"Brother, where are we going?" Xiao Wu and Cheng Hao were currently walking down a paved road. Cheng Hao had suddenly woken her up at half past four in the morning and told her that she had to quietly follow him. It had been two days ever since they had broken through into the Inferior stage.
After the recent events she had learned to trust and do whatever her brother might instruct her to do. This time was no exception so she changed her mundane clothes with the sect clothing.
The clothing was actually a simple black robe white one white stripe going from the right shoulder to the left ankle where it also faded into the black. The robe also had a hood that could be used to conceal one's face so they both hid their features as they came out of the house.
Before they did though, Cheng Hao had to wait for Xiao Wu to apply some makeup to make her look a bit more masculine and tie her long blue-purplish hair into a ponytail. He still did not ask the reason she decided to dress and act as a male but he did not care. It was her decision and it did not bother an open minded person like him.
Of course when Goldy had, one night, secretly applied make up on Cheng Hao's sleeping face so that when he went out he looked like a stunning beauty, he had tied it to a rock and threw it in the river. It was a mystery up until then how it managed to survive.
Still he couldn't help but wonder why she would disguise herself when she grew up and she went through puberty everything would be revealed...
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After walking for an hour, Cheng Hao finally stopped. He turned and asked "Do you remember the way up to here?" The girl nodded and he pointed to a nearby abandoned tower "Every day for a month you will run here before dawn breaks and sit on that tower. You will then be sure to absorb all the Purple Qi from the East into your Purple Moon Martial Way and trust me if I say that if you skip a single day you won't get to eat for a week"
"But brother" she argued "Aren't I the one who is preparing the food to begin with?" Cheng Hao's smile broke down as he realized that was true. He straightened himself up and he cleared his voice.
"Ahem, I mean... You will have to wash the clothes and clean the house for a week..." "But brother, aren't I the one washing the clothes and cleaning the house to begi-"
"You understand what I mean! Just do it. Dawn at this period of the year usually comes at around six in the morning. You will know the time from the water clock in the house. This is incredibly important for cultivating the second scripture!" Cheng Hao turned and as he headed back he thought to himself 'You can actually sleep at night' He couldn't say that of course or else she would have worried, or worse, done the same.
A human body can't survive for long without sleeping but thanks to the golden aura absorbing the energy from his surroundings, Cheng Hao could barely scrape by with a short nap in the evening every day. In the future, when his body would have turned into a weapon itself, even eating might not be an issue anymore! Truly a divine ability! Of course, it was that the ability the Golden Heaven Devouring Dragon, the Eternal stage Beast Blindlight, had given him!
"I will go back to the house. Oh right! When you go out, remember to watch out for a guy with a mask! He wears blue robes and has apparently attacked a few disciples ever since we got here!"
Xiao Wu's expression flickered, but with his back towards her, she was sure that Cheng Hao couldn't possibly have noticed it.
Cheng Hao smiled as she thought of the blue robe and the mask hidden underneath his sister's pillow. He sighed, it seemed that although she had enough faith to follow him at a moment's notice she still didn't completely trust him yet. Oh well, he also had his secrets so he should probably call it even. And it wasn't like she was the only person that didn't stay idle at night!
Cheng Hao rotated his Pseudo-Core and sprinted down the paved road. As the tall tower disappeared from his view he suddenly made a sharp turn and headed towards a forest surrounded by 'danger' signs.
It was the so called 'Beast Lakes Forest' and it was a dangerous place where many beasts with cultivations at the High level Basic stage and higher gathered.
The youth didn't slow down as he entered the forest. It was two miles long and four miles wide and was one of the smallest forests in the sixth ring. Inside the forest were many lakes where packs of monstrous beasts and animals alike gathered. In the past two days he had come here almost every day for a few hours while his sister was either still sleeping or out for her 'nightly business'.
Aside from the Monstrous Beasts, there were also many valuable herbs and elixirs that could be refined into pills useful for cultivation. Truly a haven for cultivators.
Although to normal cultivators the thought of those treasures would undoubtedly make them at the very least try and find some, they would find out that the most precious herbs grew in the deepest parts of the forest and only those with a cultivation of the Advanced Stage or higher would dare go any deeper than one mile in.
Of course Cheng Hao was an exception. As soon as he saw a Monstrous Beast he would immediately take out the twenty four (the number had doubled ever since he broke through) golden blades made from the mysterious drop of blood. As soon as that happened, rains of blood would appear and severed limbs would fall to the ground.
Cheng Hao would then fetch the Monstrous Beast's core and give it to Goldy for him to feed on it. Although it had little effect, the essence of Basic stage beasts were still enough to make Goldy regain back an incredibly minuscule amount of his former power. What's more he could refine the beasts body with the Golden Aura technique to strengthen his own body.
After two days of hunting and more than a hundred Monstrous Beast cores, today Goldy had finally stepped into the Basic stage.
Since Heavenly Beasts required tens of times more cultivation resources than normal Monstrous Beasts, that was nothing short of light speed for Goldy!
In its life previous to its Re-Life, Blindlight needed about twenty years to reach the first Inferior stage, it could be said that it would have normally needed from fifty to a hundred years to reach his current cultivation so it basically fit those fifty plus years into two days.
After it broke through, it grew up to a meter long and sharp white fangs sprouted from its previously teeth-less mouth, sharp claws grew from its five limbs and the horns as well as the red hair on its head grew longer.
It didn't look like a small snake any longer, he looked more like an infant golden dragon. Its voice changed too as it became that of a youth from its previous middle-aged voice.
"Aaa, Cheng Hao, I feel it! I can finally fly! Yes! I can fly again! Ahaha" although divine beasts had slower cultivation, they had many more benefits such as their growth in size as well as the ability of using powerful abilities with lower requirements. For example, for humans only Advanced stage cultivators could fly, but for a Heavenly Beast it would only take the cultivation of the Basic stage instead.
"I have hunted many beasts and absorbed their body with the Golden Aura as well. I feel like I will soon have a breakthrough with my fleshly body as well!" Cheng Hao was also happy that his companion had gotten stronger. After all it would mean they wouldn't have to fear stronger foes if they had powerful allies, right?
When Cheng Hao was about to call it a day he heard a few voices talking loudly behind him "Man, what was all that crap about this forest being filled to the brim with monsters? We haven't encountered one even after a whole hour of search. Senior Zi, should we turn ba-" a man emerged from the bushes behind Cheng Hao and saw him sitting there, his back towards them.
He completely ignored the group: they were a bunch of two low and three mid levels Basic stage cultivators. Although their leader was actually a peak level Basic stage cultivator, about to step into Advanced stage. He was probably that 'Zi Senior' they were talking about but even with him, they truly posed no threat to Chemg Hao so he decided to ignore them.
"Hey kid, what are you doing here?" The group approached "Maybe you need big brother to show the way back?" Although their motives seemed kind, their eyes said something different than their mouth did: this kid probably has some treasure on him, otherwise he wouldn't have dared to come this deep in the forest! He is so young that he should not even have a cultivation base yet!
And such a fragile-looking child was right in front of them, so why not take the treasure and then run, leaving the kid behind? There where no rules that prohibited Vacant Disciples to kill each other, let alone rob! The kid was just unlucky!
"I advise you not to step closer than three meters from me" Cheng Hao kept ignoring the group and was about to stand up and leave when the group exchanged glances and charged towards the youth at the same time.
Seeing that Cheng Hao didn't react their smiles grew even wider and the six were about five meters from the child. Four meters. Three meters and half. When they got to three meters the peak level Basic stage cultivator finally noticed something was wrong but by then it was too late. Their body began to wither as soon as they stepped over the three meter mark
Following their bodies' momentum, the group of six approached Cheng Hao but the closer they went, the faster the withering became. More than withering it was absorbing. That's right, Cheng Hao was absorbing those people's fleshly body with the Golden Aura from a while ago! He usually kept it sealed but when he went hunting he let it rampage as much as it liked.
With a *clack* the dried up bones fell to the ground. Goldy jumped down from Cheng Hao's shoulder (both it and the black scarf were immune to the Golden Aura thanks to either their higher cultivation or their Heavenly Beasts status) and proceeded to absorb their souls to enhance his cultivation base even more.
Another trait of the Heavenly Beasts was that thanks to their experience from their previous life and powerful bodies they had no trouble with consecutive breakthroughs. When it finished, the bones turned into dust and they scattered into the wind.
With a sigh Cheng Hao sat back down and began to throughly absorb the fleshly energy that he got from those unlucky cultivators. He was perplexed for a bit but the perplex ion suddenly turned into joy and with a *boom* Cheng Hao's body trembled and glowed. He felt pain as if his muscles and bones were currently being destroyed and then reconstructed at a rapid pace.
Finally, the feeling stopped. Black matter began coming out of his pores so he took out a gourd of water from the Dimensional Pouch to clean his body and then changed his clothes with new, clean ones from the people he had just absorbed.
"You broke through to Copper Fleshly Body Weaponization so fast? That is quite amazing!" Even Goldy couldn't help but praise.
"Yes. That peak level Basic stage guy had quite the right to act arrogant. He had a cultivation technique that improved the body. Thanks to that, my own fleshly body cultivation increased to the Copper stage!"
As he glanced to the remaining clothes on the ground he said "I guess luck is also part of someone's strength... You guys were just meant to be nourishment for my body so don't blame me, blame the heavens to have weaved such a terrible destiny for you!"
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Note: Ok, Fleshly Body? What the heck is that? Xianxia fans should know that other than the cultivation base, the strength of one's body matters a lot as well. Take a look at pretty much any other Xianxia and there will most likely be mentions to fleshly body fortification.
Those guys should actually blame not the heavens but their creator (Hello) for their puny deaths. Oh well, we all need big, bad sh***y bullies to make our MC shine brighter, don't we?
Also... First time skip ever since the prologue and chapter 1! Pretty short one but you still shouldn't miss it! Time skips for the win! At least for us writers they resolve pretty much any situation when we are in a pinch.
This chapter is also quite long so I will stop here again for today.