With Yun Lu in tow, Zhou Donghuang rode the golden-crowned eagle, Little Gold, from the Valley of the Medicine Masters toward the capital of the Shenguang Empire.
Originally, he had planned to bring Big Gold along; after all, Big Gold had been to the Shenguang Empire many times and knew the road inside and out. But Little Gold kept persisting and insisted that he wanted to go, and he kept saying that the Young Master was playing favorites. Despite Little Gold never having left the remote hinterland of the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley, Zhou Donghuang allowed it.
Moreover, Little Gold’s martial ability and speed had surpassed Big Gold’s.
“Young Master, I heard Big Gold say… the Shenguang capital is bigger than ten cities in the Valley of the Medicine Masters?”
“Big brother, do the people of the Shenguang Empire look like we do in Sixteen Countries of the East Valley?
After they had left the Valley of the Medicine Masters, Little Gold and Yun Lu, much like young, curious children, asked question after question without end.
At first, Zhou Donghuang would give a few sentences of explanation, however by the end, he simply said nothing at all.
Now, Little Gold was already equal to Big Gold; he, too, could easily condense inner Yuan energy. He had become a great Primal Core beast. He was already able to use human speech and did not need to speak to Zhou Donghuang through demon speech like he had in the past.
Realizing that her older brother was no longer acknowledging her, Yun Lu pouted indignantly with her small mouth. However, after being angry for a little while, she once again started speaking with Little Gold, and from time to time, she would let out a laugh that sounded like a silver bell.
Zhou Donghuang turned and shut his eyes and practiced his skills on Little Gold’s back. It was as if he had turned a deaf ear to the entire world.
“We’re here.”
In less than half a month, two people and an eagle appeared in the capital of the Shenguang Empire. After Zhou Donghuang spoke, both Yun Lu and Little Gold looked at the nearby city that crawled into view just like a giant creature.
This was the first time that either of them had seen such a large city in their lives.
“Big brother, I don’t want to go with you to that Black Market… May I walk around the capital of the Shenguang Empire by myself?”
As they got nearer to the Shenguang capital, Yun Lun looked at Zhou Donghuang with anticipation, her gaze mischievous.
“Fine.” Zhou Donghuang nodded his head, and as he answered, his face became serious. “However you must promise big brother that you won’t leave the Shenguang Empire’s capital… and as soon as you encounter any danger, break the jade plate I gave you, and big brother will be there right away.”
For this trip from the Valley of the Medicine Masters, Zhou Donghuang had specifically made several matching sets of mother-daughter jade tablets. Spells were engraved on the jade tablets, and as soon as a jade tablet was broken, the mother jade tablet would respond. It could locate the daughter tablet’s position wherever it had been broken.
However, due to the materials used, the mother-daughter jade tablets Zhou Donghuang had made could only be used within the reach of the Shenguang Empire’s capital. They would not be able to signal from any further than that.
Still, this would suffice.
“Got it, Big Brother.”
After getting permission, Yun Lu’s eyes lit up, and she cleverly stuck out her tongue.
Once he had guided Little Gold into the Shenguang Empire capital and they hovered over the Black Market, Zhou Donghuang carried Yun Lu as he drove the carriage and quickly let her down in front of the entrance to the Black Market. As soon as she was on her feet, Yun Lu called out, and then quickly ran off.
Seeing this, Zhou Donghuang shook his head with a laugh, but he was able to understand her.
No matter how you looked at it, Yun Lu was still just a child. Furthermore, she was a child who had been stifled in the Valley of the Medicine Masters.
“Master Donghuang, you’ve finally come.”
The leader of the Black Market, the Divine Light Sect’s third elder, Tuo Ku could not help but feel somewhat relieved after seeing Zhou Donghuang again.
However, at the same time, he faintly noticed one thing… this time, the youth’s fighting spirit and confidence had grown fiercer. His whole body seemed like an unsheathed, sharp sword. Simply standing before him, Tuo Ku could sense an indescribable force.
“Two years ago, when he was but twenty years old, he was strong enough to defeat me… after two years, his strength has no doubt increased greatly. It’s just that I cannot tell by how much… how powerful has he become?”
Tuo Ku trembled inwardly.
At this point, Zhou Donghuang’s background and details in relation to the Valley of the Medicine Masters were no longer a secret.
“Yes.” Zhou Donghuang nodded slightly and right after this, he casually mentioned, “The materials I requested, have they all been collected?”
“They have long since been ready.” As Tuo Ku quickly nodded his head, he put a ring into Zhou Donghuang’s hand. “Master Donghuang, all of your desired materials are within this.”
“Prepare a quiet room for me. ”
After Zhou Donghuang spoke, Tuo Ku hurriedly gave his very own room to Zhou Donghuang and left to wait outside. There was a somewhat expectant look in his eyes… Could this youth really forge a spirit weapon all by himself?
Inside the room, after Tuo Ku had left, Zhou Donghuang retrieved his own spirit weapon, his folding fan.
Afterwards, he took out the pile of materials that Tuo Ku had given him, and from among them he took out a precious ingredient and began working on the weapon… However, he did not begin by working on the spirit weapon he had promised to make for the Divine Light Sect. Instead, he began to work on his own superior spirit weapon, the folding fan, to forge it anew.
To begin, he used the most precious material of those collected by the Divine Light Sect to improve the quality of his own spirit weapon’s makeup.
With these materials, his spirit weapon could rise in rank from a superior spirit weapon to an ultimate spirit weapon. Increasing the effects, it could transform from level six to more than four times its current level!
Only after spending two hours’ time improving the grade of his spirit weapon did Zhou Donghuang finally use the remaining materials to aid the Divine Light Sect in the forging of their spirit weapon. He spent much less time to create a sword. The sword’s blade was like jade, glittering and translucent. It emitted a swift and fierce energy into the air.
Looking closely, there were countless fine lines placed complexly all over the top of the sword. Zhou Donghuang had carved them on the blade. They were spells, scattered all over. So long as a Primal Core adept put his inner Yuan into it, then it would be activated.
Thus, this was a principle of increasing the power of one’s inner Yuan.
“It’s complete.”
Tuo Ku originally thought that he would have to wait several days and nights, so he never expected that within four hours’ time, the youth would push open the door and give the bright and transparent, three-foot-long sword to Tuo Ku.
He gave it a try, confirming that it was really a genuine spirit weapon fitting the price paid.
For this reason, Tuo Ku couldn’t help but be struck dumb for a moment. “He… really forged this on his own?”
Tuo Ku had never expected that this spirit weapon would already be made now, nor that the youth would create it himself. This youth was purposefully being mysterious.
However, thinking it over again, there really was no need for all of that!
“I am ready to go to the Divine Light Sect,” Zhou Dong said with an unnecessarily doubtful tone as Tuo Ku looked over at him, struck dumb with astonishment.
Tuo Ko immediately answered, “Master Donghuang, if you want to go to our Divine Light Sect, we of the sect will welcome you of course… the head of the clan has wanted to meet the peerless, unsurpassed genius of Ziyun for a long time.
“However… before that, I would like to ask you something.”
At this point, Tuo Ku very cautiously looked at Zhou Donghuang and made as if to speak but paused.
“Speak.”
Right after Zhou Donghuang spoke again, Tuo Ku breathed deeply. He asked, slightly upset, “The tenth elder of our Divine Light Sect, Lin Hantian, originally went to your home country… but it was then that he vanished without a trace.
“However, we don’t know… have you seen him?”
Just as Zhou Donghuang was about to answer Tuo Ku’s disturbing question, he felt a shock go through his him, which unfortunately shot out of the stone corresponding to the one Yun Lu possessed. Moreover, after the tremor, the stone in his bosom cracked open.
“What?”
Hearing the sound, Tuo Ku jumped back with a start.
Then, in that instant, Tuo Ku realized that the face of the youth before him had frozen, as if he had been covered over by a layer of ice.
This was the first time he had ever seen the youth’s facial expression this anxious. Each time he had seen the youth in the past, no matter what, the youth was always the picture of composure like an unmoving rock.
Not even when he had been in the presence of the Divine Light Sect’s elder Golden Essence adepts had the youth’s expression wavered in the slightest.
However, now, he could clearly sense a chilliness coming from the youth. It made the whole room feel just as if its temperature had dropped several degrees.
“Huh!”
In the next moment, the sound of a slight wind was heard, and Tuo Ku barely noticed a white flash as the youth in white disappeared completely and without a trace. Tuo Ku’s eyes widened suddenly. “So fast!”
This level of speed was already so quick that he could not even react to it.
“Two years ago… he did not have this kind of speed!”
Although the youth of two years ago was very strong, Tuo Ku could still be certain that his opponent from two years absolutely did not possess this level of speed.
…
The Yuntai Inn.
This was the inn where Zhou Donghuang and Su Mo had lived for a long time.
In the present day, in the large courtyard of the Yuntai Inn, a middle-aged man wearing a long ash-gray robe sat at a stone table, staring at a girl about eight or nine standing before him.
“Girl, since you don’t have a master, join us.
“Due to your natural talents, if you become our disciple… I can guarantee that you will in fifteen… no, thirteen years become a Primal Core adept!” the middle-aged man explained patiently and systematically.
He never expected in a million years that upon leaving the Divine Light Sect and coming to the Shenguang Empire this time that he would encounter this young child while going for a stroll.
She did not look ten yet, however, she was already a late Connate adept. Furthermore, it was obvious that this girl lacked experience, otherwise, she would not have been walking the streets of the Shenguang capital, curiously looking at everything she saw.
A young student this good presented boundless possibilities.
If he could marry the girl to his son, then that would ensure good fortune for his grandchildren afterwards.
He had also considered whether or not this girl had powerful connections.
Since she was not a disciple of any of the four great clans on the planet Ziyun, she could be a high disciple. However, she had told him very clearly that she did not have a master. She did not know what it meant to have a master to teach her.
“Little sister, it would be easy for my father to take you on as a disciple. You would be very lucky to train under him.”
A boy of about twelve or thirteen stood next to the middle-aged man. He wore a haughty expression, arrogant with the pride of privileged birth.
“Who are you calling little sister, huh?”
Yun Lu put both her hands on her waist. “You snotty-nosed brat. How old are you that you dare call me little sister? You should call me older sister! I, Yun Lu, am already fourteen years old this year!”
