An unknown amount of time passed before the last trace of the violent wind blades had its edges ground smooth by the spine and fully merged into his limbs and bones. Lu Ze slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils, a wisp of blue-green air flashed and vanished.
A crisp crack rang out inside his body.
The barrier of a Four-Star Dou Zhe shattered thunderously under the extreme pressure at the edge of life and death.
Pure Dou Qi instantly filled his parched meridians like spring waters bursting through a dam.
Five-Star Dou Zhe.
He stood up and moved his left arm.
His previously torn muscles were now brimming with explosive strength, and a trace of wind-attribute lightness accompanied the circulation of his Dou Qi.
Lu Ze felt sticky all over. After his advancement to Five-Star Dou Zhe, impurities had been expelled from his body, and all he wanted now was a proper bath.
Suddenly, he looked beneath the Qing Feng Eagle's rib cage. The wind-attribute Dou Qi seemed to exert some kind of attraction.
He walked over to the skeleton, crouched down, and pressed his right hand against the rock wall. His Five-Star Dou Zhe Dou Qi seeped in, bearing wind-attribute patterns.
Click.
A stone slab three feet square slid silently aside, revealing a narrow hidden compartment.
In the center of the compartment lay a long wooden box wrapped in layers of oilcloth, along with a white bone fragment that was neither metal nor bone.
Lu Ze picked up the wooden box and peeled back the oilcloth.
Inside lay a blue-green feather about half a foot long.
Faint wind vortices flowed along its edges. Even motionless, it exuded a heart-pounding sense of sharpness.
Lu Ze examined it closely and tried slowly channeling wind-attribute Dou Qi into it. An enormous flood of information then emerged.
"This!"
Lu Ze was inwardly shocked.
"Is this a Flying Dou Technique?"
It was a Flying Dou Technique, Wind Spirit Feather!
On the Dou Qi Continent, only Dou Wang experts could form wings from Dou Qi and soar through the heavens.
Below Dou Wang, any means involving flight could be considered a rare treasure.
Often, only families possessing the bloodline of flying magical beasts, or those who spent immense sums crafting special flying tools, could barely achieve it.
Xiao Yan in the original story, for instance, had obtained the Purple Cloud Wings.
He set down the wooden box and picked up the white bone fragment.
Several crude maps were carved into it, marking a few coordinates in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, along with a line of tiny writing.
"Wind Spirit Feather is complete; my life is at its end!"
"If a junior obtains this bone, come swiftly into the depths of Cliffside Valley."
Lu Ze put the bone fragment and wooden box into his Storage Ring.
These things were not particularly useful to him as he was now.
First, under normal circumstances, this Dou Technique required him to possess sufficiently powerful soul strength to avoid a backlash from the violent soul within it.
Besides, the time it would take and other factors did not allow him to practice this Dou Technique now.
Lu Ze put the bone fragment and wooden box into his Storage Ring.
He walked to the cave entrance, and the night wind struck his face, carrying the rank smell left after the rain.
In the distant mountain forest, he could faintly see the glow of torches moving.
Lu Ze tightly gripped the Emerald Water Sword at his waist.
Dou Qi stirred faintly around him, and powerful strength surged from his hands, gathering at his fingertips.
"At last, I don't have to hide anymore."
Qingshan Town, the Myriad Medicine Pavilion.
Night fell, and the autumn rain began pattering down once more.
The street where the Myriad Medicine Pavilion stood had now been completely sealed off.
More than a dozen elite members of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group, dressed in dark red uniforms and armed with sharp blades, blocked the medicine shop's front and rear entrances tight.
The deputy leader stood beneath the eaves, holding the leash of a Qi-Seeking Hound the size of a calf, its body covered in short gray fur.
"Woof, woof! Woof, woof!"
The Qi-Seeking Hound barked madly before the Myriad Medicine Pavilion's wooden door, its front paws constantly clawing at the panels.
Saliva dripped from its fangs onto the bluestone paving, corroding it with faint wisps of white smoke.
It displayed extreme frenzy and agitation toward the scent seeping through the crack in the door.
The deputy leader gave the iron chain a sharp tug, hauling the Qi-Seeking Hound back.
The chain tightened around the dog's neck, producing a choking rattle.
"The leader has given his orders." He surveyed his subordinates, keeping his voice very low in the rainy night.
"The person we're looking for is definitely inside this Myriad Medicine Pavilion. The Qi-Seeking Hound has found them!"
"Deputy leader, shall we go straight in and seize them?" The scar-faced mercenary rubbed his hands, staring fixedly at the Myriad Medicine Pavilion's sign as his Adam's apple bobbed.
"No rush!" The deputy leader raised a hand to cut him off and glanced up at the tightly shut second-floor windows of the Myriad Medicine Pavilion.
His facial muscles twitched slightly.
"Several of our brothers met with trouble in the Magical Beast Mountain Range a few days ago."
"We'll besiege the point and strike the reinforcements! Surround the Myriad Medicine Pavilion and make that thief show himself!"
"Go prepare the bone-melting powder and knockout incense. Give them a strong dose and see how long that person can hold out."
"At midnight, break down the door."
"Yes!"
Inside the Myriad Medicine Pavilion.
No lamps were lit in the main hall; only a faint candlelight shone from the medicine storeroom in the rear courtyard.
Lao Li and several assistants huddled in a corner of the rear courtyard, trembling all over, not daring even to breathe loudly.
Xiao Yi Xian stood behind the counter, listening to the Qi-Seeking Hound's frenzied barking and the mercenaries' coarse voices outside, without the slightest fluster in her movements.
Seeing that it was nearly time, she took three black earthenware jars sealed with wax from a hidden compartment beneath the counter.
The moment the jars were brought out, a sour, rotten smell spread.
A drop of yellow liquid accidentally splashed onto the wooden floor, instantly corroding a charred pit into the board with a faint hiss.
She gently buried the three jars beneath the wooden flooring under the threshold, covering the traces with dirt.
Then she retreated to a viewing angle thirty feet behind the counter, holding a small silver knife.
Her right foot remained on the pedal connected to the copper pot's poisonous mist.
Outside the door, the mercenaries' lowered voices drifted faintly in.
Xiao Yi Xian lowered her eyes and looked at the silver knife in her hand. It reflected the candlelight and her cool, water-clear eyes.
Midnight.
Bang!
The Myriad Medicine Pavilion's heavy wooden door was kicked to pieces.
Wood splinters mixed with rainwater sprayed into the main hall.
"Search!"
The deputy leader's hoarse roar exploded outside the door.
Several mercenaries raised their torches and strode across the high threshold.
The instant their feet landed on the threshold-
Crack!
The faint sound of earthenware shattering came from beneath the floorboards.
The rainy night, in the dense forest on the outskirts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
Rainwater dripped from the leaves.
Lu Ze crouched on a thick branch. Below him were five Wolf Head mercenaries wearing raincoats.
Their leader was an Eight-Star Dou Zhe, holding a compass and looking around.
Lu Ze coated the soles of his feet with a thin layer of Dou Qi, gripping the slippery bark tightly.
He stared at the ground beneath the leader's feet and released a faint pulse from his left palm.
"Suction Palm."
A gentle yet unyielding suction appeared out of thin air, drawing at the rain-soaked layer of fallen leaves beneath the leader's feet.
Muddy water and fallen leaves surged upward, splattering the leader's face and throwing his footing off balance for half a breath.
That half a breath was all it took.
Lu Ze slipped soundlessly from the branch like a hunting night bird.
The Emerald Water Sword in his hand traced an extremely faint streak of white through the curtain of rain.
Sensing movement overhead, the leader roared and raised his long saber to block, his Dou Qi erupting wildly.
The instant the white streak touched the saber, Lu Ze forcibly twisted his waist in midair, avoiding the leader's sweeping blade.
As they passed each other, the lingering might of the Grass Character Sword Art slid from his sword tip and sliced open the leader's unguarded nape.
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