chapter 85

"Now we need to do is pay respects to the domain and we can turn back to the teleport gate. You are Nine Clouds Hou Zhigong disciple of Nine Clouds Purple Miasma, look proud!"

Hou then noticed they were moving towards a certain mountaintop. It was the tallest mountaintop there was.

It stretched from the stormy clouds below and pierced clouds above. Throughout the tall structure, certain islands were attached, holding various grounds.

There were large islands containing palaces and different institutions. However as Hou and Nine Clouds Purple Miasma were flying upwards, the islands changed and had large flat stone arenas.

"What are the flat areas of stone for?"

"Those are fighting arenas, they are used for high profile official spars and duels. One day you will have to fight there, it is also the location of the 100 year fighting competition of the sect. There's still another 50 years for that though."

"Will I be able to compete but then?"

"With your talent of previous traditional cultivation success, yes. But do not worry for that, you have plenty of time, right now we will summit this mountain. Right now there are thousands of eyes on us. Everyone is watching."

Hou nodded and sped up, body cultivating and letting out his Free Lark Technique more. Nine Clouds Purple Miasma saw this and sped up himself.

Finally after 10 minutes the two of them pierced the clouds. They were ordinary rainclouds, light and airy. As Hou flew threw them he became drenched in the rain and so he thought of something.

Leaving drenched would make himself seem weak, he should befit his title. Hou stopped his Free Lark Technique and kept flying only with his Cloudy Eagle Divine Wings.

To keep his face, Hou needed to stay dry. Hou had little techniques available but he knew he could use sun laws, and one expression of those laws was the heat!

Hou changed his impression of the sun, from the freedom of the Free Lark Technique to heat. Unbearable and exhausting heat, evaporating all the water on him.

Not fire but pure heat, he started to circulate his laws. His body cultivation technique had started and heat was generating. Starting small and only growing, Hou became hotter and hotter.

Finally in an ultimatum, Hou decided to split his attention. What was he doing this for? Face!

If he wanted to be seen as noble and strong, he shouldn't just do the bare minimum. Instead of only heat and arriving dry thought he clouds, Hou started to think of light.

The sun produced heat, and it produced light. Hou split his attention and mental energy, one side on heat and one on light. Then with a burst he was circulating both expressions of the law in his body.

As Hou pierced through the clouds, a bright golden light burst upwards!

***

Atop the mountain was a city, Sword City. It was home to those practicing under the sword district of the Nine Clouds Sovereign Sect.

As everyone was doing their daily life, there was an undercurrent of excitement. Today was the day that one of the other Elders, Nine Clouds Purple Miasma, would visit the city with his disciple.

Even though he was the weakest elder, he was incomparable to those living in Sword City. And they would be the first to see his direct disciple. Direct disciples would only ever be seen by the normal people very rarely, and this was the first time he came outside his district!

Although they needed to continue their work, everyone was distracted. Stalls and shops were working with disinterest. The whole city was only focused on the entrance.

The entrance of Sword City was a massive wooden gate. If one did not enter through that doorway, they would be rejected and attacked. Even elders needed to follow this rule, those who did not were attacked by the red lightning below.

The master formation experts who built the city had taken advantage of the unique environment to protect the city from any dangers. Although Elders could pass the red lightning, it would cost them and they would not so so.

Finally when everyone's attention was wanting a bright light occured. From the outside of the, city a massive flash of golden light was released. Not only that, a wave of heat passed through the barrier and affected those in Sword City.

Using various body cultivating techniques, those in Sword City looked into the distance outside the city gates.

In the sky was a handsome young man in an intricate white robe. The robe was completely covered in gold designs, and behind him was a pair of large eagle wings. The wings were trimmed with a golden-bronze trim and flapped elegantly.

The most striking thing though was his hair. He had bright pink hair with red tips. Then radiating from his form, a golden light. Almost burning the observer's eyes if not for techniques, the sunlight burst from the boy's body.

The whole city was in agreement, this was truly the direct disciple of an Elder.

"How wasteful! He's using so much laws just to show off!"

"This must be Elder Nine Clouds Purple Miasma's trump card!"

"How long has that Elder been waiting and training his disciple"

"But...he's still using a treasure?"

The whole city had been deceived. They had the impression that Hou was a secret disciple hidden and trained by Nine Clouds Purple Miasma for a long time. Little did they know that he was only just picked up a few weeks ago.

They also had another misconception, that Hou was using external cultivation to create this effect, when really it was body cultivation. External cultivation can create large effects but uses up the laws, while body cultivation is weaker but does not.

The reason for this confusion is Hou's body cultivation strength. Even Nine Clouds Purple Miasma was surprised, but not too much.

While Hou was new to modern cultivation he had multiple spirits. Spirits had a extremely large number of laws, in the modern day spirits....

...No longer existed. This meant that all these cultivators had relatively few laws and Hou, with Nine Clouds Purple Miasma's help with spirit stones, had a jumpstart with laws.

Hou had done this accidently, but he had expressed the laws with body cultivation at such a high level that it was mistaken as external cultivation.