Luo did not have enough money to hire a horse so he ran, to cover the distance from Xian town to the Dai Shan forest.
His Soul tier body allowed him to move at high speeds comparable to that of the middle layer of Qi condensation realm. He enjoyed his run and did so with vigor, running with huge bursts of energy and stopping to recover when he lost his breath. After running like this for the whole day, he came across a village the next morning.
He saw from afar that nobody was outside even though it was daytime.
He slowly sauntered into the village when he made out some guttural noises and growls. He hid behind one of the walls and peeked to check what was making these noises. He could make out 10 blood wolves and a poison wolf leading them, all of them gorging on human dead bodies, viscera ripped out into shreds with their powerful jaws. These were all Tier 1 beasts and the alpha was a peak Tier 1 demon beast, equivalent to someone in lower layers of Qi Condensation realms, something that disciples in the Gathering Qi realm avoid fighting.
The Alpha suddenly pricked its ears at something. Luo hoped it wasn't because of him. Then with a quick jump the Alpha broke the door of a nearby house with one swipe of its muscular paws. Luo could hear some object being dragged with a lot of noise and just then the wolf dragged out a big wooden chest outside. Then with a couple more swipes and bashes he broke the lid of the chest.
There was a small girl terrified, shaking uncontrollably inside the chest. She was so frightened that no noise came out of her throat and she was too shocked to even move. Before the Alpha made a move to rip her head off, Luo made wolf noises which got the attention of all the wolves, the alpha included. Luo then made himself bigger and walked into the middle of the street.
'I have to get all their attention and try to divide them. I will have no chance if they fight in a group.'
In a shocking turn of events for the wolves, instead of running he charged into them and suddenly swerved to left, where the Alpha was and jumped into the air and kicked the wolf with a downward swipe of his leg on its snout. The Alpha suddenly crashed into the ground and then in a moment rubbed its snout with its paws in pain.
Next, moved to anger, it flashed all its teeth, growling bloody murder against this puny human , but when it looked up, he was gone. 'I'm here you stupid donkey', Luo shouted even as he ran with all his might trying to spread them out amidst the houses in the village.
He could see two wolves coming for him , even after he had hid himself inside a house. Just as they broke the door with their legs, he broke out of an adjacent window and assumed the punching posture that he had used for his body refinement test a few days ago. He separated his Qi into Yang and Yin Qi and coated his left hand with Yin and the right with Yang Qi.
He threw a mighty right punch, right into the belly of one of the wolves. His body was like a Soul Tier weapon and far superior in hardiness than the wolves' bodies and instantly it's ribs broke and probably pierced its lungs, evidenced by its painful death throes for a few moments.
Even before the first wolf died, he punched the other wolf which had yet to turn back from entering the door of the house. The wolf was a male and Luo knew where males hurt the most, so he threw his Yin punch to devastate the wolf's nuts.
The entire pelvis broke and guts slipped out into the open, tearing the back and front into separate pieces, as the wolf, with its front two legs, dragged its front half for a few steps and died inside the house.
'Whoaa.... That was overkill. Aren't these beasts supposed to be dangerous to Gathering Qi disciples? Why are they so weak, even when I'm not using any special technique?'
Luo was surprised by his own power and started thinking up more bold traps to confuse the remaining wolves.
He immediately got out of the house and moved a couple of houses down. He hid inside the house, which had a similar window and door positioning as the earlier one he had been in. He separated his Qi into Yin and Yang Qi again.
They had to be used at the same time or the Qi in his body would shift towards Yin or Yang based on which Qi was in deficit in his body and that would cause troubles for his meridians, according to his master.
He smeared himself with dust to remove any immediate smells of dead wolves on him to help in concealing his presence. He then leaned outside the window and released his Yin Qi in a punching motion. The Qi was like a beam and after a few hundred feet it exploded. He could only propel it for a few hundred feet now.
The wolves' attention was captured by the explosion and they started running towards it. Luo ducked beneath the windowsill and saw as the wolves ran towards the source of the explosion. After the first four wolves had passed, he had already separated thrice the amount of Yin and Yang Qi, with Yang Qi amount being more as he hadn't used it before.
His right hand felt like it was burning up and he felt cold burns in his left hand but he endured the feeling. Just as the last four wolves were passing by, he released both Qi, with his palms outstretched in a swift movement.
Another huge explosion of Qi from the shockwave caused because of Luo's palms and the wolves lay down barely able to move, two scarred by the flames of Yang Qi and one frozen by the cold of the Yin Qi. But for the last wolf, only far flung chunks of meat and hide were its remains.
'So that's what happens if they are exposed to both Qi at the same time. Whoaa. Now four more to go'
The wolves which had headed to the initial explosion, following the Alpha only a moment ago, turned back and bared their teeth in fury. Their bristles were raised, making them look that much more aggressive.
This time the Alpha ran and then took a huge leap with his fangs bared, trying to bite into his neck. He was ready for it. He had seen its poisonous effects and knew he shouldn't come into contact with it. He had compressed the Yin and Yang Qi into his palms in a balled shape unlike before. It was stable as he hadn't used it yet, but like before he had accumulated it in a concentrated way.
As soon as the wolf was only a foot away, he struck both his palms together, each palm striking the wolf on each side of its face. The attack had a huge momentum for a while but when his hands finally clapped together[1], the Qi went berserk and out of control. The Yin and Yang Qi mixed uncontrollably and it resulted in a huge explosion. The wolf's head was obliterated, only his body from neck down was remaining.
A sharp sensation passed through his palms and as Luo looked down at his palms pressed together after the attack, a wave of excruciating pain ran through him. He let out a beastly sound, unable to bear with the pain.
The wolves, seeing their leader get squished like a bug and with the loud shout from Luo, ran back to the forest with their tails between their legs.
After a while, he tried to suppress his pain and looked down at his palms. When he tried to separate them, skin layers on his palm started to fall down in a slimy and bloody way.
Finally he took a huge shaky breath and pulled them apart in a swift motion. This peeled away the skin on his palms and both of them looked red, with damaged capillaries visible. It looked as if he had suffered 3rd degree burns.
He lost consciousness from the pain.
As he opened his eyes again, he saw a roof and was able to make out some sounds of pots and pans being rattled around in what was presumably the kitchen of this house. He was on a bed, under a blanket. He sat up and immediately checked his palms. They were bandaged and from what he gathered, there were a lot of poultices applied as well. Other than a constant numbing and pricking sensation, he didn't feel anything else if he didn't move his hands. 'Just clapping my palms as they are covered in Yin and Yang Qi, caused this, to my body? And that wolf was obliterated even though it was a peak Tier 1 monster. No , it was even more powerful as his middle layer Soul Tier body had huge damage because of it. This probably does not happen to others as they usually use only one type of Qi. I don't think 'Layers of Chaos' technique was supposed to be used like this, or maybe it is. But it seems like the beginnings of a different technique. I'll name it
"Ta da. This is my home. Well now it is our home" Luo said as he pointed towards his wooden shack with just one bed. Xun had a peculiar expression on her face, as she struggled between showing thanks to him and showing disgust at the condition the room was in. She finally settled on a forced smile "Great. It looks gr-great brother." After settling down and having some food, Xun changed his bandages again. "It's getting late, we should sleep." Luo said to Xun. "Who gets the bed?" "Who? Me of course. HAHAHA" "You know if you weren't hurt trying to protect me, I would've made you sleep on the floor. Hmph." " Made me? Did you say MADE ME? How would you have done that?" "You will find out." Luo was surprised at this little girl's stubbornness, but this kind of a silly fight made him feel warm as well. He never had anyone to fight with in silly ways. He smiled as he looked at her when she said "What?" " Nothing. Of co
A month passed and Luo reached the peak of the 3rd layer in Gather Qi and Xun reached the 6th layer. Luo's hands healed but scar tissue formed over his palms and obscured all the lines on his hand."Xun, it has been a month now and my hands have also healed. We have one more month for the summer competition and I should go to the Dai Shan forest like I originally planned to increase my cultivation.""Okay brother. I will meet you at the competition directly.""En. Sounds good. You can come there with Master Fu Lin. Don't forget to get the jade slip of the Ancient Zither Abode before the competition." Xun nodded to this and Luo departed towards the Dai Shan forest.After running for three days, taking breaks when he could, the scenery slowly changed around him. He could tell that he was nearing the Dai Shan forest by the increase in the density of Spiritual Qi in the surroundings.As he made his way inside he started to s
Just as they were congratulating themselves, a Tier 2 lord Naga monster, which was double their size and had blood red scales appeared in front of them from the mist. It looked at its dead brethren and let out a shrilling scream filled with hate. It was also a mental attack and all the half step cultivators except Luo passed out.Luo was guarded from the attack by Master Yin 'I'll guard against its mental attacks. You can take care of it without any worries.''Thanks master. I won't let you down.'Luo went alongside Ma Jiande as he prepared to attack it. The Qi condensation cultivators had not passed out but it was a strong mental attack and only Ma Jiande was unaffected. "Luo, it seems it's just you and me. Don't piss your pants now.""In your dreams brother."Luo asked him if he had a finisher attack with his machete and Jiande said "I do but that thing's defense is very hard. It won't pierce through.""You let me worry about that and prep
He came out from cultivation and saw that the Tier 3 monster outside had been killed by someone and he could see the signs of a bloody battle. He packed the remaining Blood essence fruits to give Xun and came out of the hollow in the branch.'My body is as strong as peak True foundation disciples now, so I should be good in battles. But I should probably focus on a movement technique for use in battle. My current moves are strong but predictable.''Good thinking Brat. Good movement techniques are a must. I will not help you explicitly by giving you a technique, but I can let you view how I use them and come to your own deductions.''That would help as well master. Your movement techniques must be very profound.'' HAHAHA, of course, they are. They are the profoundest of them all. HAHAHAHA!'Luo rolled his eyes at master Yin's smugness but was excited to learn the techniques. 'This one should do. This is one of the most exciting battles of my life.
Luo now decided to start for the summer competition. Xian town was to his east now and headed Northeast towards Kumji town, north of Xian town, where the Summer competition would be held.He just started running out of the forest, all the while practicing the 'Wave' portion of the Iron and Wave steps as he zipped past the Dai Shan forest at high speeds.After running like that for 2 days, he reached Kumji town with the competition being hosted in 3 more days. The city was already bustling with people coming in from different sects to attend the competition. Lamps were hung in the streets and the shops were decorated gaily.There was a kind of festive mood everywhere. Most of the inns were already occupied, so Luo had to search for a while until he found some boarding for a few nights and paid the rent. He slept through the night and woke up late, getting all the travel tiredness out of him.He washed up, had some breakfast and with the blood essence
Ignoring Cai MingZhu, two disciples who were twins, suddenly went near Luo and as they surrounded him, constantly looking at him from various angels they introduced each other. "We are the nightingale twins of the Ancient Zither Abode. This is Zhong Bai, my brother.""And this is Zhong Gui, my brother. Now, you should introduce yourself."Luo was amused at this and introduced himself "I am Luo LianHao, nice to meet you."The other apprentice, a scrawny girl with a flat chest and short,wild brown hair looked at Luo with disinterest. As their eyes met, Luo smiled "Hello sister, I am Luo LianHao, what would your name be?""Hmm. My name is Hao Qi". She looked at him up and down and carried on with her business.Luo also introduced himself to Cai Mingzhu but she did not grace him with a reply, so he shrugged and moved to the registration counter with Xun.After entering their names for the competition, master Fu Lin bi
As everyone, about 500 who passed out of the 5000 applicants, shuffled into the next building for the test, they were allotted different rooms based on their token numbers. Luo and Xun found their room and started walking into it. Cao Mingzhu , Zhong Bai and Gui and Hao Qi were also in the same room as them.The test began after the instructors explained the rules and gave out written tests with questions that checked their approaches to different problems. Cao and Luo at once began to tear into it and started answering their questions.Xun looked at all the questions and she didn't recognize half of them. The other half were as master Fu Lin had made her practise. The Zhong brothers started meditating and listening to the tempo of the brush strokes of Luo and Cao who were answering the questions vigorously.They found the rhythm in it and started using their own brushes to replicate that rhythm and answers started flowing from their hands as well.Hao Qi