by Translator: Pokka; Author: 我本纯洁 (I Am Pure); Licensed From: Migu
As a Transformation Realm expert, Xiang Shaoyun was able to find a hole in the one-eyed man's attack with a single glance. His spear snaked through the air and stabbed at his opponent from a tricky angle. Before the hatchet hit, the spear pierced into the one-eyed man's left shoulder.
"AHHHH!"
With the spear stabbed into the one-eyed person, Xiang Shaoyun swung him away, sending him flying and crashing into the group of bandits not far away.
"Kill!" As soon as the one-eyed man crashed into the group, Xiang Shaoyun urged his horse forward and charged into the midst of the bandits. His spear danced in the air, turning into numerous sharp attacks that rained down upon the bandits.
Chapter 153: Who Told You I'm Running?
Under the rain of spears, one bandit after another fell, and clouds of blood bloomed in the air one after another. Xiang Shaoyun was on a completely different level from these bandits, and his movements were too fast for them to follow. Running toward him was no different than running to their deaths.
In the blink of an eye, about a dozen bodies were left on the ground, and their mounts had scattered in fear. Meanwhile, the alarm had been sounded in the Redwolf Bandit stronghold. With so many people killed instantly, it was impossible for them to not panic.
On the peak within the stronghold, a group of bandits gathered. These bandits were much stronger than the ordinary bandits. The other bandits also gathered in front of the stronghold, and before long, a few hundred of them were there.
As they braced for Xiang Shaoyun's approach, Xiang Shaoyun only gave them his middle finger and glowered at them with the most contemptuous face he could muster before leaving. He was certainly unable to do anything against so many bandits. His goal was still to lure some of them out so he could kill them off one at a time. That was the only way he could weaken the strength of the group as a whole before eventually eliminating the entire group.
"Tell me. What's going on?" the bandit leader questioned the sentry.
"Head, that kid killed almost 20 of us so far, including One-Eyed Dragon's group. He even claimed to have us surrounded," answered the fearful sentry.
"Idiot! If he really has us surrounded, why is he fleeing?" scolded the head. He then commanded, "Seventh brother, take two men with you and go get the kid's head. We can’t spare anyone who dares to challenge us."
"Yes, head!" answered a middle-aged man.
This person emanated an aura that was much thicker than the common bandits here. He was a peak third-stage Transformation Realm expert. His name was Li Hao, and he ranked seventh in this bandit group. He set off with only two people, but the two were respectively first-stage and second-stage Transformation Realm cultivators.
Mounted on red wolves, they rushed out the stronghold and chased after Xiang Shaoyun. The red wolves they rode were Intermediate Demons, much faster than Xiang Shaoyun's demonic horse. Before long, Xiang Shaoyun reappeared in their vision. When they confirmed that there was no ambush, they increased their speed.
Xiang Shaoyun already had a route in mind. He brought them along into some uninhabited woods, making use of the woods to slow them down. He was going to lead them further away from their stronghold before killing all three of them.
Li Hao's group of three moved at a fast speed, not giving Xiang Shaoyun any chance to escape. They even spread out and surrounded Xiang Shaoyun, sealing his escape.
"Run, kid. Come on, keep on running. Where can you run now?" Li Hao berated.
"Run? Who told you I'm running?" Xiang Shaoyun sneered.
"Ohh, you have a sharp mouth. Let me smash that mouth of yours," said the first-stage Transformation Realm bandit. With a yell, he charged forth with his mount before slamming his hammer toward Xiang Shaoyun.
It was a vicious attack. As the hammer was a spiked hammer, if the attack struck, blood would definitely flow. Unfortunately for him, he had been too hasty to attack before even figuring out Xiang Shaoyun's true strength. It was no different from suicide.
Seated on his demonic horse, Xiang Shaoyun bowed down and avoided the attack before stabbing his spear forward. The spear snaked out like a lightning bolt. The first-stage Transformation Realm was frightened to discover that he couldn't avoid the attack at all. The spear pierced straight into his chest, and his armor crumbled apart.
Sphhlt!
After spitting a mouthful of blood, he was sent flying, and he crashed into a tree.
"Looks like you are quite capable after all, kid. No wonder you have the guts to challenge us. But you alone are not enough," Li Hao said before charging ahead and slashing his saber seven times in a row.
Each slash was followed tightly by another slash, almost as if they were all joined together. The attack was quick and violent, one that a cultivator in the same cultivation level would have a hard time blocking.
Without even turning to look, Xiang Shaoyun swung his spear around him and formed an impenetrable defense that blocked all seven of the saber slashes. But the impact of the collision was too much for the demonic horse to handle, causing the horse to start bleeding from its nose. The horse did not look like it was going to survive for long.
Right this moment, the second-stage Transformation Realm bandit appeared from beside Xiang Shaoyun. Like a viper, his spear stabbed at a vital point on Xiang Shaoyun's body, aiming to kill with a single hit.
Xiang Shaoyun was lacking in combat experience, but his gift of insights was unmatched. Just as the attack was about to hit, he jumped off his horse. The horse was immediately killed by the two bandits, reduced into a pile of mincemeat.
"Both of you will pay for killing my mount!" Xiang Shaoyun howled as he unleashed his presence of dragon and tiger.
The terrifying oppression of a king crushed down on the two. Li Hao and the other bandit instantly had an illusion that Xiang Shaoyun had transformed into a prince, his majestic presence bearing upon them like the weight of the world. The pressure caused them to cower in fear, and they went stiff for a split second.
Xiang Shaoyun took advantage of that split second and shot a berserk lightning bolt from his spear toward them.
The two Transformation Realm cultivators fully activated their outer energy barriers and tried their best to resist the lightning attack. But the moment the lightning touched their barriers, they went numb and could no longer move.
"Ahhhh!"
Their defenses crumbled apart, their energy barriers and armors penetrated. Blood spurted everywhere. Xiang Shaoyun continued the momentum of his attack, not giving them a chance of survival.
Bang! Bang!
And finally, Xiang Shaoyun lopped off two heads. When the first person who was sent flying witnessed that scene, fear plastered his face, and he quickly crawled away, losing the courage to even get back on his feet.
"Can you escape me?" Xiang Shaoyun sneered as he channeled his energy into his spear before tossing it at the escaping bandit.
The spear pierced the bandit's chest and nailed him into a tree. With that, all three Transformation Realm bandits were killed. Xiang Shaoyun did not stop at killing the three. Although there was nobody else for him to kill at the moment, he needed to tame a red wolf as his mount.
He moved like the wind toward the red wolf Li Hao was mounted on earlier. It was a peak Intermediate Demon that was on the verge of reaching the Great Demon level. Even so, it was still not as fast as Xiang Shaoyun. Xiang Shaoyun leaped into the air and forcefully mounted the wolf, quickly overtaking it.
"Howl!"
Chapter 154: Well Done!
The wolf howled unwillingly as it ceaselessly tried throwing Xiang Shaoyun off. It was not willing to let another human tame it since it already had a master before. Tamed demonic beasts were generally much harder to tame. They would often choose death over yielding to a second human.
"Shut up already!" Xiang Shaoyun said as the presence of dragon and tiger roiled out of him. The power of the tiger's roar was mixed within his voice, and it enveloped the red wolf in a terrifying pressur
e that caused it to tremble in fear.
Xiang Shaoyun punched the wolf's head, knocking it down. He then jumped off the wolf, lifted it, and ruthlessly slammed it into a nearby boulder.
Bang!
The red wolf wailed miserably. Finally, Xiang Shaoyun rushed toward the wolf and stepped on its neck before asking, "Do you yield?"
As he asked the question, a presence similar to the presence of a tiger king started emanating out of his eyes, causing the wolf to be in even more fear. Among demonic beasts, the stronger a beast was, the more likely it was for other beasts to yield to it. The feeling Xiang Shaoyun was emanating gave the red wolf a sensation that Xiang Shaoyun was in fact a tiger king in human form. Thus, it finally howled its surrender.
"Howl! Howl!"
Xiang Shaoyun let the wolf howl for a bit, and he waited until the wolf completely withdrew its demonic aura and no longer showed any sign of resistance. He then removed his foot from its neck. The red wolf stood up and lowered its proud head before Xiang Shaoyun and licked his leg, expressing that it was yielding.
Xiang Shaoyun then stroked the wolf's head and said, "If you'd done this earlier, you wouldn't have needed to suffer all that. Ok, eat this."
As Xiang Shaoyun said that, a spirit medicine appeared in his palm, causing the wolf's eyes to light up brightly. That was a mid-grade spirit medicine known as a red spirit cactus. It was a spirit medicine that would be very beneficial for a red wolf, and this red wolf longed greatly for it.
The red wolf quickly swallowed the red spirit cactus. Immediately, its demonic aura started surging.
"Huh? Breakthrough just like that?" Xiang Shaoyun was astonished. He had only given the red wolf a red spirit cactus so it could recover quickly. Surprisingly, it had actually broken through from that one medicine.
Xiang Shaoyun gave the wolf some space to break through and instead went to go loot the battlefield. He only took the bandits' severed heads and their money off them. Everything else was left alone. Even king-grade items could hardly pique his interest, much less these weapons that were of much lesser quality.
"After destroying the Redwolf Bandits, I’ll have to find a way to clear the stuff in my astral cosmos sea. Otherwise, it will be very troublesome if I have more things I need to store in the future," Xiang Shaoyun muttered.
He currently had a lot of items stored in his astral cosmos sea, with the gold lunar liquid and vicious tiger gold lotus occupying the largest amount of space. The astral cosmos sea had long been stuffed to the brim.
That was what Xiang Shaoyun was fretting over as of late. Waiting for the astral cosmos sea to slowly expand wasn’t a reliable plan. It wasn't easy to expand the astral cosmos sea unless he actually broke through into a new cultivation level. But he was still quite far away from the third stage.
More importantly, his recent breakthroughs had been too fast. He had been suppressing his cultivation so as to stabilize his foundation and get used to his new strength. He was finally done with consolidating his new cultivation level, and it was now time to grow again. That was why he had decided to attack the Redwolf Bandits.
After a long while, howls of the red wolf reverberated in the air, telling Xiang Shaoyun that the wolf was done with its breakthrough. When Xiang Shaoyun walked over, he found that the red wolf was much larger than before. It also looked even more heroic, and the wounds on its body had been completely healed.
"Not bad at all. You finally look somewhat like how a demonic beast should look," Xiang Shaoyun praised.
The red wolf stepped over and licked Xiang Shaoyun's leg, thanking him for the spirit medicine. The red wolf was a demonic beast with a common bloodline. Thus, they would only be able to speak human language after reaching the Great Demon level.
"Let's go." Xiang Shaoyun mounted the red wolf and started heading toward the Green Bamboo Town.
He did not return to provoke the Redwolf Bandits immediately. He was sure that if he went there again, he would have all the bandits going after him. He might not fear fighting them one on one, but they had enough numbers to overwhelm him to death. Thus, he had to give them a break before going after them again.
He returned to the stele and gave the old man guarding the stele a bundle containing the three bandit heads. He said, "Here, the mission is partially completed."
When the old man saw Xiang Shaoyun return, he thought Xiang Shaoyun was about to give up on the mission. But when he opened the bundle and saw the three heads within, he was completely shocked.
"This...this is Li Hao the Seven Sabers from the Redwolf Bandits! And the other two are also Transformation Realm bandits!" the old man cried out in alarm.
His alarmed shout attracted the attention of the people around them. Some of the people were here to issue new missions, some were here to accept new missions, and some were only passing by. They all gathered around the stele, creating a small uproar in the area.
"This is Li Hao the Seven Sabers? H-he's dead?"
"Oh shit, I just noticed that someone had accepted the Redwolf Bandit bounty. Is this young man the one who had accepted the bounty?"
"All three of them were famous bandits. They were at least Transformation Realm experts, and they had killed many people in the past. And now, they're dead. Haha, what good news! What a splendid death!"
"The rewards for these three are worth at least 100 low-grade spirit crystals. Who is this young man? He is so powerful!"
...
The people were all looking at Xiang Shaoyun curiously, traces of admiration apparent in their eyes. For this particular Redwolf Bandits bounty, one could claim part of the reward before eliminating the entire bandit group. So long as one managed to kill the known leaders of the bandit group, one would be rewarded.
Xiang Shaoyun was submitting the three heads to prove his strength and to reclaim the deposit he had made when accepting the bounty.
"Senior, can I get the reward?" Xiang Shaoyun asked, not willing to stay there to be gawked at by so many people.
"Sure, sure you can. Well done, young man!" praised the old man in excitement.
Soon, the old man gave Xiang Shaoyun 500 low-grade spirit crystals. This was a wealth capable of inviting envious eyes. After all, in the eyes of an ordinary person, this was a large sum of wealth.
After accepting the spirit crystals, Xiang Shaoyun was about to leave and grab a meal at a random restaurant before heading to bed. He would continue his hunt another day. But when he was about to leave, the old man called out at him, "Young brother, are you looking for a place to rest?"
Xiang Shaoyun nodded. "Yes. I'm kind of tired, so I'll continue another day."
"Please come with me, then. Allow me to arrange a fine dwelling for a young hero like you," the old man offered.
Xiang Shaoyun hesitated slightly before going along with the old man. After a short while, he found that he had arrived at the Green Bamboo Academy.
So he's someone from the Green Bamboo Academy! Xiang Shaoyun thought to himself.
"I am an elder of the Green Bamboo Academy, Luo Yongcheng," the old man finally introduced himself.
"It's my pleasure to meet you," Xiang Shaoyun cupped his hands and greeted.
"Young brother, the Green Bamboo Academy will be the best place you can rest in town," said Luo Yongcheng.
Chapter 155: Cultivating an Ultimate Technique
The Green Bamboo Academy was an academy that was comparatively smaller than the Martial Hall Palace, but it was still the best place one could rest in the Green Bamboo Town. In the academy, green bamboo rustled about in the wind; the silent elegance of the environment gave people a feeling of utmost comfort. The disciples here were also much weaker than the disciples of other towns.
From Luo Yongcheng, Xiang Shaoyun found that the Green Bamboo Academy did not even dare to participate in the Battle of Towns because their disciples were too weak. Each time they had participated in the past, they ended up losing all their participating disciples. Thus, they had eventually stopped joini
ng. As for the reason for them being so weak, it was improper for Xiang Shaoyun to ask too much about it.
Luo Yongcheng brought Xiang Shaoyun to a residence and told someone to prepare some fine liquor and dishes to welcome Xiang Shaoyun.
The two chatted as they drank. Luo Yongcheng was trying to figure out where Xiang Shaoyun came from and his reasoning for wanting to eliminate the Redwolf Bandits.
Xiang Shaoyun only gave some noncommittal replies. As for his reasoning for wanting to eliminate the Redwolf Bandits, he gave an honest reply, "If I tell you I only accepted the bounty to temper myself, will you believe it?"
"Of course I will. I can't think of any reason otherwise," Luo Yongcheng said. He sighed and continued, "How good would it be if the disciples of our academy are half as brave as you. Without risking their lives, how are they supposed to go far in cultivation?"
Xiang Shaoyun only drank silently and did not say anything to that.
Luo Yongcheng raised his head and gazed at Xiang Shaoyun. "Young brother, you have an impressive combat power. But I don't think your Transformation Realm cultivation is quite sufficient. Yes, you can kill Li Hao the Seven Sabers, but you need to watch out for the bandit leader and the two vice leaders. All three of them are late-stage Transformation Realm experts. This is especially so for the leader. He has a terrifying king weapon with him, which is the reason nobody dares to provoke his Redwolf Bandits."
"King weapon?" Xiang Shaoyun cried out, emotions finally showing on his face.
"That's right. Without the king weapon, our Green Bamboo Academy wouldn't be so afraid of them," Luo Yongcheng said. He paused slightly before adding, "It is a very sinister weapon, capable of severing one's soul, and its attacks are extremely tricky to guard against."
"There is such a weapon?" Xiang Shaoyun was astonished.
He was aware that a weapon capable of harming one's soul was definitely not an ordinary king weapon.