Chapter 202: To Become Strong
Seated within the tree, Hui Yue’s breathing slowed down and became so shallow that no one, should they pass right below the tree, would be capable of detecting him. During the time Hui Yue was within Shenyuan’s borders he had come to understand that it was incredibly rare for beasts who were capable of scanning the area with their beast energy to scan up into the trees. They would usually scan the ground and search in those directions while only a few would think to scan the trees above.
There were multiple reasons for this.. Firstly, the price they paid was a severe amount of their mist energy, and at the same time the forest was split into two main regions; the sea of leaves and the forest floor. Although the two locations never existed without the other, the magical beasts which lived up in the sea of leaves never descended down to the forest floor while those on the ground were incapable of climbing into the sea of leaves.
The reason that Hui Yue chose the tree tops rather than the floor was due to the beasts who lived here. Although the tree tops had an amazing array of bugs, birds, monkey species, and reptiles the majority of them were not territorial. Those who were would only look after their territory not caring about anything else.
The majority of these bug beasts were quite weak. Not one of them was stronger than a Practitioner rank which allowed for Hui Yue to easily protect himself. Even if a full swarm arrived they would be nothing to the white-haired boy. It was in many ways as simple as swatting normal flies.
The snakes proved a bit more troublesome, however, they too were of a relative low rank. The majority of them having the strength of a Master ranked cultivator. Their venom could be dealt with when Hui Yue allowed for his Qi and spiritual energy to enter his body. To go through the Dai Mai meridian and enter into his muscle, blood vessels, and bones eradicating the poison which struck him.
The most challenging was avoiding the family groups of monkeys. There were so many different types of monkeys and apes. For instance, there was the Mellowed Dawn Ape, an ape which generally would not attack you unless you, in some way, provoked it. Although it’s normal nature was mellow, that was not the case when it started to attack.
As long as Hui Yue kept his guard up and did not enter the territories belonging to either a strong opponent or a family of monkeys or apes, he knew that he would be fine.
Looking at the branch he just arrived on Hui Yue sighed deeply as he knew clearly his own inability to fight; how weak he truly was. He sat down and popped a medicinal pill from his bag into his mouth.
‘Wait. Hold on a moment,’ Lan Feng said with a frantic voice, ‘I know we want to get stronger, but you can’t just use pills to increase your strength. Your cultivation base will be unbalanced and eventually broken. You need to fight on your own!’
Hearing the worry in the voice of the phoenix Hui Yue could not help but laugh, ‘I know.’ He said with a gentle voice, however, I’m going to stay here until we break through into the Duke rank. What I’ll do is take one pill a week and spend the rest of the week battling against magical beasts. This way I can gain more real battle experience. I will be able to look after my cultivation base to ensure that it does not break down due to the overuse of pills, and I will also be able to get my hands on more demon cores and materials.’
Hearing his reply, the bird harrumphed a few times but said no more as Hui Yue popped the pill into his mouth where it instantly turned to liquid which entered his meridians. Hui Yue sat down and started to move his Qi Swirl. This made strands of Qi rush through his meridians and as they did the liquid energy latched onto the Qi strands and ever so slowly took on the same color as the strand. It had the same size and feel after a while.
As it finished copying the original strand, the newly created Qi strand let go of the original strand and together they moved back into the Qi swirl within his body.
It had been years since Hui Yue last used medicinal pills as he prefered to use his own strength to cultivate. Using pills, even just one, had the possibility of bringing one’s cultivation base into an unbalanced state; a state which was incredibly hard to get free from.
An unbalanced cultivation base did not mean that one could not use their energy, it meant that the energy within them was of various qualities. This in turn caused their attacks to be of various quality. Something which could lead to your death the moment you entered a serious battle.
Although it sounded terrible, there was a very slim chance for this to happen which was why medicinal pills were still incredibly popular. The stronger the pill was the less likely it was to cause any incidents.
Although Hui Yue knew all this, he also knew that if he relied on one pill a week and then battled beasts afterwards he would likely be able to balance even the slightest imbalance within himself.
As Hui Yue ate the pill, he ensured to activate the blue cloud which was inside his dantian cave. His entire body suddenly felt light as the blue gentle feeling shrouded him. The energies from the heavens and the earth flooded against his body trying to force him to absorb more than what he physically could.
Shrouding himself with the blue cloud, Hui Yue entered into deep meditation while Lan Feng kept watch. He devoted himself to cultivate for some time to truly finish refining the energy he had gained from the medicinal pill.
Being seated for approximately seven hours the day turned to night. Hui Yue exhaled deeply causing a pearl white steam to suddenly appearing from his mouth. This caused both man and phoenix to be taken aback. The steam slowly ascended into the air before it dissipated, turning into nothingness.
As soon as the white steam vanished into thin air, the blue cloud around Hui Yue turned much more solid than it had been before, and sparkling stars started to shine within it. Looking at the cloud, it no longer looked like one, but instead it now resembled a moonless night lit up by thousands of stars.
Looking at this breathtakingly beautiful scenery, Hui Yue was gaping as he reached out his hand and felt a soft, gentle texture. A texture which he had never felt before making him quite confused. As he touched the cloud, which now looked like a sky, a profound tremor ran through it before the stars all entered into Hui Yue’s body. They moved all over his body and easily bypassing his clothes before they turned into nothingness. It was as if those stars had never existed in the first place.
‘Uhm Lan Feng,’ Hui Yue called out, but the phoenix just shook his head. Even he was dumbfounded. His theory was that each of the gates and items within his dantian came from the lives he had lived previously. So far there was the red mist which clearly belonged to a bloodthirsty magical beast. Then there was the green pearl which most likely belonged to a greedy healer back when he was alive. The Wu Wei wings were still questionable where they came from, however, the biggest question concerned this blue cloud which constantly evolved.
At first, Lan Feng imagined that it belonged to one of those priests who gave their lives to cultivation. It was tranquil and beautiful, and it improved cultivation speed. Everything matched perfectly. That was until today. Lan Feng had never seen anything like it, and obviously neither had Hui Yue. But currently he was feeling much better than he had ever before. It felt as though deep within him something was growing, but he could not explain what it was.
Instead, he decided to leave the sea of leaves and return to the forest floor where he could go looking for beasts. Although it was no longer early morning Hui Yue did not mind. The beasts were awake by now and he needed to train.
Jumping down the hundred meters from the tree branch to the ground, Hui Yue managed it without making any sound at all. He quickly looked around him and with a quick scan of his spiritual energy he felt that quite a few beasts were within his range.
There were a lot of lower ranked beasts, but Hui Yue’s attention was caught by a Lynx-like beast which Hui Yue had never seen before. A beast which was slightly stronger than himself and determination grew in his eyes, Hui Yue rushed towards the lynx, silent as a shadow and nimble as a cat. The sounds he made were so minuscule that even the lynx which was stronger than him would have a hard time noticing the human.
Hui Yue felt that his senses were sharper than usual. His body emanated a small humming sound from within, a sound which only Hui Yue and Lan Feng could hear. This humming sound was new, however, it was incredibly gentle. So gentle that every move made from Hui Yue seemed gentle as well.
As he felt the humming inside of him his movement speed increased rapidly. Although he had moved somewhat fast before he had been more focus on being quiet, but after this humming sound appeared it was as though his body was now incapable of making noise.
Rushing closer and closer, Hui Yue was able to see the lynx. It was a young male and it had a strength equal to that of a Duke ranked expert. Its eyes were red, its fur golden, and its fangs were incredibly sharp as were its claws. Fighting this beast would require Hui Yue to completely focus. Although he had fought Duke ranked beasts before, the lynx in front of him was without a doubt the most dangerous opponent he could fight on his own.
Standing in the shadows while the lynx was laying down relaxing after having successfully caught a beast earlier that day. The remainder of that beast was still next to the lynx, blood still adorning his mouth.
Seeing this a grin appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he stomped the ground and shot towards the lynx. A whole cloud of dust appeared and finally the sound of breaking branches was heard. The previously relaxed lynx finally opened its eyes and with vigilance look at Hui Yue who was rushing forward with a dagger in his hand.
Its agility and speed was astonishing as it instantly came to its legs, and with a swift screeching sound, his terrifying claws unsheathed and scratched at the air where Hui Yue was moments before.
Fortunately, Hui Yue was as swift as the cat and he managed to use Velocity Flow to help him evade. The claws flashing through the air and released energy waves causing Hui Yue to shudder. Even if he used spiritual energy to defend himself, he was very unlikely to be able to protecting himself against the sharp claws in front of him.
Man and lynx were standing in front of one another their eyes were locked together, and as Hui Yue determined that the claws were too sharp he decided that it would be impossible to fight in close combat. He flicked his hand and stored Black Blood within his storage stone before a blue and yellow flame appeared above his hands.