Chapter 10 : The Lake Maiden

"Haha! How did that happen!" Scarlett held her belly as she laughed out loud. Her laughter echoed in the woods making the people of the outer sect wonder what's happening inside.

Jian Zheng wore an unhappy face when he saw Scarlett looking at him like an stupid person, "It was an accident! An accident!" Jian Zheng shouted as he puffed up his cheeks as they turned red in embarrassment.

He couldn't understand how the remaining three spiritual stones went to his cultivation when he was only circulating the Scarlet Phoenix Sword Art.

"Haha! Still, with those low grade spiritual stones you wouldn't be able to breakthrough to the second stage." Scarlett wiped the tears that were coming out of her eyes as she stopped laughing.

"How so?" Jian Zheng asked as he raised his eyebrows in confusion. He was positive he would have reached the second stage with the remaining stones.

"That's because low grade spiritual stones can no longer satisfy your cultivation art. You would need medium tier spiritual stones if you want to see any improvements." When Jian Zheng heard this he became depressed, "Where the hell am I going to get mid tier spiritual stones?" He shouted with frustrated expression which made Scarlett giggle.

"Its easy, all you need to do is complete missions from your sect. I believe you could even get high grade or even top grade spiritual stones!" Scarlett said with a smile.

With that said, Jian Zheng finally calmed down. He wasn't really angry about his cultivation art not reaching the second stage, instead he was more angry about the fact that he skipped one level to reach the Huotian fifth stage.

The reason for that is because now, his strength is only equivalent to someone at the Huotian sixth stage. Due to not being able to familiarize himself with his new strength he believe his strength have declined.

"You're worried about that? How many times must I say that you cultivate the Dao of a true swordsman? All your strength goes to your sword, me! Meaning that even if you were to skip ten levels your strength won't decline instead it will go to me, your sword." When Scarlett heard that he was angry because of his 'decline of strength' she sighed.

"I... I don't quite understand." Jian Zheng said with confused voice.

"What I'm trying to say is that you don't need to become familiar with your stage before making a breakthrough." Scarlett explained once more.

"So your saying I can make breakthroughs without my power declining?" Jian Zheng said in which Scarlett nodded.

This made Jian Zheng excited, now he won't have to worry about his power declining, "Finally, atleast the True Swords Dao have some advantages." He said.

Scarlett smiled when she heard Jian Zheng words, 'There are no advantages to cultivating the true dao.' She shook her head and went back into Jian Zheng swords with no plans to tell him this.

Unshealthing his sword, Jian Zheng released his sword aura and his cultivation. Then, circulating his cultivation art four red marks appeared on his sword. Although they were hard to see, these marks carried immense power.

"Are these the power of the tears in my dantian?" Jian Zheng said with curious eyes. He could tell that these marks were multiply his sword power by 16 times.

The Huotian realm have ten stages which multiply a person strength each time they make a breakthrough. By the time someone reaches the tenth stage their power would be at 1,024x.

With his cultivation at the fifth stage his strength is at 32, multiply that by these tears that would be 512, then with his sword aura and Scarlet who can increase the sword power by 5 times, Jian Zheng believe his strength should be on par with ordinary Huotian tenth stage cultivators.

With that in mind, Jian Zheng slashed his sword at one of the trees using Empowered Cloud and Soft Cloud Quivers together. With these two techniques combined a white light mix with scarlet light flew towards the tree.

The strike landed on the tree, cleanly cutting it in two as the tree began falling down. It didn't end there as the light cut three more trees that were behind it before vanishing.

"Amazing..." Jian Zheng muttered, his full power could easily cut down four of these trees that were as sharp as an sword.

Sheathing his sword, Jian Zheng was pleased with his new strength. He was confident that he would be able to take at least one attack from a Body Transformation realm cultivator with his full strength.

As for Huotian tenth stage cultivators, if he took them seriously they wouldn't be a threat to him unless they have a trump card.

Clearing his thoughts he planned to take his leave when a strange scent enter his nose, "What's this?" Smelling this scent, Jian Zheng felt his pores open up as he felt the sixth stage become clearer.

"Just by smelling this scent my cultivation increase?" Jian Zheng gasped in surprise as he felt his cultivation at the fifth stage reached the middle section.

"Let's go take a look." His eyes flashed briefly before he vanished, using the Conquering Lightening Steps.

Soon he arrived at a lake. The color of the lake was filled with a pink liquid that covered the water. The pink liquid caused heat to rise from below like boiling water.

This heat was the cause of the strange scent. Getting closer, Jian Zheng felt his insides being burned up by this pink liquid.

"Should I continue?" He hesitated for a while but thought of the Phoenix Aura, Brimming Phoenix. Soon his body was covered in a red light as the liquid no longer had any effect on him.

Pleased by this, he jumped into the lake and continue towards where the scent was coming from.

An incense worth of time later he arrived at the core of the lake. There, he saw a figure floating crossed leg on the top of the lake.

This figure was completely naked but Jian Zheng couldn't see much as the person long pink hair covered almost all of their body.

When he looked closer he saw that this person was a girl who seem to be the same age as him. This made him curious as he stood in the lake watching the female.

"How perverted!" Scarlett giggled with a smirk on her face which startled him. Soon Jian Zheng entire face became red as he now came to realize that a naked girl was sitting ten steps away from him.

"Hahahaha!" Scarlett once more burst into laughter when she saw Jian Zheng flustered face, "Im just teasing you yet you took me so seriously!"

"Scarlett!" Jian Zheng shouted her name outloud but covered his mouth in surprise as he didn't speak spiritually just now.

"I- Oh no." Seeing the girl eyes quiver Jian Zheng planned to ran away when an aura locked him down.

"Huotian tenth stage!" Jian Zheng shouted in surprise as he never expected this girl to be so talented.

"Scoundrel!" The girl yelled as she raised her hand and form strange seals with it. When the hand seal was completed the pink liquid stopped boiling as butterflies came flying outside of the lake.

Jian Zheng became puzzled at the sight of the butterflies. Not knowing what to do, he reached out for one of the butterflies when an urge took over his mind.

"Don't touch the butterflies!" At that moment Scarlett voice woke up Jian Zheng from his daze as he immediately stopped his hand from reaching out.

But it was too late. The butterfly lit up in bright pink light as it grew. When it finally stopped growing it exploded causing ripples to form on top of the lake.

The other butterflies also exploded as more ripples were creating making the pink liquid to soar into the sky, revealing the clear water beneath.

"Hmph!" The girl snorted as she quickly put on her clothes and left in a hurry. Not caring if Jian Zheng was dead or alive.

Minutes later, Jian Zheng jumped down from a tree with bruises on his skin, "That girl is a monster..." He exclaimed in fright, before the butterflies could explode he used the Conquering Lightening Steps to escape but it still managed to hit him causing his current bruises.

"She seems to be 15 years old yet she's already at the tenth stage.." Jian Zheng was truly shocked by this. One must know that most cultivators in the Cloud Empire can only reach the tenth stage by the age thirty.

As for those who have the privilege of getting in a sect, they could reach that stage by age 21.

"That girl has the Blood Exploding Liquid Physique, its expected that her cultivation is so high at such age." Scarlett said in Jian Zheng mind.

"This Physique isn't as great as yours since it only starts blooming at the realm above the Body Transformation but it still has its own benefits."

"What type of benefits?" Jian Zheng asked.

"As you can see she used a lake to cultivate. Wherever there is a body of water she can manipulate it by turning it into her own."

"By doing this, cultivating will become much more effective and will cause her cultivation to soar." When Jian Zheng heard this he became far more surprised.

"What a great Physique..." He muttered with envious eyes. If he had such benefits then he was confident of breaking through the Huotian Realm with ease. After all, he cultivates the True Dao which means he will not face any bottlenecks and he doesn't have to stabilize his realm before making another breakthrough.

"Hehe are you jealous? Don't worry, this Physique can be transferred since she's a female. All you need to do is get into her good book." Scarlet came out of the sword and winked at Jian Zheng with naughty eyes.

"Really? How can it be transferred?" Jian Zheng hearing this became rather excited. If he could build a good relationship with the girl then there's a slight chance of him obtaining this physique.

Although he's positive that she probably hate him for spying on her while she was cultivating bear. He was also positive that she did not see his face since they were quite some distance away.

"Easy! All you need to do is E.H.U!"

"And that stands for...?"

"Eat her up!"

"Huh?! As in....!"

"You naive boy, of course I mean sex!" Scarlett rolled her eyes at Jian Zheng ignorance.

"..."

"Although you won't get all of it, if your lucky you should be able to obtain 25% of it." Scarlett continued.

"Scarlett..."

"You better listen to my advice! I'm pretty sure this girls background isn't simple. She's probably a girl who ran from home because she was forced to married or something.

"Scarlett..."

"So if you can give her a good impression she would have no other choice but to give you her body!"

"Scarlett..."

"Yes?" All this time it sounded like Scarlett was talking to herself, completely ignoring Jian Zheng whose entire face was already dark.

"Who do you take me for! I'm not a playboy!" Jian Zheng flew into a fit of rage as he began tackling Scarlett.

"Hey wait! Don't touch there! Mhm~" Jian Zheng pressed his body onto Scarlet which made her try to push him away, but her attempts were in vain as some sort of weakness took over her mind making her body shiver.

"Stopppp!!!" Her current expression was unsightly. She felt pleasure but at the same time hated this sort of pleasure. With all her might she screamed which sounded like a loud moan to Jian Zheng.

_______________

Hours later, Jian Zheng appeared outside the forest with a satisfied smile. What he did to Scarlet made him feel rather refreshed.

"Perverted Rapist Scoundrel! That girl was right you're truly a Scoundrel!" Scarlett yelled in Jian Zheng mind with a flustered face. She was currently not wearing any clothes for Jian Zheng ripped them off her when taking the lead.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" Jian Zheng smirked as he recalled the events of what he did with Scarlett. Although he didn't eat her up, it was enough to stop Scarlet from teasing him all the time.

"Just you wait!" When she saw Jian Zheng smirk she clenched her teeth before cutting her connection with Jian Zheng.

"Haha!" Jian Zheng burst into evil laughter. He could still feel the touches of her perfect body on his fingers.

Feeling contented, Jian Zheng walked away due to his laughter gathering a crowd.

Many hours later, Jian Zheng finally had on understanding of the outer court, Elder Qin also came to see Jian Zheng to update him on the sect.

There is an area where one can go to train and hone their skills called Martial Training Arena. Being used as a factor to train and participate in friendly battles.

There are also three forbidden areas in the outer court. The forest was one called the Amber Swords Forest and the other two are called the Endless Abyss and lastly the lake inside the forest which is called the Maiden Lake.

The Amber Swords Forest is known to turn anyone who circulates spiritual energy insane. No one knows why but Jian Zheng concluded that it was probably because of the immense sharp intent coming out of these trees.

Before entering the forest, Jian Zheng saw a sign that said, do not enter unless you are at the tenth stage of Huotian Realm and above.

Persons below this stage would experience a headache that would feel like a sword trying to split your head in two.

So if he didn't comprehend sharp intent, Jian Zheng wasn't sure if he would be able to go in and come out smoothly.

The Endless Abyss is known to be a crater that seems to lead to who knows where, for anything and anyone who falls inside it never comes back out.

As for The Maiden Lake, this made Jian Zheng suspicious because people say that at the middle of the lake is a woman and whoever meet this woman never comes out to tell the tale.

"To think they made the lake a forbidden zone." Jian Zheng sighed as he thought of the girl he saw at the lake.

"It makes sense though that no one manages to escape since her cultivation has far surpass practically most outer court disciples." Most disciples in the outer court are Huotian fifth stage to the ninth stage.

Those who manages to reach the tenth stage will have a high chance of entering the inner court.

Speaking of the inner court, to become an inner court disciple one must compete in an leaderboard competition and after a year the top 10 will enter the inner court.

To get on the board one must complete missions for the sect. Depending on the mission, points and rewards will be giving.

If its a low level mission then only ten points will be giving. A middle level can give fifteen points, a high level can give thirty points and a top level can give a total of fifty to seventy points.

But apart from these there are also supreme levels which will give a grand total of five hundred points. This is all because of the difficulty of the mission. Even inner court disciples would find supreme level missions hard.

Currently the top ten has a total of 2,000 - 7,000 points. So it would be impossible for Jian Zheng to compete.

But there's another way to get on the board. And that is to challenge anyone on it. If you manage to win the duel then all the points they have obtain will go towards you.

The bad thing though is that they can decline this challenge if they want.

With those in mind, Jian Zheng plan now was to get on the top ten since the inner court selection ends in 2 months.

"Little Zheng!" As he prepared to head to the Mission Hall a voice entered his ears.