Chapter 28: Unveiling the Enemy
Xue Wei, who had vanished without anyone being the wiser, strolled around the central areas of town to see if he could find more masked men, while his face turned more and more solemn.
The man he had unmasked was one he had never seen before, but Xue Wei had not often seen the guards of the other n.o.ble families as he rarely visited them. However, he knew that when the commoners saw him, they would be able to recognize him.
All guards in Tiankong City had served in the military before they returned and took on a job as either a mercenary or a family guard. As such, they were commoners themselves, and there was always someone who would recognize them.
Xue Wei did not have to move far before he found the second masked person. This time, the person was already walking on the street, which made it much more difficult for Xue Wei to attack him.
He did not waste his time and instead found a new hiding spot. This time he did not pick the zither. Instead, he got ready to fire an Azure Light Finger beam.
Although the attack from the zither was itself the product of a profound ability, it was roughly as strong as the Azure Light Finger, as the reason it had been graded a profound ability was because of its potential and ability to transform into any single weapon.
The zither was good at attacking large groups of experts, and had a large area of effect. But the Qi drain that was needed for the zither was also much more than for instance when he used the sword or a saber.
Xue Wei waited for the right moment. He was not willing to accidentally attack the commoners that were also on the road, so he waited for the moment where the masked man walked right past him.
As the man walked past the alleyway, a big beam of azure light suddenly erupted on the street. Although it was in the middle of the day and the sun shone brightly, this light blinded almost everyone present.
The masked man suddenly saw a bright gleam. In the next moment, he felt an intense pain in his leg. Just like how the muscles had been severed on the He and Jia Young Masters, the masked cultivator’s muscles were also severed.
Xue Wei once again did not wait and rushed out from his location to another place, leaving behind a masked cultivator that was screaming out in pain and agony. It was not only the actual pain that caused him to scream out but also the mental setback he encountered when he realized that he had had the muscles in his leg severed. Although he would be able to continue cultivating, he would forever be slow and thus effectively be a cripple for life.
Xue Wei knew that there existed pills that could restore severed muscles, but he was also aware that these pills were the rarest kind within Heping Kingdom.
Pills, in general, were extremely rare within Heping Kingdom since it was the poorest of all the kingdoms and it did not have the ability to raise high-ranked alchemists.
The alchemists that did exist within Heping Kingdom were at most capable of creating pills of medium purity. To heal an injury like the one this man and the He and Jia Young Masters had experienced, they needed pills of high purity. Pills that one had to travel to another kingdom to get their hands on; and even if they found one, gold might not be enough to purchase it.
Pills of high purity were in Tiankong City as rare and elusive as tamed Fierce Beasts, and to expect the pill to be the exact same pill as the one they need was simply out of the question.
Had it been the Li family, then they might have had a chance of obtaining a pill as Li Fang could go to the other kingdoms with his strength. But if he did so, he was likely to be traveling for quite some time, and he would be losing out on the chance of fighting for the City Lord"s position.
Having injured two of the masked men, Xue Wei felt a bit better. These masked men were enemies. They had threatened to play with w.a.n.g Xiaoyun, something that did not go down well with Xue Wei.
Every dragon had a reverse scale, and so did Xue Wei. When this subject was touched, he felt no pity for the ones he had targeted. He would also do anything in his power to make sure that those who targeted his loved ones would never be able to do what they said.
Although w.a.n.g Xiaoyun had left now and was in no more danger, Xue Wei would not forgive the masked experts. They had threatened with messing with w.a.n.g Xiaoyun, so now he would mess with them.
Just as Xue Wei vanished and the masked expert started screaming in agony, the other masked expert came running. His face was pale underneath the mask, and when he saw the wound on his comrade, he suddenly felt grateful that he had only been smashed in the head. Although he had lost a tooth, he was not crippled.
"It is that d.a.m.ned Xue Wei!" the masked man with blood on his face spat out. "This is the same attack as the one used to cripple the young masters. To think that he has gained such strength in such a short amount of time!"
The expert felt his heart grow cold, and a s.h.i.+ver ran down his spine. He would never have accepted this task had he known that he was up against such a little devil.
"We cannot even impede him for this," the man said while gritting his teeth. "He has been hiding during each and every attack, and I am sure that his estate"s manager Su will say that he was present in their mansion. Then it will be our word against theirs, and that is not strong enough to win a case. We need a witness!"
As he looked around, he found that there was a dark alleyway right next to the place where his masked brother was wailing in agony; and when he entered he found that there was a warm spot on the ground, yet there were no signs of life. No one would have noticed him in this alleyway.
"There was also an alleyway close to where I was located before," the man said to himself and scratched his chin.
Other masked experts came rus.h.i.+ng towards the area. The rumor of the masked experts being targeted had reached all around the marketplace by now, and those present hurried towards the location of the wailing masked expert.
"What is going on here?" one of the masked experts asked, but before he had the time to look around, a loud, violent gale with a melody that sounded as if someone was heading to war came cras.h.i.+ng towards him.
It was as if a cavalry was trampling over them. All of them fell to the ground. Their faces were pale, and blood slowly streamed from the lips of the gathered masked experts.
Some of them, the ones who had received the brunt of the force, had their masks cracking under the attack and splitting into thousands of pieces.
The ident.i.ties of three experts were instantly exposed, and the commoners present glued their eyes to the faces of the no longer masked experts.
"Check the alleyways!" one of the masked experts called out. It was the one who had blood around his mouth and lacked a tooth. Although he was not amongst the highest ranked experts, he still had enough standing for the others to listen to him, and they split up to search the alleyways.
Suddenly, a shrill shriek sounded out, and the others looked over only to find that another person laid on the ground while gripping his leg with both hands as blood poured out from underneath his fingers.
The faces behind the masks all turned ugly. The ones who had had their mask broken had quickly replaced them with new masks, but it was too late to hide the damage done. They had long since been recognized.
Xue Wei had been hiding in the shadows of the alleyways and attacked four times so far. Twice the attacks had crippled their targets, while the other two had caused the opponents to be unveiled.
Now he just had to wait and hear the rumors about who these experts were, and then he would be able to move further with his plan.
"I cannot cause more damage than what I already have," Xue Wei muttered to himself as he turned on his tail and ran far away from the masked experts without even the slightest hesitation.
He no longer had the element of surprise, and although he deducted that he now had the strength to fight them head on one-on-one, he knew that he stood no chance against a group of them. One thing was to jump a few layers while fighting one on one; another was to do it in a fight against seven opponents.
Xue Wei did not wait anywhere in the city. He had no other purpose than to cause problems for the masked experts and unveil them so that his suspicious could be confirmed, and thus he returned to the mansion as fast as he had left.
Xue Wei noticed that there was a group of experts standing outside the gate of the estate. Some of them were waiting for Xue Wei to return home, and amongst these people were two masked cultivators.
Fortunately, Xue Wei noticed them before they noticed him, so he turned down a corner after which he used the Forbidden Rush to jump the wall.
"Manager Su, if you do not show us the little rascal, I will blame this on him!" someone called out, and Manager Su"s calm voice resounded with a hint of anger in it, "The young master is cultivating. He is about to break through. Who are you to interrupt the young master when he is cultivating? I can vouch for him being in the mansion, so take your leave now and don"t disturb us, or don"t expect me to keep this from Xiao Lei when he returns."
Although the name Xiao Lei worked great as a deterrent, the Jia and He family leaders had rushed to the mansion to impede Xue Wei for the attacks on their guards. They knew by now that their men had been recognized. As a result, they could only hope that there was at least a little chance of blaming Xue Wei and getting their vengeance that way.
"Will you stop yelling at my front door?" Xue Wei asked as he stepped forward. He looked das.h.i.+ng in his black clothes with his hair tied up.
"I was busy cultivating and training, and all you do is come here to blabber about some sort of justice. What kind of justice are you here to find me for?"
It was not only He and Jia families that had made it to Xue Wei"s mansion. Shen Mu, Luo Zhirou, and a few other younger generation experts had made it over and were curious as to what exactly was going on.
"You have crippled my guards!" He Tong exclaimed with a loud voice as he pointed a trembling finger at Xue Wei.
"Have your guards entered my mansion?" Xue Wei asked, and He Tong, looking as if he was spitting fire answered, "No! They were in the marketplace. "
"So it has to be me?" Xue Wei grinned, but his grin quickly turned to a sneer, "I have been in the mansion for all this time. If you find someone who can prove your claim, then sure let us hear what he has to say. Until then please stop interrupting my training! I am in a hurry to reach a higher realm before heading out to the army."