Chapter 29 of 100

Chapter 29

18 min read4,412 words

From that day on, Zhou Lu never played with that group of playmates again. It was also from that day forward that he met Meng Tian, and the two became the best of friends.

Meng Tian never looked down on Zhou Lu for being fat. When they played house, and Zhou Lu had to carry the "bride" home, Meng Tian would giggle and say that Zhou Lu's back was both warm and soft, and that it felt so comfortable to lie on it, wishing she could always stay there.

Zhou Lu carried her even more enthusiastically. That day, he carried Meng Tian all the way from the bottom of the grassy slope to the top in one go.

After reaching the top of the slope, little Zhou Lu was exhausted, sitting on the ground and unable to get up. However, seeing Meng Tian's excited and joyful expression, he felt a deep sense of satisfaction and happiness.

Sometimes, when he saw the figures of his former playmates, he would curl his lip disdainfully: "Hmph, I don't need to play with you guys; I still have friends, and Meng Tian likes to be with me."

Zhou Lu was very content.

However, good times don't last forever.

As the children grew older, Meng Tian became increasingly beautiful. By the age of ten, she was already a renowned beauty, whose appearance could make even adults gasp in admiration.

At that time, Zhou Lu still played around carelessly by Meng Tian's side, completely unaware that his often mud-covered clothes, the bruises on his face, and his chubby, pig-like figure made a stark contrast to Meng Tian's radiant and fragrant presence.

Gradually, Meng Tian's talent for cultivation also became more evident.

At the age of ten, this talented girl broke through to the fifth level of the Totem Heart Sutra, a feat that left all the hunters in the vicinity in awe.

Unknown to Zhou Lu, Meng Tian slowly stopped playing with him. When Zhou Lu brought a clay pot to find Meng Tian to dig for earthworms, Meng Tian wouldn't even come out of her tent, sending her father to tell Zhou Lu that she was cultivating and couldn't go out to play, thus dismissing him.

As this happened more and more often, Zhou Lu became lonely again. One afternoon, when he was sitting alone on the grassy slope, watching the clouds come and go, he suddenly realized that Meng Tian was also looking down on him.

Her words about wanting to stay on his back forever had gradually turned into a joke due to the growing gap between them.

On the other side of the slope, Mei Duo and her friends were laughing happily.

Zhou Lu suddenly felt extremely sad. He felt a deep, uncontrollable heartache. He wiped his eyes, smearing his face with dirt and ash.

At that time, he was only ten years old.

At the age of ten, he had already experienced the taste of loneliness.

From that moment on, Zhou Lu understood that being good to others doesn't necessarily mean you'll get the same in return. From that moment on, he slowly learned to hide his inner loneliness and emptiness with a rascal's appearance, and to use despicable and shameless means to get what he wanted.

He liked to show off, to brag, and to use eye-catching methods to gain attention.

Zhou Lu gradually stopped looking for Meng Tian, even though no one else became his good friend.

In the hunting grounds, this fat boy who caused chaos among the tribes gradually earned the reputation of being a rascal.

For so many years, Zhou Lu seemed to live without a care, but was there really nothing he cared about?

Even the gift he gave years ago had to be returned to him in front of so many people?

Zhou Lu leaned against the stone door, his face twitching as he forcibly suppressed the pain in his heart. He gradually put on the rascal's grin, shaking his head carelessly as he walked toward the tripod furnace in the cave.

"Do you all look down on me? Do you all despise me?"

Sitting in front of the tripod furnace, Zhou Lu extended his hands and lightly shook them. The surface of the light green tripod furnace instantly rippled with a layer of colorful light. Zhou Lu's Totem Yuan energy fully lit up the mysterious Fire Array pattern, and the flames in the tripod furnace turned a vivid green.

"Do you all look down on me? I have a demon fire to help me cultivate. Once I become powerful, hmpf..."

Zhou Lu's energy surged like a tide, wave after wave, continuously fueling the Fire Array pattern. The two-flavored true fire in the tripod furnace burned brighter and hotter.

Zhou Lu's shoulders trembled slightly as if encountering water resistance, and he snapped his fingers, sending a pale purple demon fire silently into the tripod furnace. Like a sponge absorbing water, the demon fire greedily consumed the energy of the two-flavored true fire, its face beaming with joy, just like Zhou Lu hungrily gnawing on a roasted, oily lamb leg.

After summoning the demon fire spirit, Zhou Lu had carefully read the "Barbarian Records," finding descriptions of various mystical flames.

According to legend, flames are divided into nine levels, from ordinary fire to two-flavored true fire, three-flavored true fire, and up to nine-flavored true fire—though the author of the "Barbarian Records" had never even seen four-flavored true fire.

In the world, some mystical flames, imbued with the essence of heaven and earth, can exist independently. If these mystical flames are tamed by cultivators, they will merge with the cultivator's energy, and as the cultivator absorbs the essence of heaven and earth to cultivate, the mystical flames will also absorb that energy to evolve.

The "Barbarian Records" gives an example of a highly skilled Black Mountain Elder in a distant barbarian tribal alliance. He accidentally captured a mystical flame and, after cultivating for over two hundred years, reached the high stage of the Dao Totem realm. He used his energy to cultivate the mystical flame into the boundless three-flavored true fire.

The three-flavored true fire can burn anything and is difficult to extinguish, melting gold and iron in an instant.

From then on, the Black Mountain Elder became the most powerful figure in the entire tribal alliance, and no one dared to provoke him.

These stories made Zhou Lu dream of becoming a powerful figure like the Black Mountain Elder one day. However, his demon fire was completely different from the mystical flames in the legends. While others' mystical flames are nourished by cultivation energy, his demon fire did not consume his energy but preferred to eat other flames.

This left Zhou Lu marveling. He truly didn't know what kind of thing his demon fire was.

Zhou Lu increased the speed of energy input, and the flames in the tripod furnace burned even brighter. The demon fire greedily consumed the energy. Watching this, Zhou Lu felt excited, as if he could see his own rapidly growing cultivation energy.

Zhou Lu had a hidden wish deep in his heart.

Wasn't there no one willing to be his bride? Didn't everyone look down on him as a rascal? Then, he would do something to surprise everyone, like suddenly jumping out during the Heavenly Demon List competition and securing a good ranking...

Thinking of Mei Duo's shocked expression when she suddenly saw him emerge, and Meng Tian's astonished look when she saw the fat boy leading the Heavenly Demon List competition, Zhou Lu felt a sense of vindictive pleasure.

However, Zhou Lu knew that Meng Tian's talent was simply outstanding. This girl, with her unknown constitution, cultivated as if aided by a divine force, and each breakthrough was as easy as drinking water. By the age of ten, she had reached the fifth level of the Totem Heart Sutra, and by sixteen, she was just one step away from the eighth level.

In the past six months, Zhou Lu had made progress with the help of the demon fire, but Meng Tian had been cultivated intensively in the Heavenly Demon Elite Pavilion, and her progress was equally rapid.

Would he really be able to surprise everyone after six months?

Or, would he still be dismissed with a sneer even after showing his full strength...

Zhou Lu's heart was still heavy. He was only at the fifth level of the Totem Heart Sutra now.

The demon fire, more gluttonous than Zhou Lu, continued to eat until its belly was round and it suffered from indigestion, finally stopping with a sense of lingering satisfaction.

Zhou Lu slowly stopped, and the two-flavored true fire in the tripod furnace gradually dissipated. He summoned the demon fire back to his dantian, where it lay like a small, overfed creature, hopping and emitting pure energy like a thick fog.

Zhou Lu quickly refined the energy into his ten barbarian meridians, feeling the Totem Yuan energy in his dantian growing visibly stronger. He was extremely satisfied.

With the current cultivation speed, the energy he gained from refining fire in one day was almost equivalent to what he used to absorb in several dozen days.

There were only a little over three months left until the Heavenly Demon List competition, and Zhou Lu needed to work hard to improve his strength.

For the entire night, Zhou Lu did not sleep, repeatedly circulating his energy without moving. The people outside would never have thought that this carefree, grinning fat boy had such a determined spirit when it came to cultivation.

---