Chapter 712: A Surprising Encounter and the Ident.i.ty of the Fierce Owl
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Becoming a Level Eight Individual Immortal at the tender age of 25!
What kind of phenomenon was this? Even the direct descendants of this large well-known family like the Jia Family could not have such uninhibited strength!
“Is this guy some sort of monster?”
In the Infinite Star Sea and the 14 macro worlds, only a handful of men as young as Zhou Bao possessed the strength of a Level Eight Individual Immortal, but they were almost all elites in their own macro world, the future governors of those macro worlds, as well as the best candidates of Realm Lords. However, what about this Jia Qingping?
He was just a disciple of a collateral branch of the Jia Family. Although the Jia Family was quite a large family, when compared to all the well-known families in the macro world, they were merely at the secondary level and below. Then, how was it possible that this family had fostered such a monster?
“Is he not a disciple of the Jia Family?”
This thought flitted across his mind but he refused to think about it anymore. Whatever Zhou Bao’s background was, it had nothing to do with him. The only thing he needed to do was to follow Zhou Bao’s orders and lead him to the Hidden Treasure.
“Good. Now that Young Brother Jia has displayed such impressive powers, our strength should be enough!” Taking a deep breath, Jin Yao’s face regained its normal color. He put the box holding the Psychic Jade Talisman back into his s.p.a.ce and led Zhou Bao out of the coral cave.
“The Hidden Treasure is located near Yongmai Star. That is the territory of the Lee Family, so we’d better be careful!”
“The Lee Family?” Zhou Bao was a little stupefied, but soon realized that just like the Jia Family, the Lee Family was also a relatively powerful family in the Infinite Star Sea. Each of these powerful families had carved out a separate niche as their own territory and ruled the area like a district king. This kind of action was often taken by families that were not quite prosperous in the 14 macro worlds. But anyway, keeping a stretch of land for their own family was always a wise move, and that was how the situation was with the Lee Family.
Even though they were just a secondary well-known family in their macro world, having the ability to own such a remote land suggested that they actually had some powers.
“It doesn’t matter. The Lee Family is merely in control of this place. If we do not create any trouble here, there should be no problems, right?”
“Of course!” When he heard Zhou Bao’s words, Jin Yao felt relieved. He was worried that being young and aggressive, this Zhou Bao would despise the style of the Lee Family and start a conflict, which would result in drawing attention to themselves.
Three days later, Yongmai Star.
Zhou Bao had an ugly look on his face, while next to him, Jin Yao displayed a wry smile, but he felt relieved at the same time.
“Well, you should have known that this Lee Family was not a decent family, even from before, right?”
“The reputation of the Lee Family is well known in the entire Infinite Star Sea!” Jin Yao laughed sourly. “It’s just that I never thought you were not aware of it!”
“Of course I have never heard of them. For all this time, I’ve been focusing on my practice in the Infinite Star Sea, so why would I care about these trivia!”
“The Lee Family’s greed and irascibility are second to none in the Infinite Star Sea. Rumour has it that it is because they inherited part of the bloodline of the Evil Dragon in antiquity times. But if that’s the case, they should have long become a first-cla.s.s well-known family within the Milky Way Star Area. How could they be reduced to the level of a secondary family as it is today!”
“You do have a point. But I was also trying to avoid any trouble at that time. Otherwise, I would have beaten them to death!” Zhou Bao said indignantly.
“Fine, fine. Now that this matter has pa.s.sed and we didn’t suffer much loss, let’s just go. The Hidden Treasure is on the vast planet just ahead of us!”
The vast planet was actually a gaseous planet.
Due to the density variations, the volume of a gaseous planet would normally be several times more that of an ordinary planet, and so too with this gaseous planet. But in comparison, this planet was not a place suitable for practice, thereby no pract.i.tioners would deliberately travel to it. Accordingly, this kind of star did not even have a name.
This planet was not far from Yongmai Star, for they were both located in the same galaxy. When Zhou Bao came into the vicinity of the planet, he instantly raised his eyebrows, because he sensed that though this gaseous planet was pretty normal and the pneuma on it was quite common, among all sorts of gas surrounding this planet, the essence of the world, which was the only one useful to pract.i.tioners, was hundreds of thousands of times thinner than that in Heaven Realm World. This meant no one could practice martial skills on it, and that was why pract.i.tioners never favored this kind of gaseous planets.
Hence, the possibility of having a Hidden Treasure on this planet was extremely low. Since there was little pneuma, no lasting inhibition could be cast there. Without magic formations or inhibitions, it would be rather easy for others to discover the Hidden Treasure.
“There is a peculiar s.p.a.cetime inside, and the Hidden Treasure sits right in it!” As if he understood what Zhou Bao was thinking, Jin Yao explained hastily. “This s.p.a.cetime is very strange. You can’t spot it from the outside. But if you’re lucky, you may run into it and discover it. I guess it was by pure luck that those pract.i.tioners happened to find this Hidden Treasure.”
“How odd this is!”
Hearing this, Zhou Bao was intrigued. His powerful spiritual sense reached out like an intangible tentacle and explored every corner of this nameless gaseous planet. Sure enough as Jin Yao had said, nothing existed on this gaseous planet except for this scarce and useless gas.
“That bunch of guys was really weird. Why would they want to come to this gaseous planet?”
“That’s beyond my knowledge!” Jin Yao gave a forced smile. Yes, not a single pract.i.tioner would have any interest in landing on such a poor planet. But why did those pract.i.tioners come to this planet in the first place? No one could possibly answer that question.
“This planet is not easy to locate, either. But I’ve been here once, so we won’t have any problem finding it!” Jin Yao concealed his spirit and started descending onto the gaseous planet. Zhou Bao scowled slightly, but plummeted down as well.
Although this was a gaseous planet, there were still some obstacles in their way. In fact, there were quite a number of obstacles. Most of them were in the form of violent storms, some of which had thunderbolts and even some s.p.a.ce fragments within them. Zhou Bao was not afraid of these things, but Jin Yao was walking on eggsh.e.l.ls now because he knew that if he should be sucked into those storms, there would be nothing left of him.
Nevertheless, Zhou Bao was not worried for Jin Yao, for he saw that Jin Yao had a pretty good protective celestial device, which would work in this circ.u.mstance.
Jin Yao strode forward with immense caution, casting furtive looks at Zhou Bao from time to time. The more he observed Zhou Bao, the more astounded he became—Zhou Bao followed him with ease, not even trying to elude any storm or thunderbolt at all. He allowed those storms and thunderbolts to hit him. If he were an ordinary guy, he would already be dead. But now, he was behaving as if nothing had happened. Those storms and thunderbolts that hit him were not absorbed by him, nor did they bounce off him. Instead, they just disappeared inexplicably.
Anyway, Jin Yao had no way to figure out what Zhou Bao was doing.
At this point, Jin Yao started to regret messing around with this mysterious guy. But by now, he had already gotten himself into this predicament.
“It’s here, just ahead. Look at that s.p.a.cetime!” After several moments, Jin Yao and Zhou Bao arrived at their destination. “Look, they’re still there!”
Taking a careful look at the place, Zhou Bao felt an unexpected shock as well. There was a s.p.a.cetime, but it was not well concealed. Its s.p.a.cious pa.s.sageway was lying blatantly in front of him. It was such a conspicuous s.p.a.ce Pa.s.sage, but he could not spot even a bit of it from the outside even though he was so close to it a moment ago. It was only when he stood in front of it and witnessed its appearance that he did ascertain that this thing before him was a real s.p.a.ce Pa.s.sage, leading to an unknown s.p.a.cetime.
“Snake-like Breath Holding Skill! The state of this s.p.a.cetime has the same effect as my Snake-like Breath Holding Skill. How funny it is!”
Despite his current strength, phase, and knowledge, Zhou Bao still could not figure out how this s.p.a.cetime had managed to escape detection.
“Interesting!” Through that s.p.a.ce Pa.s.sage, he saw clearly that six Individual Immortals with varied cultivations were trying to break through a huge iron gate as if there was something appealing behind the gate.
“These are the guys who sold the devices to you?”
“Right, it’s them!” Jin Yao replied with certainty.
“What on earth are these two doing in the Infinite Star Sea?” Zhou Bao murmured to himself. It turned out that among those Independent Pract.i.tioners, two of them were Zhou Bao’s family members—one was his son, the other, his daughter. He recalled telling those two to travel around and have a change of scenery, but how could they travel to the Infinite Star Sea? That was really messy!
“You know them?” Although Zhou Bao muttered under his breath, Jin Yao could still hear him.
Zhou Bao shot a fierce look at Jin Yao. Without pausing to explain, he sent out an intimidating thought right at this Individual Immortal, which threw him into an instant coma. Then, Zhou Bao waved a hand and tossed Jin Yao out of this gaseous planet, letting him land onto a desolate planet. When he woke up, he would forget every detail about meeting Zhou Bao, he would not even remember there was a man named Zhou Bao. As for the Psychic Jade Talisman, Zhou Bao had erased its characteristic Dharma power and spirit marks. Now, Jin Yao could easily refine it, which was the little compensation Zhou Bao offered him.
“Da*m it! Why is this gate so hard to crack? Big Brother, maybe, we should use that thing!”
In this unknown s.p.a.ce, Zhou Qing, who had struggled for days in front of this gate, finally could not bear this anymore and started communicating with Zhou Mu by divine thoughts.
“No. Father told us that thing should be used to protect ourselves, and should not be displayed in front of others. We’re in the Infinite Star Sea now, not Heaven Realm World. If we take that out, others may covet it. Then, we’ll be in trouble!”
“But—”
“No ‘buts’. I definitely won’t use my Pure Yang Celestial Device, let alone the fairy weapon. What’s more, just look at this gate, I’m afraid even that thing won’t work on it!”
“No way! That is a fairy weapon!”
“So what? I find this gate to be truly weird. It’s ancient, full of power, and it should not be inferior to the Divine Wizard Mirror!”
“Kid, your spiritual mind is really getting increasingly sharp!”
Hearing their conversation, Zhou Bao praised them mentally. Thereafter, he threw a punch right at the gate.
“Boom—”
The iron gate produced a deafening bang and sound waves emanated in all directions, flinging all the people in front of the gate into the air. Then, as an odd spatial fluctuation flashed, those pract.i.tioners, including Zhou Bao’s son and daughter, were all removed to a planet far away from this gaseous star.
“Interesting! This gate is so st.u.r.dy!” After doing that, only Zhou Bao was left before this huge iron gate and he stared thoughtfully at it.
This gate was old and weather-beaten, but also revealed an abstruse air. However, what really impressed Zhou Bao was its lack of spirit.
There was no virtually no spirit in it!
This feeling was extremely similar to the sensation when he turned on his Snake-like Breath Holding Skill.
“Is this s.p.a.cetime capable of launching the Snake-like Breath Holding Skill? No, it can’t be. The only possible explanation is that the man who created this s.p.a.cetime knows the Snake-like Breath Holding Skill, or it could be—”
In a split second, an odd idea popped out: “Or it could be a Self-world of a jinx practicing the Snake-like Breath Holding Skill!”
With his current knowledge and comprehension, only this explanation made sense.
A Self-world of a guy who knew how to use the Snake-like Breath Holding Skill!
When he realized this was a Self-world, Zhou Bao was not thrilled. After all, a Self-world was merely an existence of the Lord of Heaven Realm, and nothing inside it was worth exploring. However, given that this was a Self-world of a Lord of Heaven who knew the Snake-like Breath Holding Skill, it deserved further research on his part.
“This gate is not bad. But it isn’t a natural part of this Self-world; instead, it is an item transplanted from the outside world. It’s supposed to be a fragment of an ancient fairy weapon. However, it has lost all its power, leaving only an empty sh.e.l.l here. Well, this may scare away others but not me!”
After being hit by Zhou Bao, the gate did not collapse immediately, but was on the verge of falling apart.
Zhou Bao strode forward and gave a push and the gate swung open.
Behind this gate was a vast but empty s.p.a.ce.
“Sure enough. Everything was destroyed when that man died, leaving only this independent s.p.a.cetime behind. What an unlucky guy!” Seeing the situation in the Self-world, Zhou Bao heaved a sigh and sent out a divine thought that swept across the s.p.a.ce.
Just when he thought there was nothing, a dim fluctuation of thought was sensed by his divine thought.
“I’m not the Fierce Owl. I’m not the Fierce Owl. I’m not the Fierce Owl—”
This dim thought kept repeating these words.
“I’m not the Fierce Owl!”
Hearing these incomprehensible words though telepathic connection, Zhou Bao felt nonplussed. But soon he laughed—since the universe was so vast, containing countless worlds, planets, and pract.i.tioners, it was only natural for a man to have some secrets. Perhaps this was just a secret of this Lord of Heaven who had grasped the Snake-like Breath Holding Skill.
No matter what, this was none of Zhou Bao’s business, for he had come here to find the Hidden Treasure. Now that the truth about this Hidden Treasure had been discovered by him and there was nothing he could take away, he no longer wanted to stay here. Thus, he turned around and made to take off. But in that instant, he detected an obscure spatial fluctuation. Intrigued by this, he exercised his Snake-like Breath Holding Skill and hid in the s.p.a.ce.
The spatial fluctuation was quite weak. But thanks to the extraordinarily sharp spiritual mind of the Primordial Fierce Beast that Zhou Bao owned, he managed to detect it. If it was anyone else, they would have no way to sense this odd fluctuation.
A figure swooped out from the spatial ripples. He was standing beside the iron gate that had been pushed open by Zhou Bao; there was an appalled expression on his face.
“Somebody opened it!” The man mumbled to himself. Without any further observation, he walked directly through the gate. At the same moment, Zhou Bao sensed a hardly noticeable divine thought sweeping through the entire Self-world. If Zhou Bao had not turned into a tiny dust in this s.p.a.ce by performing his Snake-like Breath Holding Skill to the extreme, he would not have managed to escape this strong divine thought.
“What a powerful guy! Even more powerful than me! His divine thought traveled 10,000 miles and reached every corner of this Self-world in a second, this speed is nine times faster than mine! Who on earth is this man? What is he doing here?”
Staring at this mysterious and powerful man, Zhou Bao furiously operated his Snake-like Breath Holding Skill. He felt that the divine thought of this guy did not retreat after sweeping the whole s.p.a.ce. Instead, it stayed in this s.p.a.ce as if it were a cl.u.s.ter of intangible clouds, which was rather odd. Once Zhou Bao made any move or leaked a bit of his spirit, the divine thought would instantly capture it and launch a devastating attack.
“This is a powerful guy, and a cautious one as well!”
It was true. Since his guard was still up even after his divine thought had scanned the entire Self-world, he must be a very cautious guy. Well, it could also be that he was here to do something improper that he did not want others to know.
“I believe you are not the Fierce Owl. But except for me, no one else would buy it. Now, they all believe that the Fierce Owl is dead and they can finally plump up their pillows and have a good sleep!” The man sighed. Then, as if doing magic, he conjured up a small plate with three pieces of steamed white bread, each of which had an incense stick stuck on it.
He lit the three incense sticks. Looking at the rising smoke, this man gave a gentle sigh, and then he sat down on the ground, casting aside all the demeanor of a pract.i.tioner at the level of the Divine Immortal. “1400,000 years. A total of 1400,000 years. It even has been 810,000 years since the Heaven Realm disappeared, but pieces of your divine thoughts are still lingering here. As long as they remain here, I have to do this thing. Mate, this thing is really exhausting. But I think, soon, my suffering will come to an end. Hee hee, you may not know, the Void Immortal Realm was opened again. Don’t know during which idiot’s tribulation had cracked it open. The willpower of the Immortal Realm descended to the hollow. Now, even a fly knows that Heaven Realm World is located at the Desolate Ancient Star Area. You must be very happy to hear this. That son of a b.i.t.c.h, Jade Emperor, had exerted immense efforts to hide that world back then. Unluckily for him, it was still exposed at the end!”
“Don’t know why, but I always have a feeling that after finis.h.i.+ng this thing, the truth will be revealed!”
…
“Milky Way Ancestor and his lot have united a crowd of Realm Lords to launch attacks against Heaven Realm!”
“A few days ago, loads of people have gone to Heaven Realm World”
“I heard that Fate Creation Boy had returned to his position, and the damaged Fairy Weapon of Fate had also been combined into one piece!”
“The Power of Fate of the Heaven Realm is already taking effect. Now, it’s no longer easy to enter Heaven Realm!”
“… the result of this matter is just around the corner. It seems that that bunch of necromancers is also taking some action. Back then, they triggered tons of troubles and even tried to duplicate the Sacred City of Origin, but it did not have a satisfying ending. I just hope this time they won’t stir up trouble again!”
The man sat on the floor, watching the burning incense and murmuring to himself. He did not stand up until all the three incense sticks had burned up.
“Well, my bro, it’s time. I should get going. No matter who that Fierce Owl is, as long as he is still alive, he will give himself away one day! When that day comes, it will be the end of his life!” After saying this, he sighed softly, and then wheeled around and left the empty Self-world.
An hour later, as the s.p.a.ce of this Self-world began to fluctuate again, Zhou Bao revealed himself in a flash. Right now, Zhou Bao’s eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. He had heard all the words that the mysterious man said and bore them in mind, though he did not know what “Fierce Owl” meant; it was obvious that this Fierce Owl was an outrageously powerful guy from antiquity times, a man who lived over a million years ago. And this guy was not dead yet. Further, from the man’s tone, Zhou Bao could tell that there were many guys like this Fierce Owl, who were not dead as the public was told but were still plotting something.
“This thing is correlated to some events that happened in antiquity times, which are probably confidential but extremely crucial. I’d better stay out of this. After all, I already have plenty on my plate. Ever since I arrived in the Infinite Star Sea, I’ve been swamped with issues that are none of my business, but the thing I ought to do hasn’t even been done yet. If Sea Emperor knows this, he must be so p.i.s.sed off!”
When it occurred to him that the target for this journey to the Infinite Star Sea should be the Primordial Demon instead of other messy issues, Zhou Bao declined to think more of this odd scenario. In a flash, he vanished from this eccentric world.
As for his son and daughter who had sneaked into this Infinite Star Sea, Zhou Bao did not bother to take another look at them. At all events, with their great strength and protective fairy weapons, they would not get into any big trouble. Now that they had both grown up, having a chance to see the outside world would only do them good.
A long streak of cyan shadow swept across the hollow and zoomed right into the depths of the Infinite Star Sea.
With the reappearance Heaven Realm World, the Devil Fetus in the Infinite Star Sea that had attracted lasting attention seemed to have taken a backseat. After all, not long ago, the awakened Devil Fetus had been s.n.a.t.c.hed away. It would take a long time before a new Devil Fetus emerged in this world. Accordingly, Heaven Realm World was the only opportunity that everyone could have a go at.
Surely, though the Primordial Demon has long been suppressed by inhibitions, there were people who really wanted to appropriate it. For all this time, they’ve been preparing for engulfing this Primordial Demon. Dark Sect, how interesting you guys are!”