As the two children were having their exchange, Goldy stared wide-eyed at the sky, the image of the humongous pillar of golden light branded into his draconian pupils. At last, after contemplating for a bit, the golden dragon let his gaze fall upon the youth once more: Cheng Hao's clothes were now no different than burnt rags, and the floor below him was even the more so charred black. What was even more eye-catching though, was neither the ruined clothing nor the burnt floor. Instead, the waves of power emanating from the youth were so intense actual ripples had formed in the surrounding space!
This was without doubt caused by the boy's breakthrough resonating with the Martial Way, resulting in a sudden but momentary increase in pressure.
After a few breaths, the already transparent avatar dissipated, leaving behind a golden-eyed child sitting cross-legged on a patch of charred wooden floor.
Even then however the oddities did not stop, as faint golden aura began to be emitted from Cheng Hao's figure, enclosing his body like a cocoon. The radiance was constantly absorbing the beneficial Spiritual Energy surrounding him, which the youth both fed to the Pseudo-Core, and also refined it directly in order to constantly nourish the fleshly body.
Although no results would be seen in just a few days, in a matter of months, maybe even weeks, a body refined through Spiritual Energy would be greatly enhanced. Let alone the impurities that would have already long since been expelled, the muscles would also toughen up, the bones grown firmer and stronger! And what about a few years after that? Well, after ten or so years of basking into Spiritual Energy nonstop, a cultivator's body would then become no different from a metal sword! And what about a hundred more years? A thousand? If enough time passed, the body itself would turn so tough it would rival even the toughest heavenly treasures!
Goldy, of course, was not shocked by this development in particular. After all, it had been him, the 'Heaven Devouring Dragon' Blindlight, who had passed that technique down to the young Xu Ling. After having undergone several improvements, the Evil Saint had created the Golden Aura, a bodily strengthening technique unmatched under the heavens! Unfortunately however, such a technique could not be passed down. Had that not been the case then let alone a single Tian, even if a hundred more were to show up, an army of cultivators with bodies that had underwent the heaven-defying refinement of the Golden Aura would have effortlessly slayed them all!
Amazed yet? Well, what if one were to be told that not only was the Golden Aura the highest grade body refinement technique, it was also a top-tier support and offensive technique?
Not knowing of the true nature of that seemingly harmless radiance, Xiao Wu's eyes focused upon the youth's shoulders. The sudden release of the energy from earlier had been akin to an explosion, and the child's robes were now all ragged, with one exception: wrapped around Cheng Hao's neck was now a peculiar, black scarf. It wasn't made of cloth, leather or any other common materials. Many small black hexagons covered the rough surface of the black scarf. The girl could tell at a glance, recalling the same small hexagons on the body of her Martial Way's black dragon: those small hexagons... were scales. And from the occasional swelling and deflating of what seemed to be the creature's chest, the 'scarf' seemed to be alive.
A faint golden light tattoo was also orbiting around Cheng Hao's right hand and on it were inscribed the words 'Nightmares Haunt All The Living' as well as the drawing of a black, wingless, and limbless black dragon.
The young Xiao Clan Mistress was as surprised as she was amazed. She almost wanted to ask, "Just how many secrets do you keep from me, Brother Cheng Hao?" but ultimately was unable to as, before she could utter anything at all and before Cheng Hao could get up, something had suddenly flown across the room and hit him squarely on the stomach! Thanks to the Golden Aura the child had sustained no damage, however he had still lost his balance and fallen on his back.
The first bright red, then deep purple face of the golden snake, Goldy, appeared less than a palm away from Cheng Hao's nose. Its pitch-black pupils twinkled with excitement as the dragon stared into the golden-eyed child's eyes and delightedly inquired, "That scarf... It couldn't be Little Black, could it?"
As if by instinct, the black scarf suddenly seemed to shudder as it heard the golden dragon's voice being so close. It was not awake yet, but a bad feeling had still managed to disturb its sleep for a few breaths before it finally fell back into its deep slumber.
Cheng Hao nodded, propped himself back up and made a victory sign, "First Floor... Clear! We got our mount!" Having said that, a wide grin found its place on the child's face. "Right now however, it is sleeping and resting to recover from living those two months in a cramped space without any Qi or Spiritual Energy he could absorb..." Cheng Hao sighed.
A hint of sympathy appeared in the golden dragon's, Blindlight's, eyes: had it not been for him reverting back to his infant stage - thus giving Cheng Hao no reason to imprison him - he would have been sealed in the tower in the Hellish Nightmare Dragon's place. Although it would have been only a temporary measure until he would freed once again in the future, living in a place devoid of absorbable Qi and Spiritual Energy wouldn't exactly have been considered pleasant.
Amongst the many unique abilities of Heavenly Beasts there existed something called Re-Life. Re-Life was something that all Heavenly Beasts reaching the stage of Supreme could accomplish. It was basically restarting from scratch once again, rewinding back one's lifespan and cultivation for another chance at Immortality.
After all, no matter how much effort went into one's cultivation, it would only be upon reaching the rank of Immortal that one would finally be granted eternal life and an undying soul! Or at least, so the legends foretold...
Those Heavenly Beasts who felt that they would be unable to reach the Immortal Stage would thus chose to gamble it all on a next life, again and again, until they either got killed or reached Immortality. Although during the process of Re-Life they would revert back to their infant state and lose all their cultivation, Heavenly Beasts would still keep their memories and experiences, which would aid them greatly in any future attempts.
After the battle with Tian, Blindlight had re-lived in order to escape revenge from the Lord of the Nine Heavens. After that, he had laid low for a thousand years without even bothering to cultivate, hoping to live a peaceful and unhindered life... Unfortunately, through the power of the Spark, Cheng Hao had found and transported the golden dragon into this Plane of Existence, their current location. Since sealing the cultivationless Blindlight into the Immortal Ascension Tower would have amounted to nothing, he had ultimately chosen not to, and had ultimately chosen to trap the Hellish Nightmare Dragon instead. Still, Cheng Hao couldn't let such a source of knowledge and (he would of course never admit this last bit publicly), a great friend that had accompanied him for a lifetime already, go away. After all, knowledge and cultivation can be acquired, however such a good friend was hard to come by. So he had decided to keep him as a pet or, in Goldy's words, an 'Animated Encyclopedia'… and a 'Living Escalator'.
[AN: Why escalator, you ask? Well, the scenario in which such a skill would possibly be useful would be so far off in the future it simply would not be worth mentioning at this moment, so that will only be explored later on. Ahem! Anyways, back to Cheng Hao & Co...]
Goldy beamed as his gaze fell upon the black 'scarf', "How much time until Lil' Black awakens? After all this harassment from you, I need to pay it all back somehow! But since I can't harm you yet, I can only let my feelings out on this Heavenly Beast of yours!"
Cheng Hao smiled but did not reply. In his mind, he was currently playing a simulation of the currently cultivationless Blindlight facing off with the Supreme stage Blacky... Yep, no matter how he put it, it was an absolute bloodbath. Seeing the happy and somehow perverted smile on Goldy's face though, the child couldn't help but put aside the thought of telling him that. After all, he should give the Hellish Nightmare Dragon a chance to vent its anger, otherwise... Remembering the three enraged pairs of glowing eyes, Cheng Hao shuddered a bit as he thanked the Heavens (of course not the Nine Heavens of Tian but the original, True Heavens) that his bluff with the flames and eyes had worked. Fortunately, it seemed like the figure of the Evil Saint had left quite the impact on the poor Nightmare Dragon.
Although he was only in the Inferior stage, Cheng Hao could still, even if barely, somehow manage to use a small portion of the abilities he had wielded as Xu Ling. That is, for a limit of roughly twenty breaths, at least at the moment. That was mainly due to the over-powered Qi he had just absorbed from the Immortal Ascension Tower... The 'Sovereign Qi', as he had come to call it, was simply so high-quality and boundless it not only allowed him to use abilities despite it being different than the Qi he had had as the Evil Saint (The Golden Gates of Old), but he could also utilize them at the lowly Inferior stage!
[AN: for those who did not deduce this yet, certain abilities that are available with a certain Qi (eg, a Qi with a fire attribute) might not be available by using a Qi of different attributes (eg, a Qi with a sword attribute). The Sovereign Qi however transcends that and has no restrictions of that matter.]
Sealing Blacky in the Immortal Ascension Tower had been something done on a whim, and honestly definitely not something that had been all that well thought out. After noticing the disparity in cultivation between the two of them, Cheng Hao had also been racking his brain on how to convince, or more accurately force, the beast to join him, as the contract between the two from more than a thousand years ago had already expired. However, once he had first experienced the Sovereign Qi having just broken through, he had noticed that he would indeed not only be able to use his skills from his past life in this new body sometime in the future, but that he could also slightly display them with his current cultivation too!
Thanks to this, he had come up with the plan: he had bet on the fact that he, as Xu Ling, had been so cold blooded and ruthless towards the black-scaled dragon he should have left quite a mark. Of course however, he would have never imagined that 'mark' had actually turned over time into such a trauma.