Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 161-170

Chapter 161 Letter from Tian’er!

The Lion Prince’s overbearing aura was ferocious and unstoppable. Gripping Zhou Weiqing by the neck, the light in his eyes was gleaming with a murderous light, but he just said coldly: “I will not kill you today. Do you know why?”

Alas, at this point, Zhou Weiqing was being gripped tightly by the neck and could not speak at all, naturally unable to give an answer.

“That is because Tian’er’s heart has already returned to me. Killing you would only dirty my hands. This is a letter for you from Tian’er…” As he said that, a light ﬂashed in his hands, and a letter appeared. Shoving it forward, he slammed it into Zhou Weiqing’s chest, where it stuck to the matted blood there. Next, he let go, and Zhou Weiqing’s body crumpled to the ground.

“For Tian’er’s sake, I will let you go once. After all, she once liked you. However, if you let me see you again, I will rip you into shreds…”

As he said that, Gu YingBing gave Zhou Weiqing a ﬁnal kick, sending him ﬂying back a dozen yards like a sack of rubbish. “Let’s go.” Gu YingBing glared a ﬁnal, slightly unwilling, time at the critically injured Zhou Weiqing. Waving his hands towards his two guards, he turned back and headed to the north.

…

“Senior Brother, I beg you please, I beg you. Do not kill him. I… I am willing to marry you, as long as you let him go free, alright? Otherwise, you will only get my dead body.”

“…….”

“Senior Brother, I am willing to write him a letter, to let him know that I no longer love him, so that he will give up on me. In future, I will be yours, a good wife, taking good care of you. Please, I beg you. This is my last request. After all, I once loved him, and I do not want him to die because of me. Senior Brother, please, I beg you, let him go.”

At last… “Alright. But you must do what you said.”

“Senior Brother, then you must swear not to kill him. I will not see him again in the future as well…” …

Gu YingBing was after all a Prince, and he naturally would not do something like breaking his own word to the woman he loved. No matter how much he wanted to, he ﬁnally did not land the ﬁnal killing blow. Despite his unwilling feelings, he ﬁnally left.

“Little Fatty!!” Shangguan Fei’er ﬂew to Zhou Weiqing. Alas, even though she ﬁnally reached him, she dared not touch him at all.

Zhou Weiqing’s current look was extremely scary. Both his arms and left leg were clearly broken, twisted in a weird position. Blood was pouring out of all his oriﬁces, and his chest was slightly caved in, some of his ribs and clavicle clearly broken as well.

Looking at him like that, Shangguan Fei’er felt as if her heart was in such pain, almost not being able to breathe. She did not even know how to help him, not even daring to infuse Heavenly Energy into his body.

“Little Fatty… Little Fatty…” She called out softly, tears streaming down her cheeks. Zhou Weiqing slowly opened his eyes. They were full of anger, hate, regret and unwilling. He had lost, lost so easily to his own love rival, perhaps even losing Tian’er. The pain in his heart far surpassed the pain in his body. In fact, as his injuries were just too critical, he currently felt his entire body numb,

and actually did not feel much pain.

“Fei’er… open… the… letter… on… my… chest… and… read… it… to me…” Zhou Weiqing barely croaked out the words.

“You are already like this, and you still want to look at some letter? You stupid playboy, if not for that, how could you…” Shangguan Fei’er almost wanted to give him another beating of her own at that moment.

“Read it to me…” Zhou Weiqing’s eyes opened wide, his pale lips trembling as he said ﬁrmly.

In the end, Shangguan Fei’er could not bear to disregard his request, and she carefully picked up the letter from his chest, soaked with his blood. Opening the envelop, she took out a thin piece of paper. Taking a quick glance at it, her face changed, and a hesitant expression ﬂashed across her beautiful features.

“What…” Zhou Weiqing said with a trembling voice.

Shangguan Fei’er bit her lip lightly before ﬁnally reading it out softly: “Little Fatty, when you read this letter, it is over between us. Forget about me. I realised that the person I truly love is Big Bro Gu after all, and we are about to be married. What happened in the past is me being young, foolish and rebellious, just too curious about the world that I had never seen before. I do not truly love you. This year, in the coldest day of winter, I will become Big Bro Gu’s wife. We will not meet again, farewell forever.”

It was not easy for her to ﬁnish reading such a paragraph, and by the time she ﬁnished, Shangguan Fei’er ﬂew into a rage, ripping the letter into shreds as she said: “What an undevoted and unfaithful slut…”

“Hahaha…” To Shangguan Fei’er’s surprise, when Zhou Weiqing heard her read the letter, he did not grow angry at all. Instead, the bloodshot eyes slowly turned back to his normal colour, the red slowly ebbing out, and even the spirit slowly returned to his eyes as he laughed out loud. “Laugh… you’re still laughing…” Shangguan Fei’er stared at him dazedly.

Zhou Weiqing continued laughing heartily and said: “Why… why can’t I laugh… Tian’er… how could she… possibly… love… that… Lion Prince… Look, she… is… still… calling me… Little Fatty… she is still…calling… me… Little Fatty… she still … cares… for me… She is just… afraid… that… Gu… YingBing… kills me… that’s why… she wrote… that on purpose. Her… heart… is still… with me… Coldest day…of winter… that is… my last… chance…”

In Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, Shangguan Fei’er did not see any dejection or discouragement from the loss to the Lion Prince, instead an even stronger ﬁghting spirit.

“I really wonder what your heart is made of. You are already so terribly injured, and you can still think about ﬁghting for women.” Since Zhou Weiqing seemed to have come out of his internal pain, Shangguan Fei’er also heaved a sigh of relief. She had been afraid that Zhou Weiqing would not be able to recover from such a huge fall. As she spoke now, her words almost seemed to have a slightly sour tone.

Zhou Weiqing looked with dove eyes at Shangguan Fei’er, his low, raspy voice saying: “You all… are my… most precious… I am willing… to pit my all… to sacriﬁce myself… for each and every… one of you…” His voice grew lower and lower, until he ﬁnally fell into a dead faint.

While Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Fei’er were speaking, Lin TianAo had taken out two long staves and some cloth from his Spatial Ring, fashioning a crude stretcher. The way Zhou Weiqing looked currently, it was vital that he was moved carefully and that his wounds were not shaken too much. It was best to bring him back to the Peerless Battalion as quickly as possible, but riding a horse would be impossible for Zhou Weiqing, even if he were conscious.

…

On the other side, the Northwestern armies been deployed and were advancing to face the enemies. However, as they moved out, the returning Peerless Battalion had met them not far out, escorting the two powerful tribes back. Shen Ji had learned a single piece of news from the Peerless Battalion – the enemy had been repelled.

However, he could also clearly see that the Peerless Battalion had actually brought back several thousand Unicorn Heavenly Beasts! Regarding these Unicorn Heavenly Beasts, gaining them was a total delight for the Berserker Tribe, as it would be a great boon to them. These Unicorn Heavenly Beasts were considered horse type beasts, and the Berserker Tribes had inherited many ways to tame and train such horse-type Heavenly Beasts since ancient times. Although these Unicorns were not yet tamed, since their entire Tribe was mobilized to migrate away, they were conﬁdent in eventually doing so. Such stout and

powerful Unicorn Heavenly Beasts, how could the Berserker

Tribe Leader Ma Long let them go so easily. With the Berserker Tribe’s special whistling technique, they were able to gather the Unicorns which had ﬂed in all directions before heading to the Peerless Battalion camp.

Between the two tribes, they numbered more than ten thousand in total, entering the Peerless Battalion camp. Shen Ji had been a little worried at ﬁrst, after all, what if any of those were spies? Just as he was hesitating whether or not they had to examine all their backgrounds individually, the Peerless Battalion had given him a tight slap on his face indeed. The First Main Company of the Peerless Battalion had brought along two thousand heads to exchange for prizes. This was even after they had been forced to leave in a hurry and had not ﬁnished looting and gathering all the heads of their fallen enemies. These two thousand heads were mostly of the Unicorn Beastmen Tribe, and that in itself spoke volumes. More importantly, Shen Ji realised that the Peerless Battalion had not suffered any losses themselves!

Could it be that teacher of Zhou Weiqing’s had taken action?! Upon thinking about the mysterious teacher of Zhou Weiqing’s, Shen Ji dispelled his own misgivings, heading back to the northwestern command to report about what had happened.

Of course, Zhou Weiqing’s teacher had not taken action at all. In fact, currently, the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor Long Shiya was in the midst of a violent rage…

Seeing Zhou Weiqing lying on the bed in front of him, half dead and still unconscious, Long Shiya was so angry that his entire body was trembling. Lin TianAo and Shangguan Fei’er stood by the side, and they could vaguely see that six lights were reverberating around Long Shiya’s body. As they were standing rather close, the terrifying pressure emanating from him caused their breathing to become extremely difﬁcult.

After bringing Zhou Weiqing back, the ﬁrst thing Shangguan Fei’er did was to rush to Long Shiya and interrupt him from his cultivation in the camp. She knew that with Zhou Weiqing’s critical injuries, only Long Shiya and his powerful cultivation level would be able to help him recover as quickly as possible. “Who did this…” Long Shiya suppressed his fury with great difﬁculty as he asked through gritted teeth.

In truth, with his cultivation level, he should not be so impulsive and easily angered. However, do not forget that this Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor had lived for more than a hundred years before ﬁnally accepting such a favoured disciple! Although he had personally told Zhou Weiqing that he would not help him do anything, in truth, could he really let him go through everything by himself? That was deﬁnitely not possible.

During this period of time, he had seen with his own eyes how hard Zhou Weiqing had worked, the amount of effort he had put into his cultivation, and the sheer speed of improvement. The amount of talent, genius and more importantly, character and willingness to put in the work had gained Long Shiya’s approval and acknowledgement. Seeing this young disciple who had been alive and kicking happily just yesterday in such dire straits now, barely hanging on in a breath, with countless of broken bones everywhere… how could Long Shiya not be enraged? “Heavenly Snow Mountain… the Lion Prince, Gu YingBIng…” Shangguan Fei’er forced herself to answer quickly, panting for breath with the sheer difﬁculty of speaking through the pressure.

“Lion Prince?” A strange light ﬂashed in Long Shiya’s eyes. “You all met at the northern border?”

Shangguan Fei’er nodded, saying urgently. “Senior, please heal Little Fatty ﬁrst. He is so severely injured, and he also lost so much blood… I’m afraid his life might be in danger!”

Long Shiya seemed to ignore her words, lifting his head and looking off into the distance. In the next instance, an impossibly loud howl of rage rang out: “Old Monster Xue, this old man will now be irreconcilably opposed to you!”

Although Long Shiya had already tried his best to suppress his own aura, that angry howl still rose into the skies, reverberating through the entire area as it blew through the top of the entire tent and tearing a large hole in it. Not only did the entire Peerless Battalion hear it, even the nearby Legions could hear that thunderous roar. “You two… go out.” Long Shiya waved his hands, and an invisible force swept both Shangguan Fei’er and Lin TianAo off their feet, gently sending them out of the tent.

Although Shangguan Fei’er had been sent out of the tent, she ﬁnally heaved a sigh of relief. She knew in her mind that Zhou Weiqing would not die, but no matter what, the concern she had would still cause her to worry. After all, despite his severe injuries, with his tough physique and unbelievable recovery powers, he should eventually recover. Of course, now that Long Shiya was able to heal him, Zhou Weiqing would deﬁnitely be alright.

However, even as her heart was aching for Zhou Weiqing with concern, she was left speechless by Long Shiya’s howl. It was clearly targeted at the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord… This Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor was indeed intrepid; it looked like he did not really hold a lot of respect for the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord!

Within the tent, a thick blue light rose, spreading throughout the tent as it enveloped Zhou Weiqing’s entire body. Within the blue light, Zhou Weiqing’s body slowly levitated up, as if he was ﬂoating in a thick viscous liquid. Long Shiya did not use his Light Attribute Skills to heal his disciple. Although the Light Attribute was superior at healing, he had to consider that Zhou Weiqing had the Demonic and Darkness Attributes. If he used a Light Attribute Healing Skill, it could even had an adverse effect on Zhou Weiqing. From a certain perspective, Zhou Weiqing’s body was inclined towards the Demonic/Evil side.

The Water Attribute had some Healing Skills as well, and though they might not be as effective as the Life or Light Attributes, one had to consider who was the user as well. With Long Shiya’s cultivation level, the Water Attribute Healing Skills in his hands would be no weaker than any other Attribute’s Healing Skills, with the exception of not being to use the Resurrection Skills.

As Zhou Weiqing was fully covered by the blue light, his wounds were fully presented to Long Shiya’s senses. The more he examined all the wounds, the greater the cold light in Long Shiya’s eyes. To any ordinary person, perhaps even for other Jewel Masters, such a body of injuries… even two others would have died long ago. His internal organs were jarred out of position, with a great loss of blood, and at least a dozen bones were broken in various different areas. With Zhou Weiqing’s physique and toughness, one could imagine how many attacks and how much power had been behind those blows. The Lion Prince Gu YingBing… Long Shiya deﬁnitely knew of him. After all, he had ascended the Heavenly Snow Mountain more than once. Long Shiya was not ashamed about Zhou Weiqing losing to him. After all, Zhou Weiqing was more than a dozen years younger than he was, and more so, he had been the First Disciple of the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord for so long, as compared to the short time that Zhou Weiqing had been cultivating. There was absolutely nothing to be ashamed

about such a loss. However, Long Shiya’s heart was ﬁlled with rage. No matter what the reason was, this Lion Prince had almost killed his only disciple and successor, and he would not let things rest so easily. He would have to look for that old monster Xue to get justice.

A dense Water Attribute Heavenly Energy slowly infused into Zhou Weiqing’s body, ﬁrst carefully moving his internal organs to their correct positions before covering them with a protective layer, enriching and healing them. Next were the bones… with Long Shiya’s ﬁne control, all the bones were re- set into their proper positions.

Slowly, the amount of Heavenly Energy infused increased, improving the healing effect, cleansing the body, clearing his meridians, ﬁxing all the various injuries major and minor. In the end, such critical injuries that would look fatal to most was now recovering swiftly with the aid of the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor. Of course, in this unbelievable recovery speed, not only was Long Shiya’s power and cultivation of utmost importance, the toughness and sheer recovery rate of Zhou Weiqing’s own body played a major role as well. With the aid and restoration of the Water Attribute Heavenly Energy, his energy whirlpools were able to draw energy from outside to help his body sustain and recover.

…

Two whole hours passed, and as the worst of his injuries slowly recovered.

Zhou Weiqing’s eyes ﬂuttered open at last. There was no pain.

However, at this moment, Zhou Weiqing felt his entire body itching like crazy. This was the feeling of the many wounds recovering so quickly. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Long Shiya standing before him, a sombre, angry look on his face. “Master.” Zhou Weiqing said with some embarrassment, attempting to get up.

“Don’t move.” Long Shiya said. “Your wounds might have healed, but you must rest for at least a day before you can even get up, otherwise you might leave some unforeseen long term consequences…”

Right at that moment, the tent ﬂap raised, and Duan Tianlang entered from outside. In the entire Peerless Battalion, only he would dare to walk into Long Shiya’s tent so casually.

“Fatty Long, what is going on? What were you howling about just now?” In truth, Duan Tianlang had reached a while ago, but he had sensed Long Shiya circulating a massive amount of Heavenly Energy within the tent earlier, and had not wanted to disturb him. He had waited outside until he sensed the Heavenly Energy reverberations stop, before entering the tent.

“Hmph! Weiqing was almost beaten to death, what do you think I was yelling about? Old Duan, you remain here ﬁrst. Later, when Weiqing is better, I will head to the WanShou Empire to beat up that little bastard Gu YingBing, then I’ll head up the Heavenly Snow Mountain to look for that old bastard… Old Monster Xue… and get justice for this matter. Weiqing, you don’t have to worry about anything. Hmph, having the disciples of the Old Monster Xue coming to bully my disciple, your Teacher will stand up for you…”

What kind of teacher was the most loved by their disciples? Without question, it was the protective ones who would take their sides!

On hearing that his Master would actually go up the Heavenly Snow Mountain to confront the powerful Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord on his behalf, Zhou Weiqing’s heart was ﬁlled with warmth, as if the pain in his entire body lessened considerably somehow.

“Master, don’t go. At least, not now…” Zhou Weiqing quickly said.

“What? Are you afraid I cannot beat that Old Monster Xue? Don’t worry, even if I can’t defeat him, this old man can still let him pay a heavy price.” Long Shiya said angrily.

Zhou Weiqing remained silent for a moment, his eyes ﬂashing in a ﬁrm resolute light before he said: “Master, do you have any way for me to grow in strength quickly in a short period of time?” Long Shiya furrowed his brow, both a surprised glee and worry warring in his heart. The surprised happiness was that Zhou Weiqing had not been brought down by this defeat, still holding much ﬁghting spirit, and he was very happy about that. As for the worry, naturally that was because the Heavenly Snow Mountain was no mere triﬂe to go up against.

“Weiqing, tell your Senior Uncle, why did that Lion Prince come looking specially for you? For someone like Gu YingBing and his status in the entire WanShou Empire, to actually come all the way here to look for you and yet not killing you, I’m afraid there is more to this matter right.” Duan Tianlang was much calmer and cool-headed than the enraged Long Shiya, and he asked the critical question.

An embarrassed look ﬂashed across Zhou Weiqing’s face, but he dared not hide any details. As such, he spoke in detail about how he had met Tian’er so long ago, and all the years he had spent with her… all the way to when she left him, as well as the real reason why the Lion Prince had looked for him, even down to the letter Tian’er had written to him and his own analysis of it.

To be beaten up like that because of a woman, it was not something glorious indeed. However, Zhou Weiqing had his own plans, and he knew that only if he stated things clearly to his teacher and explain what he thought about the letter… only then could he have that last small chance to gain her back.

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, both Long Shiya and Duan Tianlang were stunned into silence momentarily, staring dazedly at each other.

At last, Long Shiya asked Zhou Weiqing uncertainly: “Little Fatty, are you trying to say that… you got together with that Old Monster Xue’s daughter? And she has also fallen for you?”

Zhou Weiqing lowered his head in shame and nodded slightly, thinking to himself: Sigh… to be beaten up to such a state for a woman’s sake, this is truly a huge loss of face. Looks like I’ll have to suffer a bout of scolding from Master ﬁrst.

However, what happened next left him at a loss whether to cry or to laugh…

Long Shiya abruptly slapped his immense belly, causing it to shake, as he shouted excitedly: “Damn! That is bloody great! Such a satisfying feeling hahaha!” Duan Tianlang was also laughing heartily as he said: “Weiqing, well done! You have truly gained face for our entire Legacy of Strength Sect!”

These two inglorious old fellows looked at each other as they continued laughing smugly loudly.

Chapter 162 Advance Awakening – Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit!

Looking at Long Shiya and Duan Tianlang laughing away like that together, Zhou Weiqing only had one thought in his mind… That was, it was as if there were two Mu En teachers standing right in front of him. These two elders, why were they laughing so wretchedly.

“Master… have you perhaps… gone muddled from anger?” Zhou Weiqing asked tentatively.

“Anger? Why would I be angry? I can’t even begin to describe how happy I am. Heh heh, you little brat, well done, that beating you took is deﬁnitely worth it.” Originally, Long Shiya had been full of rage from Zhou Weiqing being beaten up so badly. However, it seemed like his anger had all dissipated now.

Zhou Weiqing looked at the two elders in confusion, totally at a loss at what was happening.

Duan Tianlang laughed heartily and said: “Weiqing, in truth, it is not just myself and Fatty Long who would be so delighted. In fact, any Heavenly Emperor powerhouse would laugh out loud in delight at such a news. That Old Monster Xue AoTian is not known to be the Strongest Powerhouse in the entire Mainland for no reason, and it is no luck that he is known as such. His power is deﬁnitely beyond all of us… As long as one is a Heavenly Emperor powerhouse, all of us have deﬁnitely taken losses and disadvantages at his hands. In Old Monster Xue’s entire life, he only has one daughter, and he got her at such an old age… naturally she is as precious to him as can be. When she was born, she was betrothed to the Lion Prince Gu YingBing of the WanShou Empire Royal Family. Yet, you little brat actually managed to steal her heart, managing to get that Old Monster Xue’s precious daughter to fall for you. Fatty Long has been beaten many times by that Old Monster, how could he not be exalted and satisﬁed now? He may not be able to beat the Old Monster Xue, but his daughter has been stolen by his precious disciple… hahaha look how your teacher is laughing until his mouth is almost crooked!”

Zhou Weiqing’s mouth twitched involuntarily. As expected, their smug laughs was not an act.

This is actually happening? Looking at his Master laughing away, somehow Zhou Weiqing felt a strange conﬁdence that he could gain Tian’er back. “Master, what about me and Tian’er, you won’t be against it?” Long Shiya laughed heartily and said: “Against it? Why would I oppose such a thing? You just rest well and recover ﬁrst, I will bring you up the Heavenly Snow Mountain to look for Old Monster Xue. For other things, your Teacher, I, may not intervene easily. However, this is to do with my disciple’s wife to be, how can I not intervene. Let us act out a ‘Snatch the bride’ play in front of Old Monster Xue… if we succeed, who knows if that Old Monster will be angered to what degree… heh heh heh.”

“Master, then do you have any methods for me to gain a great deal of power and cultivation level in a short period of time?” Zhou Weiqing asked again.

Long Shiya started momentarily, and at the side, Duan Tianlang said: “Weiqing, Fatty Long is already intervening on your behalf, why would you try to pull a seedling to help it grow, especially on yourself?”

Zhou Weiqing’s gaze grew sombre and serious, a stubborn glint in them as he took a deep breath. Ignoring the aching and itching of his body, he said with a low voice: “Master, Senior Uncle Duan, I hope that I can be allowed to deal with this matter on my own. I must win back my woman with my own strength.” Long Shiya said exasperatedly: “Do you know what the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens is? What kind of place it is like or how dangerous it is? With your own strength, you will not even be able to make it to the Heavenly Snow Mountain before becoming food for a Heavenly Beast. You do not need to think too much. Although that Old Monster Xue is extremely powerful, he is not fully unreasonable. In this matter, we are not in the wrong. Both you and his precious daughter are free

to fall in love. However, it is indeed true that you need to improve your strength in the near future. In the WanShou Empire, personal strength is what deﬁnes a hero. If you are able to defeat that Lion Prince, he would no longer have the face to insist on upholding the betrothal and marry that girl. However, the gap between you and him is currently massive. We only have two more months before the Coldest Winter… in that short amount of time, it is almost impossible for you to close that gap, unless…”

“Unless… unless what?” Zhou Weiqing asked urgently. Ever since he had become a Heavenly Jewel Master, Zhou Weiqing had never taken such a huge disadvantage like today. To be injured so severely… if not for his Master being here, those wounds alone would take him at least several months to recover, if at all. Deep in his heart, he did not hate his love rival. After all, if it were any other person in place of Gu YingBing, he would have done the same. At the same time, this loss had indeed ﬁlled him with ﬁghting spirit. He had to ﬁght and defeat Gu YingBing, and personally gain back Tian’er with his own hands. Otherwise, how could he be worthy of her love?

Long Shiya furrowed his brow and said: “There is only one method that can possibly allow you to grow so much in strength in such a short period of time, a method that only works for you. However, this method is also rather dangerous, and you must withstand an unbelievable amount of pain. Of course, with my protection, you will not be in danger of death, but such pain is deﬁnitely not to be underestimated. If you are not able to withstand the pain, you might suffer a nervous breakdown or total mental collapse. In such a case, even the greatest healing Skills or Resurrection Skills will not be able to save you.”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said: “Master, don’t you think your disciple is extremely tough and tenacious? Being beaten up like this today, I am still smiling here. As you said, as long as I do not die from it, I will deﬁnitely be able to pull through.”

Long Shiya said: “That method is to Awaken and Intensify the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit in your body in advance, allowing it to fully merge with your body before its normal time.”

“Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit?” Upon hearing those words, Zhou Weiqing’s eyes lit up. Although he had not forgotten about the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit’s existence, he had been training and cultivating hard the past few months, and had not thought much about it. After all, according to normal progress, that Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit would only Awaken when he reached the Nine-Jeweled stage, deﬁnitely not something that he could reach or achieve in a few days. As such, he had not paid it much attention. At this moment, hearing Long Shiya bring it up so suddenly, his heart was ﬁlled with an abrupt burning hope. After all, the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit was the power of a Heavenly God Tier True Dragon! Dragons, even amongst the Heavenly Beast world, they were at the apex of nature’s pyramid.

Long Shiya nodded and said: “Do you remember last time when you told me how the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit was momentarily activated by the powerful external Fire Attribute attacks, helping you to absorb it?”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Of course I remember. That time, if not for Fei’er’s help, it is likely I would not have survived to stand here before you today.”

Long Shiya continued: “If you are able to succeed in Awakening your Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, it will undoubtedly also greatly increase your Heavenly Energy at the same time, and also allow your body to evolve and improve once again… further strengthening your body and making it tougher and more ﬂexible. It will also purify your Heavenly Energy to an unadulterated form.”

“With my aid, I have a sixty percent certainty in ensuring that once you Awaken your Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, you should be able to reach the six-Jeweled stage directly, leapfrogging four levels of Heavenly Energy directly. As you know, my Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts only starts getting stronger from the six-Jeweled cultivation level and higher, to begin unleashing its true power. With that, you will be able to truly use it in battle. Add on the other abilities that the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit will grant you, as well as the whatever improvement in your physique and body, it will be a total remould of your power and a major leap. Despite Gu YingBing being at the eight-Jeweled cultivation level, our Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts is adept at challenging above our power levels, and with the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and Demonic Change State, I believe you should be able to hold your own against him. More importantly, you will also be able to Consolidate one more piece of your Legendary Set…”

Hearing Long Shiya speak of all the massive advantages of Awakening the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit in advance, Zhou Weiqing’s expression did not relax or show over happiness. He was extremely clear about the importance of having proper order and sequence in Heavenly Jewel Masters cultivation. As Duan Tianlang had previously mentioned, by ‘pulling a seedling to help it grow’, if one wanted to succeed without destroying his own foundation and future, he would deﬁnitely have to pay a heavy price indeed.

As expected, Long Shiya’s expression grew solemn as he spoke up to this point. Pausing momentarily, he continued seriously: “However, the major premise of all that is that you actually manage to successfully Awaken your Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit… and in order to do so, you will have to endure Heavenly Fire burning your Soul, and the sheer pain of that. A Dragon is after all a top level ultimate Fire Attribute Heavenly Beast, and just by giving you the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, it has also given you a near immunity to the Fire Attribute. For the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit to Awaken early, it has to be stimulated by a large amount of powerful Heavenly Fire, only then will it have a chance to Awaken in advance. The burning of the Heavenly Fire will be down to your very soul, and the pain will already be considerable. However, in your case, that would also clash with your own Demonic Change State… resulting in the amount of pain you have to endure being much stronger than before, and you will have to withstand it all the way until the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit is fully Awakened. That is to say, you will have to go through Heavenly Fire purifying Body, Heavenly Fire purifying Soul… all of it. During this process, the only thing i can help you with is to protect your core spirit and ensure you do not die from this. However, at the same time, as I do so, that means you will have to stay conscious and experience the entire process of the Purifying Body and Purifying Soul.”

Zhou Weiqing could remember very clearly the previous time his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit had clashed with his Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline, and the moment Long Shiya spoke about it, he understood the sheer difﬁculty of the task ahead of him. In order to properly and fully Awaken his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, that would mean he had to properly fuse the bloodline power that the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit with the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline, merging them as one through their clashing, causing a full change in quality in both.

According to ordinary circumstances, this process would be a slow one fully culminating as he reached the nine-Jeweled cultivation level. At that point, his Heavenly Energy would be so strong, and his body so tough and strong that it would be much easier to withstand the pain, and everything should fall into place relatively easily, allowing the Awakening to succeed without much trouble. However, he was currently only at the Five-Jeweled cultivation stage, and one could just imagine the sheer difference… the sheer difﬁculty that awaited him.

However, did Zhou Weiqing really have a choice? No, he did not. When Tian’er had fully given herself to him that time at the Heavenly Jewel Island, he no longer had a choice. He could not fail her, fail her love, fail himself… letting down this young girl who had chosen to take everything upon herself and return alone to the Heavenly Snow Mountain.

“Is Tian’er’s suffering any less than mine? It should even be greater than me… and if a girl like her can take that, as a man, if I can’t even take this amount of pain, what kind of qualiﬁcation do I have to become the son in law of the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord, to become Tian’er’s husband? Master, do not worry, I will deﬁnitely endure it.” Zhou Weiqing said in a resolute and decisive manner.

Looking at the determination in his eyes, burning with resolution, Long Shiya nodded in approval. Finally, he said: “Very well… good… good… you truly are my good disciple. I am very proud of you. I will deﬁnitely put everything I have to ensure that you succeed in this, and succeed in your wish!”

Duan Tianlang stood at the side, a faint smile on his side as he said: “Fatty Long, it has been a long time since I have seen you so motivated and excited. Do you want me to go along with you then?”

Long Shiya shook his head and said: “No need, you just help Weiqing ﬁnish his ﬁfth piece of his Legendary Set as quickly as possible. This time, no matter what, this will be another type of ﬁght between that Old Monster Xue and myself… a whole different battleground. I have fought against him so many times, and have never won. This time, I will deﬁnitely suppress that Old Creature!”

Literal translation of chinese idiom. Basically means to ruin things with excessive enthusiasm (descriptive of a person, impatient for success, so acts as to destroy the very conditions upon which success depends) Duan Tianlang said with a hint of jealousy: “Ahh, why was I not the one who met Weiqing ﬁrst…” Shaking his head helplessly, he turned to leave. He was afraid that if he stayed there longer, he would not be able to resist trying to snatch this outstanding disciple from Long Shiya.

Long Shiya said solemnly: “Weiqing, time is of the essence. I will give you three days to settle everything with your Peerless Battalion and arrange everything for them. After that, we will set off. I have already thought of the perfect place where a Heavenly Spirit Fire is burning. Today, you rest well and ﬁnish recovering, tomorrow onwards you ﬁnish settling everything.”

After accounting all that, Long Shiya also turned to leave. As soon as he stepped out of the tent, Shangguan Fei’er rushed in.

“Little Fatty, how are you?” In a ﬂash, she appeared before Zhou Weiqing. Looking at his various areas where his injuries used to be, seeing the broken bones seemed to be fully normal now, and that he was conscious, she heaved a sigh of relief. Zhou Weiqing managed to raise his freshly-healed arm with much difﬁculty, and Shangguan Fei’er quickly held his hand. “Don’t move.”

“Fei’er, I’m sorry for hurting you…” Zhou Weiqing said gently. Saying that instead of saying ‘worrying you’, and as soon as she heard that, Shangguan Fei’er’s eyes reddened.

Zhou Weiqing said softly: “I know, I am very greedy, an insatiably avaricious man. No matter Bing’er, Tian’er or you, being able to gain any one of your love is truly an unbelievable fortune from all my past lives. However, I truly cannot cut loose any of my feelings. I do not know how to explain it to you… I…”

“Enough, don’t say anymore.” Shangguan Fei’er lowered her head, biting his hand lightly before saying through gritted teeth. “Who asked me to fall for a little scoundrel like you… However, I will not be reconciled so easily. I will make you love me more than the others! Anyway, no matter what, I will not allow you to lose to that Gu YingBing again. I, Shangguan Fei’er, my man, has to be the strongest!”

Zhou Weiqing had thought of many possible scenarios, but he had never dreamed that Shangguan Fei’er would actually be so thoughtful and understanding. In that moment, his feelings overwhelmed him and he tried to sit up and wrap her in his arms tenderly.

“Don’t move. I’ll go get some water and wipe you down.” Shangguan Fei’er ﬂed out of the tent, blushing furiously.

Not far from the tent, Shangguan Xue’er appeared steadily in a ﬂash, dressed in a set of army uniforms and wearing a mask. When Long Shiya was in the tent, she had not dared approach to listen, but she had heard the entire conversation between Shangguan Fei’er and Zhou Weiqing.

“Fei’er, is he really worth you giving so much, paying such a price?” Shangguan Xue’er couldn’t help but ask.

Shangguan Fei’er looked at her sister and sighed lightly: “Sis, some problems, once you have thought through them fully, aren’t anything at all. Just now, when Senior Long was helping to cure Little Fatty, I was thinking a lot. To me, how much would the pain from sharing him with other women be, and how would it compare to the pain from leaving him? In that moment, my heart had already told me the answer… that the latter is far stronger. In that case, why should I give him so much extra trouble, and make myself suffer more as well? Instead of making everyone suffer, making him suffer as well, we might as well all be happy together. In truth, perhaps if he truly gave up Tian’er easily today, I might look down on him instead.”

Shangguan Xue’er stared at her sister dazedly. Finally, she said: “Fei’er, do you know, I suddenly had the feeling… our Heaven’s Expanse Palace Little Demon Girl has ﬁnally grown up.”

…

Before long, Shangguan Fei’er brought back a basin of warm water to Zhou Weiqing’s tent, helping him to cleanse all the dried blood and dirt from his body. Even some particular ‘important’ areas were not avoided, though she was blushing furiously the entire time. Currently, she was like a little wife, caring for her husband tenderly, all the way until she had helped Zhou Weiqing into a fresh set of clean clothes.

With her tender care and devotion, Zhou Weiqing immediately felt much more comfortable, and his energy whirlpools continued drawing in power, fully helping his entire body recover.

“Little Fatty, what do you plan to do?” After looking after him, Shangguan Fei’er could not help but ask. Zhou Weiqing replied: “Fei’er, in a few days, I will be leaving for some time.”

Upon hearing his words, Shangguan Fei’er was taken aback. “You are going to the Heavenly Snow Mountain? No! You can’t go… it will be complete suicide. You…”

“Fei’er, wait. Hear me out ﬁrst. I am not going to the Heavenly Snow Mountain.” Zhou Weiqing quickly said.

Only then did Shangguan Fei’er calm down. “Where are you going then? What are you planning to do?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Previously, I had always thought that my strength was not bad at all, especially after last time when we faced that Han Tianyou from the Blood Red Hell, and successfully tricking and injuring him. However, today’s ﬁght has truly let me learn the truth. If an enemy knows about me… or does not underestimate me… or is able to counter me… my powers are far from being sufﬁcient. No matter what, Five Jewels is still Five Jewels. Without Absolute Power behind them, no matter how many Skills I have, no matter how highly rated they are, it is still useless. I have discussed with Master, and he will be bringing me to a special place that is highly suited for me to train… and I will be going through closed door cultivation there for some time. Master’s Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts only starts being of proper use from the Six- Jeweled cultivation stage onwards, and I plan to cultivate for some time until I reach that stage.”

Shangguan Fei’er furrowed her brow and said: “How long will you be going then? From Five Jewels to Six Jewels… wouldn’t that take a few years?”

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly and said: “Do not forget, your husband, I, am a genius. How could I possibly take such a long time? At most, I should be back within four to ﬁve months… deﬁnitely not more than ﬁve months, alright?”

Shangguan Fei’er said: “If you go, what about the Peerless Battalion?”

Zhou Weiqing said with a bitter smile: “Alas, we can’t always have things both ways. I can only leave the Peerless Battalion in all your hands. Luckily, the Battalion is already on the right path, and with you, a core of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace here, I’m sure the Northwest Army Command will not send us to any overly tough ﬁghts. Oh, that reminds me, how are the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribes doing?” Shangguan Fei’er said: “Everything has been arranged. However, a large majority of both Tribe’s warriors have been injured, and they are all resting, getting treatment and recovering. We have arranged to temporarily loan quite a few army doctors from the Seventh Legion to help in this matter. Originally, the two Tribe Leaders wanted to see you, but I told them that you were injured and currently resting. As for how you were injured or the extent of your wounds, I have not told anyone else, lest they be worried.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Very well, that is good. Alright, I will rest for the rest of the day and recover ﬁrst. Tomorrow morning, please gather everyone for a meeting, and we can arrange everything for the Peerless Battalion for the next few months while I am away. When I return, our Peerless Battalion should be in decent shape, at least with proper formation, and it might be time for us to leave as well…”

Shangguan Fei’er nodded. At this point, she was also lost in her own thoughts. Since Little Fatty is going off to closed door cultivation, perhaps it is the opportune time to do what I promised Sis, to return to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. I wonder how Bing’er’s closed door cultivation has been going… if she is out, I will need to explain everything to her clearly. But… perhaps I need to wait until the annual war with the WanShou Empire is over… otherwise how could I just leave like this? …

The next morning, after a day of rest, Zhou Weiqing had just recovered his ability to move. As discussed, he gathered all the ofﬁcers and leaders of the Peerless Battalion to the command tent for a meeting.

Shangguan Fei’er, Hua Feng, Wei Feng, Lin TianAo, all the various Main Company Leaders were there, with the addition of the two new Tribe Leaders of the Gold Crow and Berserker Tribes who had just joined them.

“Battalion Commander Zhou, how are your injuries?” Lowering his head to enter the tent, the Tribe Leader Ma Long’s resonant voice rang out loud.

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly and said: “No problems, no problems. Thanks so much for Tribe Leader Ma’s concern, it was just a few minor injuries.” This was after all an ofﬁcial meeting of the Peerless Battalion, and he naturally would not address Ma Long as Uncle Ma like he did personally.

At the side, Shangguan Fei’er pursed her lips slightly upon hearing his words. With his wounds yesterday, he still called it minor injuries? Ma Long laughed and said: “That’s good to hear. You all have truly opened my eyes yesterday! Battalion Commander Zhou, your Peerless Battalion is indeed unique, no wonder that little brat Ma Qun has such great esteem for you all. If not for your timely aid yesterday, both our tribes might be in critical

danger…”

Zhou Weiqing said seriously: “Tribe Leaders Ma Long and Hong Yu, since you both have trusted us enough to actually migrate your entire Tribes here, how could we possibly stand by and do nothing when you run into danger? That is our responsibility.”

At this point, everyone had reached. Hong Yu had a similar character with Ma Long, frank and straightforward. All of sudden, she asked solemnly: “Battalion Commander Zhou, may I know how you are planning on arranging our Tribesmen?” This was the question that both she and Ma Long were most curious about. Choosing to migrate their entire Tribes to seek Zhou Weiqing, it was mostly because the Fei Li Empire were just trying to squeeze too much out of them, and their lives were just too difﬁcult… even the survival and continued lineage of their tribes was starting to be a problem. Otherwise, who would be willing to leave their homeland? Towards Hong Yu’s question, Zhou Weiqing had long expected it and was fully ready for it. With a faint smile, he said: “Tribe Leaders, regarding the Gold Crow and Berserker Tribes, this is my plan. I’m sure that both Ma Qun and Crow have already told both of you my current situation, and I also have nothing to hide. I am a man whose homeland has been conquered… the Heavenly Bow Empire is my homeland, and it had been destroyed by the Bai Da Empire. The reason I have formed this Peerless Battalion is mainly to return to my homeland to restore it, to defeat the conquering enemies and recapture my Empire.”

“Perhaps, our current numbers might not seem like much. However, I have always believed that for an army, the most important thing is quality, not quantity. With our Peerless Battalion’s power, I believe that recovering my homeland is not just a foolish dream, but a deﬁnite possibility in the future. I can promise both of you that once I successfully recover my homeland, and restore the Heavenly Bow Empire, then I will open up a section of fertile lands for the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribes to be your territory, and both your Tribes will be my Heavenly Bow Empire’s honoured Guardian Tribes.”

Ma Long furrowed his brow and said: “Battalion Commander Zhou, I am indeed highly interested in your terms. However, all of that is extremely far in the future. Your Heavenly Bow Empire has been destroyed by the Bai Da Empire, and we know very well what the Bai Da Empire is like, especially since we are from the Fei Li Empire. No matter what, it will not be an easy task to restore your Empire. I understand what you mean, and we are willing to ﬁght on behalf of your Peerless Battalion. However, we also need to know how our Tribes will survive… how many of us will be left alive by the time you succeed in restoring your Homeland and are able to fulﬁl your promise to us.”

Ma Long’s worries were also shared by Hong Yu. Although both of them had already accepted and approved of Zhou Weiqing in their hearts, they were after all Leaders of their Tribes, and they had to consider the futures of all their tribesmen. They could not make any decisions easily without full thought and clarity into the entire situation.

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “I have previously considered and laboured over the very same concerns that the two Tribe Leaders have brought up. Both of you can rest assured that I have already come up with an appropriate series of methods to deal with everything. How about this, each of your Tribes will contribute a thousand warriors; this number should be within acceptable conﬁnes for both of you. As for these two thousand warriors, their training, equipment, including their Consolidated Equipment and Stored Skills, all costs for that will be borne by our Peerless Battalion.” “As for the normal resources the rest of both your Tribes require, I will also provide it. If, in any case, these thousand warriors take more than thirty percent losses, then both of your tribes no longer need to join in any of my Peerless Battalion military actions. At the same time, I will ﬁrst advance each of you ﬁve million gold coins. If the thirty percent casualties actually happen, both of you can leave at any time, even keeping all the provided equipment.”

Thirty percent of a thousand men, that was three hundred men. Although the Gold Crow and Berserker Tribes barely numbered more than ten thousand tribesmen in total combined, a loss of that number was still barely acceptable for them. This was a chance that they had to choose whether to bet on or not.

Ma Long and Hong Yu exchanged looks, as if somehow communicating silently, then they both turned back to look at Zhou Weiqing once more.

Zhou Weiqing’s gaze was honest and sincere, and facing their gazes, he just smiled faintly in good faith. Ma Long couldn’t help but ask: “Battalion Commander Zhou, are you that sure that in all the future ﬁghts, our losses will not cross thirty percent? After all, that is extremely difﬁcult to guarantee in a battleﬁeld. In the end, if you want to restore your homeland, you will need to ﬁght many battles, and it will be a long process indeed.”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Vice Commander Wei.”

Wei Feng took a step forward and said respectfully: “Yes, Sir?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Please inform the two Tribe Leaders about our Peerless Battalion’s military exploits and accomplishments since we have formed.”

Wei Feng nodded in agreement and turned to face Ma Long and Hong Yu, saying solemnly: “Two Tribe Leaders, Greetings. Our Peerless Battalion has been formed for about nine months or so. In this period of time, we have fought a few times with the WanShou Empire. In our ﬁrst ﬁght, we faced a Company of enemy forces, managing to kill them all. Our losses, zero. Next, we met with the WanShou Empire Swift Wolf Regiment, ten thousand cavalry soldiers attacking us. At that time, our Peerless Battalion numbered one thousand ﬁve hundred. We killed over four thousand of them, and our losses were zero. Yesterday’s ﬁght, we numbered ﬁve hundred of our elite, killing over three thousand enemies, and once again, zero losses.”

Hearing Wei Feng’s short and succinct summary, both Hong Yu and Ma Long’s faces showed surprise. In Wei Feng’s report, there was one thing that was constant – the zero losses of the Peerless Battalion ﬁghters. That was to say, every single ﬁght of theirs up until now had been a total and complete victory.

Perhaps, if they had not experienced the ﬁght yesterday, having been saved by the First Main Company of the Peerless Battalion, it would have been extremely difﬁcult or even impossible for the two Tribe Leaders to believe Wei Feng’s words. However, having seen the power of the Peerless Battalion with their own eyes, they naturally did not suspect anything. After all, no matter what, when the Peerless Battalion had come to rescue them yesterday, they had deﬁnitely been facing two powerful Regiments of enemy soldiers, and they had experienced the ﬁghting capabilities of the two for themselves. In that ﬁght, the Peerless Battalion First Main Company’s main enemy had even been the stronger of the two, the Unicorn Cavalry Regiment!

After Wei Feng ﬁnished his report, he returned to his seat silently. Zhou Weiqing continued: “Two Tribe Leaders, since our Peerless Battalion was set up, up until now in all our ﬁghts on the battleﬁeld, not a single one of our brothers have died. Naturally, injuries are unavoidable, but I have told every single Peerless Battalion soldiers that each and every one of their lives are of utmost importance. In the future, they will all be heroes on the battleﬁeld. My aspiration is not just for us to beat our enemies, but to destroy them without taking any losses. Our numbers are not high, but just think about this… no matter how powerful the Bai Da Empire is, can they even be compared to the WanShou Empire armies, in terms of either numbers, army strength or personal power? Furthermore, the Heavenly Bow Empire is my homeland, and the Bai Da Empire is the invader from outsider… I believe strongly that when we attack and make a public appeal, we will get much support from the public.”

“Towards your Berserker and Gold Crow tribes, I have already formulated some plans a while back, just awaiting your arrival. I believe that you have already seen for yourselves the equipment of our Peerless Battalion, all of them wearing light mail crafted from titanium alloy.”

Ma Long and Hong Yu nodded their heads subconsciously. It could be said that after they had seen the equipment, they had both been salivating after them. For the entire Peerless Battalion to be equipped with the titanium light mail, how much money did that cost! With such ﬁne weapons and armour to protect them, naturally the soldiers would have a much greater chance of survival on the battleﬁeld.

Hong yu was the ﬁrst to lose her composure, quickly saying: “Battalion Commander Zhou, are you saying that you will be willing to equip our two Tribes’ warriors with the same titanium light mail?”

Under the heated gazes of the two Tribe Leaders, Zhou Weiqing actually shook his head slowly.

Ma Long’s brow furrowed, but he did not speak. After all, they had just reached, and they had not made any contributions to the Peerless Battalion yet, and they could not ask for too much for now. Of course, logic was logic, but they couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly and said: “How could the defensive capabilities of the titanium light mail be sufﬁcient.”

“En?” Both Ma Long and Hong Yu were caught by surprised, their faces revealing their curiosity, as they did not understand what Zhou Weiqing meant. Zhou Weiqing continued: “Our entire Peerless Battalion currently numbers about ﬁve thousand soldiers, and under our special technique arts, they are now all Jewel Masters, with the great majority being Physical Jewel Masters. Regarding our Peerless Battalion ﬁnances, both Tribe Leaders do not need to worry; our Physical Jewel Masters are all targeting to be fully becoming the Peerless Air Force that both of you have witnessed in action yesterday. Equipped with Consolidated Wings, their ﬁghting also has to be done high up in the blue skies. Under such a circumstance, if their equipment weighs too much, it will greatly inﬂuence their ﬂying speed and more importantly, sustainability and time of ﬂight. As such, the equipment I chose for them is just the titanium alloy light mail.”

Titanium Light Mail… ‘Just’? Both Ma Long and Hong Yu couldn’t help but feel their hearts convulse at such phrasings.

By that point, Hong Yu was not able to resist, and she piped out: “What about our warriors then? Battalion Commander Zhou, please don’t keep us guessing, what is your exact plan?”

Zhou Weiqing smiled and said: “The equipment that I have envisioned for both your Tribes’ warriors is to make them into moving steel fortresses. Not only will they be armed to the death, I want them to be so armoured that even if they stand there and allow low level Jewel Masters to strike at them at will, their defense cannot be broken through. My goal is to make every one of your warriors to become an unstoppable killing machine on the battleﬁeld, to cause all our enemies to fear even the sound of your names. From Ma Qun and Crow, I

have seen the immense possibility of the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribes, and the possibilities are endless. You all do not lack power, but currently what you lack is unity, formation, training and the ﬁnest equipment. As for the exact details, it is too soon for me to speak of right now, and I am sure that both

Tribe Leaders will soon be able to see with your own eyes. What I can tell you in advance is that the equipment for each Berserker or Gold Crow Tribe soldier will cost at least ﬁve times that of a Peerless Battalion Air Force soldier.”

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s bold guarantee, both Ma Long and Hong Yu were stunned into silence. Equipment that cost ﬁve times that of titanium alloy light mail? What could that possibly be? They could not even envision such a thing.

Zhou Weiqing continued: “Originally, my plan was to mould the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribe Warriors into our Peerless Battalion Heavy Armour Infantry. However, after seeing the Berserker Tribe’s talent in taming and training horses, I might make a few slight changes to that plan. I hope that in the near future, both your Tribes can become a unique force in your own right… Atop horses, you are Heavy Cavalry Soldiers, and upon dismounting, you are Heavy Armour Infantry soldiers. In this way, my plan for you being an unstoppable storm of metal along the battleﬁeld can be perfect.”

That’s it. Your Father, I, will go along with the Peerless Battalion!” At that point, Ma Qun had been incited by Zhou Weiqing’s words, and this valiant but rough man waved his hand and decided the fate of his Berserker Tribe in one instant. If they were afraid to take the risk and ﬁght for their survival, they would have stayed in the Fei Li Empire. Now they had already taken the ﬁrst step forward, if they did not go ahead, perhaps the Berserker Tribe would never have the opportunity the hold their heads up high ever again. In the past, the Fei Li Empire had once bribed their Tribes to ﬁght… but in the end? They were always used as cannon fodders, and the continued wars had caused so many casualties to their Tribesmen. As a result, over time, both Tribes had started declining, reaching their lowest point. Yet, today, Zhou Weiqing had not spoken about how the two Tribes can ﬁght for him, but ﬁrst detailing out how he could ensure the survival of all his warriors, how to equip them properly. Just this factor alone had met with both Hong Yu and Ma Long’s approval.”

“Very well, I am also in. However, our Gold Crow Tribe has a unique request.” Hong Yu said. Zhou Weiqing said: “Please, do tell.”

Hong Yu continued: “Battalion Commander Zhou, I see that you have many stout little fellows in your Peerless Battalion. Look, our Tribe has so many beautiful ladies, don’t you think it would be perfect to match some of them?”

Zhou Weiqing said: “Tribe Leader Hong Yu, this issue, Crow has already spoken to me about it previously. However, I do have a question ﬁrst… since the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribes are have been friends for generations, why do you not marry within the Tribes?”

Hong Yu glanced towards Ma Long with an exasperated, almost indignant look, before turning back to Zhou Weiqing and saying: “Well, it is not that we do not want to marry within our tribes. In fact, we do so indeed. However, the problem is that after so many years, so many generations, both our Tribes have really inter-married so many times, so much so that many of us are related in some way or the other. If we continue doing so, it will soon become endogamy, and possibly causing children with born defects…. As such,, unless we can conﬁrm that both sides do not have too close a relation, for example like Ma Qun and Crow, our Tribesmen usually will not choose to intermarry.” Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally understood this little problem that had been nagging at him all this time, and he said: “Very well, this should be no problem at all, and I will agree to it. Naturally, our Peerless Battalion will be happy to help bring about this mutually beneﬁcial agreement.” Although the Gold Crow Tribe women were taller and larger than normal, but do not forget that these Peerless Battalion soldiers were mostly rufﬁans from Rufﬁan Battalions, and they had not had intimate contact with women for years. This should not be a big problem. Furthermore, if the Peerless Battalion warriors do actually get engaged or marry with the Gold Crow Tribe, that would undoubtedly bind the two sides together… Such a good thing, how could Zhou Weiqing be against it?

…

With this, the matter about settling the two powerful Tribes had ﬁnally come to a close. Next, Zhou Weiqing began issuing a list of commands.

Lin TianAo would still be in charge of the logistics and supplies, mainly regarding the equipment of the entire Battalion and coordinating with the two Consolidating Equipment Masters. Although the Gold Crow and Berserker Tribes had just arrived, in truth the plan for their equipment had long been in effect, and some starting orders had already been placed previously. Of course, the Peerless Battalion soldiers also had room for improvement in terms of equipment too. In this aspect, their investment was unbelievably huge, and even the original hundred million gold that Zhou Weiqing had given them earlier had already been totally spent. Of course, the Heavenly Cores that Long Shiya had given him were just too numerous and valuable, and just selling them alone would able to ﬁnance the massive spending of the

Peerless Battalion for more than ten more years.

Zhou Weiqing informed the others about him leaving for a period of time to enter closed door cultivation, asking Hua Feng to take over as a temporary Battalion Commander and leader of the Peerless Battalion, and that all decisions were to be made between him, Wei Feng and Shangguan Fei’er.

The main war against the WanShou Empire was about to begin, and the main goal that Zhou Weiqing had for the Peerless Battalion going forward was to get as much combat experience as possible while ensuring zero losses. At the same time, he asked Lin TianAo to arrange to gather a large sum of gold, to be used as rewards for the soldiers for their merits in combat. As for Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, it would still take some time to complete. After all, several thousand Consolidating Equipment Scrolls of the Dual Wings needed a lot of time to complete, and would be a long, steady process. What followed next was a matter of training the soldiers before the actual ﬁghting. For the training of the two new powerful infantry troops, Zhou Weiqing left it to Shangguan Fei’er. As for ﬁghting formations, operational efﬁciency and other military capabilities, Zhou Weiqing decided to send for Zang Lang to join them. With him aiding Shangguan Fei’er, they would be able to train and greatly improve this new Infantry force that would deﬁnitely be an important addition to the Peerless Battalion forces.

Chapter 163 Rob the Entire Legion!

After much testing and veriﬁcation from Ma Long and the other Berserker Tribe experts, the Unicorn Beasts were found to be able to carry the weight of the Berserker Tribe warriors, and more importantly, the Gold Crow Tribe warriors as well. Of course, in order to train them to be their steeds, it would take much time and effort to tame them and train them. As such, the warriors from the two Tribes would mainly be training as infantry troops for now. At the same time, in the upcoming battles ahead, the Peerless Battalion would deﬁnitely be targeting Unicorn Cavalry soldiers as their primary targets, with the main goal to gain as many Unicorn Beasts as possible to bring them into the Peerless Battalion Cavalry Stables.

Yesterday’s rescue had been at the cost of ﬁve hundred war horses, pretty much the Peerless Battalion’s current stock of mounts. Even up to now, the First Main Company Leader Lei Zi was still aching at the heart about the loss.

Zhou Weiqing believed that the Peerless Battalion was indeed on the right track, and the most important thing for them now was giving them time to properly develop and grow. He trusted that in the near future, once the entire Battalion was equipped fully, and with proper support and logistics, they would be an unstoppable force on any battleﬁeld. In just a single day, Zhou Weiqing had arranged everything neatly and in detail for the Peerless Battalion’s immediate future, with contingent plans as he knew he would not be able to spend much time with them for a while. This time, he knew that he would be heading to the Heavenly Snow Mountain

after his training, and it would be a do or die event. When, and if, he returned, it would be the time for the Peerless Battalion to leave the northern borders and head towards the Heavenly Bow Empire. There, both Zhou Weiqing and his Peerless Battalion would face their real challenge.

…

Night descended. As autumn deepened, the temperature at the northern borders grew colder and colder. The current skies were dark and overcast, and the moon and stars could not be seen, as if snow could descend upon them at any time.

“Fei’er.” Zhou Weiqing hugged her by the waist, enveloping her in his embrace. The two of them stood there right by Zhou Weiqing’s tent entrance. Tomorrow would be the day of him leaving with Long Shiya.

“What is it?” Shangguan Fei’er lay quietly in his arms, but her heart was racing swiftly. She knew that not far away, her elder sister was watching them. “Fei’er, do not worry about us at all. I will speak to Bing’er personally and explain everythign to her. No matter how she punishes me, I will accept it. However, in this period that I leave, you must think of me everyday, dream of me every night alright?”

“Hmph! Won’t that mean I will have nightmares every night?” Shangguan Fei’er said exasperatedly.

Zhou Weiqing was slightly embarrassed at that, and he retorted: “Dreaming of me means having a nightmare huh? Let’s see how I punish you!” As he said that, he lowered his head to give her a kiss on the lips.

Shangguan Fei’er was thrown into a ﬂuster, just about to struggle. After all, her sister was watching from not far off, and though she might be known as the Little Demon Girl of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, she was still an innocent virgin. How could she be willing to be so intimate with Zhou Weiqing right in plain sight of her sister?

“Fei’er, my wounds haven’t fully healed yet… if you beat me up now, it might reopen my wounds and delay my healing…” Zhou Weiqing gave an ‘Oscar-worthy’ pitiful look as he said that. With those shameless words, he managed to seize the opportunity that Shangguan Fei’er was momentarily stunned and catching her luscious lips.

No matter how tough and powerful a girl was, being kissed by the man she loved, how could she easily resist. Furthermore, Shangguan Fei’er was actually afraid of reopening his wounds.

Just like that, the two of them started kissing ardently as if no one else was around. Not far away, Shangguan Xue’er stood in the shadow of a large tent, her hands clenched angrily in ﬁsts, gripping her clothes to prevent herself from lashing out as she muttered to herself: “That bastard, so shameless! Such a scoundrel!”

In the end, Shangguan Fei’er managed to break free and make her escape. However, in her heart she knew that if not for the fact that her sister was watching from a distance, perhaps she would have given in fully to the rogue, Zhou Weiqing.

…

The next morning, Zhou Weiqing and Long Shiya stealthily left the Peerless Battalion. In the entire Peerless Battalion, besides the high ranking ofﬁcers who had attended the meeting yesterday, none of the ordinary soldiers knew that Zhou Weiqing had left temporarily, lest it inﬂuence morale and ﬁghting spirit. In the end, Zhou Weiqing had never been in charge of daily operations and training with the troops, so his temporary disappearance would not be easily noticed.

Of course, this did not affect Zhou Weiqing’s position and status in the entire Peerless Battalion. It could be said that for the Peerless Battalion to advance to its current position, it had all been brought about by Zhou Weiqing.

Before leaving, Zhou Weiqing had specially reminded Lin TianAo that although the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribe warriors who joined the Peerless Battalion only numbered each a thousand, he still wanted to order the full two thousand sets of equipment. After all, these two thousand warriors were an extremely limited resource even for the two Tribes, and the Peerless Battalion did not need be so petty in spending.

…

The duo, Master and Disciple, galloped along the vast plains of the northern borders at a high speed. Zhou Weiqing was mounted on his Single-Horned Ghost Demon Horse, while Long Shiya had chosen a Unicorn Heavenly Beast. With his cultivation level, the Unicorn did not even need to be specially tamed, and would listen to his instructions without resistance.

“Master, where are we headed?” Zhou Weiqing asked curiously. After exiting the army camp, Long Shiya did not bring him back to the ZhongTian Empire, instead continuing to head north. From the looks of things, they were headed deep into the WanShou Empire.

“Do you know what is the Heavenly Spirit Fire?” Long Shiya glanced at him before asking.

Zhou Weiqing shook his head.

Long Shiya explained: “Heavenly Spirit Fire is a unique ﬁre that has either descended from the heavens or risen from below the grounds. In our entire mainland, it is very rare to ﬁnd such areas with these ﬁres, but they deﬁnitely do exist. However, in order to make it for the coldest winter night timeline that we have, we are naturally going to the one in the WanShou Empire… only then will you have sufﬁcient time to cultivate.

Zhou Weiqing asked curiously: “Do you mean… it is in the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens?” Long Shiya shook his head and said: “Not exactly, but it is very close to the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens… the hottest area of the entire WanShou Empire. It is the Fire Spirit Mountain of the WanShou Empire Royal Family, the Lionmen Tribe’s Territory.”

“According to legend, heavenly ﬁre rained down from the heavens, sparking a volcano eruption from below, causing the mountain top to forever be burning with ﬂame and smoke. Within a ﬁve hundred li radius of this volcano, temperature is always warm like the hottest day of summer. In the cold weather of the WanShou Empire, that is a miracle indeed, and only such an area would have such a warm temperature, as even the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens are affected by the four seasons. In any case, the Fire Spirit Mountain has Heavenly Spirit Fire, and it has always been occupied by the Lionmen Tribe. Just like the Lion Prince who injured you… he has probably cultivated there for quite some time. After all, the Royal Bloodline of the Lionman Tribe has the Heavenly Divine Earth Spirit Lion Bloodline, with the Fire, Divine and Light Attributes. As for the old fellow on the Heavenly Snow Mountain, his Divine Heavenly Spirit Tiger bloodlines have the Divine, Light and Water Attributes. Of course, only their direct and purest bloodlines would have such the abilities. Indeed, it is because they have two Saint Attributes at the same time that has enabled the Heavenly Snow Mountain to reign supreme for so long.” Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but think to himself that the Fire Spirit Mountain must be of utmost importance to the Lionmen Tribe, perhaps even sacred ground to them! Only a powerhouse like his Master would dare bring him to such a place.

Long Shiya said: “In the following few days, I do not want you to cultivate at all. As we travel there, I want you to rest and fully recover and to bring your condition to its maximum peak, without any problems. When we reach the Fire Spirit Mountain, we will immediately begin closed door cultivation. According to my estimation, in order to Awaken your Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit in advance, you will need to bathe in the Heavenly Spirit Fire for forty nine days before you can succeed..”

As he spoke up to that point, Long Shiya’s eyes showed a thick worry. Clearly, he was worried about going through such a method. Although in theory they could succeed, it was without a doubt that it would not be without great danger, especially since it had not been actually done before. If Zhou Weiqing was not careful, he might even have his mind destroyed; even if he could ensure his survival, he would be ruined, at most living as an idiot the rest of his life.

Zhou Weiqing did not say anything else. He had already made up his mind, and he would not show any regret at this point. In any case, he did not have any choice for retreat; for Tian’er’s sake… for Tian’er’s sake…

As soon as he thought about Tian’er, Zhou Weiqing felt full of ﬁghting spirit. So what if it was forty nine days? He would deﬁnitely be able to endure it! If he couldn’t even endure this forty nine days, what right or qualiﬁcation did he have to even ascend the Heavenly Snow Mountain?

It was just the two of them, and they soon entered the WanShou Empire borders. In the distance, they could see the large camp of the WanShou Empire army on the vast plains.

As compared to the ZhongTian Empire Northwest army camp, the WanShou Empire army camp was much simpler and crude; after all it was more of a temporary camp, and could just barely be used for survival. Such a barren and cold wasteland like the north, only the beastmen and their physique could survive in such plain and simple tents. Of course, the advantage of such simple and crude tents was that it was very easy for them to move. The supplies and logistics of the WanShou Empire armies had always been weak, and all of their people could be considered warriors.

“Master, what are we going to do? Detour around?” Zhou Weiqing did not have the conﬁdence to charge through such a massive army. An army of this size would deﬁnitely also have quite a few powerhouses along; just the Lion Prince and his two Heavenly King Stage guards would most likely be in the camp as well.

“Keep your mount.” Long Shiya said.

Zhou Weiqing jumped off his Ghost Demon Horse, keeping both their mounts into his Spatial Ring.

A pondering look entered Long Shiya’s eyes and he said slowly: “Little Fatty, what do you say… should I go beat up that Lion Prince and cripple him before we head to the Fire Spirit Mountain? As long as I cripple ‘that area’ of his, then even if he marries your woman, he won’t be able to do anything.”

Hearing his Master’s words, Zhou Weiqing only felt a large bead of sweat form on his forehead… This Master Long os his… why did he seem so similar to his other Master… Mu En… Without hesitation, he said: “Master, this is my own personal problem. Any other ﬁghts, I will be willing to take any shortcuts as long as I can win, any strategy or tactics to help me win. However, in this case, I will not choose that option. Master, I want to ﬁght openly and aboveboard with Gu YingBing personally on the coldest day of winter, and defeat him personally with my own hands.” If his Master really took action against the Lion Prince, he knew that the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord would deﬁnitely not marry Tian’er to him. If he wanted to gain back Tian’er, he could only do so with his own abilities, his own hands!

“Very good, very good! High aspirations indeed! However, you little brat, you’re just too useless!” Long Shiya said with a displeased tone.

“Useless?” Zhou Weiqing looked at him, puzzled.

Long Shiya gave a humph and said: “Aren’t you truly useless? If you had given that Old Monster Xue’s daughter a few sons and daughters of her own earlier, come up with a Little Little Fatty, let’s see what he does. Hmph Hmph!”

“Master… don’t play with me like that… So, how are we going to get across?!” Zhou Weiqing said with an exasperated look on his face.

Long Shiya smiled and said: “Heh, I’ll let you enjoy the pleasures of ﬂight for yourself.” Without any seeming movement, a ﬂash of green light appeared, enveloping both him and Zhou Weiqing, and they instantly ﬂew up into the air, soaring up high. In that instant, Zhou Weiqing felt as if the surrounding air had become a vast sea of wind, overwhelming all his senses from all directions as the Wind Attribute swept their bodies up into the skies. The feeling was just too miraculous; just as if he was standing on top of a tornado, and the tornado was like a platform carrying them in the air at an unbelievable speed, as they streaked across the skies like a meteor.

“Master, is it every powerhouse at your level can ﬂy…?” Zhou Weiqing did not even attempt to hide his admiration and envy. After all, he too had the Wind Attribute!

Long Shiya said: “Well the premise is that one has to have the Wind Attribute ﬁrst, and in fact, one does not even need to reach my level. As long as you break through to the Heavenly King Stage and the Heavenly Dao Energy, you will be able to ﬂy. Each of the four great stages of Heavenly Energy has a huge jump in quality. From Heavenly Jing to Heavenly Shen Energy, that is from a stage that converts spirit to qi, to a stage that converts qi to form, with Heavenly Energy now able to have form. As for the Heavenly Shen to Heavenly Xu Energy, it now brings Heavenly Energy from a stage with form back to another type of formless stage. However, the difference in this formless stage is that one’s control over Heavenly Energy is high enough to control it out of the body. This is also the reason why when Heavenly Jewel Masters reach the six- Jeweled stage or higher, their sustainability in ﬁghts is greatly increased. This is also the reason why for my Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts to start showing its power, the Heavenly Xu Energy is the lowest basis, being able to directly control energy within the atmosphere for your own use.”

“… As for the difference between the Heavenly Xu and Heavenly Dao Energy, it is deﬁnitely the greatest gap amongst all the four main stages. Heavenly Xu is control, and Heavenly Dao is merging or fusing. When one reaches the Heavenly Dao Energy Stage, then I am one with the heavens and earths, truly part of the environment… Simply put – if a Heavenly Jewel Master with the Wind Attribute wants to ﬂy, it is possible to do so just with Skills alone. Well, at least for a short period of time, but it will not be possible for sustained ﬂight. That is because they are only barely able to control the Wind Attribute Energy within their body or slightly around their surroundings. However, when it comes to Heavenly Dao Energy, it is different. I would be one with the Wind, merged with the Wind… how much expenditure can there be then? As such… if you really want to truly ﬂy, the Heavenly King Stage is your basic requirement…”

Hearing this short but succinct analysis from his Master, Zhou Weiqing felt as if enlightenment had dawned upon him. He knew that his Master was guiding him in advance towards the path of the Heavenly Xu and Heavenly Dao Energy levels, letting him know about their various profound secrets in advance. As long as he could break through the Six-Jeweled stage this time, then he would reach the Heavenly Xu Energy stage!

In order to save time, Long Shiya used his powerful Heavenly Emperor stage powers to directly ﬂy Zhou Weiqing high above the northern borders and deeper into the WanShou Empire. A Heavenly King Stage powerhouse would not dare do such a thing, and even ordinary Heavenly Emperor stage powerhouses would have to consider the existence of the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord and would hesitate in doing so as well. However, Long Shiya did not fear it at all, and just ﬂew along with Zhou Weiqing in tow.

…

Just as the Master and Disciple duo were rushing towards the Fire Spirit Mountain, a guest had arrived at the Peerless Battalion headquarters. It was the Seventh Legion Legion Commander, Shen Ji.

“I’m sorry, Battalion Commander Zhou is not with us currently…” In the main command tent, Shen Ji met with the temporary Battalion Commander Hua Feng. When he heard news about Zhou Weiqing not being with the Peerless Battalion currently, he was greatly disappointed. With Shen Ji’s status and rank of Legion Commander, normally he just needed to send for Zhou Weiqing. However, he had come down personally to look for him, in order to get on his good side.

The scouts had returned to report in detail about the large numbers of Swift Wolf Cavalry and Unicorn Cavalry deaths. With that, Shen Ji had ﬁnally realised the power of the Peerless Battalion.

The war was about to begin, and it could be said that the WanShou Empire had placed a hitherto unseen importance on the Northwest front, and had gathered an unbelievable force many times stronger than in the past. The Northwest Army had requested for reinforcements, and they now numbered more than seven hundred thousand strong. Even so, the command headquarters had a very bleak view about the outcome of this ﬁght. However, they still did not want to retreat to the TianBei City. That would have to be an option of the last resort; otherwise they would be universally condemned by the public, and the Empire. This was a ﬁght they could not avoid.

Under such a circumstance, if the Seventh Legion could have an additional ﬁve thousand elite archers aiding them, it would deﬁnitely be a great aid to them. However, even though the Peerless Battalion was technically under his command, he did not actually have control over them. That was the reason why he had made the trip all the way down here personally.

“If Legion Commander Shen Ji has anything to discuss regarding the Peerless Battalion, you can discuss it with me, I have been authorized to make any decisions during his absence…” Hua Feng said elegantly. Although he was fully dressed in military armour, he still looked more like a gentleman or a noble than a soldier.

Shen Ji said: “The main war is on the verge of breaking out at any moment, and the WanShou Empire vanguard has already entered our borders. Will the Peerless Battalion be joining our Seventh Legion ranks to ﬁght together with us against our enemies?”

With a serious look on his face, Hua Feng replied: “Of course, the Peerless Battalion are also northern warriors who will do their part against enemy attacks. How could we not join the ﬁght…”

Shen Ji did not relax just because of Hua Feng’s words. The reason for that was simple – what Hua Feng had mentioned was that the Peerless Battalion was a part of the northern warriors, and not that they were a part of the Northwest Army Command or even his Seventh Legion. Shen Ji was already a wily old hand in the army, and he quickly noticed such a play on words.

“In that case, does Battalion Commander Hua Feng require anything that our Seventh Legion can provide?” Shen Ji asked impassively, not batting an eyelid.

Hua Feng smiled faintly and said: “Indeed, we do have two requirements. First of all, I hope that once the war is over, any enemies that have been killed by our Peerless Battalion, we will get the promised gold reward.”

Without hesitation, Shen Ji said: “That is no problem, and it is also a promise from the higher command, deﬁnitely not something that we will go back on our word on…” At this point, he agreed extremely quickly, but in the near future he would learn why Hua Feng would specially emphasize this point.

Hua Feng maintained the graceful, elegant smile on his face as he continued speaking: “Secondly, I’m sure that Legion Commander Shen Ji already knows that our Peerless Battalion soldiers are all archers. In the battleﬁeld, archers can deﬁnitely output a lot of damage, but at the same time they are extremely fragile. Once we give our enemies sufﬁcient damage and casualties, the enemy archers and cavalry soldiers will undoubtedly target us. As such, I hope that Legion Commander Shen Ji can specially dispatch troops to protect us and ensure our safety. In this way, we will be able to continue going all out in offense on the battleﬁeld.”

The two requests that Hua Feng had brought up did seem to be extremely reasonable, and Shen Ji gave a slight, unnoticeable sigh of relief before smiling and saying: “No problem, those requests are reasonable and are as should be. I will dispatch a few Battalions to specially protect the Peerless Battalion.”

“No, no, not just a few Battalions, but an entire Regiment… only then will that be sufﬁcient. Furthermore, I require it to be a Heavy Infantry Regiment. Not only that, the Heavy Infantry soldiers must be equipped with tower shields.” Hua Feng smiled faintly as he said calmly.

Upon hearing his words, Shen Ji couldn’t help but furrow his brow, saying: “Battalion Commander Hua Feng, I’m afraid that will be impossible. You must know how powerful those various WanShou Empire cavalry soldiers are. Our Seventh Legion only has one Heavy Infantry Regiment, and they are of utmost importance in our tactics against the enemy’s cavalry, the bedrock for us in the battleﬁeld. Using them just for the sole purpose of protecting and providing cover for the Peerless Battalion, that is truly too much of a waste. If I do so, not only will I be unable to answer to my superiors in the main command, I will not be able to answer to my own Seventh Legion soldiers and the Heavy Infantry Regiment themselves. In terms of the Peerless Battalion’s cover and defense, I don’t

think such a degree of power is required right?”

Hua Feng said passively: “Legion Commander Shen Ji, with such words… aren’t you looking down on our Peerless Battalion? I can honestly tell the Legion Commander that as long as you let our Peerless Battalion enter the battleﬁeld, we will instantly draw all attention from the WanShou Empire. If Legion Commander Shen Ji does not agree to my terms, then we will not risk it and enter the battleﬁeld. After all, each and every one of our Peerless Battalion warriors are elites that our Battalion Commander Zhou has spent an enormous amount of time and painstaking effort to train and gear up.”

Shen Ji’s expression grew uglier as he heard Hua Feng’s words. A mere temporary Battalion Commander, and this fellow actually dared to threaten him? In all his years of being in the army, this was the ﬁrst time.

“Battalion Commander Hua Feng, please remember that this is the Northwest Army Command. I respect Battalion Commander Zhou, but this is the Seventh Legion and I am the Legion Commander of the Seventh Legion.”

Hua Feng laughed heartily and said: “So what? Legion Commander Shen Ji, how about this, before the war actually starts, shall we have a little bet ﬁrst?”

“Bet?” Shen Ji started in surprise at that sudden suggestion.

Hua Feng nodded and continued: “Very simple. You can send for that Heavy Infantry Regiment to come here and have a ﬁght with our Peerless Battalion. We will not use our bows… ﬁve thousand of us versus ten thousand of them. Close combat brawling.”

“Ahh?” Shen Ji stared at Hua Feng, his jaw agape with surprise. In his heart, he could not help but think: Is this temporary Battalion Commander crazy? Has water leaked into his brain? Using archers to ﬁght in close combat with Heavy Infantry soldiers, and with a numbers disadvantage? Isn’t that tantamount to suicide?

It was as if Hua Feng did not even notice the surprise and shock on Shen Ji’s face, and he continued speaking calmly: “When both sides are ﬁghting, they will not be allowed to use any weapons, but they can still wear their armour. In that way, we can ensure safety and prevent any accidental serious injuries.”

Shen Ji looked at Hua Feng. All of a sudden, he had the strange sensation that he was being led along by the nose. Yet, if anyone were to ask him he thought the Peerless Battalion could defeat a Heavy Infantry Regiment in close combat, he could not believe it at all.

“What are the terms of the bet?” Shen Ji asked solemnly.

Hua Feng smiled faintly and said: “Very simple. If we win, I would like Legion Commander Shen Ji to do as promised… to have this Heavy Infantry Regiment to be fully in charge of our Battalion’s defense… just defense alone. I would request two Heavy Infantry soldiers to use their tower shields to protect each and every one of our Peerless Battalion warriors. On the other hand, if we lose, then in this year’s war against the WanShou Empire armies, Legion Commander Shen Ji can command us as you see ﬁt, and we will follow suit without any noise. On top of that, we will also pay two hundred thousand gold coins as an apology to the Heavy Infantry Regiment for looking down on them. How does that proposal sound?” Since Hua Feng had already said it, Shen Ji truly had no reason to reject it. Although he did not know why Hua Feng was so conﬁdent, or what basis he had for such conﬁdence, if he did not agree to this, and the Heavy Infantry Regiment knew about him doing so, it would cause a lot of trouble.

Archers challenging Heavy Infantry to close combat, and yet the Heavy Infantry were too cowardly to accept the challenge? That would be the ‘news’ indeed.

The army was perhaps different from others. Here, honour and face was equal to, or even greater than one’s life. Especially in terms of splendid military accomplishments and accolades, it was even more so.

“Very well, I agree. Time is of the essence… shall we set the time of the ﬁght to be tomorrow noon then.”

“It’s a promise then.”

Hua Feng and Shen Ji’s bet swiftly spread across the entire Seventh Legion, even the entire Northwest Army. After all, such a bet and its terms were just beyond any logic or reason to any other person. Using archers to ﬁght in close quarters combat with Heavy Armoured Infantry Units? Countless of people who heard about the bet deﬁnitely thought that Hua Feng was truly retarded. Towards the Peerless Battalion, amongst the Seventh Legion, only the Sixteenth Regiment had some experience with them. As for the other Regiments of the Seventh Legion, they had only heard rumours about them. Of course, they had also received strict orders not to clash with the Peerless Battalion.

The war with the WanShou Empire was just about to start, and it was a rare chance to have such an entertainment to watch. As a result, the entire Northwest Army bustled with excitement. Right at this moment, the Peerless Battalion actually opened ten betting stations, accepting all bets. The odds they set up were as such: Heavy Infantry Victory 1:100, Peerless Battalion Victory, 1:1.

Such an action, without a doubt it truly angered the Heavy Infantry Regiment. At the same time, the entire Northwest Army burst into an uproar.

By daring to open bets with such stakes, it was without a doubt that the Peerless Battalion had absolute conﬁdence in themselves. At the same time, it was also a powerful provocation to the Heavy Infantry Regiment.

Some of the more simple-minded immediately rushed to set their bets. In their minds, since someone was willing to gift them with money, how could they not accept it?

Those slightly more clever felt that this action by the Peerless Battalion was just to anger their opponents and to strive for some possible advantages through that. None of them actually thought that it was the Peerless Battalion actually being conﬁdent in their own abilities. In that short period of time, there were those who quickly placed their bets, and those who stood back watching. The reason why so many were just watching was because they did not believe that the Peerless Battalion would be able to actually pay out such a bet.

However, that night alone, all those doubts were swiftly dispelled. No one knew where the Peerless Battalion got a huge sum of gold, forming a pile of gold at each of the ten betting stations, like a small mountain, each heavily guarded by many soldiers.

With that, the entire Seventh Legion exploded into action, and the number of people placing bets increased in an exponential explosion.

The Northwest Army Command also learned about this quickly, but by the time they thought about stopping it, it was too late. At that point, too many ofﬁcers and soldiers alike had already placed their bets on the ﬁght. If at this point they tried to stop or conﬁscate the bets, it would without a doubt be a massive blow to morale.

Furthermore, to the command, the Peerless Battalion was backed by the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. This was the reason why the Northwest Army Command did not easily interfere in their matters. In such a circumstance, this unbelievably huge bet had been settled.

“Battalion Commander, the number of bets are just too many. We are almost unable to keep up with the records.” Wei Feng rushed to the command tent to report to Hua Feng. He had placed himself in a proper alignment in terms of status now that Zhou Weiqing was gone; though he was higher in terms of cultivation level than Hua Feng, Wei Feng truly admired Hua Feng’s capabilities and was fully convinced. Everything else aside, just his godly archery was worthy of his admiration, and he had learnt much from Hua Feng indeed.

Hearing Wei Feng’s words, Hua Feng smiled faintly and said: “No problem. Tell the betting stations that they only need to record those who bet on us. As for those who bet on the Heavy Infantry Regiment, they are merely gifting us the money; we need not care about them. How much gold in wagers have we accepted by now?”

Hearing Hua Feng’s words, Wei Feng’s expression turned strange, but he replied swiftly: “We have already received more than ﬁve million gold coins. In truth, the ordinary soldiers do not wager much; after all they do not have much money. However, the ofﬁcers have bet quite a tidy sum… countless of people are waiting to make a joke out of us.” Hua Feng smiled and said: “Let them watch and see for themselves then.”

“Indeed! Let them wait to see a joke then, we will see who has the last laugh. Ahh, robbing an entire Legion, such a feeling, it is not an ordinary sense of joy!” The Drunken Rogue, Luo Ke Di, lounged on a chair behind, saying with a wicked grin on his face.

The seven God Archers of the Heavenly Bow Unit were currently in the tent as well, as they had been discussing the details of the upcoming ﬁght with the Heavy Infantry Regiment with Shangguan Fei’er and Lin TianAo.

Wei Feng said with some worry: “That might be so, but by doing so, we will be offending the entire Northwest Army…”

Hua Feng smiled once more. This Wei Feng’s ability was not bad, alas his sense of the big picture was not there yet, and he lacked the foresight of a high ranking ofﬁcer. Well, in the ﬁrst place, it is Weiqing that little rascal who is truly the sharp one! In fact, this bet had been arranged by him before he left. Of course, perhaps there was the shadow of his Scoundrel teacher behind this scheme, but no one else would know the truth of the matter. After all, Mu En was lounging there with a carefree look on his face, as if none of this had any connection with him. However, his right eye was totally bruised… who knew when he had been punched badly.

“Vice Commander Wei Feng, do not worry. Perhaps, we might be stirring up public wrath here. However, under the current circumstances, it will not be a big problem. After all, the main war is upcoming, and the WanShou Empire armies will soon be bearing down upon the frontlines. Just by losing money, they will not be able to take it out on us any time soon. As long as we prove ourselves on the actual battleﬁeld, they will have to swallow the bitter pill eventually.”

Light dawned upon Wei Feng, and he quickly rushed to arrange everything.

Right at that moment, from outside the tent, a loud voice rang out. “Mu En, get out here right now!!”

Hearing that voice, Mu En’s face changed instantly, and he fell backwards, almost tripping over his toppled chair, before ﬂipping back onto his feet and slipping out of the tent through the side by pulling up the canvas.

Right after he left, Hong Yu charged into the tent from outside. As soon as she entered, she howled angrily: “Where is Mu En? Where is that wretched Old Scoundrel?!”

Hua Feng could not maintain his composure, and he said with quite some surprise: “Tribe Leader Hong Yu, what is the matter?”

Hong Yu gave an angry humph and said: “Battalion Commander Hua Feng, please do not interfere in this matter. If I do not beat up that old thing until his own mother cannot recognize him, I will not be called Hong Yu anymore!”

Yi Shi gave the ‘orchid shaped ﬁngers’ sign, saying: “Big sis, what is the matter? What did Mu En do to you?”

Hong Yu said angrily: “That Old Scoundrel dared to peek at me bathing!”

Upon hearing those words, the entire tent was struck dumb momentarily. In the next instant, they all pointed at the side where Mu En had snuck out of. Only then did Hong Yu turn and charge out of the tent with another angry humph.

After she had disappeared from sight, only then did the Heavenly Bow Unit members exchange helpless looks. In the end, all their gazes landed on Luo Ke Di, who shrugged and said innocently: “Why are you all looking at me like that? I did not go, I do not have such ‘heavy’ tastes like that Old Scoundrel…”

A pause later, he gave in and continued: “… Alright, alright… I’ll tell the truth. Yesterday, he asked me to go along with him, saying that the Gold Crow Tribe were full of unique beauties and we should have a look for ourselves. However, I had drank too much and did not feel like moving, so I did not join him. Sigh… if he went to peek, that is ﬁne, yet he actually got caught. Aiyah… that Old Scoundrel has regressed…”

Hua Feng rubbed his forehead and said: “I hope he doesn’t get torn into bits. That taste… it is truly not ordinarily ‘heavy’. Tribe Leader Hong Yu… her ﬁgure is even more powerful than Crow! With her cultivation level, if she just gives Mu En a slap… I don’t even dare imagine it…”

Shui Cao gave him a sheep’s eye and said: “In the end, I am still better right, look how gentle I am towards you!”

At this point, Shangguan Fei’er could not continue watching any longer, and she snuck out of the tent to start preparing for the ﬁght. She was truly starting to understand why Zhou Little Fatty was so ‘bad’… with such a bunch of teachers……. Shangguan Fei’er had barely left, and the inglorious middle aged folks of the Heavenly Bow Unit had already started placing bets amongst themselves.

Gao Shen exclaimed without hesitation: “I bet that Mu En will have to recover in bed for at least a month.”

“I bet two months!” Shui Cao grinned and said.

Hua Feng furrowed his brow and looked at them all, saying: “If you all want to bet, I will not stop you. However, who will be the banker? Don’t look at me, I do not have any interests in such unstable bets with high chance of losing.”

“How about me? I’ll be the banker.” Luo Ke Di said, clearly still in a drunken sleepy state.

The others exchanged looks. Having him in such a drunken state, if they did not seize the opportunity to con him, that would be rude of them!

Hua Feng asked: “As the banker, what are your terms of betting?” Luo Ke Di burped, ﬁlling the tent with the scent of alcohol. “I bet that it will not take long, and Tribe Leader Hong Yu will bring the Old Scoundrel back like a little bird that rests upon a man. Furthermore, she will be gazing tenderly at him, even marrying him.”

Everyone’s mouths twitched at the same time, almost an uncontrollable convulsion. Yi Shi said in a high pitched voice: “This fellow has really drank too much. Alright then, we’ll bet with you!”

‘Flogging the cur that has fallen into water’ was a constant tradition of the Heavenly Bow Unit, and the rest swiftly placed their bets. The only one who did not bet was the unusually silent Han Mo.

Hua Feng looked to Han Mo and asked: “Arrow Tower, why didn’t you place a bet?”

Han Mo shook his head and said: “I’m afraid of losing.”

Gao Shen said in surprise: “Losing to this drunkard? How can that be possible? Didn’t you hear the terms of his bet?” Han Mo said passively: “All I know is that amongst all of us, the one who knows that Old Scoundrel the best is him, and the two of them are the closest. When have you seen that Old Scoundrel do anything without a plan.”

“Something is up!”

Subconsciously, all of them turned to look at Luo Ke Di, only to see that fellow sweeping up all the wagered gold into his Spatial Ring as quickly as possible.

Sensing the atmosphere in the tent had changed, and not in his favour, the previously seemingly drunk Luo Ke Di raised his head and smiled sheepishly: “What do you mean something is up! I don’t know anything.”

Hua Feng grit his teeth and said: “Speak. If you spill the beans, we will treat is as paying for information. Otherwise… you know the consequences…”

Looking at the bunch of them rubbing their palms eagerly, Luo Ke Di could only give a pitiful look and say: “Alright, alright, I will tell you all everything. As you all should already know, all these years, Mu En has been wearing a mask right.” The rest of them nodded subconsciously. The fact that Mu En wore a mask was a secret that only the few of them in the Heavenly Bow Unit knew, and even Zhou Weiqing did not know it. However, it seemed clear they did not the know the reason behind that. Luo Ke Di continued: “The reason why Mu

En wears the mask is actually because of Tribe Leader Hong

Yu… to put things more clearly… Crow is… actually Mu En’s daughter……”

*Plop**Plop**Plop**Plop* Eyeballs fell and shattered onto the ground…

…

The second day, past noon. The time for the ﬁght had come.

The betting stations of the Peerless Battalion had been accepting bets all the way until this point, and by this time they had accumulated wagers of almost ten million gold coins. In the army, this was already quite a terrifying amount; after all soldiers or even ofﬁcers were not that rich. If not for the fact that the entire Northwest Army, including all support and logistics personnel, numbered more than a million strong, it would be nearly impossible to see such a large sum of money in a bet. At the same time, this bet had already become such a grand matter that the entire Northwest Army was paying close attention to.

The Seventh Legion’s Heavy Infantry Regiment had come out to the outskirts of the camp rather early. They did not bring their weapons, but were fully geared in their heavy armours. Even from a distance, their strong ﬁghting spirit and killing intent could be sensed.

After all, which army troop could take such insult and provocation without feeling anger? Clearly, the Heavy Infantry Regiment were not such!

The pay of the Heavy Infantry soldiers were some of the highest amongst the entire army. This time, the entire Heavy Infantry Regiment, from soldier to the highest ofﬁcer, all of them bet everything they had down to their underwear on this ﬁght. At this point, their ﬁghting spirit was burning at an unbelievable height. Perhaps even when ﬁghting against the WanShou Empire, they did not even have such a powerful ﬁghting spirit. They all stood there at the ready, their eyes bloodshot, as if they could already see the Peerless Battalion soldiers falling down at their feet.

In stark contrast with them, only when the time came for the ﬁght did the Peerless Battalion slowly exit their camp.

Chapter 164 Sly and Crafty!

At this moment, not only the ofﬁcers of the Seventh Legion had come; even the entire upper echelons of the Northwest Army were all gathered, watching from a distance. As for the Seventh Legion’s Legion Commander Shen Ji, he was playing the role as the judge of this ﬁght.

The Peerless Battalion had sent out exactly ﬁve thousand warriors; of them, three thousand were dressed fully in a silver mail, while two thousand were in ordinary cloth clothing. The strangest thing was that amongst the two thousand, almost half were actually females, though their stature were extremely large and well built.

If Zhou Weiqing was still at the Peerless Battalion and he saw Hua Feng arranging to ﬁght like this, he would deﬁnitely say: “How could you be so shameless… oh well, it might be shameless but I love it!”

After all, they had accepted a bet of ten million gold coins, and almost no one had bet on the Peerless Battalion. Hua Feng’s original words were as such: “Well, some of us need to ﬁght.” As such, besides the strongest three thousand of the Peerless Battalion soldiers, the Gold Crow Tribe and the Berserker Tribe had each sent out one thousand warriors. Originally, Ma Long and Hong Yu had wanted to take this entire ﬁght with their own men. Looking at the mountains and mountains of gold coins, totally ten million, their eyes had gone red. Ahhh, if they could have taken this entire ﬁght, they could at least gain the lion share of it! Although they only had around two thousand true warriors per tribe, even if they had to gather the younger ones or older folks, ordinary soldiers would not be able to compare to them, and they were conﬁdent of gathering ﬁve thousand men.

However, in the end, their suggestion had been rejected, ending up with the scene before them right now. If they won today’s ﬁght, the Gold Crow Tribe and the Berserker Tribe would each earn a million gold coins. After all, this bet had been arranged by Hua Feng and the Peerless Battalion. Giving them this beneﬁt was already considered Hua Feng giving them a lot of face. The other eight million would be ‘public’ Battalion funds. The reason was simple – many of those who had taken equipment or Consolidating Equipment Scrolls still had not even started to pay back, and owed to the Battalion. Even their various payments or awards were far from sufﬁcient; naturally these funds were used for Battalion purposes, and the Peerless Battalion soldiers had some of their ‘debt’ removed.

Regarding all these ‘behind-the-scene’ stories, naturally outsiders would not know anything about it. Looking at these ﬁve thousand Peerless Battalion soldiers walk out of the camp, although they did look good indeed, when compared to the ten thousand Heavy Infantry soldiers dressed in full plate mail, looking like mobile fortresses… the Peerless Battalion soldiers looked like they would be easily crushed.

This was a group battle. No matter if a particular soldier was stronger, in such a scale of battle that would not play a major role… unless they were a Heavenly King Stage powerhouse or higher.

Shen Ji had previously ascertained that on the Peerless Battalion’s side, both Zhou Weiqing and his powerhouse teacher had left together, and were not currently with them. As for the other powerhouses in the Peerless battalion, though he knew of them, he dismissed them. After all, of the entire Seventh Legion, he had two most elite troops. The ﬁrst was half his Regiment of Heavy Cavalry Troops, the ﬁve thousand of them were his ﬁnest elite warriors, and with another ﬁve thousand ordinary Heavy Cavalry soldiers forming his entire Heavy Cavalry Regiment. The next would be this Heavy Infantry Regiment in front of his eyes. All ten thousand of them were experienced warriors on the battleﬁeld, and their most important task was to block the charge of the enemy cavalry soldiers, to hold the lines for the entire Legion. They were the bedrock of the Legion, and with their power tower shields and sheer physical strength from tough training… just in terms of personal soldier to soldier strength, they were perhaps even above the Heavy Cavalry soldiers.

The Regiment Commander of the Heavy Infantry Regiment, Oni, was actually also the Vice Legion Commander of the Seventh Legion, only half a rank below Shen Ji. In the Seventh Legion, he deﬁnitely had a high status as well, and was a seven- Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master.

Shangguan Fei’er, accompanied by Ma Long, Hong Yu and Lin TianAo, stood right at the front of the Peerless Battalion troop. Sweeping a cold gaze across the Peerless Battalion soldiers, she said passively: “As for what exactly you all need to do, I’m sure I do not need to explain any further… you all should know. If we actually lose, it won’t be a matter of losing the prize, I will also give you all some special training… and you all will learn what is the true meaning of hell… Do you all understand?”

Originally, having heard that the majority of the bet would be used to depreciate their debts and their morale wasn’t extremely high, upon hearing Shangguan Fei’er’s words, the three thousand Peerless Battalion soldiers instantly seemed to perk up and become as ready as action as could be. This was not the ﬁrst time Shangguan Fei’er had used such a tactic, but it proved as effective as ever. After all, those were not empty threats, and she would deﬁnitely do as she promised. Those Peerless Battalion soldiers who had gone through and experienced Shangguan Fei’er’s ‘special training’ had long since spread the word about the terrifying hell-like training. In the entire Peerless Battalion, the beautiful Shangguan Fei’er had the nickname of Devil Goddess. That was not a nickname given lightly indeed.

In the distance, Shangguan Xue’er looked upon her sister from a hidden corner. Lookig at her impressive and valiant looking sister, she suddenly felt a sense of envy. Although she was the heir to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, she had never felt such a sense of accomplishment like Shangguan Fei’er now. At this point, she suddenly felt a strange feeling of anticipation, awaiting the time when Fei’er would return to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace and she would take her place. Could she do better than her little sister?

At this point, Shen Ji rode atop a tall, large warhorse right to the middle of the two army formations. Loudly, he proclaimed: “As agreed, the ﬁght between the Peerless Battalion and the Seventh Legion Heavy Infantry Regiment shall be starting soon. First, let me announce the ﬁghting fashion and rules. Both sides will be sparring in close combat fashion, and no weapons will be allowed. Also, aiming to critically injure or kill one’s opponent is strictly forbidden. The battle will last for two hours, and the side which has the most remaining soldiers standing will be the victor.”

The rules were very simple and straightforward. Without question, on a surface level, the Heavy Infantry Regiment held a massive advantage. Just in terms of numbers alone, they doubled the Peerless Battalion’s ﬁve thousand. Since the victory depended on the ﬁnal number of soldiers standing, they already had a simple ﬁve thousand advantage from the side. However, the terms of this battle had not been drawn out by Shen Ji, but by Hua Feng! Without doubt, he had directly placed the Peerless Battalion in a dangerous position; otherwise there would not have been so many people lured to bet against them.

If it were just ﬁve thousand versus ﬁve thousand, with the strength of the Peerless Battalion soldiers, did they really need to get the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribes to ﬁght as well?

No one else would believe that the Peerless Battalion could win. The reason was simple – besides the two new Tribes who had just joined the Peerless Battalion, all of the other soldiers were originally from the Northern Armies of the ZhongTian Empire… a bunch of mere rufﬁan soldiers. Most, or all, of them had committed some mistake or offended some higher ups for them to be sent to the various Rufﬁan Battalions. Yet, this Peerless Battalion of Zhou Weiqing’s had been set up for merely a year, and it could be said that no one truly understood them at all. The only person who knew the most was Shen Ji, and all he knew was that their archery had been trained to an impressive state. However, that did not mean their close combat would be just as good. Furthermore, in terms of close combat, the Heavy Infantry Regiment was considered one of the ﬁnest in the entire Legion, even in the Northwest Armies. Now that they were even at a two versus one advantage, how could the Peerless Battalion possibly defeat them?

Any army ofﬁcer worth his salt knew how to train his troops, just that methods would differ per person. Training a troop of soldiers for less than a year… even if if were the best trainer… that should not bring such a huge jump in quality… right?

Preconceived perceptions caused the watching Northwest Army Ofﬁcers to look at the Peerless Battalion with disdain, as they waited to collect their winnings… to see how the Peerless Battalion would deal with that massive payout.

Alas, they did not know how much gold Zhou Weiqing had poured into the Peerless Battalion. Ignoring everything else, just in terms of the Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, the resources expended amounted to several dozen million gold coins! That was not even counting all their ﬁne equipment and more so, the precious medicines that let all the Peerless Battalion soldiers become Jewel Masters! Even the gold rewards for the various Peerless Battalion soldiers were a considerable sum already. It could be said that the Peerless

Battalion was the most expensive army troop in the entire history of the Boundless Mainland. Sometimes, a vast sum of money could be the catalyst to a massive improvement in quality.

…

As soon as Shen Ji ﬁnished announcing the rules, both sides started moving into formation.

Their formations were extremely simple as well. After all, it was a close combat ﬁght, and both sides just spread out in a single line formation across the plains facing each other. The neat lines of the Heavy Infantry Regiment caused them to look like a single long metal wall of a fortress, and with their strong, palpable killing intent, they were clearly ready to go.

Shangguan Fei’er stood there calmly, saying solemnly: “Leave the enemy Regiment Commander to me. Everyone else, you just choose your own targets and everyone ﬁght your own battles, there isn’t much tactics for this ﬁght. Break open these metal cans!”

“Fight, begin!” Shen Ji shouted out loud in the distance, having left the center of the battleﬁeld. With his eight-Jeweled cultivation level, his voice was able to resonate throughout the entire battleﬁeld and beyond.

The Heavy Infantry Regiment truly lived up to their name as top elites. As soon as Shen Ji gave the order to start, all ten thousand of them started moving in steady, neat steps, marching in unison while maintaining formation. As they moved slowly towards the Peerless Battalion, the clanging of their armour struck up a cacophony. They did not run; after all their full armour was extremely heavy, but their slow advance brought a powerful pressure that was perhaps even stronger than a simple running charge, as if a mountain was bearing down upon their opponents. Without question, their momentum, aura and ﬁghting spirit was constantly increasing as they advanced.

As for the side of the Peerless Battalion, with a single command from Shangguan Fei’er, the ﬁve thousand of them also started charging towards the Heavy Infantry Regiment. There was no formation, no order or even a style. Five thousand soldiers, ﬁve thousand individuals, running and charging ahead with all their might. In that instant, the once- neat formation was scattered.

Looking at such a sight, the watching ofﬁcers almost burst out laughing. On the battleﬁeld, what was the most important thing? Formations, orders, discipline… only by properly executing every order without fail could one defeat their enemies with ease. Currently, the Heavy Infantry Regiment were indeed in perfect formation, gathered densely together… wouldn’t the scattered and messy Peerless Battalion just be tantamount to committing suicide?

However, very soon, as soon as both sides clashed, the smiles and smirks of those ofﬁcers froze on their faces.

Shangguan Fei’er charged forward ahead of everyone else, her speed was deﬁnitely the fastest, and her target was clear – the extra huge Regiment Commander. Not long ago, Shangguan Fei’er had ﬁnally broken through to the seven- Jeweled cultivation stage, and was at the same cultivation level as her opponent. However, do not forget that she was from the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, and had the mutated Duo Physical Jewels. Indeed, wasn’t Shangguan Fei’er’s greatest strength her close combat capabilities? *BANG*

The ﬁrst contact between both sides happened between Shangguan Fei’er and the Heavy Infantry Regiment Commander, Oni.

Oni had been itching for this ﬁght for the entire day. In his eyes, a mere Peerless Battalion had dared to provoke them, to challenge them, and that was their own foolishness in committing suicide. Seeing an opponent charging at him, he did not hesitate to take a huge step forward. This ﬁght was after all pitting their close combat capabilities. Previously, Shen Ji had already instructed both sides that no matter Heavenly Jewel Master, Physical or Elemental Jewel Masters, no one was allowed to use any Consolidated Equipment or Stored Skills, and it would only be a pugilistic ﬁght, to prevent any unforeseen injuries or even death. After all, in the end both sides were allies. All of a sudden, Oni saw that the opponent charging at him was a beautiful young girl, and he was angered until his face was red. However, when Shangguan Fei’er got closer to him, he realised that something was up… he could clearly see her Physical Jewels faintly below her armour, and the number was deﬁnitely not what he had expected!

However, by this point, it was too late for him to think too much. As the Regiment Commander, and the strongest powerhouse of the entire Heavy Infantry Regiment, he could only do his best to give their opponents a heavy blow on the nose to teach them a lesson. On the battleﬁeld, there was no such thing as mercy. Although his opponent was a young woman, he would not harbour thoughts of holding back.

Shangguan Fei’er was just too quick. In that short period of time when Oni’s psyche was readjusting himself, she had already reached in front of him. Her right ﬁst opened up in a palm grab towards Oni’s throat.

Oni gave a grim laugh, his left hand lifting up at lightning speed in a parry of Shangguan Fei’er’s incoming hand. At the same time, his right ﬁst struck out, his powerful Heavenly Energy surrounding his ﬁst and striking out ahead. His Physical Jewel was Strength, and with this punch, he had used almost eighty percent of his Heavenly Energy, aiming to defeat his opponent with a single blow to boost the morale of his troops.

A gleam of disdain ﬂashed in Shangguan Fei’er’es eyes, and her body only moved slightly to the side. At that moment, all Oni could see was that Shangguan Fei’er seemed to actually twist in a strange movement, and his powerful ﬁst ﬁlled with Heavenly Energy felt as if it had all the strength in the world, but nowhere to use it. In a ﬂash, there was a blur before his eyes and Shangguan Fei’er’s hand towards his throat had twisted in an unbelievable angle to instead grab onto the wrist of his punching ﬁst. The next instant, Oni felt Shangguan Fei’er close in on him.

Oni’s combat experience was also extremely abundant, and he instantly reacted by circulating all his Heavenly Energy, bursting forth from his body. With his Heavenly Xu Stage cultivation level, he planned to use his Heavenly Energy and thick armour to take her attacks head-on. At the same time, his arms exerted full force in bringing them together, attempting to grab hold of Shangguan Fei’er in a bear hug.

In this, he did not have any dirty thoughts, more a subconscious reaction to subdue his enemy. However, in doing so, he had deeply offended the Little Demon Girl in front of him.

In Shangguan Fei’er’s heart, besides her Little Fatty, what other man had the qualiﬁcation to hug her?

A pull and a throw. Oni felt a sharp pain on his wrist, and he was shocked to ﬁnd that Shangguan Fei’er’s ﬁngers were like metal hooks, easily piercing through the thick armour around his wrists, her own Heavenly Energy moving in a cockscrew motion that forcefully broke through his protective Heavenly Energy aura. Next, he saw her jump right up, and his own arm went numb. All he could do was watch Shangguan Fei’er’s last action as her knee savagely smashed into the center of his chest armour.

With a loud crash, Oni’s body ﬂew like a cannonball. Despite all his heavy armour, he had been directly smashed more than twenty yards away by Shangguan Fei’er’s angry strike. That was also after she had dispersed some of the attack at the last moment to hold back, otherwise the blow might have shattered several of his ribs.

The two of them had exchanged blows just too quickly, and from the distance, it just looked like a single person had charged out from the Peerless Battalion, clashing right into the strongest powerhouse of the Heavy Infantry Regiment, Oni. However, in just the time it took to draw a breath, Oni had been sent ﬂying away.

This was also the reason why all the watching ofﬁcers had their jaws agape.

In their wildest imaginations, none of them would have even dreamed that the situation would reach such a level so quickly. After all, Oni was a powerful seven-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master!

Before they could react, the rest of the two sides smashed into each other.

What were all these Peerless Battalion fellows? Most of them were bellicose and loved to ﬁght. Originally, in the army, none of them were of good temper, and that was one of the reasons why they had been sent to the various Rufﬁan Battalions. Now that they were in the Peerless Battalion, the several consecutive victories had given them the conﬁdence of gaining victory. The three thousand of them who had been selected were deﬁnitely the most elite amongst the entire Peerless Battalion, amongst them were the original one thousand ﬁve hundred Peerless Battalion soldiers who had ﬁrst followed Zhou Weiqing. These few days, these ‘old’ soldiers had worked extra hard indeed after being showed up by the newcomers. The cultivation of Physical Jewel Masters was not as tough as Heavenly Jewel Masters, and all of them had more or less some improvement in their Heavenly Energy. Amongst them, there were still quite a few various Main Company Leaders, Company Leaders or other ranking ofﬁcers, deﬁnitely not an easy bunch to deal

with.

As both sides crashed into each other, the result was unbelievably different from all the expectations of the waiting spectators.

Right in front of them, the Heavy Infantry soldiers were being sent ﬂying like tin cans being kicked around. In a blink of an eye, almost a few hundred soldiers had been sent ﬂying just like Oni. As for the Peerless Battalion side, they had not even suffered a single loss.

In such a massive clash of close combat, sometimes strength was more important than skill. As such, the most outstanding performances were deﬁnitely the two thousand Gold Crow and Berserker Tribe warriors that had just joined the Peerless Battalion.

Without mentioning the Berserker Tribe ﬁrst, just the ladies of the Gold Crow Tribes were like war goddesses descending from the heavens. Their average weight was more than six hundred jin, and though they were not in any armour, they already weighed more than those Heavy Infantry soldiers in their full armour.

Previously, when they had fought against the charge of the Wolf Cavalry soldiers and Unicorn Cavalry soldiers, even without proper equipment and weapons, they had managed to hold those two powerful foes at bay for so long, holding out until Zhou Weiqing brought in reinforcements. Just from that alone, one could imagine how powerful they were at close combat.

The ﬁght styles of the lady warriors of the Gold Crow Tribe was simple, just one action no matter what their opponents did

– charge, dip shoulder and ram.

The actions might be simple and straightforward, but it was deﬁnitely effective. Most of those Heavy Infantry soldiers which had been sent ﬂying were done so by them.

Of course, the Berserker Tribe warriors were no weaker than the Gold Crow Tribe warriors. Their weight might not be comparable to them, but their ﬁghting prowess was no weaker, perhaps even more powerful. After all, the Berserker Tribe was famed for their ferocity and love for battle, and as their name suggested, their frenzy in battle. When in combat, they could use a bloodline power of theirs, Berserking. A Berserker Tribe warrior who had entered Berserk mode would have his skin turn even harder than metal, and his strength would also increase drastically, becoming no lesser than that of a Gold Crow Tribe warrior. In that state, they were also immune to pain. At least in terms of hand to hand combat, they were deﬁnitely far superior than the Gold Crow Tribe warriors.

These Berserker Tribe warrior, each at least two metres tall, directly faced their opposing Heavy Infantry soldiers, and they actually just dared to grab them and lift them at directly, throwing them savagely out into the distance. As for the Heavy Infantry soldiers’ attacks, they did not even bother defending themselves, allowing the attacks to smash into them, though they did not even leave any mark.

As compared to these two powerful tribe warriors who were extremely suited to close combat, although the Peerless Battalion soldiers were all Jewel Masters and equipped with their titanium mail, their efﬁciency in close combat was no match. This was just a sheer difference in physical prowess, but that did not mean their results were weak at all.

After having trained with Shangguan Fei’er in close combat for so long, all of their close combat capabilities had gone through a qualitative leap. Furthermore, all of them were Jewel Masters, and with their Heavenly Energy, even if their opponents were carefully selected, well trained and powerful, dressed in full armour, they still held the advantage.

The powerhouses of the Peerless Battalion were just too many, and even when the opponent’s Battalion Leaders, Company Leaders or various ofﬁcers came out, the ofﬁcers of the Peerless Battalion immediately rushed to meet them. As such, the ﬁght was just still fully one sided.

Convulsions was a term that would be descriptive of an illness, but using this term now on all the spectating Northwest Army ofﬁcers would be extremely accurate.

Their face muscles were all twitching involuntarily… none of them had expected that this would be the result of the ﬁght.

The clash had only started for a few minutes, and the Heavy Infantry soldiers were falling like wheat being harvested.

Indeed, the Heavy Infantry soldiers indeed had much shocking power on the battleﬁeld, but at the same time with such heavy armour, once they fell down it would be rather difﬁcult for them to get up, especially after taking such heavy blows.

Yet, on the reverse side, for the Peerless bAttalion, there were at least twenty to thirty powerhouses running wild around the Heavy Infantry Regiment unchecked, wreaking havoc all around. Every time anyone of them took action, one Heavy Infantry soldier would fall. Furthermore, besides a very small number of Peerless Battalion soldier who had met with the opponent ofﬁcers and were beaten down, they were able to get up easily, hoping that Shangguan Fei’er had not noticed them. Although their titanium mail was extremely light, in terms of defense it was not inferior to their opponent’s full plate armour. After all, it was titanium alloy!

In a matter of moments, Shangguan Fei’er did not even bother continuing, as the outcome of the ﬁght was already too clear – a total crushing victory.

Fighting close combat? With an entire punch of Jewel Masters… or a warriors with superior bloodline skills and attributes? Even if it were a WanShou Empire army Regiment taking the place of the Heavy Infantry Regiment, the Peerless Battalion would not be afraid of them. Shen Ji stared with his jaw agape at the scene in front of him. He did not know when, but Hua Feng had rode up next to him casually, saying in a low tone: “Legion Commander Shen Ji, don’t you think you should end the ﬁght in advance? If we keep beating on the Heavy Infantry Regiment, I’m afraid their conﬁdence might be destroyed. Furthermore, we are after all going to be cooperating on the battleﬁeld, and we are all allies, it won’t be too good to have our relationship strained too much.”

Upon hearing Hua Feng speak, only then did Shen ji come to his senses. However, when he heard those words, they just seemed so cutting, so mocking. He truly felt like pushing this fellow down to the ground and beating him up!

This was truly getting the advantage and still rubbing salt in others’ wounds! Afraid of destroying the Heavy Infantry Regiment’s conﬁdence? Those Peerless Battalion soldiers were like hunting wolves or tigers, even some of those fallen Heavy Infantry soldiers, they would continue beating them up. Was this how they showed their ‘fear’ of destroying others’ conﬁdence? Where was there any sign of mercy or leniency?!

“Stop! Everyone stop!” Shen Ji used all his Heavy Energy into his voice, and it reverberated all the way into the distance. Well, the Heavy Infantry soldiers all stopped. After all, they truly beaten. However, on the Peerless Battalion side, there was no sign of any of those rufﬁans wanting to stop. At least the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribe soldiers were more honest; as soon as they heard Shen Ji’s command, they immediately stopped. Let alone all their opponents, even those spectators watching the Peerless Battalion ﬁghting were feeling a little terriﬁed of them. This was a ﬁghting style that was clearly pitting their lives and aiming for vital points! Many of their strikes were “under the belt”, striking at “vital” areas, causing many of the Heavy Infantry soldiers to be curled on the ground, clutching their precious areas, their heads not daring to even lift up. It was truly a sorry sight.

After this event, many of the Heavy Infantry soldiers were left with a shadow in their psyche. Although that ‘vital area’ of theirs was protected by thick armour, when they examined their own armours, they discovered that the damage to many of their armours were mostly to that area… if the Peerless Battalion soldiers had used more force, perhaps they would have lost the capabilities of being a man.

“Battalion Commander Hua Feng, quick, get your Peerless Battalion men to stop!” Shen Ji said exasperatedly.

Hua Feng blinked his eyes innocently and said: “Ohh, Legion Commander Shen Ji, your command was just too fast. These men of mine, their reactions are just too slow, unable to keep up. Everyone… Stop!” Hua Feng was not as loud as Shen Ji, and he had to shout several times. In the end, Shangguan Fei’er had to shout a few times as well in the middle of the battleﬁeld before the rufﬁans of the Peerless Battalion stopped, looking unwilling.

Ordinarily, in their training against their fellow soldiers, although the ﬁghts were bustling indeed, but they did have to take guard against future vengeance! Only when they were ﬁghting against outsiders could take unleash all their vicious strength without holding back.

Both sides ﬁnally stopped. Yet, the greatest injuries were perhaps an unknown number of dislocated jaws… all those Northwest Army ofﬁcers, each of them with blacker and blacker faces. Ahhh their money! How much money had they lost!! Many of them had bet several months of their pay! The worst off was naturally the Heavy Infantry soldiers; not only had they been beaten up so heavily, some of their armour even out of shape… they had also lost a huge amount of their wagers. In a long period of time after, any time the phrase Peerless Battalion was mentioned, groans of sorrow could be heard: “Ahhh, those Peerless Battalion bastards are truly not human!”

“Legion Commander Shen Ji, about our previous bet…” Hua Feng subtly asked in reminder. By now, Shen Ji had calmed down. Although technically he had lost, and was also a loss of face to himself, once he calmed down, he found that his mood was actually quite good. Perhaps it was his ﬁnest elite Regiment, the ace of his Seventh Legion, who had lost, but do not forget that technically the Peerless

Battalion belonged to the Seventh Legion. More importantly, this time, they would be helping the Seventh Legion on the battleﬁeld. With them and the Heavy Infantry Regiment, it would be a win win cooperation against powerhouses… and that was not a bad thing for Shen Ji indeed.

“I have lost. We will go ahead according to the terms of our bet as promised. However, I will still have to speak a lot and arrange things with the Heavy Infantry Regiment ﬁrst.”

Hua Feng smiled gracefully and said: “I’ll have to trouble Legion Commander Shen Ji then. Do not worry Legion Comander, on the battleﬁeld, our Peerless Battalion will not disappoint you.”

Shen Ji looked at Hua Feng meaningfully for a moment before ﬁnally saying: “I truly hope so.”

After saying that, he turned around to leave, without even looking back. Having dealings with these rufﬁans was not an enjoyable task indeed. This temporary Commander Hua Feng was even more troublesome than that Zhou Weiqing. At least, on the surface, most of the times Zhou Weiqing was very amiable and was easy to get along with, but this Hua Feng fellow was sly and cunning . If he continued staying here, perhaps that Hua Feng would come up with another sneaky plan to trick him.

After that ﬁght, the Peerless Battalion’s reputation in the entire Northwest Army rose drastically. Although, at the same time, they had drawn the enmity of nearly all the other army outﬁts. Of course, none dared to challenge them.

After Shen Ji spoke to him at length, the wounded Oni ﬁnally agreed to bring his Heavy Infantry Regiment to assist and cover the Peerless Battalion. Alas, Shen Ji did not know that in the near future, this ‘assistance’ would lead to his ﬁnest and most elite Regiment to be bought over y the Peerless Battalion.

Shen Ji had been right about Hua Feng being sly and crafty, but he had severely underestimated the degree… especially with such a villainous advisor like Mu En by his side, that was even more so the case.

In the end, Mu and Hong Yu had ﬁnally met up. Although Mu En had indeed ended up with two panda eyes, in the end Hong Yu had not beaten him up too brutally.

It turned out that when they were much younger, Mu En and Hong Yu had met. Under a particular set of unique coincidences and circumstances, Mu En had accidentally been afﬂicted with aphrodisiac poison, and Hong Yu had sacriﬁced herself to save his life… thus starting the beginning of this strange romance. Mu En had not been able to accept it at ﬁrst… in stories, those who met such circumstances would be saved by top beauties, yet how come his meeting had been a lady who was taller and stouter than himself! After a few days of being a groom, he had ran off.

Who knew that by then Hong Yu was already pregnant with Crow. According to Hong Yu, the reason why Crow’s stature was shorter than herself was because Mu En was too short.

When he had ﬁrst met Crow, Mu En had felt rather awkward, turning much more honest for a time. Although he did not know that Crow was his daughter, she had evoked his memories of Hong Yu. Towards Hong Yu, he did truly feel guilt and shame.

This time, with the entire Gold Crow Tribe here to join the Peerless Battalion, meeting Hong Yu once more, all his mixed feelings welled up within Mu En’s heart. Yet, he did not dare to tell anyone, not knowing what to do at all. At last, he still decided to sneak over and have a look at her. Who knew that it had just happened that Hong Yu was bathing at that time, and he had even got caught.

Although they had not seen each other for years, Hong Yu still easily recognized the ﬁrst and only man in her life, even if he was wearing a mask. In the end, after running for a time, Mu En was caught by Hong Yu.

Being taught a lesson was unavoidable, but how Mu En managed to survive in the end, no one in the entire Peerless Battalion, not even the Heavenly Bow Unit members, knew. In any case, Mu En would never reveal such a thing even if he was beaten to death. Currently, Mu En was following him around everyday, as if afraid that this husband that she had ﬁnally managed to ﬁnd after so long would run away again. In truth, Mu En had already accepted the fact. After all, his heart had been ﬁlled with guilt, shame and regret all these years. Meeting again after all these years, he was no longer the young man he had been then, and was much more grown up and mature now. He now had a wife, a daughter; they might be larger and more valiant than expected, but at least he had a real family. “Old Scoundrel, that trick of yours is really too shameless and mean.” Hua Feng looked to his side, saying exasperatedly. Mu En stood there, no longer in his mask, revealing a clean clear face, deﬁnitely not ugly at all.

Mu En gave a humph and said: “Shameless? Mean? This is all for that precious disciple of mine. Our background and forces are just too few… since an entire Heavy Infantry Regiment is knocking on our doors, why shouldn’t we keep them?”

Hua Feng’s brow furrowed and he said hesitantly: “But… in the future… can we really bring them away successfully?”

Mu En grinned and said: “Heh, no problem… it is just ten thousand men. Don’t forget what status that little girl Fei’er is? If not for the background of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, do you really think that little brat Weiqing can thrive and ﬂourish so well, so easily and in such short a time?”

Hua Feng smiled faintly and said: “Alright then, this matter is settled then. You take charge of it and manipulate as you require. By the way! Mu En, sister in law is still waiting for you at the door, isn’t it time for you to go back? It is getting late.” Instantly, Mu En’s face fell. “Boss, let me stay a while more… I’m already at such an age already, I am unable to withstand the rigours. As you know, her weight… it’s just too terrifying.”

Hua Feng rolled his eyes and said: “Stupid, can’t you just be on top?”

Mu En gave a bitter smile and said: “That doesn’t work either! As you know, the words that men hope to hear women yell out the most is ‘I want!’, but the words they fear women yelling the most is ‘I still want more!’… at her age, she is at the time of most need, especially after so many years of not meeting. Ahhh, my poor old waist!”

“Hahahaha…” Hua Feng burst out laughing uncontrollably. Looking at Mu En’s helpless expression, he almost fell onto the ground laughing.

“Laugh your head! If you keep provoking this old man, you just watch…one day I will slip you some of that same ‘poison’ if you are not careful, and let Shui Cao help you with that ‘antidote’. Hmph Hmph, you just wait and see!” Mu En rushed out hufﬁly. As for whether or not his waist and back could last, or perhaps to say whether Hong Yu would pity him, that would not be known. …

Fire Spirit Mountain.

The Fire Spirit Mountain was deep in the WanShou Empire, rather close to the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens. There were basically no beastmen living within a ﬁve hundred li radius of the Fire Spirit Mountain. Although the temperature was extremely good for survival, the terrifying volcano often erupted erratically, and it had stolen the lives of many beastmen before they had given up on living there. That was the reason why that even if the WanShou Empire Royal Family did not give the order to forbid them from staying there, no one actually dared stay there. No matter how tough and physically strong the beastmen were, they could not last against the power of nature.

A bout of green light descended from the skies, landing right at the feet of the Fire Spirit Mountain. The green light slowly dissipated, revealing two ﬁgures. It was Long Shiya and Zhou Weiqing, the teacher disciple duo.

Two days. In just a short time of two days, they had reached this place all the way from the northern border camp. Such speed was indeed shocking. In these two days, Zhou Weiqing had truly enjoyed himself ﬂying. In the process of ﬂying, his entire body was covered by a thick layer of Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, and with Long Shiya’s guidance, he had improved in his control over the Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy by leaps and bounds.

Flying for such a long period of time, Zhou Weiqing was ﬁlled with such envy. Two whole days! Several thousand li distance had gone by just like that… if only he had such an ability like that too, wouldn’t that mean he could go anywhere on the entire Mainland?

Long Shiya truly lived up to his name as the First Heavenly Emperor without a Great Saint Lands background. Carrying Zhou Weiqing along as he ﬂew for two whole days, yet Zhou Weiqing did not see any hint of fatigue on his Master’s face. This was truly a heaven defying level of power indeed!

Looking at the Fire Spirit Mountain in front of them, it could deﬁnitely easily leave a lasting impression on anyone. Previously, he had looked at it from high above the ground, and though it was only a single mountain, it covered a massive area, and its mountainside was all a crimson red earth. Even from a distance, they had already started feeling the rolling waves of heat lashing out at them. At this time of the year, it might have not fully entered winter, but such a temperature at the north… it could only be at such a place.

Plumes of smoke ﬂew out constantly from the top of the Fire Spirit Mountain, even to the point that large ripples of water could be seen twisting. One could imagine the sheer temperature.

Long Shiya looked toward Zhou Weiqing and said seriously: “Weiqing, this is your last chance. Think carefully now. Once you begin, there will not be any chance to stop, not even I can help in that. It will be do or die then. In truth, for myself, I do not wish for you to take such a huge risk. Training and cultivation is always the best to be done in proper order and step by step, and I know that if you do so, you will deﬁnitely surpass I, your Master, in the future…”

Zhou Weiqing gave a bitter smile and said: “Master, I know that, but time waits for no man! I do not have a choice. A man can choose his actions, to sacriﬁce some things to accomplish others, but if I cannot even protect my own women, then what is the point of training so hard? Master, do not worry, I still have so many things to do, I will die so easily. You know how afraid of death I am, no matter how painful it is, I will not give up, how could I bear to give up!?” Long Shiya shook his head helplessly before saying: “You little brat! Alright then, since you have made your choice, let us go. Do keep in mind, as long as I am here, your life will not be in danger. No matter how much the pain is, you must endure it.”

Chapter 165 Awakening the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit!

Once again, Long Shiya summoned a powerful wind wrapping around both him and Zhou Weiqing, lifting up and bringing them towards the mountain top. Zhou Weiqing was about to experience the torture of his lifetime, an inhuman torture that would surpass anything he had experienced before, and Long Shiya did not want his disciple to waste any time or energy in climbing up.

Although Long Shiya used his Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy to lift Zhou Weiqing up, he did not use Heavenly Energy to protect his body. In this way, Zhou Weiqing could clearly feel the surrounding temperature around them rising unceasingly.

With Long Shiya’s painstaking deliberate control, their rising speed was not fast at all. Clearly, he wanted to give Zhou Weiqing the opportunity to slowly get used to the rising temperature of the Fire Spirit Mountain.

As they got closer to the top, the temperature grew higher and higher. However, Zhou Weiqing did not feel any discomfort. After all, his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit had given him a strong resistance, almost immunity, to Fire. Furthermore, with his own ﬁve-Jeweled Heavenly Energy protecting him, it would be difﬁcult for just the outer level of temperature to be of any harm to him.

The Fire Spirit Mountain was not especially tall, but it was still almost three thousand metres high. In order to allow Zhou Weiqing to acclimatize himself, Long Shiya actually took a whole hour to ﬂy them up to the top.

The top of the Fire Spirit Mountain was in a spiral shape, with four inner circles. Standing on the edge of the top, one could see the thick plumes of smoke continuously rising up into the skies. At this point, the temperature had already reached a rather horrendous degree, even the surrounding air looked twisted and shimmering to the naked eye. Zhou Weiqing’s body was starting to feel uncomfortable, and he actually had to circulate his Heavenly Energy to block the heat.

Long Shiya said solemnly: “Your training spot will be at the volcano entrance of this Fire Spirit Mountain. You will need to immerse your body in the lava, only then will you be able to start the process of Awakening the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit. Once you have entered the magma, all you need to do is to keep protecting the core of your mind and spirit, to not lose yourself in the pain. You will not need to consciously circulate your Heavenly Energy; your Master, I, will take care of the rest. Understood?”

Hearing Long Shiya speak of immersing himself in lava, Zhou Weiqing could not help but draw a sharp intake of breath. No wonder even with his Master’s power as the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor, he was still uneasy about this training. This would not be any ordinary pain!

Long Shiya saw Zhou Weiqing’s change in expression, and he said seriously: “It is still not too late to give up, and I will not think any lesser of you. It is not so easy a task to endure the infusion and cleansing of Heavenly Spirit Fires… Dragons are after all top Fire Attribute Heavenly Beasts, and volcanos and lava like this are just their natural habitat, and thus the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit that you have can only be Activated by a huge amount of Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy… only if it can absorb enough energy will it be able to Awaken so far in advance, bringing about an increase in your Heavenly Energy cultivation level at the same time. Along with the transformation of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, it will also transmute the Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy from outside into your own personal Heavenly Energy. Child, this is an extremely tough hurdle to cross, but at least it is not one that will be plucking a sapling to help it grow, and will not harm your potential. If you succeed, the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit will be fully absorbed by you, and perhaps might even better than leaving it to be absorbed and Awakened of its own accord slowly. Otherwise… I would never have agreed to letting you take such an immense risk.”

“Master, I am ﬁne. Let’s start from here then.” Zhou Weiqing said through gritted teeth. He knew it was time to give his all; if he did not pit everything, including his life, he would lose Tian’er forever.

“Alright. Very good. You are truly my good disciple.” A light ﬂashed in Long Shiya’s eyes, and he lifted his right hand. A powerful aura burst forth, causing a violent gust of air to ﬂow around, forcefully blowing open a path in the thick smoke. Naturally, for Long Shiya, even the high temperatures and the dangerous gases here was of no use against him. In this place full of Fire Attribute energy, he was still able to control the power of the wind with ease, bringing Zhou Weiqing down the center of the volcano into its depths.

They descended several hundred metres down, and as they went down, the temperature grew even higher. Zhou Weiqing was starting to ﬁnd it difﬁcult to breathe, and the clothes on his body were already smouldering, giving off a burnt smell.

Right at that moment, a thin thread of icy cold power rose from within his own body, instantly circulating around his entire body, giving him much comfort.

Towards such an energy, Zhou Weiqing was extremely familiar. It was the very bloodline power that allowed him such ease in Skill Storing… the extreme power of the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline!

The pain in his body was temporarily relieved, but Zhou Weiqing could not feel happy at all. He still clearly remembered how the two great powers within him had clashed previously, the violent ﬁght between the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline and the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit. When the two had clashed with each other, it was deﬁnitely tantamount to an ice mountain smashing into a ﬁre mountain, and he was the unfortunate vessel caught in between.

Just as Zhou Weiqing’s mind was wandering in wild ﬂights, they had arrived in the deepest core of the volcano. Although Long Shiya’s powerful Heavenly Energy was protecting him, Zhou Weiqing was still unable to see clearly. The temperature was just too high, even for him and the various protections he had, and he currently felt as if he were submerged in boiling water, everything hazy and twisted about him.

Not far beyond, he could vaguely see the roiling dark red liquids slowly moving. Clearly, the greatest source of heat was from that direction.

Long Shiya’s expression grew even more serious and he said solemnly: “Weiqing, later I will use my Heavenly Energy to cover your entire body before submerging you into the lava. As you slowly adapt to it, I will gradually remove my Heavenly Energy. Do not worry, I will keep your head above the surface, and keep you protected throughout the process. As soon as you enter the lava, the process of Awakening your Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit will begin, so you must get ready now.”

Under such sheer searing heat, Zhou Weiqing was already unable to speak, and he could only nod vigorously towards his teacher, expressing that he was ready.

A thick red light glowed brightly, forming a round red shield enveloping Zhou Weiqing within. This time, Long Shiya was using his own Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy. His control over Heavenly Energy was just too powerful, especially in this world ﬁlled with Fire Attribute energy. The huge red ball started rising slowly as soon as it had enveloped Zhou Weiqing’s body, bringing him over the lava before sinking down once more, bringing Zhou Weiqing into the heart of the volcano.

The ﬁrst thing that Zhou Weiqing felt was not the heat, but the pressure… the sheer pressure from the Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy from Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy. He knew that this was the pressure from the lava and the heat stressing on the protective Heavenly Energy before being brought to bear upon him.

After feeling this pressure that almost made him unable to breathe, all of a sudden, an unbelievable heat swelled in from all directions. Zhou Weiqing couldn’t help but give a mufﬂed grunt, and in that instant, all his clothes and hair evaporated… his entire body turning a crimson red.

If it were any ordinary person, even with Long Shiya’s protective shield, under such a circumstance, perhaps their body would have turned into ash along with their clothes and hair. The temperature here was just too terrifying.

However, Zhou Weiqing was different. Not only did he have his own ﬁve-Jeweled cultivation level, more importantly, he had the protection of the Bloodline power, and the power of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit. With Long Shiya’s Heavenly Energy giving the main protection, at least in a short period of time, he would not have any problems. However, the searing heat was continually pouring in from all directions, invading his body through every pore, stimulating every single cell of his body. The ﬁrst to take action was not the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, but the Bloodline Power of the Dark Demon God Tiger. The familiar icy cold energy instantly burst forth from Zhou Weiqing’s DanTian, several times stronger than the previous one, rushing to every part of his body. In an instant, Zhou Weiqing felt as if his entire body’s meridians, bones, cells all moaning, as the ice cold rush of energy gave him an unparalleled sense of comfort, and his spiritual core also cleared up, allowing him to ﬁnally look at his surroundings for the ﬁrst time.

So comfortable! A look of pure relief crossed Zhou Weiqing’s face. Under the protection of the Dark Demon God Tiger Bloodline Power, he actually felt as if the surrounding was not hot at all. At the same time, he could sense the rush of ice cold energy was constantly stimulating and evolving his entire physique.

Perhaps because the ice cold energy had re-awakened his mind and consciousness, Zhou Weiqing suddenly realised a new problem. From the way things were progressing, it seemed like the Dark Demon God Tiger Pearl which had originally entered his body had not fully integrated with its Bloodline Power with his body, and with the outer heat and energy overwhelming him, it was actually starting the next step of merging and evolving of his body. That was to say, by being submerged in the lava of the Fire Spirit Mountain Volcano, it was not only his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit that was being Awakened in advance, so too was his Dark Demon God Tiger Bloodline Power! From his understanding, he had already gone through at least one other stage of evolving previously, and the Demonic Change State that he had could

possibly evolve once more again.

This was an unexpected development, but whether or not it was a good thing, even Zhou Weiqing himself did not know. Would his Dark Demon God Tiger Bloodline Power clash with his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit once more? Even he did not know… but what he knew was that both were of utmost importance to him… and he could not judge which was stronger than the other.

Just as Zhou Weiqing’s spiritual core was cleared, and he was able to start thinking about the possible beneﬁts of this cultivation and training of his, abruptly… the pain ﬁnally came.

Long Shiya ﬂoated just behind Zhou Weiqing’s position, his feet soaked in lava. Despite that, he seemed totally impervious, as if the lava did not have any effect on him. Although it might seem that way, it was deﬁnitely an additional drain on his Heavenly Energy. At the moment, he could clearly see that on Zhou Weiqing’s back, a dragon shaped tattoo slowly appearing. At the same time, Zhou Weiqing was starting to look like a freshly cooked prawn, totally red.

“Here we go!”

Long Shiya shouted out loud. After which, he started to slowly reduce the protective layer of his Heavenly Energy around Zhou Weiqing’s body.

As the external temperature continued rising, Zhou Weiqing’s internal temperature also rose dramatically. The energy of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit also appeared with an overpowering and domineering aura. The searing heat from within instantly launched an attack towards the cold of the Dark Demon God Tiger Bloodline Power without hesitation.

In the next instant, Zhou Weiqing felt his entire body in an unbearable, terrifying sensation… as if his core was an ice mountain, being enveloped by an entire ﬁre mountain… both sides raging with an unbelievable amount of energy, pushing and pulling against each other savagely.

That feeling was almost indescribable. A war of ﬁre and ice, almost causing Zhou Weiqing’s spirit to break. The Dark Demon God Tiger Bloodline Power was cold and proud, while the power of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit was ﬁery and cruel. Both sides seemed to have their own pride and arrogance, neither stepping down from each other.

At this time, Zhou Weiqing truly wanted to thank Shen Bu that time. Previously, Shen Bu’s Green Gold Flame had once brought about such a exact state of affairs that time. Although it was much lesser than this current time, it had also given Zhou Weiqing the opportunity to experience such a ‘delightful sensation’ once before. As such, it also allowed him to have at least some semblance of preparation for it. Furthermore, due to the previous time when both powers had ﬁnally barely come to terms and compromised, backing down from each other… that meant that though they were still clashing against each other now, there was a possibility… a greater hope.

The ﬁrst wave of pain was undoubtedly the strongest, most violent. Zhou Weiqing’s entire face was contorted into an unimaginable shape by that unrivaled pain, and his entire body was convulsing violent, every part of him literally vibrating with the pain.

On Zhou Weiqing’s back, the imprint of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit had ﬁnally been fully activated, appearing clearer and clearer. Above Zhou Weiqing’s head, a ball of mixed grey black air was forming slowly, shaping into a massive black tiger with pair of grey – black wings right on its back, and a scorpion

tail… it was the actual form of the Dark Demon God Tiger!

Long Shiya could clearly sense what Zhou Weiqing was going through, but he also knew that at this point he could not be soft-hearted, otherwise it would only cause harm to Zhou Weiqing. Now that the Awakening of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit had begun, there was no stopping it… otherwise not only would Zhou Weiqing not gain any beneﬁt from it, it would be of great harm to his body.

The surrounding Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy protecting Zhou Weiqing’s body was being reduced slowly but steadily, and as a result the temperature he had to withstand and endure was also steadily growing.

Originally, the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit within Zhou Weiqing’s body was being suppressed by the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline power, but with the additional support and stimulation from the Heavenly Spirit Fire, the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit was starting to grow stronger, more ﬁery, starting to clash crazily with the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline power.

Their clash occurred amongst every meridian, every channel, every inch of muscle, meat and bone… the terrifying clash of ice and ﬁre once more, as if attempting to tear Zhou Weiqing’s body apart.

Currently, Zhou Weiqing’s entire mind was like a pile of mush, the violent intense pain feeling like he was about to be torn apart at any time. However, he clearly remembered his teacher’s words, concentrating fully on protecting his mind’s core. He knew that if he lost consciousness, then perhaps his body would truly be torn apart by the two terrifying opposing forces within him.

At this moment, Long Shiya took action. Still maintaining the slowly reducing protective Fire Attribute Heavenly Energy protecting Zhou Weiqing, another bout of energy ﬂew out from each of his two palms; Darkness from his left palm, and Light from his right palm, both energies ﬂying out one left and one right, rushing into Zhou Weiqing’s mind.

With the two bouts of energy supporting him, Zhou Weiqing felt his mind clear up, his senses returning to his control. However, at the same time, though he was no longer in danger of losing consciousness, the recovery of his senses also caused the sensation of pain to increase drastically.

At this point, no matter how much he wanted to scream his pain out, he was unable to do so. Within his body, his veins and blood vessels were trembling, vibrating violently, the blue lines bulging out on his forehead, and his eyes almost popping out of his sockets.

No matter how much mental preparation he had, when he was truly facing such unimaginable pain, it was nearly unbearable. Tiny, ﬁne threads of blood continuously seeped out from all the pores of Zhou Weiqing’s body, and the scariest thing was that the blood did not evaporate after leaving his body… instead, one half turned into ice, and the other actually burst into ﬂame… an unbelievably weird overall sight indeed.

“Child, hold on! The beginning of every process is always the most difﬁcult. As long as you get through this, you will have the chance of success.” Long Shiya shouted out loud, gritting his teeth as he started the process of stripping the last line of his protection around Zhou Weiqing’s body.

The lava ﬁnally made contact with Zhou Weiqing’s unprotected body. Now, besides his head, his entire was submerged into molten magma. The illusory image of the Dark Demon God Tiger above Zhou Weiqing’s head was now extremely clear, and it howled up towards the heavens. All of a sudden, the lava around Zhou Weiqing seemed to form a round symbol like a dragon swirling about his body, seeming to be at a staring standoff with the

Dark Demon God Tiger.

The surrounding smoke had grown much thicker, and even Long Shiya’s head was starting to bead with sweat. However, this was not because of the surrounding heat, but because of sheer worry.

Although Long Shiya had already known about the bloodline power in Zhou Weiqing’s body and that it was not ordinary, especially since it was able to evoke the Demonic Change State, how could it be weak? However, in his original thought, no matter how powerful the bloodline was, it should not be able to compare with the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit. After all, in his mind, Dragons were already at the top of the pyramid amongst Heavenly God Tier Heavenly Beasts.

His original thought that with the aid and stimulation of the surrounding Heavenly Spirit Fire in this environment, the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit would easily devour Zhou Weiqing’s original bloodline power, merge with it, and thus begin the process of fully Awakening the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit… thus accomplishing their goal.

However, he had never expected that Zhou Weiqing’s bloodline power to be just so powerful, and even in such an environment, it was still a perfect match for the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit in continued direct clash. Looking at the massive black-grey tiger, Long Shiya suddenly realised that perhaps the three Great Attributes of Zhou Weiqing – Darkness, Devour and Time were most likely brought to him by this bloodline power. What did that mean? It meant that Zhou Weiqing’s bloodline power was no weaker than the Heavenly Snow Mountain’s Divine Heavenly Spirit Tiger… perhaps even stronger!

A Bloodline Attribute that held two Saint Attributes! Even for the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, how could it possibly fully Devour such a bloodline!? In such a case… well, this was now the current result, and the pain that Zhou Weiqing was suffering was much worse than even Long Shiya had expected.

If the two forces were of differing strength, one strong one weak, then the stronger side would devour the weaker one, and it would be much easier to merge and fuse the two together. However, if both sides were fully equal, then it would end up in this stalemate like the current status. Perhaps, this might not lengthen the process by much, but it would deﬁnitely increase the pain Zhou Weiqing had to endure exponentially. At this point, even Long Shiya was unable to estimate what would the ﬁnal result be… even if Zhou Weiqing could really endure all the pain, what would happen to the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and the original bloodline power within him. He could only worry… worry if Zhou Weiqing could live through this.

Impossible… this is … impossible… I can’t take it anymore. Such an unparalleled pain, it was truly an unbearable torture to Zhou Weiqing. Although his senses were still fully awake, but he felt like he would rather die instantly than continue taking such a pain. In front of such sheer agony, everything else faded away from his mind.

However, could he really just give up like that?

By now, Zhou Weiqing had already been immersed in the lava for almost an hour, and he was already on the verge of breaking down. It had all happened just too fast, and the pain was far more terrifying that he had even imagined, even dreamed possible… no matter all the mental preparation he had, all the many various pains and suffering he had gone through before in his short life paled in comparison. At this point, even if Long Shiya wanted to stop the process, he was unable to do so… as the power of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit had already been awoken. The only way to stop Zhou Weiqing’s pain… was to kill him. STOP… PLEASE STOP… I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE… LET ME DIE PLEASE… Zhou Weiqing cried out in agony in his heart, his spirit already on its last dredges.

When the pain one suffers far surpasses the limit of his endurance, one’s body would enter a type of self-protection – fainting.

However, in the current circumstance, with Long Shiya’s external energy helping to protect his mind’s core, even if Zhou Weiqing wanted to faint, he was unable to do so.

He could only continue feeling and enduring the this impossible pain with full clarity.

Still, that limit was still a limit, and in that instant as it was surpassed, Zhou Weiqing felt as if he was totally in darkness, unable to see anything. So dark… so… painful… why am I not dead yet… please let me die… Zhou Weiqing screamed in his mind.

However, right at that moment, a ﬁgure appeared abruptly in the midst of the world of darkness… a familiar ﬁgure. It was a white ﬁgure, and in contrast with that utter darkness of despair, it seemed so bright and striking. From a tiny little white dot, slowly growing bigger as it approached Zhou Weiqing.

At last, Zhou Weiqing could see clearly, it was a fully white, large tiger, with dark blue striped patterns, looking at him with sorrowful eyes…. a sorrow not for herself… but for him!

Fat Cat! Tian’er… my Tian’er! Seeing her, Zhou Weiqing felt as if his entire body shudder, as if a chill ran down his spine. Especially that look of unimaginable bitter sadness in Tian’er’s eyes, as if telling him this: If you give up now, if you die… I will join you in death…

At that moment, in Zhou Weiqing’s mind, the letter that Tian’er had written to him suddenly shimmered and appeared once more…. Not the letter that the Lion Prince Gu YingBing had given to him, but the one that Tian’er had written personally and left for him in the Heavenly Jewel Island before she left.

“Weiqing… I’m leaving now. Although this decision was unbelievably difﬁcult, but I have no choice but to leave you now. Sorry, Weiqing, in this time that you need me the most, I have left instead. However, I cannot do anything else but leave…”

“You already have so many troubles and problems of your own, and I cannot allow you to suffer more because of me. As such, I must leave now. Luckily, before I leave, I am able to give myself to you fully. Do not worry, I am already yours, and I will always be yours forever. No matter how they force me, I will only be Zhou Weiqing’s woman.” “Father only has a single daughter… me… he won’t force me too much. As long as I threaten him with my death, I’m sure I can persevere. However, I’m afraid I will not be able to look for you in the near future.”

“Please do not come looking for me… I beg you ok? I know you, and I know that with your character, it is very easy for you to charge into something without caring about the consequences. However, if you really do so… then you are letting down all my painstaking efforts in doing all this. You now have much more important things to do. At least… before you have sufﬁcient power, do not come looking for me. I will try my best to convince my father.”

“I’m going now, I do not have any regrets, only yearnings for you. Weiqing, you have not told me that you loved me forever yet… but I love you…”

“Your Tian’er, your Fat Cat.”

……….. Yes! How could I give up so easily?? When I was at the lowest point of my life, when I ﬁrst heard news of my Empire being invaded and destroyed… it was Tian’er who was beside me. It was she who comforted me, encouraged me, gave me the hope to live, the strength to start working towards everything I now have today. Tian’er gave me her most precious self in order to help me recover myself… As she said before herself, in her life, she will only belong to me! I haven’t even told her how much I love her yet…

She is my Fat Cat, my Tian’er! Only mine!

The memories of how Tian’er gave all of herself to him ﬂooded back into his mind… the memories of the past few years, how he hugged Fat Cat to sleep… her warmth and comfort… Zhou Weiqing felt his spirit ﬁlled with an indescribable yet powerful strength.

All of the pain seemed to be somehow suppressed by that powerful spiritual power, allowing his spirit core to be clear. His eyes, having turned bloodshot earlier, slowly turned back to their usual hue, recovering some of their lustre, yet turning deeper and more profound… forming a strange yet fresh contrast to his body, which had somehow subconsciously entered the Demonic Change State on its own accord.

Currently, in those deep black orbs of Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, there was only ﬁrm resolution. No matter how much pain, how much torture and suffering that tore away at his very being… for Tian’er, I will deﬁnitely withstand everything. Deﬁnitely.

Long Shiya stood at the side. He had personally witnessed everything happening in Zhou Weiqing’s body, and currently, this Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor was truly stunned to his core.

In his life, Long Shiya seldom felt true respect for anyone. Although he might not speak it outright, in the entire world, there were only two people he truly respected. One was Duan Tianlang, a man who had spent his life fully on the Legacy of Strength, reaching the pinnacle of the Consolidating Equipment Master world.

The other one was the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord Xue AoTian. Of course, regarding this, Long Shiya would never admit it, but Xue AoTian was truly at the height of the world, the Heavenly God Tier power that even he could not reach. In his heart, he always had that spark of respect towards Xue AoTian. Countless of times he had challenged Xue AoTian, and countless of times he had failed, and that had also given him a unique relationship between him and Xue AoTian.

However, at this point, Long Shiya realised that deep in his heart, there was now one more person that was worthy of respect. His precious disciple…

Ordinarily, a teacher, a master, would not respect or admire his own disciple, but now, it was without doubt that deep within Long Shiya’s heart, such an emotion had arisen.

The change that had overcame Zhou Weiqing just now was just too clear.

As Long Shiya had been constantly infusing Heavenly Energy into Zhou Weiqing’s body, he could clearly sense the changes in his mind’s core, and he was also clear how close Zhou Weiqing had been to breakdown. Although Long Shiya was a Heavenly Emperor powerhouse, he was helpless to provide aid at that moment, and could only watch on worriedly.

At that point, Long Shiya had been ﬁlled with regret, regret that he had actually agreed to bring Zhou Weiqing here to Awaken his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit in advance… Now, he could only watch this unbelievable young talent that was his one and only disciple, full of hope to overtake himself and breakthrough to the Heavenly God Tier in the future, breakdown and perish. One could imagine the sheer agony in Long Shiya’s heart. However… just as he thought Zhou Weiqing would breakdown, a miracle truly appeared. In that instant, the illusory image of the Dark Demon God Tiger above Zhou Weiqing’s head seemed to shimmer and fade slightly, becoming paler. Right beside the immense black tiger, another illusory image shimmered into existence, even paler, but clearly a huge white tiger.

Towards that image of the white tiger, Long Shiya was just too familiar. Although it was shimmering and faded, barely a shadow, he could instantly see that it was Divine Heavenly Spirit Tiger of the Heavenly Snow Mountain!

Along with the appearance of the illusory white tiger, four balls of light stealthily appeared above Zhou Weiqing’s head. One fully black, representing the Darkness Attribute, one grey, representing the Demonic Attribute, one gold representing the Divine Attribute, and the last purple, representing the Spirit Attribute. The four different colours forming a strange whirlpool, spinning around as they entered Zhou Weiqing’s head from his BaiHui Acupuncture Point. Right at that instant, Zhou Weiqing’s entire spirit seemed to lift up, the feeling that he was about to breakdown at any point disappearing totally. As his spirit raised, his own body clearly showed a change.

The ﬁrst change was that the two bouts of Light and Darkness Heavenly Energy that Long Shiya had sent into Zhou Weiqing’s mind’s core to protect him was actually forcefully shoved back out.

Next, the two energies duking it out in Zhou Weiqing’s body, the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline powers actually paused momentarily in a temporary peace. Although it was just an instant, it was clear that their ﬁght afterwards was no longer as violent, as if they were being restrained by a third party energy.

What kind of powerful spiritual energy was required to do something like that! At this point, Zhou Weiqing had ﬁnally truly reached the actual cycle of Awakening the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, and he had ﬁnally tided over the initial danger period. Now that the initial danger period was over, the next process was even more smooth sailing than Long Shiya had expected.

Without question, for all of that to have happened, the most important thing was Zhou Weiqing’s devotion and obsession. If not for that powerful willpower, he would have broke down long ago. This was also the reason why Long Shiya felt such respect. He had to ask himself, perhaps if he was in Zhou Weiqing’s place, he did not have conﬁdence of being able to do the same. The most curious thing to Long Shiya was why the Four Saint Attributes would appear above Zhou Weiqing’s head at the same time, along with the bloodline powers. This was truly inconceivable.

In truth, the reason why such a state of affairs had happen was indeed because of Tian’er… and it could be said that in such a critical period, Tian’er had saved Zhou Weiqing’s life.

Originally, Tian’er was in her evolving stage when she met up with Zhou Weiqing, and it was because of Zhou Weiqing’s two Saint Attributes of Demonic and Time that she had started staying together with him. It was exactly the complete combination of the Four Saint Attributes that had such a huge draw to Tian’er.

At that time, Zhou Weiqing’s personal cultivation level and strength was just too low that he had not sensed anything about this, and that attraction level was not as obvious to him.

After that, the two of them had spent several years together. During that time, Tian’er’s cultivation level had grown by leaps and bounds. It could be said that by staying with Zhou Weiqing, both of them had the complete combination of the Four Saint Attributes circulating, greatly improving the speed of their cultivation… just that Zhou Weiqing did not know anything about it.

When Tian’er had broken through to her seven-Jeweled cultivation level, the four Saint Attributes had circulated, bringing Zhou Weiqing to breakthrough to his next cultivation level as well. At that time, although Tian’er had indeed gained a large amount of beneﬁt from Zhou Weiqing, her own energy had deﬁnitely inﬂuenced him greatly as well.

On that fateful day, on the Heavenly Jewel Island, both of them had shared a precious night, and Tian’er had given her most precious ﬁrst time to Zhou Weiqing. However, in that process, the Four Saint Attributes had also gone through a most thorough ‘mixing’. As such, from that time on, not only Tian’er, but Zhou Weiqing as well, both their bodies held some of each others’ energies.

At this current moment, as Zhou Weiqing was facing death, the last stubborn obsessive thought in his mind was Tian’er. The two Saint Attributes that belonged to Tian’er that were left remaining in Zhou Weiqing’s body was actually activated and awakened.

The power of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline was undoubtedly extremely strong, but when the four Saint Attributes came together, the sheer vast and boundless power, and more importantly, their state was at a level above all. As such, as the stubborn obsession in Zhou Weiqing’s heart and the Four Saint Attributes came up together, they successfully brought him through his most

dangerous period, bringing him to the right path of Awakening his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit.

Such a turn of events, no one could have expected all the various paths that had led to this… and as Zhou Weiqing realised he was on the route to success, even he felt it was inconceivable… let alone Long Shiya.

Right in the center of Zhou Weiqing’s forehead, a tiny glow of light appeared. It was not too large or obvious, just the size of a mere broad bean, but its sheer lustre caused the surrounding magma to almost pale in comparison.

If one were to examine closely, they would be able to see that the light was actually made four different colours mixed together… it was the representing colours of the Four Saint Attributes. They slowly moved down from Zhou Weiqing’s forehead, slowly entering his skin that was submerged in the magma. At that point, Zhou Weiqing could clearly sense that strange energy circulating around his body before stopping right at his chest area.

All the pain was still there, but by now, he no longer had any thought of giving up. Furthermore, as the strange whirlpool had intervened, both the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline energies started gathering at the center of the whirlpool, merging within. Strangely, at this current point, they were being released in the center of the whirlpool, but miraculously able to fuse together, stopping right at the center of Zhou Weiqing’s chest area.

At the beginning, due to the whirlpool being extremely small, it was only able to draw in and merge a very tiny amount of both energies. However, as time passed, and more of both energies were drawn in and merged, the whirlpool grew larger and larger, and its glow seemed to dim a little.

The reason why the whirlpool grew larger was because the fresh energies that was being merged in was also starting to move along as well. As such, although the speed of the spinning did not increase, the draw on the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline energies continued increasing. This was also the reason why Zhou Weiqing’s pain was gradually weakening.

Chapter 166 Peerless Battalion in war!

Although the reduction in pain was extremely slow, almost snail speed even, at least when the massive pain was actually subsiding, it would give one hope. The Awakening of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit was ﬁnally fully on the right track. At the same time, the last of the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline power was also being awakened and merged… the strange black pearl that he had once swallowed.

No one could guess what would be the ﬁnal result, but at least now Zhou Weiqing was safe, and he did not need to worry about the pain or breaking down from it. As for what would happen eventually, even he did not know. He could only hold down the fort in his mind’s core, keeping it clear and protected as possible. In doing so, he could only sense the heat around him, and not know much about the changes in his own body.

At this point, Long Shiya ﬁnally relaxed. He knew that this transformation of Zhou Weiqing’s would be a long process, and even his own prior estimate of forty nine days may not be accurate. However, he did not worry any longer, instead feeling a strong sense of anticipation and hope. This precious disciple of his… if he not only Awakened his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit, but also that unique bloodline power of his, what would happen to him? He wouldn’t become a little monster right? As he thought up to that point, Long Shiya’s mouth curved up in a faint smile. He did not leave, instead looking for a spot in the area that wasn’t covered in magma before sitting down to cultivate.

…

North Border, Northwest Camp. Peerless Battalion.

The WanShou Empire had already started taking action once more. However, this time, it was not just any ordinary sneak attacks. A dozen WanShou Empire Legions were advancing in neat formation towards the ZhongTian Northwest Army Camp. Alas, all of the Northwest Army Scouts that had been sent out had all been caught and slain.

The WanShou Empire armies did not advance quickly. In a few days that they had been moving, they had only moved a few dozen li per day before stopping.

It had already been eight days since the competition between the Peerless Battalion and the Heavy Infantry Regiment. At this point, currently, the watchtowers of the Northwest Army Camp could already spot the slowly advancing lines of the WanShou Empire armies far off in the distance. The battle was nigh.

The advancement of the WanShou Empire was deﬁnitely with some plan in mind, and as they did so in such a constricting fashion, the atmosphere within the Northwest Army camp grew more oppressive as the days passed. No one knew when the WanShou Empire armies would choose to actually attack, and thus the entire Northwest army had to keep in a constant high alert and preparation mode all the time. In such a circumstance, no matter generals, ofﬁcers or ordinary soldiers, all of them were left in an exhausted state, both mind and body. This was the true goal of the WanShou Empire. They were conﬁdent that the ZhongTian Empire Northwest Armies would not dare to take the initiative against them especially on the plains, and they could easily use such psychological warfare against the Northwest Armies to affect their energy and morale. When the WanShou Empire ﬁnally launched their attack, it would undoubtedly be a lightning swift one to take down their enemies as quickly as possible.

As compared to the rest of the Northwest Armies, the atmosphere in the Peerless Battalion was a stark contrast. For them, all they had to do was to continue their daily routine of training. Of course, the only difference was that the Peerless Battalion did not train alone anymore, but along with the Heavy Infantry Regiment, as both had to integrate their training to properly ﬁght together.

These past few days, Oni had been truly feeling rather vexed and depressed. His Heavy Infantry Regiment that he was so proud of had actually lost to the Peerless Battalion in the area they were the most conﬁdent in, even with a numbers advantage. Without even considering how much money they had all lost, just that sheer humiliation of that loss was unprecedented for the entire Heavy Infantry Regiment. After that ﬁght, one could say that the morale of the entire Heavy Infantry Regiment had sunk down to its lowest ever.

However, orders were orders, and they were still sent to camp together with the Peerless Battalion. More so, Shen Ji had given them the order that Oni and his Heavy Infantry Regiment would be under the command structure of the Peerless Battalion.

Still, the integrated training was going on rather well. On the side of the Peerless Battalion, their requirements were rather simple – two Heavy Infantry soldiers to a single Peerless Battalion soldier in tandem, and with their Tower Shields protecting the front and air, it would ensure that the Peerless Battalion soldiers would not have any chance of being hit by enemy archers. Such a tactic of cooperation was deﬁnitely not difﬁcult, and the one Heavy Infantry soldier in charge of defending the front had the easier task, just needing to position his Tower Shield to cover all their bodies, and did not even require much effort. As for the one covering the top, he only needed to lift his tower

shield to do so, and with the two Heavy Infantry soldiers taking turns and swapping when required, the integration of ﬁghting for these powerful Heavy Infantry soldiers known for their physical strength was indeed an easy task.

As for the Peerless Battalion soldiers, it was even easier, as they could just practice their archery under such protection. Under the cover of the Heavy Infantry soldiers, it was without question that the safety of the Peerless Battalion soldiers was highly guaranteed even in the heat of battle, and correspondingly their offense as well.

Originally, Zhou Weiqing had arranged it as such on the precaution that the Peerless Battalion meet any enemies far beyond anything they could not handle on the battleﬁeld. In that case, the Peerless Battalion soldiers could quickly retreat. Of course, in that case, the Heavy Infantry Regiment would not be able to retreat in time due to their lack of speed, and would be forced to cover their retreat. Naturally, this was a worst case scenario that would only be used as an absolute last resort. Naturally, all the Peerless Battalion soldiers were extremely satisﬁed by such an arrangement. Although Zhou Weiqing did not appear frequently before them, but this young Battalion Commander of theirs had deﬁnitely earned all their respect, not the least with his unique thinking and how it showed his concern for all their safety.

This training lasted for ﬁve days before the dejected morale of the Heavy Infantry Regiment ﬁnally showed some change…

The reason for the change was simple… they no longer felt anger and hate for the Peerless Battalion, instead full of envy and jealousy.

Of course, the reason of that was clear – due to their training together, the two troops were camped together, but their supplies and logistics were all separate… for example, their meals.

In just the matter of a few mere meals, the Heavy Infantry Regiment soldiers was already unable to stand it.

In the Seventh Legion, the Heavy Infantry Regiment was considered one of the top elites, and their treatment was deﬁnitely the best amongst the entire Legion, and their food was also top quality, considering. However, when it was compared with the Peerless Battalion, the Heavy Infantry soldiers almost wanted to cry.

On the side of the Heavy Infantry Regiment side, for their three meals a day, one was at least with meat. This was already considered an extremely good treatment in the army, and it was to ensure their combat effectiveness.

Yet, what were the Peerless Battalion soldiers eating?!

For them, each and every one of their soldiers ate six meals everyday. That was right. Six meals.

Their schedule was as such. Early in the morning, they would awake and gather before having their breakfast. This would be the ﬁrst meal, usually milk or soya bean milk, with each drinking a large bowl of it. Next,, each would have four eggs, green vegetables and lean meat, sometimes even a bit of cheese.

After their meal, they would rest for an hour before their vigorous training would start, lasting an hour. Another hour of rest before another snack. Although it was just a small snack, it was usually with meat… sometimes even with expensive Heavenly Beast meat.

When it came to lunch, this third ‘meal’ of the day was the most substantial and sumptuous one. All of them got at least six dishes, with meat, meat soup or at least stewed with bones; with all six meals being relatively different everyday.

With the two troops camped so close to one another, just the sweet fragrance of meat almost covered the entire Heavy Infantry Regiment. As the Heavy Infantry soldiers ate their simple and homogeneous food, that feeling was as if they were chewing on wax.

For the afternoon training, the Peerless Battalion soldier’s fourth afternoon snack was mostly fresh fruits and vegetables. Sometimes, for convenience sake, it was just barrels and barrels of fresh fruit juice, warm and delicious.

Dinner was simpler than lunch, but it was still meat soup, but mostly with medicines and herbs, ﬁlled with ginseng, deer horn and various other tonics, herbs good for the body, and the smell of this was even more temptingly delicious. Every night, an hour before they slept, the Peerless Battalion would have their sixth meal of the day, supper. After that, they would chat a while between themselves before they had a good sleep. Their tents were all lined with beast leather and furs, and inside their armour, they would always have fresh and clean cotton inline clothes.

When some of the Heavy Infantry soldiers inquired more into the matter about how the Peerless Battalion were getting so much good food, they realised that every day, the Peerless Battalion had specialised people purchasing large amount of supplies from the TianBei City, with at least a thousand people hired to support them. They did not even eat any of the supplies from the Seventh Legion.

…

Seventh Legion Army Headquarters.

“Boss… this will not do… if this continues, I will not have any men left to lead…. What kind of lives are those Peerless Battalion punks living?! The food you eat, it’s lots better than even what you eat! Ordinary soldiers… having six meals a day! How do you think my brothers feel when they see that!” Oni exclaimed hufﬁly towards Shen Ji.

Shen Ji looked at him exasperatedly and said: “What do you want me to do? Get your boys the same food as them? Do you know how much money the Peerless Battalion spends every day? I dispatched some men to investigate previously… and they spend around ten thousand gold a day just on their food alone. That is to say… almost two gold coins or more for a single soldier. How can we compare to that? You know how much our pay and provisions are every month…”

Oni gave a helpless look and said: “Boss… how about recalling us from that duty then… I…”

“No.” Shen Ji said ﬁrmly. We already lost the ﬁght and the bet, we cannot lose our honour and integrity as well. Ask your brothers to endure for a while more… the war will be starting soon, and once the ﬁghting starts, I expect that they will not be able to enjoy themselves and eat like that any longer. Once the annual ﬁght against the WanShou Empire is over, I will be able to recall your Regiment from this duty. During this period of time, I can only trouble you to help persuade them and work on their ideology…”

Oni gave a deep sigh and said: “Alright, I guess that is the only choice now. However, those Peerless Battalion bastards are just too shameless. Everyday, they have remnant food and they actually feed it to their horses instead, hmph, not even thinking about giving us some of it. And they dare give the excuse that they do not want to humiliate their allies. Dammit I feel like slapping them hard!”

Shen Ji said solemnly: “Don’t just look at their beneﬁts and how well they are eating. Haven’t you observed their training at all? Every day, their training is like pitting their hearts and lives. It is as if they do not care about exhaustion, and even their sparring within their own ranks is going all out. Their training is more than three times that of our elite forces…”

Oni gave a bitter smile and said: “How could I not know that? But… look at what they are eating! In the evening, they even have medicinal soups and tonics, all their energy expenditure will be easily replenished. Damn, Boss, do you know what I was thinking? I was thinking why I didn’t commit any mistakes in the past and never got sent to the Rufﬁan Battalions. Their lives are just too good, better than even nobles! Furthermore, the money they are spending… splurging on… it is the money they have won from us!!” Just like that, ten more days passed. The Heavy Infantry Regiment soldiers could only grudgingly suppress their envy and jealousy towards the Peerless Battalion, while continuing their training regiment.

However, besides eating and drinking, during the minimal leisure time between their training, the Peerless Battalion soldiers managed to chit chat with the Heavy Infantry soldiers.

The Peerless Battalion rules, pay, treatment… their unbelievable amount of Jewel Masters and Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, titanium mail and high quality equipment… all of that was slowly known to the Heavy Infantry Regiment soldiers, causing no small amount of ruckuss. In fact, some of the Peerless Battalion soldiers even started spending money to hire some of the Heavy Infantry soldiers to wash their clothes!

As gossip spread amongst the Heavy Infantry soldiers, and changes occurred, even Shen Ji was almost on the verge of looking for Hua Feng to speak to him. However, at that point, the WanShou Empire armies ﬁnally launched their attack… …

Daybreak.

In an entire day, this was the time that most humans were at their most vulnerable state. The drowsiness of dawn meant that their alertness level was usually at its lowest. Right at this moment, the WanShou Empire armies started bearing down upon their enemies. Of the seventeen Regiments, seven of them charged towards the ZhongTian Northwest Army Camp.

The shrill, urgent cries of the alarms broke the silence of the Northwest Camp, ringing through the various Legions and Regiments as the emergency bells rang.

After all these days of tightly strung nerves, the ZhongTian Empire soldiers were undoubtedly tired and weary. However, they had no choice but to clamber out of their beddings, getting into their armour with weapons in hand. Their enemies had ﬁnally come.

At the ﬁrst moment, Oni readied his troops and rallied them for battle. Getting into their armour was one of the most troublesome things for the Heavy Infantry soldiers, as they needed time to wear their heavy and cumbersome armour. To Oni’s surprise, the Peerless Battalion did not seem to have any differing actions than usual. It was early in the morning, and the scent of ﬁrewood smoke mixed with sweet scent of milk already rose from the Peerless Battalion camp, causing anyone who smelled it to feel refreshed and relaxed.

Oni gave an angry mutter. “Those damn WanShou Empire bastards, they are doing this on purpose so we have to ﬁght on an empty stomach!”

Very quickly, the ZhongTian Northwest Army had mustered several dozen Regiments to meet the incoming enemies, their goal mainly to buy time for their heavy armoured regiments to prepare themselves. The Northwest Army encampment had long since prepared for this, and their various fortiﬁcations, trenches, traps and various catapults were being manned to defend against this ﬁrst wave of WanShou Empire attacks.

To Oni’s anger and frustration, by the time his own Heavy Infantry Regiment were all fully geared and prepared, there was still no sign of movement from the Peerless Battalion. As such, he dispatched one of his soldiers to have a look, who came back to report that the Peerless Battalion soldiers were still having their breakfast as per usual, enjoying their delicious ﬁrst meal of the day as if nothing special was going on. Oni was so angry that he almost vomited out a mouthful of blood. Immediately, he personally charged into the Peerless Battalion camp, heading straight for the command tent.

As soon as he charged into the large command tent, Oni saw the entire Peerless Battalion command structure, led by Hua Feng, seated there enjoying their breakfast. Two of the Main Company Leaders were still joking around, snatching food from each other… There was no sign of nervousness or fear that they were experiencing an attack from a powerful foe!?

“What are you all doing? The alarms have already rang, the enemy is attacking, didn’t you all hear?!” Oni shouted angrily.

Shangguan Fei’er lifted her head and swept Oni with a gold glare, before biting down on the apple in her hand.

Seeing the look in Shangguan Fei’er’s eyes, only then did Oni’s bluster fade slightly. He had experienced her terrifying strength for himself.

Hua Feng smiled faintly and said: “Regiment Commander Oni, please do not be so anxious. Even if we have to ﬁght in a war, we have to let our brothers have their ﬁll ﬁrst. I’m sure the entire Northwest Armies has enough men that our Peerless Battalion need not be the ﬁrst to muster right?”

“You…” Oni shouted angrily. Just as he was about to continue scolding, he saw the rest of the Peerless Battalion ofﬁcers glare at him, a ferocious light in their eyes.

As the saying goes, a wise man does not ﬁght when the odds are against him. Oni was no fool, and he gave an angry humph and said: “Fine. Anyway, our Heavy Infantry Regiment’s orders is just to follow your lead and work with you. Since you all aren’t urgent, why should I be? I’ll eat as well!”

As he said that, under the gaping stares of the Peerless Battalion ofﬁcers, he moved forward bluntly, ignoring their stares as he grabbed three eggs with a single hand. With his other hand, he grabbed a large bowl of milk and started gulping it down.

This fellow has never eaten before? The Peerless Battalion ofﬁcers held back their smiles as they watched Oni eat, but no one stopped him.

Hua Feng said: “Vice Commander Wei, please get some of our brothers to send some food over to the Heavy Infantry Regiment. We are about to ﬁght, and how can our allies ﬁght well with us on an empty stomach!”

Wei Feng suppressed his laughter and said: “Yes Sir, I’ll arrange that right now.” As he said that, he strode out of the tent in wide strides. As he did so, his entire body was shaking up and down. Too evil, these guys were just too evil! He couldn’t help but think to himself.

Without question, there had been a sudden major improvement in food for the Peerless Battalion ever since they had won the bet… Furthermore, all the chit chat of the Peerless Battalion soldiers to the Heavy Infantry soldiers… all of that was arranged by Hua Feng and the other sly rascals of the Heavenly Bow Unit. In just these few dozen days, the effect was indeed crystal clear. In fact, even some rumours about the Peerless Battalion soldiers having some beauties sent over to deal with their physiological ‘needs’ once in awhile could also be heard. In any case, for almost the entire Heavy Infantry Regiment, as soon as the Peerless Battalion was mentioned, it was with a tone of envy and jealousy…

Although Wei Feng did not know what the exact plans of Hua Feng and Mu En were, it was without a doubt that it would be extremely beneﬁcial to the Peerless Battalion. The war was about to start, and the Peerless Battalion soldiers would all have to enter the battleﬁeld once more. However, more so, this was the ﬁrst time they would be ﬁghting in such a major war with more than a million on both sides! What role would the Peerless Battalion play? Would it be a major one? Wei Feng was not exactly sure as well, but he was conﬁdent in the ﬁghting capabilities of the Peerless Battalion.

Barrels of piping hot milk and baskets of warm bread were soon sent to the Heavy Infantry Regiment, along with Oni’s orders… a single word: “Eat.”

When Oni asked the Peerless Battalion to send out the order along with the food, he was thinking to himself: Dammit, might as well eat and enjoy it all, it’s all bought with our money!

….

Just as Oni was enjoying himself gorging away in the Peerless Battalion camp, the Heavy Infantry Regiment was also feasting away on their breakfast. At the same time, the orders from the Seventh Legion was already ﬂying out all around.

Shen Ji had already brought the Seventh Legion to defend against the WanShou Empire attacks. As the Legion Commander, he naturally led the charge onto the battleﬁeld, and he was currently directing the main Regiments of the Seventh Legion in ﬁghting the crazed onslaught of enemies. Right at this moment, with the most elite Regiment and the one with the strongest defensive capabilities, the Heavy Infantry Regiment, not appearing, Shen Ji was extremely furious. However, very quickly he remembered that his own Heavy Infantry Regiment was now under the command of the Peerless Battalion. With no other choice, he could only send an

order to the Peerless Battalion and request that they join the battle urgently.

If it were any other Battalion or Regiment, Shen Ji would have lost his temper by now. Alas, he knew he could not do anything about the Peerless Battalion. Their strength aside, just their background of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace was not one he could triﬂe with.

The war had started, and the Northwest Army Camp was under an unprecedented stress. Not only was the WanShou Empire army at an hitherto unknown number, the sheer pressure they had on the spirit was massive, especially with the tactics they had been using. The ZhongTian army soldiers had not had any proper rest for several days, how could they possibly defend against the WanShou Empire soldiers in their top condition? Only with their traps and fortiﬁcations along with their sheer numbers allowed them to barely hold back the enemy invasion. However, the sheer amount of injuries and death continued rising.

…

Soon, breakfast was ﬁnished, and the Peerless Battalion ﬁnally gave the order to gather. Hua Feng looked to Oni, who had a satiated look on his face, before saying: “Regiment Commander Oni, everything as per our normal training. Your men do not have to be on the offensive at all, you just need to protect my men, and that will be sufﬁcient.”

Oni eyed Hua Feng, muttering to himself inwardly: Your Peerless Battalion soldiers are already entirely dressed in titanium armour, are they even really afraid of the WanShou Empire arrows?

Although he was thinking that in his heart, his face was impassive and did not show anything as he spoke: “Very well, we will deﬁnitely protect our good allies, and this breakfast we ate will not be for nothing. However, if the command were to blame us for not being on time, Battalion Commander Hua Feng please put in a good word for me.” Hua Feng laughed heartily and took a drink of water from his cup gracefully, before ﬁnally saying: “Regiment Commander Oni, please do not worry. We are all a family, if there are any responsibilities or blame, we will naturally share it all.”

Although they were already late, the Peerless Battalion gathered swiftly. Before long, the ﬁve thousand Peerless Battalion soldiers had already gathered together with the Heavy Infantry Regiment along with their usual formation they had during training, and they advanced towards the defensive fortiﬁcations of the Northwest Army.

The fortiﬁcations of the camp were situated about ten li from the actual encampment. The reason why they were set at such a distance was because it would allow themselves sufﬁcient room for maneuvering in their formations. On the battleﬁeld, positioning and formations were of utmost importance. Even though the WanShou Empire cavalry were extremely powerful, they would not easily charge towards a heavily fortiﬁed heavy infantry squad in proper formation, as that would affect their capabilities in combat, especially their main advantage of speed and momentum.

The movement speed of the Heavy Infantry soldiers was not fast, but ten li wasn’t too far. As they neared the battleﬁeld, the sounds of ﬁghting, killing and clash of metal was deafening. However, for both the Heavy Infantry Regiment soldiers or the Peerless Battalion soldiers, none of them were surprised or shocked by the sight in front of them. After all, they were not newbies on the battleﬁeld, and they had experienced the brutal realities of war many times before. As elite soldiers, the

warriors were ﬁlled with excitement for their own upcoming ﬁght with their foes.

Hua Feng did not arrange for the Gold Crow Tribe and Berserker Tribe warriors to join this particular ﬁght. The reason was simple – their equipment was not complete yet. With the Heavy Infantry Regiment as cover for the Peerless Battalion, their presence would not be as sorely missed for this battle.

“Prepare for battle!” Hua Feng gave the order, and the Heavy Infantry soldiers around realised that as soon as the Peerless Battalion soldiers heard Hua Feng’s order, their aura and presence changed instantly.

“Battalion Commander Hua Feng, shouldn’t we report to the higher command ﬁrst? We need to get our assignments from them!” Oni saw that Hua Feng was about to let the Peerless Battalion join the battle directly, and was extremely surprised. Armies had their own rules, and the most important thing on the battleﬁeld was undoubtedly to obey orders. Under the command of high ranking ofﬁcers, they had to work together with the orders to bring about their greatest strength together. Once orders were disobeyed on the battleﬁeld, the consequences could be dire… and punishment would also be severe. Hua Feng smiled faintly and said: “Regiment Commander Oni, pleas remember that you are no longer under the direct command of the Seventh Legion, and your orders are to cooperate with our Peerless Battalion. As for us, we are not under the direct command of the Seventh Legion as well. In any case, didn’t you say earlier that we did not gather in time? It is time for us to make up for that lost time. Alright, enough. Everyone, advance in a ﬂanking position!”

Oni’s face muscles twitched slightly, almost imperceptibly. He had been in the army for more than twenty years, but this was the ﬁrst time he had met any commanding ofﬁcer like Hua Feng. Could something like this actually work? Yet… Shen Ji’s order to him had indeed been to cooperate in whatever the Peerless Battalion was doing, without question. Oni had no other choice but to grit his teeth and carry out Hua Feng’s order without interference.

Right at that moment, Oni made a rather intelligent decision, one that perhaps changed his life and that of his men. His order was that from this moment onwards, the Heavy Infantry Regiment would all follow the Peerless Battalion soldiers… before the war ended, they would only listen to Hua Feng’s orders, and there would only be one overall voice of command. This little shrewd trick by Oni was not because he thought that Hua Feng was a better commander than himself. However, his thought was that since he had already been assigned this role, no matter what, even if Legion Commander Shen Ji or the Northwest Army Command came investigating, he would be able to evade any responsibility or punishment. After all, from all points of view, he was not disobeying any orders.

Who was Hua Feng? A shrewd one amongst the shrewd indeed… amongst all the Heavenly Bow Unit members, each and every one of them were outstanding talents, geniuses and distinguished in their own right, and for them all to be willing to follow his command, one could imagine that under the face of nobility and grace of Hua Feng lay something much more.

As such, Hua Feng only glanced at Oni, and he had already guessed all his thoughts. However, he did not comment at all. At least, Oni’s order was deﬁnitely of great beneﬁt to them all.

In this ﬁrst attack, the WanShou Empire had sent out seven of their main Regiments, while the other ten remaining Regiments were camped at a distance. The reason they dared to charge the ZhongTian formation so brazenly with less than half their force was because they had absolute conﬁdence in their ﬁghting capabilities and maneuverability on the plains. Even if their charge was not successful, they were certain that retreating was not a problem, even if they were not supported by the main army behind. In their eyes, the ZhongTian Northwest Army would never dare to chase them out of their own fortiﬁcations. For the seven WanShou Regiments currently charging, the focus of their strength was in the

center of the ZhongTian lines, and it was the powerful Heavy Infantry soldiers of the Bear Tribesmen, the Tyrannical Bear Regiment.

The Tyrannical Bear Regiment could be said to be notorious throughout the entire ZhongTian Army, after years of war between both sides. Every time they appeared, it was almost always at the Central North Army, and they were extremely formidable in direct clashes. They were also one of the few full infantry units in the entire WanShou Empire.

The Bear Tribe was one of the very rare Tribes in the entire WanShou Empire that did not rear their corresponding Totemic Heavenly Beasts. One reason was because War Bears were extremely difﬁcult to ﬁnd, being extremely few and rare in numbers. Secondly, the Bear Tribesmen already had a terrifying strength and power themselves. Each Bear Tribesmen Heavy Infantry soldier was more than two metres tall, their ﬁgure and stature like that of a giant bear, as brawny and muscular as can be. Their tough skin was able to withstand most blows, and their sheer physical strength combined with their commonly used weapon – massive spiked maces… they could be described as an unstoppable force on the battleﬁeld.

When the Bear Tribesmen Heavy Infantry soldiers appeared outside the Northwest Army camp, the entire Northwest Headquarters command was stunned silly. Naturally, they had heard of the terrifying power of the Tyrannical Bear Regiment. After all, the Tyrannical Bear Regiment was extremely notorious, and they normally were highly elite and only focused on the toughest Central North army zone. After all these years, at least a Legion of Central North army soldiers had perished at the hands of these formidable foes. Under any normal clash, even the most elite human Heavy Infantry soldiers were no match for them.

Furthermore, besides the Tyrannical Bear Regiment, there were six other powerful Regiments supporting them. One was a Wolf Cavalry Regiment, one Unicorn Cavalry Regiment, two Dog Tribe Scimitar Infantry Regiments and two Raging Bull Heavy Cavalry Regiments.

These Seven Regiments could be said to be some of the ﬁnest in the WanShou Empire. In truth, the most elite was deﬁnitely the Tyrannical Bear Regiment, but even so, this was deﬁnitely unprecedented pressure to the Northwest Army. Of the over six hundred thousand warriors in the entire Northwest Armies, over three hundred thousand were already activated and ﬁghting hard, still barely able to hold on with the help of the fortiﬁcations. The casualty on both sides were deﬁnitely highly disproportionate.

Hua Feng chose their path of approach to be from the side ﬂank where there was one of the Dog Tribe Scimitar Infantry Regiment and the Wolf Cavalry Regiment. As for the two Raging Bull Heavy Cavalry Regiments, they were charging the center lines together with the Tyrannical Bear Heavy Infantry Regiment. As such, the ZhongTian Northwest Armies also focused the main bulk of their forces in the central lines, with several of the Heavy Infantry and Heavy Cavalry Regiments all there. Naturally, the ﬁghting on both ﬂanks was not as ﬁerce as the center, but it was deﬁnitely still intensely ﬁerce.

The Dog Tribe Scimitar Infantry Regiment soldiers were all wearing leather armour, and their stature was deﬁnitely not as stout or powerful as either the Bear Tribesmen or Bull Tribesmen, but they were much more agile and nimble. With the scimitars in their hands, it was not easy for ordinary arrows to hit them. Their agile movements and strength was their greatest weapons against their enemies.

In the WanShou Empire, the Dog Men Tribe were also one of the larger tribes. Although their ﬁghting capabilities was average when compared to the majority of the Beastmen Tribes, but their numbers were extremely high, and they also had a good relation with the Wolfmen Tribe, thus their status in the WanShou Empire was not low at all. This was also shown by the fact that the Dog Men Tribe had six whole Regiments of soldiers in the entire WanShou Empire Army.

Since the Peerless Battalion had been set up, this was the ﬁrst time they were truly in a large scale battleﬁeld. Naturally, Hua Feng did not want them to go for the toughest enemies, especially on such a huge battleﬁeld of such numbers on both sides, and some of the greatest strengths of the Peerless Battalion would not be easy to bring into play. In such a case, it would be easier for them to strike from the relatively weaker ﬂank which had lesser numbers.

Under the direction of Hua Feng, the Peerless Battalion and the Heavy Infantry Regiment quickly reached the frontlines of the ﬂank they had targeted. Here, there were six of the Northwest Army Regiments in charge of the defense here, including the Sixteenth Regiment of the Seventh Legion.

As the Sixteenth Regiment Regiment Leader, Shen Bu was one of the commanders directing the ﬁght. As soon as she realised that the Peerless Battalion was nearing their ﬂank, she was overjoyed. As the one with earliest contact with the Peerless Battalion, and having suffered at their hands so many times, her knowledge and understanding of the Peerless Battalion was far above any of the other commanders in the Northwest Army, especially after getting together with Lin TianAo, she had learned a lot more about the Peerless Battalion. Of course, Lin TianAo would not reveal any core secrets to her, but some of the lesser important things he did not need to keep secret.

Seeing that the Peerless Battalion had brought along the Heavy Infantry Regiment, Shen Bu was overjoyed. She passed command over to her Vice Regiment Commander and immediately rode over personally to speak with Hua Feng. She quickly opened a space in her defensive zone for the Heavy Infantry Regiment and the Peerless Battalion to get in.

The other Regiments did not pay too much attention, thinking it was just reinforcements sent by the command. Seeing a Heavy Infantry Regiment join up with them, they were naturally overjoyed as well. After all, the Heavy Infantry Regiments were the most suited to defend against the charge of Wolf Cavalry soldiers.

Very quickly, the Heavy Infantry Regiment entered their defensive positions, taking formation according to their usual practice, with two Heavy Infantry soldiers protecting one Peerless Battalion soldier.

In truth, this was not a good time for archers to join the ﬁght, as the enemy distance was already very close. In the front, the Sixteenth Regiment was already having some trouble defending any longer. In such a circumstance, without being able to get some distance, even if archers wanted to shoot the enemies without harming their own, it would be extremely difﬁcult… unless they were god tier archers.

Even for the Peerless Battalion, not all the soldiers had the conﬁdence in doing so. After all, their time of training was not that long yet. Of course, the Peerless Battalion also had their share of elite archers.

Hua Feng’s ﬁrst command was to give the order to the First Main Company of the Peerless Battalion, the ﬁnest elite in the entire Peerless Battalion. The order was simple – to shoot and kill as many enemies as they could and give the Sixteenth Regiment time to retreat.

When Shen Bu saw the First Main Company of the Peerless Battalion drawing all ﬁve hundred of their bows, she was so nervous that she almost couldn’t breathe. At that moment, she did not give any order to dodge or retreat, afraid that if she interfered and anything went wrong, her own men would take severe injury… that would be a terrible blow!

Without giving Shen Bu much chance to think, the First Main Company already started shooting.

An earsplitting shrill sound rang out. Let alone the surrounding Regiments, even the Heavy Infantry Regiment protecting the Peerless Battalion was given a sudden fright. After all, in their normal training, the Peerless Battalion all used ordinary longbows, but now they were using their Consolidated Bows… it was a huge difference.

*Poof* *Poof* Poof* *Poof* Sounds rang out, and the trail of the arrows could not be seen at all. All that could be seen was plumes of blood suddenly rising up, along with cries of agony.

The First Main Company were not just with the highest cultivation levels, nor was it only that they were the ﬁrst to have their Consolidated Wings, but they also had some of the ﬁnest archery in the entire Peerless Battalion.

The Sixteenth Regiment soldiers, who had been ﬁghting desperately for their lives, suddenly felt the pressure upon them lessen greatly. The Dog Tribe soldiers and Wolf Cavalry soldiers suddenly turned into corpses in front of their eyes, along with clouds of blood spurting out. Such a sudden change was just too abrupt, and many of them weren’t even able to react.

From Shen Bu’s perspective, the ﬁve hundred soldiers of the Peerless Battalion First Main Company had ﬁred, and it was as if their arrows had eyes of their own, somehow ﬁnding tiny gaps and exposures, worming through the crowd of allies to strike directly on the enemies. Five hundred arrows, and not a single one struck her men. Of course, there were a few which missed their mark on the enemies, but absolutely none hit an allied soldier.

If such archery skills appeared on a single person, it would not arouse any notice, perhaps only leading to him getting praised as a god archer. However, when ﬁve hundred men all had such archery skills, it was truly a shocking sight indeed.

The Wolf Cavalry soldiers and Dog Tribe Infantry soldiers were not weak by any means, and their defensive capabilities might not compare to some of the other stronger Beastmen, but it was nothing to scoff at. However, in front of the Peerless Battalion Consolidated Bows, their tough skin was of no use at all, and only a pile of corpses was left in the wake. “Sixteenth Regiment, open a path and retreat to the sides!” Shen Bu immediately seized the chance to give the order. Being able to gain the rank of Regiment Commander, it was not just because of her status of Heavenly Jewel Commander. Her previous rashness aside, she was deﬁnitely a ﬁne commander with a good grasp of military command.

Chapter 167 Peerless in the World!

The Sixteenth Regiment beat their retreat instantly, and in that empty space they vacated, the First Main Company did not stop ﬁring. The shrill cries of the arrows ﬂying did not stop at all, and the Wolf Cavalry soldiers and Dog Tribe Infantry soldiers continued falling to the ground. As compared to the Unicorn Cavalry soldiers they had faced previously, these two Beastmen were much easier to deal with.

Previously, when they had been rescuing the surrounded Berserker and Gold Crow Tribes, the ﬁve hundred soldiers of the Peerless Battalion First Main Company had already awed and frightened off two of the WanShou Empire Regiments with their ﬁghting prowess. Now, facing two Regiments which were arguably lesser than those other two, and with such a large number of allies beside them, the First Main Company started ﬁring at will in conﬁdence. Despite being archers, they did not pull back, instead advancing slowly to the front lines to the space which had been vacated, even as they continued ﬁring rapidly. Within moments, the charging onslaught of enemies at the Sixteenth Regiment’s previous position was also almost emptied.

As the Sixteenth Regiment retreated, the Heavy Infantry Regiment and the Peerless Battalion advanced slowly together in perfect unity. As Hua Feng issued order after order, the other Main Companies slowly joined in the fray as they got into position.

Ever since the Peerless Battalion had grew to the strength of ﬁve thousand men, this was the ﬁrst time they had all been together on the same battleﬁeld. Five thousand Jewel Masters… elite archers with Consolidated Bows… what kind of notion was that!? Their shooting was actually really simple, with two Main Companies per group, in a cascading type formation, shooting continuously in proper sequence. Originally, these two WanShou Regiments, which the Six ZhongTian Regiments had been having so much trouble with, was instantly now being suppressed so simply. Along with the horrifying shrill sounds that struck terror in the hearts of all who heard them, waves of Wolf Cavalry Soldiers and Dog Tribe Infantry soldiers fell to the ground. In truth, it was not just the enemies, even the allied soldiers were so caught by surprise they did not understand what was going on, but at least the original pressure on them was greatly reduced.

Of course, even the Peerless Battalion soldiers could not be perfect, and their arrows could deﬁnitely miss. Even so, they were far more accurate than any ordinary archers, and with those highly penetrative arrows ﬁred from Consolidated Bows. In this, it could be easily seen by the number of severely wounded or killed after getting shot by the arrows. The ﬂank, originally wheeling on the edge of danger and awaiting rescue… within the time for a few dozen breaths, the pressure was gone.

After the Peerless Battalion entered the battleﬁeld, the Wolf Cavalry Regiment and the Dog Tribe Scimitar Infantry Regiment soldiers could no longer take another step forward. Under the constant onslaught of arrow raining down upon them, all they could do was leave corpses on the wake.

Some observant souls had managed to count on behalf of the Peerless Battalion… twenty four salvos of arrows, and the remnants of the Wolf Cavalry Regiment and Dog Tribe Scimitar Infantry Regiment retreated in bad shape… with barely a thousand men left in total.

It was after all two entire powerful Regiments from the WanShou Empire! To any ZhongTian Empire soldier who saw that sight right there, it was like a dream… an illusion. Countless of them had thought they were about to die, and yet the ﬁght suddenly ended before they knew it.

Of course, the Heavy Infantry soldiers by the side of the Peerless Battalion were totally shocked. They raised their tower shields, still in full disbelief. These fellows that trained with them everyday, they had actually created such a terrifying miracle. “PEERLESS IN THE WORLD!” A howl that rang through the skies, ﬁlled with excitement, rang out from every single one of the Peerless Battalion soldiers.

Indeed, they were the Peerless Battalion, Peerless in the World! In this battleﬁeld in the north borders, in front of hundreds of thousands of ZhongTian Northwest Army soldiers, this was the ﬁrst time that they had displayed their full strength to the world. They used their actions to prove to the world that though they might have been from the Rufﬁan Battalions of the world, they were the strongest… the Peerless Battalion was the absolute strongest!

Even with the stable-ness of the seven God Tier Archers of the Heavenly Bow Unit, when they heard the earsplitting howls of the Peerless Battalion soldiers, they couldn’t help but feel their blood boil with ardour as well. In their hearts a name rang out, the one who had created the Peerless Battalion.

Indeed, he had brought about a true miracle, and when this miracle descended upon their old homeland, who was to say that they would not be able to advance another miracle, to create a magniﬁcent, mighty revival of their Empire!

“Let’s move out, target the left ﬂank. All of you listen to me properly, when we get to the left ﬂank, I want you all to target the Unicorn Cavalry soldiers, but do your best not to harm any Unicorns Heavenly Beasts. Men, send someone to Tribe Leader Ma Long to prepare to receive those Heavenly Beasts with his tribesmen warriors.”

The war was still continuing, but this was just the start of a miracle.

Once again, they ignored the center lines. Once they achieved the decisive victory, the Peerless Battalion swiftly turned to the left ﬂank, their targets the Unicorn Cavalry Regiment and the other Dog Tribe Scimitar Infantry Regiment.

When the Peerless Battalion quietly left the right ﬂank, only then did the commanding ofﬁcers of both sides realise something was not right. In fact, both sides actually had the same feeling, that of abrupt shock. However, one side was a pleasant shock ﬁlled with happiness, while the other side was that of utter disbelief.

“What’s going on? What happened on the right ﬂank?” The overall commanding ofﬁcer of the Northwest Armies, one of the three great supreme commanders, Admiral Brando of the ZhongTian Empire exclaimed to his subordinate, his eyes ﬁlled with shock. He just received news that the two enemy Regiments on the right ﬂank had ﬂed with less than a tenth of them alive.

They had warred with the WanShou Empire for so many years, and this was truly the ﬁrst time Admiral Brando had met with such a circumstance. A moment ago, he had just been about to dispatch men to reinforce the right ﬂank which had been in severe danger, and the next moment, a fresh report had come.

“It’s the Peerless Battalion, they truly produced a miracle!” The one who spoke was an old man of about sixty or older, standing beside Admiral Brando in full uniform. He was Shen Ji, Shen Bu and Shen Yi’s godfather and Master, the Vice Commander of the ZhongTian Northwest Army, General Shen Wu.

“Wait… do you mean to say… that strange Battalion that the Heaven’s Expanse Palace used all the Rufﬁan Battalions to form?” Naturally, Admiral Brando knew of the Peerless Battalion, just that prior to this he had never paid much attention to it. It was not to say that he attach much importance to them, but he was unable to do so. After all, the matter of having the Heaven’s Expanse Palace intervene in such matters was extremely sensitive, and if they actually intervened in the war, it might not be a good thing in the big picture. As such, he had always pretended not to notice anything about the matter, allowing Shen Wu to handle everything.

“The Peerless Battalion actually has such powerful destructive powers? How did they do that?” Admiral Brando exclaimed in surprise towards Shen Wu.

Shen Wu gave a bitter smile and said: “Admiral, I’m not sure myself. I’ve sent people to check for myself, and I think I should get some news back soon.”

It didn’t take long before the Seventh Legion Commander Shen Ji personally got to the headquarters.

“Greetings Commander in Chief, Vice Commander.” Shen Ji’s face was ﬁlled with both shock and excitement. Having heard about precise news earlier, it was hard for him to believe it as well. However, the facts were right in front of his eyes, and he had no choice but to accept it. He knew that things were crucial, and immediately went personally to report to the headquarters. After all, only he was sufﬁciently knowledgeable and familiar with the Peerless Battalion, and once they had taken down the two Regiments on the right ﬂank, it would become the Northwest Army Command’s top level secret. “Shen Ji, what is going on?” Admiral Branco asked solemnly.

“Consolidated Bows! Commander, Consolidated Bows! Those Peerless Battalion soldiers are ALL Jewel Masters… ﬁve thousand Jewel Masters! Oh my god, it is ﬁve thousand Jewel Masters!! They are mostly Physical Jewel Masters, and with their powerful Consolidated Bows, within over twenty salvos of ﬁring they took down the foes from the two Regiments.”

“Wait. What? All Jewel Masters? How is that possible? Weren’t those soldiers all from the original Rufﬁan Battalions?” Shen Wu couldn’t help but exclaim.

Shen Ji gave a bitter smile and said: “I do not know the exact state of affairs. After all, our estimation of the Peerless Battalion was already extremely high, but I never expected that it was still a severe underestimation of them. They have now gone to the left ﬂank. Because they had the background of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, I did not direct them… Commander, Vice Commander, what should we do now?”

Admiral Branco stood up abruptly and he said: “What do we do? What else do you need me to say? Send my orders, Shen Ji, I want you to personally lead my Personal Guard Regiment to support the Peerless Battalion. No matter what, do not let any harm come to them. Hurry, go immediately. The presence of the Peerless Battalion might be the exact thing that can save our entire Northwest Army, to turn the tides of this supposedly impossible situation.”

As the commanding ofﬁcer and an experienced Admiral, it was without question that Brando could instantly sense that the presence of the Peerless Battalion was a perfect chance for them. Next, he gave another order for his two reserve Heavy Cavalry Regiments to move out into the battleﬁeld. They only had one order, to work together in ensuring the safety of the Peerless Battalion.

Although Admiral Brando wasn’t exactly certain about the exact offensive capabilities and strength of the Peerless Battalion, he was certain that if they truly could take down two WanShou Empire Regiments in such a short amount of time, then the Peerless Battalion would be a god tier weapon for the side of the Northwest Army… one that would help them against the WanShou Empire armies.

While Admiral Brando made the series of arrangements, the situation on the battleﬁeld was also going through its own series of rapid changes.

The ten Regiments of the WanShou Empire holding back was also starting to show some movement. Far off in the distance, a massive black cloud rose up, swarming like a strange dark cloud and ﬂying towards the battleﬁeld, quickly reaching almost a thousand metres high

Seeing that patch of dark clouds, the Northwest Army who were by now extremely familiar with the WanShou Empire armies, were totally caught by surprise. Of course, they totally recognized and knew what the dark clouds meant… just surprised by their presence here. They were after all one of the aces of the WanShou Empire armies, the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force.

In the entire WanShou Empire, only the Eagle Tribesmen were able to tame and rear mounts with ﬂying capabilities, at least at enough numbers to form a troop. The whole WanShou Empire only mustered a single Regiment of their numbers. Of course, due to their rarity, they were not gathered together in a Regiment, instead gathered in Battalions, distributed to the various armies in the WanShou Empire. However, they would not easily join the battle unless absolutely necessary.

No one could have imagined that the WanShou Empire would have paid so much attention to the Northwest Armies that they would actually send the Eagle Tribesmen… seeing them rise up into the airs, it looked to be about two whole Battalions of them! If one were to say that the Tyrannical Bear Regiment was still able to be blocked in a headon clash, no matter how tough that was, then the Eagle Tribesmen was an ever victorious force that had never been defeated in battle. The reason was simple – besides the WanShou Empire, there were no other countries in

the entire Mainland that had a proper air force.

The War Eagle Mounts that the Eagle Tribesmen warriors reared were about two metres in length, but their wingspans were more than ﬁve metres long, able to easily carry a Eagle Tribesman Warrior, who were one of the smaller amongst the Beastmen. The War Eagles all carried twelve short javelins and quivers of arrows… from a certain perspective, their equipment was very similar to the Peerless Battalion, except that the Eagle Tribesmen Warriors were mounted upon their War Eagle Mounts, while the Peerless Battalion would have to ﬂy on their own. Without question, the two Battalions of Eagle Tribesmen were specially here against the Peerless Battalion. With the supreme eyesight of the Eagle Tribesmen, even at the height of a thousand metres, they would still be able to clearly ﬁnd their targets on the ground.

Regarding the Peerless Battalion, the WanShou Empire were deﬁnitely well prepared. After all, when the Swift Wolf Regiment’s Commander Butler was wounded, the Heavenly Snow Mountain had learned about it. Furthermore, the other Wolf Cavalry Regiment and Unicorn Cavalry Regiment had been critically damaged previously, how could the Peerless Battalion not stirred up the full attention of the WanShou Empire? The two Eagle Tribesmen Regiment were specially sent to take care of the Peerless Battalion.

However, the WanShou Empire had made a mistake… an error in judgement regarding the true numbers of the Peerless Battalion. According to their reports, the Peerless Battalion numbered about a normal Battalion and maybe a little more. How could they possibly know that the Peerless Battalion had long since grown to more than ﬁve thousand men! As they watched the incoming ﬂying air troops, the Drunken Rogue Luo Ke Di said with a strange expression on his face: “Those… in the skies… they are here for us right?”

Hua Feng said with an ugly expression on his face: “What else could it be. Heavy Infantry Regiment, prepare a defensive formation against the top. Everyone, slow down, safety ﬁrst.”

The two Battalions of Eagle Tribesmen Air Force had come just too quickly. Before the Peerless Battalion could even reach the left wing, they had already risen into the air, and a rain of arrows descended from the skies, targeting the Peerless Battalion. The titanium mail of the Peerless Battalion might be strong, but their brilliant glow was also rather obvious, making them an easy target visually.

Without hesitation, the Peerless Battalion soldiers raised their Consolidated Bows and returned ﬁre. Alas, much to their vexation, even with their archery skills and powerful Consolidated Bows, it was extremely difﬁcult to strike a target in mid air especially at the height of more than a thousand metres… even if they found their mark, many of them had lost momentum and were easily batted aside by the claws of the War Eagles. Along with the string of *ding**ding**dang**dang* sounds of metal clashing on metal, the Heavy Infantry Regiment soldiers’ towwer shields easily blocked the rain of arrows from the skies. However, the next salvo that descended was no longer arrows, but the javelins thrown down from above.

The *ding**dang* sounds warped into a thunderous roar. If the previous rain of arrows could perhaps be said to be easily blocked by the Peerless Battalion titanium mail alone, the javelins would have totally destroyed them.

At this point, everybody, including Hua Feng, felt an unbelievable sense of admiration and respect for Zhou Weiqing. His foresight and preparation in this… had indeed avoided the greatest critical danger to the Peerless Battalion since it was set up.

“Battalion Commander, let my First Main Company go up and greet them. Air force against air force… we can teach them a lesson.” Lei Zi piped out.

Hua Feng glanced at him and said: “Stop talking rubbish, listen to orders. You want your men to ﬂy up and give their lives for nothing? They already have the high ground advantage far above us… before you all can even get halfway the distance to them, their javelins would have nailed you all.” The momentum of falling from a thousand metres height… let alone being thrown at full strength, even the thick tower shields were dented from the sheer smashing impact. Even though the First Main Company were the top elites of the Peerless Battalion and wearing their titanium mail, if they

were not careful they could be totally wiped out. The Peerless Battalion could not afford such a major loss! As such, Hua Feng deﬁnitely would not take such a massive risk. Zhou Weiqing had left him with a Peerless Battalion at full strength, and he wanted to return it to his command in perfect condition.

Mu En sidled up closer to Hua Feng and said softly: “Let’s wait a while, let them continue throwing the javelins. I do not believe that they can hold that many of such javelins on an airborne mount. Once they have ﬁnished throwing all their javelins… then we can deal with them. For now, we can just be careful and go according to our original plan to deal with the Unicorn Cavalry Regiment… and catch us some Unicorn Heavenly Beasts.”

Hua Feng exchanged a look with Mu En, an appreciative look of two cunning geniuses recognizing and appreciating each other. Very soon, he issued out a series of orders down. The Heavy Infantry soldiers lifted up their thick and heavy tower shields in an interlocking formation towards the skies, forming an impenetrable from above. Under the protection of such a moving metal fortress, the Peerless Battalion ignored the threat of the airborne Eagle Tribe Battalions, instead continuing to move slowly and steadily towards the left ﬂank, though they had slowed down by a lot.

Just like what Mu En had said, the javelins of the Eagle Tribesmen soldiers were extremely limited, and they could not possibly continue such an onslaught forever. After several rounds of the javelins raining down, they slowed down and stopped, seeking a better opportunity to take out the Peerless Battalion.

Very quickly, the Peerless Battalion reached the left ﬂank. Instantly, the shrill cries of arrows in ﬂight rang out once more. The Eagle Tribesmen soldiers above were extremely vexed to see from their vantage point wave after wave of arrows ﬂy out towards their allies, and accompanying the shrill cries they could only watch and see the Dog Tribe Scimitar Infantry Regiment soldiers and Unicorn Cavalry soldiers get mowed down like wheat during harvest season.

In terms of continued sustained ﬁghting capabilities in the air, the Peerless Battalion was undoubtedly no match for the Eagle Tribesmen Battalions. After all, the Eagle Tribesmen were mounted upon their trust War Eagles and had their support. However, in terms of sheer destructive power, being all Jewel Masters with Consolidated Bows, the Peerless Battalion was far beyond the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force.

As the slaughter started once again, Hua Feng stealthily called Lei Zi to his side and gave him some instructions in a low tone. Soon after, the Peerless Battalion First Main Company stopped their ﬁring, lying low under the protection of the Heavy Infantry soldiers as they took a rest, recovering their Heavenly Energy as they prepared for the next incoming order.

Ever since the Eagle Tribesmen Regiment was set up, it could be said that everything had gone smoothly for them, and they had never been defeated in battle. Currently, they were actually being blocked by the tower shields of the Heavy Infantry Soldiers, how could they not be furious. Another ﬂurry of javelins and arrows descended from the skies; alas the force from the arrows was insufﬁcient, and while the javelins were rather powerful, and even for the Heavy Infantry soldiers’ strength and physique, being struck by them continuously was almost too much for them, having to make use of the interlocking formation to rest their tower shields on the edge of their companions to increase the holding power. As a result, the ﬁring of the Peerless Battalion was affected, and their offensive power dropped somewhat. Beastmen Warriors did not fear death, and in this moment, it was truly displayed out. Although the Peerless Battalion had slain quite a number, they still continued charging in an ever greater frenzy. From the ten Regiments at the back, four more charged out. Amongst them, two charged directly to the right wing to replace the charge there. As for the other two, they headed to the left wing to reinforce it. Of the two headed to the left wing, one was particularly attention catching.

This Regiment obviously did not number ten thousand. To be more accurate, they only numbered that of a Battalion, yet, they were considered an entire Legion within the army.

They were all over four metres tall, their muscles bulging far beyond even that of those Bear Tribe Heavy Infantry Soldiers. They all had brownish yellow hair, and as they started charging from a distance, the entire earth seemed to shake, the pounding reverberating through the ground like an earthquake, from far to near as they charged at a speed belying their huge forms.

The Mammoth Regiment, the ultimate elite and ace of the WanShou Empire. In the entire WanShou Empire, the number of Mammoth Berserkers only totalled two thousand forming two Regiments of a thousand each. The reason why they were still known as a Regiment even though they only numbered a thousand was because even with such a number their combat strength was beyond ten thousand of any other Beastman Tribe.

The Mammoth Berserkers were known as the meat grinders of the battleﬁeld. Their weapons were Mammoth Totemic Poles over six metres long and with a diameter of about half a metre. They were crafted from a unique wood from the north, known as the Metal Strength Wood, and each weighed over a thousand jin.

Every time the Mammoth Berserker Warriors appeared on the battleﬁeld of the north, it would normally be in the Central North lines, and they would be met by the ZhongTian Heavenly Jewel Master Battalion. In terms of Beastmen soldiers and their individual personal strengths, the Mammoth Beastmen could be said to be at the very top.

The WanShou Empire armies had controlled any spread of news just too perfectly, and up until the point that the Mammoth Berserker Regiment entered the battleﬁeld, only then did the ZhongTian Northwest Armies learn that the WanShou Empire had actually dispatched this terrifying force to this side. For the Peerless Battalion, the WanShou Empire had actually sent out both their aces, the Eagle Tribe and Mammoth Tribe Regiments… one could see the sheer importance they placed on the Peerless Battalion.

Of course, as the WanShou Empire started their own movement of troops, the ZhongTian empire side were not idle. Previously, the Peerless Battalion had cleared out all the enemies on the left ﬂank, and it was a huge disruption to the WanShou Empire’s attack and formations, and it stabilized their own defensive formations.

On the right ﬂank, they swiftly reinforced with a Heavenly Infantry Regiment and two ordinary Infantry Regiments, while the center lines were also reinforced with two Heavy Infantry soldiers to help hold back the defensive formation, blocking the crazed onslaught from the Tyrannical Bear Regiment and the two Raging Bull Regiments.

The strongest reaction was naturally to the left ﬂank, where three entire Heavy Cavalry Regiments charged to reinforce it. That was not all; with another Cavalry Regiment riding to join in, dressed fully in a light mail, wearing helmets with purple red coloured tassels. Their speed was extremely fast, and they soon reached quickly. They were all wielding long spears, and amazingly, all the javelins and arrows that rained down from above were easily dodged or parried with those spears. The WanShou Empire had their ace forces, how could the ZhongTian Empire not have their own ace up the sleeve? This Purple Tasseled Regiment was Admiral Brando’s Personal Guard Regiment, and they were the ﬁnest elite force in the entire Northwest Armies.

With the Purple Tasseled Regiment at the lead, supplemented by the three other Heavy Cavalry Regiments, their only goal now was to protect the Peerless Battalion.

No matter what they thought about the Peerless Battalion or their previous actions, when they heard the shrill cries of the arrows and the effect of their slaughter of the enemies, all the Northwest Army forces couldn’t help but feel respect for them. Even the Purple Tasseled Regiment would not dare to boast of such unbelievable offensive capabilities.

After so many years of warring against the WanShou Empire, both small and large scale battles alike, but for the ZhongTian Empire, for them to actually kill off almost two entire Regiments of Beastmen soldiers was nearly unheard of totally. Yet, just the ﬁve thousand soldiers of the Peerless Battalion had already nearly wiped out three whole Battalions of WanShou Empire armies since winter had begun, and it looked like the number was steadily increasing. “Battalion Commander, Tribe Leader Ma Long has brought his Berserker Tribe brothers to the front lines.” One of the Peerless Battalion soldiers ran over to report to Hua Feng.

Hua Feng nodded and said: “Tell Tribe Leader Ma Long not to rush to join the battle. Ask him to wait for us to start suppressing the Eagle Tribe Regiment before they head out to collect those Unicorn Heavenly Beasts.

As the Peerless Battalion entered the fray, the Dog Tribesmen Infantry soldiers and Unicorn Cavalry soldiers were starting to sustain heavy injuries and casualties, and from the looks of things, they would not be able to hold on for long.

At this point, the Mammoth Regiment and the supporting Nimble Panther Regiment still had some distance to close before reaching the front lines. It was clear that they would not be in time to reinforce the now-belaboured left ﬂank.

The battle had already entered a white hot stage, and every minute both sides lost large amounts of soldiers, leaving their lives forever on this battleground. By now, the total kill-count of the entire Peerless Battalion alone had already surpassed the grand total of all the other ZhongTian Empire Northwest Armies added together. On the left ﬂank, besides the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force Regiment, the rest of the WanShou Empire armies were on the verge of breakdown.

“Battalion Commander, please let us set out now!”

Lei Zi urged Hua Feng to give the order, rather impatiently. All this while, Hua Feng had been fully focused on observing the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force Regiment high up in the skies. As for the Mammoth Regiment, he did not seem to worry about them at all. Seeing that the Northwest Army Command had actually sent four Cavalry Regiments to their aid, especially with three elite Heavy Cavalry Regiments… it was clear that they had already realised the importance of the Peerless Battalion to this war. Perhaps all those reinforcements added together might not be able to defeat the Mammoth Regiment, but he was conﬁdent that it was deﬁnitely sufﬁcient to protect the Peerless Battalion. The only worry Hua Feng had was the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force Regiment high up in the sky… After all, being suppressed was not a good feeling at all. The destructive power of the Eagle Tribesmen soldiers were not to be underestimated at all, and besides the Heavy Infantry soldiers and the Purple Tasseled Regiments, the rest of the Northwest Army Regiments would not likely be able to block their attacks.

“Wait a while more.” Hua Feng said solemnly.

Lei Zi said urgently: “Battalion Commander, let us go. They do not have any more javelins, they haven’t thrown any in quite some time. Our Brothers can hold up their shields as we charge up… there should not be any big danger. Once we reach a sufﬁcient distance, we will be able to exchange ﬁre, and show them our own strength.”

Hua Feng hesitated a moment, eyeing the skies calmly. Finally, he turned to Shangguan Fei’er and said: “Chief Drill Instructor, please lead the First Main Company up. I leave them in your capable hands.”

Shangguan Fei’er had long since been aching to join the ﬁght, and she nodded before turning to Lei Zi, saying: “I’ll lead the way to draw their ﬁre and cause them some trouble ﬁrst. You all follow suit.”

As she said that, two dark gold lights sprang out in an aura around Shangguan Fei’er’s body. At the same time, a green light spread out from her body, sweeping up several dozen of the fallen Eagle Tribesmen javelins that had fallen to the ground. As Shangguan Fei’er ﬂew up into air at lightning speed, those javelins ﬂew up right behind her, and the massive gold and green ray ﬂew towards Eagle Tribesmen Air Force Regiment.

The massive dark gold Consolidated Wings and her sheer speed caused Shangguan Fei’er to look like a strange dark–gold meteor smashing towards the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force. The greatest strength and advantage of the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force was that they were airborne. In terms of pure defensive capabilities, they were perhaps no match for even the Wolf Cavalry soldiers.

As Shangguan Fei’er ﬂew up into air, dozens of blood mist sprayed out in mid air. The javelins that Shangguan Fei’er had thrown up with her powerful Heavenly Xu Energy and Wind Attribute force was not something that ordinary War Eagle mounts or Eagle Tribesmen could handle. As for Shangguan Fei’er, she had already charged into the midst of the Eagle Tribesmen, like a war goddess smashing into them.

She had long since been bursting with impatience, itching to join the ﬁght. After all, she was most adept at air combat… it was what she had trained for all her life… being suppressed by an enemy air force, how could she feel happy at all? She did not use her other Consolidated Equipment, not even her bracer- claws, just with her pair of dark gold Consolidated Wings, and she was like an unstoppable spear stabbing savagely deep into the formation of the Eagle Tribesmen. Where she ﬂew to, the corpses of the War Eagles and Eagle Tribesmen fell, and the Eagle Tribesmen Regiment which had been enjoying their unparalleled easy life high in the skies were suddenly put in disorder and disarray. In truth, the Eagle Tribesmen Regiment knew about the Peerless Battalion having several hundred Air Force troops of their own. As such, they had saved a portion of the javelins in preparation of their attack which they had expected at any time. Alas, they had never in their wildest imaginations dreamed that it would only be a single person ﬂying up ﬁrst… a

single but deadly person indeed.

Soon after, Lei Zi led his First Main Company behind Shangguan Fei’er, all of them using their small round shields held protectively in front of them as they ﬂew at top speeds high up into the skies.

When the Northwest Armies soldiers saw ﬁve hundred men actually ﬂy up into the skies and charging towards Eagle Tribesmen Regiment, their jaws almost dropped in shock. They only had one thought in mind: Since when did we have an Air Force?!

The facts had indeed proved themselves… What Lei Zi promised to Hua Feng earlier was no exaggeration. As the gap between the two Air Forces drew close, the ﬁrst salvo of the Peerless Battalion First Main Company Air Force once again rang out with the familiar shrill ringing of arrows ﬂying through the sky, and what resulted was a tragedy for the Eagle Tribesmen. It wasn’t that the Eagle Tribesmen lacked powerhouses, but when Shangguan Fei’er had charged in at the front, all of the powerhouses had gone after her.

At this point, the superiority of personal ﬂight versus mounted ﬂight showed itself. In midair, Shangguan Fei’er moved around at lightning speed, and the sheer speed and agility was not something that the War Eagles could match, especially while carrying their riders. Amongst the Eagle Tribesmen Air Force Battalion, there were a few dozen Heavenly Jewel Masters, and out of them there were a few Six and Seven Jeweled ones. However, even for them, against Shangguan Fei’er’s terrifying offensive power, they did not have a chance at all.

Along with the shrill sounds of the Consolidated Bows and arrows, a large cloud of blood mist appeared in the skies. Below, the four thousand and ﬁve hundred Peerless Battalion soldiers on the ground shouted in unison: “Peerless… Peerless!” This time, even the Northwest Army soldiers were infected, shouting out loud together with them. Under the leadership of the Purple Tasseled Regiment, the four Cavalry Regiment reinforcements charged towards their foes.

When armies met on the battleﬁeld, one of the most important things that would inﬂuence outcome was deﬁnitely morale. With the invincible Eagle Tribesmen Air Force suffering an unforeseen beating, it was like injecting an extra boost of stimulants to the entire ZhongTian Northwest Army. More importantly, the Peerless Battalion had proven to them that the Beastmen were not unbeatable. In a short amount of time, soldiers used their lives to start pushing back against the berserking Tyrannical Bear Regiment, and for once with some measure of success.

The Eagle Tribesmen Regiment realised things were not going well, but by the time they wanted to react better against the Peerless Battalion, they had already reached the same level height as them.

Being at equal height meant that only arrows could be of any use, and the javelins would no longer be effective.

Even for the ﬁnest javelin thrower, being able to throw a distance of a hundred yards accurately was already a miracle. Normally, the effective killing distance of a thrown javelin was about forty to ﬁfty metres, but in mid air, what was a mere forty or ﬁfty yards?

Chapter 168 Dragon and Tiger, Bloodlines Merge!

…

Fire Spirit Mountain.

If at this moment, one was standing at the circular rings atop of the Fire Spirit Mountain, he would be able to see a strange ball of red light appearing and disappearing right in the center of the Fire Spirit Mountain, even through all the thick billowing smoke that obscured the vision… as if a massive precious gem was glowing right in the middle of the broiling volcano.

Of course, the truth of the matter was that it was not possible for such a gemstone to exist here… in the unbelievable heat of the magma here, even the toughest gemstone would have melted.

Within the thick, sticky and scorching lava, a gleaming,, slippery bald head popped out like a sore thumb, looking extremely strange and out of place. After all, having a bald head there seemingly ﬂoating on such a terribly hot lava, what kind of picture did that paint? The ﬂickering light was indeed coming from the surroundings of this bald head, and the staining red of it was naturally due to the colour of the magma.

To be more accurate, it was the body connected to that bald head, submerged deep in the magma, that was shining so brightly… along with the refraction from the magma… that caused this rather peculiar sight.

This day would be the thirty sixth day since Zhou Weiqing had been submerged in the magma. Looking at the Little Fatty still submerged in the lava, Long Big Fatty who had also been here for thirty six days couldn’t help but occasionally give a big grin… a grin that showed his happiness and satisfaction.

Right above where Zhou Weiqing’s now-bald head was, a clear black tiger was there, its huge twin wings spread apart. At the same time, coiled around was a massive red dragon. Both looked unbelievably realistic, vivid and lifelike, and though their sizes were perhaps not what they were supposed to be, at only a metre long, but they just seemed just so real.

If Long Shiya had to describe Zhou Weiqing’s current state, perhaps the words Dragon-Tiger Integration was the most suitable. Within this thirty six days, the Four Saint Attributes which had appeared without warning had helped merge the two stubborn forces which had originally been at odds with each other. The power of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline had ﬁnally been fused together to form a single entity, accepting of each other… becoming a whole new bloodline power that was the sum of both… and perhaps more.

Even with Long Shiya’s cultivation level of Heavenly Emperor, he could not clearly sense what this power was, but the only thing he was sure about was that with these two unbelievably powerful bloodline powers integrated together, it was not just so simple as a matter of one plus one equals two.

In this thirty six days, Zhou Weiqing had grown greyish black hair, almost fur… and he had also grown some ﬁery red scales, while his body had gone through the multiple changes intermittently. However, the most obvious thing was that the pain shown on his face had never dropped. After eighteen days, nothing else grew on the head, as the two powerful energies in his body ﬁnally settled down and started a stable merging process.

At last, after the next eighteen days, Long Shiya could ﬁnally sense that the bloodline power in Zhou Weiqing had reached a perfect state, and it looked like the fusion of the two was ﬁnally reaching completion.

However, that did not mean that Long Shiya could feel relaxed by any means. Instead, his expression grew more serious and imposing. He knew that when the two powerful bloodlines ﬁnally merged for good, it would deﬁnitely evoke another evolving of Zhou Weiqing’s body. That was to say, for this Awakening of Zhou Weiqing’s to succeed, there was the last hurdle he had to get past… and that was his body had to actually withstand the evolving power of the bloodlines.

The stronger the ﬁnal fused bloodline was, the more difﬁcult it would be withstand the ﬁnal step. Although Zhou Weiqing had already evolved twice due to his Demonic Change State, and his body was already extremely strong, but the bloodline power would be even more terrifying. More importantly, in Long Shiya’s memory, this was something that he had never met with before, or even heard of, so everything was unknown. Many times, it was the unknown that was the most terrifying thing.

Just as Long Shiya was examining Zhou Weiqing’s face and expression, all of a sudden, Zhou Weiqing opened his eyes, that had been closed for all this time. Two brilliant and dazzling rays of light shone from Zhou Weiqing’s eyes, and it pierced through all the ﬁre and thick smoke easily, all the way up into the skies.

A strange vortex of air appeared right above Zhou Weiqing’s head, and the black tiger and red dragon which had originally been hovering above seemed to be sucked right into the whirling winds, before they all bored right into his head from the top.

Long Shiya could clearly see that currently Zhou Weiqing’s eyes had changed colours, one was a total pitch black, while the other was an eerie crimson red, the strange beams of bright light still emitting from them was also now one icy cold and one ﬁery hot, but there seemed to be no emotion within.

Not good, he has lost hold of his mind’s core! Long Shiya was taken aback, and a light ﬂashed in his eyes as his powerful spiritual force pressured down upon Zhou Weiqing instantly. At the same time, he shouted out loud: “Little Fatty, calm down! Regain control!”

As he shouted, his spiritual energy swarmed into Zhou Weiqing’s mind to help him pacify the scattered and messy internal spiritual reverberations. However, to Long Shiya’s great surprise, as soon as his spiritual energy entered Zhou Weiqing’s brain, he sensed an unbelievably crazed aura bursting forth from Zhou Weiqing. Although his spiritual energy was far from being close to being as strong as Long Shiya’s, Long Shiya could sense that if he tried to forcefully help, it could actually cause Zhou Weiqing’s entire mind and spirit to crumple instead, destroying him.

As a result, he had no choice but to retreat out of Zhou Weiqing’s mind.

Right at this moment, Zhou Weiqing’s body started to change and evolve.

A moment ago, he was still submerged in the magma, but now his body started levitating upwards, ﬂoating up from within the lava to hover in mid air.

The greyish black tiger tattoos instantly covered his entire body, and at the same time, on Zhou Weiqing’s back, two strange protrusions suddenly appeared as his entire body seemed to give a weird creaking sound that resounded from his very bones… a sound that could almost cause one’s teeth to ache. At this point, Zhou Weiqing’s face was twisted and warped, showing that he was enduring massive pain. Even the tiger tattoos on his body seemed to be writhing violently, extremely unstable, and the red and black light in his eyes shone bright in an intermittent, interchanging way. Every time the light

changed, the tiger tattoos on his body would undulate even more violently, almost frantically.

The next instant, crimson red scales seemed to slowly break out of ZHou Weiqing’s skin, and his hands and left foot seemed to be warping shape… changing from a tiger’s palm to a dragon’s claws constantly as if it couldn’t decide upon a shape.

One had to know that such a changing of shape was not just a mere illusion, but an actual warping of skin, ﬂesh, bones, muscles and even down to his meridian channels… and one could imagine the sheer agony that this constant change was bringing to Zhou Weiqing. The dark red scales and the greyish black tiger tattoos were now clashing violently, and the two protrusions on his back seemed to grow larger as the bloodline power aura from his body seemed to be even more chaotic, violent, complex and … crazed.

Long Shiya started worrying once more. He knew that Zhou Weiqing was on the verge of succession, and by Awakening his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and merging it with his bloodlines, this was at the last stage… but also the most dangerous stage. If he failed now, then Zhou Weiqing would implode from the sheer power and die… even if he somehow survived, he would become an inhuman creature, an existence perhaps lesser than even a Heavenly Beast, no longer able to resume his human form.

As he could not use his spiritual energy to intervene after failing previously, Long Shiya could only watch and wait anxiously, not able to do anything. What could he do besides wait? The only thing Zhou Weiqing could depend on now was himself and his own willpower. Only if he could protect the last bit of clarity in his own mind’s core would he be able to wake up at the last critical moment. For now, Long Shiya could only attempt to comfort himself with the thought of the Four Saint Attributes that had appeared earlier. Another hour passed, and Zhou Weiqing’s body continued in that seemingly ever-changing state, only his right leg had changed into the black scorpion hook of his Demonic Right Leg, and that seemed to be the only stable part of his entire body, remaining constant all this while, as the rest of his body morphed constantly between the two states.

All of a sudden, with an abrupt sickening sound, a cloud of blood mist burst forth from Zhou Weiqing’s back, giving Long Shiya a fright. He almost thought that in that instant, Zhou Weiqing had been unable to withstand the bloodline power and imploded.

However, just as he was about to react, a pair of huge wings sprouted out from the freshly opened wounds on Zhou Weiqing’s back, unfurling in a jerky, almost childish way, as if it was learning how to do so as it went along, slowing opening up to its full width.

Long Shiya’s eyes opened wide. He had never heard of a bloodline power allowing humans to grow wings… not even the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord’s Divine Heavenly Spirit Tiger bloodline had such a possible change, even though the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord was born a Heavenly Beast.

Black Tiger with two pairs of wings?!

At last, the two pair of wings spread out, each almost two metres long, curling back and unfurling out constantly behind Zhou Weiqing’s back. Every Time they did so, they seemed to become smoother, more familiarized. The two contrasting colours and light of crimson red and greyish black was also slowly drawn to the wings.

At this point, the highly pained expression of Zhou Weiqing’s face that had remained in that state for so long seemed to ﬁnally smooth out, and the scary looking wounds on his back that was the result of the wings seemed to be healing rapidly. Right at the point of those wounds, the crimson red and greyish black seemed to gather… fusing together, ﬁnally turning into strange looking purplish scales covering Zhou Weiqing’s skin in that area, before slowly spreading out.

The scales were shaped similar to those of dragonkind, a diamond like structure, and looked to be only a very thin layer without popping out awkwardly, instead extremely ﬁne and densely compacted, as if a type of satin fabric covering every inch of Zhou Weiqing’s body… all the way to his face and the freshly bald head.

Even though these scales were as thin and ﬁne as they could possibly be, but being fully covered by them from top to toe even down to the huge wings on his back, Zhou Weiqing looked absolutely nothing like he did before. His now dark reddish purple face was not ugly at all, but it was clear that his looks had changed subtly after this fusion of his bloodline and evolving of his body. The change was not much, but his previous innocent / honest look was deﬁnitely lessened, replaced with a slightly colder, powerful and more digniﬁed look. The black and red orbs respectively had both been replaced with a ﬁnal purple colour, a deeper purple than even the Divine Heavenly Spirit Tigers like Tian’er, glowing almost with a strange demonic light.

A raw coldness, darkness, evil… ﬁery heat, scorching fury… all sorts of different auras burst forth in succession intermittently constantly.

In the end, he still maintained human form, no matter all his other changes. This ﬁnal result could be called the third evolving of his Demonic Change State, and also the ﬁnal result of his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit Awakening. *Poof**Poof**Poof**Poof* Four explosive sounds rang out from Zhou Weiqing’s body, as all of a sudden, four new Death Acupuncture Points of his body broke through instantly, as his Immortal Deity Technique actually broke through four stages almost simultaneously. A fresh new Physical Jewel and Elemental Jewel immediately formed around his wrist right after that.

Has the fusion succeeded? Alas… no… it had not fully succeeded yet.

Long Shiya’s heart abruptly skipped a beat. His face had just started showing a hint of wild joy, and it was suddenly replaced by worry once more.

Without question, the changes in Zhou Weiqing body showed that the fusion of the bloodlines had already been basically completed, and the terrifying power of the fused bloodline was accepted by his body, and it had endured through the beginnings of this new merger. The last thirty six had not been wasted at all, and the unique combined power of the Four Saint Attributes had indeed been able to harmonize and allow Zhou Weiqing’s body to endure the sheer power of the two combined bloodlines. However, there was currently something very wrong with Zhou Weiqing’s current eyes and look in them. The previous cold craziness which had appeared when Consolidating his Sixth set of Heavenly Jewels had slowly turned into a wild brutish ferocity… and more so… his ‘lower body’ was slowly expanding… standing up…

“This… this…”

Sacriﬁce… he needs a sacriﬁcial offering. This strange fusion requires a ‘sacriﬁce’ to complete the fusion and Awakening… and also to awaken his suppressed consciousness.

Who was Long Shiya? With a single look, he could tell what Zhou Weiqing needed for the ﬁnal touch.

What do I do? Do I have to actually charge up the Heavenly Snow Mountain to grab Tian’er over here to be the ‘sacriﬁce’ for Little Fatty’s Awakening? But.. that isn’t realistic at all! Distance was not a problem, but no matter how high an opinion Long Shiya held of himself, he did not think he would be able to grab someone from the hands of the Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord. Alright, I don’t care anymore! After pondering for awhile, Long Shiya ﬁnally made a decision. No matter what, he would have to look around for a ‘sacriﬁcial offering’ ﬁrst for Little Fatty before thinking about anything else. There was still some time before Zhou Weiqing’s ﬁnal fusion had to complete, and he needed to ﬁnd a ‘sacriﬁcial offering’ in a short period of time so that the Awakening would be complete and perfect. At the worst, he would greatly compensate whichever young lady he grabbed.

As he thought that, Long Shiya sprang into action. Zhou Weiqing’s Heavenly Energy had abruptly broken through four stages to consolidate his Sixth set of Heavenly Jewels, and he had some time to look for a perfect ‘sacriﬁcial offering’ to help Zhou Weiqing Awaken.

Green light surrounded his body and Long Shiya soared into the air, disappearing into the distance. At the same time, he extended his spiritual energy to the maximum distance, using his powerful strength to continuously sense for any signs of life in his surroundings.

As he looked around, Long Shiya couldn’t help but think to himself: Little Fatty, you better pray that this Big Fatty will be able to ﬁnd a beauty for you… otherwise, if your luck is really bad, if I really can’t ﬁnd any woman, then maybe I’ll have no choice but to bring back some female Heavenly Beast. Ugh, that Little Fatty… what a little brat, hmph, but his ‘package’ isn’t too bad… could it be this bloodline fusion and evolving this time has let ‘that place’ grown bigger?

Despite having his mind ﬁlled with strange and weirdly wandering thoughts, Long Shiya’s speed did not slow at all, and he ﬂew swiftly into the distance.

Not much time passed, and all of a sudden, a light ﬂickered in Long Shiya’s eyes. He had spotted a target within his spiritual energy senses just several li away... with three people headed towards the WanShou Empire Ten Thousand Beast Heavens, at not a slow speed either. Amongst the three of them, he could sense that one had a ﬁner breathing, also smaller and lighter of form, clearly a woman, and more so, a young woman.

Little Fatty, looks like your luck isn’t too bad! At least I don’t have to consider a female Heavenly Beast.

If Zhou Weiqing knew what his Master had been thinking, perhaps he would rather not be Awakened by that ‘alternative’.

“Ohh, actually Heavenly King Stages…” As he got closer, Long Shiya could better sense the three clearly. He was surprised to discover that amongst the other two men of the three were actually both Heavenly King Stage powerhouses.

However, so what if they were Heavenly King Stage powerhouses? That did not change Long Shiya’s plan at all. Time waited for no man, and it was deﬁnitely of vital importance to Zhou Weiqing, and he could not possibly just leave them to attempt to look for another target just because there were two Heavenly King powerhouses.

In the distance, the three ﬁgures appeared in Long Shiya’s sight, running and jumping along at high speeds.

Before Long Shiya reached them, an overbearingly powerful aura pressured down upon the three of them, a terrifying presence causing the three of them to halt abruptly, shock on his face.

Two men and one lady. The two men were both around the age of sixty, clearly the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses than Long Shiya had sensed from a distance away. As for the young lady in the middle, she was all dressed in black, her head of black hair streaming behind her back in the wind. Her cultivation level was much lower in comparison, about six to seven Jewels or so. Though it was deﬁnitely pretty good for her age, but facing the pressure from the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor, her face turned pale and ashen.

Seeing a massive fat man descending from the skies, the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses did not hesitate to step in front of the black clothed young lady, their expressions serious as she looked at Long Shiya.

Long Shiya’s character had always been doing things according to his wishes, and now that it had to do with his own precious disciple’s life and safety, he did not even bother wasting time with small talk. With a solemn voice, he said: “Get lost, or I’ll kill you both.”

The old man on the left had his expression change and he said: “Senior… I’m sorry… how have we offended you, what do you need from us?”

Long Shiya said coldly: “I am taking this young lady away, and if you know what’s good for you, you would get lost… otherwise, don’t blame this old man for being merciless.” As he said that, a strange sight occurred.

All they saw next was Long Shiya waving his hand, and eleven glittering Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewels swirling around his wrists. As they twirled one round, six of them landed around Long Shiya’s feet, forming a hexagon shape. The other ﬁve ﬂoated above Long Shiya’s head, forming a pentagon shape. As they spun, the hexagon at Long Shiya’s feet started changing colours, each glowing with the respective colours of water, ﬁre, earth, wind, light and darkness attributes, forming a layer of light slowly rising from the ground, covering his entire massive body with a glow.

The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses cried out involuntarily in alarm almost simultaneously: “Six … Six Ultimate Heavenly Formation… Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor…!!!”

Indeed, what was below Long Shiya’s feet was his famed Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts. This was also the reason why he told Zhou Weiqing that the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts could only be properly used when at the Six-Jeweled cultivation level as a base. Once one like them had Six Heavenly Jewels, they would be able to use the true Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation, using the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts to its true effect.

Facing two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses, in order to save time, Long Shiya unleashed his strongest Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation without hesitation. The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses’ faces were ﬁlled with shock and fear. Naturally, they knew of the famed Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation; they knew who the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor was and what that meant.

“As I said, if you know what is good for you, get lost, don’t make this old man take action. Since my Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation was complete, I have never used it against any foe lower than a Heavenly Emperor. How? You two want to be the honoured exceptions today?”

The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses exchanged looks. They knew that with their cultivation level, they would not be able to do anything against the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor no matter how hard they tried. The one on the left swallowed hard and braced himself, saying: “Heavenly Emperor, we are from the Heavenly Demon Sect. Please, for the sake of our Demonic Emperor, we beg that you show mercy. This is our little princess. If the Heavenly Emperor needs women, we can go catch them for you right now, as many as you need we will provide them all.” As he said that, he couldn’t help but think to himself: I’ve never heard about this Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor was that fond of women!

Long Shiya growled angrily: “Nonsense, what bullshit. This old man has lived for more than a hundred years and am still a pure virgin, and every morning I will still have ‘one pillar to prop up the sky’[1. Literal translation of chinese idiom, normally used to describe being a pillar of society / a nation, or just a very capable person. In this case, you know what he’s alluding to;) ]. Why would I need women? Get lost!!”

Chapter 169 Sacriﬁce! Wu Yuehan!

Long Big Fatty’s purity had been questioned, so how could he not be enraged. With a wave of his right hand, two blades of light ﬂew towards the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses. Behind his back, an even larger illusory image of Long Big Fatty rose up behind… the Heavenly Skill Image of himself!

The two blades of light looked very similar to an ordinary Wind Blade, but as soon as they ﬂew out, the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses’ faces changed… Because, the two blades of light were actually both glowing with six different colours!

With simultaneous shouts, the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses took a step back swiftly, their Heavenly Energy bursting forth immediately as all their Consolidated Equipment appeared on them. Both were geared in seven pieces of a Zong Stage Consolidating Equipment Set.

Once someone reached the Heavenly King Stage cultivation level, things were very different. At that point, they could instantly complete wearing all their Consolidated Equipment at once. Both their weapons were swords, and simultaneously they slashed forward towards the blade of lights. One of them shouted out: “Yue Han, run!” The two blades of light were struck by the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses’ Consolidated Swords. However, to their shock, none of the expectation clash of energies of explosions occurred.

Wearing their full Consolidated Equipment Set, the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses felt as if their eyes blurred, everything turning illusory around them. As for the black clad young lady behind them, all she saw was that they were now covered by a layer of six lights.

One step, and Long Shiya seemed to descend down from the heavens. With a wave of his large hand, the black clad young lady felt as if the very air around her body consolidated, like an invisible huge hand was holding her body. A thick green light rose about them abruptly, and she had already left the ground, soaring high into the sky together with Long Big Fatty.

*Poof**Poof* The six-coloured shield around the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses disappeared instantly. When the two managed to break lose, all they managed to see was Long Shiya soar off into the sky with the black clad young lady in tow.

Both of them howled angrily into the sky, soaring into the air as well. As Heavenly King Stage powerhouses, they could still manage ﬂight for a short period of time, and the two of them circulated their Heavenly Energy to the max, and their eyes started turning bloodshot.

“Don’t even try the Demonic Change State in front of me. Normally, with my temper, neither of you would have a chance to live.” Long Shiya’s disdainful voice rang out in the air. Next, a huge shield of light, six coloured once more, appeared in the skies. In a huge clashing sound, the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses were knocked back down by the intense impact.

Heavenly King Stage and Heavenly Emperor Stage. It might only seem to be the simple difference of just one stage, a difference of title or designation. However, in truth, these two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses were only at the Mid Level of the Heavenly King Stage, while Long Shiya had long since been at the High Level, probably Maximum level of the Heavenly Emperor Stage. Heavenly King High, Maximum, Heavenly Emperor Low, Mid, High, Maximum Levels… six whole levels!

Once at the Heavenly King Stage and above, the gap between each level was massive, almost similar to the gap for every Jewel of a Heavenly Jewel Master. For them, facing Long Shiya was tantamount to a two Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master facing an eight Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master. They would not stand a chance.

The reason why Long Shiya did not just kill them off and showed mercy was because he was still rather embarrassed in his heart. After all, he was about to snatch a young lady as a ‘sacriﬁce’ for his own precious disciple, and it was nothing to be proud of at all. After all, if it was just about the Heavenly Demon Sect, he was not afraid of them at all. Of the Five Great Saint Lands, besides the Heavenly Snow Mountain with the Heavenly God Tier Heavenly Snow Mountain Lord, Long Shiya did not respect the other four Great Saint Lands.

Of course, that did not mean that he could take on an entire Great Saint Lands just by himself, but do not forget that he was just a lone person, and a maximum level Heavenly Emperor powerhouse to boot. As long as he was willing to do so, no one could surround him and attack him. Once he wanted to cause trouble to any side, even if it were a Great Saint Lands, they would not be able to handle it. This was one of the beneﬁts of being a lone wolf. Of course, one had to be an extremely powerful lone wolf to be able to enjoy such beneﬁts.

The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouse slammed back down savagely onto the ground after knocking into the shield. Long Shiya’s voice came from all around them: “I’m taking this girl, I have something extremely important that I need her help with, and I will not harm her life. You two just wait here, it will take minimum one day, maximum three days of time. I will bring her back here when it is over.”

As the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses landed on the ground, the red in their eyes faded away. When they had smashed into that six-coloured shield of light, they felt as if their connection with the world’s atmospheric energy vanish in that instant, stealing their power to ﬂy and also forcefully stop the Demonic Change occurring in their body and cutting it off.

They had inherited the Demonic Change State that had been in their families for generations, and it was only when they reached the Heavenly King Stage that they had been able to maintain a clear mind when in the Demonic Change State. Even so, it would take them some time to fully enter the Demonic Change State, just like unleashing any powerful Skill. This was the difference between their Demonic Change State and a First Generation Demonic Change State like Zhou Weiqing’s… a gap that was nigh insurmountable.

The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses exchanged looks, seeing the helplessness in each others’ eyes. They had come here with Wu Yuehan in order to sneak into the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens to catch a few powerful Heavenly Beasts for the Heavenly Demon Sect to meet their Skill Storing needs.

Who would have thought that before they even reached the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens, they would meet with such a person, and worse still, that Wu Yuehan would be taken by him.

To both of them, it was currently too far from the Heavenly Demon Sect, and they had no way for calling for any reinforcements. The two of them were no match for Long Shiya by themselves, and even if they could get reinforcements, they wouldn’t be able to match up against him. As such, what else could they do but wait for him? After all, not only were they unable to catch up with Long Shiya, even if they did catch up, what could they do. If the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor really wanted to kill the two of them, it would not be difﬁcult for him.

Long Shiya looked at the black clad young lady being controlled by his powerful strength and sighed, thinking to himself: Little Fatty, Little Fatty, you little brat, your luck is not bad huh! Such a beautiful little lady, and the daughter of the Heavenly Demon Sect Master to boot… well you can’t say I’m treating you badly for that. Originally, I was still thinking that worse case scenario I would have to catch some female Heavenly Beast sow or something for you… heh heh heh.

Without question, this young lady that had been caught by Long Shiya was the Little Witch, Wu Yuehan, that Zhou Weiqing had met long ago… the daughter of the Heavenly Demon Sect Master. Although she was not able to move or speak, she could still listen and see everything that was going on around.

She had never met a powerhouse quite like Long Shiya. After all, even her father could not dealt with the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouse elders of the Heavenly Demon Sect so easily like that! This was the ﬁrst time she had ever heard of the name of the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor.

Seeing Long Big Fatty’s eyes ﬁxed upon her, Little Witch felt a chill run down her spine. The unknown was always the most terrifying, and she did not know what Long Shiya had snatched her up for. Terror gripped her heart, an uncontrollable terror causing her heart to tremble as rare tears threatened to well up.

“Little young lady, do not be afraid. I have grabbed you because I need your help. Hmm.. that said, my little disciple has some sort of connection with your Heavenly Demon Sect after all. Although this time, you will lose something precious to you, I will also compensate you for it, and I promise that you will not be in any danger or have any threat to your life.”

Seeing the sheer terror in Wu Yuehan’s eyes, Long Shiya felt rather embarrassed and guilty, even slightly unwilling. However, for the sake of his precious disciple, he had no choice, and he could only clumsily try to comfort the young lady.

Naturally, Little Witch would not be so easily comforted by a few words. On the contrary, the terror in her heart increased several fold. Lose something precious to her? She was merely a six Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master, at most about to break through to the seventh Jewel stage… in any ordinary person’s eyes, she might be someone high up above… but to a Heavenly Emperor like this man in front of her, what kind of precious thing could she have that could interest him…. unless….

I’m doomed… In that instant, Little Witch felt as if she was blacking out. However, at the same time, she suddenly thought of someone, a man who roused so many complicated feelings within her.

Ever since she left the Heavenly Jewel Island and found out about what had happened to the Heavenly Bow Empire, especially since the Heavenly Demon Sect was hiding in the Bai Da Empire and supporting it… she knew that perhaps the Heavenly Demon Sect would never be able to gain that person’s support ever again. How could she and he then…

She had tried her very best to forget him, but somehow all her efforts were to no avail, and she found herself thinking of him at the most random of times. At the same time, she could never forget what had happened in the Lustre Spatial Realm, what they had gone through, and how that shameless scoundrel had suddenly seemed so tall, grand and noble as he stood before the mother dragon protectively. However, after their parting in the Heavenly Jewel Island, she had lost all contact with him, and even all knowledge of where he was. She only knew that he had returned to the Fei Li City, and after that, no one knew where he went. The Heavenly Demon Sect had been looking for him ever since, especially after she had sent word back about all he had done in the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. Her father, the current Heavenly Demon Sect Master, had already deemed this young man that had left such a lasting impression on her to be extremely important to the Heavenly Demon Sect.

However, up until now, none of them knew anything about his whereabouts. Upon seeing that she was about to reach the seven-Jeweled stage, she had decided to come to the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens to catch some Heavenly Beasts for Skill Storing. Who knew that she would actually meet with something like this. If this Heavenly Emperor powerhouse actually took what was most precious to her, or his disciple did, then… she would no longer have face to meet with ‘him’.

Tears started to stream down Little Witch’s eyes uncontrollably. It’s the end… it’s all over…

Long Shiya’s ﬂying speed was extremely fast, and the distance from the place he met with the three from the Heavenly Demon Sect was not that far from the Fire Spirit Mountain. In a few moments, he had brought Little Witch back to the top of the volcano.

Just as they rose up to the top of the Fire Spirit Mountain, a ﬁgure with a strange purple light about it ﬂashed in front of them before leaping towards them. At the same time, it howled out with a wild abandon.

The howl had the melodious roar of a dragon, the overbearing tyranny of a tiger’s howl, and a more basic, a wild berserker’s fury.

His Heavenly Jewels have already ﬁnished Consolidating? Luckily I returned much earlier than expected. Long Shiya instantly knew what that purple covered ﬁgure was, and that wild aura that he was emitting gave even Long Shiya a surprise. It was a terrifying burst of bloodline power that even he had not seen before.

The six coloured shield of light rose forth from Long Shiya’s body, somehow enveloping the purple blur of the ﬁgure which was moving so quickly that it could not be followed by the ordinary naked eye. Instantly, it was fully wrapped in a glowing bubble of six coloured lights.

The purple ﬁgure had clearly lost consciousness and was only moving on instinct, launching a series of crazed attacks at the six coloured shield of light covering and restricting him, causing constant ripples in the bubble. Long Shiya’s jaw dropped slightly, a hint of surprise on his face. The six-coloured shield of light was of his creation, on the basis of his Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts, and it had the effect of the fusion of six Attributes. He could clearly sense the changes within his shield, and the purple ﬁgure of Zhou Little Fatty and his attacks were much more terrifying that he had expected. That was not a power that a six-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master could have.

A Zhou Little Fatty who had lost consciousness could only use the most basic attacks, both his hands extended out in a claw shape, almost like a dragon’s claws, glowing with a chilling purple light. Every time he attacks, it contained a powerful piercing effect. The scariest was the purple hook that his right leg had warped into, and it was the blows from it that actually managed to shake the six coloured shield of light that Long Shiya had summoned, even causing a tiny crack.

Have I helped to raise up a true monster now? That strength… that is unbelievable indeed.

Long Shiya couldn’t help but think to himself. Currently, Zhou Weiqing was fully consumed by a primeval instinct, a wild and raw craziness that showed his consciousness was not awakened, and now that was the ﬁnal process he had to go through. Long Shiya sighed inwardly, his right hand jabbing at Little Witch several times lightly, sending

her into the shield of light. At the same time, he used a powerful Fetters of Wind to temporarily bind Zhou Weiqing’s body.

When she saw that purple ﬁgure pouncing at her, Little Witch closed her eyes. In that instant, her heart had died. She knew that there was no more chance of her escaping.

Right at that moment, she was astonished to suddenly discover she had recovered her ability to move. However, all her Heavenly Energy had been sealed away.

A wild and incandescent aura overwhelmed her, provoking her entire body to shudder, and she subconsciously opened her eyes.

The ﬁrst thing that entered her eyes, causing her heart to tremble violently in fear, was a pair of wild and invasive purple orbs. The deep purple gave one an impression that these orbs came from hell itself, giving forth an irresistibly scorching heat, as if the gaze was about to melt her body. On his face, there was a layer of ﬁne scales, yet they did not protrude out, and alongside the pair of wild purple orbs that were his eyes, it seemed to have a strange attraction or glamour.

His upper body was totally naked, with not even hair or fur on his body. His powerful body gleamed, the lines of his muscles well deﬁned, full of power and beauty as he glowed in that eerie purple light, as if he was perfectly sculpted from a unique gemstone.

Such a strange looking person, and it could be said that Little Witch had never seen or heard of such a person. Yet, as she looked upon his countenance, there was a strong sense of strange familiarity.

“I’m really sorry, little girl, I have no choice but to use you as a sacriﬁce to awaken his consciousness. However, do not worry, I will ensure you are safe from harm.” At the side, Long Shiya waved his arm, and the six-coloured shield of light brought both Zhou Weiqing and Little Witch onto a small plateau of level ground.

Although Long Shiya was very open minded and liberal, he would not possibly just watch his disciple do ‘that’. It was no surprise that Little Witch did not recognize Zhou Weiqing. Currently, he looked just too unbelievably different from previously, not just the purple hue around him, even his ﬁgure and stature was larger and more muscular than the previous time Little Witch had seen him, and he deﬁnitely looked more mature as well. More importantly, the tattoos and scales on his body from the two powerful bloodline powers had changed his looks in many small but myriad ways.

All these changes added together, coupled with the terror in Little Witch’s heart, naturally she was not able to recognize him with a single look. In truth, having that small sense of familiarity was already rather impressive, after all Zhou Weiqing’s aura was extremely different from his previous one as well.

Hearing Long Shiya say the word ‘Sacriﬁce’, Little Witch almost fainted. As a member of the Heavenly Demon Sect, how could she not know what that entailed? Originally, the Demonic Attribute was so ostracized because of such an issue in Awakening the Attribute, often causing a huge change in character for the Demonic Jewel Master in question.

This is it…it’s really over for me… Seeing Zhou Weiqing’s magniﬁcently robust body, and the dragon claws that seemed to threaten to tear her apart at anytime… as well as that large and thick, ferocious looking ‘weapon’ at the ‘particular place’, Little Witch’s mind blanked out.

Right at that moment, Long Shiya released his restriction on Zhou Weiqing. The scent of a female instantly ﬁlled Zhou Weiqing’s nose. Currently, he was controlled only by his base instincts, and almost subconsciously he pounced upon Little Witch, bringing her to the ground.

Little Witch did not even struggle; she knew that it would be futile, and only bring her more pain or injury. Perhaps more accurately speaking would be that she was currently in a totally stunned and muddled state, ﬁlled with an unprecedented sense of weakness, helplessness, humiliation and pain, and if given a choice she would rather die now. However, though she had regained her ability to move, but under Long Shiya’s control, she had no strength left; even if she wanted to take her own life, she was not able to do so.

Heat. Scorching heat. As Zhou Weiqing embraced Little Witch’s body, the ﬁrst thing she felt was an intense heat emanating from his body, as if she would be instantly melted. Yet, there was no pain, instead the wild ferocity and strange aura from him caused her blanked out mind to suddenly have a strange feeling. The scent from Zhou Weiqing’s body was not unpleasant, instead having a strange attraction, a faint fragrance even, a sort of elegance that clashed with the aura he was giving off. Even so, after smelling it, Little Witch felt as if her entire blood vessels were ignited, the heat rising from within her body.

Previously, when Zhou Weiqing had ﬁrst Awakened his Power Jewels, entering the Demonic Change State for the ﬁrst time, he had used Shangguan Bing’er as his Sacriﬁce, becoming a Heavenly Jewel Master that day. At that time, a black mist had emanated from his mouth, ﬁlled with a type of aphrodisiac of sorts, causing Shangguan Bing’er to lose herself. At this point, he now held both the Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline and the Dragon bloodline fused together, and no matter each of these powerful Heavenly Beasts had been lustful creatures. Fused together, how could their auras be any lesser? This was perhaps even stronger than any of the most powerful natural medicines, especially since Little Witch was still a poor little innocent girl. In her current state of mind, being inﬂicted by such a strong stimulation, how could she possibly ﬁght against this?

A loud tearing sound. The dragon claws which Zhou Weiqing’s hands had turned into did not vanish, but strangely they were currently ﬂying about at an unbelievable speed, but at such accuracy and unerring movement that did not touch Little Witch’s skin at all. However, within a few moments, the two were both naked.

A low howl and soft cries and moans, intertwining into the most base and stirring of melodies. As compared to the ﬁrst time he needed a Sacriﬁce, it was without a question that even cultivation level aside, Zhou Weiqing’s body and physique was far stronger and superior now. However, at the same time, Little Witch was almost at the seven-Jeweled cultivation level, and her body and endurance was also much superior to Shangguan Bing’er at that time. Furthermore, she had the Life Attribute, and her own recovery rate was far superior due to that.

Little Witch only managed to keep her wits about her for a few moments before ﬁnally falling to the onslaught, unable to resist that strange scent aura from Zhou Weiqing. The massive wings behind his back spread out fully, wrapping around the entwined duo. As they merged together, Zhou Weiqing’s hands and legs slowly returned to their original state, as if even in his unconscious state, he was still able to maintain some level of tenderness.

Long Big Fatty sat at the entrance to the volcano. Naturally, though he did not eavesdrop, he could stay too far away, as he needed to monitor the changes in Zhou Weiqing, and more importantly to be able to react in case of any danger to any of the two. Of course, at the same time, he needed to keep his promise to Little Witch to keep her safe at all costs; after all she was already having her most precious thing stolen from her, and if she were further injured or lost her life, that would not be good.

Long Big Fatty had been contemplating what sort of compensation he could give her.

However, at this current moment, he was extremely vexed indeed. Although the billowing smoke from the volcano covered him from seeing anything, but the loud hoarse cries of Zhou Weiqing and the sweet tender moans of Little Witch continuously clashed against his keen senses.

“Damn Little Fatty, don’t you have any conscience and humanity! Continuously provoking this hundred year old virgin… how can you bear to do it to your poor master! You little brat!” Long Shiya couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

After a while, he burst out laughing at himself, shaking his head helplessly. “Dann it, this little brat is vigorous indeed. He hasn’t even solved his problem in the Heavenly Snow Mountain, and now he is incurring a new problem with the Heavenly Demon Sect. Very good, very good, with another Heaven’s Expanse Palace one at home. Maybe this little brat can conquer the ﬁve Great Saint Lands and unite them as one with his crotch, hahahahahaha. Sigh… I have spent too much time with this little brat, even my mind and thinking have been contaminated by him. Tcheh Tcheh.”

If Zhou Weiqing was awake to hear Long Big Fatty’s mutterings, he would have immediately protested. How could he possibly have ‘contaminated’ others with dirty thoughts!

The ‘activity’ around the volcano entrance would continue on, abruptly loud and sonorous, suddenly soft moaning and whimpers… a perfect description of highs and lows, as if the billowing smoke of the volcano was following the rise and fall of the sounds.

An entire day and night. The activity at the top of the volcano did not cease for a long time, and this most primeval of sounds gave Long Big Fatty a bigger headache than even the thirty six days of constant watch and vigilance on Zhou Weiqing when he was fusing his bloodline powers.

Without knowing when, the huge wings had wrapped around both their bodies, the thick purple light pulsing rhythmically about them. Around the purple mist that formed around them, there were a faint layer of green, but it was clearly on the weaker side.

Little Witch’s nubile young body had turned a faint pink, wrapped in Zhou Weiqing’s embrace. She had not fully lost consciousness, as she reached her peak time after time, substantiated and satiation ﬁlling her time and time again; all of this far from what she had expected and feared. If she died like this now, perhaps it would not be a bad thing… or so she thought. At last, no one knew how many times they had reached the peak of bliss, but at last, the two of them slowly fell into the depths of slumber, still intertwined in an embrace.

At Zhou Weiqing’s chest area, a ball of gentle light rose slowly all the way up to his forehead before disappearing. At last, the entire area fell into a dead silence.

At this moment, a powerful ray of Light Attribute Energy suddenly descended from the skies, pushing Zhou Weiqing to the side and enveloping Little Witch’s body. At the same time, a long robe ﬂoated down, covering her naked body.

Only then did Long Big Fatty appear from outside the smoke. Naturally, it was his Light Attribute Healing Skills that fell upon Wu Yuehan, not holding back as he helped to heal her wounds and renourish her exhausted body. As he did so, there was a forced smile on his face. Up until now, he still did not know how he could compensate this young lady in front of him.

With the healing and aid of such powerful Light Attribute Healing Skills, it wasn’t long before Little Witch opened her eyes. No longer affected by the strange scent and aura that Zhou Weiqing previously had, she quickly regained full consciousness and awareness.

The ﬁrst thing Little Witch felt was the the warm and comfortable Light Attribute Heavenly Energy enveloping her entire body. As a Life Attribute Heavenly Jewel Master, the Heavenly Energy Attribute that they liked the most was deﬁnitely the Light Attribute, although the Demonic Attribute in her body was suppressed by the Light Attribute.

A feeling of heaviness soon followed, as if her limbs had been injected by lead, and even lifting her arm seemed so difﬁcult. She felt like all the strength and energy had been drained out of her body.

As compared to the sheer fatigue and weakness in her physical body, her Heavenly Energy was a stark contrast. Little Witch was astonished to ﬁnd that her Heavenly Energy was actually full and bountiful. More so, she had somehow actually broken through to the seven-Jeweled stage without knowing when!

Contrary to her expectations, her bottom was not hurting, instead feeling numb. After all, after an entire day and night, no matter how tough and ﬂexible her body was, a young maiden like herself with no prior experience being sent to the peak over and over… it undoubtedly was a huge toll on her body.

Long Shiya looked at her with an apologetic expression on his face as he said: “Little girl, I’m sorry. If i did not do this, my disciple would have gone crazy and died. At that time, even if it were a female pig, I would have brought it back for him, but it is your misfortune that I stumbled across you at that particular time. Do you have any requests? As long as I can do it, I will fulﬁl any requests you have.”

Little Witch’s eyes were a little hollow, empty. Even though the entire ‘sacriﬁce’ process she did not feel any pain, in fact giving her a previously unknown, marvelous feeling, but she had lost her most precious virtue against her will after all! To any girl, this was a blow far worse than anything, perhaps even more than her own life itself.

Long Shiya’s mouth twitched slightly as he looked on helplessly. Finally, he waved his hand, and Zhou Weiqing, who had been lying at the side, was dragged into his hands. Currently, Zhou Weiqing had lost that purple hue, and the wings behind his back had disappeared into his body, and he had ﬁnally resumed his normal look and features. Of course, all of his hair that had been burnt away in the magma could not be regrown so quickly, and his features did contain some differences from his previous look. At this moment, his eyes were closed, sleeping peacefully with a satisﬁed look on his face.

“How about this, little lady, I have a proposition for you and you can see whether or not you want to accept it. Anyway, this little brat has already taken your body, how about you make do with him and marry him. If you want to take revenge for that one day and night and how roughly he treated you, you have a lifetime ahead of you to do so.”

Throughout his entire long life, Long Shiya had stood upright on his legs between heaven and earth, upstanding and dauntless, and though he might do things according to his own likes and dislikes, he could hold his head up high and say he had never done anything against his conscience. However, this time, catching Little Witch as a Sacriﬁce for Zhou Weiqing, he had been torn by both anxiety and worry and his conscience. Now that all of it was over, he felt an unprecedented apologetic feeling towards this young lady.

Subconsciously, Little Witch raised her head. As she slowly calmed down, she knew that she could not seek death so easily. After all, the entire Heavenly Demon Sect only had her as a direct bloodline heir. If she died like that, who would be able to inherit the Heavenly Demon Sect and help direct it… to help it grow? Furthermore, she had so many things left undone. She started to look up, wanting to see this man who had stolen her virtue, to see what he looked like, and remember that image. Since he had already taken her body, perhaps what this Heavenly Emperor powerhouse said was true, and it would not be a bad thing to marry his disciple. Feelings aside, at least it would bring a strong and powerful Heavenly Emperor ally to the Heavenly Demon Sect.

As she thought about all that, Little Witch’s tears couldn’t help but stream down her cheeks uncontrollable. However, when she slowly raised her head once more to look upon that man, and that familiar face entered her eyes, in that instant, her eyes widened fully.

“What?!” Despite still feeling weak and feeble, Little Witch sat up fully upright instantly, her eyes ﬁlled with disbelief as her lips trembled violently in sheer shock.

“Errr….” Long Shiya looked at Little Witch, then looked back at his precious disciple, a helpless look on his face as he said: “As the saying goes, if one marries a chicken, one should follow the chicken; if one marries a dog, then one should follow the dog. My disciple might not be the most handsome or suave, but you two already have that connection… so, perhaps you can make do with him?” Long Big Fatty had also thought things through rather clearly. Only by bringing his precious disciple and this little young lady from the Heavenly Demon Sect together could the knot in his heart be eased. Although his disciple had done wrong to her, but at least if he took responsibility for it, then he wouldn’t feel as guilty.

“Zhou… Zhou Weiqing?!” Little Witch’s voice was ﬁlled with uncertainty. If a second ago, she had been ﬁlled with despair and hopelessness in her future, with all her negative emotions buried deep within her heart with a mask… then now, in this very instant, powerful ﬁres of hope sprang forth. She had never thought that this man who had forcefully stolen her virtue would actually… actually be … him. If… If she had to be forced to make a choice of a man in this world, then our dear Zhou Little Fatty would deﬁnitely be the ﬁrst choice. Currently, Little Witch felt as if the heavens had played a cruel joke on her… ﬁrst letting her lose her most precious virtue, turning everything into a living hell for her, before springing such a strong hope on her once more, as if the sheer agony she was in wasn’t as bad as she thought after all.

“Oh?! You… you know him?” This time, it was Long Shiya’s turn to be surprised. A ray green light lit up brightly. It was Little Witch, using her Life Attribute Skills to heal herself, even as she eyed Zhou Weiqing, who was being supported by Long Shiya… a complicated look on her face as her heart was mired with a myriad confused thoughts.

It was… How could it be him? Since when did he have a Heavenly Emperor powerhouse as teacher? More so… what was he doing here? How did they all end up like this? This is too much of a coincidence?! Thinking back to their entire day and night of embarrassing joining, Little Witch’s pale face turned beet red instantly. At the same time, she couldn’t help but think to herself: Thank the heavens… in such a terrible scenario of pain and suffering, at least this is the best possible outcome already.

Slowly supporting herself as she stood up shakily, Little Witch nodded her head lightly. “Indeed, Senior, I know him. We are actually friends. I… I….”

Speaking up to this point, Little Witch’s eyes reddened. No matter what, she had been forced against her will to lose her most precious virtue, and more so, so abruptly… so out of the blue! Long Shiya started momentarily. “Recognize? You recognize that little brat? That is great, even better than I thought! What a great coincidence! Heh heh, then… can I consider it as you being relatively voluntary in helping out rather than me forcing you? After all, this old man has not done anything against my conscience all my life, sigh… this time, for that damn little brat’s sake, I have…” As he said that, he rubbed his hands together, a rather embarrassed look on his face.

How intelligent was Little Witch. She immediately understood what Long Shiya meant from his words, and she couldn’t help but look at him scornfully in her heart momentarily. However, as her consciousness fully awakened and she knew that the man who had stolen her virtue was actually Zhou Weiqing, she was now extremely clear-headed.

At this point, what was the point of crying or causing a commotion? The only true thing to do now was to ﬁnd a way to gain the most. That fellow Zhou Weiqing did not just have a single woman!

“Senior…” Wu Yuehan said grievously: “This is too much of a coincidence. Sigh… yes, I am willing. If I knew it was him beforehand, could I possibly leave him in the lurch and watch him die?” Long Shiya was delighted. He had not expected that Wu Yuehan would be so understanding and considerate. In fact, looking at how she was now, it seemed like she had some feelings for his precious disciple, and he couldn’t help but

heave an internal sigh of relief, thinking to himself: Such luck!

Heh heh! What a good girl indeed! “Don’t worry, I know about your circumstance, and you have given your most precious body to this little brat. If he dares not want you, I will beat him all his skin off! Don’t worry, I will make sure that this little brat marries you. Oh right, child, I still do not know your name.”

Little Witch lowered his head and said: “This Junior is Wu Yuehan.”

Long Shiya nodded repeatedly and said: “Very good, in that case, you might as well not leave. When that little brat wakes up, I’ll make the decision for you two.”

“No… no need, Senior.” Little Witch quickly looked up, a complicated look in her eyes as she said: “Senior, I do not want to meet him under such a circumstance. Please do not force him, after all it was just to save his life. He originally never liked me. Please can I trouble you to send me back?” “What like or dislike. Hmph. He has already taken your body, and you are willing to let it go like that? Child, do not worry, in this matter, this old man will settle it for you. You are from the Heavenly Demon Sect right, later on I will bring that little brat and personally go to your Heavenly Demon Sect to propose

marriage.”

Wu Yuehan was delighted in her heart, looking at Long Shiya with a face full of hope. “Senior, is that for real?”

Long Shiya thumped his own chest steadily and said: “Since when have I, Long Shiya, told any lie. However, I must ﬁrst tell you that this little brat is a don juan in his own right, and I’m afraid you will not be his only woman.”

Wu Yuehan gave a bitter smile and said: “How can I not know that? As long as he still has a place for me in his heart in the future, I will be satisﬁed. Senior, can you please send me back now?”

“You still want to leave now?” Long Shiya started momentarily.

Wu Yuehan ﬂushed deeply and said: “I truly do not want to meet him under such circumstances. I need to calm down and think through things. Senior, can you please tell me where I can ﬁnd him in the future?”

Long Shiya sighed. He was not familiar with what had exactly gone on between Zhou Weiqing and Little Witch before this, and subconsciously he thought it was this current situation and that the shade in her heart from this incident was still deep in her mind, and time was needed for her to process it. As such, he nodded to her and said: “You change your clothes ﬁrst, and I will send you back.”

A very awkward direct translation of an old chinese idiom, basically means to persuade a girl to be content with her husband no matter what his lot is

Chapter 170 Dragon-Tiger Transformation!

Long Shiya released his Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy, soaring up together with Wu Yuehan far into the skies once again, speeding towards the original place where he had grabbed her.

As expected, the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouse Elders from the Heavenly Demon Sect were still waiting there for them. Although they were feeling terrible about Wu Yuehan being kidnapped from them, but it had already happened, and there was no use crying over spilt milk as they could not do anything about it. They could only wait there and pray that the Heavenly Emperor powerhouse would stick to his word return Wu Yuehan to them. No matter what, being able to bring back a live Young Miss was much better than losing her forever.

In a ﬂash of green light, Long Big Fatty descended from the skies with Wu Yuehan in tow. The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses instantly perked up alertly, quickly advancing forward to greet them.

Seeing Long Shiya, the two of them were ﬁlled with hostility. However, they knew their strength was far below this Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor and they could not show any signs of it. If not for that, they would deﬁnitely want to immediately tear Long Shiya from limb to limb. To the Heavenly Demon Sect, what happened in the past few days was deﬁnitely a terrible humiliation and disgrace.

Little Witch was not dressed in the same clothes she had left in, clearly having changed during her time away. At the same time, they both could see that her expression was weary and almost haggard. With their cultivation level and experience, how could they not see that she had lost her virginity?

“Elders, I have returned.” Little Witch said with a faint smile, as if nothing had happened.

The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses started momentarily. How could Young Miss be so calm and composed after having lost her virtue? Their gaze ﬂickered and landed onto Long Shiya, but he was not even looking at them, smiling gently at Little Witch.

Wu Yuehan said: “Elders, please do not worry. Senior Long only asked me to help someone out, and the person who needed help happened to be a good friend of mine. Now that he has recovered, we can return. You two do not need to say anything, it was of my own free will. We do not need to head to the WanShou Ten Thousand Beast Heavens, when we return I will personally speak to my father.”

“Yes, Young Miss.” The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouse elders were still clearly confused, not knowing what was going on.

Long Shiya smiled faintly and said: “Yuehan, this time is truly a big inconvenience for you. Do not worry, Little Fatty has some things to clear up ﬁrst, and once he is done, I will personally bring him to look for you. When that time comes, you just make the preparations. Alright, he is still quite unstable, I will return ﬁrst.” After saying all that, he did not even look at the two Heavenly King Stage powerhouses, and soared up into the air and disappeared swiftly.

“Young Miss, are you okay?” The two Heavenly King Stage powerhouse Elders quickly advanced forward to ask Little Witch concernedly. The Elder on the left said angrily: “It must be that old bastard, did he threaten you to say that? Although the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor is powerful, our Heavenly Demon Sect is not to be triﬂed with as well. The Sect Master will deﬁnitely get revenge for Young Miss.”

A bitter smile crossed Wu Yuehan’s face and she said: “Elders, I was not threatened at all. I truly did it of my own accord, and I was willing to do so. It is truly a coincidence… that Senior Long’s disciple is the person I mentioned to the Sect previously. Father originally wished that I marry him… this time is…”

“”Ahh?” The two Elders stared speechlessly at each other.

What kind of magic was that, such a coincidence?!

Little Witch sighed softly. Although she did not regret that her virtue had been stolen by Zhou Weiqing, but deep inside her heart, she did not wish that it had been taken under such dubious circumstances. However, now that things had already played out like this, there was no turning back already.

…

Back atop the Fire Spirit Mountain, Zhou Weiqing slept deeply for an entire day and night. As he slowly drifted out of his dreams into awakening, he felt his entire body itching, especially his back which was especially itchy. He moaned subconsciously before extending all his limbs out to the maximum in a lazy stretch.

At that moment, Zhou Weiqing felt his entire body, down to his muscles, bones and even meridian channels were straining with a strange sound. The next moment, he felt an unprecedented relaxing and comfortable feeling throughout his entire body, as if he had been given a new lease on life.

So comfortable! Feels so good! Opening his eyes, Zhou Weiqing’s thoughts were still a little slow. After all, he had been ‘cultivating’ for almost forty days, and his consciousness was still a bit muddled.

Eh? Why do I feel so weird ‘down below’? Zhou Weiqing subconsciously touched himself questioningly, and his mouth twitched slightly as fragments of memories trickled back into his mind one after the other. Was it just me… or was I just dreaming that I had intimate relations with a girl?? A long time… so tight… feeling so good… that’s not real right? Wasn’t I cultivating under Master’s protection? Was it all a dream?

“Damn little brat, you are ﬁnally awake.” Long Shiya’’s voice rang out and the thick smoke around suddenly cleared, revealing his stout ﬁgure.

At this point, only then did Zhou Weiqing realise that he was still atop the Fire Spirit Mountain. To his surprise, for the sheer heat and high temperatures of the Fire Spirit Mountain, he did not even feel hot at all, in fact feeling extremely comfortable. “Master, I succeeded in Awakening and Fusing?” Zhou Weiqing asked.

Long Shiya nodded in a satisﬁed manner, saying:: “Little brat, luckily your willpower is strong and tenacious enough, and you actually succeeded. More so, you did so in a shorter time than even I expected. However, this time, your success has come at quite a price!”

At such, Long Shiya described in detail the entire happenings during the last thirty odd days that Zhou Weiqing had spent in the depths of the volcano training; all the various surprises and changes that had happened. That would also allow Zhou Weiqing to understand what had happened, as well as the various changes that happened to him and allow him to start familiarising himself with those changes… only then would he be able to make use of them and convert it into actual ﬁghting prowess.

At the end, naturally Long Shiya could not avoid speaking about Little Witch.

When Zhou Weiqing heard the word ‘Sacriﬁce’, his ﬁrst reaction was to think of Shangguan Bing’er. In that instant, he suddenly realised he missed her so much. He had not seen her for such a long time, and yet he was collecting more ‘love debts’.

This time, after saving Tian’er, if he managed to return he would deﬁnitely have to head back to the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. He only had to defeat that Shangguan Xue’er, then he could be with Bing’er at last. And… there was still Fei’er to think about. Sigh.. things were indeed messy.

“Wait… Master… what did you just say? You found a girl to be a Sacriﬁce for me and I actually did that to her… ?” Lost in his own thoughts, all of a suddenly Zhou Weiqing was abruptly disrupted from them as Long Shiya’s words ﬁnally registered in his mind, and he stared with utter shock at his teacher.

Long Shiya said sorrowfully: “In my entire life, I have never done anything against my conscience, and you little brat made your teacher ruin that record, and almost destroying my reputation! If I didn’t help you look for a Sacriﬁce, do you think you can actually Awake and return to consciousness?”

Zhou Weiqing stared at his teacher, jaw agape, his mind in a blur. His love life was already messy enough, and now he had to add one more, especially since he had ‘taken’ her as a Sacriﬁce to his Demonic Attribute. This… “I know this will not be comfortable news for you to, but as a man, since you have already done it, you better take responsibility for it. As the saying goes, a man already in debt would not mind incurring more debt, since you already have so many women, one more won’t make a big difference.” Long Big Fatty said carelessly.

Zhou Weiqing’s heart twitched inwardly! What kind of saying was that… a man already in debt would not mind incurring more debt?! There was another saying, three women was like an opera, with so many women, what would his life be like in the future?

“Your luck is not too bad, at least she is a great beauty, and she also knows who you are. Such a good girl, very sensible and understanding… being bullied by you for an entire day and night! Yet, she did not blame you in the end. Little Fatty, you better not let Little Witch down!”

“Wait… what?! Who did you say it was again?” This time, Zhou Weiqing’s jaw truly dropped.

“Little Witch… Wu Yuehan… she said you two knew each other! Don’t tell me you don’t know who she is?” Long Shiya said. Know? Of course he knew her, but it was without question she was a troublesome one indeed! Previously, Zhou Weiqing had painstakingly avoided Little Witch after their experiences. After all, he did owe the Heavenly Demon Sect a debt in one sense, since he had read their Heavenly Demon Sect Demonic Manual, and it had been of great help in him learning how to cultivate his Demonic Attribute and learning how to use his Devour Skill. However, the Heavenly Demon Sect resided in the Bai Da Empire and was aiding them, and who knew if the destruction of the Heavenly Bow Empire had their shadow behind it. It was just too messy and troublesome indeed.

In that moment, Zhou Weiqing felt a migraine incoming. The comfortable feeling after the Bloodline Fusion and evolving had disappeared.

Towards his Master, he did not have to hide anything. As such, he explained the entire relationship and what had happened between him and Little Witch all that time, as well as all his issues with the Heavenly Demon Sect.

After hearing his explanations, Long Shiya’s expression remained impassive as he said passively: “What is there for you to think or stress about? Any other matter I will not interfere, but in this matter between you and the Heavenly Demon Sect, I will take charge. In the past, you were afraid that they might take advantage of you, even take control of you… but with this old man here, what do you have to be afraid of? The Bai Da Empire is not the same as your Heavenly Bow Empire, as one of the stronger Empires in the entire Mainland, it is unlikely that they will have any close connection with the Heavenly Demon

Sect. Otherwise, it is tantamount to outright opposing the other four Great Saint Lands, and they would never do something like that. It is too much of a risk to them. As such, I can practically guarantee that your Heavenly Bow Empire’s destruction has nothing to do with the Heavenly Demon Sect.

To put it more bluntly, with your Heavenly Bow Empire’s original strength, would the Bai Da Empire even need the Heavenly Demon Sect to destroy them? Nonsense. Alright, it is settled between you and Little Witch then. You have already done that to her, and especially under such a forced

circumstance, how can you not take responsibility? In any case, now is not the time to think too much on this… everything else is of lesser importance now than getting your cultivation level and strength up.”

Zhou Weiqing was still somewhat dazed, and upon hearing Long Shiya’s words, it seemed like things weren’t as messy as he feared. As for the situation between all these young ladies, even he could not untangle that tangled web, and he could only sigh inwardly for now. Amongst all the girls he was attached to, it was without a doubt that his feelings were strongest for Shangguan Bing’er, followed by Tian’er and Shangguan Fei’er. Now… there was another Little Witch added to the mix… that was up to four! Now… with yet one more… Little Witch added to the mix… that was up to four women in his life! Furthermore, all of them were from Great Saint Lands… and different ones to boot! However, what Long Shiya said was also true, it was no time to think about all that now, and currently what was most important to him was to increase his strength. If he had the power of a Heavenly God Tier, even if it were all ﬁve Great Saint Lands, so what? Even if it seemed impossible, as long as the girls were willing, he could just elope and run away with them in the future.

Thinking up to this point, Zhou Weiqing did not continue obsessing over the matter any longer. Turning back to look as his Master, he said: “Master, how long more until the coldest day of Winter?”

Long Shiya thought about it momentarily before replying: “We still have about less than a month. In this period of time, not only do you have to familiarise yourself to all the changes in your body and power, and any new abilities you have. At the same time, it is also time for you to continue training in the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts, to truly wield the maximum power of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation. As long as you have some small completion of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation, along with the advantage you have with your body and powers, you will not lose easily even facing that Lion Prince. Little brat, if you want to keep your love, it is time for you to pit your life. There is not much time left.”

“Yes.” Even if Long Shiya did not say that, Zhou Weiqing also knew what he needed to do.

Long Shiya continued: “Alright, let us begin then. Start by sensing all the changes in your body, use your new Demonic Change State and let me see.”

Zhou Weiqing rubbed his stomach with a bitter smile and said: “Master, I haven’t eaten for so long, can I at least have a meal ﬁrst?”

Long Shiya scratched his head and said: “Eat… alright, eat ﬁrst then.”

In such an area, there was naturally nothing good to eat, and they could only eat some dry rations to barely replenish their body’s requirements. However, even though it was just dry rations, Zhou Weiqing enjoyed gorging himself on them. Although his body could replenish energy by drawing energy from the atmosphere, but it was still very different from eating, especially in terms of enjoyment. After a large meal, his spirit perked up as well.

Without any further prompting from Long Shiya, as soon as Zhou Weiqing ﬁnished eating, he immediately sat down cross legged on the ground, circulating his Heavenly Energy to sense all the changes in his body.

As soon as he started circulating his Heavenly Energy, Zhou Weiqing immediately felt the difference. This time, thirty six days of Awakening his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit had caused his Heavenly Energy to jump four entire levels, from the Heavenly Shen Energy Eighth Stage to the Twelfth Stage, reaching the Four-Jeweled cultivation level, barely entering the Heavenly Xu Energy stage.

From Heavenly Jing Energy to Heavenly Shen Energy was from real to void, and from Heavenly Shen Energy, it was warping back from void to real. However, this time the void was not within, but outside the body.

Heavenly Jing Energy and Heavenly Shen Energy stages, both were still at the level of training and cultivating one’s own body. By the time a Heavenly Jewel Master reached the Heavenly Xu Energy Stage, it was beginning to step out of their body and to start controlling from outside.

Within his body, the twenty four Death Acupuncture Points that had been broken through and formed the large energy whirlpools, like massive mouths devouring any energy from the outside world. The Immortal Deity Technique’s power showed itself once more, and within moments, Zhou Weiqing felt his Heavenly Energy gathering, lifting, even improving. Without question, thanks to the Immortal Deity Technique, his cultivation speed did not seem to slow in the slightest despite entering the Heavenly Xu Energy stage.

The merits and demerits of the Immortal Deity Technique were obvious, and being able to directly break through four stages, Zhou Weiqing was extremely overjoyed. It also meant he could suffer four times less. Currently, there was still three more Death Acupuncture Points until he was done with the third portion of the Immortal Deity Technique. According to the notes recorded on the Immortal Deity Technique, the most difﬁcult would be the nine Death Acupuncture Points on the fourth portion of the Immortal Deity Technique, as they were all on the head. After all, the head was one of the most vulnerable parts of the body, and any damage could possibly mean death. Of course, now was not the time to think of that, and it was of utmost importance for Zhou Weiqing to now concentrate on solidifying and securing his current strength.

The immense Heavenly Energy ﬂuctuations in his body caused Zhou Weiqing to be overjoyed, especially as he sensed the various Attributes of Heavenly Energy circulating in accordance with the ﬂuctuations, a miraculous feeling of resonance that was a pleasant surprise for him.

Up until now, he ﬁnally understood what Tang Xian, the three Shangguan sisters’ mother, had once told him. That he would only have some measure of protecting himself after he broke through the six-Jeweled cultivation level.

That level of self protection was not just simply because of a six-Jeweled cultivation level, but because of his six Elemental Attributes. Once an ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master reached the Heavenly Xu Energy stage, he could only draw in one attribute of Heavenly Energy from the atmosphere for his own use. However, it was very different for him, especially with his six Attributes, allowing him to draw far more energy from the atmosphere as compared to any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master. However, in terms of how to use the atmospheric energy drawn from outside, he was still quite at a loss. Of course, that was not a big problem since he had his teacher the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor beside him.

Sensing the changes in his own body, Zhou Weiqing suddenly felt a bit of assurance about ﬁghting the Lion Prince Gu Yingbing. With a ﬂicker of thought, he called upon the power of his bloodline within.

With that spark of will, instantly Zhou Weiqing felt a sudden itch on his back. The next moment, a feeling of being attached by blood burst forth from behind his back, and in a sudden swishing sound, two immense wings burst forth from the portion of his back that had been itching.

As the wings spread open, Zhou Weiqing immediately saw that his own skin had turned a bright purple, a layer of scales all over his entire body like a strange pattern, including his face.

In that instant, the ﬁrst thing that Zhou Weiqing sensed was not strength, but a sense of all the outer energies. If one were to say that previously after just entering the Heavenly Xu Stage, he could clearly sense the various Attribute Heavenly Energies from the atmosphere; then now, he himself had turned into a source, a fountain of those very energies. Indeed, it was a fountain. As soon as the wings spread open, the various Attribute Heavenly Energies gathered and swarmed into his back through those wings crazily. The twenty four Death Acupuncture Points energy whirlpools no longer drew energy in, instead forming twenty four pivot points, the Immortal Deity Shield immersed deeply within each of them as well as his body. In fact, at this point, the vast amounts of Heavenly Energy pouring in from outside was far beyond his energy expenditure in maintaining his Demonic Change State.

This is? Zhou Weiqing’’s heart was ﬁlled with shock. In truth, his muscles were not as huge or bulging and obvious as they were previously in the Demonic Change State, and the almost crystalline purple of his body was very different from the old tiger tattoos of his Demonic Change State. His senses had also changed apparently, and the Icy Cold Perception was much stronger than before.

From Long Shiya’s angle, Zhou Weiqing’’s wings had billowed out, and his skin had changed colour almost simultaneously. At that moment, his entire person seemed to change, a unique pressure and aura bursting forth from his person. Even with Long Shiya’s Heavenly Emperor cultivation level, he could still sense that pressure clearly. That pressure did not have anything to do with cultivation level, fully a pressure that stemmed from bloodline. It was just like how a high ranked bloodline Heavenly Beast would have an intense pressure against any low ranked bloodline Heavenly Beast.

Perhaps a more accurate summary was that currently Zhou Weiqing had become an extremely high ranked creature of sorts.

The wings behind his back beat gently once, and Zhou Weiqing did not feel as if he had used much strength, but an intense air ﬂow surged behind his back, shoving his body along with a startled cry as he ﬂew into the sky like a cannonball. In the blink of an eye, he had soared far above the smoke clouds of the Fire Spirit Mountain.

This was the ﬁrst time that Zhou Weiqing was ﬂying of his own power, and he did not feel good about it at all. That was because he did not know how to balance himself while in mid air, and his arms ﬂailed about clumsily. As soon as he reached a high point, he began falling, still ﬂailing as he did so.

“You idiot! Spread your wings, sense the wind all about you!” Long Shiya’s voice rang out in Zhou Weiqing’s ears. Subconsciously, Zhou Weiqing spread his wings. Instantly, his falling speed dropped drastically. Relieved, his will moved to sense the Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy all around his body. The Wind seemed to be like his slave, fully under his control and listening to his every command. Very carefully, he started changing the angle of his wings before starting to beat them. At last, Zhou Weiqing’’s body started the soar.

At that moment, Zhou Weiqing ﬁnally felt great, unbelievably great to the extreme.

Originally, when Zhou Weiqing had ﬁrst seen Shangguan Fei’er ﬂying, his heart had been ﬁlled with admiration and envy; especially after he had experienced ﬂight on his own, that envy had grown even stronger. From Long Shiya, he had learned that his own ‘Hate Earth No Handle’ did not have any wings. It was a set that purely chased absolute strength.

As a result, Zhou Weiqing could only place his hopes of ﬂying to when he broke through the Heavenly King Stage, with his Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy.

However, it was without question that ﬂying with wings and just using Heavenly Energy to ﬂy was extremely different. Leaving aside the sheer difference in expenditure of Heavenly Energy, just the agility and ﬂexibility in ﬂight was also drastically different. Zhou Weiqing had personally seen Shangguan Fei’er show various ﬂying skills and combat abilities in midair to the Peerless Battalion soldiers, and the free ﬂow movement, spinning, wheeling and rolling about, able to attack in any and all motions in a beautiful dance… it had truly been a cause of deep envy for Zhou Weiqing.

Currently, he ﬁnally had his own wings. More so, they were different from Shangguan Fei’er’s Consolidated Wings… they were grown directly on his body, able to be used as soon as he transformed! Furthermore, not only did they not have any toll on their Heavenly Energy, they actually increased his Heavenly Energy recovery rate… only a massive boost.

Just as Zhou Weiqing was lost in his excitement, all of a sudden he felt an intense sense of danger. Instantly, his wings beat down hard, and he ﬂew high up into the sky. Right behind him, a consolidated green-gold Wind Blade ﬂashed past.

Zhou Weiqing turned pale in fright. That was a highly compressed Wind Attribute Heavenly Energy Wind Blade! That was not something an ordinary Wind Blade could compare with. Had his Master gone insane? He desperately dodged away constantly in midair, but it was as if the Wind Blade had a pair of eyes, closely chasing behind him.

In the end, Zhou Weiqing had only gained this ability of ﬂight for such a short period of time, and he was deﬁnitely not adept at controlling his ﬂight yet. At last, he was unable to avoid the Wind Blade, and with a soft thud, it slammed savagely into his back.

The moment before he had been struck, Zhou Weiqing felt as if everything around his body lit up. Subconsciously, he looked back down on his body, and he was surprised to see that his entire person was glowing a bright purple. A gentle warmth burst forth from all his limbs, bones and entire body abruptly, spreading out. The attack of the Wind Blade was undoubtedly extremely powerful, but it seemed to only have a simple impact on his body, causing him to ﬂy forward but he did not feel any sense of pain.

With a quick ﬂip of his hands, Zhou Weiqing stroked the area on his back where he had been hit. This time, he was even more surprised to realise that his arm had actually bent strangely in an inhuman way to actually reach his back.

As for his back, not a single mark was left behind, and his skin was smooth and gleaming as ever, feeling ﬁne and delicate like a young girl’s skin. As for the purple light, it formed layer after layer of scales made of light, looking rather weird.

“Come down. Long Shiya’s voice rang out once more in his ears.

Zhou Weiqing managed to control his wings, however unpracticed, to slowly descend. At least his spiritual control was not too bad, and he did not make a fool of himself in landing. At this moment, his heart was full of shock; his body seemed to have changed in unprecedented manner, almost like everything had been turned upside down… and these changes should be from the Awakening of his Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit and its fusion with his Dark Demon God Tiger bloodline. As for what these changes were exactly, he was still not fully clear on what they were. However, it was without question that this strange purple coloured transformation of his was far superior to his previous Demonic Change State. Not only did it have all the advantages of the Demonic Change State, they had been strengthened manifold, with other additions to it as it seemed. More importantly, he was now able to maintain this new Demonic Change State for a much longer time. Even after Zhou Weiqing landed on the ground and withdrew the Demonic Change State, he could still sense that some of the changes were still active within his body. However, if his body wasn’t under the purple transformation state, he would not be able to

fully use all those changes.

Long Shiya looked over Zhou Weiqing before nodding his head in satisfaction. “Very good, a much higher defensive capability than I had even thought. It looks like Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit has improved upon one of the weaker points of the Demonic Change State, your defense. Also, it seems your physical strength has also been further improved. The fusion of the two powerful bloodlines you have has brought you a far greater change than merely the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit. As for what it has brought you exactly, it is up to us to explore and test out fully. From now on, I will give you four hours per day to familiarise yourself with your new body. As for the rest of the time, I will begin training you on how to truly use the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts.

“Master, it seems that this current transformation of mine is no longer simply the Demonic Change State, and I do not have to inﬂame my emotions as much just to enter it. More so, it seems like it is almost a constant state, only when I enter the purple stage its power is greatly strengthened and the wings come out to allow me to ﬂy. Should I give it another name instead?”

Long Shiya smiled and said: “How about… ‘Dragon-Tiger Transformation’! After all, it was brought about by your two dragon and tiger bloodlines.”

Zhou Weiqing’s mouth twitched slightly. “This… this doesn’t even sound as cool as the Demonic Change State! How about… Lord Emperor Transformation or something awesome like that?!”

“Cool your head! You might as well call it ‘shit’. Enough nonsense, let me ﬁrst test how much that defensive capability of your Dragon-Tiger Transformation has actually improved.”

Seeing that fresh hideous grin on Long Big Fatty’s face, Zhou Weiqing turned pale and turned in an attempt to run. Alas, with his cultivation level, how could he possibly escape from the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor? In moments, cries of agony rang out from the top of the volcano.

Beating was deﬁnitely a must. If he did not beat Zhou Weiqing up savagely, how could they know what the new limits of his defenses would be, and when facing any enemies, not knowing your own defense to make accurate judgements would make it easy to lose out.

After much ‘testing’, Long Shiya’s surprise grew stronger. He discovered that Zhou Weiqing’s evolving this time had been truly thorough. It seemed like not just his two powerful bloodlines had been fused together, but the Immortal Deity Technique had somehow been integrated within as well.

When Zhou Weiqing’s was under attack, the ﬁrst defensive effect that was produced was actually from his skin, becoming almost like tough armour, able to withstand any attack from six-Jeweled cultivation level and below, perhaps even higher. Tough and ﬂexible indeed.

As the offensive power of the attacks grew stronger, up to the level beyond what Zhou Weiqing’s skin could withstand, his muscles and bones would well up with strength, all the way up to the surface of the skin, strengthening the defense. At the same time, his Immortal Deity Technique would automatically transfer Heavenly Energy to the surface of the skin, presenting in a layer of purple light, once again improving the defensive capabilities several fold. This was the profound secret that had emerged after the merging of the Immortal Deity Shield to his bloodlines. It could be said that for the current Zhou Weiqing, even if one totally ignored his offensive capabilities, just considering his defensive capabilities alone, he was already at a terrifying level. More importantly, these defenses were automatically triggered, almost passive even, and he did not need to control or activate them with his own will. That was to say, he did not need to worry about being ambushed or caught off guard.

More importantly, even if he was not in the Dragon-Tiger Transformation, Zhou Weiqing’s own personal defense was already able to reach at least sixty to seventy percent of his full defense in that State.

Not only that; when he entered the Dragon-Tiger Transformation, Zhou Weiqing’s power could be said to go through a total change, an upheaval even. The introduction of the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit to all his powers not only brought Zhou Weiqing a full true immunity to ﬁre, it also brought about an immunity to the Darkness Attribute. That was to say… as long as any Skills or attacks of these two Attributes landed on Zhou Weiqing, the only effect they would have would be the impact as well as pure Heavenly Energy, and none of the effects of the skills brought about by the Attributes. If the attack was of the Darkness or Fire Attribute, then it would most likely not even be of much harm to Zhou Weiqing at all. For example, if the effect of a particular Fire Attribute Skill was a high level scorching type one, then what would its use be on him at all.

In Long Shiya’s words, due to the fact that Zhou Weiqing did not have the Fire Attribute, the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit was unable to give him any powerful Skills. However, at the same time, when the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit had fully fused with Zhou Weiqing, all its beneﬁts had been focused on his physical body instead. Not only was he no longer afraid of Fire, when he entered melee combat with an enemy, his attacks would be imbued with the Fire Attribute passively. Furthermore, when his hands warped into the dragon claws, the destructive power of them were no different from any real dragon claws, of course the difference in strength aside. Once he used his Yin Yang Giant Spirit Palms, the sheer terrifying offensive power was such that even Long Shiya would not be easily willing to take such a blow easily. It would not be a good feelings at all.

The greatest beneﬁt of Consolidated Equipment was that they could change according to their user’s physical conditions, and did not need to take a particular ﬁxed state. For example, for the current Zhou Weiqing, if he was in his transformed state and he used the Yin Yang Giant Spirit Palm, the palm area of the equipment would form in the dragon clawed shape as well. After discovering the massive changes to Zhou Weiqing’s body, Long Shiya modiﬁed his original plan. In three days, he had helped Zhou Weiqing to fully explore all the changes in his body, with not a single detail left unexplored. Once he had familiarised himself with his body, it would be of great beneﬁt for him to practice and master the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts. Especially after learning how Zhou Weiqing’s wings could draw in Heavenly Energy from the atmosphere and how powerful that effect was, the more Long Shiya wanted him to examine his Transformation.

Three days had passed. Although they couldn’t say that Zhou Weiqing had fully grasped control his new body, he had at least understood all the changes in his body. He had also improved in his winged ﬂight, at least relatively in control now, with some simple ﬂying techniques. After all, that was what Shangguan Fei’er was best at, and though Zhou Weiqing might not have the ability to ﬂy in the past, he had seen her ﬂy so many times that he had learned something. As the saying goes, even if one hasn’t eaten pork before, they had to have seen pigs run. As such, his practice proceeded pretty decently at least. Of course, he would not dare describe it as such to Shangguan Fei’er.

“Little Fatty, come here.” Long Shiya beckoned to Zhou Weiqing, who had just ﬁnished eating his breakfast. Zhou Weiqing stood there hesitantly, a wary look on his face. The last three days, he had been miserably beaten by Long Shiya in order to test the limits of his new body, and Long Big Fatty had shown no mercy at all. He had often been beaten to the very limit before Long Shiya had stopped, no matter how much Zhou Weiqing screamed in pain or used all of his considerable acting skills, the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor could clearly sense the changes in his bodies and all the acting was useless. Currently, when Long Shiya called out to him, Zhou Weiqing was afraid that a fresh round of beating would await him, how could he be willing to jump to it eagerly?

“Hurry up.” Long Shiya said exasperatedly.

Only then did Zhou Weiqing walk up unwillingly back to his Master, but his heart was still wary. He had to be prepared in case of another beating after all!

Looking at his reluctant look, Long Shiya couldn’t help but laugh out loud before saying: “Look at you with that good for nothing expression, isn’t it just two days of being beaten? It is natural for masters to beat their disciples! Hmph, don’t worry, the beatings are over… we have gathered enough data on your body. From today onwards, I will be starting the real training of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts, the true power of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation. We do not have much time left… before we head out for the Heavenly Snow Mountain, you need to have a basic grasp on the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation.

Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation? This was the ﬁrst time Zhou Weiqing had heard of this term. Originally, when Long Shiya had taught him his Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts, it had been the bare basics, and not the intricacies of the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Formation.

Zona Novel Online

Heavenly Jewel Change Chapter 161-170

Chapter 161 Letter from Tian’er!

Chapter 162 Advance Awakening – Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit!

Chapter 163 Rob the Entire Legion!

Chapter 164 Sly and Crafty!

Chapter 165 Awakening the Solidiﬁed Dragon Spirit!

Chapter 166 Peerless Battalion in war!

Chapter 167 Peerless in the World!

Chapter 168 Dragon and Tiger, Bloodlines Merge!

Chapter 169 Sacriﬁce! Wu Yuehan!

Chapter 170 Dragon-Tiger Transformation!

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