Two months later, inside a cave somewhere within the Silvermoon Forest, Huang Xiaolong was sitting in a cross-legged position. Battle qi glowed in the cave for a long time when suddenly, the space behind him vibrated as a black dragon emerged, floating behind his head.
Seconds after this black dragon appeared, it disappeared with a flash and was replaced by a blue dragon. And the blue dragon also floated behind Huang Xiaolong.
Two months of persistence and hard work finally brought results! Huang Xiaolong could now summon his martial spirits individually!
That's right, a separate, individual summoning!
After two months in the forest, Huang Xiaolong had grown stronger compared to when he left the Tianxuan Mansion, and even his aura changed. His battle qi cultivation had advanced from early-Sixth Order to the peak of the early-Sixth Order.
Moonlight shone down, resembling water, and the cave's surrounding was quiet.
In the cave, the black light and the blue light continued to flicker alternately.
About an hour later, the lights stopped flickering in the cave as Huang Xiaolong sent his twin dragon martial spirits back into his body; his eyes opened and he stood up and walked out of the cave.
Outside the cave, in the quiet moonlit forest, he did not see the little violet monkey which made Huang Xiaolong shake his head. This little guy surely took the opportunity to sneak out again while he was practicing.
Leaving the cave area, he jumped down while the Blades of Asura were already in his hands. His feet tapped the ground and his body leaped up-- the blades in his hands swung out and blades' attacks fell downward, akin to a cluster of stars. Sometimes it was violent like an angry roaring storm, sometimes it was soft and gentle, minuscule and hard to detect by the eye.
An Asura's wail echoed and drifted in the air as if it had a mind of its own.
In the past two months, he had also focused on training Tears of Asura and the level of power he could display had increased significantly.
With his progress and persistent training, Huang Xiaolong estimated that in six months' time he could achieve major completion for the Tears of Asura technique.
Suddenly, while Huang Xiaolong was engrossed in training, the ground below him shook with "Hong! Hong! Hong!" sounds. Violent tremors snaked closer to Huang Xiaolong's position.
Huang Xiaolong turned around and saw that some distance away, a huge thirty-meters tall gorilla was chasing a half-meter tall little monkey, and the gorilla and monkey were heading towards his direction.
The gorilla was in hot pursuit and his hands slammed down repeatedly on the ground, in an effort to smash the little monkey, but each attack was a failure. Just before the big palm would land a hit, the little monkey flashed and its figure avoided the danger of being squashed into mincemeat. This made the gorilla roar with fury.
Looking at the hilarious scene before him, Huang Xiaolong couldn't help but chuckle. This little guy!
The one being chased by the huge gorilla was the same little violet monkey that had sneaked out to play.
Everytime Huang Xiaolong focused his attention on training, the little violet monkey would run out. And every time it returned, there would be a big guy chasing behind him. This wasn't the first time the little violet monkey came back this way.
Sometimes, it really gave Huang Xiaolong a headache.
"Zhi zhi zhi!" From far away, the little violet monkey's eyes lit up when it spotted Huang Xiaolong. Immediately, it quickly gestured at Huang Xiaolong, obviously saying there is work to do!
At this time, the huge gorilla launched another attack, its big palm slammed down at the little violet monkey.
"Bang!" A loud sound rang out and the spot where the little violet monkey was earlier sunk in with crushed stones scattered about, showing a huge palm shape imprint. The little violet monkey jumped away clutching his butt; it turned and squeaked angrily at the gorilla. Just now, that big guy's attack nearly destroyed its small butt.
Huang Xiaolong shook his head while laughing at the little guy's antics; his silhouette flashed and when he reappeared he was already in midair with his blades, swinging at the huge gorilla.
Seeing that Huang Xiaolong had started to attack, the little violet monkey stopped running and attacked the gorilla together with him.
This huge gorilla was a type of beast with a body as hard as steel. Not only did it possess a great amount of strength, its body also had a high defense; its hard skin was like a layer of iron and usually sparks broke out when normal iron weapons clashed with it.
Normally, it's hard to come across a Steel Gorilla-- one really had to wonder where the little guy ran into it.
Luckily, this Steel Gorilla had yet to breakthrough to Grade Seven and was still a peak late-Grade Six. With Huang Xiaolong's Blades of Asura, the hard, steel-like skin was like mud and in just a few minutes, its throat was slashed by his blades.
Blood spurted out and the Steel Gorilla crashed down to the ground.
After the little violet monkey was sure the Steel Gorilla could no longer move, it ran up to the corpse and his small hands began to search for battle trophies.
It clawed open the corpse's head and fished out a beast core and its mouth opened and swallow the beast core whole.
Huang Xiaolong couldn't figure out how the little monkey could distinguish between beasts that had cores and those that didn't; in general, it was rare for demonic beasts below Grade Seven to have a beast core. However, every demonic beast the little monkey provoked was guaranteed to have condensed out a beast core.
After the beast core went into the little monkey's stomach, Huang Xiaolong walked up to the corpse. Both of his hands formed into claws and he began sucking out the blood soul qi from the Steel Gorilla's corpse-- he sucked it out and the black threads were absorbed into Huang Xiaolong's meridians through the veins in his hands.
When every trace of the Steel Gorilla's blood soul qi had entered Huang Xiaolong's body, he leaped up and clawed at a big tree twenty meters away.
Moonlight disappeared from the area as if swallowed by darkness.
Two black claw prints appeared in the air.
"Bang!" A loud sound resounded in the darkness. The big tree twenty meters away had two half-meter long tree marks with a half foot depth, ripped out by Huang Xiaolong. This left two black claw prints on the tree trunk and the deathly aura of ghosts around the tree, exuding a dark energy that caused the tree's leaves to gradually turn yellow and then black.
Looking at the result of the Asura Demon Claw's first style – Lament of Thousands of Demons, Huang Xiaolong nodded to himself in satisfaction.
While training in the Silvermoon Forest for the past two months, not only had he succeeded in individually summoning his martial spirits, but all his battle skills had increased in power including the Body Metamorphose Scripture.
He wouldn't have been able to progress at such speed if he remained training in the Tianxuan Mansion or the Academy.
Suddenly, the little violet monkey beside him squeaked.
"Are you saying that in this Steel Gorilla's lair you found some treasure?" asked Huang Xiaolong when the little monkey finished gesturing. The little violet monkey nodded its head; it turned around and beckoned Huang Xiaolong to follow it as it scurried off in the direction it first appeared from when it was being chased by the Steel Gorilla.
Roughly twenty minutes later, a boy and a monkey arrived at a section of lush forest and saw the entrance of an enormous cave.
"Zhi zhi zhi!" Entering the giant cave, the little monkey grew even more excited and it squeaked cheerfully. It was the first to rush in with Huang Xiaolong following from behind.
As they walked into the cave, a light scent wafted towards them.
And soon the fragrant scent became stronger as they went in deeper into the cave.
Some time later, Huang Xiaolong reached a spacious underground part of the cave that looked to be about a thousand square meters large. From the ground to the ceiling was a height of about thirty meters. And in this underground cave, there was a giant tree so big that it needed seven to eight people to fully hug the tree. Branches stretched in all directions of the cave and some roots were crawling along the cave wall.
Between the dense leaves of the giant tree were little sparkling lights.
Huang Xiaolong was dazed for a moment when he saw the giant tree, and soon it was followed by a feeling of ecstasy and disbelief, "This, this is a cycad tree?!"
A Cycad tree bears a strange fruit called cycad fruit. For those who cultivate battle qi, not only can this fruit enhance one's battle qi, it also could enhance the physical body – from strengthening all the muscles and bones, the flesh, and even the internal organs. Eating cycad fruits on a long term basis could increase the body's defense, making it become as hard as steel, just like the Steel Gorilla. Common swords or blades would find it hard to penetrate through the skin.
"Zhi zhi zhi!" At this time, the little violet monkey dashed towards the giant tree and was already climbing up the trunk; tiny hands plucked a cycad fruit and swallowed it whole with a 'gulu' sound.
Huang Xiaolong smiled. Sometimes he wondered if the little violet monkey's nose is a dog nose, probably its nose was even better than a dog's. If not, how can it smell out treasure fruits within a hundred li?
Note:
Cycad (possible) appearance
Name Change - Asura Claw first move changed from Hiss of Thousand Demons to Lament of Thousands of Demons.