Chapter 148 - The Second Elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters

The old man stared ferociously at the youth, and once he spoke, it was a steady stream of questions.

Of course, while he was asking his questions, his gaze subconsciously betrayed an expression of dread.

A Connate-stage youth.

Someone of this level had never appeared before in the history of the Valley of the Medicine Masters.

Because of this, he was deeply afraid that the youth before him was from somewhere that was more powerful than the Valley of the Medicine Masters. That level of power was not something that the Valley of the Medicine Masters could afford to provoke.

“Who am I?”

Zhou Donghuang looked the old man over, and glanced at the young lady who had just struggled to her feet with difficulty and was staring at him vengefully with a look of loathing. “She knows best who I am, why don’t you ask her?” he said casually.

“Oh?”

The old man heard and looked at the young lady. “Young Mistress Dandan, you know who he is?”

“Of course I know!”

Chen Dandan gritted her teeth and said, “He is from the country of Yunyang.”

“Moreover, he is someone born and bred in a small town in an inferior-level prefecture of the Western Ridge of the Chu king in the country of Yunyang …he is someone I grew up with.”

“Elder Li, you don’t have to worry, he has no personal background, only good luck that he has this level of practice at nineteen years of age.”

As Chen Dandan finished her speech in a single breath, everyone present, including the old man, sank into a deathly silence.

Now all the disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters had come over and joined the crowd.

So after they fell silent, the entire training grounds was so quiet that if anyone had thrown a needle to the ground, they would have been able to hear the needle clearly.

After a moment, a disciple of the Valley of the Medicine Masters regained his wits, and exhaling a breath of cold air, asked, “It can’t be possible …someone from somewhere so small, attaining the Connate stage at only nineteen years old?”

“In the history of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, wasn’t the youngest Connate-stage adept more than thirty years old?”

“Sister Dandan has no need to lie to us.”

“I also believe what Sister Dandan says. It’s just that, it’s so difficult to imagine, how could someone from such a small place achieve this level of practice at such an age?”

“Someone from a backwater like that, attaining the Connate stage at nineteen years of age …unless he had some fortunate encounter!”

“Even a treasure left behind by a supreme Connate-stage adept would not allow him to do this. Unless it is …a Primal Core adept!”

…

As the crowd of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters debated among themselves, their gazes, filled with burning desire, very quickly fell again on the youth.

Who would not want a treasure left behind by a Primal Core adept?

Even an adept who had attained the supreme Connate stage would be interested in a treasure left behind by a Primal Core adept, because it would affect the possibility of them smoothly attaining the Primal Core stage and becoming a Primal Core adept!

“A Primal Core adept?”

A flicker of despair crossed Chen Dandan’s face, and she looked at the youth again with intense jealousy and hatred.

In that instant, she understood completely.

That was why this martial invalid of the past was suddenly able to practice and attain the Connate stage in two short years!

It was because he obtained a treasure from a Primal Core adept.

Moreover, he probably obtained it not long before she left the Magnolia Guild of Qingshan town.

No wonder he could defeat the guild master of the Sunset Guild Hong Yue, a level-one adept of Qi-gathering, with one punch. It was because he had already obtained the treasure left behind by a Primal Core adept by that time.

Now there was a sliver of regret in Chen Dandan’s heart.

If she had known earlier, she would have left the Magnolia Guild later, and might even have managed to snatch the treasure left behind by the Primal Core adept from the youth’s hands.

“If I had been able to snatch the treasure left behind by the Primal Core adept from his hands …now it would be me instead of him who attained the Connate stage!”

At this thought, Chen Dandan looked back at the youth with an even more intense look of hatred and jealousy, while at the same time bitterly regretting that she had not been able to snatch the treasure left behind by the Primal Core adept before leaving the Magnolia Guild.

“A treasure left behind by a Primal Core adept?”

Even as an elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters and an early Connate-stage adept, the look he gave the youth was full of greed.

He was now eighty-one years old. With his martial talent, there was no hope of the Primal Core stage, and he had at most twenty or thirty years of life left.

However, if he could obtain the treasure left behind by a Primal Core adept, he would have the chance to attain the Primal Core stage and become a Primal Core adept, and the upper limit of his life would be raised to three hundred years.

At this moment, he dearly wished to take for himself this treasure left behind by a Primal Core adept that the youth had obtained.

In the midst of all that was going on, the old man made a decision. “Although he is also an early Connate-stage adept, he might not necessarily be a match for me …even if he can fight me to a standstill, I am entirely capable of discussing privately with him the possibility of fleeing with him from the Valley of the Medicine Masters before Second Elder arrives.”

“He only needs to agree to share the benefits left behind by the Primal Core adept with me.”

The old man was clear that even if the treasure and benefits left behind by the Primal Core adept obtained by the youth were to fall to the Valley of the Medicine Masters, he would not receive a share of it, given his position in the Valley of the Medicine Masters.

Just as he was not worthy of practicing the first-grade techniques in the Valley of the Medicine Masters.

Only the senior leaders who were at the middle Connate stage and above were worthy of practicing the first-grade techniques in the Valley of the Medicine Masters.

Swoosh!!

Acting on his thoughts, the old man’s legs flickered, and seemed to transform into something sinister. He rushed towards the youth like a shadow, extending and withdrawing his arms as he formed his right hand into a fist and launched it forward.

Qi exuded from the old man’s body for a foot or more, deeper than the qi that Zhou Donghuang exuded, making it obvious that he was at a higher level of practice than Zhou Donghuang.

In any case, faced with the ferocious onslaught of the old man, Zhou Donguang looked calmly at him, the qi within his body not stirring, his white clothes fluttering in the wind.

“This Zhou Donghuang, why …”

Many of the disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters saw the youth seem to be daydreaming and were beginning to wonder what was happening. Before they could complete their thought, they saw the old man reach Zhou Donghuang, qi gushing from his fist as he threw it at the youth, like a pale blue comet flashing past.

Crash!!

Just as many onlookers felt that the youth was about to be struck by the old man, there was a loud sound, and the only thing they saw was qi pouring out from under the youth’s feet, over a meter of it, and with a flicker of his legs, his whole person rose up two meters into the air.

In that instant, the crowd of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters was dumbfounded.

Before their very eyes, Zhou Donghuang seemed to be stepping on a ladder made of thin air, stepping two meters into the air, his whole body light as a bird.

“First-grade swiftness technique?!”

As the old man’s fist connected with the air, his eyes widened, and he could not help crying out.

His cry seemed like a stone causing a thousand ripples, shocking the crowd of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters one by one into expressions of shock. “Is it really a first-grade swiftness technique?”

“We were wondering what kind of fantastic technique this is? So it is a first-grade swiftness technique. We understand now.”

“Although the Valley of the Medicine Masters has first-grade techniques, those few first-grade techniques do not include swiftness techniques.”

…

Just when the crowd of disciples of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, including Chen Dandan, realized that what Zhou Donghuang had demonstrated was a first-grade swiftness technique, Zhou Donghuang, who had risen into the air by stepping on the Cloud-scaling Ladder, landed at that moment right behind the old man.

In the moment that it took the old man to turn swiftly around, Zhou Donguang had already calmly pushed out a palm, the abundant qi accumulating like waves before the eyes of everyone present, meeting the old man’s hastily thrust palm.

This was the first-grade technique, wave-stacking strength.

Two layers of qi, each a meter thick, collided like a dazzling burst of fireworks.

The next moment.

“No—!”

Following the old man’s panicked shriek, the stacked waves of qi easily extinguished the qi from his fist.

Ka-chak!!

There was the sound of bones breaking, but it was the arm that the old man had used to attack Zhou Donghuang that was cleanly folded backward, with the old man’s shriek accompanying it.

Crash!!

Still shrieking, the old man’s body flew backward, crashing heavily to the ground, fresh blood spurting from his mouth.

“Elder Li …is defeated?”

“This Zhou Donghuang’s qi is obviously not as concentrated as Elder Li’s, but he was able to defeat Elder Li with one blow from his palm. Could the palm technique he demonstrated also be a first-grade technique?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Among techniques of the same grade, swiftness techniques are the most valuable, and this Zhou Donghuang has a first-grade swiftness technique that even the Valley of the Medicine Masters does not have. How is it strange that he has other first-grade techniques?”

“It seems this is a technique left behind by the Primal Core adept!”

…

The old man’s defeat was unexpected by everyone present.

However, everyone present looked at Zhou Donghuang with an even more intense look of desire, as though looking at an invaluable treasure.

Swoosh!!

At the sound of a swiftly onrushing wind, the gaze of everyone at the training grounds was directed in unison up into the sky.

There they saw an enormous flying demon rushing at great speed towards them, reaching the air above the training grounds in an instant.

This flying demon was was a completely greenish-gray giant condor, and its fully outstretched wingspan was easily ten meters, making it impressive and intimidating.

This giant condor was another of the Great Consummation flying demons in the Valley of the Medicine Masters, a green cloud condor.

It was also the mount of the second elder of the Valley of the Medicine Masters, Chen Tianhe.

“Father!”

At that moment, Chen Dandan raised her head and looked at the figure on the back of the green cloud condor which was circling in the air with bloodshot eyes, shouting loudly, “Your daughter’s level of practice has been destroyed, you must avenge her!”

“Descend.”

When the middle-aged man standing on the green cloud condor with his hands clasped behind his back heard Chen Dandan’s cry, his stormy expression immediately became even darker, as though it was about to drip water.

At his command, his legs giving the back of the green cloud condor a shake, the green cloud condor flapped its wings, landing slowly on the training grounds, raising a cloud of dust as it landed.