The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron
Page 25Chapter 25: Debt of Kindness Repaid
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Bam—
A fist and palm hit each other and a loud bang rang out, reverberating in the vast emptiness of the underground hidden chamber. Su Yu was repelled five or six meters back, a sour-sweet smell came up from his throat, his internal organs were jolted repeatedly. With the strength of this palm, he quickly tightened his embrace of the celestial beauty and leapt into the cave.
Fang Qingzhou was aghast! Though he'd repelled Su Yu, he had also been driven back three meters by Su Yu's punch. A dulled pain came from his palm. What a terrifying body!
The other person clearly was only a Level Three Peak but reached the strength of a Level Four Lower Tier with his physical body. Seeing how the other person was going to take his woman, Fang Qingzhou was enraged. With his Level Four Upper Tier's astonishingly fast speed, he rushed through the hold in a blink of an eye.
Just then, three of scarlet teeth attacked at the same time. Three bangs of explosions, with violent flames, engulfed Fang Qingzhou.
Fang Qingzhou yelled in pain and rolled three times before the flames were extinguished from his whole body. Not only were his clothes destroyed, his hair and eyebrows are almost completely singed. Several parts of his face were also badly burned. A handsome face that even women were jealous of now looked monstrous, extremely sorry and miserable.
"Argh! I'll kill you!" Fang Qingzhou snarled as he charged into the tunnel, the acute pain inciting his viciousness.
Taking advantage of the attack just now, Su Yu had already fled deep into the tunnel. He heard the faint snarl of Fang Qingzhou from behind. Su Yu's thoughts were grave, a Level Four Upper Tier's strength was truly extraordinary. It was hard to escape even with Cloud Shadow.
But, this tunnel was special, it contained the Jade Fire Marrow vapor, which had the powerful ability to scald the skin. Fang Qingzhou might not be able to catch up to him. Suddenly, the unconscious celestial beauty made a sound. Su Yu looked down, she was short of breath, her brow slightly creased, and her skin was slightly mottled with light redness. Too careless!
They'd entered a section in tunnel whereby the Jade Fire Marrow vapor was relatively thick. The celestial beauty, never having experienced the revitalization of the body, was naturally unable to bear it.
After some thought, Su Yu laid her on the ground and took out a sheet of snakeskin from his pocket. This was the fire dragon's skin; not only was it exceptionally hard, it also had anti-inflammatory properties.
This snake skin was obtained from that black market trader after the haggling over prices. After Su Yu's return from the black market, he had stitched it together, though relatively crudely. It could at least be considered a set of armor.
He quickly put them on the celestial beauty. The bottom half was like a pair of trousers, easy to wear. The upper half was cut as a jacket, even stitched with buttons. The entire form was completely modern apparel.
The celestial beauty had bestowed him the gift of the scarlet bow. She was someone he respected, no matter what. He should not do anything despicable, and even if it were only in thought, he ought to be ashamed. He silently chided himself. Su Yu quickly dressed her in the snakeskin armor, picked her up and swiftly went upwards.
As expected, he celestial beauty's pained expression gradually eased, and she was finally calm.
Fang Qingzhou could be heard screaming repeatedly behind them, suffering under the invasion of the Jade Fire Marrow vapor. Unable to keep up, Su Yu gradually pulled away even further.
One hour later, Su Yu made his way out from the tunnel. Immediately he found a few big rocks from the surrounding area and threw them into the tunnel to seal the opening.
Stuck in the narrow tunnel, Fang Qingzhou could not fully use his hands and feet. It was no small feat to break apart so many rocks. So, Su Yu carried the celestial beauty and leaped through the forest.
Half a day later, he found a hidden cave, laid her down, and then moved a few boulders to seal the opening, lest she be found and attacked by wild beasts while she was unconscious. After which, Su Yu quickly left to return to the training institute.
At the same moment, at the cave abode in the valley…
With the last rock bashed out, Fang Qingzhou finally emerged. His head and face were covered in dust and dirt, and his whole body showed signs of being scalded. His handsome face was thoroughly disfigured!
Searching around, Fang Qingzhou realized that he had lost them, and howled like a wild beast, "Bastard! Better not let me find out who you are. Or I'll tear you into pieces!"
Finally, the night came. The celestial beauty slowly awakened and touched her slightly sore head with a dazed look on her face. Slowly, she gradually recalled what happened and immediately checked her body. Fortunately, there was no sign of being violated, her chastity still intact.
Hm, snakeskin armor...
The celestial beauty tried to recall what had happened. Before she lost consciousness, she only remembered a masked white shadow suddenly emerging from the stone wall. Shooting two arrows, it seized her, and used some kind of explosive to beat back Fang Qingzhou. Then he knocked her unconscious.
"He saved me!" The celestial beauty analyzed this development start to finish. Her slender hands gripped tightly at the armor that she was wearing, her heart filled with unspoken gratitude. If he had not appeared in time, her only option would have been to cut her own throat to protect her innocence! Not to mention what unspeakable things Fang Qingzhou could do to her corpse after her death.
"Who is he?" To be able to deal Fang Qingzhou a hard blow, his strength must be very powerful. A ripple stirred the celestial beauty's calm heart. She urgently wanted to find her rescuer, to offer her thanks in person. Though the other person might not care, she wanted to convey her gratitude directly to him.
"Who are you, exactly?" the celestial beauty's beautiful eyes glittered.
Hidden somewhere 10 miles away, Su Yu found a safe spot to restore his strength. After breathing lightly for a while, he patted the scarlet bow on his back and felt lighter his heart.
"Celestial Beauty, on that day when I received your gift of the bow, I said I would repay you one day. Now that I had saved you today, consider my debt of kindness to you repaid." Su Yu smiled a little, closed his eyes again and continued to cultivate.
After 10 days, at the edge of the Twilight Mountains…
There was a glint of satisfaction in Su Yu's eyes. 10 days and nights of cultivation. It took other people 20 nights of cultivation to gain the insight that Su Yu could in one. So, for these 10 nights, he had actually been cultivating for 200 full nights!
Cloud Shadow, the light-body cultivation technique based mainly on comprehension, had already been cultivated to Stage Three Upper Class, only one step away from the Top Class! Now, his speed was as fast as a Level Four Upper Tier, and that was why could hurry back in 10 days.
And as for Tempest, which was a very difficult to comprehend medium level cultivation technique, he had successfully cultivated it to Stage Two Upper Class. Now, his leg technique would generate an ice-cold feeling.
There was little progress with Demonic Eyes; it was still at Stage Two Top Class. Lastly, he had been unable to make any headway with Purple Star Thunderbolt, which made Su Yu laughed bitterly to no end.
But unexpectedly, he was becoming more proficient at imitating the old man's finger technique from the mural. He was still miles apart from the old man's technique, there was inherently a unique style of rhythm. Su Yu vaguely felt that if he could comprehend the profound mysticism, his strength would be greatly enhanced.
At the break of dawn, Su Yu left the Twilight Mountains. Instead of going back to the training institute, he went to the market. He had the tiger skin of the huge barbed tiger, one fang from the fiery lion, and 3,000 silver taels worth of banknotes, enough to buy some useful objects.
The scarlet bow quality was quite good, quite handy to use in the meantime. The arrows, on the other hand, were not so impressive. He only managed to shoot a few inches into the flesh when he launched a strike at the fire dragon the last time. Ordinary iron arrows could kill wild beasts but it would be very difficult to kill demonic beasts.
Before that, Su Yu needed to deal with the demonic beasts' material that he had. Several of the materials could easily be sold safely, out in the open at the market.
Su Yu arrived at the Xianyu prefecture's largest demonic beast material shop. The shop was wide and spacious, congested with crowds of people. "Shopkeeper, will demonic beast material be accepted?" Su Yu went straight to the counter.
The shopkeeper lazily leaned over the counter, squinted and looked up and down at Su Yu to size him up. He was casually dismissed with a wave, "My shop does not accept these materials, you should go somewhere else."
Su Yu was stunned. He nodded and turned, shrugged his shoulders and softly muttered, "The huge barbed tiger's skin, the fiery lion's fang are worthless? Had better go to the black market, they should accept these."
The shopkeeper's old eyes flashed and suddenly widened. He quickly stepped out from the counter and uttered in disbelief, "You have such precious demonic beast goods?"
In particular, the huge barbed tiger, a category one demonic beast, was extremely difficult to hunt and kill. The martial artists usually only succeed after paying a heavy price.
Su Yu gave him a side glance and curled his lips as if to smile, "What, a moment ago you didn't accept demonic beast materials. The rules changed so quickly?"
The shopkeeper had looked down on Su Yu, who was experienced and could see through him. Now, he would make him work for it a little.
With a few dry laughs, the shopkeeper said, formal and courteous, "Pardon my humble self, my eyes failed me, young sir. Please kindly step inside and we can discuss the details."
Su Yu waved his hands, "Not necessary, the price just needs to be right." Su Yu did not have the energy to haggle over prices.
Su Yu nonchalantly tossed the barbed tiger skin and fiery lion fang on the counter for the shopkeeper. Within the city walls, as a student of the martial arts training institute, he was not afraid of others' jealousy.
The shopkeeper betrayed a trace of excitement on his face; A huge barbed tiger's skin, there was no market price! The fiery lion's fang was a rather hard to come by commodity.
"Tiger skin, 1,200 silver taels. Fiery lion fang, 500 silver taels. Total, 1,700, what do you say?" The shopkeeper gave a reasonable price. Su Yu muttered to himself and nodded his assent. The shopkeeper was overjoyed to deal with a person of such easy and forthright nature for such a large transaction, very rare indeed.
"Haha, fantastic! I really admire you, young sir! Let's see, I'll give you 2,000 silver taels for this deal. Next time, if you have top-notch materials, I would like to invite you to consider our shop for an item or two. I'll certainly buy at a high price."
Su Yu smiled his thanks, took the 2,000 silver taels worth of banknotes, and was about to break into a sprint and take off when fighting noises, traveled to his ears, sounding vaguely familiar.