B5C30: The mantis stalks the cicada

Seeing Qin Yu appear before him, Hou Fei’s eyes suddenly glitter and unexpectedly shoot out 2 visible beams of light, which enfold Qin Yu. After just a moment, Hou Fei’s expression becomes even more astonished and shocked.

“Big brother, you ate some immortal pill, didn’t you?”

Hou Fei looks at Qin Yu and asks. At the moment he is very curious because, theoretically, even when a practitioner makes a breakthrough, he will not improve so much in such a short time. Hou Fei even feels that Qin Yu can now give him a good fight and at least pose a threat to him.

“What are you staring at? Scram!”

Hou Fei turns around and shouts at those guardians. Guardian Zhuang Zhong among them says smilingly to Qin Yu: “Congratulations, guardian Liu Xing. It seems after cave master granted you guardian Ran Lan’s yuanying, you’ve improved a lot in power thanks to refining it. Could it be you have reached the middle Yuanying stage?”

Yan Qing says with a frown: “That’s impossible. Ran Lan was only at the early Yuanying stage. Absorbing his yuanying shouldn’t have been able to improve guardian Liu Xing’s power very much. Could it be guardian Liu Xing had already reached the peak of the early Yuanying stage before? Somehow I feel that guardian Liu Xing’s energy is not very powerful.”

Qin Yu gives a smile.

At the Meteor stage, his body’s energy is contained even better. Moments ago, he had just reached the Meteor stage so his energy surged forth. But now, most of his energy is being concentrated in that shining meteor in the center of his dantian.

Moreover, because he is using the Xiumo secret technique Northern Darkness, his body is not giving off a bit of his aura, and therefore it is even more difficult to estimate his power.

“My fellow guardians, your power levels are about the same as mine, but my brother Fei Fei surpassed me long ago. As his big brother, of course I must try hard. I still have something to discuss with Fei Fei so all of you please leave here for the moment.” Qin Yu does not say exactly what level he has reached.

An air of mystery,

This is what he needs.

Yan Qing and Xi Yan slightly salute him: “Then we take our leave first. But can you go to our houses later to have some fun, guardian Liu Xing?” These 2 seductive sisters then give Qin Yu a flirtatious look and leave immediately.

“Guardian Liu Xing, congratulations on a big improvement in power. The 3 of us take our leave too.” The 3 black turtle brothers leave with big smiles on their faces.

The guardians leave one after another. Their attitudes towards him are all very good. Previously, they also treated him fairly well but it was only because of his relationship with Hou Fei. At this place, personal power is the most important thing. A strong individual here will naturally earn the respect of Xiuyaoists.

Last time Qin Yu said that he had been able to seriously injure the black eagle by going all out so those guardians estimated that he was approaching a middle Yuanying stage expert in offense. Now that he has made progress in practice again, they think that they know very well about his power.

In fact, at the moment Qin Yu is stronger than they think he is.

Horned Dragon Teng Bi looks at Qin Yu with glittering eyes and says in amazement: “Originally I thought that except for cave master only guardian Hou Fei could fight me. But now it looks like guardian Liu Xing is already strong enough to fight me after making a big improvement in power.” His words are very direct.

Qin Yu responds with a smile.

“I take my leave, guardian Liu Xing. Later you must have a spar with me.” Teng Bi leaves at once.

Now there are only Qin Yu and Hou Fei left in the courtyard.

Hou Fei casually sets up a restrictive spell then looks at Qin Yu, saying: “Tell me clearly, big brother. How did you practice? My Fiery-eyed Aquatic Monkey clan is a harmonious fusion of water and fire, and we also attach great importance to the physical body so my body is extremely strong. But when I used the Fiery Eyes to take a look at you just now, I found that your body is approaching mine in toughness.”

Hou Fei is a middle Yuanying stage divine beast while Qin Yu is at the early Meteor stage, but the toughness levels of their bodies are close to each other.

“The reason for this is my practice technique. It’s called Stellar Transformations. Training the body is its basis. The stronger the body is, the faster the progress will be. This time, when I made a breakthrough to the Meteor stage, due to a special cause my body toughness improved rapidly and surpassed the level recorded in the Stellar Transformations.” Qin Yu does not hide the Stellar Transformations technique from Hou Fei at all.

Actually, the Stellar Transformations has basically been unheard of in the Xiuzhen world.

It did not exist until Lei Wei created it. And after Lei Wei came to this Xiuzhen world, he never tried to publicize his own technique either.

“Stellar Transformations? I’ve never heard of it. It seems not to exist in my hereditary memories either. It should be an ordinary practice technique, right?” Hou Fei blinks his eyes a couple of times and says.

Qin Yu is startled.

Hereditary memories?

He has met someone with hereditary memories again! Hei Yu has hereditary memories. Hou Fei also has hereditary memories. Could it be all divine beasts have hereditary memories? However, because Qin Yu has seen only a very small number of divine beasts, it is certainly impossible for him to draw a conclusion. Without communicating with divine beasts, how can he know if they have hereditary memories or not?

“A strong body is very beneficial for close-quarters offense. Big brother, I feel that your speed just now was very fast. Using your physical power alone, you should already be able to beat ordinary Yuanying stage experts.” Hou Fei says very positively.

Qin Yu is of course clear about this. According to the descriptions in the Stellar Transformations, now he should even be able to fight early Dongxu stage experts. Moreover, thanks to the Meteoric Tear, his body was refined more than usual by solar fire during practice, and therefore it is currently much stronger than the Stellar Transformations says it is.

The energy of the Meteor stage is many times more condensed than that of the Nebula stage. At the Meteor stage, stellar energy is sent out in the form of golden threads. Because it is extremely pure and concentrated, it is highly destructive.

“Fei Fei, for the next few days I’ll have to consolidate my power level a bit. You don’t need to guard me during this period. Right, has the investigation into Cha Po’s death achieved any results?” Qin Yu always feels that Cha Po’s death is very strange.

Previously, because he was busy practicing, he did not care too much about it.

Hou Fei says with a shake of his head: “Nothing has been found out. According to the other guardians, a mysterious figure attacked Cha Po and killed him directly in one hit. Cha Po was basically defenseless. When other guys came to see what was happening after hearing the explosion, the killer had already disappeared.”

“Fei Fei, you mean, from beginning to end, nobody saw that mysterious figure?”

“Yes, it should be so according to the other guardians.” Hou Fei says with a nod.

“Where did Cha Po die?” Qin Yu asks with glittering eyes.

“It was outside the secret room in which Cha Hong often undergoes closed-door training.” As Hou Fei says this, he also becomes doubtful. “Also, Cha Hong was inside the secret room at that time. Cha Po got killed right outside the room but Cha Hong unexpectedly couldn’t catch the killer. This killer is a bit too strong already.”

“Right outside the secret room?” Qin Yu ponders for a moment. His eyes suddenly brighten.

He then says smilingly with a nod: “All right, Fei Fei, you should return to have a rest first. After keeping watch over me during this period of time, you must be tired, right?” Hou Fei stretches his sluggish waist, saying: “Well, I’m actually a bit tired. Kaka, I’m going back to rest now.”

He becomes lively again.

During a short stretch of time afterwards, Qin Yu strengthens his power level and familiarizes himself with the offensive techniques of the Meteor stage a bit. There are detailed descriptions of many offensive techniques in the Stellar Transformations. To put it simply, the Meteor stage’s techniques belong to the type that allows the user to rely on speed to detect the enemy’s weaknesses then deal a crushing blow or to escape if the enemy is unbeatable.

Of course, the user can also come at the enemy head-on, but this will be a waste of his superior speed.

After a few days,

“I’m going to practice. All of you listen up! Nobody is allowed to enter my house. Fei Fei, help me to keep watch outside and don’t let anyone disturb me. This closed-door training session is very important so you should just beat away anyone who comes here.” Qin Yu tells Hou Fei. At the same time, he gives the ladies-in-waiting sent to his courtyard house on one side an order.

“Yes!” Hearing Qin Yu say in such a serious manner, the ladies-in-waiting immediately accept the orders.

Hou Fei, however, winks at him a couple of times and says loudly: “Don’t worry, big brother. Whoever dares to disturb you is going to be reduced to mince in a blow of my stick!”

Qin Yu gives Hou Fei a smile then turns around and goes into his room at once.

Right after entering the room, he uses the most basic escaping technique in his Xiuxian secret books -- underground escaping art -- to go into the ground. He then quietly and secretly leaves his own courtyard house. Very soon after coming out of the house, he surfaces.

“I want to see what secrets there are in that secret room!”

There is a faint smile on the corners of his mouth. He immediately controls the turning speed of the Northern Darkness talisman in his head. After a small adjustment, he no longer absorbs the energies around him and only does not give off his own aura. This is absolutely the best way of containing aura.

To be safe, he does not even use the stellar energy in his body and only relies on his physical power.

With a movement of his body, he rushes towards the northern part of the Blood-red Cave like a black beam of light. As he is not sending out a bit of his aura, those guardians who are staying in their courtyard houses cannot detect him either. After getting out of the eastern part, he easily avoids the guards in other places because the strongest among them are only at the late phase of the Jindan stage.

After entering the northern part, he follows a curved path to approach an artificial mountain. It is none other than the entrance to the secret room.

“Since Cha Po was killed right outside the secret room, someone must’ve approached it. But why did they approach it? They can’t have made a trip to the entrance of the secret room just to kill Cha Po.” A faint smile appears on his face. He still remembers Zhuang Zhong told him that Cha Hong had often undergone closed-door training in the secret room for the last 100 years.

There must be some secret here!

This coupled with Cha Po’s death near the secret room at the hands of a mysterious killer has made Qin Yu decide to secretly scout this place out. He does not dare to approach the entrance in that artificial mountain straight from the front so he goes around it in a large curve then moved towards it extremely fast like the wind from another direction. All the while, he does not use a bit of stellar energy.

However, when coming near the artificial mountain, Qin Yu feels the presence of something dangerous here. This feeling of fear from the bottom of his heart is very unpleasant. He immediately stops his approach and goes into the ground at a corner of the artificial mountain. He can feel that someone is hiding in the surroundings.

Moreover, this is a very powerful being. Therefore, Qin Yu does not dare to use his holy sense and suppresses his aura completely with the Northern Darkness. He relies only on his hearing to observe.

Qin Yu thus remains motionless under the artificial mountain as time passes. All along, he has an intuitive feeling of danger. For the moment, he must be patient.

……

In the Blood-red Cave’s secret room,

Cha Hong is sitting with legs crossed on a bulrush mat. Various streams of demonic elemental energy are continuously wearing away the Dust Removing restrictive spell. The light on the surface of the black jade case is getting increasingly dull. Cha Hong’s eyes are blazing. There are indistinct blood-red lines in his eyes. Obviously he is extremely excited at the moment.

Poof!

A very soft noise is heard. But to Cha Hong, it is no different from a crash of thunder. His whole body shakes. In an instant, he withdraws his demonic elemental energy and focuses his glittering eyes entirely on the black jade case.

“I’ve finally succeeded!” Cha Hong opens the case with shaky hands.

It requires no special techniques to open the black jade case. After opening it, he sees a 3-cun long jade sword inside. This jade sword is lustrous throughout. There is a seal character for ‘Eight' written on it. A jade slip is put on the jade sword. Cha Hong immediately gets that jade slip. Right after he makes a sweep with his holy sense, an ecstatic expression appears on his face.

“Ha-ha, indeed, it’s indeed the same as the legend. The 9 Swords Immortal Mansion, oh my, a mansion left behind by an immortal. And this is none other than the 8th sword.”

Cha Hong’s entire body is extremely excited.

Who would not get excited upon succeeding after spending their own energy to wear away that Dust Removing restrictive spell almost every day for more than 100 consecutive years like Cha Hong? Moreover, this jade sword will also make his dreams a bit more attainable.

Even the jade sword itself is already a treasure to Cha Hong, because it is a top-grade holy weapon.

The 5 superpowers, Penglai Immortal Region, Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon, Azure Dragon Palace, Nine Demons Hall and Blue Water Mansion, regard top-grade holy weapons as treasures, but they do not lack these weapons. However, in the eyes of Cha Hong, this jade sword is a top-class treasure. His own holy weapon is only a high-grade one.

Boom!

Following an explosion, a silhouette appears in the secret room. The defense of the room was totally useless against this figure. The arriver is a stalwart man who is dressed in fitted purple clothes. This man stares at Cha Hong. His eyes are full of amusement.

When Cha Hong suddenly sees this purple-clad man, his face changes color at once.

“Di Tong!”

His face darkens as he sees this 8th brother of the Nine Demons Hall. At the same time, he also becomes somewhat flustered inwardly. The Nine Demons Hall’s 9 brothers are not equally powerful. The big brother among them, Di Long, is the strongest. And this Di Tong can definitely rank 3rd among them in power.

“Cha Hong, I have to thank you for spending the past 100 years helping the Nine Demons Hall break the restrictive spell of this black jade case.” Di Tong says smilingly.

Cha Hong calms down in the blink of an eye and says: “8th Majesty, I was absolutely sure that nobody alive knew I got one of the 9 Swords. How did you know about this?”

Di Tong says with a smile: “Nobody alive knew about this, but couldn’t the fellas you killed write it down?” Hearing these words, Cha Hong cannot help forcing a smile. In the past he also thought about the possibility of those victims recording this information, so he destroyed all of their belongings.

However, must those victims have carried the things they wrote it down on with them? Erasing all the information about this therefore was not something that could be done.

“Alright, Di Tong, it’s said that you’ve reached the middle Dongxu stage. Looks like I’m no match for you!” Cha Hong says in such a defeatist manner on the outside, but he fuses a drop of blood with the jade sword in the blink of an eye. Now he has already personalized the sword. With this top-grade holy weapon, his power has been enhanced quite a bit.

Di Tong has noticed this, but he is not worried. There is a hint of disdain on the corners of his mouth.

However, at this moment, someone is quietly eavesdropping in a dark corner just outside the secret room. It is none other than Qin Yu.

When Di Tong set up a restrictive spell, he only covered the entire artificial mountain from above with it. He did not know that a man had been hiding silently in the ground under the mountain for a long time. After Qin Yu heard the door of the secret room blasted open, he waited for a moment then quietly came in after Di Tong.

End of b5c30.