Just like that, seven days passed by. Long Haochen, who could only stay in the owl-ants’ lair for half an hour in the beginning, could now stay inside for a quarter of an hour longer.
After soaking in the hot spring, he would eat his dinner. Long Haochen, who was well behaved, would wait for Xingyu’s guidance. After a week of practice, he was not only respectful towards Xingyu, but was also sincerely afraid of him.
“No need to go on for tonight, go home. But the seated meditation mustn’t be broken off. Come back here tomorrow, early in the morning.” Xingyu threw a bottle of Training Elemental Liquid towards Long Haochen’s hands, hinting for him to leave.
Long Haochen felt relieved after seeing Xingyu’s salute and flew out of the log cabin. I can finally go home!
Looking at his figure leaving, Xingyu revealed a smile that Long Haochen didn’t see. “Stupid boy, did you forget where you are? Three years, I can only stay for a mere three years; during this time, I will teach you everything I can.”
The light feeling in Haochen’s body was truly excellent. Long Haochen ran down the mountain while feeling the changes in his body.
After a mere week, he realized that his senses were way sharper than before. Although he had really been tormented in the owl-ants’ lair, he had different sensations every time he went there. He could finally, after a week, feel each of the owl-ants’ attacks coming from each direction. His reaction speed had also evolved incredibly compared to where he was the moment he first arrived.
Although he hadn’t tested it yet, Long Haochen was sure that the biggest change in his body was his spiritual energy, which had undoubtedly risen. It was at least two levels higher, and that was after only a mere week!
Although he had to go through painful training every day, going as far as depriving himself from sleep, his originally thin and weak body clearly became somewhat stronger after the past week. His face also looked way ruddier.1 That was because, in addition to having healthy meals, he had soaked in the hot spring every day.
Long Haochen didn’t know that the combination of the hot spring and the medicinal material affected his body quite a bit. That was called a ‘bone marrow forging bath’.
As he excitedly went down the mountain, a fishy smell suddenly caught his attention.
The week he spent taking on crowds of owl-ant attacks wasn’t wasted. Instantly, Long Haochen stopped his steps and jumped to the side. At the same time, he removed the bamboo swords from his back.
With a Wizz! sound, a jet-black shadow appeared on the path he was about to cross. At that time, although it was almost dusk, Long Haochen easily saw the surprise attack coming.
The creature was 1⅓2 meters high and had a pitch-black body that was supported by four sturdy little limbs and had ceaselessly trembling scales on its back.
“A magical beast?” Long Haochen couldn’t help letting out a cry. He felt, at that moment, extremely nervous.
Xingyu taught him a variety of subjects on a daily basis, and amongst them was included the presentation of the different kinds of magical beasts. Luckily, he studied the magical beast varieties like the one that was currently before his eyes a few days ago.
It was a Scorpion-tailed Lizard, an elementary level magical beast. Its power was the same as a human with a vocation that uses spiritual energy between the 3rd and 5th rank.
Magical beasts were divided into four levels: elementary level, intermediate level, high level, and peak level. The biggest difference between magical beasts and wild beasts is their ability to use spiritual energy power to enhance themselves, and to attack the enemy that only the former category has.
Magical beasts of the first step are rather weak. They cannot use spiritual energy abilities to attack their enemies, but they can use them to strengthen themselves. The Scorpion-tailed Lizard is of that kind, a carnivorous magical beast. The scales on its back have great defensive abilities, its tail has a poisonous hook, and its weak point is on its stomach. However, because that beast attacks while crawling on the ground, its belly is rarely exposed.
The Scorpion-tailed Lizard fiercely looked at Long Haochen, while its big mouth exposed its thick white teeth. It looked as if it was wondering how long it had been since it had last eaten a human.
Facing a magical beast for the first time, Long Haochen felt chills running down his back. His hands were both tightly gripping the bamboo swords, but he didn’t act rashly; much less turn around to run away. To keep calm in such a situation was already quite hard for a nine year-old child, but he was behaving like that because he still remembered what Xingyu told him about the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s sprint speed being quite fast. At the same time, he taught him to never show his back to the enemy.
Wizz!
The Scorpion-tailed Lizard didn’t give too much thought and its four sturdy and strong limbs rushed straight towards Long Haochen, its teeth directed towards Long Haochen’s thighs.
At that moment, the hellish training from the last seven days revealed its results. Almost instinctively reacting, Long Haochen took a step to the left and, at the same time, used the pair of bamboo swords to hit and cut towards the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s head.
The reason behind that side-step dodge was not to draw back, because Xingyu taught him that he couldn’t easily draw back, unless he was sure to die if he didn’t do so. Otherwise, he could easily be attacked from behind and lose without any possibility of fighting back. Dodging to the side was different, because he could dodge while, at the same time, keeping his enemy in his sights.
Two Pu! sounds rang out. Although the bamboo sword was tough, it was also very light and its destructive power wasn’t up to much, so it hit the Scorpion-tailed Lizard like some decayed leather. However, the current Long Haochen wasn’t a newly assessed Knight Squire. His spiritual energy level, being close to 30, was enough to knock the Scorpion-tailed Lizard back on the ground.
But the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s attack didn’t stop at that. As its body fell on the ground, the poisonous-hook on its tail swept towards him.
Relying almost completely on his reaction speed, Long Haochen leapt vertically. Raising himself in the air by one meter, the sword in his right hand blocked the attack that was coming from below him with a swing.
After that simple exchange of blows, which resulted in Long Haochen stopping two of the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s attacks, he discovered that that magical beast was surprisingly not so scary. At that time, the oppressed feelings of resentment coming from the depths of his heart for those seven atrocious days were mostly dispelled. Compared to seven days earlier, his current strength and reaction speed were higher. Without a doubt, he owed that to Teacher Xingyu. He had never made such fast improvements before he met him. Although the experiences in the owl-ants’ nest were nightmares to him, he had no choice but to admit that they had a truly great effect.
The Scorpion-tailed Lizard didn’t give up so easily, though. After its failed attack, it rushed at Long Haochen once more and, this time, it looked as if its body had somewhat expanded.
Because Long Haochen was a bit distracted by that sudden attack right after the first round, his reaction became slightly slower; but he still managed to use the bamboo swords to chop towards its body to block it. However, the Scorpion-tailed Lizard didn’t fall onto the ground this time.
Not good, this is his Body-Strengthening skill! Long Haochen was startled, his bamboo swords were repelled and, at the same time, his body lost some of its balance and was falling backwards.
The Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s big mouth was right before his eyes. Long Haochen felt the danger he was in and his pupils quickly shrank. It seemed as if something exploded inside of his head.
At that moment, he suddenly felt as if the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s movements became slower. As he was falling on his back, he could very clearly see each of its movements.
If someone could see Long Haochen’s current pupils, they would discover that the pupils’ in the middle of his blue-eyes had contracted to the size of a needle and that he was, surprisingly, in an extremely calm state; the hardness that appeared in ordinary people’s eyes didn’t appear in his.
*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her
*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao
*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique
*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall
*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake
*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill
*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel
*[Noodles]: made of wheat
*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice
*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet
*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap