Chapter 140 - Secrets Divulged (1/2)
Ziyun Era, Year 1229, December 25
Zhou Donghuang had entered the Connate stage and become a Connate-level practitioner!
After killing Xiang Xiong, Zhou Donghuang did not bother using any martial arts to leap onto roofs or vault across the walls to leave the Chu royal household. Instead, he arrogantly swaggered out of the main doors of the courtyard where Xiang Xiong and his royal consort had been.
To top it off, he kicked open the courtyard doors.
“Who goes there?!” the maid and guards who kept watch outside the courtyard shouted out in anger, but when they saw meter-long green rays of light emanating from the young man who stepped out of the yard, they were quick to keep their lips sealed. Instead, there was only fear in their eyes.
“Qi emanating a meter long— that is a true sign of a Connate-level practitioner who has just entered the Connate stage,” they thought.
“This young man clothed in white: is he really a Connate-level warrior?”
Zhou Donghuang took a quick glance at the maid and the guards and then turned and headed toward the main entrance of the Chu royal household, controlling the qi that was radiating from his body while he walked.
He was still trying to adapt to this newfound Connate state.
Even though Donghuang had experienced being in this state in a previous life, it was a completely foreign and new encounter to his present life and current body, and he definitely needed some time to adjust to it.
He could get used to maintaining the outward flow of qi quite quickly.
Therefore, as Zhou Donghuang stepped out of the gates of the Chu royal household, it was already apparent to most of the people in the vicinity that their master, the Chu king, Xiang Xiong, had been killed by a Connate-level practitioner.
And killed along with the king was the Chu royal consort, Fan Ji.
About half an hour later, in the main hall of the Chu royal household: “I have come back from Chuxiu Inn. The innkeeper witnessed with his own eyes the meter-long rays of green light radiating from Zhou Donghuang’s body when he returned to the inn.”
Xiang Donghua, the second elder of the Chu royal household, said gravely in response, “It has been confirmed that the young man who killed the king and the royal consort, and who so arrogantly strutted out of our palace a while ago was Zhou Donghuang!”
“He…has already entered the Connate stage?”
The look on Xue Meng’s face, the commander of the Chu royal city guards, changed dramatically at this moment.
“It looks like there has not been an appearance of a representative from the Valley of the Medicine Masters, and in all the border districts of the Sixteen Countries there is not one person who has been able to stop him!”
“Commander Xue, it looks like it has been two months since you last made your report at the royal household to tell them that His Majesty and the Valley’s Connate demon had been killed? In my estimates, a representative sent from the Valley would have been here by now, so why hasn’t he come?”
“Someone from the Valley of the Medicine Masters will come eventually. It is possible that they are not bothered about Emperor Yunyang’s death, but surely they could not ignore the fact that their Silver-Crowned Crane is dead.”
“I think so too. That Silver-Crowned Crane was not just the Valley’s only Connate-level demon, it was also the Head of the Valley’s personal mount for many years!”
…
The Chu royal household had intended the keep the death of their king, Xiang Xiong and the royal consort, Fan Ji under wraps. However, the number of people who already knew were too many, and soon enough, the news had managed to spread far and wide.
This sensational news stirred up all of the Chu royal city.
“Both the king and the royal consort died at the hands of that Zhou Donghuang?”
“Heavens! That young man, is he not worried that the Yunyang imperial household will hold him responsible?”
“The Yunyang imperial household? Didn’t he also kill the last Great Consummation adept of the Qi-Gathering that the Yunyang imperial household sent? Why would he be afraid of them?”
“It’s no wonder everyone says that he can make an enemy of an entire country, there hasn’t been any sign of a response from the royal household. It could be that they are very fearful of him.”
“The districts surrounding the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley and even the Valley of the Medicine Masters have refused to make a move. I’m afraid no one can stop him!”
“I hear that after he had committed the murders, shafts of qi more than a meter long were wrapped around his body as he left the royal household. Apparently he has entered the Connate stage!”
“The Connate stage? Him, a young man his age, entering the Connate stage?”
“A Connate-level teenager…that seems to defy the laws of nature itself!”
…
A teenage Connate practitioner. Never in all of the country of Yunyang, much less the surrounding districts of the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley including the Valley of the Medicine Masters, had there ever been an appearance of one.
And this young man’s achievements could be considered completely unprecedented in all of the surrounding areas of the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley.
Inside the Tang Family mansion, the head of the powerful and influential aristocratic family Tang Liunian wanted to immediately step forward with his congratulations when he heard that the young man had entered the Connate stage. However, after more serious consideration, he laughed bitterly as he decided to strike that idea.
“The Yungyang royal household must have no guarantee of being able to put him to task and that is why they are taking so long to send someone over. However, the champions from the Valley of the Medicine Masters, whose abilities have been called ‘strong like a forest, and unwavering under the force of the wind,’ I estimate should not take much longer to come and deal with him,” Tang Liunian said with a sigh.
At first, when the Yunyang family’s Emperor had died at the hands of Zhou Donghuang, news of this had been kept so tightly under wraps that even the aristocratic families in the Chu royal city were completely unaware.
They only thought that a Great Consummation adept of the Qi-Gathering had been sent from the Yunyang imperial household, together with a Petty Consummation of the Qi-Gathering beast, and both had been killed by the young man.