Heavenly Jewel Change

As the blue bolts of lightning crackled and twisted like snakes, causing a series of explosions in the sky. Due to his confidence in his Blink Skill, Little Four did not manage to react in time, and his entire body was enveloped in the blue lights right after being wrapped by the black tentacle, shocking him til his hair stood up as if he had been fried, as white smoke rose from around him.

At the same time, Zhou Weiqing’s second arrow reached him. This time, Little Four was unable to react due him being controlled. Without any other option, he could only use his skills defensively, and a small and exquisite looking shield appeared in front of his chest, and a layer of silver light also shone forth around him. At the same time, he struggled to break free of the black tentacles.

With a huge explosion, the Overlord Bow’s arrow had a powerful piercing strength, added to its inbuilt explosive capabilities, the silver light around Little Four shattered. The strangest thing was that his body seemed to freeze, and the little shield and the wings behind his back both disappeared, and he plummeted down from the skies.

At nearly a height of a hundred yards, if he really fell down, it would definitely kill him.

These two arrows of Zhou Weiqing’s might seem rather simple, but in truth there were many profound subtle secrets and foresight hidden behind them. When Little Four flew into the air, Zhou Weiqing had already guessed that he would have some sort of escape or dodging powers. As such, his first arrow had been imbued with two area of effect (AOE) skills.

One was of course the AOE skill, the Touch of Darkness, and the other was his only AOE attacking skill, Thousand Lightning Strikes. Both were not very powerful, but their strength lay in their large area of effect.

As expected, Little Four had an evasion skill, and it was even Zhou Weiqing’s favourite Blink skill. However, even the Blink skill was not sufficient to bring him out of the range of the Touch of Darkness’ area of effect, and he had been caught and bound at the edge. The next Thousand Lightning Strikes had then hit him, and although it wasn’t sufficient to even harm him a little, it had numbed him for a split second, causing the Heavenly Energy in his body to lose control for a short time.

That short period of time was more than sufficient for Zhou Weiqing’s second arrow to reach him, and both effects combined were more than enough to cause Little Four to be unable to dodge it, and could only block it. However, by that time, no matter what defense he put up was already pointless. That was because that second arrow had been imbued with two Absolute skills – Absolute Delay and the Heavenly Lightning Shock. The Absolute Delay would ensure that Little Four would remained controlled even if he managed to break free of the Touch of Darkness, while the Heavenly Lightning Shock would instantly break the Consolidated Wings and Shield that he was using. Men were not birds after all, and without the wings, no matter how powerful Little Four was, he would be helpless in midair. His genius plan of flying into the sky had been great, but ultimately been his downfall.

Lin TianAo sighed before taking action, and in a flash, he reached the bottom of Little Four’s falling body. With a wave of his right hand, he caught Little Four’s body, accepting the force of the fall on his behalf and protecting him.

Naturally, Zhou Weiqing did not try to stop him. By this time, the victor was clear.

Everyone’s gaze turned to the Overlord Bow in Zhou Weiqing’s hands, and besides Shangguan Bing’er and Lin TianAo who knew the truth, the rest of them instantly thought that the miraculous two arrows that Zhou Weiqing had shot forth was likely effects from this Consolidated Equipment Bow. None of them had expected Little Four to lose so easily, so quickly… it hadn’t even been three moves… to be accurate, he had lost in just two moves!

Drunken Bao’s jaw had dropped by now, his mouth gaped open large enough to fit an apple, his eyes bulging from their sockets. Crow was rubbing her eyes in disbelief, as if trying to reassure herself that she was not having visions. As for Xiao Yan, his brow was furrowed as he studied Zhou Weiqing, as if deep in thought.

The effects of the skills on Little Four vanished by now, although his hair was still standing up from the lightning strike, giving him a strange appearance.

Zhou Weiqing released his Overlord Bow, smiling as he said: “Thanks for giving way, I never expected my luck to be so good, Senior Little Four actually knew I was an archer, and flew into the air to become my target.”

Lin TianAo helped Little Four to his feet, who stared dazedly at Zhou Weiqing. Jumping up suddenly, he cried out angrily: “I was tricked, I can’t accept such a loss!” Everything had happened so quickly, and he had not even used any of his power before losing. He wasn’t even clear about how he lost, how could he feel convinced by the loss. After all, this was to do with his lifelong freedom!”

Right at that moment, a deep and powerful voice rang out from the main building. “TianAo, why are you all still standing around instead of leaving? Did a fight occur?”

The voice gave them a rather intangible feel, seemingly coming from all directions. Everyone could clearly hear it although it wasn’t shouted, and could sense it came from the general direction of the main building, but could not tell its source.

Hearing the voice, a notion popped into Zhou Weiqing’s mind as his eyes swirled around their sockets, and he made a quick decision.

“Senior Little Four, just now we were just playing some jokes on each other. Let’s hurry up and get a move on. Look, your academy teachers are already angry.”

Little Four started, and Drunken Bao also recovered his composure. “Joke? What joke?”

Zhou Weiqing laughed heartily and said: “I was saying, that bet earlier was just a joke. We still have to attend the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, how can we let such matters affect our relations, after all we have to work together for the next three months. Leader Lin, shall we move out then?”

Seven surprised gazes fell upon Zhou Weiqing as everyone fell silent in shock. After all, that bet was clearly Zhou Weiqing’s win, yet under such a circumstance he had chosen to give it up? Drunken Bao and Little Four were some of the most talented and outstanding amongst the Heavenly Jewel Master Academy students, and at their ages reaching Lower Level and Mid Level Zun Stage respectively, how could anyone possibly give up such Followers? Yet, Zhou Weiqing had done so!

Zhou Weiqing shrugged and said: “Why are you all staring at me? I’m just speaking the truth! I’m just a student, why would I need a Follower now? I was just itching to try my hand earlier, and I was indeed just too lucky. In terms of real power, I am definitely weaker than Senior Little Four. This matter is over then, although we did swear an oath, but I can release you both from your oaths. Leader Lin, what are we still waiting for, let’s go!”

Hearing Zhou Weiqing’s words, Drunken Bao and Little Four felt as if they were lucky survivors of some disaster. Even though Little Four had jumped up earlier and shouted out that he couldn’t accept such a loss, his heart had already sank to his stomach. After all, he knew inside he had lost, and with both sides having taken their oath, and with the fair Lin TianAo as the judge, he knew he had no choice but to become Zhou Weiqing’s Follower. Who knew that Zhou Weiqing would suddenly release them from their oaths. In that instant, both Little Four and Drunken Bao had an embarrassed look on their faces, as they remained quiet.

Lin TianAo looked deeply at Zhou Weiqing before nodding and said: “Alright, let’s move out then.”

As the eight of them headed out of the Heavenly Jewel Master Academy, each of them were still immersed in the events of the past few minutes. No one could understand what Zhou Weiqing was thinking.

In his heart, Zhou Weiqing gave a cold laugh. The real reason he had changed his mind was because of the sudden voice questioning them. That voice had given him a chill, not only letting him feel how unbelievably powerful that person was, definitely not someone he could handle, and also given him a reminding jolt of where he was right now.

This was the Fei Li Empire, right in the middle of the Heavenly Jewel Master Academy! In this place, there were the most outstanding and powerful Heavenly Jewel Masters of the entire Empire, and even more so, the Skill Storing Palace Master, the Principal of the Heavenly Jewel Master Academy!

Clearly, their fight had drawn the attention of someone powerful, and if he insisted on making Little Four and Drunken Bao his Followers, they would have to remain in the school for quite some time. If any teachers, or worse, the Principal, came to investigate what happened, would they allow it to continue? For their Academy’s most outstanding students to become someone else’s Followers, who could stand for such a thing to happen! Even if Zhou Weiqing really managed to get the two of them as Followers, it might have future repercussions. Most importantly, Zhou Weiqing was afraid that Lin TianAo’s situation might be found out. In his heart, even adding both Little Four and Drunken Bao together, they were nothing compared to Lin TianAo in his heart. As such, he would not risk it being found out and disrupted just to gain two Followers.

Another reason was of course because of the Heavenly Jewel Tournament. If Little Four and Drunken Bao became his Followers like this, perhaps the relations between the eight might become strained, and definitely affect their unity and teamwork. Drunken Bao and Little Four might even be affected adversely and not be able to perform in fights. That was something Zhou Weiqing did not want to see.

Although these two Heavenly Jewel Masters were powerful and talented, in Zhou Weiqing’s mind, their importance was much less than Yun Li, let alone LinTianAo. Besides, no matter how important they were, he did not want to risk his Alexandrite Cat’s Eye Jewel being discovered by anyone else.

After all, the Touch of Darkness and Thousand Lightning Strikes were very obvious skills, and it might lead to the discovery of him having the Darkness and Lightning Attributes. If he continued staying in the academy grounds, who knew what else might be discovered. As long as they quickly left, Zhou Weiqing was confident in keeping it a secret. After all, no matter what, Little Four and Drunken Bao would owe him a big favour.

With all of that in mind, Zhou Weiqing had quickly decided to give up the opportunity to gain two new powerful Followers.

Just as the eight of them left the Academy grounds, right on the top of the main school building, a red robed old man walked to the window, looking at them their fading figures with a pondering look on his face.

“The fluctuation of Heavenly Energy isn’t very strong, but it contained the Darkness and Lightning Attributes… both extremely rare and useful attributes. It looks like this time Princess Cai Cai has found some gems, with two of the three members having such rare attributes. Too bad they did not join our Heavenly Jewel Master Academy.”