35

The man in black’s shoulder had been completely penetrated as it bled incessantly. After giving Xu ZiYan a ferocious glare, he gritted his teeth before fleeing.

On the other hand, Xu ZiYan didn’t continue chasing him to finish their fight. The people waiting to ambush them in the forest only wanted to wound them. Since they didn’t have any intention to kill, it wouldn’t be very good if Xu ZiYan insist on taking the other’s life. In addition, he did not believe that there weren’t any people from Liu Guang Sect here. If things escalated to the point where a life may be lost, those people would inevitably appear to take control of the situation.

Leisurely placing his silver long bow back into his interspatial bag, Xu ZiYan continued to walk forward in a very good mood. The people lurking in the forest hadn’t consisted of only that man in black. However, that man’s strength had been the strongest. If he wanted to kill a chicken to warn the monkey while also showing his strength, then there was no doubt that the man in black had been his best target.

“Big brother is so amazing,” Xu ZiRong praised with a face full of smiles.

“Ha ha,” Xu ZiYan laughed a bit, feeling a bit embarrassed. Although having a little brother who always praised him felt nice, he was still very clear about how without Xu ZiRong’s help, he wouldn’t have so easily wounded their opponent. In a forest like this, the Wood Element martial arts was capable of bringing out the full extent of its power. In the past three years, other than cultivating the martial art techniques Silent Running Rain and Tempering Wood Secrets, he only learned one more, which was called ‘Forest Speech’. This martial arts technique didn’t really have any attacking power. However, if one was in a forest, they could communicate with plants to a certain degree.

Of course, chatting or gossiping with the plants was absolutely impossible. At most, one would only be able to obtain some hazy warnings, like tips about where dangerous things may be hiding. But even so, there may be times where the martial arts technique was ineffective. At the very least, the other children of the Xu family who learned this technique practically never managed to communicate with the plants before. Thus, for some time, people considered this martial arts book rubbish.

However, what was strange was how this martial arts technique worked numerous times when Xu ZiRong used it. Back then, when they were training in the forest behind the Xu family mountains, Xu ZiRong was able to frequently help Xu ZiYan find some spiritual beasts suited to his level. Xu ZiYan had always remained puzzled about this mystery despite pondering over it many times. In the end, he could only conclude that Xu ZiRong was just naturally suited to Wood Element martial arts.

In reality——

It was of course impossible for that damn Forest Speech technique to have such an obvious effect. The reason why Xu ZiRong was able to so keenly sense the ambush in their surroundings was because the Blood Demon Lord possessed an innate sensitivity to blood.

Within a certain range, Xu ZiRong was capable of distinguishing between blood by how energy-rich they were. In this forest that was near the city, high-level spiritual beasts were already long taken care of. Thus, the people who were hiding to ambush them looked the same as a bunch of flashing lanterns in the darkness. Even pretending not to see them was a difficult task for Xu ZiRong.

After taking care of that man hiding far away, the other lurking ambushers who saw this scene all sucked in a breath of cold air. Although they had previously known that Xu ZiYan was a popular candidate for the top position of the inner-sect disciple exam, this kind of strength still made people feel shocked.

Silently, at least two of the hidden people retreated. Xu ZiYan’s strength had far surpassed their expectations. If they did something now, their ending probably wouldn’t be that good. In addition, there was a high chance they would end up offending this popular candidate for the top position. Their gains wouldn’t make up for such losses!

Xu ZiYan’s predicted that some people would retreat. Nobody was foolish. Perhaps some of those ambushers here today were only here because they were forced by other people. However, after they saw his strength, the people who would actually do anything lessened.

“There’s still one more,” Xu ZiRong said in a low voice.

The smile on Xu ZiYan’s face gradually faded away. Since they have not even officially entered the exam, he hadn’t wanted to offend too many people. Killing that chicken was precisely in order to create an intimidating effect. However, if someone still had the idea of fighting him, then Xu ZiYan didn’t mind giving the other a profound lesson.

Unexpectedly, that hidden person didn’t start attacking, and instead walked out from their hiding spot.

Xu ZiYan pulled back his gaze the moment he laid his eyes on the tall teenager. He recognized this person! Or perhaps it was better to say, the original Xu ZiYan knew him.

This person was called Lei Hu, a member of a barbarian clan from the Northwest. All year round, they lived in a barren desert in the western lands. There, many different types of spiritual beasts also called that place their home. Among them, there wasn’t a lack of spiritual beasts with the same cultivation level as a Nascent Soul cultivator.

In the Xuan Yu region, the battle between spiritual beasts and human cultivators never ceased. In addition, this Northwest barbarian clan was the first line of defense at the battle taking place in the Northwestern lands.

The people of this barbarian clan possessed a very strong physical body. Even without a spiritual vein, their physical strength could be compared to Qi Condensation Stage cultivators. Moreover, because they have to fight in close combat with spiritual beasts all year round, practically everyone in their clan has a murderous aura surrounding them. Even the barbarian clan’s most average soldier was at least as strong as a regular Xuan Yu region cultivator at the fifth or sixth layer of Qi Condensation Stage.

The Northwestern battle fortress wasn’t defended by only this barbarian clan. Influential and large sects or cultivation families must send members to join the fight periodically. It could be said that the Northwestern battle fortress was the place to refine and temper someone. Practically everyone who returned from there becomes an elite cultivator, the cream of the crop.

Of course, the prerequisite for this was to return home, alive.

The battle against the spiritual beasts were full of dangers. Be a bit careless, and even a Golden Core cultivator might have to give up their life. With Xu ZiYan’s current cultivation level, if he went there now, he would just be cannon fodder. Although, in order to improve, Xu ZiYan had long made plans to go there in the future.

This boy called Lei Hu was a candidate who had been recommended by the Northwestern barbarian clan to join Liu Guang Sect’s inner-sect disciple exam. For the members of the barbarian clan, all of them joined the battle against the spiritual beasts when they were very young. Xu ZiYan wasn’t sure about other people, but this Lei Hu in front of him made him feel inexplicably nervous——even though the other was only at the seventh layer of Qi Condensation Stage.

However, Lei Hu gave Xu ZiYan the feeling that, should they fight, it would be hard to predict the end result.

“Is something the matter?” Xu ZiYan didn’t want to suddenly become hostile without any reason. After all, this Lei Hu took the initiative to come out of his hiding spot. That itself was already a sign for truce.

Lei Hu was tall and buff, and he only wore a piece of tiger skin cloth. With gleaming, shiny skin that showed off his sinewy and sturdy muscles, Xu ZiYan would have never believed the person in front of him was only sixteen years old had he not possessed the original Xu ZiYan’s memories.

“What is....that?” When Lei Hu walked out, his expression was very serious and his thick eyebrows were scrunched into a lump. His expression made it seem like he had very tangled thoughts. However, the moment he opened his mouth to speak, Xu ZiYan’s metaphorical eyeglasses fell. What was this guy talking about? Don’t tell him he was asking about the attack Xu ZiYan just used?

Lei Hu seemed to have mistaken Xu ZiYan’s silence as reluctance to answer. His eyebrows tightened even more, and he seemed to feel extremely embarrassed. After hesitating for a long time, he took out a small bead from his pocket before giving it to Xu ZiYan. “You people from the central lands always like exchanging things. I’ll give you this, in return, you teach me the skill you just did?”

As Xu ZiYan stared at that bead, a Foundation Establishment spiritual beast’s demon core, he felt his eyelid twitch. His heart really wanted to roar out: this f*cking can’t be right!!! According to the original Xu ZiYan’s impression, where was your berserk fury? Where was the aggressiveness leaking out of your every move? Where was your completely unreasonable and boorish rudeness?!!! Had they all been eaten by you???

F*ck ah! The original Xu ZiYan’s memory could actually be unreliable at times too! This happening was practically an inconceivable event alright!!!

“What’s wrong? It’s not enough?” Lei Hu cocked his head to the side. “You people from the Central lands all seem to know these strange things. If you refuse to teach me, I can still learn from other people. However....I still think your techniques are the most powerful!”

At this moment, Xu ZiYan only wanted to laugh ‘hehe’. Should he praise Lei Hu’s sight to be pretty good? He could even tell his Nine Changes of Violet Heaven was a good thing.

He rubbed his face hard before giving Lei Hu a smile. “My attacks are part of a martial arts that cannot be passed on. Forgive me, but I cannot teach you them.”

Lei Hu looked a bit disappointed. The only reason he came to Liu Guang Sect was to learn even more powerful techniques. Although everyone from his clan had extremely strong physical bodies, there weren’t a lot of people with spiritual veins. He was already considered an inconceivable genius with his dual spiritual veins. If it wasn’t for that, he wouldn’t have been sent here by the Head Chief to learn different types of martial arts.

Xu ZiRong stood beside Xu ZiYan. His small, indifferent face looked extremely dissatisfied toward Lei Hu. This rude, unreasonable guy who couldn’t even wear clothes properly actually made his brother reveal that kind of expression. It was truly too hateful!

Xu ZiRong coldly stared at Lei Hu. In his heart, he was wondering how to silently teach him a lesson. After so many years, although his personality was just as bloodthirsty as before, Xu ZiRong finally stopped killing people for light reasons. This was because he knew that Xu ZiYan’s tolerance levels for things like that was extremely low. This was also something he had learned from experience, after he suffered through a ‘profound’ lesson from Xu ZiYan.

That time, he almost killed a Xu family disciple. Although on the surface, it didn’t seem like he had done it intentionally, Xu ZiRong was indeed the one who got the other caught in a trap in the forest.

The poor girl from back then had suffered grievous wounds and almost died. When Xu ZiYan found out about this matter, for the first time, he rushed toward Xu ZiRong in anger and then gave him a heavy beating.

Before, whenever Xu ZiYan spanked him, it had more of a symbolic meaning and less emphasis on the actual spanking. However, this time, Xu ZiYan actually used some strength. Thus, his behind even became swollen.historical

After he spanked Xu ZiRong, Xu ZiYan became regretful and got some ointment for him. As he helped him spread it on the swollen area, he would scold him about how, no matter how angry he was, he couldn’t take it out and harm innocent people.

As he felt the large hand helping him put on the medicine, Xu ZiRong didn’t take Xu ZiYan’s words to heart. He already knew from his previous life that strong people were the ones who represented justice and truth. When he had enough strength, regardless of whether he was innocent or guilty, wouldn’t what he say become the truth?

It had the same concept as the incident in his last life. The blood-sucking demonic insects obviously didn’t have any relationship to him. However, hadn’t those people relied on their strength to forcefully push this matter onto his body?!

The only thing Xu ZiRong learned that day was that if he wanted to do something similar in the future, he must avoid Xu ZiYan and keep him in the dark. If possible, it would be even better to not take his target’s life. This way, if the mastermind behind the incidents was revealed in the future, Xu ZiYan wouldn’t be too angry.

As for why Xu ZiRong didn’t want to make Xu ZiYan too angry, Xu ZiRong never pondered about that matter. He just instinctively thought that, should he make his big brother too angry, there would probably be some very terrible consequences.

Although Lei Hu felt disappointed, he did not forcibly demand anything. He only gave Xu ZiRong a light glance before telling Xu ZiYan a single sentence: “Be careful of your little brother.”

Xu ZiYan: ???

Be careful of what? Be careful he would be in danger?

Xu ZiYan had just wanted to drag Lei Hu over and ask what exactly he should be careful of when Xu ZiRong grabbed his hand first. “Big brother, I think the meet-up time is almost here.”

Xu ZiYan took a look. Sure enough, they wasted a lot of time. There wasn’t any time left to ponder anything, so he pulled Xu ZiRong’s hand and quickly ran toward the gathering site.