Su Ming stopped outside the house and stood in the dark like a hunter. He stared at the house for a moment. Then slowly, he frowned. He quickly went up to the house and opened the door. There was no one inside.
"Interesting," Su Ming mumbled to himself. He looked at his surroundings. There was a hole on the ground at the end of the house.
He hesitated for a moment, then squatted down by the hole and observed it for a moment. He also touched the insides of the hole. Its walls were made of dirt and they were dry. It was obvious that the hole had existed for a long time.
His eyes gleamed and he jumped into the hole. There was a tunnel in there. Su Ming ran along the tunnel without making a sound. As he moved forward, he began to determine where the tunnel headed. It was not hard to tell that it led outside the mudstone city.
There were messy looking footprints on the tunnel grounds. Su Ming would stop sometimes to observe them. Once he was done, he calculated the amount of people he expected in his heart.
‘There’s about seven or eight people.’
Su Ming thought for a moment and took out his horn. As he moved forward, he dug deep pits into the ground. As it was just soil and the horn was sharp, Su Ming spent no effort in digging the holes into the ground.
Su Ming even saw a spot in the tunnel where the ceiling was supported by a thick round log when he lifted his head. It seemed like it was there for fear of the tunnel collapsing. Su Ming looked at it for a while. Then the corners of his lips curled up into a smile.
After some time, about 10,000 feet into the tunnel, Su Ming stopped. He saw moonlight nearby, an obvious sign that he had arrived at the exit.
He could also hear a faint voice floating about just outside the exit.
The voice seemed to be chanting and there was a certain strangeness to it. The voice did not seem to be too far away. Su Ming kept his head low as he approached the exit. Soon after, he lifted his head to take a quick glance outside. He took a step back immediately.
With just a glance and help of the moonlight, he saw a person sitting down with his legs crossed, meditating. It seemed like he was keeping watch of the hole.
‘Judging by his Qi, that person keeping watch is only at the fourth level.’
Su Ming was calm. Once he took a step forward, he jumped. The moment he rushed out, the Wind Stream Tribe member sitting cross-legged by the exit opened his eyes as if he was caught by surprise.
In the short period that he was stunned, Su Ming lifted his right hand and swung it gently. The young man instantaneously felt sharp pain in his entire body. It felt like firelight spreading right before his eyes like an uncountable amount of needles. He coughed out a mouthful of blood. Just as he was about to let out a sharp scream, a cold and strong hand reached out from behind his head and covered his mouth. He was unable to scream and could only moan as he struggled.
Soon enough, his body twitched and he fainted.
Behind him, Su Ming’s face remained calm as he placed the person down gently. He squatted down and looked at his surroundings. It was midnight. There was only silence around him. He could see the faint contours of the mudstone city from a distance and the light from the bonfires of the affiliated tribes.
Su Ming also saw another bonfire burning from a different direction. However, the light emitting from the fire was not red but green! There was a certain peculiarity to the green fire and under the moonlight, it looked ghastly.
The chants he heard came from the direction of the green bonfire.
Su Ming frowned. He approached the grim location quietly and slowly. As he got nearer, he squatted down. He saw something that made his heart jump.
The green fire was burning brightly, sustained by numerous dried branches. Su Ming also saw some corpses within the fire. It was apparent that they had been lifeless since long time ago. As they burned in the fire, light crackling sounds could be heard.
There were seven people sitting around the fire. Among the seven, one of them was sitting right in front of the fire. As for the other six, they were sitting together in groups of three by the fire’s side. One of them was Bei Ling!
The person sitting right in front of the fire was a young man wearing a black robe. He was bald and exceptionally handsome. Under the illumination of the fire, he seemed a bit devilish.
Su Ming did not make a sound. He squatted down and watched the scene intently. Gradually, he began to piece together what was happening. Not long after, six whiffs of air emerged from the green fire. The air was absorbed through the mouths, noses, eyes, ears, and tongues of the six people sitting by the bald man’s side. It made their faces even paler and their bodies began to shake.
After a while, one of the six stood up and went towards the bald young man. He knelt down on one knee and hit his chest hard with both hands. Immediately, his body began trembling even harder. Then, a green drop of fresh blood was forced out from between his brows. It floated towards the bald young man. At the same time, a drop of dark green blood the size of a fingernail was forced out from between the bald young man’s brows too. It mixed together with the blood offered by the person before him.
Once the green blood fused together, a vast amount of blood veins appeared on the bald young man’s body. They had a tinge of green in them.
A strong presence of Qi erupted forth from the bald young man’s body. Su Ming narrowed his eyes and knew he had judged wrongly. This person was indeed not a Berserker at the eighth level of the Blood Solidification Realm or the seventh level but... the sixth!
He was already at the peak of the sixth level and was just about to break through into the seventh level.
‘Looks like I’ve overestimated Wind Stream Tribe.’
Su Ming remained unmoved and focused his gaze on Bei Ling. Besides Bei Ling, the rest of them had already stood up and forced out a drop of blood from between their brows. They then returned to their places, exhausted.
"Wu Sen… I already gave you dozens of phosphorous blood for the past few days and I’m really weak now. The test is in the morning. Can I just give you a drop today?" Bei Ling opened his eyes and looked at the bald young man with a troubled gaze as he spoke in a low tone.
"Hmm?" The bald young man was Wu Sen. There was a tinge of green in his eyes as he looked at Bei Ling.
"Do you intend to break your promise? I’ve said before that if you help me break through the seventh level and I finally obtain the Elder’s Berserker Blood, I will give you a tiny bit. It was the same in the past. If that’s the case, you can choose not to join the first two stages of the test. I’ll give you some blood for the final stage. Then you’ll find no problems getting a place in the top 50."
"This…" Bei Ling hesitated for a moment as if he was struggling internally. However shortly after, he gritted his teeth and walked forward, kneeling on one knee before Wu Sen. He hit his chest with both hands and immediately, his body started trembling. A drop of green blood flew out from between his brows.
Bei Ling was in a state of fatigue and he looked like was going to wither. Just as the blood flew out and Bei Ling was about to get up and retreat to recover, Wu Sen’s eyes flashed. He raised his right hand instantly and tapped it against the defenseless Bei Ling’s forehead.
"You!" Bei Ling shuddered violently and was about to resist but, the moment his finger touched him, the spot between his brows opened up and drops of blood flew out quickly!
"Don’t worry, we’re friends. I won’t kill you. I’m just a.s.sisting you to not hesitate any longer and offer me everything you have for tonight…" Wu Sen smiled strangely and retrieved his finger. He was just about to control the ball of dark green blood and fuse it with the blood from Bei Ling’s brows when his body jolted. His eyes abruptly opened wide.
He did not even have time to recall the ball of dark green blood into his body. He swiftly retreated a few steps and looked as if he had fused into the green fire.
A black light suddenly appeared. As howling sounds echoed in the air, a long black spear rushed towards them like a great black dragon. It bypa.s.sed the others in an instant. It went past Bei Ling, who was stunned and went straight towards Wu Sen.
There was a loud, m.u.f.fled bang. The fire exploded all of a sudden and a large amount of green flames spread around the area. A st.u.r.dy looking person appeared out of nowhere. His speed was so quick he seemingly arrived in front of Bei Ling the moment the explosion occurred. He grabbed the air with his right hand along with Bei Ling’s fresh blood and Wu Sen’s dark green blood. They fell into the man’s hands in an instant.
The man was Su Ming who had earlier changed his appearance!
"This fresh blood is good. I’ll take it." His voice was hoa.r.s.e. He moved his left hand and the black spear which was stuck on the ground turned into a bundle of black mist that he held in his hand.
Su Ming spoke slowly. He looked at Wu Sen, who had retreated the moment the flames scattered. Wu Sen’s face was grave and there was a hint of viciousness in him as well.
"You’re just asking for death!" Wu Sen roared and instantly, a large amount of green air gushed forth from his body and surrounded him. It transformed him into a figure of about 30 feet in height. The green figure lifted its head and roared at the sky. It lifted its arms like a zombie and jumped towards Su Ming.
At the same time, the others also reacted and activated the Qi in their bodies. However, because they had been offering green blood multiple times, they were still in a weakened condition. As they were about to take action, Su Ming smirked coldly and stuck the long spear in his left hand into the ground.
The Qi within his body immediately rushed into the long spear, causing a large amount of black mist to spew from the spear. The moment the spear pierced the ground, a clamor resounded through the air and the land trembled. A wave of air spread towards their surroundings with Su Ming as the center. It caused the weakened individuals to step back involuntarily.
Then almost immediately, Su Ming rushed towards Wu Sen at lightning speed, lifting the long spear in his left hand simultaneously. The black mist drove into the sky and turned into a faint shape of a black eagle. It opened its wings and created a huge gust of wind as it rushed towards the zombie-like figure.
At that moment, no one noticed that the moon had brightened up. A sliver of moonlight appeared out of nowhere and fused into the black eagle to aid it in its fight against the faint green figure.
The clash was like a thunderbolt. After a huge bang, Su Ming rolled backwards. He staggered for a few steps and quickly retreated towards the tunnel.
The moment he retreated, a furious roar could be heard. The green figure crumbled and Wu Sen’s face was twisted with malice. There was a wound on his chest and fresh blood flowed out from the wound.
"How dare you hurt me?!" The green tint in his eyes grew darker and he rushed forward instantly in pursuit.
Su Ming ran forward as Wu Sen chased after him. In the blink of an eye, they disappeared into the tunnel. The people left behind, including Bei Ling were all dumbstruck with astonishment. They looked at each other and none of them dared to chase after the duo.
Before long, a m.u.f.fled sound came from underground like the tunnel had collapsed. They also heard the remote sounds of a furious bellow. After a long while, Wu Sen came out of the tunnel’s exit with a gloomy face. He looked incredibly pathetic and was overcome by anger. However, underneath that anger was also a hint of anxiety that was not easily discovered by the others.
"I’ve already retrieved my Blood of Corpses but I won’t be refining it tonight. Find that person. You must find him! He’s not from Wind Stream Tribe! Find him. I want to break his neck with my own hands!"