Chapter 114: Chapter 109: The New Function of Dao Book_1
Battling with Li Wenlong and both ending up injured, it was unavoidable for him to be injured. After all, his opponent was a Marquis Level Three Martial Artist, an inner layer Martial Marquis with massive bone strength. Despite relying on the Vajra Indestructible Skill, Lu Yan’s breastbone had still cracked open, and his muscles were seriously damaged.
This could be said to be the heaviest injury he had sustained since arriving in this world.
He mobilized his Qi-blood, pouring it into the injured area for gradual recovery. Lu Yan stood up and inspected the bodies of Li Wenlong and Li Wenyan, but found nothing worthwhile.
Although the two men had brought some silver tickets, those were shredded into bits in the fierce battle.
Lu Yan walked back, picking up a food box along the way.
This contained the remaining mutated nine-section heart meat.
Earlier, when fleeing, Lu Yan had thrown it aside fearing it would get damaged in the fight.
This was worth forty thousand taels of silver, and even with money, there was no guarantee one could buy it.
Lu Yan opened the box to examine it and was relieved to find it intact.
The food box given by Lu Wenxuan was of excellent quality. He claimed it could preserve the efficacy of Martial Food. Tested with the mutated nine-section heart meat kept inside this box, it could preserve its efficacy for half a year.
Whenever he thought of Lu Wenxuan, Lu Yan’s eyes flashed with a fierce look.
However, having wounds at the moment, it wasn’t appropriate to settle accounts with Lu Wenxuan. He would remember it for later.
Carrying the food box on his back, Lu Yan headed towards Baicao City.
Not daring to move too quickly, he took three days to return to the martial arts school.
After returning to the martial arts school, he summoned Li Quan and Wang Lin.
"Master, your cultivation level..."
Wang Lin tentatively asked.
Lu Yan slowly shook his head.
Wang Lin and Li Quan were overjoyed, unable to conceal their smiles.
"Let no one else know aside from you two. Now is not the time to reveal it, understood?"
Lu Yan instructed.
If he revealed his breakthrough into the Marquis level at this juncture, it would be too coincidental. It might arouse suspicion from Li Wenxuan and Li Canglin.
By his choice, he wouldn’t even want to tell Li Quan and Wang Lin.
But as they were fully involved in the Jade Bone Tiger incident, they naturally knew what he was using it for. Hiding it would be difficult, hence it was better to tell them openly.
"Master, rest assured. If I leak a word, I’ll bring my own head to you."
Li Quan swore solemnly.
"So do I."
Wang Lin also gave his oath.
Lu Yan nodded, let the two leave, then consumed a piece of dried martial food, activated the Vajra Indestructible Skill, and converted Qi-Blood to heal his injuries.
Seven days later, his injuries were basically healed.
Soon after, a piece of news spread throughout the streets and spread rapidly.
A demon appeared in Nanyi County.
A spider demon.
Several small towns, thousands of people fell victim, becoming demon servants.
This news shocked the three Grandmaster Fuedal Lords and dozens of Marquis Level Fuedal Lords in Nanyi County.
Naturally, the news spread rapidly to other counties at an alarming speed.
A demon, a bizarre existence in legends. They were created from martial spirits undergoing transformation after three demonizing ceremonies, also known as spirit demons.
Once a demon appears, it’s a major disaster, causing havoc in the world, leading to the loss of countless lives and rivers of blood.
Every appearance of a demon is accompanied by bloodshed and slaughter.
Hence, upon hearing the news, the three Grandmaster Fuedal Lords in Nanyi County set aside grudges and planned to join forces to slay the demon.
Simultaneously, they sent messages to other counties inviting other Grandmaster Fuedal Lords to join forces.
When one fails, all will suffer.
As long as the demon has enough demon servants, it will quickly level up, and the demon’s domain will expand rapidly. If it annihilates Nanyi County, the other counties can’t escape either.
Soon, the lords of other counties responded one after another.
Feudal lords like Wei Family, Qiu Family, Liu Family, all put aside their grudges and sent their elites to help.
In Nanyi County, the response was even greater. Three Grandmaster Fuedal Lords and dozens of Marquis Level Fuedal Lords assembled five Grandmasters, more than fifty Marquis, and three thousand martial troops to encircle and annihilate the spider demon.
In a small town on the border between Snake City and Nanyi City, a major battle broke out.
After the battle, the three Grandmaster Fuedal Lords announced to the outside world that the demon had been strangled.
Countless people heaved a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, it was killed timely. Once it grows into a Grandmaster level, with its life force even stronger than martial spirits, it becomes difficult to kill.
"The world is getting more chaotic."
Lu Yan sighed.
First, there were consecutive appearances of martial spirits, then demonic entities from the Moling Mountain range attacked Dongshan County, and now a demon had appeared...
All these things, which hadn’t happened in Lingdong’s six counties for many years, were now happening consecutively.
Lu Yan smelled something unusual.
It seemed like a storm was brewing.
"I need to increase my power as soon as possible."
Lu Yan secretly thought.
Lu Yan consumed martial food every day. Without the Dao Book snatching it away, all was used to accumulate Qi-blood and convert it into bone strength.
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed since his breakthrough to the Martial Marquis level.
At this moment, the Dao Book finally started to change.
The light cocoon started to dim, and its volume started to decrease. Eventually, it got completely absorbed by the Dao Book.
The ancient Dao Book was suspended in his consciousness sea. Looking from the outside, it seemed no different from before.
But Lu Yan had a kind of epiphany. The Dao Book had changed.
His communication with it had become smoother.
It seemed he could control it at will.
Right away, Lu Yan consumed a piece of dried martial food, started martial practice. While practicing, he communicated with the Dao Book.
This time, the Dao Book didn’t snatch the martial food energy, and all the martial food energy was used to improve his cultivation level.
There was no repeated situation of snatching half of the martial food energy.
With a thought, all the martial food energy flowed towards the Dao Book, and the progress of the Bloodshadow Knife avatar began to increase again.
Fully in control.
A smile appeared on Lu Yan’s face.
Then, a thought struck him as he observed the martial arts avatars.
He had a feeling that these martial arts avatars, seemed to be able to exit, leave his sea of consciousness, and come to the outside world.
"Let’s give it a try."
Part of Lu Yan’s consciousness entered the avatar of the Vajra Indestructible Skill, then took a step out.
Light emerged from Lu Yan’s forehead, a figure rushed out and landed in the Practice Room.
"It really did come out."
Lu Yan was overjoyed.
This feeling was very peculiar, as if there were two of him, divided into two uses.
Bang!
The Vajra Indestructible Skill avatar moved, punching a copper man and causing it to cave in.
"Such incredible power, almost sixty per cent of my strength, this... this is like having another trump card up my sleeve."
Lu Yan was ecstatic.
Next, he tested it out and found that he could only control one avatar at a time to come out.
"I wonder if there’s a distance limit."
Lu Yan silently pondered before leaving the martial arts studio and going to a forest outside the city to release his avatar for testing.
In the end, he concluded that the avatar could only go a hundred metres from him at most.
Beyond a hundred metres, it would stand still.
"Pity, that’s too close."
Lu Yan sighed in disappointment.
If he could ignore distance, then the use of this would be great, tantamount to having a true avatar.
However, this was quite good too.
His combat power has greatly increased.
Even though the avatar only has sixty per cent of his strength, Lu Yan’s own strength is incredibly powerful, comparable to Martial Marquis Level Three.
Sixty per cent of that strength is enough to rival Martial Marquis Level Two.
When battling with an enemy, a sudden sneak attack by the avatar is practically indefensible.
"Seems like, my guess wasn’t wrong, the Dao book must have been damaged and needs constant energy absorption to repair itself. This time, it should’ve recovered a bit and is not that desperate for energy, so it doesn’t actively seize the energy, also it has the feature of letting avatars go out."
"So, as the Dao book continues to be repaired, will there be more features? Is it possible for avatars to be separated by thousands of miles? Or can I deploy many avatars together?"
Lu Yan suddenly felt extremely hopeful.
He withdrew his avatar and returned to the martial arts studio.
Next, it’s time to pay a visit to Qingyang City.
Now that the Dao book is usable, Lu Yan shifts his attention to first-rate martial arts.
The first-rate martial arts of the Zhou Clan in Qingyang City is the easiest to obtain.
Moreover, he wanted to bring the martial chefs of the Zhou Clan to work for him.
Without martial chefs to cook martial food, life would be tough. Now, he only had a little over fifty thousand silver left, and if he bought martial food for cultivation, it wouldn’t last long.
Additionally, he was about to start cultivating his own direct forces, which also required martial food.
Cultivating martial chefs by himself was too difficult, time-consuming, energy-consuming, and expensive.
If there were ready-made ones, why not use them.
Lu Yan’s plan was simple, first help Zhou Zhengkong break through to become a Martial Marquis, then kill the only other Martial Marquis of the Zhou Clan to gain control over the Zhou Clan.
In the past, he didn’t help Zhou Zhengkong breakthrough to the Martial Marquis because he couldn’t suppress him.
Now that he himself has become a Martial Marquis, even if Zhou Zhengkong broke through to become a Martial Marquis, he could still suppress him.
Conveniently, he also has a piece of Mutated Nine-section Heart Meat.
After summoning Wang Lin and Li Quan and giving them some instructions, Lu Yan set off for Qingyang City.
A day later, Lu Yan entered Qingyang City.
Soon, he discovered that there were many more martial artists in Qingyang City, most of whom he recognized as being from the surrounding Marital Marquis families.
Like the Ge Family of Snake City, the He Family of Zhuifeng City, they both had obvious characteristics, easily identifiable at first glance.
"Why have all these clans come to Qingyang City in unity? Could it be that Zhou Clan has caught another mutated beast?"
Lu Yan wondered.
Whether it is or not, he could ask Zhou Zhengkong to find out.
He went straight to the Management Mansion and met with Zhou Zhengkong.
"Come, let’s drink."
In the pavilion, Lu Yan and Zhou Zhengkong sat opposite each other, with five plates of different martial foods on the table, all colorful, fragrant, and delicious.
Lu Yan was in awe, as expected of a family of martial chefs, their recipes are indeed rich.
Unlike Liu Family, who eat the same two types of martial food all the time.
While for Lu Yan, he only knows how to make ’Yinuo Lizard Meat’.
Having eaten only these few types of martial food and Dried Martial Food for years, no matter how delicious they were, they were already sickeningly greasy.
"Cheers!"
Lu Yan raised his cup, emptied it in one sip, then picked up a pair of chopsticks made of golden thread wood, and bit into a piece of martial food, savoring it slowly.
"You seem troubled?"
Lu Yan suddenly asked.
"Ah, I don’t know whether to be happy or worried."
Zhou Zhengkong sighed.
"What’s happening with the Zhou Clan?" Lu Yan continued to ask.
"With the Ancestor of Liu Family breaking through to the master level, the surrounding Martial Marquis families are incapable of resisting and can only submit. Since Qingyang City is so close to Changfeng City, it can hardly escape this."
"Not long after pledging allegiance to the Liu Family, Zhou Hejian was recruited by the Liu Family to fight against the Qiu Family of Da’an County."
"But not long ago, during a confrontation with the Qiu Family, Zhou Hejian died."
At this point, Zhou Zhengkong paused.
Zhou Hejian was the only remaining Martial Marquis of the Zhou Clan.
