Chapter 260: Late Dharma stage
Spring pa.s.sed and autumn came.
Unknowingly, time had flown by, and Zhou Donghuang had already been residing in the Lightning Sword Sect for two whole years.
Within these two years, there had been peace in the Lightning Sword Sect, and Zhou Donghuang peacefully became one of the “elders” within the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect.
Zhou Donghuang had been part of the Autumn Valley of the Lightning Sword Sect for two years, and in those years, they had received yet another batch of new disciples. In general, they were all outer disciples who had all externally entered the Dharma stage before they had turned 30 years old.
On the other hand, although Zhou Donghuang had become one of the older members of the Autumn Valley, if one were to compare ages, he would still be seen as one of the youngest of the residents of the Autumn Valley.
He was only 26 years old.
Among the Autumn Valley, although there were other Golden Essence adepts who were not yet 30 years old, they were all older than Zhou Donghuang at the very least… In these two years, a few Primal Core adepts who were disciples of the Autumn Valley had also turned 30. Since they had not managed to cross over to the Dharma stage, they were eventually chased out of the Autumn Valley.
“It is still proving to be rather difficult.”
To Zhou Donghuang, crossing to the next stage had not been hard previously due to his acc.u.mulated knowledge from his previous life. He had thus had a relatively smooth journey, till now.
However, now, Zhou Donghuang felt that it was difficult for him to progress as he was studying the late stage of the Lord of the Four Supremes.
Under the Lord of the Four Supremes, once he had started his training, Zhou Donghuang had already understood that he could only train to the Primordial Soul stage at the very most.
If he wanted to enter the Divine Transformation stage or stages that were higher than that, he would have to carry out his own research and carry out trials.
Within the past year, other than training, occasionally leaving the Autumn Valley to explore other parts of the Lightning Sword Sect, sleeping and resting up, Zhou Donghuang had simply been actively exploring further paths after the Lord of the Four Supremes in order to enter the Divine Transformation stage.
Up till now, he had not been successful in doing so.
“Let’s just forget it… I should first focus on crossing over to the Primordial Soul stage before I continue to refine and explore the Lord of the Four Supremes and future training methods. Perhaps, I will have a better idea of what to do after that.”
As he thought to this point, Zhou Donghuang opened his eyes and walked out of his room. Casually, he turned his head in the direction of Da Zhuang’s living quarters.
The place that Da Zhuang lived at now was in the skies, and it was not peaceful at all.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
…
Whomp!
Whomp! Whomp!
…
Several howling noises as well as booming noises that filled the air were the first thing to catch Zhou Donghuang’s attention. “He’s dueling again?”
Within the past one year, as long as Da Zhuang’s third senior sister, He Mengxi, had the time and was willing to do so, she would find Da Zhuang to duel in her free time.
Of course, this dueling only started after Da Zhuang had entered the mid Dharma stage.
Now, the number of times they had dueled, according to Zhou Donghuang’s best knowledge, had surpa.s.sed 30, and almost every time, the duo had been evenly matched.
Da Zhuang was extremely satisfied with this result. He was surprised that he had been able to evenly match his senior sister. This meant that he would probably progress to become strong enough to protect his senior sister in the future.
However, He Mengxi was extremely dissatisfied with this.
She could not believe that Da Zhuang, a fool, was as strong as her now! She used to be much stronger than him, and yet if she put in little effort, he was actually able to defeat her. How could this be?
Whew!
Zhou Donghuang launched himself off the ground and quickly flew into the air to observe the fight between the two figures from afar.
He Mengxi’s Dharma power was still the Great Sword Dharma Power. However, when she used the Great Sword Dharma Power to carry out her attacks, when the sword was thrust forward, it was as if tens of swords were thrown at the same time as they headed simultaneously towards the three-meter-tall young man.
As for this giant young man, his entire body was surrounded by blazing flames. Around these flames, there were streams of lightning strikes that could be visibly seen.
With one punch by the young man, explosive noises filled the air, and he managed to fend off the attack of the tens of swords that had flown towards him.
A split second later, the swords exploded forth once again and ambushed him from all directions.
At this point, the young man’s Thunder Fire Dharma Power managed to absorb and collect all the swords just like a body of armor, protecting him from the attack. No matter where the swords managed to land on him, he could forcefully pick them up and prevent himself from getting hurt.
At the most, his body merely shook slightly under the pressure.
“Da Zhuang’s reaction time has improved quite dramatically from before…. It looks like his training has paid off and his new adept stage is truly proving itself! He has now managed to shed off that shoddy, slow brain of his in the past and is now much brighter…”
Seeing this, Zhou Donghuang mused to himself.
“I’m not fighting anymore, let’s stop here… Da Zhuang, your “protective sh.e.l.l” is too strong. Unless I choose to take on some damage and fight with my actual life here, I can’t penetrate through your defense mechanisms at all.”
He Mengxi withdrew her attacks, and the Great Sword Dharma Power put away its swords accordingly. As she spoke, she looked at that three-meter tall block of a man with some visible frustration.
“Hehe…”
Da Zhuang laughed to himself shyly and scratched his head in an awkward manner. He could not help but glance into the distance, and his eyes lit up as he spotted Zhou Donghuang.
“Little brother!”
“Little brother?”
As He Mengxi’s back had been facing Zhou Donghuang, her reaction time was slightly slower, and she had not noticed him there until she turned around physically.
“Third Senior Sister.”
Upon seeing He Mengxi, Zhou Donghuang’s gaze softened considerably as well, and he displayed his respect through his lowered gaze.
As far as he could remember from his memories of his past life, this third senior sister was like a motherly figure to him.
“Little brother… How about you join our duel for today, with me and Da Zhuang joining forces against you?”
In the past, He Mengxi had also taken the initiative to invite Zhou Donghuang to duel with them. However, she had always been sorely defeated by Zhou Donghuang to the point where she was cast out of her own shadow. Afterwards, for half a year, she had stopped inviting Zhou Donghuang to duel with her.
However, at this point, she was suddenly inspired to try joining forces with Da Zhuang. If she alone was not sufficient to fight Zhou Donghuang, perhaps their combined forces would be potent enough.
Furthermore, Zhou Donghuang was at the same stage as them; they were all mid Dharma adepts.
Once He Mengxi had spoken, even before Zhou Donghuang could respond, Da Zhuang’s eyes had already lit up. Previously, he had also experienced a similar situation where he had invited Zhou Donghuang to duel and ended up being defeated badly.
Upon hearing He Mengxi’s words, it felt as if he had stumbled upon a great new opportunity, and his heart was filled with antic.i.p.ation.
“Third Senior Sister, are you sure about this?” Zhou Donghuang looked deeply at He Mengxi and asked as he smiled.
“Yes, I am sure!”
He Mengxi nodded her head. “If you don’t want to do so, you can just say so!”
“Since when have I been too scared to do such a thing?”
Zhou Donghuang shook his head with a smile and traveled through the air to the higher skies, in the direction of He Mengxi and Da Zhuang. “Third Senior Sister, Da Zhuang… Give me all you’ve got and let’s duel!”
“Little brother, we are merely dueling, why did you fly so high in the sky?”
He Mengxi furrowed her brow slightly. “Are you challenging Da Zhuang and me?”
“I’m afraid that once I start attacking, if I’m not careful, I may destroy Da Zhuang’s and my own living quarters!”
Zhou Donghuang smiled.
“You’re afraid that you would destroy property? Little brother, don’t tell me you have already crossed over to the late Dharma stage?”
He Mengxi showed an expression of disbelief.
To this, Zhou Donghuang did not respond and merely smiled as he glanced at her.
“Da Zhuang, let’s go! Let’s show Donghuang what we’ve got!”
He Mengxi shouted at Da Zhuang loudly and flew into the air with her swords just as the Thunder Fire Dharma Power’s flames surrounded Da Zhuang, who had also flown into the air.
The three-foot-tall Thunder Fire Dharma Power as well as the three-foot-tall Great Sword Dharma Power both combined together to create a ferocious force that charged towards Zhou Donghuang with gusto.
Towards the combined force of Da Zhuang and He Mengxi, Zhou Donghuang did not react much and merely picked at his eyelids lazily.
In the next instant, he freely released his essential core, and a huge shadow of a giant tiger appeared visibly. Of course, this was his White Tiger Dharma Power.
Once the White Tiger Dharma Power appeared, it immediately stole the spotlight from the Thunder Fire Dharma Power as well as the Great Sword Dharma Power. This was because it was extremely huge. Even compared to the three-foot-tall Thunder Fire Dharma Power as well as the three-foot-tall Great Sword Dharma Power, it was at least a few meters bigger.
When the ten-foot-tall White Tiger Dharma Power had first appeared before He Mengxi and Da Zhuang, it had shocked the duo so greatly till their faces had turned pale.
Ten feet was about 30 meters.
Of course, when the White Tiger Dharma Power had first appeared, it had been standing upright. However, even so, the great height of 30 meters was still a sight to behold.
“Little brother… You’ve really crossed over to the late Dharma stage?”
He Mengxi’s eyes were full of shock and disbelief.
The next move that Zhou Donghuang made had little suspense as well.
Even before Zhou Donghuang had crossed over to the next stage, be it He Mengxi or Da Zhuang, neither of them were on his level.
At that time, even if He Mengxi and Da Zhuang had joined forces, they would still possibly be defeated by Zhou Donghuang.
Now that Zhou Donghuang’s White Tiger Dharma Power had crossed over to the late Dharma stage, this battle was of course skewed in his favor and the outcome was already decided clearly. There was no point left in this battle as Zhou Donghuang’s White Tiger Dharma Power immediately reached out to destroy the combined Dharma Powers of He Mengxi and Da Zhuang.
Luckily, Zhou Donghuang put away his Dharma Power in time and only caused He Mengxi and Da Zhuang’s essential core to be slightly damaged.
“Little brother, you… you really entered the late Dharma stage?”
He Mengxi glanced wide-eyed at Zhou Donghuang, still in disbelief. She had a.s.sumed that her speed of training and improvement had already been rather fast. However, she was still significantly far from crossing over to the late Dharma stage. She had definitely not antic.i.p.ated that this little brother of hers would enter the late Dharma stage before she did.
As for Da Zhuang, he also had on a face of shock as he glanced at Zhou Donghuang. “Little brother… your training speed is really incredible!”
Zhou Donghuang smiled lightly.
In reality, his White Tiger Dharma Power had crossed over to the late Dharma stage six months ago.
The training environment that he was in and the training resources he had did not differ greatly from that of He Mengxi and Da Zhuang. In fact, he had even shared the core drugs he had made with the duo.
However, he had his own natural, inborn talents.
His natural talent for martial arts were superior even if he compared to anyone in the infinite universe as he had inherited it all from his biological father.
Previously, in the powerful supreme sect of Ziyun, due to the limited training environment and training resources, his progress in training had been extremely slow.
Now that he was here on the Tielao planet of the Hengliu galaxy, he had access to the unlimited help of the Autumn Valley Head in finding several rare drugs. Furthermore, he had followed his past life’s memories to obtain a sustainable supply of spirit stone veins, and everything was going smoothly for him. Naturally, his training speed had improved dramatically.
In reality, the Zhou Donghuang of the present had not only advanced his White Tiger Dharma Power into the late Dharma stage. He had also advanced his Green Dragon Dharma Power into the late Dharma stage two months ago.
As for his Vermilion Bird Dharma Power and Black Turtle Dharma Power, they had already crossed to the mid Dharma stage over the course of the last six months as well.
The four G.o.dly beast Dharma Powers within him were now split between two in the mid Dharma stage and two in the late Dharma stage.
“You both better work hard… Otherwise, I will be far ahead.”
Zhou Donghuang smiled lightly.
With these words, He Mengxi and Da Zhuang both immediately felt the pressure. Instantly, both their facial expressions became much more stern and serious.
“Little brother.”
He Mengxi suddenly seemed to have thought of something, and her stern facial expression was quickly replaced by a teasing look. “Didn’t you hear about that girl, Luo Qinghan, from me a while back, that she is now in the Ultimate Frost Sect of the Ziji planet?”
“Under such circ.u.mstances… why have you not visited her and instead are choosing to stay isolated and train?”