Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 11-20

Chapter 11 – Fei Li Empire Flying Hill City

Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful eyes were immediately ﬁlled with wariness, her experience with this rascal telling her that whenever he acted solemn and proper, he deﬁnitely had something up his sleeve. “Eat all you want, if you eat to death then you get what you deserve!”

Unexpectedly, Zhou Weiqing did not argue. Instead, he found a relatively spacious spot; plucking the wild grass on the ground to clear a stretch of less than two square meters, before placing the leaves and bamboo shoots he had gathered onto the ground. He then returned to the forest, and after some time, he managed to ﬁnd some dry deadwood and thin vines.

Shangguan Bing’er noticed that Zhou Weiqing’s hands were very nimble, with his ten slender ﬁngers, and in a few quick motions, the vines and deadwood branches had been formed into a simple rack, braced steadily into the ground. The huge thick leafs in his hands seemed to ﬂutter up and down. She had not even managed to get a clear look at his actions before the leafs had been folded together into the shape of a small pot, which he then surrounded and tied up with four thin vines, before hanging it on the rack he had put up. From start to completion, Zhou Weiqing had only used several minutes, his movements were adept, and it was obviously not the ﬁrst time he had done this. After that, he started breaking apart the bamboo shoots above the small pot, and with a clear sound of falling liquid, the bamboo shoots were unexpectedly hollow in the centre, holding a clear liquid within. After breaking apart several of the shoots, the leaf-pot

was ﬁlled with that liquid, and most mysteriously, not a single drop had leaked out.

Zhou Weiqing piled the surplus deadwoods leaf-pot, then rummaged into the small backpack he was carrying and retrieved ﬂint from within. He sparked up a ﬂame, which gradually grew larger, the burning deadwood making a crackling sound, and it was already heating up the leaf-pot.

Shangguan Bing’er subconsciously gathered closer to Zhou Weiqing as he was doing all of that, and couldn’t help asking: “Won’t the leafs be burnt and destroyed?”

In such a rare occasion that her voice was not ice cold, Zhou Weiqing rejoiced secretly in his heart as he heard it. “Of course not, because it contains water inside.” His hands did not stop moving while he was speaking, as he retrieved a sharp small knife from within his bag, his left hand picking up one of the bamboo shoots that he had broken apart earlier, slicing off its outer layer, before throwing it into the pot layer by layer. After repeating this for a while, several bamboo shoot slices as thick as a baby’s arm had been sliced into the pot, and at the same time, the water in leaf-pot had also started to boil; indeed a perfect timing.

Shangguan Bing’er had by now subconsciously squatted beside Zhou Weiqing, watching as he completed all of that, Her gaze had also gentled considerably. A man who could cook would generally ﬁnd it easier to give women warm feelings. Furthermore, Shangguan Bing’er preferred ‘light’ food, and this bamboo shoot soup deﬁnitely held more attraction to her than a meal of meat.

Zhou Weiqing clapped his hands before keeping his knife, and said with a grin: “This bamboo is the unique local specialty in our Stars Forest, and it can only be found here; very few people actually know about it as it only grows in the shelter of the older Stars Trees, and it will absorb morning dew in its hollow middle, which is extremely sweet and tasty. I call it the Reveal Bamboo Shoots, and it is extremely delicious, especially when cooked in the dew from its own middle, it maintains its original taste best. It can be eaten after being boiled for a while to eat, and only adding a bit of salt is needed.” After all, he had once been thrown into the wild by his Admiral father for survival training, no matter jungle, desert or even mountain ranges, he had experienced survival training in all those areas. From the age of ten, he – who was known as a trash by others – had been living a life of suffering, thus looking for food in his most familiar Stars Forest was just too easy.

The bamboo shoots dew soup in the leaf-pot gurgled with air bubbles, and a light fragrance lingered in the air, the smell whetting the appetite of anyone who smelled it.

Zhou Weiqing stole a glance towards Shangguan Bing’er, just happening to catch the 15-year-old girl taking a gulp as she tried to swallow her saliva subtly. At ﬁrst, he wanted to tease her a little, but then his heart was inexplicably ﬁlled with a warm feeling. Picking up two ladles that he had carved out earlier from the bamboo shoots covering, he gave one to Shangguan Bing’er, then took out some salt, scattering it into the bamboo shoots dew soup.

The bamboo shoots were very fresh and tender, and could be eaten after boiling for a little while in the dew. Zhou Weiqing gave Shangguan Bing’er an inviting hand signal, then impatiently scooped up a ladle of bamboo shoot dew soup, blowing a few breaths to cool it then bringing it straight into his mouth. He was after all both hungry and thirsty now.

Shangguan Bing’er lifted the ladle, and was just about to start eating, but her hand stopped suddenly in mid air, and she bit her lower lip with a complex look in her eyes as she glanced at Zhou Weiqing. Just a moment ago, she had refused to give him her dry rations to eat, how could she actually eat the food that he had prepared now, she had a very entangled feeling in her heart.

“Give me a piece of dry rations. This soup isn’t sufﬁcient to allay hunger! I’ll trade the soup with you okay?” Zhou Weiqing looked at her and reached out with a piteous expression.

Shangguan Bing’er gawked at him a while, before taking off her backpack and taking out a piece of dry rations to give Zhou Weiqing. She suddenly felt that this rascal was not as bad as she thought.

The bamboo shoot dew soup was a pale-green colour, the pieces of bamboo shoots ﬂoating within like pieces of jade. The sweet fragrance was light, but did not disperse; even though they did not have any other condiments to add, the fresh and tender bamboo shoots were already extremely delicious, made even more so with the dew and leafs. As soon as Shangguan Bing’er took her ﬁrst mouthful of the bamboo shoots dew soup, she fell deep in love with it, the sweet soft delicate fragrance ﬂowing from the tip of her tongue to the very ends, entering her stomach, and a warm feeling seeped through her whole body; the sweet aftertaste remaining in her mouth and nose, and such an amazing feeling was deﬁnitely much better than eating mere dry rations.

She even felt a tinge of regret for not allowing Zhou Weiqing hunt and kill the rabbit; perhaps, this fellow could similarly make an amazing delicacy.

Zhou Weiqing did not tease or provoke Shangguan Bing’er, instead sitting beside the leaf-pot, eating the dry rations together with the bamboo shoot dew soup is eating, his eyes somewhat dazed.

Shangguan Bing’er’s appearance while eating was just too beautiful, especially the expression she revealed on her face when she took her ﬁrst mouthful of the bamboo shoot dew soup; which made Zhou Weiqing’s heart clutch in a sudden movement. In his eyes, Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful face was even tastier than the bamboo shoot dew soup.

Just like Shangguan Bing’er falling in love with the bamboo shoot dew soup he made, at that moment, he also deeply fell in love with her satisﬁed appearance. He gripped his ﬁst, decides inside that he would do anything to pursue her, and make her his wife.

As he daydreamt of marrying Shangguan Bing’er, being able to hug her fragrant tender moving body to sleep every day, the smile on Zhou Weiqing’s face immediately became lascivious. Luckily, the young beautiful woman in front of him had her attention focused on the bamboo shoot dew soup, and did not notice that rascal’s dirty expression. After a short while, the entire pot of bamboo shoot dew soup had been polished off by the two of them, in fact Zhou Weiqing had only eaten only one-third of it, and the majority was eaten by Shangguan Bing’er. After ﬁnishing the pot, she even licked her lips and sticking out her lovable pink little tongue, as if not fully satisﬁed yet. She usually ate at the mess in the army camp, which never had such delicious food.

She looked at Zhou Weiqing somewhat abashedly, and happened to see him still chewing away at the dry rations. Instantly, this kind girl’s heart was ﬁlled with regret and shame; she was thinking about how she had refused to give him her dry rations earlier, and instead ﬁnally eating his good food, and her beautiful face turned turned hot and ﬂushed, as she hung her head in silence.

Zhou Weiqing asked in softly: “Is it delicious?” “En.” Shangguan Bing’er nodded slightly.

Zhou Weiqing smiled, and continued saying with an alluring voice: “Then in the future shall I always keep preparing it for you?”

Shangguan Bing’er nodded once more.

Zhou Weiqing’s voice sounded out again, with a hint of bashfulness, “Then, since I’m such a handsome fellow who also excels in the kitchen, how about giving me the opportunity to pursue you?”

Because of the previous lines, Shangguan Bing’er almost nodded subconscious, “En…. Ah! No!”

Only then did Shangguan Bing’er realise she had been tricked and leapt up in response, but just as she was about to rebuking Zhou Weiqing angrily, she saw that this fellow had both his hands held up to his head, curled up on the ground, saying with a pitiable expression, “Even if it’s not okay, you shouldn’t hit me!”

Walking over to give him a light kick on his buttocks with her foot, Shangguan Bing’er said exasperatedly: “Who wants to hit you? Time to go.” They set off once again, and although Shangguan Bing’er still ignored Little Fatty Zhou, but after having the bamboo shoot dew soup, she wasn’t able to put up her cold expression any longer.

“Battalion commander, where are we going to? At least let me have some idea.” Zhou Weiqing asked curiously.

Shangguan Bing’er shot him a glance and said: “ We are going to the Fei Li Empire’s Flying Hill City.”

Zhou Weiqing paused in surprise, he had not thought that Shangguan Bing’er would be bringing him to a place so far away, no wonder she said previously that they wouldn’t return to the camp for months.

Fei Li Empire and Heavenly Bow Empire shared a border, and was to the Northeast of Heavenly Bow Empire. Fei Li Empire was one of the larger empires in the Boundless Continent, and was almost over a hundred times larger than Heavenly Bow Empire, which was a very small country.. Of the various empires in the Western Region of the Boundless Empire, only Bai Da Empire, which was separated from Heavenly Bow Empire by the Kalise Empire, was as strong as the Fei Li Empire. As for the Flying Hill City which Shangguan Bing’er spoke of, Zhou Weiqing also knew of it. The Flying Hill City was strategically one of the most important cities of the southern border of Fei Li Empire, and in the entire Fei Li Empire, it was also in the top 5 largest cities, and was about ten times larger

than Heavenly Bow City, and was extremely prosperous.

Heavenly Bow Empire and Fei Li Empire were on rather good terms, just like the Kalise Empire were closer to the Bai Da Empire. Besides Heavenly Bow and Kalise, there were several other smaller countries close to Bai Da and Fei Li Empires, which separated the two large countries. If not for that, perhaps both of these large empires who had a very disharmonious relation might have already exploded into major war.

“We’re going to Flying Hill City? That is so far! Although our walking speed is very fast, but at the rate we are going, it will take us at least ten days to reach! Isn’t it better for us to take the horse carts from the relay stations? We can reach in around ﬁve days.” Although their speed was fast, but they were still unable to compare with galloping horses, as there were special transportation horse carts and relay stations from Heavenly Bow City to Flying Hill City, which would be a lot faster than walking there. Shangguan Bing’er shot him a stern look, saying: “Taking the horse carts are not free. The cost for one person is two gold coins already. By walking, we at most need to buy some dry rations, both of us added together will spend less than a gold coin.”

Zhou Weiqing stared at her dumbfoundedly, “Battalion Commander, I never thought that you were a little miser. After all, you are one of the pillars of the state, the top genius of the younger generation, our only Heavenly Jewel Master, and also a Viscount of the Empire, your monthly salary should be about 80 to 100 gold coins right, why do you care about a mere 4 gold coins?”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “The best metal alloy has to be used on the knife edge. As Heavenly Jewel Masters, we require a lot of money to cultivate, the Empire has given us so much to train us up, shouldn’t we be more economical on things that aren’t necessary? Furthermore, you just became a Heavenly Jewel Master, by walking the distance, you can better adapt to using your Heavenly Jewels.”

Zhou Weiqing gave a big thumbs up, and shook it at Shangguan Bing’er. She asked questioningly: “What are you doing?” Zhou Weiqing said with a smile: “Heh, marrying you will really be something happy.”

Shangguan Bing’er’s face turned cold once more, “You are asking for a beating again?”

Zhou Weiqing shifted the topic instantaneously, “Battalion Commander, I made a mistake. Anyway, what are we going to Flying Hill City for?”

Shangguan Bing’er couldn’t help but want to punch him again, this rascal was surely quick to admit his mistakes, but never did change after that.

“We are going to try our luck. I also just got my second Heavenly Jewel, and your ﬁrst one also does not have Consolidate Equipment or Stored Skills. Our Heavenly Bow Empire does not have any Consolidating Equipment Masters or Skill-Storing Palace, only the larger Empires’ Big Cities have them. Flying Hill City is the closest one to us.”

Listening to her words, Zhou Weiqing’s spirit was greatly inspired, “Battalion Commander, what Skill should i Store? You wouldn’t let me Consolidate a set of armour, what do you plan on letting me Consolidate then?” Shangguan Bing’er said exasperatedly: “It’s not as as easy as you think. Firstly, whether or not we can meet an appropriate Consolidated Equipment Scroll or a Heavenly Beast to Store Skills, even if we do ﬁnd a good one, we may not have sufﬁcient funds to get it. As such, I said earlier that we can only try our luck. To us Heavenly Jewel Masters, our Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment and Elemental Jewels Storing Skills are really too important, only when we have completed these

two huge steps can we completely wield our full strengths. However, you must remember our three-point covenant, without my permission, you must not reveal that you are a Heavenly Jewel Master, most particularly you must never let anyone see your Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Elemental Jewel. Do you

hear me?”

“Yes, I’ll deﬁnitely listen to you!” Zhou Weiqing said immediately. At this time, his mood was really excited, putting aside the success of his own ﬁrst Consolidated Equipment and Stored Skills, just experiencing all of this was extremely good. As he entered the Heavenly Jewel Master world step by step, the feeling was very wonderful, so much so that he didn’t even feel as tired anymore while moving along.

Shangguan Bing’er looked at Zhou Weiqing whose Alexandrite Cat’s Eye on his left hand was a cyan colour in the day as he made use of his Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy. She sighed lightly and said: “Your talent is extremely good, but, with that also comes great trouble. Your Elemental Jewel having ﬁve strong attributes, also means that every one of your Elemental Jewel needs to store ﬁve skills, the sheer price of that is something that even the empire cannot support. Furthermore, your Attribute also include the Darkness and Spatial attributes which are the Greater Attributes, as well as that Evil Attribute; all those may require Heavenly Beasts which are more difﬁcult to ﬁnd in order for you to Store Skills. Your future cultivation route will be a hundred times more difﬁcult than any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master.”

“The reason that I do not want you to reveal your Alexandrite Cat’s Eye to anyone else is because I’m afraid that when other Heavenly Jewel Masters see your talent, they will want to kill you off early. After all, the more talented the Heavenly Jewel Master, the higher the possibility for them to die at a young age. Unless ……”

Direct translation of 最好的合⾦都是⽤在⼑刃上 – it means to allocate resources properly As Shangguan Bing’er spoke up till here, she suddenly stopped and looked at Zhou Weiqing with a complicated look on her face. but what she saw was Zhou Weiqing with an intoxicated look on his face, causing her to say in irritation: “I am discussing important and serious things with you, what are you doing?”

Zhou Weiqing blinked, “Battalion Commander, you are so good to me, so caring towards me, I am really so moved! I have decided that no matter how difﬁcult it is, I will train hard and become a formidable Heavenly Jewel Master, and I will then be able to protect you.”

Shangguan Bing’er’s heart trembled a little, then she shook her head, saying:“I do not care about you, I am doing this for the empire. I don’t need your protection.”

Zhou Weiqing said ﬁrmly: “Of course I must protect you, how can a husband not protect his wife?”

“You ……” Shangguan Bing’er was speechless with anger, and a foot ﬂew out to knock that rascal back a few meters, and she angrily exclaimed: “No matter what serious matters we discuss, you can always bring it to some improper talk. You sure are a talented person!”

Zhou Weiqing rolled around on the ground before standing up, grinning away as he said: “A husband protecting his wife is a proper and serious matter right? Ahh! Don’t take action, let’s talk this through! Oh Right, you were saying a moment ago, unless what?”

Seeing that the Shangguan Bing’er was on the verge of hitting him again, he quickly hid behind a large tree at the roadside, poking his head out to ask.

Shangguan Bing’er paused a while, hesitation showing in her eyes, and she stopped moving and said to him: “Little Fatty Zhou, come out here.”

Looking at Shangguan Bing’er’s face which had become extremely serious, Zhou Weiqing was surprised momentarily, then walked out from behind the tree. Lifting his hand to shake it front of Shangguan Bing’er’s face, he asked, “Battalion Commander, are you alright?” Shangguan Bing’er said in a very serious tone: “Little Fatty Zhou, although you are sly, cunning and shameless, and your speech is very irritating, but no matter what you must remember that we come from the Heavenly Bow Empire. Other matters I can still tolerate you, but, if you ever violate the

promise and betray the empire, I will personally kill you. No matter how formidable you become, I will still never let you off.”

“Yes.” Zhou Weiqing blinked and mused in his heart, Of course, do I need you to say this? The Heavenly Bow Empire’s Emperor is my godfather, and my father is Admiral of the Empire. The notion ﬂew across in his mind, before his train of thought instantaneously fell onto the improper word usage Shangguan Bing’er said. ‘Other matters she can tolerate me doing’, those words made this rascal immediately start daydreaming. Luckily, he also knew the the situation was serious now, and did not dare reveal anything on his face.

Seeing that he had replied relatively honestly, Shangguan Bing’er’s face relaxed a little and she said: “Little Fatty Zhou, just now I said unless, was saying that unless you joined the Skill-Storing Palace.”

“Join the Skill-Storing Palace?” Zhou Weiqing asked curiously. Shangguan Bing’er nodded, said: “It is extremely difﬁcult for ordinary Jewel Masters to join the Skill-Storing Palace, the very basis for joining the Skill-Storing Palace is to be a Heavenly Jewel Master, and they also have to go through a thorough inspection. Each Great Empire has its own Skill-

Storing Palace, belonging to the Empire’s Imperial family. The Heavenly Jewel Masters who join their Empire’s Skill-Storing Palace will have the full support of their empire, no matter Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment or Elemental Jewel Skill Storing, the expense will be fully paid by their empire. However, the Heavenly Jewel Master must take an oath giving full loyalty to their empire. Our own empire does not have the ability to create a Skill-Storing Palace, but the Fei Li Empire already has one, if they will try to recruit you in future, will

you choose to join?”

As she asked in her last few words, Shangguan Bing’er was very anxious in her heart, but also concealing some killing intent. She only had a surface understanding of Zhou Weiqing, and did not fully know what his natural disposition was. She could only help but think, if this Little Fatty Zhou will betray his own Empire for his own beneﬁt, then she would never be able to accommodate him, even if she did not kill him, she must destroy his Heavenly Jewels.

Zhou Weiqing said without any hesitation: “Of course I will join! Why shouldn’t I join.” “You ……” a strong killing intent erupted instantly from Shangguan Bing’er, “You are shameless!”

Zhou Weiqing said in surprise: “Was I shameless? I’ll join their Skill-Storing Palace ﬁrst, then wait for my Heavenly Jewels to cultivate to the max before I return to our empire, doesn’t that work? As long as my strength is strong enough that nobody can stop me, who cares which Empire’s Skill- Storing Palace I join.”

“PUFF.” Shangguan Bing’er had no choice to laugh out despite being mad at that rascal, this Little Fatty Zhou really had a really uncommon outlook on everything, but, the killing intent in her heart also instantaneously vanished. “You are dreaming, did you think that they do not have any limitations in place? To join the Skill-Storing Palace, you have to be mind shackled, if you betray the Skill-Storing Palace or the Empire’s Imperial family, you will die.”

When Zhou Weiqing heard that, his face immediately turned sad: “So petty! However, what are mind shackles?”

In Shangguan Bing’er’s hear, she was asking herself, If previously Zhou Weiqing had actually said he was willing to join Fei Li Empire’s Skill-Storing Palace, could she really kill him off? She really could not answer herself, but despite his many faults, he was also her ﬁrst man. Furthermore, although he was at times irritating, but these few days that she had spent with him, the number of times that she had been both angry or laughing, was a lot higher as compared to entire of the previous year.

“Let’s talk as we walk on. Mind shackles is a high level skill for Darkness Alignment Heavenly Jewel Masters, under the cooperation of the other party, they are able to place a seal in their minds on a vow that the party has pledged, once the vow is violated, the mind shackles will erupt, and the person who broke the pledge will perish. It is a very overbearing skill.”

They continue on their travels until dusk before they ﬁnally exited the Stars Forest. Before they left the forest, Zhou Weiqing made another pot of bamboo shoot dew soup for Shangguan Bing’er to drink, After all, they would not be able to drink it once they leave the Stars Forest. When Shangguan Bing’er was eating the delicious soup he made, she was a lot better to him, but he was still not allowed to hunt.

12 days later.

“Little Fatty Zhou, go look for something for us to eat.” Shangguan Bing’er cleaned up a small area of brush and sat down. Zhou Weiqing sighed, “My sad life! It’s me again.”

Shangguan Bing’er shot a look at him, saying, “You are my personal aide, serving your commanding ofﬁcer, isn’t that your job?”

Zhou Weiqing said helplessly: “Yes, I’m going now.”

After the past 12 days of travel, Shangguan Bing’er was still as bright and beautiful as always, but Zhou Weiqing was showing the signs of travel fatigue with an ashen face. If when they had just left Heavenly Bow City he had thought that Shangguan Bing’er was a little stingy, he now believed ﬁrmly that this beautiful woman Battalion Commander would even be extending her hand out for money even when in her cofﬁn.

For 12 whole days, they had passed by several cities but detoured around them and always camped outdoors. They had not entered any city, let alone checking into a hotel. With the sky as their blanket, the earth as their bed, they did not spend a single cent throughout the journey. Even Shangguan Bing’er’s dry rations, Zhou Weiqing estimated that they were fro the military mess. What made Zhou Weiqing even more gloomy was that Shangguan Bing’er was actually extremely satisﬁed. She had always travelled like this all the time, and this time she actually had an additional accompanying chef. Although Little Fatty Zhou was always rather perverted, but he had an

impressive ability to make use of local materials to create delicious food. Furthermore, Shangguan Bing’er had implemented her rule to speak with him as little as possible no matter what he said, which made him unable to display his tricks. After a while, Zhou Weiqing managed to scrounge up some sweet potatoes, and roasted them to eat with Shangguan Bing’er; in his hands even the simple roasted sweet potato also turned into a delicacy. After removing the slightly burnt skin, he scattered a bit of salt on the roasted sweet potato, and the ﬂavor was unexpectedly extremely good.

What made Zhou Weiqing the saddest was that Shangguan Bing’er still did not let him hunt, throughout the whole 12 days of travelling he had been a vegetarian, he almost felt he was quickly becoming a sweet potato himself.

“Battalion Commander, didn’t you say earlier that we will be reaching Flying Hill City in a few dozen miles? Why don’t we have a good meal in the city?” Zhou Weiqing said discontentedly as he gnawed on his sweet potato.

Shangguan Bing’er shot a look at him, “Eating a meal in the city is free? One less meal there will save us one meal’s cost.”

Zhou Weiqing rolled his eyes and said, “Forget I said anything. I must make a lot of money in the future, otherwise I’ll be starved to death by you.”

“Humph.” Shangguan Bing’er did not continue speaking, completely not allowing that rascal the opportunity to continue.

These past few days had actually been a good training for Zhou Weiqing, the unceasing use of his Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy allowed him to be a lot more familiar with the usage of Heavenly Energy, although he was still unable to wield it like Shangguan Bing’er who could use it like her own arm, but at least he no longer needed to take the time to gather it up before usage.

The Immortal Deity Technique was slowly starting to display its superiority, Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy upper limits had increased very obviously; if we likened the maximum volume he had at the start to the size of a pigeon egg, it currently was quickly reaching the size of a chicken’s egg. Hurrying along without stopping every day also caused the whirlpools at the 4 Death Acupuncture Points which he had broken through to continuously draw energy at full speed constantly, and that had a great effect on cultivating his total Heavenly Energy. However, it was still quite a distance from breaking through the next stage of the Immortal Deity Technique, to breakthrough the Yongquan Acupuncture Point. Yongquan Acupuncture Point, being the last of the Death Acupuncture Points in the ﬁrst level of the Immortal Deity Technique, it was deﬁnitely a lot more difﬁcult to breakthrough, and the meridian route for it was also a lot more complex. Zhou Weiqing had tried one time, but the Heavenly Energy he had currently was unable to even reach the Yongquan Acupuncture Point, and it was clear that he needed to continue cultivating a lot more before he could.

After an hour, a huge city entered Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes.

The broad city walls that did not seem to have a boundary in their sight, and was about 40 meters tall. Any human standing before the city seemed to be as tiny as an ant in comparison. On top of the city there stood the Fei Li Empire’s national symbol, a pair of Crossed Saintly Sword which was black with gold layers, on a ﬂag which was ﬂuttering in the breeze, showing the formidable empire’s elegant demeanor.

Three drawbridges gave access to the 50 metre wide moat surrounding the Flying Hill City, connecting to the three giant arched city gates, with the name of the city carved in bold strong characters above the center city gate. The bustle of people entering and leaving the city was endless, and even though they had not entered the city yet, they could already sense the bustling and prosperous scene within.

It was clear that it was not Shangguan Bing’er’s ﬁrst time here, as she brought Zhou Weiqing through the central hanging bridge, walking with familiar ease into the depths of the city.

Within Flying Hill City was a picture of busy, heavy trafﬁc, and Zhou Weiqing looked around unceasingly, feeling as though he could not take in all the sights. This was truly the sign of a great nation! Although the Heavenly Bow City was also quite prosperous, but compared with the Flying Hill City, it really fell short.

“Battalion Commander, where are we headed to?” Zhou Weiqing lowered his head to have a look at his own rather dirty Heavenly Bow Empire Attire, and said with a rather painstaking look on his face.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “We’ll go to the Skill-Storing Palace ﬁrst.”

Zhou Weiqing brightened, “Elemental Jewel Skill Storing?” Shangguan Bing’er shook her head, but did not explain further, instead hastening her steps towards the depths of the city. Although she was no longer rushing as they did in the wilderness, but she still moved rather rapidly, causing Zhou Weiqing to be unable to look around at the shops that lined the path, and he could only follow closely beside her.

The Flying Hill City was really too huge, and the both of them walked for almost an hour before Shangguan Bing’er ﬁnally slowed down, and as Zhou Weiqing followed her gaze to look ahead, he saw that not far off to the front there was a large building that seemed like a grand palace. Although he was not familiar with the Flying Hill City, he could tell that this should be the central business district of the City. The Palace in front was several tens of meters high, with 12 huge white columns supporting the building. Right in the center position, a huge golden Cross Saint Sword symbol stood out strikingly. Just with a quick look with the naked eye, it was rather difﬁcult to judge exactly how big the palace was.

Behind the 12 great columns stood a large gate, and stationed in on both sides of the gate were eight soldiers who were all dressed in shining silver armor, their weapons were heavy swords, which were one and a half meter long and almost a foot thick thick! The heavy swords were rested on the ground, with their both hands grasping the sword hilt, as their ice-cold gazes kept a constant look out on every passing pedestrian. The 50 meters surrounding radius of the palace was void of any average pedestrian, as none dared approach it, clearly showing its status in the city.

After Shangguan Bing’er had paused for a while, she brought Zhou Weiqing and headed towards the palace building; obviously this was the Skill Storing Palace that she had mentioned earlier.

“Halt.” The two outermost silver armored soldiers simultaneously shouted in a low tone, the two heavy swords lifted off the ground and blocking Shangguan Bing’er and Zhou Weiqing paths. From the col looks that were focused on them, Zhou Weiqing could feel a clear killing intent.

These soldiers were clearly elite infantry soldiers who had been forged in the ﬁres of the battleﬁeld, and their Heavenly Bow Empire did not have any such elite infantry soldiers, as the cost to build such an army was really too high. Yet, in the Fei Li Empire, they were actually used as palace guards!

Shangguan Bing’er stopped immediately, and lifted her right hand, with a bright ﬂash of light, her two pale green pure Dragonstone Jade Physical Jewels appeared above her milky white wrists, sparkling brilliantly. With 2 loud clangs, the two heavy swords fell back to the ground, and the silver soldiers’ said respectful: “Welcome, Mid Level Heavenly Shi Master, please enter.”

Shangguan Bing’er nodded, and turned to Zhou Weiqing: “Show your Physical Jewel.”

“Oh.” Zhou Weiqing gave the silver armor an envying look as he moved his Heavenly Energy while lifting his right hand, at the same time he was secretly thinking that the defense of the silver armor should be really good, if he could just wear it, arrows shot from a distance would probably not be able to penetrate it, such a good thing!

A pure Icy Jade Physical Jewel appeared around Zhou Weiqing’s right wrist as he showed it to the silver armored soldiers; the gleam in the Physical Jewel seemed as a layer of icy fog was about to erupt from the Jewel.

“Low Level Heavenly Shi Master, please enter.” Previously they had only set down their heavy swords, but after seeing the pure Physical Jewels on Zhou Weiqing’s right wrist, which meant he was also a Heavenly Jewel Master, the two silver armored soldiers simultaneously took a step back, making a path for them to enter.

Chapter 12 – Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment – Overlord Bow

Shangguan Bing’er led Zhou Weiqing deeper into the Skill Storing Palace past the silver armored soldiers, as she walked she said to him: “For ordinary Jewel Masters who want to enter the Skill-Storing Palace, they need to have a Heavenly Jewel Master to recommend them, but as Heavenly Jewel Masters ourselves, we do not have such restraints. You must remember, if anybody wants to look at your proof of being a Heavenly Jewel Master, you only need to reveal your Physical Jewel. The Elemental Jewel is our Heavenly Jewel Master’s secret, and we will not show it easily outside of ﬁghts.”

Zhou Weiqing looked around and said in a low voice: “Battalion Commander, this Fei Li Empire is really rich! We are at the Skill-Storing Palace now, if we are not going to carry on with Skill-Storing, what are we doing here?”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “We are here to get you a change of clothes. We are here this time basically to look for a Consolidating Equipment Master. I have very limited funds so we are unable to spend much here. Even if we ﬁnd a good Consolidating Equipment Master, we are still only trying our luck. I just hope we can get something out of this trip.” Entering the Skill-Storing Palace, as compared to the with the greatness shown outside, the inside of the palace seemed a little smaller, after entering the threshold they reached a hall which was only about 200 square meters, with nine exits in the different directions separately.

Shangguan Bing’er then led Zhou Weiqing towards the ﬁrst entrance on the left; there were no more guards here, not even at the doors, and following the road inwards for about 30 meters, they ﬁnally saw a bright light ahead. A hall which appeared a lot larger than the main hall outside revealed itself to Zhou Weiqing’s eyes.

Around the hall there were several counters, and behind each counter sat a staff member. The age of the staff varied, but they all wore long white robe, with the same gold Cross Saint Sword Symbol embroidered across the chest area.

Shangguan Bing’er brought Zhou Weiqing in front of a counter, and the staff at the counter immediately stood and asked to them: “Are you both here to register or to report a rise in ranking?”

Zhou Weiqing did not understand what was going on and turned to look at Shangguan Bing’er, who said: “I’m here to report a rise in ranking, he is here to register.” The staff said respectfully: “Good, please show me your Physical Jewels for veriﬁcation.”

Shangguan Bing’er signaled with her eyes to Zhou Weiqing, and displayed her two Dragonstone Jade Physical Jewels once more. Seeing the pure Physical Jewels, the look of respect on the staff’s face grew even more respectful.

Shangguan Bing’er took out a golden plaque from her bosom and handed it over to the staff. At the back of the plaque was the same Cross Saint Sword symbol of Fei Li Empire, and the front of the plaque there was a small Dragonstone Jade mounted, surrounded by tattoos as well as a serial number below it.

After the staff received the plaque and checking it for a while, said: “Good day Shangguan Bing’er, you have been promoted from Low Level Heavenly Shi Master to Mid Level Heavenly Shi Master, please wait a while and we will provide you with your new Shi Master Plaque as well as your robe.”

As for Zhou Weiqing’s side, there was another staff to receive him. “Welcome to register here at the Skill-Storing Palace of Flying Hill City, a big welcome to you Sir as a Low Level Heavenly Shi Master. Can I carry on with the registration for you now?”

The staff member who was receiving Zhou Weiqing was a 20- year-old girl, with her features only slightly above average, but her ﬁgure was very outstanding, especially her chest, which instantly captured Zhou Weiqing’s attention.

“Haha, yes, of course, certainly.” Zhou Weiqing swallowed his saliva, and blinked his eyes.

“May I please have your name.” The young girl could feel Zhou Weiqing’s scalding hot vision on her, and knitted her brows. In this place, even a Heavenly Jewel Master would seldom dare to be so rude, furthermore his age seemed so young.

“36D Cup size…” Zhou Weiqing muttered to himself.

The young female staff immediately sweatdropped, her arms raised up to cover her chest, saying “Low Level Heavenly Shi Master, please show some respect. Otherwise, the Skill-Storing Palace has the right to handle those who affront our dignity.” Zhou Weiqing could clearly see that the young girl’s left hand, two sapphire Elemental Jewel representing the Water Attribute has appeared, showing her strength a Mid Shi Level Elemental Jewel Master. Although he did not know much about this place, but he could easily guess that Elemental Jewel

Masters working here would deﬁnitely be able to achieve their Skill-Storing for their Elemental Jewels. Even though he was a Heavenly Jewel Master, without having Consolidated Equipments or Stored Skills, furthermore he had only one set of Jewels, he was probably no match for her!

“Ah! It was not intentional, it all happened subconsciously, Big sis, your amazing talent was so strong that it made me make a judgement subconsciously, you cannot blame me for that.” Zhou Weiqing said seriously, but, as he said those words, the ‘36D Cup’ young girl had already stood up in anger.

Zhou Weiqing hurriedly looked to the nearby Shangguan Bing’er with a pleading look, hoping to seek help. However, she calmly said aloud as if to herself: “I do not know him.”

Zhou Weiqing’s response was so quick, and on seeing that he was about to suffer, he immediately changed the topic, “Registration, time to register right? Name: Little Fatty Zhou, Gender: Male, from the Heavenly Bow Empire, Age: 13 years old. Low Level Heavenly Shi Master, an unmarried handsome strong man.” His look was that of complete compliance.

He was after all a Heavenly Jewel Master, and the young girl suppressed her anger and sat back at her position to carry on with the registration. However, the next instance, both she and Shangguan Bing’er’s surprised gazes fell simultaneously Zhou Weiqing. Almost in a single tone they exclaimed together: “You are only 13 years old?”

Zhou Weiqing’s face revealed his trademark simple and honest smile, and said: “Yes! I’m early to puberty. Even my ‘hair’ is fully grown, do you need to inspect it? In two months I’ll be 14 years old.”

What made Shangguan Bing’er most speechless was that Zhou Weiqing’s face kept his simple and honest look while he was mouthing off. Still, she really had not expected that this Little Fatty Zhou was actually only 13 years old. Suddenly, in her heart, the hatred towards him was reduced by several points; after all although he was irritating at times, but that incident was not intentional, all she could say was that was fate. If he had not met her, perhaps he would have died already by now. The young girl who was helping Zhou Weiqing register was obviously not willing to linger around this rascal, and completed the registration as fast as possible, quickly passing him his own plaque and robes. The plaque was almost the same as Shangguan Bing’er’s, except the Dragonstone Jade was

replaced by an Icy Jade. The robes were all white, with a small

golden cross Saint sword symbol on the left part of the chest area.

Shangguan Bing’er’s own promotion had also been completed, and on her plaque was now mounted two Dragonstone Jade stones, her robes also had an additional cross Saint sword symbol.

“Lets go.” Shangguan Bing’er was not willing to remain here, she did not want to allow that Little Fatty Zhou to continue staying here and causing her to lose face.

As they exited the Skill-Storing Palace, Shangguan Bing’er’s foot ﬂew out to kick Zhou Weiqing’s ass, and she reprimanded him: “Enough with the trash talk or I’ll sew your mouth shut! You’re so young yet with so many dirty tricks, what will happen when you grow up? Hmph, you’re only 13-year-old, why did you enlist in the military?” If he had not joined the army, she wouldn’t have…. The more she thought about it, the angrier she grew. Zhou Weiqing said with a pitiable face: “I have made a mistake, It really was not intentional, it was all subconscious, absolutely subconsciousness.”

Shangguan Bing’er gave a cold hmph, “Remember, only after you register with the Skill-Storing Palace, and get the Skill- Storing Palace plaque, then can you carry on with Storing Skills in the Palace. Ordinary Physical and Elemental Jewel Masters can also register here and get the plaque, but they will not have the robes which represent Heavenly Jewel Masters. When going through with Skill-Storing, Heavenly Jewel Masters can enjoy a 10% discount. Every additional gem increase promotion will mean another 10% discount. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to come alone to carry on with Skill-Storing, you must remember to register any promotion ﬁrst.”

Zhou Weiqing said in surprise: “Doesn’t that mean that those Heavenly Jewel Masters with 9 Jewels do not need to pay?”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head, saying: “I do not know either, but it is rumoured that those Heavenly Jewel Masters who are above 6 Jewels seldom go to the Skill Storing Palace anymore. The actual reason is not for those Heavenly Jewel Masters of our level to know.”

“Battalion commander, can I ask how much money does our Skill Storing require?” Zhou Weiqing’s heart was really itching to try it out, having the means of growing stronger right in front of him, yet being unable to do so due to money, this made him feel very out of sorts in his heart. Although his father was very honest and did not have much money, but his godfather was after all the ruler of their country, furthermore he was now a Heavenly Jewel Master, in the future when he returned to the Heavenly Bow Empire he should be able to ask for some money for Skill-Storing.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “One attempt at Skill Storing is about 500 gold coins.”

Zhou Weiqing blinked, “500 gold coins, that’s not really very expensive!”

Shangguan Bing’er looked at him coldly, “The success rate has less than 1%. If your luck is bad, you may not even succeed after trying several hundred times. The worst thing is the loss of the time, a Jewel Master can only go through one Skill Storing every day. The price I mentioned is also only for the ordinary Heavenly Beasts. If we are talking about the higher level Zun Beasts or Zong Beasts, the price is astronomical. However, the success rate is slightly higher for them, and their skills will also be generally better.”

Zhou Weiqing was struck speechless; to his knowledge, the annual tax revenue of Heavenly Bow City was only 500,000 gold coins. No wonder Shangguan Bing’er mentioned that their empire was not able to support many Heavenly Jewel Masters.

“So Heavenly Beasts are similar to us and have some sort of ranking. Alright, let’s forget about Skill Storing for now. Let’s go to the Consolidating Equipment Master that you mentioned.” This was the ﬁrst time that Zhou Weiqing realised how important money was. The cultivation of Heavenly Jewel Masters was more difﬁcult than he had thought.

Shangguan Bing’er nodded, saying: “Now you know why I always place so much importance on saving money. Honestly, even if our Heavenly Bow Empire has that many Heavenly Jewel Masters, our empire is not able to support us all. After all, our country is really too tiny compared to the huge empires like Fei Li empire or Bai Da Empire. Without our own Skill- Storing Palace, it is impossible to organize a team of formidable Heavenly Jewel Masters.” “Let’s ﬁnd a place to stay ﬁrst. After we wash up a little and change, we can go look for a good Consolidating Equipment Master.” Shangguan Bing’er thought after thinking a while.

“Did I hear correctly? Did a steel tree bloom?” Zhou Weiqing said as he looked at her in surprise.

Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful face turned red, “Are you courting death? Do you want to stay or not?”

“Stay, of course I’ll stay.”

After ﬁfteen minutes, the two of them were standing in the hall of a small little hotel. This hotel was really small and only had one level; besides its cleanliness, Zhou Weiqing could not ﬁnd another merit in it.

“Boss, please gives us a room.” Shangguan Bing’er told the 50-year-old hotel boss standing behind the counter.

The hotel boss looked at the two of them and gave them a lascivious smile, before handing over a key covered with embroidery. He said: “Room 1, one silver coin for two days. You young people, must learn to control yourselves heh.” Taking the key, Shangguan Bing’er just turned unemotionally and walked off. but Zhou Weiqing actually gesticulated to the boss and showed off his muscle, “Boss, what sort of eyes do you have! Look at me so vigorous and healthy, why would I need to control?”

“Zhou — Little — Fatty — !!”

“Here!” Zhou Weiqing answered quickly, and rushed to follow.

Following Shangguan Bing’er, he asked with a sad face: “Battalion Commander, we ﬁnally entered a city and you only took one room, you won’t make me sleep outside on the streets to save money right?”

Shangguan Bing’er shot a look at him, saying: “You and I will stay in this one.”

Zhou Weiqing was stunned instantaneously, his brain dazed as he opened his mouth, his saliva ﬂowing out, and he muttered: “This… this… happiness comes so quickly. Battalion Commander, are we advancing too quickly?” “Little Fatty Zhou, I have endured you for too long!” Shangguan Bing’er gave a low roar that made Zhou Weiqing shut up instantly; he knew that knows, generally before a tigress attacks she would roar like that.

The room was not very big, but was at least clean, it actually had a bathroom for washing and excretion, and could be considered fully equipped.

There was only a single bed in the room, and Shangguan Bing’er dropped off her backpack before sitting on the bed. At this moment, her beautiful face revealed her weariness, and Zhou Weiqing who was looking at her felt a pain in his heart.

“Little Fatty Zhou. Come here.” Shangguan Bing’er beckoned to Zhou Weiqing who was standing at the side.

“Orh.” Having angered her earlier, this time Zhou Weiqing came honestly, his face a picture of simple sincerity.

Before he could even come to a stop, Shangguan Bing’er moved all of a sudden, her speed pushed to the limit in that very instance, Zhou Weiqing was sure that in that moment she had simultaneously used both her Physical and Elemental Jewels. All he saw was a ﬂash in front of his eyes, and suddenly both his hands were gripped and his arms were pushed down hard onto the bed.

“Battalion Commander, don’t be so violent, I won’t resist.” Feeling the soft smoothness of Shangguan Bing’er’s hands, Zhou Weiqing’s heart instantly became lascivious. However, in the next instant he was unable to maintain that lascivious- ness.

Shangguan Bing’er took out a string from an nowhere, and quickly tied up Zhou Weiqing’s hands and feet, then fastening him ﬁrmly to bed.

“Battalion commander, did you like this? You won’t be using the leather whip and candle right? I’m afraid of pain!” Even at this time, this rascal could not control his mouth.

Shangguan Bing’er gave him a quick kick, “If you talk more trash, I’ll take your sock and shove it in your mouth.”

“I’m shutting up now!” Nobody knew clearer than Zhou Weiqing how dirty his socks were. Probably if he took them off and threw them at the wall, they might even stick on… if those were shoved into his mouth …… A moment later, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally understood why Shangguan Bing’er tied him up, as he heard the sound of running water. This beautiful lady Battalion Commander was taking a bath now. Obviously, tying him up was to prevent this rascal from peeping. In truth, Shangguan Bing’er’s actions were deﬁnitely correct. Even tied up there, Zhou Weiqing’s mind couldn’t help but drift off into a daydream, as lascivious pictures ﬂuttered across his mind. After all, he had actually seen her before…

A direct translation of 铁树开花 , an idiom meaning something almost impossible happening – he is referring to her being miserly and willing to spend money on a room to stay. After less than an hour, the bathroom doors opened, and the next instance Zhou Weiqing felt his bindings loosened as the string was untied. When he looked up, he was absolutely stunned instantaneously.

The Shangguan Bing’er in front of him had her blue hair wet around her head, the large Heavenly Jewel Master robe wrapped around her body; because she had just taken a bath, her beautiful face was blushing red like a ripe apple, her entire body also giving off an alluring scent after bathing. That incomparable attraction made Zhou Weiqing’s mind freeze in its tracks.

“Little Hoodlum. Go take a bath.” Shangguan Bing’er suddenly blushed and turned around to the side. The reason was very simple, she accidentally saw that Little Fatty Zhou’s certain body part bulge out. Earlier when that rascal was daydreaming, his body has gotten a … reaction.

The speed that Zhou Weiqing took his bath was in no way faster than Shangguan Bing’er. Throughout the journey, Shangguan Bing’er had frequently cleaned her body in creeks or rivers while he prepared food during that time. As such, he was extremely dirty as you could imagine. Finally being able to take a bath, how could he not be happy and slowly enjoy it.

When Zhou Weiqing came out from the bathroom, he saw in front of him that the quilt from the bed had been spread out on the ground. Obviously, this was the place that he would be sleeping tonight.

Shangguan Bing’er also couldn’t help but take a second look at him when he walked out from the bathroom; although Zhou Weiqing was not particularly handsome, that he was the decent looking sort that was easy on the eye. Most particularly was his grandiose stature, after absorbing the black pearl, his height had reached nearly 1.75 metres, you deﬁnitely could not tell that he was less than 14 years old from his looks, especially from the nimble and resourceful black eyes he had. At this time after changing into a Heavenly Jewel Master robe, it was as if he looked like a totally different person.

“Let’s go.” Shangguan Bing’er was not willing to show the chaos in her heart to be seen by him, and immediately set off again. The both of them wearing the Heavenly Jewel Master robe, although you couldn’t say they were a perfect match, but at least when they walked together there wasn’t that huge contrast like when they were entering the city. As they left the hotel, the hotel boss’ eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he saw their Heavenly Jewel Master gowns. He had never expected that one day he would have two Heavenly Jewel Masters would be staying at his tiny little hotel.

Zhou Weiqing felt the obvious change when they once again walked onto the streets of Flying Hill City. The passer-bys on the street would obviously give way to both him and Shangguan Bing’er, their eyes showing much respect. This was the treatment towards Heavenly Jewel Masters, even in Fei Li Empire such a formidable empire, the status of Heavenly Jewel Masters was still incomparably lofty.

“Battalion Commander, can we walk slowly?” Having just taken a long enjoyable bath, Zhou Weiqing felt his whole body being extremely comfortable and languid, yet as soon as Shangguan Bing’er had exited, she had moved at a high speed.

After just a short while, Zhou Weiqing discovered with some amazement that Shangguan Bing’er had actually led him to return to near the Skill-Storing Palace again, but instead of entering it again, she walked towards a bunch of short houses opposite the Palace. These short houses did not look unique in anyway, and was composed of several small courtyards, and compared with the grand architecture of the Skill-Storing Palace, it looked very simple and ordinary. However, as they got closer, Zhou Weiqing actually discovered that the area was unexpectedly very quiet, and very few people actually approached it. In between the small courtyards there was an alley of about two meters width.

Shangguan Bing’er walked familiarly deeper through the alleys, and as they walked along she told Zhou Weiqing: “If we are not wearing the Heavenly Jewel Master robes, once we approach this area, we will be stopped by the Jewel masters who are guarding this place. A Consolidating Equipment Master is staying in each courtyard, and they are all very honoured elders. Later, you better be carefully, if you speak rubbish at such a place, I cannot guarantee your safety. In any country, the status of Consolidating Equipment Master is absolute. There are even fewer of them than Heavenly Jewel Masters, in fact most of them are actually Heavenly Jewel Masters who have the spatial attribute.”

“En.” Zhou Weiqing agreed, this time he did not trash talk again.

Shangguan Bing’er brought him to one of the deeper small courtyards and stopped in front of the gate; she walked forward and knocked lightly on the gate, “Huyan Senior, are you at home?” A moment later, the gate opened, a middle-aged man walked out from within. He was very tall, about two meters, but not very well built and had a slim ﬁgure, looking around 40-years of age, with his face like an ancient moon, wearing simple grey cotton garments. He seemed very ordinary, except with a very

cold face.

The ﬁrst thing Zhou Weiqing noted were his hands, both were very large, slender just like his stature, his ten ﬁngers were clear like jade, as if his hands were the most important core of his body.

When Shangguan Bing’er saw the middle-aged man, she immediately bowed in greeting, saying respectfully: “Wind Senior, Hello. Is Huyan Senior in?”

On seeing her, the middle-aged man was somewhat surprised, “Oh it’s you, little girl! You’ve promoted so quickly? Huyan that old fellow is in, but you know he is famous for being stingy, he will not lift a ﬁnger to help. Do you have enough money prepared?”

Hearing the description from the middle-aged man, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but to give out a quick laugh, saying to her in a low voice: “Battalion Commander, isn’t that Huyan Senior your teacher then?” Shangguan Bing’er turned head and glared at him angrily, “Shut up! Quickly greet Wind Senior now.”

Zhou Weiqing then saluted the middle-aged, “Hello senior, my name is Little Fatty Zhou.”

The middle-aged man nodded, saying: “Comes in then.” As he said that, he entered the house.

They entered the courtyard behind him. Inside, it seemed like a different world altogether, besides a small path that was paved with gravel which led to the main house, the entire courtyard was ﬁlled with various ﬂowers and plants. Although there weren’t any huge trees, but it was a scene of abundant spring beauty, the air fresh, and the fragrance of the ﬂowers gladdening the heart.

As they walked along the path and entered the room right in the middle, the middle-aged man said loudly: “Huyan Old Man, guests have arrived.”

The furnishings within the room were arranged elegantly, the innermost part of the room there was a screen of painted art, and in the front was a square table and a large round- backed wooden armchair, there weren’t actually any furnishing for entertaining guests.

Before Zhou Weiqing had a chance to size up the room, he noticed a meatball walking in from a side room, when he focused his eyes, he realised it was an old man.

This man looked to be around 60 to 70 years old, his beard and hair totally white, but was still glowing with health. His face did not have wrinkles, but his eyes had been squeezed by the fat on his face that only two slits remained, yet they still seemed to glow with vigor. He was dressed in the similar simple grey cotton garment, but his sleeves were particularly long, covering both hands. The most obvious characteristic was his stature, as he looked like a large round watermelon. “Greetings Huyan Senior.” Shangguan Bing’er’s look turned more respectful than before, her hand also pushing Zhou Weiqing to salute to the chubby old man respectfully.

The fat old man’s small eyes rolled about as he waved his hands, “No need for pleasantries or idle talk. You want Consolidating Equipment Scrolls right, the price tags are all displayed clearly. I currently have three for sale, you can choose for yourself.” As he said that, he waved his sleeves, and three pieces of paper appeared on the square table.

Zhou Weiqing rubbed his eyes, checking that he had not missed seeing anything, but he had not actually noticed how these three pieces of paper appeared.

Shangguan Bing’er squeezed Zhou Weiqing’s hands forcefully, giving him a severe warning glare, warning him not to speak, before pulling him to the square table.

Zhou Weiqing who was being pulled by her soft tender hands felt extremely comfortable, and he was also rather curious about the Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, thus he did not try to do anything funny and followed her to the table.

The three pieces of paper on the square table were actually three pictures, each depicting different things. The ﬁrst to attract Zhou Weiqing’s attention was the leftmost picture which was a drawing of a round shield, the shield’s surface was densely covered with lines like that of a turtle’s shell, and right in the middle there was a small round indent. Although it was just a picture, it actually gave out a digniﬁed and tough feeling. To someone like Zhou Weiqing who was coveted life and feared death, it was without a doubt of enormous attraction to him. Written beside the picture was a single line of words: Xuan Wu Shield, limited to either Strength, Endurance or Toughness Attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters to use. Able to mount Elemental Jewel.

Zhou Weiqing could understand the words in front, but the sentence at the end about mounting Elemental Jewels was something he was not quite clear about. Furthermore, the restriction of the shield being only usable by Heavenly Jewel Masters made him somewhat puzzled.

The picture on the right was that of a pair of boots, although it only several simple patterns on it, but it actually gave forth a light and lively feeling, at the ankle area of the boots there was another of the small round indents. Inscribed beside were the words: Wind Wielding Boots, limited for Agility Attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters to use, able to mount Elemental Jewel.

Shangguan Bing’er’s gaze lingered on this picture for a while, before turning to the central picture, almost at the same time as Zhou Weiqing.

The picture was that of a long bow, in a simple and unsophisticated style, the bow arc was rather very small, and there was no bowstring, the small round socket in position at the hand grip area. The entire bow only had a single large tattoo extending from top to bottom, but it actually gave out an intense and ominous feel, as if it were the blood on a sharp knife blade.

Annotation: Overlord Bow, limited to strength attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters to use, able to mount Elemental Jewels, 10% discount for High Level Heavenly Shi Jewel Masters.

Zhou Weiqing’s gaze only rested on the Overlord Bow for a short while, before returning to the Xuan Wu Shield, which he was starting to like more the more he looked at it. In his heart he mused that if that shield was large enough, he would be immune to any arrows in the battleﬁeld. “Huyan Senior, how much money does this Overlord Bow Consolidating Equipment Scroll cost?” After a moment of hesitation, Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes turned ﬁrm and she asked.

The fat old man glanced at her, saying: “Little girl, if I have remembered correctly, you are of the agile attribute. You should know my rules. You cannot bring away the Consolidating Equipment Scroll.”

Shangguan Bing’er nodded, saying: “Of course I know the rules of Senior, I am buying this for my friend here, his Physical Jewel is of pure Strength Attribute.”

The fat old man said calmly: “200,000 gold coins.”

Shangguan Bing’er’s face changed, her delicate eyebrows furrowed as she went deep into thought. Zhou Weiqing actually raised his head, his face startled. Although he had guessed that Consolidating Equipment Scrolls would be expensive, but this was way above his expectations. 200,000 gold coins, and this was only the price of his very ﬁrst Physical Jewel, if he were to complete all 12 of his Physical Jewels, how much money would that take? His eyes swirling as he thought, Zhou Weiqing thought of something and asked with his simple and honest face: “Senior, how much does this Xuan Wu Shield cost?”

The fat old man said: “120,000 gold coins.”

Shangguan Bing’er turned around to stare at him, “No, you cannot choose the shield. This Overlord Bow is more suitable for you.”

Zhou Weiqing gave a helpless look, saying, “Battalion Commander, I think that those Wind Wielding Boots are even more suitable for you! How about you buy those ﬁrst, I am not anxious to get mine.” In his heart he had some secret plans, he would go back to ask his godfather for some money, then secretly run back here to buy the Xuan Wu Shield.

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head, saying: “I already have my ﬁrst Physical Jewel with a Consolidated Equipment, it is sufﬁcient to protect myself. You on the other hand do not have anything yet. Huyan Senior, I have 150,000 gold coins. Can I leave you with the money ﬁrst, then go back to get the other 50,000 gold coins, and you help me reserve this Overlord Bow Consolidating Equipment Scroll for a few days please?” Listened to Shangguan Bing’er’s words, Zhou Weiqing went totally silent, his face full of disbelief as he looked at her. He had actually been joking when asking Shangguan Bing’er to buy him the scrolls, in his mind, Shangguan Bing’er was so miserly that she would deﬁnitely not buy such expensive things. He has really never expected her to so decisively decide to purchase the Overlord Bow Scroll; more importantly, she was buying that Consolidating Equipment Scroll not for her own use, but to give to him!

Zhou Weiqing suddenly felt a burst of hot air rush towards both his eyes, and his gaze towards Shangguan Bing’er changed a lot, the ﬁst hidden in his sleeves were gripped together ﬁercely.

The fat old man gave a humph, “Reserve? Don’t you know my rules? You are already lucky that you found me today with three whole sets of Consolidating Equipment Scrolls. I only created three sets of Consolidating Equipment Scrolls this year, within three days these three sets should be completely sold out. Why should I reserve it for you? If you do not have money, just leave.” Saying that, he turned around to leave, his words were cold and did not give any face at all.

Shangguan Bing’er’s face was full of anxiety as she pled: “Senior, can’t you please stretch the rules a little? I will also leave my Purple Dawn Bow here as a mortgage. I can rush back here at top speed.”

The fat old man said impatiently: “Less useless idle talk, go away.”

Zhou Weiqing suddenly took a step forward, blocking the way of the fat old man, at the same time he said sincerely, “Senior, please stretch the rules for us. We have travelled a long way to you because your Consolidating Equipment Scrolls are the best. Please give us a chance.”

The fat old man gave an angry humph, “Overlord Bow Consolidating Equipment Scroll, now 300,000 gold coins. Now have you given up? Get the hell out!”

Zhou Weiqing was momentarily stunned, this fat old man was simply so unreasonable, he had unexpectedly risen the price by 100,000 gold coins with no reason. Immediately, his anger rose as well and he snapped, “Do you need to be so ruthless? If you give others a chance, in the future it will beneﬁt you too!”

The fat old man glared at him coldly, “400,000 gold coins.”

Chapter 13 – An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

When Zhou Weiqing heard the huge price of 400,000 gold coins, he was just about to say something again, but he felt a large force on his arm, and he was pulled to the side by Shangguan Bing’er. When he turned his head around to look at her, he was surprised to see that she was almost on the verge of tears, the hand that was grabbing onto him was shivering.

“Battalion Commander, you ……”

“Shut up!” Shangguan Bing’er said ﬁercely, moving quickly in a ﬂash to block off Zhou Weiqing, and said pleadingly to the fat old man: “Huyan Senior, please ignore him, we are at the wrong here. 200,000 gold coins is okay. I have a piece of Spirit Jade here which should have the value of 50,000 gold coins, I can leave it here as a mortgage ﬁrst. After we go through with the Consolidating of Equipment, we’ll immediately go back to get money, before coming back to exchange back for the Spirit Jade, is that okay?”

As she said that, she took off a red string necklace from her neck, it had a cream coloured jade stone hung upon it. The jade was carved into a Ruyi shape, although it was not glowing, but it had a gentle warmth to it. Shangguan Bing’er held out the jade in front of the old man, her face with a pleading look.

The fat old man shot a glance at it, and a surprised look ﬂashed into his eyes, before saying calmly: “If you had taken it out a moment ago, I would have agreed actually. This Spirit Jade is worth more than 50,000 gold coins, maybe even 100,000 gold coins. With it as a mortgage, I would deﬁnitely have sold you the Consolidating Equipment Scroll. However, just now that boy blocked me earlier, and I said that the Overlord Bow Consolidating Equipment Scroll’s price is now 400,000 gold coins. I, Huyan Aobo, always keep my promises. It’s not just for you, I’ve set the price now, whoever comes to to buy it will also be given this same price. If you do not have 400,000 gold coins, you can leave now. There are many Consolidating Equipment Masters around here, you can buy other Consolidating Equipment Scrolls.”

Is that even possible? Zhou Weiqing stared with a dumbfounded look at the fat old man Huyan Aobo. The words that he had spoken thoughtlessly had caused the unexpected huge rise in price, to a price about double the initial price even.

“Battalion Commander, let’s go. This old man isn’t the only the only Consolidating Equipment Master around here; he is like a stone in the latrine pit, smelly and hard, why must we buy his scrolls?” Zhou Weiqing grabbed Shangguan Bing’er’s and started to walk out.

Shangguan Bing’er turned his head, saying angrily: “What do you understand? In the Flying Hill City, only Huyan Senior is a Grandmaster Consolidating Equipment Master, how can other Consolidating Equipment Masters compare with his work? Haven’t you seen the words ‘Able to mount Elemental Jewels’? Only Grandmaster Consolidating Equipment Master and above are able to create such Scrolls.”

“500,000 gold coins. Scolding this old man, you must pay the price. Little brat, if you scold me one more time, you can forget about buying Consolidating Equipment Scrolls from here in the future.” Huyan Aobo said coldly.

Zhou Weiqing’s eyes ﬂashed with anger, his hands lifted in ﬁsts in front of him and he said, “Huyan Old Man, I’ve never wanted to punch anyone as much as I have now.”

Huyan Aobo suddenly smiled and laughed out loud, “There are any people who want to punch, and many others who want to kill me. However, this old man is still living well. Even the Fei Li Empire’s Emperor will still be courteous to me. Who do you think you are? To kill me, you’ll have to get by Feng Yu ﬁrst. He is a Upper Level Zong Physical Jewel Master, with nine Physical Jewels, all with Consolidated Equipment. When you can beat him, then you can came to say those words to me.”

Zhou Weiqing was startled, although he had judged that the middle-aged man would be very strong, but he had not expected him to be at the very peak of Physical Jewel Masters, having 9 Physical Jewels. Shangguan Bing’er only had one Physical Jewel with Consolidated Equipment and she was already so strong, how formidable was this Upper Level Zong Physical Jewel Master with all nine Jewels with Consolidated Equipments? It was no wonder that this fat old man Huyan Aobo was so secure.

Fu Yu shook his head helplessly, saying, “Little bro, you better just leave. When this old man goes crazy, you can’t reason with him.”

Shangguan Bing’er was currently just standing there dazed. She knew that they had came here for nothing today. It had been such amazing luck for them to come at a time when there were three sets of Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, yet they had not been able to get anything in the end. That sort of feeling of wanting to cry but having no tears left, caused her to not even have the mood to reprimand Zhou Weiqing. A trace of bloodlust ﬂashed through Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, even though he himself had not realized it. The energy whirlpools at his four Death Acupuncture Points which had broken through suddenly doubled their speed of rotation and energy draw, and a light grey colour invaded his pupils. At the

center of his forehead, the trace of a black ‘King’ word was visible indistinctly. The pair of Heavenly Jewels simultaneously appeared around his wrists; the Physical Jewels were still alright, just giving forth an icy mist, but his Elemental Jewel sent forth an extremely brilliant light.

When there was no sunlight, the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye would present the red colour of a Red Ruby, and at this time Zhou Weiqing’s wrist’s Alexandrite Cat’s Eye was blood red, twinkling brightly like the red pupils of a demon.

The Heavenly Jewel Master robes that the Skill-Storing Palace had issued them had a lot longer sleeves than normal and could cover the wrists; naturally it also covered Zhou Weiqing’s Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel, but in that moment, the sheer brilliance that the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye was emitting was really intense, penetrating the sleeves.

Huyan Aobo originally had an arrogant face and was looking disdainfully at Zhou Weiqing. However, when the sudden brilliance emitted from Zhou Weiqing’s Alexandrite Cat’s Eye emitted, his proud look suddenly froze.

“Cat’s Eye Jewel?” The fat old man’s breathing suddenly became rapid, “Why didn’t you say you have this Greater Attribute Jewel, don’t you know you can get a discount?”

Shangguan Bing’er also came awake at this moment, her expression changing, and she quickly pulled Zhou Weiqing aside, saying: “The Consolidating Equipment Scroll of Senior’s is too expensive for us, even with discounts we are unable to afford it, we’ll be taking our leave now.” Saying that, she quickly pulled Zhou Weiqing towards the exit. Compared to purchasing the Consolidating Equipment Scroll, the thing she feared most was having Zhou Weiqing’s Elemental Jewel Attributes exposed. Earlier, when the brilliance from Zhou Weiqing’s Jewels shone out through his sleeves it had caused her to be shocked into action instantly.

“No, no, don’t rush to leave. I will not raise the price anymore.” Huyan Aobo took a quick step forward, blocking their way to the exit, his gaze locked on Zhou Weiqing’s left wrist which was blocked by his sleeves.

Shangguan Bing’er look was stern, “Senior, you are a noble Consolidating Equipment Master, you won’t buy or sell with coercion right?”

Huyan Aobo no longer had the look of arrogance on his face any more, instead having a rather ingratiating tone, immediately explained: “Little Girl, do not misunderstand. I know that you are worried that your friend will have his Greater Spatial Attribute’s Jewel exposed. You can rest assured though, although I, Huyan Aobo, may be greedy for money, but my personal moral character is still good. Furthermore, I have always been neutral and am not controlled by any country, I will not do anything disadvantageous to this little brother.”

如意⽟ It’s a sort of jade carving meant for luck. Regarding Huyan Aobo’s sudden change in treatment of him, Zhou Weiqing was also extremely surprised. He could also sense Shangguan Bing’er’s anxiety, and immediately Received his Heavenly Jewels.

On hearing Huyan Aobo words, Shangguan Bing’er’s look of wariness lessened a little, and she said: “Senior, what do you mean?”

Huyan Aobo sighed and said: “To be honest, this is the sorrowful fate for us Consolidating Equipment Masters. You should know that Consolidating Equipment Masters need to have the Spatial Attribute, no matter Heavenly Jewel Masters or just Elemental Jewel Masters, as long as you have the Spatial Attribute, you have the possibility of becoming a Consolidating Equipment Master. However, amongst the four Greater Attributes, Darkness, Light, Life and Spatial Attributes, the rarest is the Spatial Attribute. This is especially true for Spatial Attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters, they are incomparably rare. Therefore, currently most of the Consolidating Equipment Masters are just Spatial Attribute Elemental Jewel Masters. It is difﬁcult to ﬁnd a Spatial Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master to choose to become a Consolidating Equipment Master.” After pausing a while, Huyan Aobo continued saying: “I can tell you two a secret. The rank of us Consolidating Equipment Masters is dependant on the success rate of our Consolidating Equipment Scrolls as well as the quality of our Consolidating Equipment Scrolls. Most lower ranking Consolidating Equipment Masters have their Consolidating Equipment Scrolls with success rates less than 1/1000. As such, there are few who are willing to join this profession. Even the

Consolidating Equipment Scrolls that I, this grandmaster Consolidating Equipment Master manufactures, the success rate is also only 1%. This is the limit of my achievement. Only Heavenly Jewel Masters who have become Consolidating Equipment Masters have the possibility of becoming more formidable Consolidating Equipment Masters, perhaps even reaching god level. That had been the biggest dream in my life, a dream that I know I can no longer complete, but I have more than enough theoretical knowledge, so I hope that my future disciple can complete this dream for me.”

Zhou Weiqing said doubtfully: “Are you trying to recruit me as a disciple?”

Huyan Aobo’s face grew somewhat awkward, “That’s the awkward difference between us Consolidating Equipment Masters and other professions. Other professions, the disciple looks for the master, while us masters have to look for our disciples. The Spatial Attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters are just too rare. Look, you guys do not appear to have much money; to be honest, Spatial Attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters who are so broke are even more rare. Little brother, as long as you are willing to apprentice under me and inherit my skills, the price of Consolidating Equipment Scrolls are open for discussion. Not only do you not need 500,000 gold coins, I’ll sell it to you for 150,000 gold coins, the exact amount you have?”

Shangguan Bing’er loosened her grip on Zhou Weiqing’s hand, as she was lost in thought. Huyan Aobo words made her excited, after all you must know that in the entire Heavenly Bow Empire there was not a single Consolidating Equipment Master. Although Huyan Aobo was greedy for money and extremely stingy, but in the Consolidating Equipment Master domain, he could be said to be an existence of high authoritative level. In the entire Fei Li Empire, there were few Consolidating Equipment Masters that could be said to be better than him. If Zhou Weiqing studied how to create Consolidating Equipment Scrolls with him, it would be of incomparable advantage to the Heavenly Bow Empire‘s future.

“No way.” Zhou Weiqing had already rejected Huyan Aobo invitation without hesitation. He was currently full of anger at this moment, facing Huyan AoBo who had been so haughty towards him earlier, how could he easily agree to his terms. Huyan Aobo started breathing heavily, “Little brat… no, Little brother, don’t you know how rich Consolidating Equipment Masters are? Although we have to sacriﬁce cultivation time to manufacture Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, but, we are also the richest and most highly respected. How about this, this Overlord Bow Scroll, I will sell it at rock- bottom price to you, 100,000 gold coins, how about that?”

Zhou Weiqing gave a humph, “I have never heard of a master who did not give his apprentice a gift on the ﬁrst meeting, and instead asking for money. You are truly a stingy and miserly person! If you become my master, can I have live out any good days? I’m not doing it!”

Just a moment ago, Huyan Aobo had raised his price proudly, at this moment, Zhou Weiqing was doing the same in return. Indeed, it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Feng Yu was cheerfully laughing at the side, he normally witnessed many people who had no choice but to admit defeat in front of Huyan Aobo, this was the ﬁrst time he saw that old man admitting defeat.

Huyan Aobo rubbed his hands together, his face a mask of pain, “Alright, alright. As long as you become my disciple, I will give you this Overlord Bow Scroll okay.” Zhou Weiqing was extremely astute, and understood immediately that this was deﬁnitely not Huyan AoBo’s limit. The anger that was on his face had long disappeared after Huyan Aobo mentioned giving him the scroll. With a simple, honest and sincere look on his face, he continued saying “Senior, I thank you for your good intentions. However, cultivation of Heavenly Jewel Masters is extremely expensive as you know, and my ﬁance and I come from commoner families, furthermore we are from the Heavenly Bow Empire. You should know that our Heavenly Bow Empire doesn’t have much ﬁnancial resources, and they are unable to support us in cultivation. The 150,000 gold coins that my wife brought was all the support that the Heavenly Bow Empire managed to give us to cultivate. It is truly the tip of the iceberg of our needs! I do not mind studying how to create Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, but, this must be delayed. It is not so easy to become a Consolidating Equipment Master right? To make money is not something that can be achieved in a short time. I do not know when I can have enough to not just carry out Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment and also Elemental Jewel Skill Storing. We have already decided earlier that we must join the Fei Li Empire’s Skill-Storing Palace. Therefore, I can only decline your good intention with thanks. Sigh… this is really predestiny!”

When Shangguan Bing’er heard Huyan Aobo giving Zhou Weiqing the Overlord Bow Scroll for free, she had been struck dumbfounded. That was just a matter of a short period of time! How everything had changed in an instant. Listening to Zhou Weiqing’s words, although she in her heart she hated this rascal for taking advantage of her with his words, she extraordinarily did not say anything to refute him. She was very clear that when this Little Fatty Zhou’s face revealed that sincere simple and honest look, it was his most dreadful, shameless and deceitful time.

“No, no, that is not good at all, you cannot join the Skill- Storing Palace. Do you not know that if you join the Skill- Storing Palace, it is tantamount to selling yourself into servitude to the Fei Li Empire?” Upon hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, Huyan Aobo grew anxious.

Zhou Weiqing said with a resigned-looking face: “I have no choice! If I have to sells myself into servitude then I’ll have to do it. I’ve heard that Skill-Storing for Elemental Jewels is even more expensive, how can the both of us withstand such expenditure! I think, as long as we do well in the Skill-Storing Palace, they will be more than willing to spend to help us buy the Consolidating Equipment Scrolls that we need. Isn’t that right, wife?”

This rascal turned his head to look at Shangguan Bing’er, with his back facing Huyan Aobo and Feng Yu, he winked towards her. Although Shangguan Bing’er was being taken advantage of by this rascal’s words, she had no choice and was unable to undermine him at this time! Glaring at him quickly, she actually had to agree with a “En”.

Zhou Weiqing looked back once more to Huyan AoBo, “Senior, we shall not disturb you further. That Overlord Bow Scroll you can sell to others. We will be heading to the Skill- Storing Palace ﬁrst, perhaps in the future we will still have the opportunity to purchase scrolls from you.” Having said that, he pulled on Shangguan Bing’er’s hands and headed out.

At this time, Zhou Weiqing was gloating in his mind! Looking at Huyan Aobo’s awkward expression, he felt he had already paid him back for earlier. Furthermore, he had managed to take advantage of Shangguan Bing’er, and even managed to hold her hand, this was just too perfect.

“Don’t go, don’t go. Wait, let me think carefully ﬁrst.” Huyan Aobo paced anxiously back and forth in the room. At this moment, Feng Yu who had been standing at the side smiling and watching suddenly opened his mouth to say: “Huyan Old Man, money is merely an external material good, it will come and go, haven’t you understood this by now? A Heavenly Jewel Master apprentice is not easy to ﬁnd. If you miss this opportunity, you may never ﬁnd another one again in your lifetime. All these years, why have you been earning so much money for? Are you happy in your heart? Is money more important than your lifelong dream?”

Zhou Weiqing gave a surprised look at Feng Yu, he had not expected that this Feng Yu, who was obviously here to protect Huyan Aobo, would actually speak out on his behalf.

Huyan Aobo’s brow wrinkled ﬁercely, then suddenly a bright silver color light ﬂashed out, and his body suddenly vanished from the room totally. Before Zhou Weiqing could react, the silver light ﬂashed once again, and the fat old man reappeared in front of him and Shangguan Bing’er. In his hands, there were appeared two jet-black wooden boxes, and he handed Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er one each. “You two go to the side room to start Consolidating Equipment ﬁrst. This is the Overlord Bow the Wind Wielding Boots respectively. Let me think some more. Feng Yu Old Man, you lead them over there.”

Feng Yu said with a laugh: “Haha, you two kids, come with me.” As he said that, he walked outward.

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er received the box, which did not weigh much, and followed Feng Yu outside. Shangguan Bing’er’s hand was being held by Zhou Weiqing now, but she did not try to break free. She was still in a daze, everything seemed to be happening like in a dream. Just a moment ago, they could not even afford a single set of Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, and now they actually both obtained a set each, without even spending a single cent.

Feng Yu brought them to the side rooms, and said with a smile: “You two little kids, don’t be so reluctant to part with each other, each person to a room, so that when you are Consolidating Equipment your attributes do not clash.”

Only then did Shangguan Bing’er awaken, and she quickly shook free of Zhou Weiqing’s hand, but her beautiful face was ﬂushed red. Zhou Weiqing said reluctantly: “Wife, you must be careful okay.”

Shangguan Bing’er stomped on his foot, before turning around to run into one of the rooms. When the door ﬁnally closed, she couldn’t resist any longer, and on her beautiful face her dimple bloomed like a ﬂower as she smiled, tightly holding the wooden box in her bosom. Compared with the Silent Tracking Arrow that was her ﬁrst Consolidated Equipment, this Wind Wielding Boots that could mount an Elemental Jewel was many times stronger and better. Therefore, even though she had been taken advantage of by Zhou Weiqing, being called his wife, she had not been truly that angry.

Looking at Shangguan Bing’er walking away, Feng Yu looked at Zhou Weiqing with a faint smile on his face, saying: “Such a young age, and you already know how to seize the opportunity so well. Kid, you are very promising.”

Zhou Weiqing ﬂashed his trademarked simple and honest smile, saying: “Senior praises me too much. I also want to give my thanks to Senior for speaking up for me earlier, it was of much help.”

Feng Yu gave a hearty laugh, saying: “That’s no problem, I have had beef with that Huyan Old Man for a while. If not for my promise to him, I wouldn’t be staying here to defend this stingy old miser. This is your ﬁrst time carrying out a Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment right? Go on in, I will teach you how to use the Consolidating Equipment Scroll.”

Zhou Weiqing entered the room with Feng Yu, in comparison with the elegant main room earlier, this room was totally empty.

Feng Yu said: “No choice, Huyan Old Man was too stingy.

Just sit on the ground.”

Zhou Weiqing followed suit and sat on the ground, and Feng Yu sat down opposite him, taking the wooden box from him.

As he opened the lid, Zhou Weiqing was surprised to see that the so-called Consolidating Equipment Scroll was not a single one, but instead was a thick stack of them. The uppermost one had an extremely complex pattern, and he could see indistinctly, at the center of those patterns, there was a semblance of resemblance to the Overlord Bow on the picture earlier.

“So many!” Zhou Weiqing said in surprise. Feng Yu said: “Didn’t you hear what Huyan Old Man said earlier? With his grandmaster standard, the success rate of Consolidating Equipment Scrolls is still only 1%. Actually, the most important judgement standard of a grandmaster is, out of 100 Consolidating Equipment Scrolls at least one will succeed for sure. For lower grade Consolidating Equipment Masters, this is difﬁcult to say. Although Consolidating Equipment Masters can earn money, but it is actually very difﬁcult to practice, even if they have the Spatial Attribute Elemental Jewel, but they still need to go through painstaking efforts. The Consolidating Equipment Masters who have low success rates will have less patronage, that’s the reason why there are so few Consolidating Equipment Masters.”

As he said that, he took up the uppermost Consolidating Equipment Scroll and handed it to Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing was ﬁnally able to examine the Consolidating Equipment Scroll closely, and he found that it was made from a special leather as the foundation material, the patterns on it were lively and of rich colours, almost as if it were living even. Although he only had one set of Heavenly Jewels, he could clearly sense the strong special ﬂuctuation of energy in this small leather scroll. “You can only carry out one Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment every day, and doing so will also consume more than 50% of your Heavenly Energy, so you should not be startled when that happens later. Now, you can start activating your Heavenly Energy an move it to your Physical Jewel, then rest your right hand on the scroll and silently feel it. You do not need to do anything else, your Physical Jewel should naturally

start communication with the Consolidating Equipment Scroll under the stimulation of your Heavenly Energy.”

“Thank you Senior.” Although Zhou Weiqing was quite the prankster, but he was not a person who didn’t know how to differentiate good from bad, and he deﬁnitely had a very favorable impression of this good-tempered Upper Level Zong Physical Jewel Master.

Focusing his will, he guided his Heavenly Energy from his Dantian upwards in a cycle, and as the Heavenly Energy passed by the right shoulder’s Clavicle Acupuncture Point, the energy whirlpool immediately increased in speed. The Taiyuan Acupuncture Point Released the Icy Jade Physical Jewel, and under the injection of Heavenly Energy, released a layer of icy mist fog immediately, and the familiar intense feeling of strength swept through his whole body instantaneously. Zhou Weiqing does not dare pause, pulling up his right arm’s sleeve with his left hand, his right palm pressing down onto the Consolidating Equipment Scroll. Looking at Zhou Weiqing’s pure Icy Jade Physical Jewel, Feng Yu’s eyes couldn’t help but reveal a ﬂash of envy.

In the instance when his palm made contact with the scroll, Zhou Weiqing could feel a huge suction from the Consolidating Equipment Scroll suddenly, and the Heavenly Energy ﬂowed in a torrent outwards. The patterns on the Consolidating Equipment Scroll shone out brightly instantaneously, and a special strange feeling spread over Zhou Weiqing’s whole body. It was as if a strange strength was swallowing his Heavenly Energy while sweeping across his entire body.

The Consolidating Equipment Scroll vanished in the next instance, warping into a burst of bright light encircling Zhou Weiqing’s right wrist, and in Zhou Weiqing’s mind the image of a longbow appeared suddenly, exactly the same as the picture on the table earlier. A strong intense ferocious feel arose in him, ﬂying quickly into the Icy Jade Physical Jewel in his right hand.

The Heavenly Jewels of Heavenly Jewel Masters were always together, at the same time his Physical Jewel was being utilized, Zhou Weiqing’s Alexandrite Cat’s Eye also appeared under the cover of his sleeves. What made Zhou Weiqing most startled was that the six color wheel disk had unexpectedly started spinning at top speed when he started on the Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment. As it revolved, both the black and grey coloured regions were twinkling brightly, absorbing the Heavenly Energy from his body, causing his Heavenly Energy consumption to dramatically increase. Zhou Weiqing was given a huge scare. What was going on? Still, no matter what, he could not stop everything from happening now.

After approximately three seconds, for the six color wheel disk in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, the black region representing the darkness attribute and the grey region representing the evil attribute suddenly superposed together unexpectedly. A strange unusual feeling overwhelmed Zhou Weiqing’s whole body, and the weird winged black tiger appeared in his mind again; this time with its mouth opened wide, as if trying to swallow something.

What Zhou Weiqing himself couldn’t see was that at this very moment, a black-grey tattoo started spreading out from his right shoulder, and in a short while it had reached his right wrist.

In the next instance, the Consolidating Equipment Scroll which had been swallowing his Heavenly Energy suddenly stopped. Instead, Zhou Weiqing felt that the Taiyuan Acupuncture Point, one of the four Death Acupuncture Point that he had broken through, had suddenly opened like a huge mouth, and suddenly the bright light which the Consolidating Equipment Scroll had warped into was swallowed instantaneously by it.

Due to the bright light from the Consolidating Equipment Scroll, it actually caused Feng Yu not miss seeing the black tattoo on Zhou Weiqing’s arm which disappeared quickly after, but he actually clearly saw the Consolidating Equipment Scroll get absorbed into Zhou Weiqing’s Physical Jewel, and he was so surprised that his jaw dropped.

An indescribable feeling of fulﬁlment appeared in Zhou Weiqing’s mind, after the six color wheel disk had completely swallowed the Consolidating Equipment Scroll’s light, and in the next moment it had restored to its normal six color region state. Zhou Weiqing felt as if his Physical Jewel had came to life, the feeling of being connected to it and the burst of strength it ﬁlled him with made his whole spirit feel stimulated.

A low cry resounded out from Zhou Weiqing, and the one- third Heavenly Energy that he had left started pouring into his Icy Jade Physical Jewel. A strong ferocious aura erupted from his wrist, and the Physical Jewel separated from his wrist to fall into his palm. When Zhou Weiqing’s closed his palm around the Physical Jewel and grasped it ﬁrmly, immediately, two bright white lights simultaneously emitted out from his palm into two directions, and in the next instant, it had changed into a 1.5m wide longbow without a bowstring in his grasp.

As compared to the picture earlier, this longbow was full of the sense of reality, its entire body looked like it had been carved out of Icy Jade, glittering with beauty and surrounded with a shimmering icy mist, its streamline shape shape seemed like a ferocious beast giving forth a domineering aura.

Zhou Weiqing lifted the Overlord Bow, and immediately, a sense like he was connected to the bow by his arm made him instantly fall in love with the bow. Although he had previously favoured the Consolidated Equipment Scroll of the Xuan Wu Shield, but after he had just succeeded in Consolidating Equipment with the Overlord Bow, his heart was ﬂooding with satisfaction.

“Senior, how come this does not have a bowstring?” Zhou Weiqing looked at his Overlord Bow and asked doubtfully.

Feng Yu said in a bit of a shock: “You need to continue pouring in Heavenly Energy, if you just reached the fourth stage of Heavenly Energy, you will need at least half of your Heavenly Energy to full form this bow, even the bowstring requires your Heavenly Energy to take shape.”

Zhou Weiqing said in realization: “I see, my Heavenly Energy is insufﬁcient to form the bowstring. Alright, I will try again later.” As he withdrew his Heavenly Energy, the Overlord Bow disappeared quietly, forming back into his Icy Jade Physical Jewel to encircle his wrist again. However, the Physical Jewel’s brilliance was a lot dimmer now, as Zhou Weiqing did not have much Heavenly Energy left.

“It doesn’t seem that difﬁcult for Physical Jewels to Consolidate Equipment? I just succeeded like that.” Zhou Weiqing said with much satisfaction as he withdrew his Physical Jewel.

“Kid, are you really a human?” Feng Yu sighed out the breath he had been holding, staring at Zhou Weiqing, his face full of shock.

Zhou Weiqing also stared back with eyes wide open, “Senior, how can you curse at people?”

Feng Yu said with a bitter smile: “I am not scolding you, I’m praising you. Do you really think Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment is easy? Even though I have all nine Physical Jewels complete, but I have never thought that Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment is easy. The reason why your little girlfriend led you here to look for Huyan Old Man, is because his grandmaster level Consolidating Equipment Scrolls that he makes, although they are expensive, but you are actually guaranteed success. Even so, 100 of them are still required to guarantee. I have never actually seen someone like you who was able to complete see have been able to complete Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment with just a single Consolidating Equipment Scroll. Furthermore, it was your ﬁrst

time using a Consolidating Equipment Scroll. This has

completely gone beyond my knowledge of Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment!”

Zhou Weiqing thought quickly and thought he understood, he guessed that perhaps the reason for his smooth success was probably his six attributes, especially the black and grey regions as they superimposed with each other. However, he did not want to reveal his secret, so he smiled and said: “Didn’t you say that Huyan Senior’s Consolidating Equipment Scroll’s success rate was 1%, naturally it’s also possible for this 1% to be done on the ﬁrst or the last scroll right? Shouldn’t that be normal?”

Feng Yu said helpless: “That is true theoretically speaking, however in my sixty years of experience I have never seen or heard of anyone who succeeded on their ﬁrst use of Consolidating Equipment Scrolls.”

“60 years? Senior, aren’t you joking with me?” Zhou Weiqing was rather startled. From his look, Feng Yu was at most forty- year-old.

Feng Yu laughed and said: “Kid, my actual physical age is only younger than Huyan Old Man by one year. Why do you think he calls me Feng Yu Old Man as well? He is 75 years old this year, and I am 74 years old. When you compare the two, Physical Jewel Masters of the same rank will probably lose to Elemental Jewel Masters, but their greatest gain is that they have a strong anti-aging. After all, what we do is strengthening the body, while they are controlling the elements. However, as long as you are a Jewel Master, you will at least have 150 years lifespan. You Heavenly Jewel Masters have an even longer lifespan, there are those over 200 years old who are extremely formidable existences, when they stomp their feet, the four seas will tremble. The road in front of you is very very long, you need to put in much more effort along the way.”

Upon hearing that, Zhou Weiqing was delighted, “So Heavenly Jewel Masters can have such a long lifespan, I have really gained a lot. Oh right, Senior, can I still keep this remaining 99 scrolls?” Feng Yu passed Zhou Weiqing the wooden box, saying with a faint smile: “Hey kid, do you know why I took a liking to you?”

“Why?” Zhou Weiqing carefully took the box and covered it, then swiftly stored it in his own bag.

Feng Yu said: “Because you are not artiﬁcial. A real villain who shows his colours is better than a hypocrital gentleman. Furthermore, you, this child, are also not a villain. Certainly, I am very curious, for someone so young, who did you learn to be such a rufﬁan from.”

In Zhou Weiqing’s mind ﬂashed a rascally old man’s image immediately, though that was clearly not his father. Smiling, he said: “That… I cannot say.”

Chapter 14 – Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment Sets

Feng Yu stood up, saying: “I estimate that your little girlfriend probably will not be able to complete her Consolidating Equipment in such a short time could, let’s go look for Huyan Old Man ﬁrst to consider the future now okay.”

The two of them left the empty room, returning to the main room that they had come from earlier, barely a short while ago. Zhou Weiqing followed behind Feng Yu, his mind lost in thought. He was getting more and more curious about the black winged tiger that appeared in his mind. Without a doubt, the reason why he could become a Heavenly Jewel Master and also succeed in cultivating the Immortal Deity Technique, and even his easy success with Consolidating Equipment, deﬁnitely had a close relationship with that black pearl that he had eaten.

Returning to the main hall, as soon as Feng Yu entered the room he saw that Huyan Aobo was there pacing back and forth, looking somewhat anxious.

“Eh? Why are you two back so quickly?” Huyan Aobo looked doubtingly at Zhou Weiqing who had came in together with Feng Yu. Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh, once I’ve handled things, of course I’ll come back right?”

Feng Yu said: “Huyan Old Man, I think that we have met with a true talent, his ﬁrst time using a Consolidating Equipment Scroll and he succeeded. Have you ever witnessed something like that before? In any case, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Huyan Aobo looked with surprise at Zhou Weiqing, “Little brother, your luck is just too good right, you succeeded with just one scroll? Where are the surplus scrolls?” Just like talking trash was Zhou Weiqing’s habit, the disposition of being stingy was already deep down in the marrow of Huyan Aobo’s bones.

Zhou Weiqing instantaneously put on a righteous face and said, “Huyan Senior, gifts that have been given out, how can they be taken back?”

Huyan Aobo was embarrassed by his words, and said to himself: “Could this really be some divine punishment?”

Feng Yu said happily: “Haha, it looks like you, this miser, must give something up now. Stop being so hesitant, just decide quickly.” Huyan Aobo heaved a deep sigh, both his hands holding his big round belly, “Alright, enough, you do not need to come to his aid so subtly. Little brat, show me your Elemental Jewel. As long as we conﬁrm that you have the appropriate Gold-Green Cat’s Eye which signiﬁes the Spatial Attribute of the Heavenly Jewel Masters, I will accept you as an apprentice. Later on, I will be responsible for all your Consolidating Equipment and Skill-Storing. That should be okay right.”

Zhou Weiqing immediately shook his head, swinging it so vigorously like a Bu Leng drum.

Huyan Aobo said angrily: “What else do you want??”

Zhou Weiqing said aggrievedly: “Senior, you don’t have to be so ﬁerce. You must think, husband and wife are a linked together as one, how about my wife? Furthermore, we must add on one more rule, you cannot restrict my freedom.”

Huyan Aobo immediately started breathing rapidly again, “Little brat, you are taking advantage of me. I’ve never seen such a disciple.”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said: “Haha, I’ve also never seen such a stingy person like you! You’ll get used to it, you’ll get used to it.”

Huyan Aobo looked with a face of pain to Feng Yu, but Feng Yu actually looked up into the sky, with the innocent look that all of this did not concern him.

“Feng Yu, you cannot defend him earlier for nothing, from now on their Elemental Jewel Skill Storing I’ll depend on you to be responsible for. I will deal with all their Consolidating Equipment, okay?”

Feng Yu nodded and said: “For below six jewels, I will be responsible. Anyway I am idling around nowadays, going around with the young people is much better than staying with you, old thing.”

Huyan Aobo gave a humph and said: “Okay, good. Alright brat, I have agreed to your condition. As long as you can overtake me in creating Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, who will limit your freedom? Quickly show me your Elemental Jewel.”

Zhou Weiqing’s eyeballs swirled around as he said: “You must ﬁrst use your Jewel to make an oath, if my Elemental Jewel contains the Spatial Attribute, you will accept me as disciple and agree to the previous conditions.” When he swore his own vows he had been slippery and deceitful by using the fake name, but he could see from Shangguan Bing’er’s expression at that time, for Jewel Masters, pledging an oath with their Jewels was truly a very serious pledge.

Huyan Aobo scolded: “I have never seen such a sly brat like you.” Although he was stingy, but once he decided on something he no longer wasted any time, and he lifted his left hand, immediately, a layer of dim silver light covered his body, and Zhou Weiqing could clearly seeing seven green color Cat’s Eye Jewels simultaneously appear to revolve around his wrist.

Seven Spatial Attribute Elemental Jewels, that was the rank of a lower position Zong Elemental Jewel Master! Not only was this fat old man a Consolidating Equipment Master, he was unexpectedly of such high ranking, indeed you can never judge a book by its cover.

For ordinary Elemental Jewels, the Spatial Attribute is denoted by the green coloured Cat’s Eye Jewel, but for Heavenly Jewel Masters, it is the highest quality Cat’s Eye Jewel, the gold green Cat’s Eye that Huyan Aobo mentioned earlier. The seven green Cat’s Eye Jewels looked like seven eyes glittering with a strange light, and Huyan Aobo solemnly took the oath by the seven Jewels as according to what Zhou Weiqing had requested. When he said the last few words, the seven Jewels simultaneously ﬂashed with a bright light, and a silver light ﬂashed from the sky to strike Huyan Aobo’s brow area, and a light tattoo appeared for a while before vanishing.

Huyan Aobo completed his oath, and in his heart was a little uncomfortable, he gave a humph and said impatiently: “Brat, that is okay already right. Quickly.”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said: “Heh, two Seniors, the time to witness a miracle has arrived, I hope your hearts do not have any problems, and you are not frightened by my sheer genius talent of my Elemental Jewel.”

Huyan Aobo said exasperatedly: “Little Brat, your remarks are too much, as if I haven’t seen the gold green Cat’s Eye before……” Just as he was saying those words, Zhou Weiqing pulled up the sleeves of his left hand and Released his Elemental Jewel from his Taiyuan Acupuncture Point, and the rest of his words died in his throat.

Feng Yu originally had a very happy look as Zhou Weiqing was teasing Huyan Aobo, but as soon as Zhou Weiqing’s Elemental Jewel appeared in front of them, his face instantly changed and froze.

It was still a Cat’s Eye Jewel, and there was only that single one around Zhou Weiqing’s wrist, but it was not the gold green colour they had expected, but instead a noble looking deep red like a ruby.

Feng Yu and Huyan Aobo had been in the world of Jewel Masters for over 60 years, yet this was the ﬁrst time they had ever seen such an unusual Cat’s Eye Jewel.

The room was ﬁlled with silence, so much so that even a fallen needle could be heard instantly. Feng Yu and Huyan Aobo’s gazes were locked on the Elemental Jewel around Zhou Weiqing’s left wrist.

“Red, how can it be a red Cat’s Eye?” Huyan Aobo ﬁnally opened his mouth and muttered.

Zhou Weiqing turned around, shoved open the door and walked outside, “Two seniors, please come here and look again.” Huyan Aobo and Feng Yu quickly followed him, but this time, they were not just startled, but their jaws actually gaped open. It was still the same Cat’s Eye Jewel, but this time, its colour had actually turned into a clear sea bluish green. If the red was noble, then this bluish green colour was profound.

Zhou Weiqing said with an innocent look on his face: “I reminded you both a moment ago, this is the time to witness a miracle.”

⼘楞⿎ – A sort of children’s toy that you shake vigorously Suddenly, Feng Yu took a quick step forward, grabbing Zhou Weiqing by the left hand, covering his Elemental Jewel and said ﬁercely: “Quickly Receive it.”

Zhou Weiqing was startled by his quick movement, but Feng Yu was way too fast, so he quickly activated the Taiyuan Acupuncture Point’s energy whirlpool and Withdrew his Elemental Jewel.

As soon as the Elemental Jewel disappeared, Feng Yu and Huyan Aobo also relaxed and sighed in relief. In the next instance, Feng Yu pulled Zhou Weiqing by the arm, and in a quick ﬂash, they appeared back in the room, and slammed shut the door instantaneously. Huyan Aobo, in a swift motion that seemed as if they had trained together innumerable times, his left hand lifted up and his third Cat’s Eye Jewel shone out in a brilliant light, a silver shining light that expanded outward instantaneously to cover the entire room completely. Although Zhou Weiqing did not know what he was doing, but after the silver light dispersed, he actually could no longer hear the sound of the insects from the courtyard outside. Feng Yu looked up to Huyan Aobo, his face having a strange expression as he said in a low voice: “Is this a miracle? Is there really such a Elemental Jewel?”

Huyan Aobo’s body ﬂashed with a silver light again, and Zhou Weiqing felt a ﬂash before his eyes before that fat old man’s belly had almost bumped into him. Huyan Aobo had both hands ﬁrmly held on his shoulder, and in a rapid speed he asked: “Little Fatty Zhou, tell me, in your Elemental Jewel, besides the Spatial Attribute, is there also the Wind Attribute?”

Zhou Weiqing said with surprise: “How did you know? Can you see the Attributes in my Elemental Jewel?”

Huyan Aobo whole body seemed to deﬂate and stiffen, and he swallowed hard, in the next instance he loosened his hold on Zhou Weiqing’s shoulder and took two steps back, both his hands forked on his waist.

“Wahahahahaha, Hahaha…..” A demented laughter exploded suddenly, so loud that not only Zhou Weiqing, but also Feng Yu was startled by him. However, this fat old man was actually dancing with joy there, looking at him it seemed like he was excited to the extreme. Zhou Weiqing gave a bewildered look at Feng Yu and said: “Feng Senior, Huyan Senior isn’t having a ﬁt right?”

Feng Yu looked deeply at Zhou Weiqing, muttering to himself: “Envy, jealous, hate! Little boy, you only have one set of Jewels, how can you dare show your Alexandrite Cat’s Eye to other humans? I never expected that in this world there really exists an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye. Huyan Old Man naturally went crazy, having accepted a disciple with such an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel. Let alone him, even those Heavenly Jewel Masters with 9 Heavenly Jewels would also be grinning from ear to ear. Furthermore, he did not actually know that you have the Wind Attribute, but was just hoping that you had it. And you really did. To have both the Spatial and Wind Attributes, it can be said that you are born to be a Consolidating Equipment Master, moreover one of the most outstanding ones.”

Huyan Aobo ﬁnally stopped laughing, and when he looked at Zhou Weiqing again, it was as if he was looking at a precious treasure. “Little brat, uh no, my treasured apprentice, you should have said earlier that you had both Spatial and Wind attributes! In that case, I wouldn’t have to waste time considering! Even if this old man goes bankrupt, it will be worth it. Let alone the rank of grandmaster Consolidating Equipment Master, even ZongShi level, or god level, you can also achieve it.” Zhou Weiqing laughed, stepped forward two steps and held Huyan Aobo’s shoulders, saying with a proud face: “Teacher, you shouldn’t be so excited, I already said that it was the time to witness a miracle. However, just now when you were laughing it really sounded terrible.”

Huyan Aobo was still smiling happily, even though Zhou Weiqing just gave him an insult he didn’t care, he was really just too excited, “Little brat, can’t you be a little more modest?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “My other teacher always said that modesty makes a human regress. If you are not proud of yourself, how can others be proud of you?”

Huyan Aobo’s smiling face froze, “You have another teacher?”

Zhou Weiqing said carelessly: “I’ve hung out with him for two years, what’s wrong? Is there a restriction to number of teachers I can have? However you can rest assured that when I was with that perverted old man, my Heavenly Jewels had not awakened yet. I haven’t seen him in a long time, I’m not even sure where he went.” On hearing that, Huyan Aobo relaxed and said: “Since your Heavenly Jewel just awakened, that means you are less than 16 years old. How long till you are 16? To start creating Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, you need to be at least 16 years old, otherwise you do not have grown sufﬁciently and will not be able to control the materials.”

Zhou Weiqing blinked and said: “Teacher, I will be 14 years old in two months time.”

“What? You aren’t 14 years old yet?” Huyan Aobo said in surprise, staring at him.

Zhou Weiqing said with pride: “No choice, I matured early.” Huyan Aobo shook his head, saying: “I do not mean that,

what I mean is that you are only 13 years old and you have so many dirty tricks. I am really suspicious on what your ﬁrst master has taught you, no wonder you called him a perverted old man, looks like he is not any good thing. You’re just 13 years old and you are already like this, I can’t imagine when you have grown up!”

“……” Zhou Weiqing scratched his head, “Teacher, I am actually a very proper person, pure and good-hearted. People have given me the nickname ‘Honest and dependable little gentleman, Spotless and beautiful youth.”

“Bah.” Once Huyan Aobo had accepted Zhou Weiqing as his disciple, the arrogance on his face had vanished, and he said with a smile: “You, this little brat, really are a funny little treasure, I really do not know why that so called miracle Alexandrite Cat’s Eye will appear for you. However, since you are still less than 14 years old, evidently you cannot study how to create Consolidating Equipment Scrolls for quite some time. What are you doing in the Heavenly Bow Empire now?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “I’m enlisted in the army, I just joined this year, and I’m in the Heavenly Bow Empire’s Fifth Regiment 3rd Archery Battalion, my wife is the 3rd Battalion’s Commander, I am her Personal Aide.”

Feng Yu gave him a strange look, saying: “You entered the military and Awakened your Heavenly Jewel after right?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded, “How did you know?”

Feng Yu said with a smile: “Silly kid, if you were a Heavenly Jewel Master before your enlistment, with the Heavenly Bow Empire’s lack of Jewel Masters, wouldn’t they treat you as an absolute treasure! Your little girlfriend, I remember her, she is known as the greatest genius in the younger generation of Heavenly Bow Empire. Well, it is very good to be in the military now, it will help you to conceal your ability. Besides your little girlfriend, does anyone else know about your Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Elemental Jewel?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Just two more.”

Feng Yu was taken aback, and at the other side, Huyan Aobo suddenly had an imposing aura of bloodlust, giving out a hand signal and said, “That is not good. We should kill them to eliminate a potential information leak.”

Zhou Weiqing laughed, “Teacher, do you want to commit suicide? The two that I mentioned, isn’t it you and Feng Yu Senior?”

Huyan Aobo gawked in surprise, “Damn brat, you better speak properly to me. You must remember, a long as you have not broken through six sets of Heavenly Jewels and entering the Heavenly Zong State, you must ensure that as few people as possible know about your Alexandrite Cat’s Eye okay? Otherwise, you will face two types of people. One will be resorting to all means to win you over or recruit you, and the other type will be resorting to all means to kill you.” Zhou Weiqing nodded his head and said: “I know, generally geniuses are the target of much envy and jealousy.”

Huyan Aobo looked at his complacent proud appearance and almost couldn’t help but thwap him with his palm, “Damnit, Your Father, I, am starting to suspect that accepting you as a disciple is a good thing or a mistake that this old man made late in his life that will cause me to lose everything.”

Zhou Weiqing said with a grin: “Heh, Teacher, did you forget? You had just taken an oath by your Elemental Jewels a moment ago, it’s too late for regrets.”

“I ……” Once again Huyan Aobo felt the urge to choke Zhou Weiqing to death. However, he was quick he relax once again. After all, he was not a little girl like Shangguan Bing’er, having such an apprentice, although it might give him a headache, but from another perspective, such an apprentice would obviously have a much strong survival capabilities than an honest child.

“Teacher, I have made a mistake, do not be angry. Have you ever heard of any other places where Heavenly Jewel Masters with the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye has appeared?” Zhou Weiqing asked curiously.

Huyan Aobo looked at Feng Yu, and they both shook their heads simultaneously. Huyan Aobo said: “The Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel should have appeared before, but that belongs to the realm of Heavenly Jewel Masters. Both I and Feng Yu are ordinary Jewel Masters, and we have very limited understanding regarding Heavenly Jewel Masters. In this world, many places belong to the domain of Heavenly Jewel Masters speciﬁcally. I believe that there deﬁnitely should have some Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewels existing, but where or how many is not to my knowledge.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “So mysterious!”

Feng Yu sighed and said: “Although Heavenly Jewel Masters are considered a type of Jewel Master, but in fact, Heavenly Jewel Masters are many levels above ordinary Physical and Elemental Jewel Masters. It is not just that the total sets of Jewels already outnumber the ordinary Jewel Masters, but even a Heavenly Jewel Masters of the same level as an ordinary Jewel Master will be a lot stronger. For example, I have nine Physical Jewels, but if I am compared to a Heavenly Jewel Master with nine sets of Heavenly Jewels, it is like the difference between heaven and earth. Even if there were a hundred of me, we would still probably lose to one of Upper Level Heavenly Zong Jewel Master like that. Little Fatty, you have an exceptional talent, and you need to treasure it well and work hard.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “I will.”

Huyan Aobo hesitated and said solemnly: “Since you have already chosen to enlist in the military, after that little girl has completed her Consolidated Equipment, you can go back to the military compound with her ﬁrst. The Heavenly Bow Empire is not ﬁghting any war now, and the military compound is one of the best places to conceal your Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel. That little girl should also be able to protect you, and you can practice hard there, train up and store your strength. When you reach 16 years old, your teacher will naturally look for you and teach you the arts of creating Consolidating Equipment Scrolls.”

“Okay, good.” Zhou Weiqing complied happily. Although he did want to learn how to make the Consolidating Equipment Scroll, but he also did not want to leave Shangguan Bing’er, and having these two extra years would be just great.

Huyan Aobo continued saying: “Although the possibility of you promoting to your second set of Jewels in two years is not likely, but I must still remind you. From now on, all your Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment needs to be permitted by me your teacher, you cannot use any other Consolidating Equipment Scrolls easily.”

Zhou Weiqing said with a smile: “Teacher you can rest assured that I will never buy one when I have a free one to use. Furthermore, I do not have the money.”

Huyan Aobo’s face fell, “I am not joking with you, this relates seriously to your future achievement. Ok, I must tempt you in order to ensure you this boy will listen. Feng Yu, let him have a look.”

Feng Yu and Huyan Aobo have been staying together for many years, and he naturally understood the meaning of his words. With a very serious look on his face, he held up his right hand, and layers of gentle light appeared from his wrist and dispersed outwards. Nine Jade Physical Jewels simultaneously appeared around his wrist.

Feng Yu was only a Physical Jewel Master, and thus his Physical Jewel was a mixed coloured Jade. About one-third of it was the Icy variant, while the other two-thirds was actually totally the Red Jade, for Physical Jewels that represented the Coordination boost. The nine Red/Icy Jade Physical Jewels encircled Feng Yu’s wrist, and although he had not activated much Heavenly Energy yet, but Zhou Weiqing could sense an admirable and indomitable aura when he looked at him.

Just at this moment, all of a sudden, ﬁve of the nine Physical Jewels around Feng Yu’s wrist ﬂew off quickly; they had moved so fast that Zhou Weiqing had not clearly seen which order those ﬁve Physical Jewels had been.

After those ﬁve Physical Jewels ﬂew apart, they fell onto the forehead position between the eyebrows, chest, lower abdomen as well as two at the shoulders of Feng Yu respectively. The ﬁve Physical Jewels seemed to melt into Feng Yu’s body, starting from the forehead, where a twin-coloured hard helmet of similar appearance to his Physical Jewel appeared. It was then followed by a Heart-Protection Mirror at his chest, then a Protective Waistband around the waist, and ﬁnally a shoulder pauldrons on the shoulders.

Once the ﬁve Physical Jewels had ﬁnished Consolidating in their respective Equipments, a strange scene followed. Each of the respective armour pieces shot out rays of light which spread out and linked up with each other, connecting in a bright ﬂash suddenly. The armour pieces which had only protected the ﬁve individual positions had suddenly turned into a full-body armour. to turn into the whole body armor unexpectedly. It seemed though that besides the ﬁve main positions, the other areas of the armor seemed rather shadowy and a bit unreal, but they deﬁnitely covered and protected the whole of Feng Yu’s body.

The suit of armour was not very beautiful, and did not have any unnecessary patterns or designs, but it seemed simple and in harmony, giving forth the impression of intense strength. Feng Yu seemed to look like a totally changed person after Consolidating this suit of Armor, as if all his actions were graced by a halo of light, making it seem as if any movement of him held an explosive strength that could burst out upon his will.

Huyan Aobo, as the Consolidating Equipment Master, explained from the side: “Do you see that? If they are just ordinary Consolidated Equipment, those ﬁve Physical Jewels of his can be said to be rather trash, being only able to defend such a small part of the body, how much use can it be at a cost of ﬁve Jewels? However, after these ﬁve Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment, they actually protected the entire body, that is the main difference. With this whole body armor, even if Feng Yu is facing a Upper Level Heavenly Zong Jewel Master, he will at least be able to last several rounds of attacks, and not be instantly killed.” “This is the ﬁnal and deepest secret of Consolidating Equipment – Set Armors. When a full set of Consolidated Equipment Scrolls are used by the same Jewel Master, they will be able to resonate and communicate with each other, allowing an improved overall superimposed protection range. To create such a Consolidating Equipment Set Scrolls, it requires at least the Grandmaster standard like myself. However, even for myself, I can at most only create a set of ﬁve or six Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipments. Yet, when a set consists of more Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipments, the entire set will become much more formidable.”

“Legend says that Consolidating Equipment Masters of the Zong Level can create Sets that include eight Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipments. Only God Level Masters can create Sets that are composed of ten Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipments. You have currently already Consolidated the Overlord Bow now. In the future, you will at most be able to have another 11 more Physical Jewels to Consolidate Equipment, of course that is on the condition that you are capable of breaking through to the Heavenly Zong Level. However, in any case, since you have the genius talent of the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, it is possible you reach this Level. Therefore, from the next Physical Jewel onwards, you need to prepare for your Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment Set! You deﬁnitely cannot waste any more Physical Jewels.” After hearing Huyan Aobo’s words, Zhou Weiqing’s eyes both lit up in joy, his heart ﬁery with passion. When he had ﬁrst heard of Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment, he had told Shangguan Bing’er that he had wanted a set of high defense armor to protect his precious life. Now, wasn’t this Consolidating Equipment Set Armor just what he wanted? Now that it was place right before him as an opportunity, how could he possibly not be excited? As he listened to Huyan Aobo’s words, he nodded his head quickly and repeatedly in agreement.

After Huyan Aobo spoke these words, his eyes revealed a proud light. “If one day, my disciple can have a full set of ten God Level Consolidated Equipment Sets, I will not have lived in vain. Little Fatty, you do not need to care about the Consolidated Equipment Scrolls at all, you just need to practice hard and cultivate with your best efforts. These next two years will be especially important to you, and without creating Consolidating Equipment Scrolls to divert your attention, you must practice wholeheartedly with every possible effort, understood?”

Zhou Weiqing said seriously with a very resolute look on his face: “Teacher, you can rest assured that I will try extremely hard even if you did not ask me to.” For the sake of this formidable Consolidated Equipment Set to protect his life, he will deﬁnitely not be lazy.

When humans are alive, as long as they have a goal to work towards, they will not feel empty and lost. It is deﬁnitely necessary to have a goal in order to be competitive and to have the zest to work. This was deﬁnitely the situation for Zhou Weiqing. Although he was an intelligent person who liked to do things in the easiest way possible, he was not really a lazy person. This was especially so after the door to the world of Heavenly Jewel Masters had been opened for him, bringing him to a whole new mysterious world. which made him yearn for strength and to become formidable.

Huyan Aobo took down the silver light shield protecting the room, and Feng Yu also released his Consolidated Equipment Set, smiling faintly as he said: “You can go cultivate in that side room while waiting. A servant will bring you food and drinks later, and the bathroom is at the west corner. After that little girl has completed her Consolidated Equipment, you both can leave together. If you need to go out for any reason, just let me or your teacher know ﬁrst.”

“Many thanks, Feng Yu Senior. Teacher, I’ll go ﬁrst then.” As he said that, Zhou Weiqing turned and walked out. As he reached the entrance, he suddenly stopped and turned his head, smiling at Huyan Aobo before saying: “Teacher, I think that you really should lose weight.” After he spoke those words, he did not wait for Huyan Aobo to react and he turned around and ran off quickly.

Huyan Aobo took a look at his round belly, while Feng Yu couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Huyan Aobo shook his head helplessly, “That funny little brat, I will be irritated to death by him sooner or later.”

Feng Yu Wei said with a smile: “Isn’t it good that he has such a personality? Luckily, this child was born in the Heavenly Bow Empire, if he were born in the Fei Li Empire, how could you possibly have the chance to receive him as a disciple?”

Huyan Aobo said with a smile: “This is called ‘A person with luck need not worry’. I had thought that this would be it for my achievements in this life, I never really expected that heaven would actually give me such a huge gift. Feng Yu Old Man, when do you plan to bring my treasured disciple to go Skill- Storing?” Feng Yu shook his head and said: “I think we should not let him go through Skill-Storing for now at least.”

Huyan Aobo started in surprise, saying: “Why?”

Feng Yu said: “With that kid’s lively personality, if he went through Skill-Storing on his Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, it will be very difﬁcult to guarantee that he will not use it, and that would increase the chance of his Elemental Jewel being found out, which would be very bad. We might as well waits for two years before we decide. At that time, his second set of Heavenly Jewels should be close to cultivated, if not already. After he has 2 sets of Heavenly Jewels, we can go through the Skill-Storing all at once, by that time he can easily protect himself against simple opponents.”

Huyan Aobo thought about it and nodded, saying: “That makes sense. This child came in bearing a longbow on his back, and he is also an archer in the army. That is quite a good choice for him actually. The Alexandrite Cat’s Eye is more than three attributes, I forgot to ask earlier what are his other attributes.”

Feng Yu said with a smile: “It’s ok, it’s best that we do not ask for now. Too much excitement within a day is not good for the body. Little Fatty Zhou this little kid, is really an interesting fellow.”

Zhou Weiqing did not return to the room where he went through the Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment, but instead went directly to outside Shangguan Bing’er’s room, and lifted his hand to knock on the door, calling out: “Wife, how was your Consolidating Equipment?” Since Feng Yu had said that they could only go through Consolidating Equipment once a day, he thought that Shangguan Bing’er would probably be ﬁnished by now, regardless of whether she succeeded or not.

As he had guessed, the door opened, and the angry and embarrassed Shangguan Bing’er appeared before Zhou Weiqing, saying in a low tone: “Who is your wife?! Come in!” She seized him by the ear, dragging him into the room.

“Aiyo, that hurts! Wife, are you trying to murder your husband? That is a serious crime!” Zhou Weiqing, even while he was in pain, did not forget to take advantage with his mouth ﬁrst.

“You still dare to say?” Shangguan Bing’er’s ﬁngers who were holding his ear twisted in a 90 degree motion, instantly causing Zhou Weiqing to shout out in pain again and again, shouting out that he dared not already, before Shangguan Bing’er ﬁnally let go.

This room was exactly the same as the one that Zhou Weiqing had been in, completely empty of any furnishing. Zhou Weiqing looked at the wooden box on the ground and asked, “Wife, err… no, Battalion Commander, how did your Consolidating Equipment go?”

Shangguan Bing’er’s expression turned slightly better, “I have already gone through the Consolidating Equipment of today, and was cultivating to restore my Heavenly Energy. I did have some experience and understanding after today’s try. You must repeatedly feel and try to understand the energy contained within the Scroll when you go through Consolidating Equipment, when you just start, failure is inevitable, but once we deepen our understandings, we can succeed quickly.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned as he shrugged, saying: “But, I have already succeeded!”

Shangguan Bing’er said exasperatedly: “Do not blow hot air. You being shameless is one thing, but I really hate people who just talk big without results.” Zhou Weiqing said with an innocent expression: “Even if I must blow, I’ll also blow you, not blow cows. Alas, I do not have sufﬁcient Heavenly Energy currently, or I would release my incomparably suave Overlord Bow for you to see.”

Shangguan Bing’er said with disbelief: “You really succeeded in Consolidating Equipment?”

Zhou Weiqing stuck out his chest and said: “Of course! Having such a talented genius husband, aren’t you very proud?”

Shangguan Bing’er was so full of shock that she did not even notice Zhou Weiqing taking advantage of her with his words as usual, muttering to herself: “That’s impossible! Since when is it possible to succeed on the ﬁrst try of Consolidating Equipment. Did Feng Yu senior help you with some special method?”

Zhou Weiqing shook his head, and explained everything that occurred earlier in detail to her, including his Darkness and Evil attributes superimposing together to aid his Consolidating Equipment. His Heavenly Jewel was awakened due to Shangguan Bing’er’s sacriﬁce, and he did not want to conceal anything from her. If Shangguan Bing’er wanted to be do anything disadvantageous to him, even a hundred of him would have died by now. Therefore, after after leaving home, the person he trusted the most was her.

Listening to the entire process that Zhou Weiqing related in detail, Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes couldn’t help but reveal a tinge of envy, but she said: “You take too many risks. The secret of your Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, the fewer people who know it the better.”

Zhou Weiqing said helplessly: “We used his Consolidating Equipment Scroll for free, if I did not reveal to him, with my teacher’s stingy personality, he will probably not allow us to leave so easily! Furthermore, with his oath by his Elemental Jewel, we do not need to fear anymore.”

吹⽜ literally translates to ‘Blow Cow’, means to boast and brag about something that they did not do – the reason why I

wrote the literal translation here is because he makes a pun about it in the next paragraph which is impossible to translate properly so I’ll just do it literally. “En. Since that’s the case, you can just wait here for me to ﬁnish Consolidating Equipment, then we will both leave together. With Huyan Senior as your teacher, your cultivation path in the future will be much smoother.”

Zhou Weiqing said with a grin: “It is not I, it is we. Teacher promised to help us both with our Consolidating Equipment and Skill-Storing.”

“I do not need it.” Shangguan Bing’er said passively. “I may not have much money now, but when I have enough funds, I will return Huyan Senior the money for the Wind Wielding Boots Scroll. Also, Little Fatty Zhou, let me emphasize again, You are you, and I am my ownself. We do not have any special relations at all. I will cultivate with my own efforts, and I do not need you to give me anything.”

Looking at the resolute look in Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes, Zhou Weiqing grew silent.

When Shangguan Bing’er said these words, her heart did not feel good, but she deﬁnitely did not want Zhou Weiqing to take advantage of her just because of free Consolidating Equipment and Skill-Storing, even if the advantage was just words. Although she had already lost her ﬁrst time to him, but she would not allow anyone to trample upon her dignity. She deeply remembered that when she was very young, her mother had said to her – If you want others to respect you, then you must want respect yourself.

Looking at Zhou Weiqing who had gone silent, Shangguan Bing’er thought that he had gotten angry, and was somewhat apologetic in her heart as well. Just as she was about to try saying something to ease up the atmosphere, Zhou Weiqing actually raised his head up again.

Zhou Weiqing gave a thumbs-up to Shangguan Bing’er, saying: “Very good, Battalion Commander, you are truly our Heavenly Bow Empire’s Viscount. Self-respect, always striving to improve and self-love. With those words you spoke a moment ago, I have found that I have a deeper understanding about you, and also a greater admiration for you. This has also strengthened my conviction to pursue you. You will deﬁnitely become my wife!”

Looking at him saying that with such a serious face, yet such teasing words, Shangguan Bing’er felt a sense of helplessness. How could she be so foolish as to think so much. How could such a shameless fellow be angry?

“You rascal, get lost now. I will not give you the opportunity!”

In the previous instance Zhou Weiqing had been totally serious, the next moment his expression turned into a deeply loving look as he stared at Shangguan Bing’er affectionately, saying: “How do you know my childhood nickname?”

Shangguan Bing’er did not understood what he meant, and gave him a querying look: “What did you say?”

Zhou Weiqing continued to gaze at her affectionately, “I meant that my childhood nickname was called Rascal Ah!”

“Get lost –!” Shangguan Bing’er let loose a ﬂying kick onto that rascal, she did not know that if she continued staying in the same room as him, she would go crazy.

Zhou Weiqing dodged quickly, did a lazy roll, and actually tumbled a few meters before jumping up quickly. He did not actually exit the room, but instead stuck his head out the door and looked around.

Just as Shangguan Bing’er was about to land a foot on his ass to kick him out, that fellow actually turned his head back with a mysterious manner. With a lowered voice, he said: “Battalion Commander, I’m not joking with you now. Lend me some money, I have some serious use.”

Shangguan Bing’er said suspiciously: “What do you need to borrow money for?”

Zhou Weiqing took a step forward, and was about to whisper in her ear, but Shangguan Bing’er took a vigilant step back, keeping her distance as she said: “You can stand there and say. If you do not convince me clearly, I will not lend you the money.”

Zhou Weiqing said in a low voice: “I want to go to Skill-Store my Elemental Jewel by myself.”

“En?” Shangguan Bing’er looked at him surprisedly, saying: “Why? Didn’t you say that Feng Yu Senior will help you with the Skill-Storing?” Zhou Weiqing said with a strong sense of righteousness: “I thought that what you said was very true, we cannot owe others too much. Therefore, I decided to go about the Skill- Storing by myself.”

Shangguan Bing’er said with a cold humph: “Speak the truth.”

Zhou Weiqing’s face fell immediately: “I knew that I cannot hide the truth from you. I actually just wanted to borrow 2000 gold coins. Didn’t you say that Skill-Storing cost 500 gold coins for one try? I wanted to test whether my Darkness and Evil attributes will superimpose again and help in Skill-Storing for my Elemental Jewels as well. If that is true, then perhaps I can also succeed in Skill-Storing for my Elemental Jewels in a single try?”

Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes brightened, “That makes sense, but, I will go with you.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Don’t you trust me? I will not use your money to do any misdeeds. The money that the wife gives, I must naturally use it in the proper place.” Anger ﬂashed in Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes and killing intent rose: “Little Fatty Zhou, what did you call me?”

“Battalion Commander, I certainly called you my Battalion Commander.”

Shangguan Bing’er gave a humph, “I’m going with you to help you with your cover, otherwise, if it is only you by yourself, it is easy to arouse suspicion.” Actually, her original intention was truly to monitor that this rascal was really goes to the Skill-Storing Palace.

Zhou Wei nodded and said: “Okay, we will go and try tomorrow, after all Skill-Storing can only be attempted once a day, and I currently do not have sufﬁcient Heavenly Energy.”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Okay, tomorrow early morning then.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Good. Then we should rest early today.”

“Less idle talk, go to the hotel to withdraw the room, then come back here to cultivate.” Shangguan Bing’er discovered that the longer she spent together with with Zhou Weiqing, the number of times that she got angry increased by many times as compared to before. Even after she had joined the army, she had tried to be more serious, and she had also occasionally scolded her subordinates. However, that could not compare to this rascal who had angered her so many times.

Zhou Weiqing went to let Huyan Aobo know his whereabouts before heading to the hotel to withdraw their room, then he returned to the little courtyard once again; this time he does not disturb Shangguan Bing’er anymore, but instead went to his own room.

Feeling his own Heavenly Energy, Zhou Weiqing discovered that the Heavenly Energy that he had consumed in going through his Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment trying out his new Overlord Bow, had actually automatically been restored about a third by the four Death Acupuncture Point’s energy whirlpools. Focusing his will upon his Heavenly Jewels, his heart itched to try his new abilities.

“How I wish I could ﬁnd a place to test the might of this Overlord Bow. Alas, I do not have sufﬁcient Heavenly Energy. I wonder with my current amount of Heavenly Energy, how many arrows can I shoot with with this overlord bow. No wonder my beautiful Battalion Commander said that Heavenly Energy is the basis of Jewel Masters. Having insufﬁcient Heavenly Energy is really painful!”

After arriving at Flying Hill City, Zhou Weiqing could be said to have his horizons greatly widened, and had learnt a much greater understanding about Heavenly Jewel Masters. What he really wanted to know most is what fortuitous encounters he would have tomorrow when he went to try out Skill-Storing. What really was that black pearl that he had swallowed? Why was it that the Darkness and Evil Attributes could automatically superimpose?

@Chapter 15 – Zong Level Heavenly Beast Elemental Jewel Skill-Storing

In the morning, Zhou Weiqing arose from his cultivation.

He took a deep breath, his whole body feeling refreshed and energised, and his maximum Heavenly Energy seemed to have increased.

This was his ﬁrst time that he had replaced actual sleep with cultivation, and although it was not as comfortable as sleeping, but that energetic feeling he had now actually felt better than after a night of sleep.

As he shoved open the door, the fresh air from the rushed in, causing him to breathe in deeply, and in a huge breath expelled all the foul air from his body gathered through the night of cultivation, and he felt a refreshing feeling course through his body.

All of a sudden, he recalled the words that his ﬁrst master had told him two years ago when they were parting: “You are now just a little rascal, but you are still far off from the true mastery of being a rogue. The highest state of a rogue is that even when you are being a rogue, others will think of you as a gentleman. When you are facing another rogue, you must be more roguish than him, but when facing a gentleman, you can be more suave and gentlemanly. Only then can you reach the ultimate stage and be a true Rogue, a genuine scoundrel.”

At that point, Zhou Weiqing had just turned 12, and did not really understand those words. However, without knowing the reason, when he ended cultivation and shoved the gate open this morning, a sudden inexplicable feeling overcame, as if he had gained enlightenment on those words.

As enlightenment dawned upon him, Zhou Weiqing said to himself with sudden understanding: “Yes! I’m no longer the trash of before, I do not need those low level rascally methods to conceal myself anymore. I am a great Heavenly Jewel Master. What is a Heavenly Jewel Master? Isn’t that a great person who can be a True Rascal?” At this moment, it was as if he had truly grown up and matured, his mental age growing even further from his actual age of 13.

In the short amount of time that he was muttering to himself, the door to the side opened, and Shangguan Bing’er walked out from next door, both hands held up as she stretched, under the shining light of the sun, her beautiful ﬁgure was revealed to Zhou Weiqing in all her glory. “So beautiful.” Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but sigh in praise.

Shangguan Bing’er turned her head around and gave him a cold glare, but Zhou Weiqing just gave her a faint smile and said: “Battalion Commander, let’s go eat now.”

After saying that, he turned and walked out of the room towards the dining hall.

Shangguan Bing’er actually paused in surprise, at that moment, she almost thought she had recognized the wrong person, Zhou Weiqing’s bright smiling face had been shining with sincerity, was that really the rascally Little Fatty Zhou?

During their whole meal, Zhou Weiqing did not speak to Shangguan Bing’er at all, and after quickly wolﬁng down his breakfast, he went to Huyan Aobo and told him that he and Shangguan Bing’er were heading out for a while.

When they left the courtyard, they headed to the Skill- Storing Palace which was just opposite. Before long, they had entered the Skill-Storing Palace, and at that point Shangguan Bing’er ﬁnally could not bear it and asked Zhou Weiqing, who was about three steps away from her: “Little Fatty Zhou, are you alright?” Zhou Weiqing asked curiously: “Yes I’m very good, what issue could I have?”

Naturally, Shangguan Bing’er could not ask him: How come you aren’t trash talking to me? With a rather curious frame of mind, they entered the Skill-Storing Palace once more.

The Heavenly Jewel Master badge and Robe that they had just received yesterday was the best pass, and they smoothly entered the Skill-Storing Palace’s main hall.

“Battalion Commander, how do I start on Skill Storing later?” Zhou Weiqing asked Shangguan Bing’er.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “The rules of the Skill-Storing Palace are very simple, besides the registration that we went through yesterday, the other nine entrances lead to their respective Heavenly Beast enclosures. According to the order they are separated in, which is – Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Light, Darkness, Spatial and Life these eight attributes. The last entrance leads to the enclosure to those Heavenly Beasts with some special or unique attributes and abilities.”

“Within each attribute’s enclosure, the Heavenly Beasts are divided into three stages just like us Jewel Masters, the Shi Stage, Zun Stage and Zong Stage respectively. Entering the Shi Stage region to carry out Skill Storing costs 500 gold coins per try, Zun Stage is 2000 gold coins, and the Zong Stage is 10,000 gold coins.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Are there any dangers during Skill-Storing?”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “There shouldn’t be any danger. Do you know why amongst the eight attributes, four of them are called the Greater Attributes?”

Zhou Weiqing shook his head, at a loss.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “That is because those four Greater Attributes each have their own additional special capabilities. For example, you already know that the Spatial Attribute allows you to become a Consolidating Equipment Master. However, for the other three Greater Attributes, the Light and Darkness Attributes’ special characteristics lie in sealing, while the Life attribute’s special capability is resurrection. Hence, these four attributes are called the four Greater Attributes.”

“Sealing? Resurrection?” Shangguan Bing’er said: “The Heavenly Beasts that the Skill- Storing Palace are rearing in the enclosures now have actually been Sealed by either Light or Darkness Attribute Jewel Masters with strong capabilities. As such, when Jewel Masters carry out Skill-Storing, it is not so dangerous. As for the Life

Attribute’s Resurrection Ability, it is even more difﬁcult to get than the Consolidating Equipment Scroll, furthermore the Resurrection Ability also has a success rate.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Since they are sealed, does that mean I can choose a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast to carry out Skill- Storing? What exactly is the difference in storing a skill from a higher ranked Heavenly Beast?”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Generally speaking, you will carry out Skill-Storing on a Heavenly Beast of the same rank. If you try to carry out Skill-Storing on a Zun Stage Heavenly Beast, the probability of success will be 1% of the success rate on a Shi Level Heavenly Beast, the total probability is extremely low, less than 1 in 10000. Similarly, if it is Zong Stage Heavenly Beast, it will be yet another 1% of that.”

“Actually, no matter what rank of Heavenly Beasts you carry out Skill-Storing from, the skill we get on our Elemental Jewel is at the lowest level, but the skills will improve automatically as our Elemental Jewels increase. However, the rarer skills are only available from the higher ranked Heavenly Beasts. For example, the resurrection skill that Life Attribute Elemental Jewel Masters want the most, can only be found from at least a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast.”

Zhou Weiqing said suddenly: “I understand. Battalion Commander, do you want to go in together?”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head, “I do not plan to carry out Skill-Storing yet, we do not have sufﬁcient funds. You should just try the method that you mentioned yesterday. The rules here are very simple, as long as you enter the enclosures, you must make a payment. When you enter, you can only stay for not longer than four hours, since everyone can only carry out Skill-Storing once a day. The next day if you want to go in again, you’ll have to make a payment again.”

Zhou Weiqing paused for a moment before saying: “Battalion Commander, lend me 10,000 gold coins ﬁrst, I will deﬁnitely return it to you in future.”

Shangguan Bing’er said in surprise: “You want to ……”

Zhou Weiqing grinned: “I will just consider it as an experience to see a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast for now, which will be good for me as well. I will return the money to you in the future.”

Shangguan Bing’er went silent for a moment, before ﬁshing out a red card from her bosom and passed it to Zhou Weiqing. “This contains 50,000 gold coins. You go and try. Regardless of success or failure, this card will be sufﬁcient for you to try ﬁve times, in the future you can just return me 50,000 gold coins directly. Do you need me me to wait for you?”

“No, it is okay. Battalion Commander, you should just go back to continue with your Consolidating Equipment.” Zhou Weiqing knew that that was a Gold Coins Storage Card, and the red card denoted an upper limit of 50,000 gold coins. He did not say anything further, and after receiving the card he walked towards the entrance which led to the wind attribute enclosure. “Be careful, you must deﬁnitely not break the seal on the Heavenly Beast, a Heavenly Beast is much stronger than a Heavenly Jewel Master of the same rank.” Shangguan Bing’er herself felt a little weird that she had said those words to Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing turned his head to smile to her, giving her a self-conﬁdent hand signal, before walking through the entrance.

Looking at his departing ﬁgure, Shangguan Bing’er’s brow furrowed slightly. What happened to this Little Fatty Zhou today? Previously, he had seized every opportunity to take advantage of her with his words, continuously testing her limits, but today it was as if he was totally someone different, and was almost as simple and honest as he looked.

Little did she know that Zhou Weiqing was pinching his face uncomfortably after entering the entrance; he had been suppressing himself the whole morning not trash talking, and it had been a laborious endeavour. “Hmm.. it looks like there is some effect! It looks like that perverted old man’s words indeed bear some truth. To let my beautiful lady Battalion Commander accept me, my old method is not good.”

As he proceeded down the tunnel, Zhou Weiqing could feel that it was inclining downwards as he moved further along, and after going ahead about 200 meters, it started to curve around, and after several twists and turns, he ﬁnally reached an open hall.

The hall was not decorated, and once again three entrances presented themselves before Zhou Weiqing. above them were inscribed three large characters respectively – Shi, Zun, Zong.

At the side there was a table where an old man sat, wearing the robe of a Shi Level Heavenly Jewel Master, though he did not have the rank symbol on his robe. At this time, perhaps because it was rather early, there weren’t any other people around.

“Payment.” The old man said indifferently to Zhou Weiqing. Zhou Weiqing walked forward and passed the Red Gold Coins

Storage Card that he had gotten from Shangguan Bing’er to the old man, saying: “Senior, I want to enter the Zong Stage Wind attribute Skill Storing Enclosure.”

“Zong Stage?” The old man paused in surprise, sizing up Zhou Weiqing with appraising eyes.

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Actually, I just want to get an experience of what a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast looks and feels like, I have heard that a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast is extremely strong.”

The old man said coolly: “It is up to you, as long as you pay up, you can do as you wish.” As he said that, he took out a spatial attribute equipment which was specially made for swiping the Gold Coin Storage Cards and recording. He quickly swiped out 10,000 gold coins, as if fearing that Zhou Weiqing would change his mind. When he returned the Gold Coin Storage Cards, he also passed along a small round token.

“You will have to come out in four hours time, when you are carrying out your Skill-Storing, you just need to place your hand on top of the Heavenly Beast’s head. Go on ahead.”

“Thanks Senior.” The old man continued looking at Zhou Weiqing after he entered the Zong Stage Wind Attribute Heavenly Beast’s enclosure, before giving a humph of disdain, “Yet another overreaching youngster, I wonder if that dumb kid is just trying his luck, or is he another black sheep of some rich family.”

In less than an hour, the old man who was just about to take a nap, noticed Zhou Weiqing walking out hurriedly from the Zong Stage Heavenly Beast’s enclosure, his face full of dejection.

Zhou Weiqing returned the small round token to the old man and sighed, saying: “Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts are just too terrifying already.”

The old men gave another cold humph, saying: “Young men like you should not overreach yourselves, next time just enter the Shi Stage enclosure, you will have a much higher chance of success. 10,000 gold coins per try on the Zong Stage enclosure… at your age, even if your father is the crown prince, he also will not be able to support your Skill-Storing attempts.”

“Yes, yes, you are right in your teachings.” Zhou Weiqing said timidly and agreed, before turning around and ﬂeeing the scene. As he walked away back into the tunnel exiting, the look on his face suddenly changed, his face now full of self-satisfaction, and he ﬂailed his ﬁst vigorously in a victory pump.

Over the next few days, Zhou Weiqing went to the Skill- Storing Palace once a day, and each time he entered a different tunnel, with only the ﬁnal two days the same. On the other hand, Shangguan Bing’er barely left her room, as she worked hard on Consolidating her Wind Wielding Boots Scroll.

Five days later, after Zhou Weiqing had ﬁnished spending all the gold coins from the Gold Coin Storage Card that Shangguan Bing’er lent him, and he stayed in the room to cultivate Heavenly Energy silently, as if all of that had not happened.

The time that Shangguan Bing’er spent on her Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment had fully proven to Zhou Weiqing the difﬁculty of it, taking two entire months, 61 days, before she ﬁnally completed Consolidating her Wind Wielding Boots.

The new barracks was also about to ﬁnish shortly, and as a Battalion Commander, naturally Shangguan Bing’er needed to hurry back as soon as possible. As such, they both said goodbye to Feng Yu and Huyan Aobo before leaving Flying Hill City to head back towards Heavenly Bow Empire. “Little Fatty Zhou, I did not have time to ask you previously, was your Skill-Storing successful?” Shangguan Bing’er asked Zhou Weiqing as they made their way.

For the past two months, besides meal times where they occasionally spoke a few words, they almost had no communication between them, and staying in Huyan Aobo’s little courtyard, she did not want to ask Zhou Weiqing clearly about his Skill-Storing. What made her feel very strange was that Zhou Weiqing actually seemed to turn into a proper Personal Aide; since that day when they went to the Skill- Storing Palace together for the second time, he had not spoken any trash talk to her since.

“It’s a secret okay? Battalion Commander, didn’t you say previously? The Elemental Jewel Skill is most important secret of a Heavenly Jewel Master.” Zhou Weiqing said mysteriously.

Shangguan Bing’er said in surprise: “You really succeeded?”

Zhou Weiqing said with a faint smile: “You will know in the future.”

“Hmph, if you do not want to say then forget it.” Shangguan Bing’er turned around and ignored him, continuing to hurry along.

As time passed, Shangguan Bing’er could obviously feel that Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy was improving by quite a large margin. Although it still could not be compared with hers, but he could deﬁnitely maintain his Physical boost for a much longer period of time now.

In truth, when Zhou Weiqing had initially Awakened his Heavenly Jewels, he had not actually reached the amount of Heavenly Energy of a normal level four Heavenly Jin Energy, but had just broken through to that stage only. After these two months of cultivation, the Heavenly Energy in his body was truly much more abundant.

As with the trip to Flying Hill City, Zhou Weiqing prepared food all the way for them. Although he occasionally chatted with Shangguan Bing’er, but as compared to previously he was acting like a different person. By the time the two of them had reached the military camp in ten days time, Shangguan Bing’er had found it a little weird and unnatural. Regardless of what you could say about Zhou Weiqing, he was the man who had taken her ﬁrst time, the man who made her angry and yet happy at times, she naturally did observe some good to him unavoidably, and this transformation of Zhou Weiqing, she could not really say if it were good or bad. Outside Heavenly Bow City, the Military Camp.

“Battalion Commander, you have returned.” Xiao Se looked at Shangguan Bing’er with a faint smile on his face, giving her a proper military salute.

Shangguan Bing’er and Zhou Weiqing had just returned to the military camp and changed into their military uniforms and she returned to her command tent. After leaving for nearly three months, she was eager to understand the conditions of the recruiting.

“Company Leader Xiao, how is the situation of the new recruit barracks? It should be ﬁnishing soon right?”

Xiao Se shot a look at Zhou Weiqing who was standing behind Shangguan Bing’er and said: “The new recruit barracks will be completed in three days. You shouldn’t be asking me about the situation of the new recruit barracks, before you left, didn’t you leave Company Leader Mao Li in charge of this new group of recruits?” Shangguan Bing’er looked at him and said coldly: “Company Leader Xiao, do not forget that I am your boss.”

Xiao Se said mockingly: “A boss who was absent from post for two months without authorization? Battalion Commander, do not worry, I have already reported this to the military headquarters regarding the matter of you being absent without authorization. Three days later when the new recruits barracks are completed, if the new 3rd Battalion Recruits suffer a disastrous defeat in the Fresh Recruit Tournament, I’m afraid your position as Battalion Commander will likely come to an end. Heavenly Jewel Masters are truly genius talents, but that does not mean that you also have the talent or ability in commanding.”

As soon as he spoke these words, Xiao Se turned around and walked away unexpectedly, causing Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful face to be angered into a pallid white.

Zhou Weiqing had been standing beside Shangguan Bing’ers, and as he saw Xiao Se was walking away, he took a step forward to pursue; he had long since disliked that handsome gigolo. Shangguan Bing’er lifted her hand, catching hold of Zhou Weiqing’s arm, shaking her head at him.

Xiao Se vanished as he exited the command tent, and Zhou Weiqing could no longer resist and said: “Battalion Commander, why don’t you let me me teach him a lesson? What’s the matter with this Xiao Se?”

Shangguan Bing’er said with a solemn voice: “Company Leader Xiao is the only son of the Empire’s Finance Minister Marquis Xiao Yunchen, otherwise did you think I would endure him til now?”

When he heard Shangguan Bing’er’s words, Zhou Weiqing was also very surprised, “That can’t be? Marquis Xiao is called the God of Wealth of our Empire, it could be said that one of the main reasons why our Heavenly Bow Empire’s national strength can progress and improve, has a lot to do with him. How could he possibly have such an arrogant son?”

“You also know Marquis Xiao?” Shangguan Bing’er looked somewhat surprisedly at him.

Zhou Weiqing realized that he had somewhat made a mistake, and hurriedly tried to recover and said: “Many have said that our Heavenly Bow Empire is sustained in a big way by our two great ofﬁcials, one against the outside world, and one governing the inside world. The one who holds the outside is Admiral Zhou, and the governing the inside isn’t it Marquis Xiao?”

Shangguan Bing’er nodded, then sighed lightly, saying: “Actually, I cannot blame Xiao Se for treating me like that. Before I came to the 3rd Battalion, the 3rd Battalion Commander position was vacant, and although he isn’t a Heavenly Jewel Master, but he is indeed a military genius with very capable commanding ability, and was the person who was most likely to succeed the Battalion Commander position, yet that position was actually snatched by me, that is why he feels so uncomfortable in his heart. Xiao Se’s elite 3rd Company is also the main trump card of our 3rd Battalion.”

Zhou Weiqing’s expression suddenly grew extremely strange, as he suddenly recalled some past events from his childhood.

……

“Bro Shuiniu , look at those two kids enjoying themselves play together. What a pity, your son is six years younger than my little daughter, otherwise, I will deﬁnitely snatch this son- in-law from his Majesty, hahaha.” “Old Xiao, why do you trouble yourself with this? Weiqing this child is born with his meridian passages blocked, sigh… he is doomed to not have a great talent!”

“Old Zhou, is your brain damaged? As bros how can you say this to me? I’m telling you now very clearly, if in the future the Princess Her Highness and Weiqing are not good together, even if Ruse is older than your son, I will marry her to Weiqing!”

……

A 13-14 year old young girl was running in front, followed by a little boy whose nose was dripping with mucus.

“Zhou Weiqing, you little mucus monster, come quickly over here! Let’s go grab that birds nest.”

“Elder Sis Ruse, wait for me!!”

……

A young girl with a ﬁrm and resolute expression on her face was standing protectively before a little boy, facing them were another four to ﬁve young boys encircling them. “I won’t allow you guys to bully him, who dares to bully him will be punched by me!”

……

“Papa, where did Elder Sis Ruse go? How come she doesn’t come to play with me anymore?”

“Your Elder Sis Ruse has gone to school. Little brat, starting today, your misery has come, from today onwards you will get up at 5am to go through special training, otherwise, your father I will punch till your ass blossoms.”

……

“Little Fatty Zhou, what are you thinking about?” Shangguan Bing’er lifted her hand and waved it in front of Zhou Weiqing’s face, asking him puzzledly.

Zhou Weiqing awoke from his train of thought and quickly shook his head, saying: “Nothing, Battalion Commander. What was the Fresh Recruit Tournament that Company Leader Xiao mentioned earlier?” Xiao Se… Xiao Ruse, those two names superimposed in his heart gradually, and the edges of Zhou Weiqing’s mouth edged up slightly, in the heart he was thinking: As far as I know, Uncle Xiao only has a daughter, Elder Sis Ruse, where did a son come from? Haha, they say that females go through a huge change at 18 years old, it seems like Elder Sis Ruse, you did not recognize me, and I also did not recognize you. You are pretending to be a man!

Shangguan Bing’er’s brow furrowed as she said: “”We are talking about the Fresh Recruit Tournament, why are you smiling so slyly?”

“Ah? Did I smile? Battalion Commander, what I mean is that I am also a recruit, so naturally I can participate in this Fresh Recruit Tournament right?” Zhou Weiqing responded quickly, immediately ﬁnding a reason for himself.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “The Fresh Recruit Tournament is held after the new recruits have ﬁnished their training, and the various Companies in the Battalion will be competing against each other as a unit. This is for the purpose of selecting talented people, those recruits who put up a good display; for example the most outstanding recruit will directly be promoted to squad leader. I remember that this was how Company Leader Xiao had risen in his rank initially too, he has enlisted in the military for about three years, yet his performance has been absolutely outstanding. If I had not appeared with the rank of Heavenly Jewel Master, perhaps he has already been promoted to the rank of Battalion Commander. Furthermore, he has always relied on his own ability for promotions, and not relied on any help from Marquis Xiao. I truly admire and respect him in that aspect. Well, in any case, you will also have to participate in the Fresh Recruit Tournament, otherwise our new Company will be short of one person. However, you are absolutely not allowed to use your Heavenly Jewels.”

“Battalion Commander, I have a condition.” Zhou Weiqing said with an impish grin on his face. After realising that Xiao Se was unexpectedly his Elder Sis Ruse, he was in an excellent mood, suddenly could no longer repress his true colors.

Shangguan Bing’er did not know why, but looking at him acting this way, several ripples coursed through her heart, it was as if this rascal in front of her had became real again.

“What condition?” Shangguan Bing’er put on a serious face and asked.

Zhou Weiqing grinned: “Lend me your Purple Dawn Bow. Even if I cannot use my Heavenly Jewels, I will still give them a huge surprise. Battalion Commander, just wait and see your Personal Aide Little Fatty Zhou show his suave valiance in the Fresh Recruit Tournament. However… is there any reward?”

Shangguan Bing’er got angry: “What, do you still want a reward?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Doesn’t the army pride itself on its fairness, discipline is upheld and punishment meted to those who deserve it, but rewards are also given to those who deserve it as well? I do not want that rank of squad leader; if I bring our 3rd Battalion’s fresh recruit Company to get the ﬁrst in the tournament, in the future when there is no one else around, you will let me call your name directly, this request isn’t too excessive right?”

Shangguan Bing’er originally wanted to reject him immediately, but with a quick thought she changed her mind. After all, they were both Heavenly Jewel Masters, it was no big deal letting him call her name. Furthermore, after thinking about Xiao Se’s arrogant appearance just now, she grit her teeth and said: “Alright, ﬁne. If you can lead our fresh recruit squadron to win the ﬁrst position in the tournament, then I’ll let you do so.” Zhou Weiqing had not expected that Shangguan Bing’er would comply so easily, and was immediately overjoyed: “Battalion Commander, lend me your Purple Dawn Bow ﬁrst, there are still three more days, I’ll practice some archery.” “Practicing at the last minute, are you sure you can do it?” Shangguan Bing’er looked at him with her face full of doubt. However, though she said that, she actually removed the Purple Dawn Bow from her back and handed it to him.

“Whether or not I can, you will know after you see the result.” Zhou Weiqing took the Purple Dawn Bow and ran off in high spirits. Although he did not know what the exactly the Fresh Recruit Tournament entailed, but his father had been training him like a soldier since he was seven years old. Before he actually enlisted in the army, the thing he lacked most was physical strength, but now that he had become a Heavenly Jewel Master, even without using his Physical Jewel, his physique was already improved beyond that of any average person, which deﬁnitely granted him much more self- conﬁdence.

Three days later.

In the military camp outside the Heavenly Bow City, the morning bugle sounded out loud early in the morning. Squads of soldiers quickly streamed out of their tents, and lined up in their formations outside the camp. There were more than 2000 soldiers in total, of which more than 1000 were the Fifth Regiment’s various Battalions’ manpower who were responsible for recruiting soldiers, while the other 1000 were this time’s fresh recruits.

The Fifth Regiment’s 10 Battalions had each recruited a Company of soldiers to supplement their front line and non- combatant personnel which they had lost.

After three months of new recruit training, the recruits did have the appearance of a soldier, at least they were standing there smartly with their backs straightened, their brand-new military uniforms made them seem rather valiant and spirited.

At this moment, Zhou Weiqing was standing amongst the 3rd Battalion’s new recruit Company, but in a rather unnoticable corner. However, he was carrying Shangguan Bing’er’s Purple Dawn Bow on his back.

In front of the formation of 2000 soldiers stood several military ofﬁcers, and the one in front was Shangguan Bing’er who was dressed in her Battalion Commander uniform. She was the only Battalion Commander from the Fifth Regiment who was attending this round of recruitment in the Heavenly Bow City, the other Battalions had sent Company Leaders. Shangguan Bing’er stood beautiful and valiant in the front, surrounded by Company Leaders. She was at this moment a lot more digniﬁed and imposing as compared to her usual look, and as her gaze swept across the 2000 soldiers present, she said in a solemn voice: “I am very honored to be assigned the task of recruiting soldiers by the Fifth Regiment headquarters. My name is Shangguan Bing’er, and I am the Fifth Regiment’s Third Archery Battalion Commander.”

The veterans were still alright, as they had mostly seen this beautiful female Battalion Commander before, but most of the recruits had not, and the originally orderly formation immediately had some disturbances.

“Wow, the top beauty of the Empire! She is actually our Fifth Regiment 3rd Battalion’s Battalion Commander?”

“Heh heh, you’ve just found out now? We, the recruits of the 3rd Battalion, actually personally received our equipment from the Battalion Commander and saw her then.”

On hearing the discussions of the soldiers around him, Zhou Weiqing felt very proud in his heart,secretly thinking to himself: That is my wife. Of course, he certainly did not proclaim that out loud. As the sounds of discussion resounded continuously, the recruits were obviously turning sloppy. The Company Leader who was responsible for the recruit training gave a loud shout: “Silence!”

The new recruits quickly quietened down. Although they had been recruited for the respective Battalions, but the recruit training was done together in the new barracks, and now that the recruit training had ended, once the Fresh Recruit Tournament ends, they would return to their respective Battalions.

Xiao Se stood at Shangguan Bing’er’s side, and looking at the rather chaotic scene in front of them, curled her lip in disdain. The battleﬁeld is ruled by Man, yet Shangguan Bing’er has not understood this. How could such a person snatch my position of Battalion Commander. Isn’t she just a Heavenly Jewel Master? What’s so great about that.

The next step was basic routine administrative business, and under the various Fifth Regiment’s Company Leaders leadership, the new recruits were dismissed, and the various recruits returned to their respective Battalion headquarters. After all of that was completed, Shangguan Bing’er once more entered the stage. “Good, starting from today, the 1000 new recruit brothers now ofﬁcially belong to our Fifth Regiment. Next, we will be examining the results of your three months of rigorous training. The recruits who shows outstanding displays in the upcoming Fresh Recruit Tournament, will be directly promoted to the rank of Squad Leader. Alright, all the various Battalions, your preparation starts now.”

“Yes.” All the Company Leaders said in compliance, rapidly leading their respective troops to start their formation.

The Fifth Regiment was an Infantry Regiment, and amongst the ten Battalions, four of them were archery Battalions, and of the other six, four were Light Infantry Battalions and two Heavy Infantry Battalions. Without a doubt, the two Heavy Infantry Battalions were the trump card Battalions of the Fifth Regiment. The Battalion Commanders responsible for these two Battalions also held the duty of the Fifth Regiment’s Vice Regimental Commander. Of course, they were currently not here, but were at the front lines.

Due to the difference in the type of soldiers, therefore, the so-called Fresh Recruit Tournament was actually not with all ten Battalions competing against each other, but being carried out according to their service arm. If not, if we were to let the Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry to ﬁght against each other, what would be the point?

The three main main service branches were quickly divided into their respective tournament areas. For the Heavy Infantry Recruits consisting of only 2 Battalions, it was very simple, they just need to face off straightforwardly, and charge against each other without weapons, purely a competition of strength. The soldiers which were overwhelmed would be eliminated immediately, and this will carry on till a single winner arose; this ﬁnal winner would also be directly awarded with rank of Squad Leader. In the Fifth Regiment, it must be known that a Squad Leader of the elite Heavy Infantry Battalions were sometimes given even more authority than a normal Company Leader of the ordinary Battalions. As such, this reward was one of the best of the whole tournament.

As for the Light Infantry, their Fresh Recruit Tournament was actually split into two portions, one was similar to the Heavy Infantry competition with a direct charging clash, while the other was the individual operational prowess of soldiers, without needing to draw lots, the four Battalions would be in their own formations and it would be a 500 vs 500 free for all, with anyone who was overwhelmed and beaten would be eliminated. The next round would then begin, after a ﬁfteen minute rest, until a ﬁnal winner was left. To be honest, the Fresh Recruit Tournament was actually not of any big signiﬁcance to most ordinary recruits, and it was just a formality for them. However, for those skilled recruits who had ambitions, it was truly the perfect opportunity. With this, they had the opportunity to prove themselves amongst the huge amount of recruits, it was not just simply the quick promotion to Squad Leader, but also the opportunity to leave

behind a mark in their service history, which would allow easier future promotions, for example Xiao Se.

As for the archery Battalions, their Fresh Recruit Tournament was the most unusual. For the four Battalions, they would be split into two sides, each with 200 recruits. There would be a 200 yard middle spacing between the two sides, and both sides would be shooting arrows against each other. All the arrows were blunted and stained with lime, thus as long as any hit, it would leave an obvious trace, and the target which was hit would immediately withdraw from the battleﬁeld, it could also be said to be the simplest ﬁght of the Tournament.

However, although this method of competition was relatively simpler, but it also also had its intrinsic meaning. How many recruits could actually shoot accurately at a distance of 200 yards? Those who could even shoot that far would already be considered pretty good. Therefore, for the Archery Battalions, this was actually a very direct and effective way to select talented soldiers. Several Company Leaders, even Shangguan Bing’er as a Battalion Commander, was paying most attention there. Also, they were responsible for directing the recruits of their own Battalion. Of course, being a wide open, spacious location, it would not be easy to dodge the opponents’ arrows.

At this time, the Battalions were arranged in their respective formations, on the left was the ﬁrst and second Battalions, and on the right were the third and fourth Battalions. This Fresh Recruit Tournament was not just a competition between recruits, but was also a competition between the various Battalions, if one side totally overwhelmed the other side, that was a manifestation of their overall strength.

Chapter 16 – Fresh Recruit Tournament

The reason why Xiao Se did not favor the 3rd Battalion’s fresh recruit Company was mainly because she had been watching critically during the recruit training, and had found that the First and Second Battalions both had many talented recruits. Although they may not be very accurate in shooting at a 200 yards distance, but they were at least able to shoot that far, and with an acceptable control. In comparison, the Third and Fourth Battalions’ recruits were obviously not as good, although Mao Li Company Leader was quite good at leading, but it would be difﬁcult to just ﬁght against greater talents. With just a short training of a few months, it was not sufﬁcient for hard work to make up for the lack of natural talent.

Zhou Weiqing was standing right beside Mao Li Company Leader, and said in a low voice: “Company Leader, can you point out all the skilled recruits on the opposing side to me.”

Mao Li looked at him questioningly, saying: “What are you planning?”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and took off the Purple Dawn Bow he was shouldering on his back, saying quietly: “I’ll make a roll call!” Mao Li’s eyes brightened. He was originally very worried in his heart for this ﬁght, and had not thought much about Zhou Weiqing participating in the Fresh Recruit Tournament. In his eyes, Zhou Weiqing had only practiced a little Heavenly Energy and might have slightly greater strength, but archery was skill dependant, and it was not just a matter of having some extra strength. However, when he heard Zhou Weiqing mentioning ‘Roll Call’, he was actually pleasantly surprised; that was because this terminology was only used amongst archers, and meant killing/sniping a target. It was generally only used by archers who had proper training from a master, to know such a term. Obviously, this Battalion Commander’s Personal Aide recruit, who had also ‘touched’ the Battalion Commander’s chest was no mere simple recruit.

“Alright, that’s good. I’ll tell you now and you try to memorise it. On the opposite side, from the left, the ﬁfth, ninth ……”

Shang Gong Bing Er was standing at the side watching the Fresh Recruit Tournament with a critical eye. Of course, she was paying most attention to Zhou Little Fatty naturally, and looking at him and Company Leader Mao Li talking in whispers, she was rather curious to what they were discussing. “Battalion Commander, which side do you think will win at the end?” Xiao Se’s resounded out unharmoniously in Shang Gong Bing Er’s ear.

Shang Gong Bing Er turned her head and said: “Naturally it is our Third Battalion, I have conﬁdence in Company Leader Mao Li’s leadership abilities.”

Xiao Se curled her lip, saying mockingly: “This is only the fresh recruit company, they are a crowd who have not gone to the battleﬁeld, nor have they seen bloodshed, how can a simple few month training be of much use? Talent is the most important at this stage. Certainly, since Battalion Commander did not look in on the recruit training, you are naturally unclear on which side has the more talented recruits.”

Shang Gong Bing Er’s delicate eyebrows furrowed again, and she decided to no longer pay attention to Xiao Se, instead taking a step forward, shouting out loud: “The Fresh Recruit Tournament, Begin.”

The recruits in all three regions were covering a large and broad area of land, but with Shang Gong Bing Er’s shout, her clean delightful voice was clearly heard throughout the battleﬁeld, her eighth level Heavenly Jing Energy giving her a very strong foundation in her Heavenly Energy. On hearing Shang Gong Bing Er’s voice, Xiao Se gripped her ﬁst. In truth, the greatest disappointment of her life was that she did not manage to Awaken her Power Jewels to becomes a Jewel Master. Although she had put in so much effort on other fronts and had some achievements, but she still could not change that fact.

As Shang Gong Bing Er issued the order, the Fresh Recruit Tournament formally started. The light infantry and Heavy Infantry sides both started their charge, while the four archery Companies also launched their ﬁrst round salvo.

The recruits had after all gone through three months of recruit training, and this ﬁrst round salvo was pretty decent, with both sides having 200 arrows directly soared towards the opposite line.

However, although the recruits had trained for three months, but it was still their ﬁrst time facing off in combat like this, and their mood appeared to be very excited, causing many of the arrows to miss, and after they had taken their shot, they were standing around looking silly, watching their arrows ﬂy.

Zhou Weiqing was mixed in the midst of a mass of recruits, and as he shot out an arrow, while the other recruits were still standing around gawking, he quickly retreated backwards, hiding behind the other recruits and squatting down to reduce the probability that the enemy arrows would hit him.

“Ahh, ahhh……” Screams resounded continuously, as recruit after recruit were hit by the the lime arrows, and under each Company Leader’s direction, they had to withdraw from the battleﬁeld after being hit, and could no longer participate in the Fresh Recruit Tournament.

Zhou Weiqing listened the cries resounding out, and then he quickly stood up, his Purple Dawn Bow drawn in a full crescent, and while the other recruits were still looking at their ﬁrst arrows, his second arrow was already in the air at lightning speed. With the power of the Purple Dawn Bow, how could those recruits dodge it? .

“Little Fatty, good archery.” Mao Li called out in pleasant surprise. Just like Zhou Weiqing had said earlier, as soon as his ﬁrst arrow had shot out, he had successfully ‘Roll Called’ one of the outstanding recruits from the opposing Battalion pointed out by Mao Li.

However, compared with the pleasant surprise that Mao Li was showing, Shang Gong Bing Er’s expression was actually pretty ugly. As a Heavenly Jewel Master, her eyesight was naturally astonishing, and after this ﬁrst round salvo, she saw clearly that the Third and Fourth Battalions had lost around 40 soldiers as compared to the First and Second Battalions only losing about 10 soldiers. Without a doubt, this really showed the huge disparity in the quality and talent of the recruits on both sides. No wonder Xiao Se had such a conﬁdent appearance.

After the ﬁrst salvo was launched, Zhou Weiqing seemed to be a changed man, just like a swift and ﬂexible leopard, the strength Purple Dawn Bow in his hands ﬁring unceasingly like lightning, and every time he shot out an arrow, he always managed to use another recruit as cover, and only in that instance when he shot out an arrow would he appear in a quick ﬂash.

At the beginning, the opposing First and Second Battalion did not really notice him, but after four to ﬁve rounds of salvos, as the Third and Fourth Battalions lost more than half of their recruits, Zhou Weiqing’s impressive rate of ﬁre and accuracy immediately drew the attention of the opposing side’s Company Leaders.

In just that short amount of time, Zhou Weiqing had already “Roll Called” 11 people, causing them to leave the ﬁeld. The Purple Dawn Bow was indeed an extremely strong bow, even though the arrowhead had been removed, the targets that he hit were unable to recover in a short period of time. Furthermore, his rate of ﬁre was a lot higher than an ordinary longbow, and the opposing recruits did not have any way to dodge his arrows. Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing’s arrows were all quite accurate, almost always hitting his target’s chest area. With such a precision, to describe it as ‘Hundred Step Hit’ was not overrating him.

“Focus ﬁre on that sly little rascal.” One of the Company Leaders from the Second Battalions shouted out loud.

As soon as Zhou Weiqing shot forth his 12th, he immediately sensed that something was not right. Ever since his Heavenly Jewels had Awakened, he had found that his sensitivity and detection capabilities had increased manifold, and the sudden attention from the opposing Battalions sudden caused him to be alarmed immediately. This fellow did not even hesitate for half a second, and immediately turned around and ran.

At this point, there were still more than 70 recruits remaining for the Third and Fourth Battalions, and from such a crowd having one recruit suddenly leap up, turn around and run off naturally caught the attention of all the observing military ofﬁcers in the audience. At least two Company Leaders had attended the tournament from each of the Battalions, and with one directing the recruits, the remaining ofﬁcers were gathered around Shang Gong Bing Er’s side. Since the archery Battalion’s tournament usually ended much faster, they were watching it ﬁrst.

百步穿杨 A Chinese idiom denoting superb accuracy from archers. Arose from the Warring States Period where a Chu General was able to hit the leaves of trees from a hundred steps away. “Why is there a deserter?” Some of the Company Leaders asked doubtingly.

Shangguan Bing’er and Xiao Se naturally recognized Zhou Weiqing instantly, and Xiao Se smiled and said: “Aiyo, isn’t this the Battalion Commander’s Personal Aide Little Fatty Zhou? What happened to him? How ……”

Before Xiao Se could ﬁnishing speaking, the complexion of all the Company Leaders suddenly changed. This was because just as Zhou Weiqing had started to run away, right behind him, at least 30 to 40 arrows blotted out the sky behind him, clearly targeted at him.

Zhou Weiqing seemed as if he had eyes on his back, and just as he had dashed 7-8 meters to the front, he suddenly dove and rolled forward, and then executing a quick roll of his body to the side; his movement was rapid and coordinated, looking as if he had practiced this a thousand times before. The 30 to 40 arrows that were aimed at him were actually mostly hitting the area which he had been in, and by running, he had already dodged the majority of them. In addition to that, his dive and roll, he only heard a ‘Duo duo’ sound as arrow after arrow hit the ground behind him, and not a single one hit their target.

Xiao Se said in surprise: “What did he do that brought about the wrath of god and the resentment of men? Why was he targeted by the enemy salvo?”

The archers from the First and Second Battalions who had targeted Zhou Weiqing earlier were the most outstanding recruits of the 2 Battalions, and this salvo actually gave the opportunity for the 70 remaining recruits of the Third and Fourth Battalions the breathing room to recover a little, and this was the ﬁrst that their losses were actually lower than their opponent’s.

Zhou Weiqing had rolled about 3-4 meters away, and his body quickly bounded up from the ground, and you could only see this fellow plant the tip of his feet onto the ground as he jumped up in a swift motion a whole meter high, and with a whizzing sound, another arrow was launched from the Purple Dawn Bow.

Due to his running and rapid dodging movements, he had attracted the attention of all the military ofﬁcers observing the ﬁght. At this moment, all of them also wanted to take a look at his accuracy. After all, this sort of instantaneous jump-shot was extremely difﬁcult to pull off, especially since the time he had to aim was extremely short. The reason that he had to jump up was to avoid all the soldiers from his side in front of him.

Whizz. It was almost as if whenever Zhou Weiqing moved his Purple Dawn Bow, a soldier from the opposing side would drop down. The Company Leaders looked at each other blankly; many of them were experienced archers themselves, and with some self-examination, they realised that even if they were in Zhou Weiqing’s place, they might not necessarily do better.

The Company Leader in charge of directing the First and Second Battalions was very experienced, and on discovered Zhou Weiqing’s skill, he immediately changed target again, ordering the next round salvo to focus once again on the remaining soldiers in the Third and Fourth Battalions instead. The idea was very simple, since Zhou Weiqing was very accurate, he would just ‘kill’ off the all the others ﬁrst, and leaving him for the last before they all targeted him.

Immediately, misfortune fell upon the remaining recruits of the Third and Fourth Battalions. As if having received a huge stimulation from the display of Zhou Weiqing, the archers from the First and Second Battalions displayed an improved accuracy. Originally. the Third and Fourth Battalions only had around 70 left standing, and after this salvo, 40 of them had unexpectedly fallen. On the other side, there were still 80 recruits standing, and it was a very obvious contrast on both sides.

Zhou Weiqing saw that the opposing side had been distracted from him, and quickly tried to make the best use of this time to shoot. However, just as the Company Leader directing the First and Second Battalions had judged earlier, no matter how accurate he was, he was just one single person. By the time the rest of the Third and Fourth Battalions besides Zhou Weiqing had been annihilated, the opposing side still had more than 50 people remaining.

“Holy S***!” Looking at the rain of arrows blotting out the sky and raining down towards him, Zhou Weiqing turned his head to run again, feeling extremely gloomy in his heart! The quality disparities between the recruits of both sides were just too big. He had at least killed 16 to 17 enemies just by himself, but they still had almost 50 till alive, how could this be possible?

A Company Leader from the First Battalion shouted out loud: “Chase him and shoot him down! Whoever manages to shoot him down, Your Father, I, will bestow on you the best archery recruit of today.” At this time Zhou Weiqing no longer had other recruits to cover him, and the situation was much more dangerous than earlier. The massive amount of arrows showering down from the sky had such a coverage on the battleﬁeld that it seemed like an artillery barrage, and it was much more difﬁcult for him to dodge like he had earlier.

This scenario actually displayed Zhou Weiqing’s superior physique after Awakening his Heavenly Jewels; even without actually making use of his Heavenly Jewels, his speed and strength already far surpassed those ordinary soldiers. As he ran, he kept spinning around and switching directions unceasingly, trying as much as possible to not run in a predictable manner so that the opposing side would not be able to catch him. However, for the soldiers from the First and Second Battalions to catch him, they not only had to chase him, but also had to stop in order to shoot. After Zhou Weiqing had managed to dodge and run with much hardship through two salvos of arrow rain, the distance between both sides had widened to about 300 yards. This distance was already beyond the accurate distance of those outstanding recruits, and they could only ﬁre high up into the air to attempt to cover the area where Zhou Weiqing was with projectile ﬁre.

Seizing the chance to catch his breath, Zhou Weiqing managed to turn around while running to shoot, and he quickly managed to take down another 7-8 enemies. “Is he kiting them? This recruit is really too strong, Company Leader Xiao, you mentioned earlier that he is the Personal Aide of the Battalion Commander? That boy is really quite good!” One of Company Leaders standing beside Shangguan Bing’er couldn’t help but exclaim.

Kiting was basically a type of hit-and-run technique that archers used very effectively, but generally speaking it was used to deal with melee units, making use of the ﬁring distance of arrows and now allowing their enemies to attack them. However, Zhou Weiqing was relying on his superiority of strength and the power of the Purple Dawn Bow, and actually using this disparity in prowess and range with the other archers to kite them around, and that indeed made these senior veterans impressed and appreciative.

One of the Company Leaders of the First Archery Battalion couldn’t help but say: “Shang Gong Battalion Commander, how about letting us have this little brother? Not mentioning the rank of Squad Leader, with this this brothers’ abilities, he can even be my deputy.”

Shangguan Bing’er smiled faintly, thinking secretly in her heart: That Little Fatty Zhou is a Heavenly Jewel Master, let alone being your deputy, as long as we report it up the ranks, he is more than sufﬁcient to be my deputy. “A gentleman does not seize another’s love, Company Leader Li, I cannot agree with that.”

Xiao Se smiled at the side, saying: “Does that mean that the Battalion Commander has fallen in love with him?”

Shangguan Bing’er expression turned cold, “Company Leader Xiao, please have some self respect.”

The other Company Leaders knew the grudge between Shangguan Bing’er and Xiao Se and they did not try to speak and intervene. At this point, that Company Leader Li from the First Battalion said doubtingly: “What is this Little Fatty Zhou doing? He was just about to reach the woods for cover, why did he turn around and come back?”

Just as Company Leader Li had said, Zhou Weiqing who had already pulled away and increased the gap had unexpectedly turned around to charge towards the First and Second Battalions, facing more than 40 people.

The others also did not understood what was happening, but Xiao Se quickly grasped the situation: “He is out of arrows!” 君⼦不夺⼈所爱 – literal translation, it’s an idiom describing

that she won’t give him up. She isn’t actually saying she loves Zhou Weiqing

天怒⼈怨 Direct translation – basically just meaning ‘What did he do to piss them all off? Indeed that was true, after all, the arrows for this sort of tournament had to have their arrowheads removed, and their quantity was not high. As such, each of the recruits were only issued 25 arrows for this Fresh Recruit Tournament, and by now Zhou Weiqing’s quiver had been emptied, and he was also at a loss, and could only charge back and try to pick up some arrows in order to continue ﬁghting.

However, he is after all not a god, after he had picked up two arrows and used them to shoot down two opponents, the opposing team had already closed the distance to 150 yards, and such a distance allowed the enemies’ longbows to shoot out arrows quickly and with much power. Although he was ﬂexible and agile, but in the situation and also being restricted from using his Heavenly Jewels’ abilities, he was also unable to do much, and could only look at more than 40 arrows ﬂying towards him.

Zhou Weiqing realised he could not dodge this salvo anymore, and quickly squatted down, both his hands covering his chest, trying to reduce the body surface area exposed as much as possible as he lowered the head, covering most of himself with his Wind Hat. *Ping* *Ping* sounds resounded out constantly above Zhou Weiqing’s head, and his hat was covered with the lime as at least 7-8 arrows landed on top of his hat.

Seeing that they had ﬁnally taken down their target, the remaining recruits from the opposing team started cheering out loud immediately.

“Cheering? Cheer your head! If not for the fact that he ran out of arrows, he could have killed all of you slowly.” The Company Leader directing the team scolded them ill- humoredly. Although the First and Second Battalions had won the Third and Fourth Battalions in the end, but they had not actually won that extremely outstanding recruit. There was really no need to compete; Zhou Weiqing alone had taken down 25 opponents, how could anyone other recruits be more outstanding than him in this Fresh Recruit Tournament?

Before the Company Leader had even ﬁnished speaking, a sudden *Ping* sounded out and an arrow hit his chest. The arrow was shot at an extremely high speed, and with an ooof sound, the Company Leader fell down with a look of disbelief on his face, his breath stuck in his chest causing a ﬁerce pain and a stuffy feeling in his chest causing him to nearly faint. “What’s going on?” Just as the recruits from the First and Second Battalions were looking around in surprise, several more *Ping*s sounded out and several of them fell. Only then did they awaken from their surprise, and when they turned their head to look, they saw Little Fatty Zhou on the other side

with his hat full of lime, shooting out arrows quickly and silently.

Immediately, the recruits from the First and Second Battalions were enraged. You might be very strong, but you still have to obey the tournament rules right? After being hit by us, how could you still continue shooting? Getting shot was after all still very painful.

Before they could charge forward, Shangguan Bing’er shouted angrily, “Stop! Little Fatty Zhou, what are you doing?”

Xiao Se said gloatingly: “Battalion Commander, you do not need to blame him, I think he was deﬁant and unconvinced by that loss. However, a Country has its Laws, Families have their family rules; this is a breach of military discipline. Soldiers who do not listen to orders should not be promoted easily!”

Zhou Weiqing heard Shangguan Bing’er shouting at him, and he stopped shooting to shoulder the Purple Dawn Bow onto his back, taking off his Wind Hat to brush off the lime, before running over.

Shangguan Bing’er glared angrily at Zhou Weiqing, “Little Fatty Zhou, what were you doing? The ﬁght had already ended, why did you continue shooting?”

Zhou Weiqing blinked: “Did the ﬁght end? No! I am still alive, why can’t I attack?”

The Company Leader Li from the First Battalion knitted his brow and said: “Little Fatty Zhou, trying to outdo others is a good thing. However, this is the army, and everything must be according to rules. You were struck by at least seven arrows, your Wind Hat was full of lime, if this were a genuine battleﬁeld, you would have already died. At that time, your correct choice should have been to escape immediately, instead of returning to the battleﬁeld to pick up arrows. As Company Leader Xiao said a moment ago, you have breached military discipline. Although your performance was very outstanding, but I’m afraid you will not be able to be promoted to Squad Leader. Do you want to consider joining our First Battalion?”

Shangguan Bing’er had only just been promoted to Battalion Commander not long ago, and her prestige was still insufﬁcient. The First Battalion was the strongest amongst the four archery units in the Regiment, and this veteran Company Leader was not afraid of recruiting her men right in front of her.

Zhou Weiqing shook his head immediately, turning towards Shangguan Bing’er with a stubborn look on his face: “No, Battalion Commander, I have not lost.” As he said those words, he was laughing deep in his heart, thinking to himself: These people are really coordinating well to my script.

Shangguan Bing’er frowned: “Little Fatty Zhou, do not deliberately cause trouble. You are dismissed.”

Zhou Weiqing said with his face looking like he had suffered from much injustice: “But, I really have not lost! Look!” As he said that, he removed his Wind Hat and handed it to Shangguan Bing’er.

Shangguan Bing’er took the Wind Hat from him and was rather shocked. This was obviously much heavier than an ordinary Wind Hat, and pinching it with her hand, she immediately understood. Looking again at Zhou Weiqing with that that suffering expression on his face, she almost laughed out loud. This rascal really was afraid of death … …. These few days she had thought he had turned proper, but it seems like, it was not easy for a leopard to change his spots. Xiao Se looked at that the strange expression on Shangguan Bing’er’s face, and focused his gaze on the Wind Hat. “Hmmm, ehhh that Wind Hat seems rather big.”

Shangguan Bing’er passed the Wind Hat to her, and in an instance, Xiao Se’s expression also changed, looking at Zhou Weiqing with a rather solemn and sombre expression, making Zhou Weiqing feel very uncomfortable.

The Wind Hat was passed around, and after a while, the expressions of all the Company Leaders had turned strange. The Company Leader Li of the First Battalion sighed and said: “Talented… damned you really are a talented person. You can even come up with such a method… This little hat is made out of titanium alloy right, otherwise it wouldn’t be so light with such mass. No wonder you said that you have not died, even a normal arrow probably will not be able to penetrate it! Battalion Commander Shang Gong, our First Battalion has lost this Fresh Recruit Tournament. Little Bro Little Fatty Zhou, this older brother has a favorable impression of you.”

Very obviously, such a titanium alloy Wind Hat was impossible to be widely distributed in the army, after all its creation cost was way too expensive. However, who could say more in this Fresh Recruit Tournament. Did Zhou Weiqing violate any rule? He had spent his own money for his own equipment, how could that be considered violating a rule? Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing’s impressive archery had gotten the approval of all these Company Leaders.

Shangguan Bing’er shot a look at Zhou Weiqing, then a look at Xiao Se at the side who was silent now, and the corners of her mouth went up slightly. “Let’s go then, it’s time for us to have a look at the situation of the Light and Heavy Infantry Companies.”

Zhou Weiqing continued on his Personal Aide role, and moved to stand behind Shangguan Bing’er. As he passed her, he said in a very low, gentle tone that only the two of them could hear “Bing’er”.

Shangguan Bing’er’s shoulder shook a little obviously, but she had to concede her gambling debt. Furthermore, she could not act out in front of so many people, lest Zhou Weiqing said anything aloud to embarrass her, instead she quickly hastened her steps to lead the other Company Leaders towards the other two tournament grounds.

Zhou Weiqing was just about to follow them, but suddenly one of his arms was tightly gripped by someone. When he turned his head to look, he realised it was Xiao Se. Xiao Se’s expression was somewhat ugly, saying in a low tone: “Little Fatty Zhou, do you have the guts to compete with me?” Zhou Weiqing looked at her carefully, shaking his head without hesitation and said: “No I don’t want to.”

Xiao Se arched her eyebrow and said: “Are you afraid?”

Zhou Weiqing asked in return: “Why should I compete with you? What advantage would that bring me?”

Xiao Se said coldly: “If you can defeat me, how about I give you my position of Company Leader?”

Zhou Weiqing’s eyeballs swirled around and he said: “And what if I lose?”

Xiao Se said bitterly: “Then you get lost from our military camp, or at least from our 3rd Battalion.” She knew that she deﬁnitely could not beat Shangguan Bing’er in individual strength as she was a Heavenly Jewel Master, but she deﬁnitely believed she was much stronger than her in military command. However, this Little Fatty Zhou had suddenly appeared and actually completely disrupted her plan to upset Shangguan Bing’er. That also meant that it would be even more difﬁcult for her to snatch the position of Battalion Commander, furthermore, her most important goal was to prove she excelled as much as Shangguan Bing’er.

“Nope, what’s so good about being a Company Leader? How can it compare to following the beautiful Battalion Commander, that’s so comfortable.” Zhou Weiqing shook his head once again repeatedly, a serious expression on his face. Of course, within his heart he was already laughing, thinking to himself: Xiao Se, Xiao Ruse, heh heh.

“How old are you? Do you think of nothing but romantic relationships in your head? What do you want then?” Anger ﬂashed in Xiao Se’s eyes.

Zhou Weiqing shrugged and said: “How about this, if I lose, as you said I will leave the Battalion Commander, and leave our 3rd Battalion. However, if you lose, you must accept one condition from me. However, I haven’t thought of what this condition will be yet.”

Xiao Se’s brow furrowed as she looked sharply at Zhou Weiqing, however this Little Fatty Zhou had a pure and good- hearted looking face with a simple and honest appearance, and just notice anything from just looking at him, that was really too difﬁcult. “It can only be something that I can do, and it cannot involve my family, or do something against my conscience.” After some thought, Xiao Se agreed in a solemn voice. She really needed to make this Little Fatty Zhou leave Shangguan Bing’er, otherwise with such a recruit with such high potential on her side in the army, how could she compete with her? Furthermore, she had trained hard on her archery all these years, although Little Fatty Zhou had displayed some impressive archery earlier, but she was still conﬁdent in beating him.

“Okay.” Zhou Weiqing complied happily.

“Come with me.” Xiao Se turned around and walked off, heading towards the Stars Forest near the Heavenly Bow City.

Zhou Weiqing took a quick look Shangguan Bing’er who was watching the remaining tournament. Seeing that she was not paying attention to him, he quickly slid away quietly.

Xiao Se walked to the edge of the Stars Forest before stopping to wait for Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing arrived at her side and asked: “How do you want to ﬁght?” Xiao Se said solemnly: “1v1, you and I. The forest is the place which can best display an archer’s strength. We will enter the forest at the same time, get a distance of 300 yards between us, and when I say start, we shall both attack each other. Whoever hits the enemy ﬁrst will win, how does that sound?”

Zhou Weiqing said cautiously: “Company Leader Xiao, you aren’t trying to shoot me with a real arrow right?”

Xiao Se said angrily: “Bullshit, you are a soldier of our Empire, why would I want to kill you? Although your father I do not like you, but you are not worth me killing you. We’ll be using the training arrows.” As she said that, she took off a quiver of arrows and threw it to Zhou Weiqing, while she took out another quiver of her own, with both quivers holding 50 arrows.

Zhou Weiqing stretched himself and said: “Please go ahead, Company Leader Xiao.”

Xiao Se gave a cold humph, and quickly entered the Stars Forest. Zhou Weiqing could clearly see a Purple Dawn Bow on her back as well. With her family’s inﬂuence in the Heavenly Bow City, it was really easy to get hold of another Purple Dawn Bow. Upon seeing Xiao Se entering the Stars Forest, Zhou Weiqing also made his move and entered. In his heart he mused: Ruse Sis, let me see how your skill now after the seven years that we haven’t met.

Very soon they had both entered deep into the forest, and after a while, Xiao Se’s sound resounded from the distance: “Little Fatty Zhou, are you ready?”

“Yes, let’s do this.” Zhou Weiqing shouted back in agreement. As he said that, he quickly moved from his previous position, vaulting up into a tree.

“Start!” Xiao Se shouted out coolly.

Just as they were starting their ﬁght in the Stars Forest, at the other side, Shangguan Bing’er had also discovered Zhou Weiqing’s disappearance.

“Where is Little Fatty Zhou?” Shangguan Bing’er looked somewhat anxiously around for Zhou Weiqing.

One of the Company Leaders said in a low voice: “Battalion Commander, I saw him and Company Leader Xiao walking off just a while back, they are both from your Battalion, there shouldn’t be any issue right?”

Shangguan Bing’er’s expression changed slightly, but quickly returned to normal again and she said passively: “Alright, no worries, it’ll be good to teach him a lesson.”

The Company Leader grinned and didn’t say anything else. Alas, how would he know that the “him” that Shangguan Bing’er was referring to was not Zhou Weiqing, but Xiao Se.

In the Stars Forest, Zhou Weiqing was waiting quietly deep in a large tree full of leaves and branches, with the Purple Dawn Bow in his grasp. He was like a cheetah awaiting its prey, and in his body, his Heavenly Energy was revolving quietly, and his Heavenly Jewels appearing around his wrist. The six color wheel disk was present in his sight, and his senses were all signiﬁcantly improved, every slight sound and movement from the surroundings being processed by him.

“Little Fatty Zhou, are you afraid?” At this time, Xiao Se’s sound sounded out suddenly, obviously much closer than before. His sound was somewhat drifting, and it was obvious that she was moving at high-speeds. Zhou Weiqing naturally was not silly enough to reply, as he continued his silent ambush in the tree. The attribute wheel disk in his eyes revolved to the black region representing the Darkness Attribute, and immediately a dark and gloomy aura proliferated his entire body. 12 black shadows silently moved forth from his body, spreading out from the tree and gliding off all around into the shadows. If one looked carefully, he would discover that those black shadows looked very much like

vines as thick as a human’s arm, but they did not have any actual substance, and they passed by silently and without any disturbance.

This was Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁrst Skill Stored in his Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Elemental Jewel from one of the Zong stage Darkness Heavenly Beast, and the skill name was called the ‘Touch of Darkness’.

In the Skill-Storing Palace, Zhou Weiqing’s Skill-Storing attempts had actually all succeeded. However, it was unlike during the Physical Jewel Consolidating Equipment which had depended on his Darkness and Evil attributes superimposing to succeed. When Zhou Weiqing had ﬁrst entered the Skill- Storing Palace and saw the sealed Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts, he was actually unbearable frightened. Most of the Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts were extremely huge, and all of them gave forth a terrifying aura. When Zhou Weiqing attempted a Skill-Storing on a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast, a different phenomenon occurred. The reason why Skill-Storing on the Elemental Jewel usually failed easily was because even if the Heavenly Beast was at its weakest and sealed up, it would still subconsciously resist with all its might. This would affect the Elemental or Heavenly Jewel Masters who were trying to absorb their Skills into their own Elemental Jewels. However, when Zhou Weiqing carried out the Skill- Storing on the Zong Stage Heavenly Beast, according to the normal process, a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast’s internal

energy resisting would easily shake him away to ﬂy off.

However, the reality was that the sealed Heavenly Beasts actually did not resist at all and instead coordinated with him to allow him to Store Skills. As he had continued to do so with several Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts, Zhou Weiqing even felt that those Heavenly Beasts actually seemed to be shivering, seemingly afraid of him.

Chapter 17 – Touch of Darkness

After discovering that the Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts were afraid of him and thus coordinated with his Skill-Storing, Zhou Weiqing thought for a long while and realised that without a doubt, this had to be connected to that strange black pearl. The black pearl had often given him the image of the large winged black tiger, and the tiger was also considered the king of beasts, it was likely that all the Heavenly Beasts were afraid its aura.

After only spending 50,000 gold coins, Zhou Weiqing had managed to complete a magniﬁcent feat that many others would fail even with 5 million gold coins. Presently, he was truly a Heavenly Jewel Master at full strength, complete with Skills and Equipment.

The Touch of Darkness at its current basic level could send forth 12 dark tentacles, which could be dispersed around the body in a radius of 25 meters, within this radius, Zhou Weiqing’s senses would be tripled by the Skill. At the same time, once he had selected a target, and it was touched by any of the tentacles, the tentacles would latch onto the target at a 1000 jin pulling force under his control. As long as the target’s strength was less than 1000 jin, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say if its strength of struggling to break free did not reach 1000 jin, then it would be immediately drawn to Zhou Weiqing in a stunned state.

This was a skill that Zhou Weiqing had gotten from a huge black big octopus, and it was said that if this Zong Stage Heavenly Beast used it, the Touch of Darkness’ radius was up to one kilometer, and once it reached its target, it’s sealing strength was more than 100,000 jin strength and it was used to pull in its food instantaneously.

Zhou Weiqing knew from Shangguan Bing’er that the skills would improve and evolve automatically as the number of Elemental Jewel increased, and the evolution rate of the skills for Heavenly Jewel Masters was once again one-and-a-half times that of an ordinary Elemental Jewel Master. As such, if his cultivation in the future reached a certain point, the strength of this ‘Touch of Darkness’ skill would also naturally become extremely terrifying, and could absolutely be classiﬁed as one of the Darkness Attribute’s top skills.

After releasing the ‘Touch of Darkness’ Skill, Zhou Weiqing did not have any more worries; a radius of 25 meters was deﬁnitely not small, and as long as Xiao Se entered the region, he would deﬁnitely wins. Using archery alone to compete? Only a fool would do that, after all looking at her self-conﬁdent appearance it was clear that her archery was deﬁnitely very good. Previously since he had never been able to cultivate Heavenly Energy, during the Fresh Recruit Tournament Zhou Weiqing had only been able to make use of the archery that he had learnt previously and brought it to its maximum capacity. As for much more profound archery skills that required the support of Heavenly Energy, he naturally had not learnt them yet.

At this point, Xiao Se was also feeling strange, why did this Little Fatty Zhou not have any sound or movement. Normally, since she had already purposely made some noise for him to hear, even if he did not reply, he should have shot some arrows! As she thought about it, she advanced cautiously forward.

Unfortunately for Zhou Weiqing, after a short bout of self- satisfaction, he became a little depressed. This was because he discovered although this Touch of Darkness skill wasa very good, but after releasing it, it actually consumed a huge amount of Heavenly Energy to maintain it. Although due to the fact that he had not fully activated the target yet, the speed of consumption was still considered not very fast, but with his level four Heavenly Energy, the amount of time that he could sustain it was still quite limited.

What should I do? It seems like it isn’t possible to just wait any longer, otherwise, if my Heavenly Energy has been exhausted, I may not necessarily be able to defeat her.

As he thought about that, Zhou Weiqing carefully slid down from the tree, picked up a the stone from the ground, and threw it to the front.

The stone fell in the shrubbery, immediately giving out a light *ping* sound. However, to Zhou Weiqing’s surprise, Xiao Se’s arrows did not actually shoot forth.

At the other side, the corners of Xiao Se’s mouth twitched upwards. Throwing a stone to scout me out? Are you really trying to deceive me with such a small trick? She jumped up gently, grabbing hold of a branch of a big tree and vaulting up, quietly and slowly approaching the area where the sound came from. As an outstanding archer, being calm and steady were essential qualities.

Zhou Weiqing seeing that his previous idea had failed, came up with another suddenly. With his back to a large tree, he suddenly called out: “I am here.”

This time, Xiao Se did not hesitate at all, and an arrow whizzed out instantly, accurately hitting the large tree that Zhou Weiqing was hiding behind, giving forth a light *ping* sound. After all, she was also using a Purple Dawn Bow, and the arrow had much inertia behind it, and upon striking the tree, caused it to shake.

Just as Zhou Weiqing wanted to change positions, he suddenly felt an intense sense through the Touch of Darkness skill, and he immediately froze. *Whiz* *Whiz* Two arrows arrived almost instantaneously in the next moment, hitting the area the previous arrow had struck.

Damned, so strong! Rapid ﬁre arrows plus a double salvo shot at the same time, no wonder she had such self-conﬁdence.

The so-called rapid ﬁre arrow was referring to shooting arrows one after the other at extremely high speeds, and a double salvo shot referred to using a bow to shoot out double arrows at the same time. These were all extremely high-grade archery, and was difﬁcult to master. This was especially so for the the double salvo shot, to simultaneously shoot two arrows accurately at the same time, you could imagine its difﬁculty.

At this point, Xiao Se was about 150 yards away from Zhou Weiqing, and as she continued shooting, she had jumped down from the large tree, moving quickly towards Zhou Weiqing. Her right hand was moving like lightning, arrows leaping into her hands one after another unceasingly, and being shot out instantly by the Purple Dawn Bow, suppressing Zhou Weiqing completely at the large tree he was hiding behind, causing him to be unable to ﬂee. At the same time, Xiao Se was quickly changing positions all the time, closing in onto him as she circled around to try to get a clean shot off.

Xiao Se’s rapid ﬁre arrows were just too quick, even with Zhou Weiqing relying on the increased senses that the Touch of Darkness granted, he was not able to fully grasp their path to dodge them. After all, at a 100 yards distances, the strength of the Purple Dawn Bow coupled with this astonishing rate of ﬁre, with his present skill it was too difﬁcult for him to dodge.

As the distance between them closed quickly, it was only a matter of seconds before the gap had been reduced to 80 yards. Xiao Se’s arrows also came faster and faster, and Zhou Weiqing could only depend on his instincts to unceasingly move around the tree, making use of it as cover.

Xiao Se’s mouth was curled in a cold smirk. In her eyes, she had already won this competition. She still had more than 20 arrows in her quiver, and as long as she reached the distance of

50 yards, with her own cultivation stage of second level Heavenly Energy, it was more than sufﬁcient to shoot through that battered large tree. When that time comes, how would Zhou Weiqing hide without any cover. This would be an easy victory.

However, at this moment, the hiding Zhou Weiqing suddenly got a burst of inspiration, thinking to himself, I’m not just a Heavenly Jewel Master, I’m a Heavenly Jewel Master archer!

Quickly withdrawing the Touch of Darkness, Zhou Weiqing leaned the Purple Dawn Bow onto the trunk of the large tree, though the attribute wheel disk still remained in the black Darkness region.

With a lift of his right hand, a dim icy fog spread, and the Overlord Bow appeared in his grasp as he continued pouring his Heavenly Energy into the Physical Jewel, and after a while the bowstring ﬁnally appeared quietly. Zhou Weiqing switched the bow over to his left hand, and with a quick thought focusing on his Elemental Jewel, the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye on his wrist moved off, rolled down quietly, and actually fell into the indentation of the Overlord Bow. Immediately, the whole Overlord Bow shone with a bright light from the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye. At the instance when the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye entered the socket on the Overlord Bow, Zhou Weiqing felt his Heavenly Energy drop drastically, and he did not dare to delay any further, quickly drawing the bow and nocking an arrow.

To his surprise, he found that the tensile strength of the Overlord Bow was unexpectedly almost ten times that of the Purple Dawn Bow; even with the strength boost from his Physical Jewel, he barely managed to fully draw the bow to a full crescent. By the time he had managed to do so, his forehead was already full of perspiration from the exertion, and almost a full third of his Heavenly Energy had been consumed.

Under the control of his will, the black light instantaneously spread out from the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel, with black tattoos quickly spreading over the whole Overlord Bow, even down to the bowstring turning black totally. The arrow nocked on the bowstring started to quiver slightly, as if it was almost unable to withstand the huge energy within, and might rupture at any moment.

Taking in a deep breath, Zhou Weiqing turned round suddenly and ﬁercely, revealing only his right hand and the Overlord Bow, while his body still remained hidden behind the tree. With a quick aim, he released his grip on the bowstring, and the arrow ﬂew out.

It was not possible to directly use the Elemental Jewel Skills on a bow and arrow, but through the Physical Jewel’s Consolidated Equipment which had the indentations inscribed, it was actually possible to do so. This was Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁrst time really using his Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment fused with his Elemental Jewel Skills, and just this arrow alone drained half of his Heavenly Energy.

At the moment when Zhou Weiqing loosened the Overlord Bow’s bowstring, he felt as though his entire body had been drained dry, his whole body shivering, and a loud roar resounded through the forest in an explosion. Even with Zhou Weiqing’s eyesight, he had still not been able to see the arrow’s movement clearly, and had only been able to hear the deafening roar thundering about 70 yards away, and the trembling of the earth transmitted through the feet.

“Damned, is this lighting of ﬁreworks?” Zhou Weiqing was greatly startled and he quickly jumped up to look, and what was in front of him was an incredibly shocking scene. Just 70 yards away, on the ground, there was a huge hole of about ﬁve meter diameter, one and a half metres deep. Around the hole, the surrounding area in a radius of about 30 meters were leafs, wood and various plant parts dropping from the sky everywhere. The 12 black tentacles were tightly wound around Xiao Se’s body, and Xiao Se was right in the middle of the huge hole, obviously having been drawn forcefully there by the Touch of Darkness, and she was in a dazed state.

Once the Touch of Darkness had latched onto a target, unless the target was able to break free through sheer strength, otherwise, before Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy ran out, it would continue binding the target.

Zhou Weiqing quickly kept the Overlord Bow, calmly picking up his Purple Dawn Bow and nocked another arrow before walking towards Xiao Se.

After a short bout of being stunned, Xiao Se gradually awoke, the stun duration lasting around 4-5 seconds. This was not just the effect of the Touch of Darkness, but also due to the sheer power of the Overlord Bow’s arrow, causing her to be stunned by the impact as well. Zhou Weiqing had really not expected the Overlord Bow combined with the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye had such immense power. This Overlord Bow that was just his ﬁrst Physical Jewel’s Consolidated Equipment had an attack range of almost a whole kilometer, and by itself possessed an explosive effect. This was also the reason why it consumed so much Heavenly Energy from Zhou Weiqing. In addition to the Touch of Darkness, Zhou Weiqing barely had a third of his Heavenly Energy left currently.

Xiao Se could not believe that everything before her was real. Just a moment ago, she had been completely suppressing Zhou Weiqing, and was just a short step away from victory. All of a sudden, a huge roar sounded out, and before she could react, a large explosion had blown up just a few yards from here, and the corresponding shock-wave had stunned her. She was after all not a Jewel Master, although although she had managed to cultivate to the second level of Heavenly Energy, and her physique was deﬁnitely above average, but faced with such a sudden strong explosion, she had been knocked away and stunned. By the time she had awoken, she had already found herself bound by those black shadowy tentacles and she was unable to break free of them, and that Little Fatty Zhou was already in front of her with a drawn arrow pointing at her.

“You’ve lost.” Zhou Weiqing said lazily. Xiao Se’s eyes narrowed as she said: “Are you a Jewel Master?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded, lifting up his right wrist and revealed the glittering, translucent Icy Jade Physical Jewel and said: “More accurately, I am a Heavenly Jewel Master.”

Xiao Se shivered slightly, her eyes full of shock, and seeing that Zhou Weiqing was less than 50 yards from her, she said dejectedly: “I admit defeat. Losing to a Heavenly Jewel Master, I guess it isn’t an unjust loss.”

Quickly expelling the Touch of Darkness, Zhou Weiqing grinned as he also kept the arrow. Just as he was about to go forward to greet Xiao Se and tell her who he was, all of a sudden, the dejected look on Xiao Se’s face disappeared, and in a quick ﬂash, her Purple Dawn Bow was drawn and nocked, pointed at Zhou Weiqing. Her speed was just too quick, and with some self-examination, Zhou Weiqing found that even if he used the wind attribute, he would still be slower than her. This was the result of years of repeated training in archery.

Zhou Weiqing quickly halted his footsteps. At such a close distance, it would be impossible for him to dodge an arrow ﬁred from that Purple Dawn Bow. “You’re cheating so shamelessly!” Zhou Weiqing stared at Xiao Se.

Xiao Se’s eyes revealed a teasing light, “Did I act shamelessly? Oh, were you referring to my words earlier admitting defeat? How foolish, how can you believe the words of enemies so easily? If this was the battleﬁeld, you would already be dead. Didn’t we agree to the terms of the competition? The terms were the person who hit the opposite side would get the win, there was nothing mentioned about admitting defeat orally. You are the one who has lost.”

As she said that, Xiao Se lifted her ﬁnger lightly, and the arrow ﬂew out at top speed toward Zhou Weiqing. Since she had pointed out Zhou Weiqing’s mistake, naturally she would not commit the same mistake.

However, in the next instance, Xiao Se’s pupils suddenly contracted and her body stiffened in shock. This was because the arrow that she had thought was a deﬁnite win had actually failed somehow. Zhou Weiqing seemed to have vanished into thin air just as Xiao Se released her arrow. He then quickly appeared three yards away, and a silver light ﬂashed around his body. His whole body then quickly leapt forward like a leopard towards Xiao Se. ‘Blink’, did he use the Blink skill a moment ago? Although Xiao Se was not a Jewel Master, but she was experienced and knowledgeable. She was very clear that this Blink skill was considered the top supporting skill within the ﬁrst three Elemental Jewels! This was not even considering that he had used a skill from the darkness alignment earlier. Did he really have a dual attribute Elemental Jewel? This was really the main cause for her surprise. Xiao Se’s response was considered extremely quick, after a short period of shock, she quickly lifted up her Purple Dawn Bow again. After all, she believed that Zhou Weiqing was only at the level of a single Jewel, and it would be impossible for him to keep using the Blink Skill. Under her own rapid ﬁre arrows, he should not be able to continue dodging.

However, at the instance that she lifted up her Purple Dawn Bow, she suddenly felt the surrounding air twist ﬁercely around her, a blue light descending upon her as she realised that she could no longer move.

Within the time it took to take three breaths, Zhou Weiqing had crossed the 50 yard gap and was now standing in front of Xiao Se, with a big smile on his face, his usual simple and honest smiling face on display. Then, that rascal took out an arrow from his quiver, using the white lime on the arrow to draw a circle in the middle of her chest, before completing the circle with a dot in the middle.

“This counts as my win right?” After he had completed that, Xiao Se discovered that she could move her body again. “Wind, that was a Wind Attribute Skill you used just now. You, you…” This time, Xiao Se had totally forgotten about winning or losing, and was staring at Zhou Weiqing, her eyes ﬁlled with shock and disbelief.

Earlier, when Zhou Weiqing had showed his strength as a Heavenly Jewel Master, although she was rather shocked in her heart, but she could still maintain her calm. After all, if the Empire got another Heavenly Jewel Master, it was deﬁnitely a good thing, no wonder Shangguan Bing’er made him her Personal Aide. However, at this moment, seeing Zhou Weiqing in front of her and drawing the mark on her chest, she ﬁnally realised that this seemingly foolhardy was unexpectedly even more talented than Shangguan Bing’er! He had actually used two different attribute’s Control-Type Skills, and also a support skill one after the other! It was known that no matter Elemental Jewel Masters or Heavenly Jewel Masters, what they were most feared for was not the attack or defensive skills, but this sort of Control Type or Support Skills. However, it was extremely difﬁcult to store these type of Skills, and only Zun Stage Heavenly Beasts and above had these Skills. As such, most Heavenly Jewel Masters had to cultivate to at least six sets of Jewel before they could get these Skills. Seeing Zhou Little Fatty displaying three of them in succession, how could she not be surprised? “Hey, Company Leader Xiao, you’ve lost. This time you won’t go back on your word again right?” Zhou Weiqing lifted his hand in front of Xiao Se’s eyes and waved it around, though in truth, the pride in his heart was long gone.

After using those few skills in succession, the Heavenly Energy in his body was nearly totally exhausted, but he was only facing an ordinary person who was not even a Jewel Master. Of course, there was a small factor that he could not unleash his full power onto Xiao Se or risk killing her, but it was also a sign that his usage and application of the skills were still very lacking, and he needed a lot more practice.

Blink, Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁrst Spatial Attribute Skill, and even being at the most basic ﬁrst jewel stage, Blink still allowed him to instantaneously teleport anywhere within a three meters diameter instantaneously. It seemed very simple, but this skill was not the Top Support Skill for the ﬁrst Three Jewels for nothing, and was indeed a formidable skill that could save his life many times over. Indeed, without this skill, he would have lost earlier.

The ‘Fetters of Wind’, this was Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁrst Wind Attribute Skill, and at the basic ﬁrst jewel stage, it was able to lock onto a target within 50 yards instantly, as long as the target’s Heavenly Energy did not surpass him by more than ﬁve levels, he would be bound for three seconds. If the targets’ cultivation was even lower than his, he would be bound for an additional second for every level of Heavenly Energy he was lower than Zhou Weiqing.

Although both the Touch of Darkness and Fetters of Wind were control type skills, but they both had pretty different effects. In terms of effective range, the Touch of Darkness had a radius of 25 meters, but the Fetters of Wind was that of 50 meters. However, the Touch of Darkness could affect multiple targets as well as inﬂicting some additional supporting effects, but the Fetters of Wind was a pure single target control ability.

It could be said that the Touch of Darkness was is inferior to the Fetters of Wind in terms of just pure single target control ability, but adding on its enhanced senses and other functions, it was on the whole slightly stronger than the Fetters of Wind. This is the superiority of one of the Greater Attributes.

Do not think that both these skills were overlapping and thus useless. With his present level of cultivation, Zhou Weiqing required an adjustment time of over ﬁve seconds after using any skill before using it again. However, once he changed attributes, this issue would disappear. Furthermore, there was also the difference in range and requirements that different situations would allow him to use different skills. Of course, this did not mean that Zhou Weiqing was so intelligent in planning all of that during his process of Skill Storing. The main key was that he had did his Skill Storing on all the Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts; and of course, would such a Heavenly Beast have any trash skills?

Xiao Se looked at Zhou Weiqing with a changing complexion, before she ﬁnally sighed and threw away the Purple Dawn Bow in her hands, and turned around to walk away.

Lost, she had lost, not just to Shangguan Bing’er, but also to this Zhou Little Fatty. With these two Heavenly Jewel Masters together, how could she possibly compete with Shangguan Bing’er? Xiao Se was at this moment feeling very bitter and depressed in her heart. It seemed like no matter how hard she worked, she just could not compare with others’ talent!

“Are you just going to walk away like that!” Zhou Weiqing picked up Xiao Se’s Purple Dawn Bow and pursued her quickly, blocking her way.

Xiao Se looked at that simple and honest looking, but truly sly, Zhou Little Fatty, and said angrily: “I’ve already lost, what else do you want?” Zhou Weiqing said leisurely: “If I did not remember wrongly, we were gambling on the outcome of this competition.”

Xiao Se’s look changed, “What do you want?”

Zhou Weiqing took a step forward, grinning as he said: “I suddenly remembered what you gambled – anything that I asked.”

Xiao Se took a step back and her brow furrowed: “Don’t stand so close to me. I will honour my gambling debts. Speak.”

Just as she ﬁnished speaking, all of a sudden, Zhou Weiqing took another step forward.The distance between them was originally less than one yard, and this step forward caused both their bodies to be pushed up against each other. Before Xiao Se could react, Zhou Weiqing had moved his head forward and kissed her.

Xiao Se was totally shocked by that kiss, and almost subconsciously reacted with a quick slap. Zhou Weiqing seemed to expect it coming, and with a quick duck, he managed to dodge Xiao Se’s slap “Ru Se Elder Sis, you cannot go back on your agreement, this is my condition for your gambling loss.” Xiao Se had already awoken back to reality, her jade-like face ﬂushed red in embarrassment. However, she stared at him with her eyes widened: “What did you call me?”

Zhou Weiqing took two steps back again and grinned as he said: “Ru Se Elder Sis, stop trying to act! Uncle Xiao only has one daughter, others might not know this, but how can I not know? I am Zhou Weiqing!”

“Ahhh? You are Zhou Weiqing that little mucus brat?” Xiao Ru Se’s face was full of shock. However, in the next instance, she had drawn out her sword from her waist, pointing it at Zhou Weiqing, saying coldly: “Who are you trying to deceive. Zhou Weiqing that little mucus brat should be 14 years old this year, look at yourself, do you think you can pass as 14 years old?” Zhou Weiqing did not dodge, his face showing helplessness, “Ru Se Sis, I can’t be blamed for having an early good growth!” As he said that, he subtly shot a glance at Xiao Ru Se’s rather ﬂat chest.

“What are you staring at! If you continue looking, this old mother will dig out your eyes! If you cannot produce any evidence supporting your claim, I will catch you and bring you back to the camp to handle according to military law.” At this time, Xiao Ru Se had become very ﬂustered, almost forgetting that Zhou Weiqing was a Heavenly Jewel Master. Although her disposition was always very calm, but after just experiencing all these various shocks, added to the fact that Weiqing had kiss her face, how could she possibly maintain her calm?

Zhou Weiqing lowered his head, and both his hands started to take off his belt.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Ru Se’s long sword shot forward, arriving just in front of him.

Zhou Weiqing had an expression on as if he were suffering from injustice: “Didn’t you just ask me to produce some evidence? When we were younger, you led me to the riverside to play with water, and you’ve seen the red birthmark I have on my ***, let me show you as proof.” As he said that, he did not wait for Xiao Ru Se to reject the plan, and that little rascal had turned around and pulled down his pants, revealing his big white ***.

Indeed, on the left side of his ***, there was a bright red birthmark.

Xiao Ru Se was clearly stunned for a moment, as she blushed deeply, then she quickly turned around as she said: “Quickly wear your pants, so ugly!”

Zhou Weiqing quickly put on his pants again, and said with a smile: “Ru Se Sis, now do you believe me.”

Xiao Ru Se stole a quick glance back and saw that he had already worn back his pants, and sheathed her long sword while asking surprisedly: “Are you really Zhou Weiqing that snot nosed brat? That isn’t right! Weren’t your meridians blocked?” As she said up to here, she suddenly stopped talking.

“I used to be a trash last time, that doesn’t mean I’ll always be a trash.” Zhou Weiqing said nonchalantly. “Ru Se Sis, when I was young and was discovered to have blocked meridians, none of the children of the same age would pay any attention to me, only you were willing to bring me around to play. After we separated, seven years have passed! At that time, I was always thinking of you, thinking how good it would be if you really were my real biological older sister.”

As he said that, Zhou Weiqing’s eyes reddened with emotion. In his 14 years living, there were only two people who he was the closest to – one was his mother, and the other was Xiao Ru Se. It can be said that during Zhou Weiqing’s childhood, Xiao Ru Se occupied an enormous component.

“Little snot nosed brat, you’re already too big to continue crying so much like that! You have really changed so much, even this elder sister did not recognize you. Zhou Little Fatty, Zhou Little Fatty, I should have known that it was you!” Xiao Ru Se stretched out her arms, and hugged the taller Zhou Weiqing, just like in the past when she protected him.

In Xiao Ru Se’s arms, Zhou Weiqing only felt that her front was very hard, and did not know if she had padded it. Her body did not have a girl’s effeminacy, only a clean light smell that felt especially comfortable.

However, after hugging for few seconds, Xiao Ru Se suddenly awoke to reality and shoved Zhou Weiqing aside. “Little brat, you knew that it was me earlier right? Hmph, and you still dared to break my Purple Dawn Bow, and make fun of me? Is your skin itchy?”

Zhou Weiqing was given a scare: “Elder Sis, listen to my explanation. I had not recognized you at that time!”

“I don’t believe you. I was so angered by you just now. Let me ﬁrst vent my anger then we’ll speak.”

“Ahhhhhhhh!!!” One hour later…

Zhou Weiqing and Xiao Ru Se were sitting together under a large tree, as Zhou Weiqing told her about the recent events; him swallowing the black pearl, how he ran to to sign on in the army, as well as the events after that in detail. He regarded Xiao Ruse as one of his closest, most intimate friends, and naturally did not conceal anything from her, even telling her about Shangguan Bing’er’s relations with him.

“No wonder she treats you so differently, I had not expected that, you actually did that to her…Hahaha…” Xiao Ru Se suddenly laughed out loud, startling Zhou Weiqing into jumping up.

“Elder Sis, what are you laughing at?”

Xiao Ru Se rubbed her belly which was aching from her excessive laughter, before saying: “This repays any enmity I have with her. Shangguan Bing’er snatched my position of Battalion Commander although she does not know anything about directing or commanding an army. I never expected that she’ll be taken advantage of by a brat like you. Oh well, rich waters should be kept in our own ﬁelds, after all she is a Heavenly Jewel Master. Who knew that she would actually become the sacriﬁcial offering to Awaken your Heavenly Jewels, little snot nosed brat, I hadn’t expected that your luck was so good.”

Zhou Weiqing said with a woebegone expression on his face: “Elder Sis, I have already enlisted in the military, can you not call me Little snot nosed brat anymore?”

Xiao Ru Se gave a hmph as she said: “No matter how big you are, in my eyes you are still that little snot nosed brat. What are your future plans though? Why didn’t you tell Uncle Zhou about you becoming a Heavenly Jewel Master? He has dreamed of this day for so long.” Zhou Weiqing shook his head and said: “I do not want to go back. When I was still a trash, I was tortured so much by that strict father, if he knows that I have became a Heavenly Jewel Master, how can I have a good life?”

Xiao Ruse said with a faint smile: “Little Brat, I think it is more that you do not want to give up Shangguan Bing’er right.”

Zhou Weiqing did not try to conceal the fact and nodded as he said: “Yes I do not want to give her up. Although it was a misunderstanding that day, I was the one who hurt her! If it had been Princess Difyua, she probably would have killed me then. Yet, Shangguan Bing’er not only did not kill me, but also taught me how to cultivate. Elder Sis, I really really like her.”

Xiao Ru Se looked at Zhou Weiqing; she did not know why, but she suddenly felt a bitter and sour feeling in her heart. After an awkward silence, she ﬁnally said faintly: “If you like her, then go ahead and pursue her. With our Little Wei’s abilities, are you still afraid that you can’t successfully chase her? Although Shangguan Bing’er is not much of a military commander, but she is really a good person. In the future, Elder Sis will not oppose her.”

“Elder Sis, are you alright?” Zhou Weiqing looked at her doubtingly. Xiao Ru Se was startled in her own heart. Yes! What’s wrong with me? I am older than Weiqing by seven years!

“Why wouldn’t I be alright. Let’s go, it’s time that we head back already. Otherwise, your beautiful Battalion Commander will be worried about you.”Xiao Ru Se made use of the chance to get up and prepare to move off, in order to cover the blush on her face.

Zhou Weiqing also stood up quickly, holding Xiao Ru Se’s hand and said with a grin: “Elder Sis, if I had known earlier that Xiao Se was Xiao Ru Se, then I would have wished that you were the one who ran over on the day that my Jewel Awakened.”

“Bah! You even dare to tease your Elder Sis, do you think that I will not punch you!” Xiao Ru Se lifted her hand and thwapped Zhou Weiqing on the head, which he dodged with a large grin. As they ran towards the military compound, he said: “Does Elder Sis know? When I grew up, when father told me that my ﬁance is Princess Difyua, I told him that I did not want Princess Difuya, but I wanted Ru Se Elder Sis instead.”

As he spoke those words, Zhou Weiqing ran off quickly, leaving Xiao Ru Se alone standing there for a while, before she followed. This time, she really felt the sense of disquiet in her heart.

Initially, after she had parted with Zhou Weiqing, she had gone all out in training in an attempt to complete her father’s wish. However, she had fallen just short at the age of 16, and had not succeeded in Awakening her Power Jewels. Ever since that time, she dressed up as a man to enter the military school to study. She had also trained hard in archery, and two years ago she had ﬁnally achieved something, managing to join the army with honours and had worked hard up till today. You could even say that there were only 2 men in her life who were most intimate to her, one was naturally her father, and the other was Zhou Weiqing.

like the female version of Your Father

The author literally puts ** there, 3rd one is mine =p He means ass here

肥⽔不落外⼈⽥ literal translation, basically means that it’s better to keep any advantages within their circle, instead of letting outsiders get it ⼩维 Xiao/Little Wei, she is using it as a nickname for

Weiqing.

Chapter 18 – Body Evolution, Super Right Leg

“En…” A sudden stuffy and stiﬂed cry awoke Xiao Ru Se from her thoughts; it was clearly Zhou Weiqing’s voice, and she hurried towards the direction the voice came from. When she saw Zhou Weiqing again, she was extremely surprised. “Little Wei, what happened to you?”

At this moment, Zhou Weiqing was rolling around on the ground, his military uniform had been thorn a lot by the thorny undergrowth, revealing his arms as well as the shining titanium alloy internal armor.

His breathing was ragged and heavy, and what made Xiao Ru Se’s heart tremble was the fact that both his eyes had turned bloodshot, and his whole body’s muscles had ballooned out, causing him to look as if he was a whole size bigger than before.

“Elder Sis, I am feeling so uncomfortable.” Zhou Weiqing’s voice was so hoarse, sounding just like an old man, while his body was twitching unceasingly. The most unusual thing was that although he was lying down on the ground, but his right leg was actually raised up high and curled upwards, and you could clearly hear his bones of his right leg moving and grinding from within, as if a heavy hammer was smashing the bones open and reforging them.

“Little Wei, what’s going on?” Xiao Ru Se wanted to go forward and support him, but a strong force actually emitted from Zhou Weiqing’s body suddenly, causing her to back up several steps before falling down.

With a ripping sound, Zhou Weiqing had torn off the clothes on his upper body due to the excessive pain, with only the internal armour remaining on his body tenaciously. On his granite-like, muscled body, the black tattoos were surging forth again just like tiger stripes, and on his forehead, a clear black ‘King’ word reappeared as well.

At this moment, the entire Stars Forest seemed to have quietened; just a moment ago the forest had been extremely lively with insects crying and birds warbling, and they had all stopped suddenly. The silence in the forest was almost deafening, and made it seem rather eerie, with only Zhou Weiqing’s heavy breathing breaking the silence.

If it were anyone else, perhaps they would have been afraid of Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁerce appearance, but Xiao Ru Se was not. She grit her teeth tightly and threw herself forward a second time, grasping Zhou Weiqing’s head and shouting to him loudly: “Little Wei, calm down, you need to calm down. Focus your Heavenly Energy and use it to calm your internal breathing.”

Zhou Weiqing was currently feeling his heart being ﬁlled with a cruel, tyrannical, ruinous aura, giving him the urge to tear everything around him into shreds, with both his hands contorted into a claw shape as his bones were cracking. His hands had also grown to double the usual size in this short amount of time, with sharp claws faintly protruding out. The black tiger striped tattoos on his body became more and more obvious, and it felt as if he had inexhaustible strength surging forth from his body unceasingly…

His head being hugged by Xiao Ru Se, Zhou Weiqing subconsciously lifted his tiger claws and ﬁrmly grasped Xiao Ru Se by the shoulder, opening his mouth and was about to bite her on the neck.

Xiao Ru Se being held by his tiger claws, felt her whole body go numb, and found that she was not able to move at all, and her mind also fell into a blank.

Just as Zhou Weiqing was about to bite down, he suddenly stopped. Xiao Ru Se also awoke at that instance, and she could actually clearly feel his hot breath on her neck, making her skin crawl and shiver.

“No, No I cannot. You are Ru Se Elder Sis.” Zhou Weiqing muttered in a hoarse voice as he breathed heavily, and he quickly loosened his grip on Xiao Ru Se and shoved her backward. However, his head was grasped by her again.

“Little Wei, if it makes you feel better, you can go ahead and bite. Elder Sis is not afraid.” Xiao Ru Se extended her hand resolutely and placed it in front of Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing’s bloodshot eyes were ﬁlled with a cruel light, which seemed to become more intense. However, he managed to restrain himself and not bite down. In his heart, he had a very intense uneasy feeling, the feeling that if he took that bite, he would lose his Ru Se Elder Sis forever.

That intense feeling made him able to suppress the strong negative feelings that had risen within him, though the cruel, tyrannical aura in his eyes did not diminish, but at least they did not continue increasing. Xiao Ru Se continued hugging his head, as he took in big gulps of air, panting hard for breath. “You… What are you two doing?” All of a sudden, a surprised voice resounded out of nowhere. In a ﬂash of light, a person appeared right next to them.

It was Shangguan Bing’er who had just arrived.

Earlier, when she had heard that Zhou Weiqing had been brought away by Xiao Se, she had not thought much about it. After all, Zhou Weiqing was a Heavenly Jewel Master, and how could Xiao Se be of a match to him? However, the Fresh Recruit Tournament had already ended, and yet both of them had not returned, and Shangguan Bing’er was feeling rather restless and uneasy in her heart. Although in her heart she claimed that she still abhorred and hated that Zhou Little Fatty for taking her ﬁrst night, but she herself did not know that deep in her innermost feelings, Zhou Little Fatty had already inscribed his shadow there. This was a possible situation, when a girl had given her ﬁrst time to someone, naturally she would form a profound impression of him, furthermore she had been spending every day with Zhou Weiqing for the last few months.

She decided to go around and look for them to assuage her feeling of unease. Relying on her new Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment, the Wind Wielding Boots, she entered the Stars Forest at lightning speed, and just a moment ago, the roar that Zhou Weiqing had issued had drawn her to the scene.

From a distance, she saw Xiao Se and Zhou Weiqing, but she had never expected to see the scene before her – Xiao Se was hugging Zhou Weiqing’s head unexpectedly, looking extermely intimate… In her understanding, Xiao Se was a man! A man hugging another man? This…

As she got closer, only then did Shangguan Bing’er realise that something was very wrong. When she saw Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁerce appearance with the tiger striped tattoos and the huge expanded muscles, and his terrifying bloodshot eyes, the trembling feeling in her heart spread over her entire body instantaneously. Was this not not just the circumstances that he was in when he took away her most precious thing a few months ago?

Xiao Ru Se saw Shangguan Bing’er standing there stunned, and immediately cried out angrily: “Silly! What are you doing standing there like that? Help me to hold him down quickly! You are also a Heavenly Jewel Master, what’s going on?”

“I, I do not know…” Shangguan Bing’er squatted down in panic, although in the heart she was frightened of Zhou Weiqing’s present appearance, but she did not want to just walk away.

As she squatted down, Shangguan Bing’er immediately saw how much pain Zhou Weiqing was in, how his whole body was wrecked in convulsion, and quickly called out: “Zhou Little Fatty, Zhou Little Fatty, calm down a little.”

All this while, Zhou Weiqing had been semi conscious and not very aware of what was going on, but all of a sudden he heard a familiar sound, and an incomparably familiar smell, and his body stiffened, suddenly moving on its own accord; springing loose from Xiao Ru Se’s embrace, and with a low roar his two tiger claws had grasped onto Shangguan Bing’er’s shoulders.

Shangguan Bing’er could have easily dodged it, especially since she had the Wind Wielding Boots. However, she chose not to do so, and in that instance, the thought in her mind was unexpectedly that if she died in his hands, that would be okay.

#Busted! Although an immense strength was applied onto her, but Shangguan Bing’er was not torn into shreds by Zhou Weiqing as she expected, instead he grasped onto her shoulders, and hugged her closely.

Shangguan Bing’er was being choked by his grasp, and was gasping for breath; Zhou Weiqing’s body was ﬁery hot, and she could feel it clearly even through the internal armor. Furthermore, his whole body was shivering constantly, and the heat was being transmitted to Shangguan Bing’er who was also starting to feel hotter. In her mind, she was subconsciously remembering that embarrassing day, he… he… shouldn’t be doing that again…

Xiao Ru Se was also rather shocked at the side, in her heart she mused: This boy has turned bad…

Actually, what Xiao Ru Se did not know was that in the instance that Shangguan Bing’er appeared, Zhou Weiqing who had been semiconscious then had subconsciously grabbed hold and hugged Shangguan Bing’er totally by instinct. As he hugged her, he instantly felt a cooling breath ﬂood into his body from her, allowing his dazed state of mind to slowly awaken; although his body was still in extreme pain, but that tyrannical, cruel and crazy mood actually started to subside.

The reason for his present condition was naturally once again the black pearl that he had swallowed. The black pearl was not from this world, and the vast amounts of energy it contained was comparable to that of those top Heavenly Jewel Masters in this world. Although Zhou Weiqing had already went through the process of absorption once, and Awakened his Heavenly Jewels in that process, but it had by no means been able completely absorbed. Earlier on, while he was ﬁghting with Xiao Ru Se, he had almost totally exhausted his own Heavenly Energy. In addition to that, he had a strong innermost feeling to of wanting to grow stronger, and that combined had caused the black pearl to act up once again, starting the process of them fusing for the second time.

As compared to the previous time when he had Awoken his Heavenly Jewels, this round of fusing was much lighter. The main reason that he felt the extreme pain in his body was because the energy in the black Pearl was actually improving and evolving his body forcefully, his bones, meridians, muscles, ﬂesh and blood were all going through changes of varying degrees, it was as if he was having his bones broken and re-knit together in a unique way, how could this not be painful? Luckily, Shangguan Bing’er’s appearance had allowed him to stabilize his feelings, otherwise Zhou Weiqing might have actually gone crazy.

Zhou Weiqing had taken Shangguan Bing’er as a sacriﬁce to Awaken his Heavenly Jewels, therefore Shangguan Bing’er’s aura was very complementary and linked in some degree to himself. When he hugged Shangguan Bing’er, their auras merged, and the power from both her Heavenly Jewels helped alleviate his pain and stabilize him, allowing his state of mind to sober up. This was the factor that pulled him back from the brink of danger.

*Peng* Zhou Weiqing fell down while still hugging Shangguan Bing’er, his whole body pressing down onto her, almost causing this delicate and exquisite young girl to faint from lack of air. The strangest thing was that his right leg was still curled in a weird angle, although the sounds of bones breaking and moving had obviously lessened.

Both of Shangguan Bing’er’s hands fell on Zhou Weiqing’s waist, at ﬁrst to push and resist him, but now they fell into an embrace as their bodies were just too close together. Zhou Weiqing’s unique manly scent as well as that strong dark aura were mixed together, causing Shangguan Bing’er to feel rather giddy. Although being crushed together with him almost made her faint, but a strange feeling also arose in her heart. He, he won’t do that, that again right? Xiao Se is still at the side too! Suddenly, Shangguan Bing’er felt both ashamed and angry, but Zhou Weiqing’s strength was too great, how could she possibly break free?

Luckily, this time, Zhou Weiqing was not doing anything untoward like she imagined, but was only hugging her. Time seemed to stand still, as Xiao Ru Se stood at the side staring dumbfoundedly at them. However, Zhou Weiqing’s heavy breathing started to return to normal, the muscles reducing, sounds from his meridians and bones were also gradually quieting down.

Zhou Weiqing’s face was pasted right to Shangguan Bing’er’s cool tender little face, making her feel constant intermittent gusts of heat emitting from him, though the anxious feelings in her heart had started to relax. He did not violate me, he did not violate me luckily. In Shangguan Bing’er heart she was thinking like that, but she also discovered that this time it felt rather different when Zhou Weiqing was holding her, and she did not feel as repelled as before, but instead had a feeling of being protected, as if that big and tall body would defend her and bring her safety.

Zhou Weiqing’s right leg which had been awkwardly arched upwards ﬁnally came down slowly, and as it fell down onto Shangguan Bing’er’s leg, all the sounds of bones moving and breaking also stopped, and the black tattoos on his body disappeared as well.

“That really hurt.” Zhou Weiqing let out a sigh of relief as he slowly opened his eyes, the bloodshot colour had also resided by now, as did the intense pain earlier. What replaced it was an extremely comfortable feeling, as if his whole body was full charged with energy, each and every cell glowing with vigor. It felt as if there was something different with his body, although he could not tell what the difference was exactly. The only feeling he had now was that there was something soft and substantial in his arms.

He subconsciously tightened his arms, moving his body around, and felt that the soft and pillowy object pressed against his body was extremely comfortable, as if it were made to be melded against his, and his heart was indeed full of satisfaction, as he even rubbed his face against it.

“En.” A soft cry shocked Zhou Weiqing awake, causing him to ﬁnally look up, only to see Shangguan Bing’er with both her eyes shut tightly, that movingly beautiful and tender face so close to his own. “Errr.. Battalion Commander, why did you run into my arms?” Zhou Weiqing asked in surprise.

Only then did Shangguan Bing’er realise that he had recovered his state of mind, and she quickly opened her eyes, saying in embarrassed anger: “Let me go now!”

A look of vigilance ﬂashed through Zhou Weiqing’s eyes as he said: “I’m not letting you go unless you promise not to hit me.”

“You…” Shangguan Bing’er nearly fainted from anger, what made her most helpless was that as Zhou Weiqing recovered his senses, she could feel something below prodding her ‘unmentionables’.

“Oi oi, if you guys want to ﬂirt with each other, you should ﬁnd a place where no one else is around?” Xiao Ru Se’s exasperated voice sounded out. This time though she had ﬁnally used her female voice.

“Ah! Ru Se Elder Sis, you are here!” Zhou Weiqing realized that Xiao Ru Se was still at the side, and quickly let loose of Shangguan Bing’er, jumping to his feet and darting sideways to hide behind Xiao Ru Se. Shangguan Bing’er was breathing rather heavily as she stood up, her beautiful face was deep red as she ﬂushed bashfully. Furthermore, she was also shocked to ﬁnd out that this short period of time that she had been hugged by Zhou Weiqing, her eighth level Heavenly Jing Energy had been drained by nearly half unexpectedly, and she did not even know when or how it had vanished.

Zhou Weiqing poked his head out from behind Xiao Ru Se, saying with a wronged looking face: “Battalion Commander, I really did not do anything intentionally. This absolutely is another misunderstanding.”

Yes… You read it right lol

Lol I almost spit out my morning coffee. Thick Skin indeed!

Nothing clearly described here, but… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Shangguan Bing’er gave a cold humph, taking a look at him, then at Xiao Ru Se. After the embarrassment in her heart had subsided after a while, she asked curiously: “You two?” She also knew that Zhou Weiqing’s actions were not intentional and did not blame him.

Xiao Ru Se looked at the sky innocently, as if she had nothing to do with the situation. Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “I was chatting and comparing notes with Company Leader Xiao after our ﬁght earlier, and we realised that we were actually childhood playmates. Right after that, some problems occurred with my body…”

“But, I just heard you call her elder sis a moment ago!”

Zhou Weiqing looked at Xiao Ru Se’s eyes, and saw the warning in them, and immediately understood, saying: “Battalion Commander, don’t you think that Company Leader Xiao looks like a pretty girl? When we were young he already looked like that, therefore all our friends called him Elder Sis. It is his nickname.” Shangguan Bing’er’s breathing gradually stabilised and she said solemnly: “So what happened to you earlier? Why did you suddenly go crazy again?”

Zhou Weiqing said helplessly: “I don’t know either! All of a sudden my body started turning cold, and then my whole body was struck with severe pain, after that I don’t really recall what happened clearly.”

Shangguan Bing’er thought about it for a while, and all of her sudden her expression changed, and she exclaimed: “Could it be the Demonic Change?”

Both Zhou Weiqing and Xiao Ru Se revealed a surprised look on their faces, asking at the same time: “What is the Demonic Change?”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Zhou Little Fatty, don’t you remember? I was telling you about Heavenly Jewel Masters like you who Awaken with the Evil Attribute, which can cause them to have an unstable mental state, and they may eventually turn into a mentally unstable Evil Heavenly Jewel Master?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “I remember! However, you mentioned that those were due to Awakening their Heavenly Jewels, and they usually killed those close to them, normally family members. They deﬁnitely do not have my self-control.”

Shangguan Bing’er’s face reddened, as she actually had no way of refuting his words. Indeed, if Zhou Weiqing did not have sufﬁcient self-control, she would have already died that day, becoming a genuine sacriﬁce to his Heavenly Jewel’s Awakening.

“I heard that amongst those Heavenly Jewel Masters who have the Evil Attribute, some are especially formidable; when their spirit receives a provocation or their body reaches some sort of limit, they enter a special state called the Demonic Change. In the Demonic Change State, these Heavenly Jewel Masters enter a berserk state, receiving a massive short term increase of strength and power, but their state of mind is longer stable even awake, becoming a mindless killing machine. Because their existence was deemed too dangerous, the Skill-Storing Palace of the various large Empires in the world united a collective manhunt to exterminate these Heavenly Jewel Masters, massacring most of them but at a huge loss to themselves as well. From then on, there has never been any news of Heavenly Jewel Masters who have the ability to enter the Demonic Change State.” Xiao Ru Se’s expression changed upon hearing the news and she said: “Little… Little Fatty, I will bring you home.” In her anxiety, she had almost called Zhou Weiqing by his given name.

Zhou Weiqing naturally understood her meaning; she wanted him to go home to be checked by his father for safety, but he quickly shook his head repeatedly, saying: “No, no, I do not want to go back. Battalion Commander, you are worrying too much, that was not the Demonic Change State earlier; if it were, I would have killed both of you! I can feel now that after I regained consciousness, my body has evolved somehow, I feel like I’m ﬁlled with massive strength, it should be a function of the black pearl that I swallowed. Perhaps it is just that the black pearl’s power is too formidable, and I am unable to fully absorb it.”

Shangguan Bing’er heard his explanation and relaxed slightly, but still said solemnly: “Little Fatty, you should always follow by my side from now on. At least, if anything bad happens, I can still help you restrain yourself. I do not know when that black pearl of yours can ﬁnally subside for good.”

On hearing Shangguan Bing’er call his name directly, Zhou Weiqing was extremely delighted in his heart, immediately latching onto it and saying: “Bing’er, you can rest assured that I will never leave you.”

Only then did Shangguan Bing’er realize her own improper word usage, her beautiful face ﬂushing deep red and she quickly said: “Let’s head back to the military compound. I’ve already helped you get your rank of Squad Leader, but you will still continue being my Personal Aide. Go back and pack your things, we will be heading to the front lines early in the morning tomorrow.”

“Yes, Bing’er.” Seeing that she had not refuted him when he called her name, especially doing so in front of Xiao Ru Se, the excitement in Zhou Weiqing’s grew even further. This should be considered a huge step forward… right?

Xiao Ruse did not say anything further as well; having observed what had happened just now, she had realised that Zhou Weiqing’s state had deﬁnitely taken an obvious turn for the better once he hugged Shangguan Bing’er, having him stay together with her would obviously be the best choice for now.

As night fell, the military compound outside the Heavenly Bow City was bustling with activity. For the Fifth Regiment, everyone from recruit to veteran, were packing their luggage after ﬁnishing their dinner. They had to prepare everything so that they could move off in the early morning after tearing down their tents, and head to the front lines. Only after experiencing real combat on the battleﬁeld would a recruit be considered a veteran, and this would be their only stage in the near future.

Zhou Weiqing was one of the few idle people around; Shangguan Bing’er was especially busy tonight since she was the overall in charge responsible for the entire recruitment this time. Since he had nothing much left to do, he was taking a stroll around the military compound after dinner, as he tried to feel out the changes in his body.

After dinner and some rest, the Heavenly Energy in his body had been basically restored, fully showing the superiority in terms of recovery of the Immortal Deity Technique. He also discovered that his total Heavenly Energy had only increased a little after the events in the woods, unlike the instantaneous massive increase of four stages like when he ﬁrst Awakened his Heavenly Jewels. However, the greatest change would be the raw physical strength of his body; after coming back, Zhou Weiqing had tried the Purple Dawn Bow once again before returning it to Shangguan Bing’er. He found that he did not need to even apply much strength before almost breaking it. This was purely using physical strength alone! At the same time, Zhou Weiqing kept feeling that there was something strange about his right leg, especially when he moved his right leg, he discovered something very different.

When he lifted his right leg, he found that it could instantaneously rise above the top of his head unexpectedly; the most mysterious and surprising thing was that he could now lift it behind and beyond his head! Such amazing ﬂexibility, it might even be beyond those Heavenly Jewel Masters who had the Flexible Physical Attribute! Alas, it was only his right leg which had such a change, when he tried his left leg, it did not have the same effect. Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing discovered that his right leg’s strength and speed had increased manifold, which was why he felt it had such difference compared with all the other parts of his body.

Alas, at least for now, the change to his right leg was not of any advantage to Zhou Weiqing, and in fact was somewhat detrimental. When he walked normally, it was still relatively alright, but once he started running, he found that the strength of his right leg was too great, the moment he exerted any strength, his whole body would leap forward, causing him to lose his balance. It would probably take some time for him to adapt and get used to it. Looking at the busy soldiers around him, Zhou Weiqing stood ﬁrmly on the ground with only his left leg supporting him, then lifted his right leg and gave out a few kicks into the air. His right leg blurred in the air rapidly, causing several afterimages through its sheer speed, and there was also a faint

shrill sound generated in the air, It was as if his entire right leg was boneless, and he could kick from any angle.

Awww how can you hide secrets from your love when you revealed everything else to Ru Se!

See Chapter 6 for this explanation, though it isn’t stated exactly when she told him about it… or maybe I missed it when I referred Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but grumble a little in his mind. Even if it is evolution of the body, you should at least let me evolve both legs together right? What’s up with this evolving of just one leg? It doesn’t seem to be easy to control the strength of just the right leg alone.

During dinner time, Shangguan Bing’er had told him that she needed to go to the military headquarters to report the results of this recruitment drive, and also to freight over a large batch of grain and fodder which had been prepared beforehand. The Fifth Regiment would then be returning with a military strength of about two Battalions; that was not just for the new recruits, but also mostly to escort the rations to the front lines. Since they were moving out early in the morning tomorrow morning, Shangguan Bing’er naturally had to handle the matter as the commanding ofﬁcer.

Head back to cultivate? Zhou Weiqing mused about what to do, then inspiration struck him. He decided to check in with his Ru Se Elder Sister ﬁrst.

For military ofﬁcers of the rank of Company Leader, they already had their own individual tents. Earlier today after they had returned, Xiao Ru Se had told him where her tent was. At this time, since he was idle, he strolled leisurely to outside of Xiao Ru Se’s tent, and from outside he could see that the light was shining from within.

If it were any other common soldier, or perhaps even any military ofﬁcers, they would offer a greeting from outside before entering, but Zhou Weiqing did not care about that. He pulled up the tent ﬂap and walked in directly.

As soon as he entered the tent, he was startled, as the ﬁrst thing he saw was a head of soft black long hair, with the hair reaching the waist and almost covering the back. The owner of the long black hair heard the sound of the tent ﬂap opening and turned around. Naturally, it was Xiao Ru Se.

When she turned her head, Zhou Weiqing immediately saw that she had been unwrapping a strip of white cloth with its width of approximately one foot, and the cloth strip was encircled around her upper body in an unknown amount of rounds. Although her key positions were currently still covered, but her shoulders, arms and also her slender waist were all exposed to him completely.

As compared to her valiant looking appearance when wearing men’s clothing, the Xiao Ru Se now was full of a different kind of special attraction. She was 20 years old now, and her physical growth was naturally better compared to Shangguan Bing’er now. Currently, she was only wearing a pair of long pants, from her slim waist downwards in an astonishing arc that made Zhou Weiqing swallowed hard as he

stared with widened eyes, staring at her steadily.

Originally, Xiao Ru Se had a scare when someone entered, but when she turned around to see that it was Zhou Weiqing, she gave a sigh of relief as she blushed, before she said angrily: “Why didn’t you call out before you come in! Sit at the side, don’t peep!”

“Errr… Elder Sis, isn’t it uncomfortable to bind yourself like that everyday? It will affect your growth as well!” Zhou Weiqing said primly.

“Bah, what does a kid like you know? Do you think I really want to do this? It is really too hard for a woman to do well in the army, that is why I dressed up as a man to do so. Turn around! If you keep looking, be careful that I will latch onto you and depend on you.” As compared to Shangguan Bing’er’s shyness, Xiao Ru Se was much bolder.

Zhou Weiqing grinned, and took a few steps forward instead, as if to get a better look, as he said: “Elder Sis, if you latch onto me, I will be more than happy!”

It was Xiao Ru Se’s turn to be a little ﬂustered, and she grabbed the clothes beside her and threw them at Zhou Weiqing. “You dare tease your Sister like that? Don’t you want your Bing’er anymore? Be careful or I will tell on you. Turn your head around quickly, or tomorrow I will go and tell Uncle Zhou that you ran off to the army to pick up chicks. Hmph, even taking advantage of her, you will see how Uncle Zhou will take care of you.”

Zhou Weiqing shuddered involuntarily; the person he feared the most was his father, and it was as if he could see that gigantic palm brandished at him. He dared not continue teasing her and quickly turned around.

Looking at his fearful appearance, Xiao Ru Se couldn’t help but burst out laughing, quickly stripping of the cloth strips binding her upper body, liberating the bountiful pair completely, and that was so comfortable that she couldn’t help but sigh in happiness, causing Zhou Weiqing who was listening with his back turned to feel itchy in his heart.

“Alright, you can turn around now.” Xiao Ru Se said with a laugh. When Zhou Weiqing turned around again, she had already changed into a cotton garment, the ﬂat chest earlier was now a bountiful mountain range, and in his heart he was musing: So big, how can this be, is it empty inside? From my estimation, it should be at least 36D… no, it is so pert, perhaps it is even an E cup…

Xiao Ru Se saw that Zhou Weiqing’s eyes kept staring at her chest, and said exasperatedly: “Little Brat, you have really learnt the wrong things. Stop staring around like that, let us bro and sis chat for a while, it’s been so long. What are your future plans?”

Only then did Zhou Weiqing recover and he quickly said: “Naturally it is to enter the battleﬁeld and kill our enemies, to forge a name and career for myself!”

Xiao Ru Se’s brow furrowed and she said: “If it were before, Uncle Zhou would deﬁnitely be very happy if you did something like that. However, now…”

Zhou Weiqing was surprised, asking: “What about how?”

Xiao Ru Se said solemnly: “In truth, the situation is not optimistic for our empire. Little Wei, you must remember, what Shangguan Bing’er said was very right. No matter what happens, you must ensure that you do not expose your Heavenly Jewels. These few years, the situation on the front lines have been getting worse, Our Empire is surrounded by the Fei Li Empire on the north and northeastern borders, but

since we are attached to the Fei Li Empire, we are saved from dispatching troops to guard those two borders. However, our main enemies come from the southern Kalise Empire. Further south from the Kalise Empire is the formidable Bai Da Empire.”

“Just comparing our two empire’s pure strength, we do not fear the Kalise Empire, and our land size even surpasses them. However, in recent years, the Kalise Empire’s army has been growing in both quantity and quality, and they have gradually started to surpass us. If I am not wrong, I estimate that they are getting a lot of support from the Bai Da Empire.”

This was the ﬁrst time that someone had analyzed the political and military situation of the countries around to Zhou Weiqing, and he listened very intently before asking curiously: “Don’t we also have the support of the Fei Li Empire?”

Xiao Ru Se shook her head gently and said: “The Fei Li empire and the Bai Da Empire are both great nations similar in terms of their overall strength. However, due to the difference in geographical position, it has also caused their national policies to be very different. The Bai Da Empire has a very wide land area, and they are situated in the southwest of the continent. As such, they do not need to face any threats from their Western and Southern fronts, as their backs are to the sea there. Even for them, to the East and the North, there are only a few other smaller countries who do not pose any threat to them. However, it is very different for the Fei Li Empire; to the North of the Fei Li Empire, there lies the formidable Wan Shou Empire. The pressure on them can be imagined. As such, the majority of Fei Li Empire’s military and national strength is at

the northern border to guard against the Wan Shou Empire.

Although we are attached to the Fei Li empire, the support we get from them is very limited.”

Zhou Weiqing saw the light and said: “I see, so that means that the Bai Da Empire is able to support the Kalise Empire constantly, thus allowing them to grow their military to surpass ours gradually? That’s why the present war situation is in our disadvantage.”

Xiao Ru Se nodded and said: “Exactly. The Wan Shou Empire occupies most of the vast northern land, and their entire land area is almost the sum of Bai Da Empire and Fei Li Empire. If not for the fact that the Wan Shou Empire is comprised out of many big tribes, and they are not of one mind, with also the additional fact that they have other threats from other borders, perhaps the Fei Li Empire would have already lost to them. As such, the prospects of our country is really getting more and more disadvantageous. It is lucky that we have Uncle Zhou around to deter the Kalise Empire. However, if this situation continues for a longer period of time, it will only get worse for our Empire.”

Learn to delegate, girl!

Marry you?

This came to mind instantly

Literally means Ten Thousand Beasts

Chapter 19 – Demonic Right Leg

A cold light ﬂashed in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes and he said: “This is not something we can change. Caught between these two big empires, we have no route of escape. Perhaps others can run away, but both Elder Sis and I will never be able to do so. Godfather is a great king, and he has done much and made a lot of progress in governing and improving the country. Alas, our strength is just too small and weak. We can only take things a step at the time now and do our best.”

Xiao Ru Se smiled faintly and gave a gratiﬁed nod: “It is good that you think like this, it makes elder sis very happy. Little Wei, we are alone here now, just us brother and sister. Although you are still young, there are some words that I want to remind you.”

“What words?” Zhou Weiqing asked.

Xiao Ru Se said with a solemn look on her face: “If one day, when the war situation is just too disadvantageous, everyone or anyone can die for our country, but only you must not.”

Zhou Weiqing was startled, “What, why?” Xiao Ru Se’s beautiful eyes narrowed slightly: “There is only hope when we live. You are different from any other person. You are His Majesty’s Godson, and also the only son of Admiral Zhou. You have the rallying power in the Empire that no one else will have. More importantly, you are a Heavenly Jewel Master, someone with inﬁnite potential and talent. I have also heard of the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, and it is something that exists in legend, an incomparably formidable Elemental Jewel. I believe that as long as you have the time, one day, you will have the ability to change the course of events. Do not think that elder sis is joking. Your cultivation now may be shallow and weak, and you was may not understand truly how terrifying Heavenly Jewel Masters can be. Heavenly Jewel Masters have always made impressive history in the continent, and the most recent one was approximately 15 years ago. A formidable Heavenly Jewel Master, for the sake of his beloved, charged alone into the Wan Shou Empire. Along the way, every road he took, every place he visited, he killed anyone who tried

to stop him. When he arrived in the capital city of the Wan Shou Empire, the Wan Shou City, he had already killed thousands of Jewel Masters and Heavenly Beasts from the Wan Shou Empire. At last, when he ﬁnally arrive in front of the Emperor of the Wan Shou Empire, he got news that his beloved

was not seized by the Wan Shou Empire, and just left without them being able to stop him. At that time, beside the Emperor, there were over a hundred Zong Level Physical and Elemental Jewel Masters, and more than 30 powerful Zong Level Heavenly Jewel Masters, yet nobody could stop him. It is said that this man had 11 sets of Heavenly Jewels.”

As she told the story, Xiao Ru Se’s eyes revealed a rapt, charmed look, perhaps even a slightly adoring look. “Little Wei, I believe that your talent is certainly comparable to that Senior, perhaps you must even surpass him. If one day, you can cultivate and reach his level, who would dare touch our Heavenly Bow Empire? Even if the empire is in crisis, you will be able to turn the tide then. I believe that you can do even better than Uncle Zhou in the future. Promise Elder Sis that no matter what happens in the future, you must always remain calm.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded silently. For the ﬁrst time since he was born, he felt a heavy weight upon his shoulders. This burden was placed there because his Heavenly Jewels had Awakened, but he would not ﬂinch or shirk away. His natural disposition was to be free and uninhibited, but deep down his bones he was just as stubborn as his father Admiral Zhou.

Xiao Ru Se gave a smile and said: “Dumb kid, relax. Elder Sis was just pointing out the worst possible situation. With Uncle Zhou around, it will not be that easy for us to fall into such a situation. Anyway, I digress. What are you planning to do with Shangguan Bing’er? Don’t forget, in the Heavenly Bow City there still is Difuya.”

Zhou Weiqing curled his lip and said: “Difuya? Forget it. That girl, I will not be able to enjoy her. If not for the appearance of that black pearl, perhaps I would already have been killed by her. When I left home, didn’t I leave a note to my father? There shouldn’t be any issue.”

Xiao Ru Se laughed as she said: “You are dreaming. Your father might agree without any issues, but do you think His Majesty will agree? Do you know how many times Uncle Zhou has accompanied His Majesty into danger, how many times he risked his life to rescue him? Even if you are not the talented Heavenly Jewel Master that you are now, and you were still the same as before, His Majesty would still force Difuya to marry you. Kings do not say things lightly after all.”

Zhou Weiqing’s face fell immediately, and he pleaded: “What can I do then? Elder sis, you must help me ﬁnd a solution! You don’t want me to suffer everyday facing Difuya, that proud chick with her eyes on top of her head, right?”

Xiao Ru Se gave a cold humph, “Ideas aren’t free you know, shouldn’t I get any reward?” Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh, Elder Sis, if you are trying to ﬂeece me, you have the wrong man. This little brother is totally cleaned out.”

Xiao Ru Se said: “I don’t want your money. Little Wei, how about this, if you accept one condition from me, I’ll give you some advice.”

Zhou Weiqing looked teasingly at Xiao Ru Se’s beautiful face, “Kiss you again? That will be no problem!”

“Bah, you’re asking for a beating again? Be serious! You must promise me, if some day you really become the pillar of the empire, you must support me in becoming the prime minister.”

Zhou Weiqing stared in wide-eyed surprise at her. He had really never expected that the condition that Xiao Ru Se put forward would be that, and was struck dumbfounded for a moment. “Elder Sis, your ambition is really not small! You really have a desire for rank.”

Xiao Ru Se gave a cold humph and said: “How could you, a little brat, understand? I just want to show that no matter what men can do, women can also do it equally well. I want to let the men of the world see the strength of women. On what basis do women have to stay at home to do housework, to only be able to assist the husband and teach the kids? Why is it that only men can have power and inﬂuence? My lifetime goal is to use my own skill and power to stand above men as well.”

Zhou Weiqing gave her a big thumbs up, saying: “Now I truly understand the meaning of that saying Women’s headdress not given to men. Elder Sis, I support you! However, if you get married in the future, wouldn’t there be a lot of pressure?”

Xiao Ru Se gave another cold humph: “When I started practicing archery, I already promised myself that I would not marry my entire life. Why should I waste my energy on men? I have many things that I want to accomplish. At most, I’ll ﬁnd a man to have a child with in the future, then kick him away!”

Zhou Weiqing blinked, “Elder Sis, how about this? Instead of giving the advantage to others, why not let me have the advantage then. After all, we are close. Being able to do bad things without taking responsibility, that’s my favourite! Heh.”

“Get lost!”

… The next morning, dawn had just broken, but the military compound outside the Heavenly Bow City which had been there for several months had vanished quietly. By the time the sun had risen, the land outside the city gates had returned to its original smooth state. Under the leadership of the Fifth Regiment, Third Battalion’s Commander, Shangguan Bing’er,

the entire camp of 3000 soldiers, along with a large amount of

military baggage and rations as well as an approximately 5000 strong baggage train, headed south towards the border of the Kalise Empire.

Having such a huge baggage train was necessary. Simply speaking, in war, it was normal to have a 1:1 ratio of support personnel and soldiers in the army. For those elite branches like Heavy Infantry, they required almost two support personnel to support each soldier, while Heavy Cavalry Soldiers might even need more than four support personnel to assist. Only then could these elites display their maximum strength in the battleﬁeld. This was also one of the reasons why such elite troops cost so much to maintain.

The ﬁrst Women’s Rights Society!

A direct translation of ⼱帼不让须眉了 . Basically means Women can be better than men. ⼱帼 is the women’s headdress in ancient times, while 须眉 referred to men. In the past, women had very low societal rank, and if a woman had great accomplishments, this saying was used. With a total strength of about ten thousand people walking down the Stars Forest Boulevard, especially including the Heavy Infantry Companies which slowed down their total speed, it would take them at least 20 days to arrive in at the border.

Due to the fact that Zhou Weiqing was Shangguan Bing’er’s Personal Aide, he was also assigned a warhorse and rode at Shangguan Bing’er side. Naturally, he knew how to ride a horse, although it cannot be said that he was skilled in doing so, he was at least competent enough to keep himself from falling. This rascal had gone through a huge change in gear, not only was he garbed in the leather armour depicting his Squad Leader rank, his bow was also no longer an ordinary longbow.

In the morning just before they had departed, Xiao Ru Se had a soldier pass him a brand new Purple Dawn Bow and four quivers of special arrows. Knowing that Zhou Weiqing’s strength was immense, she had given him a higher quality Purple Dawn Bow than even Shangguan Bing’er’s, manufactured out of 500-Year-Old Stars Wood. The limbs of the bow were extremely strong and ﬂexible, and the tensile strength was almost twice that of an ordinary Purple Dawn Bow. The bowstring was made out of top quality sinew from a Magic Tenacious Snake, and even the shaft of the arrows from the four quivers were also made using 500-Year-Old Stars Wood, while the arrow tip was crafted from titanium alloy. The value of these four quivers of 200 arrows would almost surpass even that Purple Dawn Bow.

Zhou Weiqing hung just one of the quiver of arrows around his waist, and left the other three hanging on his horse’s back. Cavalry archers were also established in the Heavenly Bow Empire, but there was only a single Battalion of them, and they were considered one of the Trump Card Elite Battalions. There were two greatest advantages that cavalry archers had, one was the speed of their horses, and the other was the sheer quantity of arrows that they could carry along. An ordinary archer who was skilled and strong could at most bring 100 arrows along to the battleﬁeld, but if a cavalry archer brought any amount less than 200, he would be despised. With a warhorse helping to bear the load, that little bit of additional weight was naturally negligible.

Shangguan Bing’er was dressed in her silver armor with a white cloak trailing behind her, making her look extremely valiant as she led the troop from the front. Zhou Weiqing fell into position slightly behind her. Besides them, there were also two Companies of Scouts leading the way, in charge of clearing the path and building bridges or in general ensuring a smooth passage for the rest of the army. “Bing’er, I want to get down and take a walk, my right leg is still feeling irritable, I need to move around to help myself adapt.” Zhou Weiqing said in a low voice that only the two of them could hear.

“En, go ahead, as long as you follow the main troop that’s ﬁne.” Shangguan Bing’er nodded and said. Ever since Zhou Weiqing started acting proper around her, she had also started treating him differently. Ever since that day he had hugged her, Shangguan Bing’er was a little afraid to look into Zhou Weiqing’s eyes. Her heart was rather conﬂicted, she was afraid that Zhou Weiqing might suddenly relapse, but was also faintly anticipating a hug like that day.

Zhou Weiqing vaulted off his horse, giving Shangguan Bing’er his customary honest smile, then he landed on his right foot and his body shot off like an arrow as he entered the nearby woods.

The way he bounded off was very charming, particularly since his speed was extremely quick, only relying on the strength of his body. Alas, after he entered the woods, Zhou Weiqing discovered that he had misjudged his own speed.

*Peng* his body made intimate contact with a huge tree. Luckily, he had managed to block the impact with his arm, so he did not have it too terribly.

“F***!” Zhou Weiqing slid down from the tree, feeling rather dispirited, lifting his foot to kick the Stars Tree, which was large enough for 2 men to hug, in front of him.

A dull thumping sound rang out, and the dispirited Zhou Weiqing was shocked into staring, his jaw dropped so open that you could shove 2 eggs into his mouth.

The huge Stars Tree that he kicked had unexpectedly ﬂown off in the air, smashing into another large tree at the side and falling to the ground with a loud crash and bang.

“Crap!” Zhou Weiqing looked down at his right leg which had kicked down that tree unexpectedly, he did not feel anything from his right leg, and it was as if everything was normal. However, he had actually kicked down an entire Stars Tree! For a Stars Tree of such a size, even if they were to use saws, four men would still take an entire day to bring it down. Yet, he had actually smashed it down and thrown it back with just a kick.

In an instance, the dispirited feeling he had because of he was unused to the unequal strength of his legs was swept away. Zhou Weiqing quickly took off his pants and looked at his right leg.

On the surface, it seemed as if his right leg and left leg were not different in any way, but the difference in strength was unexpectedly to such a huge degree. Furthermore, despite kicking such a thick and rough tree trunk, he did not feel any pain at all.

He focused his will and manipulated his Heavenly Energy from his Dantian to move down into his legs, and as he did so, the differences in both legs once again showed itself.

As the Heavenly Energy coursed through the legs, both obviously felt more powerful, but on the surface, his left leg remained unchanged, but the skin of his right leg immediately showed the familiar black tiger tattoos once again, spreading across the entire right leg, surrounded by a black grey aura, and it also seemed to naturally tilt backwards a little. Zhou Weiqing saw that his right leg had become fully jet black, and as he moved it, it felt as though his right leg had turned into an incomparably powerful whip.

Using his left leg as a pivot, he took a leap forward and reached the front of another huge Stars Tree. His right leg swept forth like lightning, moving so rapidly that it blurred the air and seemed to leave a shadow behind.

This time, when his leg made contact with the tree, the sound had actually changed from a “Ping” into a “Puff”. The Stars Tree in front of him was once again knocked away and ﬂew off, though the point of fracture now was actually extremely smooth, looking as if it had been cut off by a sharp knife blade.

Zhou Weiqing was even more shocked by what came next, as the tree ﬂew in the air, its leaves suddenly started to wither and turn yellow quickly, and the bough itself started emitting a grey air, before withering. When the tree landed on the ground, it unexpectedly smashed into smithereens.

“This, this was really too awesome…” Zhou Weiqing looked at his right leg, then looked at the shattered Stars Tree, and muttered to himself: “Bing’er said that those Heavenly Jewel Masters who have the Demonic Change will lose control their minds; it doesn’t seem like I have the Demonic Change, instead I have this Demonic Right Leg. With such strength, if it hits a human at full strength, how much damage would it do?”

Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing discovered that pouring Heavenly Energy into his leg for the kick did not consume much Heavenly Energy at all. All of a sudden, he thought of something in his heart, recalling at once the huge winged black tiger that he had seen several times.

There were three places where the black tiger had left him with a deep impression; the ﬁrst was its pair of ferocious bloodshot eyes, the second being its large dual wings, and lastly was the tall, hooked scorpion tail.

His right foot had turned black completely, and it also seemed to hook upwards automatically. Didn’t this just seem like the scorpion tail of that black tiger? Had his right leg evolved from that?

By now, he was completely certain that that the black pearl was probably the Internal Core of the huge black tiger that he had seen, and he was absorbing the abilities of this extremely formidable black tiger.

Plus she’s rich I guess =p Good to have a rich onee-chan looking after you!

Combat Engineers! “It looks like this is indeed a Demonic Right Leg. Wahaha!” Zhou Weiqing danced around with joy. Although it was currently difﬁcult for him to control his right leg properly, and was rather problematic when moving right now, its sheer strength more than made up for that. After all, he could slowly train to control that great strength, but who else could have such an awesome right leg? This was absolutely in the territory of a secret weapon.

During the following long and dreary travel, Zhou Weiqing actually became the busiest person. He followed close to the troop, but did actually join them, instead moving forward completely on foot, unceasing using his Demonic Right Leg to improve its coordination with the rest of his body, and to ensure that he could control its strength. After these ten days of hard work, he had basically adapted to it. Although it couldn’t be said that he could fully control it perfectly, he could at least move normally, and was whenever necessary he could still make use of its strength.

After much experimentation, Zhou Weiqing found that the strength of his right leg was truly quite terrifying, when he injected Heavenly Energy into the leg, it was boosted more than ﬁve times that of any other body parts. What was even more fearful was that it did not feel any pain, which was by itself another formidable weapon. When he discovered that fact, he was a little frightened and quickly inspected his ‘third leg’ carefully; once he determined that it was not affected by the Demonic Right Leg, he breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed greatly. If his third leg no longer had any feeling, he would not want to live anymore…

The army has marched constantly towards the south, and although the Heavenly Bow Empire was not very big, they had still taken 20 days to get close to the front lines.

“We just need to go forward another 300 miles before we arrive at the camp on the frontlines.” Shangguan Bing’er said to Zhou Weiqing. As they travelled together, although she wasn’t exactly very amiable, but she was not malicious or harsh, just treating him like an ordinary subordinate.

Zhou Weiqing could obviously feel Shangguan Bing’er relaxing a little after she said those words. He knew from what Xiao Ru Se told him that this was Shangguan Bing’er’s ﬁrst time carrying out such a task, and now that she was on the verge of completing it, it was natural for her to feel a little relieved.

After all, Shangguan Bing’er was considered an important national treasure of the Heavenly Bow Empire, even if she was on the frontlines, the military command would not dare to put her in any danger, after all, a Heavenly Jewel Master who had not fully grown completely was still relatively vulnerable. If anything happened to her, it would be a huge loss to the entire Empire and their future plans.

“Bing’er, I want to discuss a matter with you.” Zhou Weiqing said solemnly.

Shangguan Bing’er shot a look at him and said: “Speak.” “When we reach the military camp, let me return to the

Company, I want to go forth into the battleﬁeld to ﬁght and kill the enemy.” Zhou Weiqing was not joking, he knew that if he followed Shangguan Bing’er, he would likely not have any chance to actually enter combat.

Shangguan Bing’er was a little surprised, “You don’t want to follow me?”

Just as Zhou Weiqing was about to explain himself, all of a sudden, his expression changed drastically; both his feet trod on the stirrup, as he used that as a pivot to throw his entire body sideways, leaping forth and hugging Shangguan Bing’er in his arms, his momentum knocking her off her horse. *Peng* in the next split second, an arrow ﬂew past their bodies, almost brushing them, before nailing deep onto the nearby road. If Zhou Weiqing had been just a little late in reacting, that arrow would have pierced right through Shangguan Bing’er.

“Enemy attack!” Zhou Weiqing gave a loud shout as he held onto Shangguan Bing’er and vaulted away, hiding both of them at the underbelly of her horse.

Shangguan Bing’er also awoke to the situation, and both of them suddenly simultaneously thought of something: Silent Tracking Arrow.

That arrow, before it struck, it did not give out any sound, nor did it stir the air at all as it passed, otherwise with Shangguan Bing’er’s 8th Stage of Heavenly Energy, she could not have possibly missed it. Zhou Weiqing had only been able to dodge it because of a sudden sense of danger in his heart, and he had reacted subconsciously to save her. This was not the instinct of a human, but the instinct of a wild animal – that large black tiger.

“It isn’t the Silent Tracking Arrow, it should be the Silent Arrow, otherwise I would already be hit by it. Let go of me.” Shangguan Bing’er said rather rapidly. Zhou Weiqing had by now quickly taken off the Wind Hat from his head to use as a shield, but Shangguan Bing’er was still embraced in his arms. Of course, she was wearing her armor now, and it wasn’t exactly comfortable hugging her now.

“We’ve almost reached our main campsite, how could there be an enemy ambush here?” Zhou Weiqing said as he began to circulate his Heavenly Energy. This was his ﬁrst time actually facing a real enemy, and if he were to say that he wasn’t feeling anxious, that would be a lie.

At this moment, that inexplicable sense of danger arrived once again; he had not let go of Shangguan Bing’er yet, so he just carried her and tumbled away once more. *Puff* blood spurted out from the position that they were just in, as Shangguan Bing’er’s horse was shot and pierced through with an arrow, as it savagely pierced through where they had been a moment ago.

At this time, a disturbance arose in the troops, as the archers quickly nocked their bows and shot around into the surrounding areas, while the infantry troops quickly surrounded the area, trying to protect their commander.

However, at this time, there were only the sounds of explosions as well as screams. Zhou Weiqing led Shangguan Bing’er weaving in and out of the crowd. She had Activated her Heavenly Jewels and leapt out of his embrace; although she was wearing armor, she still moved as swiftly as wind as she ﬂew off.

Only then did Zhou Weiqing see the enemy clearly. There weren’t many of them, only around ten or so, but they were moving at extremely astonishing speeds, especially the person who was charging in the forefront, both hands brandishing an exaggeratedly large warhammer, with each of the warhammers as large as a tabletop, with a seemingly evil aura. As the arrows shot towards him, they were all easily deﬂected, and none of the melee troops were able to even get close to him. In a short span of time, more than ten soldiers had died a tragic death to the huge warhammer.

This person looked to be over 40 years old is, with a whiskered, scruffy face, his upper body was bare, revealing his tough body, swarthy ﬂesh, and unbelievably inﬂated muscles. What drew Zhou Weiqing’s attention the most was his right wrist, where ﬁve Physical Jewels clearly encircled.

His Physical Jewels each had two colors, half was Yellow Jade while the other half Ice Jade. Yellow Jade represented Toughness, and improved defense, while the Ice Jade represented strength. No wonder he was so ferocious, this was clearly a Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master. At this point, two out of his ﬁve Physical Jewels were glowing with a sparkling light; clearly the pair of warhammers were the Consolidated Equipment of that two Physical Jewels.

Besides him, there were twelve other enemies, all of them were Physical Jewel Masters, each holding different weapons. There were four of them with Four Jewels each, and the rest of them had Three Jewels each. The twelve of them moved together, sweeping away the ordinary troops facing them. The rain of arrows pouring down on them simply did not have much effect on them, as they forged a path directly heading for Shangguan Bing’er.

LOL, this little rascal does it again

#SpideySense makes its return! Zhou Weiqing instantly realised that they had to be here specially to assassinate Shangguan Bing’er. Although these Physical Jewel Masters were extremely strong, it was still impossible for them to destroy an entire army of ten thousand. Daring to appear like this, their goal could only be Shangguan Bing’er. Without question, these people were most likely from the Kalise Empire. To have sent out so many strong Physical Jewel Masters, they were really intent on ensuring her death!

Shangguan Bing’er wove, duck, and dodged. She managed to dodge another Silent Arrow, but it was so close that she broke out in a cold sweat; it was really too difﬁcult to dodge this type of Silent Arrow. Even a full agility type Jewel Master like her needed to focus all her concentration in order to do so, and any tiny mistake would put her in danger of being hit.

At this moment, a shrill sound resounded out, followed by a loud explosion, and the ﬁve-Jewel Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master in the vanguard slowed down momentarily as an arrow exploded onto his huge warhammer, affecting his speed. Such strength, the arrow naturally came from a Purple Dawn Bow, but it was not shot by Zhou Weiqing, but by Xiao Ru Se. “Don’t panic, stay organised. Heavy infantry go ahead to slow them down, archers ﬂank the enemy from the tree lines and start concentrated ﬁre, light infantry start ﬂanking and surround them.” Xiao Ru Se’s calm voice issued out orders unceasingly. Although their commanding ofﬁcer Shangguan Bing’er was at a loss, Xiao Ru Se still stayed very calm.

Currently, Shangguan Bing’er had no time to care about any others. She was too obvious a target, and was also the enemies’ goal. The hidden enemy who kept shooting Silent Arrows was constraining her ability to do anything, and she was totally unable to counterattack at all. The only thing she could do was to make use of the Wind Wielding Boots to move around swiftly, barely dodging the continuous barrage of Silent Arrows. She could tell that this hidden enemy was at least a Four-Jewel Low Level Zun Physical Jewel Master, and probably had more tricks up his sleeve.

No matter the Heavenly Bow empire or the Kalise empire, they both had less than a hundred Jewel Masters each. The number of Jewel Masters appearing here was already almost a quarter of the entire Kalise Empire’s Jewel Masters. One could tell the sheer determination the Kalise Empire had in wanting to kill off Shangguan Bing’er. “Little Fatty, kill that hidden archer!” Xiao Ru Se’s voice resounded in Zhou Weiqing’s ear.

Facing such a chaotic battleground, Zhou Weiqing was reminded by Xiao Ru Se that the most important thing was to get rid of that biggest threat – the hidden archer shooting those Silent Arrows. Shangguan Bing’er’s most outstanding ability was her speed and agility, and as long as she was not plagued by the Silent Arrows, it would be easy for her to evade those Physical Jewel Masters.

Moving swiftly, Zhou Weiqing dashed into the woods at the roadside. In the chaos, no one paid attention to this mere soldier who unexpected leapt to the side at an astonishing speed.

The attribute wheel disk appeared in front of Zhou Weiqing’s eyes again, and he was at this time both anxious and excited. He wasn’t afraid now; after going through Consolidating Equipment and Skill-Storing, he had gotten many skills to improve his survivability. Not knowing what sort of opponent the hidden enemy was, he could only estimate where he was hiding from the general direction the Silent Arrow came from, as he quickly moved through the woods. That hidden archer kept changing positions as he shot, but there was always some trace to be found. With the boost from the Wind Attribute, Zhou Weiqing was also extremely fast, his keen senses extending to a radius of 20 meters; as long as there were any clues, he would ﬁnd them. At this point, the improved senses from the black tiger was

proving its use.

Suddenly, he had a cold feeling of impending doom, and he instantly dropped down to the ﬂoor without any hesitation, hitting the ﬂoor brieﬂy before leaping up and moving off once more, changing his position twice. In that very moment, a Silent Arrow had pierced through a huge tree where he once was.

Zhou Weiqing grabbed his Purple Dawn Bow in his left hand, extracting an arrow from his quiver, and while in the process moving quickly, he quickly shot off an arrow through sheer instinct. He had not aimed, knowing that it was impossible to hit his target now. However, relying on the sheer force of the formidable Purple Dawn Bow, his arrow ﬂew out with a shrill sound as it stirred the air. Anyone hearing this sound might even have a scare. Despite his keen senses, he was still greatly pressured by the Silent Arrows. He could feel that he was only less than 100 yards away from the hidden enemy, as long as he could affect the enemy’s ﬁring rate a little, he would have the opportunity to close the gap. Indeed, after his arrow burst out, the hidden enemy paused a while. A loud, angry curse rang out right after that: “Dammit, is that the Legendary ‘Heaven Soaring Shot’? How dare he frighten me, Xiao Ye Ye, blast him to death.”

“Ah! Young Master, my ﬁring distance is insufﬁcient; my range is only 50 yards, he is currently more than 70 yards away.”

“You fool! Why don’t you simply tell our enemies where to ﬁnd us huh? Look, he’s now 50 yards away, quick!”

Indeed, in the short period of time when the two of them were speaking, Zhou Weiqing had leapt and bounded like a leopard ahead, not in a straight line but taking a zigzag course, making use of the surrounding bough and shrubbery as cover to conceal his body as he charged along.

*Whiz* Another Silent Arrow ﬂew at him. That hidden archer was truly accurate; Zhou Weiqing had already exerted all his strength and speed to try and dodge it, but that arrow managed to speed down towards his path. As the distance was much nearer, the arrow’s speed was also a lot quicker. However, just as it was about to hit him, Zhou Weiqing suddenly disappeared. Zhou Weiqing had always feared death, for him to dare to run in these woods in search of such a dangerous hidden enemy, the biggest advantage he was depending on was of his ﬁrst Spatial Skill – Blink. With that skill, even if he could not

beat that enemy, he was conﬁdent of escaping with his life.

Just as Zhou Weiqing dodged that Silent Arrow, he suddenly saw a huge orange-red ﬁreball with a one foot long diameter coalesce in the sky, before ﬂying towards him with a trailing bright ﬁery tail.

Not only did the enemies have Physical Jewel Masters, they even had Elemental Jewel Masters!

On that fateful day, Zhou Weiqing had nearly been killed by Difuya’s ﬁreball. This ﬁreball in front of him was obviously many times stronger than that of Difuya’s. It was clear just from the size and look of it.

Zhou Weiqing did not dare to underestimate it, quickly holstering the Purple Dawn Bow on his back, circulating his Heavenly Energy instantly to release his Icy looking Overlord Bow into his grasp. At the same time, he also circulated his Wind Attribute’s power, maximising his speed, and in a ﬂash he drew the Overlord Bow to its maximum, ﬁring off an arrow like a bolt of lightning. With a shrill howl that was even several times stronger than when ﬁred from the Purple Dawn Bow, Zhou Weiqing shot forth this arrow. At the same time, his body dropped down to the ground once again, narrowly evading a Silent Arrow.

*Bang* The giant ﬁreball was struck by the arrow, which had the explosive effect from being shot out by the Overlord Bow, exploding in mid air and causing ﬁre to rain down everywhere from the skies. The orange ﬂame poured down in a 30 yards radius, cutting off the line of sight of both sides completely.

Zhou Weiqing did not stay idle, proning down on the ground while drawing the Overlord Bow once more, shooting another arrow from where the enemy’s speech had originated from.

Earlier on, he had been suppressed by the Silent Arrow barrage of the enemy, and he had been repressed for so long. Finally having this opportunity to catch his breath, furthermore the enemy was also unable to see him now, how could Zhou Weiqing not seize this opportunity? Just releasing the Overlord Bow alone took up nearly 50% of his Heavenly Energy; since he had already brought it out, he wanted to make full use of it.

*Bang* Another ﬁerce explosion resounded in the distance; the explosive effect of the Overlord Bow was truly overbearing. It was exactly the opposite effect from the Silent Arrow; each arrow shot out was accompanied with an astonishingly loud, shrill sound, and as soon as it touched an object, it would explode instantaneously. Furthermore, the speed of any arrow shot from the Overlord Bow was far beyond what the naked eye could follow. It was almost as if once the sound of the bowstring being released came from Zhou Weiqing, before the shrill sound of the air splitting had ended, an explosion would sound off in the distance.

Chapter 20 – The One Deciding Arrow

“Damn, what sort of skill is this? Young Master, quickly leave now.” A row of ﬁreballs rose up into the air on the opposite side of him. This time, there was a total of ﬁve ﬁreballs; although they were individually smaller than the previous one, they were all still orange-red in colour.

This time, Zhou Weiqing did not try to shoot the ﬁreballs, instead drawing the Overlord Bow to its maximum and rapidly ﬁring out three arrows. These few days, whenever he was free, he had been learning the Rapid Fire Archery skill from Xiao Ru Se. Although he wasn’t as accurate as she was yet, he had at least improved his ﬁring rate, and coupled with the sheer power of the Overlord Bow and its explosive effect, he did not even need to be that accurate; as long as he managed to shoot an arrow within an acceptable range, it was sufﬁcient.

As expected, once the three arrows were ﬁred out, the enemies were thrown into a mess. All the ﬁreballs started dropping out of place, but not a single one managed to ﬂy and hit their proper target.

At this moment, just 50 yards from Zhou Weiqing, two youths were in a shabby, disorderly state. One of them was dressed in an all-white outﬁt, without any armor, holding a shining golden short bow in his hands, and on his right wrist encircled four glowing Physical Jewels. His Physical Jewels were made out of 2 types of jade – the Agility Dragonstone Jade and the Flexibility Waxy Jade. This man was rather handsome; alas at the moment he was in quite a sorry state. His golden hair though was rather attention drawing, complementing his golden short bow’s colour.

At his side was someone who looked like his subordinate, dressed in a rather plain cloth clothing. Just like his young master, he seemed to be around 20 years of age, and on his left wrist encircled three red ruby Elemental Jewels; it seemed like those ﬁreballs were ﬁred out by him.

Under Zhou Weiqing’s angry suppressing ﬁre using his Overlord Bow, this pair of Master and Subordinate were in a disorderly state, rolling and tumbling as they ﬂed the scene.

Zhou Weiqing had successfully suppressed the ‘Silent Arrow’s from this side, but the other side of the battleﬁeld was a totally different story.

Under Xiao Ru Se’s direction, the Heavenly Bow Empire’s troops were no longer in a mess and were organised in trying to ﬁght back. Alas, the group of more than ten enemies were all Jewel Masters, and against their Heavenly Energy and Skills, it was rather difﬁcult for ordinary soldiers to do anything in this short period of time.

“Battalion Commander, let’s retreat” The threat of the Silent Arrows had suddenly vanished, and Shangguan Bing’er was ﬁnally able to relax a little. At this moment, Xiao Ru Se’s voice sounded out.

Even though they liked to compete with each other, Xiao Ru Se knew how important Shangguan Bing’er was to Heavenly Bow Empire. Furthermore, she was Little Wei’s girlfriend.

Despite Xiao Ru Se’s warning coming at a relatively timely moment, Shangguan Bing’er had already fallen back into a predicament. It wasn’t that she did not want to retreat, but even at that moment when the Silent Arrows stopped ﬁring, 3 Physical Jewel Masters from the opposing team had charged forth to surround her instead. Two of them were mainly Agility-Type Physical Jewel Masters, and were also had four Jewels respectively.

Although Shangguan Bing’er was a rare dual-agility type Heavenly Jewel Master, she was after all still only with 2 sets of Heavenly Jewels, and was only a Mid Level Heavenly Shi Master; compared to that, her enemies had 4 Jewels each, winning her in both Heavenly Energy levels and number of Consolidated Equipment. The only things he could do was to swiftly shoot out Wind Blades, using her own speed coupled with the Wind Wielding Boot’s boost in order to keep herself from falling. However, it was nigh impossible for her to escape

their encirclement. At the same time, the other Jewel Masters were constantly getting closer. As soon as one or two more managed to join the fray, Shangguan Bing’er would likely be unable to continue defending herself successfully.

Xiao Ru Se was also very anxious. In their troops, there just weren’t any other Jewel Masters at this moment. The enemy ambush had came too suddenly, and it had appeared jut as they reached their campsite, and at a point where their guard was at its lowest. If not for Zhou Weiqing’s danger senses and quick reactions, the ﬁrst arrow would have probably already injured Shangguan Bing’er, and they would likely have all been wiped out by now.

*Peng* *Peng* sounds resounded unceasingly, as the Heavy Infantry units who were attempting to stop the enemy were constantly knocked back by a pair of large warhammers. That 5-Jewel Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master was just too strong, and his strength and defense were too shocking. Both his warhammers were covered in a white light as he focused his Heavenly Energy onto them – he had obviously broken through the Heavenly Jing Energy stage and was in the Heavenly Shen Energy stage, and he was just bulldozing his way through the Heavy Infantry Elite troops. Only Xiao Ru Se’s Rapid Fire Arrows were able to give him a little trouble, but he was still slowly making his way towards Shangguan Bing’er’s little fray. Once he actually reached her, one could deﬁnitely imagine the result.

Right at this moment, that Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master suddenly gave forth an explosive shout, as he swung both his warhammers rapidly, his whole body seemingly spinning in a whirlwind. The Heavy Infantry troops who were surrounding him were instantly smashed away, ﬂying away from him, and he leapt up in a ferocious pounce, closing the distance in an unbelievable bound, both warhammers smashing down towards Shangguan Bing’er’s head. Simultaneously, two other Physical Jewel Masters also charged forth, and together with the original three Physical Jewel Masters surrounding Shangguan Bing’er, they formed a perfect encirclement which blocked every possible retreat of hers. Their cooperation was unbelievably smooth, and their attacks, from the twin warhammers smashing down, or the mass of attacks from the others in all directions, seemed to spell doom for Shangguan Bing’er.

“No… it’s over…” Xiao Ru Se closed her eyes in despair. Even though they were rivals, she certainly could not bear to watch Shangguan Bing’er be smashed into pulp. Shangguan Bing’er herself was also in despair. She had tried every trick in her book, but there just wasn’t anything she could do in this scenario. The opponent had clearly planned this ambush perfectly to target her, and her own combat experience was also rather lacking. It looked like this would the fragrance diminished and the jade perished

At this critical moment, a loud cry resounded in the skies suddenly. An explosion blew up, as a black arrow slammed into the warhammers descending upon her, the strong explosive impact forcefully halting its descent. More amazingly, right at the centre of the explosion, 12 black tentacles shot forth like lightning, entwining all the enemies in the radius of 25 yards, including the Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master. All of the enemy Jewel Masters in the ambush were instantaneously held in place for a while.

It was still relatively okay for the Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master; he was after all in the centre of the pulling force. However, it was not so for the other six who were surrounding Shangguan Bing’er. Due to the sheer surprise of the attack, the four 3-Jewel Masters were instantly drawn in by the skill, and an unlucky one just happened to hit his head on the huge warhammer. Although the constitution of Physical Jewel Masters were strong, metal hitting head was still a tragedy in making and he instantly fainted, bleeding from the head. The other 2 remaining 4-Jewel Masters were strong enough to resist the pull, though their attacks were interrupted as a result, as they stumbled a few steps closer to the Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master.

How could Shangguan Bing’er not seize such a great chance. Like a volcano who had been dormant for too long, she erupted suddenly.

Spidey

direct translation of ⾹消⽟殒, an idiom meaning a beauty passing away

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Three Wind Blades ﬂew out, viciously cutting into one of the Four-Jewelled Physical Jewel Master who was unable to move; Shangguan Bing’er’s Wind Blades had already evolved once since she had gotten her second pair of Heavenly Jewels, and as she sent the three Wind Blades slicing in at the same time targeting the enemy’s frail neck, the result could be imagined. That Low Level Zun Physical Master’s head was instantly cut off. At the same time, her Purple Dawn Bow also moved swiftly as she shot out a Silent Tracking Arrow without hesitation, slamming right into the forehead of the other Four-Jewelled Low Level Zun Physical Jewel Master, piercing right through his brain. It looked like he wouldn’t live much longer as well.

This was the true fearful power of a Control Skill, especially when taken by surprise, when the body was instantaneously controlled, they could only take any incoming attacks passively. Although Shangguan Bing’er was only a Mid Level Heavenly Shi Jewel Master, she was after all still a Heavenly Jewel Master, and her strength was still more than comparable to a Three-Jewelled Ordinary Jewel Master. With her sheer speed, she had seized the opportunity to ﬁnish off two of the enemies. The ﬁerce explosion had also startled Xiao Ru Se and attracted her attention. Her response was also just as swift, and her Purple Dawn Bow did not idle at all, as she ‘Roll-Called’ the Three-Jewelled Physical Jewel Master who had been knocked unconscious. Under normal circumstances, that Physical Jewel Master might not have feared her arrows, but with him unconscious and unable to circulate his Heavenly Energy, how could he protect his own body?

In a ﬂash, the situation on the battleﬁeld had reversed, as three out of the thirteen enemy Physical Jewel Masters had perished. More importantly, once the explosively strong arrow had appeared along with the Control Skill with the 12 black tentacles, the courage of those Jewel Masters had also been shaken.

The Darkness Attribute was already quite rare, let alone one having such a strong supplementary explosive effect.

“Elemental and Physical Jewel Fusion Technique! It is Zhou Shui Niu! Quick, we have to retreat now!” The Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master did not bother about his own dignity, going all out in breaking free from the black tentacles, rolling on the ﬂoor and turning to ﬂee. Seeing that their leader had ﬂed, the other Jewel Masters naturally turned to ﬂee as well.

Although they had charged and fought ﬁercely just a moment ago, these Jewel Masters had also consumed much of their Heavenly Energy during that period. Their original plan had been to ﬂee immediately after taking out Shangguan Bing’er, otherwise, once they were full surrounded by the entire army, they would not be able to escape.

Shangguan Bing’er’s face was a mask of frost, and the Purple Dawn Bow in her hands repeatedly shot forth arrows. At this time, without anyone to suppress her, she was able to fully show the superior strength of a Heavenly Jewel Master. Her Silent Tracking Arrow was even stronger than the Silent Arrow that had been suppressing her earlier, being a Heavenly Jewel Master coupled with the fact that her arrow had the ‘Tracking’ ability. When she was shooting at those Three- Jewelled Physical Jewel Masters, her ﬁring rate was just too fast for the opponent to resist, even if they were able to survive the arrows, their speed in escaping was greatly reduced in doing so. By the time these enemies had escaped the tight encirclement, less than half had managed to do so, as only the ﬁve strongest enemies had managed to do so. Of the remaining, two had been captured and the rest had been ﬁnished off by Shangguan Bing’er’s Silent Tracking Arrows. Shangguan Bing’er did not give pursuit, standing there panting for breath, her beautiful eye full of vigilance. Dozens of Heavy Infantry Troops surrounded her, their shields raised up high in order to protect her.

That ﬁght could be said to be the most difﬁcult ﬁght that Shangguan Bing’er had ever experienced since birth, and she had barely managed to survive. If not for that sudden arrow striking the strongest member of the enemy party, the Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master, and also Controlling the other 12 enemies, which allowed the two girls to instantly make a counter attack and kill three enemies instantaneous, perhaps the result of the entire ﬁght would be completely different. Not only would she die, all of the enemy Physical Jewel Masters would probably have escaped unharmed.

Was it Marshal Zhou? That should be impossible! As the the battle situation at the border area was temporarily stable, Marshal Zhou had been recalled back to the Capital City to report on the activities, and should not be returning to the front lines in the near future. Yet, that formidable arrow just now, that was obviously a Dark Attribute based Elemental and Physical Jewel Fusion Technique. Wait. Could it be him?

In this moment, Xiao Ru Se walked over, her delicate eyebrows furrowed tightly as she arrived beside Shangguan Bing’er, saying: “Battalion Commander, are you alright?”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head, saying: “I’m ﬁne, I just used up too much Heavenly Energy. Thank you, Company Leader Xiao. If not for your instructions, our troops would have suffered much more damage. I might also…”

Xiao Ru Se said: “You shouldn’t thank me, but Little Fatty instead. You know…”

Shangguan Bing’er froze in place: “Is it really him? Where is he?”

Xiao Ru Se said: “How would I know? Our losses this time are not low, but, we can also consider this to be quite a great achievement and merit. I will let everyone check out our casualty numbers and treat the wounded.”

Shangguan Bing’er sighed lightly: “I’m sorry. I really am not a qualiﬁed Commander.”

Xiao Ru Se said lightly: “You were the focus of the enemy, how could you have found the opportunity to instruct the troops. Furthermore, you are truly an outstanding Heavenly Jewel Master. Anyway, let’s rush to the military camp ﬁrst.” Ever since she knew about Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er’s relations, her attitude towards Shangguan Bing’er’s had noticeably improved. After all, ‘Fertiliser and Water should not be irrigated to an outsider’s ﬁelds’, she considered Shangguan Bing’er’s as her future little sister-in-law. Of course, occasionally in Xiao Ru Se heart, there was also a little sour feeling.

At this time, Zhou Weiqing appeared from amongst the surrounding soldiers. When he saw that Shangguan Bing’er was all right, he gave a big sigh of relief.

That amazing arrow earlier was naturally shot forth by him a moment ago, Earlier, when he had managed to suppress that Master and servant pair with his Overlord Bow, he had originally wanted to pursue and ﬁnish them off. However, before he did so, he suddenly felt an inexplicable feeling of intense restlessness and fear surge forth in his heart, and he quickly rushed back to the edge of the woods, just reaching in time to witness Shangguan Bing’er being besieged from all sides. At that critical moment, he could not care about anything else, making use of his Overlord Bow with the Touch of Darkness Skill, his Elemental and Physical Jewel Fusion Technique that had essentially changed the entire course of events singlehandedly in a single, deciding arrow. Shangguan Bing’er looked at Zhou Weiqing with an unusually gentle look, saying in a soft voice: “Thanks.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned, thinking in his heart secretly: What is there to thank. Isn’t it normal to protect my own woman?

Xiao Ru Se raised up her thumb at Zhou Weiqing, such an amazing arrow that was the deciding factor in a ﬁght. It was truly too beautiful.

Compared with their relaxed situation here, the side of the ambushing enemies was a scene of gloom and sorrow.

The leader was the youth in white clothing who was shooting forth the Silent Arrows. After escaping from the soldier’s encirclement, the ﬁve Physical Jewel Master had met together with this Master and servant pair.

“Trash, you bunch of trash! So many of you just to take out one little girl with a mere rank of Two Jewels, and yet you still failed.”

The Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master with the twin warhammers said with a bitter smile: “Your highness, much apologies. Please calm down. You also saw for yourself in the distance, that sudden arrow appearing with such overbearing power. We did not have the means to deal with it. I’m afraid that Zhou Shui Niu is nearby, if we did not run at that point, perhaps we would all be totally annihilated.”

This white clothed youth was in fact the Kalise Emperor’s ninth son, Bai Jiu. He was 25 years old this year, yet he had actually already managed to cultivate up to four Physical Jewels, and was one of the most outstanding princes in the Kalise empire, and was even in charge of governing the Jewel Masters of the Kalise Empire. This time he had personally led a strike team to assassinate Shangguan Bing’er. Alas who knew that all their planning and efforts had came to naught.

If anyone forgot what this means, it’s their lingo to snipe a particular target – seen in Chapter 16.1

Direct translation of 肥⽔不落外⼈⽥, basically meaning good things should be left to their inner circle / not be allowed to fall into outsiders’ hands Bai Jiu gave a cold hmph. “Bullshit, if it were Zhou Shui Niu, do you really think that you could have escaped with your life? Not just you, even I would have lost my life there. Furthermore, I had also obtained the news the day before yesterday that Zhou Shui Niu was still in Heavenly Bow City. How else would I have carried out this plan.”

The Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master also realised his mistake then. “Right! Although the power of that arrow was strong, its actual destructive power has insufﬁcient. If it had been ﬁred by Zhou Shui Niu, it should have claimed my life there and then. Could it be…”

Bai Jiu nodded, “That’s right, besides Shangguan Bing’er, it seems that the Heavenly Bow Empire have another Heavenly Jewel Master in their army, but his cultivation level should not be high, at most being similar to Shangguan Bing’er with two pairs of Jewels. His pair of Heavenly Jewels should be of the Darkness and Strength attributes, just the same as Zhou Shui Niu. If not for him, my Silent Arrows could have killed Shangguan Bing’er at the beginning. Let’s retreat and return to our base to plan further. It seems like this time, I might need to beg my teacher to go into action. I deﬁnitely must not allow Heavenly Bow Empire to gain two more Heavenly Jewel Masters. Xiao Yeye, just a moment ago, you said that the fellow vanished when dodging my Silent Arrow?”

The subordinate following Bai Jiu around was the Fire Attribute Elemental Jewel Master Luo Xiaoye. Xiaoye was his personal servant since childhood, and had grown up together with him, and also doubled as his personal bodyguard.

“Yes! Your Highness, I think I saw him vanish for a second. Otherwise, how could he possibly evade your Silent Arrow so suddenly!”

“Did you see it clearly?” Bai Jiu’s brow furrowed. Luo Xiaoye muttered: “Probably not very clearly.”

Bai Jiu sweatdropped and said: “You fool, if you didn’t see clearly, then why did you report it!”

Luo Xiaoye blinked and said: “But… you didn’t see clearly either right?”

“Xiao Yeye——” “Your highness, we should retreat quickly.” This Luo Xiaoye may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was not silly at all.

“I’ll deal with you when we get back.”

…

About an hour later, Shangguan Bing’er had ﬁnally led the troop in reaching the military base on the front lines.

In the border of Heavenly Bow Empire and Kalise Empire, there was a large patch of mountain ranges, hills, bogs and other complicated terrain, fully cutting off both countries from one another. The military strength of the Heavenly Bow Empire only consisted of Five Regiments, of which one was stationed at the Heavenly Bow City as a guard, one stationed to guard the eastern border of the Empire, and three Regiments stationed here at the Kalise border, guarding the important pass between the two countries. Due to the complexity of the terrain, both sides rarely had any form of large-scale war, but there were always constant small skirmishes. The most commonly used forms of combat was to deploy a small troop to harass the opposing side. Having a war between two countries actually being primarily based on guerrilla warfare, it was truly a rather unique phenomenon. The camp encompassed more than ten square miles where the three Regiments totally more than 30,000 were stationed. With their tents under the open skies, it felt as if there was a faint killing aura in the atmosphere, which could cause fear in a person unused to the place.

When Zhou Weiqing saw the huge military compound, his heart was set aﬂame as his blood boiled. This. This was the military compound on the front lines. This was where his father lived and fought most of his time. Father, do you know that your son has also arrived at the front lines?

The number of casualties from the earlier battle had been counted, and more than seventy troops had perished, 40 severely wounded, and more than a hundred with minor wounds after the ambush by the enemy Jewel Masters. That was an extremely terrifying number! After all, the enemy ambushing party only numbered 13 people, including the two hidden members, there were only a total of 15 people ambushing them. From the start of the ﬁght to the end, it had barely been 15 minutes. Furthermore, their target had really only been Shangguan Bing’er, yet they had still suffered such a huge loss of so many trained soldiers. From this battle, you could truly see the tyrannical killing power of Jewel Masters on the battleﬁeld. As their troop entered the Fifth Regiment’s camp site, they split up and returned to their respective Battalions. Shangguan Bing’er went to report to their Regimental Commander, while the Third Battalion was temporarily commandeered by Xiao Ru Se to return to their camp.

In the Third Battalion, Xiao Ru Se’s actual authority actually exceeded Shangguan Bing’er’s. Besides Company Leader Mao Li who was was Shangguan Bing’er’s closest subordinate, most of the other Company Leaders in the Battalion would follow her lead.

Xiao Ru Se calmly and quickly ﬁnished arranging the three Companies of troops, and she had also arranged a personal tent for Zhou Weiqing, situated right beside Shangguan Bing’er’s tent.

“Little Wei, you should go and have a rest ﬁrst. With your status as a Squad Leader and the Personal Aide of the Battalion Commander, you do not need to attend the drills and trainings. As long you practice your archery when you are free, with your other skills, you should be ﬁne. Anyway, having left for so long, I better go back and examine the situation of entire Battalion.” Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Elder sister, you go ahead, I’ll cultivate by myself.”

Xiao Ru Se left, and Zhou Weiqing also entered his own tent. It was an individual tent; after all Xiao Ru Se would naturally take good care of her own little brother. It was normally a tent that was only assigned to an ofﬁcer of rank Company Leader and above. The entire tent was made out of tanned cowhide, not only did it block the effects of weather, it also had amazing thermal insulation. Being almost 20 square meters large, it was also fully stocked within with many daily necessities, and was much better when compared to the various small tents in the encampment.

In doing so, Xiao Ru Se was actually not being excessive. After all, not only was Zhou Weiqing Marshal Zhou Shuiniu’s only son, just his Heavenly Jewel Master status alone would mean that living in such a tent was already an injustice to him. Of course, that would normally only happen if he announced his status.

Zhou Weiqing put down the gear he had been carrying, and ﬂopped down onto the bed. However, he did not have the mood to rest currently, and images of the previous ﬁght ﬂashed through his mind unceasingly as he tried to process it. Without a doubt, his own actual combat experience was just too insufﬁcient. Furthermore, his usage of Heavenly Energy had also been extremely inefﬁcient. When he had shot that ﬁnal arrow, he had totally exhausted all of his Heavenly Energy. He had so many strong Skills Stored in his Elemental Jewel, yet when he wanted to ﬁght at his full strength, he wasn’t even able to use all of them once through.

The thing that left him the deepest impression was the ﬁnal moment when the opposing six Physical Jewel Masters had surrounded Shangguan Bing’er, limiting her movement, and doing so right at the moment when their leader’s two warhammers were smashing down upon her. Such coordination in that single instance was so exquisite. It made Zhou Weiqing understand that even Jewel Masters needed to coordinate. If not for the fact that Shangguan Bing’er was a dual agility type Heavenly Jewel Master, she would likely not be able to last long enough for him to return and help. Even then, if not for the surprise factor of his strong control skill, plus the fact that there were so many soldiers assisting from the side, the ﬁnal result might still have been her death.

Coordination, coordination. Their Jewel Masters are able to coordinate so well with each other. However, my Elemental Jewel has six attributes… I should be able to coordinate my skills right… Zhou Weiqing faintly understood that today when Shangguan Bing’er was in danger, the reason why he could sense it so promptly was because Shangguan Bing’er was the Sacriﬁce that helped him to Awaken his Heavenly Jewels, and they shared a connection. Yet, what would happen if the person in danger was Xiao Ru Se? He wouldn’t have had the same sense of danger.

To protect his family, those he loved, to protect his own motherland, he needed much more strength. At this moment, in his heart surged a huge amount of heartfelt respect to his father. All these years, it was his father who had protected the Heavenly Bow Empire!

As he thought about that, Zhou Weiqing vaulted back into a standing position. Focusing his will, the four energy whirlpools at the Four Death Acupuncture Points he had broken through immediately accelerated their churning. Without a doubt, what he needed the most now was Heavenly Energy.

I seriously want to name this guy already. Geez

洛晓夜. He is called Xiao Yeye ( ⼩夜夜) by Bai Jiu in that previous paragraph as a kind of endearment, basically like how Xiao Ru Se calls Zhou Weiqing, Xiao Wei. Strange, I know. Basically he says ⼀头⿊线, which you can

imagine of in anime, when black lines appear around someone’s head when something stupid is said. After these few months of practice, Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy had already reached the normal fourth level of Heavenly Jing Energy. However, to attempt breaking through the Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point, it was still insufﬁcient. He had tried attempting it a couple of days ago, but before his Heavenly Energy had circulated to his knees, it had already run out. In order for him to even attempting breaking through the Yongquan Acupuncture Point, he needed to at least reach the Zhu San Li Acupuncture Point ﬁrst, and make use of it to accelerate the circulation speed towards the San Ying Jiao, before using it once again to accelerate towards the Yongquan Acupuncture Point. Obviously, this process needed a large amount of Heavenly Energy accumulated.

The Fifth Regiment, headquarters.

“What? You want to resign from the post of Third Battalion Commander? Viscount Shangguan, are you joking?” The Fifth Regiment’s Commander stood up in surprise as he looked at Shangguan Bing’er, who had a ﬁrm look on her face.

Shangguan Bing’er said solemnly: “Regimental Commander, I am certainly not joking. I have realised that I do not have the ability to commanded troops well, let alone a whole Battalion of soldiers. In terms of directing troops, I am severely deﬁcient. I do not want to have a high rank just because I am a Heavenly Jewel Master. That is extremely unfair to the men and ofﬁcers of the Third Battalion. Directing an army is a profound skill, and after much self-examination, I feel that my ability is insufﬁcient. If I continued directing the Third Battalion, I’m afraid larger issues might rise up. For the sake of the soldiers and ofﬁcers of the Third Battalions, please comply with my request. I would rather remain in the military command as a normal soldier to join in the ﬁghting, than be an incompetent Battalion Commander.”

At this time, there were three people in the Fifth Regiment headquarters. Besides Shangguan Bing’er and the Regimental Commander, Gao Shen, who also had a similar rank of Viscount, the Fifth Regiment’s Vice-Regimental Commander Qian Zhantian who concurrently held the post of the First Battalion’s Battalion Commander, was also there. They looked at each other in dismay, feeling a big headache from her request.

Gao Shen said: “Viscount Shangguan, you just managed to kill off six enemy Physical Jewel Masters, and captured two alive. I was just about to report this to the military headquarters to get you your military accomplishments, why go through all this trouble? You can slowly learn how to direct the troops.”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head vigorously once more, saying: “That was mostly Company Leader Xiao’s merit. If not for his good directions, perhaps not only I would be killed by the enemy, the loss from our army would also be much higher. I cannot allow my own command training to come at the cost of the blood of our Third Battalion’s men. Please comply with my request.”

The nearby Qian Zhantian said: “Battalion Commander Shangguan, you should know that the reassignment of military ofﬁcers of the rank of Battalion Commander and above is not something that we can decide by ourselves. Why don’t we turn in your resignation to the military headquarters when we make our report, and we can let the higher ups decide.”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Then, Regimental Commander, please order for Company Leader Xiao to be the temporary acting Battalion Commander, I will no longer participate in commanding of the Third Battalion.”

Gao Shen saw that she was really ﬁrm and said helplessly: “Alright, as Viscount Shangguan wishes.” “Thank you, Regimental Commander.” Shangguan Bing’er said with a military salute, before leaving.

The two ofﬁcers exchanged dismayed looks once again, and Qian Zhantian said in a low voice: “That girl, she’s outwardly soft, but inside she is really extremely tough willed. Still, it was quite a rash decision by the headquarters to give her a rank of Battalion Commander so early. After all, she had not undergone genuine military academy training yet.”

Gao Shen said: “That was the will of the Commander-in- Chief. Actually, his plan was to just let her feel the atmosphere of war in the front lines, having a personal feel before entering training again slowly. However, she is truly not suitable to continue staying at the military camp in the front lines. Today’s ambush was obviously pre-planned by the Kalise Empire. I shudder to think what would happen if anything were to happen to her here, how can I face the Commander-In- Chief? I will write this report to the military headquarters instantly, the messenger hawk can pass on the message quickly and back, and I believe we should have the answer in ten days. Lao Qian, move the First Battalion and stationed yourselves beside the Third Battalion, strengthen the defense, and ensure the safety of Viscount Shangguan.” “I understand. I really hope that Viscount Shangguan will grow into her power earlier. Alas, she is a girl, I do not know if it is right to place such a heavy burden onto her shoulders in the future, to have to take over from Marshal Zhou…”

……

“Little Fatty, are you in?” Zhou Weiqing was cultivating in his tent, when Shangguan Bing’er’s voice resounded out from outside.

“I’m here.” Stopping his cultivation, Zhou Weiqing jumped down from his bed, and raised the tent ﬂap. Shangguan Bing’er walked in from the outside, and Zhou Weiqing immediately noticed that her mood was rather off, and she looked rather lonely, desolate and despondent. It was truly out of sorts from her usual self. Furthermore, this was also the ﬁrst time she had called out his name directly.

“Bing’er, what’s wrong?” Zhou Weiqing pulled out a chair for her.

Shangguan Bing’er looked up at him suddenly and said: “Am I very stupid? I cannot even direct the troops properly. I…” Looking at her sudden agitation, Zhou Weiqing was given a scare. “Bing’er, how could you say that? What happened today was totally not your fault. Furthermore, thanks to you, we managed to deal a heavy blow to the enemies.”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head and said: “I am not a qualiﬁed commander, Little Fatty, do you know? Actually, I have totally no idea how to direct an army, to deploy troops and formations. Before today, I always believed that as a Heavenly Jewel Master, even if my commanding capabilities were not up to speed, I could still make it up through my own personal strength. Today, I ﬁnally understood how foolish that thought was. Heavenly Jewel Masters and army commanders are two totally different concepts, no wonder Company Leader Xiao always refused to accept me. He is right; in comparison, he is much more suitable than I am to be the Battalion Commander. I have already turned in my resignation to the Regimental Commander, and I expect that the order should be relayed down before long.”

Zhou Weiqing patted his own shoulder, saying: “I’ll lend this to you?”

Shangguan Bing’er blanked out for a moment, looking at Zhou Weiqing’s caring eyes, and after a hesitant moment, she walked forward to him, laying her head gently on his shoulder. However, she actually maintained the rest of her body away from him.

Zhou Weiqing’s mind was ﬁlled with tender and protective feelings, and he lifted his arms to embrace her. However, he was stopped by her as she said: “Do not move.”

Zhou Weiqing immediately stopped his hands, saying: “Alright, I am not moving.”

She stood there, gently resting her head upon his shoulder, as she closed her eyes slowly, saying in a low voice: “Little Fatty, do you know? Actually, I am so very tired, my heart has always been very tired… very tired.”

“I understand. You are after all only 16 years old, and yet as the only other Heavenly Jewel Master in the empire besides Admiral Zhou, so much has fallen upon you. The responsibility and expectations you are shouldering is so high. Not only must you continually cultivate and improve your strength, you are also trying to adapt to the army, it is really too tough on you.”

“I do not fear tough labour, Little Fatty, you know? No matter how tough it is, no matter how tired I am, I can still persist and carry on. But today, seeing so many of my soldiers die before my eyes… in one fell swoop, more than 70 lives just vanished like that, even amongst those severely wounded, if more than half of them can continue on in the army it would be considered good already… Almost 100 lives were ruined because of me… Before this, they had never let me join the battleﬁeld… Before today, I had never done anything as a true Battalion Commander. Today… was the ﬁrst time I killed a human…the ﬁrst time I saw so many people die before me. I felt really uncomfortable in my heart, extremely uneasy. I do not think I can continue being a Battalion Commander any longer. I cannot stand the thought of having another day where more soldiers will perish because of my inadequate directions. I really do not want to see them die in front of me.”

Zhou Weiqing’s heart stirred, he had not expected that this was the ﬁrst time that Shangguan Bing’er killed someone or seen death. No wonder her response was so huge. Watching so many people die to to protect her, how could her heart withstand it. Feeling her body trembling sligtly, Zhou Weiqing said solemnly: “Bing’er, let me withstand all of that for you.”

Shangguan Bing’er’s body stiffened. She understood completely what he meant. With his talent, if he disclosed his identity as a Heavenly Jewel Master, without a doubt, much of the pressure on her would shift to him. If in Shangguan Bing’er’s heart, her feelings towards Zhou Weiqing was extremely conﬂicting, and in the mass of conﬂicting emotions, indignation accounted for a majority of it. In that instance as he said those words, it felt as if all the discontent and indignation vanished. At this time when she was at her frailest, when she most needed comforting, Zhou Weiqing’s calm and insistent words touched her heart for the ﬁrst time, moving her deeply. Before this, even if his arrow had saved her life, she did not have such a feeling, but only at this moment did she really feel that this shoulder belonged to a man she could depend on.

The arms hanging at both sides of her body lifted quietly, as she held Zhou Weiqing gently. The distance between them ﬁnally disappeared as she embraced him voluntarily for the ﬁrst time.

Awww. <3

Cerita silat IndoMandarin

Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 11-20

Chapter 11 – Fei Li Empire Flying Hill City

Chapter 12 – Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment – Overlord Bow

Chapter 13 – An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

Chapter 14 – Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment Sets

@Chapter 15 – Zong Level Heavenly Beast Elemental Jewel Skill-Storing

Chapter 16 – Fresh Recruit Tournament

Chapter 17 – Touch of Darkness

Chapter 18 – Body Evolution, Super Right Leg

Chapter 19 – Demonic Right Leg

Chapter 20 – The One Deciding Arrow

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