Is He This Durable?

On the way back, Ji Ruo also picked up a feather shed by Wind God Falcon Aunt.

The feather was mostly cyan, slightly translucent.

It looked soft, but was actually exceptionally hard and sharp. Holding it in hand felt like grasping a wisp of clear wind.

The feather was about 1.6 meters long and four palms wide.

It was quite heavy. Ji Ruo hefted it in his hand and guessed that even a single feather weighed dozens of jin.

"Pretty heavy, huh."

Ji Ruo carried the feather like a door-plank greatsword. When he struck the ground with it, it rang out with a clang, and the tip didn't bend at all.

As he swung it, the wind howled. He took out his standard-issue sword and clashed it against the feather without using blood qi enhancement. The feather and blade met with a metallic screech, and the sword edge was chipped—yet the feather was completely unharmed!

"Whoa!" Ji Ruo was ecstatic. Wasn't a feather sword cooler than a wooden stick sword?

"This adventure was totally worth it! Huge haul!"

He happily swung the feather sword as he walked back, and on the way, he tried amplifying it with blood qi.

That attempt brought even more surprises.

Using blood qi to control it, he could make the feather soft and bendable to a certain degree. Under the influence of blood qi, he could change its shape at will—switching between sword and blade effortlessly!

"Not bad at all." Ji Ruo said smugly.

When he returned to their original spot, Ji Ruo was surprised to find that Wind God Falcon Aunt still hadn't come back.

Liang Shixian was steaming with heat, his skin a grayish-blue. His realm hadn't broken through much, but with the supply of high-grade ingredients, his Iron Cloth Shirt had finally reached the 'Entering the Hall' level.

The mastery level of a martial technique determined its power and unlocked more uses.

Of course, for low-tier techniques like Iron Sand Palm and Iron Cloth Shirt, raising the mastery level didn't add many new functions. For Iron Cloth Shirt, it just got harder and harder.

But this technique was a prerequisite for some advanced defensive techniques. Once mastered to a certain level, learning higher-grade defensive techniques later would be much easier.

Techniques like Iron Sand Palm and Iron Cloth Shirt, which could enhance the body's state to some degree, required special medicinal baths during training—though this rule only applied at the Martial Apprentice stage.

Opening Qi Vessels was the foundation of a martial artist's transcendence.

Liang Shixian wasn't Ji Ruo; he didn't have the Achievement System to help. Normally, without the proper medicinal baths in this secret realm, forcing the training would cause irreversible damage to his body.

But the ingredients in Wind God Falcon's nest were so high-grade that even if they weren't a perfect match, they were enough to let Liang Shixian ignore that damage.

"Hey, class monitor, you're smoking."

Ji Ruo said with feigned surprise.

Liang Shixian heard his voice and turned around excitedly, ready to share the joy of his technique breakthrough. "Ji Ruo, you're back? My Iron Cloth Shirt—where did you get that huge feather?!"

Ji Ruo brandished the door-plank-sized feather proudly. "Jealous? This is a treasure I found on my adventure! I told you to come, but you didn't. Hehe."

Liang Shixian: "...It's just a feather shed by Wind God Falcon Aunt. This is her nest. Finding a feather here isn't strange."

As the saying goes, 'eat the man's bread, speak his tongue.' Liang Shixian was getting more and more comfortable calling her 'Aunt.'

Ji Ruo said smugly, "But I have one and you don't! How about that? Jealous, huh? Hmph!"

Rosie, lying on Ji Ruo's head, mimicked him by waving her two short cat paws: "Meow meow meow~ (Jealous, huh? Jealous?)"

Liang Shixian: "..."

The joy he'd wanted to share vanished instantly. Liang Shixian took a deep breath and resumed his training.

"By the way, class monitor, Aunt hasn't come back yet?" Ji Ruo asked.

"No." Liang Shixian was practicing his punches, eyes half-closed. Under the stimulation of Ji Ruo's childish behavior, he felt like he was vaguely grasping the feeling of opening a Qi Vessel.

"Ji Ruo, you should focus on training too. Even though we're safe for now, there's no room for slack in martial cultivation." Liang Shixian unconsciously slipped into lecture mode.

Ji Ruo tilted his head. "But I've already opened my Qi Vessel."

"I fucking—"

Liang Shixian couldn't help but glare at Ji Ruo.

He realized then that what he'd thought was the sensation of a Qi Vessel wasn't that at all—it was just the anger Ji Ruo had stirred up in him!

Dabao and Erbao woke up again.

Wind God Falcon Aunt still hadn't returned, but the two little ones didn't care. Full of boundless energy, they started playing around in the nest again.

This time, Rosie didn't 'eat more than she could handle.' Instead, she joined in the fun—no, more accurately, she was the one being played with.

Dabao: "Chirp~ (Don't run!)"

Erbao: "Chirp chirp~ (Stop right there!)"

They activated Thunder Breathing, wind and lightning swirling around their young wings as they moved like thunderbolts.

Rosie wasn't as fast as them. She was knocked back and forth like a ball.

Ji Ruo was a bit worried at first that Rosie might get hurt.

But Rosie seemed pretty tough. Being knocked around like that didn't injure her at all—in fact, she got more and more excited.

"Meow meow! (Bullying a little cat is no skill! If you've got guts, don't run so fast! I'll scratch your faces off!)"

Ji Ruo scratched his head. "This cat... can it really take that much punishment?"

He gradually slowed his pace and pulled up the detailed information on his two disciples.

[Name: Dabao (childhood name)]
[Race: Wind God Falcon]
[Category: Demon Beast]
[Stage: Infant]
[Talent: Wind Control (Thunder ↑)]
[Note: A high-grade demon beast with exceptionally pure bloodline. Its growth potential is quite impressive~]

That was Dabao's detail panel, and Erbao's was identical.

The talent 'Wind Control' was easy to understand. The Wind God Falcon was called that because of its powerful control over wind elements; once it reached the adult stage, it would be like a god of the wind.

As for the '(Thunder ↑)' in parentheses, that was probably due to the 'Total Concentration Breathing: Thunder' Ji Ruo had taught the two little ones.

Demon beasts could evolve too, just not as frequently as demons.

Ji Ruo was very satisfied with his two new disciples. Once they grew up, they would surely become a great asset to him—riding a Wind God Falcon through the sky. Just thinking about it was cool!

After checking his two disciples' info, Ji Ruo also took a look at Rosie's.

He knew there wouldn't be any changes, but since he'd already opened the panel, he might as well take a look.

But when he saw it, Ji Ruo froze.

Rosie's other information hadn't changed; she was still in the infant stage.

But this little one's talent had become—

[Talent: Illusion ↓ Toughness ↑]

Her original Illusion talent was visibly fading, becoming dim and transparent, while the newly appeared 'Toughness' talent was gradually deepening in color.

What the hell?

Was she putting all her points into defense because she was afraid of pain?

How the hell could she just reset her own stats and add skills like that?

Ji Ruo was about to grab Rosie and ask her what was going on when suddenly—

"Whoosh—!"

The wind howled. The Wind God Falcon aunt was back.

"Auntie, you're back. Huh? What happened to you?"

The Wind God Falcon aunt shook the frost off her right wing. Her feathers were ruffled, and she looked a bit battered. She said angrily, "Chirp~ (Those damn bastards actually dared to threaten me!)"

But her anger didn't last long before she saw the two little ones rushing over wrapped in wind and thunder, chirping 'Mommy' as they froze in place.

She looked at Ji Ruo, dazed, and asked, "Chirp~ (What's going on here?)"

I asked you to watch the kids, and you come back with their attributes changed?

"I taught them some martial arts I created myself," Ji Ruo explained simply.

"Chirp~ (You taught my children... martial arts?)" The Wind God Falcon aunt stared blankly at Ji Ruo. "Chirp~ (But you're human. We're demon beasts.)"

She knew a bit about humans. She understood that what Ji Ruo was doing was, for humans, no different from betraying their own kind. And on top of that, they weren't even the same race!

How did you manage to teach them?

"Oh, what does it matter if we're human or demon beast?" Ji Ruo said nonchalantly. "There are good people and bad people, and good demon beasts and bad demon beasts! Besides, I created this myself!"

"Chirp~ (But...)" The Wind God Falcon aunt seemed hesitant, but Ji Ruo didn't plan to dwell on the topic.

After all, the two little ones had already become his pets. With the [Contract] in place, they would never actively oppose humans in the future. In fact, they might even become allies to humanity. Teaching them some of Ji Ruo's self-created martial arts was no problem at all~

Ji Ruo asked curiously, "By the way, Auntie, what happened to you? Did those guys on the mountaintop make a move on you?"

The moment that was brought up, the Wind God Falcon aunt got angry again. "Chirp~ (Those bastards caught a high-level martial artist and planned to eat him. But they were afraid of breaking the rules set back then and drawing retaliation from even stronger martial artists. So they wanted to pull me into their camp. I refused, and they beat me up!)"

Ji Ruo was taken aback. "The demons on the mountaintop caught a high-level martial artist? Wait, hold on. Didn't you say before that those guys were no match for you?"

The Wind God Falcon aunt said indignantly, "Chirp~ (They ganged up on me! Just because I disagreed, they all attacked me together! A full sixteen of them! I could still thrash one or two on my own, but sixteen?!)"