B5C33: 9 guardians
In Qin Yu’s courtyard house in the eastern part of the Blood-red Cave, Hou Fei is sitting with legs crossed on the floor, quietly guarding ‘Qin Yu’ in the room behind him. Even though he knew long ago that Qin Yu immediately slipped away after entering the room, because they had already talked this over before, naturally he has been acting as if Qin Yu has been inside all along.
Suddenly, he opens his eyes and looks at the silhouette that has just appeared before him.
“Big brother!” There is a hint of happiness on Hou Fei’s face at once.
But as soon as he sees Qin Yu’s right hand, his face cannot help changing color. Qin Yu’s right hand has been penetrated and there is now a horrifying hole in it. Qin Yu, whose face is slightly pale, hurriedly says: “Don’t ask too much, Fei Fei. Just follow me into the room.”
After saying, he goes straight into his room with just a shake of his body. Hou Fei also comes into the room at once doubtfully. At the same time, he waves his hands, setting up a restrictive spell around the room so that n.o.body outside can know what happens inside.
Right after entering the room, Qin Yu sits with legs crossed on his bed then lets out a long breath. He does not care about his penetrated right palm at all for the moment. When he fought Di Tong moments ago, life and death were decided in the blink of an eye. Only now, when he has returned to his own room, can he totally calm down.
“What happened, big brother?” Hou Fei hurriedly asks.
Qin Yu recalls what he has gained this time. He cannot help but smile: “Fei Fei, you have to spring into action when you should. You can’t be overcautious. Otherwise, you won’t even have time to regret when the opportunity slips away. If you want to make a profit, you must be willing to take a risk.”
Hou Fei is dumbfounded. He blinks his eyes and says doubtfully: “What do you mean, big brother?”
“Awesome, this is so awesome!”
Qin Yu does not answer. With a wave of his hand, 2 yuanyings appear and float before him. These yuanyings have lost their souls therefore they are now merely a kind of energy crystal. They also radiate an indistinct purple light.
Hou Fei’s fiery eyes brighten at once. 2 beams of light that seem solid shoot at the yuanyings.
“Such strong energy!” Hou Fei is astonished. “These are at least Dongxu stage yuanyings. When did you get them, big brother? They’ll be a big help to you.” He exclaims in admiration.
Qin Yu looks at Hou Fei, saying: “You’re right. But not only can they help me, they can help you and Xiao Hei too.” He has never thought of keeping them all for himself.
“One of these 2 yuanyings belonged to a middle Dongxu stage Purple Demon aquatic dragon. The other belonged to an early Dongxu stage blood-red aquatic python. They have quite a lot more energy than the yuanyings of ordinary Xiuxianists of the same levels. Cha Hong’s yuanying is already enough for me so you and Xiao Hei can refine Di Tong’s yuanying together.”
Hou Fei shakes his head: “Impossible. This yuanying of a middle Dongxu stage Purple Demon aquatic dragon has too much energy for me to absorb. After leaving the ravine, I made a little mental breakthrough when I was guarding you so my soul is only just enough to match the late Yuanying stage. Do you understand what I mean, big brother?”
Hou Fei is currently at the middle Yuanying stage in power but his soul has reached the late Yuanying stage.
He continues: “I can only absorb energy until I reach the late Yuanying stage at most. If I absorbed too much, my power level would surpa.s.s my spiritual level, which would very easily make my internal energy become uncontrollable, or even become chaotic. If it got serious, I would suffer energy deviation and my soul would be destroyed!”
Qin Yu also knows this very well.
The soul is the foundation. Even though his mental control is so strong, if his energy exceeds his ability to control it, firstly, unlike when it is insufficient, he will have difficulty keeping it in check during a battle, and secondly, it can become chaotic.
“I know this. But you’ve been at the middle Yuanying stage for a long time. If you want to reach the late phase, you’ll only have to refine a portion of the yuanying. As for Xiao Hei …” As soon as Qin Yu thinks about Xiao Hei, he takes out a transmitter.
Seeing Qin Yu take out the transmitter, Hou Fei knows that he is messaging Xiao Hei.
“Xiao Hei, keep waiting for some time. After I have dealt with the matters in the Blood-red Cave, I’m going to tell you to come through a message. Right, I got a Dongxu stage yuanying. How much energy can you absorb?” Qin Yu is also doubtful about Xiao Hei’s absorption capacity.
In just a while, Xiao Hei replies with a message.
“Dongxu stage? Did you kill some big shot, big brother? It can’t be that lowlife Cha Hong, right? As for how much I can absorb, I’ve undergone that forbidden technique and had my body transformed drastically so my current progress in practice is much faster than before, including the progress of my soul. But … it’s been a very short time since I could improve so fast. Now my soul is only at around the early Yuanying stage. I don’t dare to absorb energy anymore.” Qin Yu does not know what to do after receiving Xiao Hei’s reply.
In the overseas Xiuyao world, there are Xiuyaoists who refine jindans and yuanyings, but the real experts do not dare to let their power levels surpa.s.s their spiritual levels. Both Hou Fei and Hei Yu know that Qin Yu is willing to let them absorb a yuanying he obtained, but they do not dare to bite off more than they can chew.
In the past, even though Lei Wei was able to kill enemies of higher power levels, he did not dare to absorb yuanyings casually also because his spiritual level improved slowly.
There are different ways of improving power. The first is to gather various kinds of precious herbs to concoct power-up pills. There are a few problems that lie at the root of this way, namely, it is rather difficult to find precious herbs and the producing methods are fairly complicated.
The 2nd is to refine and absorb other Xiuzhenists’ jindans and yuanyings.
But it is difficult to improve the soul rapidly. At least there have never been any known methods for raising the spiritual level suddenly. Therefore, not many Xiuzhenists refine others’ jindans or yuanyings. After all, a Xiuzhenist will only dare to absorb more energy when they have reached a spiritual level high enough for this.
“But I’m staying in the ravine, big brother. When I listen to Miss Li’er’s zither music, I feel my soul improve very fast. Perhaps it will reach the middle Yuanying stage soon. At that time I’m going to come to find you.” Hei Yu says through his transmitter.
“Good, I also got many things to deal with in the Blood-red Cave for the moment.”
Qin Yu and Xiao Hei then stop communicating.
“Fei Fei, this is the middle Dongxu stage yuanying. Your power level is higher than mine so you should refine part of it first.” Qin Yu himself is in no hurry. Instead, he lets Hou Fei refine a yuanying first. Hou Fei does not decline either and sits down with legs crossed immediately.
He opens his mouth. A flame is shot out at once and enfolds Di Tong’s yuanying.
Burnt by the flame, the yuanying gradually melts. Various purple streams of liquid flow out from it then fuse with Hou Fei’s body. In terms of refining speed, Hou Fei is at least 10 times faster than Qin Yu, who is quietly keeping guard on one side.
After a half day,
About 20% of the yuanying has been refined. Hou Fei, who is sitting with legs crossed, suddenly opens his fiery eyes, sending out a brilliant light.
With a sweep of his holy sense, Qin Yu discovers that Hou Fei has reached the late Yuanying stage. He immediately says smilingly: “Congratulations, congratulations, you’ve reached the late Yuanying stage. Perhaps now you could even fight that Purple Demon aquatic dragon Di Tong.”
Very excited, Hou Fei says with strange laughter: “Di Tong? He was at the middle Dongxu stage but his true form was a Purple Demon aquatic dragon so he was much stronger than Xiuxianists of the same level. I must’ve been no match for him before, but now, kaka ~~~”
He looks very contented.
“You should start practicing quickly, big brother. I really don’t know how your soul can improve so fast. If the level of my soul was as high as yours, I would’ve refined the entire yuanying without a break.” Looking at Qin Yu, Hou Fei cannot help praising him.
Qin Yu gives a smile.
The Meteoric Tear, even now he still knows absolutely nothing about it and cannot even control it to do anything. It has sent out different kinds of energy all by itself. He was very lucky to obtain this treasure. Or it can also be said that he was ‘destined’ to get the Meteoric Tear.
“Alright, Fei Fei, stand guard outside for me. I want to absorb this yuanying with my entire concentration!”
Di Tong’s yuanying, 20% of whose energy has been absorbed by Hou Fei, then starts to be refined and absorbed again by Qin Yu. By now his soul has reached the early Dongxu stage. In fact, even Qin Yu himself is amazed by the high speed at which his spiritual level has improved too.
However …
Is Qin Yu the only one whose soul can improve fast?
After Xiao Hei underwent his forbidden technique, his soul has leveled up extremely fast too. In just several years, he has already reached the early Yuanying stage from the early Jindan stage. And when a Xiuzhenist has a momentary experience of intuitive enlightenment, it is very usual for their spiritual level to improve rapidly and suddenly.
But moments of insight come randomly and are totally beyond a Xiuzhenist’s control whereas Qin Yu’s soul improves steadily all the time.
From now on, he begins to refine the yuanying with no worries in his own room, disregarding whatever happens outside. Hou Fei keeps guard near the room, determined to stop anyone who wants to go into it.
In the northern part of the Blood-red Cave,
Even though half of the secret rooms under the artificial mountain have been destroyed, because they are built underground, everything on the ground seems to have remained completely unchanged. The only visible change is that the mouth of the cave leading to the secret floor has been broken into pieces.
But that cave faces towards the inside of the artificial mountain so no one will see this without looking carefully.
Even the guards of the Blood-red Cave have to go around these underground secret rooms every time they patrol to here. The reason for this is an order given by cave master Cha Hong. In the past Cha Hong usually stayed in a secret room trying to open the black jade case so he naturally did not want this place approached by anyone.
It has been more than a half day since Qin Yu broke the restrictive spell to come back to his room. There have been several tens patrol sessions during this period of time but because those guards have to bypa.s.s the artificial mountain, they simply have not noticed that the cave leading to the secret floor has been destroyed.
Another squad is currently on patrol. The squad leader is very large and muscular with eyes as big as copper bells. At the moment, he is looking around with his wide opened bull eyes. But he suddenly stops.
“What’s happened, leader Xuan Kui? Why did you stop?” A short, stout guard asks.
Xuan Kui, however, looks at the artificial mountain in disbelief. In fact, because all of the guard squads on patrol have to go around this place whereas that entrance to the secret floor faces inwardly, the place that Xuan Kui is standing on is the only place on the patrolling route from which a small part of the entrance can be seen. If he moves away from this place a bit, that entrance will no longer be visible to him at all.
“Follow me!”
Squad leader Xuan Kui shouts loudly and rushes extremely fast towards the artificial mountain.
“Leader, the patrolling route doesn’t allow us to go through that place.” That short stout guard hurriedly calls. But Xuan Kui, who has come near the artificial mountain, suddenly shouts: “This is bad! The entrance to the secret floor has been destroyed! Quickly go inform the guardians!”
The entrance to the secret floor has been destroyed?
There is immediately a clamor among the guards at the scene. They all understand the seriousness of this incident. If n.o.body had gone through the entrance illegitimately, why would it have been destroyed? All of the guards then leave extremely fast at once to tell the guardians about this.
Holding a broadax, squad leader Xuan Kui stares into the entrance. The ground of the pa.s.sage connecting to it is currently covered in countless pieces of rocky debris.
“What’s happened, Xuan Kui?” Zhuang Zhong is the first to hurry to this place. He immediately shouts to squad leader Xuan Kui, who is a guard directly under his control. Xuan Kui hurriedly bows and says: “I don’t know either. I discovered this situation only moments ago and immediately sent the guards to inform you and the other guardians.”
In a while, the 3 black turtle brothers, the 2 tiger shark brothers, the 2 snake sisters and Teng Bi also come.
“Where are guardian Hou Fei and guardian Liu Xing?” Yan Qing says doubtfully.
Zhuang Zhong says smilingly: “Little sister Yan Qing, it seems guardian Liu Xing has been doing closed-door training again for a half month. Guardian Hou Fei has been watching over him. Perhaps guardian Liu Xing hasn’t finished his training yet.” After talking to each other, the 9 guardians go into the entrance.
Seeing the broken stones in the entrance, they all have a bad feeling.
They go along the sloping pa.s.sage to enter the underground secret floor. But as soon as they enter the secret floor, they all look at the scene in front of them with popping eyes.
Various secret rooms have been destroyed completely. Their rubble has been swept to the edge, leaving behind a large empty area that is 600 to 700 m in both length and width in the middle of the remaining secret rooms. The fragments of the destroyed rooms’ walls have all been piled up around this area.
“Look! There’s a bloodstain!” The snake woman Xi Yan points to a place in this empty area and shouts.
The other 8 guardians also look in the direction she is pointing. There is indeed a huge bloodstain, which was created when the blood-red aquatic python and the Purple Demon aquatic dragon were fighting each other.
“That deep mark should have been made when a huge python swung its tail and hit the floor.” Teng Bi points to a deep mark on the floor and says coldly.
The 3 Ba black turtle brothers, the 2 tiger sharks, Wu Tong and Wu Feng, the 2 snake women, Yan Qing and Xi Yan, Zhuang Zhong and Teng Bi, 9 guardians in total, carefully examine the scene. They can certainly conclude that a fierce battle took place here.
Moreover, one of the main partic.i.p.ants was very likely to be Cha Hong, who was doing closed-door training in this place.
The 9 guardians look at each other. A fierce battle happened here but they knew nothing. Now they do not even know if Cha Hong is dead or alive. This incident coupled with Cha Po’s death some time ago gives them a bad feeling.
“Go! Let’s see if cave master’s soul jade slip is still intact!”
The most powerful among them, Teng Bi, shouts an order. The 9 guardians leave the secret floor at once and head for the room in which everyone’s soul jade slip is put. This room is checked once every day by someone and is also guarded on the outside.
As the 2 guards see the 9 guardians arriving together, they are immediately shocked.
“Sirs! Madams!” They get down on one knee and say.
Teng Bi looks at the 2 guards. Yan Qing shouts impatiently in a lovely voice: “You two quickly open the door.” This room’s door is closed with a restrictive spell so she and the others do not dare to force it open. They have no choice but to order those guards to open it.
“Yes, Madam.”
A guard stands up and shoots several streams of demonic elemental energy at the door. A blue light flashes and the door slowly opens automatically.
When it has been opened, from outside, the 9 guardians all look at the old-wood counter in the center of the room on which every soul jade slip is put. And by now, the soul jade slip in the highest position has already shattered into tiny bits. That soul jade slip belongs to Cha Hong!
The 9 guardians’ faces change color greatly.
Cha Hong is already dead!
End of b5c33.