Chapter 07: An Odd Valley

Back in his small courtyard within 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 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 Huang Wei’s martial spirit awakened, the majority of elders were trying to get closer to Huang Ming which brought about the previous incident regarding the Battle Qi dan, along with the Northern Courtyard scene today.

A short while later, repressing his hostility, Huang Xiaolong started running the Xuan Qin cultivation technique to train his battle qi.

The double-headed serpent martial spirit emerged, hovering behind Huang Xiaolong, and started devouring the surrounding world’s spiritual energy. Huang Xiaolong noticed that 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 spirit’s had grown twice 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, black and blue lights shimmered constantly in the room.

Multiple strands of spiritual energy were being absorbed into Huang Xiaolong’s meridians, converting into battle qi continuously, flowing along the second layer meridians over and over again.

A few days passed by in a flash.

These past few days, Huang Xiaolong once again practiced like a madman regardless of the time.

The result from these days of practice was that Huang Xiaolong managed to reach the peak of early Second Order.

During this period, Huang Peng and Su Yan dropped by on a daily basis to Huang Xiaolong’s small courtyard in order to check on him. Seeing their son practice in such a crazed manner, both Huang Peng and Su Yan felt 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 what took place a few days ago from the manor servants’ gossip.

Half a month passed.

In this half a month, Huang Xiaolong was either training his battle qi in his small courtyard or training in his Body Metamorphose Scripture in the back mountain. As the Body Metamorphose Scripture was a secret, he could only sneak out to practice at the back mountain at night.

Under the cover of night’s darkness 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 moonlight shining through the gaps in the foliage, marking the ground with soft silvery spots.

With hands above his head, Huang Xiaolong ran through the Body Metamorphose Scripture law, attracting the world’s spiritual energy, making it visible to the naked eye. Energy could be seen gushing into Huang Xiaolong’s meridians, converting into internal force before converging in his dantian under his navel.

The night gradually faded as light overtook the darkness and the dew drops that formed on the grass reflected the sunlight. Huang Xiaolong stopped running through the Body Metamorphose Scripture law before opening his eyes.

Suddenly, Huang Xiaolong gave a low shout. Waving both of his palms, his silhouette leaped high above the ground as shadows of a palm strike fell heavily onto the grass patch below.

Energy swirled rapidly in the surrounding space, whistling through the wind.

This superior martial skill was something inherited from Huang Xiaolong’s family in his previous life, the Ethereal Palm.

As Huang Xiaolong’s palms struck out, his arms seemingly impalpable and intangible, a palm print condensed of vapor imprinted in mid-air, each palm strike not dissipating even after a long period of time.

Ethereal Palm’s highest level of mastery, condensing without dissipating, endless internal power.

In his previous life, Huang Xiaolong was known as a martial arts prodigy 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’s brows wrinkled. If this was his previous life, his Ethereal Palm would not be leaving any visible mark. In the end, it was all because his internal force was 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 a clan’s battle technique because only by achieving this level of foundation would they be able to display the power of the battle technique. In the initial warrior stages, they are of little use.

At that moment, 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 sized creature whose body was violet in color and had light blue eyes.

“Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey!” Huang Xiaolong was astonished.

Huang Xiaolong once saw a drawing of it in his previous life’s old family records-- the Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey was a rare spirit beast.

Seeing Huang Xiaolong looking at it, 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 into the depths of the mountains.

What surprised Huang Xiaolong was the speed of the Violet Devourer Spirit Monkey as it weaved through the thick foliage. 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 arrived at an odd looking valley while 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!” As Huang Xiaolong was seriously contemplating whether he wanted to enter the valley, the little violet monkey ran back out from within, squeaking at Huang Xiaolong. Apparently it wanted 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 thick yin qi hit Huang Xiaolong in the face, carrying an unpleasant odor. Not far into the valley, there were large piles and even mountains of dead bones scattered everywhere, belonging to an era long gone.

As they moved deeper into the valley, more and more mountains of bones decorated the scene. Even with Huang Xiaolong’s experience of two lifetimes which made his mind and will stronger than most children his age, he was unable to keep calm in this situation.

However, when Huang Xiaolong was about to turn back and leave, he suddenly came to a large plain of green grass with exotic flowers’ fragrances permeating the air. It was like a painted depiction of Eden had manifested into reality. In the center of the plain, there was a turquoise lake. Huang Xiaolong was dumbstruck when looking at the valley. Never would he have imagined the possibility of the front half of this valley being littered with dead bones, just like a scene from hell, while the other half was a utopia.

At this moment, the little violet monkey went up to a mountain cliff, squeaking and gesturing towards Huang Xiaolong while pointing to the top of the cliff. Huang Xiaolong walked over and his eyes followed in the direction pointed by those tiny fingers. Growing almost all the way at the top of the cliff on a short, thick, green vine were a few red colored fruits.

These red colored fruits made one who looked at it disoriented. Fragrance from the fruits wafted through the air, mesmerizing the audience.

“This… could this be Yang fruit?” Huang Xiaolong was stunned, greatly astounded.

Yang fruit grows on lands of extreme yin, absorbing nine types of yang qi between heaven and earth. If taken by people who cultivate in battle qi, not only can it enhance battle qi cultivation, it also purifies the marrow and provides a pulp-washing 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)