Chapter 127: The Essence of Kingship
Translator: Mike Editor: Chrissy
Chu Feng knew that his body constitution was drastically evolving. He even thought that the changes came too violent and swift! Almost in the blink of an eye, it felt as if his body had been liberated from some forms of constraints. He felt light and nimble; his god-like instinct became even sharper; and his five senses had never been so incisive!
His body was glowing like a sun. Chu Feng felt as if that his entrails were burning and that his skin was about to be ripped apart. Eye-piercing brilliance penetrated the skin through the pores, looking almost as if a bomb was about to be detonated inside him.
That long and golden hair of his danced in the wind as astonishing golden rays were ejected from his golden pupils. In terms of appearance, Chu Feng was nothing short of a demonic god.
Everything felt placid and pleasing. The air felt soft, and the wind felt delicate. Vital substances of life danced in the air. The pore of his skin opened to allow these substances to enter. Golden mists were pouring down from the resplendent flower, and this too was absorbed through his skin.
This process felt peculiar and strange. It felt almost like a rebirth. Chu Feng felt liberated. For him, the past life felt as if it had been spent entirely inside a bottomless swamp; but now, he felt that he had broken away from that swamp and had been able to breathe the fresh air again! He felt free and natural.
"Is this how all the beast kings feel?"
Chu Feng bowed his head in meditation while clenching his fist. He felt as if a sacred stove was burning an immortal column of fire inside him. The fire gave him heat, power, strength and the vitality of life.
He could pierce through a two-inch iron wall by just whimsically wielding his fist. There was no need for him to summon the tiger and the dragon form of Xingyi 12 forms in order to deliver such a power.
The amount of strength inside him was unlimited. He felt strong and violent, fearless and potent!
If he ran into Huang Yun and Kong Lin right now, he wouldn’t choose to run. He would stand firmly on his ground and fight to the bitter end. He had mastered the power of a beast king. He could now feel and understand the essence of kingship!
Moreover, his god-like instinct was much sharper than those two!
Chu Feng was in fine mettle. He looked down at himself, and finally he could see the inside of himself. His entrails were entangled with a few strands of light. Those strands looked almost like a bundle of chains shackling him to something else.
"I feel like I’ve shaken off my shackles and freed myself from the spiritual swamp, but now it seems like everything has only just started." Chu Feng came to realize that he was yet to be entirely liberated.
Even after he shook off the "shackles" and struggled his way to land on "dry lands", the "shackles" were still being tied up to his entrails. He was still not a free man.
This was the so-called "yoke". One day, he would have to overcome them!
Chu Feng started to make sense of everything. Those so-called beast kings were all tied up to "shackles". Although few could match their might and power, they were still spiritually constrained.
The beast kings themselves all knew that there were still roads to travel and things to be done in order to break off from the "shackles". They could never be "carefree" until the shackles were gone!
Awakening. Shackled. Carefree. These were the three realms!
Chu Feng could now understand the meaning of each of these three realms. The names suggested its meaning, clearly and distinctly.
The shackles inside him could only be discerned after the god-like instinct grew powerful and effective. The shackles had a riot of color, one color for each region, and each region consisted of its own unique force.
These shackles, however, were undiscernible for an ordinary person!
God-like instinct could capture the trace of the force that flowed within the shackles, and then it would trace out its shape.
Chu Feng attentively studied the shape of the shackles. Were people born with the spiritual shackles? Why did they look just like the physical shackles that were seen in everyday life? These shackles locked the important parts of the human body, tightly holding them in place.
"I’m on the same level as a quasi-king. I need to break off at least one single shackle in order to accomplish a thorough breakthrough."
A quasi-king was only slightly inferior to a beast king. He might not be as fast in terms of speed, or as incisive in terms of instinct, but in other areas, Chu Feng was just as mighty and powerful as a beast king!
Chu Feng bowed his head in meditation. He breathed rhythmically at a pace that was in synchronization with the rhythms specified by the special breathing technique, then he suddenly thrusted out his limbs; he was trying to cast off the shackles!
Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed. He tottered and staggered, and he almost took a tumble. With his god-like instinct, Chu Feng could see the multi-colored shackles inside himself. The shackles were brightly shone as they were acting together to suppress him.
The shackles tightened. His body still felt locked in place.
The brightly-colored shackles seemed to have been made of some form of sacred gold, tightly locking him in place, incapacitating him entirely.
Chu Feng admitted to himself that he was being greedy. To get rid of all the shackles was sheer fantasy at this stage. He had to be patient, or things might work against him to punish him for his greed.
Chu Feng did not get impatient about it; instead, slowly and steadily, he calmed himself down. He was still breathing at a rhythmic pace. Right now, to get every bit of pollen absorbed through his skin was what he needed to prioritize over anything else. The pollens had perhaps the greatest benefit to his body.
The huge flower on the tree was still pouring down trickles of golden mists, but the mists were becoming fainter and fainter until it was not enough to thoroughly surround him. His skin had absorbed most the pollens that were discharged earlier.
Only a few plumes of mists were left to be absorbed. Chu Feng opened his mouth and swallowed everything down his throat. Up to this point, Chu Feng felt perfectly content. Every single bit of catalyst had been taken in. Nothing was wasted.
On the golden tree, that flower began to wither away. The petals still looked golden, but the color was pale. When the wind breezed by, the petals shrivelled then slowly drifted down.
But in the middle of all the withering petals, a fruit was slowly forming!
Chu Feng tried not to pay attention to the fruit. He stood still with both of his eyes closed. He tried to make sense of all the changes that had just taken place inside him; in the meantime, he was still trying to break away from the shackles.
"I have the might and power to do what I’m capable of is mostly thanks to the special breathing technique. My fist positions and my boxing styles were established on top of that. So maybe I should first let my arms break away from the shackles."
His body was tied up to the chains, but this had little to no effect on the power that his breathing technique could exert. However, if he could "liberate" one of his arms, the power of his fists would drastically improve!
He gazed at his right arm. There, a silver chain was running along the length of his arm.
Chu Feng carefully directed the flow of force inside himself. His chest felt surging with power, and his hands felt puffed up with strength! And when this was coupled by the special breathing technique, suddenly, his body was glowing with brilliant light. Rays that shone dazzlingly bright burst out of his body like the glow of a rising sun.
His right arm was burning like a scorching sun, giving this misty region a heavenly glow!
If this were seen by the beast kings, they would be startled and shocked.
Because to cast off the confinement of shackles required time. Usually, one would have to stay as a quasi-king for an extended period of time before he could move on to be a king. During this time, he would have to practice and consolidate all the newly-acquired powers in order to a lay a solid foundation for further evolution. This process was vital in many ways.
But Chu Feng wanted to press on to the finish without let-up. He wanted to become a king right here right now. He had no time to wait.
"PONG!"
Suddenly, his right arm burst into a dazzling beam of silver light. It felt as if something had erupted. Chu Feng tottered and staggered; he almost took a tumble.
Chu Feng looked cheerful. He succeeded!
Suddenly, he could feel that his body had become even lighter. His right arm, especially, had been inundated in a sea of silver. A mysterious strand of force congregated in the blood vessel of his right arm, then this mass of energy was carried by the blood to circulate throughout his body. He felt nourished and nurtured.
"Huh?" Chu Feng seemed to have been taken aback by something. He realized that the so-called silver shackle had been somehow degraded into a stream of liquid, flowing freely inside the veins. It had become a mass of energy. It flowed into the flesh, acting as some sort of supplement to nurture his body.
Right now, his right arm was like a glowing medallion in the utter darkness.
When everything finally settled, Chu Feng clenched his right fist and wielded it in the air, but suddenly, with a bang, it puffed out an unquenchable flame of silver fire, blazing like a silver globe.
"This is…" He was surprised, but soon he realized that he had unlocked a magic power.
Each time a creature cast off a shackle, a magic power was unlocked
Chu Feng remembered that during the fight with the Ash Wolf, the beast had once tried to cast off a shackle just before his death. In doing so, it wished that it would be granted with a magic power that would allow it to reach the state of nirvana. However, it did not succeed.
"What is my magic power?" Chu Feng was eager to find out what he was capable of. When he gently moved his fist, it became surrounded by a scorching flame; it was a flame could melt gold and stones!
And when his fist was being fiercely wielded, the flame evolved into an eye-piercing ray. The ray darted forward like a bolt of lightning. This ray proved its power by showing that it could penetrate all kinds of substance, let it be trees or giant boulders.
The magic power was very much the source of might and power of a beast king.
Back when the Ash Wolf was severely injured, only three percent of what it used to be capable of was left inside it. The magic power it possessed was the ability to move sand and stones, but during the fight, its injury prevented it from using its power for an extended period of time. Otherwise, Chu Feng would have no ways of defeating it.
"Light. Flame. Lightning. These powers are bright and hopeful," Chu Feng murmured to himself. Meanwhile, there was also a visceral smile on his face. He was happy because the power granted to him was indeed something that would come in great use in battles.
His fists formed into the positions of Yixing 12 Forms. His right hand formed in the dragon shape, then suddenly, a silver-white dragon soared into the air. It was a truly horrifying sight to behold.
While Chu Feng was left dumbfounded by the sight, he was very suspicious as well. "Does the ancient martial arts always require the supplement of a magic power to exert its full potential?"
Then, his fists formed into the positions of Demon Ox Boxing Style; Chu Feng wielded his fist, perturbing the air with the strength of his fists. Suddenly, a glistening yak appeared out of the void. As it lunged forward, its trampling hooves shattered the earth. It was a terrifying sight to behold.
BANG!
There were a few giant boulders standing a few meters away from Chu Feng. They were all over ten meters tall, but the yak crushed and shattered them all.
Chu Feng now understood where the true power of a beast king lay!
"Awakening. It is only the stage where we begin to see the light. Shackled. It is the realm where once we break free, the potentials that lay beneath our skin would be fully unleashed. One could only be a king once he had had a thorough grasp of what he is capable of then fully exert it!" Chu Feng said to himself.
This is the essence of kingship!
Meanwhile, the golden tree had borne a golden seed. The seed shone like fire essence of the sun, golden and resplendent. It was a dazzling sight to behold.
The golden tree began to wither away until at last, only the seed was shining. The seed had drawn every bit of essence and vitality from the mother tree, and it was getting more and more gorgeous and splendid.
Chu Feng was astounded because he could see the shape of that seed. It looked completely different from what a seed should look like. It shaped like a little dagger, rather than a spherical ball.
The "seed" was only an inch long, but if it could grow any bigger, this seed would become a blade-less heavy sword!
"Is… is this even a seed?" Chu Feng was flabbergasted. Was it even possible to have anything growing out of this "seed" ever again? Chu Feng was truly speechless.
PUFF!
At last, the entire golden tree had rotten from the tip to its root. It became dust and ashes, then it was brought away by the gentle breezes.
This was quite a short sword. It had fallen to the ground. Golden luster was trickling down the spine of this little "sword".
Chu Feng picked it up and weighed it in his hand. This seed felt even heavier than some of the metals. What on earth was this? A seed or a weapon?
"A seed!" Chu Feng said to himself with confidence after carefully examining this little piece of mystery in his hand, because he could still feel the thriving vitality of life that was flowing inside this thing.
It was hard to imagine the shape of the plant that this seed could become. Things looked rather unusual.
He gently ran the seed along the surface of a stone, and a scratch instantly became visible on the stone. The seed was too firm and solid.
Chu Feng was not quite worried about damaging the seed, because Yellow Ox had tried to eat the seed before and it ended rather horribly for the calf. Yellow Ox took a solid bite on the seed, and it almost took out the calf’s teeth. Although the seed might look insignificant, it had a lot of power buried under its innocent appearance.
"Could this seed be used as a flying sword?" Chu Feng questioned.
Right now, he was a bit inclined to believe the rumor that a seed could grow into a man after being buried underground. …
"Please bring me the Fairy of the Ninth Heaven next time please," he murmured.
Inside the stone box, there lay the other two seeds. One of them looked black, shrivelled and pathetic, while the other looked brown and oval, looking as if it had been squashed.
The black seed seemed to have got a bit angry. Chu Feng’s god-like instinct had made it possible for him to sense of the mood change of this inanimate seed.
"Alright!" Chu Feng went a bit wild with joy.
The first seed had brought him all kinds of pleasant surprise, so the remaining two might prove to be even more astonishing. But maybe, Chu Feng supposed, these two might be a lot pickier than the first one in terms of incubation environment.
As long as these seeds were not "dead", the opportunity was still there. One day, Chu Feng would somehow resuscitate the other two seeds and cultivate something out of them.
Chu Feng put all three seed inside the stone box. He carefully wrapped up the box and picked up the windbreaker that he had thrown on the ground. He turned around from the site and walked with big strides. Then, he suddenly sped up his pace to see how fast he could travel.
Suddenly, he felt as if he had broken through the barrier of air; in the blink of an eye, he had travelled more than a few hundred meters. Loud bangs exploded behind him. He had broken the sound barrier!
Three hundred and eight meters in one second!
This was the normal speed of a beast king. Normally speaking, those who had reached this level could all travel at the speed of sound. Such swiftness set a lot of requirements on a man’s physical body. An ordinary man would not be able to endure the force he experienced as they travelled at such great speed. They would have their own muscle ripped and flesh torn apart, turning them into a pile of mince.
Chu Feng could feel the power and might that had been granted to him. He felt confident. He faced due north, looking into the distance. It felt almost as if he could see the city of Shuntian through the dense fog around him. It’s time for revenge!