"I'm so furious!"
Back in his own courtyard, Motai Jie's eyes were bloodshot.
Thinking of how his father was about to give the beauty he dreamed of night and day to the Fire Worship Sect, and had even forbidden him from seeing her, Motai Jie flung the packet of secret medicine from his arms straight into the fire.
"Someone, bring me four young women!" Motai Jie sat on a stone chair, panting heavily.
He would never forget how breathtaking Qianxue had looked the first time he saw her.
Even though he knew that if he really had his way with her, his father, Motai Xiao, would never forgive him.
But so what?
"Just once. Even if it's only once... I'd accept it, even if it meant death." Motai Jie roared inside.
But he knew his father would never give him the chance.
"What has made the young master so angry?" A middle-aged man with dozens of braids entered, carrying a steaming stone basin.
"Renzha, what's that you're carrying?" Motai Jie didn't answer.
The matter of Qianxue was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Motai Clan. Aside from a few personal maids, every outsider who had seen her was dead.
Even his trusted man, Renzha, had no idea that such a special person lived in Motai City.
"It's the meat of an An Beast, a great demon that the Iron Ox Tribe sent to Motai City yesterday." Renzha set the stone basin on the table and smiled. "Young master, the meat of a great demon is a powerful tonic. You can eat some, then go enjoy those young women."
"The Iron Ox Tribe?" Motai Jie mused. "Its leader is that Iron Ox who left the Liu Clan's guard corps?"
"The young master has a good memory, to remember even such an insignificant person," Renzha flattered him.
"I remember his younger sister was a maid in the Liu Clan too, wasn't she? And a Liu Clan disciple tried to force himself on her, so that Second Young Lady broke three of his legs?" Memories of the great hegemonic clans of the Great Wild Plains surfaced in Motai Jie's mind.
Of course, he was more interested in the juicy gossip.
"That did happen." Countless bits of information about the surrounding tribes flashed through Renzha's mind. "I believe her name was Xiangcao, but she never leaves the Iron Ox Tribe. Outsiders rarely get to see her."
Even as a lackey, one had to be a useful lackey. Renzha firmly believed that.
"Then that's her." Motai Jie nodded and ordered, "Go find out where the Iron Ox Tribe is."
"Is the young master going to..." Renzha's mouth twitched, and he wore a grin only the two of them understood.
"That Second Young Lady has already married and left the Great Wild Plains." Motai Jie grabbed a piece of meat from the stone basin and began wolfing it down.
...The Iron Ox Tribe.
The Moon Rabbit had sunk in the west, but the Golden Crow had yet to rise.
This was the darkest hour of the day.
Zhou Hao, immersed in cultivation, finally opened his eyes.
In the darkness, two streaks of light seemed to flash and vanish.
Unlike before, after cultivating the Visualization Technique this time, Zhou Hao felt as if the whole world had changed.
Even in the dark, he could see everything around him clearly.
The fish swimming in the stream, the guards patrolling in the distance, every step they took... Even without actually seeing them, it was as if their images appeared directly in his mind!
He could even clearly feel that his thoughts were like an invisible hand, able to grasp everything tangible around him.
He acted on the thought.
With a single thought from Zhou Hao—
Splash!
A fish feeding on waterweed in the stream seemed to be snatched out of the water by an invisible hand. It flew through the air in several circles before plunging back into the water.
"It really works!" Zhou Hao was ecstatic.
He had grown up in worlds where the path to immortality was severed in both his lives. When had he ever experienced such a supernatural phenomenon?
In his excitement, the stream in front of him took quite a beating.
Not only did the fish in the water inexplicably fly up one after another, taking a turn as "flying fish," but the plants, clods of earth, and rocks around him all floated into the air before shooting into the stream like arrows.
Luckily, this spot was some distance from the tribal camp. Otherwise, the whole Iron Ox Tribe would have been roused.
"Could this be the mind-over-matter power from Daoist legends? If I had a flying sword, could I ride it through the air right now?" Zhou Hao wondered.
Even without a flying sword, merely controlling rocks with his mind was already far more powerful at short range than the firearms in the world of his previous life.
Even the arrows Xiangcao had used to kill the gray wolves earlier were no match for his telekinetic attacks at close range.
Most importantly, arrows couldn't turn corners. His telekinetic attacks could.
"If I ran into those gray wolves again, I could wipe them out in an instant without even moving."
After testing the power of his telekinesis, Zhou Hao finally stopped when his head began to feel dizzy.
"I should find a few sharp throwing knives, daggers, and the like."
Rocks were brittle, after all. No matter how much force his mind infused them with, they were useless once they shattered.
His mind could only control tangible objects, not harm people with nothingness, and it had no effect on his own body either.
Even so, it was more than enough. Below the Purple Mansion realm, even Xiantian Lifeforms had few ranged attacks aside from bows and arrows.
And bows and arrows couldn't compare to telekinesis.
At that moment, faint commotion drifted over from the tribal camp in the distance.
Daybreak had come. The tribe was about to move.
...The Iron Ox Tribe was very small.
There were fewer than two hundred people in the entire tribe, most of them warriors who had followed Iron Ox out of the Liu Clan, along with their families.
But being small had its advantages. At least they could leave whenever they wanted.
Of course, Zhou Hao had it easiest of all.
If the chieftain, Iron Ox, hadn't given him more than a dozen Wild Oxen, he could have left on foot.
"Uncle Zhou Hao, Uncle Zhou Hao!"
Iron Pillar came running over. "Your Wild Ox won't move again."
Zhou Hao was lounging comfortably on the back of a Wild Ox, visualizing the Supreme Clarity Moral Heavenly Venerable Diagram in his mind.
After a whole night of visualizing and tempering his soul, Zhou Hao had been amazed to discover that not only was his soul stronger and capable of controlling objects with his mind, but his physical strength had also multiplied several times over.
In particular, the Nine Cloud Seal Secret Patterns on his left arm seemed to have absorbed enough energy. The tattoo, which had once been dark as ink, had now faded until it was barely visible unless one looked closely.
Going by his experience across both lives, when the tattoo faded this much, it meant he had passed the Ghost Gate Pass, which came once every three years.
With a chance to cultivate immortality, no need for the moment to worry about the life-threatening tattoo, and the new ability to control objects with his mind, Zhou Hao was in high spirits and thoroughly at ease.
"It won't move again?" Zhou Hao turned around.
An adult bull was lying in front of a lush patch of grass and water, leisurely munching on it, with a ring of tribal children gathered around.
These Wild Oxen looked a lot like yaks from Earth, only two or three times bigger. Their flesh was firm beneath their thick black coats, and when they lay down, they looked like little hills.
An adult Wild Ox weighed a good twenty or thirty thousand pounds. It was also incredibly stubborn: when it refused to move, even beating it was useless.
The tribe members had spent years herding them and knew their habits well. Each had their own tricks for dealing with one that had dug in its hooves.
But Zhou Hao had no idea how he had offended Xiangcao. Not only was she refusing to help, she had told everyone else to leave it alone too.
"Watch this."
Zhou Hao slapped the yak beneath him. His body dropped to the ground in a flash, and he strode toward the bull.
Iron Pillar excitedly waved the little whip in his hand, imitating the adults who rode Black Cunning Beasts as he ran toward the stubborn Wild Ox.
The children waiting by the Wild Ox saw Zhou Hao stride over, their little eyes filled with anticipation.
"Want to see me make a fool of myself?" Zhou Hao caught sight of Xiangcao on a Black Cunning Beast in the distance, keeping watch, and chuckled inwardly.
I'm not the same Zhou Hao who was chased by a dozen gray wolves yesterday.
"Everyone, step back a little." Zhou Hao smiled and waved the children away.
The adults watching from a distance laughed. Those who were nearby even came over.
"Brother Zhou's about to show off another special skill."
"I missed it last time. I only heard a loud bang."
"Then keep your eyes open this time. Brother Zhou may be skinny, but he's really strong."
Ignoring the crowd's chatter, Zhou Hao stood before the Wild Ox lying on the ground, then suddenly exerted himself and stamped his right leg down with a spiraling force.
Boom!
The grass within three meters flipped up at once. The onlookers felt the whole earth shudder beneath them, as if it were about to fling them off the ground.
Even people more than ten meters away could feel the force. The Wild Ox right beside Zhou Hao's stamping leg naturally felt it even more strongly.
For an instant, the bull's hill-like body lifted from the ground, leaving a gap as wide as an arm.
In that split second, Zhou Hao bent down. His right arm had already slipped beneath the Wild Ox. Using the upward force of his spiraling stomp, he exerted power through his waist, abdomen, and hips. His right fist shot skyward—a move from Taiji Fist known as "Seabed Punch."
Taiji Fist's attacks were incredibly fierce, centered around three kinds of power: cannon, hammer, and whip.
The Wild Ox had thick hide and flesh, but if Zhou Hao had truly meant to strike it, the force of his hammer blow would have been enough to burst its internal organs.
But with his right arm pressed against the Wild Ox, an attack meant to kill became a move to toss the bull.
Whoosh!
The hill-like Wild Ox was swept high into the air by the force exploding from Zhou Hao's right arm.
After swinging the Wild Ox over his head, Zhou Hao immediately followed with another burst of pushing force.
The bull flew straight through the air for more than twenty meters before slamming into the grass with a thud.
"Good!"
"That's amazing!"
"After Iron Ox, I'd say Brother Zhou is the strongest in the tribe!"
An adult Wild Ox weighed twenty or thirty thousand pounds. Even among the tribe's warriors, few could lift one like that and hurl it more than twenty meters.
And Zhou Hao was lean. Beside the enormous Wild Ox, he looked even thinner.
The striking contrast made the scene all the more astonishing, drawing gasps from the onlookers.
The people of the tribe respected warriors most. With strength like his, Zhou Hao naturally earned their admiration, and the children's eyes were full of worship.
The Wild Ox lay on the ground for a while before slowly getting up. Seeing Zhou Hao stride toward it again, it quickly bolted forward and didn't stop until it rejoined the herd.
That put the Wild Ox in its place. It was afraid that if it got separated again, it would be tossed a second time.
"What incredible strength!" A Black Cunning Beast galloped over from the distance.
A man in his thirties, with an arrow scar on his face, praised him loudly from far away. "Brother Zhou, when it comes to strength in the tribe, I, Zhamu, only acknowledge Iron Ox. From now on, I'll add you to that list."
"You flatter me, Brother Zhamu," Zhou Hao replied with a smile. "I was just looking for you. Do you have a moment?"
"What do you need?" Zhamu swung down from the back of the Black Cunning Beast. "The temporary camp is just ahead. Let's talk as we walk."
"All right." Zhou Hao nodded.
He had already asked Zhuzi about it. The finest dagger in the whole tribe belonged to Zhamu; before the great demon died, Zhamu had used that very dagger to skin it.
A dagger that could cut through the hide and flesh of a Xiantian great demon was exactly what Zhou Hao, now able to control objects with his mind, urgently needed.
"What good is being strong? He was still chased by gray wolves before, and I was the one who carried him back when he passed out..."
Seeing Zhou Hao walking side by side with Zhamu, speaking in low voices, Xiangcao nudged her heels against the Black Cunning Beast and struck its flank. The beast immediately sprang forward and bounded away.
Elsewhere.
A group of armored guards wearing half-armor arrived at the Iron Ox Tribe's former camp, led by Motai Jie.
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