CHAPTER 48 THE GENERAL WAS ABOUT TO VISIT THE DRAGON FIELD
Frowning, Marcia touched her back subconsciously. Worry was written all over her beautiful eyes. So tensed up, she began mumbling to herself, "Oh, no. I should not have trusted that guy. What if he cannot keep the secret? What if he accidentally lets slip? To avert a disaster, I have to take precautions.
In the first place, he has lied about his name, but since he is a royal spirit manipulator, it will not be difficult to find him. To get started, I'll need to investigate his whereabouts. I can't rest until I find him. Only then will I be at peace..." Suddenly, Marcia calmed down and stopped mumbling. An unexpected idea had struck her.
In an abrupt turn, her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Where are the maids?" she commanded.
Promptly, two maids in white brocade showed up and bowed in deference. Respectfully they asked, "What is the order, General?"
The dragon mark on the left arm of Marcia faintly flickered, then, by a mere lift of her finger, the water below them swooshed through a thin and long drift. An outline of a face soon condensed into shape by her magical powers.
"He is a royal spirit manipulator. I need you to find him at all cost. I don't mind even if you have to scour the entire Imperial City. As soon as you find him, come back and let me know. By all means, keep it all below, to avoid raising eyebrows," Marcia cautioned, after thinking for a moment.
"Yes, as you wish," the two maids readily took the order.
They left and began their search straight away, but they made every effort to stay under the rudder. So everything went on as usual, for several days without any surprise.
Daily, Mia made things so hard for Rocky that he wondered if this was karma, paying him back for misdeeds of his previous life—a life which he had no control over. Had he dumped her for another woman in their former life? She was pushing him to the wall with her so-called 'special treats'. Mia was proving to be a difficult sparring partner in his martial arts training. Fortunately, he could learn from Mia the Illusion Technique she applied in their daily practice. He could now apply it quite skillfully himself. The only consolation he had was that Mia was pushing him to give his best in training and he hoped it was good for his strength and endurance. All the bruises and injuries aside, there was a silver lining to the harsh treatment that Mia dished out on him.
There was a total of six palm, feet and finger movements in the Illusion Technique of the spiritual martial arts—two for each part of the body. Apart from illusions, the other elements of spiritual martial arts were not so much complicated. General formation in spiritual martial arts required specialization for best results. Each disciple had to choose a skill and stick to that, for the rest of the process. That meant everyone having a specialty, either in palm, feet or finger skills. But Illusion Techniques were quite different from the general spiritual martial arts. Here, one could practice the Illusion Techniques while showing no nature of his or her dragon spiritual power. Illusion Techniques always left room for tweaking and changes whenever necessary. By doing so, illusions allowed the advantage of unpredictable, surprise moves. Illusion cultivators could attack using any movement, including movements of the fingers, palms, and feet. In short, illusion gave cultivators freedom to switch between skills at will, which would leave the enemy reeling in confusion.
Right now, a man and a beast were embroiled in fierce fighting, deep in the thick woods.
"Whirlwind Kick..." Yelling at the top of his lungs, Rocky moved in a split second and flew up to kick. His movements were blistering.
However, Uriah was equally swift in defense, leaping, and dodging every kick without any sign of panic. On counter attack, he hit out at Rocky with his quick, powerful palm.
"Air-splitting Palm..." At the meantime, Rocky had no intention to retreat but to sustain the assault by his palm skills, until Uriah could not put up anymore. But Uriah, unfazed at Rocky's palm roared, wagged his two tails and struck back bravely by his own palm, answering fight fire with fire! It was an epic battle of spiritual forces, without any tricks, pitting a man against a beast. With powerful bolts of energy from each side, they raised a cloud of smoke and dust.
"It was a tie again?" Rocky exclaimed, slowly getting down on his knees as gestured for a ceasefire.
Uriah also followed Rocky to the ground, excited about the competition. He was yearning for another bout.
"You are over the moon now, huh? Tell you what, I will defeat you sooner or later." Rocky couldn't help but chuckle. Thanks to Uriah for being a great sparring partner, Rocky had improved a lot in such a short time. But to his surprise, Uriah was also learning a great deal from sparring with rocky in practice. Not a single day of their mock competition had Rocky defeated Uriah. In most cases, they always ended in a draw.
After their bout, Rocky walked directly to the lakeside and sat down cross-legged. For a while, he meditated to gain inner peace and then began to cultivate on the Mysterious Dragon Skill. There was a big difference when he skipped the fourth grade to work on the fifth instead. Under the magical powers of the saliva he harvested from Uriah, his spiritual power steadily grew.
But, in comparison with the great breakthrough he had when he assimilated the spiritual power of the yellow spiritual crystal, the progress of this time was relatively mild. Now, he would require lots of determination and risk-taking, or else he'd have to go with small steps at a time. Gladly, he settled for the later. holds text © rights.
So, he sat still to cultivate for a whole night. When he went back to his room in the morning, he was surprised to find everyone busy, preparing for what appeared to be an important event ahead. There
was even a group of handymen, hanging festival red satin and arranging potted plants and flowers.
Wondering what was going on here, he keenly followed the conversation. Then he saw Mia together with some of the ministers he once met in the Grand Dragon Hall. For such dignitaries from the Holy Dragon Empire to come here, Rocky guessed their unexpected visit was a herald to something big. He put going to his room on hold and decided to stick around, trying to find out what the big event was about.
"Master Mia, why would General Marcia suddenly review the training program?" One of the ministers could not wait to ask.
"General Marcia? Could it be the pretty General whose name was Marcia that I met before? She is coming to visiting the dragon field? Then I shall use the magical saliva to exchange some more spiritual crystals with her. Wouldn't that be good idea?" Rocky was thrilled. What he did not know was the looming crisis.
"I have not received full information on the situation. I have also just got word of it only a few minutes ago." Mia too, was surprised. All in all, Marcia was now in a high position. Usually, she would not be interested in trivial things such as the training of newly promoted royal spirit manipulators. She had far more important duties on her plate.
"Priest Dean sent a messenger in particular to remind me that I must do everything to ensure the Great General a memorable visit. Not a single negligence or mistake is allowed. If anything upsets General Marcia, she would mention it to His Majesty. We will all be done by then." One of the ministers gave his thought. There was a reason for his worries. Marcia was cherished by the Holy Dragon Empire. So even the slightest unbecoming incidence toward her would have cause great disturbance in the entire empire.
Furthermore, no one else knew the background of Marcia other than the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire. When she first arrived in the Holy Dragon Empire, she was already a proud, nearly invincible royal spirit manipulator at the Divine Stage. Her level of cultivation base awed the whole empire. Word had it that she had fought against six powerful cultivators at the Supernal Stage and defeated them all. It was clear that her cultivation base was strong enough for the rank of general.
But Marcia remained a mystery. Most people did not know the first thing about her real power, and deliberately, she kept her background a top-secret. But without a doubt, her cultivation base ranked top in the entire Holy Dragon Empire.
That explained the urgent preparations that were happening here, ahead of the impromptu visit by the Great General. The fact that she was coming to review the training program called for thorough, meticulous work.