Heavenly Jewel Change

Chapter 101 Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon! (2)

Little Witch’s brilliant eyes had turned a blue hue, and they glinted in a demonic light as she said: “Who made a rule that I can’t have companions? Although I am not too willing to admit it, I have to say that I am unable to deal with you myself… But what if it is the two of us against you?”

She was not the type of person who was too stubborn and proud to accept help. If she knew she could not do it but continued to push through for nothing despite available help, then that would just be being stupid. Zhou Weiqing’s cultivation level might be still very low in comparison, but with his vast amount of high ranked skills and cunning ways of using them, with him supporting her by the side, Little Witch was confident of taking care of this opponent in front of them, who was only slightly edging her out in combat.

Right at that moment, a whistling sound abruptly pierced the air, and almost at the same time as the sound started, an arrow arrived right in front of the young lady.

Zhou Weiqing was barely thirty yards from her, and at such a close distance, the Overlord Bow’s bowstring barely sounded before the arrow had reached its target.

When a Heavenly Jewel Master reached a certain cultivation level or power level, they had a certain sensitivity towards danger, otherwise she would not have sensed Zhou Weiqing so easily previously, before he had even pulled his bowstring.

Zhou Weiqing could clearly see that she seemed to just sway back and forth. Just a tiny motion. More accurately, that little movement was done before Zhou Weiqing’s arrow even left the bowstring.

*Swoosh* The arrow barely missed her, almost barely grazing her skin as it shot across, but she did not even blink as it did so.

Zhou Weiqing stared in shock, his mouth agape. It had to be known that he had locked on to her, perfectly confident in that arrow, and she had actually dodged it without using any Skills, unlike the BaoPo couple who had used their Time Attribute previously. If before today, anyone had told him that someone would be able to dodge his arrows at a distance of thirty yards, and just through physical means alone, Zhou Weiqing would definitely think that person was crazy. Yet, the evidence was right before his eyes, and he had no choice but to accept it.

Dodging and blocking were two totally different things. If it was blocking, then Zhou Weiqing’s imbued Skills on the arrows would still take effect. However, if it were dodged, then those imbued skills would naturally lose their effect. In the distance beyond, a huge tree exploded as the arrow struck it.

What sort of swift judgement, what sort of movement and speed did that require? Looking at her expression, it was clear that she had been very confident in dodging his arrow!

Prior to this, Zhou Weiqing had always thought that among the six Physical Attributes, coordination and flexibility were the two most useless Attributes, especially in actual combat. After all, as their cultivation levels grew higher, everyone would be mostly using their powerful Heavenly Energy and Consolidated Equipment, as well as Stored Skills. Alas, now he knew that he was extremely wrong. There was no useless Attribute, only useless Heavenly Jewel Masters. Everything was all up to the user, and how he or she made use of what they had to the utmost. This female ZhongTian Battle Team member had just made use of the Coordination and Flexibility Attributes, along with her terrifying speed, to dodge the attack he had been so confident in.

With a mocking, disdainful smirk, the young lady did not even look at Zhou Weiqing, instead looking at Little Witch as she said: “Looks like your companion isn’t too strong!”

Little Witch giggled, glancing at Zhou Weiqing. At the same time, she thought to herself: This Zhou Little Fatty will definitely be enraged to hear his power put down like that, to be looked down upon so disdainfully.

She was not wrong. Indeed, our dear Zhou Little Fatty was extremely angry, and the consequences were dire. For the archery skills that he was the most proud of to be dissed by his opponent, how could he stand there and take it so easily? [1. I translated the general meaning of it, as what he wrote was actually a ‘internet meme’ type saying. The literal meaning will not even make any sense =p Something like ‘It is something that I cannot stand, even if uncle can stand it, aunty cannot. That was a very very rough literal translation. I’m not sure how this ‘meme’ came about and did not have the time to research it sorry!]

Wriggling the five fingers of his right hand, Zhou Weiqing suddenly took a massive breath. With a flick of his wrist, three arrows appeared from his Spatial Ring, pinned neatly between his fingers. In that moment, he seemed to enter an ethereal state of unearthly concentration. The tip of his foot struck the trunk of the tree in front of him lightly, using it as a pivot to send his entire body flying backwards. At the same time, the three arrows flew out; in the process, his five fingers danced through several complicated gestures, half twisting the bow string, plucking the bowstring, striking the arrows, etc etc and more.

In the very instant that the three arrows flew out, another four followed suit one after the other. In total, seven arrows, each flying out in a different direction.

This archery skill of his had a rather interesting name: Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon [2. Literal Translation, and also the reason for the title. This is actually a term that means good events will always accompany or encircle a great event.]

This was actually an archery skill that Zhou Weiqing had created, bringing together all the styles he had learned as well as the unique powers that he had. Originally, when Mu En was teaching him everything he knew about archery, he had told him that in order to become a true Archer, he had to have something that was his own. If he only learned what his teachers offered him, his archery could be good, but would lack the last critical component, a true spirit within, and would only be a ‘dead thing’.

Mu En was not the best teacher, nor was he the strongest, as he wasn't even a Heavenly Jewel Master. However, he was definitely a great teacher, a great guide for Zhou Weiqing. What he imparted to Zhou Weiqing was a direction, a line of thinking. This Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon Archery Skill had been slowly developed over the years, and it had only been after entering the Fei Li Military Academy that he had finally completed the Skill. Besides his own practice, he had never used it in actual combat yet. It was not that he did not want to do so in the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, but it was just not too suitable for a arena style competition and the tournament format. Even now, he was still in the midst of slowly perfecting this Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon Archery Skill of his.

As the seven arrows flew out, Zhou Weiqing sat back down onto the ground suddenly, the Overlord Bow in his hands vanishing. His face was pale and ashen, and he collapse down onto the ground, drained. Firing these seven arrows had actually depleted all of his Heavenly Energy, leaving him totally exhausted.

The reason was simple. Among the seven arrows, each of them were imbued with his Stored Skills. Unleashing only seven Skills normally would not deplete his Heavenly Energy, but doing so at almost the same time almost caused him to lose control of the energy whirlpools of his body. If not for the fact that his physique was a lot stronger than any ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master’s, he might have inflicted self injuries just unleashing this Skill.

*Swoosh* Zhou Weiqing did not even look at the battle field any longer, immediately releasing Da Huang and Er Huang from his Spatial Ring. Placing one hand each on their shoulders, he unleashed his Devour Skill in an attempt to quickly replenish his Heavenly Energy.

Anyway, they were not able to fight continuously by his side in this Lustre Spatial Realm, and just Devouring a bit of Heavenly Energy would not harm them, and they would quickly recover.

Caught by Zhou Weiqing's Devour Skill, Da Huang and Er Huang revealed looks of panic and fear. However, they knew and trusted Zhou Weiqing implicitly, and did not resist his Devouring.

Seven shrill shrieks pierced the air, almost at the same time, forming one loud long sound.

The disdainful look of the female ZhongTian Battle Team member changed immediately, as she was astonished to find that of the seven arrows that shot out from behind the trees, none were actually headed towards her, instead shooting in various directions, causing her to be unable to make any accurate judgements.

The unknown was usually the most scary, especially when it wasn’t in your own control. Looking at Little Witch warily, she extended her arms in preparation as she took a combat ready stance.

Although Little Witch had not actually worked and fought with together with Zhou Weiqing before, she was extremely experienced in battle. At this point, she was not in a hurry. Smiling, she stood there on her position unmoving, instead raising her hands above her head, the blue tattoos around her body shining brightly again as the blue hibiscus behind her glowed brightly. Thick blue light seemed to gather around her short blade.

Without question, Little Witch was biding her time, gathering power in order to unleash a powerful Skill.

Such a Skill was undoubtedly terrifyingly powerful, but it also had a clear drawback. The charging time of it was just too long, and it would be easy to interrupt. Of course, this sort of Skill requiring a charge up time usually meant a correspondingly high strength and power.

This was an extremely sneaky, but correct, action for Little Witch to take. If the female ZhongTian Battle Team member attacked her, she might leave herself open to Zhou Weiqing’s strange attack skill, letting it unleash its full potential. Yet, if she did not attack her, she would not be able to interrupt Little Witch’s charging, as she had to constantly be on the lookout for Zhou Weiqing’s ambush. More importantly, she did not know how or what Zhou Weiqing’s attack would do, and just standing there charging would not disrupt his. At the same time, she would be doing something useful, possibly giving her the chance to do a follow up or even finishing blow. This could be said to be an arrow killing several birds! An amazingly intelligent plan that could only force their opponent into a dilemma.

Indeed, the moment she started charging her Skill, the female ZhongTian Battle Team member’s expression changed, and she couldn’t help but hesitate a split second. At that very instance, Zhou Weiqing’s Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon arrows had almost reached her.

The seven arrows all appeared almost at the same time in her senses. Surprisingly, all of them had a strange ‘wavering’ movement that somehow prevented her to fully lock onto them, and they each were glowing with a different colour.

The weirdest thing was that the seven arrows were not flying fast at all. Compared to any normal shooting, they were considered slow, almost floating in the air.

Soon, the arrows were barely ten yards from her, and in that moment, a cold light flashed in her eyes. She had already gotten a good estimation and judgement of the traveling path of all the arrows, or so she thought at least. At that point, she burst into explosive action, her body charging forward as she bobbed and weaved, her body swaying slightly in a strange rhythm as she attempted to charge through this ‘net’ of arrows.

However… was her judgement truly accurate? Alas, this time, the answer was a big no. The seven arrows in midair actually changed directions almost simultaneously.

The leading arrow seemed to slip to the side, just an almost imperceptible amount. As it did so, its tail feathers lightly brushed against the next arrow. This caused a chain reaction, and all seven arrows actually had their directions changed subtly!

Such archery… Such skill… The only words that could come close to describing it would be breathtaking, almost impossible. Even Little Witch, who was in the midst of charging up her own Skill, couldn’t help but reveal a surprised look. In her heart, she knew that even if she took the place of the female ZhongTian Battle Team member, she would not fare any better.

The Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon Archery Skill was an extremely powerful skill, actually drained all of Zhou Weiqing’s considerable Heavenly Energy in order to launch. He had slowly developed this skill over the course of the three years spent with the Heavenly Bow Unit and beyond, how could it be so easily broken like that?

With the sudden unexpected change in speed and direction, it was almost impossible to for the female ZhongTian Battle Team member to dodge it anymore. Without a choice, she could only extend her claws, striking out swiftly to block the seven arrows.

*Poof* The first arrow struck her God Tier Consolidated Claws, and was instantly destroyed by the powerful claws. The explosive effect of the Overlord Bow was totally useless, but surprisingly, the speedy, charging figure of the young lady was abruptly slowed, almost drastically.

The Absolute Delay Skill had taken effect on her instantly.

The invisible stress that this young lady had put on Zhou Weiqing was extremely huge, and he knew that if he wanted to suppress her, to allow his Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon Archery Skill and their corresponding imbued Skills to have their maximum effect, then he had to do so from the very start. As such, the first arrow to reach her would definitely have to be the Absolute Delay Skill, with its Absolute Effect.

To any Heavenly Jewel Master powerhouse, judgement and control, of both themselves and their opponents, was equally important. The Absolute Delay not only slowed down her speed, but more importantly, it broke her rhythm and judgement.