章 23: Special Spirit Body
編集者: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Giddy up! Giddy up!"
Several horses were swiftly galloping across the main road. They kicked up a huge amount of sand and dust. The dust floated above the surface of the wide road.
In front of the men on horseback was a huge field.
The seedlings had sprouted and covered the fields with a dense patch of bright green, making it look like a luxuriant, cute, and furry carpet that was laid over the soil. Under the scorching sun, the fields shone like emeralds.
Everyone working hard in the fields looked up. They reverently stared at the horse riders that had come galloping at such a high speed.
The horse riders reined their horses in and stopped in front of the estate.
The villagers hid themselves to one side and suddenly spotted two familiar faces among the horse riders.
All their fears and anxieties instantly vanished. There were great joy and laughter in the estate.
Rong Yiyang and his son had gone to the Main House for several days. They had finally returned safely.
And, they had returned with such great fanfare, which was very different from how they had left.
The sky was darkening, so Rong Yiyang got the horse riders who came with them to stay the night.
Rong Yihe was the leader of the horse riders. Every one of them was specially chosen by Rong Jielin. They had come along on the pretext of ensuring Rong Yiyang and Rong Kaixuan's safety, but they were actually using the journey to make a declaration to the rest of the Rong clan.
They wanted everyone to know that Rong Yiyang and Rong Kaixuan were an outstanding generation of their family.
If anyone tried to go up against them, they now had to think twice about the consequences.
Rong Kaixuan quietly laid on his bed and put his ear to the door until he made sure that the entire estate had quietened down.
After that, he slowly got up and walked all the way out of the estate. He headed for the deep mountains.
He had spent all his life here and knew his way around very well. There wasn't a single person in the estate who noticed that he had gone missing.
He was also way bolder than he used to be.
Now that he was well-versed in the Art of Spirit Gathering, the terrifying darkness of the dark mountains wasn't as terrifying as it used to be.
After walking on the mountain roads for about an hour, he stopped walking.
The area around him was fairly familiar because this was where the first Spirit Body he evoked had been destroyed by a ferocious tiger.
He looked around and searched the area in the moonlight for a few moments. An odd feeling started growing in his heart.
Even though it was his first time there physically, he didn't feel that this place was strange to him.
He took a deep breath, slowly stretched a hand out, and started to activate and push out the immense mysterious energy from between his eyebrows.
This time, Rong Kaixuan unleashed every single bit of the energy that was within that little round ball.
Of course, while releasing the energy, he quietly also applied what he had learned about the Art of Spirit Gathering, unlike how he had just simply pushed the energy out the first time.
After a moment, a bright flash appeared before him. A human-shaped Spirit Body slowly started forming.
This human-shaped Spirit Body gathered in a very different way from normal Spirit Bodies.
Most Spirit Bodies were formed in an extremely short time. The moment his first spark of Spirit Power became a whirlpool, it instantly gathered a tremendous amount of Spirit Power from around it and successfully created a Spirit Body.
This Spirit Body was different. In the process of forming, it didn't take in any Spirit Power from around its surroundings. It was as if this Spirit Body was a world of its own, and no Spirit Power around it could get in. On top of that, this Spirit Body formed very slowly. It only took shape after around 15 minutes.
This sort of speed was considered a snail pace. If it took so long to evoke a Spirit Body in a battle, the Spirit Gatherer was going to be hacked to pieces before the Spirit Body managed to finish forming.
Rong Kaixuan finally exhaled deeply and looked at the Spirit Body in front of him. There was a glint of surprise in his eyes.
He could sense that this Spirit Body was vastly different from the first Spirit Body he had evoked.
Perhaps it was because the mysterious energy in between his eyebrows had transformed and gone from being a mist to becoming a sold round ball, or perhaps it was because he had learned the Art of Spirit Gathering, so it caused a basic change in the Spirit Body.
In any case, the Spirit Body standing in front of him now was vastly different from the Spirit Bodies that he had evoked before.
This Spirit Body still had blurry features, but there was unusual sentience in the Spirit Body's eyes.
Rong Kaixuan faced it for a few moments. He then sent his Divine Sense toward it.
His Divine Sense quickly took over the Spirit Body, allowing him to quietly check the Spirit Body. After a while, he was surprised to find that this Spirit Body didn't just have True Qi, but the amount of True Qi it had was even more than what he had.
Suddenly, a strange sense of danger coming overwhelmed his heart.
Rong Kaixuan shifted his consciousness. His Divine Sense came back to him.
He opened his eyes and carefully searched his surroundings.
Even though his senses were fairly sensitive, he wasn't some expert mountain hunter either. It wasn't that easy for him to immediately detect where this danger was coming from within these deep mountains.
When his eyes happened to casually go past the Spirit Body next to him, he was stunned.
Without him knowing, this Spirit Body had already turned around and had its back facing him. It clenched both its fists and was already in a defensive stance.
A glimmer of surprise flashed across Rong Kaixuan's face. Were this fellow's senses even keener than his own?
Just when he was still doubtful, a sound was heard coming from the direction that the Spirit Body faced.
Rong Kaixuan moved his mouth a few times, but he immediately gave up the stupid idea of comparing his own sensitivities to Spirit Bodies.
Spirit Bodies were made from a gathering of Spirit Power, so their ability to sense the natural surroundings was much greater than his ordinary human body.
Comparing himself to Spirit Bodies was just being unfair to himself.
The tree branches and tall grasses moved aside to reveal a huge tiger head walking toward him.
Rong Kaixuan's gaze focused a little. He never imagined that he would have the fate to run into another ferocious tiger there.
Compared to the last time, he wasn't feeling nervous inside. Perhaps because he was much more powerful now, when he saw this ferocious tiger, he didn't feel afraid anymore.
ROAR!
The ferocious tiger let out a low roar as if it was threatening them.
The beast's animal instincts told it that these two beings in front of it were fairly dangerous. If it didn't have to, it wasn't going to fight to the very end with strong fighters who barged into its territory.
Rong Kaixuan confidently smiled. A faint intention to kill the tiger started rising in his heart.
Before he could make a move, he saw a flash of light dash across from the corner of his eye.
The moment the Spirit Body sensed his intention to kill, it made its move.
With one quick step, the Spirit Body closed the distance between itself and the tiger. It raised a fist but didn't immediately punch. Instead, it crouched low, curled itself up into a ball, and quickly rolled itself at an extremely odd angle under the tiger's belly at lightning speed.
BAM!
There was a loud boom. The tiger's body flew high up into the sky.
After that, there was a sad howl from the tiger as it suddenly exploded in mid-air.
Blood and flesh rained down from the sky, scattering all over the ground.
Rong Kaixuan watched this scene with wide eyes. He couldn't speak a single word.
He had seen how the Spirit Body rolled under the tiger's belly and punched upward into the tiger's belly. That strong punch packed a lot of power. It didn't just send the tiger flying, it even turned the tiger into mush.
One punch. It was only one punch, and this king of the mountains had been killed just like that.
Even though Rong Kaixuan was confident of easily killing a ferocious tiger now that he had grasped the art of spellcasting, it was impossible for him to finish the tiger off so cleanly and in such a bloody fashion.
As he looked back at the expressionless Spirit Body that barely had a face, a cold feeling filled Rong Kaixuan's heart.
He could tell that this Spirit Body had an unprecedented ability to fight.
It was said that martial arts practitioners who had cultivated True Qi had an instinct to fight because they went through many near-death experiences. They were often able to instantly see the strengths and weaknesses of their enemies and deal a fatal blow without holding back.
That sort of cultivator was the scariest type. Apparently, they were invincible among those at the same level as them.
From the looks of it, this Spirit Body seemed to be like that as well.
Rong Kaixuan shifted his consciousness and sent some of his will over to it.
He allowed the Spirit Body to live by itself in this forest and battle anything that came its way. Of course, it had to consider its own strength when battling, and it was not to challenge any rivals that were much more powerful than itself.
The Spirit Body looked toward Rong Kaixuan and nodded. It turned and jumped into the depths of the forest like a fox, instantly disappearing.
Rong Kaixuan blinked a few times and felt ashamed of himself.
After that Spirit Body had glanced at him, he felt his hair stand on end.
Perhaps it was because that Spirit Body was too special and had such an incredible ability to fight, so he had started to feel fearful of it.
Rong Kaixuan kept his will away and shook his head. He quietly walked back the same way he had come and went into his room.
He was way too excited to sleep. He closed his eyes and quietly sensed the Spirit Body.
Perhaps it was because he was too far away from it now, but he could only roughly sense which direction the Spirit Body was in. He was very certain that if he wanted to take full control of it, he only needed to shift his will and would be able to move his consciousness onto it.
Of course, if there was no reason to, he wasn't going to interfere with the Spirit Body's movements.
After some time, he heard a rooster crowing.
There was a faint glow in the dim sky.
Night had passed, and dawn had broken.
Rong Kaixuan opened his eyes. Even though he hadn't slept the entire night, there was joy on his face and in his eyes.
Right now, he was very sure of one matter.
If he applied the Art of Spirit Gathering and unleashed all the mysterious energy in the little round ball all at once, the Spirit Body that he could evoke wouldn't be the useless type that disappeared once its energy was consumed in a fight. It would be the legendary Special Spirit Body.
As long as nobody destroyed it with an attack, it was the type of Spirit Body that would live forever. It was an ultra-strong and could cultivate and increase in level.
-- 贈り物
が届きました