The Eagle Demon then sternly said to the Water Deer Demon, “When we get back and the king asked, tell her that it was I who captured this person. You hear me?”
He had it all planned out. If the human captured by the Water Deer Demon was ugly, old and scrawny with no flesh on his bones, the king would not be happy at all, he would just blame it on the Water Deer Demon. But Shen Lian looked clean, soft and supple. At a glance, he was top grade ingredient, if the king and the honored guest enjoyed the meal then there most probably would be a reward. Naturally, he had the thought of seizing the credit.
Shen Lian can see that this Eagle Demon was the ringleader within this ground of lower class demon, his smell was much stronger than the Water Deer Demon. But he was still weaker than the demon king. Perhaps in order to make it through the shapeshifting and trials of the Divine Thunder, he got external help in transforming. It was not that all demons could pull through this ordeal, even those who had pulled through would be very fragile. It would be akin to meeting their predators when they met a cultivator or its own kind, they have a really slim chance of survival.
The amount of demon who could attain human form after the ordeal was still not as close to the amount of cultivators of Daoism who achieve Huandan state by themselves.
This was where the advantage of celestial and dao sect lies. After all, there are secret cultivation techniques, experiences from predecessors, and one could even ask for protection from the school when they encounter certain trials.
The Water Deer Demon flushed. As stupid as he was, he naturally gotten mad when faced with this bare humiliation from the eagle leader. At this moment, he has forgotten about Shen Lian, this dangerous cultivator. He was no opponent to Shen Lian so generally, he could not capture Shen Lian. It was just that he had boasted on how the king treated him with importance only to be looked down by the Eagle Commander, he felt extremely ashamed.
He finally shouted back, “Why should I?”
The Eagle Commander belted out in laughter, “Oh, how capable of you.”
His body shook and he transformed into a ten feet wide male eagle, he was imposing and impressive. This was true to the temperament of demons, to solve problems by fists.
The giant wings lightly fluttered and a strong wind howled. The Water Deer Demon was swept away by the wings in an instance and flew away like a thin piece of paper. He was thrown in a far distance and then he landed on the ground. He transformed back to his original form, a small eyed river deer with misty eyes.
The strong gust of wind disappear when it reached the front of Shen Lian, not affecting him in any way at all.
The Eagle Demon’s eyes were like hooks as he vehemently glared at Shen Lian. It was obvious that Shen Lian was playing a trick and it turned out that he was no simple human. The eagle demon generally was not afraid, his body froze mid air and then a strong pounce followed.
This pause and pounce had its reasons. While pausing at the same time, the Qi of vitality of the area immediately concentrates on his body, these Qi acts like a flowing shield and rushed out in large volumes. A path was cleared first and then like the cold iron claws, it emits a metallic shine and breaks through the air. Ever since the demonic beings could tap into the spirits, they absorbed the essence of the universe and interact it closely with the Qi of vitality.
Even though most demons did not have any spells, but there were many who could control their Qi of vitality through their instinct and their powers should not be overlooked.
Before the iron claws, there was an incoming wind barrier that was something like a great shockwave. Shen Lian trained his eyes on the Eagle Demon, not a sign of panic on his expression.
The shockwaves did not hurt Shen Lian as though it had entered into a shapeless hole. There were four forms to the usage of the Taixu Divine Qi, there are ‘sheng’, ‘ke’, ‘zhi’ and ‘hua’.
With Shen Lian at the entry level now, he had already gotten the formula for ‘hua’. If it was not any intricate and deep spells, to him a normal attack was like the light breeze caressing the mountains, where it does not decrease the height of the peak; and it was like the moon shining over the river water, not leaving a mark.
That was the ten percent mana of the Taixu Strategy, which began to carry the meaning of ‘untouchable by many spells’.
Of course there were different levels to the ‘hua’ formula. If the highest state was achieved, then it was truly a behavior where no manner of spells could be touched, one was independent of the mortal world and was a system by himself.
Shen Lian was serene, with his fundamentals in martial arts, even if the pounce of the Eagle Demon was fierce and vehement, there was still some abstruse element to the trajectory. But a majority the martial art moves by humans were derived from the trajectory of flying birds and both land and water animals, which at the same time, the brilliant individuals could come up with counter moves to it. The Eagle Demon would not have thought that the survival and hunting method used by him had been thoroughly studied by mortals.
Shen Lian lifted his hands, and as though with no bones, a black brilliance flowed on his hands. It was like a hidden dragon coming out from the deep, it was hard to explain and abstruse. With a simple grab of his hand, his hand was like the waving tail of the magical dragon, it could actually bypass the eagle demon’s metal claw and it caught hold of its ankles.
There was no smoke and fire to this turn of events as thing folded out naturally. Simultaneously, he covered his hand with Gang Qi with the Taixu Divine Qi. The strength in his fingers were soft but because of the firmness and tenacity of the Gang Qi, its power was good. The strong wind from the Eagle Demon’s iron claw did not even touched Shen Lian one bit.
Once the Eagle Demon was caught, there was a wave of Qi of vitality on Shen Lian’s hand that attacked the demon’s vigor, it was unstoppable like a rolling flood.
Next, a paper talisman appeared on Shen Lian’s other hand and he stuck it to the forehead of the demon. The Eagle Demon came back to the ground, immobilized.
This talisman had the strength of the mountain, it was as though the eagle demon was being crushed under a giant rock, not being able to move.
The method used by Shen Lian just now was called the “The Dragon Claw of the Dipper’s Handle”. It was created by this senior from Qing Xuan, who once saw a real dragon ride up from the water into the sky while he was travelling. He studied its movements and came to an epiphany. Even though the hunting method of the eagle was formidable, how could it compare to that of a true dragon?
That was why when the iron claw came with such ferocity, Shen Lian was able to resolve it.
But Shen Lian did not really captured to essence of the The Dragon Claw of the Dipper’s Handle. He only copied it with his own Taixu Divine Qi. It should be said that that senior had extraordinary achievements and established the “Lingbao Dragon Scripture” with his own Dao techniques of Qing Xuan. For an above average Huandan technique to achieve longevity, to practice this, one had to be good in alchemy, hand formulas and talismans. Even though Qing Xuan was one of the seventy-two devil techniques out of the one-hundred and eight techniques, its difficulty was not any worse than the Dipper’s Handle method. Of course, it was still a long stretch compare to the Taixu Strategy.
Originally, this Dragon Claw of the Dipper’s Handle would be put together with the rubbings of the Lingbao Dragon Scripture. It would be placed in the second floor of the Taiwei Pavilion, accompanying the portrait of that senior. For reasons unknown, it was placed at the first level where Shen Lian was able to find it.
The mysterious arts of Daoism was mystical and not fixed. Even the demon eagle could not have imagined and also could not have expected that someone like him, who was second to the demon king, would be so easily taken down by Shen Lian.
Just now, the technique used by Shen Lian had an unspoken huge prestige to it that made him cower in fear. After all, the dragon was the head of the beast and was the closest to Dao by birth, since Shen Lian used the Dragon Claw of the Dipper’s Handle, it impacted him on an emotional and mental level.
Mount Chui Ping was called Mount Chui Ping for its own reason. This mountain was not especially tall but its formation was connected and verdant green pines was what the eyes could see, like a green screen, hence the two words ‘Chui Ping’.
In front was a mountain cave and not far away was the cliff of the mountain. On top of the mountain was an incomplete palace, as though it had stopped construction halfway. Nearby, there was a curtain of waterfalls cascading down, adding a means of quiet seclusion to the cave.