Lian Ai forced herself upright, frowning despite herself as pain racked her entire body. The impact of the Space Turbulence had broken her ribs and leg bones. Worse still, she could feel that her internal organs had been injured as well.
"That boy can still walk?" Seeing the traces Chen Luo had left behind on the ground, Lian Ai was puzzled. "He was struck by the Space Turbulence too, yet he didn't die."
But then she remembered how Chen Luo's sword had shattered the protective mask that could withstand a strike from a Great Scholar, and how Wenxin had willingly thrown itself at him. An interested expression appeared on Lian Ai's face.
"I only wanted to bring him back and refine Wenxin out of him again. I never expected him to be such an interesting person. It was worth planting a Gu worm on him even while we were in the Space Turbulence!"
Lian Ai slightly raised her embroidered brows. Earlier, she had thought Chen Luo was certain to die, and worried that his corpse would be swept somewhere else by the Space Turbulence. That was why she had risked herself to plant a Tracking Gu on him. She had never expected Chen Luo to survive the Space Turbulence. Judging by the traces he had left behind, it seemed he had not even suffered any serious injuries.
This man was hiding a secret!
Lian Ai was unable to rise at that moment. She opened her mouth, and a white light flew out. The light rapidly grew larger, finally transforming into a human-shaped monster the size of a person. It was actually a mantis that had become a demon.
"I need to recover from my injuries. Follow the aura of the Tracking Gu and capture that boy!" Lian Ai ordered.
The Mantis Demon crossed its arms. Its pair of blade-like hands clacked loudly as it made a cupped-fist salute. Then it turned around, beat the two pairs of wings on its back, and flew in the direction Chen Luo had left.
Only then did Lian Ai reach out and open a small bottle at her waist. A jade-green silkworm crawled out from inside. It shifted its body and spat out a strand of green silk, wrapping it around Lian Ai.
After a full quarter of an hour, the jade-green silkworm had woven a green cocoon that enveloped Lian Ai. The silkworm then gradually turned black all over before finally exploding with a bang and becoming a puddle of pus and blood.
A Mysterious Insect of the Gu Sect—the Life-Exchanging Spring Silkworm!
Chen Luo felt a little regretful.
He should have opened the meridians in his feet first yesterday.
Now that he was sprinting wildly all the way, both his legs felt as if they no longer belonged to him. His arms, on the other hand, felt powerful and robust.
Maybe walking upside down would even be faster than sprinting like this.
Hmm, Xing Ye had used a technique like that in A Chinese Odyssey...
Chen Luo sat on the dry ground, pounding his sore thighs. After making a rough estimate, he figured that he had run forty or fifty kilometers from yesterday until now.
"This isn't safe enough!" Chen Luo calculated inwardly. "If this were my previous life, I could probably say I'd escaped. But this is the Xianxia World. For all I know, they might be able to fly..."
Looking at the cliffs that still towered on both sides ahead of him, Chen Luo felt frustrated as well. "Did I run in the wrong direction?"
But things had already come to this. He could not possibly turn around and go back.
"Sharpening the blade won't delay cutting firewood. If I open a few more meridians, I may have a better chance of escaping alive." Chen Luo came to a decision.
Once he had made up his mind, Chen Luo found a relatively concealed place, sat down cross-legged again, and prepared to continue opening his meridians...
"Foot Taiyin... No!"
Chen Luo had originally planned to continue breaking through the regular meridians, but he suddenly remembered that according to the martial arts inheritance, opening the six regular meridians plus two extraordinary meridians only meant entering the Meridian Opening Realm at best—a low-grade level. Yet it was obvious that the Meridian Opening Realm greatly improved one's physical qualities.
"I'll open the Ren and Du Meridians first. I can slowly open the other meridians afterward."
"Besides, the Ren and Du Meridians! How many boys dreamed of opening them when they were little?"
Chen Luo immediately immersed his mind and located the position of the Ren Meridian. Since he had opened the six meridians yesterday, the seven-colored mist inside his body had already grown from the size of a basketball to the size of a volleyball.
Chen Luo continued mobilizing the seven-colored mist, drawing out a thread and sending it surging into the Ren Meridian.
A quarter of an hour later, Chen Luo's brows furrowed slightly.
Opening this extraordinary meridian seemed to be far more difficult and costly than opening the regular meridians.
Time passed second by second. After a full three shichen, a series of deep popping sounds came from within Chen Luo's body.
The Ren Meridian—opened!
Chen Luo rose to his feet, walked more than ten meters forward, and sat down again.
There was no other reason. His farts stank.
"The way these extraordinary meridians expel impurities really isn't suitable for secluded cultivation..." Chen Luo complained before continuing to cultivate the Du Meridian...
The Mantis Demon beat its wings and flew straight ahead.
As a Gu worm guard bestowed by the Venerable Lord upon its master, it understood that this was a rare chance to earn merit.
Ever since its master's cultivation had risen to the sixth-grade Life Gu realm, Gu Guards like them, who were only seventh-grade, had become little more than cannon fodder.
It was not that its master did not want to dispatch more Gu Guards to track the target. It was simply that its master seemed to be seriously injured and could only mobilize a single Gu Guard.
And that stroke of luck had fallen to it.
As long as it earned merit this time, its master would certainly bestow it a reward, given her temperament. Perhaps it could obtain enough resources to evolve and become a sixth-grade spirit Gu. It would not have to be like its other kind, summoned silently and then dying silently.
It was a Mantis Demon with ideals!
As for the target, he was merely an ordinary person.
Even if he possessed some special techniques and could launch a surprise attack on its master, he was still an ordinary person when all was said and done.
At that thought, the Mantis Demon exerted more strength through its back and sped up again.
The earlier it caught the target, the more generous its master's reward might be.
Another full four shichen passed, followed by another familiar series of popping sounds.
The Du Meridian—opened!
Chen Luo moved to another place before beginning to sense the changes in his body.
Mm, excellent. The soreness and hunger throughout his body had vanished without a trace. All he could sense was boundless vitality filling his body.
Looking up, he could see the patterns on the distant rocks with the finest detail. He could even hear the faint sound of the wind.
Then Chen Luo tried holding his breath. He discovered that even though he was no longer breathing through his mouth and nose, the pores across his body opened and closed rhythmically, and he did not feel the slightest sense of suffocation.
"Does this isolate the turbid qi from the outside world?" Chen Luo instantly understood the key point.
Chen Luo spotted a round stone beside his foot. He raised his foot and stomped down hard. The round stone shattered beneath his foot as easily as tofu.
Chen Luo was stunned. He had seen Ji Zhong demonstrate something like this before, but Ji Zhong had first wrapped his leg in Righteous Qi before he could do it. Chen Luo had mocked him for quite some time, calling it "Armament Haki."
Just as Chen Luo was absorbed in the information about his physical enhancement, Zhong Kui's telepathic transmission sounded in his heart.
"My lord, it seems I have awakened a new talent!"
Chen Luo was stunned at first, then overjoyed. "What talent?"
"Ghost Control! I can control five little ghosts now."
Chen Luo understood. Although Zhong Kui ate ghosts, there were indeed countless little ghosts who obeyed his commands. If so, as his cultivation improved, perhaps one day Zhong Kui would truly become the great judge of the underworld from the myths of his previous life...
"Master, me too!" The Black Cat appeared on Chen Luo's shoulder. "This cat seems to have evolved as well."
"Tell me about it..." Chen Luo had never expected that his breakthrough could actually lead to a collective upgrade of the Book Spirits.
"My senses have become sharper. The time Master needs to calculate during an attack has been greatly reduced. In addition, even when Master isn't attacking, your perception of changes in the surrounding environment has become sharper... Forget it. Master, just feel it for yourself..."
As the Black Cat spoke, it rammed into Chen Luo's body. Chen Luo suddenly sensed the flow of the surrounding air, while everything around him was mapped into his mind in another form of energy.
"Holy crap, is this a domain? I..."
Chen Luo had not finished marveling inwardly when his expression suddenly changed. Acting on reflex, he retreated several steps. A cold gleam swept across the place where he had been standing, slicing open a gash across his chest.
An astonished voice came from the void.
Chen Luo frowned and slowly closed his eyes. He sensed fluctuations in the space to his left and twisted aside. Sure enough, that cold gleam appeared from his left and missed once again.
Chen Luo kicked out. A figure was kicked out of its invisible state by him. Chen Luo looked over and found that it was actually a Mantis Demon.
An insect demon!
Chen Luo's expression turned cold. "Did Lian Ai send you?"
The Mantis Demon's voice was as cold as ice. "My master's name isn't something you're allowed to call..."
The Mantis Demon rubbed its twin blade-arms together again, producing an ear-piercing clacking sound. "Surrender, or next time, my twin blades will chop off your head!"
Chen Luo stared at the Mantis Demon's blade-like arms. The corners of his mouth suddenly lifted slightly as he bent down and picked up a branch.
"What a coincidence. Seeing you makes me want to test my current strength too."
The Mantis Demon narrowed its eyes, its killing intent surging. It brandished the blades on its arms and charged at Chen Luo once more.
Holding the branch, Chen Luo watched the Mantis Demon rush toward him. He raised the branch and pointed it forward like a sword.
"Nine Swords of Dugu—Breaking Blade Style!"
North of the Solitary Mountain Temple, west of Jia Pavilion—feels like sitting on a jet plane.
My collections skyrocketed yesterday. I'm about to get a new badge. Thank you all for your support.
Brothers, don't stop. I can...
Before you continue