Chapter 29: Became Superman

  After a long time, Gong Sun Da Fu finally returned to the large cave where Zhou Hao and Li Ruolan were.

  All that can be seen is that the ground above the cave is full of potholes as big as a plate, and the walls are also cracked, and the thatched hut has long been reduced to scattered wooden boards and straw, in short, it's a mess.

  Under the dim yellow light, Zhou Hao lay on the ground, covered in blood and unconscious. Li Ruolan sat far away, leaning against a wall, hugging her knees and shivering with fear, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. Her eyes were red and swollen, and there was still a faint trace of blood between her legs. The originally fair skin now had bruises all over it, and her hair was disheveled. The dull gaze in her eyes was heartbreaking pain.

  Seeing Li Ruolan being ravaged like this, Gong Sun also sighed with a heart of mercy, and from the collapsed thatched cottage, he found a piece of hemp cloth to cover Li Ruolan's body. "Sorry, I let you suffer."

  Li Ruolan glared at Gong Sun with a hoarse voice from crying, "You devil, it's all your fault!" She wanted to hit Gong Sun, but she didn't have the strength to get up, and except for the hemp cloth, there was nothing else on her body. However, her gaze towards Gong Sun still had an intense hatred. Because Zhou Hao had taken his medicine before going crazy, she suffered this misfortune also because of him.

  Facing Li Ruolan's gritted teeth, Gong Sun only said indifferently, "I admit that everything was caused by me." Then he turned around and went to Zhou Hao's side. Zhou Hao was completely naked, his body covered in bloodstains, all of which had seeped out from within him.

  Gongsun's face was solemn as he pressed down on Zhou Hao's wrist, and only when he felt Zhou Hao's pulse strong and powerful did he let out a long sigh of relief. "It wasn't in vain that I spent so much effort, you've finally made it through." He picked up Zhou Hao and carried him to the underground spring, then put him into the water to wash away the bloodstains on his body.

  Zhou Hao's body quickly recovered its cleanliness, however, Gong Sun discovered that the lines on his face became more rugged, every muscle seemed to contain unimaginable power. His physique also grew taller by a lot, originally only over 1.6 meters tall, now almost 1.8 meters, and his facial features became more mature, although still unconscious, he exuded an aura of vigor and heroism.

  "My previous guess was correct, you can indeed absorb the power of the Dragon's Saliva Fruit!" Gong Sun Da Fu's joy was hard to express, he used his hand to touch Zhou Hao's body that had undergone a huge transformation, as if admiring his own crystallized heart's blood.

  Zhou Hao's clothes had been torn by himself, so Gong Sun took out a set of his own clothes from the collapsed thatched cottage and put them on Zhou Hao. He also took out a box of silver needles from his pocket and inserted one into each of the major acupoints on Zhou Hao's body.

  Li Ruolan, who was shrinking under the wall of the cave not far away, watched a series of actions by Gong Sun and felt both sad about her own experience and couldn't help but worry about Zhou Hao. Although Zhou Hao had done such beastly things to her, those things were not Zhou Hao's intention, if all the responsibility was pushed onto Zhou Hao, it would be very unfair to him.

  "Is Zhou Hao... alright?" she asked hoarsely.

  Gongsun shook his head, "He's doing very well, I think he's never been better than now." After helping Zhou Hao with the injection, Gongsun returned to Li Ruolan's side and handed her a small medicine bottle, "This is my own concoction, it's very effective for external injuries, you apply it."

  Li Ruolan naturally understood what Gong Sun meant by "external injury", and she was both ashamed and angry in her heart, but the wound was indeed very painful, burning and scorching. Li Ruolan wanted to apply some medicine there, but she couldn't move now, couldn't run to a hidden place, and couldn't do all this in front of Gong Sun, so she could only grit her teeth and say: "You, you go away."

  But then Gong Sun Daifu smiled faintly and said, "Sorry, Zhou Hao can't move now, I also need to stay here and watch him, so I won't leave." He went to fetch a few wooden boards and some thatch, and set up a simple screen in front of Li Ruolan, "This way no one will see you, right?"

  This way, Li Ruolan finally felt a little relieved. Under the shelter of the screen, she slightly opened her legs, but inevitably pulled on the wound, making her frown in pain. She saw that her private parts were already completely swollen and red, with large patches of blood stains between her legs, showing how much suffering Zhou Hao had caused her at the time.

  Recalling the enormous and ferocious creature between Zhou Hao's legs, Li Ruolan still has lingering fear, and she doesn't know if he was born with a special gift or was affected by that strange medicine.

  Gently applying the ointment to the wound, she felt a coolness that brought her great relief.

  Looking at the bloodstain between her legs, Li Ruolan became disheartened. The chastity she had kept for over twenty years was gone, and it was taken by her own student.

  She buried her head in her knees, and her heart was truly a mixture of five flavors.

  On this side, Gong Sun slowly pulled out the silver needles one by one from Zhou Hao's body, and then saw Zhou Hao's eyelids slowly open.

  Zhou Hao's memory was still stuck on the time he drank that strange red concoction from Gong Sun, when his body felt like it was burning internally. He felt as if he had a very long and vivid dream, in which he transformed into an uncontrollable wild beast, violently wanting to destroy everything, and there seemed to be a hot flow within him that wanted to erupt outwards.

  As soon as Zhou Hao opened his eyes, he saw Gong Sun and remembered that he had forced him to drink the red liquid. He suddenly sat up and grabbed Gong Sun's collar, shouting angrily: "What did you make me drink? Why did you poison me?"

  Gongsun didn't resist, but instead smiled and looked at Zhou Hao, "What are you getting excited about? Aren't you fine now?"

  Zhou Hao was stunned, only to find that he was indeed unscathed and even felt a surge of power within him. He looked at his body in confusion, feeling as though it had undergone some profound change.

  Could not help but stand up, however, saw that Gong Sun was much shorter, "How did you become so short?"

  "It's you who have grown taller." Gong Sun Da Fu said in a bad tone.

  "Have I grown taller?" Zhou Hao looked at his own feet, "But how is it possible to grow so much all of a sudden?" He immediately thought of that red medicine and stared at Dr. Gong Sun, "You still haven't told me what that medicine was!"

  "It's no longer necessary for me to deceive you now." Gong Sun said seriously: "That was made from the dragon's gall fruit, and also some other extremely rare precious medicine as a guide."

  Zhou Hao furrowed his brow, "Dragon's saliva fruit?"

  Gongsun Dafu nodded, "It's a very, very rare treasure. It has extremely stringent requirements for its environment. It must grow in an extremely cool place and cannot be exposed to sunlight. Most importantly, it needs to absorb the earth's energy to survive. What is known as 'earth energy' is actually geothermal energy. I traveled all over China and finally found a Dragon's Saliva Fruit in this cave."

  "The Longyan fruit blooms once every sixty years and bears fruit only twice in its lifetime, after which it withers and dies." Gong Sun said: "Due to long-term absorption of the essence of the earth's energy, the Longyan fruit is a pure Yang object. According to ancient records, it can stimulate all the internal potential of the human body. However, because its medicinal properties are too intense, not everyone can absorb its power and instead will be harmed by it, causing their five internal organs to burn and die. Therefore, for ordinary people, it is a deadly poison that kills upon contact."

  "Come on, you still want me to try?" Zhou Hao said angrily.

  Gongsun sighed, "It was sixty years ago, when the Dragon's Saliva Fruit first bore fruit. At that time, my internal family's qigong had already achieved great success, and my physique was much stronger than ordinary people. I myself was also afraid of not being able to withstand the medicinal properties of the Dragon's Saliva Fruit, so at that time, I only took a very small amount of the fruit to ingest. However, in the end, my body still couldn't withstand it, and to save my life, I had no choice but to use internal power to force the components of the Dragon's Saliva Fruit out of my legs." He shook his feet, "These two legs were lost back then."

  Zhou Hao suddenly asked: "About how much Longwan fruit did you take at that time?"

  Gongsun Dafu glanced at Zhou Hao and said, "You took a whole Longyan fruit, while I only used about one-thousandth of that amount back then."

  Zhou Hao took a deep breath, and Doctor Gongsun had only used one-thousandth of his strength to cripple both his legs. The fact that he could still keep his life after eating the entire Dragon's Saliva Fruit was probably just heaven's blessing. Thinking about how he almost got killed by Doctor Gongsun, Zhou Hao wanted to beat him up. But as soon as Doctor Gongsun saw Zhou Hao's ferocious expression, he immediately retreated a few steps and waved his hand, saying: "You mustn't act rashly now, the Dragon's Saliva Fruit has already activated your potential. Even I wouldn't be able to withstand one of your punches." Seeing Zhou Hao's disbelieving look, he hastily added: "If you don't believe me, try punching the ground with all your might."

  Zhou Hao was hesitant, but still followed his words and punched the ground with one fist.

  Bang!

  The hard rock ground was immediately hit by Zhou Hao into a pot-sized hole, and the surrounding stone cracks were also cracked.

  Zhou Hao himself was stunned, staring blankly at his fist, "No way, I've become Superman?"

  "Compared to ordinary people, you are indeed a superman now." Gong Sun said: "As the saying goes, 'no destruction, no construction', great destruction, great construction. Although Longyuan fruit can take one's life, once successfully absorbed, it will thoroughly change your physique, and you will also possess powers that ordinary people cannot imagine."

  Upon hearing Gong Sun's words, Zhou Hao couldn't help but feel excited. Although the risk was extremely high this time, they ultimately benefited from the misfortune. Now that even Gong Sun, a powerful internal family member, wasn't his match, what was there to fear about that bald brother?

  "In fact, I saved you earlier not because that girl agreed to stay with me. You were severely injured at the time, with all five internal organs and six external ones ruptured; even a god would have found it hard to save you. But I discovered that your body's self-healing ability was incredibly strong, able to rapidly recover on its own. At the time, I thought that a body like yours should be able to withstand the medicinal properties of the Dragon's Gall Fruit, so I had planned to give you this last Dragon's Gall Fruit."