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 identally lets slip? To avert a disaster, I have to take


    precautions.


    In the first ce, he has lied about his name, but since he is a royal spirit maniptor, 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?" shemanded.


    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


    Belonging ? N?velDram/a.Org.


    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 maniptor. 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,e 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 constion 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 muchplicated. 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 eximed, slowly getting down on his knees as gestured for a ceasefire.


    Uriah also followed Rocky to the ground, excited about thepetition. He was yearning for another


    bout.


    "You are over the moon now, huh? Tell you what, I will defeat you sooner orter." 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 mockpetition had Rocky defeated Uriah. In most cases, they always


    ended in a draw.


    After their bout, Rocky walked directly to thekeside 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, inparison with the great breakthrough he had when he assimted the spiritual power of the


    yellow spiritual crystal, the progress of this time was rtively mild. Now, he would require lots of


    determination and risk-taking, or else he''d have to go with small steps at a time. dly, he settled for


    theter.


    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 nts 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 toe 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


    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 maniptors. She had far


    more important duties on her te.


    "Priest Dean sent a messenger in particr 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 unbing 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 maniptor 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 exined the urgent preparations that were happening here, ahead of the impromptu visit by the


    Great General. The fact that she wasing to review the training program called for thorough,


    meticulous work.