51 Mark (2)
Swish!
With a swishing sound, Yu Bai disappeared from his spot as he went in search of it.
The moment Yu Bai left, Lu Zhen examined the mark that was printed on the back of his hand.
The mark resembled that of a butterfly and was pitch black in color, although not as dark as the girl's eyes, which seemed to be impenetrable to light. Somehow, she had marked Lu Zhen with this butterfly mark.
The colour of the mark was an intense black, and it bore a simple butterfly design, resembling a tattoo, albeit entirely black.
As Lu Zhen observed the tattoo, he inexplicably felt slight movements, as if the butterfly were alive, though it appeared to be devoid of vitality.
A thin, thread-like aura was connected to the tattoo. However, this connection was obstructed by Lu Zhen's own aura, creating a domain-like barrier. Lu Zhen continued to supply his aura to the tattoo, which seemed to consume it like a voracious black hole.
The tattoo was slowly sapping his strength away, although it was even more meagre than when Lu Zhen fought with the girl. It was subtle, barely noticeable with Lu Zhen's divine physique. This subtle drain of strength sent a shiver down his spine, but a peculiar smile still played on his face.
"How interesting, huh," Lu Zhen mused aloud. He ceased supplying his aura to the mark. As he did, the tattoo began to fade, almost as if it were dying. However, Lu Zhen quickly resumed supplying his aura to the tattoo, and in an instant, it regained its vibrant, almost revitalized appearance.
"This connection," Lu Zhen thought, his brows furrowing as he examined the long thread, its pitch-black colour pointing toward the direction that they were previously in the old temple. Pondering this, his frown deepened.
"Did I miss something in the temple?" Lu Zhen thought as he had examined nearly half of the temple's contents with his appraisal eyes. However, Lu Zhen felt it was natural to miss such a thing, considering that the girl had approached him from behind without him even noticing her presence. There must be something which he doesn't know about that allows such a phenomenon for them to do so.
Thinking of this Lu Zhen tightened his fist he still has a lot to learn.
In reality, during his battle with the girl, Lu Zhen hadn't even noticed that he had been marked by something peculiar. However, after the fight, he began to sense a strange aura slowly sapping his strength. Fortunately, his mastery of the aura control skill allowed him to detect such changes in his aura effortlessly. With this skill, he promptly isolated the tattoo by cocooning it within his own aura, preventing its insidious influence.
With his aura control skill levelled up so high, he could now change his aura into different forms.
"Let's sever this connection," Lu Zhen thought, as he had an idea about how to remove the pesky thread's connection.
After all, he was still interested in this butterfly tattoo and wanted to unravel its mystery. He had never heard of such a heaven-defying thing that could sap an enemy's physical strength. If he could harness this power, he could potentially exhaust enemies to death without even lifting a finger.
"Let's do this," Lu Zhen thought as he slowly closed his crimson eyes.
As Lu Zhen closed his eyes, he began to visualize a saber. He tried to shape a small portion of his aura accordingly.
Slowly, an invisible force materialized in Lu Zhen's hand, forming into the semblance of a handle.
However, Lu Zhen began to sweat after the handle was constructed. It felt challenging to create, but he didn't give up; he persisted.
Gradually, a blade began to grow from the handle. But this time, when the blade was halfway formed, a cracking sound echoed in the surroundings.
Creak!
With a creaking sound, the aura in the shape of a saber collapsed, causing Lu Zhen to feel dizzy.
"Sigh, my aura control skill isn't sufficient," Lu Zhen thought with bitterness. He had no choice but to continue. Although his aura control skill could shape into various forms, it couldn't replicate the physics of a saber accurately, as neither his aura control nor his saber mastery skills were advanced enough to imprint his aura with the characteristics of a saber.
Thinking this through, Lu Zhen decided to opt for an easier approach.
He closed his eyes once again, visualizing a saber. However, this time, the saber was peculiar; it lacked a handle, consisting only of the blade with one side sharp and the other flat.
Gradually, a small portion of Lu Zhen's aura separated from him, materializing into the shape of a blade. Lu Zhen meticulously imagined the blade's form, height, length, weight, temperature, and nearly all its attributes. The aura gradually took on the blade's unusual shape.
Yet, when Lu Zhen sensed the final form of the blade, he was nearly repulsed. The saber blade he had envisioned had turned into something resembling a blender blade, almost taking on the form of a snake. Its blade tip was sharp on both sides, although the sharpness seemed barely enough to cut through paper, let alone harm a person.
Suppressing his disappointment, Lu Zhen had to give it a try. He thought, "Will this blade even work?" as he swung the invisible aura blade at the string.
The moment the blade sliced through the string, like a sharp knife cutting through paper, it effortlessly severed the string into two pieces, leaving Lu Zhen stunned.
Meanwhile, Ji Ju, who was sprinting at top speed while carrying the remnants of the ring, noticed that the broken ring parts all turned to dust as they were carried away by the wind.
"This shouldn't be possible," Ji Ju thought in shock, but it only fueled her determination to find the mysterious person.
"It seems the string is quite fragile," Lu Zhen mused as he felt the mark that had been draining his strength beginning to go dormant. He sensed the pulsating sensation fading away, replaced by stillness, as if the mark had fallen asleep.
Sensing this change, Lu Zhen couldn't help but feel relieved.
"It looks like it works," he said, staring at the mark with a greedy expression.
"Don't worry, I'll make better use of you than your previous owner," Lu Zhen thought with a confident smirk.
Although Lu Zhen wasn't certain whether this strange mark was truly alive or not, he had a gut feeling that it could prove quite beneficial in the future. Thus, he decided to keep it with him for now.
"Young master, I have found the rope and the leaves," Yu Bai said respectfully as he appeared beside Lu Zhen, handing over the materials.
"Oh, then let's go quickly," Lu Zhen responded decisively. Since he had severed the string that connected the mark, its owner might have already noticed. He didn't want to face these an unknown emeies without understanding what he wes dealing with.
"Know yourself, know your enemy, and you will win every war." The saying of Lao Zhu, which Lu Zhen had enjoyed reading in his past life for fun, was somethinge Lu Zhen knew by heart.
Lu Zhen grasped the thick twisted rope that Yu Bai had found and couldn't help but marvel at its sheer size. The rope was about 2 inches thick. When Lu Zhen gave it a gentle pull, it didn't break, which greatly satisfied him. Even that casual tug had the power of an average martial trainee, so the rope's durability impressed him.
Curiously, he asked Yu Bai, "Where did you get this, Old Bai?"
"Young master, you can easily obtain this from those ancient trees," Yu Bai explained, pointing at the towering trees that almost seemed to touch the heavens.
"Oh, I see," Lu Zhen replied, understanding the source.
The trees in this world were incredibly oversized. Even ordinary trees were around two kilometres tall, and the ancient tree Yu Bai was indicating exceeded that height. Wild beasts, in contrast, hadn't increased in size to match the trees. Lu Zhen hadn't yet known any wild beasts that were 2 kilometres tall. Typically, as beasts grew stronger, their size increased, but not to the exaggerated extent of these trees.
Lu Zhen wagered that if one of these ancient trees were to fall, even a first-rank martial artist might not survive.
Without further delay, Lu Zhen used the rope to bind Xia Mei in a restraining fashion. He began by securing both her hands behind her back in a tight zigzag pattern. As he did so, He could feel her soft skin against his arms, although in some areas, it seemed rough, likely from fighting all day.
Seeing the tightly twisted rope bound to her skin as her mountain peaks poked out of the rope, even Lu Zhen couldn't help but gulp. He felt a strong desire to claim this woman for himself, but the owner of the mysterious mark might arrive at any moment. Suppressing his emotions, he continued to wrap the rope around her body until she was completely encased in it.
After doing that lu zhen took the leaves which were as big as jiang xue and enloped her in it.
"Let's go now, Old Bai," Lu Zhen said as he darted off carrying Xia Mei on his shoulder, while Yu Bai carried the twins, maintaining the same swift pace as they raced through the forest.
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