Gu Feng’s face exposed a complacent smile, and his two comrades cheered out, believing that their friend was now going to win this fight.
Bi Fan’s face no showed no concern in regard to this new development in the fight, as he open up his fist; his two slender, stretched out, fingers turned a shade of jade, as they had once before, ready to welcome Gu Feng’s sword.
Gu Feng’s sword landed right between Bi Fan’s two fingers, and found itself caught, between his two rock solid fingers.
The sword came to an instant halt; no matter how hard Gu Feng tried to pull it out, it remained stuck there and Gu Feng’s facial expression started changing drastically.
“You’re just not strong enough…..” Bi Fan shook his fingers a bit, as his tone reflected a hint of pejoration.
It appeared as Gu Feng would start spitting out blood out of anger an moment now. He was exerting all his strength, and it was hard to tell whether his face was red or purple. His sword, however, remained clamped between Bi Fan’s fingers; motionless.
Bi Fan pulled at the sword, and now, Gu Feng stood face to face with Bi Fan. Bi Fan prepared to throw a punch.
“Bang!” Bi Fan’s punch landed firmly on Gu Feng’s solid chest.
Gu Feng spit out blood as he went flying out of the ring, while his sword went flying in another direction.
Gu Feng had lost the fight. And the crowd went wild.
Most people had expected Gu Feng to win this match, but the end result had very sharply contradicted their expectations.
Bi Fan had not only won the fight; he had managed to do it with ease.
Since the beginning, Bi Fan had only used the Wan Zu fist technique, which was a very basic fighting style, as opposed to Gu Feng’s advanced ones, but had still managed to win. This meant that the people present in the arena, had no idea, as to what Bi Fan was really capable off.
“How could that be? Gu Feng lost the fight!”
“Yes, uh, I don’t understand this, Gu Feng lost. It was so obvious; Gu Feng was in the higher layer, this shouldn’t have happened! How did Bi Fan win?”
“Bi Fan is exceptionally strong, physically. So, his overall strength must be around the ‘enormous strength’ layer. There was nothing strange about this.”
“A ‘brave’ layer boy with the fighting capacity of ‘enormous strength’ layer! He could turn into something amazing if he manages to advance further!” Many people exclaimed, out of sheer surprise.
The Blue Dragon and Jing Feng seemed very calm as far as the result of the fight was concerned. Jing Feng had already seen Bi Fan’s ability in the past, and the Blue Dragon had a lot physical strength of his own; so to these two, this was business as usual.
“Bi Fan of Quinyang wins!” The referee announced the final result and the crowd quieted down for a second or two, and then erupted again; louder this time.
A lot of people had bet money on Gu Feng and had lost a lot of money. So now, they were furious with Gu Feng and started shouting and spitting in his direction.
Gu Feng, overwhelmed with the crowd’s reaction, decided that it was best for him to simply leave the scene while he still could and he dashed out of there with his two companions. He left in such a hurry that he even forgot to take his sword with him, which had fallen out of his hand while he was being thrown out of the ring.
Bi Fan leisurely walked over to the abandoned weapon that his opponent had left behind, and took custody of it. Well, the weapon was worth at least a few hundred spars; it would be such a waste to leave it behind like that.
Jing Feng suddenly realized that he had won fifteen thousand spars in a matter of minutes, and his face started to reflect a very vibrant smile; after all, he had just made a lot of money.
“Bi Fan, this time, I really need to thank you!” Jing Feng laughed.
Bi Fan replied: “Brother, you’re just being polite now. The credit goes to you; you were able to identify the real strength in me.”
“Well, we have to go into the devil’s territory now. So, let’s head out and see for ourselves as to what the condition is in there.” Jing Feng said.
“Can I come with you guys?” The Blue Dragon asked, all of a sudden.
Jing Feng looked at the Blue Dragon but didn’t say anything, as he quietly sized him up.
Bi Fan thought for a second and then nodded in approval: “Yes, we can all go together and watch each other’s backs.”
Seeing that Bi Fan had already given his word to the Blue Dragon, Jing Feng thought its best to not raise an objection.
The trio purchased a jade tablet each and entered into the devil’s territory.
Owing to all the trouble that Gu Feng had caused, plus the duel, Bi Fan hadn’t exactly been able to find out much about the circ.u.mstances inside the devil’s territory. He had no idea what had happened with the evil spirits in the end, or what that humungous explosion was about.
Bi Fan was really anxious to find out what had really happened inside the devil’s territory; especially what had become of his two companions, the Chimera and the Marten; so he wanted to get there as soon as possible.
As soon as they entered the devil’s territory, they set course to the zone that had been possessed by the evil spirits.
On the way, Jing Feng presented Bi Fan with the pet belt that he had promised, in a very well founded manner. After all, he had won so much money because of Bi Fan, so he really didn’t mind giving Bi Fan this gift in exchange.
The Blue Dragon was in the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer. And on top of that, he too had a very strong physical body. Even though he wasn’t as strong as Bi Fan, in terms of physical strength; his physical strength was still at least five Yun Shi.
Although the three of them didn’t exactly have similar personalities, they still had similar things on their mind and soon started chatting amongst themselves to kill time.
It was fairly obvious from the manner in which the Blue Dragon was talking, that he didn’t exactly have a very affable personality and in fact, was a bit of a recluse.
“Bi Fan, from what I have learnt so far, I can tell that your physical strength is more than mine. But what I can’t understand is; how did you manage to get it this high? What kind of methods do you use?” The Blue Dragon asked in a very serious tone.
Bi Fan forced a smile: “Well, maybe when we have some time in the future.”
The Blue Dragon had stated several times that he belongs to a military background and Bi Fan didn’t want to get too close to him at the moment, as he had no idea what this guy was about.
The Blue Dragon realized that Bi Fan was a little reluctant to share too much information, so he didn’t press the situation, as he realized that it may not change Bi Fan’s mind.
“Bi Fan, you were inside the devil’s territory when this happened, can you tell us what you saw, or what really happened with these evil spirits?” Jing Feng asked.
“I was training, when suddenly; evil spirits started soaring into the sky and then all of a sudden, everyone inside the territory, people and beasts alike, were rushing towards the zone to find out what’s happening.” Bi Fan slowly started recounting the event: “Once we reached the zone, I saw that a lot of people were quite anxious to enter the area and inspect the situation for themselves. But as soon as we went inside, people started getting possessed by the evil spirits and eventually died.”
He paused for a while and then continued: “Left with no choice, we were forced to retreat back to the safe zone. Soon, some stronger people joined us there, most were in the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer, while some were even as strong as the ‘emerging from the womb’ layer. They entered the possessed zone, but came back out a little later, having faced several causalities within their groups and it seemed like they too hadn’t been able to find out much.”
“After these people returned, they went to fetch their superiors, who then, entered into the region. But soon, there was a ma.s.sive explosion, which was followed by a tornado, and I got caught up in it. When I woke up, I found myself inside the second layer. Things got out of hand, and I almost died, so I used the Jade tablet to transport myself to Xi Guan. It was really very thrilling to be honest…”
As Bi Fan recounted his edited version of the events, Jing Feng’s and the Blue Dragon’s mouths were hung wide open in amazement. It took them a while to absorb everything and calm down.
As Bi Fan recounted his edited version of the events, Jing Feng’s and the Blue Dragon’s mouths were hung wide open in amazement. And it took them a while to absorb everything and calm down.
“It seems like those evil spirits are really powerful, and even those freaks weren’t able to w.a.n.gle anything….” Jing Feng gasped in admiration.
“Let’s hurry up; we need to see this for ourselves.” The Blue Dragon said out loudly.
The three of them increased their pace further and were floating towards the area, which had been overtaken by evil spirts, like a wisp of smoke.
“AAAWoooo!!!” Suddenly, they saw a pack of wolves ahead. Not a lot of them really as there were only twenty one wolves in the pack. While the strongest of the pack was only in the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer.
“Excellent! Just what I needed! Stay out of this, these wolves are mine.” The Blue Dragon announced in a very excited tone.
Bi Fan glimpsed over at Jing Feng, shook his head forcing a wry smile.
The Blue Dragon took out a dark colored scimitar, which was almost a top grade weapon and charged straight for the wolf pack.
His hands were raised high, ready to slice up the wolves.
The scimitar that the Blue Dragon was holding was fairly small compared to his size, but it struck with a thunderous force.
“Boom!” His blade came crashing down on the head of a wolf and severed it from the rest of its body in an instant; and blood sprayed almost three meters in every direction.
The Blue Dragon simply ignored the dead wolf and his blade made its way to the next wolf, quick, urgent and with a violently overbearing force.
“This kid is really good, fierce and brave. With a bit of character and perseverance, he can really do very well for himself in the future.” Jing Feng praised, fanning his face with his Jade fan.
Jing Feng had replaced his previous fan with a new one, and this one was also a capable of being used as a weapon. So, now, he could use it to fan himself and even confront an enemy if need be.
Bi Fan laughed: “It seems like the Blue Dragon has a lot of physical strength and he definitely knows how to use it.”
“Bi Fan, you too seemed to have developed a lot physical strength. Well, if I remember correctly, then, at the selection tournament, you were at par with the other partic.i.p.ants, in terms of physical strength. How did you manage to cultivate so much physical strength in such a short time?” Jing Feng enquired with a straight face.
“Uh…..” Bi Fan didn’t respond to that, and just stood there, speechless.
The Blue Dragon was slicing wolves as if they were vegetables.
The Blue Dragon’s moves weren’t very sophisticated at all, in fact, they were a combination of strength, ferocity, bravery and were plainly domineering in nature. Jing Feng’s fighting style was very different; it consisted of graceful movements combined with strength. The Blue Dragon on the other hand, used the simplest moves in a very direct manner, and no wolf was able to ward his attack of.
Soon, the Blue Dragon had killed all the wolves in the pack.
Jing Feng and Bi Fan just stood there, staring at the scene, stupefied.
“Jing Feng, Bi Fan, brothers, help me collect these carca.s.ses, hurry, ah!” The Blue Dragon urged them to help him out.
After such a violent fight, the Blue Dragon seemed to be in a very cheerful mood.
“Brother, you killed the wolves, so their bodies naturally belong to you.” Jing Feng smiled.
“Nah, let’s divide them up, you see my Yin Yang pouch only has a very limited s.p.a.ce in it, so I can’t take them all; and anyway, we might b.u.mp into more beasts along the way.” The Blue Dragon insisted.
Bi Fan and Jing Feng hadn’t declined his offer out of courtesy; they simply weren’t interested in so many dead wolf bodies. The two of them were only interested in a nucleus; while so many dead bodies were just going to occupy a lot of s.p.a.ce.
The chances of getting a nucleus from the dead body of such lowly beasts were very less. Nuclei were usually obtained from the carca.s.ses of stronger beasts, like goblins.
The three of them split the carca.s.ses three ways and continued on their way.
The Blue Dragon had consumed a lot of energy during the fight, so he ingested a restoration Dan to help him restore his inner energy and restored himself to full capacity.
Along the way, the three of them b.u.mped into several waves of beasts and they managed to sort the same out, with exceptional ease.
Finally, they arrived at the scene, at the zone that was possessed by the evil spirits.
The region around the zone had been adorned with a good number of tall and towering trees, but at the moment, most of them had been damaged, some even severed from the middle. In fact, some part of the area seemed to be missing a few layers of earth as well.
There were a lot of people in the vicinity, standing at the edge of the zone, but they weren’t daring to go into the possessed territory.
Bi Fan stated: “Brothers, why don’t the two of you go ahead and inspect the situation, and I’ll go looking for Greedy.”
The Chimera shouldn’t be seen publically for the time being, especially around the possessed zone. If people saw him now, Bi Fan reckoned that some of them might recognize the Chimera and it could cause him a lot of trouble.
“Go, but be careful.” Jing Feng cautioned him.
Bi Fan turned around and disappeared into the forest. Once he was away from the crowd, he started using the Chimera’s soul strands to help him locate the Chimera, by signaling to him.
As long as the Chimera hadn’t wandered away too far, he would be able to sense it.
The Chimera’s soul’s strands weren’t enough for Bi Fan to know what condition the Chimera was in, which was making him very anxious.
Soon, the Chimera responded and his soul’s strands started to indicate the direction in which he was.
Bi Fan quickly dashed in the direction he was pointed to, and relief washed over him when he saw his two companions, unharmed and well.
“Chimera, Greedy, I will have to subject you two to this pet belt, temporarily. If someone recognized the two of you, then we could possible get in a lot of trouble.” Bi Fan explained.
The Chimera nodded in approval, almost immediately.
The Marten in the other hand didn’t do so at first, but then understanding the weight of the situation, reluctantly agreed.
Bi Fan quickly incorporated them into the pet belt, prepared sufficient food for them and made his way back to the possessed zone.
The zone possessed by the evil spirits had witnessed a ma.s.sive explosion, followed by a ma.s.sive storm. The evil spirits, however, hadn’t diminished at all; in fact, they had only grown stronger and more violent.
Finally, some of the experts who had gone into the zone came back out, looking quite gloomy and embarra.s.sed as they hadn’t been able to find out anything new.
Later, several old men gathered around the zone and announced that the zone will be cordoned off, meaning that people will no longer be allowed to enter the zone. Following this announcement, the people who had been standing there in antic.i.p.ation, looked a bit disappointed.