Chapter 175: Natal Dharma Treasure?
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
After eating the baked sweet potatoes, Zhao Yanzi was full. She placed the two remaining ones on the roadside for the lucky person who would walk by.
It was already about four in the afternoon. The cooking smokes were beginning to float up from the village homes, and the farmers who had been working in the fields all day were on their way back with their tools on their shoulders.
Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi also turned around and went back. Now with her belly full, Zhao Yanzi was energetic again, looking around interestedly. Some kids ran around her for a while before running away, singing. During all this time, she was oblivious to the black stains at the corners of her lips.
“That Zeng Yitao, what level is he on now?” Halfway across the village, Hao Ren asked Zhao Yanzi.
“I suppose he reached Zhen-level about a year or half a year ago,” Zhao Yanzi said distractedly.
“Zhen-level…” Hao Ren thought about it. It was equivalent to the Core Formation Realm for human cultivators. Although it was only two-levels higher than Kan-level, there was a drastic difference between them.
With the aid of the Dragon Core, it was quite easy for the dragons to reach Zhen-level. However, before a dragon could reach Zhen-level, his or her level would still be in the Foundation Establishment Realm. There was a huge difference between the two realms.
“Zhen-level is nothing special. I was once at Zhen-level,” Zhao Yanzi said.
Hao Ren knew Zhao Yanzi’s Zhen-level was the result of elixirs. Judging from her lazy ways of doing her homework, Hao Ren would be surprised if she had reached Zhen-level on her own.
In contrast, as West Ocean’s Crown Prince whose grandfather was a top-tier master, Zeng Yitao should have reached Zhen-level on his own since he had to inherit the West Ocean Dragon Clan in the future.
“A cultivator of Kan-level would never defeat a cultivator of Zhen-level, right?” Hao Ren asked her.
“Of course not!” Zhao Yanzi turned to look at Hao Ren. “I think Zeng Yitao is quite powerful. Oldman Zeng of West Ocean taught him a Blue-grade technique which I think is called Three Stars Destruction Scroll.”
“It seems that Zeng Yitao indeed meant to marry her since he even told her his cultivation technique. Of course, he must have been trying to show off when he told her that,” Hao Ren thought.
“It is said that this technique would allow the cultivator to have three powerful Natal Dharma Treasures. However, he only has one Natal Dharma Treasure now, and I don’t know what kind of Dharma Treasure it is.” Zhao Yanzi told Hao Ren everything she knew about Zeng Yitao
In fact, she was worried that Zeng Yitao would ambush Hao Ren and challenge him while his cultivation level was still relatively low. Then, she thought about Hao Ren’s fight with Qin Shaoyang and admitted that it was quite a triumph.
If she had to choose between Zeng Yitao and Hao Ren, she would undoubtedly prefer Hao Ren. She had heard a lot of unsavory tales about Zeng Yitao, and she wondered how many more incidents she didn’t know about.
When Zhao Yanzi visited the Dragon Palace as a little girl, she just played pranks on the ordinary soldiers but never hurt them. However, Zeng Yitao had wounded and even crippled some West Ocean soldiers, and that was why the people in and out of the West Ocean Dragon Palace would flee at the sight of Zeng Yitao. After all, he was the Crown Prince who was spoiled by his grandfather who was mostly in seclusion cultivation and had not left the Dragon Palace for hundreds of years.
While they chatted, they walked toward that old grandma’s courtyard.
Seeing the black stains at the corners of her lips, Hao Ren was afraid that Grandma would scold him for not helping Zhao Yanzi out. He pulled her arm and said, “Wait a moment. There are some black stains around your lips”
“Black stains?”
“Yeah. You got them when you ate the sweet potatoes.” Hao Ren pointed at the corners of her lips.
Zhao Yanzi tried to look down but couldn’t see. She tried to rub them off with her fingers but couldn’t do it properly without a mirror.
Hao Ren turned to face her and brushed her hand off. He put his fingers in the clear water inside a container by the roadside and lightly rubbed at the black stains at the corners of her lip with his wet fingers.
Since they were stains from the ashes, it was not easy to clean them with only water. Hao Ren wetted his fingers repeatedly and rubbed carefully.
Anxious to get her clean and pretty face back, Zhao Yanzi stood still obediently and was even a little moved by Hao Ren’s patience.
Hao Ren was very careful with this task. With Zhao Yanzi’s shorter height, he bent his back to keep his gaze on the delicate skin around her lips; his head was almost touching hers.
Zhao Yanzi’s skin was so fine, smooth and elastic that it felt like gel.
Exhaling deeply, Hao Ren finally got her lips clean.
Meanwhile, looking at Hao Ren who was so close to her, Zhao Yanzi suddenly felt her heart beating faster. Feeling Hao Ren’s fingers around her lips, she wondered if a kiss would feel like this. Her face reddened suddenly, and she slapped Hao Ren’s hand away abruptly before giving him a vicious look.
Hao Ren was surprised since he had been trying hard to clean her up. He wondered if Zhao Yanzi was angry at him for not telling her about the black stains earlier.
They stood there and stared at each other when an old man led an ox over and shut it in a fenced shed beside them.
Then, this ox began to drink the water from the container beside them. Zhao Yanzi and Hao Ren exchanged a surprised look and realized immediately that the water Hao Ren used to clean Zhao Yanz’s face was, in fact, the drinking water for the ox!
“You’re dead!” Enraged, Zhao Yanzi raised her hand to hit Hao Ren.
Startled, Hao Ren ran away immediately. Although he had once lived in the countryside, he had no idea that the fenced shed was for an ox.
Zhao Yanzi chased him into the old grandma’s courtyard. Seeing them running back, Grandma chuckled.
After eating two sweet potatoes, Zhao Yanzi was so full that she didn’t have a great appet.i.te at dinner.
“Ren, Zi, I’m afraid that you have to share a room tonight,” while eating the congee, the old grandma glanced at them and said.
Zhao Yanzi was surprised, but Hao Ren answered immediately, “No problem!”
“This evil guy!” Zhao Yanzi glared at him.
Hao Ren held her hands under the table, signaling her to be silent. Thinking that she had to share a room and a bed with him, Zhao Yanzi was furious and regretted that she had come here with Hao Ren.
After dinner, they enjoyed the cool air in the courtyard. The good sons gave back ma.s.sages to the old grandma one by one, and the kids frolicked in the courtyard. Zhao Yanzi chatted with Grandma while the kids pulled Hao Ren to join their little game.
When the moon hid its face in the clouds, everyone called it a night.
Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi entered a simple room in which there were only a bed and one set of bedding.
Zhao Yanzi looked at Hao Ren, thinking that he would offer to sleep on the floor. However, Hao Ren patted her on the head and gestured her to keep silent before whispering, “I’ll sleep in the car outside, and you can sleep here. The old grandma’s sons only come home on the weekends, so we shouldn’t make them go back to the town by taking their rooms.”
Zhao Yanzi looked at him and nodded. She then looked at the brick floor and thought it would be quite cold to sleep on.
With a smile on his face, Hao Ren silently opened the door. He crossed the courtyard and got into the black Chevrolet.