Chapter 152: No Title
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The eyeball, quietly lying there, had become ordinary and plain, a far cry from its original magnificence.
At this point, Junior Leopard returned to reality. With a single glance, he suddenly felt the world he saw around him had changed.
Everything was clear, extremely clear. Even the dust was visible!
This was everything he could see before he’d unsealed his Fiery Eyes, but now, everything visible in this clear dusty space seemed to have changed. Junior Leopard wasn’t just able to see visible things, but also the invisible changes in airflow. Nothing could escape his eyes!
He could see the flow of air, even the subtlest vibrations. Most importantly, when he used his eyes to look deep within, he could control his Internal Qi with a finer touch, and even deploy it more subtly. Naturally, the same applied to his body, all his muscles and skeletons were under his control.
That did not sound very helpful. But in fact, when you possessed complete control over your muscles and skeletons, you had an extremely strong advantage over others.
The punching skill of the Strengthening Body required good bodily control. Therefore, the more control you had over the body’s skeletons and muscles, the more you could meet the demands of the punching skill, making it all the more effective. With this, you could achieve unexpected results with half the effort.
The Moon-evil Painted Skin Punching Skill and Blood-evil Bones Quan practiced by Junior Leopard were both top Strengthening Body punching skills, with correspondingly higher control requirements for the muscles and skeletons. Now though, Junior Leopard’s new level of muscles and skeletons control would be greatly helpful for practicing Strengthening Body punching skills in the future.
Of course, this was only the most obvious present gain, the first thing he felt after coming back to reality. Once he completely calmed down, he discovered another thing that made him feel surprised and strange.
He discovered that his mind was connected to the Fiery Eye on the table, which now looked no different from an ordinary eyeball. Especially, he discovered that the eye’s function was restored. He could even see things through the eye on the table just as well as with his own eyes.
It was a weird feeling. He already had a 360-degree viewpoint due to his Fiery Eyes, and now he suddenly had a new, discomforting field of vision.
Of course, this wasn’t the main reason for his discomfort, he could slowly adapt to this new vision with time. Right now, the trouble was that he couldn’t sever the connection between him and the Fiery Eye on the table. As a matter of fact, he could already feel his divine thoughts merging with some of the most essential things inside it.
Consequently, when his thoughts stirred, the Fiery Eye on the Table floated up, as if he was manipulating his Demon Devil Needles. But he had complete control over the Demon Devil Needles and completely lacked control over the Fiery Eye. The Fiery Eye left the table and flew straight up to his face, an act that startled him.
“Whoa! What’s going on” Junior Leopard let out a strange cry and tried to dodge—unsuccessfully. The Fiery Eye seemed to have the spiritual intelligence of its own that anticipated his movements. As soon as he dodged, it changed course, intercepting his route every way he went. As he tried to dodge, he felt another stabbing pain in the head.
As the pain struck, Junior Leopard paused for an obvious instant. In that moment of hesitation, the Fiery Eye closed the gap in a flash and stuck to his face, right between the eyebrows. A cool feeling swept over him, spreading out from between the eyebrows. Then a sharp pain came. Junior Leopard clearly ‘saw’ the Fiery Eye burrowing into the space between his eyebrows, carving out a hole as if it sought to sink right in.
“S**t, no!”
At that moment, Junior Leopard, with no time to think, reached out and tried to pluck the Eye out from between his eyebrows. But how could it be that easy?
The moment his hand touched the Fiery Eye and prepared to pull, his Internal Qi began to work on its own. At the same time, the black pattern made from the three black lines started moving more rapidly. Junior Leopard knew everything there was to know about the Internal Qi circulation concentrated in his eyes. It was clearly condensing several times faster than before.
“No!” Junior Leopard’s heart began pounding as if he’d come to a realization. He yanked his hand away from the Fiery Eye. In the same instant, with a ‘whoosh’, a black flame shot out from the Fiery Eye embedded between his brows and burned a huge hole in the stone wall across from him.
“What a potent flame!” Junior Leopard gasped. This time, the flame from the Fiery Eye was stronger and more powerful than before, burning through the bluestone wall instantly. It was at that moment of distraction that the Fiery Eye finished burrowing into the spot between Junior Leopard’s eyebrows. Blood, drop by drop, trickled down from that spot. Whatever idea he might have had at that time was of no use, because between the moment that the Fiery Eye sank between his brows and the moment he went to touch the blood, the change was complete.
Flesh and blood blended together, completely blended together. The Fiery Eye merged with him, becoming an inseparable part of his body.
Junior Leopard simply sat down, closed his eyes, and quietly examined the sensations from the Fiery Eye as it proceeded to merge with himself, while simultaneously recovering the Internal Qi he had just lost.
After sinking between his eyebrows and blending with Junior Leopard’s blood, the Fiery Eye continued to take root, generating countless filaments of blood vessels that spread through the inside of Junior Leopard’s skull, linking to his brain just like his natural eyes were. At the same time, numerous blood vessels linked to his pair of Fiery Eyes, forming a physical connection.
The Fiery Eye finally stopped moving once it completely embedded itself between the eyebrows. The hole between the brows gradually closed as the wound began to heal itself. Before long, everything returned to its original form, as if nothing had happened.
This calm outward appearance did not reflect the turbulence inside. The Fiery Eye in-between his eyebrows was slowly growing and further improving. After quite a long while, Junior Leopard could no longer notice any structural differences between his grafted eye and his original eyes when he looked with his inner vision.
As the Fiery Eye’s structure was perfected, everything seemed to start quieting down.
With a moment’s thought, Junior Leopard circulated his recovered Internal Qi through his tendons and vessels, channeling it along the mysterious new pathways. As the Internal Qi began to move, it finally transformed into a black flame within his eyes and was released violently.
“As expected, I can use its power to release the transformed flame after it takes shape without passing throught my eyes. Then my eyes won’t be hurt. Hee hee, interesting! I was thinking about how to do this, and didn’t expect this trinket would be so helpful! I didn’t need to worry at all. What a surprise!”
“The Fiery Eye is too amazing. It even sent out flame without burning the outside of my scalp!” Junior Leopard felt a bit of heat slowly build between his eyebrows. “However, though I’ve gained a lot, I should be careful. Right now, my Fiery Eyes are hard to control. It almost feels like they have their own consciousness or a hidden instinct that can resist my will. This really is too incredible and weird. I’d really better be careful. Otherwise, I’ll definitively get into big trouble if I’m exposed by my Fiery Eyes’ instincts!”
The instincts of the Fiery Eyes were very special and confusing. There were lots of secrets that Junior Leopard needed to dig up. But before digging deeper, Junior Leopard needed to reacquaint himself with the power of his Fiery Eyes.
At the very least, he would gain complete control over the current form of his Fiery Eyes.
His decision made, Junior Leopard proceed to the second step, he slowly injected his Internal Qi into the Fiery Eye between his eyebrows and circulated it according to the refining method of the External Elixir.
It went smoothly, very smoothly, you could even say it went unprecedentedly smoothly. After injecting the Internal Qi of the Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique into the Fiery Eye, he was surprised to discover he didn’t need to construct a new Internal Qi working flow like the one in the skull of the Mud Dragon Loach. This was because after injecting the Internal Qi, the Fiery Eye automatically began to build an internal passageway for the Internal Qi of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire, which was more perfect, more direct and more efficient than the pathway Junior Leopard built.
Before long, the Fiery Eye finished generating a perfect passageway for the Internal Qi of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire. After constructing this passageway, the Mysterious Fire deep within his Dantian leaped up, quite naturally splitting into wisps that flowed into the Fiery Eye. After that, the Internal Qi of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire automatically activated. There was no need for Junior Leopard to do anything.
“Such Amazing Eyes! These Fiery Eyes have so many advantages. No wonder so many people want them! If my guess is right, the cultivation method for External Elixirs was derived from the characteristics of Fiery Eyes. Fiery Eyes aren’t the best materials for an External Elixir, but a naturally occurring External Elixir. The guy who created the way of the External Elixir surely must have been a Fiery Eyes scion like me. He must have naturally had the blood vessels of the Fiery Eyes, but not the Fiery Eyes themselves, so his only recourse was to give birth to the way of the External Elixir. This damn bloodline! It’s not just others that want it: even people from the same bloodline want these eyes! No wonder it went extinct!”
Junior Leopard scolded these people in his heart. However, on reflection, he had also claimed and used another person’s Fiery Eye, so he wasn’t really qualified to scold others!
Whatever the thoughts of Junior Leopard, he’d completed the second phase. Now it was time for the third step.
His first idea was to awaken the mysterious capability of his newly acquired Fiery Eye to transform Internal Qi without hurting his own eyes. His second idea was to refine the Fiery Eye into his own External Elixir, after all, this was the Mysterious Object spoken of in legend, the best material for Refining External Elixirs? No one could have too many External Elixirs, right?
Now that his second idea had been realized, all that remained was the third idea, based on what had happened at the beginning. His eyes absorbed some power from this Fiery Eye, seeming to change or evolve in the process. This evolution didn’t just make his vision better and allow more subtle control over his Internal Qi and body, there must be other changes or functions.
With that in mind, he reactivated his Fiery Eyes. As the black lines in his eyes slowly twirled, something strange happened. As the black lines rotated, Junior Leopard seemed to feel his strength increase. Yes, his strength was increasing from head to toe. He seemed to be full of power. Unconsciously raising his hand, Junior Leopard was surprised at how fast it moved, almost too quickly for him to control.
“Damn it! I almost hit myself with my own raised hand. How embarrassing!” Junior Leopard laughed at himself and set his hand down. “Poof!” With a light sound, the hand he lowered sank deep into the bluestone floor as if it was made of bean curd, the steely bluestone was broken easily with the lightest use of strength.
“Wow! So abnormal!” Junior Leopard shouted in his heart. Standing gingerly, he now understood that his speed and strength could be greatly enhanced when his Fiery Eyes began to rotate. They were enhanced so far beyond his imagination that he could not control himself.
That was why he stood very gingerly to avoid losing control of his body. After standing, he suddenly gathered his strength and flung it out.
“Swish, boom-boom-boom!” A light sound was followed by three violent sonic booms. In the wake of these three sonic booms, Junior Leopard’s fist completely tore apart the surrounding air, a strike that created a pocket of vacuum. Even after that, he sensed something mysterious as well.
Space, yes. His three continuous, swift, extremely powerful fists were able to touch the fabric of space. He even felt that if his fists were a little faster and heavier, he’d be able to pose a threat to space, maybe even break it.
Crushing vacuum!
Suddenly, Junior Leopard’s heart got hot. Just now his three punches, relying solely on physical strength, shook the fabric of space. What if he punched with his Internal Qi? Could his fist strike and crush the vacuum of space using his Extraordinary Strength Fist and enhanced body?
No wonder they called him impatient as well as a go-getter! Once he had this idea, he proceeded to directly put it into practice without thinking it through. He called up his Internal Qi, activated the mental cultivation methods of Extraordinary Strength Fist and punched sharply.
“Bang!”
There was an expected loud noise… and then silence.
No, not just silence. Halfway through his punching motion, Junior Leopard’s body froze in place. Blood gushed from his pores like a fountain and swirled all around his body like a whirlwind. During this eruption, the black lines in his eyes stopped rotating, as if something had interrupted them.
Extreme fatigue washed over him, fatigue that made Junior Leopard as limp as a noodle. It was like he had made love eight times, carried a hammer into battle against a master of martial arts for three hundred rounds, and then made love eight more times. He was utterly exhausted.
With such sudden exhaustion, he couldn’t lift himself up with his flabby hands and feet. He could only lie on the ground like a dead dog, gasping for breath. In the wake of the blood flow, his skin beaded with sweat that mingled with the blood and flowed all over his body. Now he was drenched with blood and foam was dribbling from the corners of his mouth. He was extremely disheveled.
“A miscalculation. I miscalculated, damn it! How could I forget? The Fiery Eyes augment my strength and speed based on my physical strength. I’m a rookie whose cultivation has not yet entered the Bone-Forging Realm, and I wanted to acquire crushing vacuum, a feat that’s impossible even for experts of the Tendon-Changing Realm. I was so greedy, and the greedy are struck down by lightning. This lightning strike was heavy, so heavy!”
Even as he lay groaning on the ground, fatigued to the point of death, his mind kept thinking, “Improvement. I need to improve it. No, no, no, familiarization. I need to become familiar with it! Those first few punches were good. At least they came out!”
At this point, he was completely unable to move. Those punches not only hurt his skin and flesh but also damaged his muscles and bones, even his viscera felt hurt. To punch over his limit was totally irresponsible.
Normally, Junior Leopard wouldn’t do such a thing, but he was so excited that he forgot the limits of his body, to his utter misfortune.
Lying and groaning on the ground for a long time, he got up once he felt he had regained a bit of strength. It was so hard for him to crawl up, he felt like an 120-year old man, trying to lift himself up when he was about to die. It was the same kind of pain, the same helplessness. Fortunately, he managed to sit up.
After sitting up, his first priority was to regulate his breathing and recover his strength. But as soon as he sat up, a wave of dizziness struck, hypoxia.
In this situation, he dared not do anything else but lie back and gasp.
As he lay there, he stopped trying to regulate his breathing and just did what ordinary people often do when they’re tired. He gasped for breath, wide-mouthed gasps, a sensation he had not experienced for a long time.
In this moment, he seemed to turn back into an ordinary person who had never practiced martial arts. A very amazing and strange feeling swept over his whole body. Suddenly his eyes flickered and the black lines in his eyes began to rotate again, but in the opposite direction this time. Junior Leopard started to feel this spinning sensation extend to his body and surroundings, but not like the spinning in his spiritual mind. If he activated his spiritual mind, with a single glance he could see things within hundreds of feet, even the flying flowers and leaves within a mile could not hide from his gaze. But now it felt like his vision was overflowing like water, wherever his perception stretched, Junior Leopard was astonished to discover that every point of space felt like an extension of himself, or at least was under his complete control.
This sense of absolute control trailed off at a distance of 30 feet. Outside of this 30 feet range, Junior Leopard couldn’t extend his senses a centimeter or millimeter out, even if he strained himself.
Within that 30 feet range of absolute control, there was another change that surprised Junior Leopard.
There was a black beetle within the 30 feet range. In fact, this beetle had been happily crawling and jumping across the bluestone, unaffected by its surroundings until Junior Leopard’s perception flowed over it. Then its movements stopped. At the same time, Junior Leopard became aware of a connection, a link between the beetle’s mind and his senses.
This feeling was weirder than any state he had ever been in before. He was linked to the beetle’s mind, but he could not control the beetle, just sense the beetle’s simple thoughts to some degree. In fact, the beetle had no thoughts worth a damn, just a feeling similar to fear, a feeling that Junior Leopard could not comprehend.
“Since I could not control it, what use does it have?”
This was worth thinking through. Based on past experience, although the enigmatic features and strange functions of the Fiery Eyes were difficult to conceptualize, they were never useless, as his situation made evidently.
He was lying on the ground, unable to move, because the Fiery Eyes had depleted his physical power instead of augmenting his strength and speed. In a fight with an enemy, an ordinary person thrust into this situation would basically lose if their enemy hadn’t yet been dispatched. But what if this was similar to how the Region thing worked?
What if it had a special effect?
Could this effect be able to kill the enemy at the same time, an irreversible type of death? Examining the present situation, instead of augmenting strength and speed, the Fiery Eyes currently seemed to boost the spirit. What function would that have?
Junior Leopard faced the beetle, intent on researching the phenomenon though he still did not understand it. There was a ready-made sample for study, right before his eyes.
He started by trying to control the beetle with his divine thoughts. He had experience controlling certain objects with divine thoughts thanks to the Demon Devil Needles he owned. Except for the Demon Devil Needles he had refined himself, his divine thoughts couldn’t even propel a piece of paper.
But now, things were different. It was not a piece of paper in front of him, but a life within his range of perception, a life under his influence.
He sought to use his divine thoughts to move the beetle, but as he activated his divine thoughts, the black beetle suddenly shivered and continued to march on its original course. Its body did not move according to his divine thoughts, but Junior Leopard clearly felt that his divine thoughts seemed to have absorbed something strange from the beetle, something like a divine light or piece of spirit. After this strange thing was captured, it mysteriously dissipated into his zone of ‘absolute control’. Unconsciously, Junior Leopard seemed to feel one more thing within his ‘absolute control’ zone.
He felt a shadow, a very light shadow coming from the beetle, which appeared in Junior Leopard’s perception for only a moment and then dissipated. That brief, mere moment roused a storm in Junior Leopard’s heart.
He knew what his divine thoughts had absorbed from the beetle.
He had taken its soul!