"Congratulations, my friend, for having such a talented disciple!" exclaimed an extremely light voice, sounding weak and soft.
Ji Hao stood up, looking where this voice came from. Under an old pine standing over ten zhang away from Ji Hao was a middle-aged man, looking like a Daoist priest. This man had bared his feet, his long hair hanging loosely on his back, and was leaning against that old and towering pine while looking at Ji Hao and Yu Yu. This man seemed so weak and torpid as if he had never had enough to eat.
This man was sallow and scrawny, and the long shirt made from a coarse cloth worn by him seemed to be hanging on his skeleton-like boney body. The shirt fluttered every time a gust of wind blew across. A bamboo staff was held in his left hand, and sparsely scattered thin bamboo branches on the staff had been swaying all the time, with around ten bamboo leaves attached to them. This bamboo staff looked the same as its owner, sallow and withered to an extreme point, like a flat tire.
Yu Yu coldly stared at this middle-aged man without saying anything, while this man looked at Ji Hao and praised in a soft voice, "Truly is a gifted disciple, a marvelous disciple! He's not even a hundred years old, yet in terms of cultivation and power is now equal to those who have been severely cultivating themselves for over a thousand years!"
Ji Hao raised his eyebrows. After a lecture and all the work done by Yu Yu, was he now truly equal to those who had been severely cultivating themselves for over a thousand years?
His soul was now visualized and enabled to leave the body and travel freely, Additionally, neither could the void gale nor the scorching sunlight harm his soul. Ji Hao knew that this should be quite a high level, but what he didn't know was to achieve this level might cost some people over a thousand years of severe cultivation.
Yu Yu put his palms on his own knees, slightly patting on them while he said in a cold and bland tone, "I cultivate my own disciple, what does this have anything to do with you?"
He then turned his palm over, conveniently grabbing out that earthen jar of wine which was brought by Ji Hao earlier. He pulled the plug open and poured a whole mouthful of wine into his own mouth. After gulping that big mouthful of wine, Yu Yu satisfyingly wiped the corners of his lips, looked at that middle-aged man coldly and barfed, "This young disciple of mine is capable, he is treating me very nicely, and is so smart and talented. So I am happy to cultivate him, make him better and better! What do you mean by saying all that c*ap? Envious of me? Or jealous of my sweet disciple?"
Ji Hao and Po each threw a glance at the earthen jar held in Yu Yu's hand, then gave a glance at each other and showed the whites of their eyes simultaneously — 'Shifu, what about quitting drink for three days? Is your fast broken already?' thought Po and Ji Hao.
That middle-aged man slightly shook the bamboo staff held in his hand and said with a sorrowful face, "I'm not envious, neither am I jealous… I'm sad. With the great power of you, my friend, it is totally reasonable for spending some efforts to cultivate him… but those poor disciples of mine…"
As the man wielded his bamboo staff again, Ji Hao saw countless hazy silhouettes of that bamboo staff swiftly pressing towards his face, layers and layers, along with a terrifyingly enormous pressure. Ji Hao's body quivered, and suddenly the world in his eyes turned into pure darkness, unable to see anything anymore except those hazy silhouettes of bamboos all over the space.
Despair. Boundless despair struck Ji Hao's heart. Except for this, all of his emotions, the joy, anger, sadness, and happiness, and all his perceptions were cut off completely.
Under such an overwhelming and intense despair, Ji Hao's newborn, primordial spirit instantly flagged, seeming to be defeated and dispersed by this endless despair.
A furious roar burst out, followed by which, a shrill sword scream woke Ji Hao's primordial spirit up. Next, that seemingly boundless ocean of hazy bamboo silhouettes surrounding him shattered and dispersed. Ji Hao hurriedly opened his eyes, and only felt that his whole body was now sticky. He was already soaked in sweat.
Yu Yu was holding a flawlessly clear stream of sword light, chasing after that middle-aged man while crazily hacking him with it like a fierce, mad tiger.
The look of that middle-aged man was solemn. He was moving around in a complicated way and in a rhythmed pace. His body swayed from left to right and dodged those seemingly random attacks violently launched by Yu Yu with that fierce sword light, over and over again. His movements seemed slow, yet contained unspeakable mysteriousness.
One chased while the other one ran, one dodged while the other one hacked; the two of them swiftly moved around in this zhangs in radius area.
Ji Hao only took one single glance at these two people, and all of a sudden, he felt innumerable immense stars from prehistorical ages roaring down right towards his face and in complete disorder. The immeasurably great amount of unknown energies instantly stuffed his primordial spirit, even bursting his primordial spirit open and squeezing a stream of blood out of his mouth.
Every single seemingly straightforward and random move made by Yu Yu and that middle-aged man contained inexplicably great, mysterious universal energy. With Ji Hao's current power, he couldn't even withstand a slight trace of the aftertaste of the mysterious universal energy released from a minor move made by them.
Ji Hao hurriedly turned his head around, not daring to look at any movements made by them.
The two of them chased and ran for the time span of three to five breaths. Abruptly, Po, who was standing by the side, gave a deep and short growl. His body flashed across the air and appeared beside that middle-aged man, following which he quietly and swiftly launched a heavy punch with his right hand, striking out like a giant, bronze hammer.
Watching Po launch this punch, Ji Hao couldn't help but widely pop out his eyes. From Po's move, Ji Hao faintly saw a trace of Sky-Opening.
However, this punch made by Po was not as mysterious as Sky-Opening taught by the mysterious man. Instead, many of Po's very own apperceptions and inspirations regarding the natural law were added to his move which generated another kind of mysteriousness, making his move different from Sky-Opening.
Boom! As Po's fist swished through the air, the heavy punch launched by Po struck on the middle-aged man's shoulder.
The man's sorrowful look finally slightly changed. A trace of rage grew on his face while he swung his arm backward, bashing towards Po.
Po snorted coldly, showing no sign of dodging; instead, he launched another simple and straightforward punch right against the man's move. After a loud, muffled boom, that middle-aged man remained standing perfectly still while Po slightly trembled, taking three steps back in a row.
Ji Hao popped his eyes even wider in shock. 'Is brother Po this powerful?!' thought Ji Hao.
Facing a palm attack launched by that man, who could evenly fight against Yu Yu, Po had only taken three steps back!
Puff! After suffering a punch from Po and launching a palm move back at him, the man's smooth movements finally showed a slight flaw. Yu Yu's long sword swung down and next, the left sleeve of that man was sliced open. A foot-long rip appeared on his sleeve. Moreover, the bright sword light brushed against his wrist, leaving a half-inch long slash.
Having successfully harmed that man, Yu Yu put the sword back into the sheath and stepped backward. He held both of his hands in his sleeves and gave a series of a cold sneer.
That man looked at the wound on his wrist with a concerned look. The skin and flesh near his wound had a smooth and glowing luster, like a colored glaze, and an exotic lotus aroma had been spreading out from the wound. He slightly sighed while the wound on his wrist healed quickly, without leaving even a since trace.
"Haven't been hurt in a long time." the man puffed his seemingly soft chest outlooked at Yu Yu and said with narrowed eyes.
"I can hurt you even worse," said Yu Yu while grinding his own teeth and chuckling; his ten fingers flicking quickly inside his sleeves as if he had a cramp. "You know, I have an old habit… my hands get itchy a lot!"
That man instantly fell into silence. After quite a while, he glanced at Po, sneered coldly and said, "You two, a Shifu and a disciple, you hurt me by combining your powers… that is nothing."
Yu Yu gave a bigger grin, blinked his eyes and looked at that man viciously and provokingly, "Good… Me and my disciple, Po, together, and you go gather eight or ten of your own disciples… Let's have a good fight! Whoever loses the fight will have to crawl back to their dojo with all four limbs on the ground… what do you think?"
The man remained silent for another while. He glanced at Po with a complicated look, then said with his symbolic long face, "No one amongst my disciples is capable of beating Priest Po, I think we don't need to bother to try."
Yu Yu gave a big grin, even showing his white and shining teeth while said, "Come on, give it a shot. How can you be so sure? Perhaps, someone among your disciples has abruptly attained a soaring improvement. Probably, for someone among them, even I cannot be a rival, right? Why not? Just give it a try."
The face of that middle-aged man became more and more. He slowly, coldly glanced at Yu Yu, and said in a bland tone, "Let's head to the business!"
Yu Yu took back that big grin of his and similarly responded in a flat tone, "Speak out!"