Chapter 175
Shapeshifting and a new team member.
Fifteen days later, the time since they entered the Paradise Realm has already been twenty days. At last, only one third of the time limit of one month remains.
At this time, a lot of the forces have already started to assemble back together. All of them are headed in one direction. That direction is the Paradise Realm’s highest peak, the magnificent palace on top of Magic Beast peak.
It is said that the palace is originally sealed. But for some reason, there is a chance that the palace would open once a month for one day. That timing is precisely the latter part of their one month time limit.
Precisely because that is so, when Ling Xiao and You XiaoMo came across Lei Ju, they were not the least bit worried that they would miss the opening of the palace. Because even if they rushed there immediately, they could only wait outside. Furthermore, it is not certain that they would even be able to make it to the palace on the Magic Beast peak.
The Magic Beast peak is thus named because it is occupied by countless powerful magic beasts.
Not only that. Those magic beasts are all the rare kind of grand magic beasts. The lowest is level six. The highest is said to be level ten. Any higher is limited by the restriction of the Magic Beast peak so the strengths of the magic beasts stop at level ten.
With these many magic beasts of such formidable strengths, if they really come across them, there wouldn’t be enough people for them to trample on even if all the sects are added together.
Luckily, if these mighty grand magic beasts are not provoked or alarmed, they are usually holed up in their own territories. They wouldn’t venture out for no reason.
Because the road to the Magic Beast peak is arduous with all sorts of obstacles, most of the sects and forces would plan to arrive five to six days in advance.
Although there are numerous Qing Cheng sect disciples, their strengths are all over the place. Groups of five charging in is not possible so they already agreed before entering that Luo ShuHe and them will meet twenty days later at some small valley.
Luo ShuHe’s group of five is the first to arrive. They first clear the small valley of all the magic beasts and then start to wait inside.
However, because they arrived early by half a day, they see no signs of their brothers even after waiting for over two hours. When everyone is about to get restless, Elder Li proposes that he goes to check out the situation …….
On the grasslands that stretches as far as the eye can see, a human figure is sitting quietly cross-legged on the grass.
This person is You XiaoMo. In his vicinity, three magic beasts of uneven sizes are encircling him. One looks like he is deep in thought. One is expressionless. One looks indifferent but is rolling his deep green eyes as if saying ‘Why do I have to follow you guys doing this kind of stupid thing?’
Right at this moment, the one that appeared deep in thought suddenly howls *ao wu*, and is the first to jump up. Its white tail wags cheerfully at top speed, while its pair of eyes shine as they look at You XiaoMo.
The other two pay no attention to its excitement, continuing to lie lazily on the ground.
However, their eyes are fixed on the the one they are encircling, You XiaoMo. The spiritual energy surrounding You XiaoMo suddenly starts to stir fiercely, as if it can no longer be held back. Faint whitish strands surround him, forming a vortex. All of a sudden, these strands of spiritual energy is sucked into the space between the person’s eyebrows.
The faint seal that appeared when he was cultivating in the dimension appears once again between his eyebrows.
This time, because there are three magic beasts watching, they clearly see the seal flash in the space between his eyebrows. However, the seal is still indistinct.
But if they had seen the seal when it first appeared, they would have discovered that the seal between You XiaoMo’s eyebrows this time is a little larger. Furthermore, it slowly expands sideways from the center of his forehead.
When the seal disappears once again, the waves of spiritual energy in the air finally calm down.
You XiaoMo opens his eyes and heaves a deep sigh of relief. Finally, he has broken through the third level to become a level four mage.
Heaven knows that he has been waiting for this moment for almost half a month. Being stuck at the pinnacle of level three left his heart suspended in mid-air.
What he didn’t expect is that it took more than twice the spiritual energy than it did before to go from level three to level four. Looks like it’s not so easy to break through to level four. As for the second level for the Heavenly Soul Scroll, he already managed to break through. It’s precisely because of that, that he tried to push through to become a level four mage.
Because he just had a break through, his soul force is full.
You XiaoMo takes stock of the soul force of a level four mage. The strength of the force is much more than that of a level three mage. He is confident that, if he were to come across a level nine magic herb, he wouldn’t have to drink magic water in order to dig it out completely.
Seeing that the Master is not paying them any heed, Da Piqiu howls at him.
Only then does You XiaoMo react. He laughs as he rubs Da Piqiu’s head, “I know. Don’t make a fuss.”
Saying this, he stands up and then disappears from the sights of the three magic beasts.
The three magic beasts do not panic because this kind of thing has happened many times. You XiaoMo didn’t really disappear, he just entered his own dimension. That’s right, the place he went to is his own dimension. The place he was before is Ling Xiao’s dimension.
In principle, the two dimensions cannot be superimposed on each other.
However, You XiaoMo’s dimension is not a dimension in the true sense, refined from a spatial rift, his dimension is rather special. If you want to put it into words, it can be explained as a dimension carved out from a spatial rift. So even if he is now inside Ling Xiao’s dimension, he can still enter his own dimension.
Half an hour later, You XiaoMo reappears in front of them.
However, this time there are three stalks of magic herbs in his hand. These three stalks of magic herbs are none other than the Shapeshifting herb.
Half a month ago, he planted the Shapeshifting herb in his dimension. In order to speed up the maturity of the Shapeshifting herb and to hasten the dropping of seeds, he watered it with magic water once every hour. He finally succeeded in making the Shapeshifting herb mature. Not only that, he also used the seeds that fell to cultivate a few more stalks of the Shapeshifting herb, all high quality ones at that.
Thus the Shapeshifting herb in his hands is not the fiery red of before. Instead, it is a deep deep red, as if the color has been precipitating for many years.
Seeing You XiaoMo reappear, Da Piqiu and Xiao Hei leap up from the ground. A pair of red and a pair of gold eyes fix desperately on the Shapeshifting herbs in You XiaoMo’s hand.
There is no longer any resistance left in Xiao Hei’s heart because Da Piqiu told him that Master can cultivate the Shapeshifting herb, and high quality ones at that. As one that has grown up inside the dimension, Da Piqiu is the second most familiar with his Master’s secrets.
Once he heard that there would be the Shapeshifting herb, and a high quality one at that, Xiao Hei was very shamelessly bought over by a stalk of the Shapeshifting herb. From the heart in his body to his soul, as long as there is the Shapeshifting herb, other than handing over his life, everything else, he would do.
But, not only does You XiaoMo hold the Shapeshifting herb, he also brought his Enlightened Golden Cauldron.
For magic beasts, once the Shapeshifting herb is mature, they would immediately find a favorable time and place to gobble down the Shapeshifting herb, because if they delay, it’s very probable that other magic beasts will get wind of it and come and snatch it.
Therefore, even though magic beasts know that the Shapeshifting herb shouldn’t be gobbled up carelessly, each and every one of them is too eager to wait.
However, even though the Shapeshifting herb is a level seven magic herb, and can’t be compared to magic herbs of level eight and above, the medicinal power it contains is so strong that even magic beasts won’t be able to handle it. Therefore, many magic beasts may not be able to shapeshift successfully even though they have the Shapeshifting herb.
However, this may also be related to the quality of the magic herb.
Low and mid quality Shapeshifting herbs are considerably inferior when compared to high quality Shapeshifting herbs. On top of that, magic beasts do not understand the correct way of using the Shapeshifting herb. All these result in the high rate of failure seen with magic beasts when it comes to shapeshifting.
What You XiaoMo wants to do, is to help Da Piqiu and Xiao Hei refine the Shapeshifting herb into magic pill form.
Simply gobbling down the Shapeshifting herb will cause the medicinal energy to riot in all directions inside the body. Although the flesh of magic beasts is pretty resilient, they might not be able to withstand it. Furthermore, it may cause the power of the Shapeshifting herb to leak out.
So, one just needs to refine the Shapeshifting herb into magic pill form, gently wrapping up the medicinal power by using the soul force. This way, the chance of successful shapeshifting will be increased.
Not long after, You XiaoMo succeeds in transforming the three stalks of Shapeshifting herbs into three magic pills.
Refining magic pills from a single stalk of magic herb is much easier than blending multiple types of magic herbs. The time he took was less than a quarter of an hour.
Da Piqiu and Xiao Hei use their teeth to lightly grip the Shapeshifting magic pill that You XiaoMo hands to them. They then take off running to find their own place to prepare to shapeshift.
After the two of them left, You XiaoMo just keeps the other Shapeshifting magic pill before turning to look at the Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent.
Speaking of the Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent. This fellow woke up to discover that he had been bonded by a despicable human.
And that despicable human is the mage in front of him. Not only that, he also found out that his bonded master is actually only a level three mage. Most importantly, this puny level three mage actually didn’t form a life-bond with him. He is furious.
The dignity of a high level magic beast is sacred and inviolable. Especially when it is a puny mage.
However, he has yet to flaunt his power in front of the puny mage because there is an even stronger force coming from an unique blood lineage pushing him down with immense pressure. And so the Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent finally comes to realize what is called, there are heavens beyond heavens, beasts beyond beasts.
This puny mage in front of his eyes has such a noble emperor magic beast. No wonder he didn’t form a life-bond with him who is merely a high level magic beast.
The Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent uses his pair of enormous snake eyes to look at the body of the puny mage.
It must be said that this is blinding to his magic beast eyes. A level three mage actually managed to bond with a emperor magic beast. And a life-bond at that. What the hell, this kind of luck is just an embarrassment of riches.
And so, seeing that the puny mage has an emperor magic beast, the Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent no longer quibbles about the matter with the bond.
Of course, not quibbling does not mean he identifies with him.
However, the problem with the injury on his body was solved by this puny mage in front of his eyes, healing him seventy to eighty percent in just two days. He is beyond delighted that he made such an astute decision at that time. He hardens the resolve in his heart to hang on to the large tree behind this small tree. A certain narcissistic snake harbors that thought.
But if you want to talk about some regrettable flaw, that would be …….
“Sheqiu, why did you become so small again? I almost stepped on you.”
You XiaoMo squats down and picks up the mini version of the Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent.
The Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent, also known as Sheqiu, uses his pair of profoundly green eyes to glance at You XiaoMo dispiritedly. Anyone given the name Sheqiu would also most probably feel unhappy. Furthermore, enlarging and minimizing oneself is an innate ability for most magic beasts.
As for why You XiaoMo chose the name Sheqiu, the fault, is his own.
He should not have curled up into a ball when he woke up, giving him the inspiration. Saying that if his name has the word qiu, he can be Da Piqiu’s companion. Later they can also form a qiu team. And so, this is how Sheqiu came to be …….
His balls are really aching ah!
Furthermore, what is this joke about a qiu team?
The Nine-Winged Magic Horn Serpent, ah no, now it’s Sheqiu, even though his face is rather expressionless, the agitation in his heart is quite spirited. You XiaoMo has no idea. You XiaoMo has even less of a clue that the reason why he changed into a mini snake is because he doesn’t want You XiaoMo to find him. It was intentional!
The clueless You XiaoMo is still thinking that something must have happened to Sheqiu’s body when he had his breakthrough.
Just as he was about to examine Sheqiu, a wave of energy fluctuation can be felt coming from the direction where Xiao Hei is cultivating. You XiaoMo feels that this wave of energy is actually rather forceful. Turning around to take a look, he discovers that Xiao Hei’s shapeshifting actually caused a turbulence in the energy of heaven and earth. No wonder the hurdle between level eight and level nine is known as the hurdle of despair.
The turbulence of energy affecting heaven and earth continues for a whole quarter of an hour and still doesn’t stop. Before it could subside, something starts to stir in Da Piqiu’s direction, a sign of impending success in shapeshifting.
For a while, the two energy forces affecting heaven and earth seem to be competing, forces of tremendous strength.
Only after an hour do the two waves of heaven and earth affecting energy subside one after the other.
Note:
Sheqiu – snake ball
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I don’t speak Chinese. Corrections welcomed.
Sorry it took so long but that’s how it’s going to be. If any of your favorite established translators are willing to commit to weekly releases, I will be happy to hand over the project to them. Please note that I have not had any contact with the author. Happy reading!