Five Way Heaven

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Chapter 16: Crossing Paths

Faint silver strands of light spiraled like wisps of smoke, curling over Ai Hui’s entire body, transforming into the vague silhouette of a sword. Immediately afterwards, the sword light swept over, instantly fading away.

Immersed within his cultivation, Ai Hui was not aware of this.

After an hour, he opened his eyes that were filled with happiness. In these past three years that he had been cultivating, this was the first time he felt that he had clearly made progress; he couldn’t help but be moved. After persevering for three years, he had finally seen dawn’s light, what else could possibly make him even more happier?

Even though the elemental energy he had absorbed only amounted to twenty percent of the total, to him, this was a kind of progress he would never have dared to imagine. The elemental energy within his body had expanded to as much as triple his original.

There was no problem in his absorbing being poor, he just had to cultivate a bit longer than normal, that’s all. As long as there was progress, no matter how small the improvement, he would never fear. What he was most afraid of was no progression after several years.

Ai Hui carefully reflected upon what happened during his previous cultivation. Loulan’s Elemental Repairing Soup had played a pivotal role. If not for that bowl of soup, the amount of metal elemental energy Ai Hui would absorb would have sharply declined. By how much, Ai Hui did not know, but he had a premonition that it would’ve been extremely low.

After shaking his head, Ai Hui threw away the other distracting thoughts to the back of his mind.

Rich people had the rich’s way of cultivating, and the poor had the poor’s way of cultivating.

Even though the silver strands of metal wind were not the least bit gentle, they were more compact and more pure. Although Ai Hui could only absorb only a small portion of it, in terms of purity, it was stronger than any ordinary beginning student’s by far. Ai Hui was also conscious of this. After all the drifting elemental energy had all dispersed, he did not immediately stop cultivating, and instead, continued to circulate elemental energy, making it much more pure

Normal students mostly chased after advances in realms and expansion of elemental strength. However, Ai Hui’s combat experience was extraordinarily abundant, he had seen all kinds of experts before. He had personally seen many elementalists of the same realm, but their fighting strengths were like the difference between the heaven and earth. Purer elemental energy was capable of allowing one to do as they wished more easily, and made their attacks more efficient.

Ai Hui also knew from experience that the sliver of elemental energy within his body was exceptionally pure, even if extremely faint. It had saved his life many times before, and did displayed many functions within his hands. When he did a few tricks with it, even those great elementalists could not help but praise him if they saw it.

A powerful weapon was not as good as a comfortable weapon.

When Ai Hui left his room and saw the spotless training hall, he was a bit taken back.

Feeling Ai Hui’s gaze upon him, Loulan explained: “I’m pretty free today, so I just happened to sweep it a little. If Ai Hui is offended, Loulan won’t do it anymore.”

“You sweep it cleaner than me.” Ai Hui said with some shame. It was as if the training hall itself had taken a bath, dust could not even be seen within the smallest of remote corners. Ai Hui had always thought of himself as a professional training hall sweeper, he’d never expected that there was an even taller mountain than himself.

When Loulan heard the compliment, he was clearly very happy as his tone of voice unconsciously became a bit more cheerful: “Loulan is a sand golem and is relatively good at these things.”

Who would remember a sand golem?

Ai Hui didn’t know why he would recalled that phrase. Looking at the happy Loulan, he suddenly spoke: “Thanks for the Elemental Repairing Soup, it’s really useful.”

Ai Hui would rarely say these kinds of words. In front of others, he usually had his guard up and kept people at a distance. But in front of Loulan, he was more relaxed. This was probably because Loulan was a sand golem, right? That was probably right.

After hearing that the Elemental Repairing Soup was effective, Loulan became even more happier. He earnestly looked at Ai Hui as both his eyes lit up with a strange clay yellow light.

As if he felt something, Ai Hui suddenly felt a chill as all the hairs on his body stood erect.

“Bruises and swelling need time to heal, injuries within the flesh are no longer anything serious.” The yellow light in Loulan’s eyes disappeared.

Ai Hui’s uncomfortable feeling had also disappeared. He felt that this Loulan was truly a strange sand golem, a sand golem that was an expert in making meals, cleaning, and even seems to know a bit of first aid. What kind of strange arrangement was this?

“I’m going to cultivate now.” Ai Hui prepared to go out. He was planning to go back to the Metal Suspending PaG.o.da, but before that, he had to make a few preparations and buy a few things.

“Loulan also needs to go work now. Ai Hui, see you later.” Loulan waved a hand at Ai Hui. Then, his body became a pool of quicksand as he sank into the ground and disappeared.

Duanmu Huanghun walked alone on the street, occasionally sweeping the crowd with his gaze. Ai Hui had not attended cla.s.s for several consecutive days now, and without any other options, he was forced to leave it up to chance. He knew that searching for someone in this way was like finding a needle in a haystack, but he would rather do this than return to Master Xu, telling him that he was going to abandon his request while disappointing him.

Thinking of that disgrace named Ai Hui, his heart indescribably twitched.

His nefariously enchanting face that was also exquisitely handsome attracted the gazes of the pa.s.serbys. Several beautiful women stepped forward, but were all scared into retreat by his ice-cold gaze. His slender body leaned on a fragrant camphor tree at the side of the road. Holding a candied fruit skewer in his hand, he slowly bit at it. The bright red candied fruit skewer with the enchantingly pale face formed an extremely impactful image.

The young ladies did not dare to advance, but they all gathered at a not so distant place as their scorching hot gazes watched Duanmu Huanghun, wishing that they were that candied fruit skewer.

Duanmu Huanghun acted as if n.o.body else was there. He had long grown accustomed to the attentive stares of others, and his face cleared.

“Duanmu Huanghun, let’s see where else you’ll run to!”

An explosive shout suddenly sounded from another side of the street. Duanmu Huanhun took a glance, then immediately withdrew his gaze. Not wanting to acknowledge it, he minded his own business and continued to eat his candied fruit skewer.

A strong and robust man appeared from not too far away. He looked at Duanmu Huanghun with shining eyes: “Knowing that I, Zhao Zhibao wants to challenge you, what? You scared? Decided to hide? You have truly disappointed me. And I’d even thought that Duanmu Huanghun was that kind of genius, looks like he’s only a coward.”

Duanmu Huanghun did not even raise his eyelids. His long eyelashes set off his pale skin. It was graceful yet fascinating, enough to make a woman jealous.

The young ladies standing watch in a circle immediately clamored.

“Zhao Zhibao, even when you’re bragging, you should think about if you’re even qualified to challenge our Huanghun.”

“Do you think anyone can challenge our Huanghun to a fight?!”

“Take a look at yourself, you’re broad all over, and even grew out your hair. Haha, like a mop inserted into a wooden block.”

Zhao Zhibao was extremely furious, his face flushed red. He had always known that he was not ordinary, and even though he had heard of Duanmu Huanghun’s genius reputation, he had never been scared. Instead, he had publicly challenged Duanmu Huanghun. His strength in itself was indeed not common, in his own cla.s.s, he could place in the top five.

“So this is our genius Duanmu Hunaghun, a genius who likes hiding behind a group of girls, ha.”

Duanmu Huanghun’s eyelids still had not lifted. Spitting out a hawthorn seed, he said indifferently: “I’m not in a good mood today, it’s best if you scram.”

“Not in a good mood? Ha, then come at me, beat me.” As if he had heard a joke, Zhao Zhibao couldn’t help but laugh weirdly.

Five minutes later.

With an expressionless face, Duanmu Huanghun withdrew his leg. Not one part of the Zhao Zhibao on the floor was in good condition, he was beaten black and blue. After eating the last hawthorn fruit on his candied fruit skewer, he threw away the bamboo stick and coldly turned to leave.

Thud, the bamboo stick deeply sunk into the ground, not even two centimeters awa from Zhao Zhibao’s nose. Zhao Zhibao’s vision immediately stilled, and he didn’t dare to move one bit.

The young ladies standing watch in a circle cheered and shrieked, then followed Duanmu Huanghun’s rear like a swarm of bees.

Not far from the street’s corner, the eyes of a veiled female flashed. Shi Xueman had quietly came to Interpine City to especially visit her family’s training hall, but she didn’t expect to see such a scene. She had heard of Duanmu Huanghun’s name, and she did not expect that he was also in Interpine City. Not only that, from his show of strength earlier, he performed quite well.

Could it be him?

But very quickly, Shi Xueman shook her head. Even though it was a blind battle, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s style of fighting was completely different from Duanmu Huanghun’s. The way that b.a.s.t.a.r.d fought was more violently and fierce, like a wild beast.

She turned to leave, towards her family’s training hall.

Zhao Zibao took no less than twenty minutes to slowly recover and struggled to crawl up from the ground with incomparable difficulty.

When he raised his head, he was stunned.

He saw someone who looked as badly battered as he was walk over.

Ai Hui, who had just finished buying everything he needed looked at Zhao Zibao, who was in the middle of the street, and was also stunned.

The two people truly looked alike, both had a b.l.o.o.d.y nose and a swollen face, both had a swollen body with bruises everywhere. Their facial features had all deformed, their bodies were riddled with injuries, and their clothes were utterly tattered.

When Zhao Zhibao, who had just been beaten black and blue looked at Ai Hui, it was as if he was looking at how miserable he himself looked. Was this what mocking himself and humiliating himself was like? Today, he had acted like a clown. He only felt resentful as he soared from the ground and fiercely said: “I’m not in a good mood today, it’s best if you scram.”

Ai Hui narrowed his swollen, bruised eyes.