Jade Dynasty

"Shaw Danon!"

A sweet voice in a deafening pitch cried out waking Shaw Danon from his dream. Opening his eyes he suddenly saw a big mouth, two rows of sharp teeth, laying right before him; he let out a scream: "AH!"

"Kaka kaka ... ..." a burst of laughter came from behind.

Shaw Danon finally calmed down, saw a big brown dog in front of him. Half a man high, with shiny bright yellow hair, lying on his bed. Behind the yellow dog, Hidi in tight red clothes, laughing.

Shaw Danon secretly glance at the large yellow dog, seeing its large body, sharp fangs, a long tongue sticking out, a ferocious look. He had never seen such a large dog before, he felt a little fearful but then saw Hidi smiling at him, he murmured said: "Shijie, what's up?"

"What's up?" Hidi said smiling, suddenly turning serious, frowns and shouts loudly: "It's already morning and you ask me what's up? Hurry and get up, we are going to the mountain to chop bamboo."

Shaw Danon curious: "You need to go too?"

Hidi said: "nonsense, any new disciples of our house need to go up to the mountain and cut down 'Black Bamboo' for the first three years, I started at ten years old, so this is my last year. Hey, why are you still in bed?"

Shaw Danon quickly answered, and carefully moved away from the big dog, got off the bed, hurried through getting dressed.

Hidi shouted: "catch it." Threw a machete over.

Shaw Danon caught it with both hands, saw that it was a common machete, quite heavy. Getting everything ready, he said to Hidi: "Shijie, do we need to ask Da Shixiong to come too?"

Hidi rolled her eyes at him, said: "Didn't you hear me say only new disciples new to do homework, so it's just me and you now who need to chop bamboo, let's go."

She waved her hand, Shaw Danon did not move, but the big yellow dog jumped out of bed, shaking his tail, then barked twice at Shaw Danon, growled bearing its teeth, and then ran outside.

Shaw Danon head this many times, remembered there was the sound of barking while following Da Shixiong coming back from the rear hill; seemed to be this dog. His mind could not help but secretly think: "Jadeon is so cool, even a random dog is much larger than the one we had in the village."

He followed Hidi out of the room, saw it is still early morning. Walking out of the corridor, looking at the back hill from a discance, hazy fog rolled through the mountains.

Two people and a dog walking towards Bamboo Peak back hill.

Yesterday, Shaw Danon was carried by Xavion to the hill; it seemed reasonably quick to reach there, and the trail seemed comfortable too. But, today, when only half way there; they discovered that the slope is increasing, the distance far further than what he had imagined.

Hidi, on the other hand, did not use the "Phoenix Soul" today; still, she had a very easy time with walking. The red figure walking on the trail, fast and light-footed. The large brown dog traveled easily, as well; unusually energetic, sometimes in the front, sometimes in the back and sometimes running into the woods. With no idea what he is doing in there, bursting out from the other side after a moment, very excited.

After half hour, Shaw Danon grew very tired, panting, legs aching.

Hidi walking in the front, and looking back at him, grunted, said: "completely useless, just stop and rest a bit then."

Shaw Danon nodded and sat down, breathing hard. That big yellow dog was gone, ran off somewhere else.

Shaw Danon rested for a moment. He sat on the trail, looked down and saw Bamboo Peak stands tall and straight, near by mountains seem a much shorter distance away.

"Shijie, I have something to ask you, don't know ... ..."

Hidi noticed his words are kind of timid, pair of eyes looked toward, feeling sort of proud, subconsciously fixed her hair a little. Her face got a little serious: "Just ask."

"Why we do need to cut the bamboo as homework, I thought homework is to practice cultivation?"

Hidi curled up her lip, said: "You know nothing. For a cultivator, the body is one of the most important aspects. My mom said, if the body is not strong enough, no matter how strong the magic is, it is difficult to learn. We Jadeon are branched from Taoism , very focus on health. When learning deeper, the body will be even more important. Take our Jadeon strongest magic spell 'Thunderblade' as example... ... "

Shaw Danon body twitched, his face became pale.

Hidi felt strange: "what happen to you?"

Shaw Danon's face still not settled, stammered: "No..nothing, I just think it must be very powerful because name of it."

Hidi glared at him, said: "Of course it is powerful, this is one of our Jadeon secret skills, not many people can cultivate it. I heard my dad said, to use this magic, they must use themself, with the help of esper, to attract the godly lighting from nine skies, as powerful as god, anyone there will be dead all at once, peerless power. "

Shaw Danon sighed: "Yeah."

Hidi spoke again: "Think about it, even with protective spells protecting you, it is the power of god's thunder. When normal people touch it, the will immediately turn to ashes. Of course the caster's cultivation must be deep, but with poor health, they will get killed by the lightning before anybody else does; how would they still be able to kill anyone?” She looked at Shaw Danon, said, “so, my dad told you doing homework is good for you, yet you seem reluctant."

Shaw Danon shocked, quickly jumped up and said: "No such thing, I never... never dare to disrespect master, and no reluctance. I have rested enough, let go, go! "

He picked up the machete, began to move, ran really quickly to the mountain. Hidi looked at his back, smiled gently, and followed him.

Finally reaching the hill, Shaw Danon was already out of breath. The big yellow dog has been laying in the bamboo forest. Seeing the two of them coming, he barks a few times, but does not even bother to get up; then, he turned his head.

Shaw Danon said: "really fast!"

"Are you talking about Big Yella?" Hidi came up from behind, her face is not red nor is she out of breath.

Shaw Dannon pointed to the big dog, said: "Its name is Big Yella?"

Hidi said: "Yeah, don't underestimate him, he is strong."

Shaw Dannon murmured: "Tell from the size, at least twenty years old."

Hidi shouted: "No way!"

Shaw Dannon was surprised: “He is less than twenty years old? Then Big Yella must grow really fast.”

At this moment Big Yella barked ruthlessly at Shaw Danon.

Hidi said: "I meant not that few years. Uh, let's see, he was already here when fourth Shixiong came and that's seventy years; no, third shixiong said that Big Yella was already here when he came, then that's ninety-seven years. Ah!" She suddenly shouted, Shaw Dannon was surprised, quickly said: "what?"

Hidi happily said: "I remember. When I was a child, one day Mom and Dad were arguing; she said she is going to kill the dog that Dad raised when he was a child to cook dog soup, made Dad very angry. Big Yella was also scared for many days and did not dare to go home!"

Shaw Danon suprised, said: "Big Yella afraid to return home?"

Hidi said: "Yeah, Big Yella has lived for many years, he understands humans; and, knowing how strong Mom is, he was really afraid he was going to be killed by her, so escape is the best. Smart, right?"

"Of course!" Shaw Danon . He glared at the big yellow dog again. Big Yella ignored him, snored then shook his tail, turned over his body and lazily lay on the ground.

When they got near the forest, Shaw Danon asked Hidi: "Shijie, when I arrived at Peak of Widow, I saw a monster that is much larger than Big Yella, from what I heard, it's called 'Water Kirin', is Big Yella the same as him? "

Hidi walked into bamboo forest, shaking her head: "No, Mister Spirit is an ancient rare beast, spiritual animal, far stronger than Big Yella, they can't be compared."

While talking, she took Shaw Danon through the woods. After a while, they came to a place with more bamboo, the Black Bamboo here are all about wrist wide, very slim.

"Here, for next three months you only need to chop down one bamboo daily." Hidi seriously said.

"That thin? Only one?" Shaw Danon said surprised.

Hidi grunted and said: "try to cut it."

Shaw Danon nodded, held up the machete and went toward a stalk of bamboo; looked at it for a moment, then swung the machete at it. It felt like the machete had struck against a stone, the force shocked Shaw Danon's hands. The bamboo bent forward a bit, then flicked back. Shaw Danon is not fast enough to dodge, his head got hit by the bamboo, leaving a red mark where it had contacted.

"Ka ka ... ..." Hidi laughed again, after a moment she said: "You stay here and work, I will do my own homework." She smiled and walked away.

Shaw Danon touched his face where it had been hit and saw a faint white mark was left at the place where the bamboo had been cut. For the whole morning, Shaw Danon dealt with that Black Bamboo, cut, split, saw, grind, press, bend; he tried every single method. Four hours passed, the sun rose up into the sky, his whole body was sweating, hands and feet felt powerless; he could only create a small wound on the Black Bamboo.

Sounds of the singing arose; Hidi skipping back while humming an unknown song. She looked at Shaw Danon, then looked at that Black Bamboo, shook her head and raised her machete, ready to chop it.

Shaw Danon quickly asked: "Shijie, what are you doing?"

Hidi impatiently responded: "helping you chop it down."

Shaw Danon forcefully shook his head, breathing heavily and said: "Thank shijie but no. This is my homework, I have finish it myself."

Hidi grunted, pointed to the sun, said: "Do you know what time it is now?"

Shaw Danon grit his teeth and said: "I still have to even when it's dark ... ..."

"Idiot!" Hidi suddenly shouted at him. Shaw Danon shocked, speechless for a moment, only watching Hidi.

Hidi shouted at him angrily, quite like a mother: "You don't look at the time, don't think about others. You need to do it until it is dark out, does that mean you want me to stay with you until darkness falls? If you really want to be successful then work harder each day and think of a way to complete your homework within four hours rather than just speaking nonsense about working until it is dark!"

Right after she finished talking, her machete swung piercing through air, after four slices, the bamboo fell on the ground, while Shaw Danon watched with his mouth open wide.

Hidi looked at him, lightly said: "Let's go." and walked outside of the forest. Shaw Danon feeling embarrassment and shame, secretly made a resolution to work harder when doing homework.

※ ※ ※

Shaw Danon went back to Bamboo Peak with a extremely tired body. It's already noon. Hidi silently walked back to the Hall of Quitetude. Shaw Danon stood still for a moment, then walked toward to his room with difficulty. At corridor entrance, Da Shixiong Xavion was standing there.

Xavion smiled, asking: "How it is Xiao Shidi, are you tired?"

Shaw Danon smiled tiredly, and shook his head.

Xavion seeing him, although still young, but quite stubborn, could not help smiling. He walked with him to his room first, then said: "usually there will be hot water in the kitchen, in the future you can go shower when you come back, then have lunch after a moment. You take a break first, I will come tell you when it's time for lunch, we have another homework to do after lunch. "

Shaw Danon shocked, asked: "There is still homework during the afternoon?"

Xavion saw Shaw Danon's great reaction, startled for a bit, then realizes and smiles: "Oh, my fault, afternoon is the time for disciples to practice cultivation, today I will start teach you some basics of cultivation. "

Shaw Danon was relieved, surprised and happy, whispered: "Da shixiong, is cultivation very powerful; very difficult to learn?"

Xavion smiled: "When practice is deep, of course it is extremely powerful. As for is it hard to learn; that depends on their own quality and understanding. However, it does not matter if your quality is not as good as others, you heard what master said last night: knowledge is boundless, diligence is your friend, but as long as your persevere and practice hard, no matter how difficult it is, you will still get it."

Shaw Danon nodded hard.

That day at lunch, Tian Bolis asked a few question of how Shaw Danon did on his homework, Hidi reproved Shaw Danon with much exaggeration about it, causing Shaw Danon to blush, he did not dare to look up.

Tian Bolis listened to her, then shook his head, waved his hand, only said: "eat."

Tian Bolis was too lazy to scold Shaw Danon, but in Shaw Danon's eyes, he felt his master was really concerned about him, but that he himself could not do well. Master was not mad at him, very generous; a really rare good master. He felt ashamed in his heart, not daring to say anything more, just swore to himself that he must practice harder in the future to repay his master.

After lunch, Tian Bolis returned to Hall of Quitetude. While other disciples walked to Tai Chi Cave, only Xavion and Shaw Danon returned to his room, said: "xiao shidi, our faction's practice really focuses on the basics, you just arrived, I will teach you the basis cultivation. After you remember what I said then practice on your own, if there is something you don't understand, come ask me, you got that? "

Shaw Danon nodded, growing excited.

Xavion's face growing serious said: "Another thing, I must warn you: our faction cultivation is extremely powerful, people from the evil side will try to spy on us. You must swear that after you learn this, if not our own faction's disciple, you can not teach it to others. "

Shaw Danon's heart moved, not quite understanding, but then realized, there is firmness on his face, said: "Yes. To God above, disciple Shaw Danon, if telling anyone else about Jadeon secret cultivation in the future, shall die under five thunder, leaving no body behind. "

Xavion smiled, nodded and let him sit in front of the table, first taught Xavion him how to meditate, and then roughly talked about the body's energy movement, and finally taught him, "Pure Essence"'s the first layer method of cultivation.

"Pure Essence" is the basic of all Jadeon's magical technique, found by Master Jadeon two thousand years ago from a Nameless Tome. Through many generation of Jadeon's masters research, and today, it has already become a powerful, amazing supreme cultivation.

Pure Essence has three stages: Yu Qing, Shang Qing, Tai Qing. Most Jadeon disciples, including many intelligent people, spending whole life time, can never break through Yu Qing, although like that, even those with the top Yu Qing practice is already rare.

Jadeon, with thousands of overall members, has only about ten people, including the head of Jadeon Doyal Shen, that can pass through Yu Qing and enter Shang Qing. But, with only those people, Jadeon became one of the strongest factions within cultivators. As for the legendary realm of Tai Qing, according to legend, only Master Jade Leaf ever reached there.