Chapter 34: The new garden. “What's the matter?” Yao Jun saw Yun Yantian's shocked expression, so it didn't require too much thought to realize that something about him was odd. He tilted his head to look at his body and saw the gauntlets covering his forearms. His first impression of the gauntlets was that they were a part of him. The moment he looked at them, information about them rushed into his mind. The gauntlets were a part of the Garden of Eden's power. The gauntlets were created using the Lightning Tiger, a more defensive materialization than just summoning it, and would grow along with it, eventually becoming a suit of armor covering Yao Jun's entire body. Damage to the gauntlets would become damage on the Lightning Tiger, vice versa would also happen. The same was true for the armor plating on his back, only that the armor was the materialization of the Mist Eagle. The carving of the wings could even grow as the Mist Eagle got stronger, becoming real wings that Yao Jun could use to fly. Once the information flooded into Yao Jun's mind, he also noticed that he didn't even have to look at the pieces of armor to see them. With just a bit of thought, he could visualize the pieces of armor in his mind, learning what state they were in. Yao Jun moved his mind a little, and the pieces of armor sank into his body, disappearing beneath his skin, waiting for his summon. “You really are getting freakier and freakier. You should look at yourself.” Yun Yantian saw the armor sinking into Yao Jun's body and couldn't help but mutter to himself. He materialized a polished sword in his hand and threw it to Yao Jun, indicating for him to check his looks. Yao Jun grabbed the sword with a confused expression and used the flat side as a mirror to check out his face. He was shocked when he noticed the purple stripes in his hair and the gray color of his eyes. He tried to see if his eyes would change when he removed the Qi he had circulated into them, but found that they were still completely gray. He checked his eyes and hair with his hands and even circulated some Qi into them several times to see if anything changed. The result he came to was that there were no changes, even when he used Qi. This meant that he would simply have to live with his eyes being gray and his hair having purple stripes. “Please don't end up becoming too freaky....” Yao Jun couldn't help but mutter when he was done checking. It would be a lie if he said that he wasn't worried about the changes. He was worried that he would change so much that not even his own parents recognized him. When Yao Jun thought about his parents, he couldn't help but heave a heavy sigh. Before they arrived at Great Xian city, Yao Jun had already told them about him ending up on a foreign continent. He wanted to wait a bit longer before telling them, but Yun Yantian told him that there was no telling what could happen in the future. If he was going to die, his parents at least deserved to know where their son died. His parents had sent him several messages in their worry, forcing Yao Jun to send them a short stream of messages, even going as far as completely draining the Transmission Jade off all it's energy. Since the Transmission Jade was now completely out of energy, he could not even send any more messages to his parents, nor could he receive any messages from them. Yao Jun thought that the Transmission Jade would still have enough energy for at least around eight more uses, but he didn't account for the distance between the continents. Because the distance between the continents was so large, each message he sent or received drained almost double the normal energy. Due to this, his parents now knew that he was on a foreign continent, but it was also impossible for him to send any more messages home to soothe their worries, causing both him and them even more worries. Yao Jun sighed once more and shook his head. There was nothing he could do to change it now, so worrying about it needlessly was pointless. He raised his right arm and moved his mind, summoning the gate. The gate had very few changes. One of the black teeth at the top was gone, leaving only the remaining eight behind. Of the nine indents under the teeth, only one was lit up, glowing with a black light. Yao Jun knew that this meant that he had reached the 1st level of the 1st grade. The gate still only had two carvings, a purple tiger and a gray eagle, but Yao Jun knew that this was because he hadn't absorbed any other Demonic beasts. The gate itself had also grown a bit larger, it was now the size of a head. Yao Jun placed the gate on the ground not far from him and used one hand to push it open, his vision suddenly flashed white and his entire body was sucked into the gate. When Yao Jun opened his eyes, he found himself standing atop the same mountain he always ended up on, Yun Yantian standing next to him. The first thing Yao Jun noticed upon entering the Garden of Eden was it's size. The area inside the gate had doubled in size, suddenly growing to being almost 20 kilometers in all directions. The forest and mountains growing both longer and larger. The amount of Natural Qi had also increased, there was now almost no difference in the amount of Qi outside and inside the gate. In the middle of the forest, at the place that was the center of the entire garden stood a large tree, towering above all the other trees in the forest. The tree's bark was almost completely black, but it's leaves were a verdant green, exuding a breath of life. The tree gave of an ancient feeling, seemingly coming from a time immemorial. Yao Jun scanned the inside with his eyes and sent out a thought, summoning Little Thunder and Little Gray. He didn't have to wait for long before Little Gray and Little Thunder rushed over, one flying one running. Looking at the two of them, Yao Jun saw that Little Gray had not changed a lot, only growing slightly larger and sturdier. He wasn't too surprised that Little Gray hadn't changed too much. He knew that if he wanted Little Gray to have significant growth, he would have to absorb beasts that contained strong Eagle or Roc bloodlines. Little Thunder on the other hand had changed much more. The first change was that it had grown in size. Before absorbing the black tiger, Little Thunder was only close to two meters in length. Now it had grown to being a little over three meters in length, and around one and a half meter in height. It kept it's purple fur, but the fur now had large black streaks going all around it, looking like thunder. There were now also two large horns that curved backward growing on Little Thunder's head. Both Little Thunder and Little Gray also exuded a sense of power and might, so they had obviously also reached the 1st level alongside Yao Jun. “Isn't this kind of cheating? You not only reach the 1st level, but your pets also reach the 1st level, giving you the battle power of three 1st level cultivators. I know that some people just have better powers than others, but this is just stupid.” After leaving the Garden of Eden, Yun Yantian couldn't help but complain. He always felt that reaching his level of power at his age was good, but seeing Yao Jun's insane increase in power, he couldn't help but feel like curse. “Hehe. Let's go hunt some more Demonic beasts. Now that I've reached the 1st level, it should be easier for us.” This wasn't the first time Yun Yantian had complained about Yao Jun's power like this, so he just shrugged his shoulders and changed the subject. Yao Jun was uncertain if his cultivation level would keep growing like it used to after reaching the 1st level, but it wouldn't hurt to have more allies during fights. “No. You are going to leave this forest now, my brethren are not something you can hunt just because you want to.” Yao Jun and Yun Yantian were just about to leave when a voice sounded out behind them, freezing their entire body. When the voice sounded out, their bodies felt an unprecedented sense of crisis. They did not doubt that whoever spoke could kill them with just a wave of his hand. With this thought in mind, they both slowly turned around.