The speed at which the Black Silk Threads were going, they managed to engulf the entire body of the Layer King, and devoured all the devils that covered his body.
Their exceptional speed gave the Devil’s Race no time to react, and they entire herd of Devils were extinguished in a matter of moments.
The Black Silk Threads continued to expand, and were showing no signs dissipating.
The Layer King knew nothing about the origin of these Black Silk Threads, nor did he know anything about their capability; all he knew was the pain that he had taken to raise the Devils that these Threads had just killed, and naturally, was furious with them.
At present, the Layer King’s original appearance had been revealed, and he turned out to be a Stone Giant; his entire body was covered in a skin which was made entirely of stone, which looked like it would fall off any time, but in reality, was exceptionally tough and durable.
The exposed Stone Giant stomped on the ground using his abnormally large feet, and split open a crevice in the ground beneath his feet.
He was far too strong… and far too violent.
The infuriated Stone Giant started walking, madly, and tore apart anything, that stood in his path; stones, rock, and even the beasts from the Devil’s Race.
The news of the King’s appearance had quickly spread through Abyss.
There were a lot strong humans that had been tracking the Layer King for a while. Even though they hadn’t yet attacked him, but they still kept a close eye on his from a distance. Now, more and more people were beginning to join them in planning an attack on the Stone Giant.
Earlier, they hadn’t dared to attack the Layer King since they couldn’t understand why he didn’t have a physical body, and hence, had no idea how to deal with such an opponent. But now, they could clearly see that the Layer King was a Stone Giant, and even though Stone Giants are extremely strong, at least now these men could harbor a glimmer of hope against him.
If they somehow managed to kill the Stone Giant, then they could possibly obtain a very large Nucleus. Even if the Stone Giant didn’t leave a nucleus behind, then still, his body itself could be sold for a very huge price in the open market.
But most importantly, whoever manages to kill such a powerful Stone Giant, would end up earning a huge name for himself overnight, and suddenly would find himself being considered amongst the most powerful, and talented, geniuses of this young generation of martial artists.
Now what kind of a youngster wouldn’t want a glorious reputation?! And all the benefits that came with it; amongst these was the attention which he would receive from the opposite gender….Girls!
It didn’t take long for a large number of young martial artists to track the Stone Giant down, and several more were joining in every minute.
No one had taken the initiate to stand out, and attack the Stone Giant yet, as most of the youngsters present on the scene, were overawed with the Layer King’s strength; not to forget the King’s temper.
The Stone Giant was on the verge of going berserk, and whoever dared to obstruct his path, would certainly suffer its wrath.
After Bi Fan and his party had ran away from the King, they had quickly found themselves a safe house, and had started practicing.
After their bout with the Devils, the four of them had gained a huge amount of experience, but had also consumed a large amount of their inner energies. So naturally, it was going to be a while before they were done with their meditation.
Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf, especially, had started practicing the moment they found a safe place, as both of them were ready to break through the bottleneck, and to the next layer.
Both of them had acc.u.mulated enough experience to break through to the next layer, and could achieve their targets with ease.
After some time, Blue Dragon finished his practice and stood up. He had successfully entered the ‘enormous strength’ layer, and with his physical strength to support him, he was effectively as strong as the ‘transformation’ layer.
Lone Leaf, similarly, had also broken past the bottleneck, and was now a ‘transformation’ layer martial artist. His strength, too, had seen a decent rise.
While the two of them were busy breaking past the bottlenecks, Bi Fan had explained the importance of physical strength to w.a.n.g Zhong, and taught him the ‘Blood Devil’ method to help him in increasing his physical strength. Following which, Bi Fan had asked him to give it a try.
Since w.a.n.g Zhong had whole-heartedly accepted Bi Fan’s leadership, it was in Bi Fan’s best interests to help him in promoting his strength and abilities.
However, Bi Fan’s real secret was the techniques that he had learnt from the battered jade book; and he wouldn’t leak them out to anyone.
As for the Black Silk Threads, while everyone was busy practicing, Bi Fan found the opportunity that he was looking for, and asked the Black Silk Threads to quietly make their return.
At present, the combined strength of the four of them had reached a level, where they could stand up to even the most elite of teams from any sect known to them.
Bi Fan might be the lowest ranked in terms of energy levels, but he was probably the strongest amongst them all. And when the Chimera’s strength, and ability, was coupled with the four of them, things were only bound to get worse for any opposition; much worse.
The Chimera too, had broken past another bottleneck barrier, and had now entered the ‘transformation’ layer.
But when his physical strength was factored in, it was obvious that no ordinary ‘transformation’ layer martial artist could stand against him for long.
Blue Dragon was always the first to marvel at the Chimera’s strength: “Holy Grandmother! Brother, your beast….. really is a beast! ….what a specimen of nature!”
“…” Bi Fan really didn’t have much of a comeback, and just stood there speechless.
w.a.n.g Zhong asked: “Brother Bi Fan, now that we are all done here, should we go ahead and join the party?”
A crazy stone giant was on the loose, who happened to be the King of the first layer of the Devil’s Abyss. The news had spread everywhere by now, and even Bi Fan’s party had heard about it from various sources.
Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf had just advanced in terms of strength, and were keen to test things out a bit.
They were all looking at Bi Fan, and were waiting for him to make the decision; Bi Fan had, unwittingly, become the leader of this group, in the true sense.
“I guess everyone really wants to go for it; and even if I suggest on leaving, I doubt that you guys will listen to me; so I think its best that we buckle up for the ride ahead.” Bi Fan smiled.
“Awesome!”
Blue Dragon and Lone Leaf cheered his call; even w.a.n.g Zhong managed to flash a cheeky smile.
After the recent bout with the Devils, w.a.n.g Zhong’s anxiety to leave the Devil’s Abyss had reduced. In fact, he seemed more than happy to wait for a while longer to break through to the next level.
After breaking through to the ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer, this experience which he was gaining at the moment, would come in handy, and would help him advance faster through the layer, so naturally, he didn’t mind it.
On top of that, w.a.n.g Zhong had just learnt a method to enhance his physical strength, but hadn’t yet had the time to practice it. And so, he was hoping to enhance his physical strength a bit more, before making the breakthrough to the next layer.
If his physical strength was higher than it was at present, then naturally the Aura that would flow through his body, at the time of the breakthrough, would yield a much better result, in terms of enhancing his physical strength, then it would at the moment.
It is no secret, that most people overlook the importance of physical strength, in their obsession of enhancing their energy levels.
In addition to that, development of physical strength was much more difficult that inner energy and the results reflected a lot slower than they did for the enhancement of inner energy. This was the root cause, owing to which, most people only concentrated on enhancement of inner energy, and usually gave up on nurturing their physical strength.
As a result, as far as their energy levels would grow, martial artists would continue to ignore physical strength, and everything would seem to be normal.
But w.a.n.g Zhong had realized the importance of physical strength, owing to Bi Fan, and had accepted the challenge of improving his own. He had, in the short time that he had seen Bi Fan in action, started attaching a huge amount of importance to the development of physical strength as well.
Lone Leaf, too, had realized the vitality of physical strength, but didn’t know any methods for improving the same. And he was well aware of the fact that Bi Fan would probably not leak his secrets to him.
Lone Leaf had secretly vowed that he would, upon his return to his school, find out about various methods to enhance physical strength, and would make sure that he practices them actively.
Bi Fan and his companions, repeatedly inquired about the whereabouts of the Stone Giant, and they continued on their way towards it.
Anyway, they knew just exactly how strong it was; and were well aware of its temper as well. So obviously, they weren’t in a hurry to catch up to it.
Trying out their new, advanced strengths, was just an excuse. All they were really interested in were the benefits that came with killing a monster like this one.
It took them several hours to finally track the Layer King down, again. They were standing a fair distance away from the scene, and could see that the King was being surrounded by hundreds of strong youngsters; and quite a few of those faces were familiar to them.
At this point, the four of them weren’t afraid of showing their real faces to the world, as they weren’t afraid of anyone anymore, and nor were they planning on stealing anyone’s bounty this time.
The four of them entered the battlefield together, and immediately attracted attention from others, including Gu Feng.
Gu Feng, along with the rest of the Jian Shen platoon, was present in the crowd, and had started to pay more attention towards this new team, than he was paying to the Stone Giant.
Gu Feng had vowed to find out the four people that had taken the Ogre Flower; they were four in number, and he was constantly eyeing them.
Bi Fan and his companions were aware that they had already become the object of Gu Feng’s focus.
Once Gu Feng a.s.sessed the strengths of Bi Fan’s team, he started eyeing them even more suspiciously than before.
They were a team of four, out of which, the inner energy of two, was already inside the ‘transformation’ layer. Now this, in context of Jui Yu Da, was not a big deal. But apart from Lone Leaf, the other three in their team, didn’t belong to any Jui Yu Da sect.
On top of that, Lone Leaf wasn’t exactly a known figure in the Jui Yu Da Sect, and Gu Feng had never heard of him.
“Lone Leaf! Hey kid, have you come to join the team?” A handsome young man came over, laughing.
Lone Leaf’s face changed looks several times before he finally found his words: “My strength simply isn’t good enough for your team Brother.”
Bi Fan was noticing the words, and the gestures, that the two of them were using to converse with each other, and could make out that the two of them weren’t exactly the best of friends.
This handsome looking youngster was already at the peak of the ‘transformation’ layer, which was probably the reason he was behaving so arrogantly.
“Lone Leaf, it’s a good thing that you’ve managed to enter the ‘transformation’ layer. Maybe you can teach me a thing or two one day.” The handsome boy laughed again.
Lone Leaf smiled: “Brother, we should be careful about what we wish for, because sometimes, these desires can actually become a reality.”
The man laughed at Lone Leaf’s mockery, and then returned to his place within Bei Ming’s ranks. There were several other youngsters within the ranks of Bei Ming, who smiled and nodded at Lone Leaf, but didn’t come over to greet him, probably due to his uncomfortable relationship with this handsome youngster.
Lone Leaf explained in a low voice: “His name is Bei Ming Hong. He’s from the Bei Ming School’s founding clan. He is very strongly supported by the school, and receives a lot of extra perks in terms of weapons and Dan pellets. He is an arrogant sn.o.b.”
“Do you want our help in teaching him a lesson?” w.a.n.g Zhong asked.
Lone Leaf was a little bit temped by the offer, but he shook his head, as he said: “Well, I will teach him a lesson one day, but, I want to do that on my own.”
“So be it. You’re a good man Brother.” w.a.n.g Zhong replied.
Gu Feng had seen Lone Leaf’s interaction with the Bei Ming disciples, and his suspicions towards them, had somewhat reduced.
Although Gu Feng was still confident that he could tell the truth, if he managed to get one look at their backs.
Gu Feng was patient, and wasn’t going to try to get behind them, as he just didn’t want to alert them of his suspicions.