Chapter 432: Breaking Out from the Gourd
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword was a great killing device that Zhou Bao had at present. After being nourished by the killing intent of that Heavenly Fairy Weapon, its power had grown beyond his imagination. Zhou Bao would contemplate how to use this Sword Qi, especially when he had some leisure time to spare.
The Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword was just a kind of Sword Qi. Most of the descriptions of this special technique were about how to enhance the power of this technique, but seldom about its usage. As a result, Zhou Bao had only used the Sword Qi for sweeping attacks and found the effect unsatisfactory.
However, he could do nothing about it. It was true that he knew about some sword skills, some abstruse ones actually, such as the Silver Moon Sword Technique. However, this one required him to use a solid sword at hand instead of mere Sword Qi.
As for the difference between using a real sword and Sword Qi, Zhou Bao had a clear view. Putting aside this Silver Moon Sword Technique, even sword practitioners’ cultivation methods in the medieval period were not designed for Sword Qi. Based on Zhou Bao’s knowledge, maybe the six sets of sword skills of the Six Meridian Holy Swords are the only appropriate ones for practicing his Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword. However, where could he ever find the practicing illustration of this Six Meridian Holy Swords?
Nonetheless, this did not mean Zhou Bao could not find a single way to improve this. In fact, when the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi were not so powerful and the Natal Sword not produced, Zhou Bao already stimulated this Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi with his Dragon Flying Technique and turned it into numerous miniatures of Sword Qi. These tiny versions of Sword Qi could shoot out through his pores which had proved to be surprisingly powerful. Zhou Bao started to vaguely believe this might be the best way to utilize the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword.
Besides, there were three top murderous movements in the Silver Moon Sword Technique, one of which was called Star River Fragmentation. This movement contained a mental cultivation method that aimed to display strong lethality by manipulating tiny and fragmented jets of Sword Qi.
Therefore, Zhou Bao kept exploring the best way to use his Sword Qi. He managed to gain a bit of insight through combining the Dragon Flying Technique and the Silver Moon Sword Technique. Now, facing this circumstance, Zhou Bao would never let go of this great opportunity to test his research findings. As his mind raced, the Dragon Flying Technique was already launched. Countless jets of Gang Qi, which were as small as thin needles, shot out from his body and recklessly struck those ferocious black mist snakes that had been coiling over his Gang Qi.
“Pfft!” With fits of stifled puffing noise, those hitten mist snakes all transformed into the original mist and vanished. In a few milliseconds, all the snakes wrapping around Zhou Bao had turned into mist, unable to impose anymore threat on him.
Of course, merely achieving this was not enough for Zhou Bao. Seeing his Heavenly Sword Qi pretty effective, Zhou Bao was overjoyed. Then, he lifted a finger and those numerous Sword Qi swiftly gathered together to form a storm. In this storm, all those small Sword Qi were spinning at a high speed like drills, playing up the killing intent that could obliterate everything to its full extent.
Sword Blade Storm!
Yes, this was a Sword Blade Storm, but it was different from the one in Warcraft because this was a storm Zhou Bao came up with when he was inspired by that Cloud-swallowing Beast in the Taiyuan Heaven. This was a storm made of numerous tiny Sword Qi, which was sufficient to tear up anything.
Once this Sword Blade Storm came into being, it immediately started closing in on the surrounding black mist. The black mist was surging vigorously as if it was struggling to break free from the constraints of this Sword Blade Storm. However, the Sword Blade Storm had already built a closely woven net of swords that wrapped all the black mist into one. No matter how violently the black mist fought back, it could not escape from the control of the storm.
“Uh? This seems to be a closed space. It has an end!” After taking down the black mist, nothing else could pose threat to him in this space full of black mist. Hence, Zhou Bao finally got to take a careful look at this odd space that sucked him in. Soon, he spotted its secret.
This was not a complete space. On the contrary, it was like a small dark room. He was only trapped in a small dark room. For Zhou Bao who could travel through spaces at his will, though this golden gourd was very large in volume, almost as vast as the space of a state in Jin, he still discovered its boundary.
Finding out this secret, Zhou Bao laughed with glee. Now the whole thing became easier.
“Seems that I’ve been constrained by a certain celestial device. This celestial device ought to have the function similar to that of a Highest Heaven Celestial Device. Its practical volume in the real world is not big, but its inside is a fairly large space. However, nothing exists in this space other than this weird black mist. Once you are sucked into this strange space, the black mist will attack you and drain your Internal Qi and Real Essence. You will eventually die because of that. This is just like the Purple Golden Gourd mentioned in A Journey to the West!”
Indeed, this gourd highly resembled the treasure described in A Journey to the West that he had read in his previous life. It could suck people in and soon turn them into pus. However, right now, the thing that attempted to turn victims into pus was subdued by Zhou Bao, so there was nothing frightening about this space at present.
“Now, let’s see how sturdy this celestial device really is! Will it fall apart under my attack?” Thinking of this, Zhou Bao recalled that blue space which whirled him in but then got shattered into pieces under thumpings of his Golden-Scaled Cudgel. He smirked at this. In comparison with that blue space, this peculiar space merely possessed more attacking powers.
This time, Zhou Bao was not going to use his Golden-Scaled Cudgel again. Since he had already exercised his Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword, he had no need to hide it any longer.
Thinking about this, Zhou Bao transformed himself into a cyan shadow in a flash. Pointing the guiding direction with one finger, the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi, that had transformed into a Sword Blade Storm, instantly regrouped together and turned into a huge black and red sword. Following the direction pointed by Zhou Bao, this black and red sword fiercely hacked the meadow of black mist that had been rounded up previously. Then, without a break, it launched another round of attack at the boundary of the entire space.
On the seabed, in the Water Mansion.
The Water Mansion of Master Jinhua was pretty spacious and extravagant, a bit like the legendary Dragon King Palace. In this Water Mansion, a lot of marine demons that assumed human forms were shuttling to and fro. Among them, some were guards looking like brutes, whose strength might not have reached the Metaphysic Individual Immortal Realm, but most were above Level Seven; some were footboys running menial errands, whose cultivation was at least at Level Four or even exceeded Level Seven. If they lived on land, they could be Junior Masters that had domination in a few localities, or even secured a post of Elder in a medium-sized well-known family like the Wu Family. Also, there were many maidservants in colorful clothes. Their strength were also pretty high, most of them were at Level Four or Level Five, but some had also broken through Level Seven and entered the Expert Realm.
The moment Master Jinhua and Lan Shui’er began to descend from the sea level, people in the Water Mansion seemed to have received the signal—a bunch of footboys and maidservants galloped outside, lining on both sides of the street to welcome the two.
“Fairy Lan, look, what do you think of my Water Mansion as compared to your Tusk Island?”After descending down into the water, Master Jinhua asked with pride.
“My Tusk Island is remote and desolate in the first place. If you want to compete, it is better to do so with Shui Sheng’s Water Mansion. Among the 18 Dragon-bone Regions, his locality is the most luxurious!”
“Eh, him? Hehe, forget it. He is the god of wealth in your 18 Dragon-bone Regions. How could I compete with him?” Speaking of Shui Sheng, Master Jinhua instantly ran out of patience. Just as the two were about to enter the Water Mansion, Master Jinhua’s expression suddenly became stern. He let out a yell, abruptly looked down and fixed his eyes on the small gourd hanging on his waist.
This small gourd started vibrating, and Master Jinhua’s look grew serious. “Shit!” He barked. As if having sensed the danger inside the gourd, he raised a palm and harshly slapped it.
This gourd was a Pure Yang Celestial Device that had long been connected to his heart and mind after experiencing his refine for myriads of years. At this point, in the gourd, Zhou Bao already defeated all the black mist by operating the Sword Blade Storm he just comprehended by himself. He also identified the truth about the space in this gourd and swung his Sword Qi to slash at the boundary of this internal world.
Master Jinhua sensed that things were not going well in his gourd. Thus, he slapped on it, causing the black mist, which just escaped the restriction of Sword Blade Storm and was hacked to pieces, to instantly assemble together and turn into a huge black mist snake, charging right at Zhou Bao for a bite.
“F*ck off!” The Sword Qi made its strike. With the Natal Sword of the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword suspending behind his head right now, Zhou Bao looked incomparably sharp and intimidating, just like a peerless magic sword. Seeing this mist snake fling itself at him, Zhou Bao just gave a derisive laugh and swished the sharp Sword Qi, easily cutting the snake in two. Then, the Sword Qi divided into many streams to disrupt the mist, throwing it into a total mess so that it could never pose threats on Zhou Bao anymore. Meanwhile, the Sword Qi Zhou Bao just slashed out had already reached the boundary of this gourd.
“Clunk!” The golden gourd gave a gentle shudder and a visible crack appeared on the surface of it.
“What…” Master Jinhua, who just gave a clap on the gourd, was astonished. He sensed some danger was coming, but never expected it would come so soon. Given that this gourd was a Pure Yang Celestial Device, its shell should be very solid, and he knew perfectly well how solid it was. Nevertheless, it never occurred to him that the expert with a mere Level Nine cultivation, who had been absorbed into his gourd, could have such power to damage this celestial device.
Despite that, there were more shocking moments in store for him. Zhou Bao’s slash movement was very effective. Although it did not thoroughly cut open this space, Zhou Bao felt a wisp of pale blue light trickling from the present world.
Without hesitation, Zhou Bao made a second slashing movement with his Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi. This time, it completely demolished the gourd.
From outside, the surface of this golden gourd had many thin streaks of visible lines and cracks. Very soon, they spread all over the gourd.
“No!” Master Jinhua growled. But it was too late. Nothing could save his gourd. When Master Jinhua’s second clap made contact on the gourd as a last-ditch attempt, Zhou Bao’s third attack made by his Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi had already given the gourd a finishing blow.
“Boom!” The gourd burst open. The black mist inside it flooded out, soon enveloping the entire Water Mansion.