Bi Fan and his companions, continued to move away from the spot where the battle for the Ogre flower had taken place. Once they were sure that they were away from danger, they restored their original appearances.
“Haha! Today has been an amazing day! Brother Bi Fan charged through the battlefield, right through the middle of all those Jui Yu Da big boys, and took the entire flower! You put them to shame Brother; really, all of them.” w.a.n.g Zhong simply couldn’t control himself anymore, and he started to laugh.
Lone Leaf’s face became slightly unsightly, as his School, Bei Ming, was also a part of the Jui Yu Da Sect. And like all other schools, Bei Ming students were also present on the scene, but none of them were able to stop Bi Fan from taking the flower.
Lone Leaf was Bi Fan’s friend, and would surely stand beside him in the face of adversity, but he felt a little uncomfortable owing to the manner in which w.a.n.g Zhong was insulting his school.
No matter what happened, Lone Leaf would never leak it to anyone that Bi Fan was the man who took the Ogre flower, since he was afraid that it might lead to the leak of another secret, Li Zhong Ren’s death.
As opposed to the Ogre flower situation, if the secret behind the events that lead to Li Zhong Ren’s death were uncovered, then Lone Leaf was sure to paint a target on his back.
Blue Dragon was next to heap praise: “Brother Bi Fan charged into the middle of the fray, all alone, like a one-man army, and s.n.a.t.c.hed the Ogre flower from right underneath everyone’s nose. What an amazing feat Brother; simply amazing.”
“Ah…well, don’t flatter me Brothers, I really couldn’t have done it without you all.” Bi Fan laughed, as he shook his head.
Lone Leaf was in a relatively calmer frame of mind. He smiled as he added: “Sorry, Brother, we can’t do that; we will continue to praise you till you start vomiting from them.”
Bi Fan took out the Ogre flower, and started counting the petals. He counted forty nine petals, which was far more than what he had been expecting.
“Bother w.a.n.g, this petal is for you. I hope it serves you well, and wish that you break into the ‘emerging from the womb’ layer soon.” Bi Fan said, as he plucked a petal and gave it to w.a.n.g Zhong.
w.a.n.g Zhong’s hand was trembling as he took the petal from Bi Fan: “Following you was the best gift that my fate could have bestowed upon me; I really am a very lucky man.”
There was a time, when w.a.n.g Zhong couldn’t even have dreamt of obtaining such a precious commodity, let alone be allowed to consume it.
Ogre flowers were so rare that they were considered priceless, in the true sense of the word. No amount of Spar, or items, could be used to convince someone to sell a petal from this coveted flower.
Immediately after handing w.a.n.g Zhong a petal, Bi Fan took out six more petals from the flower, and divided them between Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf.
Although Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf hadn’t partic.i.p.ated in the operation, they were still Bi Fan’s friends and companions, and Bi Fan was not a stingy man.
Blue Dragon gracefully accepted the flower petals, and incorporated them into his Yin Yang pouch: “Thank you Brother, Thank you.”
“Brother Bi Fan, I honestly believe that you are giving us a little too much….” Lone Leaf was hesitating from accepting such a gracious gift.
Bi Fan smiled: “Three petals really isn’t that much Brother. One is for you, the second is for you wife, and the third one is for mistress, or well, if you don’t feel like having one, you can always just give that one to your children. I’m just preparing you for the future Brother.”
“Thank you Brother Bi Fan.” Lone Leaf gratefully accepted Bi Fan’s gift.
Blue Dragon simply couldn’t help it: “Brother Bi Fan, if I managed to acquire a lot of wives someday, then you can have some of them.”
“No…. I’m sure I can take care of that myself…..” Bi Fan pouted out of embarra.s.sment.
“Ha ha ……..” The four of them broke out with laughter.
This trip into the Devil’s Abyss, could only be described as a very fruitful one for the four of them. And in case the four of them left the Abyss now, they would be going back with a huge bounty in their pockets.
The four of them considered, and discussed, the idea for a while, but they didn’t really want to leave the Abyss yet, as they wanted to stick to their original plan; they wanted to confront the Layer’s King.
“The King of the first layer is very difficult to find…. We have been looking for him for so long now, but we still have no idea where he might be.” w.a.n.g Zhong reasoned in a gloomy tone.
w.a.n.g Zhong was a little impatient to leave the Devil’s Abyss, as he wanted to go out, and consume the Ogre flower petal in order to advance to the ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer.
In the Tian Yu world, ‘Emerging from the Womb’ martial artists were considered celebrities, and these people were treated as such.
Once someone entered into the ‘Emerging from the Womb layer’, their social status would see a ma.s.sive rise, and they would enjoy preferential treatment wherever they go; even joining any martial arts sect of their choice wasn’t out of the reach for such people.
w.a.n.g Zhong had been practicing so hard his entire life, in the hope of breaking into the ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer.
Now, he had that chance, and he simply couldn’t wait to achieve his lifelong goal.
Bi Fan smiled: “Brother w.a.n.g, I can understand your anxiety, but still, lets continue to search for the Layer’s King for a few more days, if we don’t find him soon, then we will move out….”
“Come on, let’s give it another shot. Maybe if we are luckier this time around, we might be able to find him.” Blue Dragon was trying to persuade the others to keep searching for the Layer’s King.
Blue Dragon simply didn’t want to give up; he was hoping that after fighting the Layer’s King, he would be able to gain enough experience to cross over to the next layer.
This was the only reason he wanted to stay inside the Devil’s Abyss, but he didn’t convey the idea to the others.
This was a very unusual behavior on Blue Dragon’s part, since he was a very straightforward man; almost on the border line of being blunt. But he considered his companions to be his Brothers.
Since he considered them to be his Brothers, he naturally, didn’t want to get in an argument with them.
Bi Fan, like Blue Dragon, was a very straightforward youngster, and preferred making friends with like-minded people.
Lone Leaf too, could be considered a very upright and honest youth, but unlike Blue Dragon, he had a lot of restrictions imposed on him, which often forced him to keep his opinions to himself.
The four of them continued to battle their way through the Devil’s Abyss, killing a lot of beasts in process, and adding them to their wealth.
But truth be told, they weren’t really in it for the money anymore, and were only fighting with the Devil’s race for the sake of enhancing their skills.
This trip into the Devil’s Abyss, after all, was a rare opportunity; so naturally, they wanted to make the best of it.
Their skills had reached a point, where they would be considered, extremely, powerful, in the eyes of normal men, and their strengths continued to advance at a rapid speed.
Martial arts techniques, often bore different results in the hands of different men. So much so, that sometimes, men who were far weaker than others were able to produce much better results than their superiors. There was no clear reason as to why this happened.
Take Bi Fan for example; even though he was a very skilled martial artist, and had a great understanding of things as well, but still, the reasons for exceptionally quick progress were still unknown to him.
And as one gained more and more knowledge, and understanding of martial arts, they could even start creating their own custom styles and techniques, which would enable them to produce even better results.
The case with inner energy was the same; there was no explanation as to why some people progressed faster than others. And sometimes, people with very high inner energy levels were unable to deliver the results that they were expected to, and vice versa.
Bi Fan and his party were enjoying fighting the Devil’s Race beasts so much, that as time pa.s.sed, they completely forgot about their primary motive of seeking out the Layer’s King.
They had been continuously fighting the Devil’s race every day, non-stop, which was obviously paying its dividends. The more their progress reflected in their fighting, the more it would excite them, and they would carry on their way with even more pa.s.sion, and determination, than before.
The energy, and the effort, with which the four of them were practicing, came with a price; a very heavy price, which was being borne by the Devil’s Race.
At this point, Bi Fan’s party had reached level, where they could easily sweep clean entire groups of the Devil’s race beasts without facing much resistance from them, and were effectively reducing the population density of the Devil’s Abyss.
On this day, they had been engaging themselves in battles with the Devil’s race without a break, and had already killed an awful number of beasts.
Bi Fan, at his level and expertise, especially, had been wreaking havoc. He could kill off the beasts, by simply beheading them in one strike, which he had already demonstrated several times today. The sight of their brethren being beheaded in a single strike had been frightening the rest of the beast away from him.
Suddenly, the Devil’s Race beasts started becoming very impatient and restless, so much so that they even let their guards down.
“Woah! What an amazing momentum!” w.a.n.g Zhong exclaimed out of astonishment.
w.a.n.g Zhong knew that something unusual was happening, and wanted to investigate the situation to find its root cause.
Bi Fan reasoned: “That must the Layer’s King. The force is too strong for it to be anything else. In fact, I don’t think that I’ll be able to fight it off alone.”
The momentum of an ‘emerging from the Womb’ layer being, was far too much, and was making it very hard for the four of them to breathe.
Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf, were in such a bad shape, that the two of them couldn’t even stand steady, and their bodies had already started dripping cold sweat.
“Brother Lone Leaf, Brother Blue Dragon, you might want to retreat for the time being, and continue to fight just the beasts. But keep a close eye on our fight, and try to learn as much as you can, before joining us against him.”
The only reason, that Bi Fan was asking Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf to withdraw as of now, was so that he could remove them from the early dangers of not knowing the enemy’s capabilities.
Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf knew well enough, that at their strength levels, they wouldn’t be able to provide much support to Bi Fan and w.a.n.g Zhong, and would only succeed in distracting their attention.
Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf were smart youngsters, and so, the two of them retreated grounds without a second thought.
Soon, the Layer’s King finally appeared in flesh, at a distance, and could have easily been mistaken for a small mountain.