by Fat Bread
These kinds of so-called geniuses nearly had no hope to enter the 4th Rank - the Hero Rank. Even if they used some method to overdraft their future potential and barely broke through the grade, their advancement would still be stopped at the 4th Rank. After they entered old age, their vitality would become so weak that they would step back and regress into the Mortal Rank again.
They were lacking something, which was the basic physical quenching that was offered through a Breathing Practice method to temper their body to perfection. They were too obsessed and eager to cross the threshold for quick success and immediate gain. Forgetting about their foundation.
Hua Huo's foundation was unknown, how many times better was it compared to Ashen's? Their future achievement would've been worlds apart.
"Therefore, Ashen, how would you even possibly pursue Hua Huo."
"Moreover, Hua Huo and I..." Thinking about that incomparably tragic future, Yun Xi couldn't help but sigh.
Regardless of everything, had that 7th-ranked Apostle come here, she was strong enough to sweep away the entire White Lotus Sword Domain, but that was a problem for later.
"Inhale... Haaah..." Though he was feeling hazy, Yun Xi still practiced Hua Huo's secret breathing technique and maintained this state as most of his body sank into the hot spring, leaving only his nose and mouth above the water's surface.
Getting immersed in this state of ecstasy meant that he had successfully practiced this secret breathing technique, as he then quickly sat in meditation and forgot everything.
Having experienced a deathmatch with the green hippo, Yun Xi became aware of his cultivation path advancement as he finally started to transform himself to enter this world.
Meditating coupled with the aid of this hot spring really helped his blood circulation. He continued to remain in this state for quite a long time, even Yun Xi was unaware that the sky had darkened.
At a nearby river where he was chased down and had killed the green hippo, a troop from afar was camping. One after another, white lotus-shaped lanterns were hung up in midair as layers of formation then formed, which even birds were unable to enter.
"Welcome, Her Highness White Lotus Witch!"
"Welcome, Her Highness Red Lotus Witch!"
If Yun Xi was here, he could see that the mayor was kneeling down on the ground and sweating profusely with an anxious expression fully drawn on his face.
They had already reminded that kid - Ashen - countless times that he must by all means rush here before tonight to greet the Sword Palace's messenger. That was also ordered by the emperor personally because these two witches were the White Lotus Sword Domain's next successors!
They were not only well known as geniuses of the millennium in the whole White Lotus Sword Domain, but their souls were also interlinked. Their titles were "White Lotus Witch" and "Red Lotus Witch".
"Enough with the ceremony, we are only passing through here and will only select disciples for the Sword Palace; we don't want to enter the village and disturb the inhabitants."
"..."
Beads of sweats were streaming down from the Mayor's bald forehead.
The heavens might have taken a pity on this small village since this village was the most ordinary frontier region in the White Lotus Sword Domain with a population of tens of thousands people. So how would they have the opportunity to greet such a great VIP like the White Lotus Witch?
And these two had already stepped into the Hero Rank, they were peerless powerhouses.
Moreover, it was said that they were only 14-years-old!
Chapter 27: Captured Yun Xi
In the mountain's hot spring, Yun Xi entered the most fantastic cultivation state since his birth.
Hua Huo's seed was slowly emitting out its special spiritual spark and his body was helping him digest the talents with the mystical breathing method.
Gradually, on the surface of the water, round ripples appeared around Yun Xi.
In sync with Yun Xi's breathing, these ripples spread out and radiated one after another.
His breathing slowly became nearly inaudible. At first, his nose and mouth were exposed on the surface of the hot spring, but now had they sunk into the water.
In the foggy hot spring, Yun Xi's breath had already dissolved into nature itself, invisible and untouchable.
This was a wonderful realm which was so difficult to touch by mortals, even for Hero Ranked warriors.
Daoists called it "enlightenment".
Buddhists called it an "epiphany".
In the Western God's Domains, sorcerers and wizards called it "God's Thought".
No matter what kind of description, they all pointed to this state: a state which was like a merging with natural itself, to feel the truth of the world.
It wasn't relevant to strength, but was more reliant on one's personal understanding, luck or chance.
Many Hero Ranked warriors didn't get to enter into this state even once during their life, but due to an accident or something else, many ordinary people had the chance to get into this realm.
Each mortal, as long as they had entered into this realm once, with no exception, all of them stepped into the realm of the Hero Rank in the end. Due to this, this state was also called "the permit of Hero Rank".
By using Hua Huo's breathing method and fighting with the green hippo, Yun Xi finally broke the invisible barrier and grew Hua Huo's seed to a condition that was able to support him to enter the state of epiphany.
However, Yun Xi didn't know why, he had a strange feeling that he was pretty familiar with this state.
****
"I'm here again." Yun Xi raised up his head, looking at the gate from a distance.
It was a gate that stood upright between heaven and earth, high above the clouds. It was a scene that Yun Xi had seen in his dream a lot of times.
This scene had been in his dream since long, long ago. He clearly remembered almost every next step.
"A loitering spirit again?" In front of the giant cloud gate, the guardian showed her killing intent to the uninvited invader.
"This isn't a trial?" Quickly, Yun Xi had found that it was a different world from the Star Trial.
Because he didn't see the bonfire which was used for resurrection. Besides, there wasn't any weapon prepared for the newbie.
On top of that, the opponent he had to face was the guardian of the gate, whose level was so high that it couldn't even be identified.
Three wisps of icy blue hair were blowing in the wind, her long ponytail was hung down along her back as the giant sword was pulled up from the ground and held in her hands.
What a cold, but holy sword!
Its sword blade was cold, silvery white and its handle was studded with a big lock hole. When the girl pulled out the sword, Yun Xi seemed to see his death.
Its sword-type tassel danced in the air. Light flowed along the blade, as the night of destiny - cold and without mercy.
"Swish!" Again, Yun Xi was cut in two at his waist as he then turned into dust and disappeared from the beautiful blue dream.
"Recently, isn't the invasion of loitering spirits a little too much?" The girl frowned, though she had killed the invader again.
Was it her illusion? The loitering spirit she killed just now looked a little different.
Perhaps, it was like an ant becoming a bigger ant?
****
"I died again." Yun Xi depressingly opened his eyes and found that he was in another completely different world again.
What a big tree! Maybe it was hundreds of metres tall. He couldn't see its top even if he raised up his head.
What a giant stone! Each stone was almost a dozen times bigger than his own body. As for the mountain, it looked as if it was tens of thousands of meters tall.
What a wide and vast river! Was this the kingdom of the giants? How many people would drown in the river since it was so deep?
What a short and small paw... wait, paw?!
Yun Xi speechlessly raised h
is head and looked at his own hand - a furry, soft paw. Then he looked at his inverted image in the river.
What a cute, and unbelievably pitiful little golden dog! The most important thing was that he was quite familiar with the little golden dog.
"Mei'er?" Touching his own furry small face, Yun Xi questioned his star spirit.
"Master!" Mei'er's happy voice appeared in Yun Xi's heart - no, in her own heart.
"Tell me, what's going on now?" Yun Xi felt strange in his current visual angle and body. He finally understood. The world was so big and dangerous in the eyes of the little golden dog.
"Eh... Master, you probably unconsciously occupied my body while you were practicing."
"Master, don't worry. You will naturally return to your body after you finish your practice."
"My body is master's possession from the beginning." Mei'er didn't feel uncomfortable seeing that her body was occupied by Yun Xi.
"If so... it's not that bad..." Yun Xi slightly breathed out a sigh of relief. Since it was temporary, he could bear it.
As Yun Xi tried to control Mei'er's body to walk back to himself, he heard an unfamiliar girl's voice.
"Eh? There is a lonely little golden dog! It's so pitiful!"
"Sister, can we pick it up?"
"No. Wandering dogs are dirty. It will stain your clothes."
"If so, let's help it take a bath. What a cute little guy. It must have suffered a lot during its wandering life."
"Oh, right. The mayor told me that there is a hot spring."
Not good! Yun Xi had a bad feeling. He immediately spread his legs, planning to run away.
He started Hua Huo's seed!
Unfortunately, the body he controlled now belonged to the little golden dog. Even if Hua Huo's seed was great, it was also impossible to make a golden dog run like a human.
Moreover, even if Yun Xi was controlling his own body now, it was also a waste of effort to try to run away.
Because the girl who was ready to catch Mei'er was far more powerful than Yun Xi's imagination.
"You always make me sigh. Ok, I will do it for you, but just this once." The sister's voice was a little helpless, but also spoiling. Then, Yun Xi found that, though he was trying his best to run away, he was going backwards - as if time was turning back.
At first, the river was flowing at a great speed. But now, an enormous power forced it to flow backwards. Tens of thousands of tons of river water rolled to the sky with countless fish and prawns.
For an instant, the boundary of the sky and earth became a little ambiguous. Countless whirlpools swept across Yun Xi. They stopped his escape and finally made him fall onto a snow-white small palm.
It was a seemingly soft and small palm. It just softly waved, then reversed the flow of tens of thousands of tons of river water and rolled the air streams between the sky and earth. It was this incredible scene that successfully caught Yun Xi.
"White Lotus, I got it."
"Great! You're the best, sister!"
Chapter 28: The Dangerous Sisters
Struggling and struggling, Yun Xi was desperately trying to get away from the warm embrace and escape.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be an absolutely impossible task.
Because the one who was holding him now was the young girl who just casually waved her hand and made the river flow backward, creating a powerful vortex that blasted him out to the world.
This was not the power any Mortal Grade could have. It was even stronger than Hua Huo, who could possibly be said as the strongest Sword Arts genius in the Mortal Grade.
A sharp blade can cut steel, but it absolutely could never roll up a storm.
This extraordinary force was beyond the limit of a peak 3rd-ranked Mortal Grade. Only one who had entered into the 4th Rank - a Hero Rank powerhouse - would have this kind of ability.
No matter if it was one to the two big mainstreams in the Eastern God's Domain - the Swordsmen or the Daoist Priests - or to all other practitioners without the God's Domain, this Rank was regarded as the most important step.
Below the 4th Rank, beasts such as the green hippo could only train its flesh and blood to the limit.
However, if one wanted to break the limitation of the flesh and blood, he must enter a higher realm - known as the "Hero" rank.
"Ah woo...". After desperately struggling for a while, Yun Xi had to admit that even if he had the power of Hua Huo's seed, it was useless.
The opponents were just too strong.
"It's strange, this golden dog seems to be ... ..." The young girl who waved her hand and captured Yun Xi smelled the bleached golden-haired puppy dog's flavor and revealed a puzzled expression.
"It's not an ordinary golden hair, it seems like the Western God's Domain's Golden Fur Princess."
"How could it be possible? This is the White Lotus Sword Domain, the Golden Fur Princesses are spoiled since birth in the Western God's Domain, so how could this one stray into the wilderness?" The younger sister said while her bell-like laughter sounded; it was delightful and pleasant to the ears.
"Pooh..." With great difficulty, Yun Xi finally drilled out from the cage and looked up to the pair of sisters that seized him. He couldn't help but look expressionless.
These two sisters had black and straight long hair, but their clothing and personal adornments were miles apart.
The sister on the right wore red gemstone hair ornaments, with red petals like maple leaves, and was gorgeous and unrestrained. She was wearing some kind of witch clothes which was inscribed with a sword and flames similar to the dazzling burning flame of a Red Lotus.
The sister on the left wore white crystal hair ornaments, with crystal clear petals just like the ice, depicting a snow lotus, looking sacred and graceful. She wore almost exactly the same clothing design as her sister, but inscribed on it were pieces of lotus leaves - the White Lotus.
Red Lotus and White Lotus. It was precisely the best way to depict their portrayal.
It wasn't just their clothing and personal adornments, but their features were also very alike. Seeing them from this too close of a distance, these two looked almost exactly the same.
But how come there seemed to be something that was not quite right when looking at them? From Mei'er's angle, there was some kind of strange sensation that he couldn't tell from these two sisters.
"Then how would you explain this feeling?" The older sister raised Mei'er's small body as she guided the younger sister's hand to repeatedly stroke Mei'er's body up and down, not even the most shameful part was left out from their touch.
I cannot marry anymore! Having been played like this, Yun Xi could only feel a kind grief and have mixed feelings. It was the first time since birth that he felt he was so ravaged and devastated by a human!
"Hey, this feeling, these hairs, there is so much spiritual qi." The younger sister was surprised. She looked at Yun Xi and smelled Mei'er's fragrance.
"This good and nice fragrance, is this the legendary Golden Fur Princess?"
"It is possible, but we have not seen that legendary creature. How did this kind of pet live in this destitute and wild country?" The older sister frowned. Even if she wanted to know, she could not understand it.
That was only natural, because Mei'er was not a Golden Fur Princess, but the nobler star spirit! Yun Xi helplessly shook his head. This misunderstanding might not be able to be solved in the future.
"Could it be that this fellow belongs to a Western God's Domain's princess and she accidentally let this fellow run?" The younger sister looked like she was taking a fancy to Yun Xi's body.
"Do you really like this little fellow?" Looking at her younger sister that seemed unable to put it down, Red Lotus's eyes revealed a gentle expression.
Even she rarely saw such a warm expression in her younger sister's eyes.
The Golden Fairy of the Golden Fur Princess may bring wealth and fortune to humans.
They were the Western God's Domain's mascot figure which made
countless princesses, princes, and dukes long of dreaming for a Golden Fairy. This creature really deserved their reputation.
"I am really sorry, even if you are a Western God Doman's Princess's pet, I don't have any choice, but to make her give up her treasure. Just look at my sister White Lotus's happy expression. It's from the bottom of her heart," The older sister Red Lotus set a firm resolve in her heart.
In this world, the things that could make White Lotus happy became fewer as their values became more and more precious.