Chapter 368: Consecutive Breakthroughs
While Hui Yue and Xiao Ning were standing still watching over the three older but lower ranked Saints, the martial brother of the third group was excited. After finally getting out of sight of they were ready to set up their ambush for Hui Yue and his friends. The only question was how long they needed to wait, yet every time they considered the vast amount of medicinal pills they picked up and all the cores the Emperor ranked cultivator had in his possession, all of them were filled with greed and excitement. It was clear they would soon get the items that belonged to them. Although three of them were currently raising their strength, they would still be far from as strong as his martial brothers, and with the element of surprise, they were going to get rid of that annoying group quickly.
Hui Yue looked at the doorway leading further into the inner part of the grave, and although he knew how important speed was, he also knew that the strength of his team was too low. He was just one person so protecting a whole group of Saints was not something he could do. They needed strength to survive.
Time slowly passed as minutes became hours and hours became days. Even after sitting still for four days, Hui Yue did not rush the three experts. Instead, he waited patiently for them to breakthrough. As time went on the energy undulations from the three experts became stronger and stronger; it was as though a massive whirlpool had appeared within them absorbing the energy in this medicinal treasure hall.
Once in awhile, these experts would place a white medicinal pill in their mouths to ensure that the energy they absorbed continued to be balanced. If all they absorbed was Yang energy, then they would be shooting themselves in the foot, making it impossible to advance later in their cultivation.
In the four days, they waited for the three Saints to breakthrough no one had shown up in the room; no one had managed to traverse the tunnels just yet, something which caused Hui Yue to feel relieved. If half the Saints had already passed them, then he would have felt downcast, but considering he was pretty sure only two groups had passed them, he did not feel too remorseful.
While Hui Yue was in his own thought, he suddenly heard a loud popping sound and his eyes were drawn to the three experts. One of them had a golden hue radiating outwards from his body. The golden hue was Wu Wei which draped itself over his entire being before it all slowly slipped into his skin and body. Though despite being absorbed the Wu Wei continued to shine making his entire body seem like a golden statue. Slowly the light dimmed, and he returned to his normal color.
As soon as the last ray of Wu Wei vanished, the expert, Zhu Jun, opened his eyes, and a slight golden gleam shone within. He was no longer a mere one star Saint but had advanced. The amount of strength he gained was significant. Although he could not be considered the cream of the crop, he was in no way a weak Saint anymore. His strength had been more than doubled thanks to the golden pills, and with the help of the white pills, he had also managed to balance his cultivation base much better than he had ever been able to before. He had become stronger in every aspect.
After another half day, Ye Ling managed to break through and a few hours after Luo Qiang had also broken through. Looking at the three men and feeling the energy undulations coming from their bodies, Hui Yue nodded satisfied.
“We don’t have time to waste,” He said, with a firm voice, but he was not in anyway complaining about the time they spent on cultivating their strength. “We are lagging behind the leaders and because of this, I am sure they have gathered quite a few treasures. Again, only attack if attacked first, but be on high alert. Anyone in the grave is our enemy, even if they are from our kingdom. This is survival of the fittest; the strong Saints prevail and the weak will either die or be trampled upon. I don’t want any of us to become a stepping stone for others so be vigilant.”
“I’m pretty sure that second group of idiots, the loud one, is planning to ambush us. That is the only explanation for why they chose to steal from the other group’s portion of pills and allowed us to take pillar after pillar. Since they dare go against us, we need to show no hesitation when we meet them. Kill first, ask questions later. If not we will be the ones dying,” He said. His voice stern and his eyes were ice-cold.
Hearing the words the hearts of Ye Ling, Luo Qiang, and Zhu Jun all turned slightly nervous, but the feeling quickly subsided. They were no longer the simple and weak like they had been just a few days before. They had stepped into the ranks of the average Saints, and they were not as easy to deal with as they had been before. Their confidence had soared to the heavens. They, more than anyone else, could feel the depths of the newfound strength in their bodies.
“That’s right,” Hui Yue grinned when he saw the confidence in their eyes. “That group has a four star expert, but we’ll leave him to Xiao Ning, and as the others were all two or three stars you all are not far behind them. Just fight to your heart’s content. Go for the kill and we will be fine,” Hui Yue said, and the moment he had mentioned Xiao Ning the older man almost snorted. It was clear that he was going to do the most amount of work.
“Don’t worry; I’ll be their target. They are all most likely going to get rid of the weakest person first. Not because I am going to be the easiest target but because they think I have the most treasures on me. Seems like we will see the reason why everyone says to covet another’s treasures is to not value your own life.” Hui Yue grinned, and the others nodded.
‘When you attack them there is something I want you to try,’ Lan Feng suddenly said from the lower dantian. His voice was hesitant but hopeful. Hearing this voice, Hui Yue was curious about what was happening, and he waited for the bird to continue.
‘You are an Emperor now, and you have full control over both the blue cloud and the red mist, the monk and the wolf.’ Lan Feng continued, his voice still slightly hesitant but he still continued speaking. ‘You should be able to merge these two types of energy and come up with a third type. What this energy will be able to do, I have no idea. It might be too volatile for your body and make you explode from the inside out, but it might just be something which can save your life. Try merging very small amounts at a time and see what happens. If it works, then use it in the attack on the other group and see what happens. The two energies are the complete opposite. One is tranquil and calm while the other is ferocious and dominating. Imagine if you could combine them. I can’t even begin to fathom the strength such an attack could possess.’ Lan Feng stopped, and his words had caused Hui Yue to be genuinely shocked. Mixing energies? He had never thought about that before.
Seeing that Hui Yue was in deep thought no one interrupted him. All his new friends just patiently waiting for him, knowing that he was likely to be pondering something incredibly important. Their assumption proved correct when they suddenly felt a strange sense of danger come from him. There was no energy ripples, no signs of him increasing his rank, the only thing they sensed was that the air around him became turbulent. It was as though some invisible force was compressing all the air around him, making it twist and turn, though oddly no energy to cause the effect was seen.
Hui Yue’s eyes were open and focused as his two hands were placed opposite one another. Slowly a red mist appeared in one palm while a blue cloud appeared in the other. These two small streams of energy exploded forward causing shockwaves to spread throughout the room, yet the shockwaves could not penetrate the turbulent air around him. Hui Yue pressed the two energies together and slowly came closer and closer to one another.
The moment the red and blue energy came into contact with one another a resounding boom exploded outwards. A boom which caused a shockwave to sweep the newly advanced two star Saints off their feet while even Xiao Ning was pressed backwards. Hui Yue staggered a few steps and a trail of blood ran down his lips, but his eyes were as focused on the energy as they had been before. Stubbornness was clearly seen in his eyes.
The two energies, the blue and red energy, had merged into a small ball of black energy. This ball was the same size as the nail on Hui Yue’s thumb. It was tiny, but the undulations that came from it were so strong that it made the energy ripples from Wu Wei seem weak.
This small nail size ball of energy slowly entered Hui Yue’s body once more, but instead of entering the upper dantian where Wu We was stored, it entered the lower dantian and positioned itself in the middle of the Qi swirl. It seemed like this amazing energy could be stored.
‘Well done,’ Lan Feng said. ‘You can try and use this small amount of energy in the next battle. Although it requires quite a lot of you, you seem to be able to merge them just never merge more than this amount at a time, or you will be the one dying from greed,’ Lan Feng warned, but Hui Yue was not in need of a warning.
The shockwave had already made his body suffer greatly. He had injured his internal organs and broken the bones in his hands from forcefully withstanding the force that had blown the others away.
Looking at the energies in his lower dantian, he glanced towards the green pearl which had grown even larger than he remembered. But he noticed no energy was leaving it, clearly showing no signs of wanting to heal the injuries he had sustained.
Sighing, but not surprised, Hui Yue popped a red pill into his mouth and slowly his body returned to its peak condition. The energy within these red pills was truly mysterious. They would restore a cultivator to their peak condition with both healing and restoring energies; he did not know how much it could heal and restore, but the fact that it could do both had made them priceless. Hui Yue was very grateful that he had gotten his hands on them.
Waiting for a few more moments, Hui Yue finally cracked his neck before he smiled to everyone. “Let’s head out,” He said, not commenting on what just transpired. Since he said nothing, the others did not ask either, and the five once more moved out ready to meet the ambush that was laying in wait and then catch up to the experts who had advanced far ahead. They had advanced and were collecting treasure from the inner chambers of the tomb, something Hui Yue wanted to be a part of.
Moving forwards, Hui Yue could not help but snicker. They were definitely waiting to ambush him and his friends, but who were truly the hunted, he asked himself. His group was maybe considered weaker overall, but this black energy that he had created was simply so strong that the scales to measure strength could not be used to measure it. The only downside was that this energy was similar to the energy that Lan Feng created. It could be used only once before the cultivator needed to refine more. It did not automatically restore much like his Wu Wei, spiritual energy, and Qi did. Still having a hidden energy such as this, Hui Yue was no longer to be taken lightly.