehead injuries caused by you hitting him? You should immediately apologize, otherwise you will have to bear the consequences.” Tang Zheng said coldly.
“Tang Zheng, this is the school, you can’t do whatever you want here. Otherwise, you will not be able to deal with the results.” Gao Dazhi said with a show of strength that contrasted with his weak heart.
Tang Zheng coldly ‘heng’ in scorn and took big steps toward Gao Dazhi.
“You won’t shed tears till you see the coffin!”