Chapter 7: Chapter Seven - Seven Shadow Forging Manual
Thousand Beast Forest
Lush green trees spanned for thousands of meters and extended as far as the eyes could see, birds sang melodious tunes above the trees giving the forest a feeling of serenity.
Lying in the forest in a puddle of frozen blood Yue Chen attempted to stand but felt his knees go weak whenever he did so. To avoid blood loss he hadn't removed the stone spike that was in his chest, instead he had frozen it along with the wound.
Remembering he had stored a lot of rations in his storage ring recently Yue Chen felt for his ring but realized it was missing! "Damnit I left it in my other clothes!" slamming his hand against the tree bark Yue Chen raged silently.
"The other one!" realizing he had hidden one of his storage rings at Xuer's caution Yue Chen was elated. As he thought of Xue'er, Yue Chen's jovial expression as if doused by a bucket of cold water immediately turned downcast. He knew that the day he returned to the empire he and Zhao Xue might not be on the same side anymore.
As his legs couldn't carry him Yue Chen started to crawl with the help of his hands. An inch then another, then another, with his every movement his wounds opened up, the thin layer of ice in his chest wasn't enough to stop the bleeding. Gritting his teeth Yue Chen bore the pain and continued to crawl.
Inside the Imperial city
"We have failed to locate the cursed child, Your Majesty" kneeling before emperor zhao an imperial guard reported "it was said he was last seen above the city's walls"
Seated on his throne Emperor Zhao's eyes shot out a cold light as he stroked his beard. "Search every household and lead a group of men to search the Thousand Beast Forest, leave no soil unturned, if the child still cannot be found head to the next city to issue a bounty of 100 amethyst coins"
After crawling for what seemed like an eternity Yue Chen came across a tree where it's bark had become become dark brown over a period of time and the roots had were bulging and constantly pulsed with an eerie energy. Staring at the tree Yue Chen was startled. If it weren't for the scratches he'd left he'd never known this was the same tree from a few years ago!
With much difficult Yue Chen sat up next to the tree and began to rip away the bark of the tree, revealing a small cavity, barely enough to fit a hand. Sticking his hand into the tree Yue Chen retrieved the storage ring. "The dark energy is still overflowing after so many years!"
Unlike the Ice natured storage ring before, this ring had no intricate designs nor strange symbols, only a dark aura that was so strong that it was stifling. This was also why Yue Chen had chosen to hide this particular ring.
Injecting his Qi into the ring Yue Chen left his spirit imprint on the ring. Sending a strain of consciousness into the ring he scanned the space inside. Compared to the other storage ring this one was completely empty! What kind of miser would give their kid an empty storage ring!? After searching the entire ring the only thing that was found was a dusty old manual called Seven Shadow Forging Manual.
"Is this an incomplete manual?" turning the pages of the manual Yun Chen was confused. "gathering qi starting at the final qi point?"
In the Donghua continent cultivation techniques of different natures was common but no matter how different they seemed they all had one thing in common: qi was gathered at the first qi point then moved to the second and eventually circulating through all seven qi points. Never had there been a technique that required one to gather qi in this manner.
"hooo"
All of a sudden Yun Chen's shadow began to move strangely around the manual, blowing the nearby leaves away.
"Haha what do I have to lose?" laughing at himself mockingly. Sitting cross-legged Yun Chen started to gather qi at his final qi point, slowly he directed the qi to his first point then the second.
With every strand of qi that was pushed forward a bout of pain would assault Yun Chen violently. Withstanding the pain Yun Chen didn't stop, but instead sped up. After one complete cycle he collapsed to the ground breathlessly, beads of sweat pouring down his face.
"This technique is too painful!" with a wry smile Yun Chen sat up once more "but the effects are the best I've ever seen, even my shadow seems to like it"
In the next moment the crimson curse brand on Yun Chen's shadow glowed brightly then shot into his left eye. The brand had finally left his shadow.
Realizing his vision in his left eye had decreased by half Yun Chen silently cursed. "damnable curse!"
As if realizing he was dissatisfied the curse brand disappeared from his left eye. Before he could rejoice Yun Chen felt something was wrong, his little brother had decreased in size.......
"It's just an eye I don't mind! you can have both of them if you want! Please leave my manhood out of this!" Yun Chen cried bitterly.
The curse remained unresponsive, as if ignoring Yun Chen's plight.
"Big Brother won't you be lenient with me?" Yun Chen asked in a weak voice as if he'd given up completely.
With a flashing light the cursed brand appeared beneath his eye. More surprisingly, there was no side effect.
Realizing that the curse could have done this from the beginning Yun Chen raged in his mind but didn't dare to let his anger show in fear of the brand's 'retaliation'.
After replenishing his qi Yun Chen decided to wedge the rock from his wound. Gritting his teeth Yue Chen quickly dragged the spike from his chest, blood gushing from the cavity.
"Search the entire forest, whoever finds him shall be promoted to commander of a battalion!"
Hearing the shouts from a distance Yun Chen didn't bother with patching himself up and ran off deeper into the forest.
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