"He is doing it on purpose," Xue Wei mumbled to himself. "I bet he is doing all of this on purpose. He wants me to suffer. He wants me to be hated by all of them."
"I bet he is having a whole lot of fun right now," Xue Wei continued, but he refused to look at Lan and his smug face more than necessary. He poked the food with his chopsticks and could not help but praise the quality of the food that they were provided in the Genius Camp.
The meal consisted of meat from Fierce Beasts alongside different medicinal herbs and roots.
These medicinal herbs and roots were so weak that one had to eat an astronomical amount to see any actual change in one’s cultivation, however when eaten in a meal, these limited portions of energy would spread through the body and a.s.sist in supporting the foundations and make them even steadier.
Xue Wei had eaten food like this at special occasions, but to eat it daily was simply wasteful. Were they given special treatment today, since it was the first day, or was the Genius Camp wasteful with their resources?
The Kingdom of Heping was a poor country. Thus it should not be able to provide the soldiers with such luxurious food every single day, so Xue Wei, completely ignorant of whatever was happening around him, ate every single last bite on the plate.
When he finished his meal, he went back with his tray to the people behind the counter that had delivered food to him before. Without waiting for Lan, he headed straight back to his tent.
As he exited the dining hall, Xue Wei saw a whole group of experts waiting for him outside. All of them glared at him and looked around to see whether or not they could find Lan.
But Lan was not present, and one of the geniuses left the group unnoticed and stood at the entrance to the dining hall, keeping an eye on Lan.
"You are on your own this time, kiddo," Lan"s voice sounded in Xue Wei"s mind. "You will get stronger, or you"ll get beaten to a pulp. Either way, you will learn something."
"Is this another one of your teaching lessons?" Xue Wei sneered back with his compressed voice, and Lan"s laughter rang through the entire area.
No one knew what he was laughing about apart from Xue Wei, who furrowed his brows. His eyes narrowed, and he could feel the killing intent within him growing dangerously out of control.
"He is doing it on purpose," Xue Wei shook his head with annoyance. "What did you just say?" someone asked when they saw Xue Wei"s reaction, but Xue Wei just looked at him as if he was looking at trash.
"I was not speaking to you," Xue Wei snapped at the genius in front of him.
The genius that was standing in front of him was a one layer Earth Warrior. When he looked around him, he saw that everyone present were at the first layer apart from two at the second layer.
Although he could deal with first layer Earth Warriors easily, and could tussle with someone at the second layer, there were simply too many experts surrounding him right now.
"When in doubt, flee," Xue Wei quickly made up his mind. It was clear that Lan wanted him to face off against the entire Genius Camp, but Xue Wei was aware of his own shortcomings and simply activated Forbidden Rush.
Having activated his movement technique, he could easily sidestep the attacks that suddenly rained down upon the location where he had been standing moments before.
Their attacks had been delayed by a few seconds. It was clear that they had not channeled the attacks before they suddenly saw him vanis.h.i.+ng into thin air, and thus their attacks also hit nothing but the location where he had been standing.
"He vanished!" someone exclaimed, but the others just looked at him as if he was an idiot. It was clear that he had vanished, there was no reason to mention it.
"It seems his uncle valued him greatly and gave him an outstanding movement technique," one of the two-layer Earth Warriors said as he stroked his chin.
"You guys are better off not trying to make things difficult for him like this," a voice sounded from behind, and the others turned around to see a third layer Earth Warrior behind them.
"We cannot accept him! He is a simple Ordinary Warrior, and he is close to the prophet from the central of the continent!"
"He will become c.o.c.ky if we do not teach him a lesson!"
"We cannot accept him as he is. He is a shame to our Genius Camp!"
"Do you think the Prophet fell for his handsome looks?"
So many of the experts called out at the same time, and the third layer Earth Warrior that had appeared behind them just shook his head smilingly.
"I never said that we could not teach him a lesson. I merely said that we could not do it like this."
"For instance, if he is wounded during practice no one can say anything about it."
"If he were to encounter an accident, then who is to be blamed?"
"What if he were to encounter a Fierce Beast or a deserter in the arena, what good is his movement technique then? Fleeing can only work so far. I heard that one could bribe the gatekeepers of the Arena to rig the matches."
"We have to do things like this," the third layer Earth Warrior continued. "He is highly revered by the prophet and his uncle is Xiao Lei. We cannot afford for him to know what happened."
The truth was that this young man was just as tired and against Xue Wei as the others, but he was also aware that it was impossible to get rid of Xue Wei without Xiao Lei knowing what was happening if they didn’t move covertly.
Since that was the case, he might as well share his many thoughts on how to get rid of him with this group of people. If he were lucky, one of them would do just what he had given as an example, and then he would be rid of a troublesome person.
"You fled fast!" the annoying voice of Prophet Lan appeared in Xue Wei"s mind once again when he had fled from the group of youngsters.
This time, Xue Wei was incapable of answering him. He was simply too far away, and he growled in annoyance at knowing that the next couple of weeks would be filled with conversations with this madman who wanted to pit him against the world.
Xue Wei arrived at his tent and entered it before he sat down on the ground, and sighed as he looked at the bed which he had given up for the next two weeks.
The ground was cold and hard, but fortunately he was no longer a mortal, which meant this level of cold could not make him sick.
Just as he entered his tent, Xue Wei finally felt a calm descend upon him. The killing intent and urge to fight, brought about by the overwhelming number of people he encountered and fled from before, was suddenly gone.
He knew that he had no chance to defeat the group of experts, but he had still felt an urge to do battle. He had felt an urge to kill every last one of them.
Although the reason they disliked him was because they felt he had been praised too much and given too much credit, and was almost overshadowing them despite actually being the weakest amongst them rank wise, was something that he could understand, he also knew that if one were to rank them on battle strength, then he was far from being the lowest ranked.
In the Genius Camp, there were a full fifty-four third layer Earth Warriors; a hundred and seventy-three two-layer Earth Warriors; three ninth layer Ordinary Warriors and remaining mine thousand seven hundred and thirty-four were one layer Earth Warriors.
Xue Wei would at least be ranked in the top hundred if he were to fight them, and he understood this. He also knew that although Lan had not seen him fight, this strange prophet had already gauged his strength completely and knew exactly how strong he was and what he was able to do.
"No more thinking about him. It makes me so angry," Xue Wei muttered as he slowly emptied his mind of thoughts.
As his mind was emptied, he focused solely on his breathing. On the energy all around him and on how he drew it into his body. He rotated this energy through his meridians and absorbed it into his strange and unique dantian with every cycle.
The evening turned to night and Xue Wei was completely lost in his cultivation. He did not even pay attention to the mad ramblings of Lan that came from time to time. In fact, he paid it so little mind that he forgot what had been said the moment he heard it.
Lan seemed to sense that Xue Wei was cultivating, and as a result he stopped bothering Xue Wei. As for Lan"s true purpose, no one seemed to understand it.
That night, Lan was busy drinking and chatting with the upper echelons of the Recruitment Camp while Xue Wei was cultivating.
Although Lan did not return to claim the bed, Xue Wei had already taken the payment for leaving the bed untouched the next two weeks, so even if Lan were to find a tent on his own, Xue Wei would stay on the floor for those two weeks.
When one made a promise, one had to keep it.
As the sun rose in the sky, Xue Wei awoke from his meditation. His eyelids lifted and he looked straight into the smiling face of Lan, who was so close that their noses almost touched.
A shriek of surprise escaped Xue Wei"s lips as he scrambled backward, completely taken by surprise.
He had not sensed Lan. Even now, when he looked at him, he could not sense him. If it was not because he could see him right in front of him, then he would not have known that he was there.
This was a state that Xue Wei had never seen anyone achieve before. Even the Heavenly Warriors were incapable of completely hiding their presence, and this display of might made Xue Wei extremely tense and uncomfortable.
"Rested well?" Lan asked with a smile on his face that kept blooming. The uglier Xue Wei"s face became, the happier Lan seemed to be.
Lan then turned around and left the tent. "Wash up fast, we are going to the dining hall, and then we will find a field where I will teach you a few moves."
Hearing this, Xue Wei was all of thrilled, troubled, and annoyed. He knew that this was an expert with the kind of strength he had never seen before, and as such to learn a skill from him would be truly magnificent.
He was troubled because of their relations.h.i.+p. Would he really teach him a skill out of nowhere, or would he want something in return? It was hard to say. Maybe he would even ask for Xue Wei"s dantian again. Just the thought alone made Xue Wei grimace.
Finally, he was annoyed. No matter what, he could not bring himself to suddenly be fond of Lan. Lan was truly troublesome. He did things so differently, and he was a royal pain in Xue Wei"s behind, constantly doing all in his power to enrage him.
Still, the annoyance was quickly overpowered by the interest in whatever it was that he wanted to teach him. Without realizing it, a small smile had crept up on Xue Wei"s face.
"Let us go and get some food then," Xue Wei said with a grin to Lan, and the two of them went together to the dining hall once more.