Chapter 244: Xiao Yun
Ju Shoufen and Jia Wenhe had managed to construct a make-shift water system, which directed the water from the reservoir to every house's water tank via pipes. They also made a drainage system, which released excess water to the moat outside the city.
The goblet treasure also got more powerful as time passed. Ten minutes after Cao Mao had dropped the diluted pill water into the cup, it now produced 10 liters of water per second.
The power of the cup was so fierce that the center of the pond bubbled and occasionally sprang water to the sky as if there was a natural fountain at the center of the reservoir.
Jia Wenhe and Ju Shoufen were astonished by the phenomenon. As the fountain was too eye-catching, they immediately placed a concealment array to cover the pond to hide the pool.
It would take a while before they could finish their maintenance job here.
…
Meanwhile, Ma Moxi had returned and reported his finding to Cao Mao.
Upon hearing the number and the rough strength of the red orcs, Cao Mao's face darkened. He looked at Ma Moxi, asking for an assurance, "Do you think that your grandfather can defeat them like he defeated 10,000 demons in the past?"
"I haven't seen his fight in person, so I don't know. But if we have multiple 7th-stage cultivators on our side, I think we have a shot."
Currently, Ma Ping and Zhao Bao were the pillars of this city. But soon, Jia Shan should be recovered from his previous injuries, and they would join the main fighting force. As for Mao Xueyan, Cao Mao didn't know what she would do, so he chose not to include her in the list of the available fighting force.
Three 7th-stage cultivators were on their side, which should be reassuring. However, Cao Mao's right eyebrow twitched when he thought about cooping inside the city and protect the city behind the walls.
Something had told him that staying in the city was not the solution to the potential crisis.
Cao Mao needed more information, "Do you know what they're planning?"
"So far, the orcs seem to be very organized. The short orcs without clothes worked at the backlines, but the bigger orcs with battle gears have formed ranks and gathered at the outer perimeters. Some of them went out to scout the north and the east. They haven't sent their troops south, though. I don't know why."
"Oh? They are ignoring south?"
"Probably. I don't see any soldier platoon or guards facing south. They totally focus on the north and the east."
Cao Mao rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought. Then, he decided to take another gamble.
"We'll ignore the orc army and cultivate! Moxi, go back to your house and eat the divine pill. You need to get stronger ASAP!"
"Roger that! But, what if they attack us when we're busy cultivating?"
"If they are intentionally avoiding the confrontation against us, they might not actually plan to invade us any time soon since Qiang Sui, Liu Bian, and other powerhouses should still be around. They are probably too busy dealing with those guys and they don't want to spread their army too thin."
"… I get the picture. They want to concentrate on the current obvious enemies first without provoking another force. But how do they know that we're not with the others?"
"I don't know either."
"But how did you come up with this theory?"
"It's just a hunch."
"…"
Though reluctant, Ma Moxi acknowledged Cao Mao's order and entered a closed-door training, so he could eat the pill and get stronger.
Cao Mao also picked an empty storehouse to be his temporary resident. He, too, would eat an immortal-grade pill that he had made.
He sat down and took out a mutated pill from his spatial ring.
'The pill was made from the discarded skin of the fused divine hearts. It should increase my strength, too, right?'
Cao Mao closed his eyes and thought of the earlier pill-making incident. He had made the divine pills out of impulse as he was on the verge of dying from the gold element Qi poisoning.
At that moment, he had thought that if he were to die, he should at least try his best to survive first. If it didn't work, he could confront King Yama with pride that he had done everything he could.
Fortunately, Cao Mao succeeded in making the pills with everybody's help. Moreover, he didn't even need to pill to overcome the gold element Qi poisoning.
Ding
[Your [Flashback] has resonated with Heavenly Fate Fragments.]
[Your physical strength, cognitive abilities, and innate potential will be boosted for 10 minutes.]
'Whoops!'
Cao Mao scratched his head and had a wry smile on his face as he unintentionally used his plot armor. He forgot that he could simply activate his plot armor by thinking of what he did in the past that led to the present.
'Oh, well. I wonder if Buddha's blessing and my plot armor's buff stacks…'
Cao Mao shrugged and popped the immortal-grade pill in his mouth.
…
RUMBLE
Later that day, four Heaven Eyes gathered above Siren City, looking at the people, who had consumed the divine pills.
Ma Moxi, Mao Xueyan, and Jia Shan had already consumed their pills and were in the middle of digesting the divine beast's power.
Jia Shan's wooden house was clouded with black, white, and blue gas after the nascent soul of Jia Shan and the soul of Divine Black Tortoise merged together. An illusive dao avatar of a giant black tortoise with a porcupine shell, made of various treasure swords, appeared over the house.
On top of Ma Moxi's house, an illusion of a tall pagoda building with the Azure Dragon coiling around it manifested. The house also shone in a green light, and the leaked blue gas contained dense wind element Qi.
At Ju Shoufen's house, which had been designated as the beast girls' temporary resting place, Mao Xueyan managed to recover her adult human form. Her manifested dao avatar, which was previously a white tiger, gain a pair of wings. It roared and flew in a circle above Ju Shoufen's house.
These anomalies indicated that the three had broken through. In addition, they gained a new power.
Ma Moxi's cultivation base jumped from early 4th-stage to late 4th-stage. He had also condensed three seas of essence, and he was in the middle of condensing more seas.
Three of the four eyes descended toward them, bypassing the defensive arrays of Jia Wenhe and Ju Shoufen with ease. These Heaven Eyes decided to give Ma Moxi, Mao Xueyan, and Jia Shan a Heaven Tribulation as they had consumed something that broke the limits of this world.
Each eye unleashed their tribulation lightning of various colors toward the three. Yet, Ma Moxi, Mao Xueyan, and Jia Shan didn't resist. They braced the impact in an old-fashioned way!
The last Heaven Eye gazed at its colleague in solemn. Then, it turned to the other divine pill, which hadn't been absorbed yet.
It descended toward the unused pill, planning to destroy it.
…
While three Heaven Tribulations had started, Zhao Bao gazed at his three disciples, hesitating if he should eat the pill himself or give it to one of them.
"Haiz," Zhao Bao couldn't decide.
"Master!" Xiao Xin stood in front of Zhao Bao with bright eyes, "Are you going to eat that?"
"No. I'm planning to give it to the abbot. Why?"
"Isn't it a waste to give it to someone else? That bastard has given to you, so you should be the one eating it!"
"Don't call your benefactor a bastard. Haven't he taught you enough?"
Xiao Xin bore a grudge against Cao Mao for what he did in the auction theatre. Although it taught him that he shouldn't think highly of himself, Xiao Xin didn't appreciate the lesson.
On the contrary, Xiao Xin saw Cao Mao as a nemesis, aka someone he needed to defeat in the future to erase the previous humiliation. Only when he could defeat Cao Mao, he could call himself the Chosen One again.
Zhao Bao could see through Xiao Xin's character, which was why he was disappointed in this disciple.
The elder turned toward Xiao Fei and Xiao Yun, who behave themselves, sitting cross-legged and cultivating in earnest after eating Cao Mao's immortal-grade pill.
These two disciples revealed their potential as their cultivation base and their physique kept improving. Yet, they never arrogantly behave like Xiao Xin. They continued being humble despite having a promising future.
Xiao Yun and Xiao Fei had reached the 10th level of bone refining realm after eating the pills. Moreover, their dantians stopped using yang Qi, but they began to store Life Qi and Life Essence from the tower directly.
Meanwhile, Xiao Xin couldn't digest the immortal-grade pill properly. After eating it, only his yang Qi increased, but his body rejected the other pill effects, such as basic element Qi affinity and Life Qi affinity.
This former beggar had reached the pinnacle of his potential at his age. He would need to take a few years to refine his constitution and physical abilities before he could digest more Qi or get stronger.
Most importantly, Xiao Xin hadn't been aware that his cultivation base was now the same as his two peers. Yet, the others rapidly got stronger while he got stuck at a bottleneck.
Zhao Bao felt bad for Xiao Xin. He believed that Cao Mao had become his heart devil, so his progress had been hindered. But in exchange, he stopped acting like an arrogant young master, who thought of himself as the Chosen One.
'This is a steep price to pay to save one's life. At least, Xin'er won't get himself killed because of his brashness, but his cultivation life is forever ruined.'
Feeling pity for Xiao Xin, Zhao Bao had the urge to give this disciple the divine pill, but he restrained himself.
Spoiling this egotistic youth would negate what Cao Mao had done. Xiao Xin would surely return to his arrogant-self after he had gotten stronger.
"Xin'er, you haven't thoroughly digested the pill. Go back and cultivate like the others. You don't have to worry about me."
"Tsk! Okay."
Xiao Xin got back to his seat and focused on feeling the residual energy in his stomach.
Zhao Bao was relieved that Xiao Xin still listened to his instruction. At least, the boy should still be teachable.
As the monk was about to store the pill in his spatial ring, the Heaven Eye unleashed its tribulation lightning at Zhao Bao!
"Humph!"
Zhao Bao's dao avatar blocked the lightning with ease. He also managed to store the pill inside the ring before the lightning Qi got to the pill.
Yet, the Heaven Eye glared at the ring and commanded its lightning Qi toward the ring. As soon as a branch of electricity slightly grazed the ring, it forcefully ejected every item that Zhao Bao had stored inside.
Zhao Bao was shocked since it was the first that he had realized that the Heaven Eye could command his ring. Moreover, his spatial ring was one with a lock feature, which required his blood and his Qi signature.
Still, it was not the time to be shocked. Zhao Bao grabbed the divine pill to protect it. Instead of attacking the Heaven Eye, Zhao Bao tossed a handful of essence cores and set up an anti-lightning array to protect the children.
The Eye now focused on Zhao Bao. It gathered lightning Qi, charging its energy from bright yellowish color into red, planning to obliterate everything inside the house, including the children.
At that moment, Xiao Yun opened his eyes and grabbed his sky-grade spear. He thrust the spear at the giant energy eye by reflex.
"YUN'ER, NOOO!!"
A 2nd-stage child would never stand a chance against a heavenly law protector of this mortal world. Zhao Bao reached out his hand to pull Xiao Yun back.
But he was too late. Xiao Yun's spear grazed the energy eye.
The Heaven Eye glanced at the rabbit boy and sent a bolt of red lightning toward Xiao Yun in retaliation.
BOOM
The youth's heart and dantian were burnt to crisp. Moreover, the lightning left a giant hole at the center of Xiao Yun's body.
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