by Dragon King
All the demon beasts below level 6 were sent flying in this explosion!
“Hahahaha…” Zhao Kuo raised his head and laughed overbearingly. “Kid, come and fight with me!”
500 Mind Battle!
Before he could regain his balance, Hao Ren felt a huge force sucking him into the sky.
The dark clouds above the island quickly disappeared, and the dark sky suddenly turned bright!
It meant that Zhao Kuo had succeeded in his elevation of the realm and the planting of the mystic crystal!
The demon beasts all fled. The low-leveled demon beasts fled as fast as they could at the sight of Zhao Kuo’s great power, and the high-leveled ones who had activated their intelligence knew the Demon Kings in the Demon Sea had signed a peace treaty with the East Ocean Dragon Clan.
They wouldn’t join the stupid low-leveled demon beasts in attacking the island that belonged to the East Ocean Dragon Clan. Now that all the heavenly lightning bolts disappeared, the high-leveled demon beasts also rushed back to the Demon Sea.
Hua! Hua… With the surging of the ocean waves, the demon beasts, low-leveled and high-leveled, all swam toward the direction of the Demon Sea. In the commotion, no one knew how many low-leveled demon beasts were swallowed and eaten by displeased or wounded high-leveled demon beasts.
Swoosh! Swoosh… The 1280 sword energies returned to Zhao Kuo’s side and rotated around him slowly.
Zhao Kuo hovered in the high sky while his sword energies hummed and blinked in five colors.
Hao Ren flew to the sky and steadied himself with sword energies. Then, he looked at Zhao Kuo and felt the presence of a true master!
Xun-level!
Through his inspector’s token, Hao Ren immediately sensed Zhao Kuo’s realm!
Before he used the mystic crystal, Zhao Kuo had been at top-tier Dui-level. While he charged at a higher realm, he used the mystic crystal that had a considerable amount of energy, and it helped him break through to Xun-level successfully.
Despite his magnificence right now, it must have been extremely dangerous when he charged at the higher realm and planted the mystic crystal into his dragon core!
“Hurry up!”
Seeing Hao Ren standing on the sword energies without moving, Zhao Kuo suddenly shifted half of the sword energies around him.
Boom! The 640 sword energies rushed toward Hao Ren.
“You are no match for Third Uncle. Surrender!” Zhao Yanzi called out from the beach.
Hao Ren’s hands waved slightly and shot out all 320 sword energies.
Hiss… The sword energies collided with each other while making ear-piercing grinding noises.
Zhao Kuo’s 640 sword energies drew an arc, taking Hao Ren’s 320 sword energies for a run with them.
For an instant, Hao Ren felt like he lost control of his own sword energies which were glued to Zhao Kuo’s sword energies unshakably.
“Too weak!” Zhao Kuo scolded.
Suddenly, his sword energies let go of Hao Ren’s, and more than one thousand sword energies swiftly returned to his body while only 120 sword energies remained outside, spinning around him.
Although he cultivated the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll later than Hao Ren, he was on a higher realm, and his mastery of the technique far exceeded Hao Ren.
Despite his crude looks, Zhao Kuo was not dumb at all! Instead, he was a cultivation genius.
He took out a piece of black cloth and tied it around his head twice, covering his eyes.
Hao Ren looked at him in surprise… “Is Third Uncle going to fight with his eyes covered?”
While Hao Ren was hesitating with doubts and alarm, Zhao Kuo’s 120 sword energies suddenly attacked.
“Here they come!”
Hao Ren’s 320 sword energies flew toward Zhao Kuo’s sword energies.
However, Zhao Kuo’s sword energies only touched Hao Ren’s sword energies lightly before bypassing the bulk of the sword energies and heading straight toward Hao Ren!
“Be careful!” Standing on the beach, Zhao Yanzi blurted out her warning.
Watching them, Zhao Yanzi was angry and exasperated. Like two nemesis, they fought fiercely in the Dragon God Shrine and now on Purple Bamboo Island.
The moment the sword energies collided, Hao Ren knew that Zhao Kuo was using his sword energies as his eyes!
Hao Ren practiced fighting with Little White using sword energies while sitting in the cave abode; Zhao Kuo was using the same method.
With Zhao Kuo’s current strength, 120 sword energies were more than enough to deal with Hao Ren’s 320 sword energies!
Bang! Hao Ren circulated all the nature essence in his body.
The power of the 320 sword energies increased greatly.
“Auch…” Zhao Kuo was slightly surprised by the change in Hao Ren’s sword energies.
“This kid was reserving his strength before,” he thought.
Stepping on his sword energies, Hao Ren unbuckled his black cloth belt and covered his eyes as well.
Standing on the beach, Zhao Yanzi was stupefied, “Hao Ren, how can you fight my third uncle with your eyes covered?!”
“Third Uncle, please!” With his eyes covered, Hao Ren sensed the surrounding environment with his spiritual senses and heart.
“Ok!” Zhao Kuo yelled heartily and moved the 120 sword energies, attacking Hao Ren from three directions.
These sword energies were so swift that each of them could rival a natal dharma treasure!
Dang! Dang… With a wave of rapid collisions, Hao Ren’s sword energies stood up and spun around, bouncing off Zhao Kuo’s sword energies.
Even though he couldn’t see through his eyes, he could sense each of his and Zhao Kuo’s sword energies clearly.
This was something called mind sword!
Standing on the high platform of the palace, Elder Lu and Elder Sun both looked surprised.
They had never seen or heard of two people fighting each other with their eyes closed.
The generals and soldiers who were guarding different places on the island were all excited while watching Hao Ren and Zhao Kuo fight fiercely in the high sky.
Having not watched the battle at the Dragon God Shrine, they felt this battle was incredible while seeing the sword energies flying in the sky, thinking, “The previous and current Commanding Generals are really powerful!”
“Hehe, Third Lord is asking Fuma to help him stabilize the mystic crystal,” Premier Xia said after watching for a while.
“Stabilize the mystic crystal?” Elder Lu and Elder Sun looked surprised.
“You both have planted mystic crystals before. How come you don’t know that?” Premier Xia tossed the question back.
Elder Lu and Elder Sun looked at each other in bafflement.
As Kun-level cultivators, they both had water-elemental mystic crystals and knew that the process of using a mystic crystal included preparation, breakthrough, and stabilization. The mystic crystals which were just planted were not stable since they wouldn’t merge with the meridians completely. To stabilize it, one way was to spend half a month or even months to merge them gradually with the meridians, and the other way was to find a cultivator with a similar elemental attribute to help with the stabilization.
Elder Lu and Elder Sun both used the first and safer way.
At this thought, the two elders immediately understood that Zhao Kuo was not fighting Hao Ren. Instead, he was trying to nurture his five-elemental mystic crystal with the help from Hao Ren’s five-elemental nature essence.
Among the many cultivators, only Hao Ren trained using the rare Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll which absorbed all five elements.
Looking up again at the sword energies in the high sky, Elder Lu and Elder Sun finally realized that the two were not fighting each other fiercely but dancing and hovering around each other.
Their nature essence
Elder Lu and Elder Sun lamented silently in wonder.
Compared with the way
of nurturing meridians with palms touching, the method of coordination via nature essence was a more sophisticated way!
The nature essence that Zhao Kuo couldn’t consume from the mystic crystal was released to Hao Ren, and Hao Ren returned the nature essence he couldn’t withstand to Zhao Kuo!
In this way, they moved the adjustment inside the body to the big natural environment outside their bodies! It was a bit like the rare technique of Heavenly Dragon!
Elder Lu and Elder Sun had heard that the demon beasts could heal injuries and cultivate by touching each other’s internal cores as long as they were of the same elemental attribute.
However, for mature dragons, they couldn’t spat out their dragon cores unless they returned to their dragon forms. And for young dragons like Zhao Yanzi, it was rather careless and dangerous to lose their dragon cores!
The way Hao Ren and Zhao Kuo were exchanging nature essences was similar to how demon beasts exchanged their nature essence through touching internal cores.
Bang! The sword energies that were entangled in the high sky suddenly exploded, and Hao Ren and Zhao Kuo flew back more than ten meters.
Zhao Kuo spat out a mouthful of blood while a streak of blood oozed from the corner of Hao Ren’s mouth.
However, compared to the violent movements of the nature essences in their meridians, the sword energies released by Hao Ren got much more powerful.
Zhao Kuo was looking for a ‘conductor’ to release the extra energy from the mystic crystal that he couldn’t absorb, and Hao Ren’s sword energies were good conductors!
Most of the used energy disappeared into nature during their battle, but a small part was absorbed by Hao Ren’s sword energies. It was an excellent gift for him indeed!
Hao Ren withdrew the sword energies into his body and felt surging nature essence all over his body!
Although his dragon core didn’t change, the purity of his nature essence greatly increased.
“Hahaha! Hahaha!” Zhao Kuo laughed wildly! The Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus he planted in his dragon core finally became stable after the excess energy went to Hao Ren!
Surging energy from nature continuously entered his body.
The small Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus was indeed the most powerful mystic crystal with balanced five elements! The dragon core which had reached the cultivation bottleneck suddenly turned lively with the aid of this awesome treasure!
Swoosh!
Zhao Kuo’s finger released a sword energy casually.
Boom! A small island several kilometers away was shattered into pieces!
“Good! Very good! Excellent!”
Zhao Kuo’s dragon core didn’t change much, but the quality of his nature essence was ten times higher than before, and it was comparable to the most vital energy in nature.
These were the effects of the Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus!
Seeing Zhao Kuo hovering in the high sky while laughing overbearingly, Elder Lu and Elder Sun smiled with satisfaction.
Judging from the power released from his finger, they knew that Zhao Kuo who had just reached Xun-level was stronger than them who were Kun-level cultivators! It was quite possible that Zhao Kuo will one day enter the Heavenly Dragon Realm!
Also, the stronger Zhao Kuo got, the more helpful he would be to Hao Ren!
Just like how Zhao Kuo needed Hao Ren to help him stabilize his realm, Hao Ren would need Zhao Kuo’s help when he breaks through.
After all, in the entire world, they were the only two dragon cultivators who practiced the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll!
501 The Taste of First Love~~
Returning to the palace, Zhao Kuo needed to rest and recover his strength.
After helping Zhao Kuo stabilize his mystic crystal, Hao Ren took an amount of nature essence from the mystic crystal and needed some time to settle it down.
“Brother, congratulations!”
Standing at the gate of the palace, Zhao Guang greeted Zhao Kuo in happiness.
With the mystic crystal in his body, Zhao Kuo emitted an extraordinary presence with nature essence all over his body.
Usually, the simpler the cultivator’s elemental attribute was, the easier the process of planting mystic crystal.
For Su Han who had both metal and water attributes, it was difficult for her to find a proper mystic crystal and complicated for her to use it.
If not for his previous experience of planting the mystic crystal, Zhao Kuo probably couldn’t have succeeded in using the Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus which had five-elemental nature essences.
In fact, during the entire day when he used the mystic crystal, Zhao Kuo was in danger multiple times! Each time, Elder Xingyue helped him and solved the problems for him.
However, no one knew if the mystic crystals with more elemental attributes were more powerful than those with only one element.
The great increase in Zhao Kuo’s strength that came after he used the mystic crystal was because the Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus was one of the best mystic crystals instead of the fact that it contained five elements.
“Third Uncle, I told you that you would be OK!” Zhao Yanzi rushed into the palace and said happily.
“Hehe, your third uncle is a lucky man. How could anything happen to me?” Zhao Kuo said heartily.
He glanced at Hao Ren who came in with Zhao Yanzi and said, “Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus is indeed a grand mystic crystal. If I can find another one, I’ll bring it to you!”
He didn’t expect Hao Ren to reach Dui-level and didn’t think he needed a mystic crystal. However, Hao Ren’s performance had astonished him, giving him a vague hope that this young man would one day become a master.
Especially when Hao Ren practiced the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll with him a moment ago. He was afraid that Hao Ren, a Gen-level cultivator, wouldn’t be able to withstand the suppression of his nature essence. However, Hao Ren absorbed all the extra nature essence to his surprise.
Zhao Kuo didn’t know that the old Grandma who was a Soul Formation Realm cultivator had injected a trace of vital energy of nature into Hao Ren’s body, and it even stored Zhao Haoran’s 1,000 years of cultivation strength, not to mention the small amount of energy from the mystic crystal.
Zhao Kuo felt like he owed Hao Ren a favor for taking the Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus which Hao Ren could also use. However, his usage of the mystic crystal was, in fact, opening a way for Hao Ren in the future, and he wondered if there was another Seven-Core Five-Color Lotus in the world.
“Ok! I’m glad you’d do that for me!” Hao Ren answered brightly.
“Brother, you are tired. Go and rest,” Zhao Guang patted Zhao Kuo on the shoulder and said with concern.
“Ok!” Zhao Kuo turned and entered the palace. In the massive Summer Palace, there was a special cultivation place and bedroom for Zhao Kuo.
Standing by Zhao Hongyu’s side, Elder Xingyue watched Zhao Kuo strode away with a trace of helplessness in her eyes.
“Ren, you should go and rest too. You’ve done a lot,” Zhao Guang looked at Hao Ren and said.
“Ok.” Hao Ren nodded, expecting Premier Xia to show him the way.
However, Zhao Hongyu said, “Why don’t you share a room with Zi?”
“What?!” Zhao Yanzi froze for a moment and yelled in protest, “Mom!”
She had grown more attached to Hao Ren recently and was jealous during the days when Hao Ren kept Xie Yujia company in the U.S.
However, when Zhao Hongyu told them to share a room, she was resistant.
Is there anything wrong with what I said?” Zhao Hongyu glanced at her helplessly before looking at Hao Ren. “The Grade Nine courses are tough. Can you help her out by tutoring her for a bit?”
“I will, Auntie,” Hao Ren agreed with pleasure.
Recently, while Zhao Yanzi lived in the palace and he stayed in the forest, they didn’t spend long periods of time together. The only time they met was when they joined forces to fight Zhao Kuo each day, and they
had grown closer to each other while they worked on their sword techniques together.
Zhao Yanzi pouted but didn’t dare to say more.
When they entered Zhao Yanzi’s bedroom, Hao Ren shut the door after him.
“What… are you trying to do?” Zhao Yanzi looked at Hao Ren warily.
“Don’t you shut the door when you enter a room?” Hao Ren asked before opening the windows facing the ocean.
It was a great pleasure in seeing the sceneries outside from inside the palace.
The ocean breeze blew in from the windows, bringing a chill and comfortable feeling. Even though the sky had been filled with gales and dark clouds only a moment ago, it was all calm now.
“Hey.” Zhao Yanzi turned suddenly and bumped Hao Ren’s belly with her elbow. “Elder Lu said the demon beasts all came from the Demon Sea. Why don’t we go there and play for a bit?”
“Demon Sea?” Hao Ren looked at her with a weird expression. “You?”
“Humph! What do you mean?” Zhao Yanzi wrinkled her nose and snorted.
“When you reach the Core Formation Realm, I’ll take you there,” Hao Ren said.
“Oh… You better promise!” Zhao Yanzi grabbed the opportunity to make him promise.
“I promise. I promise…” Exasperated, Hao Ren pulled over an antique armchair and sat down.
On the exquisite wooden desk were Grade Nine textbooks.
“Have you read them all?” Hao Ren turned his head and asked her.
“Mostly. They are not difficult!” Zhao Yanzi said.
Hao Ren nodded and knew she wasn’t boasting. As one of the best middle schools in East Ocean City, LingZhao Middle School had a tight schedule and taught some concepts that belonged to Grade Nine in Grade Eight. For example, Chemistry was a class that only were taught to Grade Nine students everywhere else at East Ocean City, but LingZhao Middle School had it in Grade Eight.
Such a tight schedule was a bit hard for lazy students like Zhao Yanzi.
However, due to this tight schedule, Grade Nine was comparatively easier since they would spend the whole year reviewing and preparing for the high school entrance exam.