Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 21-30

Chapter 21 – Stealing the heart, Surprise Attack

In that instance when Shangguan Bing’er lifted both arms and embraced him, Zhou Weiqing felt a warm fuzzy feeling swell up in his heart. Though he was usually a little perverted and rascally, at this moment his brain was unexpectedly in a blank.

To Zhou Weiqing, this hug was like a sign of approval. Yes, approval. Since he was young, up until now, he had always been a trash in others’ eyes. Even after he had become a Heavenly Jewel Master, the shadow and darkness of the past had not faded from his heart, and deep inside he felt a sense of inferiority. This was why he had always had a mask in place, using his cynicism and teasing to hide his feelings of inferiority. Previously, whenever he had spent time with Shangguan Bing’er, this was the main reason for why he acted like that.

She hugged me. She actually hugged me of her own accord. The feel of being hugged in a warm embrace was an amazing, beautiful feeling, that warmed his jaded heart. Finally, there is a girl, such a beautiful wonderful girl, who really thinks that I am someone is is worth something, someone who is reliable. At least, at this moment. A hitherto unknown feeling of pride and satisfaction welled up his his rapidly beating heart. After Shangguan Bing’er had embraced him, her beautiful face had also ﬂushed a deep red. In the instance when she hugged him, she had been in a state of agitation and been touched deeply, and now she awoke a little, and felt a sense of nervousness welling up. That rascal was always so bad, will he seize this chance to…

However, very quickly, surprise quickly entered Shangguan Bing’er’s feelings. She realised that Zhou Weiqing was just standing there in her embrace, without playing any tricks or trying anything funny, without a sign that he was going to try to do anything further. Slowly, the sense of nervousness vanished, and a sense of peace and security ﬁlled her heart.

Although he took away my ﬁrst time, but today he also saved my life. With that, let’s wipe the slate clean. Shangguan Bing’er thought to herself in her heart.

When a woman hates a man, no matter what he does for her, how much effort or how many things he does, that hatred will not diminish a whit. However, the reverse is also true, when a woman has acknowledged a man, even if he does not do anything, she will still think the better of him.

The two of them just stood there silently. They were after all still very young; one was a boy with an inferiority complex after being called trash all these years, and the other was a girl who was shouldering too much responsibility and was unable to take it. At this point in time, their two hearts seem to be close together. Even without speaking, their auras seemed to be comforting each other.

“Thank you, Little Fatty, I feel much better now.” After some time had passed, Shangguan Bing’er spoke ﬁrst. She let go of Zhou Weiqing and looked up at him, only to see him staring blankly and foolishly at her, and she couldn’t help but let out a peal of laughter.

“Bing’er, you look so beautiful when you smile.” Zhou Weiqing said in a rather foolishly sounding tone. At this time, his mind was a little short circuited, but the shadow of darkness in his heart had been eased a lot by Shangguan Bing’er’s embrace.

Shangguan Bing’er could feel the hot breath from him, and she blushed even more, biting her lower lip. Such a look, made her look unbelievably cute.

Zhou Weiqing felt blood rush into his head, and almost subconsciously, he lowered his head towards her. His movement was very slow, at this time he did not want to ever violate this girl who had saved him. If she showed any sign of resisting, he would immediately stop.

As their faces got closer, Shangguan Bing’er’s blush grew even deeper, but she did not try to dodge. Just a moment ago, their hearts had met and melded together, and her anger towards him had faded away.

Just as their faces were barely an inch away from each other, all of a sudden, the tent ﬂap was shoved upwards and an urgent sounding voice sounded out: “Little Wei, Shangguan Bing’er actually resigned from the post of Battalion Commander… Ehhh…”

Xiao Ru Se charged in from outside, giving Shangguan Bing’er a scare as she jumped away like a startled little bird.

“I… went to the wrong tent. You guys continue…” Xiao Ru Se had a strange expression on her face as she quickly gave a weird excuse and ﬂed the tent.

Zhou Weiqing was speechless, and sweatdropped. He had just been about to get his ﬁrst real kiss. Elder sis… you really came at a wrong time. Her ears burning red with embarrassment, Shangguan Bing’er gave him a quick glare and said: “It’s all your fault. I’m going back now.” After which, she quickly tried to move off.

“Bing’er, wait a while.” Zhou Weiqing took a step forward and held onto her.

“You… what are you trying to do?” That gentle atmosphere earlier had vanished as soon as Xiao Ru Se barged in, and Shangguan Bing’er couldn’t help but ask in alarm as she lowered her head.

“Bing’er, don’t leave yet. Don’t you want to take revenge for our men who died today?” Zhou Weiqing said softly.

“En?” Only then did Shangguan Bing’er realise that she had mistaken his actions, and she raised her head to look at him. “Revenge? How?”

A cold look ﬂashed in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, and he said softly: “This is a war between two countries. Since they killed and injured over a hundred of our men, then we should also do the same to them. Wouldn’t that would be a temporary revenge for those of our men who had lost their lives? How far is the closest Kalise Military Camp from here?” Shangguan Bing’er said: “It is about 300 li away, though this 300 li is ﬁlled with complicated terrain, and is considered a demilitarized zone for both sides. What, are you thinking of doing a sneak attack on the enemy stronghold?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded his head and said: “Yes. Didn’t you want to know what Skills I had stored in my Elemental Jewel? Let me tell you tonight. Indeed, you are correct; in terms of commanding and leading troops, we are deﬁnitely unable to compare with Company Leader Xiao. However, we are Heavenly Jewel Masters. Our purpose on the battleﬁeld can be easily described with just three words. Sheer destructive power. That is the true value of us Heavenly Jewel Masters. Since the enemy can cross over to our borders to assassinate you, why can’t we do the same and teach them a lesson?”

Shangguan Bing’er took a deep breath, and in her beautiful eyes, a resolute look appeared. She said: “Alright. Let’s do that. I will go back to restore my Heavenly Energy ﬁrst. After dinner, I’ll look for you, and we can discuss a plan of action.”

Zhou Weiqing escorted her out of his tent, then returned to his own bed and continued cultivating. A young bull does not fear the tiger, the young always easily give in to impulse as they do not fear consequences as much. For him, the only thought was that wanted to make Shangguan Bing’er feel better, and be happy. On her part, Shangguan Bing’er wanted revenge for her slain men, and so the two easily agreed on such a wild plan.

As smoke started rising over the military compound, the red glow of the setting sun reﬂected across the horizon. The military cooks were busy preparing food as dinner time neared.

In the Heavenly Bow Empire army, there was a rule that clearly stipulated that all military ofﬁcers, no matter what rank, had to dine together with the soldiers, unless any peculiar circumstances arose. This stipulation was set by Zhou Weiqing’s father, Admiral Zhou. As such, this was always the time when the men of the Third Battalion were the most excited, as it was at this time that they could see the beautiful female Battalion Commander, who was also known as the most beautiful woman in the Empire.

The title was a play on words actually, the direct translation being ‘Stealing Heart, Stealing Camp’

Nooooooo

Direct translation of a chinese idiom, 初⽣⽜犊不怕虎 However, the atmosphere at today’s dinner was obviously somewhat strange. Company Leader Mao Li’s face was full of anxiety and he spoke for a long time with Shangguan Bing’er. However, her face seemed as calm as usual. On the other hand, the one with the most prestige in the Third Battalion, Company Leader Xiao, who normally had the most disagreements with the beautiful female Battalion Commander, unexpectedly sat at the same side as her, seemingly spending the entire dinner discussing something with the other Company Leaders.

Without question, Shangguan Bing’er had already started turning over her power as Battalion Commander to Xiao Ru Se. Zhou Weiqing did not join in the conversations, instead staying in a corner and eating as much as he could. The food in the mess was deﬁnitely inferior to what he normally ate at home, but it was a different ﬂavor and experience after all. This was especially so for Zhou Weiqing, who had after all spent time in the wilds surviving by himself, and had even eaten grass and tree bark for survival before. To him, being able to eat his ﬁll was already considered pretty good treatment. When Admiral Zhou had started training him, the ﬁrst few words he said was: “No matter when or where, you should never ever waste food.” After eating, Zhou Weiqing returned to his tent. Before long, there was a ﬂash of a silhouette, and surprisingly without any movement of the tent ﬂap, Shangguan Bing’er appeared beside him. In her hands, she held a sheepskin map.

The most startling thing to Zhou Weiqing was that Shangguan Bing’er had once again resumed her icy demeanor, with a tranquil look on her beautiful face. It seemed a rather huge divergence from the gentle look she had in the afternoon.

“What are you looking at? Come here?” Looking at Zhou Weiqing’s blur appearance, Shangguan Bing’er was ﬁnding it funny in her heart, but she maintained the ice cold expression on her face.

Zhou Weiqing walked over to her side, asking tentatively: “Bing’er, did you lose your memory?”

Shangguan Bing’er had thought about what Zhou Weiqing might have possibly said, but she truly never expected those words. She ﬁnally couldn’t resist and let out a giggle: “Fool.”

“You did that on purpose?” Zhou Weiqing came to his senses, and with his hands spread out lecherously, he leapt towards Shangguan Bing’er. “Do not move.” Shangguan Bing’er said with a stern expression.

“Er…” Zhou Weiqing stopped himself forcefully in mid- pounce while still in the posture.

Shangguan Bing’er said sternly: “You are still in my testing period, so you’re not allowed to touch me without permission.” As she said that, the corners of her mouth twitched upwards in a little smile.

“Bing’er, when did you became so bad!” How could Zhou Weiqing not see that Shangguan Bing’er had said all of that intentionally once more.

Shangguan Bing’er gave a humph and said, “You’ve already taken the biggest advantage of me. The shadow in my heart is still very deep, of course I must test you a lot more.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Test? Of course you must test. Let’s get on with proper business ﬁrst though.” He was not anxious at all. Now that Shangguan Bing’er was at least willing to give him the opportunity to be tested, it was already a substantial improvement for their relationship. He enjoyed the feeling of pursuing her very much. In truth, this fellow had quite a high EQ, now that the relationship between the two of them had improved, he did not want to destroy it by being overeager.

Shangguan Bing’er rolled her eyes, saying: “Why do I have the feeling that the present you is even more dangerous than before, when you were being a rascal.”

Zhou Weiqing blinked, “Should I return to my original state then?”

“Hmph. No way, you better not.” Came the reply. As she said that, she continued to spread the map in her hands on the table. “Little Fatty, look, here we are.” Shangguan Bing’er pointed to a spot on the map.

As she moved her ﬁngers along, she continued saying: “If we move ahead along this line, there will be a hill region, which is covered with mass vegetation. The terrain is quite complex, and there are also Heavenly Beasts in the region. In fact, there have been rumours that Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts have appeared there. As such, that hill region has formed into a natural blockade. “In order for us to enter the Kalise Empire, there are three possible routes; a main road and two smaller paths. The military might of our three Regiments are mainly focused on holding the main road, while the smaller paths each have two Battalions guarding them respectively. Since the distance from the camps are not very far, as long as enemy troops appear, reinforcements can arrive at a quickest possible time.”

“The Kalise Empire has stationed the military strength of approximately four Regiments here, which is a larger total force than we have. Furthermore, besides our archery units, their equipment for their other units surpass ours. The four regiments are also stationed together, but similar to us, they have large amounts of patrols surrounding the hills and the paths. If we want to get through to their side, I think that it is best we take one of the smaller paths. In the night, we should be able to conceal ourselves and sneak through.”

To Shangguan Bing’er’s surprise, Zhou Weiqing started looking very carefully at the map, gesticulating at it with his hand as if he were calculating something, looking very serious and earnest.

“Little Fatty, what are you doing?” Shangguan Bing’er asked curiously. Although Zhou Weiqing was not specially handsome, but he was tall and of good stature, with broad shoulders and a broad back, his whole body ﬁlled with a sunny cheerful aura. His honest looking face was simple but pleasing to the eye. At the moment, when he was focused and serious, he seemed steady and dependable. As the saying goes, men are the most attractive when they are focused. Furthermore, Shangguan Bing’er’s innermost feelings’ of anger against him had been relatively soothed earlier today, and at this time she felt that he was not that bad after all.

“Wait a while.” Zhou Weiqing replied simply to Shangguan Bing’er, as he continued ﬁddling with the map for some time. After a while, he ﬁnally relaxed, before closing his eyes as if in deep thought. At last, he said to her: “Let’s go. As you mentioned previously, it’s better that we go by the smaller path.”

“En.” Shangguan Bing’er acquiesced. Both of them carried their Purple Dawn Bows on their backs, and brought two quivers of arrows holding 100 arrows respectively, before leaving the tent.

Shangguan Bing’er made use of her status as Battalion Commander, and using the excuse of patrolling at night, she circled the camp once before quietly sneaking out together with Zhou Weiqing. Only as they were leaving the military compound did Zhou Weiqing realise how strict the security of the campsite actually was. All along the way, there were several sentry posts visible, and even greater number of hidden guard posts as well. With her status as Battalion Commander, Shangguan Bing’er just told the guards that she was inspecting the defences, and thus they easily passed through the defense lines. In doing so, they continued heading towards the smaller path, moving on

towards the Kalise Empire’s closest military camp.

After a while, they stopped. “There are no longer any more sentry posts in front of us. Let’s get ready.” As Shangguan Bing’er said that, she unexpectedly started to strip off her armor.

Zhou Weiqing blinked, “Bing’er, that isn’t good right…” “What isn’t good?” Shangguan Bing’er asked as she removed

her chainmail and helmet, giving him a doubting look, only to see that Zhou Little Fatty had both his hands intertwined together, unexpectedly standing there drawing circles. His head was lowered, and his face also is a little red as he said: “Bing’er, are we advancing a little too quickly? Furthermore, this is in the wilderness, doing ‘ﬁeld operations’, we might catch a cold.” Three black lines appeared instantaneously over Shangguan Bing’er head, and she said in mix of embarrassment and anger: “What is your brain thinking off! Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself. How could we possibly sneak through and pull off a surprise attack on the enemy’s camp if we are dressed in armor?”

“Ehh…” Zhou Weiqing raised his head and looked, and saw that she had taken off her armor, revealing a jet black, tight ﬁtting leotard.

It’s a direct translation here, but doesn’t seem to have the right tone in english. It was more in an endearing way.

Emotional Intelligence

More of a Manhua kind of action to depict a bit of the frustrated/wronged feeling.

Lol, literal translation of 野战. Means outdoor s*x

Lol I sense his disappointment! Although Shangguan Bing’er was only 16 years old, but her body was quite well developed. Wearing that tight ﬁtting leotard accentuated her beautiful curves, causing Zhou Weiqing to gulp down large amounts of saliva, and his gaze couldn’t help but wander a little.

“Hey, what are you looking at?” Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed a little, slapping his shoulder. “You walk in front, you’re not allowed to stare.” Zhou Weiqing’s scorching gaze had made her a little ﬂurried.

Zhou Weiqing’s heart was racing, and he couldn’t help but think to himself. Such an amazingly beautiful girl, and she had already been mine? That day… why can’t I remember anything? How sad.

Under Zhou Weiqing’s control, his attribute wheel once again turned into the green area demarcating the wind attribute. His right wrist was now surrounded with the Icy Jade Physical Jewel, while his left wrist was surrounded by the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel, which had turned into a rosy hue in the night. With the boost to his speed, Zhou Weiqing started moving ahead once again at a high speed. At the same time, Shangguan Bing’er also released her Heavenly Jewels and followed behind him.

Originally, Shangguan Bing’er had thought that for such a long distance travel, Zhou Weiqing’s speed might not be sufﬁcient. Her plan was that if he was too slow, she would just have to help him along. However, when both of them had released their Heavenly Jewels and started moving at top speeds, she was surprised to ﬁnd that Zhou Weiqing’s direct linear movement speed was actually comparable to her own, a dual agility type Heavenly Jewel Master.

Since she could observe him from behind, Shangguan Bing’er quickly found the reason why. Although Zhou Weiqing’s movement was not slow, but there was still quite some difference between his maximum speed and hers.

However, the true secret behind why he could travel so fast now was actually his right leg! Every time his left leg tapped onto the ground, it was merely as a fulcrum, and his body moved at a rather normal pace. However, once his right foot touched the ground, his whole body seemed to shoot forward like an arrow. As such, although his running speed was extremely fast, it was actually with a lot of sudden bursts, and was not a constant pace. “Little Fatty, your right leg?” Shangguan Bing’er Consolidated her second Physical Jewel into her Wind Wielding Boots, and instantly a pair of green boots coalesced around her feet, allowing her to move a lot faster than Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing turned his head to look at Shangguan Bing’er who was running beside him.

He grinned and said: “Heh, isn’t is so awesome? My leg is really powerful now. It seems to be a bonus ability that came from that black pearl. Remember that time in the forest when I was suddenly struck down with my whole body in pain when I was with Company Leader Xiao, and I had to hug you for a while before I got better? After that time, my right leg seems to have evolved, and became a lot stronger.” Towards Shangguan Bing’er whom he thought of as his own lady, he naturally would not hide anything about his abilities, and he quickly described the abilities of his new leg and the training he did.

Only then did realisation strike Shangguan Bing’er. No wonder along the way he had refused to ride on his warhorse, and had instead gone on foot beside the main body of troops. It was actually to get used to his right leg. Originally, she had some qualms about this surprise attack, and was feeling nervous. After all, she thought that Zhou Weiqing’s speed was insufﬁcient to escape if things went south. However, it now seemed like her worries were for naught, and they had a higher chance of success.

A distance of three hundred li was not far for Heavenly Jewel Masters like them, and under their maximum effort, it took they about two hours to reach their target destination.

…

“Little Fatty, if we go any further, we will start reaching the enemy’s sentry posts already.” Shangguan Bing’er stopped and looked towards Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Let’s rest for a while ﬁrst, you should recover some of your Heavenly Energy as well.”

The pair looked for a hidden corner to get a rest, and to recover their Heavenly Energy. Although Zhou Weiqing’s cultivation level was much lower than Shangguan Bing’er, he had the advantage of the Immortal Deity Technique’s amazing power, which allowed him to continue absorbing Heavenly Energy from the surroundings even while running with his Jewels Activated. As such, his actual usage of Heavenly Energy was not very high, and he managed to fully recover in a short amount of time.

During the last few days of training, Zhou Weiqing had basically tested and found out the limits of the recovery speed of his Immortal Deity Technique. When he manipulated the energy whirlpools to spin at maximum speeds, it took about an hour for him to fully recover his entire depleted Heavenly Energy pool. This was a truly astonishing speed of recovery. After all, other Heavenly Jewel Masters would normally take two hours or more. This was not even counting the bonus of him being able to lower the Heavenly Energy consumption by drawing from the atmosphere while using.

…

After both of them had fully recovered their Heavenly Energy, they stood up.

“According to the news that we have received, the Kalise Empire’s sentry posts usually change shifts every four hours. It’s almost 11pm. They should be changing shifts in about an hour.” Shangguan Bing’er said. Zhou Weiqing thought about it for a bit and said: “Then let’s wait for an hour, and we can move out when they are changing shifts. If we sneak past the obvious sentry post, and launch a sneak attack on the hidden posts, with your Silent Tracking Arrow coupled with my assistance on the side, we should be able to get through without anyone discovering us. We’ll sneak through into their camp, launch a quick salvo of attacks, then retreat straight away.”

“Alright, that sounds good.” This would be the ﬁrst time that the two of them would be truly coordinating together, furthermore it was only the two of them launching the sneak attack. As such, Shangguan Bing’er was rather nervous. Taking a furtive glance at Zhou Weiqing beside her, she found that although this was also his ﬁrst time, he was clearly a lot calmer than she was, looking extremely steady. Faintly, you could see an evil light occasionally ﬂash in his eyes.

Undoubtedly, Zhou Weiqing had gotten many beneﬁts from the black pearl. At the same time, his natural disposition had also been somewhat inﬂuenced by the powerful black pearl as well. When he thought of the killing he was about to do, this newbie on the battleﬁeld did not feel any fear or nervousness, instead feeling a sense of excitement.

… One hour later, two shadowy ﬁgures started moving in the dark.

It was relatively easy to avoid the obvious sentry posts; they just needed to move swiftly and silently alongside the boundary between hills and the path, making a detour and circling around the posts, while ensuring they made no noise.

After they had detoured around two of the obvious sentry posts, Zhou Weiqing suddenly halted, grabbing hold of Shangguan Bing’er and pulling her down in a crouch. “Wait a while.”

“En?” Shangguan Bing’er quickly took down the Purple Dawn Bow from her back.

Zhou Weiqing said in a low tone: “On the left, above 50 yards ahead, there is a hidden sentry post. There are three soldiers there, I’ll sneak there. Once I’m there, you deal with the leftmost one, and I will deal with the remaining two.”

Such excellent senses! Shangguan Bing’er was secretly rather surprised. She had not been able to detect them despite her higher cultivation level, yet Zhou Weiqing had managed to do so. After all, the hillside was ﬁlled with thick brush and vegetation, making it rather difﬁcult to spot or discover anything beyond a distance of 30 yards.

After Zhou Weiqing had told Shangguan Bing’er his plan, he started to circle around the hidden sentry post and approached it silently from the side. At the same time, Shangguan Bing’er moved slowly, vaulting up a tree and moving silently from above the treetops like a green ghost. After leaping across three large trees, she ﬁnally managed to get a good vantage position to see the three dark-clothed soldiers in the hidden sentry post.

In order to not make any sound, she took a long time to draw her Purple Dawn Bow, taking aim at the leftmost soldier. Readying herself, she waited for Zhou Weiqing to take action before she did so as well.

Right at that moment, she suddenly saw a crouching ﬁgure moving at lightning speed, bounding forth like a cheetah and pouncing towards the back of the soldiers in the hidden sentry post.

In that very instance, Shangguan Bing’er felt as if there was somehow a nebulous voice of fate was directing her actions then; the call of destiny. At that moment, she released her bowstring and with a *Swoosh*, the arrow shot out. With Shangguan Bing’er’s archery skills, adding on the fact that it was a sneak attack in the night, how could an ordinary soldier possibly dodge the arrow. With a light *puff* sound, the arrow slammed into his head, piercing right through the brain. Before the leftmost soldier could give out any cry of alarm, his body moved in a crooked fashion before falling down onto the ground.

By the time the other two soldiers in the hidden sentry post realised that something was wrong, a large hand appeared around their necks respectively. An immense strength was instantly applied, smashing their faces viciously into the soil on the ground, and the sound of their neck vertebra smashing sounded out.

⼦时 – the period from 11pm-1am, in ancient China they counted the time via 时⾠ (2 hourly periods) which all had names The arrow striking and the other two sentries’ neck being caught happened nearly at the same time. In that short period of time, the three sentries of the Kalise Empire had been killed off just like that. Although it could not be said to have been totally silent, but the light sounds which had arisen were hidden by the various insect noises in the forest. Their coordination had been perfect for their ﬁrst time working together, and was indeed astonishing.

Without doubt, the one who had pounced from behind to ﬁnish off the two sentries was naturally Zhou Weiqing. What he had done was actually rather simple, circling behind the sentry post, and with the power of his right leg, he had leapt forth in an amazing burst of speed to grab hold of both sentries’ necks. Before they could react and make any sound, he had smashed their heads into the ground and broken their necks. His Physical Jewel was after all that of strength – let alone the weaker neck vertebra, he could probably even break the thicker thigh bone if he wanted to.

However, even he had not imagined that Shangguan Bing’er would have such a perfect understanding and coordination with him. He had originally prepared his right leg in advance. If Shangguan Bing’er’s arrow had been late, he would sweep his leg forth to kill the leftmost soldier; even if that would create a disturbance, he had to risk it.

The feeling in his hands as the bones shattered, coupled with the sound, and the feeling of the life in his hands ebbing away caused a hint of bloodlust to ﬁll Zhou Weiqing’s eyes. This was his ﬁrst time killing someone, and it was at such a personal, close range, and yet his inner heart was trembling with an inexplicable excitement.

He lifted his hand and gave a big thumbs up towards Shangguan Bing’er hidden in the distance. He then casually plucked out the arrow from the leftmost sentry’s head, wiping it clean of all bloodstains on their clothes, before heading back to rejoin her.

“Bing’er, that was timely! That’s three in total.” As he said that, Zhou Weiqing stuck the arrow back into Shangguan Bing’er’s quiver.

Shangguan Bing’er closed her eyes, a look of compassion ﬂashing through her face, as she seemed a little unable to bear it. Luckily, she had killed from a distance, otherwise the pain from killing someone might have been even more obvious. Zhou Weiqing patted her back comfortingly, saying: “Being kind to an enemy is being cruel to yourself. Think of all our soldiers who died, who were injured. Every Kalise Empire soldier who dies, is almost equal to saving one of our Heavenly Bow Empire’s soldiers. Anyway, we have to go now.”

“En.” Shangguan Bing’er braced herself, thinking to herself. How can I be inferior to Zhou Little Fatty who is younger than me? He hasn’t even reached fourteen years of age yet Right?

Very quickly, Zhou Weiqing managed to ﬁnd a second hidden sentry post. The sentries who were in charge of the sentry posts were usually elite light infantry soldiers who had also been trained as scouts. Amongst the ordinary infantry soldiers, they were outstanding. However, in front of two Heavenly Jewel Masters, they were frail and delicate.

Perhaps it was because Shangguan Bing’er had helped Zhou Weiqing to Awaken his Heavenly Jewels by being Sacriﬁce, and in the process forging a connection between them. The two of them had a stunning level of cooperation and tacit understanding between them; with Shangguan Bing’er focusing on long ranged attacks and Zhou Weiqing focusing on close combat. Hidden sentry posts fell one after the other as they continued forth. When they ﬁnally tore through and got past all the sentry posts of the Kalise Empire, they had already killed 34 sentries from the various hidden sentry posts. Of that, the majority had been slain by Zhou Weiqing.

As they lay down hidden in the darkness, watching the enemy camp from a distance, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er both took the opportunity to recover their expended Heavenly Energy.

“Little Fatty, what do you have planned?” After a full night of cooperating in battle, the two of them were getting more coordinated and in tune with each other. Strangely enough, the one having the dominating and leadership role was not the Two-Jewelled Shangguan Bing’er, instead with Zhou Weiqing shouldering the responsibility.

Shangguan Bing’er realised that as soon as Zhou Weiqing entered the forest, it was like a ﬁsh entering water. He took care of many minute details in such a way that she found impossible, and his unbelievably strong senses were able to easily detect enemies from incomparable distances. This was the main reason why they had managed to always get the upper hand against their enemies thus far, and the reason why they had managed to sneak through the whole enemy lines and reach the military camp without any issues. Zhou Weiqing asked Shangguan Bing’er to take out her map once again, and with the pale moonlight as a light source, he examined the map and pointed at where they were: “Look here, this is our target’s position. Although the enemy camp has quite a few patrolling soldiers, but at the moment is already past the 1am mark, and is the time when humans are easily tired. In a moment, I will be in charge of launching a sneak attack upon them, and you can cover me in case anything goes wrong.”

“However, once we start the attack, we cannot return via the route we came. Instead, I think we should go via this route instead. I have examined all possible routes carefully earlier, and chosen it. Returning back to base via this route will allow us to reduce the distance by almost 50 li. Furthermore, you mentioned that the patch of forested hills that this route takes is populated by Heavenly Beasts, this will help in greatly deterring pursuit when we are making our escape too.”

To Shangguan Bing’er’s surprise, as Zhou Weiqing pointed out his chosen route on the map, his ﬁnger swiftly moved across the map and pointed to the various positions extremely accurately, showing also an especially ﬁrm grasp upon the distance to cover. The new route of retreat that he was pointing out was not a direct straight line, but instead curved and swerved a lot, but ensuring that the distance travelled would be the minimum, with also fewer obstructions while still trying to keep as far from the Kalise Empire’s campsites as possible. Clearly, this was what he had been calculating when he was holding the map before they had left earlier.

“Bing’er, are you listening to me?” Zhou Weiqing waved his hand in front of her dazed eyes.

Shangguan Bing’er gave him a rather complicated look, thinking to herself: So, it turns out that you are actually really a genius. Even if you did not Awaken your Heavenly Jewels, you should be able to become an outstanding commander.

“I’m listening. However, what happens if we meet a Heavenly Beast blocking our way instead? With our current cultivation levels, even the weakest Shi Stage Heavenly Beast will give us a lot of problems, and will deﬁnitely be extremely dangerous for us to face. Heavenly Beasts have their own unique skills and talents, which are extremely strong. Most of these Heavenly Beasts have a very strong sense of territory, and as soon as we enter their territory, they will not hesitate to attack us.”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said conﬁdently: “You do not have to worry about that part, I have it all planned out. Haven’t you always wanted to know why it is so easily for me to Store Skills in my Elemental Jewels? Let me tell you the reason now. The black pearl that I swallowed should be the Neidan of a huge winged black tiger, and this black tiger’s aura seems to cause most creatures to feel fear, and Heavenly Beasts are no different. My Skills were all Stored from Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts, and are all mostly Control-type Skills. However, during the Skill Storing process, none of them actually resisted at all.

Although it can be said that it is also due to the fact that they have all been sealed, but it is clear that the aura from my body has deﬁnitely affected them in a large way. If we meet any Heavenly Beasts, as long as we do not attack them ﬁrst, they should leave us alone once they sense the aura emitting from me.”

“Furthermore, the reason why I chose the route is basically because it is on the relative edges of the forested hills. In general, the stronger the Heavenly Beast, the more it will prefer to have its territory in a central position. As such, we shouldn’t meet any overly strong Heavenly Beasts. As for meeting with Shi Stage Heavenly Beasts, even if my plan doesn’t work, with our speed, it should not be too difﬁcult for us to just escape. With this as a double insurance, I have deemed that this should be our safest route of retreat.”

Shangguan Bing’er nodded, looking convinced, and said: “Alright, let’s follow your plan.” In the darkness of the night, she did not realise that the red bloodlust in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes was getting stronger. Even Zhou Weiqing himself did not realise that his emotions were starting to get increasingly affected by this sense of bloodlust.

Great strength was often accompanied by great risk. Just like the great risk that accompanied the Immortal Deity Technique when breaking through Death Acupuncture Points, the black pearl’s side effects were slowly showing themselves upon Zhou Weiqing.

A short while later, the duo had recovered their Heavenly Energy to their maximum capacity, and Zhou Weiqing gave Shangguan Bing’er a predesignated hand signal as he stealthily moved ahead.

The Kalise Empire Army Camp’s main entrance was rather wide, almost 40 metres wide, ensuring that if there was any large scale military movement, the troops would be able to leave the camp easily. To both sides of gates, there each stood a 20 metre tall watchtower, while the borders of the camp were surrounded by many bright lamps, ﬂickering in the wind, illuminating the entire camp. On each of the watchtowers, there stood an archer sentry posted to keep guard at night. As long as they spotted anything untoward, they could ring the gongs at the top of the watchtowers to sound off the alarm and alert the patrolling soldiers for quick response. At this point, Shangguan Bing’er was hidden about 500 yards from the Kalise Empire’s main camp. Her right hand’s little ﬁnger and ring ﬁnger were grasping an arrow, while in between her index ﬁnger and ring ﬁnger was another. Her Purple Dawn Bow was drawn slowly with the arrow between

her index and ring ﬁngers nocked, ready and aiming towards the one of the Watchtowers in the distance.

Zhou Weiqing was steadily closing in on the Kalise Empire campsite, and he was gradually running out of cover to hide behind. In that instance, Shangguan Bing’er’s Purple Dawn Bow moved.

“Swoosh* *Swoosh* Two sounds softly rang out, and two arrows shot out almost right after the other. When shooting forth these two arrows, she had used a rather ingenious little trick, using a slightly varying strength when shooting both arrows, with the second arrow having a little more strength than the ﬁrst. By doing so, both arrows actually struck their targets at the same time. To ensure a one hit kill at such a distance, Shangguan Bing’er had used her Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy to boost the power of the shots.

*Puff* *Puff* Another two light sounds rang out. Even at such a range, both arrows slammed into the heads of the sentries, one directly hitting the Taiyang Acupuncture Point and piercing through, while the other struck right smack in the mouth and piercing through into the brain. Although the explosive power of the Wind Attribute was not very strong, but to a soft target like the brains, it was still extremely terrifying. Without much sound, their bodies crumpled to the ground of the watchtowers.

As this was happening, Zhou Weiqing also burst forth instantaneously, circulating his Heavenly Energy to the max. The distance of 300 yards was cleared in ﬁve bounds, and seizing the opportunity that there weren’t any patrols about, his right leg slammed onto the ground. With the formidable strength of his right foot, he was able to leap up ﬁve metres, jumping over the fence of the entrance, and he leapt his way up one of the watchtowers like a leopard.

In the distance, Shangguan Bing’er’s heart was in her throat as she nocked another arrow to her drawn bow, ready to support Zhou Weiqing at any time.

The plan was a success. When Zhou Weiqing ascended the watchtower, he still had not been discovered by any enemies. He felt like his heart was racing, the palpitations quickly increasing as his excitement grew. Including the two archers on the watchtower, they had already killed 36 people this night, and were just 60 away from their goal of revenge. Zhou Weiqing took a deep breath as he looked down from the watchtower deeper into the camp. Due to the lights from the lanterns, he was able to get a good look of it with such a panoramic view.

The Kalise Empire Camp and the Heavenly Bow Empire camps were actually rather similar; with Heavy Infantry being 10 men to a tent, while the light infantry were 30 people to a tent. Zhou Weiqing did not have any particular ﬁxed target, and after some careful observation, he found a target to lock on.

He had after all just joined the army not long ago, and he was not very familiar with the situation in military camps. Furthermore, due to the limitation on the amount of Heavenly Energy he had, he only had one chance to strike before he had to withdraw. After all, he had to retain enough Heavenly Energy to beat a retreat. As such, his choice of target was one of the largest tents. That tent was actually almost a whole kilometer away from the watchtower he was in, but it was brilliantly illuminated and was actually being patrolled by an entire company of soldiers, and was obviously a very important place. That’s it. Zhou Weiqing lifted his right hand, and the sole Icy Jade Physical Jewel around his right wrist shone forth brightly, as he released his Overlord Bow quickly. At the same time, the attribute wheel in his eye revolved to the blue region, and immediately above his left hand sparked out a rich electrical

light.

Amongst all of Zhou Weiqing’s Stored Skills, among the six attributes, he only had a single attack skill, and it was of the lightning attribute…

It’s a sign?

It’s in the genes!

Chapter 22 – Sharing Life and Death

As the Overlord Bow formed amidst a cloud of icy mist, Zhou Weiqing shifted it to his left hand, his arm holding steady as he lifted it up. At that time, the rose coloured Alexandrite Cat’s Eye around his left wrist could clearly be seen to be surrounded by bright crackling blue electricity.

As Zhou Weiqing focused his will, the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel quietly moved and slid into the socket on the Overlord Bow. Instantly, the misty white bow turned into a brilliant blue, even down to the bowstring. Zhou Weiqing felt a sense of numbness in his body as if he were being given a minor electric shock, as bolts of electricity crackled around his wrist, and ﬂowing towards the body of the bow in a brilliant light.

“Who’s there?!” A sudden loud shout came from below, followed by hurried footsteps from the distance heading towards the watchtower.

Now that Zhou Weiqing was standing high up on the watchtower to have a good view, it also meant that others would be able to spot him easily. Normally, the dark of the night would be sufﬁcient cover for him. However, now that he was preparing to use his Elemental and Physical Jewel Fusion Technique, causing the Overlord Bow to glow so brightly, how could he not be seen?

Taking in a deep breath, with the four energy whirlpools at his Death Acupuncture Points spinning at full speed, he slowly drew back the extremely tough bowstring of the Overlord Bow. The Stars Wood body of the arrow he was nocking at this point was actually affected, and turned into a piercing blue colour.

As Zhou Weiqing drew the Overlord Bow, he felt as though his entire body had a strong suction force on his surroundings. The force seemed to draw in the Lightning energy from the surroundings, and the sheer destructive force of it seemed to be a primed explosive ready to blow up at any second.

The patrolling soldiers were now charging over. Alas for them, there weren’t any archers amongst the patrolling soldiers, and they could only climb up the watchtower as fast as they could.

The Overlord Bow stretched to its limit, its bright light reﬂecting and contrasting with the moonlight and starlight in the skies. Shangguan Bing’er could see everything clearly from the distance, and with Zhou Weiqing perched vulnerably atop the the watchtower, she did not stay idle. Shooting forth arrow after arrow from a long distance, she was picking off the soldiers individually as they attempted to climb up the watchtower to get to him.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang* The piercing sound of an alarm gong rang out, and the entire Kalise Empire camp was instantly roused up, this campsite of several tens of thousands of soldiers riled up in a mess due to just Zhou Weiqing alone.

Right at that moment, an immense roar that shook everyone’s soul rang out suddenly. The entire sky was ﬁlled with a immense bolt of blue lightning, so very clear in the pitch black night. Like a descending meteor, the blue lightning bolt ﬂew right straight into the midst of the Kalise Empire Camp.

Zhou Weiqing did not even look at the results of his strike, as he swiftly shot three more ordinary arrows to pick off the climbing soldiers, then with his right foot stamping hard onto the watchtower ﬂoor, he launched himself into the air.

*BANG——* The explosion that rang out ﬁrst was from the bolt of blue lightning. Although the target was a kilometer away, the power and speed of the arrow shot from the Overlord Bow was just too terrifying. In the ensuing violent blast, the large tent a kilometer away which Zhou Weiqing had targeted instantly exploded with a deafening sound. If one were to observe from above, the tent’s explosion causing a ring of blue light to spread out from the ground zero of the explosion. Flames sprang forth and screams and cries were heard.

It was quickly followed by four smaller explosions, three of which were caused by the latter three arrows Zhou Weiqing ﬁred. He did not even bother aiming, and just shot them into where there were more soldiers massed. With the explosive effect of the Overlord Bow, even though Zhou Weiqing did not make use of any Elemental Jewel skills, the arrows were still extremely deadly, exploding right in the midst of all the incoming Kalise soldiers and causing at least ten or so casualties per strike.

As for the last rumbling sound, it was actually due to Zhou Weiqing destroying the watchtower. The ﬂoor of the top part of the watchtower actually disintegrated as he stomped hard onto it, while he made use of the opposing force to launch himself away.

By this time, Shangguan Bing’er had already stood up in the distance, the Purple Dawn Bow in her hands launching out arrows unceasingly, wielding the Rapid Fire skill to its maximum possibility. In that short amount of time, she had shot forth more than 30 arrows, single-handedly suppressing the soldiers from chasing Zhou Weiqing.

“Let’s go!” Zhou Weiqing charged forth and signaled to Shangguan Bing’er. Both of them immediately turned and ﬂed at top speed, not even looking back.

At this moment, ten ﬁgures ﬂew ahead from the Kalise Army, and one of them could be heard shouting: “The granary is burning! Xiao Ye Ye, go and organize a team to put out the ﬁres and save as much as you can! The rest of you, follow me. We must not allow them to escape!”

The person who spoke was naturally the 9th Prince of the Kalise Empire, Bai Jiu, and the ten other ﬁgures were the other Jewel Masters in the camp. No one could possibly be in a good mood after being awakened from deep sleep suddenly, not to mention being startled awake in fear. Bai Jiu’s tent was rather close to the large tent that was Zhou Weiqing’s target, and the immense explosion had not only given him such a huge shock that he was awakened, but he had even wet his pants. As a result, he was angered so much that his face turned pale, and he had quickly changed his pants and rushed out, leading the Jewel Masters to give chase crazily. “Little Fatty, what was that skill you used just now? Why was there such a massive effect?” Shangguan Bing’er asked curiously as they ran along in retreat. Even though she was so far away, the immense explosion had given her a shock.

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh, I have successfully completed Storing all the Skills for my ﬁrst Elemental Jewel. Remember that arrow which saved your life? That was using the Darkness Skill, named ‘Touch of Darkness’, and you have already seen how it is compatible with the Overlord Bow’s fusion technique.”

“The one that I used today is the only attacking skill I have, and I managed to get it from a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast that I do not know the name of, and was found in the last door which have various unknown or mutated Heavenly Beast. The skill name is called ‘Lightning Explosive Palm’, and is originally a strong melee skill. However, when used together with the Overlord Bow, it actually has an impressive change. Just think, the ‘Lightning Explosive Palm’ has a strong explosive effect of its own coupled with the lightning attribute. The explosive effect of my Overlord Bow compounds it, and with this double explosive effect, how can it not have a huge explosion?

“Alas, with the limited Heavenly Energy that I have, I can only use a single fusion technique no matter which skill I use. If not, I would repeatedly ﬁre skills and wreak havoc on them.”

Listening to his words, a cold thrill ran through Shangguan Bing’er’s heart. She knew that if she fought with Zhou Weiqing in a one versus one battle now, he would likely lose to her. After all, she had a huge advantage in terms of amount of Heavenly Energy, and also had the boost of an additional set of Heavenly Jewels. However, she could just imagine once Zhou Weiqing cultivated more and got sufﬁcient energy to sustain all his skills, that would be extremely terrifying. With the advantage he had from having multiple elemental attributes, he did not even need to cooperate with anyone, and could just do so himself by combining skills with synergy. Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh, isn’t that awesome! I named the two fusion skills too. ‘Overlord Binding Arrow’ and ‘Overlord Lightning Explosive Arrow’.”

Shangguan Bing’er said curiously: “What are your other skills then?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “I was unable to ﬁnd an Evil Alignment Heavenly Beast to Store Skills, but it seems like my Elemental Jewel somehow came originally with the Evil Alignment Skill Stored within already. As for Wind Attribute, I have Stored the ‘Fetters of Wind’ Skill, and for the Spatial Attribute, it is the ‘Blink’ Skill.”

“Fetters of Wind?! Blink?!” Shangguan Bing’er cried out in surprise. The two skill names were like extremely famous and she had deﬁnitely heard of them before. After all, they were high quality skills that could only be obtained from Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts! One was a Control Type Skill, while the other was an extremely formidable life saving skill. These high quality skills were extremely hard to store, and in general only Zong Level Jewel Masters would be able to even try. Adding on to that those Skills she hadn’t even heard of, like the ‘Touch of Darkness’, ‘Lightning Explosive Palm’, down to the unknown Evil Attribute Skill. Perhaps because Zhou Weiqing was only at the ﬁrst set of Jewels, his strength was not obvious yet. However, the more he cultivated, the more those skills would grow and evolve together with him. In the future, when he reached the Zong Level and got his 6th set of Heavenly Jewels…

As she thought up to this point, there was only one phrase left in Shangguan Bing’er’s mind to describe him: Absolutely Terrifying.

“Little Fatty, you shouldn’t have told me. To us Heavenly Jewel Masters, our Elemental Jewel Skills are our greatest secrets. Furthermore, your skills are all so strong. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.” Shangguan Bing’er said apologetically.

Zhou Weiqing laughed and said: “Keeping a secret is against outsiders. Why would I need to keep secrets from you?” Just as he ﬁnished his sentence, he suddenly grabbed Shangguan Bing’er, and pounced onto her, dropping them both to the ground. Because of the sheer sudden motion, both of them rolled for a distance. In that instance when he pounced onto her, a Silent Arrow ﬂew past right where they had been and disappeared into the darkness. “It’s that fellow again. Zhou Weiqing immediately identiﬁed the attacker. No matter archery skills or cultivation level, this person was higher than them. That Silent Arrow was really just so hateful.

By the time he had jumped off from the watchtowers earlier, he only had about 20% of his Heavenly Energy remaining. Even with the energy whirlpools at his four Death Acupuncture Points spinning at top speed, he had only recovered a little, and was still far from being able to use his Overlord Bow.

As Shangguan Bing’er rolled on the ground, she had already released her Consolidated Equipment the Silent Tracking Arrow. As soon as she stabilized, she drew the Purple Dawn Bow and let loose, sending the Silent Tracking Arrow forth into the distance.

To the two of them, what posed the greatest threat was the Silent Arrow of Bai Jiu. Although some of the other Kalise Jewel Masters might actually be stronger than Bai Jiu, in terms of speed they could not compare to him. Not only was his ﬁring rate extremely quick, the Silent Arrow was even deadlier in the dark of the night. With his harassment, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er were unable to ﬂee at their maximum speed. Shangguan Bing’er’s Silent Tracking Arrow ﬂew in a straight beeline towards Bai Jiu. However, Bai Jiu just reacted calmly, the fourth Jewel on his wrist shining forth with a sudden brilliance, a pale green round shield which seemed rather light appeared in front of him. With a loud clanging sound, it

blocked the SIlent Tracking Arrow.

The ten or so Jewel Masters who had followed Bai Jiu in pursuing them were mostly 3 to 4 Jewelled, but there were two 5-Jewelled Jewel Masters. Alas, the two 5-Jewelled Jewelled Masters were not agility or speed based, although they were strong, but they were still not in range yet. Only 5 Speed/Agility based Jewel Masters were still able to keep up with Bai Jiu at this point.

Shangguan Bing’er did not hesitate at all; after ﬁring her arrow, she started running once again together with Zhou Weiqing, constantly making use of the trees and the brush around as cover.

Bai Jiu kept close pursuit. Ignoring everything else, just the fact that he had been scared into pissing his pants was stoking the ﬂames of his rage. That was just too humiliating. Even though he had wet his bed til 10 years old, but hadn’t he not done so for 10 years? If he didn’t take revenge, how could he call himself a man? Furthermore, he had instantly recognized Shanggang Bing’er, and knew this was a great opportunity for them to kill her. Unfortunately, his teacher had not arrived yet, otherwise…

Just comparing speeds alone, Shangguan Bing’er was a dual agility Heavenly Jewel Master, while Zhou Weiqing had his mysterious Demonic Right Leg. Both of their speeds could be considered extremely impressive. However, the problem was that their cultivation level was just too low, with a single set and two sets of Heavenly Jewels respectively, with Shangguan Bing’er’s Heavenly Energy only at the 8th level Heavenly Jing Stage.

On the other hand, for those who were chasing them, even if their speed boosts were lower, but they had the advantage of having a higher cultivation level, as they had at least broken through the Heavenly Shen Energy stage. With such additional boosts, their speed was no lower than Zhou Weiqing or Shangguan Bing’er.

As the chase continued, arrows were exchanged constantly. Although Shangguan Bing’er and Zhou Weiqing managed to occasionally retaliate with some arrows, the 3-4 Jewelled Jewel Masters basically all had life-saving skills. Despite succeeding in injuring some, but it was mostly minor injuries, and Bai Jiu continued leading the chase on, and were in fact slowly gaining ground.

The only relatively good news for the pair was that Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy had mostly recovered. When he ran, most of his speed burst came from the Demonic Right Leg, thus allowing him to save a lot of Heavenly Energy. Coupled with the insane regeneration rate of the Immortal Deity Technique, he had already regained another 70% of his Heavenly Energy in just the hour they had been ﬂeeing.

Right at this moment, right ahead of them at a relatively close distance, a low roar suddenly sounded out. A pair of ghostly green eyes appeared in their vision.

Shangguan Bing’er cried out in startlement: “It’s a Forest Direwolf! They are one of the most dangerous and troublesome amongst all the Shi Stage Heavenly Beasts. Although their individual strength are not very strong, but they run in packs. Meeting them now, this is going to be a problem.”

“Climb a tree!” Zhou Weiqing made a snap decision. Wolves generally did not have the ability to climb trees, and when facing them, climbing up a tree was generally the best choice. Of course, these Forest Direwolves were Heavenly Beasts, and you couldn’t always judge them by the abilities of normal wolves.

“Wuuuuuu ——’ A loud wolf’s howl sounded out, and whizzing sounds appeared all around. In that moment of chaos, no one could tell how many Forest Direwolves appeared all of a sudden, charging forth and gathering to this point.

These Forest Direwolves did not all charge forth brainlessly. It seemed as if they had prepared for this and knew how to coordinate; some were charging in from the front, while others ﬂanking from the side. They did not just surround Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er, but also the 6 enemies who were chasing them from behind.

“F***!” Bai Jiu couldn’t help but curse in repressed anger and despair. “Hurry up! We have to ﬁnish them off before the direwolves completely surround us! Remember, do not attack those damn direwolves! If any of them are injured, they will never give up hunting us to the death.” Although chasing and kill Shangguan Bing’er was important, but how could it compare to his own life! Bai Jiu immediately turned and ran.

Decided to chose a ‘tamer’ name in the end Naturally, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er did not have the time to care about the fate of the Kalise Jewel Masters. The Forest Direwolves had successfully cut off their escape route, and the two of them were now trapped in the large tree they had climbed.

Zhou Weiqing drew his Purple Dawn Bow and was about to test the defence of one of the Forest Direwolves, but was quickly stopped by Shangguan Bing’er. “No! Don’t shoot them. These Forest Direwolves are very good at holding grudges. As long as you injure or kill one of their own kind, then we will be in deep trouble. Wait a while, perhaps they might give up and leave.”

Right at this point, below their tree, there were many Forest Direwolves gathered and milling around. Zhou Weiqing was also ﬁnally able to see their features in the moonlight.

These Forest Direwolves’ bodies were around 1.5 metres long, and were entirely greenish grey in colour. Their pair of ghostly green eyes were particularly prominent, but the most obvious trait was the collar of green fur standing up on its back. Their movements were extremely fast, and they were currently jumping around at the bottom of the tree. However, they were also very organised; besides few which had broken off to chase Bai Jiu and the rest of the Kalise Jewel Masters, there were still at least a hundred of the Forest Direwolves gathered around the tree.

Zhou Weiqing came up with a quick idea, and started circulating his Heavenly Energy slowly into his right leg, and instantly he felt the explosive power gather in his leg. Without looking, he knew that the black tattoos would deﬁnitely be back on his leg.

He was very clear that the aura of the black pearl would have a restraining effect on Heavenly Beasts. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to control the aura, and the only way he could currently think of was to make use of the black tattoos that appeared once he circulated his Heavenly Energy into his Demonic Right Leg.

Zhou Weiqing’s test was rather successful; when his Heavenly Energy circulated to his right leg, an invisible aura extended out. All of a sudden, the direwolves below which had been restlessly moving around suddenly froze and started moving backwards, whimpering, their glowing green eyes showing they were on their guard. Zhou Weiqing beamed and said: “Yes, it worked! When these bastard wolves retreat, we can head back through the small path.”

Right at this moment, a sudden resonant wolf howl rang out, and in a ﬂash of green light, it seemed as if the whole forest was lit up.

It was an extremely huge Forest Direwolf with a body of almost 3 metres in length. The strangest thing was its fur, which wasn’t greenish grey like the ordinary direwolves, but a very bright green, as if its huge body was entirely carved out of jade. Its pair of cold eyes glowed with a dim red light, and it was covered in a shimmering green aura.

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er exchanged helpless looks: “This wouldn’t be a Direwolf King right?”

Shangguan Bing’er’s gorgeous face turned pale: “It really is a Direwolf King! Gods! It is a Zun Stage Heavenly Beast. Not to mention us, even 4 or 5-Jewelled Jewel Masters would have problems dealing with it!”

“Wuuuu——” Another loud howl issued out as the Direwolf King looked atop the tree, a anxious and doubtful expression on its face. It could sense the menacing aura from Zhou Weiqing. However, it did not have any sign of retreating, instead taking several careful steps forward.

Zhou Weiqing was after all still young and inexperienced, and he had made an error in judgement. The main reason why he dared to bring Shangguan Bing’er to brave the forests where the Heavenly Beasts lived was the courage brought to him by the Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts’ submission when he was Storing Skills. In his mind, if even Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts were afraid of the aura he emitted, how could there be any issues with entering the forest?

Alas, things would not be as simple as he had imagined. Indeed, those Zong Stage Heavenly Beasts had submitted to him when he was Storing Skills, and did not resist at all. He had guessed correctly that it was mainly due to the aura he emitted, but what he did not factor in was that they were all not only sealed, but also extremely weakened. In such a weakened state coupled with being sealed, the aura from the black pearl that Zhou Weiqing emitted indeed held a rather unique power that frightened them. All of that combined to cause them to fear him, bringing the unique scene of their submission to Zhou Weiqing and allowing him to succeed in Skill Storing. However, the Direwolf King in front of them was very different. Although it was only at the Zun Stage, it was deﬁnitely the Lord of this section of the jungle. Though the aura from Zhou Weiqing was terrifying, but it still didn’t feel overbearingly strong. An ordinary Forest Direwolf would have retreated from fear, but as a Direwolf King, its pride would not allow it to just retreat like that. At least, not without Zhou Weiqing proving he had the strength that was worthy of its fear.

As the Direwolf King howled out loud, the hundred or so Forest Direwolves which had been backing away stopped doing so, resuming their encircling positions around the tree where Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er were.

Women are usually timid by nature, and Shangguan Bing’er subconsciously clutched Zhou Weiqing’s hands. “Little Fatty, what do we do now?”

The expression on Zhou Weiqing’s face was very ugly now; he was the one who had came up with the idea, and brought Shangguan Bing’er here as a changed escape route. In fact, even the whole idea of the night’s sneak attack was his plan. There was no such thing as a medicine for curing regret, and he could tell that the Forest Direwolves were about to launch their attack. At this moment, the memory of his father rose up in his mind, telling him sternly: “Men cannot be afraid of committing mistakes. But once you do so, you must face up to your mistake bravely, and take responsibility.”

Turning his head to look at Shangguan Bing’er, he saw her frightened look and the despair in her eyes. Reaching out with his left hand, he softly wrapped her in his arms, embracing her and kissing her rather cold forehead softly.

“I’m sorry, Bing’er. This is all my fault. No matter what, I will ensure your safety. I will cause a distraction and draw their attention, you run from the side and head down the path, and you should reach back to the main path in around 10 li.”

“Little Fatty, you…” Shangguan Bing’er’s vision blurred. Was this really the Zhou Little Fatty who feared death so much?

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly, taking off the quiver, taking out the arrows within and placing them in Shangguan Bing’er’s quiver. He then took off his Purple Dawn Bow and hung it on a branch.

Looking at his gentle but ﬁrm actions, the look in Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes began to change gradually. She did not try to stop him, and just watched him silently. However, in that instance, her heart had already afﬁrmed him; this was her man. No matter how or why the danger had came about, but when it came, this man who was usually so afraid of death was willing to sacriﬁce his own life for hers. That was enough, truly enough.

In that very instance, the Direwolf King howled once again, and green light emitted from all the various Forest Direwolves, joining together and coalescing together. As Wind Aligned Heavenly Beasts, though these common Forest Direwolves were just at an ordinary Shi Stage, they all had the basic Wind Blades skill. With at least a hundred of these Forest Direwolves using Wind Blades at the same time, without question, the huge tree which Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er was perched on would soon be shredded into pieces. “I might be afraid of death, but I will still protect my woman. When men die, their ‘bird’ has to be facing the sky, otherwise, they will live in shame for a long time. I’ll ﬁght to the end!” Zhou Weiqing’s foot tapped upon the tree branch and his whole body pounced downwards. He deﬁnitely would not allow the Forest Direwolves to destroy the large tree where Shangguan Bing’er was hiding.

As his body leapt forth from the large tree, the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye on his left write shone forth with a deep black as his attribute wheel spun to the black area.

The ‘Touch of Darkness’ instantly spread out, the tentacles reaching out towards the Forest Direwolves below, as he circulated his Heavenly Energy to the maximum, putting forth his aura to its full range…

The Forest Direwolves which had been gathering their power together were instantly scattered around in a mess. With the exception of the Direwolf King, all of them were frightened by the sudden increase in aura, the aura of the King of Beasts.

12 black lights ﬂashed out, almost instantly ﬁnding 12 Forest Direwolves close by. With an almost plaintive howl, they were quickly bound by the strong control effect of the Touch of Darkness, and brought together.

At almost the same time, Zhou Weiqing came descending from above, his right leg lifted up high and slamming down with all his considerable might.

With a *Puff* sound, three of the twelve bound Forest Direwolves were struck by his sweeping leg. Instantly, their supposedly tough bodies split apart just like a watermelon, and blood spurted out everywhere, covering Zhou Weiqing all over.

Feeling the stench of fresh blood, the red in Zhou Weiqing’s eyes thickened as bloodlust overtook him. His conﬁdence rose, and with a ﬂash of his body, he had spun to the side. He needed to charge forth as far as he could with all his effort and lure all the Forest Direwolves away, to allow Shangguan Bing’er some breathing room. As she had mentioned earlier, as long as he injured or killed these Forest Direwolves, they would seek revenge upon him til either side was dead. Since that is so, come on!

With Zhou Weiqing’s current level of power, unless he used his Overlord Bow, it should be hard for him to actually kill these Forest Direwolves in a one versus one ﬁght. However, the strength of his Demonic Right Leg was just too overpowering, and he actually managed to kill three in one single blow.

Just as Zhou Weiqing landed his blow, a cold light shot down from the tree. With a loud *swoosh*, it drilled right through the eye of one of the bound Forest Direwolves. A pained cry ensued, as it struggled in its death throes.

“You fool! What are you doing?!” Although Zhou Weiqing was in the midst of running, with his powerful senses, how could he possibly miss that arrow? How could she shoot an arrow at this time?! She should have waited for him to draw away these damn direwolves before making her escape!

Shangguan Bing’er did not reply him. At this time, she could only feel the warmth on her forehead that Zhou Weiqing had left behind.

You foolish Little Fatty, even you who are so afraid of death, have the courage to charge into the direwolves to save my life. How could I possibly abandon you and run off on my own? If we must die today, then let’s die together. Since you were willing to sacriﬁce yourself for me, I will not feel wronged to die together with you. With such a feeling fortifying her heart, Shangguan Bing’er was no longer afraid. Every arrow she shot out was infused with Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, and her Purple Dawn Bow ﬁred repeatedly like lightning, and in a blink of an eye, she had slain ﬁve of the bound Forest Direwolves.

It was normally very difﬁcult for an archer to hit these Forest Direwolves, as they were Wind Attribute Heavenly Beasts known for their speed. However, with the bindings from the Touch of Darkness, it was much easier, and within that short period of time, the duo had actually ﬁnished off eight.

At this moment, the Direwolf King suddenly moved, and over thirty of the Forest Direwolves also spat out the Wind Blades they had been charging, aimed towards the large tree where Shangguan Bing’er was.

In the direction where Zhou Weiqing had leapt towards, the ordinary Forest Direwolves subconsciously retreated due to the aura from him. However, right in that instant, Zhou Weiqing felt a blur in front of him, and the huge Direwolf King appeared all of a sudden just 10 yards ahead of him; that speed was even faster than Shangguan Bing’er when she was using her Wind Wielding Boots! This Direwolf King’s intelligence was rather high, and it was very wary about Zhou Weiqing’s aura as well as his Demonic Right Leg. As such, it chose not to move into close combat with Zhou Weiqing, and instead shot forth twelve green Wind Blade from its body, spreading out like a beautiful and deadly green ﬂower, slicing forth at Zhou Weiqing from many different angles.

Dammit, twelve Wind Blades! Is this the power of a Zun Stage Heavenly Beast? An immense pressure fell upon Zhou Weiqing as the unbelievably quick Wind Blades swiftly reached him at the different angles, and it seemed like it was a hopeless situation for him!

The Direwolf King’ Wind Blades were each about one metre long, and as they spread out in a fan shape, the sharp shrill sound of them slicing through the air was bone chilling. Zhou Weiqing had no doubts that these Wind Blades would be able to dismember him, and more.

The strength of having multiple-skills in his Alexandrite Cat’s Eye showed itself at this point, and in a quick, silver ﬂash, Zhou Weiqing vanished from his original position just as the twelve Wind Blades swept across the air where he had been standing. In the next moment, he had not retreated but instead Blinked and appeared 3 yards closer to the Direwolf King. At the same time, he raised his left hand once again, and another green ﬂash lit up as he activated his Fetters of Wind.

This could be said to be Zhou Weiqing going all out! Facing the threat of death, saving his Heavenly Energy was the last thing on his mind.

As expected, the Direwolf King’s body froze, bound instantly by the Fetters of Wind. With a huge lunge, Zhou Weiqing closed the gap, his right leg striking out towards the Direwolf King’s head.

Alas, just as his right leg was about to hit the Direwolf King, with a green ﬂash it had dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding his leg.

The Fetters of Wind did not work? Zhou Weiqing was in shock. After all, amongst all his Skills, the Fetters of Wind was the strongest in terms of control ability.

In actual fact, the Fetters of Wind did not fail him, instead its duration had been shortened considerably. After all, the Direwolf King was a Wind Attribute Heavenly Beast itself, and had a very strong resistance against Wind Attribute Skills. Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing’s true strength was not even on the same level as the Direwolf King. Even if it was considered one of the weakest of all the Zun Stage Heavenly Beasts, but it was still Zun Stage! Zhou Weiqing was merely a low level Shi Jewel Master, and their basic levels were just too far apart.

As such, his Fetters of Wind was only able to bind the Direwolf King for just a short period of time. No matter how powerful the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Elemental Jewel was, it was after all still Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁrst and only Jewel.

At the same time, on the other side of the battleﬁeld, alongside the shrill cutting sound, the huge tree which Shangguan Bing’er had been on totally disintegrated.

In a green blur, Shangguan Bing’er had leapt forth at the last second, the Wind Wielding Boots already Consolidated on her feet, pushing her speed to its very maximum. While in midair, she managed to shoot forth another two more arrows. Alas, against the moving Forest Direwolves, they were able to better protect their weak points. Although she still managed to hit two of them, but it struck harmlessly off their bodies, their thick and resilient fur full of stopping power. Even with the strength of the Purple Dawn Bow, she only managed to deal minor injuries. These Forest Direwolves were afraid of the aura from Zhou Weiqing, but they were deﬁnitely not afraid of Shangguan Bing’er. Instantly, a large number of Forest Direwolves sprang up and pounced towards her. As a result, she no longer had any more time and leeway to ﬁre off anymore arrows, and could only depend on her Wind Wielding Boots mounted with one of her Elemental Jewels in order to constantly dodge, as she attempted to make her way towards Zhou Weiqing.

This was really quite a tough one to translate – basically a literal translation of ⼈死⻦朝天，不死万万年. Basically it has the meaning of if you die facing the ground (running away), it’s very shameful for a man/warrior. Also has a connotation of YOLO/ ‘If its yours, it’s yours; if it isn’t yours then it isn’t yours, so just try anyway’

Chapter 23 – Demonic Change

“Run quickly!” Zhou Weiqing shouted at Shangguan Bing’er in anger and anxiety. Alas, at this time, the Direwolf King once again released 12 Wind Blades to attack him.

Against this sort of multi-directional attack, with Zhou Weiqing’s current speed, there was no possibility that he could just dodge it. As such, he had no choice but to use another Blink to save himself.

Shangguan Bing’er ignored Zhou Weiqing’s shout once again. By now, she was about ﬁve yards from him, and with a wave of her left hand, three Wind Blades ﬂew out and knocked back three of the Forest Direwolves. As her body blurred and ﬂashed once again, she had arrived at Zhou Weiqing’s side. Speaking clearly and unhurriedly: “We… shall… share… life …and… death… together.”

Zhou Weiqing was now nearing the end of his limits, he was after all only at the 4th level of Heavenly Energy, and although he had not been using his Overlord Bow, but repeated use of his skills had drained a huge amount of Heavenly Energy. However, upon hearing Shangguan Bing’er’s words, it was as if his blood started boiling. It’s worth it, truly worth it. Even if I just have this one woman in my life, for that one time, but being able to die for her, it is worth it.

The Direwolf King’s eyes were cold and cruel. After the few times it had exchanged blows with Zhou Weiqing, it had already seized up his true strength. Besides his right leg, that human was not of any other threat to it, and he would also not be able to sustain his Heavenly Energy much longer. As such, it had a plan to deal with Zhou Weiqing easily. and was not feeling any sense of urgency. It did not need to use any other skills, nor did it give Zhou Weiqing any chance to get near, and just sent forth another twelve Wind Blades. This time, it was even more cunning; instead of targeting Zhou Weiqing, it targeted Shangguan Bing’er.

No matter how good the Blink Skill was, it wouldn’t allow him to bring someone along with him. At least, not at Zhou Weiqing’s current power levels.

Looking at the twelve Wind Blades assailing her from all directions, blocking off all possible escape routes, Shangguan Bing’er closed her eyes in despair. She was resigned to a fate; at least she had managed to reach his side before she died. “Damn it! You silly girl!” Zhou Weiqing swiftly lifted his right and swept across, blocking six of the Wind Blades, while leaping onto Shangguan Bing’er and pushing her to the ground.

The Wind Blades struck Zhou Weiqing’s right leg, causing a string of *Puff* sounds, and his trousers leg was also shredded into pieces, revealing the leg inside with the black tiger tattoos.

The Demonic Right Leg was indeed tyrannical. Under such a ﬂurry of attacks, it was still totally undamaged. Alas, that was only true for his right leg…

With the sweep of his leg and the leap, his right leg had been hit by six Wind Blades, and he had successfully dodged three, but the last three still hit solidly onto his body.

A grating scraping sound sounded out as they struck him, and Zhou Weiqing felt his back heat up, and the Titanium Alloy inner armour was torn into bits. Although Titanium Alloy was strong, the inner armour was rather thin, and the Magic Tenacious Snake was merely a Shi Stage Heavenly Beast, and its sinew was not able to withstand the power of the Wind Blades of the Direwolf King. Although it had blocked off most of the impact and offensive power of the Wind Blades from Zhou Weiqing, it had shattered in doing so. With a mufﬂed grunt, Zhou Weiqing almost spat out blood with the huge impact along with the strong cutting sensation on his back, as three deep lines of blood were marked on his back.

With a buzzing sound, Zhou Weiqing felt as if something had invaded his brain, the entire attribute wheel seemed to turn totally blood red, and the Heavenly Energy in his Dantian seemed to rush out explosively. An incomparably cruel, evil mood seemed to strike him, causing him to experience all sorts of negative feelings.

Shangguan Bing’er was pressed down to the ground by Zhou Weiqing, and also gave out a mufﬂed grunt as the air was knocked out of her. Subconsciously, she opened her eyes again, only to see that Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, which had turned totally bloodshot again, with an even deeper red than the night he had taken her. An incomparably cold aura exploded forth from him suddenly, that freezing cold, evil feeling making her tremble.

As a breath of hot air blasted onto Shangguan Bing’er’s face, and there was a tremor in her heart. All of a sudden, Zhou Weiqing’s right hand slammed into the ground savagely, just right in front of her face. With a dull *Peng* sound, the ground caved in about three feet down, causing Shangguan Bing’er to tumble down along with it, though she was not actually injured at all. Zhou Weiqing, on the other hand, used the impact from him striking the ground to vault up and leap away.

Zhou Weiqing’s body tumbled crosswise, and in the process, his clothes were totally shredded, his entire body’s bones crackling with a strange explosion sound, while his muscles grew and expanded very obviously, his entire skin surface covered completely by the ﬁerce black tiger tattoo. The most terrifying thing was that at this moment, those tattoos were acting like they were alive, unceasingly moving and wriggling around on his skin.

Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Jewels around both his wrists also seemed to go through a change, the Ice Jade becoming a lot clearer and transparent as it whirled around his wrist. The Alexandrite Cat’s Eye on the other wrist also went through a similar change; its original bright rose red color became brighter and fresher, as if it were dripping blood, while the originally bright sparkle surrounding it had turned into a grey light.

His body tumbling for three revolutions in midair, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally fell to the ground in a loud crash, landing hard on his hands and left foot to support his entire body, while his right leg was lifted up high in the sky. It could clearly be seen that his whole right leg was now completely black, a thick grey air swirling around it. His whole head of short black hair had also turned grey, and his bloodshot eyes just looked so terrifying.

“Demonic – Change – !” The words suddenly presented themselves in Shangguan Bing’er’s heart. At this very moment, her entire heart clenched tightly in sudden fear. Without a doubt, Zhou Weiqing’s current appearance was very similar to that of the Demonic Change of legend. To her knowledge, there were two possible situations for the Demonic Change to occur.

The ﬁrst was when a Heavenly Jewel Master with the Evil Attribute received an intense external stimulation, causing them to go through a temporary Demonic Change. During the Demonic Change, the Heavenly Jewel Master would go berserk, gaining a huge boost in strength but at the cost of sanity and presence of mind, going around in mindless slaughter until nothing around was left alive. This situation, while it sounded bad, was actually relatively better. This was because after this bout of slaughter, the Heavenly Jewel Master would actually regain control of his mind, although he would be weakened for a period of time. Alas, the second situation was much more terrifying and detrimental to the Heavenly Jewel Master. It was an irreversible Demonic change. This type of Demonic Change had a very low probability of happening, but once it appeared, only the word ‘disaster’ could describe it.

When the Heavenly Jewel Master went through the irreversible Demonic Change, his entire body would be completely turned into a demon, until he was no longer human. The process of going berserk and kill hungry would last forever, indulging in slaughter until he died, and such a change would also bring an even greater increase in strength and destructive power, almost up to several times that of the other Demonic Change. This was also why in the past, all of the Skill-Storing Palaces of the various large countries in the entire Boundless Mainland had joined forces to hunt down all of the Evil Attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters. Without a doubt, having faced a life threatening situation, adding on the bloodlust he had been inﬂuenced with throughout the night, Zhou Weiqing had somehow entered the Demonic Change. At this point, Shangguan Bing’er’s mind was entirely blank. She knew that no matter what happened, the ﬁnal outcome for her would not change. Whether Zhou Little Fatty in his Demonic Change state could kill off all the Forest Direwolves or the Forest Direwolves overcoming him, the ﬁnal result would also lead to her death. Having lost control of his own state of mind, Zhou Little Fatty would end up killing her. However, she still hoped that he could win, at least dying at his hands would be better as compared to becoming the food of the Forest Direwolves.

Crouching down on the ground, Zhou Weiqing’s body repeatedly released layer upon layer of the grey air currents. If his previous aura caused the Forest Direwolves to just feel some fear, then at this point in time, besides the Direwolf King, all of the ordinary Forest Direwolves were all lying down on the ground, having lost even the courage to stand up after feeling the aura.

The Direwolf King gave out hurried and rapid howls repeatedly, but its fellow direwolves did not react at all, not paying any attention to its as they cowered. The Direwolf King was also trembling, was that really a human in front of it? The aura it was giving forth was something that not even the king of beasts was able to compare!

Under the stress of both anger and fear, the Direwolf King gave an enraged roar, as it lifted its two front claws, the green light surrounding it doubled in power, painting the surrounding forests in an emerald hue. As its front claws struck towards the front, a shade which looked exactly like a duplicate of itself soared towards Zhou Weiqing.

This was the Direwolf King’s strongest skill, and it was called ‘Shattering Heavens Wolf Clone’, and was known as one of the strongest Wind Attribute Skills amongst the ﬁrst six Jewels. It had the sheer cutting force tantamount to that of a tornado, and was not just unbelievably quick, but also able to lock onto a target within 50 yards, and would continue attacking the target until death.

At this moment, a low roar resounded from Zhou Weiqing, sounding deep and rumbling, just like a tiger’s roar. The grey air around his body seemed to spread outwards, and the Forest Direwolves cowering on the ground actually foamed at the mouth and ﬂopped down unconscious, some even letting lose excrement and urine in their fear. Zhou Weiqing moved once again, his right leg which was lifted up high behind him swept the ground suddenly, his entire body shooting forth horizontally like a bolt of black lightning, dodging past the ‘Shattering Heavens Wolf Clone’’s direct charge, and with a midair ﬂip, he appeared above two Forest Direwolves. As he stretched out both his hands and pressed upon their heads, and with two cracking sounds, the Forest Direwolves’ skulls were smashed apart.

Wolves were known for their tough heads and soft waists, in general the hardest part of their whole bodies was actually their heads, but under Zhou Weiqing’s hands, which were now fully covered by the evil looking tiger tattoos, the two Forest Direwolves’ skulls actually caved in so easily.

Zhou Weiqing did not pause a second, as his body dipped down, once again barely dodging the pursuit from the ‘Shattering Heavens Wolf Clone’. Moving at an incomparable speed, with seemingly perfect coordination and balance, the most frightening thing was his pair of ice-cold bloodshot eyes, like a demon lord of eternity.

Something strange occurred then, when Zhou Weiqing sprang up from the corpses of the two Forest Direwolves, two green lights simultaneously ﬂoated out from the heads of the two Forest Direwolves, and Zhou Weiqing gaped his mouth open and the two green lights were swallowed by him. Immediately after, he brandished his right leg and struck the ‘Shattering Heavens Wolf Clone’.

As the jet black right leg drew back in a hook, an explosion rang out, as the ‘Shattering Heavens Wolf Clone’ broke apart in mid air, scattering Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy in all directions in a succession of soft sounds. Some of it landed on Zhou Weiqing’s body, causing dozens of small bloody wounds.

But, once again, another terrifying sight appeared, as the lacerations and wounds on Zhou Weiqing’s body just started healing themselves at an astonishing rate unexpectedly. However, he did not launch an attack on the Direwolf King, instead dodging to the side and once again smashing two Forest Direwolves. As the Forest Direwolves did not put up any resistances, killing them was as easy as breaking open a watermelon. Furthermore, every time he killed a Forest Direwolf, another green light would appear and be absorbed by him. Whenever that happened, the black-grey light surrounding Zhou Weiqing’s body would grow stronger.

If Zhou Weiqing were in his right senses currently, he would have discovered that his attribute wheel was now set in that mysterious evil grey area. The Skill he was using now was the Skill that had somehow came originally with his Heavenly Jewel, that he had never been able to use previously. The Skill was Devour.

This was a Skill from the black pearl, and could be said to be a technique inherited. This was the reason why his Evil Attribute did not need to go through Skill-Storing previously.

The Zhou Weiqing who was now in his Demonic Change, was actually still the original Zhou Weiqing, though his power and senses were several times that of his normal state. More frighteningly, his Demonic Change seemed to be different from any other ordinary Evil Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master’s Demonic Change, not only did he indulge in slaughter, but it also allowed him to improve and strengthen himself at the same time.

When he had gone into the Demonic Change state, he had almost ﬁnished up all the Heavenly Energy in his body, even if he had been strengthened by the Demonic Change, it was deﬁnitely insufﬁcient to support all his slaughtering. As a result, he did not attack the Direwolf King, instead constantly killing the ordinary Forest Direwolves, Devouring their Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy to strengthen himself.

That was exactly how he broke the ‘‘Shattering Heavens Wolf Clone’ with a single strike – he had swallowed the two Forest Direwolves’ Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, coupled with the Demonic Right Leg’s power in order to do so.

In the Demonic Change state, Zhou Weiqing was not only able to use the Evil Devour Skill to Devour energy, but was even able to Devour his enemy’s life force. This was the reason why his injuries suddenly started healing so rapidly.

Almost in an instant, several more Forest Direwolves died in Zhou Weiqing’s hands, his aura also gradually becoming more terrifying.

The Direwolf King did not continue attacking Zhou Weiqing any further, its bright green eyes stubbornly staring steadily at him. However, its body was actually slowly retreating step by step, as Zhou Weiqing’s terrifying aura was making it hard for the Direwolf King to even think of ﬁghting back. If not for its unwillingness to give up its subordinate direwolves, it would probably already have ﬂed.

The Direwolf King gave out long and loud howls unceasingly, trying to communicate with Zhou Weiqing. Unfortunately, in such a state of Demonic Change, how could Zhou Weiqing possibly communicate? When the 20th Forest Direwolf was killed by Zhou Weiqing, and he had swallowed the enemy’s energy, Zhou Weiqings’ body suddenly fell to the ground with a loud thump, and he suddenly raised his head ﬁercely, a deafening tiger’s roar resounding from his mouth. In the distance, Bai Jiu, who had managed to break out of the tight encirclement with much difﬁculty, heard the loud, digniﬁed tiger’s roar. Trembling in fear, he almost let loose and urinated in his pants again. “Luckily we ran away quickly, that tiger’s roar was clearly of a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast! That Shangguan Bing’er must have died. What a pity, such an attractive little girl.”

As the tiger’s roar resounded throughout the forested hills, in an instant, all the Forest Direwolves cowering on the ground started shivering ﬁercely, and as beam after beam of green light emitted from the living Forest Direwolves’ mouths, similar to multiple rivers ﬂowing into the sea as they gathered to Zhou Weiqing’s side, before being swallowed by him. The thick black-grey aura surrounding Zhou Weiqing grew stronger, causing his bones to give off a popping noise once again. Alas for those Forest Direwolves that gave up their Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy completely in tribute, fell down onto the ground dead.

In the world of Heavenly Beasts, this ability was known as Tribute. The Forest Direwolves had been unable to withstand the intense pressure and stress from Zhou Weiqing’s tiger roar, and their minds collapsed completely, offered their precious energy as tribute and perishing as a result. When Zhou Weiqing issued that huge roar, the Direwolf King’s four limbs weakened, and without any further hesitation, it turned around to ﬂee. Alas, it was too late for escape. Having just Devoured about a hundred Forest Direwolves’ energies, how could Zhou Weiqing just let it go so easily?

In the deep darkness of the night, there was no sign of any brilliance. Without any warning, the Direwolf King suddenly felt something tighten around its body, as all twelve tentacles of a Touch of Darkness Skill enveloped it.

Even under the Demonic Change state, it was impossible for a single-Jewelled ranking Zhou Weiqing to restrain and control such a high level Zun Stage Heavenly Beast, but it was just sufﬁcient to prevent it from running away.

The Direwolf King went all out in struggling, trying to break free from the tentacles holding it. In a short while, it actually succeeded in breaking free, but by the time it had done so, in that very moment when it got loose, a pair of bloodshot eyes appeared in front of it.

Another Fetters of Wind skill fell upon the Direwolf King. After having just Devoured so much Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, the total amount of Heavenly Energy in Zhou Weiqing’s body was almost more than that of the Direwolf King! Although he was still only able to use skills of the ﬁrst Jewel rank and power, it was evidently enough currently.

The Direwolf King had just broken free of the Touch of Darkness when its body tightened up again, and its motion once again stiffened. This time, before it could break free of the Fetters of Wind again, Zhou Weiqing’s right palm smashed viciously onto its head.

The crackle and sparkle of electricity shone in the air, as Zhou Weiqing evoked the Lightning Explosive Palm.

With a huge explosion, the Direwolf King cried out pitifully as its entire body ﬂip-ﬂopped and crackled with noise, a layer of blue bolts of electricity snaking around it.

This Direwolf King was indeed worthy of being a Zun Stage Heavenly beast, although it feared the aura emitted from Zhou Weiqing, but to kill it was deﬁnitely not an easy feat to accomplish.

After taking on the full blow of Zhou Weiqing’s highest damage skill, the Lightning Explosive Palm, the Direwolf King was only paralyzed temporarily, as well as being a little dazed. If it were in normal conditions, even in the Demonic Change state, Zhou Weiqing would not be able to kill this Zun Stage Heavenly Beast.

However, Zhou Weiqing actually had that bizarre right leg, and right after he had struck out with the Lightning Explosive Palm, his Demonic Right Leg had lifted up high, just like a great black executioner’s axe ready to fall down.

In the process of slamming down, Zhou Weiqing did not make use of the heel or the sole to cut downward, instead using the tip of the foot, which on his foot was similar to the black scorpion hook from the tiger’s tail.

With a light *Puff* sound, the tip of Zhou Weiqing’s right foot slammed right into the Direwolf King’s skull forcefully, slicing right through it viciously, causing a burst of red light as blood exploded out. At the same time, Zhou Weiqing’s body vaulted backwards, both his hands braced on the ﬂoor as he lunged away to the side. His right foot was thus pulled out from the Direwolf King’s skull bones, along with it followed a similar bright green light to the ordinary Forest Direwolves, though much more solidiﬁed and coherent. As the green light was also Devoured by Zhou Weiqing, the Direwolf King’s body slumped down onto the ground. At last, Zhou Weiqing’s body crumpled to the ground as well, and this time, he did not make any more noise. It was not known whether it was because he had Devoured too much wind Alignment Heavenly Energy, causing the black-grey aura surrounding his body to have a tinge of light green colour.

Just several minutes ago, this is a place with a sea of direwolves, yet just in a matter of minutes, it was just a mess of blood. Including the Direwolf King, all of the Forest Direwolves had been totally wiped out.

Shangguan Bing’er stood up shakily, staring blankly at the scene in front of her, her soul still trembling. Zhou Weiqing in his Demonic Change state was indeed so terrifying. In truth, the power that he had used the whole time was not very strong, but the overbearing aura surrounding him caused the ordinary Forest Direwolves to lose the ability to ﬁght back. In the end, he had also relied on continuous use of Control Skills and the power of the Demonic Right Leg to kill off the Direwolf King. He had indeed achieved the impossible.

Although she did not know about Zhou Weiqing’s Evil Attribute Skill Devour, she could actually see that Zhou Weiqing had been relying on the ordinary Forest Direwolves’ power to restore and reenergise oneself, if not it would have been simply impossible to kill that Zun Stage Direwolf King. How did he achieve such a feat? Why was he able to make use of the Heavenly Beasts’ strength after killing them?

As Shangguan Bing’er stood there transﬁxed to the ground, staring dully at the scene before her, all of a sudden, a ﬂash of bloody light appeared, and a pair of dazzling yet monstrously bloodshot eyes appeared in front of her, a jet black hand grasping hold of her.

This is the end… The thought ﬂoated in Shangguan Bing’er’s mind as she closed both her eyes. At least dying in his hand is better than becoming wolf food.

However, the expected pain did not arrive in the next instant, instead Shangguan Bing’er felt her body tighten, as her whole body was enveloped in a broad, solid, warm, yet evil, cruel and blood-ﬁlled embrace. The somewhat overuse of strength made her whole body ache, and the heavy breathing was loud and constant in her ears, but she did not make any move to resist.

After a short moment of being dazed, Shangguan Bing’er recovered her senses. Wait… He hasn’t killed me? He actually didn’t kill me? How is this possible? He was clearly in the Demonic Change State a moment ago! How else could he have possibly killed off all those Forest Direwolves? Her face was plastered to his chest, and she could feel that his chest was icy cold, with an eerie chill constantly ﬂooding into her, that cruel and evil aura still thick and ﬂowing around him unceasingly.

Opening her eyes, Shangguan Bing’er saw that the evil looking black tiger tattoos on Zhou Weiqing’s body were still ﬂuctuating and moving, but at the same time, they were actually slowly fading away.

His Demonic Change is weakening and wearing off? Could it be… because of my presence?

This discovery made Shangguan Bing’er overjoyed, and she subconsciously lifted both her arms, ignoring the pain that was being caused to her by his tight grip, and embraced him back with his waist in her arms. In a ﬁrm and crisp voice, she spoke unhurriedly and clearly:

“Little Fatty… Wake… up… Come back…” “Little Fatty… Wake… up… Come back…” She kept repeating those words unceasingly, hugging him with all her might, using her body to keep him warm. As the heavy breathing gradually returned to normal, Zhou Weiqing’s body also started to get warmer, and the arms embracing Shangguan Bing’er also began to relax a little, as his grip lessened.

All of a sudden, Shangguan Bing’er froze. She felt something hard… large… and erect… pressing into her lower abdomen, even twitching a little.

After a short bout of surprise, Shangguan Bing’er realised what it was, but she dared not move, as she did not know if Zhou Little Fatty was still in the clutches of the Demonic Change, or if he had broken free yet.

Her body started to heat up gradually, both her arms which were embracing Zhou Weiqing were starting to shiver.

She was a little afraid, afraid that a sudden bestial nature would overtake him once again, that evening she had lost herself for the ﬁrst time was forever etched in her mind and she couldn’t help but ask herself. What would I do if that happened again? What can I do? At present, Shangguan Bing’er found that regarding this question, she herself simply did not have any ready answer. What Shangguan Bing’er could not see was that Zhou Weiqing was at this time blinking his eyes rapidly, a very strange look on his face.

In truth, when Zhou Weiqing fell into the Demonic Change State, he had lost control of his mind for only a very short period of time. During that period, whatever that was happening outside had actually been imprinted into his mind as well, but when he started the slaughter of the Forest Direwolves, he had actually awakened somewhat. However, at that point, he was still unable to control his own body, and could only watch himself unceasingly indulge in slaughter and Devouring.

He could only observe the attribute wheel sparkling in its grey area continuously; on one hand he was trying to comprehend the mysteries of the Evil Attribute, while on the other hand he was diligently trying to regain control of his own body.

It was only at the point when he dealt the ﬁnishing blow and killed off the Direwolf King, and his body ﬂew back horizontally, when he had ﬁnally recaptured some measure of control over his own body from that instinct of endless slaughter. Without hesitation, he had thrown towards Shangguan Bing’er, grabbing hold of her, and using her tourmaline aura and the link she had with him to aid him in resuming complete control of his body quickly.

As such, Zhou Weiqing had actually woken up into a clear state of mind for quite a while, and since Shangguan Bing’er had started to hug him unceasingly in order to help, their bodies were tightly pressed together and with much friction between them, how could he not have a reaction! At this time he could only feel the lower part of his body rubbing against Shangguan Bing’er’s smooth and soft lower abdomen unceasingly, such a pleasant sensation it was causing him to feel, a feeling like he couldn’t ‘control himself’. Alas, at this time, this little rascal couldn’t bear to give up the beautiful maiden in his arms, such an opportunity to embrace each other was deﬁnitely a rare one!

As Zhou Weiqing struggled with his inner conﬂict, all of a sudden, his body shivered violently, and he could feel the previously tranquil Heavenly Energy in his body suddenly explode forth like a volcano. The black-grey aura surrounding his body vanished, but the green lights were becoming stronger and more powerful, and the restlessly moving Heavenly Energy ignited in his body, causing him to feel as if his internal organs were being twisted all over the place. With a “Waah” sound, Zhou Weiqing vomited out a whole mouthful blood, as his ‘little brother’ subsided rapidly, he quickly loosen his hold around Shangguan Bing’er, falling back and down, sitting on the ground.

“Little Fatty, how are you?” Shangguan Bing’er was naturally extremely surprised, he seemed better just a moment ago, yet now this was happening… Was it a side effect from the Demonic Change?

Zhou Weiqing quickly waved to Shangguan Bing’er, saying: “I need to breakthrough the next Death Acupuncture Point.” After he said those words with great difﬁculty, he immediately closed his eyes and sank into deep concentration.

It was very obvious that the sudden change in his body was the result of him having Devoured so much Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy from the Forest Direwolves. Although his own Heavenly Energy also contained the Wind Attribute, but he was a human, and unlike Heavenly Beasts, even if he had the black pearl’s power to back him up, having Devoured so much of the Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, it was not something that his present Dantian could withstand. Previously, due to the Demonic Change, the huge amount of Heavenly Energy was suppressed, and was even able to forcibly make use of it as his own. Alas, now that the Demonic Change had ended, he immediately started having problems suppressing this sheer power.

The Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy Devoured externally, and Zhou Weiqing own Heavenly Energy were rather incompatible, and although the four energy whirlpools for his open Death Acupuncture Points were spinning at top speed to integrate the external Heavenly Energies unceasingly, but it was much too slow and deﬁnitely not sufﬁcient to tide him through this dangerous period now. The only solution he had now was to make use of this external power to break through a Death Acupuncture Point; if he succeeded, the situation would naturally can be solved.

The Devour Skill that the black pearl had given Zhou Weiqing seemed to be only targeted towards Heavenly Beasts in this world, and did not work on humans. This was the reason why previously when Zhou Weiqing had issued forth the immense tiger’s roar, Shangguan Bing’er was not affected. However, Devour had its other limits as well, the stronger he was, the ability and capacity to support more Devoured energy would grow as well. Alas, Zhou Weiqing’s present strength was just too weak, but when he was under the Demonic Change State, he was being controlled by the instinct and need for slaughter, and naturally went about recklessly Devouring external Energy. At this point, his body contained too much excessive Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, and if he did not deal with it promptly, many problems would occur, and in a worst case scenario, he could even implode internally and die from the excess energies.

“I’ll keep watch for you.” When Shangguan Bing’er heard that Zhou Weiqing needed to break through his next Death Acupuncture Point, she unhesitatingly vaulted up and stood behind him. At this moment, what Zhou Weiqing needed most was her support, as he would no longer be able to defend himself if any other Heavenly Beasts came.

Focusing his will, Zhou Weiqing controlled the restless Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy and merging it with his own Heavenly Energy to circulate and move at crazy speeds towards his lower limbs. Presently, his own Heavenly Energy had risen by a substantial amount after exiting from the Demonic Change, and was obviously transformed from all the Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy he had Devoured. Alas, the current problem was he had Devoured too much Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, and if he did not deal with it, they would revolt.

Zhou Weiqing’s personal Heavenly Energy was actually very pure, but the various Forest Direwolves’ Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy was rather mixed and different. After all, each different Forest Direwolf had a different cultivation level, and having all the dozens of different energies mixing together, especially that ﬁnal bout Devoured from the Direwolf King, these energies had been running amok in his body, making him feel miserable beyond words.

As he circulated the Heavenly Energy downwards, Zhou Weiqing could feel as though the meridian passages in his thigh area were being split apart, and in a split second, the mixed Heavenly Energy had rushed towards his Zhu San Li Death Acupuncture Point. As the Zhu San Li Death Acupuncture Point whirled with the circulated Energies, Zhou Weiqing swiftly followed the Immortal Deity Technique to manipulate both bouts of Heavenly Energy continuously downwards.

The human body was indeed something of mystery and beauty. The same Cultivation Technique being practiced by a different person could produce a possibly vastly different results. Furthermore, it could be said that this Immortal Deity Technique was somewhat a one-of-a-kind Technique, thus he was only able to attempt it by himself.

It seemed that Lady Luck was on his side, and as the mixed Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy charge through the Zhu San Li Death Acupuncture Point, the energy whirlpool revolving cyclone revolving sped up to three times its previous peak speed. As the mixed Energies overran the Point, it was as if they had gone through a ﬁlter, coming out obviously in a purer state. The surface of Zhou Weiqing’s skin seemed to ‘bubble’, as it let loose a thin layer of green gas from the pores, obviously the impurities being discharged after the ﬁltration of the mixed Energies.

After crossing the Zhu San Li Death Acupuncture Point, the relatively purer energies rushed towards the San Yin Jiao Death Acupuncture Point. A similar situation appeared once again, and the immense pressure on Zhou Weiqing’s body was relieved somewhat, making him feel a lot more comfortable after the mixed Wind Attribute Heavenly Energies had been ﬁltered twice. Alas, the total amount and power was just too huge, and the amount absorbed by the two large Death Acupuncture Point energy whirlpools was only a very small portion.

Gritting his teeth, Zhou Weiqing focused his will with all his might, using his original Heavenly Energy to stimulate and lead the mixed Heavenly Energy directly towards the Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point. At this point, he just wanted to break through the Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point, making use of that to once again ﬁlter the remaining mixed Heavenly Energy. If he failed, he would have to try to reverse the ﬂow and attempt to absorb all the mixed Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy slowly. *Bang*! The vast amounts of Heavenly Energy smashed savagely into the Yongquan Acupuncture Point. Alas, with a marked difference from the ease of the ﬁrst time Zhou Weiqing tried to break through his Clavicle Acupuncture Point, the breaking through of the Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point encountered an unexpected immense resistance and was extremely difﬁcult.

An indescribable pain lanced through both his feet, Zhou Weiqing felt a large amount of blood rush backward along his legs, and once again he spat out a large mouthful of blood. This time, blood seeped out from the pores of his skin, covering his entire body.

The backlash this time was just too ﬁerce, the Yongquan Acupuncture Point had barely forced open a little, and Zhou Weiqing did not know what problems would arise if he actually forced it open with brute force. Alas, like an arrow nocked on a bow which had to be released, he was already at the point of no return now.

Once more! Zhou Weiqing steeled his nerve and ruthlessly focused himself again. With a deep breath, he once took control of the mixed Heavenly Energy, which had became wilder after that ﬁrst burst, and viciously slammed down in a second attempt of breaking through the Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point.

*Bang*! This time, Zhou Weiqing almost leapt up from the ground, as a cloud of blood spurted out from his pores once again, from the feet all the way up to the thighs, every inch of his ﬂesh seemed to be covered with blood; it was as if his legs’ meridians had been completely ruptured.

Zhou Weiqing felt as though the soles on both his feet had been opened up with a huge hole respectively, and a large amount of Heavenly Energy was gushing out, the acute pain ﬁlling his entire body, reminding him of period of time when he was breaking through his ﬁrst Death Acupuncture Point, the Clavicle Acupuncture Point, but this time is was actually a lot more serious and severe.

“Not good!” Shangguan Bing’er cried out in alarm, and without any other considerations, she swiftly moved and arrived beside Zhou Weiqing in a quick ﬂash. When Zhou Weiqing started his attempted breakthrough, she had already known that his target was the sole’s Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point. Both her hands gathered Heavenly Energy, and she placed them onto Zhou Weiqing’s Yongquan Acupuncture Points respectively, trying to help him seal up the shattered Death Acupuncture Point. When her palm came into contact with his sole, that very instant, Shangguan Bing’er’s entire body convulsed, and she immediately felt two bouts of rich and pure Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy ﬂow from Zhou Weiqing’s Yongquan Acupuncture Point, ﬂooding into her body. She attempted to prevent it, but the two bouts of Heavenly Energy had seemed to lock onto her body, and she was unable to do anything. The Heavenly Energy crashed into her body, right into her meridians.

Shangguan Bing’er gave a mufﬂed groan as her whole body shuddered, but she refused to give up, both hands holding onto Zhou Weiqing’s foot with all her strength, unwilling to be shaken away by so easily.

It could be said both Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er were suffering extreme pain, and at this moment, the black tiger tattoos which had subsided earlier reappeared once again on Zhou Weiqing’s body.

The black word ‘King’ reappeared on his forehead once again, giving forth a digniﬁed aura, and Zhou Weiqing’s Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point on his right foot was once again sealed up instantaneously, forming an energy whirlpool almost immediately after. Although the process on the left leg was much slower, but it was clearly in the midst of healing up. Feeling the change of Zhou Weiqing body, the Shangguan Bing’er gave a sigh of relief and relaxed. However, her body had just born the huge stress from the immense amount of Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, and in addition to the previous exhaustion, darkness overcame her vision and she fainted.

As the left foot’s Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point was gradually sealed up, Zhou Weiqing’s pain also subsided like melting snow, but the mixed Heavenly Energy in his body was still moving around ﬁercely and restlessly. At this point, without any external stimulation, the revolution of the energy whirlpools at the four Death Acupuncture Point that had originally been broken through was going at top speed, quickly absorbing the wild mixed Heavenly Energy.

Finally, the left foot’s Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point was also fully sealed, and as the energy whirlpool formed, an indescribably comfortable feeling spread all over Zhou Weiqing’s body, into every corner possible.

With his ﬁfth Death Acupuncture Point broken through, without a doubt, Zhou Weiqing’s cultivation level had also entered the ﬁfth level of Heavenly Jing Energy. Not only that, when the ﬁve energy whirlpools revolved simultaneously, Zhou Weiqing discovered that the absorption of Heavenly Energy from the environment had actually doubled! Having ﬁnally broken through the Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point also meant that Zhou Weiqing had ﬁnally completed the ﬁrst section of the Immortal Deity Technique, all the ﬁve Death Acupuncture Points on his limbs. Currently, when the ﬁve energy whirlpools on the Five Death Acupuncture Points were revolving, he could feel the whirlpools expanding their reach and growing larger. If we were to liken the four Death Acupuncture Points energy whirlpools to the size of a pigeon’s egg, then with ﬁve Death Acupuncture Points now, these energy whirlpools had expanded nearly unceasingly, and in just a short period of time, it had reached every corner of the body. In other words, just the ten energy whirlpools from the ﬁve Death Acupuncture Points would be able to reach every single point in his body.

Although the black tiger tattoos had not subsided yet, but from Zhou Weiqing’s skin, rings of creamy white light was slowly combining and linking together with the tattoos, forming an invisible energy shield around his skin; this was actually a symbol that the ﬁrst portion of the Immortal Deity Technique had been completed.

The Immortal Deity Technique was deﬁnitely a mysterious yet extremely abnormal cultivation method. From the speed of cultivation, it was deﬁnitely faster than any other Cultivation Technique in the world, but it should deﬁnitely not be as fast as what Zhou Weiqing had accomplished. In just two months, Zhou Weiqing had actually successfully broken through to this crucial ﬁfth Death Acupuncture Point, which should have been totally impossible no matter what happened. However, under all the various unbelievable chances that had occurred, he had also Devoured a massive amount of Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy from outside, and needed the support of this ﬁfth Death Acupuncture Point. As such, he had been stuck between a rock and a hard place, and had gone through the attempt in breaking through, and had even succeeded unexpectedly.

Although the present Zhou Weiqing was still only a single jeweled cultivation level, but having completed the ﬁrst portion of the Immortal Deity Technique meant that he had truly taken the ﬁrst step down this cultivation path, a road of no return. Of course, that also meant that he would also truly be able to obtain all the various extra advantages from the insanely strong Immortal Deity Technique. At the same time, the drawback would be that the following cultivation would be even more difﬁcult.

As the ﬁve Death Acupuncture Points’ energy whirlpools absorbed Heavenly Energy from the environment unceasingly, Zhou Weiqing did not even need to focus much on cultivation, and he found that his ﬁfth level Heavenly Jing Energy was already completely ﬁlled. Shangguan Bing’er, who was fainted at his feet, did not realise that at that point, a large portion of the Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy that had been ﬁltered and puriﬁed by Zhou Weiqing’s Immortal Deity Technique had actually been suffused into her body, and most of what Zhou Weiqing absorbed, was only the bit that came from the Direwolf King.

Although his Devour ability was extremely strong, but the Devoured energy had to be used up quickly, unless he was a lot stronger than the amount that had been absorbed, otherwise he would not be able to absorb much of the energy. Perhaps, this was the world’s way of balancing the scales.

Chapter 24 – White Little Tiger

After being unconscious for an unknown amount of time, Shangguan Bing’er ﬁnally woke up slowly. As she awoke, she felt something throbbing on her face.

In a dazed state from just awakening, she subconsciously batted the large rod aside, but who knew, it just rebounded back onto her face.

“En?”

“En——”

Two voices sounded out lightly at the same time, the ﬁrst being Shangguan Bing’er’s.

The next moment, as her consciousness began to awaken, she slowly opened her eyes. By now, dawn was breaking and the sky was being lit by the ﬁrst glimmer of the sun. The ﬁrst thing that entered her eyes was an ugly disgusting thing pressed against her little face. It was burning hot and throbbing, and was reddish pink on the tip. “What is that thing? Shangguan Bing’er was still not very clear-headed at the moment, and as she muttered to herself, she slowly raised her head higher. What she saw was Zhou Little Fatty’s wide open eyes and indescribable expression.

A chill ran down her spine, and Shangguan Bing’er quickly looked down again. This time, she was fully awake.

“Ahhhhh!”

Once again two shrill shrieks rang out simultaneously, and the two who had been pressed tightly together suddenly ﬂew apart like they had been shocked by lightning. Shangguan Bing’er ﬂew upwards and away, while Zhou Weiqing rolled and scrambled behind a large tree.

It might sound like a coincidence, but in truth, Zhou Weiqing had been this way for quite a while. Last night, when he had entered the Demonic Change state, all of his normal clothes had been shredded away by the intense energy and his enlarged muscles. His remaining cover, the titanium alloy internal armor had then been destroyed by the Direwolf King. However, at that time, things had been so hectic, in addition to being in the night, and Zhou Weiqing’s body being covered in the black tiger tattoos, thus making it not obvious. Furthermore, at that time, Shangguan Bing’er had been so worried about his survival as well as the Demonic Change’s side effects, that she had not noticed anything amiss.

Last night, while Zhou Weiqing had been attempting to breakthrough his Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point, he had been sitting cross legged. In order to help him seal his Yongquan Death Acupuncture Point which had burst open, Shangguan Bing’er naturally had to be right in front of him, and when she fainted, she fell right on top of him. Naturally, this had caused her to fall into that compromising position, resulting in the embarassing scene just a moment ago.

Shangguan Bing’er’s lovely face turned red and white, and she said angrily: “Zhou Little Fatty, come out here now!”

“No way.” Zhou Weiqing stuck his head out, saying in an aggrieved tone: “Bing’er, I didn’t do anything! You were the one who woke me up!”

It was just exactly because Zhou Weiqing did not do it on purpose, and everything had happened once again by coincidence, that caused Shangguan Bing’er to have all that bottled up anger with nowhere to go, and she glared at him. Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh, Bing’er, shouldn’t we head back quickly before discussing that? If you want to hit me, we should ﬁnd a safer place ﬁrst, then I’ll let you hit me to your satisfaction.”

Shangguan Bing’er started, looking around at the surroundings, and she instantly drew a sharp breath. All around, the ground was littered with direwolf corpses; the direwolves which had went chasing after Bai Jiu and the other Kalise Empire Jewel Masters were nowhere to be found. Perhaps they just had not returned, or were scared off by Zhou Weiqing’s aura and dared not approach. As she thought of the breathtaking dangers of the night before, her anger and embarrassment began to subside; they had managed to survive after all.

“Alright, just come out, let’s get out of here ﬁrst.” Shangguan Bing’er’s tone grew calmer.

Zhou Weiqing quickly looked around for several relatively larger pieces of cloth to surround his waist and cover his privates before coming out; though his buttocks were still half revealed, but at least the most embarrassing portions were covered. Shangguan Bing’er stood there a little awkwardly, a blush on her face as she watched that rascal trying to cover himself, a strange light in her eyes. All along, she had known Zhou Little Fatty to be a person very afraid of them, you could even say that ‘Safety First’ was the motto he lived by. Yet, last night, when they were in danger, he did not hesitate to charge down the tree and attempt to draw away all the Forest Direwolves in order to save her. In the end, he had even used his own body as a shield to block the Direwolf King’s attack from ﬁnishing her off. Such an action from a person so afraid of death was extremely commendable, and had deﬁnitely touched her. No matter what, he was a real man, who dared to stand forward when his woman was in danger.

Cheh Cheh! When did I become his woman! Shangguan Bing’er shook her head and blushed, but her look at Zhou Weiqing softened, and she subconsciously touched her face where she had been touched just now, ﬂushing an even deeper red.

With much difﬁculty, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally found a few pieces of cloth to tie around his waist, and managed to cover himself relatively decently. Just as he was about to call out to Shangguan Bing’er to leave, he suddenly felt something furry brush against his feet. Looking down, Zhou Weiqing’s gaze was transﬁxed. He saw a furry little thing, a full body of white with faint blue markings all over, with its body length less than one foot long, and it was rubbing against his left foot.

“What is this thing?” Zhou Weiqing bent down, grabbing the furry little creature and picking it up. “Bing’er, look, what is this?”

Picking up the furry little thing, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally got a good look at it, realising that it was actually a little tiger cub!

It’s round little head had the word ‘King’ grown in with deep blue fur, right smack in the centre. Although its white body lined with blue was rather small, but it deﬁnitely had the proportion and look of a tiger, except for its fur colour being extremely rare. Its large eyes were also a deep blue, and being grabbed by the scruff of its neck by Zhou Weiqing, it gave out several discontented meowls.

“Wahhh! Such a cute little thing!” When Shangguan Bing’er saw the little tiger, her eyes lit up and she quickly walked over.

Zhou Weiqing blinked and said: “This little thing, could it be a Heavenly Beast? But, why is it so tiny? Is it a newborn?” Shangguan Bing’er said: “I’ve never seen or heard of such a white little tiger, but I’m sure it should be a type of Heavenly Beast. Little Fatty, you’ve really lucked out this time! A Heavenly Beast youngling can be raised, and when it grows older, it can help you ﬁght, and even protect you. Furthermore, tigers are considered the king of beasts, even the weakest tiger- type Heavenly Beast have the possibility of reaching the Zun Stage. You really should take good care of it! Hmmm, but it’s so small, how did it get here, where are its parents?”

On hearing that, Zhou Weiqing’s expression changed. “Let’s run, this little thing’s parents might come looking for us once they discover that their child is missing, then we’d be in deep trouble!”

Shangguan Bing’er’s heart was also struck by a sudden chill; although she did not know what type of Heavenly Beast this white little tiger was, but she could imagine how strong its parents were. Without hesitation, both of them picked up their Purple Dawn Bows and ran off at top speed back to the Heavenly Bow Empire’s camp. They ran at full speed until they were out of the forested hills, before they heaved a simultaneous sigh of relief. At that time, Zhou Weiqing did not hesitate and held out the white little tiger to Shangguan Bing’er, saying: “Here, a gift for you.”

“For me?” Shangguan Bing’er looked at Zhou Weiqing in surprise. “Little Fatty, don’t you know the value of a youngling Heavenly Beast? Even a youngling of one of those Forest Direwolves that we just killed, each of them can be sold for more than a thousand gold pieces. This little white tiger of yours, I can’t even imagine the price.”

Zhou Weiqing said suavely: “That doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t be able to bear to give it to anyone else, but it’s totally different for you.”

Listening to him say that, Shangguan Bing’er blushed once again, but she did not reject him this time. She really did like this cute little white tiger, it was just too adorable, and she reached out for it.

However, a strange scene appeared; when the little white tiger saw that Zhou Weiqing was giving it away, it grew angry, its four little claws unsheathing as it bared its fangs at Shangguan Bing’er ﬁercely. Alas, it was just too small and cute for that, and the ferocity was just not convincing.

“Ehh, seems like it does not like me.” Shangguan Bing’er said curiously.

Zhou Weiqing also discovered the same thing; earlier when he had picked up the little white tiger, the little fellow had not put up any resistance at all. They both exchanged looks and Zhou Weiqing muttered: “Perhaps this little thing was attracted by the tiger’s roar I let out during my Demonic Change last night?”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “That’s very possible, why don’t you hug it and see.”

Zhou Weiqing followed suit and hugged the little tiger, and as expected, it stopped struggling, instead snuggling close to his chest and rubbing against it, stretching itself in a comfortable position and closing its eyes.

Zhou Weiqing stroked the little tiger’s back, playing with its fur as he felt amused in his heart. Of course, he really liked this little thing as well. In his eyes, there were two animals that he considered the most beautiful, one was horses, and the other was tigers. Horses’ beauty lay in their vigorous and healthy body and shape, while tigers’ beauty lay in their imperious aura, their beautiful lines and their grace and poise.

Although he had never touched a tiger’s fur before, he could still sense that the little thing was very special. Normally, no matter how gorgeous or colourful a tiger’s stripes were, its fur shouldn’t be this soft, yet caressing this little thing felt as if he was stroking a piece of silk, and was extremely comfortable. Furthermore, it felt so soft and pliable as if it were boneless; although it was still rather tiny, but no matter where he touched it, it felt soft and meaty.

Zhou Weiqing ﬂipped the little tiger around in his embrace, and gave a strange laugh, saying: “Haha, it’s a little female tiger! Bing’er, look, these little protrusions, do you think they’ll be for feeding milk next time?”

Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed once again, knocking him hard on the head and said: “What’s your head ﬁlled with! You’re not allowed to bully it!”

The little white tiger was also very angry, as it cried out, struggling to turn around, and giving Zhou Weiqing’s hand a bite. However, it did not bite very hard, now even breaking his skin. Zhou Weiqing laughed heartily, saying: “Look! It even knows how to be shy, such an interesting little fellow.”

Shangguan Bing’er said exasperatedly: “You better spend more time thinking of how you’re going to head back to the camp. Are you going to go back in this state?”

“Uhhh…” Zhou Weiqing scratched his head embarrassedly, then his eyes lit up as he thought of a plan.

When the two of them stealthily entered the camp, the Personal Aide Zhou Little Fatty was dressed in a common soldier’s attire, and a poor sentry of the Heavenly Bow Empire was stripped naked…

When they ﬁnally reached their tents, the two heaved a huge sigh of relief. Shangguan Bing’er looked at Zhou Weiqing with a complicated look in her eyes and said: “Little Fatty, thank you.”

Zhou Weiqing paused for a while, ﬁnally sighed and said: “Bing’er, honestly speaking, you are very kindhearted by nature, and I do not think your nature is suitable for joining the army. A soldier needs to be cold and ruthless, and that’s something your nature will not allow. I do think it’s the right decision for you to resign as Battalion Commander, and perhaps to leave the army too.”

Shangguan Bing’er looked a little dazed, and asked: “What about you?”

Zhou Weiqing immediately stuck out his chest and said proudly: “Of course I’ll follow you!”

“Who wants you to follow me.” Shangguan Bing’er muttered softly, but her gentle voice held a tinge of happiness. Her radiant beauty at that moment caused Zhou Weiqing to stare, transﬁxed.

“I feel like my Heavenly Energy is a little off, I’m heading back to my tent to cultivate. As for the future…” Shangguan Bing’er hesitated a little before continuing: “I’ll wait for the orders from headquarters before deciding.” After she said that, she disappeared in a ﬂash, going back into her tent.

Zhou Weiqing grinned and headed back to his own tent feeling rather satisﬁed, hugging the little white tiger. In his heart, he was thinking to himself: Looks like, this wife will not escape! As he entered his tent, he prepared a basin of water and cleansed the dirt off his body. He couldn’t help but look at his reﬂection in his water and said smugly: “Zhou Weiqing, you’re really getting more and more handsome everything! Wahaha!”

He did not notice that the little white tiger which he had thrown at the side, had now very cutely lifted its two front paws, covering its eyes in a very human-like manner, even rolling its eyes at him.

……

The place where the Forest Direwolves and the Direwolf King had died.

Two shadowy white ﬁgures appeared out of nowhere; they were two middle aged men, both dressed in white with a head of silver, blue eyes shining and a majestic aura surrounding them.

The white robed man on the left furrowed his eyebrow, asking in puzzlement: “Her Highness’ aura stopped here, how is that possible?” The man on the right looked at the surrounding corpses, his eyes ﬁlled with a thread of fear. “Could it be… these Heavenly Beasts killed Her Highness? If not for that, how could this be possible, with our Snow God Perception, we would deﬁnitely be able to sense her aura.

The white robed man on the left said solemnly: “Don’t make wild guesses. Even if Her Highness is weak during this period of her transformation, such weak Heavenly Beasts could never be able to injure her, let alone kill her. If Her Highness releases her aura, these Heavenly Beasts would have been literally scared to death. Lao Er, check how these direwolves died.

“Alright.” After a short while, the man on the right returned after his checks, with surprise and doubt in his eyes as he said: “Such a strange, evil aura. These direwolves died around 8 hours ago, but the evil aura from the has not dissipated. The most terrifying thing is that there isn’t any of their Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy remaining in their bodies, as if they had been drained completely. A powerful Heavenly Beast must have came here, perhaps even a Heavenly Evil Beast. I understand now, Her Highness must be together with that Heavenly Evil Beast, and its aura is covering her aura, that’s why we aren’t able to detect it. Big bro, what do we do now?” Literally means Old 2nd, usually an affectionate tone to call, like 2nd brother The man on the left heaved a deep sigh and said: “Her Highness is just too mischievous, even if she does not like the fact that His Majesty arranged her marriage, she didn’t need to run! Leaving the Heavenly Snow Mountain during this time of transformation, it’s just too dangerous! His Majesty just has one daughter, how can we go back like this?”

The man on the right said with a bitter smile: “What can we do then, Big Bro? Will His Majesty get angry with us?”

The man on the left gave a cold humph: “Stop talking nonsense! His Majesty is a great Heavenly Snow King, and he is wise and foresighted, how could he vent his anger on us. Let’s go, we should head back and report to His Majesty and get instructions. As he said that, he waved his hands and a white ﬂash of light enveloped them.

When the bright light disappeared, the two shadowy ﬁgures disappeared, and the direwolf corpses turned into blocks of ice, and in the next instant, they all shattered into dust, leaving no trace.

…… Zhou Weiqing washed his body clean, giving a lazy stretch butt naked in his tent, and he looked at a side and said exasperatedly: “Hmph, you’ve taken all the advantage, I haven’t even kissed Bing’er’s face! Hmph! Time to sleep.” After the long night of excitement, although he had broken through and completed the ﬁrst portion of the Immortal Deity Technique and replenished his Heavenly Energy, but he was still extremely exhausted, especially in spirit. As such, he jumped straight into bed right then in his birthday suit.

“You little thing, why are you covering your eyes huh? This young master has such a perfect body and ﬁgure, and you dare to ignore it?” As Zhou Weiqing jumped under the covers, he noticed the little white tiger lying beside the pillow with its little paws covering its eyes and was a little exasperated and incensed. Although he had somewhat reined in his rascally nature with Shangguan Bing’er, but in his own tent, he was unfettered alone in his own tent.

Pulling back the little white tiger’s paws, he threw the little fellow onto the bed and lay down upon it, pressing it down below him.

“Wuu wuu, wuu, wuu.” The little white tiger cried angrily, struggling as it tried to squeeze out from under him. Zhou Weiqing moved around, rubbing against the little tiger as he said: “So soft and comfortable, stop squirming around. Being under this big brother of yours is your honour! When you are bigger, you can be my steed, riding a white tiger, that should be very awe inspiring heh heh.”

As he said that, he closed his eyes, and soon fell asleep.

After a while, the little white tiger ﬁnally managed to struggle its way out, shaking its cute little head angrily, its deep blue eyes ﬁlled with fury. It bared its teeth at Zhou Weiqing, but did not do anything, instead going back to that rascal’s arms and snuggling up, before closing its eyes as well.

As Shangguan Bing’er, this half resigned Battalion Commander’s Personal Aide, Zhou Weiqing was left undisturbed.

As for Xiao Ru Se, she had taken over the duties of Battalion Commander, added to the fact that all the new recruits had arrived, so she was extremely busy for the whole day.

It was only until the evening when Zhou Weiqing was awoken by hunger. As soon as he woke up, the little white tiger awoke as well, and as Zhou Weiqing dressed himself, it ran over to him and pawed at his pants with its little claws.

“You little thing, you’re hungry as well right? Come, this big bro will bring you for some good food.” As he said that, he grabbed the little white tiger and shoved it into his Squad Leader uniform before heading out.

Unless there were any urgent circumstances, there was usually plenty of food in the army camp, and Zhou Weiqing went to the mess and ate his ﬁll with a huge meal. However, to his surprise, no matter what he tried to give the little white tiger hiding in his bosom, it refused to eat. Looking at its expression, it seemed to disdain the food he offered, even when Zhou Weiqing took a lot of trouble to get some meat soup for it, it still ignored it.

“Hmm, I didn’t expect that such a little thing like you would be so proud. Hmph! If you don’t want to eat it, then you can starve to death!”

When he returned back to his tent, Zhou Weiqing was about to throw the little white tiger onto the bed, but the little fellow absolutely refused to go, biting hard on his sleeve and insisting to stay in his arms. “You little thing, you have the potential to become a warmer! Oh right, since you’re following me now, let me give you a name. Hmmm… let’s see, you’re so small, you don’t look like a tiger, more like a little cat, plus you’re so nice and round and meaty… I got it! Your name will be ‘Fat Cat’ from now on!

“Wuu wuu, wuu, wuu.” The little white tiger cried out in anger and unwillingness, its little claws scratching a white line onto Zhou Weiqing’s chest.

“Resistance is futile. If you scratch me again, I’ll spank your little bottom.” As he said that, Zhou Weiqing vulgarly pinched its little butt, saying smugly: “Fat Cat!”

The little white tiger turned its head around, ignoring him.

“Bro is calling you, how can you not answer! If you don’t answer… heh heh, then I’ll help examine your body! Heh!” As he said that, he ﬂipped it around and pulled its little legs apart.”

“Wuu wuu, wuu, wuu.” Zhou Weiqing said with an evil grin on his face: “Bro will give you another chance, Fat Cat!”

“Wuu…” The little white tiger was extremely aggrieved, and gave a sad cry in agreement.

“That’s more like it, this will be your name from now on! I’m going to cultivate now, don’t disturb me! You go ahead and sleep.”

As he said that, Zhou Weiqing ﬂipped open his Immortal Deity Technique Manual.

He had already completed the ﬁrst portion of the Immortal Deity Technique which consisted of breaking through the ﬁrst ﬁve Death Acupuncture Points, and naturally needed to continue on cultivating this technique. As such, he ﬂipped to the last page of the ﬁrst portion.

“Ehh, what is this?” Zhou Weiqing exclaimed as he examined the last page once again, discovering a small line of words right at the bottom. Previously, he had mostly skimmed through the later pages and had not noticed it. The words on the small line said: “If you are able to complete this ﬁrst portion and break through your ﬁrst ﬁve Death Acupuncture Points, place your palm on the page, and slowly bring forth your Heavenly Energy from your Taiyuan Acupuncture Point.

What was that all about? Although Zhou Weiqing had doubts in his heart, but he still followed the instructions written.

The Taiyuan Acupuncture Point was between the wrist and palm, and Zhou Weiqing slowly sent forth the Heavenly Energy into the page made of goat leather. At ﬁrst, he didn’t feel anything happening, but soon he felt as if the goat leather page was moving under his hands, and he quickly moved his hands away. With a glance, he saw that the single page had actually separated into two pages! That was to say, in between the ﬁrst and second portions of the Immortal Deity Technique,

As Zhou Weiqing quickly focused on reading the page, he found several paragraphs were written on it:

When the Death Acupuncture Points on the limbs are broken through, your ﬁve Acupuncture Points will be linked to the world, and you can communicate with the essence of heaven and earth, evolving your body. Once your body is remade, the ﬁve energy whirlpools will spread throughout your body and form a natural shield, protecting you from external forces, hidden under your skin. The name of the shield is the ‘Immortal Deity Shield’. When I created this Technique, it was only after I broke through the ﬁfth Death Acupuncture Point when I found out this amazing beneﬁt. With this in mind, I conjectured that every portion of the Immortal Deity Technique will bring an additional evolving. If I am successful in breaking through to the second portion, I will also record it down. If not, may you, my successor, try it yourself.

The profound meaning of the Immortal Deity Technique is in its unceasing improvement. Even if you are not focusing on cultivation, the energy whirlpools will continue drawing in the energy from the atmosphere, as such, once you have started learning the Immortal Deity Technique, the only option is to continue breaking through the Death Acupuncture Points.

There is no necessity in controlling the Immortal Deity Shield, as it will automatically protect its user.

…

After reading the words on the goat leather page, Zhou Weiqing was in a daze as he stared into the air for a long time. Finally, he scolded out to himself. “Damnit, I’ve boarded the pirate ship! No wonder this bastard died while trying to break through the eleventh Death Acupuncture Point, he really deserved it. He’s really trying to get others in trouble, why didn’t he specify in the summary that once you’ve started on this technique, you can never stop? What damned Immortal Deity Shield… rubbish! He hadn’t even completed training his own technique, and yet left it behind to entrap someone else… what an as*hole!”

In truth, he had wronged the creator of the Immortal Deity Technique; after all, even though he did not explicitly state that you couldn’t stop after starting this Technique, but he did mention that only someone who had the willpower and readiness to die could learn the technique.

In truth, Zhou Weiqing was very afraid. He knew in his heart that the real reason why he could successfully breakthrough the ﬁrst ﬁve Death Acupuncture Points was not because of how talented he was or that he was a hidden genius; it was totally because of the black pearl that he had swallowed and its protection. However, only the gods would know how long more the black pearl could protect him; furthermore, he was also very afraid of the extreme pain caused every time be broke through a Death Acupuncture Point.

After venting his anger and fear in a bout of complaint, Zhou Weiqing decided to test out the Immortal Deity Shield’s strength. He took up an arrow and carefully stabbed it down towards his arm. He didn’t use a lot of strength at once, instead slowly increasing the amount of power. A miraculous sight appeared before him. At ﬁrst, there wasn’t an obvious feeling, but as he exerted more strength, he soon realised that the ﬁve energy whirlpools at his Death Acupuncture Points suddenly increased their speed, causing a layer of airﬂow to seemingly form just above his skin, and the arrow in his hands seemed to slide to the side due to this layer of air, and he didn’t even feel a thing.

“Ehh, it does seem rather effective, although I wonder what’s the extent of its protective capabilities.” That night, he did not bother cultivating, and instead spent the whole night experimenting on the Immortal Deity Shield’s limits. After a night of testing, Zhou Weiqing found that its protective capabilities were indeed pretty strong, but it was inextricably linked to his Heavenly Energy. Basically, the stronger the attack it was blocking, the greater the drain on his Heavenly Energy, and there was also a certain limit on the attacks it was able to block, once it surpassed that threshold, the Immortal Deity Shield was only able to neutralize a portion of the damage, and this threshold was about a full third of his entire Heavenly Energy pool. Furthermore, he also found out that the Immortal Deity Shield would stop activating once his Heavenly Energy was drained to less than half its total amount. After a whole night of experimentation, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally sat down and muttered to himself in summary: “Dammit, why does everything need Heavenly Energy…” Still, despite his complaints, he was actually very satisﬁed with the results of his testing, and more importantly, he also discovered that with

the completion of the ﬁrst portion of the Immortal Deity Technique, the automatic replenishing of his Heavenly Energy via the ﬁve energy whirlpools was doubled that of his previous speed, and this would allow him to increase his continuous ﬁghting capabilities.

“Little Fatty, Little Fatty!” It was barely dawn when Shangguan Bing’er’s urgent voice rang out, and as the tent ﬂap was ﬂipped up, she entered the tent, but in the next instance, she was out again with a red face.

“Zhou Little Fatty! You exhibitionist! Wear some clothes!!” Shangguan Bing’er’s voice was ﬂustered and angry, but with a tinge of glee as well.

Zhou Weiqing felt so wronged, thinking to himself: Sleeping naked is my normal habit, how did I end up becoming an exhibitionist?

Quickly donning his clothes, he gave a lazy stretch and said: “I’m dressed, come in!” As he said that, he looked down and spotted the little white tiger sleeping soundly. The little fellow was hugging its little head with its front claws, and looked unbelievably adorable.

Zhou Weiqing grinned and smacked its butt.

“Aoo!” The little white tiger rolled around, startled awake, and as soon as he saw Zhou Weiqing’s wicked grin, it understood what happened and cried out angrily at him again. Wuuu… Wuuu!

“Fat Cat, your little butt feels quite good! But no lazing around. Come on.” He grabbed it and hugged it into his arms. Strangely, as soon as the little white tiger entered his arms, it immediately quieted down. When Shangguan Bing’er entered the tent again, her face was still blushing, and she looked extremely enchanting.

“Stupid Little Fatty, are you bullying the poor thing again?” Shangguan Bing’er said exasperatedly. Before Zhou Weiqing could reply, the little white tiger in his arms nodded to Shangguan Bing’er, its large eyes seemed to have tears in it, causing her heart to melt. “Come, let big sister hug.” Shangguan Bing’er got closer and tried to hug it, but no matter what, the little white tiger refused, biting onto Zhou Weiqing’s shirt and refusing to leave his embrace.

Shangguan Bing’er was rather nettled: “You little thing, he’s bullying you yet you insist on letting him hug you.”

“Wuu Wuu.” The little white tiger glanced at Shangguan Bing’er again, then buried its head into Zhou Weiqing’s arms again.

Zhou Weiqing said smugly: “Heh heh, Bing’er, see that! This young master’s charm works on both humans and animals.”

Shangguan Bing’er gave him an exasperated humph; she really did like this adorable little white tiger, alas it didn’t give her the time of the day, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Suddenly recalling the reason she came in, Shangguan Bing’er jumped with joy and said: “Oh Little Fatty, my cultivation level increased!” Zhou Weiqing immediately said: “Wow, that’s great! You’re indeed our Heavenly Bow Empire’s top young genius lady, only the top genius suave fellow like me can be a perfect match to you!”

Shangguan Bing’er lifted up her hands and pinched his cheeks, saying: “Your skin is so thick!” After pinching him, she suddenly realised how intimate her actions were, and she blushed and quickly let go. Who knew that the rascal moved closer with his other cheek, saying: “Bing’er, how about this side, it needs some balance!”

“Cheh, stop playing around, I’m being serious here. My Heavenly Energy went from the eighth level to the tenth level after last night.” Shangguan Bing’er’s next line gave Zhou Weiqing a huge shock, and he stared at her in surprise and said: “Two levels at once? Bing’er, you’re not a genius, you’re a monster talent!”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head and said: “It’s all due to you actually. That night, when I was trying to help you seal your Yongquan Acupuncture Point, a large amount of Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy invaded my body, causing me to fall unconscious. When I came back and started cultivating, it was only then that I discovered my Heavenly Energy raised by so much. Although it is still rather unstable, but I am certain that my cultivation level has already broken through to the tenth level. Little Fatty, that’s the power of your Devour Skill right.

Zhou Weiqing gave a bitter smile and said: “Don’t mention that skill… it’s not easy to use at all. That night, I Devoured too much Heavenly Energy from the Forest Direwolves, and it almost caused me to explode from the inside, I was just unable to hold so much Energy. Furthermore, I tested and tried using the skill last night under ordinary circumstances, and I was totally unable to do so at all. This might mean that the skill can only be used during the Demonic Change State, and yet during that state, I’m unable to control myself. That Devour Skill… just doesn’t seem very valuable to me, and might even cause my death! If I Devour too much like last night, once I exit the Demonic Change State, I’d explode from within again. Furthermore, I don’t even know how to enter the Demonic Change State again, it doesn’t seem like I can control that.”

Shangguan Bing’er thought about it for a while, then said: “Little Fatty, I think that is actually a good thing.”

“Good thing? Why?” Zhou Weiqing asked curiously, at the same time, stepping much closer to her.

At this time, Shangguan Bing’er’s mind was ﬁlled totally with cultivating, and did not notice his little actions, and she said: “The heavens are relatively fair. The black pearl that you swallowed is extremely powerful, but it should have its restrictions as well, if not for a huge measure of luck and coincidences, you should have died already. Same for the Immortal Deity Technique; such strong power usually comes at

a huge risk. According to the texts I read previously, the Demonic Change they described seems to be very different from your Demonic Change.”

“This is mostly because for all the examples of Demonic Change described in the texts, none of them could maintain clear thought like you. According to them, at that time, you should have killed me, and couldn’t possible have awoken so quickly like you did. The normal scenario would be that you probably had to sleep for several days before awakening. Furthermore, the Demonic Change is usually followed by a bout of weakness. However, this did not happen in your case as well, and instead you broke through to the ﬁfth level of Heavenly Energy instead!”

“As such, I feel that your Demonic Change is really different from what was written in history, and isn’t as simple as that. Perhaps you can ﬁnd the key in controlling it.”

Listening to her words, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but be highly tempted. He had experienced for himself how strong he was during the Demonic Change state, not just in terms of the sheer power of his body, but also his senses, both of which were increased by at least three times his norm.

Besides that, the speed of using his various elemental skills had also doubled, and he was also able to use the Devour Skill in that state, even being able to use the enemy’s Heavenly Energy as his own temporarily. Without a doubt, in the Demonic Change state, if he faced a Heavenly Beast, coupled with the aura from the black pearl, he was able to ﬁght with a Low Stage Zun Heavenly Beast already! As for Jewel Masters, even if the opponent was a Heavenly Jewel Master, he felt conﬁdent that in the Demonic Change State he would be able to ﬁght with a two-jewelled Master like Shangguan Bing’er.

Shangguan Bing’er continued saying: “Well, you shouldn’t think too much about it for now, take things as they come. The most important thing to do now is to keep cultivating your Heavenly Energy. It seems that at least for now, the black pearl will allow you to continue breaking through the Death Acupuncture Points, and I think that the best thing for you now is to keep raising your cultivation levels. This time, we really got lucky, we were really in above our heads. I am prepared to spend the next few days to focus on cultivation and stabilize my Heavenly Energy to the tenth level ﬁrst. You should also stabilize your Heavenly Energy since you also just broke through to the ﬁfth level. Work hard okay, I’ll be going now.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “You’re leaving so soon? Bing’er, look, we went to take revenge together yesterday, shouldn’t you give me a little reward?”

Shangguan Bing’er gave him a look and asked: “What sort of reward do you want?”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “A hug! Or a kiss! Either is ﬁne! If I could get a touch… that would be even better!”

literal translation of 上了贼船 , basically means he’s been forced onto a course of action

Chapter 25 – Admiral Zhou Arrives

“Touch your own head!” Shangguan Bing’er said angrily. “What about what happened yesterday? Hmph. If you let me cut off that thing, I’ll give you a reward.”

Zhou Weiqing involuntarily tightened his legs and took a few steps back, with a look of fright on his face: “Bing’er, don’t be impulsive! For the sake of your future happiness… I’ll skip the reward okay.”

“Hmph, just keep acting.” Shangguan Bing’er was both annoyed and amused at the same time as she looked at Zhou Weiqing, and as the images of the past day ﬂashed in her mind once again, her glare softened. Suddenly, a green ﬂash of light surrounded her, and Zhou Weiqing felt a blur before his eyes, before a soft ﬁgure hugged him lightly. Before he could even react, the ﬁgure ﬂashed in another wink of green light and vanished, with only the tent ﬂap’s movement as the only clue there was someone else in the tent a moment ago.

“Haha… haha… “ Zhou Weiqing stood there laughing foolishly to himself, and he lowered his head to the little white tiger in his arms and said happily: “Did you see that! Did you see that?! She hugged me, she hugged me of her own accord! Haha! It’s good to be so suave!” The little white tiger rolled its eyes, as if saying: Look at yourself. It then ignored him and snuggled deeper in his arms and went back to sleep.

…

As if in a blink of an eye, half a month had passed. There didn’t seem to be any retaliation from the Kalise Empire for the sneak attack they had launched, and the only ﬁghting between both sides were small skirmishes as usual.

In this half a month, Shangguan Bing’er spent it doing secluded cultivation. Besides having her 3 meals a day, she never left her tent. Zhou Weiqing also spent most of his time in his tent training during this period; besides cultivating his Heavenly Energy, he spent a lot of time trying to remember the feeling during the Demonic Change State, and how he had killed off the Forest Direwolves, trying to explore a better way to use his skills and how to match the various alignments in proper cohesion. With his faster recovery rate of Heavenly Energy, he was able to do some basic skill complementing.

The strangest thing for Zhou Weiqing was that in this ﬁfteen days, the little white tiger refused to eat anything. At ﬁrst, he was rather worried, and even tried to force feed it, but as time passed, the little thing seemed to stay lively and full of vigor, and did not seem the slightest bit hungry or dispirited. Zhou Weiqing was usually pretty easy going, and he chalked it down to the power of a Heavenly Beast, and thus didn’t think much about it.

Evening.

“Little Wei, are you there?” Xiao Ru Se’s familiar voice rang out from outside the tent. Zhou Weiqing was able to stop his cultivation at any time, as he had found out that the ﬁve energy whirlpools would always be drawing in energy at all times, and when he was cultivating, it just meant he was focusing his will on them to make their draw speed up. As such, he could do the same no matter sitting or lying down, without a change in efﬁciency. Naturally, most of the time he chose to do so lying down, although he did occasionally fall asleep due to that.

Hearing it was Xiao Ru Se outside, he quickly stopped cultivation and called out: “Ru Se Elder Sis, I’m here, come in.”

Xiao Ru Se came in, decked out in full military gear, looking extremely valiant and capable. These few days, while Shangguan Bing’er and Zhou Weiqing were cultivating carefreely, she had been working her head off organizing the troops; training the troops, and dividing the new recruits into various squads and companies. Now that she entered, Zhou Weiqing could clearly feel a capable soldier’s dignity and aura from her.

“Aiii” Zhou Weiqing sneaked a look at Xiao Ru Se’s breastplate, and gave a soft sigh.

How could Xiao Ru Se know what that little rascal was thinking, and immediately said angrily, “Stupid Little Wei, what are you looking at?”

Zhou Weiqing looked at her with an innocent expression, saying: “Nothing! What was I looking at?” Shamelessly acting innocent was after all his best skill.

Xiao Ru Se gave a loud humph and said: “You smelly little brat, follow me. I still need to call Shangguan Bing’er.”

Zhou Weiqing said lazily: “What are we doing?”

Xiao Ru Se’s expression grew rather weird and she grinned widely and said: “Just come with me and you’ll ﬁnd out. The military headquarters have sent Shangguan Bing’er’s orders down, don’t you want to hear it? Elder Sis will bring you along, after all you are her Personal Aide.” Hearing Xiao Ru Se’s words, Zhou Weiqing’s interest was piqued. After all, he had told Shangguan Bing’er previously that no matter what she did, he would follow her. However, this was the army, and orders had to be followed. Naturally, the earlier they knew what her orders were, the easier they could plan for things. As such, he shoved the little white tiger into his leather armor, and followed Xiao Ru Se out of the tent.

Xiao Ru Se immediately went to the tent at the side to call Shangguan Bing’er, before leading the two of them towards the large tent which housed the Fifth Regiment Headquarters.

As they walked forward, Zhou Weiqing noticed that Shangguan Bing’er had her head held down, and her expression was rather pale. He nudged her with his shoulder and asked quietly: “Bing’er, what’s wrong? What are you thinking about?”

Shangguan Bing’er gave a light sigh and said: “Little Fatty, His Majesty and the Admiral trusted me so much, and they gave me the position of Battalion Commander… but I’ve let them down, and even resigned the commision on my own accord…”

Zhou Weiqing said imposingly: “Don’t be depressed, it is not your fault. It’s clearly they who had the error in judgement; with your kind and gentle nature, you were never suitable to lead an army. Hmph, such a talented young Heavenly Jewel Master and they did not let you cultivate properly, and insisted on sending you to the army instead. How could they possibly blame you?”

Shangguan Bing’er almost jumped in shock and quickly covered his mouth, shooting a quick glance at Xiao Ru Se in front. “Little Fatty, do not speak nonsense. How can you speak ill of His Majesty and Admiral Zhou? Furthermore, it’s my own fault.”

Zhou Weiqing seized the chance to hold her hand, squeezing it as he said: “Heh, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, no matter what your orders are, I will follow you.”

Xiao Ru Se who was in front turned and glanced at them, an interesting little smile on her face. Shangguan Bing’er was frightened by Zhou Weiqing’s intimate actions; this was after all the army camp! She quickly snatched her hand back and gave him an angry glare: “You’re my Personal Aide now, behave yourself!”

In the short span of time that they spoke, they had already reached the large headquarters tent. This was Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁrst time entering such a high ranked tentage; it was large and entirely made from well cured cow leather, with a steel alloy structure holding it in place, and was large enough to hold more than a hundred people in meetings.

As the tent entrance ﬂapped open, Xiao Ru Se stopped and said in a loud voice: “3rd Battalion, Xiao Se, Reporting.”

“3rd Battalion, Shangguan Bing’er, Reporting.”

Listening to them shouting out, Zhou Weiqing took a quick peek into the tent, and that peek almost shocked and scared the soul out of him.

Right in the centre of the tent, sat a man who was extremely well built and looked about 50 years of age. His bronzed muscles seemed to glow with health, and he had a squarish face, a pair of piercing eyes and a straight nose. Although he was seated, it was clear that he had a large frame, his rock-like muscles causing his black suit to bulge out, while his eyes were full of spirit.

This face, Zhou Weiqing had seen countless times. Wasn’t that his extremely strong father, the strongest man in the Heavenly Bow Empire, Zhou Shui Niu, Admiral Zhou? At each side of Admiral Zhou, the Fifth Regiment Commander Gao Shen, and the Vice Commander Qian Zhan Tian stood respectfully. Currently, the two did not seem like the high ranking ofﬁcials who commandeered an entire Regiment that they were, as they stood at his side with awe and

respect.

“Come in.” Admiral Zhou’s deep voice sounded out.

Zhou Weiqing’s heart was ﬁlled with regret for following them here, shooting a quick glare at Xiao Ru Se, thinking to himself: “Ru Se Elder Sis, this time you have gotten me in deep trouble! Once my dad gets hold of me, I’ll be getting a big beating!”

This little rascal was pretty quick thinking, immediately moving quickly to the side, lowering his head and adjusting his Wind Hat. His plan was to blend in with the guards in hopes that his father would not recognize him.

Xiao Ru Se naturally could see what Zhou Weiqing was thinking, and sighed inwardly as she thought to herself: Sorry Little Wei, it’s not that Big Sis doesn’t want to help you, but Uncle Zhou only has you, his only son. If he didn’t come personally, I could have still hidden it from him and not reported it up, but now that he is here, how could I hide this from him? Furthermore, you and Shangguan Bing’er were just too bold, even daring to sneak over and attack the Kalise Empire’s camp. Did you two really think that no one would know? One of their ten main granaries being burned down, how could such a big issue be hidden?

It turns out, that night when Zhou Weiqing shot the Overlord Lightning Explosive Arrow, it was right into one of the ten main granaries of the Kalise Empire, and a lot of army rations were stored within, a lot of which burned down in the resulting ﬁre from the lightning explosion. The scouts and spies of Heavenly Bow Empire had long since reported this news back to the headquarters. After a quick check on which Jewel Masters had exited the tent, it was easy to guess the ‘culprits’. Of course, it was even easier for Xiao Ru Se to know that Shangguan Bing’er hadn’t done it alone.

Xiao Ru Se and Shangguan Bing’er heard Admiral Zhou’s command and immediately went forth into the tent. At the same time, Zhou Weiqing tried to sidle his way to the side. He managed to do so, and thought he had succeeded, breathing out a sigh of relief and was just about to turn around to run. Right at that moment, Admiral Zhou’s angry voice sounded out once more: “You damned brat, you better get in here now! Don’t make your Father, I, go out there and catch you myself.” Zhou Weiqing froze in place, and knew for sure then that he had been sold out by his Ru Se Elder Sis. There was no hiding now, with his father so close, how could he possibly escape? Shriveling a little inside, he lowered his head and went into the tent.

Xiao Ru Se naturally knew what was going on, and wasn’t surprised at all, but Shangguan Bing’er had a big shock. If not for Admiral Zhou being present, she would have rushed over and asked Zhou Weiqing what was going on?

Admiral Zhou did not even look at Zhou Weiqing, saying coldly: “Go kneel at the corner. When I’m done with proper business, I’ll handle you.”

No matter how unwilling and dismayed Zhou Weiqing was, he had no choice but to go to the side and kneel down towards his father, his head bowed down low and the Wind Hat hiding his expression.

Admiral Zhou turned towards Shangguan Bing’er, his tone instantly becoming warmer: “Bing’er, tell me why you no longer wish to be a Battalion Commander?” Shangguan Bing’er lowered her head and said: “Admiral, Bing’er is wanting in ability and shallow in knowledge, I have never learned how to lead troops, and I do not think I am able to live up to such an important rank. I’m not afraid of dying, as a soldier, I will willing to ﬁght and die on the battleﬁeld. But I

cannot bear to see my companions die because I did not lead or direct them properly. So, please Admiral, release me from my commission. Company Leader Xiao is more than able to take over from me.” Admiral Zhou smiled faintly and said: “Very good, you have not disappointed me.”

Shangguan Bing’er started, and couldn’t help but look up at him.

Admiral Zhou slowly stood up and walked in front of her, smiling as he said: “Originally, when His Majesty and I discussed about this matter, I did it despite His Majesty’s objections, pulling you to the army camp. Do you know why I did so?”

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head in confusion.

Admiral Zhou continued saying: “ That’s because, the army camp is the best place to temper a person, since you chose to be a soldier, then everything needs to start from within the army camp. Only when you’ve experienced everything for yourself, when you’ve seen true bloodshed, seen soldiers’ lives pass before your eyes, then can the future you know your path, know what you are working towards. Your resignation, I accept it. In the future, if and when you return to the army camp, you will resume your commission as Battalion Commander. At that time, I believe that you will not tell me the two words ‘I resign’ again.

After he said that, Admiral Zhou returned to the commander’s chair and sat down, saying with a solemn voice: “Shangguan Bing’er, your orders are here.”

Shangguan Bing’er knelt down on a single knee: “This subordinate is here.”

Admiral Zhou said: “Permission granted for Shangguan Bing’er to be relieved of her duties as the 5th Regiment, 3rd Battalion Commander. The Battalion Commander position will be taken over by Xiao Se. Tomorrow morning, Shangguan Bing’er will return to the Heavenly Bow City, and you will report to the Heavenly Bow Unit.”

Upon hearing the 3 words ‘Heavenly Bow Unit’, Shangguan Bing’er noticeably trembled a little. When she once again lifted her head towards Admiral Zhou, her beautiful eyes showed an unrestrained joy. Admiral Zhou said with profound meaning hidden in his eyes: “The Heavenly Bow Unit is an even better place to temper a person. This time, there is no more backing down. Do you understand?” Her eyes full of excitement, even fervour, Shangguan Bing’er said: “I understand. Thank you Admiral, for giving me this opportunity. No matter what price I have to pay, I will do my best to become a true member of the Heavenly Bow Unit.”

Admiral Zhou nodded and said: “Very good. Return to pack your things then, you will leave tomorrow morning.”

“Yes sir.” With a respectful agreement, Shangguan Bing’er stood up, glancing to docile and submissive Zhou Weiqing kneeling down at the side, before walking out of the tent.

As soon as Shangguan Bing’er left the tent, Admiral Zhou’s face turned black, even blacker than the bottom of a pan. Looking at Gao Shen and Qian Zhan Tian at the side, he said: “Both of you can head off now. Without my permission, no one is allowed to interrupt me.”

The two ofﬁcers were considered some of the highest ranking military ofﬁcers in the whole Heavenly Bow army, but they did not hesitate at all in obeying Admiral Zhou’s orders, bowing respectfully and heading out instantly. At this moment, there were only three people left in the tent, Admiral Zhou, Zhou Weiqing and Xiao Ru Se. “Damn little brat, come over here!” Admiral Zhou shouted angrily.

“Orh.” Zhou Weiqing stood up and walked forth with a gloomy face, and as he passed by Xiao Ru Se, he shot her a quick glare.

Xiao Ru Se gave a helpless shrug. Little Wei, in the army, knowing information and not reporting upwards is a huge and serious crime. If Uncle Zhou didn’t come, I’d still be able to hide it, but since he came personally, if I didn’t tell him the truth and something happened to you in the future, how could I possibly face him?

Just as Zhou Weiqing was about to say something, Admiral Zhou’s foot came ﬂying over without warning. *BANG*, Zhou Weiqing was knocked back 5 metres, rolling on the ground before lying down there.

Xiao Ru Se’s jaw dropped in shock; although she knew that Admiral Zhou had a ﬁery temper, but she did not expect that he would be able to be so ruthless towards his son.

“En?” Admiral Zhou’s eyes showed a tinge of surprise. When he had kicked Zhou Weiqing, at the point of impact, his foot had felt a soft, supple and ﬂexible strength shifting most of the impact away.

Zhou Weiqing lay down on the ground, weeping as he said: “Dad, I’m wrong! After all, I’m your only son, for mom’s sake, can you hit lighter?”

Admiral Zhou said coldly: “You still know your mom? She’s almost angered to death by you. Stop acting and get up.”

Zhou Weiqing didn’t dare keep acting in front of his father, and immediately vaulted up, causing the Wind Hat on his head to drop down. With a wronged look upon his face, he stole a quick glance at his father. That appearance, it was as if he was a mere punching bag; coupled with his honest, sad face, even Xiao Ru Se’s heart ached upon looking at the scene.

This was the ﬁrst time Xiao Ru Se had seen Admiral Zhou lecturing Zhou Weiqing, and she thought to herself: This father and son pair are sure a match for each other, the father kicking the son 5 metres away, yet Little Wei is still totally ﬁne.

“Dad, give me a chance to explain! This time it’s really not my fault!” As Zhou Weiqing said that, he sidled closer to Xiao Ru Se. If his father tried to hit him again, he would run over to her side!

Admiral Zhou gestured to the ﬂoor in front of him: “Come over here, kneel down and give your explanation.”

Zhou Weiqing said with a woebegone expression: “Dad, in front of Ru Se Elder Sis, can’t you save me some face?”

Admiral Zhou rolled his eyes and glared at him again: “Face? You still want face? Do you believe that your Father, I, will hit your face instead? Hmph. Let me tell you, you little brat, your father, I, have a stomach full of pent up anger now, if you’re going to talk some rubbish, I’ll beat you up until your mom doesn’t even recognize you!”

Zhou Weiqing was also used to being beaten, and had no choice but to kneel down, thinking to himself: If you beat me up until my mom doesn’t recognize you, she’ll beat you down!

“Dad, what happened was as follows. That day, I went to the Stars Forest to take a nice bath. That’s the usual spot I bathe in. Who knows that I would bump into the princess who also happened to take a bath there! It was really a coincidence! That Difuya was just too arrogant and obstinate, and she totally did not listen to my explanation, and used her Elemental Jewel to attack me, you almost lost your son then!”

“So you just ran like that?” Admiral Zhou said coldly. In truth, Difuya had already told the truth about what happened that day, as she knew how serious things were and didn’t dare hide anything. As such, he had already known what happened. If not for the fact that Zhou Weiqing wasn’t in the wrong, it wouldn’t have been a single foot greeting him just now. With Admiral Zhou’s temper, he would have already beaten Zhou Weiqing into a true Zhou Little Fatty. No. Perhaps he would be swollen into a Zhou Big Fatty.

Zhou Weiqing said aggrievedly: “How could I not run? Who knows what Difuya would say when she went back, if she blamed me instead, with your temper, wouldn’t you have broken my leg? For the sake of your future grandson, I decided to save my life ﬁrst, so I decided to go out and forge a name for myself ﬁrst. When I returned, wouldn’t that be a proud thing for you to see? I just happened to see the recruitment, and so I signed up to join the army.”

Looking at his father, he thought to himself: Looks like Ru Se Elder Sis did not fully tell on me. Dad doesn’t know about my Heavenly Jewel Awakening yet. Heh heh. Listening to his son’s explanation, Admiral Zhou’s expression eased up a little. He knew his own temper, and in truth, if Difuya had turned the tables and lied about what happened, he probably wouldn’t have easily forgiven Zhou Weiqing.

“So, tell me, since you entered the 3rd Battalion, what name have you forged for yourself?” Admiral Zhou said passively. Before Zhou Weiqing could even open his mouth, Xiao Ru Se who was standing at the side quickly replied: “Uncle Zhou, Little Wei’s performance has been exemplary. Not only did he win the most outstanding recruit award in the Fresh Recruit Tournament and got himself the rank of Squad Leader, but he also was appointed personally by Commander Shangguan to be her Personal Aide. Furthermore, in the earlier ambush when Commander Shangguan was being attacked, it was his arrows that reversed the situation on the battleﬁeld and saved her life. If we just talked about his credit on the battleﬁeld, he can be promoted to a Company Leader!”

Xiao Ru Se’s words made Admiral Zhou’s expression ease up and look much better, and he said warmly: “Ru Se, are you praising this little brat too much? How can I not know his standards, how could Bing’er need saving from him?”

Xiao Ru Se smiled faintly and said: “Uncle Zhou, I’d better let Little Wei tell you himself. I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised. A scholar who has been away three days must be looked at with new eyes. The Little Wei now is no longer the same Little Wei as before.”

“Hmm?” Admiral Zhou looked suspiciously at his son. He totally did not consider the fact that Zhou Weiqing might become a Heavenly Jewel Master, after all he knew his son’s condition very well. With his meridians being blocked, there was no possibility of him cultivating Heavenly Energy. Admiral Zhou had spent many years trying out various methods, putting much time and energy into attempting to change that fact, but even with his mid level Zong Stage cultivation level, he had not been able to do anything about his son’s meridians. By now, he had already lost hope about that.”

“Speak, what’s that about?” Admiral Zhou said coldly as he looked as his son.

This time, Zhou Weiqing straightened his back and stood up tall, thinking to himself: Heh heh, I can ﬁnally stand up proudly in front of dad. Grinning, he said: “Dad, your son is now a Heavenly Jewel Master!” As he said that, the little rascal pulled back his sleeves and revealed both his wrists. Manipulating his Heavenly Energy, the Icy Jade Physical Jewel and the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Elemental Jewel simultaneously appeared around his wrists and started revolving. Looking at the Heavenly Jewels surrounding Zhou Weiqing’s wrist, Admiral Zhou started. The next instant, his face turned black and he shouted out: “You scoundrel!”

“Ah?” Zhou Weiqing was rather startled by the scolding as he thought to himself: What’s going on? I’m already a Heavenly Jewel Master and he’s still scolding me?

You little… how dare you pretend to be a Heavenly Jewel Master to try and deceive me and escape punishment? Furthermore, you still pretended to be a Blue Cat’s Eye Jewel, don’t you know how to act properly? Hmph, making your Father, I, happy for a minute, wait till I beat you to death!” As he said that, Admiral Zhou took a step forward and his hand whistled towards Zhou Weiqing’s head.

In truth, it was not surprising that he did not believe Zhou Weiqing. After all, preconceived ideas have a strong hold on people, and for him, someone who had suffered and tried everything for more than ten years in order to try and ﬁx his son’s meridians and failing to do so, it was a rather sore spot for him. As such, he had instantly thought Zhou Weiqing was lying. Furthermore, it was now in the day, and the blue Cat’s Eye Jewel that showed was extremely unique; naturally he would not think of such a rare gem like the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye. As his furious palm came hurtling down, it was indeed an a scary amount of strength thrown in a moment of anger. However, it was after all his son, and halfway through, before it reached him, he had managed to change the course of it, targeting Zhou Weiqing’s shoulder instead. If not, once that

palm hit his face, Zhou Weiqing would become Zhou

‘Toothless’.

“Wuu Wuu”, an angry cry sounded out, and a cute little white head perked out of Zhou Weiqing’s leather armor, baring its little fangs at Admiral Zhou. Of course, Zhou Weiqing didn’t stand there to take the blow this time, and with a *swoosh* sound, his right leg tapped the ground and his body leapt back a few metres, dodging the blow.

That’s the literal translation of ⼠别三⽇，当⾆⽬相看 , basically as the words suggest, it means a momentous change in someone you’ve parted with for a while Normally, when his father hit him, he naturally would not resist. After all, father hitting son was a universally accepted principle. However, this time, he knew it was a misunderstanding and accepting the beating would be unjust; naturally he wasn’t that silly.

“You still dare to run? Ehh?” Although Admiral Zhou’s strike just now was from a ﬁt of anger, but his son’s speed still gave him a surprise. In his heart, he thought: Could it be, that little brat was telling the truth?

“Dad, you’re a Mid level Zong Master, don’t tell me you can’t even recognize an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel!” Zhou Weiqing yelled out indignantly. As he did so, he raised his right hand and circulated his Heavenly Energy, and in an icy mist, the Overlord Bow appeared in his grasp. Actions speak louder than words, and he did not want to waste time; the Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment would tell his tale for him.

As soon as the Overlord Bow appeared, an imposing aura ﬁlled the tent, and the thick ﬂuctuations of a Strength Physical Jewel instantly drew Admiral Zhou’s attention. Admiral Zhou stared blankly at the Overlord Bow in his son’s hand, and his next action was so sudden and strange that it caused both Zhou Weiqing and Xiao Ru Se to not know whether to laugh or cry. The distinguished Admiral actually

lifted both his hands, and rubbed at his eyes.

“Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment?”

Zhou Weiqing was afraid his dad would hit him again, and quickly said: “Yes! That’s my ﬁrst Physical Jewel’s Consolidated Equipment, it’s called the Overlord Bow, has an attack range of over 1.5km, and has an additional explosive effect added on. Furthermore, it also has an socket for an Elemental Jewel in order to make use of fusion skills.

Admiral Zhou’s body trembled and swayed a bit, as he took a step back; his breathing obviously a lot heavier than before. “Weiqing, use your strongest skill and shoot an arrow at me.”

As an archer, naturally Zhou Weiqing had arrows with him, but for him to shoot his own father, he did not dare do so. “Dad… that…”

“Don’t waste time, use your full strength or I’ll beat you up!” Admiral Zhou recovered from his short bout of dazed shock and disbelief, and his eyes shone with an unrestrained excitement and glee.

Zhou Weiqing was very familiar with his father’s temper, and knew he would do as he said. As such, he didn’t argue further and quietened down to focus. As he whipped out an arrow and nocked it onto the Overlord Bow’s bowstring, his shoulders tensed as he drew the bow to its full crescent shape. With a quick thought, the Elemental Jewel on his left wrist quietly fell into the socket on the Overlord Bow. After all, Admiral Zhou was his father, although he had been told to use his strongest skill, but his attribute wheel moved to the black, Darkness Attribute area, instead of the highest damage blue, Lightning area.

Currently, Zhou Weiqing was around 10 metres away from his father, and at the instant that he drew the Overlord Bow, Admiral Zhou showed some surprised on his face. With his cultivation level, he could clearly feel how much Heavenly Energy that Overlord Bow was holding currently.

“Dad, be careful!” After he said that, Zhou Weiqing released the bowstring.

The severe whistling sound of the arrow and the ﬁnal explosion rang out almost simultaneously, and before anyone could see the arrow, in the next instant, a black arrow appeared right in front of Admiral Zhou.

Zhou Weiqing’s jaw dropped as he stared at the sight before him. The arrow that he had shot out with his Overlord Bow was just hovering there right in front of his father, and he had not even seen or felt what skill had been used.

*Bang* Another soft explosion sounded out, and the arrow disintegrated into dust. The Touch of Darkness skill activated and 12 black tentacles of about half a metre ﬂickered for a second, before vanishing as well. From the look, it was as if a small octopus ﬂailed around at Admiral Zhou for a while before disappearing.

Zhou Weiqing was very clear how strong the Overlord Bow’s destructive power was, and for that arrow, he had indeed used his full strength. Unexpectedly, his father had stopped it so easily without even releasing his Heavenly Jewels. He had never really seen his father’s real strength, and only now did he realise how terrifying a mid level Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Master was.

Xiao Ru Se had been standing at the side, and could see things relatively clearer. Faintly, she had seen that when Zhou Weiqing released his arrow, Admiral Zhou had blown out a breath of air.

Zhou Weiqing was stunned, but at the other side, Admiral Zhou was just as stunned. Of course, with the huge difference in cultivation level, how could Zhou Weiqing possibly injure him? However, feeling the power of that arrow, he had also gotten a good estimation of his son’s strength.

“Ru Se, please leave ﬁrst, I have to talk to this little brat alone.” Admiral Zhou said passively.

“Yes sir.” Xiao Ru Se agreed respectfully, before turning around to leave.

Admiral Zhou’s face seemed as calm as water, and in a ﬂash, he appeared next to Zhou Weiqing, grabbing his shoulders. In another ﬂash, the surroundings blurred around Zhou Weiqing as he lost sight of everything, only feeling a strong wind blowing past him. As he was also a Heavenly Jewel Master now, he could naturally sense that his father was not using his Heavenly Jewels, and this insane speed was totally with Heavenly Energy alone. Such speed was as if he was ﬂying at low altitudes; this was the power of a 8-Jewelled Mid level Zong stage Heavenly Jewel Master! After about 15 minutes, Admiral Zhou ﬁnally stopped, and Zhou Weiqing saw that his father had brought him to a small hillside.

Admiral Zhou put his son on the ground, and suddenly put his hands to his waist: “Wahahaha! £$%^&*&^%$£””£$%^&! My son is no longer a trash! Wahahaha!!!”

Admiral Zhou’s boisterous laughter almost startled Zhou Weiqing into falling off the cliff. In his memory, he had never seen his black-faced father so happy before.

Admiral laughed out loud for nearly the time it took to ﬁnish a meal before he ﬁnally stopped. However, when he looked at Zhou Weiqing once again, he resumed his usual strict face.

“Little brat, tell me how you became a Heavenly Jewel Master. Don’t miss out any detail.”

Zhou Weiqing said tentatively: “Dad, my Awakening process is a bit… weird. If I did anything wrong… can you not beat me up?” Admiral Zhou gave him a hmph and said: “Alright, I won’t hit you. You’re already a Heavenly Jewel Master yourself, at least Your Father, I, will not have to keep worrying about your future! Why would I beat you up then! Do you think I enjoy beating you? My heart aches when I do so as well! Hmph. If not for the fact I’m afraid that you, this little brat, will die easily from not having enough to eat if I pass away, do you think I have so much time to beat my own son everyday?”

Although his father’s tone was still brash and cold, but listening to his words, Zhou Weiqing felt a warmth in his heart. Indeed! No matter how much Dad hits me, he is still my father!

Humans, when they get excited, it is easy for them to blurt out the truth. Zhou Weiqing showed that trait right at this moment. “Dad, I did it with Shangguan Bing’er.”

“Do it then do it… what’s that got to do with your Heavenly Jewel Awakening?” At this point, Admiral Zhou was still extremely excited, but before his words ended, he suddenly realised what was being said, and grabbed the front of Zhou Weiqing’s leather armor, scaring the little white tiger into shrinking its head back down again. “What did you say? You did what?” Zhou Weiqing gave a foolish grin and said: “Heh … …”

As such, he started his tale from him getting the black pearl, running away and told everything to his father.

Even though Admiral Zhou was a Mid Level Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Master, listening to his son’s experiences this past few months caused his expression to change many times. Of which, the greatest change was when Zhou Weiqing described his Awakening with Shangguan Bing’er as a sacriﬁce, and when he had taken Huyan Aobo as his teacher.

Zhou Weiqing spoke for almost an entire hour before he ﬁnished detailing his experiences of the past month, and he also passed his father the Immortal Deity Technique manual.

Flipping open the Immortal Deity Technique, Admiral Zhou’s face changed as soon as he read a few lines. Almost involuntarily, his hand raised up as if to hit Zhou Weiqing again, but he stopped himself halfway.

“Dad, you must keep your word, you said you wouldn’t hit me just now.” Zhou Weiqing said pitiably at his father.

Admiral Zhou threw the Immortal Deity Technique onto him, and Zhou Weiqing quickly kept it again. Admiral Zhou said in a serious voice: “That is to say… you, this little brt, ate some strange black pearl, and cultivated this nonsensical Immortal Deity Technique, causing the Evil aura within the pearl to activate; followed by which you took

advantage of Shangguan Bing’er as a sacriﬁce to Awaken your Heavenly Jewels? And Bing’er didn’t kill you little bastard?”

Zhou Weiqing thought snidely to himself: Dad, if you call me a little bastard, doesn’t that mean that you…

“Uhh… Yes that’s right.”

Admiral Zhou’s furrowed brow relaxed a little, and he gave a small sigh before saying: “Bing’er is just too good a girl! Sigh… you better treat her well and take good care of her. From now on, she’s our Zhou Family daughter-in-law. Hmph. Aren’t you very good at acting, and learnt a whole bunch of rascally tricks? I don’t care what you do, but you better bring her back home soon. However, you better remember that you can’t force her, and she better be willing to come with you!”

Zhou Weiqing blinked in surprise, feeling joy pervade him and he said excitedly: “Dad, does that mean you are okay with me and Shangguan Bing’er?” Admiral Zhou gave another hmph and said: “You have gotten the advantage this time little brat. As for Huyan Aobo, when you are 16, you should really work hard and learn how to create Consolidating Equipment Scrolls. You should understand how

important a Consolidating Equipment Master is for our Heavenly Bow Empire. Alright, get lost now, you can head west to return to the camp, and when you do so, start packing up as well. Tomorrow, you will join Bing’er and report to the

Heavenly Bow Unit.

Zhou Weiqing started a little; he did not expect that his father would be so easy going after knowing about him and Shangguan Bing’er, as he had expected a beating.

Once again asking tentatively, he said: “Dad, is that it? Aren’t you going to ask me to cultivate harder?”

A strange light ﬂashed in Admiral Zhou’s eyes, and he said exasperatedly: “Urge? How could I rush you. That nonsensical Immortal Deity Technique, how can it be rushed? You little brat, you better remember, if you dare to die before Your Father, I will turn myself into a ghost and break your legs. Now, get lost!”

Zhou Weiqing saw that his father was near bursting point again, and didn’t stop to continue talking and ran off. Looking at his son’s retreating ﬁgure, Admiral Zhou suddenly burst out laughing again, muttering to himself at the same time: “Hmph, who still dares say that my son is a trash, haha, he’s a genius amongst all genius! Bing’er that little girl is

extremely good, with her restricting that little brat, that’ll be

more than enough! Heh, that brat still wants me to teach him, what’s there to teach! My 8th Jewel’s Skill was the Touch of Darkness, that little brat… Wahahaha!”

Chapter 26 – If I let go of you, I won’t have a wife anymore!

Zhou Weiqing naturally did not know that his father was still laughing maniacally to himself behind. Escaping a beating this time, he was already very satisﬁed. Without any delay, he rushed back to his tent; he did not have much to pack up anyway, and thus he jumped into bed to have a good sleep.

Right at this moment, he heard an almost ghostly voice from outside: “Zhou Little Fatty, you’re back?”

Zhou Weiqing got a fright and quickly jumped off his bed: “Who’s there? It’s late at night, don’t scare me!”

As the tent ﬂap raised up, Shangguan Bing’er entered, dressed in a cotton outﬁt. Her expression seemed very peaceable, without the usual cold mask she wore, but without knowing why, the Shangguan Bing’er of today caused Zhou Weiqing to have a very uneasy feeling in his heart. “Bing’er, what’s wrong?” Zhou Weiqing asked with trepidation.

Shangguan Bing’er stopped about two metres away and said passively: “You’re not Zhou Little Fatty, you’re Zhou Weiqing right? You’re Admiral Zhou’s only son.” At this time, Zhou Weiqing could no longer hide the truth, saying in embarrassment: “Yes, but my childhood nickname was really Zhou Little Fatty.”

Shangguan Bing’er nodded her head gently and said: “Good, very good. I should have known earlier, no wonder you were so familiar with Xiao Se. How foolish of me… Zhou Little Fatty… Zhou Weiqing… My mom always said, the worst men in the world are those who lie to you. You’re good, very good.” As she said that, she turned and walked away.

Zhou Weiqing was just about to chase her, but she suddenly turned around and whipped out her sword, saying in a severe voice: “Do not follow me, or I’ll kill you!” After saying that, she turned around and left once again, in a very resolute manner.

Staring dumbfoundedly at the closing down before him, Zhou Weiqing felt on the verge of weeping but no tears came. How could you blame me for that? If I had told you who I was earlier, would you have allowed me to stay in the army camp?

Right at the moment, there was a loud *Swish*, and the tent ﬂap opened once more. Just as Zhou Weiqing was delighted that Shangguan Bing’er had changed her mind and returned, he saw it was his dad. “Little brat, I forgot to ask you something just now. Since you’re together with Bing’er now, what about the princess?”

Zhou Weiqing said uncertainly: “Princess Difuya? Didn’t I ask you to turn down the marriage?”

Admiral Zhou gave a loud humph: “Turn down the marriage? Don’t tell it to me, go tell your godfather that. If you have the ability to persuade him, your Father, I, will be happy to oblige.”

Having said that, Admiral Zhou turned around to leave, but just as he lifted the tent ﬂap, he stopped and said with his back to Zhou Weiqing: “A man should chase 2 but ensure 1, before going for 4,5,6,7! Our Zhou Family has very few members, and no matter how many wives you bring home, our house can support them. Damn it, you little brat, you’re not even 14 and you’ve already done it. When Your Father, I, was 14… I…. Ahem. Tomorrow you better hurry up and get lost. Anyway, here’s a birthday present.”

With that, a black object ﬂew in front of Zhou Weiqing, and by the time he had caught it, Admiral Zhou had already disappeared. The black object was very light and soft to the touch, and as Zhou Weiqing brought it closer to the lamp light to look, he realised it was a black tight ﬁtting sleeveless vest, extremely soft like silk, but its black surface had a rather dim silvery glow.

He still remembered my birthday… Zhou Weiqing suddenly felt his eyes grow moist, and he had the urge to chase out after him. In the end, he did not do so. “Dad, thanks. I will deﬁnitely make you proud in the future, so that you can be known as Zhou Weiqing’s father, and not me as Admiral Zhou’s son.”

“Hmm, oh yes, I need to say goodbye to Ru Se Elder Sis as well.”

…

Dawn.

Shangguan Bing’er was carrying her bags, a dark cloud over her face as she walked out from the army camp. As soon as she exited the camp, she saw a smiling Zhou Weiqing with his backpack shouldered as well, standing there outside waiting. “What are you doing here?” Shangguan Bing’er stopped in her tracks, looking very unapproachable. Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Of course, it’s to go with you to the Heavenly Bow Unit. I said before, no matter where you go, I’ll follow you.”

Shangguan Bing’er gave a cold humph: “This is the army, how dare you leave on your own accord? Aren’t you afraid of being punished?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “It’s my dad who asked me to go with you to the Heavenly Bow Unit.”

Shangguan Bing’er started a little, and a self mocking expression appeared on her face: “Oh yes, you’re Admiral Zhou’s son.” As she said that, she spun around and released her Heavenly Jewels, shooting forth at top speed.

Zhou Weiqing did not dare delay, moving the attribute wheel to the Wind Attribute and focusing Heavenly Energy into his right leg, and just like that, the two of them left the main army camp one after the other.

As their ﬁgures disappeared in the distance, Xiao Ru Se’s ﬁgure appeared at the exit, her face carrying a smile with a hint of melancholy. She softly muttered to herself: “Good luck to you two, Little Wei, Elder Sis will be waiting for you two here.”

As she said that, she turned around and in the air, resounded her melodious voice: “You were not there when I was born, I was old when you were born. I regret that you were late born, You regret that I was early born…”

As his cultivation level of Heavenly Energy had risen, along with the completion of the ﬁrst portion of the Immortal Deity Technique, Zhou Weiqing’s speed had raised by quite a substantial amount. However, he was still highly dependent on his Demonic Right Leg’s immense strength to propel him forward, and only by doing so could he barely keep up with Shangguan Bing’er. After all, she was a full agility type Heavenly Jewel Master, and it was only because his energy regeneration had nearly doubled after completing the ﬁrst portion of the Immortal Deity Technique, that he was able to just keep up.

However, this time, it seemed that Shangguan Bing’er was really angry, as soon as she saw that Zhou Weiqing was keeping up with her, she gave an angry humph and her Elemental Jewel ﬂew discreetly into the socket of her Wind Wielding Boots. In an instant, her speed had a sudden increased burst, and she shot forward like a shooting star in the skies. Seeing that she was about to increase the gap between them once again; at this critical moment, Zhou Weiqing did not care any further, and his left hand extended out towards Shangguan Bing’er, and instantly and Fetters of Wind fell upon her.

Shangguan Bing’er did not expect that Zhou Weiqing would use a skill on her, and instantly her body froze in place as she was controlled. Due to inertia from the sudden stop, she fell and rolled onto the ﬂoor.

At this moment, Zhou Weiqing displayed the fruits of his labour, the result of the many days of practicing with complementing skills. As the green light of the Fetters of Wind ﬂashed, another black light followed almost instantly. The black light denoting the Touch of Darkness wrapped around Shangguan Bing’er, pulling her back and saving her from the fall, slowing her speed. Alas, the sheer speed from the Wind Wielding Boots Fusion Skill was just too fast, and even though the Touch of Darkness managed to slow her down by a large margin, but the impact caused it to break.

However, in that short span of time, Zhou Weiqing had managed to catch up to her, and when he was barely a few metres from her, he immediately activated his Blink skill, appearing right below Shangguan Bing’er. As she fell down from the sky, she landed right on top of him. *Bang*! Shangguan Bing’er fell onto Zhou Weiqing with a loud crash, and was immediately embraced by him. Although she was very light, but slamming down on him like that with such great impact, Zhou Weiqing’s face turned pale in pain, but his arms did not lessen his grip, as if saying that he would never let go.

In this scenario, the advantage of the Strength Physical Jewel was put into play. Although Shangguan Bing’er was at the tenth level of Heavenly Energy, and had two sets of Heavenly Jewels, but her strength was no match for Zhou Weiqing with his strength buff.

“Let go of me!” Shangguan Bing’er said angrily.

“No! I won’t let go! If I let go of you now, I’ll lose my wife forever!” Zhou Weiqing said stubbornly.

“You…” Shangguan Bing’er’s face was cold and furious: “If you don’t let go of me, I’ll die right in front of you now.”

Zhou Weiqing was stunned for a second, and he carried her up and let go of her. As soon as he let go, Shangguan Bing’er had taken off the Purple Dawn Bow from her back, and instantly nocked an arrow and drew it to maximum capacity, aiming at him. Zhou Weiqing said with a bitter smile: “Even if you proclaim the death sentence on me, shouldn’t you give me a chance to explain?”

Shangguan Bing’er said coldly: “Explain? What’s there to explain? Do you think I’m a fool? Do you think I do not know about Admiral Zhou’s only son, who has had Princess Difuya betrothed to him since young? Viscount Zhou… Prince Zhou, please do not follow me from now on, or I will kill you.”

Zhou Weiqing thought to himself: Although Bing’er may seem very gentle, but when she is resolute, her inner nature is extremely unyielding. It seems like, words will not solve anything.

Taking a deep breath, looking at the cold glint of the arrow pointed at him, Zhou Weiqing ﬂipped his hands, and drew an arrow from his own quiver.

“I do not need you to take action. I did hide my identity from you. That is my fault, and I will take action myself.” As he said that, without any hesitation, he took up the arrow and slammed it into his left shoulder. *Pshh* Instantly, fresh blood spurted out, turning the arm of his uniform entirely red. Zhou Weiqing did not make any sound, biting his lips as his body shuddered.

Shangguan Bing’er was stunned by the scene in front of her, and she subconsciously loosened her hold on the bow. “You… are you crazy??”

Zhou Weiqing said solemnly: “I’m not crazy now, but if you leave me, I will really become crazy. As long as I can keep you by my side, no matter what price I have to pay, I am willing.” As he said that, his hands ﬂipped to the side again, as he took out another arrow. He was not shamming or putting up an act; as he spent more and more time with Shangguan Bing’er, he had found that he had truly fallen for her. Her light, her innocence, her gentle character, the resoluteness in her bones, all of that combined to draw him like a top grade wine. Although Zhou Weiqing was still young, but having inherited the black pearl’s senses, he had the feeling that if he let her leave this time, it would likely be forever. As such, no matter what, he had to leave her here, to explain things to her. He did not want to let happiness slip from his hands just like that. Holding the arrow in his hands pointed to himself once again, he asked her: “Bing’er, will you give me the opportunity to explain myself?” Shangguan Bing’er stared at him, tears involuntarily falling down from her eyes. At the same time, the Purple Dawn Bow and the arrow fell from her hands, and her body shook and trembled as she looked at Zhou Weiqing in tears, her heart trembling within as well. Seeing that Shangguan Bing’er did not reply him, Zhou Weiqing’s right hand did not hesitate to stab down with the arrow once again, this time close to his chest. Before Shangguan Bing’er could react, another *pssh* sound rang out as the arrow sank in and blood once again spurted out.

Zhou Weiqing showed his savage side, as he grit his teeth. Despite the sweat beading on his forehead, he stood there resolutely, not moving an inch, as if the 2 arrows weren’t stuck in him. Once again, his hands moved towards the quiver, taking out another arrow. “No more!” Shangguan Bing’er ﬁnally caved in, and in a green ﬂash of light, her hands were grasping hold of the hand holding the arrow.

“You fool! Aren’t you afraid of death? Afraid of pain? Why must you hurt yourself?” Looking at Zhou Weiqing’s upper half of the body, which was now soaked in fresh blood, the anger in her heart had long since evaporated. She raised her hands to try and seal the blood ﬂow, but Zhou Weiqing grabbed her hands instead..

“Let me explain to you ﬁrst; once that is done, we can treat it.” Zhou Weiqing’s voice was very soft and gentle, looking at her with love in his eyes. All that he had done was a gamble, a gamble that she also held some reciprocal feelings for him, that she would stop him. It worked, and when Shangguan Bing’er had cried, he knew he had ﬁnally succeeded.

“No, do you want to die? Let me stop the blood ﬁrst, then I’ll listen to your explanation okay?” Shangguan Bing’er said between sobs, pulling her hands from Zhou Weiqing’s grasp. She pulled out the arrow from his hand and threw it away, then placed her hands at his wounds and circulated her Heavenly Energy into his body, repelling the arrows embedded in his body with a deft touch before quickly sealing the blood ﬂow.

She then tore his sleeve away, and when she saw the wounds, she drew a sharp breath; they were extremely deep.

In truth, she did not know that if Zhou Weiqing had not activated his Heavenly Jewels and absorbed the black pearl’s evil aura, he would have died by now. Originally, when he had ﬁrst swallowed the black pearl, a drop of blood on his ﬁst had already dissolved a large Stars Tree, furthermore he had bled out so much. Shangguan Bing’er quickly took out a clean white shirt from her backpack, tearing it into strips, and used it to bandage his wounds carefully. Zhou Weiqing just stood there, watching as she bandaged him. At this moment, his tensed breath was ﬁnally relieved, and the serious eyes turned lively once again.

Quickly bandaging his wounds, Shangguan Bing’er’s forehead was full of sweat as well, and her hands stained with Zhou Weiqing’s blood.

Let’s go to the side to rest.” She looked up at Zhou Weiqing, only to see his pale, ashen face, his eyes closed as he started swaying. Shocked, she quickly held on to his other arm, but as soon as she did so, his body crumpled, falling into her arms.

“Little Fatty, Little Fatty, don’t scare me!” Shangguan Bing’er quickly held him. Even when facing stronger enemies, or when they were facing the direwolf pack, he had not sustained such heavy injuries; yet for her sake, Zhou Weiqing who feared death so much had actually inﬂicted such heavy self injuries, what more was there to say?

Shangguan Bing’er quickly helped him to the roadside, seating herself against a tree while holding Zhou Weiqing in her embrace. Zhou Weiqing opened his eyes feebly, giving a forced smile as he said: “Bing’er, I’m alright. As long as you’re willing to listen to my explanation, I can even take another two more arrows.” This wasn’t him spouting nonsense; with his body’s current physique, as long as he wasn’t stabbed in the heart, he would

be able to recover from two more stabs. At this moment of weakness for Shangguan Bing’er, if he didn’t take advantage of the situation, he wouldn’t be called Zhou Weiqing. Nestled in her soft embrace, although his shoulder hurt so much that it felt numb, his heart felt as if it had eaten honey and was indescribably comfortable.

Shangguan Bing’er’s tears fell like pearls from a cut necklace as she said: “Little Fatty, you don’t need to speak anymore. I trust you. Even if you lied to me, I’ll forgive you.” Before today, even during the time when they were facing the Forest Direwolves and Zhou Weiqing had tried to sacriﬁce his life for hers, her heart was still confused; she had not known how she felt about him.

However, just in that instant when Zhou Weiqing had resolutely stabbed the arrow into his own body, Shangguan Bing’er felt as if a knife had stabbed right into her heart as well. Only then did she realise that this rascally, shameless and brazen fellow had somehow imprinted himself in her heart. Zhou Weiqing slowly closed his eyes, as his voice grew serious. Still weak, he said faintly: “Bing’er, I really did not lie to you, I never have. Do you remember, when you ﬁrst asked me about my past, I said I did not want to lie to you, and asked you not to ask further. I admit that I hid my past, but I would not lie to you, at that time if I had told you my identity, would you have allowed me to stay in the army camp? I was afraid you would have shipped me back to my father.”

Shangguan Bing’er bit her lips and said: “But… you already have a ﬁancee, yet you behaved as if nothing was happening to stay beside me. Do you think you’re treating her fairly? Treating me fairly? How can you even face us?”

Zhou Weiqing said bitterly: “I have never treated Difuya as my ﬁancee, how could I even speak of treating her or facing her? A woman who would try to kill her own ﬁance, do you think I would even think of her? Do you know why I happened to swallow the black pearl originally?” As such, he told Shangguan Bing’er about how he chanced upon Difuya bathing, and how he had been left for the dead.

“… After I ran away, I left a message for my father asking him to help me reject the marriage. After all, she doesn’t fancy me, which I can understand; nor do I fancy her. No matter how beautiful a woman is, if her heart is not good, how can I accept her? She has never been in my heart, and the person I really love is you. You’re so gentle, and kind; while Difuya, I only caught a glimpse of her bathing, and didn’t really see her naked, yet she already tried to kill me. On the other hand, for you, even after I did that to you, you thought about the bigger picture and restrained yourself from killing me, even though you were more than justiﬁed to do so, and you even helped train me to become a Heavenly Jewel Master. Ever since that day, your kindness and compassion had touched me, and after spending so much time with you, I have really fallen for you. Bing’er, I really am no longer able to live without you.”

Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed and stammered: “But… Admiral Zhou… did he manage to reject the betrothal?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “My dad is fond of his face, and it won’t be easy for him to do that in front of godfather. I’ll personally tell godfather when we return. Bing’er don’t worry, even if I have wives in the future, it would never be Difuya.”

Shangguan Bing’er nodded gently, saying: “En…” However, almost instantly, she realised something was wrong, and her eyes widened. “What did you say?? You still want to have other wives??!” “Errr… I misspoke… … Aiiyaahhh, my wound hurts!” Zhou Weiqing’s head lolled to the side, his face pale as he ‘fainted’ then. When he fainted, he still didn’t forget to position his head properly, landing right in her bosom. While his feelings were real, it wouldn’t extinguish his rascally nature.

At ﬁrst, he was just enjoying the feeling of being pressed against Shangguan Bing’er’s soft body; the feeling was just too great. However, his blood loss was too great, and before long, he had really fallen asleep.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally awoke. As soon as he opened his eyes, he found himself lying down with Shangguan Bing’er’s lap as his pillow, with some of her spare clothing covering him like a quilt. Warmth ﬂooded his heart, and he couldn’t help but wish that the moment would last forever.

Shangguan Bing’er’s small hand rested on his forehead: “You’re ﬁnally awake, there’s no more fever. How do you feel?”

Zhou Weiqing twitched comfortably on her leg, and seeing her concerned look, his heart was ﬁlled with tenderness. Moving his shoulder tentatively, he found that although it still hurt, it was already much better. He knew that his recuperative abilities were a lot stronger than a normal human’s due to the black pearl, as evidenced from the previous time he was injured by the Direwolf King’s attacks.

“Bing’er, you won’t leave me again right?” Zhou Weiqing lifted up his right hand to hold hers.

“Mmmn.” Shangguan Bing’er nodded softly, a blush tinting her cheeks.

Zhou Weiqing struggled to get up, then unreservedly leaning into her, he put his right arm on her shoulders to support himself as he leaned in closer…

As his face grew closer, the ﬂush on Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful face grew deeper, and she said softly: “Knock it off, you’re still injured.”

Zhou Weiqing immediately seized upon her word gleefully and said: “Does that mean, as soon as my injuries are healed, we can…”

Shangguan Bing’er chided him reproachfully: “Can’t you be more proper!” Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Being proper is not my style! After all, they say that girls only fall for bad boys. Bing’er, do you know that today’s my birthday, my 14th birthday. Previously, at Master Huyan’s place, when I said that there were 2 more months before I reached 14, I was just randomly

giving a time. In truth, today is my actual birthday. How about giving me a kiss as a birthday present?”

“Fourteen…” Hearing his age, Shangguan Bing’er’s expression grew a little strange, and she put her hand to his mouth and said: “Little Fatty, you’re just fourteen years old, and not fully grown up yet. We shouldn’t be too intimate, or it’ll affect your growth.”

Zhou Weiqing was dumbfounded, he had not expected that he had dropped a rock on his own foot, the expression on his face turned weird.

Shangguan Bing’er thought he was angry, and gave him a quick peck on his cheeks. “Happy Birthday Little Fatty, I’m already yours, so I’ll wait for you to grow up.”

“I…” Zhou Weiqing didn’t know what to say to that, having a very complicated feeling in his heart, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. As it was already four hours later, the two decided to continue on their journey, though it was only after Shangguan Bing’er had veriﬁed that Zhou Weiqing’s wounds were pretty much healed before agreeing to continue traveling. Of course, they were no longer chasing one after the other, but were

running hand in hand. “Bing’er, what is the Heavenly Bow Unit? How come I’ve never heard about it before?”

“You haven’t heard of the Heavenly Bow Unit?”

“Yeah, I didn’t enter a military institute to study, nor did I go to a Jewel Master institute, so naturally I have never heard of them.”

“The Heavenly Bow Unit is a legend in our Heavenly Bow Empire. In fact, in the past, our country was not known as the Heavenly Bow Empire, and it was because of the Heavenly Bow Unit and its merits that caused our country’s name change.”

“Wow! That strong? Could it be that the Heavenly Bow Unit is even stronger than my father?”

“I’m not sure about that, I have heard that there are only a few members in the Heavenly Bow Unit, but they are all top level godlike archers, and they can only be commandeered by His Majesty. There have been a few times in history when our country was in dire straits, and it was only because they took action, taking down some key members of enemy armies, that caused the tides to turn and saving us all. I’ve heard that their individual combat abilities might not be the strongest, but they are extremely skilled assassins that even Heavenly Jewel Masters have to fear.”

“At that point in time, the Kalise Empire was at the peak of its power, and they had seven Heavenly Jewel Masters, while we only had Admiral Zhou alone. We were in deep danger, facing extinction, as the Kalise armies were at our very borders. However, in one single night, four of the strongest Heavenly Jewel Masters on the Kalise side died under their bows. That caused the Kalise Army Commanders and their Emperor to panic and order the armies to retreat from the border, and in the next sixteen years up to now, they have never fully recovered from that time. It can be said that it was the seniors of the Heavenly Bow Unit which saved our very empire. If we are able to pass the test and actually join the Heavenly Bow Unit, that would be the greatest honour.”

“So formidable? I really have to meet them!” Zhou Weiqing said excitedly.

…

Ten days later. Heavenly Bow City.

After ten days of hasty travel, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er ﬁnally returned to the capital city. “Bing’er, where should we go to look for the Heavenly Bow Unit? When I left, my father did not give me any other instructions.” Zhou Weiqing asked as he looked high and low.

Both were dressed in cloth attire, and while it was ﬁne for Zhou Weiqing as his honest appearance did not cause him to stand out in the crowd, but Shangguan Bing’er’s beauty could not be hidden by even the simple clothing, and she was deﬁnitely still a head-turner. Luckily, Zhou Weiqing took prompt action, quickly handing her his large Wind Hat to over her face, slightly resolving the situation. Shangguan Bing’er said: “Admiral Zhou gave me a letter, and told me to open it when I reached Heavenly Bow City.”

Zhou Weiqing said curiously: “Well, let’s open it and see. By the way, do you want to come home with me later? Or should I go back with you?”

Shangguan Bing’er took out a letter from her bosom, and as she heard his words, she blushed: “Little Fatty, no, we’re still too small … perhaps when we return from training in the Heavenly Bow Unit.” Traveling together these few days, Shangguan Bing’er had ﬁnally started to accept Zhou Weiqing a little, however our dear Little Fatty felt that he was still living a tragedy. In the past, Shangguan Bing’er always had a cold front towards him, and at least he didn’t dare have any untoward thoughts.

However, now that the two of them had some relations, with his character, how could he not have some thoughts of being intimate with her. Alas, Shangguan Bing’er refused to be overly intimate with him due to his age, and the most she would do was to hold hands with him, or the occasional rare, quick

embrace, causing Zhou Weiqing to itch in his heart, but he had no choice in the matter.

Zhou Weiqing turned his hot gaze to sweep across her body, muttering to himself: “Small? I don’t think that’s small at all! It’s just nice and perfect… hmm… probably 33 or 34C, at the age of sixteen, that’s a lot of latent potential…”

“ZHOU … LITTLE… FATTY!” Shangguan Bing’er grabbed hold of his ear and twisted. “What are you saying??”

“Ah? Nothing! I was uhh saying, that we aren’t that young, according to our country’s law, sixteen is of marriageable age. You are already of suitable age, and I’ve matured early as well!” Shangguan Bing’er blushed again as she said: “Maturing early still doesn’t make it right. Little Fatty, I really am not prepared. I’ve lived along with my mom since I was young, and we depend a lot on each other, and her temper is not good. Can you wait at least 2 more years for me?”

Zhou Weiqing shrugged helplessly: “Alright, I’ll listen to my wife dearest’s instructions.”

Shangguan Bing’er rolled her eyes at him, but seeing that he was listening to her also put her in a good mood, and she did not quibble about him taking advantage of her with his words. As she opened the letter in her hands, she saw that there was only one line written on it: “Go to the ﬁrst level of the Di Hao Inn, and look for a drunkard called Luo Ke Di. Tell him this – ‘I am looking for the Liu of the Unparalleled Liu Duo.’ He will bring you to take the test to enter the Heavenly Bow Unit.”

Shangguan Bing’er passed Zhou Weiqing the letter for him to take a look as well, and they exchanged looks. The Di Hao Inn was a rather well known landmark in the Heavenly Bow City; it was six stories tall and was one of the largest, most well known inns in the entire city. The most interesting thing about the inn was that it catered to all walks of life, the higher the level of the inn, the higher the ranking and the price; as Heavenly Bow City citizens, they naturally knew the place. Shangguan Bing’er said: “I shall head home ﬁrst to see my mother, let’s meet tomorrow at noon outside the Di Hua Inn alright?”

Zhou Weiqing could not bear to part with her, and held on to her hand.

A laugh slipped out of Shangguan Bing’er and she said: “Look at your foolish appearance.” She spread her arms and gave him an embrace, and just as she was about leave, she was hugged in return by Zhou Weiqing. Of course, he didn’t dare to go overboard, and just kissed her lightly on her forehead.

Watching the Shangguan Bing’er as she vanished around the corner of the street, Zhou Weiqing regained his senses and headed back home as well.

Admiral Zhou’s house was a manor with a relatively small courtyard, and the entire area was less than a thousand square metres, with around a dozen servants and without a single guard. If they didn’t witness it for themselves, no one would believe that the Heavenly Bow Empire’s commander in chief would have a house like that. However, Admiral Zhou had said that soldiers were meant to ﬁght on the battleﬁeld, and not as a guard. Even Emperor Di Feng Ling had brought up to Admiral Zhou about improving or expanding his manor, but he had always rejected it. In the empire, Admiral Zhou was one of the most respected persons, not just because he was the strongest person in the empire or the commander in chief of the army, but also because he was an extremely good role model. With a leader like that, how could the ranking ofﬁcials in the Empire dare

embezzle.

“Mum, I’m home!” As soon as Zhou Weiqing entered the house, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“You little brat, you still know to come back! Did you hear that your father went back to the front lines, so you came running back? Come, let mommy see you, have been eating well? Are you thinner?” As soon as Zhou Weiqing’s shout resounded out, a voice cried out in reply, mixed with excitement, love and anger. From the inner courtyard, a lady walked out; it was Admiral Zhou’s wife, Zhou Weiqing’s mother.

Zhou Weiqing’s mother, Ling Zihan was not a great beauty, and could probably only be considered above average in terms of looks. She was a childhood friend of Admiral Zhou’s, and their love was very deep. Even after Admiral Zhou was famous, and he found out that his son’s meridians were blocked, he still didn’t bear to let his wife give birth to another child; from that you could see how much he loved his wife, and thus he did not marry again.

“Mum!!” Seeing his mother, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but leap forward and give her a big hug.

Ling Zihan was originally very angry with him for running away from home, but with that hug, most of the anger vanished. Lifting her hand to give Zhou Weiqing a knock on the head, she scolded: “You little brat, you think your wings are ready to spread? You actually dared to run away from home? Hmph, wasn’t it just looking at the princess bathe, how big a deal is that? Difuya that girl is your ﬁancee, what’s wrong with looking! Will she lose a piece of meat looking? Why did you run!?” If Shangguan Bing’er was here, she’d deﬁnitely be shocked by how doughty and intrepid Ling Zihan was.

Zhou Weiqing said with a woebegone expression: “Wasn’t that because Dad was at home? If he weren’t at home, I wouldn’t have ran.”

Ling Zihan gave a cold humph: “So what if he’s at home? As if he can beat you to death? When your father beats you, it’s for your own good. Every time he beats you, aren’t you still full of energy? Although you aren’t able to cultivate Heavenly Energy, but when he beats you, he always used Heavenly Energy to improve your body. If not for that, if that old fellow beat you for nothing, I would have dealt with him!”

Zhou Weiqing stared dumbfoundedly at his mother, only now did he know how much effort his father had spent on him, that even his beatings were not just to teach him, but to help him. All this while, although he knew his father loved him, he always thought his mum loved him more. However, listening to his mother’s words, he suddenly realised that his father’s love for him was no lesser, although he never expressed it out clearly. At that moment, the sudden shock, the sudden contrast in his heart, made him stand there in a daze, speechless.

Right at that moment, a sudden clear and enraged voice sounded out from outside the manor. “Zhou Weiqing! Get out here right now!”

The voice was extremely forceful, and gave Zhou Weiqing a fright; even Ling Zihan at his side was rather startled, after all the little brat had just returned home, how could someone ﬁnd trouble with him so quickly? “What’s going on? Who’s that, you little brat?” Ling Zihan asked curiously.

Zhou Weiqing’s memory was very good, but he could not ﬁnd any trace of such a voice in his memories, and he said with a puzzled face: “I do not know as well! Let me go out and see.” As he said that, he rushed out.

The Zhou Family manor did not have any guards, and only had some servants, but in all the dozens of years the manor had stood there, this was the ﬁrst time that someone had dared to shout and yell outside the Admiral’s Manor, even holding a scolding tone. All the servants within the compound were rather puzzled, wondering who it was who had such guts to come here looking for trouble.

The Zhou Family Manor usually had its door open, and before Zhou Weiqing could exit, the owner of the voice had already entered.

There were two people, and on sight of them, Zhou Weiqing’s heart clutched.

It was two females, the one at the back was the person he had just parted with less than an hour ago, Shangguan Bing’er. At this moment, her face was full of worry, and her hands were being held by the woman in front, as if she had been dragged here. The woman holding onto Shangguan Bing’er seemed to be around 30 years of age, and if Shangguan Bing’er’s beauty were to be described as a little under-ripe, then this lady would be deﬁnitely in the prime of her beauty, the sort of striking looks that was usually peerless in a generation, that could even shake the spirit. Although her face was icy cold in anger, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but stare a little. Shangguan Bing’er and the lady had very similar features, and without question Zhou Weiqing knew who she was.

“Who’s Zhou Weiqing? the middle aged lady asked coldly, her breathing was obviously ragged as if the sheer rage surrounding her was igniting the very air.

“Aunty, how are you, I am Zhou Weiqing.” Zhou Weiqing did not dare hesitate, and quickly stepped forward, looking at her with his honest expression.

“Who’s your aunty? You’re Zhou Weiqing? Good, I’ve been looking for you. Do you want to take your own life, or do you want me to take action personally?” When the middle aged lady looked at Zhou Weiqing, he felt a cold shiver run down his spine, as if his body was being pierced by two sharp swords.

“Is there need to be so ruthless…?” Zhou Weiqing asked, dumbfounded.

Chapter 27 – Zhou Weiqing’s Sixth Attribute

“Do you want to take your own life, or do you want me to take action personally?” His future mother-in-law had dragged Shangguan Bing’er to his doorstep, and the ﬁrst line she said was this, causing Zhou Weiqing to be unbelievably shocked. Although he had guessed that his future mother-in-law would be extremely angry after ﬁnding out what had happened to Shangguan Bing’er, he had not expected her to be so intrepid, and come knocking.

When Zhou Weiqing’s mother Ling Zihan saw Shangguan Bing’er’s mother, it was as if she was struck by a bolt of lightning, and she stood there shocked and silent, with an obviously strange expression on her face.

“Mom!” Shangguan Bing’er quickly rushed in front of her mother with a harried expression on her face. “Mum, listen to me! It was all a misunderstanding, it wasn’t Little Fatty’s fault!” Although she knew Zhou Weiqing’s real identity, but she was still used to calling him Little Fatty.

Today, when she returned home, when her mother had taken a look at her, she had already discovered that she had transformed from a young girl to a young woman. The normally gentle and kind mother had been extremely furious, forcing her to say what had happened. After which, she had been dragged all the way to the Admiral’s Manor.

Shangguan Bing’er’s mother said coldly: “Accidentally killing someone, isn’t it still killing someone? Who are you that you can use my daughter’s virtue as your Sacriﬁce to Awaken your Heavenly Jewels? Zhou Weiqing, if you are a man, you better commit suicide in front of me, and take responsibility for your actions.”

Listening to her words, Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but get angry as well. “Aunty, you do not have to worry, I will deﬁnitely take responsibility for Bing’er, and I will deﬁnitely not shirk it. No matter what the reason was, I have indeed taken her virtue, but I mostly deﬁnitely will not commit suicide in front of you; that would be irresponsible and cause more harm to Bing’er. I will spend my life to repay her, love her, and take care of her.”

Shangguan Bing’er’s mother said scornfully: “You? You think you deserve my daughter?”

“Mum!” Shangguan Bing’er was rather anxious in her heart; one side was her mother, and the other side was the man she had accepted; being stuck in the middle was extremely painful for her.

Zhou Weiqing looked at her, not backing down a whit. “You’re right, I know that with my looks, I probably do not deserve Bing’er. But what can those good looking men do for her, does that really mean they will treat her well? I can be like a bear; on ordinary days, I’ll be lying down, acting foolish yet cute, and she can hug me for warmth or use me as a pillow. In a harsh winter when there is nothing to eat, I am willing to sacriﬁce myself as food reserves; and in times of danger, I will stand tall and become the most ferocious Heavenly Beast.” When Shangguan Bing’er heard Zhou Weiqing’s words, she was dazed with sentiment, her eyes turning red as her eyes grew resolute.

When Shangguan Bing’er’s mother heard his words, her body trembled a little, and her expression changed, the ﬁerce gaze seeming to waver a little, as if she was remembering something unpleasant. Subsequently, an unbelievably terrifying aura spread out from her, the likes of which Zhou Weiqing had never felt before.

“What a glib tongue you have boy, let me see, what can you rely on to give my daughter happiness.” As she said that, her eyes ﬂared up, and with a wave of her left hand, Shangguan Bing’er stumbled to the side and found herself unable to move. She was extremely shocked as she did not even know that her mother had such a terrifying power.

The next moment, the beautiful middle aged lady appeared right in front of Zhou Weiqing, her hand hurtling towards his shoulder. Although she was very ﬁerce in her words, she knew her daughter was now having a relationship with this young man, and despite her needing to vent her anger on him, she did not overdo things.

Zhou Weiqing had been training hard these last few weeks, and being attacked suddenly, the Immortal Deity Shield hidden beneath his skin immediately came into effect, and his ﬁve energy whirlpools started spinning at top speed, his Heavenly Jewels already appearing around his wrists. With a silver ﬂash of light, he subconsciously used Blink, barely dodging the Shangguan Bing’er’s mother’s blow.

Zhou Weiqing felt the hairs on his entire body standing as a chill ran down his spine. He had the feeling that if the he had been hit by that blow, he would have taken a huge injury. That beautiful middle aged lady looked rather frail, but the stress that she gave to him was unprecedented, even compared to when his father was seriously trying to beat him. “Ehh? Blink?” The middle aged lady looked at Zhou Weiqing with some surprise, after all it was deﬁnitely not easy to dodge that blow of hers, which could easily change directions.

“Wait!” At the same time, another voice sounded out, as Ling Zihan ﬁnally awoke from her shocked trance. With a step forward, she stood before her son, saying with an excited expression on her face: “You… you’re Tang Xian Elder Sis?”

When Ling Zihan said those words, everyone started, especially Zhou Weiqing; as from appearance, his mother looked at least 7-8 years older than the middle aged lady. More surprising was the fact that they knew each other! Tang Xian looked puzzlingly at Ling Zihan, saying: “You are…?”

Ling Zihan said enthusiastically as she rushed forward: “Tang Xian Elder Sis! Look carefully, it’s me, Zihan! Those years ago, you and Shangguan Elder Brother saved me at the Dragonpit Riverside. You also stayed at my house for over a month, and at that time you said you liked the environment of my house. I was still a little girl at that time, and Shui Niu was studying at the Jewel Master Academy.” Tang Xian’s eyes showed surprise and happiness as she said: “You’re little Zihan? It seems just like yesterday, yet already twenty years have passed.” Ling Zihan held onto Tang Xian’s hand and said: “Yes, it’s me! It’s been twenty years, and I’ve grown so old, but Tang Xian Elder Sis, you’re still just as beautiful as you were.”

Zhou Weiqing’s mouth twitched; he had never expected that his mother and his future mother-in-law would know each other. It was lucky that they knew each other too, this future mother-in-law seemed unbelievably powerful, and if his mother did not intervene, he would have been in serious trouble.

As he thought about that, he silently sidled to the side and helped up Shangguan Bing’er from the ground. At this point, she had also recovered her ability to move, and both of them exchange strange looks. Tang Xian’s eyes suddenly changed and she whipped her head around to stare at Zhou Weiqing: “Zihan, this little brat, who is he to you?”

Ling Zihan knew Tang Xian’s power very well, and quickly gripped her hands tightly, saying: “Tang Xian Elder Sis, this is my son; mine and Shui Niu’s son. He is our only son, if he has done any wrong, please punish me instead Elder Sis.”

Tang Xian drew a deep breath, and slowly released it, as she continued glaring at Zhou Weiqing: “Zihan, if it were any other thing, I would have easily forgiven him. However, this son of yours took my daughter’s virtue. How could I possibly let him go?”

“Ah? He just returned home, I’m also not sure what is going on. Weiqing, get over here now and kneel down to your Aunt Tang Xian.” Ling Zihan said furiously at Zhou Weiqing, although Shangguan Bing’er, who was standing beside him, could clearly see her giving him a signal with her eyes.

Zhou Weiqing braced himself as he walked forward, thinking to himself: Kneeling to my mother-in-law, that isn’t so bad. At least it’s not some outsider. Lowering his head, he walked to the front and kneeled down.

Ling Zihan said: “Tang Xian Elder Sis, we haven’t met for so many years, where are you staying now? Where’s Shangguan Elder Brother? Is he good?”

“Don’t mention him.” Tang Xian revealed a angry and suffering face. “I brought Bing’er to the Heavenly Bow City, but I never expected that you to be here, nor did I expect that the Shui Niu you mentioned years ago would actually turn out to be the Admiral Zhou of Heavenly Bow Empire. Ling Zihan gave her son a kick and said: “Little brat, speak now and tell us what happened?”

Zhou Weiqing once again told his tale, and Tang Xian’s face remained icy, while Ling Zihan was totally dumbfounded.

At this moment, Shangguan Bing’er also stepped forward to Zhou Weiqing’s side and knelt down in front of her mother. “Mum, I also like Little Fatty. What happened in the past was a mistake, and wasn’t his fault. After that, on the battleﬁeld, Little Fatty saved my life twice, and was even willing to sacriﬁce his life for me when we were surrounded by the Forest Direwolves, attempting to let me escape. Mum, I will not like another man in my life again. If you kill him, then you must kill me as well.”

Shangguan Bing’er’s words caused both Zhou Weiqing and Ling Zihan to be visibly moved, and the shock and excitement in Zhou Weiqing’s heart almost caused him to lose his composure. This was the ﬁrst time Shangguan Bing’er had actually admitted verbally that she liked him, and especially that line that she would never like another man again, it struck the softest spot in Zhou Weiqing’s heart. At the same time Ling Zihan was very touched, thinking to herself: That little girl doesn’t seem to have inherited her mother’s ﬁery temper, that’s lucky, that’s lucky. “You…” Tang Xian’s brow furrowed, before she sighed and said: “Grown girls are hard to keep at home… grown girls are hard to keep at home. Sigh, never mind, this little brat Zhou Weiqing shall have the advantage… show me your Heavenly Jewels.”

Tang Xian originally brought her daughter here because she was angry, but also as a bluff, a show of strength. As a mother, how could she not see that her daughter really liked that Zhou Weiqing, but as a mother, she also wanted to vent her anger and also test that little rascal as well. Zhou Weiqing’s performance had satisﬁed her, and with Ling Zihan mediating, he was saved the beating as well. After all, he was a Heavenly Jewel Master, one with the Spatial Attribute, and could be considered a decent match for her daughter. She just wanted to verify what attribute his Elemental Jewel was.

Zhou Weiqing showed his wrists dutifully, and when Tang Xian saw the blue-green Cat’s Eye Jewel around his wrist, her face changed instantly and she grabbed Zhou Weiqing’s left hand, saying in shock: “Alexandrite Cat’s Eye?”

Zhou Weiqing felt Tang Xian’s hand like a vice around his wrist, causing it to hurt, and he gave a bitter smile as he nodded: “Yes! Aunty, that is an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye.” Tang Xian seemed stunned as she said rather absentmindedly: “What attributes?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Wind, Lightning, Spatial, Darkness, Evil…” As he said up to there, he paused a moment, then continued resolutely: “And one more attribute that I haven’t been able to identify.”

This time, even Shangguan Bing’er was surprised; she had not known that Zhou Weiqing still had a sixth attribute.

Zhou Weiqing looked at her apologetically, nodding his head. He did not want to hide anything further from Shangguan Bing’er, her words just now had touched him deeply.

That’s the literal translation of ⼥⼤不中留, usually used as a lament by parents as their daughters grow up and need to be married off into another family. In chinese culture, the female is married into the male’s family, so they ‘lose’ their daughter in that sense. “Six attributes, it’s actually six attributes!” Tang Xian’s look at Zhou Weiqing changed, and all of a sudden she laughed out loud. Originally an exquisite beauty, her laugh made the surroundings seem to pale in comparison. “Haha… Shangguan Yue, you old fellow. Hmph, aren’t you always so proud about your talent, you’re merely a four attribute Alexandrite Cat’s Eye!”

As she said that, her gaze fell upon Zhou Weiqing once more: “You said earlier that you do not know what the sixth attribute is… have you Stored Skills for it?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “I have stored one. In the Skill Storing Palace, I chanced upon a small little cat with three eyes which kept staring at me. I had no idea what attribute it was, but I just tried Skill-Storing anyway, and I didn’t expect it to just succeed like that. However, that Skill doesn’t seem to be very useful, after all its range is 5 yards, and it’s might isn’t very strong.”

“Three-eyed cat?” Tang Xian’s body shuddered a little as she gave a start. “Use on me one time.” “Okay” Zhou Weiqing agreed easily. The skill of his sixth Attribute did not seem to be an attack type skill, so he was not worried about trying it on Tang Xian.

As the attribute wheel in his eyes spun towards to colourless wheel, he activated the stored skill, which surprisingly did not require much Heavenly Energy, only about the same as the Fetters of Wind.

As he lifted his left hand, Tang Xian, Ling Zihan and Shangguan Bing’er saw the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye on his left wrist ﬂash with a sudden light, which warped about and vanished as it landed on Tang Xian’s body.

Tang Xian slowly raised her right hand, as her expression abruptly changed. “It truly is The Tyrannical Killer – The 3 Eyed Dragon Cat’s unique skill, Absolute Delay. Good Heavens! You little monster. Wait, that’s wrong! Even the Fei Li Empire’s Skill Storing Palace shouldn’t have such a rare Heavenly Beast like the 3 Eyed Dragon Cat. Zhou Weiqing, what colour was the 3 Eyed Dragon Cat that you Stored the Skill from?

Zhou Weiqing thought a bit and replied: “I think it was yellow.” Tang Xian said in sudden understanding: “No wonder. The Fei Li Empire’s Skill Storing Palace really got lucky; they actually managed to catch a youngling of the 3 Eyed Dragon Cat. An adult 3 Eyed Dragon Cat is already beyond a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast, and would deﬁnitely be a nightmare for most Heavenly Jewel Masters, who would dare to catch it?”

As she said that, she gave a strange look at Zhou Weiqing. “Even a youngling 3 Eyed Dragon Cat is already a Zong Stage Heavenly Beast; you’re only of the level of a single Jewel, and you could actually Store its Skill? Furthermore, you managed to get its unique skill Absolute Delay. This isn’t just something that can be explained by luck.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Perhaps that little 3 Eyed Dragon Cat found me pleasing to the eye and decided to gift it to me.”

Ling Zihan saw her son’s smug appearance, and couldn’t help but scold him: “Smelly little brat, in front of your Aunt Tang Xian, what do you have to be smug about!”

Who knew that Tang Xian said instead: “Let him be smug, he deﬁnitely has the right. Zihan Little Sis, you do not know, but that skill, Absolute Delay, is something that even that old Shangguan Yue will be envious of.” Zhou Weiqing rubbed his nose and said curiously: “Aunty, I didn’t ﬁnd it very useful though! The range of effect is so low, and it seems like it only works for one second.”

Tang Xian gave a humph and said: “What do you know! Absolute Delay is a monstrously strong skill, and can be even considered a heaven defying skill. Amongst the Di Huang Stage Heavenly Beasts, it is still considered one of the top skills. Furthermore, do not forget that you’re still only at the cultivation level of a single set of Heavenly Jewels, and your Stored Skills will improve and evolve as you get more Heavenly Jewels. When you reach 6 Sets of Jewels, you will ﬁnd out how scary this Skill truly is.”

“I’ll give you a piece of advice though; the true strength of the Absolute Delay lies in two places…”

“The ﬁrst is the that it’s an ability that can be easily manipulated around, and can be used with perfect compatibility with any Consolidated Equipment or Skill. You and Bing’er are both archers, so I’ll just give a simple example. If an enemy is using a weapon to block your arrow, but your arrow stops in the air for a second before continuing, what would happen?” Listening to Tang Xian’s explanation, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er couldn’t help but show a startled expression.

Tang Xian continued saying: “The second key point about it is the word ‘Absolute’. That is to say, it will deﬁnitely succeed and have the same effect no matter how strong your opponent is, no matter the cultivation level difference. Although one second might seem like a very short time, but in a ﬁght between experts, a second of delay can be the difference between victory and defeat, the difference between life and death. You should train hard on this Skill, and it will be useful to you all your life.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Thank you Aunty.”

Tang Xian did not seem to have heard him, continuing to mutter to herself: “Actually being able to Store the Absolute Delay Skill, looks like your mysterious sixth attribute is time, one of the three Saint Attributes that only the owner of an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye can have. Furthermore, there is the spatial attribute to complement it…”

“Wind attribute for speed, Lightning attribute for damage, Spatial Attribute for constant change in the battleﬁeld, Darkness for mystery, Evil for supplementing, and Time for Rhythm. This is almost the perfect mix.”

Shangguan Bing’ had never known that her mother was actually so powerful, and had such profound knowledge about Heavenly Jewel Masters. As she heard her mother speak, she couldn’t help but ask: “Mum, what are the three Saint Attributes?”

Tang Xian said solemnly: The three Saint Attributes refer to the Divine Attribute, Spirit Attribute, and Time Attribute. Actually, there should be four Saint Attributes, Evil was also once considered a Saint Attribute. However, because the Evil Attribute brings about too many negative side effects for the Heavenly Jewels, and furthermore it is not restricted to Alexandrite Cat’s Eyes, it’s total power is a little less than the three Saint Attributes that I mentioned earlier, thus it was removed from consideration. Bing’er, I have to say that your luck was actually pretty good.”

Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed deeply, giving Zhou Weiqing, who was grinning smugly at the side, a 180 degree pinch, before lowering her head in embarrassment.

Tang Xian looked at Zhou Weiqing with a stern look: “Zhou Weiqing, I have to remind you. Although you are considered to be extremely gifted and talented, you have to know that no matter how talented a person is, without hard work and cultivation you will still not amount to anything. Furthermore, before you break through to the level of 6 sets of Heavenly Jewels, it is not difﬁcult to kill you; any Heavenly Jewel Masters who have a higher cultivation level will still be able to handle you. At most, you can be considered outstanding amongst those of the same level.”

Zhou Weiqing said simply: “What about after six sets of Heavenly Jewels?”

Tang Xian said passively: “After six sets of Heavenly Jewels, it should be enough for you to protect yourself. After nine sets, you will be hard pressed to ﬁnd an opponent in the world.”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh heh, Thank you aunty for your teachings.”

Tang Xian glared at him and said: “You’re already having this relationship with my daughter, are you still calling me aunty?”

Zhou Weiqing blinked, and instantly understood the underlying meaning, and he quickly said with ﬂattering tone: “Mum…” As he said that, he criticised in his heart: When you ﬁrst came, you still said I did not deserve your daughter, in such a short time you already admitting I’m your son-in-law; such a quick change! Of course, how could he know, it was only people of Tang Xian’s power levels that could truly understand how terrifying and monstrous it meant to have those six attributes.

Tang Xian nodded in satisfaction, while Shangguan Bing’er looked on dumbfoundedly. That rascal, his skin was just too thick, how could her mum also …

Tang Xian glanced at her daughter and said: “Nevermind, you should just call me Aunty for now. When you two are married, then you can change. Bing’er, you better keep watch on him, don’t let anyone snatch him away. When you two grow older in a few years time, you can get married. Zihan, us two sisters haven’t met in such a long time, aren’t you going to invite us in?”

“Ah! Tang Xian Elder Sis, quick, come in!” Ling Zihan quickly responded. At this point, if we were to say who was the happiest in the whole scene, it had to be her. In her heart, Shangguan Yue and Tang Xian were like gods descended upon earth! Seeing her son being able to marry their daughter – in fact, Tang Xian seemed rather eager to do so, if not for the fact that her son was still young, it was likely they would host the wedding now – how could she not be happy and excited? Although it was the ﬁrst time she had met Shangguan Bing’er, but from the earlier words she spoke, Ling Zihan already liked this future daughter-in-law; furthermore, she had heard the name of this most beautiful young lady in the Empire many times before.

Seeing that both his mother and future mother-in-law had entered the house, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally couldn’t resist any longer. Sticking his hands to his waist, he started laughing in glee “Wahaha! Wife, now you can’t run any longer! Even mother-in-law has agreed.”

Shangguan Bing’er couldn’t help but wish that a hole in the earth would open up and swallow her, and she gave him a quick kick before running away.

Tang Xian and Ling Zihan chatted till very late before leaving late at night, and before leaving they agreed to meet up more often.

After his mother had seen Tang Xian off, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally ran into her room with a stomachful of doubts. “Mum, how did you know my future mother-in-law? From your reaction, it seems as if she is even more powerful than dad?” Ling Zihan was in a very good mood now, and she couldn’t help but laugh as she said: “Little brat, your luck is really good!”

“That year, I was only a teenager, and I met a Heavenly Beast at the river side, and almost died there and then. Luckily, I was rescued by Shangguan Yue and Tang Xian who had been travelling the parts. At that time, your father was still studying and training in the academy, and was not at home; we were still not married at that time. To repay them, I invited them back to my house to stay, and they really loved it there at your (maternal) grandfather’s house, and so they stayed for a while. I do not know their origins, but they are deﬁnitely extremely powerful. I do not know what Tang Xian Elder Sis’ cultivation level is for sure, but twenty years ago, when Shangguan Elder Brother killed that Heavenly Beast, the Elemental Jewel around his wrist was similar to yours, but he had ten of them!”

“Ten sets?!” Zhou Weiqing’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help but exclaim in shock. A Heavenly Jewel Master with an Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, with ten sets of Jewels! What kind of power and strength was that? Even his father was only had eight sets of Heavenly Jewels, and furthermore was only of a single attribute, yet he was already considered the strongest in the entire Heavenly Bow Empire. Twenty years ago, he had already had ten sets of Heavenly Jewels, that was already beyond the Zong stage. By now, who knows what his power levels had grown to. Zhou Weiqing had never expected that Shangguan Bing’er’s father would be so powerful! Ling Zihan sighed softly and said: “Shangguan Yue Elder Bro is about 20 years older than Tang Xian Elder Sis, but the ﬁrst time I saw them, he still looked middle aged. At that time, Tang Xian Elder Sis was slightly older than me, but look at her now, doesn’t she still look so young? My guess is that her cultivation levels are probably at least equal to your father’s. As for Shangguan Big Brother, he should be an unimaginable top level expert. Alas, I do not know what happened between the two of them; according to the little that Tang San Elder Sis mentioned, they have already separated for over ten years, but she refused to go into detail.”

Zhou Weiqing scratched his head and grinned, comforting himself by saying: “In any case, the rice is cooked. Even if they are very strong, it does not concern me too much. Mum, do not worry, eventually, your son will be as strong as them!” As he said that, he gave Ling Zihan a hug, and kissed her cheek.

Ling Zihan tousled her son’s hair, sighing as she said: “Little Wei, your father has made you suffer a lot in order to let you learn how to protect yourself, my heart ached as well even though it was for the best. So, what do you plan on doing from now? What about you and Difuya’s marriage?” Zhou Weiqing said: “Regarding Difuya’s marriage with me, I will have to talk to Godfather about it… Love requires both sides to be harmonious, and I’m sure Godfather will understand and not force me. He wanted to give Difuya’s hand in marriage to me mostly to repay Dad for what he has done for the Empire, to allow me, who was once just a trash, to have some status in the Empire. However, I’m now a Heavenly Jewel Master, and that isn’t necessary anymore.”

“No matter what, I will never marry Difuya. I already met with Dad earlier in the army camp, and he asked me to join the Heavenly Bow Unit for training. Tomorrow, Bing’er and I will be reporting there .”

“Heavenly Bow Unit?” Ling Zihan’s expression grew a little strange. “Little Wei, when you go there, you mustn’t be corrupted by them and turn bad.”

“Mum, I’m your son, am I that bad? Furthermore, why would I be corrupted by going to the Heavenly Bow Unit?” Zhou Weiqing asked in surprise.

Ling Zihan gave a humph and said: “Go, go. When you reach there, you will know what I mean. Anyway, the Heavenly Bow Unit isn’t very far from the Heavenly Bow City, remember to come back and visit me often!” The next day, when Zhou Weiqing reached the Di Hao Inn, it was already lunch time. Today, he was well prepared, bringing along all of his savings with him, along with ten gold that his mum had given him. The Di Hao Inn’s speciality was that it served customers from all walks of life, and their food was well known in the parts for being delicious, and Zhou Weiqing planned to give Shangguan Bing’er a good treat before they entered the Heavenly Bow Unit.

Seeing Shangguan Bing’er approach from the distance, he quickly waved at her, calling out: “Bing’er, here!”

Today, Shangguan Bing’er was still dressed in a cloth attire; she seldom dressed up or used make up, but her natural beauty still shone from within. The only difference from yesterday was that she now had a Wind Hat of her own, covering her beautiful features. She did not like being stared at by others as a spectacle; furthermore she was so well known in the Heavenly Bow City, as such this was a measure she decided to take. Shangguan Bing’er quickly walked up to him, a faint blush tinging her cheeks as she said in a low tone: “Let’s go in.”

Looking at her pretty and abashed look, Zhou Weiqing’s heart stirred and he held her hand. To his surprise and delight, Shangguan Bing’er only gave a token struggle before allowing him to hold her hand. The pair entered the Di Hao inn like that; it was currently lunch hour and the ﬁrst level was almost seventy percent full. Zhou Weiqing brought her to an empty table and was about to call for food, but she said: “Little Fatty, I’ve already eaten. We’re here to look for someone!”

Looking at her hemming and hawing, Zhou Weiqing said solemnly: “No, you can eat again with me, a husband treating a wife, isn’t it something normal. I won’t lack this bit of funds, come, let’s order, let’s order.”

As he said that, he stole a glance at Shangguan Bing’er, only to see her blushing again with her head down, looking unbearably adorable. It was clear that Shangguan Bing’er’s bearing towards him had improved by leaps and bounds… it was the power of the mother-in-law!

In truth, he had truly guessed correctly, and Shangguan Bing’er’s attitude towards him was also largely due to Tang Xian. Shangguan Bing’er had grown up together with her mother, and did not have any memory of her father. It could be said that her mother was her only kin. Furthermore, she was a very ﬁlial person, and when Tang Xian acknowledged Zhou Weiqing as her son-in-law to be, it had actually removed the last barrier between the two of them, and now that she faced Zhou Weiqing once again, she no longer had any more misgivings. The barriers around her heart were down, but luckily Zhou Weiqing did not know the truth, or that rascal would likely try get a foot after taking an inch!

Zhou Weiqing ordered some food, but did not overdo it in consideration of Shangguan Bing’er; he ordered 2 meat and 2 vegetable dishes, and also 2 large bowls of rice. After a short while, the food was served and the delicious smell wafted in the air.

“Bing’er, quickly eat while its hot. You’re too thin, you should eat more, so you can develop better. Heh heh.” Zhou Weiqing quickly piled food into her bowl, ﬁlling it up in a small mountain.

Looking at Zhou Weiqing’s attentive disposition, and the food piled up in front of her, Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes suddenly reddened, and she looked a little pitiably at Zhou Weiqing and said: “Little Fatty, will you always treat me well?”

“Ah?” Zhou Weiqing started. He did not expect his teasing words to be met with such melancholy from Shangguan Bing’er. “What are you thinking about, Bing’er? Of course I’ll always treat you well; forever and ever. Why do you suddenly ask?” Shangguan Bing’er lowered her head and muttered: “My mum said that my dad abandoned us when I was just two years old, and she left home together with me and came to Heavenly Bow City to stay. My mum is so miserable, I often see her sitting alone at home lost in thought, she must be thinking about my father. I’m so afraid, afraid that one day I’ll end up like her…

Looking at her like that, Zhou Weiqing felt a stabbing pain in his heart, and he got up and sat next to her, enveloping her in a warm embrace. “Bing’er, don’t cry, it’s hard to say what really happened, and it isn’t our position to discuss about our elders, but I swear that unless you don’t want me anymore, otherwise I’ll always be your Little Fatty.”

Shangguan Bing’er lifted up her head to look and him and said: “You’ll always be my bear?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded, and couldn’t resist kissing her lightly on her forehead, causing her to turn tears into laughter, snuggling a little into his embrace, and she said: “Let’s eat now, before it gets cold.”

Zhou Weiqing said seriously: “Let me hug you a while more, and I will be full. You’re a feast for the eyes, a feast that can’t be bought by riches alone! Bing’er, look… don’t you think we should ignore the age issue?”

Shangguan Bing’er pushed him aside exasperatedly and said: “Hmph, I give you an inch and you want one foot, it’s not so easy as that! My mum said that when men do not know how to appreciate things that they get too easily. So I’ve decided to extend the time even further. We shall wait till you are twenty years old then we can talk.”

“Nooooooo!!” Zhou Weiqing gave a horriﬁed scream, it was a little loud and instantly drew the attention of the nearby customers.

Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed in embarrassment and hit him lightly: “Let’s eat quickly, we’re here to handle proper business.”

Zhou Weiqing asked in a foolish tone: “What’s more proper than wedding festivities?”

Shangguan Bing’er’s face fell and she said: “If you don’t stop talking nonsense and eat with me, I’ll extend the time further!” “I’ll eat with you now alright.” Zhou Weiqing lamented. In his heart though he made a ﬁrm resolution that when they reached the Heavenly Bow Unit, he would have to ﬁnd an opportunity to take her. As long as she gave in to him once, would there be a lack of a second time, a third time, or perhaps more? As he thought about that, he started grinning foolishly.

As Zhou Weiqing wolfed down his food, Shangguan Bing’er chewed slowly and daintily. Soon, she found out the reason why that fellow started off by piling food in her bowl; she had barely ﬁnished off a third of her food when he had already polished off all the remaining food and his large bowl of rice. “Ahh, that was great, it’s been a long time since I had such great food. Although the army mess has no lack of food, but in terms of taste, it’s just too lacking.” Zhou Weiqing said as he patted his belly.

Shangguan Bing’er giggled and pushed her bowl towards him: “If you aren’t full, you can have the rest of mine. I really did eat earlier, you know my habits.”

Zhou Weiqing blinked and took it unrestrainedly, and once again wolfed down the remaining food. This time, it seemed that he enjoyed it even more. “Eating to my ﬁll, with a lingering fragrance in my mouth.” As he said that, he looked suggestively at her lips. Shangguan Bing’er ignored him and said softly: “Little Fatty, look, isn’t that the person we are looking for?”

Zhou Weiqing’s gaze followed where she was pointing at, to see a middle aged man seated at the corner of the hall. The man seemed to be around 30 years of age, dressed in white, and was rather handsome, with a long black cape draped behind him, causing him to look rather suave. However, his gaze seemed to wander a lot, drifting about as he scanned the crowd.

On the table in front of him, there were at least a dozen wine bottles. Drinking so many bottles of wine, even if they could be the lower quality rice wine with a lower alcohol content, it was still pretty impressive. This was the main reason why Shangguan Bing’er said that he could be their target.

Since Admiral Zhou had told them to look for a drunkard in this Di Hao Inn, their target was most likely someone who came here daily to drink. From Shangguan Bing’er’s observations since they entered the place, that middle aged man was deﬁnitely the one who had drank the most.

Zhou Weiqing immediately volunteered: “I’ll go ask”, and he headed towards the man. As he reached the man, he asked in a guileless tone and expression: “Excuse me, are you Mr Luo Ke Di?”

The drunkard rolled his eyes and a slightly sharp voice sounded out: “Get lost, do not block Your Father, I, from watching beauties. I was just looking at a 38E, and you little brat blocked me.”

Hearing his words, Zhou Weiqing was dumbfounded, and a strange sense of familiarity enveloped him, and he subconsciously said: “I’m looking for the Liu of the Unparalleled Liu Duo.”

literal translation of the idiom ⽣⽶煮成熟饭, meaning that what’s done is done, it’s too late to change anything now. Usually used to describe a couple having ‘done it’ already

That’s actually the meaning of the idiom he uses (唇⻮留⾹), but he is also using it as a pun here as it can be literally translated as lips leaving fragrance, he is teasing her by saying that the food she left for him was tastier because of her lips.

Chapter 28 – Lethal ‘Weapon’ (

“En??” The middle aged man stood up suddenly, shoving Zhou Weiqing to the side, his somewhat blurry eyes ﬁxed attentively in a direction. He then said exasperatedly: “Dammit kid, it’s all your fault, the E Cup has left. Sigh, it isn’t easy to ﬁnd such a large one, is it easy to be Your Father, I? Wait, why are you a male? Old Zhou said it would be a beautiful girl!” As he said that, he seized up Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Heh heh, That must be you are Luo Ke Di Senior. There are two of us, the other is a girl, and I joined later. Admiral Zhou asked us both to look for you together.”

“So there really is a beautiful girl! Where?!” Luo Ke Di immediately perked up at the sound of that.

Zhou Weiqing blinked, thinking to himself: What sort of person was this? Was this really the well respected Heavenly Bow Unit that Shangguan Bing’er mentioned? Why does he seem so similar to that weird old man! Of course, he isn’t as vulgar as that old rascal, but he’s a lot more straightforward.

Zhou Weiqing turned and waved towards Shangguan Bing’er, beckoning her over, and she immediately started walking over. As she did so, Zhou Weiqing heard Luo Ke Di muttering to himself: “Looks not bad, but only 33 inches… not my type.” Very quickly, Shangguan Bing’er had reached them and she gave a respectful bow and senior: “Hello Senior.”

Luo Ke Di’s narrowed eyes suddenly lit up, and he said: “A blemish does not obscure a jade! Although a little small, but extremely likable.”

To Shangguan Bing’er, when he said small, she naturally thought he was referring to her age, but Zhou Weiqing instantly knew what he was referring to, and without batting an eyelid, he said: “Senior, there’s a top quality one over there.”

“Eh? Where?” Luo Ke Di immediately perked up.

Zhou Weiqing pointed to a lady who was sitting alone at a table just a short distance away. She was eating alone, and there were several dishes lined up on her table. The strange thing was that although the entire hall was nearly ﬁlled up to 80% capacity, the tables surrounding her were still empty.

The woman’s back was facing Luo Ke Di, and he had not noticed her previously. However, now that he looked closely, his heart trembled. Her head of black hair was combed neatly behind, with a graceful ﬁgure and a long green dress that seemed to be of extraordinary quality. The thing that attracted Luo Ke Di most was that, from the angle he had, he could see that her bosom was of imposing size. “At least 38 inches! Heavens! That is literally a Lethal ‘Weapon’! It’s probably an F Cup too! That is truly a rare, magniﬁcent sight.”

Luo Ke Di swallowed hard before turning to Zhou Weiqing and saying solemnly: “Hey lad, I’ll go pay the bill, and when I walk past the table, you call out to me. You know what I mean!” As he said that, he winked at Zhou Weiqing, then started walking towards the green clad lady. Zhou Weiqing gave him a knowing smile, but Shangguan Bing’er started and asked curiously: “What does he mean?”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “He’ll walk over, and I’ll call him, and he can use the opportunity to turn around and look at her.”

Shangguan Bing’er got a strange look in her eyes as she said: “Is he… really the person we’re looking for? Why is he even worse than you…”

By now, Luo Ke Di had walked past the table, and Zhou Weiqing quickly cooperated and called out: “Luo Ke Di, you still have half a bottle of wine unﬁnished here!”

With the cue given, Luo Ke Di turned around in a suave motion, it was such a natural, innocent movement, and his eyes just ‘happened’ to rest on the lady sitting alone.

In the next instant, Luo Ke Di seemed to freeze in place, his entire body stopping and not moving an inch, in his mind two phrases reverberated… So big… Save me… Indeed, that green clad lady had a pair of lethal ‘weapons’; as expected it was an F cup of massive proportions. However, the problem was, her face was also a true lethal weapon! The left side of the face was like the surface of the moon, full of craters and pockmarks, and the right half of the face was ﬁlled with pimples. Her thick sausage lips stretched almost to both ears, while the pair of unevenly placed beady eyes glittered with yellow light. The strangest thing was that, her face was strangely shaped, with the top part small and a wide jaw, and her chin ﬁlled with some stubble. Top quality… this was indeed an unbelievable top quality; even if you tried to look like that, it would be difﬁcult!

From Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er’s angle, they could see that Luo Ke Di’s face turned red, then white, and green, and purple… His chest heaving as he wrestled with his emotions. At that time, the ‘lethal weapon’ looked up to see Luo Ke Di staring at her, and immediately gave him a coquettish look and said: “This handsome gentleman, would you like to have a meal with me?”

Luo Ke Di’s expression suddenly calmed down, and he seemed to recover himself, saying unhurriedly: “My apologies, beautiful lady, I would love to do so but I’m afraid I have some urgent business to take care off. Perhaps next time.” He then looked back at Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er and said passively: “I’ll be waiting for you both outside.” After he said that, he turned around in a suave, charming manner, and walked off. Although he looked extremely calm, Zhou Weiqing could see that his steps were growing ever faster, and as soon as he reached the exit of the Di Hao Inn, Zhou Weiqing could hear the faint sounds of retching.

Zhou Weiqing’s face revealed a brilliant, honest looking smile, and he turned to Shangguan Bing’er and said: “Looks like this Senior Luo isn’t feeling very well! Let’s go as well Bing’er. Don’t look back!” As he said that, he pulled Shangguan Bing’er towards the exit, and he thought evilly to himself: You old fellow, trying to fantasize about my wife, that’s your punishment! Hmph! As soon as they left the inn, they saw Luo Ke Di squatting down at the corner of the exit, vomiting his guts out. The smell of alcohol ﬁlled the air, and clearly he had just expelled everything he had eaten and drank.

Zhou Weiqing pulled Shangguan Bing’er further away, with his signature smile still on his face. Although Shangguan Bing’er didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she could guess a little, and she said softly: “Little Fatty, you’re too mean!”

Zhou Weiqing said gently: “As they say, tit for tat is fair play. I’m truly suspicious about what my dad said about this Unparalleled Liu Duo, could it be the Liu of Liu Mang?”

After some time, Luo Ke Di ﬁnally recovered, and as he lifted up his head to look at Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er, his expression was surprisingly unperturbed, as if nothing had happened earlier. Walking close to the two of them, he smiled as he said to Zhou Weiqing: “Little bro, is that what you call top quality?”

Zhou Weiqing’s face expression was honest and guileless, and with a hint of confusion in his voice, he said: “Yes! When I walked passed her just now, I was extremely shocked too. Such a top quality ugly lady, it’s hard to ﬁnd in the world. Senior, what happened to you just now? Is your stomach upset?” Luo Ke Di’s expression looked somewhat depressed, and he sighed lightly as he said: “Indeed top quality… anyway, you both, come with me.” As he said that, he started walking towards the Heavenly Bow City’s exit.

Being looked at by that depressed look, Zhou Weiqing suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, as if he had been bitten by a venomous snake. That man… was certainly one of a kind as well. As Luo Ke Di walked slowly in front, he led the pair out of the Heavenly Bow City, to the left and about 500 metres forward before he ﬁnally stopped.

Turning around, he said in a solemn voice: “You both are here to join our Heavenly Bow Unit right? In that case, you two should know that it isn’t that easy to join up. No matter what your identity or status is, what background you have, as long as you want to join the Heavenly Bow Unit, you have to pass through three tests. And I, am your examiner.

The current Luo Ke Di seemed very earnest and businesslike, coupled with his good looks, it was very hard to connect and relate him to the same person who was roguishly talking about breasts earlier. However, Zhou Weiqing sensed danger, the danger of a kindred spirit; furthermore it was clear that this person had a much stronger control over his emotions and acting.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Senior, how shall we go about the tests then?”

Luo Ke Di said: “The test is very simple, you will now go ahead 300 yards, and shoot at me with arrows. Each of you will have ten arrows worth of chances, and to pass the ﬁrst round, you will have to able to force me to parry the arrow.

Shangguan Bing’er was originally very nervous, but upon hearing that, she relaxed a little, saying: “In that case, please advice me, Senior.” As she said that, she pulled Zhou Weiqing ahead.

As Zhou Weiqing followed her, he said: “That fellow gives me a sinking feeling, something is ﬁshy! Bing’er, you better be careful as well.”

Shangguan Bing’er said doubtingly: “The seniors of the Heavenly Bow Unit have all give countless heroic contributions to our Empire, and are all considered heroes of the empire. Little Fatty, are you thinking too much? Earlier, that Senior must have drank too much, which is why he lost control of himself. Look, he seems so much better now after vomiting out all the alcohol right?”

Zhou Weiqing arched his brow and said: “I hope that’s true.”

As they reached the 300 yard mark, both of them turned around. At such a distance, Luo Ke Di was but a speck in the distance, but they were both Heavenly Jewel Masters, and their vision was naturally much better than any ordinary humans, and they were still able to see him clearly.

“You two take turns, little girl, you go ﬁrst.” Luo Ke Di’s voice came to them; though it wasn’t very loud, it still sounded out clearly in their ears. This was a distance of 300 yards! Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er exchanged looks of surprise, that alone required a high cultivation level of Heavenly Energy to achieve.

As Shangguan Bing’er took off the Purple Dawn Bow from her back, she released her Heavenly Jewels. Immediately, her ﬁrst Physical Jewel spun in the air and coalesced into her palm in a burst of bright green light, forming the Silent Tracking Arrow. As you guys should know by now, the title of the chapter is rather punny. 绝世‘凶’器 can be broken down to 绝世 and ‘凶’器. 绝世 would mean ultimate, unique, or just very strong. ‘ 凶’ 器on the other hand is a play on words as like in the chapter, as 凶 – is ﬁerce, while 胸 refers to the chest, or breasts in this case, hence the inverted commas, as they use it interchangeably in their Luo Ke Di and Zhou Weiqing’s conversation. I honestly couldn’t think of a good title for this so I just took inspiration from Mel Gibson 😉 and left you guys with this explanation at the end.

Here are some interesting title suggestions from other translator friends!

Deceptioning – Ultimate Boobage, Dangerous pair of weapons, Bombsom (bosom)

Taffy – Dangerous Cleave-age (cleavage) Thyaeria – World Shaking ‘Lethal’ bosom OMA – Ultimate breast weaponry My personal favourite is Kookiedreamer & Haku’s suggestion

– A Lethal Boobie Trap Shangguan Bing’er did not have any conﬁdence of being able to even harm Luo Ke Di, but for the purpose of the test, to just have him not be able to dodge and be forced to parry her arrows, she was extremely conﬁdent. After all, she had the Silent Tracking Arrow, and that was literally the best solution for this test, and she did not foresee any problems passing this ﬁrst test. This was the reason why she relaxed after hearing about it.

As expected, after Shangguan Bing’er had ﬁred the arrow, Luo Ke Di dodged it in a ﬂash, but the Silent Tracking Arrow in the air spun around quickly and followed him instantly, reaching the front of his face. Luo Ke Di had no choice but to raise his hands, a white light springing out from his hand and stopping the arrow.

Shangguan Bing’er kept her Purple Dawn Bow with a smile, saying to Zhou Weiqing: “He truly is a great senior from the Heavenly Bow Unit, so strong!”

Little did she know that Luo Ke Di on the other side was just as surprised; although he had easily stopped the Silent Tracking Arrow with a ﬁnger, that ﬁnger was currently feeling numb. With his experience, he could naturally easily determine Shangguan Bing’er’s Heavenly Energy cultivation levels and Attribute. He thought to himself: She is indeed worthy of being called the top genius youth of the Heavenly Bow Empire! At such a young age, she is already of the 10th level of Heavenly Jing Energy! No wonder Old Zhou

recommended her to enter the Heavenly Bow Unit, she truly has a great future ahead.

“Alright, you passed. You, brat, it’s your turn.”

Luo Ke Di’s target had never been Shangguan Bing’er, and now that it was ﬁnally Zhou Weiqing’s turn, he gave a secret wicked smile, thinking to himself: Smelly Little Brat, how dare you play with me, you’ll see how I punish you later. Shangguan Bing’er might be a Heavenly Jewel Master and pass easily, but you’re at most an ordinary Jewel Master. Hmph!

At the other hand, Zhou Weiqing had released his Overlord Bow. Due to the fact that they were 300 yards apart, although Luo Ke Di could see him releasing his Consolidated Equipment, but he could not clearly see the Jewels around his wrist. As such, he immediately determined that Zhou Weiqing was a single Jeweled Physical Jewel Master. It was hard to blame him for making that snap judgement, after all, in the Heavenly Bow Empire, there were just the two known Heavenly Jewel Masters. Even if another Heavenly Jewel Master appeared, they might not choose to stay in the Heavenly Bow Empire which could hardly afford to provide them with sufﬁcient funds.

As Zhou Weiqing whipped out an arrow and nocked it to the Overlord Bow, he drew it to about half its strength and with a

*whoosh* sound, the ﬁrst arrow ﬂew out.

What was the Overlord Bow? It was one of the top bows amongst all the Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment, and was known for its sheer destructive power, after all only pure Strength Heavenly Jewel Masters could Consolidate it. Even though it was only drawn to half its maximum capacity, the arrow that ﬂew out was still faster than from a Purple Dawn Bow.

As the ﬁrst arrow shot out, his second arrow ﬂew out almost an instant later. Furthermore, Zhou Weiqing had drawn the bow to its maximum for the second arrow. This archery skill was known as Dual Shot; the ﬁrst arrow being shot out at a relatively slower speed followed by the second arrow which would reach ﬁrst. This skill was taught to him by Shangguan Bing’er, and was usually used against stronger enemies to surprise them.

Luo Ke Di’s eyes narrowed as the arrows hurtled towards him with a loud whistling sound after being ﬁred from the Overlord Bow, and the expression in his eyes changed a little. What a powerful bow, yet it can also be considered a useless bow. In a 1v1 situation, one of the most important thing to an archer was silence. With the sound this bow makes, it was rather useless; as most enemies would be alerted and escape.

As he was thinking about that, he had also made his move at the same time. As the two arrows reached him, Luo Ke Di did not even move his legs, instead his upper body seemed to whip to the left, as if his entire body was being broken from the waist.

Although Zhou Weiqing’s arrows seemed to be targeted at the same spot, but in truth, there was some slight difference, one of the arrows slightly skewed to the left, and one to the right. However, this Luo Ke Di’s dodging was unbelievably shocking, and he somehow easily dodged both arrows.

Instantly, Zhou Weiqing thought of several words: Physical Jewel Master, Flexibility. Without question, this Luo Ke Di was a Physical Jewel Master, and amongst his boosts he deﬁnitely had the ﬂexibility attribute.

Although he was thinking, Zhou Weiqing’s hands did not slow down at all. Another two arrows shot out again; this time one was targeted at where his upper body was leaning currently, while the other towards where his body would end up if he straightened. In this way, if Luo Ke Di stood up straight, he would be hit by the latter arrow, but if he didn’t, he would be hit by the former. Although Zhou Weiqing knew that this two arrows might not force Luo Ke Di’s hand, his goal was to try and at least make Luo Ke Di move his feet.

However, to his surprise, Luo Ke Di did another high difﬁculty movement, and his upper body at the left seemed to snap to the back instead like a whip, and without getting up, he ended up in a reverse bridge position, and all the time his legs had not moved an inch, as if they had been nailed to the ground.

“Little brat, is that all you’ve got? Do you really think you can join our Heavenly Bow Unit with just that level of skill? Even in this open space, you can’t even make me move my feet, you should go home and continue suckling milk!” Luo Ke Di’s mocking words came from afar.

That guy, he was deﬁnitely taking revenge for just now! Zhou Weiqing’s heart was as clear as a mirror. Although Shangguan Bing’er’s arrow was indeed powerful, but with the abilities that Luo Ke Di revealed thus far, he could have easily dodged it until the Heavenly Energy in the arrow dissipated. Yet, he had easily let Shangguan Bing’er pass, and was just waiting for him! A cold smile appeared on Zhou Weiqing’s face. Hmph, not moving your legs? I’ll see how you do not move for this. As he thought that, his ﬁfth arrow shot out.

Once again, the loud whistling sound rang out as the ﬁfth arrow sped towards Luo Ke Di’s left foot. With a loud laugh, Luo Ke Di lifted up the leg, easily bringing it above his head, in a ‘Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg posture’. However, in the next instance, tragedy struck for him.

Previously, the arrows ﬁred and dodged had ﬂown off into the distance; as long as they ﬂew off 1.5km into the distance, the Heavenly Energy in them would have dissipated, and the explosive effect of the Overlord Bow would not come into play. However, this time, although Luo Ke Di easily dodged the arrow, but it landed right on the ground below him.

With a huge explosive sound, Luo Ke Di was caught by surprise, and his reaction was a little slower than usual. The huge explosion caused him to ﬂy up, and although he reacted quickly in releasing his Physical Jewels, twisting and turning in the air to reduce the impact, but his clothes were torn up. “F**k, what bow is that…” Luo Ke Di cursed in his heart, but his troubles were not over yet, as another loud whistling sound was heard, accompanied by a much stronger pressure. Luo Ke Di’s anger was sparked in his heart. At this moment, his body was in midair, and it was hard for him to leverage off anything. Without any choice, he quickly hit his palm towards the ground, and a strong bout of Heavenly Energy slammed against the ground, and he made use of the impact to spin

backwards further into the air. He was indeed a Physical Jewel Master, and had 5 Physical Jewels. In the Heavenly Bow Unit, he was considered one of the weakest, but his Physical Jewel Boost was of coordination and ﬂexibility, and even though he was in the air, he had the conﬁdence to dodge the incoming arrow.

However, another surprising thing appeared. Just as he made use of the impact as leverage to spin higher in the air, and seemingly dodge the arrow, he suddenly felt a pain on his chest, and he ﬂew backwards. With a loud explosion, he was knocked back at least ten metres.

In the distance, Zhou Weiqing said with a wicked smile: “I hope you enjoyed the Overlord Spatial Arrow.”

An actual Taichi manoeuvre

Chapter 29 – Godlike Archery

Luo Ke Di had been knocked back by Zhou Weiqing’s arrow. Luckily, he was a 5 – Jewelled Physical Jewel Master, and his physique was extremely strong and durable. Under such a circumstance, he was still able to react and lessen the damage done. Furthermore, when Zhou Weiqing shot this last arrow, he had plucked out the arrowhead, and Luo Ke Di did not sustain any damage. Otherwise, being taken by surprise like that and hit by an arrow from the Overlord Bow, even though his cultivation level was a lot higher than Zhou Weiqing’s, he would still be injured. This was the price to pay for underestimating an enemy.

In truth, it had been extremely difﬁcult for Zhou Weiqing to hit Luo Ke Di. The ﬁrst four arrows were all testing and probing the situation, and only the ﬁfth arrow targeting the ground was the key to his plan. Luo Ke Di had not known about the power of his Physical Jewel Consolidated Equipment, and the strength of the explosive nature of the Overlord Bow, and had been caught by surprise by the explosion and sent ﬂying into the air. At that time, Zhou Weiqing had already won half the battle.

In the next instant, when Zhou Weiqing ﬁred the next arrow, he had sent the Spatial Attribute Skill Blink from his Elemental Jewel and fused it with the Overlord Bow. Calculating the fact that Luo Ke Di had a limited range of motion while in midair, his Overlord Spatial Arrow’s effect was pretty simple. It did not have any increase in power, but it was able to cause the arrow to Blink in midair. Once the arrow had reached about 250 yards from Luo Ke Di, it blinked right to him. Indeed, Luo Ke Di’s judgement had not been wrong at all, but alas he had not calculated the fact that the arrow could just blink next to him! Although Zhou Weiqing could not fully control the Overlord Spatial Arrow yet, his luck was pretty decent and it had succeeded in a single try.

A cute little white head popped up from Zhou Weiqing’s bosom, blinking its deep blue eyes, though it did not make any sound. Wasn’t that the much missed little white tiger? Nobody knew why the little white tiger was so attached to Zhou Weiqing, and though he often ‘bullied’ it, the little thing refused to leave his side. Because of this, Shangguan Bing’er was often depressed about it.

As Luo Ke Di fell hard on the ﬂoor, he executed a perfect roll and jumped back up. Feeling the pain and stuffy feeling in his chest, he was also in a gloomy mood; after all he did not even know how he had been struck by the arrow. Was something wrong with my hearing? That’s impossible! Just from distinguishing distances and attacks from hearing alone, even the rest of the guys in the Heavenly Bow Unit weren’t any stronger than me! He thought to himself. This was tantamount to a skilled goose hunter getting his eyes pecked out by a goose, a skilled captain capsizing a ship in a small pond. With his clothes torn and ﬁlled with dirt, Luo Ke Di was rather depressed.

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er came running over, and Shangguan Bing’er said with concern clear in her voice: “Senior, are you okay?”

Luo Ke Di felt even worse from her comforting words; if she had ridiculed or taunted him, he probably wouldn’t have felt so bad, but being comforted and cared for by a little girl, even though his skin was thick, he couldn’t help but ﬂush in shame. Looking strangely at the honest-looking Zhou Weiqing, he said: “Little brat, not bad! Looks like I have misjudged you.” With his archery skill and power, how could he not have felt that the arrowhead of the last arrow had been removed, otherwise he might have been injured.

Zhou Weiqing gave a hearty laugh and said: “Senior, it’s just my luck, just luck. When I shot the last arrow, my hand slipped and just happened to shoot askew of my target. Who knew that you would accidentally knock into it instead. Does that count as passing the ﬁrst test?” Hand slipped? Luo Ke Di’s brow twitched at that as he couldn’t help but think to himself. Who do you think you’re lying to?? The earlier arrows you didn’t strip the arrowhead, yet this particular one you did so. Would you do that if you didn’t have the conﬁdence of hitting me? Hmph. This little rascal really knows how to pretend to be a boar to eat tigers, why does that seem so familiar though?

Luo Ke Di gritted his teeth and said: “Yes, you both have passed the ﬁrst test. Now it’s time for the second test. Little Brat, pass me your Purple Dawn Bow and quiver.”

Zhou Weiqing started and looked at him vigilantly: “What for?”

Luo Ke Di’s eyes revealed a crafty look as he gave a faint smile. Before they could even see him moving, let alone react, Zhou Weiqing felt a ﬂash in front of his eyes, and the weight on his body lifted, and his Purple Dawn Bow and quiver appeared in Luo Ke Di’s hands. “Earlier, you both each shot 20 arrows at me, now it’s my turn to shoot 20 arrows at you two. As long as in this 20 arrows, one of them doesn’t hit either of you, then you will pass the second test. Do not worry, I’ll pluck out the arrowheads. You guys can start running now, and I’ll count to ﬁve. One…” Damn, this is falsely using authority to take personal revenge! Zhou Weiqing thought in his heart, but he did not dare to delay at all, as he and Shangguan Bing’er exchanged looks. Without hesitation, both turned and ran off at top speed.

At the same time, Luo Ke Di leisurely took out an arrow from the quiver, tapping on it with his ﬁngers and breaking off the arrowhead. He slowly nocked it and drew the bow, all the while counting slowly: “two, three, four, ﬁve… here’s the ﬁrst arrow!”

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er heard his voice, and instantly leapt and twisted to the side. However, as soon as they did so, they realised something was wrong; they did not hear any sound of an arrow whistling through the air. Could it be a silent arrow?

“Fool! If I say it’s coming, does it mean it should really come?” As Zhou Weiqing executed a roll on the ground and was just about to vault up and change directions, he suddenly felt a pain on his buttocks, and he was instantly knocked 3 feet to the front.

It’s really a silent arrow? That arrow was obviously shot after his warning, and even ignoring the fact that it was silent, he probably still wouldn’t have been able to dodge it if it was loud. After all, the arrow had reached him just as his body was still on the ground, and unless he used the Blink skill, he would not have been able to react in time. However, Zhou Weiqing did not want to reveal his Elemental Jewel secret just yet. Although he had used it earlier in the ﬁrst test, that was under the condition that Luo Ke Di had not been able to see the arrow. If he used it in such a situation now, it would be extremely obvious to Luo Ke Di.

Despite the fact that the arrowhead was already broken off, but with the power of the Purple Dawn Bow, when the bow shaft struck his buttocks, Zhou Weiqing felt a large force transmit to him. However, it shuddered against the Immortal Deity Shield that automatically protected him, causing it to spread throughout his body and dissipating most of the energy; as such, he was only knocked a few feet to the front and with a slight pain.

So, this is the real way of using the Immortal Deity Shield! Inspiration struck Zhou Weiqing as he suddenly understood the Immortal Deity Shield’s effect. When the attack landed on his body, the shielding effect from the ﬁve energy whirlpools was just the basic, and the more important effect was the spreading and dissipating of the attack power. Although he would still take some damage on his body, but most of the impact had already been expended, and it would greatly reduce any injury to him.

“Eh? You’re pretty good at taking hits!” Luo Ke Did said with some surprise as he looked at Zhou Weiqing, who stumbled back to his feet and continued running forward after the ﬁrst hit.

According to his original plan, the ﬁrst arrow should have numbed his buttocks and allowed him to shoot his twenty arrows at will, as corporal punishment. He had reserved all twenty arrows for Zhou Weiqing; after all, he needed to vent away the pent up depression after being shot by Zhou Weiqing just now. However, Zhou Weiqing was unexpectedly ﬁne after the ﬁrst arrow, and this stirred up Luo Ke Di’s competitive heart.

*Swoosh* Another arrow ﬂew out. This time, Zhou Weiqing had extended his senses to their maximum capability, and due to that, when the arrow reached him, it gave him a shock in his heart. This was because he found out that it was not a Silent Arrow!

The arrow that Luo Ke Di had shot out did actually have some sound, but it was extremely faint, and even with Zhou Weiqing’s senses at their max, it was only when it reached about 10 yards from him did he catch a faint sound.

How did he do that? Zhou Weiqing thought puzzledly, as his buttocks was hit by the arrow once again. This time, his body had just ﬂew forward when the 3rd arrow had reached. He hadn’t even landed from the second blow and had no chance at all, and it was followed by the fourth and ﬁfth arrow!

Shangguan Bing’er had started running at the same time as Zhou Weiqing, and the two had jumped apart earlier. However, soon, an extremely strange sight entered her eyes.

Zhou Weiqing was continuously being hit by a stream of arrows from Luo Ke Di, and he wasn’t even able to hit the ground before being hit by arrow after arrow, as they kept him in mid air.

What sort of archery is this? Shangguan Bing’er mind froze and she stared dumbfoundedly. After all, both sides were 300 yard apart, and to accomplish such a feat, when the ﬁrst arrow hit Zhou Weiqing, Luo Ke Di’s third arrow already had to be in the air! Only then could the arrows strike continuously without any break, causing him to be caught in midair!. This also meant that as soon as Luo Ke Di ﬁred his arrow, he had to determine where and how Zhou Weiqing would be knocked back, and ﬁre his next arrow into that trajectory. This wasn’t just a simple matter of eyesight and discernment!

Furthermore, as she looked at Luo Ke Di, he was walking slowly forward as he ﬁred the arrows rapidly, and she was barely able to make out his ﬁring motions. He was also doing so extremely leisurely, even taking the time to give her a suave smile, and barely glancing back at Zhou Weiqing. The even more shocking thing was that, Luo Ke Di was not using a Silent Arrow, but he was able to get more than eighty percent effect of a Silent Arrow. Such unbelievable skill!?

Godlike archery skills! This could only be described as godlike archery! Although his cultivation level is only 5 Jewels, but this archery, such skills, they are almost beyond human comprehension. Is this the true strength of the Heavenly Bow Unit?

By now, Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy levels were dropping dangerously low. After all, he had been hit by 8 or so arrows, and even his impressive reserves were running dry. Earlier, he had used the Overlord Bow and Overlord Spatial Arrow earlier, coupled with the current expenditure of energy from the Immortal Deity Technique, caused his Heavenly Energy to drop really quickly. Zhou Weiqing made the snap decision to stop the Immortal Deity Shield from protecting him, as he needed to reserve sufﬁcient Heavenly Energy for the use of one last Blink. He did not want to fail here in this second test!

After stopping the Immortal Deity Shield, a change quickly occurred, the ﬁrst one being the massive increase in pain. Originally, Zhou Weiqing was only knocked 3 metres away by each arrow; without the Immortal Deity Technique, the next arrow actually knocked him 5 metres away, and the searing pain and numbness on his buttocks caused him to cry out loud.

These are the literal translations of two idioms, the former is 打雁却被雁啄了眼, while the latter is 阴沟⾥翻船. Basically, both have similar meanings – failing miserably at an easy task, or failing at the last minute due to being careless.

Another literal translation of a common idiom I’m sure you guys have seen before. It means hiding his true strength to surprise / defeat enemies However, the change also caught Luo Ke Di by surprise, causing his expression to change slightly. The continuous combination arrow skill he was using now was dependent on extremely accurate judgement, and the moment Zhou Weiqing’s ability to take blows changed, meant that the arrows he shot out earlier also would miss. At this time, the 11th arrow had just struck Zhou Weiqing, and the 12th and 13th arrow were already in midair, looking as if they would miss him.

Right at this moment, Luo Ke Di ﬁnally revealed some of his true abilities. As he shot forth the 14th arrow, it ﬂashed with a bright white light, obviously having been ﬁlled with Heavenly Energy. This arrow was extremely fast, giving Shangguan Bing’er, who had become an audience, a great shock. Such an arrow was even faster than her Silent Tracking Arrow or Zhou Weiqing’s Overlord Bow’s arrow, yet Luo Ke Di was only using ordinary arrows with the Purple Dawn Bow!

Even more shocking to Shangguan Bing’er was what followed, the arrow ﬁlled with the bright white light did not actually travel in a straight line, instead arcing through the air and nudging the 12th and 13th arrow as it ﬂew past them, before striking onto Zhou Weiqing’s buttock once again. An even stranger sight was that, as soon as it reached Zhou Weiqing, the white light on the arrow vanished. The result of that was, with three *Pssh* sounds, all three arrows landed almost simultaneously onto Zhou Weiqing, sending him more than a dozen metres ahead. This time, Luo Ke Di had stopped his continuous ﬁre; clearly his rhythm had been interrupted, and Zhou Weiqing landed on the ﬂoor on his front.

Good Heavens! Was that still archery? Shangguan Bing’er covered her mouth in shock. Naturally, she could tell that Luo Ke Di did not even bother attacking her, and he was totally doing this to seek revenge on Little Fatty. However, it was also clear that he was not being malicious about it, not only did he remove the arrowheads, but he also only made use of the Purple Dawn Bow’s, and did not use Heavenly Energy to injure him. However, that last arrow was just too breathtaking, that single arrow had actually corrected the course of the previous two arrows and hit the target, all at the same time! Shangguan Bing’er could only stare blankly at the scene in front of her, not knowing even how to judge such a skill.

From a very young age, Shangguan Bing’er had liked bows and arrows, and fallen in love with archery. However, just at that moment, she realised that everything she had learnt previously, was literally nothing compared to the archery that Luo Ke Di was displaying. If this man wanted to take their lives, he did not even need to make use of his Physical Jewels or even Heavenly Energy, and he could just depend on archery to take both of them down.

“Heh heh, Little Brat, now for the ﬁnal gift, a double lucky six!” As Luo Ke Di moved the Purple Dawn Bow, six arrows suddenly appeared at the bowstring as he nocked them together and pulled, and with a twist of his body, the six arrows launched out simultaneously!

This time, Shangguan Bing’er actually managed to see some of Luo Ke Di’s actions; just before the bowstring released and sounded out, Luo Ke Di’s right hand seemed to blur into motion, leaving several shadowy afterimages, before the six arrows ﬂew out.

None of the six arrows actually traveled in a straight line, as they all arced in different paths, racing straight towards Zhou Weiqing.

With Luo Ke Di’s discerning vision, how could he not see that the little rascal did not have energy left to even dodge a single arrow? Furthermore, he had used an exquisite skill with extreme accuracy, sealing off all of Zhou Weiqing’s possible escape routes. As long as he gets hit by a single arrow, the other ﬁve would deﬁnitely hit as well. However, right at this moment, Zhou Weiqing went berserk.

Getting hit by fourteen arrows, especially the last four arrows which brought about such acute pain, it brought forth the rage from Zhou Weiqing’s heart. This was petty revenge, an obvious petty revenge! I’m not going to use Blink anymore!

Although Zhou Weiqing’s entire body was numb in pain, but there was one thing that Luo Ke Di did not know. Indeed, Zhou Weiqing was hurting so bad that he could barely move at all, but his right leg was totally unaffected! After being knocked back by the last three arrows in succession, he had not tried to get up, instead, lifting his right leg up high. With all his might, he circulated all his remaining Heavenly Energy into his Demonic Right Leg, and slammed it savagely onto the ground, and at the same time he pushed with all his might with both hands.

In a huge explosion, the entire earth caved in from the leg, literally smashing open a 2 metre long, 1 metre wide hole in the ground! With the pressure exerted by Zhou Weiqing, he quickly slid right into this hole.

*Ting* *Ting* *Ting* *Ting*… A burst of concentrated sound rang out at where Zhou Weiqing was a moment ago, that was the last six arrows arcing and hitting each other, while Zhou Weiqing’s entire body disappeared from Shangguan Bing’er and Luo Ke Di’s line of sight.

Luo Ke Di’s eyes widened in surprise; even with as much experience and knowledge as he had, he had never seen anyone evade an arrow in this manner, and the six arrows that he had been so conﬁdent off had actually missed the target. As such, although Zhou Weiqing was in a mess, he had deﬁnitely depended on his own strength to dodge the last few arrows.

“Little Fatty!” Shangguan Bing’er ran quickly towards him, pulling him out of the hole in the ground.

Besides his right leg, Zhou Weiqing felt that his entire body was hurting terribly, and he couldn’t help but curse in his heart. Damn it, that old fellow is too vicious, my poor ass! Of course, he knew that Luo Ke Di had not been trying to injure him, otherwise he would not have targeted his ﬂeshy buttocks. However, having this been done to him in front of Shangguan Bing’er, he felt like all his face had been thrown.

“Damn kid, are you a mammoth? Such strength!? Alright, that counts as your win, you both have passed the second test as well.” Luo Ke Di walked over to them as well, and seeing the large hole in the ground, he couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise as well. Once again, a cute little white tiger head squirmed out of Zhou Weiqing’s bosom, dust and dirt all over it. Jumping onto Zhou Weiqing’s shoulder, it issued a low roar towards Luo Ke Di, showing its displeasure.

Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally got up with much difﬁculty, hurting all over. He could also feel a strong sense of bloodlust and violence invading his mind. Oh no, is it the Demonic Change activating due to my wounds?! Breathing in deep, he quickly reined in his feelings and focused hard, constantly repeating to himself that it was just a test, until his feelings started to calm down.

Only the little white tiger on his shoulder could see the sudden ﬂash of red in his eyes, and it blinked its little eyes. If anyone was close enough to observe, they would have seen a sudden ﬂash of excitement in its little eyes.

“Ehh, what’s this little thing, how amusing. A little white tiger, that’s the ﬁrst time I’ve heard of such a thing. Is this a Heavenly Beast you’re rearing?” Luo Ke Di looked on curiously at the small white tiger on Zhou Weiqing’s shoulders.

Zhou Weiqing drew a deep breath as he settled his composure, before giving a humph and said: “Yes, it’s mine.” Luo Ke Di grinned and said: “Heh heh, little fellow, don’t be so moody. Only a person who has gone through suffering will become an outstanding person. Look, even when I was knocked back by your arrow, I still didn’t get angry. In the future, we might even become comrades in arms, I was just acting according to the rules, right?”

Acting according to rules? Shooting me alone? Zhou Weiqing gave him a glare, however in truth, although he still had a little anger in him, it was mostly respect he felt. He might not have seen how Luo Ke Di’s archery, but just hfrom the way he had been suspended in the air by the earlier bout of arrows, he knew that the difference in skill level between Luo Ke Di and them was just too huge.

Luo Ke Di walked over and patted Zhou Weiqing on the back, saying softly so that only he could hear: “Hey kid, let’s discuss this alright? When we get to the Heavenly Bow Unit, if you do not mention what happened just now, I’ll ensure you pass the 3rd test, how about that?”

Zhou Weiqing started a little, then instantly understood. So, this fellow was afraid of losing face! Indeed, with his cultivation level and skill, being tricked by Zhou Weiqing was indeed very embarrassing, furthermore there was still the earlier scene of vomiting from seeing the ‘Lethal Weapon’. Zhou Weiqing immediately lifted his hand, grinned and patted Luo Ke Di on the shoulder as well, saying: “Senior’s archery is unrivaled, us juniors being able to pass the test is truly by luck, not easy indeed! Senior is deﬁnitely someone we need to learn from.”

Both of them exchanged a meaningful look, as if telling each other: You know what I mean.

Shangguan Bing’er couldn’t help but stare from the side, her jaw dropped. Those two fellows had been plotting against each other from the time they met, and each had suffered some losses, yet now they seemed like good friends? This change was just too fast! With her temperament, she naturally did not understand the communication between these two rogues.

“Alright, this little brother is such a promising youth, indeed worthy of being recommended by Admiral Zhou to join our Heavenly Bow Unit. Come, I’ll bring you both to the Heavenly Bow Unit’s camp, your last test will be held there.”

What Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er didn’t know was that, in truth, Shangguan Bing’er could have went to the Heavenly Bow Unit without undergoing the ﬁrst two tests. After all, she was a Heavenly Jewel Master, and Admiral Zhou had long since veriﬁed her loyalty to the empire. With her innate talent, how could she still need any more tests? The only test that was required was actually the 3rd test that Luo Ke Di mentioned, to see if her current ability was sufﬁcient.

As for the two earlier tests, it was in fact made up by Luo Ke Di to take revenge on Zhou Weiqing for making fun of him earlier. If they hadn’t already been slated to join the Heavenly Bow Unit, Luo Ke Di wouldn’t have the authority to test them and bring them to the Heavenly Bow Unit on his own, as it was considered the top level secret in the entire Empire! As such, even a wily young fox like Zhou Weiqing was no match for the tricks of the old fox Luo Ke Di.

Under Luo Ke Di’s leadership, the three of them quickly entered the Stars Forest. Luo Ke Di moved ahead very quickly, heading in a beeline towards the depths of the Stars Forest. His ﬂexibility boost was indeed impressive, with just some Heavenly Energy boost, in the thick brush of the Stars Forest, he moved as if it were ﬂat ground. Both Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er had to make use of their wind attributes, and Zhou Weiqing even needing to make use of his right leg’s boost, in order to catch up with him.

Zhou Weiqing was extremely familiar with the Stars Forest, and after a while, he had guessed where Luo Ke Di was headed. About a year ago, he had been exploring the depths of the forest when he had been stopped by a troop of soldiers. At that time, he had been extremely curious about why there was a troop of soldiers stationed there, but had not explored further. Now, it seemed like that was clearly where the mysterious Heavenly Bow Unit was stationed, or at least close to that area.

六六⼤顺 – Basically supposed to mean good luck ie. rolling two sixes in a game in today’s world. Actually the saying originates from the ancient writings of Yijing ( 易经). He is making a pun here, with the word 6 inside, as he is giving Zhou Weiqing the ﬁnal six arrows at once After more than two hours of travel at their maximum speeds, Luo Ke Di ﬁnally slowed slowed down a little. Just ahead, the army camp that Zhou Weiqing had spotted long ago came into their vision, and the patrolling soldiers also spotted them.

Zhou Weiqing asked curiously: “This is the Heavenly Bow Unit?”

Luo Ke Di gave a humph and said: “Of course not, they are only the external guards stationed here. In this area, there are three Battalion worth of troops which are outside of the Five Regiments, and they only report to the Royal Family. There are many sentry points and hidden posts guarding the place, and the innermost area is where our Heavenly Bow Unit is.

As he said that, he brought the two and strode forward. The patrolling soldiers were extremely alert, but on seeing it was Luo Ke Di, they immediately saluted respectfully, and because of that, none of them even stopped Zhou Weiqing or Shangguan Bing’er, only giving them a few curious looks.

As they entered the army camp, both of them realised that there weren’t many people within. Undoubtedly, most of the soldiers stationed here were on patrol or sentry duty. From the noticeable patrols, the Heavenly Bow Unit was right in the middle of the protection of the three Battalions of soldiers.

After passing about 500 metres into the camp, they passed by another patch of forest and entered a large clearing. At that moment, a huge courtyard appeared before Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes.

The courtyard was fenced in by a 3 metre tall wall made out of thick wooden boards and tied together by vines, and ordinary smaller wild animals would be easily kept out by this fence. The courtyard was rather large; just from an estimation outside, it seemed to be about 100 metres wide. The two large wooden doors were open wide, revealing the spacious courtyard and the row of wooden houses at the back. Each of the wooden houses were individually situated, right deep in at the back of the courtyard, and there were about a dozen of them.

As Luo Ke Di led the two into the courtyard, it seemed empty. Once they had entered the courtyard, it seemed as if they were no longer in the forest, although the air was still as fresh and clear as in the forest. Zhou Weiqing thought to himself: These guys from the Heavenly Bow Unit sure know how to enjoy themselves!

“The newbies are here, come on out!” Luo Ke Di stood in the middle of the courtyard and yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Old Rogue, why are you yelling! Don’t you know we all have a mission to carry out tomorrow?” The door of the wooden house on the left opened up, and a man walked out. The man was of medium build, around 1.7m tall, and a clean cut short hair. His shoulders were wide, and the muscles around his neck were bunched up like a small hill. Although he wasn’t very tall, but he gave off a massive and stable aura. Looking to be about 40 years of age, his features seemed ordinary, but his eyes were piercing and ﬁerce, as if a dormant volcano which could explode at any time.

Luo Ke Di grinned and said: “Little Mo Mo, these two newbies are brought over by Old Zhou. It’s been a long time since we had new blood, and it’s deﬁnitely not an easy thing for us to do so. We all have to meet up eventually, and since they have reached just in time, that means I can join up you guys on the mission tomorrow as well.”

The middle aged man’s glance landed on Shangguan Bing’er and Zhou Weiqing, looking extremely apathetic, and he said passively: “My name is Han Mo. Old Rogue, if you call me Little Mo Mo again, I’ll destroy your hidden stash of wine.” As soon as he said that, he turned around and went back into his house, slamming the door shut with a bang.

Luo Ke Di shrugged his shoulders helplessly and said: “Don’t mind him, he’s always like that to everyone. Amongst the bunch of us, he is the one with the coldest attitude.”

“Ohh, the newbies are here? Wahaha, and there’s a beautiful lady, that’s great. Welcome welcome, much welcome to you two for joining us.” Right at that moment, a large ﬁgure appeared out of nowhere, and in a few steps he was right in front of Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er.

The man was extremely tall, about 1.9metres, and extremely well built. He seemed even older than Han Mo, with a head of dishevelled red hair. With a pair of brown eyes set in a stalwart looking face which seemed lined with power and strength, he had a warm welcoming look on his face, showing a large contrast from Han Mo earlier.

“My name is Gao Shen. Little brother, little sister, what are your names?” As Gao Shen walked to the front, he put his arm around Luo Ke Di’s shoulder as he asked the duo. “I’m Zhou Little Fatty, she’s Shangguan Bing’er. How are you, Senior Gao.” Zhou Weiqing said simply.

With a hearty laugh, Gao Shen said: “What Senior? I’m just a few years older than you guys, just call me Gao Shen Elder Bro will do. Old Rogue, you take good care of them, I’m going back to prepare mine and Han Mo’s arrows.” Having said that, he waved to Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er, before turning around to leave.

Luo Ke Did shrugged once again and said: “We have a total of 7 people in our Heavenly Bow Unit, and there are only 5 of us at home now, as the other two have gone out on missions. Gao Shen and Han Mo are a pair of partners. There should be two more whose houses are nearby.”

Shangguan Bing’er said with a faint smile: “That Gao Shen Elder Brother seems to be a nice guy.”

Luo Ke Di’s mouth twitched and he grinned, saying: “Nice guy? Among those two fellows, if I had to choose only one to be a friend, I would deﬁnitely choose Han Mo instead of Gao Shen. Little girl, do you know what’s Gao Shen’s nickname? Han Mo’s nickname is called Arrow Tower, and Gao Shen’s nickname is called Cannon. In our Heavenly Bow Unit, the evaluation that Gao Shen gets the most is this line: Murder and arson, look for Gao Shen. The death tally of the other six of us added up cannot match his, he is indeed a homocidal maniac.”

“Old Rogue, do not scare the kids.” Right at that moment, a magnetic voice sounded out behind them. As Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er turned around, they saw two men walking in from the outside, and the both of them had a huge contrast in appearance.

The man on the left was tall and lanky, looking about forty years of age as well. Luo Ke Di was already considered rather handsome and suave, but compared to this middle aged man, he was not even on the same level. He had a very handsome face, fair skin, straight eyebrows pointing upwards, a pair of attractive yet ﬁerce eyes, straight nose and ﬁrm mouth. His long gold hair was draped at his back, giving him an overall graceful air. Especially his pair of deep blue eyes with a hint of melancholy, that was deﬁnitely a lady killer. Wearing a spotlessly clean white robe, it deﬁnitely complemented his appearance.

Shangguan Bing’er noticed that the middle aged man had a pair of large hands, with cultured ﬁngers like jade.

Just as Shangguan Bing’er was looking at the suave middle aged man, Zhou Weiqing was staring dumbfounded at the other man. This man was standing beside the suave middle aged man, and was a huge contrast in appearance. Only about 1.6m tall, with no visible muscles on his skinny frame, he seemed to be about 50 years old, with his messy grey hair set to the back. His eyes were darting around, secretly eying Shangguan Bing’er while he his throat moved, as if swallowing saliva. Along with the tobacco pipe in his mouth, he looked

vulgar and like a scoundrel.

As Shangguan Bing’er looked at him, their gazes met, and she couldn’t help but furrow her brow, subconsciously moving behind Zhou Weiqing. This scoundrelly-looking old man’s gaze was even more loathsome than Luo Ke Di’s.

Right at this moment, Zhou Weiqing cried out: “Teacher!!”, giving Shangguan Bing’er a huge surprise.

Zhou Weiqing rubbed his eyes, ensuring that he had not seen wrongly, and dashed forward with delight on his face. “Teacher! It’s really you!”

That suave middle aged man is his teacher? Shangguan Bing’er thought in surprise, then she suddenly saw Zhou Weiqing give the old scoundrel a big hug. A strange expression appeared on Shangguan Bing’er’s beautiful face, and it was as if comprehension dawned upon her, why Zhou Weiqing was so precocious and the reason why he had a mind full of dirty thoughts.

“Ehhh, why are you here little brat? Your dad let you come?” The old scoundrel rolled his eyes, looking very surprised, and said exasperatedly: “Let go of this old man, your Father, I, do not have any interest in men. What’s the point of hugging!”

Luo Ke Di stared dumbfoundedly at them and said: “Mu En, this little brat is your disciple? That means he’s Old Zhou’s son? Damn it, didn’t you say that little brat was a trash? Old Zhou is such an old fashioned, serious guy, how could he possibly let his son learn from you and be ruined? No wonder that little brat was full of evil tricks, and yet seemed so familiar. After so long, it was all from you, this old thing!”

Mu En instantly grew enraged, pushing Zhou Weiqing aside and exclaiming: “Luo Ke Di, you little rogue, what are you saying? What do you mean ruined by me? When did I ruin him? Your Father I has taught a ﬁne student as should be, okay!? If you talk more rubbish, I’ll ‘ruin you’ a little ﬁrst.”

“Alright, alright, you both, tone it down a little. Don’t scare the kids.” The handsome middle aged man shook his head helplessly. Turning to Shangguan Bing’er and Zhou Weiqing, he smiled and said: “Ignore them, although they argue a lot, they are actually extremely close; they just can’t help themselves and argue every time they meet up. Don’t mind them, they don’t have any malice. Let me introduce myself ﬁrst, I’m called Hua Feng, and I’m the Leader of the Heavenly Bow Unit.”

As soon as Hua Feng opened his mouth, Mu En and Luo Ke Di both quietened down. Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er both bowed down towards Hua Feng and said: “Greetings, Hua Feng Senior.”

Zhou Weiqing deﬁnitely did not expect that he would meet Mu En here. Four years ago, when he had just passed his 10th birthday, Admiral Zhou had suddenly brought this dirty old man Mu En in front of him and asked him to be his teacher. After which, he had accompanied Mu En for two years and studied under his tutelage. He had not learned any ﬁghting or killing techniques, but rather how to survive in the society, how to conduct himself in the world and deal with people; of course he also learned how to be a rogue and scoundrel.

Admiral Zhou given this evaluation about the dirty old man to Zhou Weiqing like this: He might not have a lot of power, but in this society, he is one of the type of people who has the best survival capabilities. As long as you can learn some of his abilities, at least in the future you will never starve to death. In truth, what Zhou Weiqing did not know was that Admiral Zhou had struggled for a long time before asking Mu En to teach his son. Mu En’s nickname was God Eye Scoundrel, and you could imagine what Zhou Weiqing would learn from him. For Zhou Weiqing, being only 14 years old, to know so much and be so precocious, it can be said that it was due to those 2 years when he was learning from Mu En.

Hua Feng smiled and said: “Welcome, both of you, to the Heavenly Bow Unit.”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Hua Feng Senior, isn’t there still another test before we join ofﬁcially?”

Hua Feng said; “For Admiral Zhou to recommend you both, that means you deﬁnitely have the right and ability to enter the Heavenly Bow Unit, otherwise, old Rogue wouldn’t bring you guys here. As for the test, you two will join us on a mission tomorrow, and your performance during the mission will be your test.”

Chapter 30 – Paradise Strange

Since they were already here, they would deﬁnitely want to do their best. Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er nodded towards Hua Feng in agreement.

“Wait, Little Wei, did you manage to solve your blocked meridian problem? I haven’t seen you for over a year, and you’ve already grown so much!” Mu En said with a surprised expression. He knew Zhou Weiqing’s actual age, and also the state of his body previously; as such, he did not expect that Zhou Weiqing would actually become a Heavenly Jewel Master.

Zhou Weiqing said with some dissatisfaction: “Teacher, that time you left without saying a word! Your disciple hasn’t just solved the blocked meridians issue. Look!” As he said that, Zhou Weiqing lifted up his right hand, and as he circulated his Heavenly Energy, his Heavenly Jewels appeared. Around his right wrist, the Icy Jade glittered as it orbited the wrist, showing its purity in front of everyone.

Mu En blinked his eyes; although he was the oldest in the group, but his eyesight and vision was incomparable, otherwise he wouldn’t have the nickname of God Eye Scoundrel. When the absolutely pure Icy Jade appeared in front of him, Mu En was immediately stunned. Luo Ke Di’s gaze immediately drifted to Zhou Weiqing’s left hands. Alas, Zhou Weiqing was already rather experienced, and his left hand was totally covered by his sleeve.

Hua Feng’s eyes seemed to ﬂash with an excited light, looking at Zhou Weiqing with a very gentle gaze. His eyes seemed to have a hint of bewilderment and recollection, as if he were trying to think of something.

“That’s not possible! It’s only been slightly over a year since we’ve met, even if you solved your blocked meridian issues, it shouldn’t be possible for you to Awaken your Heavenly Jewels! You… little brat… are you a fake?” As he said that, Mu En took a step forward, his hands reaching for Zhou Weiqing’s face and pinching them.

Zhou Weiqing said smugly: “If you’re jealous, then just say you’re jealous! I’m so suave, so handsome, who could possibly successfully masquerade as me! You know my dad’s temper, he would never resort to do anything for personal gain. If not for the fact that my Heavenly Jewel Awakened, how could he possibly let me come to the Heavenly Bow Unit together with Shangguan Bing’er? Teacher, let me introduce you, this is my wife, Shangguan Bing’er, our Heavenly Bow Empire’s top beauty! Heh heh.” Shangguan Bing’er rolled her eyes at him, but did not refute it.. Perhaps it was because she had met the ‘Rogue’ and the ‘Scoundrel’, and did not feel safe, and needed Zhou Little Fatty to help her feel safe.

Without a doubt, this little rascal’s smug look made them want to hit him, but the fact that his Heavenly Jewels actually Awakened deﬁnitely shook the three Heavenly Bow Unit members present. After all, before Zhou Weiqing, there were only the two Heavenly Jewel Masters in the entire Empire, one was Admiral Zhou, and the other was the young genius of the generation, Shangguan Bing’er. Perhaps an additional Heavenly Jewel Master wasn’t that important for a large Empire, but to such a small Empire like Heavenly Bow Empire, it could be something that totally changed the state of affairs in their entire Empire, something important that could totally change their fate in the next few dozen years. It can be said that if the Heavenly Bow Empire did not have the 8 – Jeweled Admiral Zhou to protect them, with the addition of the Heavenly Bow Unit, perhaps the Empire would have been exterminated by now.

Luo Ke Di looked towards Mu En and said: “Old Scoundrel, his Physical Jewel is deﬁnitely real. When I was testing their strength earlier, he used a piece of Consolidated Equipment, a bow, on me. Its strength was rather impressive. Hua Feng said: “Let’s go, we should head to the ofﬁcial meeting hall to discuss more.”

“Rogue, go over and call Arrow Tower and Cannon over as well.” As he said that, he walked over to Zhou Weiqing, patted him on the shoulder, and headed towards one of the largest wooden houses.

The rest of them followed him into the wooden house; it was empty and only had a huge long table in the middle, surrounded by many round chairs. Obviously, this was where they normally held their meetings. Hua Feng sat down at the main seat, and Luo Ke Di brought the other 2 members in as well. “Boss.” Han Mo and Gao Shen greeted Hua Feng, who smiled faintly and said: “Everyone, sit please.” Everybody took their seats, and Zhou Weiqing sat together with Shangguan Bing’er.

Hua Feng turned his gentle gaze towards Zhou Weiqing and said: “Let me introduce these two. This young lady is our Heavenly Bow Empire’s young generation’s greatest genius, Shangguan Bing’er; previously when Admiral Zhou came he had mentioned her, and that she will be joining us for two years for training. As for this young lad here, he is Admiral Zhou’s only son, Zhou Weiqing. Previously, he had studied under Mu En about survival for two years. Now that his Heavenly Jewel has Awakened, he has become our Empire’s third Heavenly Jewel Master, and will also join us together with SHangguan Bing’er for training. Miss Shangguan, you are a dual agility type Heavenly Jewel Master, while I am a Wind Attribute Elemental Jewel Master; are you willing to take me as your teacher?”

Shangguan Bing’er started a little, and an excited look came over her face. Towards the Heavenly Bow unit, she had heard many tales about them and had always yearned to join it. Earlier, she had witnessed Luo Ke Di’s amazing archery, and now that the Heavenly Bow Unit’s leader, who even had the same Elemental Jewel Attribute as her, wanted to take her in as a disciple, how could she not be willing? Furthermore, among the ﬁve members of the Heavenly Bow Unit they had seen so far, it seemed like only this leader was relatively normal…

As such, Shangguan Bing’er stood up and walked up to Hua Feng. Kneeling down, she called out “Teacher.” As she said that, she bowed down three times.

After she had ﬁnished bowing, Hua Feng helped her up. “You can follow me from now on, and I’ll pass on everything I know to you. You are a talented Heavenly Jewel Master, and I’m conﬁdent that you will surpass me before long.” After Shangguan Bing’er returned to her seat, Hua Feng turned to Zhou Weiqing and said: “Since your Heavenly Jewel Awakened, you should be of the Darkness Attribute like Admiral Zhou. Unfortunately, we do not have anyone with the same attribute as you, so I recommend that you continue learning from Mu En. In our Heavenly Bow Unit, Mu En might not be the strongest person, but his archery is deﬁnitely the top.”

As soon as Hua Feng said that, instantly 3 soft humphs sounded out, naturally it was the other 3 members of the Heavenly Bow Unit.

Luo Ke Di’s humph was ﬁlled with disdain, Gao Shen’s was ﬁlled with provocation, while Han Mo’s was rather ﬁerce and forceful.

“What are you guys humph-ing about! Any of you want to compete in archery? Within 100 yards, even if all 3 of you face me, I’ll still beat you.” Mu En said airily, slumping back in his chair comfortably.

With the cool eye of the bystander, Zhou Weiqing saw that when Mu En said that, the other 3 eyes wandered and nobody met his gaze. Hua Feng laughed heartily, saying: “If we’re just talking about archery, I’m conﬁdent that in this world, in the 100 yard distance, Mu En is unbeatable. Little Wei, Bing’er, in the future I’ll just call you that alright, let me introduce the Heavenly Bow Unit to you.”

“Our Heavenly Bow Unit has been set up for around 130 years, and it has acted 3 times previously when the Heavenly Bow Empire was on the verge of extinction, and turning the tides. As such, 86 years ago, our Heavenly Bow Empire changed name to honour our Heavenly Bow Unit, and from then on our Heavenly Bow Unit was considered the crack unit, known as the God Bow of the Empire, and this land is considered sacred land in the Empire. The ﬁrst generation of the Heavenly Bow Unit as also 7 people, and from then on, it has always been maintained at 7 people. We are all considered the second generation of the Heavenly Bow Unit, and each of us have inherited a different type of archery, which I can hope you can carry on and improve.”

“Our Heavenly Bow Unit had also once contained Heavenly Jewel Masters, though there haven’t been many. Admiral Zhou was actually supposed to to lead the Heavenly Bow Unit, but due to some other reasons, I had to take over instead. Currently, amongst the 7 of us, I’ll do a simple introduction of our attributes and unique points.” “I’m a 7 Jeweled Wind Attribute Elemental Jewel Master, and as the leader of the Heavenly Bow Unit, I’m mostly in charge of strategy and direction, as well assassinations. My nickname is called ‘Ultimate Assassin’.”

When Hua Feng said the two words, ‘Ultimate Assassin’, even though he was smiling, but both Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er both felt a chill run down their spines.

Hua Feng turned to Mu En and said: “Mu En, 6 Jeweled Physical Jewel Master, half agility and half strength, and he is mainly in charge of destruction and sneak attacks, able to killing and sniping enemies in any conditions or environments. He is also in charge of disguises and hiding identities. With the best vision in our entire unit, his nickname is called ‘God Eye Scoundrel’.

“Luo Ke Di, 5 Jeweled Physical Jewel Master, half coordination and ﬂexibility, and he is mainly in charge of scouting, survey, tricking enemies, and is the only scout of our unit. His nickname is Drunken Rogue, and partners with Mu En, which is what they call the Unparalleled Liu Duo.” At the side, Mu En gave a humph, saying: “Being in charge of scouting, that just means he is the weakest amongst us all.” Luo Ke Di said angrily: “What do you mean weakest? I have lived a dozen years less than the rest of you.” Although he said that, it was clear that he was only acting ﬁerce. Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er exchanged looks, both of them couldn’t hide the shock in their hearts. Being the weakest in the unit,

Luo Ke Di’s archery was already so impressive, they could barely imagine what the others’ could be like.

Mu En curled his lip in disdain, but Hua Feng ignored him and continued: “Han Mo, 6 – Jewelled Physical Jewel Master, toughness and stamina, and he is extremely skilled in keeping up a constant barrage of strong attacks. In our unit, he is in charge of continuous attack and suppressing ﬁre. His nickname is Arrow Tower, with the meaning that he is just like an arrow tower, ﬁring unceasingly.”

“Gao Shen, 6 Jeweled Elemental Jewel Master, Fire Attribute, and is just a master of destruction and attacking. His nickname is Cannon, and under a normal circumstance, the pair of Gao Shen and Han Mo working together can easily suppress a more than a thousand ordinary soldiers.”

Hua Feng said: “There are two other members as well, but they are out in a mission right now. I’ll introduce them to you both when you meet them in the future.” Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but ask: “Leader, what do you mean by mission? Do we go on missions for the Empire?” Hua Feng smiled and said: “Of course not, we do not actually lie in the direct jurisdiction of the empire. Even the Royal Family cannot command us to do anything normally, and we usually only take action if our Empire is on the verge of destruction. As a Heavenly Jewel Master, you should know that Jewel Masters take a lot of money to sustain. As such, we need our own income, and this comes from these missions. To be more accurate, we are an assassin organisation, and we are known in the world as ‘Paradise Strange’.

Of course, besides the few of us, no one else in the world knows that the Heavenly Bow Unit from Heavenly Bow Empire is actually Paradise Strange. In the entire Boundless Mainland’s assassination world, our Paradise Strange is ranked the 7th of all the assassin organisations. Being set up for over a hundred years, the completion rate of our missions is about 79% and those organisations which rank above us are all at least ten times our numbers.

“Paradise Strange?” Zhou Weiqing’s mouth twitched, as he thought to himself: Damn, that sure is an innovative name!

Hua Feng smiled faintly as he said: “The Strange launches the dark destructive arrows, sending you to Paradise. From now on, you are also members of Paradise Strange, however, these 2 years will be your training period, and as such, you will not be given a cut from the missions. When your power reaches an acceptable standard and everyone agrees, we will start giving out a cut to you as well.”

Mu En looked at Zhou Weiqing and gave a humph before saying: “Little Brat, do not think to judge us assassins by the normal Jewel Master standards. If we were to ﬁght normally, without our bows, face to face, any normal 5-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master would be able to destroy our entire Heavenly Bow Unit. However, do you know over this past 100 odd years, what our battle accomplishments have been? I’ll only mention the higher level ones. The strongest person we have assassinated was a 9-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master; just him alone would normally be strong enough to equal hundreds of 9-Jeweled ordinary Jewel Masters! Furthermore, over the years, we have racked up a death tally of 11 9-Jeweled Heavenly Zong Jewel Masters, 43 8-Jeweled Jewel Masters, 114 7-Jeweled Jewel Masters.”

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Seniors, we will deﬁnitely work hard and train with all our might, please do give us your guidance.” Han Mo stood up and said to Hua Feng: “Boss, if there is nothing else, I’ll head back now.”

Hua Feng nodded and said: “Bing’er, come with me, I’ll arrange a place for you to stay, and also test your current strength.”

“Yes, teacher.” Shangguan Bing’er stood up. Just as she was about to leave, Zhou Weiqing quickly grabbed her hand, moving closer to her ear and whispering softly: “Bing’er, don’t get taken advantage off by that old handsome dude!” Towards Hua Feng, with such good looks and graceful air, he felt a sense of danger in his heart.

Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed deeply, gave him a pinch, before leaving with Hua Feng.

Zhou Weiqing could clearly see that when Hua Feng left, his mouth had twitched upwards in an amused smile, and couldn’t help but feel a little perturbed. Could it be… despite whispering so softly, he heard my words?

As soon as Shangguan Bing’er and Hua Feng exited, Mu En, Luo Ke Di and Gao Shen, who were seated on the opposite side of Zhou Weiqing, all burst out laughing. Luo Ke Di was the most exaggerated, laughing till tears streamed down his cheeks, even banging his ﬁst on the table, while Mu En had almost slid off his chair while laughing. Zhou Weiqing asked puzzledly: “Why are all of you laughing, what’s so funny?”

Gao Shen said while laughing heartily: “Little Wei, did you feel that your whispering was very soft, and that only Bing’er could hear it?”

“What? Did… did you all hear what I said?” Zhou Weiqing asked in surprise.

Luo Ke Di gave him a big thumbs up and said: “Little Wei, let me tell you, if anyone else had said what you said to Boss Hua Feng, even if they didn’t die, they would be severely injured at least. Your voice… soft? Have you forgotten what we do for a living? We’re all archers, and assassins! For an archer, being able to judge distance and speeds from hearing is our bread and butter, even an ordinary Zong Stage Heavenly Jewel Master may not be able to do as well as us! Your whisper was no different from speaking beside our ears. Hahahahaha! And you actually was afraid that Boss would try to steal your girl… hahaha, ahhh I almost laughed to death.”

“What so funny!? As a man, what’s wrong with being concerned about my wife.” Zhou Weiqing cried out, his embarrassment also turning into anger.

“Damn, little brat, stop throwing my face as well.” Mu En said to him. “Little brat, in terms of generation, do you know what Boss Hua Feng hopes that you will call him most?”

Zhou Weiqing asked suspiciously: “What?” Mu En paused and said: “Little Mother.”

“What?!” Zhou Weiqing’s eyes almost popped out of his sockets. “Do you mean that Leader is a lady?”

“No, no… of course our Boss Hua Feng is a man, however, he likes other men as well. Furthermore, the person he is in love with is your father! Hahahahahaha, little brat, you actually worried that someone who wants to be your little mother would steal your wife. Hahaha, I can’t stop laughing.”

Zhou Weiqing could only stare dumbfoundedly at the trio, his jaw agape as he remained speechless. All of a sudden, without warning, Mu En and the rest of them stopped laughing, their expressions changing, and almost instantly dropped to the ground. RIght behind them in the wooden wall of the house, 3 small holes appeared where they had been a split second ago.

Hua Feng’s voice traveled from the distance: “If the three of you want to die, I don’t mind helping you fulﬁll your wish.”

Luo Ke Di’s face turned pale, while Gao Shen immediately put on a straight, solemn face, saying: “Rogue, how can you gossip about Boss? I look down on you! I’m heading back to pack my things for the mission tomorrow.” As soon as he said that, he vanished out of the room hastily.

Only Mu En sat back down in his chair as if nothing had happened, looking at the stunned Zhou Weiqing and said passively: “Little Wei, do you understand now?”

“Understand? Indeed I understand now. No wonder we are called Paradise Strange… Indeed there isn’t a single normal person here…” Zhou Weiqing’s had a strange expression on his face, as an extremely weird scene appeared in his mind… his father and the graceful Hua Feng holding hands…

Feeling his gut start to roll, Zhou Weiqing immediately gave himself a slap, bringing himself away from that picture instantly. Of the seven members or the Heavenly Bow Unit, he had met

5. One homosexual, one rogue, one scoundrel, one homicidal maniac, and one ice cube. Thinking, he asked tentatively: “Teacher, what are the nicknames of the last 2 members?”

Mu En stood up and walked over to him, saying: “You will have to be careful of the last 2 members. One of them is the only female in our Heavenly Bow Unit, a beautiful lady. She has been in love with Hua Feng for over twenty years, just like how Hua Feng has been in love with your father. Her name is Shui Cao, but we usually call her Little Grass. However, she deﬁnitely suffers from hormonal imbalance, and her temper is extremely violent and ﬁery; besides Hua Feng, she is ﬁerce to everyone else, and her nickname is also Volcano. Fire refers to her temper, while mountain refers to her attribute, as she is an Earth Attribute Elemental Jewel Master. She is the one you have to be the most careful of, as in her eyes, your father is the one who stole her beloved.”

“The ﬁnal member is our vice leader, called Yi Shi. His speciality is sneak attacks, as well as supporting arrows, and is the best support in the battleﬁeld. In terms of treacherous and sinister plans, nobody can beat her. Her gender is… unique… just like her nickname, Transvestite.” Currently, Zhou Weiqing had a head full of black lines, and his facial muscles were twitching. What sort of collection of people were these? Adding a transvestite and a tigress, how were they going to spend the next two years?!

“Come on, let’s go as well. I’ll assign you a place to stay, then you can show me your strength. You’ve already accomplished Consolidated Equipment for your Physical Jewel, have you also Stored Skill for your Elemental Jewel?

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Yes I have.”

Mu En’s eyes spun as he said: “That Old Zhou, he really is willing to splurge on you!”

By now, Zhou Weiqing had mostly recovered. After all, he had been around Mu En for over two years, and his ability to take in strange new sights was well trained. Listening to Mu En’s words, he could only grin to himself.

Luo Ke Di said: “Alright, I’ll head back to drink wine. Little Wei, don’t forget about what I told you earlier.” Zhou Weiqing raised his brow and said: “What did you say? I forgot already.”

“What?!” Luo Ke Di slammed the table and waved his ﬁst at Zhou Weiqing. “Little Brat, are you asking to die?”

Mu En rolled his eyes and said: “I think the one who’s asking to die is you! My disciple just came and you’re already threatening him? How can you be his Shi Shu like that?”

Zhou Weiqing quickly hid behind Mu En, nodding and saying: “Exactly, Shi Shu! My memory is usually quite bad, but if I get a welcome gift, perhaps it’ll help me jog my memory and help me remember what you said earlier.”

Luo Ke Di’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch a little: “As dragons’ sons are dragons, a phoenix will also beget little phoenixes, a rat’s child will naturally know how to bore holes. You little brat, you’ve only just arrived and you’re already trying to con me.”

Mu En laughed out and said: “Well said, I will deﬁnitely pass on your words to Zhou Shui Niu. Looks like you are already conﬁdent of beating him! Heh heh!” Luo Ke Di said angrily: “I was talking about you!”

Mu En said innocently: “But, Little Wei is not my son, he’s just my disciple. You said rat’s child, but he isn’t my child at all. Ahhh, it’s been so long since I’ve seen Zhou Shui Niu beating someone up, I can’t wait to see it!”

Luo Ke Di stared at the teacher disciple pair, speechless, before he ﬁnally caved in and said with grief and indignation: “I’m scared of you two! Old scoundrel, I’ll give a welcoming gift alright.”

Mu En said in a magnanimous manner: “No problem! Just remember to bring it before we set off tomorrow. Come Little Wei, let’s go.”

Zhou Weiqing gave Luo Ke Di a wide smile, saying: “Shi Shu, thanks! I’m sure your gift will be extremely good!”

On hearing his words, Luo Ke Di almost wanted to slam his head against the wall. This master disciple pair was just too unbeatable, quickly working together so with such compatibility. An ordinary welcome gift was not even sufﬁcient, having to be an extremely good one! Looking at the two of them walk off, he couldn’t help but gnash his teeth together, thinking to himself: Perhaps it’s also time that Your father, I, should also ﬁnd a disciple!

As they exited to the courtyard, Mu En turned to Zhou Weiqing and said: “Little Wei, just now that Little Rogue said that your Consolidated Equipment was quite a good bow. Let me have a look. Little Rogue has always had good taste, and is very picky; having him praise your bow, it should be pretty good.”

Basically it is 变态天堂, where 变态 has several meanings. The reason why the name is so awesome in Chinese is because many of the meanings suit them! Basically, 变态 can be used to mean… just changes, down to the perverted, weird, strange which I used, to being monstrously strong etc.

天堂 of course means Heaven or Paradise / Utopia.

Cao (草） means grass

The following explanation is because of how Volcano is written in Chinese (⽕⼭，which literally means ﬁre mountain) 师叔 – literally means Master/Teacher’s Junior or brother. I’ve seen it translated as Martial Uncle, but that’s actually rather off, so I’m leaving it as the pinyin. While traveling to the Heavenly Bow Unit, Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁve energy whirlpools at his Death Acupuncture Points had been drawing in energy at full speed, and by now at least half of his Heavenly Energy had already recovered. As he lifted up his right hand, an icy mist issued forth as the Overlord Bow coalesced in his hands.

Looking at the bow, Mu En’s eyes lit up. “What a good bow! The lines, the strength, the patterns, and even the feel of Heavenly Energy from it. This should be specially made for Strength Heavenly Jewel Masters, and is deﬁnitely extremely powerful. When you have a few more sets of Jewels, I wonder what power will this Bow have. What is its name?”

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Overlord Bow.” He was 14 years old this year, and it could be said that the happiest years of his life were the ones he had spent with Mu En. At that time, he did not know that Mu En was a powerful Jewel Master from the Heavenly Bow Unit, and they had spent the time eating, drinking and having fun, touring the world. Of course, this was under Admiral Zhou’s restrictions, otherwise, visiting prostitutes and gambling would have been added to the list of fun. “Overlord Bow? ‘Forcing yourself onto someone?’ What a dirty name.”

Zhou Weiqing was struck speechless: “Teacher, it’s your thinking that is dirty!”

Mu En rolled his eyes and said: “Come to my room, and tell me what has happened over the past year. I really cannot imagine how your cultivation shot up four levels and even Awakened your Heavenly Jewels so quickly.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Teacher, it’s ﬁve levels. I’m your disciple, how can I not be as genius as you are?”

Mu En thought about it for a second, and nodded his head in satisfaction, saying: “That makes a lot of sense, alright, at least you have some measure of my genius.”

As they entered Mu En’s wooden house, Zhou Weiqing saw that it was a terrible mess. The walls were all lined with pictures of naked beauties, and some of them even had the signs of mottled spots. It took a while for Zhou Weiqing to ﬁnd a relatively clean place to sit, and he told Mu En all about the past year. Towards his respected teacher, he naturally did not hide anything.

After listening to his tale, and examining the Alexandrite Cat’s Eye, Mu En asked Zhou Weiqing to show some of his Stored Skills, before ﬁnally believing it was all real.

“Damn! You little brat… your talent is just that little bit more than I, your father! No wonder, I saw that Bing’er was no longer a virgin, so it’s you little brat who did it. Envy, Jealousy, hate!” Mu En’s eyes rolled around in habit.

“Teacher, should I tell the rest what my Elemental Attributes are?” Zhou Weiqing asked.

Mu En immediately shook his head, a wicked look on his face as he grinned: “Why tell them? When the critical moment comes, perhaps we can give them a nice good surprise. You and Bing’er will be coming along with us for that mission, but it’s mostly to observe. During that time, you just stay by my side. When we come back, I’ll start teaching all my archery skills. Since you’re already a Heavenly Jewel Master, there are many things you have to learn. Your teacher will deﬁnitely train you well.” “Teacher, can you not use the words Tiao Jiao here? Oh yes, when are you going to bring me to the lady baths to peep once again, and to the inns and pubs to train our eyesight and estimate ‘cup sizes’? Oh right, the last time we stole someone’s chicken and barbequed it, that was an amazing taste that I can never forget up till now! You still haven’t thought me how to season and cook that!”

“Also, teacher, I realised that, my taste has started to differ from yours… I think now that girls with larger hips are more beautiful…”

“What do you understand! It isn’t that they must be larger, but they need to be well ﬂared up. You still have many many things to learn brat…”

If there was a phrase to describe Mu En as a teacher, it would be ‘One and Only’ indeed.

Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Bing’er were both assigned to a small wooden house each. In the Heavenly Bow Unit, they had to take care of their own food, and there weren’t any servants or the like. Of course, without question, Zhou Weiqing was the one preparing for Shangguan Bing’er as well; and with a disciple here now, how could Mu En not take advantage as well, and Zhou Weiqing thus had yet another person to prepare food for.

Zhou Weiqing saw that the other members of the Heavenly Bow Unit usually stayed in their own rooms, although Luo Ke Di left in the afternoon once again, likely headed out to drink once more. Mu En was in his own room, not knowing if he was looking at the pictures on the wall and ‘training his hands’, or was he cultivating Heavenly Energy.

As for Zhou Weiqing, he spent most of his time working hard and cultivating his Heavenly Energy. This was not to say that Zhou Weiqing was very hardworking, but it was just that having so many awesome skills and yet not sufﬁcient Heavenly Energy to sustain them all, it was just too painful a thing. Furthermore, he could clearly feel that the cultivation speed of the Immortal Deity Technique was double his previous speed ever since he broke through the ﬁrst portion, as the ﬁve energy whirlpools drew in energy at a rate that normal Heavenly Jewel Masters could not compare with.

No matter what, Zhou Weiqing still had fear in his heart regarding the Immortal Deity Technique. It just hurt so much every time he broke through a Death Acupuncture Point, and it was just luck that he had the energy from the black pearl earlier. Alas, starting on this Immortal Deity Technique was like boarding a pirate ship, now he could only hope to complete it as soon as possible and break through all 36 Death Acupuncture Points, after all, it was better to get the pain over with as soon as possible. This was one of the reasons why he was so enthusiastic about training and cultivating.

At this moment, Zhou Weiqing, Shangguan Bing’er and Mu En were sitting around a pot of Zhou Weiqing’s soup, which contained the bamboo and other unique vegetables from the Stars Forest.

“Little Wei, this little white tiger of yours, does it really not need to eat?” Mu En glanced at the Little White Tiger which was lazing in Zhou Weiqing’s lap. He did not know whether or not the little thing was really a Heavenly Beast, but he told Zhou Weiqing that even if it were so, it was still a youngling, and it wouldn’t grow up without dozens of years. Of course, rearing it as a pet was still ﬁne.

Zhou Weiqing munched upon the bamboos that he had just dug up, and said: “I don’t know what’s going on either, but this little thing keeps going strong even without eating. I’ll just leave it be.”

Mu En’s eyes revealed a hint of curiosity: “Strange. If it isn’t a Heavenly Beast, then it would have died long ago without eating. Yet, if it’s a Heavenly Beast, I have never even heard of such a white coloured tiger. Could it be a skin disease?”

“What?! Could that be?” Zhou Weiqing eyed the little white tiger with an unfriendly look, as if he was about to throw it off its lap in fear of some transferable disease.

The little white tiger seemed to sense its incoming danger, shaking its head cutely, and roaring at Mu En.

“Eh, this little thing is very intelligent! It seems to know what I said. Little Wei, if this little thing is really a Heavenly Beast, then you have really gotten lucky! The higher the rank of the Heavenly Beast, the more intelligent it is. Alas, this little thing is still a youngling, otherwise, if it were a little bigger, you could use it as a steed.”

When the little white tiger heard that, its little eyes widened and it even stopped shaking its head, as if saying: What, you mere humans dare to use me as a steed?

Mu En grinned and laughed, as he chewed on his tobacco pipe, causing Shangguan Bing’er to look down quickly to prevent herself from losing her appetite. “Little Wei, if this little thing is really a Heavenly Beast, and a King of the beasts, tiger type Heavenly Beast, then it is likely to be at least Zong Stage and above. Treat it well, and even if you aren’t able to use it, perhaps your kids will be able to.”

“Mu En Senior, what are you saying!” Shangguan Bing’er ﬂushed in embarrassment, giving Zhou Weiqing a little kick before running out with her bowl.

Mu En said contently: “She’ll get used to it. Heh, Little Wei, how about I ask Hua Feng to let me have her as a disciple as well, to learn together with you.”

“What? No, no, no, teacher, you’re so great and strong, with such amazing abilities that even the gods and devils fear, how can you easily teach others?! I want to be your only disciple, and never share it with anyone, not even my wife! Those are our heritage secrets!” What a joke, how could he possibly let Shangguan Bing’er learn from his Scoundrel teacher… Heavens! What if she became a female scoundrel, then he wouldn’t need to live anymore. Although Hua Feng was a homosexual, but that’s a lot better than this perverted old man here! Instantly, Zhou Weiqing felt that homosexuals were so great! Although he was in love with his dad, at least it was very safe to have his wife learning from Hua Feng! Safety ﬁrst! The next day, as dawn broke, Zhou Weiqing was swatted awake by Mu En. Even with his strong senses, he did not know how Mu En entered his room without him discovering.

“Good morning teacher, so early?” Zhou Weiqing had cultivated for most of the night while lying down, and only started sleeping not long ago as the position was too comfortable, and as a result he was still rather sleepy. “Don’t talk rubbish, get up quickly, we’re leaving after breakfast.” Mu En grabbed the quilt off Zhou Weiqing.

Zhou Weiqing had no choice but to clamber off the bed, and only then did he realise that Mu En was dressed very differently from yesterday. Decked out in a grey outﬁt, he no longer looked like the lazy and mischievous old man of yesterday, looking full of energy and vitality.

Zhou Weiqing quickly dressed himself and followed Mu En into the courtyard, seeing that Mu En had already prepared breakfast, and the rest were all in the courtyard eating. As his eyes fell upon Shangguan Bing’er, he saw that she was already neatly dressed; her original Purple Dawn Bow had disappeared, and she was now shouldering a smaller green bow. The Purple Dawn Bow was considered a longbow, and was rather large, but the new green bow she had was almost half the size of the Purple Dawn Bow. Mu En gave him a tap on the head, saying: “You do not need to look any further, that’s what Hua Feng gave to the little girl. He sure is generous, that Green Spirit Bow is light and has an extremely high ﬁring rate, and is deﬁnitely one of the best bows for a Wind Attribute Jewel Master, a lot better than the large and heavy Purple Dawn Bow.

Zhou Weiqing grinned and said: “Teacher, look at Senior Hua Feng, so generous even for a welcoming gift… I’ve followed you for at least 2 years, shouldn’t you give me a good bow as well?”

Mu En gave a humph and said: “Hua Feng is rich, but I, Your Father, is very poor, even if I have money, it’s all spent on your temporary Shi Mu. En… Little Wei, let teacher give you a life lesson right now, how to depend on yourself!”

Zhou Weiqing had just scooped a mouth of soup into his mouth, and on hearing his teacher’s words, he almost sprayed it all out. He thought to himself: Huyan Master is already considered a miser, it seems like this master is comparable or even worse…

He is making a pun – 霸王⼸ (Overlord Bow) 霸王攻 (Forcing yourself on someone) where ⼸(Gong) and 攻 sound exactly the same. 调教 , which originally means train / teach. However, in recent days on the internet it has become a slang which has a sexual innuendo. ie. I’m going to tiao jiao that girl to be my s** slave.

Cerita silat IndoMandarin

Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 21-30

Chapter 21 – Stealing the heart, Surprise Attack

Chapter 22 – Sharing Life and Death

Chapter 23 – Demonic Change

Chapter 24 – White Little Tiger

Chapter 25 – Admiral Zhou Arrives

Chapter 26 – If I let go of you, I won’t have a wife anymore!

Chapter 27 – Zhou Weiqing’s Sixth Attribute

Chapter 28 – Lethal ‘Weapon’ (

Chapter 29 – Godlike Archery

Chapter 30 – Paradise Strange

Posting Komentar

Cerita Silat Mandarin (Cersil Mandarin Online)

Cersil Kho Ping Hoo

cerita silat mandarin online Karya Gu Long (Khu Lung)

Baca online cerita silat mandarin Karya Chin Yung / Jin Yong

Wuxia Novel Online