“I wouldn’t have given a d.a.m.n as long as the one you’re speaking loudly to isn’t me,” Qianye said while caressing the blade. “Now what? You want to kill me?”
Iron Bear clenched his teeth. “Of course! You’re running on empty now. What are you going to fight me with!?”
With that, he leapt up and slashed down at Qianye with the scimitar, a shade of dark energy appearing on its blade edges. It was an all-out attack right off the bat!
“I can kill you even without origin power!” Qianye parried the incoming slash horizontally. A violent jolt ran through Iron Bear’s body as the two blades came into contact, and he was flung backward. Meanwhile, Qianye’s arm only sank a little bit.
Xue Ding, who had been watching from the side, shrunk back and drew a breath of cold air. With his great insight, he could clearly tell that Qianye’s block just now contained no origin power. He was able to throw Iron Bear away with pure physical strength.
What kind of monster is this!?
It was only natural that he would be astonished because, as far as he could remember, even the Wolf King’s own son was far weaker than Qianye.
The impact sent Iron Bear’s qi and blood into turmoil, and his shaken vortices could no longer mobilize origin power smoothly. He hadn’t even managed to catch his breath when Qianye spun East Peak around and arrived in front of him.
Shocked out of his wits, Iron Bear quickly made to deflect East Peak with his scimitar. Yet even with three vortices’ worth of origin power, the incoming blade remained as heavy and immoveable as the oceans. It traveled along its original trajectory and soon arrived before the target’s throat. Iron Bear fled in desperation and barely managed to escape the attack by retreating ten meters away.
With a twist of Qianye’s wrists, East Peak drew an arced line and spun back toward Iron Bear’s neck. The man did his utmost to block the incoming sword with his scimitar, landing a dozen blows on East Peak in quick succession. However, Qianye would disperse the force with a slight shake every time the defensive blows arrived. East Peak eventually closed in on Iron Bear’s throat via its curvaceous directory.
The combat arts Iron Bear used to be so proud of were completely useless at the moment—an ordinary stab from Qainye was enough to force him into dire straits, taking every ounce of his power just to dispel it. The latter’s strength was also inconceivable, and every blow from him felt like a blow from a sledgehammer. Iron Bear could barely parry the attacks even with origin power.
East Peak seemed almost weightless in Qianye’s hands as it danced constantly around Iron Bear. The burly man’s expression grew increasingly serious until, at one point, his eyes went round, and he let out a miserable cry.
A dozen or so streams of fresh blood gushed out from his body as his two lower legs flew off. He fell to the ground with a thud, his weapon stuck in the ground nearby.
East Peak slowly came down and pointed at Iron Bear’s chest.
“What do you think now?” Qianye inquired.
Iron Bear was livid. Following a brief moment of hesitation, he threw caution to the wind and roared, “I’ll definitely kill you given the chance, but you can’t kill me. You don’t dare! I’m one of the Wolf King’s men. With his son standing witness here, the Wolf King won’t let you off if you kill me.”
Qianye smiled indifferently. “Are you saying you want me to silence everyone here?”
Xue Ding’s expression became unsightly. He glared fiercely at Iron Bear, but he was clever enough to retain his silence, lest he unduly provokes Qianye. Although the young man had no clear understanding of this person’s character, he could at least see that this was no merciful saint.
Iron Bear laughed out loud, but the action opened his wounds and blood began flowing like a fountain from what remained of his legs. He groaned from the pain and could no longer keep on laughing. After catching his breath, he said through clenched teeth, “You can’t escape even if you kill everyone here. The Wolf King only needs to send people here to find out that the Young Master died in your hands. You won’t be able to escape no matter where you flee to!”
“Is that so?” Qianye’s eyes were filled with killing intent.
“Wait!” Little Knife pounced over and held onto Iron Bear. “What he said isn’t wrong. There’s no way to hide this matter if you kill him now. Life here is good, so why throw away your future? If you let us go, I swear that we will let this matter be and never bring it up. Iron Bear is no longer a threat to you in this state.”
Qianye’s lips curved up into an enigmatic smile. “Are you telling me I should bear with what happened today?”
Little Knife replied solemnly, “You can’t stand against the Wolf King, so you must endure!”
Qianye laughed. “Unfortunately, I no longer have the intention to tolerate anything the moment I came to the neutral lands.”
Little Knife was astonished. The words “No!” hadn’t even escaped his lips when East Peak came down and pierced through Iron Bear’s heart!
Qianye glanced at Little Knife as he drew his sword out. “Were you a part of this?”
The man remained silent, but Xue Ding decided to cut in, “It has nothing to do with him. He even tried to stop Iron Bear from bringing me here.”
Qianye nodded. Moving East Peak away from Little Knife’s shoulder, he said, “Since that’s the case, I’ll let you off.”
Afterward, Qianey sized Xue Ding up from head to toe. “It’s a bit surprising that you would speak for him.”
Xue Ding’s replied with a calm expression, “This is what it should be, what’s so odd about it?” His next words, however, revealed his true intentions. “To be honest, maybe you and I can still remain neutral. We had no past enmity, am I right?”
“Does that mean you’ll come back later for revenge?”
Xue Ding seemed a bit hesitant. “I’m still a bit unconvinced since I lost my foster father’s face. I have a brother who’s much more powerful than I am. Perhaps he’ll come to you for a spar.”
“Just for a spar?”
“It’s a spar if he loses. If you lose, however, it’ll become a matter of life and death,” Xue Ding replied truthfully.
Qianye laughed indifferently. “Aren’t you the honest one? I’ll let you off today in light of your candor, but whoever kicked my gates must leave a leg here.”
Xue Ding was fairly ruthless—with a wave of his hand, an azure wind-blade shot out and severed that Black Wolf Guard’s leg.
“We leave!” Xue Ding didn’t linger after completing Qianye’s demand. He immediately led the Black Wolf Guards onto the car and left in due swiftness.
After the guests left, Qianye shook his head and returned to the courtyard.
“Will they be back?” Zhuji asked.
Qianye touched her head. “Of course.”
Zhuji seemed to be in high spirits. “Then, can I attack when they come back? Fighting beasts all the time is boring, they’re so dumb.”
“You should grow up first and keep fighting beasts. As for dealing with people, let’s talk about that in a couple of years.” Qianye flicked Zhuji lightly on the forehead.
“It’s more interesting to fight things that can talk!” Zhuji was clearly dissatisfied.
Nighteye hugged little Zhuji, saying, “We should start training her in real combat arts. This is the neutral lands and not the empire. You can’t keep watch over her all the time.”
“You’re right, but where do I find an arachne inheritance or secret art? How can I teach her something I don’t know?” Qianye felt a headache brewing.
This was indeed a distressing problem. Although Zhuji hadn’t expressed a lot of arachne traits, she was still hatched from an arachne egg. There was no way an arachne egg could produce a werewolf, could it?
“Why don’t we capture an arachne and have it do the teaching?”
Qianye nodded. “That can be done. I’ll search for one after I finish dealing with the problems here.”
After finding an initial solution to Little Zhuji’s education, Qianye had to deal with the issue regarding the Wolf King. Xue Ding couldn’t be considered a problem to Qianye; he could kill the man in one blow if needed. The true enemy was still his foster father.
Qianye knew nothing about the Wolf King, but one could imagine his strength from how he had dared to challenge Zhang Buzhou. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to suppress the entire Eastern Sea, either. As for whether this matter would alarm the Wolf King, it really depended on how Xue Ding decided to handle things.
After a moment of contemplation, Qianye once again arrived near the sea and shot a beam of dark golden blood energy into the sky. Before long, the voice of that mysterious ent.i.ty echoed around Qianye, “Are you trying to call out to me, or is this a challenge?”
“There might be some disruption to our sparring in the future.” Qianye truthfully recounted the matter about Xue Ding and the Wolf King.
“Wolf King, humph!” The mysterious ent.i.ty was indifferent. A beam of void origin power shot toward Qianye, saying, “Use this method to summon me. I will hear it as long as you’re on the sh.o.r.es of the Eastern Sea, regardless of the location. Additionally, if you can win three rounds against me in one night, I’ll grant you the right to enter the mist. Thereafter, the will of the mist will cause you no harm.”
After absorbing that wisp of void origin power, a certain secret art appeared in his consciousness. It would allow him to whistle a special note and call out to the mysterious ent.i.ty.
This was just what Qianye wanted. Sparring with the mysterious existence was a critical part of his combat art training. At this stage, Qianye could already sweep through all opponents at the same level with his combat techniques alone. It was beyond difficult to find a suitable training partner.
The right to traverse the mist was fairly valuable because, even now, Qianye could still feel a sense of danger from its depths. The mist more or less covered most of the opposite riverbank and was one of the three great obstructing factors preventing humans from exploring the region—the other two were the Black Grove and the Eastern Sea itself.
It was just that the right to pa.s.s through the mist wasn’t so easily earned. How could it be so easy to win three rounds out of five?
Life remained constant in the days that followed. Now that Nighteye was gradually recovering from her injuries, Qianye spent the night sparring with the mysterious existence and the daytime cultivating the Profound Combatant Formula near the sh.o.r.e.
After three days, Qianye successfully condensed his third origin vortex and reached rank-twelve.
Qianye had a habit of taking a break after each advancement. Without cultivating, he simply sat by the sea and lost himself in thought. This was Duke You’s advice back in the year—one should remain still after advancement, calming the heart and mind. This served to solidify the cultivator’s foundations and prevent adverse effects on their future potential.
After a period of peaceful relaxation, Qianye slowly expanded his perception. The veil of the world faded away as the origin power in the surroundings came into view—there were no more secrets.
Once again, Qianye found out that the void origin power in the Eastern Sea was much denser than on the sh.o.r.e. Moreover, it grew stronger and stronger toward the depths of the ocean. At this rate, the deepest parts of the ocean would probably be no different from the void itself. Could there be a void beast in the depths of the water?
Qianye was starting to become curious about the ident.i.ty of this mysterious existence.
At this moment, Xue Ding’s airs.h.i.+p flew past the western borders of the Eastern Sea and landed in a barbaric-looking city. He jumped down the vessel and ran straight toward the city’s north.
The northern district was occupied by a huge residence, one so big that it could be considered a small town instead of a house. Xue Ding charged through the door and into the courtyard, crying, “Big Brother, save me!”