Although Chen Dandan maintained a fierce demeanor, it was actually a facade.
Right now, the youth before her was already a level-eight adept of Qi-gathering, and if he made a move against her before Elder Li arrived, she would be unable to defend herself.
“You’re truly the daughter of the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, deciding the fate of others so readily.”
Zhou Donghuang smiled coldly and took a step forward, and began to walk towards Chen Dandan. With each step, it seemed that he was stepping on Chen Dandan’s chest, making Chen Dandan’s expression change.
“You…what do you think you’re doing?!”
As Chen Dandan’s expression changed, she looked at Zhou Donghuang in dread.
“As I said earlier…I am here to collect a debt.”
In an instant, Zhou Donghuang was in front of Chen Dandan, breaking into a smile that showed both rows of teeth.
It was a brilliant smile, but it frightened Chen Dandan into a fit of trembling.
As the childhood playmate of this youth before her, she naturally knew that when the youth showed a smile like that, he was anything but happy, and was actually showing that he was extremely furious.
In the instant that Chen Dandan’s expression changed once again, Zhou Donghuang flicked his arm out, striking at Chen Dandan’s chest with his palm.
“No—”
Chen Dandan’s expression changed completely. With her level of practice, she was completely unable to dodge Zhou Donghuang’s palm in time.
“Stop…”
Several of the disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters who were gathered around watching were level-eight adepts, stronger in ability, who had originally intended to stop the youth who was attacking Chen Dandan. But when they saw a foot of green haze welling out of the youth’s palm, it was as though each had been savagely throttled, and their voices died in their throats.
Out of the two words “stop it,” they only managed “stop.”
Crash!!
Zhou Donghuang’s palm landed on Chen Dandan’s chest, and the green haze from the youth’s palm dissipated with the sound, while Chen Dandan was sent reeling two steps back from the blow. Her face alternated between turning red and green, and trickles of blood leaked from the corners of her mouth.
“Connate…Connate-stage adept?!”
“Earlier he was only…using his qi?”
…
Now the attention of the gathered crowd of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters was no longer on the wounded Chen Dandan. Their gazes fell in unison on the youth dressed in robes whiter than snow.
When the youth had struck out with his palm, there had been a destructive green haze coming from his palm, easily a foot long.
This was the hallmark of the early Connate stage.
This youth who looked seventeen or eighteen years old was actually an early Connate-stage adept?
“Is he really a Connate-stage adept? A Connate-stage adept striking sister Chen Dandan with his palm, and only managing to drive her back two steps?”
“Even a level-eight adept of Qi-gathering, never mind a Connate-stage adept, would not possibly drive her back only two steps with a casual blow from his palm.”
…
At the same time, some people began to be suspicious that the blow from Zhou Donghuang’s palm only drove Chen Dandan back two steps, but basically felt that Zhou Donghuang had deliberately held back.
“You…you destroyed my meridians?”
Chen Dandan was shocked that although Zhou Donghuang had expended his qi, when she subconsciously tried to activate the qi within her body, she noticed that the qi within her body was dispersing in all directions, and she was unable to gather it.
At the same time, she felt waves of sharp pain coming from the meridians in her body.
With Zhou Donghuang’s palm landing on her with a not-great force, all in all, it was not difficult for her to guess that the blow from Zhou Donghuang was not intended to wound her, but to destroy her meridians!
Immediately, a look of despair came over Chen Dandan’s eyes.
She could not be more clear what having her meridians destroyed implied.
It implied that she would become a martial invalid for the rest of her life!
She thought that by becoming the daughter of the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, she could fly to the top branch and become a phoenix…
She never imagined that just when her level of practice was advancing at an incredible rate, promising that she would attain the Connate stage in this lifetime, her childhood playmate from former times would seek her out and directly destroy her meridians.
With her meridians destroyed, there would be nothing she could do, even in the Valley of the Medicine Masters where there was no lack of powerful adepts.
“He…destroyed Sister Chen Dandan’s meridians?”
“My god! He is offending the second elder backing Sister Chen Dandan to death!”
“I was wondering why he held back earlier…so his blow was not intended to wound Sister Chen Dandan, but was intended to destroy Sister Dandan’s level of practice!”
“If I were Sister Dandan, and if I had a choice…I would rather be so gravely wounded that I would be lying on my bed for a few months than have my level of practice destroyed.”
“In the face of a choice like this…anyone would probably choose to be bedridden for a few months, wouldn’t he?”
…
The faces of the gathered crowd of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters showed expressions of shock. They could never have imagined that the youth before them would be so daring, destroying Chen Dandan’s level of practice with his first attack.
It must be stated that Chen Dandan was no ordinary person.
She was the daughter of the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, Chen Tianhe!
Moreover, because the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, Chen Tianhe, previously had neither a son nor a daughter, he doted on his long-lost daughter, Chen Dandan.
This was also the reason why Chen Dandan had been able to attain level-four of Qi-gathering not long after arriving at the Valley of the Medicine Masters.
The second elder had spent a considerable amount of rare and valuable herbs on his daughter, which showed his love for his daughter.
The important thing was this: The second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters was a middle Connate-stage adept!
Even if the youth before them were an early Connate-stage adept, he could not possibly be a match for the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters.
“This…this…”
When the disciple of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, Huang Mingfeng, took a second look at the youth in white standing nearby with his back to him, his eyes widened, and an expression of shock and wonder came over his face.
He never imagined: The youth before him was actually an early Connate-stage adept.
Furthermore, he could never have imagined that the youth before him would destroy Chen Dandan’s level of practice once he struck.
This was as good as offending the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters to death!
“Zhou Donghang, damn you!”
When Chen Dandan looked at the youth again, she wailed like a banshee and sprang towards the youth, all claws and teeth.
In that moment, she completely forgot that the youth had shown how he exuded qi earlier.
There was only one thought in her mind, revenge!
Crash!!
This time, Zhou Donghuang did not activate his qi, but kicked out casually, sending the onrushing Chen Dandan flying.
Even without using his qi, Zhou Donghuang possessed more than a thousand jin of maximum muscular strength, making it child’s play to deal with Chen Dandan, whose meridians had been destroyed.
“Wah——”
Chen Dandan fell to the ground, more severely wounded than before, After spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, stared with a look of bloodthirsty vengeance at the youth whose white clothes had not even a speck of dust, saying through gritted teeth, “Zhou Donghuang, you destroyed my level of practice. My father will definitely not let you off!”
“I will get my father to capture you, and I will flay you alive personally!”
Chen Dandan was now completely consumed by vengeance as she screamed hysterically, as though she had completely forgotten that the youth was in full control of the scene before her.
“Flay me alive?”
Zhou Donghuang smiled, and his expression turned frosty. “Do you believe…that before your father arrives, I could kill you?”
Chen Dandan was so frightened by Zhou Donghuang’s words that she quivered, her expression changing completely.
At that moment, she realized that the youth held a total advantage, to the extent that he could kill her before her father arrived.
“Elder Li is here!”
Just at that moment, there was a commotion in the crowd of onlookers, and a group of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters parted to create a path.
An old man dressed in a pale green long robe strode through, with the young men who had been with Chen Dandan acting as her protectors jostling around him.
“Elder Li!”
At the sight of the old man, Chen Dandan’s eyes lit up, even as she wore a savage expression, and she appealed to the old man urgently, “This Zhou Donghuang not only trespassed in the Valley of the Medicine Masters, he also wounded Ke Hui, and destroyed my meridians!”
“What?!”
When the old man, who appeared relaxed and easygoing at first, heard what Chen Dandan said, his expression changed completely.
He already knew that Ke Hui had been wounded.
But he never imagined that during the period of time he took to arrive, this youth who trespassed in the Valley of the Medicine Masters would actually destroy Chen Dandan’s level of practice!
Chen Dandan was no ordinary disciple of the Valley of the Medicine Masters. She was the daughter of the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters.
“Elder Li, he is an early Connate-stage adept. You must restrain him. Don’t let him get away!”
Chen Dandan gave a timely reminder as the old man’s expression changed.
Although she did not want to believe that the youth was an early Connate-stage adept, the meter of qi exuding from his palm when he struck earlier was proof that the youth had already attained the early Connate stage.
“Connate stage?”
As Chen Dandan finished, not only the old man who had just arrived, but the young men who were jostling him, were all stunned speechless.
They looked at the youth before them with disbelief in their eyes.
“Sister Dandan, are you mistaken? Look at him! At most seventeen or eighteen years old, a Connate-stage adept?” the young man spoke up doubtfully.
“When he attacked me earlier, he exuded a foot of qi. Everyone here saw it clearly.”
Chen Dandan was not surprised by the young man’s doubt, and she replied stormily while looking at the youth hatefully.
“Sister Dandan is correct! He is indeed a Connate-stage adept.”
“When he attacked earlier, he exuded a meter of qi, He is an early Connate-stage adept.”
…
The crowd of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters spoke up one by one in unanimous confirmation. Even if the old man and the young man refused to believe it, they were forced to believe.
“Elder Li, you are equal to him, an early Connate-stage adept, and might not be able to handle him. You restrain him. Zhong Yuntao, you go and get my father here!”
Chen Dandan told the old man and the young man.
The young man acknowledged and left, and the old man hurriedly took several steps forward, staring ferociously at the youth. “You, who on earth are you? Why did you trespass into the Valley of the Medicine Masters?”
“Moreover, why did you injure my disciple of the Valley of the Medicine Masters Ke Hui, and destroy my disciple of the Valley of the Medicine Masters Chen Dandan’s level of practice?”