The stone shot up like a sh.e.l.l out of a cannon. It went clean through the red cloud, leaving a hole in it. But the hole healed up almost in an instant as if nothing had happened.At least they were not alive, Tang Wulin judged. What are they? He couldn"t jump high enough to reach them, not without the help of his martial soul. I can"t hide here forever. I have to find out what they are. No risk, no reward.
Tang Wulin readied the power of the Golden Dragon King and stepped out of the bushes warily.
The flamboyant clouds were still drifting sluggishly across the sky. Step by step, he moved closer and closer, until he was right beneath the red cloud. Nothing happened. Are they just clouds? But he could feel even more clearly the energy in them. As he was staring up at the red cloud, suddenly it changed into the shape of a top and started spinning violently. Tang Wulin was startled. What?! He had no time to think about it, not when the red top was flying towards him at high speed.
Golden light burst out from Tang Wulin as he activated Golden Dragon Body. Then he found to his shock all the dragon clouds above the plain were rus.h.i.+ng at him. c.r.a.p! I think I made them mad or something.
He raised his arms, bracing himself for the impact, but when the red cloud connected with them, he felt nothing. It went right through him. Suddenly he felt so warm and comfortable all over, and he could feel his blood rus.h.i.+ng hot through his veins.
The red cloud took on a hint of golden color when it left his body, he saw. It swelled into the shape of a dragon again and slowly floated back up into the sky.
That was when a cyan cloud reached him. Tang Wulin became so weightless that he could almost float in the air. It also a.s.sumed a golden color after it flew through his body.
The seven colors represent the seven different elements! Tang Wulin realized quickly. Fire, wind, water, earth, light, darkness, and s.p.a.ce. And all the clouds have dragon"s energy in them. That"s why I feel so connected with them.
All the clouds in the vicinity of Tang Wulin came and went in a matter of seconds. The energy they left in his body seeped into his blood, traveling all around him.
Tang Wulin rushed back into the safety of the bushes, sat down, and started meditating. He didn"t know why these energies existed in the form of elementary particles, but he was sure they were natural energies and that they were strikingly pure, purer than the purest thing he could think of.
As the energies entered his blood, he could feel his strength increasing quickly. The seven elements were like seven extremely nutritious foods, nouris.h.i.+ng his body, making it grow stronger. His body gorged on the energies greedily, and before long he entered into a deep meditation.
Tang Wulin could not have said how long he meditated. It might have been hours or it might have been days. When he finally woke up, he felt so alive and so full of vigor. He could feel power flowing through his veins, hot and intense, pulsating with the beating of his heart. He thought he could sense the seven different elements in the air if he concentrated hard enough. And he found, much to his surprise, he didn"t even feel hungry.
Tang Wulin rose to his feet and stretched. He looked around. Everything was just as it had been when he sank into meditation. The colorful clouds were still there, drifting unhurriedly in the sky above the plain, glinting a faint golden in the sun. Maybe they took some of the Golden Dragon King"s power in my blood when they left my body, but they took little, if any, of its power, because I don"t think that power has grown weaker than before.
He pulled out his soul communicator to check the date and time, but it had stopped working. Perhaps the soul power in the soul battery has been suppressed, like White Seven said, or Perhaps time flows differently in this world.