Tang Wulin walked out of the bushes and towards the clouds again, activating his Golden Dragon Body. Golden scales spread across his skin and shone brightly in the sun, but this time the dragon clouds didn"t fly down.Time to move on, he told himself.
Before long he stumbled across another group of dragon clouds and absorbed more energy from them this time. By the ninth time, Tang Wulin found he didn"t have to meditate to digest the energy. He clutched his hands into fists, feeling the freshly-acquired power surging within him. Not only had his strength increased a great deal, but his spiritual power had improved. His scales had grown thicker, harder, and more defined, and he found to his pleasant surprise that his Golden Dragon King seals had somehow been reinforced, which meant he didn"t have to break the seventh seal anytime soon. He still remembered how badly his body had hurt when he broke the sixth seal. He really didn"t want to go through that kind of pain again.
As he was walking out of the plain looking up at the sky in search of more dragon clouds, Tang Wulin heard a shrill scream of fear from the woods not far from him. A girl? He jerked his head to the scream and glimpsed a figure in a white cloak running out of the woods. Behind her was a wingless phantom dragon with a huge horn on its nose. It was catching up quickly. What is her partner doing?! Tang Wulin thought as he rushed towards her as fast as his feet would take him. He knew her dragon ball would save her, but he couldn"t just stand and watch while the dragon mauled her.
In her haste to flee from the wrath of the dragon, the girl tripped over a root and stumbled to her knees. The translucent beast lowered its head, preparing to drive its horn into the poor girl. But by then Tang Wulin had reached her. He glanced at her as he ran past, and caught a glimpse of the name plate on her chest. White… Seven! He dodged the horn nimbly and threw a punch at its head. The beast gave a cry of pain and transformed into numerous small b.a.l.l.s of light, which seeped into his body in a heartbeat. This is… energy! Tang Wulin realized right away. But this energy is neither pure nor strong.
“You absorbed my dragon?!” White Seven blazed. She became even angrier when she recognized her partner, who had deserted her.
“No, I saved you from your dragon. You should be thanking me,” Tang Wulin said, annoyed.
“I never asked you to save me. Did I look like I needed saving?!”
“Yes, you did.” And you still do, he thought, looking at her torn cloak.
“I would have killed it with ease if you hadn"t interfered. The energy in that Iron Head Dragon would have greatly increased my strength. You owe me an Iron Head Dragon!”
Tang Wulin said nothing and started to walk away, but White Seven grabbed hold of his sleeve. “Wait!” she said.
“What?” Tang Wulin said, turning back.
“I"m so tired…” She fainted. Before she fell to the ground, Tang Wulin caught her in his arms. He carried her to a tree and leaned her gently against it. Then he took out a coat from one of his storage rings and spread it over her. I can"t just leave her here by herself. She will catch a cold, or some dangerous beast may find her. Besides, she knows the name of that dragon, which means she knows a lot more about this world than I do. I can ask her a few questions when she wakes up.
Tang Wulin gathered some wood to make a fire.
White Seven was still sleeping when the sun vanished behind a mountain and darkness began to creep through the forest. A cold wind whispered through the trees, stirring his white cloak and sending a scatter of red cinders flying from the fire.
He skewered a chunk of beef and a bing on sticks and then thrust them in the ground beside the fire. He also hung a canned vegetable soup over the fire to heat. He was not a great cook by any means, but it didn"t take a great cook to reheat cooked food.
Before long, hot grease was running down the beef skewer.
Tang Wulin was about to dig in when two slender and fair hands shot out of the dark and grabbed his food. White Seven took a large bite of the beef first, not caring if it was too hot, and then bit off a large chunk of the bing, chewing vigorously, looking at Tang Wulin with a gloating smile of triumph.