Chapter Ninety: Emperor Penguin, Sixth Update

"Old Mei, from here on, you, Cheng An, and Yu Liang will take turns standing guard. Though it is unlikely that any fiendish creatures will appear in City P, do not let your vigilance slip. I am going into seclusion for two days."

On the rooftop, Wei Cheng gave the order, then went alone to the third floor and found himself a guest room.

He needed to use this time to cultivate the Swift Swallow manual.

Of course, Wei Cheng had no intention of making the Swift Swallow technique his trump card or anything of the sort. Now and in the future, his path would surely remain centered on Mountain Moving.

The Swift Swallow profession existed only for travel and escape.

After all, at the same speed, the internal energy consumed by Swift Swallow was almost negligible, whereas Mountain Moving would burn through what felt like half a tank of fuel.

He took two jars of osmanthus wine from the miner’s basket and drank them down in one breath. In an instant, the surging potency rushed through him like wildfire, sweeping across his entire body.

But at that moment, he switched to the Swift Swallow mental method. With his formidable spiritual power, he effortlessly guided the Swift Swallow internal energy in cycles, endless circulation through the meridians, rapidly converting the wine’s power into Swift Swallow internal energy.

The whole process was no less impressive than Xu Shan’s by much.

By nightfall, after the full potency of both jars of osmanthus wine had been absorbed, Wei Cheng had also forcefully opened three innate meridians unique to the Swift Swallow profession.

At the same time, he had gained three decades of Swift Swallow internal energy.

More than that, he had already worked out nearly ninety percent of the Swift Swallow visualization diagram.

Such speed was truly heaven-defying.

Of course, it could not be denied that, even with Wei Cheng’s powerful spiritual force, the Swift Swallow visualization still caused him some discomfort.

Because the Mountain Moving diagram was about visualizing mountains, transforming into mountains, immovable as a peak, emphasizing above all steadiness.

The Swift Swallow diagram, however, pursued agility and lightness, emphasizing flexibility.

The phantom it produced ought to be a flying swallow.

If this were a true Swift Swallow practitioner, once the diagram was seventy or eighty percent complete, that swallow-shaped phantom should already be quite distinct.

But for Wei Cheng, that became the biggest problem.

Still, the problem was easy to solve: practical training.

He had plenty of osmanthus wine on hand now, so he did not fear exhausting his internal energy.

After putting on a face covering, changing clothes, and leaving behind the miner’s basket, Wei Cheng quietly opened the window under cover of night. His spiritual power spread out. The instant the rooftop lookout, Yu Liang, happened to turn away, Wei Cheng lightly tapped the windowsill. Swift Swallow internal energy circulated on its own, and he became like a wisp of wind, drifting twenty-odd meters away in a flash.

Then he landed heavily.

"Who goes there!"

On the rooftop, Yu Liang shouted in a low voice.

Wei Cheng could only curse his own miserable performance inwardly. At the same time, he fiercely poured Swift Swallow internal energy into his feet. The next instant, he truly shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, rushing more than ten meters before slamming headfirst into a restaurant signboard across the street.

The noise was enormous.

Fortunately, Wei Cheng had his face covered. As Swift Swallow internal energy raced madly through him, the newly grasped Light-As-Clouds vertical leap skill was unleashed decisively. In the next instant, his whole body spun upward at high speed, like a giant firework rocket, launching straight more than ten meters into the air.

But when he reached the highest point, he realized he had failed to leave himself any footing for catching his breath. At that moment, he could only fall straight down in a helpless free plunge, crashing with a thunderous bang onto that restaurant’s signboard.

Sparks flew everywhere; the spectacle was explosive. Worse still, the restaurant was still open. The diners inside, the chef chopping vegetables, and the proprietress holding a calculator all rushed out in a clamor.

How humiliating.

Wei Cheng took off running at once, while behind him came the pig-slaughtering shrieks of the stout proprietress.

"Which worthless little Swift Swallow ran out of nowhere? How dare you smash my signboard? If you’ve got the guts, come down here and fight me for three hundred rounds!"

That would have been bad enough. But of all things, several other Swift Swallow practitioners, apparently unwilling to conserve their internal energy, actually gave chase.

It was truly kicking a man when he was down. Fellow professionals were natural enemies!

You’re not here to do good deeds, I bet you just want to show off your Swift Swallow footwork, Wei Cheng thought bitterly.

The reason he had been so embarrassed just now was entirely due to his lack of proper control over Swift Swallow internal energy and the Light-As-Clouds technique. By now, he was actually much better.

"Bolder than bold, Swift Swallow, I can tell at a glance you’re no human being. Get down here, damn you!"

Just as Wei Cheng was about to vault over a six-story residential building, he was actually intercepted by a two-decade Purple Radiance practitioner on the fourth floor.

Boom!

The two collided head-on in midair, four stories high. Wei Cheng was dizzy and disoriented, losing control, and the other fellow gained nothing either; at the very least, he would be left with a broken bone.

What the hell is wrong with you?

A two-decade Purple Radiance dares block a three-decade Swift Swallow? Did a little toy poodle lend you its loan-shark courage?

At the instant before landing, Wei Cheng grabbed the young man’s left leg. Borrowing the force of the fall, he rapidly circulated Swift Swallow internal energy and forced a reverse spin, lifting the fellow several meters upward, while he himself borrowed the force again to slide sideways five or six meters and land as light as a feather.

In that instant, Wei Cheng’s understanding of the Swift Swallow profession rose to a new level.

Borrowing force, recovering breath, storing breath, then bursting forth.

So this was how it felt.

Thud!

The two-decade Purple Radiance landed, face-first in the mud, but at least he was not injured.

Wei Cheng made an insulting hand gesture at him without turning back, then stepped backward in place. His whole body sprang up diagonally like a great bird taking flight, leaping seven or eight meters high, then neatly caught a power line, borrowed force once more, climbed to the corner of a building, and vanished from the youngster’s sight.

Mm. One point for the show-off.

Well, actually, it was because Wei Cheng had used his powerful spiritual force to lock onto the wire in advance, then ran more than a dozen simulations before finally managing to turn the situation around.

Damn it. To be made this miserable by a two-decade little Purple Radiance, Wei Cheng still cared about his dignity.

But ten seconds later, he could no longer laugh.

A five-decade Swift Swallow, also masked, blocked his way.

The key point was that the other party had also comprehended the Swift Swallow visualization diagram, and his Light-As-Clouds technique had even reached the fifth level. No matter how Wei Cheng twisted, turned, or leaped, the other could seal off his path one step ahead.

It made him so angry he almost switched back to Mountain Moving on the spot.

"You don’t call that a Swift Swallow. You should be called an emperor penguin."

A clear and pleasant voice rang out, calm and unhurried, neither heated nor irritable. Though the words were teasing, there was no sense of mockery or derision in them.

It was a little girl.

The important thing was that she seemed to be seventeen or eighteen. On this summer night, when the stars were not especially bright and the air was not especially fresh, Wei Cheng could catch a strand of very clean, faint fragrance.

And the trousers of a certain high school in City P.

Moreover, the minimum age requirement to enter the dream trial was seventeen...

Well, Wei Cheng was actually thinking of nothing at all. He was very pure, and very kind.

"You shouldn’t waste your internal energy like that. There’s no food on Earth that can replenish it, so you have to make sure you’re fully recovered before entering the next stage."

Wei Cheng kindly reminded her.

But the other party leaned back slightly in a tactical motion.

"So, a lecturing uncle?"

Wei Cheng suddenly found this little girl somewhat annoying.

He did not want to talk anymore, and wished to leave her only with the back of his head.

"Then has anyone ever told you that the Swift Swallow profession actually has the lowest internal energy consumption?"

She suddenly laughed softly.

"If a Swift Swallow, after returning to Earth, worries about having no cultivation resources and even frets over the consumption of internal energy, I usually call that sort of Swift Swallow a—failing-student sparrow. Of course, even a failing-student sparrow has more prospects than an emperor penguin with shoulders wide enough to race horses across."

"Uncle, I suggest you switch careers and go train Mountain Moving as soon as possible."

Wei Cheng really could not take it anymore. He turned back and said, very seriously and word by word:

"Then has anyone also told you that Swift Swallows with too sharp a tongue usually do not live long?"

"No. Thank you. You’re the first."

Wei Cheng was speechless. He waved a hand, no longer wanting to move his mouth at all. He had come out here to practice, and had just begun to gain some insight, only to be interrupted again and again. Were all the new ones this arrogant now?

"Uncle, you won’t train Swift Swallow well if you keep doing this. Want me to guide you?"

"You?"

Wei Cheng froze, baffled. Was spring finally in bloom?

"That was my older brother just now, a complete fool. I apologize on his behalf, and thank you for saving him. Even if he hadn’t been smashed to death, he would have broken several bones. There are only thirteen days left before the seventh stage begins, and I’m afraid he won’t last."