Chapter 100: Approaching Perfection of the Qi-Gathering
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Could this be… what it feels like to be in love?” Zhou Donghuang found that whenever he shut his eyes, the image of Luo Qinghan would float into his brain unconsciously, as if it was deeply rooted within him.
“Tianxuan planet? I will find you there.” Zhou Donghuang knew that in his current state, he was too far from Luo Qinghan. Perhaps Luo Qinghan did not think that there was a chance that they would even meet again. After all, Luo Qinghan was already a Primal Core stage adept at just twenty years old. On the other hand, he was almost eighteen but had not even attained the connate stage.
“But after this intercourse where our Yin-Yang energy mixed, because she is a Primal Core stage adept, and her first time, I gained a lot.” Zhou Donghuang was practicing when Luo Qinghan awoke because he had gotten some of the Primal Core energy from her and wanted to make use of it before it dissipated.
After one afternoon, he had managed to fully make use of the Primal Core energy and had achieved Petty Consummation of the Qi-Gathering after entirely skipping level nine. In fact, he was not far from Great Consummation of the Qi-Gathering.
Level-nine of the Qi-Gathering was nowhere near Petty Consummation. The latter could produce the strength of nine bulls and a tiger, while the qi of level-nine adepts was only equivalent to nine bulls. A bull’s strength was around 400kg, while a tiger’s strength was around 1000kg! Because of the huge difference between level-nine adepts and those who had achieved Petty Consummation, there was an even larger jump than from level-seven to level-nine.
“Hm?” Suddenly, as if noticing something, Zhou Donghuang stared at the s.h.i.+eld surrounding the area he was at. The s.h.i.+eld was produced using Luo Qinghan’s yuan energy, and after she left, the s.h.i.+eld naturally started degrading as time pa.s.sed.
Boom!
…
With an earth-shattering sound, the s.h.i.+eld surrounding the lake dissipated along with the fog, as if it had never been there.
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+
Two shadows flew across the sky and circled above the lake. These two shadows were the masters of the Lost Forest, the two golden-crowned eagles with Petty Consummation of the Qi-Gathering.
Now, they circled above the lake, staring suspiciously at the topless young man who was sitting cross-legged at its sh.o.r.e.
“Brother, where is the scary lady? Why is she missing?”
“I’ve been with you the whole time; how would I know?”
“Brother, I think this was the man who entered the s.h.i.+eld just now!”
“He’s not wearing a s.h.i.+rt… was he taking a bath in the lake? Doesn’t that mean we’ll have to drink his bathwater from now on?”
“Brother, shall we kill him?”
…
The two golden-crowned eagles were conversing in demon tongue as if there was n.o.body else around.
“I did not bathe there.” Zhou Donghuang picked up the white s.h.i.+rt beside him and put it on. As he stood up, he tightened the waist-strap and glanced up at the two eagles above. He replied to the eagles in a language foreign to humans—demon tongue.
In his past life, he had come across all the different languages in the universe, but he was most fluent in the most common languages used in the universe. Demon tongue was one of those languages.
“You… you… can understand us?” The two eagles were so shocked to hear Zhou Donghuang talk in demon tongue that they slowed down and stared at him incredulously.
“Only Petty Consummation but you’ve already attained intelligence… looks like there was a miracle for the both of you,” continued Zhou Donghuang.
Usually, even if it was a demon with talent, it had to reach the connate stage before it could attain intelligence. But these two golden-crowned eagles, which were just demons with Petty Consummation of the Qi-Gathering, had somehow attained intelligence. There must have been some kind of miracle for them to achieve this so early.
“Brother, this is incredible… a human understands us.”
“Second Brother, it looks like this is no simple young man.”
…
The two golden-crowned eagles whispered excitedly to each other after Zhou Donghuang used demon tongue once again. After they had attained intelligence, they had only been able to speak to each other because all the other demons in the forest had yet to attain intelligence. Yet now, there was a human who could communicate with them. As surprised as they were, they could not help but feel excited.
“Young man, how did you breach the lady’s s.h.i.+eld?” the elder brother of the two eagles asked Zhou Donghuang.
“Such a simple s.h.i.+eld, how difficult would it be to enter it?” replied Zhou Donghuang.
“Young man, where is the lady?” the second brother asked.
“Gone,” sighed Zhou Donghuang.
“Gone?” hearing this, the two eagles’ eyes perked up. They excitedly circled the lake, before returning to the sky above Zhou Donghuang.
“Young man, since you can talk to us, why don’t you stay here with us… you’ll enjoy yourself here!” said the second brother, as if he wanted to take him as his younger brother.
“I’m not a demon, why would I stay in your Lost Forest?” Zhou Donghuang shook his head as he turned to leave the forest and return to the city. It was getting late, and it would probably be dark by the time he returned.
“Lad, you can’t just come and go within our territory!” laughed the elder brother coldly. “You can either stay here to become our younger brother, or die here… you’d better consider carefully.”
“What? If I don’t agree to stay here, you’ll kill me?” Zhou Donghuang turned and glanced at the two eagles. He smiled, “I want to see… how will you kill me?” After making the leap to Great Consummation of the Qi-Gathering, Zhou Donghuang had gotten a huge boost in his qi. Seeing the two eagles try to pick a fight, he could not help but feel excited.
“Brother, let me teach him a lesson!” the second brother called out to the other eagle as he dived towards Zhou Donghuang.
His black wings sliced through the air like a knife, but the real weapon of the golden-crowned eagle was not in those wings, but in its pair of razor-sharp talons.
Whoos.h.!.+
The eagle flew behind Zhou Donghuang like a bolt of lightning, his talons about to land on Zhou Donghuang’s body.
Hoo!
With a swift sidestep, Zhou Donghuang stepped out of the way of the eagle’s talons, the movement fluid like water.
Whoos.h.!.+
The eagle attacked again. Once again, Zhou Donghuang dodged.
“Is that all you got?” With his first-grade swiftness technique, Zhou Donghuang’s footwork was ghoulishly fast as he dodged all of the eagle’s repeated attacks.
Finally, the eagle was exhausted, while Zhou Donghuang seemed entirely unfazed.
“Second Brother, you’re really useless!” Seeing this, the older brother scolded the other eagle and joined in on the attack.
But even when both eagles attacked together, they could not touch Zhou Donghuang, not even the sleeves on his clothes.
“Lad, do you only know how to hide?” cried the second brother of the eagles.
“Of course not,” replied Zhou Donghuang calmly. “I just wanted to see if you could touch me… looks like I overestimated you.”
As he spoke, Zhou Donghuang suddenly stopped and stood at his spot. As the two eagles rushed towards him, he stretched out his hands like a pair of talons. Using the first-grade attack technique “Pincer Hands,” Zhou Donghuang pushed away the talons of the two eagles rus.h.i.+ng towards him. His hands latched onto each of their wings like a pair of pincers.
When the two golden-crowned eagles tried to attack once again, Zhou Donghuang brought his hands together, swinging the eagles around in the air before throwing them against a huge tree across the lake.
Bang! Bang!
The two eagles crashed heavily into the tree, causing it to shake. They awkwardly flapped their wings and narrowly avoided cras.h.i.+ng to the ground.
“Lad, we didn’t expect you to be so strong… I admit that on the ground, we’re not your match,” called the elder brother as he flew above Zhou Donghuang, as if taunting him. “But we specialize in flying… once we take to the skies, you can’t do anything to us!” His voice was filled with arrogance.
“Is that so?” Zhou Donghuang’s feet moved as he kicked a fist-sized stone up into his hands.
“What? You want to hit us with that stone?” laughed the golden-crowned eagle.
Whoos.h.!.+
The stone flew out of Zhou Donghuang’s hand like a target-locking missile, flying straight towards the eagle. Even as it accelerated and ducked, the stone struck its head accurately with a loud whack.