Chapter 47: Long Hao Chen’s Companion Mount (I)
Besides Ye Hua and the elder guardian, Gui Ying and Gui Wu were, unexpectedly, also there.
Gui Wu was so frightened by the Starlight Unicorn that he immediately used his tile, though hearing afterwards about the bet with Ye Hua and its stakes frightened him even more. He hastily told his father everything that happened when he met Long Hao Chen.
Gui Ying was also flabbergasted. If that Long Hao Chen got a mount like a Starlight Unicorn, his son had absolutely no way to even be a match for him. Therefore, the father and son decided to remain, cultivating outside of the Sacred Mountain while waiting for Long Hao Chen’s return, to see what kind of mount he would get.
The wait lasted twenty days in total; seeing that Long Hao Chen didn’t show up at all, Gui Ying’s smile became wider and wider day after day, and he occasionally provoked Ye Hua with a few sentences.
At this moment, Gui Ying couldn’t help but feel as if he was in heaven upon seeing Long Hao Chen coming back empty handed. He laughed out loudly, looking at Ye Hua, “Elder brother Ye Hua, don’t forget the stake of our gamble. I look forward to meeting you at the Demon Hunt Selection Competition. Wu’er, let’s go.” At the same time he was speaking, Gui Ying made Gui Wu summon his Scarlet Shelled Earthworm on purpose. Showing on his face an expression full of disdain, Gui Ying left with the arrogant Gui Wu at high speed.
Long Hao Chen’s gentle jade face was filled with anger, he coldly looked at Gui Ying and his son who were leaving as he engraved this disgrace in his memory.
“You didn’t find a companion?” Ye Hua showed a bitter face. He absolutely did not think that his disciple would follow in his steps; this time, he did even worse than him.
Long Hao Chen lowered his head, “Sorry Teacher, I disappointed you.”
The elder, puzzled, reacted: “With such an innate talent, how is it that you couldn’t find a mount? Don’t tell me that all of these magical beasts are blind? It’s so strange.”
Long Hao Chen showed a forced smile, “I don’t know why it went like that either. I crossed the entire Sacred Mountain, meeting a variety of magical beasts, but none of them was willing to let me approach it.”
The elder let out a sigh, “You don’t have to care so much about that. A lot of warriors who didn’t have a formidable mount either, still became powerhouses. A mount is very important to knights like us, but it isn’t everything. What is your final choice? Do you want to tame a magical beast by yourself in the future, or do you want to try out your luck here? Only, you have to know that if you use the magical array to summon a mount, you will have to conclude a contract with it, so the magical beast that will be summoned will only be able to complete a contract with you. We, knights, can replace regular mounts, but when summoning it completed with a contract of equals, the contract is only nullified when the companion mount dies. Your teacher and I can dirty our hands and take care of this little matter for you, but if we are to do it, it will, for sure, be likely to leave a traumatic experience in your heart, which will be detrimental to your future cultivation.”
Long Hao Chen gave his reply without hesitation: “Elder, I am willing to try out my luck.”
The elder nodded, “Then it’s okay. However, don’t get your hopes up too high. The more one expects, the bigger his disappointment will be.” At this point, he seemed as if he was speaking about his personal experiences, as the handicapped elder showed a disappointed and frustrated face.
A golden tile appeared in the elder’s hands, and with little gestures, he created a golden colored light that enveloped the three of them inside. High overhead, six bizarre symbols appeared, twisting the space around it.
Long Hao Chen vaguely understood that the elder was using the power of the magical array, using a peculiar method to control the inner power of the Knights’ Saint Mountain. Apparently, the reason why some mysterious phenomenons occurred here was inextricably linked to this magical array.
The golden light was glittering, causing Long Hao Chen to keep his his eyes shut; he discovered to his astonishment that during this teleportation, the self-rotations in his chest had become more and more fierce, moving with at least tenfold the ordinary speed.
This process only lasted for roughly ten seconds, after which the self-rotations immediately slowed down, recovering to its original speed. Long Hao Chen then opened his eyes, discovering that the scenery around him had completely changed.
They were, to his surprise, inside of a cavern, and in its walls, blocks of precious stones were inlaid. An insipid golden light illuminated the entire cavern.
Inside the cavern, the light attribute was not strong. It couldn’t compare to the Knights’ Sacred Mountain at all, it was just at most a little stronger than outside.
This cavern was enormous. Lifting his head, one could see that the roof was 66,6 meters (200 feet) high, the cave had an irregular circular shape as far as one could see, and its diameter was at least 333 meters (1000 feet) long, just like a sort of enormous public square.
However, this place was absolutely empty, no one else other than them was inside.
Long Hao Chen looked at the ground and discovered, to his astonishment, that there were on the ground some kind of trapezoidal pattern, tightly linked to each other, forming an enormous ring with the shape of a symbol he did not recognize. These patterns were darkly colored.
“No need to look, and neither do you need to say you are unable to recognize it. Even old geezers like us don’t recognize these patterns. It is a spiritual language from ancient times, the language used by an ancient race that is already extinguished. Our ancestors from the Knight Temple wondered what kind of mystery it was upon discovering it too, but around this enormous magical array in the Knights’ Sacred Mountain, a lot of areas existed since an ancient time, drawing their power from mysterious spiritual incantations. This is the first transportation array. Through it, a link can be established to a parallel space for a little moment. To activate it once consumes a huge energy, so it will only last fifteen minutes. If, within fifteen minutes, you cannot find and complete a contract with a companion who is willing to get close to you, I am afraid that you will really have to return empty-handed from this trip.”
The elder’s voice sounded like he felt quite sorry for a genius such as Long Hao Chen; he had never met such a genius in his life before. If such an outstanding young child could not obtain a formidable mount, it would really be a pity.
“Thank you elder.” Long Hao Chen respectfully saluted the elder.
The elder shook his head, “Come in the transporting array and sit down. After I activate it, you should be able to feel it to some extent.”
“Yes.”
Long Hao Chen acted in accordance to the elder’s instructions, taking large strides towards the center of the array. It was shaped like a circle with a diameter of 10 meters (30 feet) and there was a large symbol in its center.
This symbol looked somewhat similar to the word “如” 1, but it had a kind of distorted appearance, and for an unknown reason, when Long Hao Chen saw this enormous word, the Saint Spiritual Stove in his chest began throbbing all of a sudden.
Sitting cross-legged, Long Hao Chen got rid of all of his distracting thoughts. This was his last opportunity.
Ye Hua was almost as nervous as Long Hao Chen. He tightly clenched his fists to the extent that the veins could be seen, his fingernails almost digging in his palms.
The elder slowly raised his hand with the gold colored tile inside. Ye Hua clearly saw that at this instant, his right hand turned into a golden colored penetrating light, his palm seemingly becoming just like a sort of precious stone.
It was [Brilliant Body], the symbol of seventh step knights, turning a portion of their body into light. Temple Knights with a formidable level of cultivation could even turn their entire body into light. In this form, the holy attribute spiritual energy they could use would double. Even though it could only be maintained for a short time, it would double the defense of the body against any type of attack, what kind of notion was that?
1. 如 means ‘as’