“What the heck’s this!?” Zheng shouted.
He didn’t want to attack these five monsters without any preparation so he ran toward the sand which was Imhotep. The sand wave immediately wrapped about him. Jonathan’s voice finally came through to him.
Jonathan cried as he attempted to grab Zheng’s legs but Zheng lifted him up by the collar. “Cry later. What are those five monsters? How did you aggro things that can use refined Qi?”
Jonathan laughed awkwardly when he saw Zheng’s dusty face. He just got smashed into a building after all. “I saw these monsters from the Buddha. They are called Yellow Turbans. The first person who inputs refined Qi into them will wake them. Their attributes are metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The one that attacked you was the fire attribute and metal attribute.”
Anck-Su-Namun interrupted Jonathan and said, “Help Imhotep, hurry! Those monsters can injure him and their strength grows with the more people that they killed. I am afraid Imhotep won’t be able to stop them after they killed so many people in this city.”
It was only after Zheng’s recent growth could he realize Imhotep was a different form of life from humans. His body was composed of mainly energy. Zheng could sense the sand here was filled with Imhotep’s energy which meant non-physical attacks such as magic could damage him. Tiger’s Soul’s properties made it a hard counter to Imhotep. One slash might leave him with just a sliver of health. Imhotep was largely similar to ghosts, though he was much more powerful.
Zheng had reserved a slot in the team for Imhotep. Even without this consideration, he could not let Imhotep fall on his own given the bond created from their adventures back in the United States. Still, Zheng had to gather some information first and asked Jonathan, “Do they have any weaknesses? Or did you just smash them apart?”
Jonathan replied, “Hit their yellow clothes. Tear their clothes apart and their souls will scatter. However, they will come back before long with greater power. Sigh. It’s no use even when you burn their clothes.”
Zheng did not pay attention to the words afterward. He only needed to know the Yellow Turban’s weakness. They seemed like Xiuzhen items by the description. The clothes bonded the souls together and the souls provided the body with energy. He wondered how did the souls convert energy into refined Qi. It could likely be a new set of rune words. If Xuan got a hold of these rune words, he might have access to limitless refined Qi. And if team China got a hold of the method of creation for the Yellow Turbans, the team’s power would skyrocket.
Zheng charged out from the sand and saw a fire blast struck the sand wave. “Humph.” Imhotep’s voice uttered from the air. That attack probably damaged him. The five Yellow Turbans floated in the air. They looked alike but the aura and scent revolving them were completely different. The fire and ice ones were shooting fire and ice respectively. The wind Yellow Turban was running around the sand in quick speed. The earth and metal ones were closing in on the sand. These two charged at Zheng the moment he came out.
Zheng did not hold back at all since he had no idea of the Yellow Turbans’ powers. Plus, the refined Qi they possessed signified their relation with Xiuzhen. Zheng was at a disadvantage when he fought Luo YingLong. So he started the fight using 80% of his strength. Refined Qi channeled into Tiger’s Soul and mist enveloped the blade. The sword slashed from through the two Yellow Turbans from above. Their yellow clothes were shredded into powder along with the bonded soul. Zheng was surprised himself to witness such power from his sword.
The original Tiger’s Soul without the actual soul could only convert his Qi into a light blade. After the upgrade through infusing it with half the tiger’s soul, its true form as a demon weapon unraveled. Its power when activated using refined Qi and infinitesimal control far exceeded Zheng’s imagination and even then this was merely a tenth of the Tiger’s Soul’s full power.
Zheng was delighted to see Tiger’s Soul’s effectiveness against the Yellow Turbans. But then he halted the impulse to go up and kill the other three. His intention wasn’t to kill the Yellow Turbans but to obtain their clothes. There secret might or might not be etched on the clothes but there was hope.
"Well then… let me test my strength!” He laughed then put away the sword.
Zheng closed his eyes as he stood in place. Imhotep, Jonathan and Anck-Su-Namun cried when they saw the wind Yellow Turban dashed toward him. A five meter thick arm smashed from above before the sand could swirl Zheng away. Zheng raised one arm and caught the smash. With a bang, the ground he was standing on cracked from the impact.
“This is the third stage… and now the early fourth stage…” Zheng opened his eyes. He grabbed the arm then leaped. His body spun in the air, dragging the arm along. However, this did no damage to the arm. It had no joints unlike a human arm because it was composed of souls.
Zheng continued spinning. When the Yellow Turban moved its other arm for an attack, the arm Zheng was holding onto broke off its body.
“Nice! Forming Qi into a string can cut through the monster’s body. Now I just have to wrap the broken arm with Qi.”
Zheng blocked the incoming strike with his other hand. The impacts sounded like a rhino charging into steel. However, Zheng’s feet did not move an inch.
As the wind Yellow Turban was retrieving its fist for another attack, Zheng threw the broken arm away then grabbed the fist.
“Early fourth stage opens the door to infinitesimal control. Mid fourth stage reaches the limit of infinitesimal control!”
Zheng placed his palm on the huge fist and his other hand punched his palm. A crack ran down between the Yellow Turban’s arm and body and then the two parts split. Zheng’s Qi had already wrapped around the arm.
“Finally, this is the strongest state I can reach. I don’t know what people call it, but I name it Dragon Transformation!”
…
“Even though we planned to build a powerful image to let the allies know we are not weaklings. But this development exceeded our plan.” Xuan frowned as he ma.s.saged his temples. He had no choice but to put down the doc.u.ments because the ruckus Zheng caused was more severe than killing several hundred people.
He didn’t expect Zheng to enter mid fourth stage for the fight. Even though the fight ended in under twenty seconds, the damage the street suffered was immense. Furthermore, it was not so easy to return to human form. Zheng returned with black wings on his back, two small horns on the head and a two meter tall body which lasted for several minutes. Rumors quickly turned into a chaos in Shanghai. Team China and the three movie characters had to leave the city.