712 A Surprising Encounter and the Identity of the Fierce Owl (1/2)
Becoming a Level Eight Individual Immortal at the tender age of 25!
What kind of phenomenon was this? Even the direct descendants of this large well-known family like the Jia Family could not have such uninhibited strength!
”Is this guy some sort of monster?”
In the Infinite Star Sea and the 14 macro worlds, only a handful of men as young as Zhou Bao possessed the strength of a Level Eight Individual Immortal, but they were almost all elites in their own macro world, the future governors of those macro worlds, as well as the best candidates of Realm Lords. However, what about this Jia Qingping?
He was just a disciple of a collateral branch of the Jia Family. Although the Jia Family was quite a large family, when compared to all the well-known families in the macro world, they were merely at the secondary level and below. Then, how was it possible that this family had fostered such a monster?
”Is he not a disciple of the Jia Family?”
This thought flitted across his mind but he refused to think about it anymore. Whatever Zhou Bao's background was, it had nothing to do with him. The only thing he needed to do was to follow Zhou Bao's orders and lead him to the Hidden Treasure.
”Good. Now that Young Brother Jia has displayed such impressive powers, our strength should be enough!” Taking a deep breath, Jin Yao's face regained its normal color. He put the box holding the Psychic Jade Talisman back into his space and led Zhou Bao out of the coral cave.
”The Hidden Treasure is located near Yongmai Star. That is the territory of the Lee Family, so we'd better be careful!”
”The Lee Family?” Zhou Bao was a little stupefied, but soon realized that just like the Jia Family, the Lee Family was also a relatively powerful family in the Infinite Star Sea. Each of these powerful families had carved out a separate niche as their own territory and ruled the area like a district king. This kind of action was often taken by families that were not quite prosperous in the 14 macro worlds. But anyway, keeping a stretch of land for their own family was always a wise move, and that was how the situation was with the Lee Family.
Even though they were just a secondary well-known family in their macro world, having the ability to own such a remote land suggested that they actually had some powers.
”It doesn't matter. The Lee Family is merely in control of this place. If we do not create any trouble here, there should be no problems, right?”
”Of course!” When he heard Zhou Bao's words, Jin Yao felt relieved. He was worried that being young and aggressive, this Zhou Bao would despise the style of the Lee Family and start a conflict, which would result in drawing attention to themselves.
Three days later, Yongmai Star.
Zhou Bao had an ugly look on his face, while next to him, Jin Yao displayed a wry smile, but he felt relieved at the same time.
”Well, you should have known that this Lee Family was not a decent family, even from before, right?”
”The reputation of the Lee Family is well known in the entire Infinite Star Sea!” Jin Yao laughed sourly. ”It's just that I never thought you were not aware of it!”
”Of course I have never heard of them. For all this time, I've been focusing on my practice in the Infinite Star Sea, so why would I care about these trivia!”
”The Lee Family's greed and irascibility are second to none in the Infinite Star Sea. Rumour has it that it is because they inherited part of the bloodline of the Evil Dragon in antiquity times. But if that's the case, they should have long become a first-class well-known family within the Milky Way Star Area. How could they be reduced to the level of a secondary family as it is today!”
”You do have a point. But I was also trying to avoid any trouble at that time. Otherwise, I would have beaten them to death!” Zhou Bao said indignantly.
”Fine, fine. Now that this matter has passed and we didn't suffer much loss, let's just go. The Hidden Treasure is on the vast planet just ahead of us!”
The vast planet was actually a gaseous planet.
Due to the density variations, the volume of a gaseous planet would normally be several times more that of an ordinary planet, and so too with this gaseous planet. But in comparison, this planet was not a place suitable for practice, thereby no practitioners would deliberately travel to it. Accordingly, this kind of star did not even have a name.
This planet was not far from Yongmai Star, for they were both located in the same galaxy. When Zhou Bao came into the vicinity of the planet, he instantly raised his eyebrows, because he sensed that though this gaseous planet was pretty normal and the pneuma on it was quite common, among all sorts of gas surrounding this planet, the essence of the world, which was the only one useful to practitioners, was hundreds of thousands of times thinner than that in Heaven Realm World. This meant no one could practice martial skills on it, and that was why practitioners never favored this kind of gaseous planets.
Hence, the possibility of having a Hidden Treasure on this planet was extremely low. Since there was little pneuma, no lasting inhibition could be cast there. Without magic formations or inhibitions, it would be rather easy for others to discover the Hidden Treasure.
”There is a peculiar spacetime inside, and the Hidden Treasure sits right in it!” As if he understood what Zhou Bao was thinking, Jin Yao explained hastily. ”This spacetime is very strange. You can't spot it from the outside. But if you're lucky, you may run into it and discover it. I guess it was by pure luck that those practitioners happened to find this Hidden Treasure.”
”How odd this is!”
Hearing this, Zhou Bao was intrigued. His powerful spiritual sense reached out like an intangible tentacle and explored every corner of this nameless gaseous planet. Sure enough as Jin Yao had said, nothing existed on this gaseous planet except for this scarce and useless gas.
”That bunch of guys was really weird. Why would they want to come to this gaseous planet?”
”That's beyond my knowledge!” Jin Yao gave a forced smile. Yes, not a single practitioner would have any interest in landing on such a poor planet. But why did those practitioners come to this planet in the first place? No one could possibly answer that question.
”This planet is not easy to locate, either. But I've been here once, so we won't have any problem finding it!” Jin Yao concealed his spirit and started descending onto the gaseous planet. Zhou Bao scowled slightly, but plummeted down as well.
Although this was a gaseous planet, there were still some obstacles in their way. In fact, there were quite a number of obstacles. Most of them were in the form of violent storms, some of which had thunderbolts and even some space fragments within them. Zhou Bao was not afraid of these things, but Jin Yao was walking on eggshells now because he knew that if he should be sucked into those storms, there would be nothing left of him.
Nevertheless, Zhou Bao was not worried for Jin Yao, for he saw that Jin Yao had a pretty good protective celestial device, which would work in this circumstance.
Jin Yao strode forward with immense caution, casting furtive looks at Zhou Bao from time to time. The more he observed Zhou Bao, the more astounded he became—Zhou Bao followed him with ease, not even trying to elude any storm or thunderbolt at all. He allowed those storms and thunderbolts to hit him. If he were an ordinary guy, he would already be dead. But now, he was behaving as if nothing had happened. Those storms and thunderbolts that hit him were not absorbed by him, nor did they bounce off him. Instead, they just disappeared inexplicably.
Anyway, Jin Yao had no way to figure out what Zhou Bao was doing.
At this point, Jin Yao started to regret messing around with this mysterious guy. But by now, he had already gotten himself into this predicament.
”It's here, just ahead. Look at that spacetime!” After several moments, Jin Yao and Zhou Bao arrived at their destination. ”Look, they're still there!”
Taking a careful look at the place, Zhou Bao felt an unexpected shock as well. There was a spacetime, but it was not well concealed. Its spacious passageway was lying blatantly in front of him. It was such a conspicuous Space Passage, but he could not spot even a bit of it from the outside even though he was so close to it a moment ago. It was only when he stood in front of it and witnessed its appearance that he did ascertain that this thing before him was a real Space Passage, leading to an unknown spacetime.
”Snake-like Breath Holding Skill! The state of this spacetime has the same effect as my Snake-like Breath Holding Skill. How funny it is!”
Despite his current strength, phase, and knowledge, Zhou Bao still could not figure out how this spacetime had managed to escape detection.
”Interesting!” Through that Space Passage, he saw clearly that six Individual Immortals with varied cultivations were trying to break through a huge iron gate as if there was something appealing behind the gate.
”These are the guys who sold the devices to you?”
”Right, it's them!” Jin Yao replied with certainty.
”What on earth are these two doing in the Infinite Star Sea?” Zhou Bao murmured to himself. It turned out that among those Independent Practitioners, two of them were Zhou Bao's family members—one was his son, the other, his daughter. He recalled telling those two to travel around and have a change of scenery, but how could they travel to the Infinite Star Sea? That was really messy!
”You know them?” Although Zhou Bao muttered under his breath, Jin Yao could still hear him.
Zhou Bao shot a fierce look at Jin Yao. Without pausing to explain, he sent out an intimidating thought right at this Individual Immortal, which threw him into an instant coma. Then, Zhou Bao waved a hand and tossed Jin Yao out of this gaseous planet, letting him land onto a desolate planet. When he woke up, he would forget every detail about meeting Zhou Bao, he would not even remember there was a man named Zhou Bao. As for the Psychic Jade Talisman, Zhou Bao had erased its characteristic Dharma power and spirit marks. Now, Jin Yao could easily refine it, which was the little compensation Zhou Bao offered him.
”Da*m it! Why is this gate so hard to crack? Big Brother, maybe, we should use that thing!”
In this unknown space, Zhou Qing, who had struggled for days in front of this gate, finally could not bear this anymore and started communicating with Zhou Mu by divine thoughts.
”No. Father told us that thing should be used to protect ourselves, and should not be displayed in front of others. We're in the Infinite Star Sea now, not Heaven Realm World. If we take that out, others may covet it. Then, we'll be in trouble!”
”But—”
”No 'buts'. I definitely won't use my Pure Yang Celestial Device, let alone the fairy weapon. What's more, just look at this gate, I'm afraid even that thing won't work on it!”