Ai Hui did something Duanmu Huanghun absolutely did not expect. He pa.s.sed the sword over to his left hand.
Left hand!
Duanmu Huanghun’s eyes opened wide, as if he had seen a ghost.
Ai Hui’s left hand held onto the sword skillfully, not at all unfamiliar with it. Strike!
Elemental energy poured into the sword’s body, a faint s.h.i.+mmer soon covering the sword. With a humming vibration, the gra.s.s sword transformed into a cold ray of light.
The light reflected on Ai Hui’s face, highlighting his indifferent expression and chilling eyes. It was as if he had become a completely different person who emitted a blinding glow of stern danger. What a great display of ability!
False move, luring move, killing move!
Whether it was the slight heaviness from before or the sword’s relentless first blow, they were building up to the sword that Ai Hui now gripped with his left hand.
His muscles were engaged to their limits, and the bandage on his left hand had unbound at an unknown point in time. The white clouds, driven downwards by the rapid streams of airflow, funneled from the sky as an impressive finale for this austere sword ray.
Ai Hui held nothing back, placing his faith in the heavens.
The devilishly red light and the chilly sword ray intertwined in the sky once more.
With exact precision, Ai Hui thrust his sword into the wound on the blood snake’s forehead.
There was no sharp, piercing ring; instead the muted sound of a sharp blade slas.h.i.+ng across leather was heard.
The bone-chilling sword ray slashed through the center of the blood snake’s body, splitting it into two. The fresh blood and minced meat were like red, drizzling rain, yet before it fully dispersed, they were absorbed by the blood bandage in a flash.
Clap.
The remaining chunks of the snake’s body flew in a straight trajectory towards the students before plopping onto the ground not far from them.
The students remained dumbstruck by this swift yet hair-raising display and had yet to regain their senses.
Duanmu Huanghun had received an even greater shock. The so-called sword masters he had seen in the past were all appearance and no substance. The sword moves they demonstrated had focused only on aesthetics.
But Ai Hui’s strike had been extremely sharp.
Could it be that this fellow really was a dark horse? No, Duanmu Huanghun inwardly rejected this thought; he had better insight than most, and it was an unalterable fact that Ai Hui only had two opened palaces. Swordplay wasn’t an absolute art. While the moves were skillful, they weren’t uncommon.
Everything was ordinary, so why was the result so sharp and stunning?
After some more thinking, Duanmu Huanghun’s shock dissipated with his increased understanding, but the surprise nevertheless remained.
First was the imposing manner. From beginning to end, Ai Hui remained calm, showing no signs of weakening; he held clear confidence regarding the battle from the start. This led to his ability to control the flow of the battle. Also, his left hand’s swordplay had been unexpected. Even if he himself had been the opponent, he would have been struck by Ai Hui.
Simply put, Ai Hui utilized everything he had on-hand to produce such a startling result.
This fellow… was made for battling!
Duanmu Huanghun narrowed his eyes, a compet.i.tive spirit rising from within his chest.
The two of them were rivals to begin with. Ai Hui looked unfavorably upon Duanmu Huanghun and vise versa. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d actually turned out to be a battling genius, but so what? When it came to absolute base levels, these battle skills and determination were negligible.
Duanmu Huanghun’s thoughts were lofty; in this aspect, he had sufficient confidence. But Ai Hui’s splendid performance made him see what he lacked. He had greater elemental energy and his [Viridescent Flower] was not something sword-plays could compete with, but in terms of battle experience, he was far behind Ai Hui.
He had already decided that after this journey, he would train in real combat.
To be defeated by this b.a.s.t.a.r.d was absolutely unacceptable!
Fatty squatted down to study the corpse.
“Discover anything?” Ai Hui asked from behind.
Without turning around, Fatty responded, “I’ll have to inspect it a bit more. It’s something new after all; if we can find useful information, we’ll be rich!”
As he spoke, he wrapped up the two pieces of the snake’s body.
Ai Hui was more than familiar with Fatty’s money-grubbing personality. He even extracted two grams of oil from mosquitos before, so why would he let this blood snake go? Ai Hui ignored Fatty and did a sweep over everyone else. Seeing that they were all safe and sound, he diverted his gaze towards the guards.
The other students looked at Ai Hui with more respect. To be able to eliminate a blood snake so cleanly gave Ai Hui’s image a large boost.
A cruel, harsh environment was best at toughening people up. The fact that no one had screamed this time was a sign of improvement as well.
But in Duanmu Huanghun’s eyes, there was no trace of reverence, only strong battlel.u.s.t.
Despite that, Ai Hui’s gaze swept across his face as if looking past air, causing Duanmu Huanghun’s face to darken.
d.a.m.n it!
Looked down by this fellow again!
Ai Hui was not in the mood to consider Bangwan’s feelings. During his observations, he mulled over an issue—the manor was outside of Central Pine City, far away from the Garden of Life, but a blood fiend had actually appeared here.
His face turned ugly just thinking about it.
Before long, under the guards’ attacks, the blood rabbit also perished. This showed Ai Hui that the guards were physically and mentally weak. Despite their advantage in numbers and greater strength, they were all bitten and infected by the blood poison, and some were timid. Only after some time pa.s.sed did they finally manage to end the battle.
Ai Hui couldn’t help but shake his head. The guards of the Induction Ground were too used to working in peaceful environments and were lacking in standards.
The guards cheered while the students heaved sighs of relief.
Ai Hui shouted suddenly, “Let’s get out of here!”
His voice caught the students’ attention, surprising them. They did not expect Ai Hui to say something like this. Only Duanmu Huanghun had a pensive look on his face. With his understanding of Ai Hui, this b.a.s.t.a.r.d must have found something.
A middle-aged guard stood and retorted gloomily, “Imp, don’t stir up trouble!”
Ai Hui remained unmoved. “Blood fiends have appeared here, so the blood disaster must have already spread to this region. It’s no longer safe here. It’s best that we return to the city.”
The middle-aged guard laughed mockingly. “Two blood fiends got you so scared. Relax, they got us because we were unprepared. As long as we prepare ourselves, no number of blood fiends can threaten our safety.”
“You can’t guarantee that,” Ai Hui said coldly, ignoring the middle-aged guard’s ashen face. “Once the blood fiend bites, you get poisoned, and the moment one appears, more will flood in in no time.”
“Shut your trap! Stop scaring people! Where are the rest? There are only two!” the middle-aged guard said in a fury. If not for the fear instilled in him from Ai Hui’s earlier performance when slaying the snake and the risk of causing a backlash, he would have taken Ai Hui down.
“Incubation period,” Ai Hui said, continuing icily, “and the injured students flared up after a few days. When the blood poison really erupts, it will be too late for us to leave!”
The students immediately became restless, their expressions changing greatly. They clearly remembered the day-to-day changes that had occurred in the injured students.
Duanmu Huanghun’s expression similarly s.h.i.+fted. He was acutely clever, understanding easily the truth in Ai Hui’s words.
It did not occur to him immediately since he was merely a student who was used to listening to the teachers’ judgments.
Ai Hui, however, had to judge and decide for himself in all matters, both big and small. In the Wilderness, the elementalists did not care about the well-being of the laborers. If they wanted to survive, there was not a single moment in which they could lower their guards.
By this point, the middle-aged man had become frantic from Ai Hui’s words.
He was helpless amidst the students’ uproar. Plus, that imp’s word had even swayed him a little—and not just him, but the other guards were uneasy now as well.
The head guard, of all people, had to be away at this moment, so everyone was waiting on him to make a decision.
“You guys know who I am. If something were to happen to me….” Duanmu Huanghun said suddenly, gazing at the guards as if harboring evil intentions. While he did not state it aloud, even a fool could hear the threat in his voice.
The guards’ faces changed.
Duanmu Huanghun’s ident.i.ty had been stressed to them over and over again. If something happened to the young master of the Duanmu household while under their care, his family would not let them off. Their own families could be implicated as well.
“Old w.a.n.g, let’s go. We’d better enter the city!”
“Yeah, if this blood poison breaks out, who would come save us in this desolate place?”
“It’s no big deal. We’re in charge of supervising them, and no one said anything about not entering the city. We can just supervise them there!”
These words made Old w.a.n.g’s eyes light up. What he said made sense—supervising them in the city was no different!
“Go! Let’s enter the city!”
Many people had been sent away these past few days, so all of the transport wagons had flown away, leaving not one remaining.
This meant that they had to return to Central Pine City by foot. Fortunately, the manor was only about forty kilometers away from the city.
This short distance meant nothing to Ai Hui. He had to travel even further to reach the Suspending Golden PaG.o.da.
Ai Hui wasn’t careless and used every second available to recover his elemental energy. Much of it had been consumed while dealing with the blood snake. If anything were to happen on the way back, he would have no way of fighting back, and though there were the guards and Duanmu Huanghun with him, Ai Hui wasn’t willing to leave his life in the hands of others.
As he walked, he gesticulated with the gra.s.s sword, leading the embryo’s pulses to generate sword elemental energy.
The surrounding people gave Ai Hui weird looks.
Was this fellow convulsing?
Old w.a.n.g looked on diffidently. Luckily, he did not take action earlier; this fellow was so strange. Convulsing while walking… If he muttered under his breath as well, he would resemble a medium doing a dance to lure the spirits.
Ai Hui did not care about what they thought. Embarra.s.sment meant nothing as long as he could regain his elemental energy quickly.
Everyone felt fragile inside; slightly afraid, they were on the verge of breaking into a run.
Such a speed wasn’t worth mentioning to Ai Hui who came from a laborious background. Operating the sword while walking, however, was a foreign experience.
At first, he couldn’t seem to quite catch the rhythm, and his moves were consequently clumsy. But as he gradually grasped the technique, he soon found something different.