Garden of Shadows

by Tinalynge

  Was this really the time for them to be coming to the training grounds and spar with one another in such a carefree manner?

  Xue Wei took a stance in front of Hei Gou. He quickly activated the Qi within his body, causing it to pour out of his hand, and taking on the shape of a longsword.

  Swinging the sword to test its ephemeral weightlessness in his hand, Xue Wei released a wicked grin on his face. It had been too long since he’d last experienced a proper fight. Although it was against his brother, Hei Gou, he knew that he could go all out. Even if they ended up getting injured, they would never blame one another, they would just laugh it off, as they knew they would never hurt each other on purpose.

  Xue Wei wielded the shining sword with a flourish, reminding Hei Gou not to underestimate the power behind its razor sharp edge.

  Without hesitation, he swiftly placed his claws on his hands, took a defensive stance and got ready to defend himself.

  Forbidden Rush!

  Windwolf Sword Slash!

  Xue Wei did not go easy on Hei Gou; he rushed towards him so fast that all that the spectating Primordial Beasts could see was a blur of motion.

  Suddenly, Hei Gou’s pupils constricted, and he retreated three steps while lifting the claws above his head—just in time to block the Qi sword that Xue Wei was pressing down on him.

  Although Xue Wei was now at the third layer of the Earth Knight rank in Qi levels, Hei Gou was at the fourth layer; however, it turned out that their strength was equally matched.

  The grins on the sparring duo’s faces deepened more profoundly than they had been before; their blood was boiling in excitement.

  It was a long time since they had been able to fight without caring for their surroundings, and using their inner energies to clash.

  Xue Wei had retreated slightly after a clash with Hei Gou, but when a big enough distance had opened between them, Xue Wei unleashed a fierce Azure Light Finger, before he immediately rushed beside the hurtling azure energy, and simultaneously landed a Shattering Mountain Palm as it hit.

  Hei Gou was hard-pressed to defend himself against the synchronized attacks.

  He lifted his claw to deflect the Azure Light Finger, as he was acutely aware that this attack—being inspired by an innate skill of the Azure Dragons—was the most lethal one of the two attacks, and in turn, couldn’t prevent the palm attack landing solidly on his chest.

  The moment the attack landed on his chest, he felt as if his blood was starting to flow in reverse; the Qi in his body turned sluggish, and his body shot backward like a kite being cut from its string.

  Digging his claws into the ground, he managed to slow down the speed with which he was sent scurrying back. Blood leaked from the corner of his lip, but there were no signs of displeasure on his face.

  Xue Wei did not rush to follow up this time. It was, after all a sparring match, and he did not want his friend’s life.

  Hei Gou snickered and wiped the blood from his lips with a smile, before he withdrew a vial from his storage treasure, and poured out some Returning Spring Healing Pills he’d bought back in Chang’an and saved up for an occasion like this. They landed into his hand, and he then popped them straight into his mouth, chewed with audible crunching sounds and swallowed loudly.

  The wounds he had sustained were quickly healed under the consumption of the pills, and he snickered. “My turn this time!” he exclaimed, jumping high into the air while a set of beautiful black wings sprouted from his back.

  With these black wings, his speed increased tremendously. He was much more dangerous than before, and even while relying on his Forbidden Rush, Xue Wei still felt hard-pressed to keep up with the cuts from Hei Gou’s lightning-fast claws, as they came from all directions.

  “Transformation is not allowed!” Xue Wei yelled out with laughter, stepping back. “But damn, you can transform partially?! This is so awesome!” he exclaimed, and Hei Gou just laughed out loud.

  “This is not a transformation but an innate ability!” he argued back, punctuating it with a few flaps of his wings that sent him speeding once more.

  “So unfair!” Xue Wei muttered while his eyes focused. Hei Gou was almost too fast for him to keep up with, he had to really strain all his senses to protect himself against the incoming onslaught of attacks.

  Chapter 30 - Trouble Comes Knocking

  Their blood was boiling in their veins, as the sparring match they were engaged in took away their breath.

  Their entire focus was locked on one another, constantly advancing, retreating, lashing out or defending with their weapons.

  They were so engrossed in their fight that they did not even notice that the few people at the sparring field had stopped their own training to stand and observe the epic battle between Xue Wei and Hei Gou.

  The Primordial Beasts were all eager to see a thrilling battle; they wanted to expand their own horizons by seeing how others battled, and they were all stunned by what they saw.

  The battle was one of speed. Hei Gou was using some innate ability that relied on his black wings, and Xue Wei was utilizing his Forbidden Rush movement technique to its max.

  Wounds and cuts had appeared all over Xue Wei and Hei Gou, turning their clothes into rags.

  Xue Wei was wearing his red Primordial Beast silks, masking the blood that had seeped into it, while Hei Gou was in his black robes, masking a similar amount.

  The glaring cuts were not even visible under their blood-soaked skin, the blood just making their bodies seem dark red or even black under the moonlit skies.

  Xue Wei and Hei Gou were wounding one another, but as soon as one had received any serious injury, they would pause the battle to allow for the injured person to take a Returning Spring Healing Pill, addressing the more serious injury, but at the same time, also closing the various cuts on their bodies.

  Even the more serious wounds were not something that they would consider an issue. If it was a real battle, they would easily be able to continue fighting, but since it was a simple spar, they stopped from time to time to make sure they didn’t lose anything vital.

  The surrounding Primordial Beasts almost had their eyes popping out of their skulls. They saw these two people flashing here and there and fighting at such a rapid speed that it was almost impossible to watch with the naked eye, yet momentarily stopping sometimes to eat some pills as if they were candies.

  The moon started to retire as the sun rose in the sky, and yet still a winner had not been declared in Hei Gou and Xue Wei’s battle. Hours had gone by, but they had not even been drained of Qi; their battle had just gotten more and more intense instead.

  More and more people had gathered to watch them spar, and now it was not only Primordial Beasts but also spiritual energy cultivators who had casually walked past, and been caught up in what a real battle between Qi cultivators could look like.

  They did not stop before a childish voice sounded in the audience, “Big Brother is awesome; he is beating the bad doggie!”

  Hearing this, Hei Gou lost his focus, and Xue Wei took the opportunity to quickly maneuver and position his sword at his friend’s throat, a triumphant smile on his face.

  “You cheated. You used Luoluo to distract me!” Hei Gou begrudgingly said, but, although he was complaining, a smile was on his face as he looked at the child who had called out.

  Xue Wei snickered, “You would have lost either way; this way, it just happened faster.”

  “It was obviously me who would have won,” Hei Gou retorted. “I am so handsome; it is impossible for me to lose to someone who is half a head shorter than me!”

  Xue Wei was left speechless after hearing Hei Gou’s excuse, and then he started laughing out loud.

  “I am afraid you don’t win based on your appearance,” he grinned. “If you want to win, then you have to back up your words with strength, but you clearly did not have as much strength as me, so you were starting to lag behind.”

  “Want to go at it again?!” Hei Gou aske
d as he puffed up his chest like an angry pigeon. Both Hei Gou’s and Xue Wei’s robes had long since been shredded, and when they looked at themselves, they could not help but smile and shake their heads at their ragged appearances.

  “Not now,” Xue Wei waved his hand in exhaustion. “We already went at it for hours, and although we had healing pills to assist us, we ought to stop for now.”

  Having finished the bout, Xue Wei took out a fresh set of clothes from his storage treasure. He whipped the destroyed robe off, leaving him standing only in his undergarments, wiped as much blood as he could off with the tattered fabric, and swiftly draped the undamaged robes around himself.

  When he was fully dressed once more, Luoluo ran towards him and stretched out her arms, “Big Brother, Big Brother, you promised me lots of food!” she exclaimed as she waited for him to pick her up.

  Suddenly bearing a doting smile, Xue Wei bent down and carried Luoluo in his arms. He gently bumped her nose with a finger, and a giddy expression appeared on his face.

  “Change your clothes, Gou,” Xue Wei said as he threw a glance at his friend who was still raring to continue their battle. “We have to go and eat breakfast; I promised little Luoluo.”

  Luoluo grinned happily when she heard that, and Hei Gou smiled too, giving up on the battle he had wished to continue. He took out a replacement black robe and wrapped it around himself, before tying the belt, and then joining Xue Wei and the others.

  Bai Tianyi was standing behind Lin Xiao, his eyes slightly narrowed as he gave Luoluo a contemplative stare.

  Xue Wei noticed this gaze, and wondered if Bai Tianyi had understood something that he had not—Bai Tianyi was, after all, a much more experienced being than he, so maybe he had sensed something that he did not?

  Noticing that Xue Wei had seen his gaze, Bai Tianyi slowly shook his head to indicate that they could not talk about it right now, but a gleam of light shone in his eyes as if he had encountered a treasure.

  “Let us get going,” Xue Wei said and started walking towards the area of the academy where the restaurants were located.

  Leaving the training grounds, Xue Wei and his friends began chatting with one another. “So you just left little Luoluo to me? What kind of adult are you to just drop that responsibility on me?” Lin Xiao grumbled, making Luoluo look back at Lin Xiao with a cheeky smile on her face.

  “Luoluo can’t marry big brother, so Luoluo will marry Uncle Lin Xiao instead,” she said with a grin and a giggle, her words stunning Lin Xiao and making his eyes wide.

  “I say, little girl, can you not say such a terrifying thing?!” he exclaimed in shock, but Luoluo just pursed her lips and snorted.

  “I am marrying Uncle Lin Xiao since I cannot marry Big Brother. The black doggie is annoying, and the kid is scary.”

  All four people were surprised hearing Luoluo’s proclamation, but after a moment, Xue Wei began laughing.

  Luoluo’s reasoning was flawless; it could not be argued against. She had picked Lin Xiao only because she could not marry Xue Wei, and the two others were quickly dismissed because of her first-hand impressions of them.

  Suddenly, as they were walking on the streets, Xue Wei saw a group of experts moving towards them—one containing experts from the Baili family.

  “Are you Xue Wei?” the person who was walking in front of the group asked with obvious malice in his voice.

  He was not even trying to hide his displeasure and the fact that he was here to cause problems.

  Xue Wei glanced at him and his followers. They were eleven people, and amongst these eleven people, all of them were spiritual energy cultivators at the Earth Knight level.

  It was obvious that they had investigated Xue Wei and his friends’ current strength, and knowing that all of them were Earth Knights, they felt no need to dispatch a Sky Knight to deal with them.

  They had the benefit of being superior in numbers, and they also held the arrogance of the Baili family. Being a family of noble blood, they were all able to confront experts of higher rank than themselves anyway, so dealing with Xue Wei and his friends should be a simple task.

  Unfortunately, these experts knew too little about Xue Wei and his friends. They were like butterflies raised in a greenhouse, never before had they seen challenges or experienced true hardship. These people had never even killed someone before, as Yan Dalu was an incredibly peaceful area.

  When fighting with your life on the line, these experts had no experience whatsoever, and in the end, it would show when the fight was unfolding.

  Xue Wei and his friends, on the other hand, had fought many battles; they had been chased across an entire continent, been the subject of hatred and envy, and had killed multiple people.

  They would show no remorse killing even more, should they be threatened, and considering their current relationship with the Baili family, they felt no need to show mercy if this encounter ended in a battle. It was hard to say who would be in the toughest position considering how Xue Wei and the others were bloodthirsty mass murderers, and they were naive and spoiled young masters.

  “Hey! I am talking to you!” the man who had asked if he was Xue Wei called out, unhappy with how Xue Wei was ignoring him, and looking at him as if he was an idiot.

  “Well, you talk to me and then I have to answer?” Xue Wei asked mockingly. “What kind of world is this, are you my master? Am I your servant? Why must I follow your orders?”

  Hearing what Xue Wei said, the man’s face turned pale and livid in anger. He had never experienced anyone this disrespectful before, and he was unsure of what exactly he should say now.

  His imposing demeanor was completely deflated after Xue Wei’s taunts. He had expected much more from their arrival. They would use their numbers to intimidate Xue Wei; they would make it possible for their group to break their spirits before bringing them back to the Baili family.

  In fact, it never occurred to this group of experts that they would actually have to fight and risk the chance their targets might kill them instead of being captured.

  Xue Wei just snickered when he saw the expression on their faces, and he shook his head.

  Suddenly he felt excited. He had just been in a battle with Hei Gou, and although he enjoyed the thrill of battle, it had not been possible to let go of his bloodlust—to release his urge to kill completely.

  Seeing that these small lambs had served themselves up for slaughter, Xue Wei felt the blood in his body boil. After he had become one with the Azure Dragon blood, he had felt more and more ruthless. He had also started to enjoy the feeling of killing someone, and if he was not careful, he would surely succumb to such feelings of pleasure and become addicted to killing.

  But Xue Wei retained a semblance of humanity and knew that some things could not be allowed. If he truly became a cold-blooded killer who killed for pleasure, then he would no longer be himself.

  Still, if anyone threw themselves at him, he was not going to be mindlessly polite.

  The group of friends was generally rather ruthless. Bai Tianyi had given up his humanity for the sake of immortality and became a sword spirit; this meant that humans and beasts were nothing more than walking bags of soul power to him.

  If not for Xue Wei’s serious warnings to him, he would have run around killing people to harvest their soul power with no qualms.

  Hei Gou was also rather disinterested in human and beastly lives. All that mattered to him was his friends, and anyone else was completely ignored. Killing them would even be a waste of time unless they troubled him.

  Amongst all of them, the one who had the most pity and empathy towards other creatures was Lin Xiao, and even he was somewhat the same; he too, had hands soaked in blood.

  Chapter 31 - Those that Cross my Path

  Sensing that the group of experts was not being intimidated by their sheer numbers, the Baili experts steeled themselves for battle.

  Xue Wei had been waiting for this. His lips curled into a grin, and his eyes shone with ligh
t. Bai Tianyi, Hei Gou, and Lin Xiao were also rather eager to battle as none of them had had a real fight since the time they had encountered the bandits before they arrived at the academy. Now they finally had an excuse to start stretching their legs.

  The only one who was unsure of what was happening was Luoluo. She was, after all, a child in mentality, and Xue Wei wanted her to grow up as a free spirit. He wanted to protect her naivety, but at the same time, he also knew that it was highly unlikely that she had no blood on her hands, considering her real age was similar to the old monster, Bai Tianyi.

  Inner Might: Qi Sword!

  Wasting no time, Xue Wei instantly used his skill to create a sword out of Qi, which he then started flourishing in his hand, the grin on his face widening in anticipation.

  Hei Gou readied a similar stance, the claws having already been withdrawn from his storage treasure and placed on his hands. Bai Tianyi had started circulating the spiritual energy within his body while Lin Xiao had found his staff, ready to attack the group that was coming towards them.

  “What... what are you guys doing?!” the leader of the Baili team asked when he saw that these people had not an ounce of fright, but instead seemed to be preparing—or even seemed eager—to fight!

  “What are we doing?” Xue Wei pretended to ponder for a moment, and then he flashed a brilliant, toothy smile and answered, “We are obviously doing you!”

  The leader turned pale, but he did not withdraw. He had faith in his team, and worst case scenario—they would be badly bruised. Although he was aware of Xue Wei having already completely annihilated the previous group he came across, he had completely forgotten about this point.

  Forbidden Rush!

  Arcane Fist!

  Windwolf Sword Slash!

  Xue Wei did not hesitate at all. After speaking, he rushed forward with the Forbidden Rush movement technique, and at the same time, he launched two attacks simultaneously.

  One was the fist attack, Arcane Fist, which created an illusion of thousands of fist imprints in the air, all of which were created with Qi, and all of them raining down on the body of the expert he had targeted.