Zhou Weiqing’s eyes widened as his dreams were about to come true. Just at that moment, a feminine voice shouted out “Your highness, be careful! There’s someone here!”
Upon hearing the shout, the pink haired girl acted like a startled little bird, quickly ducking into the water up to her neck, as she looked around in panic.
Before Zhou Weiqing could react, he felt his body lighten, and the world spin around him. With a plopping sound, he landed on the ground.
“What happened?” Although Zhou Weiqing was unable to cultivate heavenly energy, but he had been training under his strict father since young, and his body was in a fit condition, definitely stronger and more agile than any commoner, and he executed a roll on the ground before standing up.
About 3 metres in front of him, a young lady of about 20 years of age stood glaring at him. She seemed rather plain looking, and was dressed in leather armor with a sword in hand, with a bow made of Star Wood holstered on her back.
Zhou Weiqing immediately recognized the symbols of Star Flowers etched upon her leather armor, it was reserved only for the Royal household – could this young lady in front of him be a Royal Guard?
What really drew Zhou Weiqing’s attention was the 3 Jewels surrounding the lady’s right wrist. The 3 jewels were a type of jade, and with Zhou Weiqing’s good vision and the radiance of the jade, he could see clearly that it was about 30% Waxy Jade, 30% Ice Jade and 40% Dragonstone Jade.
Even though Zhou Weiqing personally could not cultivate, but he knew that those 3 jewels on her right wrist were no mere ornaments, but a sign of power.
In the Boundless Mainland, a person’s actual strength could be determined in 3 ways, and if you stood out in any particular way, you could be considered a strong person. The 3 ways were Heavenly Energy, Physical Jewels and Elemental Jewels.
Humans believed that they were the highest ranked species in the world that the gods have created, and that the human body was truly a gift from the gods. There were many different types of cultivating methods, and the strength achieved from that was known as heavenly energy. Heavenly energy was divided into 4 large hierarchies, Heavenly Jing Energy, Heavenly Xu Energy, Heavenly God Energy, and Heavenly Dao Energy.
Each of those hierarchies were further divided into 12 levels. It was rumoured that someone who had reached the highest level of the Heavenly Dao Energy was able to harness the energies of the universe, able to destroy and create and be extremely long lived. In any case, no matter Physical Jewel Masters or Elemental Jewel Masters, the basics of everything was Heavenly Energy. Without sufficient Heavenly Energy, it did not matter how good the quality of the Power Jewels were.
In the huge Boundless Mainland, when humans were born, they all had their own inborn Power Jewel. However, nobody could tell in advance what their Jewel was, and only when Heavenly Energy had been cultivated till the 3rd level of Heavenly Jing Energy, would their Power Jewels be Awakened.
The cultivation of Heavenly Jing Energy was extremely difficult, especially the introductory stages, one had to have the talent to communicate with their own Power Jewels to be able to cultivate successfully. The first 3 levels of Heavenly Jing Energy was tantamount to being reborn 3 times, and less than 1% of the population could actually complete it.
Once someone could complete the first 3 levels of Heavenly Jing Energy cultivation and Awaken their Power Jewels, then they would finally break out of being a commoner and take the first step into being a powerhouse. As Zhou Weiqing had blocked meridians and could not cultivate, thus he was doomed to be unable to complete the first 3 levels and Awaken his Power Jewels, and could only be an ordinary person.
Power Jewels had 2 forms after Awakening. Those that appeared around the right wrist were known as Physical Jewels. Those that appeared around the left wrist were known as Elemental Jewels. Physical Jewels and Elemental Jewels were inherently different. In general those with Physical Jewels were strong warriors, and each Physical Jewel could not only strengthen the physical attributes of the Physical Jewel Master, but also coalesce into a weapon or armor piece, which greatly strengthened the Physical Jewel Master. On the other hand, those with Elemental Jewels were gifted with greater brain energy, and they could make use of their Elemental Jewels to control the various elements they were aligned to, and they could also seal skills into their Elemental Jewels.
For both Physical Jewel Masters and Elemental Jewel Masters, the basic way to tell their strength was the number of jewels. For them, there was a max of 9 Power Jewels, those who had 1-3 Jewels were known as Shi Stage, 4-6 Jewels were known as Zun Stage, and 7-9 Jewels were known as Zong Stage. Each Stage also had an lower, middle and upper level. As such, the lady Royal Guard in front of Zhou Weiqing now was a upper level Shi Stage Physical Jewel Master.
Although Shi Stage was only the first stage, it would be a big mistake to underestimate the 3 Jewelled upper level Shi Stage Physical Jewel Master in front of him. After all, for a small country like Heavenly Bow Empire, the number of Jewel Masters numbered less than a hundred! This lady Royal Guard in front of Zhou Weiqing was probably ranked within the top 50 strongest in the whole country! As such, you can see how rare a Jewel Master was. Having 3 Physical Jewels also meant that her Heavenly Jing Energy was cultivated to at least 10th Level, possibly even already break-through to the Tian Xu Energy hierarchy. With her power, it would be easy for her to defeat a hundred skilled normal soldiers.
Physical Jewels and Elemental Jewels were formed by different types of jewels. For Physical Jewels, they were all formed by different types of Jade, which also meant different types of physical enhancements. There were 6 different type of jade and enhancements, namely: Ice Jade which boosted strength, Waxy Jade which boosted flexibility, Yellow Jade which boosted toughness, Dragonstone Jade which boosted agility, Red Jade which boosted coordination, and Black Jade which boosted stamina.
All Physical Jewel Masters’ jade were a mixture of the different type of jades. With reference to the lady Royal Guard, with 30% Waxy Jade, 30% Ice Jade and 40% Dragonstone Jade, it meant that if the physical enhancement from one Jewel was 100, she would get boosted 30 flexibility, 30 strength and 40 agility. It was quite a good mixture indeed.
Feeling the anger in her eyes with some killing intent, Zhou Weiqing felt his back covered in cold sweat, and he exclaimed quickly: “Big Sis, I’m afraid this is a misunderstanding!”
“Misunderstanding?” The lady Royal Guard shook her wrist and drew her sword . Although she did not activate her 3 Physical Jewels, but her sword shone bright with Heavenly Energy. Her heavenly energy was still unable to be released from the sword, so she was likely still in the Heavenly Jing Energy Hierarchy, as those who had broken through to Heavenly Xu Energy would be able to release heavenly energy from their weapons. Of course, she had not even used her Physical Jewels as they would increase the amount of Heavenly Energy expended. Of course, facing Zhou Weiqing who was an unarmed commoner, it was definitely unnecessary to do so.
With a cold flash, the tip of the sword was resting on Zhou Weiqing’s throat, just a small movement forward would end his life.
“Physical Jewel Master Big Sis, this is really a misunderstanding! Besides, I really didn’t see anything! Please let me go” Zhou Weiqing looked pitifully at the lady Royal Guard, and with his honest looking features, it did seem very convincing.