Tainted Blood

by Tinalynge

  “Are you some sort of monster?!” Tang Liu asked, shocked as he retreated as fast as he could.

  Xue Wei just snickered as he once more vanished from the spot he had stood on before.

  Kick of the Forgotten Kings!

  A leg whipped out like a flood dragon. It came crashing down upon Tang Liu so fast that he was unable to retreat in time. Another shield appeared around him, created from spiritual energy, but the kick was so fast that the shield did not manage to fully form before it was shattered and the leg connected with Tang Liu’s chest.

  The sound of bones breaking could be heard as Tang Liu shot backward like a kite that was let loose from its string. Blood welled up in his mouth and was spat out. His face was extremely pale and his entire body was in pain.

  He had gained internal injuries. His ribs had been broken and his blood was in turmoil. The bodily strength of these experts was only at the Heavenly Warrior rank. If not for Xue Wei holding back, then the other would have already said farewell to his little life.

  Tang Liu had no doubts about this. The many people who were observing the fight also had no doubt in their minds that Xue Wei had gone easy, but this was a rather frightening thought.

  Xue Wei was already this powerful and he claimed to not be the strongest of them. Did this not mean that there was someone even stronger than him in their group of Qi cultivators?

  Were Qi Cultivators really this frightening? Were they really able to rival spiritual energy cultivators? This was something that only made sense if they were Primordial Beasts with innate abilities, but what he had used did not seem to be innate abilities.

  Looking at the injured Tang Liu, Xue Wei went towards him and handed him a small red pill. This was a Spring Powder Pill that he had concocted. It was the strongest healing medicine that he was capable of creating right now. Not only did it heal physical injuries, it also increased the speed with which one absorbed the essence of the heavens and the earth.

  Although Tang Liu had suffered severe injuries, he should recover relatively soon as this was a pill meant for an Ordinary Knight. It was a high purity pill, and with his Heavenly Warrior rank, it should be possible to heal the wounds rather fast.

  The people on Yan Dalu did not have a lot of medicinal pills that healed the physical body, nor did they have many pills that helped with Qi cultivation. They had never considered it an issue, so no one experimented on this type of pill.

  “Thank you.” Tang Liu was not a sore loser. When he was given the pill, he did not display any kind of nervousness and popped it into his mouth right away and sat down.

  He suddenly felt how the heaven-and-earth essence from the surrounding air was pouring into his body, nurturing his injuries and healing them—all while converting some of it into Qi

  Having never before taken a pill that could enhance one’s Qi cultivation base, and suddenly getting one that was of high purity and made for Ordinary Knights, Tang Liu felt an acute pain in his dantian.

  His dantian suddenly felt bloated. More and more heaven-and-earth essence gathered in it, making it show signs of cracking, yet when the pressure was the highest, Tang Liu suddenly felt as if a dam had been broken and all the energy poured out.

  Tang Liu was a human with a mutated bloodline, but his body was still human with slight changes. His dantian worked exactly like a humans, but he had previously been a Heavenly Warrior. Now he suddenly broke through to become an Ordinary Knight.

  Seeing him suddenly having a breakthrough in Qi levels from one pill, the eyes of everyone, including Xue Wei and his comrades, widened in surprise and they looked at one another.

  It was not easy to break through from the Warrior to the Knight ranks. If it was, then there would not be so many stuck at the Heavenly Warrior rank in Yan Dalu, but now with a mere casual pill given by Xue Wei, Tang Liu broken through.

  “Do you think their talent is not limited to spiritual energy?” Xue Wei mentioned the question that all of his friends were considering. Bai Tianyi shook his head in shock, and said, “If they have the same talent for Qi cultivation that they do for spiritual energy, then their race could very possibly take over the entire world.”

  “The world sure is vast,” Xue Wei agreed. “I once thought I was a genius, but the truth is that I just need to work harder if I want to achieve anything. There are heaven-sent geniuses everywhere with more talent than me. This is quite depressing.”

  “You did a good deed though,” Hei Gou said with a nod of his head. “Perhaps after our visit here in Yan Dalu, Qi Cultivators won’t be looked down upon as much as they are now.”

  “You can always dream,” Lin Xiao sighed. “Their culture is many millennia old. They can’t just change it because four random Qi cultivators passed by. Keep in mind that they have also seen outsiders from the Demon Phoenix Continent. I fail to believe that there has never been Qi cultivators from there.”

  “That is true,” Hei Gou nodded his head seriously. “I did not think about them. Since they are aware of the fact that some people are able to do well when it comes to Qi cultivation, why would they still look down upon it?”

  “It is hard to say,” Xue Wei answered. “Some of it could be because of their culture, and some of it could be because of customs, but it could also be because they simply don’t have the ability to raise Qi cultivators here.”

  “Even if there have been visitors, they have not managed to gain anything from them. Their skills are mediocre and not enough to ever bring trouble to a spiritual energy cultivator. They don’t even have cultivation techniques to bring them to a higher level than Heavenly Warrior.”

  “Although I can trade some skills for merit points, I do not have any cultivation techniques that can allow them to reach higher ranks,” Xue Wei sighed with dejection. “I can let the Heavenly Warriors fight much more seriously, but they cannot break through unless I feed them some stronger pills.”

  “That might not necessarily be true,” Bai Tianyi snickered. “I have quite a few cultivation techniques. I have no use for them, as I cannot cultivate Qi, but they are still imprinted within my memory. I can give you a few of them and you can sell them for merit points. I have two that allows one to cultivate to Heavenly Knight, and three that allow one to cultivate to Heavenly Saint.”

  “You never told me you had skills before?” Xue Wei asked curiously and slightly begrudgingly. Bai Tianyi shrugged his shoulders. “You have the innate technique for an Azure Dragon. You can’t even use any other technique, so what was the point of telling you about them.”

  “Fair point,” Xue Wei quickly understood that what Bai Tianyi said was correct.

  While the four of them were talking with one another, the rest of the audience had gathered around Tang Liu to ask him multiple questions. From time to time they would glance at Xue Wei, wondering how he had become so strong.

  “Well, we need points, so let us go hunt some bandits,” Xue Wei said with a snicker. He could let loose and feel the excitement from fighting again. Killing again.

  Before they left the sparring field, Tang Liu looked at them, and then he realized that he had severely overestimated himself. His face turned pale and his lips trembled.

  “What is wrong?” one of the others asked. Tang Liu cleared his throat, before saying, “The child has stronger spiritual energy than the one who beat me. His spiritual energy is at the ninth layer of the Ordinary Knight rank.”

  “And the other two, both of them are Earth Knights in Qi levels, and they are both at the middle of that rank! It seems that the one I fought was the weakest amongst them all, and still I could only manage two hits.”

  Hearing the words that Tang Liu said, everyone felt fearful in their hearts. Was this truly possible?

  Of course no one knew which one of them was actually the strongest, but it was a fact that Xue Wei had the lowest rank among them.

  Bai Tianyi was not ranked much higher than him, but because of his childlike appearance alongside his smile and grown-up demeanor, h
e was without a doubt the most mysterious.

  Lin Xiao seemed the most straight forward, but at the same time he also seemed like a big metal wall, one that was impossible to shift.

  Hei Gou was attractive. Even though he had only two eyes, he was incredibly handsome, and also very secretive.

  Then there was Xue Wei. He seemed like a very honest and average youth. But you could not always judge someone based on their appearance.

  Chapter 43 - Finding the Bandits

  The grassland was flat as far as the eyes could see. Xue Wei understood that encountering the bandits under these conditions would be very difficult.

  If the bandits, who would have no place to hide in such an environment, found pleasure in hunting the students of the academy, then finding them would not take much effort.

  Fortunately, the only one in their group who had a high rank of spiritual energy was Bai Tianyi, and even he was not an Earth Knight when it came to that, so there was a big chance that the four of them would be seen as easy targets.

  Xue Wei was counting on this part to be their way of luring in targets. Unfortunately, after walking for a full day, the results of his plan were rather bad.

  They had encountered three groups during this day, but they were all bearers of the black wristbands.

  They had charged at the four of them at first sight, but upon seeing the black wristbands on their arms, they had stopped in their tracks, their faces filled with disappointment.

  They had never seen Xue Wei and his comrades before, so some of them suspected that they were bandits that had found a way to wear a wristband. But after closer inspection, they realized it was unlikely. A heavenly oath was not something that they could go against.

  Xue Wei was also slightly disappointed. He wanted to get his hands on some bandits for merit points, but it seemed that they were hiding deeper into the grasslands.

  “You are new? Okay, let me give you some information about the grasslands.” The fourth group that they encountered had a more friendly leader, who quickly saw that these four had no clue about the current state of affairs in the grasslands.

  “The further into the grassland you travel, the more bandit groups you will meet, and logically the stronger they will become. The strongest of the bandits have gathered in a group at the mountain walls you can see far out in the distance.

  “The bandits mainly consist of two and three-eyed experts, but there are also seven four-eyed nobles in their group.” The leader of the other group frowned when he mentioned the latter part. He himself was merely a three-eyed cultivator, and he could not imagine the fame and status they could have had if they had just stayed on the righteous path.

  Unfortunately, they had picked a criminal lifestyle, so they would be killed without a doubt. The question was then just how many they would manage to kill before that time.

  “Well, in this region of the grasslands, there aren’t really any bandits left. You’ll find more if you head further in, but their strength approaches the end of the Ordinary Knight rank, so not many dare venture too far ahead.”

  “Also, the bandits are always moving around in groups. Their groups are a minimum of three, and some of us have encountered even up to ten bandits together!” the man continued to explain with a friendly voice.

  “I would suggest that you do not try to take on too much,” the man continued as he looked at them with friendly eyes.

  “I can sense that two of you must be Primordial Beasts,” he looked at Hei Gou and Lin Xiao, “as your spiritual energy is simply so low, but even so, with only the support of a ninth layered Ordinary Knight and a seventh layered Ordinary Knight, it is truly too dangerous.”

  Xue Wei smiled when he saw his concern. From his point of view, they were indeed weak. Xue Wei was only at the seventh layer of the Ordinary Knight rank if one looked at his spiritual energy, but his strength in combat could not be easily determined. Especially not since he specialized in Qi attacks.

  “Thank you,” he said with a smile on his face. No matter whether or not they were strong, this group leader had been kind enough to explain the situation to them, and had not been hostile even though they each only had two eyes.

  In fact, his entire group looked at them with malice and disdain. It was clear that they felt that they were wasting their time, but none of them wished to say anything to their leader because they genuinely respected him.

  “Well, in that case, good luck!” The leader saw that the group of two-eyed people in front of him seemed as if they had been enlightened by his words. It was clear they were heading deeper into the grassy fields, but it was not his place to tell them what to do, so instead, he wished them good luck. He hoped that at least one or two of them would be able to survive this, in his opinion, foolish decision.

  Nodding his head, Xue Wei bid his farewell before he and his companions started moving further into the grassy plains as the other group continued their path. The further in they went, the more silent the area became.

  There were no Fierce Beasts here, no humans; nothing moving in the grass. Not even the chirps of insects could be heard in the vast ocean of grass, and like this, a couple of hours ebbed by before they finally caught sight of a group of people who were sitting rather far away from them.

  This group of people consisted of seven experts. They had ragged clothes on their bodies and three of them were injured, however, their injuries were not so severe that they could not move or fight.

  The moment Xue Wei noticed them, they also noticed him, and the two groups stopped in their tracks, observing one another.

  “They don’t seem to be wearing the black bracelets?” Xue Wei questioned when he looked at them, straining his eyes to their limits, but no matter what arm he looked at, there was nothing.

  “It seems as if we are fairly lucky this time,” Lin Xiao grinned. “Look, there are five people with three eyes, and two like us! Do you think they will feel gratitude knowing that their downfall was to someone with two eyes or do you think they will feel resentment?”

  “Who cares?” Hei Gou also grinned widely. He had already extracted his claws from his storage ring and had placed them on his hands, ready to begin the fight at any moment.

  “Uh, I am sorry to burst your bubble, but this will be a rather difficult match,” Bai Tianyi was finally the one to call them all to their senses. “Although some of them are injured, they are actually seven people while we only have four. Out of those seven, I see that four are Earth Knights. While only at the first layer, they are nevertheless Earth Knights, and the others are ninth layered Ordinary Knights.”

  “So what?” Xue Wei listened and snickered. “Don’t forget we have many things that they do not, including two Earth Knights at a ridiculously high level; they can take two each, and we can take the other three. It should be easy to manage.”

  Bai Tianyi was stunned and then he shook his head in a defeated manner. He had to admit that what Xue Wei said made sense. “Yes, it should,” he agreed after considering for some time.

  Usually, Bai Tianyi was the one who was most confident in his own strength, but after entering Yan Dalu, he had suddenly felt a sense of inadequecy.

  In this place, everyone knew spiritual energy and their current achievements in cultivation seemed more impressive than his. He just forgot that he had only had his human shape for about a year. Having his cultivation at this technically infantile stage was actually incredibly frightening.

  Xue Wei gave him a long glance, because he understood the thoughts that floated in Bai Tianyi’s mind. But after seeing his eyes suddenly turn bright again, he understood that the latter had finally come to terms with his own strength.

  “Oh, we are being left behind,” Bai Tianyi suddenly said, lifting his head. Xue Wei looked up as well, only to see that Hei Gou and Lin Xiao had rushed ahead, one with a set of claws on his hands, the other with a long staff in his grip.

  “Come on,” Xue Wei could not help but snort, grinning. “He is a monk, so
he must use a staff?”

  “I can hear you!” Lin Xiao yelled back, but his face could not hide the grin that was plastered on his lips, clearly showing that he was looking forward to this. Lin Xiao was like a free bird, soaring in the skies and always seeking new adventures. Now he had finally found some comrades to go on adventures with!

  “Let us catch up!” Bai Tianyi also laughed out heartily and then started moving. A sword of spiritual energy appeared underneath his feet, sending him hurtling forward at a speed so fast that he quickly caught up to Lin Xiao and Hei Gou.

  “Don’t leave me behind!” Xue Wei exclaimed and unhesitantly activated the Forbidden Rush movement technique to follow the other three.

  The group of bandits could not hear exactly what was being said amongst these youngsters, but their eyes were showing disdain when they looked at them.